Meditation: February 12

“Don’t run roughshod over the concerns of your brothers and sisters. Their concerns are God’s concerns, and he will take care of them. We’ve warned you about this before. (7) God hasn’t invited us into a disorderly, unkempt life but into something holy and beautiful — as beautiful on the inside as the outside.” 1 Thessalonians 4:6-7 (MSG)

The care and concern we share with the brethren reflects the character of Christ that we possess. We share with them the love so richly bestowed upon us that is now demonstrated through us as an extension of God’s love. Our love must be intentional. Unless we are deliberate in our lifestyles to share the life of Jesus, the message would be shrouded by our careless living. We have been transformed into a vessel of honor. The riches of His grace reside within us as a priceless treasure. What more could we ever want other than a complete and glorious expression of life brought forth through us by way of His Spirit? Therefore we live for Him and He lives through us touching and changing all things by His renewing power. Praise God for the beauty of holiness!

Meditation: January 31

“Then He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach.” Mark 3:14

The series of events are in sequential order. First, they were appointed that they might be with Him; then they were sent out to preach. If they had not come to Him when He called them to be with Him, they would not be in position to be sent out. They learned from Him how to live and what to preach by being with Him. It is not enough to merely hear about Him from a book or word of mouth, the experience must be personal. We are called to an intimate relationship with Him. His life is an open book to those who will to know Him, but to the casual inquirer, He is misunderstood and often misaligned. They accuse Him of things that is not a part of His character because they only know Him from a distance. John, the beloved disciple, laid His head upon His breast; Peter, the Zealot, stepped out of the boat in order to join in on what Christ was experiencing while walking on the water. Intimacy includes both the emotional and experiential connection. Then we are sent out as His representative so that His Presence is wherever we may go.

Meditation: January 30

”Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.” 1 Timothy 4:12

Youthful lusts do not automatically translate into wantonness. There are temptations that come in our youth to channel our energies in the direction of our unchecked passions. It takes forethought to consider the outcome of decisions that so many peers make. The admonition is to think ahead and consider what your life would be like in the future. Decisions now have far reaching consequences later. The wise and mature, as result of years of trial and error, have much to teach the young and immature. They have walked the path that the young are yet considering. Unfortunately, we only have one life to live. If it were possible, the warnings to the young would be their precautionary actions now. Since this is impossible, they can only speak wise words borne from experience and observation. Listen to wise and godly advice. It will spare you from many failures and heartache as result of snares set by the enemy.

Meditation: January 19

“Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?” Jeremiah 32:27

Impossibilities are not a part of the language of God. The finite mind stretches to its limits in understanding as he strains to his limits in power. For God made man as much as He has made all things. He has full knowledge of how they function and their purpose for He is the Lord, that is His name. Therefore, they were created to bring Him pleasure and give Him glory. The flesh puts forth its best effort to rule. Even though one’s flesh may feel its liberty to rule over another’s flesh, the Lord is the God over all flesh. Every being and every thing on the face of the earth is under His jurisdictional rule. Men usually equate both failures and successes on the basis of their own experiences. They cannot see nor understand that God has no limits. He reveals Himself to them and asks them a rhetorical question. He addresses them as one who would otherwise think of Him as a man would think of another man. “Is anything too hard for Me?” Only those who have come to know Him intimately can rightly respond to His question. They have learned of their own limits and no longer attempt to live their lives without Him. When they face both the simple and the most profound of circumstances, they have learned to fully trust and depend upon the Lord to see them through.

Meditation: January 14

“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.” Galatians 6:9-10

The act that becomes a habit, the habit that equates into a lifestyle of doing good, is the life we have been called to live. We enter into the life and experience of Christ and grow into giving a fuller expression of Christ. It has to do with a new nature of the believer. He focuses his attention on the Lord, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit will compel him to do things that are pleasing to the Father. It is easy to begin to feel used and not appreciated by the recipients of your benevolence. There are even times when it may even feel that all of your efforts are in vain, but God has promised benefits to those who would remain faithful. You will first reap the reward of being like Jesus when we see Him as He is, then we will be enabled to enjoy all that God offers throughout eternity. We are being changed to appreciate heavenly things and heaven’s order on the earth so that we are made fit to love God and to enjoy Him forever.

