Tag: #becourageous

ARE YOU IN THE BOOK

Many of us have a treasure box of things from our past. Trophies from a contest or sporting event that we won. Grade cards and awards from school. Tiny things that were given to us by friends or a first love. A seashell we picked up on our first beach trip. More important than any of these treasures, we have friends and family that we can really truly rely on to be there in times of crisis. (If your family is not like that, I am truly sorry; I know some aren’t.) But the family of God should be that way. We are to treasure one another.

There is a treasure that far exceeds any memory or knowing how much you are loved by close friends and family. The biggest treasure is to be a child of God. Many say, “We are all God’s children.” Referring to mankind, but that is not true. We do not become his children until we are born again and have received His Spirit. The work He did on the cross gives us the right to be called the “children of God or sons of God.” But unless we accept what he did to redeem us. He will say, “I never knew you.”

It is nice to go to class reunions and relive our youth’s “glory” days. Looking through old photos and treasure boxes can be fun. Looking at our old yearbooks and seeing who all signed it is always bittersweet. But the best treasure is to know that our names are written in the “Lamb’s Book Of Life.”

Have you ever thought about the name of the book, “Lamb’s Book Of Life.” It is a book that lists all those who are born into the kingdom, those who have passed from death of sin to life in Christ. That is one book to make sure our names appear, the book that the Lamb of God owns that lists all who are alive in Him.

Luke 10:19-20  Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. 20 Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.

We need to be determined to see that the book doesn’t have any space left to write one more name. The harvest is ready. Jesus has the ink pen ready to write the names, all we have to do is go out and share his words.

BE BOLD. BE BRAVE AND KEEP YOUR GOD FOCUS

RIGHT WORDS

It’s hard sometimes to sit back and watch people struggle with situations and problems when you have the answer. But we must be careful about how we deliver that answer. Yeah, Jesus is the answer to every problem. But, if it’s the wrong timing or said in the wrong way, we can do more harm than good. 

Prov 25:11 -A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver. 

Which means that timing is everything. You can tell people the right thing and be right. It still could be wrong. What if you say it like you are a know-it-all all and you have the answer? What if your attitude is off by coming across as being self-righteous? People are going to be hurt or put off by the judgmental tone.

We must be loving with our words, even though we’re right and there’s nothing wrong with the sentiment. There’s nothing wrong with telling people that God is the answer. But it’s how we say it.  We can be compassionate, “I know you’re really struggling with the situation. I understand because I’ve been through similar things. Or I understand that you’re really bothered about this and you’re hurt by your situation. I’ve been through things in my life that have really hurt me. I’ve found that Christ is the answer.”

The people will become more accepting of what you’re saying. But still, if that’s not at the right time, it may plant a seed. It may open the door a little bit. I’m not telling you not to ever tell anybody Jesus is the answer unless you think it’s perfect timing. Because we are called to witness to others. It’s just all a matter of timing.

Praying for God’s guidance will help us to know the right timing of everything. Because God’s time is always perfect. Nothing is impossible and we need to be willing to step out and talk to people.

But again, we can’t be aristocratic about it like we know it all. We have to be humble. God wants us to be humble. We can say, “Let me help you out here. Let me give you some advice.” God will use that to make an impact in somebody’s life. And that’s why we’re here. We’re here to see the lost saved.

Someone witnessed us or we wouldn’t be where we are today. Someone stepped out of their comfort zone and taught us about Jesus, or we wouldn’t know anything about him.

 If we depend on the media, they are very anti-religious and very anti-God and most of them consider themselves atheist or agnostic. And many of them, it’s because they’ve been hurt by church people. They said there can’t be a God or I wouldn’t have got hurt like I did. The enemy uses offense. It’s one of his greatest tools. If he can cause us to be offended by something and take that to heart, he can use that hurt and grow it into all sorts of things. He could grow in anxiety, fear, and stress. The enemy will grow it into a hatred for a person or hatred for a church. He even turns it into hate for God himself, to the point that people say, “I don’t believe there is a God.” And it’s just because they’ve been hurt.

It is not enough to have the right answer. It is important that we share the answer in the right way at the right time. We will know about God’s timing because he will lead us to speak. We cannot be effective unless we are close enough to God to hear his voice.

Staying in the Word and praying for His guidance is important. If we do these things, we can be assured he will give us the right words at the right time. Don’t be afraid to share the good news; just be careful how you do it.

BE BOLD, BE BRAVE AND KEEP YOUR GOD FOCUS

GOD IS NOT SURPRISED

You know, sometimes we feel like that, we are one mistake away from God doing a facepalm and saying, “Uh, I’m so done with them. They just make too many mistakes. They fall down too many times. They’re just not what I thought.” Because that’s how we get with people sometimes.

People often test our limits and we’re like, “I just can’t deal with them anymore. Not one more thing can I deal with, when it comes to them.” Then we have a tendency to walk away from people that gets us to the point of being so exasperated that we just can’t take one more thing.

But God never feels that way about us. He sees the potential of what we can be. He sees our worth is far greater than we can see in ourselves. He never shakes his head and goes, “I just don’t know what I’m gonna do with them. I just can’t believe they did that.” Again, He’s not surprised by anything. He knows everything. He knows why we make the choices we make. It’s because of some trauma or experience in our past. Most of the time, we have a tendency to react instead of stopping and thinking about what we should do. It is easy to just react. But sometimes, we lack self-control when those situations arise. But God has never been surprised. Nothing we do shocks him. And you know He says, if we are His child, “I will never leave you, forsake you or fail you.”

 Deut 31:6 Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

He will not fail or forsake us; He wants us to put on the whole armor of God. (Eph 6) Then, we are equipped to stand strong and be courageous. Fear is the opposite of how we should react to situations. The God who created everything is our Father and he will send angels to protect us.  He will move mountains for us if we just stand strong and believe.

Heb 13:5 6 Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

My encouraging words to you today are: Do not fear. Do not get hung up on the past; if you have repented, then move on. He doesn’t expect us to wallow in self-loathing and self-bashing. He has already blotted out your mistakes, sins and shortcomings. We can be encouraged because He is with us.

He didn’t come to punish us or make us feel bad. Jesus died to set us free. He took all of our punishment because we were not able to bear it. Instead of repenting over and over for the same thing, we are already forgiven. Try thanking Him for what he did on the cross to set us free. Then, BE FREE from the past. Remember, Jesus loves you.

BE BOLD, BE BRAVE AND KEEP YOUR GOD FOCUS