Tag Archives: the victorious christian life

He Likes To Look Out The Windows

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I took the following from the social media page of Reinhard Bonnke:

“Years ago my music-minister (Adam Mtsweni) and I were shopping for a new keyboard. It was at noon that we entered a big music-shop in Johannesburg/South Africa. There was a salesman, but he took no notice of us and Adam and I tried out all the keyboards. Suddenly the salesman appeared. He seemed to be in a different mood, something like in a state of shock and said to me “Sir, I can see Jesus in your eyes!” What? The Holy Spirit had entered that shop. We forgot all about the keyboard and had a revival instead. But when I was walking back to my car I kept saying “Lord, I will never understand it. How can a total stranger walk up to me and say ‘Sir, I can see Jesus in your eyes’?”. Suddenly the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said “No problem! Jesus lives in your heart and sometimes HE LIKES TO LOOK OUT OF THE WINDOWS.” I laughed and cried. What glorious truth. I got the point! Years later I met the wife of the salesman who told me, that her husband had followed Jesus for the rest of his life – and went to be with the Lord. I trust that this little testimony blesses you. REINHARD BONNKE.”

What do people see when they look at you and I?  I want them to see Jesus Christ and no other.  There is no room in this world for me.  None what so ever!  As we are living in the last days it is high time for people to see Jesus Christ in everyone of His children.  If they are not seeing you then we are derelict in duty.

Father, please let a lost and dying world see you in me.  Colossians 1:27, “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:”  If a lost and dying world are going to come to put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ then you and I are going to have to straighten up and live before them an example of Jesus Christ that is believable.

So, how are you doing?

The End Zone

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I was reading an online article by Dr. Charles Stanley.  It can be found here.  In his article he shared that a youth leader he had would take a paper that looked like a football field.  The end zone was where God was.  Each student was asked to put a mark at the point of the field that reflected their closeness to God.  In other words, if they felt close they might mark the one yard line.  If they felt very far away they might mark the other end zone.

This brought back a memory from the movie “Facing The Giants”.  In this scene David Childers was to kick a field goal that was seemingly too far.  He could not find his father on the sideline because he had relocated to the end of the field behind the fence directly behind the goal post.  He stood there with his hands raised to signal a field goal.  David made the kick.

Life is a battle much like a football game.  We face giants all over the place.  We run and run and sometimes we get knocked backwards for a seeming loss.  Winners get back up after being knocked down.  Losers never get back up.  They just lay there proclaiming their hurt and take up space on the field.

Look at Hebrews 12:1, “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,”

So, how are you doing?

Marks

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I had the privilege of sitting in a meeting the other day with some fine Christian people.  One man shared with us about the markings on his face.  He shared that at two weeks old his face was marked on the right side to show his village.  On the left side of his face were more marking that showed that he was from the chief’s family.

This reminded me of a boy I went to junior high school with.  He had been in auto mechanics class at another school and while he and the instructor stood over the engine compartment the radiator exploded.  This left him very deeply burned from his waist up.  I remember that he was horrible to look at in the summer when the weather would permit people to wear less clothes and he would go around without a shirt on.  It pained me to look at him.  The marks and scars were deep and to look at them would cause a person deep pain.

You knew in either case that these people were marked or scarred for life.  They carried these marks literally in their bodies.  Which brings my thoughts to Jesus Christ.  When He lived upon the earth He was crucified.  Even now He carries those marks in His hands and feet.  He also bears a mark in His side where they pierced Him with a spear to make sure the crucifixion was complete.  He is marked for all eternity from that moment on forward.

I was reminded of the truth of Galatians 6:17, “From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.”  Then I thought about myself.  I wonder what “marks” do I bear that would identify me with Jesus Christ.  Are there any such marks in my life or on my life.  Christians are being killed all over the world for their faith.  Do you and I have the “marks” of Christ that would set us apart to be singled out for our faith and killed?  I don’t know the answer to that.  Let’s live our lives obviously Christian; but, not obnoxiously Christian.

So, how are you doing?

Are You Drifting?

