Author: tld1969

“‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.” Mark 9:23 NIV

In this chapter of Mark, the account of Jesus healing a boy from a demon is recorded. The father had come to the disciples to heal his son but they tried and couldn’t. When the father came to Jesus, he seemed to have tried everything. The father told Jesus that the demon had possessed his son since the boy was a child and it would send the boy into convulsions anytime it wanted. The father looked like he had no hope left.

The father said to Jesus, ‘But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.’. Clearly the father had no idea Who he was talking to because Jesus can do anything. In the 23rd verse Jesus says to the father, ‘If you can?’, acknowledging that the father is not aware of Who he is standing in front of and Who he is asking to help him.

Jesus tells the father and everyone around them that ‘everything is possible for one who believes’. The father then said to Jesus ‘I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!’ The father was willing to admit that he had unbelief, which I feel is from all the time he spent trying to solve this problem on his own. Jesus then casts the demon out of the boy.

There are times in our lives when we also feel like we have tried ‘everything’ and nothing has worked out or at least not the way that we have planned for it to work. We have thrown every idea we can think of at a situation or problem and every tactic we have to hopefully make the ‘plan’ go the way we wanted, but they all fail. There are times when we feel like we have no hope. There are times when we have unbelief.

The difference between us, followers of Jesus, and the father, is that we know Who we are asking to help us. Yet there are times in our lives when we do what the father did, we try to solve a problem all by ourselves. We throw everything at the situation and hope something sticks. It is usually when nothing works that we turn to Jesus finally and say ‘if You can’ as if we don’t know that He can.

The devil is very crafty and he will fill our minds with doubt, doubt that God has time for some small problem we have going on, doubt that God loves us enough to listen to us and possibly resolve our situation, doubt that God can fix our problem because it is so big that no one can fix it. If we listen to these doubts then we end up turning to Jesus and saying “If You can?”

As Jesus says in the end of our verse for today, ‘Everything is possible for one who believes.’ The challenge we face is how long we want to try and resolve, solve, fix, deal with our problem or situation on our own before we turn to Jesus for the help that only He can provide. If you are a follower of Jesus, you already demonstrated your believe in Jesus when you accepted Him as your Savior. Whatever the situation that is occurring that has you momentarily believing that Jesus cannot deal with it, now is the time for you to exercise that original belief you placed in Jesus and go to the One who can help you.

So the question is ‘Do you have unbelief?’ If so, what are you going to do about it?

“So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” Revelation 3:16 NIV

As with any new relationship, the beginning always seems to be full of emotion. When we first enter a relationship we tend to be curious about the other person, we want to get to know them. We are deciding in those first several times of seeing each other whether we want to become more involved or not. If we decide to move further into the relationship, then we typically want to spend more time with them, learn new things about them, and we usually think about them more.

This level of emotional involvement can last for a long time depending on the type of relationship we are talking about. Friendships tend to develop a little slower than romantic relationships because there is not as high of a level of emotional involvement in the beginning. Another factor that can influence a relationship is the popularity of it. When we are beginning a friendship with someone who everyone else wants to be friends with as well, there is an attraction to that relationship, you want to know what everyone else sees that is drawing them to that person.

Most people do not rush to become friends with a person everyone else is ignoring. The same can be said about romantic relationships, our level of willingness to invest our time to get to know another person can depend on how our friends view this individual. This is also how we usually function when we are discussing our relationship with the Creator of the Universe.

When we first hear about Jesus, the emotional level of those around us can influence us in how we proceed in developing this relationship. Should it work this way, no, but it does. Once we decide to be a one of Jesus’s followers, we are thankfully filled with the Holy Spirit, Who is able to direct us in the growth of this relationship. As with any other relationship, new things excite us, our emotions are higher, we are all in and we focus a lot of our attention to that relationship.

However, that ‘fire’ we feel at the beginning of relationships can fade and the relationship with Jesus is no different. We can go from being hyper focused on the relationship to becoming comfortable in the relationship. When we become comfortable, we usually don’t give that relationship a lot of thought and sometimes our emotional investment decreases.

In our verse for today, Jesus is talking to the church at Laodicea because they have moved from being ‘on fire’ for Jesus and the advancement of the Church to being lukewarm. So they haven’t abandoned their relationship with Jesus, but they are not working to grow it either. They became comfortable in what they had and unfortunately when we become comfortable we usually stop putting effort into the relationship.

This upsets Jesus because He is ‘on fire’ for us and suffered a horrible death on the cross so that we could have that personal relationship with Him now and for all of eternity. In this verse, it feels to me like Jesus would rather they had decided they didn’t want to be in a relationship with Him and simply walked away than being in the relationship but not interested in growing it. The verse tells us that Jesus wanted to spit them out of His mouth because of their complacency.

