Smiling with God...

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.   “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9 This is an amazing verse from the Lord.   He basically lays it out and says that we cannot comprehend how awesome His ways are.   We do not have the capability to even think along the same lines as He can.   Here God puts His stamp down.   HE IS GOD.   We cannot understand Him, we cannot comprehend how great and awesome He is.   We cannot see the world like how He can; we cannot plan and think it all out.   He truly has the whole world in His hand. As I read this verse, am just soaking in how big God really is.   It forces me to look at me and say, I am puny.   I am nothing compared to God.   I am but a speck, a small piece of dust as compared to the greatness of God.   I am truly humbled by what I am ...

Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. -2 Peter 1:10 I know Peter isn’t talking about salvation, but what he is talking about is that since we are called by Christ, let us work hard to make sure that we are certain of it. Our life is our response to Jesus. Our response to His sacrifice for us is the way we live our lives. We must ask the question; “How much has Jesus’ sacrifice changed us?” Much of the time our lives are a pale reflection of his sacrifice and we do not embrace living in the power of Him. Sometimes we have to get to the very raw center of the sacrifice that Jesus did. His sacrifice should move us, our salvation did not come cheep. Our life needs to be a little more reflective of his sacrifice for us. So what can I do? Is there a check off list? I know what I can do; it ...

Like newborn babies, crave spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation. -1 Peter 2:2 Crave; it means to ask for earnestly, to want greatly, to have an inner desire for something. Cravings, most of the time, is viewed in a very negative light. However, in this case, cravings are good. The reason for it being good is that to crave spiritual milk is essential for Christian growth. Crave spiritual milk, that is what Peter is saying here. Why? It is a necessary stepping stone to growing in Christ. To grow in Christ you need to have that inner most desire to have nothing more than to know Him better. That should be our core desire of our heart. Deep within the heart there needs to be a burning desire to get to know God more and more. Though this message appears to be for young Christians, it does not negate that this should be for every Christian. Crave Jesus. I got up this morning and I just felt an uneasiness in me. It is hard to describe, but I felt as if so...

When you ask, you do not receive; because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. -James 4:3 Is it true? Do we sometimes ask things from God for the wrong reason? However, when you think about it, often the only time we really pray to God is during crisis. We ask God to provide, basically to make our life easier. James here just tells it exactly how he sees it. James implies that wrong motives do not work with God. God only desires that your motives are not selfish or craving after something God gives your neighbors. Knowing that God knows your motives, it should be enough for us to keep our cravings in check. However, it does not and the cycle continues. James again here is just straight out. Be honest with yourself and see that wrong motives do make a difference. I look back on my life and see that I also am not immune to this. I am not going to lie, I prayed, sometimes all night, and at the end of the prayer session I realize that it w...

But each one is tempted, by his own evil desire; he is dragged away and enticed.   –James 1:14 I love it how blunt James is.   James just tells it how it is.   Here in this opening chapter James goes straight to several points.   This point he tells how evil we are.   We humans are great at making idols of anything.   We can make the most innocent thing to an idol.   The warning James give is that we humans are inherently evil.   We tend to slight to the most malicious things possible.   We often will do evil if we can get away with it.   Human nature is not aligned to do the right thing.   We are often tempted not by outside forces but the desires of our own heart, which makes us idolaters.   We love ourselves far beyond anything else.   We often put ourselves before God.   Though we may profess to love Him, James states that our actions speak louder than our words.    Later on this chapter James w...

These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect. -Hebrews 11:39-40 Faith. It’s such a simple word, but the implications behind it is far more reaching they we will ever know. When I read this passage I am always blown away by the power of faith. However, faith comes at a price. With faith there is trust and suffering. Trust in God is absolutely necessary with faith. Trusting in God’s plans no matter how crazy it seems. The example the writer gives is of Rahab who trusted that the Israelites will spare her family from invasion, which was a leap of faith and trust. When you follow God many others around you may not see it as following God. The writer here mentions Noah and the ark. Imagine building an ark in the middle of land? Yes it is crazy. The writer here makes no mistake on what he says that faith is “being sure of what we hope for a...

You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. -Hebrews 10:36 The writer of Hebrews just wrote on this chapter on how Christ sacrifice was once and for all. He also a warns that if we take Christ’s sacrifice and continue to deliberately live as a sinner then we are in for a fearful judgment. But he also talks about how the audience addressed in Hebrews is great when persecution came. They stood their ground and held firm to their faith. The writer is asking here is to persevere. The audience is being asked to keep your faith in God no matter what happens. For the time will be coming where it will get tougher. But the author asks for them to focus in the will of God for there is a reward that is coming. The older I get, I am find out more adults suffer from attention deficit disorder. Not in a medical sense, but we are getting more and more distracted by so many things. Some blame the Internet; some blame the stressful t...