Examination Time

2 Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.”

When we go to the doctor’s office, we are going there to get something checked out. It may be that we have a cough, sore throat, or sneezes. It could be just a regular check-up. Our lives, like a doctor’s appointment, need examination time.

Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Every once in a while, we need to look into our lives. We need to see what path we are on. Are we following the world? Are we following God? Our faith needs to be watched carefully because it can waiver. It can fluctuate like the tide or the wind. If we are not careful, we are drifting away in a direction we do not want to go. We need to give ourselves time for an examination. Lift the hood and peer underneath. See how healthy our faith in God is.

Test yourselves. Once we examine ourselves, we need to give ourselves a test. See what we are really up to. Like a test in school or on the job, we need to prepare. This test should not be taken lightly. Our faith really needs to be tried to see if it is at the level that God wants it to be. We do not want to let God down if we can help it.

Do you not know yourselves? We should know ourselves and yet, some of us do not. God knows us though and sometimes, we need to ask God to reveal ourselves to ourselves. The testing and the examination should reveal so much about ourselves and our health. We need to spend some time simply taking a personal assessment.

Jesus Christ is in you? We need to look to see if Jesus is in us. We will know because our words will show He is. Our actions will show that He is. This is how we will know that Jesus is in our lives. We cannot live how we want to and still serve Jesus fully. This is simply not possible.

Unless indeed you are disqualified. We disqualify our faith when we try to live a double life. We cannot live for the world and Jesus at the same time. We can only live for Jesus or the world. One will be what we worship. What we praise. What we wake up every day for. It is examination time. Who are we for? God or world? You decide. As for me, I choose God.

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for all that You do for us. Help us to test and examine our faith in You. Reveal in us any ways that we are lacking. Show us how we can improve. You love us and so You want us to succeed. We come to You humbly and in need. Help to fulfill our needs.

In Your name we pray,

Amen

Four Commands

1 Corinthians 16:13, “Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong.”

In this last chapter of the First Corinthians, Paul begins to close and does his typical thank you messages to those involved in helping him and his closing thoughts. He also does one other thing. He gives four commands.

Watch. Paul’s first command from God is to watch. In order to defend against the enemy, we need to watch for them. The enemy will slip in when we are not looking. The enemy can come in a thought, as a little voice, or as an image. It does not take much and then you are off track with God and heading down a scary road. When we are driving, it is important to watch for oncoming traffic, debris in the roads, and especially people/animals. When we are walking, it is important to have our head up so that we do not walk into someone. We need to be watchful always and God is there to help be our eyes.

Stand fast in the faith. Paul’s second command from God is to stand fast in the faith. When being watchful, it is important to stand. To sit and watch can lead to drowsiness. If we are standing, we are more likely to be awake and alert. Our faith is also important. We all need to have faith in God that He will do what He says He will do and He will be where He needs to be. God does not leave us. God does not give up on us. If we call out to Him, He will be there to help. We do not stand alone; we stand with God. In fact, we cannot stand if it were not for God.

Be brave. Paul’s third command from God is to be brave. Bravery is far easier when we serve a God that is bigger and tougher than anything out there. When we try to watch and stand on our own, the enemy will wear us down until He wins. If we defer to God though, our watching will be perfect. Our standing will no fail. The enemy will not have the power he once had. We can be brave when God is right there with us.

Be strong. Paul’s last command from God is to be strong. All of these commands truly tie together. Watching, standing, and bravery all require strength. We do not have strength on our own. We need God. He has an unlimited amount of strength, after all. We can be strong because we have God. When we try to watch, stand, be brave or be strong on our own, we fail. Our sinful natures cause this. With God, our four commands become perfect. This is God’s plan and this should be ours, too.

Heavenly Father,

You are our eyes so we can see. You are our legs so we can stand. You are our heart so we can be brave. You are our muscular structure so we can be strong. Without You, we are nothing. With You, we are everything. Help us to never abandon You. We trust in You for all things. You truly love us and care for us.

In Your glorious name we pray,

Amen

Accounted for Righteousness

Romans 4:3, “For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’“

The Bible is chocked full of more wealth than a saving account. There is so much to be learned and so much shared by God. There are also so many characters in the Bible. One such character is Abraham, who had a life that was accounted for righteousness.

What does the Scripture say? The Scriptures say so much, especially about the life of Abraham. He was the father of many nations, though to read the beginning of his story, you would not believe it. He did not have any children until nearly 100 years old. He surely had an up and down life with his wife, Sarah.