My question for everyone today is…..Are you on fire for Jesus or are you lukewarm?

“Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Philippians 1:2 NIV

This greeting is in every letter Paul wrote that has been captured in the Bible. Paul wanted to extend the grace of God to the individuals he was writing to, the Christians at Philippi. Grace is receiving something that you do not deserve, therefore salvation from eternal damnation is grace as we can do nothing to earn our way out of what we deserve.

As grace comes from God and is what our salvation is built upon, Paul reminds the recipients of his letters that they have this grace from God already. When we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we were granted this grace, grace from not having to spend eternity in hell. Paul places grace before peace as it is difficult to have peace without grace, as peace is a product of grace. Once we receive the grace of sparing us from an eternity in hell, we are able to have peace about where we are going to spend eternity.

It is also important that we remember that because we have been shown grace, it is imperative that we show grace to others and by showing them what God has shown us, we are hopefully leading them to Jesus. So as Paul is expressing his wishes that God continues to give the people he is writing to even more grace and peace, we should also wish that for every person we have in our lives.

Do you extend grace to others?

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” Luke 15:20b

The prodigal son is a beautiful parable about how a son being selfish is still loved by his father. The part of the parable I wish to focus on is the part where after he has spent all of his money and is not able to feed himself that he returns home to his father where he is going to ask for forgiveness. I could spend this time talking about how the son only returned home once he had lost everything and realized that he had all he needed at home. However, I would like to look at how the father reacted.

In the second half of verse 20, we read that “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.”. I would like to clarify a few things before I go on. First is that the father appeared to be waiting, second is that there were no phones, and third is that the father did not have to go to his son. I am drawing attention to those items because of how this verse is worded.

The father in this parable was looking for his son daily, after his son had left, he did not just forget about him. He was longing to see his son and have him home. The assumption is that he still completed his work, but that his heart longed to have his son return to him. Also, the father did not know that the son was going to return home on this particular day, the son did not phone ahead and tell him. It appears that the father made it a part of his day to look for his son.

The last part is that the father did not have to run to his son when he saw him in the distance. He could have sat on the porch and thought about how the son must have learned his lesson, about how the son lost all of the money and how the son was going to have to make it up to him since he caused all of this heartache, but, that is not what the father did. Instead the father ran to his son and threw his arms around him, happy to see him. The father could have also waited on the porch and let his son come to him, but he didn’t, he went to his son. It was undignified in the time of this parable for a grown man to run unless he was in danger, so for this father to put aside how he would look and he ran to his son.

Our heavenly Father is waiting for each one of us, waiting to show us the love He has for us, waiting for us to realize that we are ready to return home. When we sin, we need to return home and ask for forgiveness. God has not forgotten about us and wants us to come home to Him. When we sin we are not in communication with God, our relationship is on hold. God wants us to be a part of the relationship we have with Him again.

Do you need to return home?

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” John 15:4 NKJV

The word ‘abide’ has several meanings in the Bible, it can mean to dwell, to continue or to remain. As Jesus is most likely talking to His disciples as well as all of the people in the crowd that followed Him around in this passage, He uses an analogy of the vine and branches to explain being connected. The connection is talking about is between His disciples and Him, but as we read this in our time, it is also about us and Him.

Plants unlike humans need a physical connection to the source of nourishment to survive. If a branch is cut off from the main part of the plant, it cannot survive and will die. Jesus is using this comparison in the time He is living on earth because most of the people were rich in knowledge about farming but the idea of remaining spiritually connected for survival was a new idea.

They had been connected to God but it was a very formal third party kind of connection. The priests and prophets were the only people who were in communication with God. Priests were able to talk to God during the times when sacrifice were offered or they entered the Holy of Holies. Prophets were in communication with God through visions but those did not occur all the time. Those who were not priests or prophets did not have a direct line to God, so this idea of remaining connected all the time was new to the people following Jesus . As we know when Jesus had more complex spiritual concepts to explain, He would use what the people around Him were familiar with.

As the word ‘abide’ has a different meaning in the Bible than in our everyday language, Jesus uses it to describe a very strong connection. That connection can be described as physical as God the Holy Spirit comes to live inside each and every believer, He dwells in us. It also can be used to describe that very strong personal relationship that Jesus wants to have with each of His followers, we continue or remain in daily contact with Jesus.

Just as the water and nutrients are fed from the plant through the vine into the branch so that it can survive and grow, our nutrients are fed to us through the Vine, Jesus. Our nutrients, the things we need to grow in our spiritual walk and relationship with Jesus, are given to us through prayer, listening to music that honors God, reading the Bible and then applying what we learn in our every day lives.

