Food For Thought Fridays

Caleb is afraid of dogs. He used to love them.

One day while playing a dog snapped at him and ever since, he wants nothing to do with them.

At grandma's house, there is an outside dog and that dog will chase and jump all over you.

One day while we were visiting, the dog started running after Caleb and trying to jump all over him.

What did Caleb do? He took off for Daddy. He jumped in my arms with tears rolling down his face.

At that moment, no dog in the world was going to mess with my boy.

His weakness was met with my strength.

Psalm 5: 1-2 says, "Give ear to my words, O LORD; consider my groaning. Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray."

The enemy has attacked and continues to pursue, but we have run into the arms of our Almighty God.

When we let our cry, our groaning, our weakness appeal to the strength of our almighty King, no dog in hell can or will overtake us.

Food For Thought Fridays

Have you ever wondered why prayer is one of the most difficult disciplines for believers when it should be the easiest?

I believe that this could be the key: Legalism is the enemy of God.

Legalism is strictly adhering to the letter of the law (the rules) rather than the spirit. Basically, the idea that if I follow all the rules, God will like me and do what I want Him to do.

Many of our brains are so wrapped up in what prayer "should" sound like (the rules of prayer) that we just get bored with it and feel like we are wasting our time.

It has to start with "Dear Heavenly Father" and end with "In Jesus Name" and we have to put a lot of spiritual phrases in like "lead, guide, and direct" or "yea, though thou theeist the thou."

There is nothing wrong with any of that, but how many of your kids talk to you like that?

Again, legalism is the enemy of God.

Luke 11:9-13 says,"And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

God tells us to come like a child.

The REAL messy you with all your junk and with all the wrong things to say and with all the bad attitudes needs to, no, has to meet the REAL God in a REAL way.

Legalism says clean your self up, get on your knees, say the right things, and your prayer life will be awesome.

I say you will never be able to clean your self, you will never be submitted enough, you can't say the right things, because legalism and false words only bring death.

Food For Thought Fridays

Matthew 4:1 says, "Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.”

Lately, I've been thinking about temptation.

Isn't it amazing that the Son of God was tempted? The one through whom all things were created. The one whose very food was to do the will of the Father. God in the flesh. The Father's spittin' image as we say in the south.

He was taken to the wilderness and tempted like us. We may not be as strong as Jesus, but, should we expect less temptation than what He faced?

Many of us believe that the answer is yes, but I am not so sure. Temptation is all around us and we act as if we are invincible or worse act as if temptation doesn't exist.

At this moment, you may feel like you have the glow of the Holy Spirit on your face, but the minute you let your guard down. . . the lion starts to roar and you give into temptations.

At this moment, you may feel that you are on fire with the love of Jesus, but if you don't allow God to keep putting logs on the fire. . . Satan will bring your temperature down to around lukewarm and we give into the temptation of just getting by.

As believers, we must stand and protect our hearts and minds. We need to allow God to continually fill us with the Holy Spirit and continually allow God to stoke the fire of Jesus in our lives so we don't become lazy and complacent.

Lastly, if we are to walk out of the wilderness victoriously (like Jesus) we have to be warriors and sleep with our helmets on.

Food For Thought Fridays

Ephesians 6: 12-17 says, "For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Wherefore take up the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; withal taking up the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."

This is a very familiar passage. Unfortunately, many Believers don't practice the directive.

We take way too lightly our enemy and worse, our God. If we didn't, we would value His Word more.

If you look at the armor, it is not just the sword that deals with the Word.

The whole armor is based on the Word and the Word become flesh.

You learn truth through the Word.
You build righteousness through the Word.
You grow faith through the Word.
You understand the gospel through the Word.
You experience salvation through the Word.

Luther said, "Satan hates goose quills!"

I believe it because the Word has definitely done much damage to his kingdom.

But, if you don't know the Word, Satan will do much damage to you.

Stand.

Food For Thought Fridays

Psalm 91:1-2 says, "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of Jehovah, He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in whom I trust."

