Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Here we are at the brink of 2010... ready? Get set... GOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
Monday, December 28, 2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Greater is He that's in you than He that's in the world! Don't let anything stop you from achieving your God-given dreams in 2010!
I John 4:4
I John 4:4
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Monday, December 28, 2009
Let your light shine! Don't hide it under a basket. Celebrate! It's a new year and God wants His best for you! He is going to shower you with His blessings and abundance!
Look to Jesus who for the joy endured what lie ahead in His life - the cross, to die for us. He did it so that we too are able to endure with joy what God has planned for us.
Look to Jesus who for the joy endured what lie ahead in His life - the cross, to die for us. He did it so that we too are able to endure with joy what God has planned for us.
Matthew 5: 14-16, John 10:10, Hebrews 12:2
Sunday, December 27, 2009
I have found that when I seek the Lord at the beginning of a New Year, He is faithful to point out to me the areas that trip me up the most and need His help. These would be areas that cause my light for Him to be dim. I don't want a diminished light for Jesus; I want my light for Him to brightly shine!
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Saturday, December 26, 2009
The rush towards Christmas Day now over for another year, we look to begin a new year. 2010. How will you choose to open that first second of this New Year? Where will you be? What will you be doing?
Some will be sound asleep with sweet contentment for an awakening later in the day on that new day. Others will be up and radically involved in a celebration and partying through the midnight hour that rings in the New Year. Could be you are at your church for a watch night of prayer. Maybe friends have invited you over or you've chosen to stay at home and... whatever it is you have chosen to do, have you sought the LORD in it? What I propose to you is to begin now in seeking where the Lord would have you be to bring in the New Year, what He would have you do that would bring Him glory.
We are to seek Him first in all things and He will add to us those things we need. (Matthew 6:33) I encourage you to seek Him now. While you and He are conversing, be sure to ask Him too, what great plans He has prepared for you this entire year! Don't miss out on what God wants for you this year! What is it you need to be deeply focused and concerned with this year so that God would be glorified in you. For we are "called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified." (Isaiah 61:3b)
Some will be sound asleep with sweet contentment for an awakening later in the day on that new day. Others will be up and radically involved in a celebration and partying through the midnight hour that rings in the New Year. Could be you are at your church for a watch night of prayer. Maybe friends have invited you over or you've chosen to stay at home and... whatever it is you have chosen to do, have you sought the LORD in it? What I propose to you is to begin now in seeking where the Lord would have you be to bring in the New Year, what He would have you do that would bring Him glory.
We are to seek Him first in all things and He will add to us those things we need. (Matthew 6:33) I encourage you to seek Him now. While you and He are conversing, be sure to ask Him too, what great plans He has prepared for you this entire year! Don't miss out on what God wants for you this year! What is it you need to be deeply focused and concerned with this year so that God would be glorified in you. For we are "called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified." (Isaiah 61:3b)
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
So here we are, are we through with Jonah? I hope not. I hope that we will always remember Jonah and what we learned from his book in the Bible. What did we learn? Let's take a look and see what came from this study:
When your world has been turned upside down leave it in the hands of the Lord - trust. If we would do this everyday then maybe the trouble won't be so often or so difficult at the least.
We are taught the heart of God from the Jonah story in the Bible. God wants all to be saved even those who we may want destroyed because of their wicked and evil ways.
Jonah's story in the Bible teaches us about the mission God has for His people. We are to go where he says and lead others to the Lord to be saved.
God does speak to His people - the word of the Lord came to Jonah and God will give us a word too.
God wants our instant, willing obedience to what He has for us to do. No matter what he says to do, whether we like it or not, we are to do it.
When we don't trust God and obey Him we will find trouble or trouble will find us. This more often than not is a consequence due to our disobedience to God.
God is wherever we are and ready to save us. He can even be found in the belly of a big fish! Let's hope he doesn't have to find you or me there!
We are to have a thankful, heartfelt prayer with God in our times of trouble or need.
It is best every time to confess, repent, and believe God - We can trust God because His goal is always restoration. He wants all to be saved.
I encourage you to take time and if you haven't done so already from a day-to-day basis, write down what the Lord was speaking to you as you studied the Book of Jonah. There will come a day that just when you need it God will bring it to your rembrance and it will again be a help to you.
I hope to be with you tomorrow again as we discover more of the mysteries found in God's Word. Do log on as we continue this blog. I thank God for you, my follower (s).Sunday, December 20, 2009
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Read Jonah 4:4-11
God has a lesson for Jonah to learn through all of this. God is there again (still) for Jonah. We can learn from our mistakes, our circumstances and even from our anger or any other emotion we experience. The lesson Jonah is to learn is that God places value on all men and that He shows mercy to all including Jonah with his wrong attitude and what he knows about God.
Jonah got alone some place an isolated himself. Was he pouting? Was he venting? I don't know but I do know that in our alone moments God can and will step in and speak to us. Jonah spoke to God and asked for his life to be taken, but God...
God chose to help Jonah see for himself the error of his ways. He's done that for me before, how about you? Has God helped you in a way to see that you have been wrong about something? Plain and simple, wrong. There are times we are wrong. We may think we are right, but God in His compassion and mercy takes an ideal situation for giving us His instruction that puts us in our place, a place to repent and receive His forgiveness and move on. This is that place in Jonah's life.
