For His Honor

“The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, turning a person from the snares of death.” Proverbs 13:14 NIV

God’s word is the source of life for all who partake of it. Reading God’s word gives us knowledge of right and wrong, knowledge of what is expected of us from God. Receiving the teaching from God’s word and in turn teaching others what is in God’s word is how we share the love of God. It is how we are able to tell others about God, providing them a choice to choose to live for God or for the world.

The snares of death are on the path to hell. The snares are the enticing things of this world that the devil puts in front of us to lure us to his way of living, away from God. If we accept those enticing things and live the life the devil wants us to live then we are walking that path to hell and hell is a real place that is filled with people who are eternally separated from God and are tormented every moment of every hour or every day.

Our responsibility as followers of Christ is to teach others about God and to resist those snares or enticing ways of living that are of the world.

“They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” John 12:21 NIV

This verse is from the passage in John were Jesus is attending the Passover festival. He has come into Jerusalem and the last week of His life which will end in His crucifixion, has begun. There were some Greeks who had followed behind the crowd and were now interested in ‘seeing’ Jesus. Most likely they wanted to talk to Him, not just physically see Him.

We are not told why the men wanted to see Jesus or talk to Jesus, just that they wished for this to happen. Jesus drew crowds around Him no matter where He was, people were curious about who Jesus was and what Jesus had to say. I believe these men were no different and were curious about the different and wonderful teachings Jesus was known for and they possibly wanted to know more about them and Jesus.

How often does our curiosity draw us closer to someone or something? We want to know more about whoever it is or whatever it is and we feel that if we could simply get near them or it, we may find some answers to our questions. Jesus is no different. It is wonderful when a person wants to know more about Jesus or Christianity. This curiosity can be the beginning of their spiritual journey with Jesus.

Since we cannot physically see Jesus at this time we, as followers of Christ, are who the world sees as the representation of what Christ is about. Keeping this in mind, Christians have a responsibility to make sure that we represent Jesus to the best of our ability. However, if I was able to place a warning sticker on this idea of representing Jesus as His followers, it would say ‘Warning: Christians are not Jesus, we are His followers who are trying to become like Him. We are imperfect on our best days, and our mistakes should not be held against Jesus.’

Seeking out Christians is a wonderful way to begin to hear about Who Jesus is and what Jesus is teaching, but the one true way to get to ‘see’ Jesus is to begin to have a personal relationship with Him by praying to Him and reading the Bible. The Gospel books of the Bible are our historical account of what Jesus went through, His reactions to life events and His teachings. There are no better ways to get to know Jesus than through His word and communication with Him.

Please don’t place a Christian, no matter who they are, in such high esteem that they become who you are looking to see and hear from. That position of worship is only reserve for Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the One who died for our sins.

Heavenly Father, thank You for giving us different ways to ‘see’ and hear from You and Jesus. Your word and the ability to remain in communication with You and Jesus through prayer are so very important to our spiritual walk. If there is anyone who is reading this today who has placed a Christian, a pastor or a Christian mentor in place of Jesus as their shepherd, I pray that You will guide them in turning their attention from that person back to Jesus, the One True Shepherd. In Jesus’s precious name. Amen.

“And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone.” 1 Thessalonians 5:14 NIV

Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica to encourage them. In this verse that was taken from a passage titled Final Instructions, Paul, through his modeling, is encouraging not only the leaders but also the members of the church to be aware of what is going on around them. There are members of that church and the church of today that struggle with changing their behaviors from the old to the new. Some people have a challenge with changing one behavior more than another.

Paul tells them to be mindful of where each person is at but to be directive but also encouraging and patient with everyone. When Paul includes everyone in this verse, that means everyone, even those who you deem to be your enemies. In regards to those who persecute you, who are your enemies, it is completely natural to want to meet anger with anger. However, if we meet anger with anger, we are not demonstrating the love of Jesus, we are conforming to the the way of the world.

Everyone is human, everyone is struggling with something because no one is perfect. Our response to others will either bring them into a place of wanting to have a relationship with Jesus or it will drive them away. Remembering that our responsibility as followers of Christ is to bring others to Christ helps in those moments when our flesh is screaming at us to take revenge, telling us to not be talked to that way or imploring us to take what we feel we deserve.