Abraham believed God. Abraham did not sit around and question God. He did not ask all his friends if he should believe God. He simply believed God. If God told him to move, he moved. If God told him he would have a son, he believed. If God told him something, he simply believed. There is no point to questioning God because God knows best. He sees the whole picture. He is in control. He has our best interests in mind.

It was accounted to him for righteousness. Because Abraham believed God, his spiritual “bank account” received a deposit of righteousness. He was rewarded for the work that he did. God blessed him and protected. Abraham was truly a success story in the Bible. It was accounted to him for righteousness because he had the faith to allow God work in his life.

Heavenly Father,

We come to You ever grateful and thankful. Help us to have the faith like Abraham. We ask that You bless us with Your righteousness because we know that we cannot be without You. You are our Father. You love us. Deposit into our spiritual bank accounts all this love that You have for us.

In Your name we pray,

Amen

Faith Apart from Deeds

Romans 3:28, “Therefore we conclude that a man is ^[ijustified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.”

There are certain things in this world that we have to have faith in to believe. We cannot see gravity, yet we know it to exist. We cannot see the wind, yet we can see its results. God, though we cannot see Him now, is very much real. Many things require sight but with God, we need faith. We cannot have faith apart from deeds.

We conclude that a man is justified by faith. Justification come from the Greek word δικαιόω dikaióō, dik-ah-yo’-o meaning to render (i.e. show or regard as) just or innocent:—free, justify(-ier), be righteous. We cannot be righteous apart from God. We need to have faith in God. Faith in God results in salvation. Salvation means that our sins are forgiven and we are made clean. Clean means that we are once again righteous, but only because of the life and death of Jesus.

Apart from the deeds of the law. Our lives are anything but righteous. We sin all the time. We are dirtied by everything that we do. There is no way that we can be clean on our own. There is no way to follow every law that God has. Even if we try to be perfect, we mess this up. We have to have faith in order to be saved because our works do not result in salvation. Just because we have faith, this does not mean that our works are meaningless. We need faith and when we have that faith, we work on our actions to be more aligned with God’s. We never can truly have faith apart from works.

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for the salvation that You offer us through Your Son, Jesus. He lived and died so that we do not have to die spiritually. Our souls are cleaned and protected. We are in Your hands. Help us to never forget all that You have done. You are our God and Father. We are Your children, asking You to help us with obedience and strength.

In Your name we pray,

Amen

Throughout the World

Romans 1:8, “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.”

I thank my God. This cannot be said enough. Paul made sure to mention it because it is important. We should never stop thanking God. Never quit. God is worth all the thanks we can give Him. We cannot thank Him too much because everything we get is from God.

The world is a large place. There are six continents that are livable. Different people. Different cultures. Differences across the board. There are especially major differences when it comes to religion. One key of Christianity is to spread Jesus throughout the world.

Through Jesus Christ for you all. We should also carry our thankfulness over to Jesus, who died on the cross for our sins. Without this, Christianity is dead. We need His death. We need His resurrection. We need His life. We do not have a chance without God and Jesus. Everything created would have been in vain and anyone who chooses to follow Jesus would be doing so in vain.

That your faith is spoken of. As Christians, we need to be known by our faith. We need to have a reckless style of faith. A faith that blows the mind of the intellectual. A faith that simply trusts God no matter what happens. Faith in the good times. Faith in the bad times. Our faith needs to be so bold that people come up to us and ask how we have the joy that we have. It needs to be purposeful. It needs to be genuine and real. It needs to be in God alone.

Throughout the whole world. Our faith needs to carry through to the whole world. As Christians, we are not to sit on our hands with our salvation. We are to share it. Spread it. Give it to the world. This is what I do with this blog. I want God’s message to me to spread throughout the world.

Heavenly Father,

We come before You, thanking and praising Your name. May this message and all my previous as well as my future messages reach the world. It is not my will, but Yours be done. These are not my words, but Yours through me. I am simply Your vessel. Use me as You use Your other children. We all come before You with bended knee in honor and respect.

In Your name we pray,

Amen

You of Little Faith

Matthew 14:31, “And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?””

It is so hard to believe so much in the world today. Things that are written are not necessarily the truth. People do not always have our best interests at heart. With God, though, we do not need to be a “you of little faith.”

Immediately. There is an urgency in this world. This is not a slow-acting word. This is a sudden word. So few of things happen in an “immediately” frame of time. Sometimes we wish more things would happen immediately, but they all happen in the timing of God.

Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him. Jesus took action when He saw His disciple in trouble. He reached out and caught the hand of Peter. He was not going to let anything bad happen to him, but there was a moment when Peter surely thought that he would die. There was a moment when Peter must have thought that Jesus was not acting immediate enough. He had nothing to fear because He was in the presence of Jesus, who was able to raise from the dead even if Peter did die.

Said to him, “O you of little faith,” Jesus made a very easy observation. Peter had a lack of faith. All he had to do was look at Jesus and block out everything around him. Put one foot in front of the other. He obviously did not do that. There are many times when we do the same thing. All we need to do is follow what God tells us to do and we fail. We choose to do our will over His. We lack the faith required to do what God says because of any number of deficiencies we possess.

“Why did you doubt?” Doubt creeps in like an intruder in the night. Jesus asked Peter a simple question. Why did Peter doubt? Why do we doubt? God speaks so plainly to us in the Word and we doubt. He speaks to us in our prayers and we doubt. Peter had no reason to doubt Jesus because He had never failed Peter. Jesus continues to be perfect so there is still no reason to doubt Him. We are a people of little faith but with help, we can look to Him and not falter.

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for saving us from falling. You could have let us and we would have deserved it. We do not deserve the grace that You bestow on us. Yet, You continually shower us with blessing and grace. Mercy and love. Help us to have faith in You even though You have never given us a reason to doubt You.

In Your name we pray,

Amen

Increase our Faith

Luke 17:5, “And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.””

An increase is a constant improvement from one stage to another.  In our walks of life, we need to have an increase.  We need to increase of life with God and we need to increase our faith.

Apostles said to the Lord.  Just as the apostles talked to the Jesus, we need to talk to Jesus.  He is not someone who is far off and out of touch.  He wants to be a part of our lives.  We need to talk all the time to Jesus as well.  It is never a bad time to talk to Jesus.  There are no nap times for Jesus.  He does not hold office hours.  He does not close down.  The apostles were able to directly learn from Jesus, but we still have access to Jesus as if He is standing right next to us.  We must be willing to wait and be patient to hear what He has to say to us.

Increase our faith.  We all need an increase in faith.  It does not matter if we are a senior pastor or the greeter at the door or just another person in the congregation.  We all need more faith because we all have times when our faith wavers.  We overthink and lose track of God.  We need to renew our faith in God daily because if we do not, we will falter in our walk.  It will give an opening to the enemy for Him to come in and subvert us.  We need to direct ourselves back to You.  We need the fire of renewed faith.

Heavenly Father,

We know that we are sinful and fall away from You.  Help us to trust You.  We know that You have never given us a reason to doubt You and yet, sometimes, we do.  Renew our hearts and minds and set them on You always.  You are our Lord; help us to never forget this.  You are larger than our problems.  You are the way to our successes.  We would be nothing without You.  You are all we need.

In Your name we pray,

Amen

Prayer for Others

Ephesians 1:15-16, “Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers.”

Life can be frustrating sometimes.  It is not always rosy and great. Sometimes a day is just not good, for one reason or another.  This is when we really truly need a friend.  Some one who cares about us.  We need some one who is willing to say a prayer for others.

I (Paul) heard of their faith in the Lord Jesus.  In this letter, Paul is addressing the people of Ephesus.  News of their faith in Jesus had reached his ears and he was obviously happy.  I sometimes think that we do not put enough thought to having faith in Jesus.  It takes a lot to believe in someone who we have never seen.  Someone who we had never heard.  We need to sit back and be thankful for our faith we have in God and also in the faith that other people have in God.  We could all choose to ignore God, but there are some that choose to listen and obey God.  That is a rare act in this world.

And love for all the saints.  Another admirable point that Paul heard was the love for all the saints.  Others had obviously come to Ephesus and they were treated well.  This is something else that is taken for granted in this world.  We have the capability to do good things for others and love them, but typically we think only of ourselves and look down on others.  So often, we look at only faults when we should be looking at strengths.  Looking at the negative instead of the positive.  Paul was giving credit where credit was due based on their faith and love.

Do not cease to give thanks for you.  Because of these Ephesus believers, Paul was so thankful and made sure to tell them how thankful he truly was.  We also need to tell others how thankful we are of them.  We need to be careful to remember the little things that people do for us and show gratitude.  It is so sad that today “please” and “thank you”  are not used as much as they should.  “Sir” and “ma’am” are lost on people as well.  Respect and thanks go hand in hand.

