Others Notice

As born again believers walk the walk, others notice. They see our change; not by what we say but by the life that we lead. They see our character become more and more like Christ and they want to know more. Our lives silence the accusations. ~ DickEvans.org

God Loves You

‭‭1 John‬ ‭4:15-16‬ ‭NKJV‬‬
Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

We have friends. I love my friends but not like I love my wife. Or like I love my children and grands and great grands.

Ever had someone you loved turn away from you, disappoint you, even try to harm you?

Facebook has redefined the word friend. A friend is anyone who likes our page and follows us. They are those we may not even know outside of Facebook but they are very much into our daily lives. This is certainly a new definition of the word friend.

‭‭John‬ ‭15:14-15‬ ‭NKJV‬‬
You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.

As believers, we are a friend of God. And He loves us with unfailing love. We don’t have to do anything to receive His love. It is unconditional. This is simply mind-blowing to me.

Every form of love you and I will experience in this world is failing love—it breaks and it bruises, it hurts, it disappoints and ultimately it dies.

But God’s love never ever fails. Not ever. Not even physical death can stop his love.

He said he will never leave us or forsake us.

He also says he sees our sins no more. They are as far away as the east is from the west.

Why do I believe in the resurrection? Because God says he loves us with an everlasting love.

Everlasting means everlasting. It means forever and ever.

Either God has to raise you from the dead and keep on loving you or else he is a liar.

God is not a liar. His love for you will never wear out or die.

Cancer can’t keep you from his love. Neither can depression, AIDs, alcoholism, or drugs. The devil and all his demons cannot separate you from his love. Neither can death nor life.

The only thing that can come between you and his love is your refusal to receive it.

The only thing that can separate you from the love of God is you.

Let’s pray

Father God, thank you for loving me even after all the wrong I have thought. All the wrong I have done.

Help me to let go of my past and follow you, Lord. Help me to be an example for others to follow as I follow Jesus and allow the Holy Spirit to guide me.

In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.

Desire

As believers and followers of Christ, we belong to Him. We don't have to say a word. His presence permeates the air around us and others can feel it. As we let His love surround all that we do and say, their fear is replaced with a desire to know Him. ~ DickEvans.org

Be Excited

We should be excited about the authority we have been given, but realize that it is to be used for His purposes because we are citizens of heaven. Without our citizenship, there is no authority. ~ DickEvans.org

Goodness

The Lord has much for us to do and as we walk forth with the Holy Spirit guiding us completing the tasks before us, our lives are filled with peace and joy. In Him, we live a life filled with goodness. ~ DickEvans.org

As We Listen

Others look at how we treat others and notice our selfish or selfless actions. If we listen to the Father as we follow Jesus and do as He commands, the impressions we make will change the world. ~ DickEvans.org

Be Careful

We must be careful that the culture we live in does not corrupt us. We must remember what God expects of us and that is to extend our helping hand in love. ~ DickEvans.org

Your Fragrance

It isn't who you are, but your fragrance that can draw another to you or drive them away. When believers are gathered in one place that fragrance promotes joy and love. In the presence of unbelievers, that same fragrance can bring out anger and confusion. ~ DickEvans.org

More Like Him

God wants us to do good and He wants us to do it because we have become more like Him. Jesus simply did as the Father commanded. We need to be more like Him. ~ DickEvans.org

God Loves You

‭‭1 John‬ ‭4:15-16‬ ‭NKJV‬‬
Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

We have friends. I love my friends but not like I love my wife. Or like I love my children and grands and great grands.

Ever had someone you loved turn away from you, disappoint you, even try to harm you?

Facebook has redefined the word friend. A friend is anyone who likes our page and follows us. They are those we may not even know outside of Facebook but they are very much into our daily lives. This is certainly a new definition of the word friend.

‭‭John‬ ‭15:14-15‬ ‭NKJV‬‬
You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.

As believers, we are a friend of God. And He loves us with unfailing love. We don’t have to do anything to receive His love. It is unconditional. This is simply mind-blowing to me.

Every form of love you and I will experience in this world is failing love—it breaks and it bruises, it hurts, it disappoints and ultimately it dies.

But God’s love never ever fails. Not ever. Not even physical death can stop his love.

He said he will never leave us or forsake us.

He also says he sees our sins no more. They are as far away as the east is from the west.

Why do I believe in the resurrection? Because God says he loves us with an everlasting love.

Everlasting means everlasting. It means forever and ever.

Either God has to raise you from the dead and keep on loving you or else he is a liar.

God is not a liar. His love for you will never wear out or die.

Cancer can’t keep you from his love. Neither can depression, AIDs, alcoholism, or drugs. The devil and all his demons cannot separate you from his love. Neither can death nor life.