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On October 14, 2013 I shared a post on “The Dangers Of Drifting”.  I fully intended that to be the first post in a series on “Drifting”.  I learned a long time ago to not force things that will not go.  So, we will begin today a series on the thought “Are You Drifting?”

Look at Hebrews 2:1, “Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.”  The word “let” means to run out as leaking vessels.

First I would like to look at the truth if you are not paddling the boat then you are drifting. Far too many people in life just want to coast along.  This does not work in life.  You have to put forth effort.  If you do not put forth any effort then you are aimlessly drifting.  This is a bad thing.  Drifting is an unconscious process.

Jesus never teaches in the Word of God to “go with the flow”.  As a matter of fact, He teaches quite the opposite.  To a lost and dying world we look odd or different.  We should look different, talk different, act different and we should be different.  Christianity is not a religion of being a chameleon.  We cannot just change our colors so to speak to blend in with the crowd.

The Christian life is a life of effort.  Drifting takes no effort.  It takes work to pray, to share the Gospel, to attend Church and the list goes on and on.  In no way do we work to be saved.  We work because we are saved.  So, if you are moving downstream in the Christian life and you are not paddling, you are dangerously drifting.

So, how are you doing?

 

Who Is Leading Anyway?

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We live in a day that people seem to be fearful.  The possibility of economic failure brings great fear to some.  Government shut-down brings fear to some.  Even the dark of night brings fear to some people.  No, I am not making fun of people.

I know a little bit about fear.  There have been times in my life that I have been deeply afraid.  I think that is why I seek to obliterate it in the lives of others now.  Fear paralyzes us and keeps us from doing anything profitable for God.  The devil laughs at us when we are in such a place.  He has us in a place that we are not doing anything for the glory of God.

Do you find yourself in this place?  We need to realize that God is not leading us into places that He has not first gone through.  Maybe you are trying to lead your life.  Then you are going through uncharted territory.  It is not that God has not been there; but, you have gone without Him.  If you will not let Him lead you then you are on your own.  Look at Psalm 78:53, “And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.”  Remember how He led Israel, realize He will lead you also and rest in His perfect leadership.

So, how are you doing?

Are You In Tune?

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I am told that is you strike a tuning fork in the same room with another tuning fork that eventually the one that was not struck will begin to vibrate.  I was also told that this applies to a harp also.  I am told that this is the method of tuning a harp.

When I heard this I immediately began to think.  This should be how you and I should share Christ with others.  The gospel should reverberate from us like the sound from a tuning fork or a harp.  Those around us should be positively effected by our “Christianity”.  The problem is that we have a bad day or a bad week and we simply destroy everything we have worked for up to that moment.  That is all that it takes too, is a moment.

When you live before people are you a harp making sweet melody of the LORD Jesus Christ or are you more of an instrument that is out of tune?  Look at Psalm 92:3, “Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound.”  Here is the thing.  All the people around you and I know so we might as well quit lying to ourselves and deal with it.

If you do an inventory; as we all need to do, you might find that you are out of tune so to speak.  When you come to this realization you need to pick up the tuning fork of the Word of God.  When it resounds let it begin to vibrate a chord in your life.

So, how are you doing?

The Just Shall Live By Faith

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I love reading the Bible!  It is so awesome.  Let’s take a look at a verse that is so full of truth that it is expounded in three different books of the Bible.

Look at Habakkuk 2:4, “Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.”  I am concentrating on the phrase “but the just shall live by his faith.”

Look at Romans 1:17, “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.”  This passage tells us who the just are.  So, when we live by faith we demonstrate the Righteousness of God.  Wow!  If you want to be more like Christ then live by faith.  This is easy to say and much harder to do.  It is possible or we would not be commanded to do it.

Look at Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”  Here we see how then shall we live.  As Jonathan Falwell brought out in a sermon series, “Not I; but, Christ.”  We need to live the life of Christ.  Actually, we need to let Christ live His life through us is more accurate.  We must quit trying to do it my way and let Him have His way.

