Matthew 6:33

Matthew 6:33

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness;  

and all these things shall be added unto you."

   

      O.k, it's been quite a while since there has been a new post on this blog. I'll save you the reasoning and just get into it. This verse continues to pop up in my daily existence. SO many times I personally have found myself asking the Lord, " where am I supposed to be and what am I supposed to do while here? " That's a pretty tall order if posed to any number of pastors, teachers, etc. There is a myriad of answers that would probably come up. The fact remains though, that Jesus himself answered this over 2000 years ago. Seek first the kingdom of God. The verse has what I see as a cause and effect for out lives. The first half states seek. The second half states added. Whoa wait a minute Bob. Are you saying that if I seek God I will get all the stuff I want? That sounds like a pretty sweet deal. Almost like God is my personal genie in a bottle. No, that is not what I or scripture am saying. The backdrop to the verse starts from around verse 25 on. Jesus was telling them about provisions and not worrying about them or where they will come from. Food, clothing, etc. He was trying to impart a spiritual truth into their lives so that their perspective and worldview, would line up with God's will for their lives. You see, when we seek Him first, then we can get to know Him. When we know Him, we will know that He is good, loving and kind and want's the best for us. It does not mean that life will be, as my pastor said yesterday, peaches and cream. Yeah there will be hard days. There will also be easy days. There will be everything in between. The promise though is this, when we are focused on Him as our number one priority in life, the rest will fall into place. Please don't misunderstand me. We here in America have it pretty good as believers for the time being. Persecution is very minimal, and last time I checked, none of us have been beaten, thrown in jail, or killed for our faith. There are believers that happens to on a daily basis. So the next logical question is? If they were seeking Him first, why does this happen to certain believers? God has His perfect plan for everyone's life and I do not know the answer. I do know this though, Jesus told us in John 15:18-19, " If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.  If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." The world on the whole is against Jesus. Therefore, they will come against us. 
      God has granted us an amazing amount of protection in this country. Be thankful for it. If we seek Him, He will give us what we need, not what we want. When our lives are in check with Him, what we want, WILL be what we need, from Him. I may not be perfect, and may make plenty of mistakes. I do know this though, as the days move along, quite quickly I might add, I am desiring to seek Him now more than ever. The only true source of peace in this world comes from him. Be blessed this week. Hopefully this will continue every Monday from here on out. 
                                                              Sincerely Bob.

Psalm 145:3

"Great is the Lord and greatly to be
praised; and His greatness is
unsearchable."

Man I have to tell ya, this speaks such volumes to me. Today was a great day worshiping the Lord in service. I played both services and the songs just touched me in such a way, that I was content. More so, I was overwhelmed by my sinful nature that on a daily basis, does some of the most stupid things. It's funny how God speaks to individuals when they are off track somewhat. He is gentle and loving to woo you back to His presence. That's one of the many attributes of God that I love. He is perfect, loving, and kind. This verse speaks of His greatness. Truly He is. Just look around. The creation, the stars in the sky, the amazing landscape of the ocean. Yes, He is unsearchable in His greatness. So much is going on daily, I forget this an awful lot. To my shame. The breath I have, the sight and hearing I take for granted, all worthy to praise God for. The trials that come my way, the wonderful days I have had, all worthy to praise Him for. The times of desperation, triumph, yep you guessed it, worthy to praise Him for. Sin is such an ugly thing. When we fall into it, it grabs us and lies to us about how fun it is. Eventually it leaves us empty. Ultimately it robs our joy from us and we do not praise Him. O that I would wake in the morning and have praise on my lips. That is what I long for. This way my day will start off correctly, and hopefully I will continue down that path for the remainder of it. Usually the detour shows up much to early and off the road I go. Ugh! The point I am trying to make in this devotion is that, God is truly worthy as the Psalmist says, and sometimes we just need to take a step back and realize that. Gets our perspective back in focus. That's all I really have for this week. To be honest, it's enough to get us thinking and doing. Have a blessed week.

Bob.

Genesis 2:17

" But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
thou shall not eat of it: for in the day that thou
eastest therof thou shalt surely die."

