Acts 5:29 NASB

But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.”

Personal Challenge…

And who is it that I really obey? Is it God and His commandments, or is it man and his rules and expectations? Or worse yet…it is me and what I want to do? When faced with punishment and possibly even immediate death, the apostles of old stood firm on their commitment to obey God. Many of our church fathers and mothers through the history of the church have taken this stand and been martyred for their commitment to God and His Son Jesus. God does not expect any less from me.

Luke 11:23 NLT

Anyone who isn’t helping me opposes me, and anyone who isn’t working with me is actually working against me.

Personal Challenge…

I know that I must always be checking my actions; the words that come out of my mouth, the expressions on my face, everything that I do, to determine if I am actually helping the cause of Christ or opposing it. How many times have I allowed my personal agenda to override His agenda, His plan, His love for those around me? Sobering thoughts.

Micah 7:18 NASB

Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity And passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in unchanging love.

Encouraging Words…
How awesome it is to go through life knowing, without a shadow of a doubt, that our God, the Creator of the Universe, delights in unchanging love for His possession…you and me!

Proverbs 27:17 NLT

Psalm 46:1 NLT
God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.

Encouraging Words…

What more can be said than this? He is always there…it us usually me that is absent from His presence not the other way around.

1 John 3:16 NIV

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

Personal Challenge…

What does it mean to lay down my life for another? For Jesus it meant giving up His place in the heavenly realms and coming to earth to be born in a stable in an oppressive time and place. For Him it was to live an incarnate life of poverty and hard work so that He could be with the very people that He wanted to rescue from death. For Him it was to be betrayed, ridiculed, spit on, beaten and crucified so that the bondage of death would be broken for eternity. For Him it was to return back to His followers who abandoned Him after He was resurrected so that He could love, comfort and teach them. Should laying down my life for a brother be any less for me…if I claim to be His child?

Colossians 2:6-7 NASB

Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.

Personal Challenge…

“So walk in Him…” Another passage that is a reminder that our relationship with Christ, our salvation in Christ, is not a passive, one-time event, but an ongoing, active response to God reaching into our lives and saving us from the grip of death. We must surround ourselves with opportunities to be constantly reminded of God’s work in our lives, whether it be worship that is steeped in His calling to us to follow and obey Him, or time in His scripture and other teachings that feed our understanding of Him, or relationships within His community that revolve around Him, or the practices of traditions that have withstood the tests of time. Allow Him to continue to firmly root you and build you up in Him so that your faith can be established in Him.

Luke 11:9-10 NLT

“And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will be given what you ask for. Keep on looking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And the door is opened to everyone who knocks.

Command with a Promise…

The life of a believer is not a passive life, but an active life. We are told to ask, look, and knock. This is an active, ongoing life of pursuing Christ and what He has in store for us. If we follow these commands He promises that He will give us what we ask for, that we will find what we are looking for, and that the doors will be opened. This is not some kind of prosperity gospel, because if we are truly pursuing Christ then the things that we are asking for, the things that we are looking for, and the doors that we are knocking on will be those things that God desires for us.

Joel 2:12-13 NASB

“Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “Return to Me with all your heart, And with fasting, weeping and mourning; And rend your heart and not your garments.” Now return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness And relenting of evil.

Personal Challenge…

God wants our hearts, but He also wants us to fast and weep and mourn for Him, for His presence, for His return. He wants to pour out His compassion and lovingkindness upon His children. I find that I must ask myself, “Has my heart changed with the recent celebration of Christ’s life, death, burial and resurrection, or has this event just passed like one more holiday?”

Proverbs 23:18 NIV

There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.

Encouraging Words…
Once again it appears that God is taking us down a new path, a path that can be both challenging and rewarding at the same time. It is times like these that I find myself reviewing those verses that offer hope and promise. Our God is the God of the past, the present, and the future. He is here with us as we begin this journey just as He is already at the destination of this journey waiting to receive us. I am also at a place now where I am being blessed by prayers and guidance of the fathers of our faith that have gone before us…often dealing with their own challenging and rewarding journeys. We are not alone…Praise God!!!