The only thing that can come between you and his love is your refusal to receive it.

The only thing that can separate you from the love of God is you.

Let’s pray

Father God, thank you for loving me even after all the wrong I have thought. All the wrong I have done.

Help me to let go of my past and follow you, Lord. Help me to be an example for others to follow as I follow Jesus and allow the Holy Spirit to guide me.

In Jesus name, I pray. Amen

Let Them See Jesus

It is up to us to let the world see Jesus through us. As we show tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience they get to see Him. As they see Him, they step back and make a decision of their own to follow Him. ~ DickEvans.org

Make It So

The desire to obey Him comes from God, but the decision to do so is ours alone. When we make the decision, He releases us with the power to make it so. ~ DickEvans.org

God Has A Plan

God has a plan for each of us and it begins with salvation. Only then can we truly begin our life-changing relationship with Him. Only then can our eternal journey begin. This is a choice that should never be put off until tomorrow. ~ DickEvans.org

Sorrow To Joy

God uses sorrow in our lives to remind us with gentle nudges that salvation is at hand. We don't need to question anymore. But we can't just mumble the words out of our sorrow. True salvation is followed by repentance and relationship. Then our sorrow is turned into eternal joy. ~ DickEvans.org

The Truth

Our spiritual strength comes from God, from His special favor. He and He alone has our missing piece. We need to strengthen our relationship with Him. We need to seek what He has for us in His Word. We need to follow Him and not those that follow Him. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Light. ~ DickEvans.org

God Is With Us

As believers we have been given new life. No longer do we have to search the old libraries of life bound by the old laws, living under judgment. God is with us because of the Cross. We have been reconciled to Him. Yet often we fall back to our old ways. We must learn to walk in the new ways doing the task He has given each of us, the task of reconciling people to Him. ~ DickEvans.org

The Preview

No matter how long we have been saved, we will always be in transition. There is always more for us to learn; more change that needs to occur. The world sees us as Christians so we must clothe ourselves as such; we must express the brand-new nature even as a preview of what is to come. ~ DickEvans.org

Don’t Hide Your Light

Matthew‬ ‭5:14-16‬ ‭NKJV‬‬
You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. 

I remember myself as a little boy with a flashlight under the bed covers. I wanted to read one of my comic books, probably Donald Duck and not get caught. I tried to keep the light all to my self.

How often have we been guilty of hiding His light? Of hiding the light of the Lord from those around us? When in church we loudly praise Him. We hear His word preached and take copious notes. Then we keep it to ourselves. We hide His light.

Jesus instructed us to go into all the world and preach the good news. We may have a personal relationship with Him but we are to share Him with the world. We are to shine His light everywhere we go.

That flashlight was powered by batteries. They lasted a while but eventually stopped powering the lightbulb. Without power the darkness returned.

John 8:12
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’

Jesus is the light of the world.

We have to listen to all Holy Spirit has for us each day. The more we follow His lead and the more we hear His words pop off the pages of our Bible the more we receive the mind of Christ.

Keeping our thoughts in the past is walking in darkness. We want His light shining in all our thoughts and actions. As we see we are walking in our old ways we need to change our focus to what the Holy Spirit is trying to show us.

Jesus said the only work is to follow Him. Lord, help me to stay in the light and focused on what You have for me.

Believe it and receive it.

Relationship

I believe Jesus wants us on Sunday mornings in church, and that is where He expects to find us praising and worshiping the Father. Our relationship with Jesus continues for the rest of the week and that is how we can get to the point of saying that we know Him. ~ DickEvans.org

Let Him Transform Us

When we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we became born again. We can choose to be molded into the Christian that the world expects us to be by copying the behavior and customs of other believers. Or we can be encouraged by other believers to develop our own personal relationship with God and let Him transform us into the new person He designed us to become. ~ DickEvans.org

Move Ahead

As we move ahead in our transformation walk, Holy Spirit teaches us more each day. The more we absorb, the more we change. When He is in our lives daily, we are no longer slaves to sin. ~ DickEvans.org

He Is With Us

God is right with us in every situation life throws at us. He gives us the strength to press on and make it to the end. He teaches us through all of our experiences. Not only do they help us learn to endure, they build our character, and add to our experiential knowledge which is useful to fulfill the purpose God has for us in His plan. ~ DickEvans.org

Troubles

It is not about trouble coming our way or not, it is about how we deal with the trouble that does. Out of every tribulation springs opportunity. Praise God for the trials He has pulled us through and for helping us become the people we are today. ~ DickEvans.org

Jesus is with us

Some think that because they have been saved and crossed over from heathen to Christian that the trials are over. They are not. However, Jesus is with us as we walk through them, guiding us and encouraging us all the way. We can rest in His peace knowing that He has overcome the world. ~ DickEvans.org

The Past

Sometimes we have to look at our past to understand where we are today. But our past does not determine our future. Our relationship with Jesus coupled with our faith in God determines our future.