The stronger our connection the more we are able to grow. How strong is your connection to our Life Line, Jesus? Are you fed daily or only occasionally? I encourage anyone who is reading this to take time today to think about those questions and evaluate where you stand in your connection to Jesus. Your spiritual growth depends on it. Have a blessed day.

“Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. ” Galatians 6:8 NIV

What does it mean to reap what you sow? The best example I can think of is a plant. The kind of plant you will get or reap, whether it is a vegetable, fruit, flower, tree or herb is going to be determined by what seed you plant or sow. You cannot get wheat if you plant a willow tree seed and you cannot get hydrangeas if you plant pea seeds.

This is the law of cause and effect, certain things happen as a result of what we do. The same explanation can be given when talking about our spiritual life. Paul is explaining this to the Christians in Galatia because some of them had begun to believe some false leaders and their teachings. For example, false leaders were able to convince some of the followers of Christ that following Jesus Christ was not going to save them but that they had to also follow the law of Moses and still perform certain acts so God would approve of them.

Since we are flawed beings and were born into sin, it is helpful for us to understand that when it comes to our bodies, emotions and thoughts, our sinful nature is going to try and control us in every situation. Paul was explaining to the Church in Galatia that when you live your life in manner that is pleasing to God, then you will have the result of eternal life. When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior and then live our life building and nurturing that relationship there are several affects that occur because of those actions.

The first affect is that by claiming Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are saved from eternal damnation. This is a huge one for most people who do not want to live in torment for eternity. The second affect is that you are drawn to Jesus, you want to seek Him, interact with Him, learn about Him, think about Him. The third affect is that because we learn about Him, we then want to build that relationship with Jesus and have Him in our daily lives. All of those actions are pleasing to the Spirit, which the verse tells us results in eternal life.

This is what Paul was trying to tell the Christians in Galatia. We also can benefit from having this information. When we do things that are only pleasing to our bodies or our flesh, then we are only thinking about ourselves and not God. That is when we can fall into our old behaviors of pleasing our flesh and we move away from the new behaviors we have developed that are pleasing to the Spirit.

Which do you want to please, your flesh or God?

“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” 1 Corinthians 3:16 ESV

When I read this verse for the first time and truly looked at it, it filled me with joy. We are God’s temple here on earth. We are what He dwells in. In the old testament He dwelt in the garden with Adam and Eve, He dwelt in a tabernacle, He dwelt in an ark, He dwelt on a mountain. In the new testament that all changed and God moved His presence from a place where we had to go to Him to a place where He came to us and now lives inside each and every believer. I love this, that God’s Spirit dwells inside us.

As we think of God’s temple or His dwelling place, a building usually comes to mind, but that is exactly how this verse encourages us to think differently. The same is true when we think of the Church as a whole, we also tend to think of a building but again, we are encouraged to think differently. God does not need a building to dwell in, He can dwell or ‘be’ anywhere He wants, so why not inside each and every believer.

What that means to me is that ‘We’, all the believers, are the Church. We are His dwelling place here on earth. He is everywhere because there are believers everywhere, all over the globe. My encouragement to all of us is to live life remembering we are God’s temple and to interact with everyone in a way that shows the world we are God’s temple.

Heavenly Father, Thank You for living inside each and every believer. Thank You for always being with us. Please help us to show the world that we, who are not deserving of such a great privilege and honor, are Your temple here on earth. In Jesus’s name, Amen.

“But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.” Exodus 4:13 NIV

Clearly this one is not an excuse but I believe it needs to go with the others because it may give some clarity to why Moses was giving the other excuses. He simply did not want to do this, he was not willing. Moses had given God 4 excuses at this point and God had given Moses 4 responsible solutions, so having no more excuses to give, Moses finally tells God what he real issue with following God’s will is in this moment. He was not willing.

I don’t believe that Moses could say to God from the beginning of the conversation ‘I don’t want to do this’, but he finally did. We are not sure exactly what Moses was thinking as to why he did not want to do what he was being asked to do, it could have been a variety reasons. Anyone of the 4 excuses he gave, that we already discussed, fear of having to answer for the murder he committed, or simply wanting to live the calm life he had built in Median could have all been reasons or part of the main reason. We will never know, but we do know that Moses did not want to go, he was simply not willing.

I believe we all have that moment when we just don’t want to do something, whether it is get up and go to work or something that God is directing us to do, we all have our reasons. However, if we are truthful and honest with ourselves sometimes we simply do not want to do what is being asked of us, we are simply not willing.

