Category Archives: Blog

Is Christmas Still A Religious Holiday?

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Is Christmas a religious holiday?What does Santa Claus, reindeer, and elves have to do with Christmas? Let’s face it, Christmas is no longer a religious holiday, it’s a retail holiday. But really, I’m coming to terms with that. God instituted feast days, holy days (holidays), for times of remembrance. There were rituals, special food, and gathering of family and community. I think He’s okay with having times of celebration. Christmas may have lost all true meaning of the birth of Jesus, but for the world where people have no honor for Jesus as Savior, it’s still a time of good will for all men. It’s still a time of family and feasting and festivity.

I’ve come to accept that Christmas is not really about God, so I just accept the fun part and enjoy it. And then I go into my room and stand before Abba Father in amazement. He knew, before the first word of creation was spoken that He would sacrifice His Son. He knew the humiliation and torment that would come. I have to ask Jesus, “How? How did You leave the Father? How did you do it? How did You leave all that was holy and bright with glory and praise? How did You come here? Not even as a king, but as an infant?”

And He answers, like He always does, “Because I love you more than you can possibly know. I love you, I love you, I love you. I loved you then. I love you now. And I will always love you.”

Such a weight of love is humbling and so full of life. He came to be born as a human because He loves me so much. It’s enough to make my heart sing and dance. So Christmas is fun for family and friends. It’s something to look forward to every year, even with the stress and frustrations of shopping. But the One who loves me like no other, I will celebrate every single day.

The Secret To Blessing and Promotion

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The natural outcome of trusting a good God is blessing. He blesses all the time, we’re just not in the habit of receiving it well. In fact, we can often block it unknowingly. There’s even some danger to receiving blessing. You may have promises that you stand on. You may expect that because of your faith, God will promote you and bless you, but you may not be ready to handle it.

Learn to love before asking for blessing.The secret to receiving blessing is to set everything that’s dear to you aside. All your hopes and dreams. All your promises and needs. Set them aside, don’t throw them away. You’re just not ready yet. Direct your full attention to your heart. Your heart must be so full of love for God that nothing that happens in your life matters more than your relationship with Him.

Ask Him for more understanding of His love for you. Ask Him for revelation and knowledge of His love. The more you grasp how much He loves you, the more you can love Him back. Your gifts can be handled dangerously if you don’t love completely. You can get in the way of what God wants to do if love does not come first. Go back and read I Corinthians 13.

Learn to love God and learn to love other people. Be honest with yourself. If you know that you do not love, ask God to fill you and change you. Press into that and you will be more responsible with the blessings that follow.

Stop Trying To Be Someone Else — Be The Real You

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This may come as a shock, but you are not your mother, your father, your sister, your brother, your pastor, or your best friend. The mold that is you won’t fit another person’s mold. Stop trying to be someone else.

The you that God made is unique. Your personality and gifts are unique. They won’t work with another template. But the only way they will work according to the great plan that God designed for you is if you stop looking back. You are a  new creation in Christ. The old you is dead. Stop digging him up to look at all the stuff he did. That’s ancient history now. You’re not a kingdom archaeologist, you’re a kingdom trailblazer.

Be the you you were meant to be.You connect with your unique plan when you turn your heart to God. Let Him walk you through the steps of your life. Listen to His voice in the quiet places. Let His word soak into your spirit  and affect your thoughts. Ask Him for revelation on what that plan looks like. It’s probably not as bizarre and wild as you think. It’s probably got a lot to do with what you already love.

Be the you you were meant to be, not the person you admire that you will  never be. You are blessed by God in a way that only you can live. If you don’t, there will be people who will never see God because you weren’t there to show them. That’s how important it is for you to be real.

All That Jesus Is Lives In You — What Are You Afraid Of?

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Every time I stop to think about God’s great plan for us, my heart melts. Think about it — He made the decision before the worlds were formed to be your God. He knew you and He made a way to be everything you need. He planned out the role of Israel to establish His name on earth. He planned to send His Son to make an atonement for our sins. And then He planned to send His Spirit to live in us so we could be all that we were meant to be. He thought of all that before He spoke the first word of creation.