The word "dwells" is not a vacation spot or a weekend visit. As much as I would like a vacation (and need one), "dwells" denotes a place of PERMANENT residence.

Many people desire security, happiness, comfort, and peace. I mean, who wouldn't?

In the truest form, these "benefits" are inseperable from God. If you want to know real security, real happiness, real comfort, real peace, God has to be your treasure.

But here is the problem, people want these "benefits" that come FROM God, they just don't want to be hassled WITH God.

It is much easier to do it on your own and visit Him on weekends. That way we have someone to blame when things don't go the way we want.

We need to learn to DWELL with God and stop using Him as a 911 operator.

Shalom.

Food For Thought Fridays

The other night during our family devotional, Caleb was holding a Lego Pirate in his hand. As we were talking, he was telling me about all the things he loved. Then he stopped mid-sentence and said, "I was going to say that I love Legos more than God, but I had to rearrange that."

I said, "A lot of us do, son."

We put too many things before God. We constantly need to be looking at our lives and make sure that things don't need to be rearranged.

Love money, love things, love movies, love internet, . . . love life. Love anything more than Jesus and things need to be rearranged.

Don't be fooled, Jesus is superior to all.

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. Hebrews 1:1-4

I love these verses. God has spoken to us and these verses tell us what He has said.

Jesus is the greatest, most radiant, most powerful, most majestic, most holy, most excellent being. Anything we put before Him would be idiotic.

It may not be Legos, but examine your life and look for things that need to be rearranged because God has spoken. Don't miss what He said.

Shalom.

Food For Thought Fridays

A time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. Jn 4:23

You really need to have the right tool for the right job.

In our relationship with God, we often miss the point of why we were created. We were created for His glory.

As a result, we find ourselves being a hammer when a screwdriver is needed. We are misapplied tools because we don't know our proper role in the Kingdom.

We were created to give God glory. To worship Him.

I'm not just talking about music. I'm talking about everything you say, do, and think (yes, think) being a deliberate act of worship to give the Almighty Creator, who happens to be our Father, the glory He deserves.

AW Tozer said, "If you will not worship God seven days a week, you DO NOT worship Him one day a week." Think about it.

Blessings.

Food For Thought Fridays

Exodus 14: 13-15 says, "And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. The LORD will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”

And the LORD said to Moses, “Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward."

This is part of the story of God dividing the Red Sea.

There is a ton of good stuff in this whole account. Its not just a Sunday school story. Well worth reading a few times.

The Israelites were in a no win situation, rock and a hard place, death by drowning or death by spear.

Many of us probably feel like that right now.

Israel started complaining about the circumstances. Don't do that.

In these verses, the Lord gives us four steps to handle these times.

1. Fear not - if God is for us, who can be against us.

2. Stand firm - have your footing on the Word.

3. Hold your peace or keep silent - don't complain and don't blame. Trust the Lord and see Him fight for you. Cool!

4. Go forward - take a step of faith.

From our perspective, sometimes the sea divides and sometimes it doesn't, but remember that our Father only and always does what is good.

Blessings

Food for Thought Fridays

I don't know if anybody even reads this, but I am going to TRY to put some thoughts down on Fridays. Not saying I am right, but just some thoughts.

In Romans 1:1 Paul starts his letter by saying, "Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God. . ."

Paul said he was a servant or bondservant depending on the version you read. We use servant most times in the Bible because slave sounds harsh.

But, I wonder if our prayer life reflects a slave's heart.

Many times I feel like I only make my requests known before the Father without taking time to listen to the Master's voice. What kind of slave tells his master exactly what he wants done and how to do it?

I think it would do us well to take some time to get on our face and seek the voice of the Master.

Romans 11: 34-36 says,

For who has known the mind of the Lord,or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

We must realize the Creator of the universe owes us nothing. But, every day, every minute, every smile, every laugh and every tear are by God's grace and mercy.

How small are we and how great is our God that He is mindful of us.