Lastly we see that we live by faith.  Look at Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  People have the wrong idea about living by faith.  They think it is some blind escapade.  It is so much more than that.  Living by faith means that we live with a confidence in God that is unshakeable.  Faith is taking God at His word.  It is not some blind venture where you hope to end at a certain destination.  Faith is knowing that when God brings you to it, He will bring you through it.

So, by this one little verse we see three distinct books of the Bible.  The just, how then shall we live and by faith.

So, how are you doing?

Renewed Like The Eagle’s

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If you know me very well at all then you know how much I love eagles and their examples in the Scriptures.  I have a couple sermons on eagles.  When I was reading my Bible the other day I ran across this verse in Psalm 103:5, “Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”

This brought to my feeble memory of how the eagle goes through a molting period. Up to this point the eagle gets dirty.  There are bugs, dirt and all kind of unmentionables that make their way into their feathers.  I am told that at some point that eagle gets so bogged down that they can no longer fly.  It is now that the eagle no longer soars above the storms.  It is stuck sitting on it’s rock, enduring the storms.

At some point the eagle gets fed up with this situation and begins to pluck it’s feathers from it’s own body.  Ouch!  Once the feathers and debris are removed the feathers can grow back. The eagle’s beak even becomes covered over with a calcium deposit that restricts it’s breathing.  The talons also begin to break off and become bloody nubs.

When the eagle can fly again it will jump off it’s rock and fly out.  As it returns to the rock it will fly directly into the rock to break off the calcium deposit on it’s beak and to break off the nubs that used to be powerful talons.  Once this process is completed the eagle never goes back to being this way again.

Friend, are you burdened down with dirt, parasites and unmentionable things?  If you are it is time for radical amputation.  You need to pluck off the feathers, break off the bloody numbs that used to be talons and knock off the calcium deposit that keeps you from breathing the breath of God.

So, how are you doing?

Gone Away

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I have shared the example of the compass here before; but, I love it.  When we use a compass we do not have to be far off at the beginning to be way off in the end.  You can only be off a couple clicks in the beginning starting on the east coast of America.  When you arrive in California you will be way off from your intended destination, if you make it into California.  You might be in Washington State or Mexico depending upon the direction you are off.

Ezekiel tells of Levites that had “gone away far from me,” as he was moved of God to write.  Look at Ezekiel 44:10-11, “And the Levites that are gone away far from me, when Israel went astray, which went astray away from me after their idols; they shall even bear their iniquity.  Yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having charge at the gates of the house, and ministering to the house: they shall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister unto them.”

If we are not careful we can be off a click or two in our Christian life and then we will find one day that God will give the testimony of us that we have “gone away far from me,”.  This is a sad reality in our day.  Churches are filled with leadership that have left their Saviour.  This could be due to the sad reality that they never knew Him.  It could be that they have been deceived into believing a lie.

The Word of God is vitally important and it is our compass.  We need to be so familiar with our Compass that we never stray from the narrow road; not even one or two clicks.

So, how are you doing?

Come On

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Yesterday afternoon Tara and I laughed hard like we have not laughed in a long time.  Our son Jonathan has been pretty sick for a couple days with fever and vomiting.   He has been laying in bed almost continually.  Tara was fixing him a piece of toast so that he would have something on his stomach to take medicine with.  Jonathan came into the kitchen and watched her.  When she finished he left the kitchen and walked to his room.  Halfway through the living room he motioned to his mother from his side to come on.  He looked like he was scooping air in his hand and motioned from the direction of the kitchen to the direction of his room.  We lost it laughing and yes, a few tears fell.  When she got to his room he was sitting on his bed like he had been waiting all afternoon for her.

As I thought about this I was reminded about an incident that took place on the sea of Galilee.  Peter was in the boat and Jesus walking on the water.  Pick up this life changing event in Matthew 14:28, “And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.”

Jesus is bidding each and everyone of us who are His child to; as the songwriter penned, “Get out of the boat and start walking on the water.”  We would rather sit, soak and sour wherever we are at than to leave our comfort zone and see God do the miraculous through us.  It is time to “Come on!”

So, how are you doing?