Many Christians spend hours looking back. And yes our past did help to make us what we have become in the flesh. In our soul--our mind, will, and emotions.

1 Peter 1:3-4
Praised be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for according to his great mercy he gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an incorruptible and undefiled and unfading inheritance. It is reserved in the heavens for you.

In our born again spirit, our past is a nonstarter. We are one with Christ. Our future is now based on who we are in Christ. And we became born again because of the measure of faith we all have been given. (Romans 12:3 KJV)

As we become more Christ like in our flesh, in our soul, the past becomes less and less important to our today and tomorrow.

Our past is the obituary of who we were. We have a new life as born again believers in Jesus Christ.

Research is fun for some and with the internet it has become easy to do. We can look through scripture and other books to look at past times for patterns and find all kinds of reasons for what is happening today. We can even predict what may happen tomorrow but only God really knows that.

The more we stay in the past, the longer it takes for us to be who we are in Christ today. And the harder it becomes for us to have faith in God for our tomorrow’s.

Believe it and receive it.

Press On

We must press on with God’s children. When their hearts are ready, they will stand in awe of His mighty presence and will understand all we are preaching to them. They will see Christ for who He really is and not what the world has made Him out to be. ~ DickEvans.org

Preaching

It is not surprising that many a minister expects to get paid well when they shows up for a weekend of ministry, but is the purpose of the ministry making money or is it to fulfill God's purpose, equipping the saints for the work of the ministry? It is not about money. God's word is to be preached with sincerity. ~ DickEvans.org

Don't Pretend

Don't just pretend to be good when you are around other Christians or those in authority over you. Avoid anything that will teach you that wrong is right. Be the best you can be all the time because that is God's plan. ~ DickEvans.org

The Light Of Jesus

If we were in a dark room with a flashlight freshly filled with batteries, we would turn it on so we could see; so the darkness was replaced with light. We are that light to the dark world. We need to keep our batteries charged and understand that it is through our behavior that we switch that light on. ~ DickEvans.org

Bondservant

No longer will we allow ourselves to be slaves to the father of this world. No longer will we be pushed and pulled to this temptation or that one. We will instead be slaves to Christ, bondservants to Him and forever on our journey to eternity. ~ DickEvans.org

Resident Aliens

As we live our life knitted to Christ, non-believers see the changes in us and respect what they see. But if we live like we have always lived, what testimony does that deliver to them? Let our lives be testimony to His greatness as we fill the role of resident alien in our own cities. ~ DickEvans.org

Make Every Effort

God wants us to believe in Jesus and become born again, but then He expects us to make every effort to live that pure and blameless life as we allow Him to change us into His image. ~ DickEvans.org

His Work

Although our works are applauded by many, they may only be just that; our works. They give us stature and position here on earth, but they may not get us one step closer to our purpose in God. It is His work that counts. ~ DickEvans.org

Works

John 5:19 NLT
So Jesus explained, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does.

Nothing wrong with doing works for God. Just don’t let them take precedent over the works Holy Spirit has for you to do. Don’t let your works cause blinders that prevent you from seeing what He has called you to do.

Wait on God to bring you to the place He needs you to be. Trust Him to fulfill all His promises. Then watch what He does.

Don’t get ahead of God. He has a plan. Don’t be so anxious that your plan stops His. Allow Him to use you to fulfill His.

Remember we were saved through faith by grace and not by our works. The only work is to believe in Jesus.

WWJD or what would Jesus do is a cute saying. It has led many to march forward doing good things; doing what their mind or someone else thought God has for them to do.

But what did Jesus do? He did what He saw the Father doing. He was led by the Holy Spirit. And that is what we are to do. It is not about our understanding. No, it is about letting go and allowing Holy Spirit work through us. Letting Him change us from the inside out.

Thank you Jesus for saving me; for my being born again and securing the salvation of my spirit. Help me to let go of my mind, will, and emotions to allow Holy Spirit to change me and save my soul.

Believe it and receive it

Freedom

Jesus gave up His life for our freedom. He freed us from sin and gave us passage rights into eternity with Him. I can imagine how the first hand reports of the events at the Cross were passed from person to person. His story lives on in each and every believer that is being transformed into His image daily. ~ DickEvans.org

Can't Hide

God see us all, all the time. How often do we really think about that? How many things would we do differently if we really understood that statement? Nothing can hide from Him. Isn't it time we started to live like we know it? ~ DickEvans.org