All that Jesus is lives in you.Now think about this life you have in Christ. He knocked on the door of your heart and you let Him in. All of Him. He didn’t select some minor aspects of Himself to live in you. You didn’t get “The Human” version of the Holy Spirit. You got GOD. All that Jesus is lives in you. Christ in you, the hope of glory.

That should stun you when you think about that. The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in you. The same Spirit that spoke the worlds into creation lives in you. The same Spirit who brings wisdom, love, joy, healing, and peace lives in you. What on earth are you afraid of?

When You Live In Praise, You Are A Portal To Heaven

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You are a portal to heaven.When you are filled with the presence of God, you become a portal to heaven for everyone around you. How many people do you work with, go to school with, hang out with? Do they all know Jesus? No, but you do. You may be the only connection those people have with heaven.

You carry the kingdom of God with you where ever you go. You’re not just an ambassador, you’re a connection to the eternal, living God. Walk worthy of this calling. If you refuse to honor Christ is your life, He has no obligation to honor you. Your response to stress and pressure should show others that there is another way to live that they can have.  You’re life should be so different that it’s obvious that you march to a different drummer, and the sound of that drum should make people want it for themselves.

When you live in an attitude of constant praise and worship, you extend the atmosphere of heaven everywhere you go. It may not be obvious, but others will feel it in their spirit. The more you praise, the wider your portal becomes. Imagine walking into a room and changing the atmosphere by your presence, and Who you bring with you. It’s time to have some fun.

Answered Prayer Can Be Hidden In The Middle Of Your Mess

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The cry of our heart should be to have more of God, to be filled with Him, to be changed by Him. He said seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened. The more you pursue Him, the more willing He is to be found. But we have to remember that He is God, and His ways are not our ways.

In our desire for holiness, we assume that God will move and act the way we expect Him to, because that’s the way we would do it. We have the Holy Spirit in us, so we expect that His Godliness will emerge in us because we want Him to. To some degree that will happen, but it is more probable that God will move in ways that you are not looking for.

Transformation takes time.

Transformation takes time.

Do you want Him to change your heart so you will be kind and loving and generous of spirit? Don’t be frustrated that it hasn’t happened over night because you prayed, no matter how earnestly. Stop and look at your circumstances. Are you in the middle of a trying situation that you can’t wait to get out of? Bingo. There’s your answered prayer. He will use those circumstances to change you in the way you want and need to be changed. Stop looking at the conditions as something to be free of eventually. Look at them as the tool that God is using to shape you and mold you into His image. Once you see what He is doing, you can be free. This is a journey. The shaping takes time if it is going to be real.

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.. (1Peter 1:6-7)

The Best Thing To Do When You Just Don’t Know

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There are times when the only answer is to just set everything aside and go to God. And by that I don’t mean that we don’t go to God when we have specific prayers, or in our time of worship. But we all go through seasons where we feel adrift. We’re not even sure how to pray, or tell others how to pray for us.

God understands that. He’s not judging you for not knowing what to do with yourself. He’s there for you, and the best thing you can do is to get as close to Him as you can.

When You said, SSeek His faceeek My face, my heart said to You, Your face, Lord, I will seek. (Ps 27:8)

Don’t look for answers. Don’t try to figure everything out. Just seek His face. The closer you get to the throne, the less confusing everything else becomes. There is peace there. There is comfort, and that’s what you need. You need to know it’s going to be ok. You need to know that He’s got it under control and will never leave you.

Seek His face and it will work out. That’s the promise of God.

if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (2 Chron 7:14)

Experience God Face To Face — Go For It

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It’s obvious that some people have a special relationship with God. They hear Him clearly and move in signs and wonders. Who are these people? What have they got that the rest of us don’t have? They have a desire to know God deeply. And when I see that I think, if they can do it so can I.

Face to face with GodI love all the stories of people who became friends with God. So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. (Ex 33:11) This is what I want. And what’s awesome is that we live in a different covenant than Moses did. We can have the Holy Spirit in us for the asking. Experiencing God doesn’t have to be so eventful that it is recorded in history.