Remaining helpful to others and patient with everyone can be done, but only when we rely on Jesus for His strength.

My book is now available on Lulu as well as Amazon. The links are below for the ebook as well as the paperback. The links are different but marked.

This is the link for the paperback book

https://www.lulu.com/shop/tina-deavor/wearing-gods-armor/paperback/product-zm4geqq.html?page=1&pageSize=4

This is the link for the ebook

https://www/lulu/com/shop/tina-deavor/wearing-gods-armor/ebook/product-gj874zg.html?page=1&pageSize=4

Thank you everyone who has been supportive during this wonderful adventure.

“We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, ” Colossians 1:3 NIV

Paul is writing to the Christians in the church in Colossae. He has never met these brothers and sisters in Christ, as he was unable to go there to help them begin the church in Colossae. Even though he has never met them, he opens the letter he is writing to them by letting them know that he is praying for them and he is thankful for them.

Praying is very important to our spiritual life as it is a direct connection between us and God. We often pray for those we know who are non believers to come to know Christ. Praying for other believers is as important as praying for unbelievers because when we do we are lifting them to God to help strengthen them. Praying for others, even others we have never met, shows our connection to them through the family of Christ.

Being thankful in our prayers helps us to maintain our focus on what God has done for us. When we are focused on the blessings we have been given, it is difficult to focus on negative things in our lives. For those who are new Christians, I encourage you to pray for everyone including yourselves as you grow in your walk with Christ.

When you pray, do you give thanks? Do you pray for nonbelievers? Do you pray for other believers? Do you pray for both?

“But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.” Deuteronomy 4:29 NIV

I have written about the idea of loving God with all of your heart and all of your soul, before. This verse is encouraging us to seek Him as well with all of our heart and all of our soul. When we commit to seeking God, whether in times of trouble or not, we will find Him. He doesn’t hide from us.

When we seek God with a sincere desire to find Him and have a relationship with Him, not simply as a passing activity when we have decided that we need Him, we are engaging in a relationship with our Creator. This desire comes from deep inside to connect to the Creator of the universe. We all have this desire, we are hard wired by God to want to be connected to Him.

When do you seek God?

Does your seeking of God involve all of you?

“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” Hebrews 11:6 NIV

Is it necessary to believe that God exists to pray to Him, to go to Him? The obvious answer should be yes, however, there are individuals who when they are in crisis mode will pray to God even though the rest of the time they profess He doesn’t exist. That is inconsistent, odd, weird and some might say hypocritical, but I am thankful for those moments because in my mind, that person isn’t firmly cemented in their unbelief.

It doesn’t mean that they are now believers or that God is going to richly reward them as God wants sincere faith in Him, not just crisis based cooperation. However, I believe that when a person is willing to consider, even when it is in a crisis, that there could be ‘someone bigger than themselves’ then the door is open to the person possibly changing their beliefs. This is exciting news since there are most likely people in each of our lives who are in the category of nonbelievers.

There is so much more about this verse that can be unpacked but for today I simply want to focus on the hope that we can see when an unbeliever cracks open the door to consider that God actually exists. I encourage each believer to look for those moments when an unbeliever is inconsistent between their actions and beliefs and to be excited that there is a crack in the place where the unbeliever has cemented themselves normally.

Have a wonderful day!

“Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.” Matthew 10:38-39 NIV

The passage of scripture that these 2 verses are taken from is a recounting of when Jesus is instructing His disciples to go preach and heal. During this passage, Jesus reminds them that in order to represent Him to the world, that they must love Him above all else, that is what He meant when He says ‘Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.’ The life Jesus is referring to is their old way of living, which was the same as the way the world lived, putting self first.

When we choose to follow Jesus there are things we choose to change about our lives and maybe even cut out of our lives, certain behaviors that are not in line with how we are choosing live now. There are sometimes relationships that are toxic to our decision to change from following the world to following Jesus. Dying to self – placing others, in this case Jesus, above our wants, desires, addictions, relationships and what we have determined to be our needs – is hard. We are essentially taking our old life, the way we lived, thought, acted, reacted, and burying it so that it is no longer a part of our new life.

