Testify

1 Chronicles 16:8 NLT

Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness. Let the whole world know what he has done.

Our kids are playing soccer and everyone can tell. We have a bumper sticker on all our vehicles that says so. And we wear adult versions of their soccer shirts. When they win, we tell everyone and post pictures and video all over our Facebook page. We let the whole world know what they have done.

Perhaps this is your story. "Went to a small group last night and God healed me. That pain I had been experiencing all week left just like that! Wow, God is good and I thank Him for those at the group that laid hands on me."

The next day you go to work and do what you always do eight to five. When you leave they know no more about what God had done then they did yesterday when you were in pain. You thanked God when the healing occurred and all the way home in the car. But when you got to work you went on with your day like nothing had happened at all.

I believe Father God wants us to let the whole world know what He did. What about this addition to your story? "I have to tell you what happened to me last evening. I was with a group of friends and complaining about the pain I had been having. They asked if they could lay hands on me and pray. When I said "Yes", they proceeded to pray, in the name of Jesus, and all my pain left immediately! I am still pain free. Isn't Jesus wonderful?"

Our story, the history of our life with Jesus, is His story. The way to tell others about Jesus is to tell them, to testify, about what Jesus has done for us. We tell others how our relationship with Him has changed our lives and ask them if they would like to get to know Him, too.

Testify. Share your story with someone today.

Words

Colossians 3:17 NLT

And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.

Have you ever found yourself with some people you have not seen in a long time and it is like you went back in time? Your mannerisms, your words, your thinking seems to just revert back to who you used to be.

In our conversations with others our words can easily drift back to our old worldly ways. After all we are not yet who we are becoming. We are a work in progress. But when we get that check in our Spirit, we need to stop and evaluate what is coming out of our mouth.

As I understand it, when you represent someone others see you as being that person. What you say and do reflects on the person you are representing. When you are working for a company and representing them in the field others decide to do or not do business with your company based on your words and your behavior.

We tell others we are followers of Jesus. They watch us closely and look to see that our actions line up with their understanding of how a Christian should act. And our words are included in what they watch.

May our words and our actions correctly represent Jesus. And in whatever we do, may we always give glory to God

Next

Colossians 2:6-7 NLT
And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.

We live in a country where many proclaim to be Christian. They claim to be a follower of Jesus. And yet, their lifestyle does not live up to the lifestyle we see coming off the pages of our Bibles.

Think about it. If your primary concern is for self and making yourself happy with the latest toys, are you a follower of Jesus or just a name dropper? In this world we get places often because of who we know, whose name we can drop at the right moment.

At the time of your acceptance of Jesus for who He is, you became a believer, but not necessarily a follower. That is the next step in your walk with Jesus, the creator of the universe. You accepted Him as your Lord and He saved you. You have your ticket to eternity with Him. But to live a life filled with the benefit of knowing Him, you have to take the next step.

Jumping right back into the lifestyle you had been living is not taking the next step; it is avoiding it. To be who you are in Christ you need to discover what that is and it is not about being pious. It is about walking with Jesus. He is in you and to discover what that means you have to dig into His Word, your Bible.

Read about the men and women that were in Christ and see what they had to say. As you take that next step and read, the words jump off the page and you begin to understand. You begin to walk with Jesus and everything changes. What was once so important to you in this life takes a backseat to your walk with Him.

Make that choice today. Take the next step and begin to allow your roots in Jesus to go down deeper and deeper each day.

Judging

Luke 6:37 NLT 

Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven.

As I remember when I was in school many years ago we would judge others by how good their grades were, what kind of car they drove, how good they where in sports, how they dressed, etc.

So when I first read this scripture I thought about looking at others and rating them in some way. Kind of like on a scale of 1 to 10. Perhaps about deciding if I wanted to get to know them.

It tells us we are not to judge others and it is easy to assume that has to do with judging their actions, their attitude, their lifestyle. But I do not believe that is what it is about at all. It is about us judging if they are worthy of becoming a believer or not.

No matter where we come from or what kind of lifestyle we lead, no one is worthy. If it were about our worthiness none would be saved. Jesus died for all of us to make us all worthy. He died for us to take on all our sins. He took on all judgement and gave us a clear path to eternity with Him.

The greater a person is in bondage the harder they fall down and praise the King. We are to look past what is in front of us, look past what we hear, and put on our Jesus glasses so we see them as He sees them. Then we tell them how much Jesus loves them.

It is not about being worthy. It is about believing in He who died for us. 

Desires

Proverbs 3:5-6 KJV

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

We grow up learning to set goals for the future, for how we are going to earn a living and live our life. Questions we ask ourselves may include things like what do we want to do when we grow up, what college are we planning for, who are we going to marry and spend our life with, how many children are we going to have, and more.

Where do our answers come from? They come from our parents, our friends, our teachers. They come from our own dreams and desires, perhaps even birthed from a movie we watched, a book we read, or a person whose life and vocation we look up to.

In the end our desires are of this world and of our own imagination. And yet God's word tells us that we are not to lean to our own understanding, but to rely on Him through Holy Spirit to point us in the direction He has for us to take.

Often God's path for us is not the same as our own dreams or desires. As mentioned above, they can be motivated by the circumstances around us and driven by our own understating and even by the desires of those close to us.

We must lean on God and look to where He is pointing us. I am always praying for HIm to make a way for HIS desires to come through me. And for me to recognize them.

Free

Luke 4:18 NLT
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free.

That old saying "The devil made me do it" tells us that all our sinful actions are the result of satan. Well the original sin we were born into this world with may be in us us, but James 1:14 tells us that temptation comes from our own desires. It is our thinking which has been fueled by our past experiences that cause most of the trouble in our lives.

What we need is Jesus first. Then we need new experiences to overshadow those old ones. We need to let Him bring us to new places in this life, to new relationships, and to new ways to practice His presence. With our eyes set on Him, we have someone to help us at every choice point in our life.

The Lord sets us free from the bondage of our own mind. We are free to let Him take over. But we have to let ourselves be free. We have to allow Him to control our thinking instead of relying on all we know--all we have researched and all we have experienced in this earthy life. We have to let him take over and then we will truly be set free. Free to be all he created us to be.

Giving

2 Corinthians 9:7 NLT
You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure. "For God loves a person who gives cheerfully."

Most believers understand that giving is to be from the heart and not from a preprogrammed motive. We may go somewhere and have a number in mind, even have it in our pocket ready to give. Holy Spirit brings another number to mind and we fight the thought. We already made that decision we think. If we give out of that early decision, we are giving out of our flesh and our logical mind. If we give in to the Holy Spirit, we are giving out of our heart. Praise God.

Then we see a homeless person and think things like: "I bet he will just buy a bottle of wine or cigarettes or worse." "Let me buy him lunch and then I will know what the money is going for." Giving at all to that homeless person is an act of kindness, but needing to know where the money goes is earthly and not of the heart. Serving others does not give us the right to how decide how others are to use what we give them. As we allow Him, Holy Spirit will show us the who and the how much. Then it is for us to obey.

All of it belongs to God in the first place. Who are we to decide what happens with His money? Even in our giving to the church we attend, we should not be looking to see how they spend our money. It is not ours to begin with. We give what Holy Spirit tells us to give and that is that. The responsibility for what it is used for is now on the church, not us. And once give we do not get to take it back. That would be asking God for a refund.

Thank you Father for allowing me to have an abundance to give to others. Thank you for allowing me and showing me how to be a blessing to them and not hoarding it for my selfish desires. In Jesus name, I pray.