Monday, July 28, 2014

Be Healed

James 5:16 NLT 
Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.

This is a hard one for most of us, I believe. It is easy to tell someone else what they have done to sin. But to tell others, especially the one we may have done or said something to, is hard. We have to get out of ourselves, out of our fleshy side, to do it.

When we tell another believer, one that we have a relationship with, the things that are weighing on our mind they are released and we can go on in our journey. Keeping these things to ourselves keeps us going over them again and again. Even when we stuff them in the far back corner of our mind, they come back to bother us; sometimes in our dreams.

As a born again believer in Jesus Christ, we are righteous in Him. So as we reach forth and confess one to another and pray for each other we are healed of our emotional issues and our physical ones.

We have the authority to lay hands on the sick and the power to command healing in each other. We need to start exercising this daily expecting wonderful results.

Monday, July 21, 2014

Just Believe

John 6:29 NLT  
Jesus told them, "This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent."

How easy they had it back then and did not even realize it. The people saw Jesus on a day to day basis and yet still did not believe He was who He said. And they even saw and believed in the miraculous healings everywhere He went.

And here we are today still hearing people saying things like "If I see it with my own eyes I will believe it."

Well we cannot see Jesus himself face to face until we enter Paradise to be with Him. And yet we can see Him in every born again believer. He is alive today and actively working through each of His followers; each of those who believe.

But how will others believe in Him who we believe if we don't get out into the sea of unbelievers and show them? We are His light to a lost world and His commandment to us is the same today as it was when He spoke it to His disciples. "Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone."

Monday, July 14, 2014

Your Team

2 Corinthians 6:14 NLT 
Don't team up with those who are unbelievers. How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness?

Ever since we were children we learned to be on a team. I was on a baseball team before I was a teenager. As an older child this was important for me. It was different learning to work together. But we all had the same goals and a coach to teach us baseball and how to get along with each other. I was the shortest so the pitchers had a tough time getting the strike zone when I was at bat. So I walked a lot. That was a good thing because I was not very good at hitting. But I never was teased about by height or my inability to hit. Teammates just did not do that.

In Christ we have a team of believers we hang around with. We are all learning to walk the walk God wants us to walk, the path He has for us to follow. So we can encourage each other and warn each other in love when we seemingly start to stray.

But what about those unbelievers we still get together with. Can they be on our team? "How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness?" the scripture asks us. My friend is not wicked, we think. And yet my friend is not a believer. He is always thinking and walking in the flesh because he does not have the Holy Spirit within. He is in darkness no matter how good a person he seems to be.

So we must be careful. If our non-Christians friends have a greater influence on us than we do on them maybe it is time to take a vacation from being with them. Time to increase our relationship with Jesus so the next time we meet our friend the light of Jesus is so strong in us we can be an influence on them.

Monday, July 07, 2014

Problem Solving

Luke 6:41 NLT
And why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own?

The Bible tells us not to gossip and yet how often we find ourselves talking about someone elses problems. Not only talking, but even scheming to "help" them out of their mess. It sure is a lot easier to deal with other people's problems than take the time to work on our own.

And get a bunch of guys together and between them they can solve the worlds issues. They know what needs to be done to fix the financial problems of the country. They have it all figured out. And politics? They know just what needs to be done to straighten out the mess from the top down. Just ask them. They even know more about sports teams than the managers of each team. They should get a direct line to each manager so they can tell them who to play when.

They can "solve" all those issues and yet many have financial crises of their own, problems with their families, and repairs just waiting for someone to take care of them. Thus proving that it is easier to worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own.

So instead of solving all the problems of our friends and the world we should stop wasting the little time we have in idle chatter. Instead we should focus on our walk with Jesus. Holy Spirit will guide us along the path laid out for us to take. He will order our steps so we can take care of all our issues and are available to do whatever the Father has for us to do each day.

Friday, July 04, 2014

Great book to read

Conquering Your FleshConquering Your Flesh by Gregory Dickow
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Great book! Makes it very easy to understand what is of the flesh and what is of the spirit. We as Christians complicate the simple.

View all my reviews