Meditation: January 11

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free.” Galatians 5:1

The most secure place is the position of true freedom. Permission is granted to us by our Sovereign Authority to fully participate in a work that extends beyond the passions that once ruled over us. We once thought of freedom as being able to follow the dictates of our hearts. Our old selves willfully responded, as it had been conditioned, to the stimuli of influences surrounding us. Not having the ability to see beyond this, we did not understand that an offering was extended that we might be liberated from the confinement of a world that offered nothing beyond itself. The liberty in which we now stand is an inner freedom that makes us aware of things that exist beyond the confinements of a shrinking worldly existence. As our external life gives signs to decay and decline, the inner man is being renewed for its expression of eternal life. We are free to live forever the life that we now have come to experience in time.

Meditation: December 23

“For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” John 18:37

Jesus gave us a clear picture of the Nativity. There is a purpose for every birth. But His birth was not like any other. He knew why He was born and why and when He was to die. Many live and die never knowing why they were permitted to occupy a particular space in a particular period of time. The Nativity has to do with the place, conditions, and the circumstances of the birth of Jesus. “For this cause…” A cause that would affect the whole of humanity would come to light as the result of a child that was born. He was the gift given to us by God to save the world from the consequences of sin which was resident within all. His life was the resounding amen to the Truth of God. Christmas is about mankind coming into agreement with God. As Jesus bore witness to the truth, we are to be made witnesses of Jesus Christ. The world will know the reality of Christ through those us who hear and believe on the One who was born to live for us and to die for us. 

Meditation: December 9

“Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.”  Psalm 50:23

Our private world is to be set in order by us. We must begin and end our day with both praise and thanksgiving. God allows us to live in a world of chaos but at the same time, He allows us to possess His peace. The peace that we experience is not as the world would know. It is a peace that is deep within the soul. As we present to the Lord an offering of praise, we are keeping Him in constant view. The circumstances are not greater than our God. Our faith in Him is strengthened because Jesus is both the Author and the Finisher of our faith. To glorify the Lord is to give Him credit for all that He has already done and to anticipate what He is about to do. Allow Him to be the thermostat to which the whole of your life is set. Then His Divine guidance and strength will be yours in order to you through.

Meditation: November 4

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20

This was not the initial phase of Paul’s life after meeting Jesus. After having been introduced, he was left with an indelible impression upon his soul. His whole life was spent in an attempt to fully embrace what he both saw and experienced in meeting such a man. He was intrigued by the phenomena of God in the flesh; a glimpse of the glory state of his own soul trusting that the time would come when the Christ that he saw from a distance would totally possess him. It is Christ in us that give us the hope of glory. All other expressions of life would be so futile in their pursuits after such an encounter because they become mere shadows since the realness of Christ has become so real to us. This is the place the Lord intends to deliver each of us to. Once we are there, a passion to shed all that would compete with the life in the Spirit is willingly abandoned. No longer is it the pangs of death, but rather the pleasures of willful obedience that is anticipated. A new life springs forth in the place of where the old life once occupied. Only when the old has passed will the new be realized. It is faith in the Son of God, our having that quality of faith in Him and what He has done because He of loves us that keeps us connected. Then we can glorify the Lord in our flesh through the new life now lived.

Meditation: November 2

“But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.” Philippians 3:7

What a resolve! What a tremendous position one is placed in when his pursuit for Christ outweighs all the accolades of his past. He is then privileged to know Christ in a way in which he has never known Him before! Whatever value we place on any effort or accomplishment diminishes our view of Christ. It becomes difficult to see Him in the fullness of His glory when we have become so large in our own eyes and feel so important in comparison to the smallness of others who are around. We must decrease if He is ever to increase. When we have gained Christ, He is then given full permission to be Himself in us. We have the confidence that we are known by Him and will be with Him forever. If we are to be with Him forever, that implies we will live forever as He lives. To surrender what we currently have is a small thing in comparison to all we will gain as we count all other things as loss. They have no eternal value therefore they should not hold the most prominent place within our hearts. To know Him is to love Him exclusively. And with His love we are empowered to love others. We have so much to gain and so little to sacrifice when we give our all to Him.