Sometimes the choice of what is going to be cut from our old lives is made for us. There may be some individuals in our lives who have strong negative reactions to our decision to follow Jesus. They may be very harsh with us, calling us names, treating us differently and even cutting us out of their lives. This is part of what Jesus is warning His disciples about, that they too will suffer for His sake. That as long as they were willing to accept the consequences of following Him, losing everything of this world, they would be worthy enough to be His disciples.

However, when we choose to follow Jesus and then do not change from our old ways and cling instead to our old life, Jesus is saying that we are not worthy to follow Him. A relationship with Jesus is an ALL IN or ALL OUT kind of decision. He does not like indecisiveness. This sounds harsh, but we either are willing to do what is needed to be worthy or not, it truly is our choice.

What are you choosing?

“Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.” Galatians 3:11 NIV

The verse for today comes from Paul’s letter to the believers in Galatia who were struggling with letting go of their old life and completely embracing their new life, a life in Christ. There were Christians who believed that they still had to maintain the Mosaic laws of Moses and were not understanding that the Law had nothing to do with being justified.

Being justified or righteous occurs because the believer is living by faith. Living according to the Laws and without faith is not the path to be justified. The law was what condemned the Israelites when they broke it, and it was broken a lot because it was impossible to not break it. There were 613 laws that the Israelites were to live by and not break and the moment one of them was broken, the whole overarching concept of the Law, was broken.

So if keeping all of the laws did not justify a person before God, what did and what does now? Jesus. Accepting Jesus as your Savior, a relationship with Jesus, faith in Jesus is what justifies you and me before God. Jesus came and freed us from the laws and gave us a different path to justification, righteousness, life – faith in Jesus, faith in the Holy Spirit, faith in God. Those who live life through faith in God are righteous before God because they are living a life of faith in Him, not performing mindless acts to fulfil a law. We do not become justified and then decide to live by faith, it is through our faith, the act of having faith and the active use of our faith, that we become justified.

Are you living by a list of rules you feel will entitle you to be justified if you complete all of them? The way to being justified before God is to live by faith that Jesus saved you when you accepted Him as your Lord.

“To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:27 NIV

Paul is writing a letter to brothers and sisters in Christ who he has never met. The church at Colossae was found by those Paul sent there but not by Paul himself. However, Paul had a sincere concern for all Christians and wanted all to be fruitful in living a life dedicated to Christ. Throughout the book of Colossians, Paul is encouraging the followers of Christ to maintain their relationship with Jesus and to not give into the cultural pressures surrounding them.

The city of Colossae had a mixture of religious practices and therefore any individual who was beginning to follow a new way of life could become influenced into believing what some false teachers were preaching. In this verse, Paul is making it clear to everyone that to follow Christ they did not need to be Jewish, either by faith or heritage. He wanted all to understand that if they chose to follow Christ that they would become aware of the glorious riches of the mystery of ‘Christ in you’.

That sounds wonderful, ‘glorious riches’ and ‘Christ in you’, but what exactly does that mean? Christ came from His throne in heaven, where He was king, to become a human baby that was vulnerable and poor by the societal standards of His time. He did this to save mankind so that mankind could be given a chance to have everlasting life, the glorious riches of living in the kingdom of heaven.

Christ in you means just that, Christ lives in us once we accept Him as Lord and Savior. He is there from that moment forward. He is there to give us His strength to do what we could not otherwise do, He is there to give us His peace which we would otherwise not be able to feel. Can you feel the difference in your life from when you were not a Christian and lived by the standards of this world? If you have not accepted Christ yet, do you want to feel that difference?

Heavenly Father, thank You for allowing those of us who are not Jewish by faith or birth to be recipients of the glorious riches of the mystery of Christ in us. You are so loving that You want to be involved in our lives and let us experience heaven for all of eternity. I pray that if there is anyone reading this that has not accepted You as their Lord and Savior, that they stop where they are and do that now. That they bow their heads and talk to You, listen to You, accept You and become Your child so Christ can live in them as well. Thank You for Your love. In Jesus’s precious name, Amen.