Do you want that amazing relationship with God where you talk with Him face to face? Where you feel His presence descend on you with the full weight of His glory? Ask for it. Spend time before Him in worship and praise. Don’t ask Him to answer prayer, just worship Him. Allow your spirit to soar with Him. Be willing to let Him change you. An encounter with the God of the universe is going to change you. If you’re not willing to agree with that, then you’ll be broken in more ways than you know.

Experience God the way He wants to be known — not distant and terrifying, but massively loving and holy. Go after Him. As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God. (Ps 42:1)

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock,and it will be opened to you. (Mat 7:7)

God Doesn’t Care That You’re Not Perfect

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God doesn't care that you're not perfect.We are all called to serve the Lord somehow. All of us. We are all called to make disciples , teaching them what Jesus taught. Many people will never obey this command because they think it’s the job of pastors and ministers. They are wrong. But there are others who understand the commandment, but feel unworthy to obey. This is not a bad thing.

I understand the feeling of unworthiness. I too struggle with feeling like the last person on the earth that should be discipling anyone. The enemy can get into our heads and make us feel like losers who don’t deserve to go to heaven, let alone lead anyone else there.

But the reason I say that unworthiness is not a bad thing is because it shows a level of humility that God can use. I recently had a heart to heart talk with God about why I was not the one He could use to do anything because of all the bad things I felt I had inside me. I know I am a work in progress, but I didn’t feel that He could use me until He took care of my laundry list.

But God just smiled. He wasn’t surprised by my list, and He didn’t change His mind. He said He would use me despite my frailties. He would show Himself great and it wouldn’t have anything to do with me at all. In fact, if I had the opinion that I was “all that”, He couldn’t use me because I’d take His glory.

Remember Gideon? That encourages me. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that we will ever become perfect here on earth. We look through a glass darkly, but then we will see face to face. We know in part. God is aware of our humanity and He chooses to use us anyway.

Do not beat yourself up about your shortcomings. We all have them. Keep your heart clean. Confess what you need to confess and give everything to Jesus. Admit that you don’t have all the answers and trust Him. Allow God to show Himself through you — a clay vessel shining with the light of heaven.

Work Out Your Salvation With Fear And Trembling- You Have Too Much To Lose

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Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.We need to be very careful about what we think God expects of us. I used to think that all I needed to do was believe that Jesus died for me so I could go to heaven. That’s it. I had no interest in ministry. That was for other people. I had job and it was enough that I went to church and believed in God.

But God had other plans for me. I began to read the Bible to understand exactly how I was supposed to live. I wanted to hear from God myself. What I learned startled me. The scriptures that I knew from childhood began to convict me for not believing what I already knew. We’re called to live like Jesus lived. That’s why He called Himself the Son of Man, not the Son of God. That’s why He showed us how to pray and said that we would do greater works than He did, because we’re supposed to live like Him.

And He warned us to not live complacently. Just look at the parable of the talents. (Matt 25:14-30) We know that talents were a form of money, but what if we consider that they may also mean talents we are gifted with — music, business, invention, creativity. The one who did nothing whatsoever with what he’d been given was cast into outer darkness. What we do or don’t do for the kingdom matters.

Are you thinking like I used to — He doesn’t really mean it? Or, that’s not about me? You’re wrong. It’s about you, and one day you’ll stand before Him and there will be an accounting of your life. I understand that we don’t go to heaven because of our works, but we’ve been commissioned to be a city on a hill, a light to a dark world. Are we living like Jesus lived? Is the kingdom of God real to us. Do we love God with all our heart, soul, and mind? Do we love others as much as we love ourselves?

Be honest. Be gut-wrenchingly honest. You have to lose your life to Jesus or you lose everything. There’s no compromise. Jesus said, My sheep know My voice,  and I know them, and they follow me. (John 10:27) Do you hear His voice? Are you following where He is leading. If you are not challenged in your faith, you’re probably not following Him. God will shake up what you think you know so you will have to rely on Him and Him alone.

Don’t be lulled into a passive faith that you think is safe. Jesus said He would spit that lukewarm mindset out of His mouth. He wants a vital, dynamic faith that understands that obedience is better than sacrifice. Read the scriptures for yourself and see where you stand. Many are called, but few are chosen. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, because there is everything to be gained and everything to lose.