There are reasons behind us not wanting to do or being willing to do the things of life, such as go to work, clean the house or have a hard conversation with someone, but when we put God in the mix as the One asking us to do something, we need to look at the idea of our faith. Is our faith the reason we are not willing? Do we feel our faith isn’t strong enough to trust God that what He is asking will be done by His power and might and not our own?

Stepping out in faith and obeying God is not always simple for us, it should be, but it isn’t. How do we resolve the issue of us wanting to please God, follow His will and and at the same time deal with our fear of not failing, not looking stupid, not having the right words, of simply feeling that we are not enough? I encourage everyone, myself included, to accept the fact that we are not enough, not on our own. We need God in our lives, and with Him in our lives, we are enough because He gives us His power, words, abilities to do whatever He asks of us.

So, as we close this chapter of excuse giving, my question for everyone is simply this….When God asks, directs or prompts you in a direction that is uncomfortable, is your response to Him a response of acceptance or a response of excuses?

“Moses said to the Lord, ‘Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.'” Exodus 4:10 NIV

The fourth excuse I want to look at is the excuse of ‘I’m not good with words’. I believe you can group ‘I have never spoken in front of people’ with this excuse as well. Both are part of an excuse that revolves around the fear of being the person that everyone is looking at as you stumble over words trying to communicate what you mean. This could be when you are talking to someone important and/or talking to a large group of people. Either way, this fear is real but it can be defeated with help from God.

As we look at the account of Moses and his conversation with God, we see him try and use this excuse. God had already told Moses what he was to say and He promised Moses that the elders would listen to him, but Moses was still scared and gave God another excuse. At this point it feels like God is getting frustrated with Moses and reminds Moses about Who gave Moses his mouth in the first place and then tells him to just go. God wasn’t giving Moses an ‘out’ any longer.

When I read verses 10-12, I picture a frustrated parent who wants their child to do something that they know they can do because the parent will be there with them making sure that they are successful. Of course, earthly parents want their children to do something less scary than talk to the Pharaoh of Egypt. God doesn’t always want us to go and do magnificent things, sometimes what He wants is small but may feel big to us.

I remember the first time I was asked to give a sermon at church, I was scared and tried to refuse to do it. The congregation wasn’t that large but it felt large when I would think about having to stand up there and speak. Also, I didn’t have a clue what words I was to be speaking, I had never written a sermon before. However, God had been working in me for a while because there was this part of me that wanted to talk to people about God but I didn’t know what words to say in those moments.

I muddled through that moment and all of the moments that followed when leaders asked me to speak in their absence and over time I stopped relying on myself to come up with the words and began relying on God to give me the words. Now when I write a sermon, this blog or when I was writing the book, my practice is to ask God to give me the words that He wants a person to see or that a person may need to hear. I have notes when I speak so that I don’t forget what I believe God wants me to say and if He places something in my mind while I am speaking I try my best to communicate that as well. Anything is possible if we let God help and guide us.

Heavenly Father, please be with each one of us and help us as we hide in fear from the things You have asked us to do. Whether they are small things or large things, please guidance us to listen to You and know that we don’t have to feel alone in any moment because You are always right there with us. In Jesus’s precious name. Amen

“What if they won’t believe me and will not obey me but say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?” Exodus 4:1 NIV.

The next excuse I want to look at that Moses tried to use with God is the excuse of ‘the people are not going to listen to me.’ The individuals that Moses is referring to are the people he grew up with, including his family that was still in Egypt. Some of the people knew Moses and had known him since he was a child and Moses seemed afraid that they would not believe that he had spoke with God.

This could have been a legitimate concern for Moses had God not already given His answer to this objection before Moses could even say it. In verse 18 God tells Moses that the elders of Israel that he is being sent to see will listen to him. God is already working in them to prepare them to listen to Moses. As God lays out more of the plan, He tells Moses that He wants them to go to the king of Egypt and ask if they can leave Egypt to go on a 3-day journey. Before Moses can say anything God tells him that the king of Egypt won’t allow this unless God intervenes, which He said He is going to do.

Moses does not seem to be convinced that the people will listen to him or take what he is saying seriously because he gives this excuse to God even after everything that God has already told him. It feels as if Moses is still thinking that he has to rely on his own power and gift of persuasion to fulfil what God is asking him to do. Moses has not accepted yet that God is the only One who has the power and the persuasion needed to make this happen, Moses just needs to be willing to be the vessel.

Eventually Moses agrees to go to Egypt but it was a long argument to get to that point. I feel like we are the same way at times with God. He asks, prompts or directs us to do something and we forget that it is God who is going to do the miraculous parts of what He is asking. We simply need to be willing to be the vessels that He uses. So if you feel like God has been working on you about doing His will, I encourage you to step back for a minute and look at your response. Are you trying to fulfil the task in your own power?