Making mention of you in my prayers.  When we pray, we so often default to what we need from God.  “God, I need this….”  “God, I need that……”  We really need to have more thought in our prayers and list people who need prayer and mention them.  Everyone has things that they go through in life and need help from God with.  It is a good and pleasant thing for us to say a prayer for our friends and family.  Let us try to be proactive and not reactive.  Rather than only pray for those that are sick, pray for those that are well and thank God for that.  We should give God all the praise and honor and not just expect God to be our “wish-granter.”  Let us focus more on prayer for others today.

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for all that You do for us.  I thank You for the countless people who have come into my life and made an impact on me.  You put them in my life for a reason.  I thank You for all that I have.  I am truly blessed, as I am sure that many others are too.  You are so awesome and wonderful.  I come to You today, not to ask You for anything, but to thank You for all that You bless me with daily.

In Your name we pray,

Amen

Do Good to All

Galatians 6:10, “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.”

Every day that we wake up in the morning, we have choice.  We can start the day right, found in the Bible or prayer or just some silent time with God.  We can also start the day in anger and grumpiness, letting everything get us down and ruin our day.  We have a choice also in good or bad.  We should do good to all.

As we have opportunity.  When we go out in the day, whether to work or school or the shopping center or even the gym, there are times when we will interact with other people.  How we interact with them makes all the difference.  We can make a friend or make someone run away and hide.  Opportunities arise where we are able to talk to others or do for others.

Let us do good to all.  Feeding off of the opportunities, we should do good to all in these opportunities.  You would not believe how many times kindness and respect unlock new avenues in life.  We can hold the door open for someone, load groceries into a vehicle, or help with a hard math problem.  There are so many ways for us to be able to do good.  The greatest good we can do is to share the gospel with others that may not have heard it.  Even if they do not accept Jesus right then and there, you have planted a seed in their mind.  We should always be looking to do good in others lives even if we never receive any back from them.

Especially to those who are of the household of faith.  We should do good to other Christians as well.  Part of that is spending time in fellowship and the Word of God.  When we help others with the Bible in a study, we can learn and teach.  Just because someone is already a Christ follower, it does not mean that should not treat them well.  People, whether they are nice or not, deserve to have someone do good for them.  Remember that Jesus died for all people.  He died for us when we were at our worst, in our sin and despair.  If Jesus can do good to all, knowing their every thought and action, we can do good to the few people we see in our life.  Do good to all so that they can see how great our God really is.

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for all the good that You do for us every day.  We can really learn from all of this if we open our eyes to You.  Help us to see the world through Your eyes.  Help us to stay away from all the bad that can be done.  We do sin and fall short.  Please forgive us for all that we do wrong.  We love You and need You so much.

In Your name we pray,

Amen

Promise by Faith

Galatians 3:22, “But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.”

When two people want to engage in a promise, there are multiple ways to do this.  There are contracts, handshakes, or the pinky swear, among some of the options.  The pink swear is to show that someone would be willing to do whatever it takes or risk having a broken pinky.  This made sure that what was said was completed.  There is another: promise by faith.

The Scripture has confined all under sin.  We are all sinful and this is shown in the Bible, time and time again.  Humans continually mess up over and over again.  There is no sin found in God.  God does not tolerate sin like we do.  In fact, He punishes sin.  His punishment for sin is death.  That is severe, but it is appropriate considering God’s standard.  The Bible tells us in multiple places what happens to those that sin.

The promise by faith in Jesus Christ.  There is an exception to the punishment for sin.  Jesus came to Earth, lived, taught, died, came back to life and ascended back to Heaven again.  Through all of this, Jesus gave us His Word that when He died, He would take our sin away.  What do we have to do in return?  We have to place our faith in Him and make Him our Lord and Savior.  Jesus provides us with the plan of salvation and all we have to do is accept it.  We do not have to worry or be anxious because Jesus has vouched for us on behalf of His Father, God the Father.

Given to those who believe.  We must believe in Jesus fully and completely.  Like it was stated, we must make Jesus our Lord and Savior.  That is a complete giving to Him.  We must be willing to be mind, body and soul into God.  God does not want us to only halfway serve Him.  We either fully serve Him or not at all.  We have a choice to make: accept the promise of faith or deny it and have to accept the punishment for our sin.  We must choose before the choice is made for us.

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for the choice that we have in You.  You do not force us to live for You, but that we can come to You freely.  We willingly come and want to serve You.  Please forgive us of our sins that we have committed.  We ask that You come in to us fully and completely, pushing out all other things that try to take away from You.

In Your name we pray,

Amen