Have you ever truly thought this verse through? The other day this came to me as I was listening to a pastor teach on the radio. Before Adam and Eve ate, death did not exist. Nothing ever died. That is mind blowing if you think about it. So the logical question is, what did Adam think to himself when he heard this? The word for die, mut, translates to lose ones life. What did that mean to Adam? I am not sure and the bible does not say. I would guess that if God said it to him, he must have realized it wasn't something God wanted him to do. Was it evil? Well Adam did not have that knowledge at that time. All he knew was God said not to do it. So what did it really mean though, now that we have the rest of the story since? It was 2 part. First, spiritually Adam died. He forfeited his intimate, all access relationship with God the day he ate. Secondly, he started to die physically. From the moment he ate, his mind was opened to what had just happened and the regret for it must have been immeasurable. Since then we have spiraled downwards in history farther away from God. Until Jesus Christ entered into the picture. He made the way back for us. He gave us intimacy back with the father. You see, that is what sin does. It removes us from that place of peace and stillness with God. Like Adam was removed from the garden, we are removed from the presence of God when we are willfully sinning. Oh He is still there, we just can't have fellowship with him while in sin. That's where Jesus steps in. He is our payment for sin. Once we accept Him as our Lord and savior, we now have a way to access the father. The fact is, we all sin. It's our nature. Once we are in Christ though, we have a new nature. Then the war begins. Our flesh wrestles against our spirit for dominion over us. So what is the whole point of this your probably asking? Well it's this. Without Christ, we are dead. Spiritually and eventually physically. With Christ, we are now alive. Yes we will die physically one day, unless He comes back for us soon, but we will live again in eternity in true life. If you are not in Christ and don't know Him, I am sorry to say, your destiny lies in a very hot place of torment forever. It's not what he want's for us, but it's the penalty for a life of sin apart from Jesus. The good news is though, all one has to do is believe in Him who came to take away the sins of the world. Then He will breath new life into you and your spirit will come alive. I can attest, it truly is being alive. Is it easy? No way, but like my pastor said today, it's worth it. The end prize of heaven and eternity with God not separated from God. Think about it this week. Remember, the death rate is still 1 per person. 10 out of 10 people die. It's where your going because of who you know that will matter in the end. Be blessed this week.

Bob

Matthew 24:42

"Watch therefore: for ye know not
what hour your lord doth come."

Man, so much is going on in the world now, it's hard to even understand what might be next. A lot of people are living one day to the next like any other day. Others are worried what might happen financially or worse, in the war on terror. Facts are facts. The world is winding down and something is coming. I don't think any logical person could argue the world has gotten better over the last 50 years. I mean, violence of all types, morale decay, world stability faltering. It all has gotten worse. Some may argue we have better technology and more options now than ever. I say yes, but that means more options for evil doing as well. Now please don't get me wrong here. I am not a pessimist. I am just stating the facts about the world we live in. The good news is, it's all leading up to something big. That big thing is the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. That in and of itself should set our hearts at ease. This whole thing we call life, is but a spec in the grand scheme of things. So here in this weeks verse, Jesus himself was telling his disciples, watch. The word actually means to be vigilant. Here is the Websters definition of it, alertly watchful especially to avoid danger. Avoiding danger. That really does say it all in a nut shell. For those who are Christ's it's a non issue. For those who are not and are left behind at the rapture of the church, which is before his return, it's real bad news.You see, for God to be just, He has to eventually Judge the earth. He can't just allow it to continue on forever. The outcome would be shear madness. He sent His son to make a way back to Him, but after that event, the clock stated ticking. It's all in the prophetic calendar. Israel becoming a nation again in 1948 pretty much was the last thing really on the timetable. He could rapture the church, the 7 year tribulation would then commence at some point after that, and then His return would be here. God did not tell us the hour or the day. The bible is clear about that. So please don't think any of these cooks out there predicting the day are correct. What He did say though was to watch. In other places He said, when you see these things. The whole first part of this chapter in Matthew 24, Jesus is telling them about the end times. It's a good read. It really nails the times we are living in pretty well. So the question is, why did He say watch? I believe it is so we have the correct perspective on life. Our focus won't be on temporal things, but on things of eternity. I have heard people say, Christians are so heavenly minded, they are no earthly good. I have also heard a pastor say, you can be no earthly good until you are heavenly minded. Thanks pastor Jon Courson. It's really true though. These are the last days. How long will they last is unclear, but the fact is we need to be on track and walking correctly. One of my favorite songs is by Reverend James Cleveland. "Get right church and lets go home." That truly is my deepest desire. Going home to be with my Lord. No more pain, sorrow, stress, suffering. It will all be gone and the light of Christ will illuminate our lives for eternity. Who wouldn't want that? AM I perfect? No way. I am forgiven though and made perfect through Christ's shed blood. Thank you Jesus. So be encouraged this week. He could return at any moment, are you ready?

Bob.

Genesis 19:26

"But his wife looked back from behind
him, and she became a pillar of salt."