God uses a plant with Jonah. He used a donkey with Balaam, a rooster for Peter, and blind eyes for Paul. The type of plant doesn't really matter but we do see that it's a fast growing plant as it grew overnight. It was a Godsend to Jonah as it brought shade to him in the heat of the day but by the next morning it was eaten up by a worm. Jonah was again angry as the sun beat on his head and he grew faint.
Here he is again, wanting to die. Why? He's playing the fool (read Proverbs some time). Jonah has just obeyed God and caused a whole city to come to know Him. Why can't he see this? Instead he's sucked up in himself and has misplaced his values. Consider the value of Nineveh? Consider the fact that though they were not morally innocent, were helpless to know how to escape their plight before God, and that without a prophet, Jonah, they would have remained trapped in the wickedness and all lost. Maybe forever!
Verse 10 and 11 God explains to Jonah.
"God said, 'What's this? How is it that you can change your feelings for pleasure to anger over night about a mere shade tree that you did nothing to get? You neither planted nor watered it. It grew up one night and died the next night. So, why can't I likewise change what I feel about Nineveh from anger to pleasure, this big city of more than 120,000 childlike peple who don't yet know right from wrong, to say nothing of all the innocent animals?'" (Taken from The Message)
Jonah's prophecy was not fulfilled as God sent him to Nineveh saying, "Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" Nineveh wasn't overthrown, was it? The entire city was saved. That would make you feel like a blooming idiot if you were Jonah, wouldn't it? But God used that prophecy and saved Nineveh. God got the glory! Jonah knew it would happen, that they would repent and be saved. He knew God's character and he knew Nineveh would be saved as God would show His compassion and mercy upon them, not to overthrow the city. So was Jonah out of his pity party now or was he still stuck? Did God's message to Jonah come through loud and clear that Jonah could now move on?
Let's hope for the best because that's exactly what the Lord wants for us. To see the evil ways in our lives and repent so that we are able to move on with God. Today choose to do just that and move forward knowing that your loving, compassionate Father is with you in all that He asks of you... even if you look the fool for God. Will you do as God asks of you? From the belly of a big fish, in front of 120,000 people... whose lives depend on you and your obedience to God like the lives of those in Nineveh depended on Jonah's obeying the word of the Lord? The word of the Lord came to Jonah. He obeyed. Obey God today.
God has a lesson for Jonah to learn through all of this. God is there again (still) for Jonah. We can learn from our mistakes, our circumstances and even from our anger or any other emotion we experience. The lesson Jonah is to learn is that God places value on all men and that He shows mercy to all including Jonah with his wrong attitude and what he knows about God.
Jonah got alone some place an isolated himself. Was he pouting? Was he venting? I don't know but I do know that in our alone moments God can and will step in and speak to us. Jonah spoke to God and asked for his life to be taken, but God...
God chose to help Jonah see for himself the error of his ways. He's done that for me before, how about you? Has God helped you in a way to see that you have been wrong about something? Plain and simple, wrong. There are times we are wrong. We may think we are right, but God in His compassion and mercy takes an ideal situation for giving us His instruction that puts us in our place, a place to repent and receive His forgiveness and move on. This is that place in Jonah's life.
God uses a plant with Jonah. He used a donkey with Balaam, a rooster for Peter, and blind eyes for Paul. The type of plant doesn't really matter but we do see that it's a fast growing plant as it grew overnight. It was a Godsend to Jonah as it brought shade to him in the heat of the day but by the next morning it was eaten up by a worm. Jonah was again angry as the sun beat on his head and he grew faint.
Here he is again, wanting to die. Why? He's playing the fool (read Proverbs some time). Jonah has just obeyed God and caused a whole city to come to know Him. Why can't he see this? Instead he's sucked up in himself and has misplaced his values. Consider the value of Nineveh? Consider the fact that though they were not morally innocent, were helpless to know how to escape their plight before God, and that without a prophet, Jonah, they would have remained trapped in the wickedness and all lost. Maybe forever!
Verse 10 and 11 God explains to Jonah.
"God said, 'What's this? How is it that you can change your feelings for pleasure to anger over night about a mere shade tree that you did nothing to get? You neither planted nor watered it. It grew up one night and died the next night. So, why can't I likewise change what I feel about Nineveh from anger to pleasure, this big city of more than 120,000 childlike peple who don't yet know right from wrong, to say nothing of all the innocent animals?'" (Taken from The Message)
Jonah's prophecy was not fulfilled as God sent him to Nineveh saying, "Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" Nineveh wasn't overthrown, was it? The entire city was saved. That would make you feel like a blooming idiot if you were Jonah, wouldn't it? But God used that prophecy and saved Nineveh. God got the glory! Jonah knew it would happen, that they would repent and be saved. He knew God's character and he knew Nineveh would be saved as God would show His compassion and mercy upon them, not to overthrow the city. So was Jonah out of his pity party now or was he still stuck? Did God's message to Jonah come through loud and clear that Jonah could now move on?
Let's hope for the best because that's exactly what the Lord wants for us. To see the evil ways in our lives and repent so that we are able to move on with God. Today choose to do just that and move forward knowing that your loving, compassionate Father is with you in all that He asks of you... even if you look the fool for God. Will you do as God asks of you? From the belly of a big fish, in front of 120,000 people... whose lives depend on you and your obedience to God like the lives of those in Nineveh depended on Jonah's obeying the word of the Lord? The word of the Lord came to Jonah. He obeyed. Obey God today.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
