 Hebrews 12:2 “We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting Him, He endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now He is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.”
In my youth I got into a lot of fights. And I thank God that I never bore the worst from any of those fights. But there is one fight, in particular, that would have changed my life for the worst if God had not stepped in. I wasn’t saved then. My flesh was a lot stronger than my spirit. But on this particular night, God took over. I was in a room full of other young men. And it was a night where my flesh was telling me I needed to show everyone around who the real man was in the room. But this night would end up different and my life would be changed. This night God’s power enhanced the strength of my Spirit. And the Holy Spirit walked me right out of that room. For years I often wondered what those other young men in the room felt when I made the decision to leave. I assumed their thoughts were that I was less of a man when I left. It’s funny, today I see those men, and now, like me, we are all grown up. We speak but the thought of their perspectives would always take me back to that night. Nothing should consume our thoughts that much. We need to ‘...keep our eyes on Jesus...’ The scripture says that He is the “...champion who initiates and perfects our faith...” Therefore, we need Him. When we look at the text and it says that Jesus endured the cross, disregarding what the cross represented at that time, it shows that Jesus stayed focused. He was sent on a mission by the Father. And it was the Father, Jesus was going to do right by, not man. I am thankful God stepped in and turned on His gift to me, (the Holy Spirit). From that the man I am and the life I have, was born. The family I have, the position I'm in as a minister, father and husband, all exist because God covered me that evening. It does not matter to me what others think about the decision I made that night. What matters is God being pleased with me. The Scripture continues that because of Jesus staying focused and disregarding man’s perspective of His actions, I should be the same as Jesus and disregard the perspectives of man and move in the direction God has already cleared for me. If you have worries and stress on you that involve what others think about you, leave all that at the cross. Seek first the kingdom of heaven, and everything else will fall into place. May God continue to guide, heal, and keep you safe in Jesus’ name. Amen
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 Galatians 3:26-29 “For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.” ~NLT
Those of us that played with ‘Lego’ blocks when we were little will appreciate this. Legos were so cool because they came in many different shapes and colors. What made them special to us as toys was that it didn’t matter the shape or size, you could connect the blocks to each other anyway you wanted. In fact, you could have a vision of what you were about to create in your head, but by the time you finished building your creation, it turned out to be so much better than you imagined. You realized that you took many pieces that were different and unique in their size and color, brought them together and made a product that was more incredible than you first imagined. That is the perspective God has with all His children. He created us to be different. Different shades of color and shapes. Different perspectives and ways of talking. He did that for a reason. The devil knows this difference, created by God, was meant for some enormously powerful reasons and outcomes. This is why the devil has trained us to dislike ‘differences’. The world we live in has trained us to be cautious of anyone different than ourselves, as well as situations that present the same types of differences. This attitude we have developed in our differences causes us to become weak in that power God gave us to excel together. God created the uniqueness of our differences so that we could come together and build something beautiful in Jesus’ name. Like Legos, our differences can and will go together in God’s will to create victory and maintain His established control over this world. “For we are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” Amen  Matthew 19:26 “Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with
God everything is possible.” In my youth, I remember playing basketball with my friends in the neighborhood. We would pick teams from the best player to the worst and play ball all day. We always had that one player though. This guy would keep the ball and try to score every shot. We used to call him the ‘ball hog’. It was our term of words when we yelled, “Stop hoggin’ the ball! Pass it to somebody that’s open!” But that player would continue to be the ‘superstar’ and eventually the team he played for would lose. Not just because of his selfishness, but also because that one player did not utilize his other teammates. This is what happens in real life. God created us to be team players. He created us to play well with others. But we like to take the situations we are in and ‘hog’ all decisions and actions for ourselves. We think we can win this game called ‘life’ without any help. Then that powerful player on the other team comes on the court. Let’s just call him, ‘Impossible’. And when we come up against him, we find that there is nothing we can do. Under our own power we begin to fold and eventually we want to give up this game because we realize there is nothing we can do. This is where we need to become that ‘team player’ we were designed to be. When we reach that point in our lives when we know there is nothing physically, we can do, we need to call in our best player to take over. When we call God into the game, the whole game changes. There is nothing the ‘impossible player’ can do against God. This is where God performs His miracles in our lives. This is where our testimonies of faith in God’s existence in our lives take root in our souls. Not only do others begin to see Him in us, but they also become aware and begin to feel His presence in them. Once we realize this as believers, that’s when we can observe our victorious, miracle story unfold. May God continue to bless and keep you under His protection of peace in Jesus’ name. Amen |
Authors Billy & YolandaThis is the place where we share our heart through God's Word in faith that will inspire and empower you to live in peace. Archives
February 2023
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