I've heard it said many times by various pastors. The Christian life is about always moving forward. Paul talked about it in his epistle to the Corinthians chapter 9 and Philippians chapter 3. He compares it to running a race in 1 Corinthians and pressing toward in Philippians. In each case it is moving forward to an expected end. So what does that have to do with the verse this week? A lot. You see, God rescued Lot and his family out of Sodom before He executed judgement on that wicked city. Just like He did for us who are born again bible believing Christians. What this verse has to do with what Paul talks about is this. Lot's wife, it says, looked back. So what you might say. Maybe she just wanted to see what was happening. Not so. If you study like you should when reading your bible, the word used there is nabat. It means to look after with longing. She disobeyed a direct command from the Lord in Verse 17. He told them to not look back. The same word used with the same implication. Lot's wife was so steeped in that world she was in, that she could not even hear a direct command from the Lord. Why did God turn her into a pillar of salt? I really don't know. God does and it serves as the example for us in our life. Will God turn us into a pillar of salt? Probably not, but it is a great picture of her life coming to an end spiritually. That's the same thing that can happen to us. Now to be honest, do we look back at our life and long after certain things? I know I do at times and I have to catch myself and say, " what am I doing!". The bible is clear, when we get saved and plugged into Christ, we come alive spiritually and are set apart. That's what the word Holy means. Set apart. Are we to be like the world? No, we are to be in the world but not of it. That's the whole point of what I was comparing at the beginning of this devotion. We are to move forward as Paul says. When we are not moving forward we are stationary for a time I believe but inevitably we begin to move back. Living a life in Christ, I have found it is an ever learning experience. When we learn we can move forward with understanding. It's like this. I am an automotive technician. If I stayed just changing oil like when I started out, I would never know any more or be able to do other things besides change oil. I would be stuck in that position forever. In fact, I would be moving backwards every year that past not learning new things to help me repair cars. It would be harder and harder for me to move forward because the goal would be farther away due to wasted time. It's like that in every aspect of life. In a relationship between a man and a woman, if each one or the other lives in the past always bringing up the wrongs of the other, they never move forward. If a business never learns from it's mistakes, makes changes and moves forward, it will eventually crumble. So my question to you is this, Christian. Are you, me, looking back and longing for the things we were rescued from or are we moving forward? Deep question, only God and the individual knows. Be encouraged this week to keep running the race and not looking back. Yes, it can be hard, but we have Jesus Christ leading and guiding us. Be blessed.

Bob.

1 Peter 1:16

"Because it is written, Be ye
holy, for I am holy."

What does it mean to be holy? One dictionary definition says, "specially recognized as or declared sacred by religious use or authority; consecrated." Another states, "dedicated or devoted to the service of God, the church, or religion." Pretty good descriptions. The best I ever heard it defined is, set apart. I like that. God himself is truly holy. He is our example of what we should seek after. Do I mean being high and lofty above all else? Of course not. Holy or holiness, is taking on the character and attributes of God in our own life. So the logical question is, what is God like. That's a pretty big answer. The bible describes Him in so many ways, I would have to type for days. I will just give a few examples. God loves unconditionally. God is fair, righteous, true, firm, loving, compassionate, also having correct judgment on any issue. He's everything we are not, but should desire to be. Most people believe that being holy is some kind of ceremonial thing with pomp and circumstance. Not so. We are to be holy on a daily basis, and can I tell you, that is a tall order. Once we are in Christ, our natural desire should want to be like the one who saved us! Once we start to know Him in an intimate way and understand who He truly is, we can't help but want to be like that. Even Paul the greatest apostle who ever lived struggled with this. "For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate." Romans 7:15 New American standard. Notice Paul says, at the end, what I would like to do. His desire was to be holy and pleasing to God. Our Sin nature, the flesh , the devil, it all gets in the way at times. That's why we have the Holy spirit to help us daily. The bible describes Him as a helper. A powerful one at that. Recently, God revealed to me that the past is past, leave it there and keep moving forward. I believe that as we grow closer to Him, we will become more like him. The things that draw us away, will just fade. Once we are in Christ, we are holy, set apart. We are different than what we used to be and what most of the world is like. This week, I would ask that you seek Him with all your heart and desire an intimate relationship with Him. In this dark and dying world, only one thing can truly satisfy, that is Jesus!!!! Be blessed


Bob.

Romans 5:8

"But God commendeth his love towards us,
in that, while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us."

Wow! This verse has been on my heart as of late. It truly speaks volumes. You see, all of humanity has one thing in common. We were all born sinners. We were all born apart from God. That's the whole reason Christ came and died on the cross for us. To pay once and for all the final ransom for sin, and to make a way for us to have access to the Father again. Yet, while we were in that state, God and His love was there for us waiting to grab a hold. In all our wretchedness apart from Christ, He loved us. The bible says that we love Him because He first loved us. 1 John 4:19. The logical question though is, why? That is one of the hardest questions I have had to wrestle with as a Christian. You see, I look at myself and all my shortcomings and think, " God could never love me, I keep messing up all the time." That is so opposite of what the bible teaches! When God looks at us after we accept Jesus as our personal savior, He see's perfection. We received the imputed righteousness of Christ upon that day we were saved. Now, God see's the finished product. We don't because we are still here on this earth. Once we realize that? FREEDOM! Freedom from the bondage of a work based relationship with God. We can't work our way into heaven or God's acceptance. It's all based on the finished work of Jesus Christ. I know who I am. I know I am a sinner saved by grace. Grace is what I/we survive on now. If we had to survive on what we've done day to day, we wouldn't make it out the door to work. God knew who I was before I accepted Him. He knows who you were to. He knows the countless thousands out there as well who still need to accept Him. Yet, because He loved and still loves us, He has an outstretched hand still saying, feel the imprint of the nail, touch the scar. It's real, I did this for you because I am madly in love with you. Knowing what I know now after all these years, I don't see how any rational person who does a real true study of God's word and who He is, could reject Him. It's Love man. Real Love. Unconditional, unmerited, Love. The kind we all crave but, don't understand or know how to make it real in our lives. God does, and want's to show anyone and everyone who comes to Him. That's the God I serve. If you don't know Him, please, seek Him and make the decision for yourself. He loved you so much, He died for you. He made a way.

Be blessed. Bob