Hebrews 10: 23-25 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.  And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of oursevles together, as in the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much more as you see the Day approaching.

What an awesome exhortation for us.  As Christian our confession is that of the Grace of God expressed through Jesus Christ. This is not a "hope so" hope.  This is an anchored hope.  An unmovable hope.  A hope that is not dependent upon circumstances and others.  Our hope in salvation, sanctification, final redemption and truth of His Word through Jesus Christ and confirmed and sealed by the Holy Spirit.  This is the Hope we Christians proclaim.  This is the hope we cling to even when we look around and see the devastation of sin.  This is the hope we can grip hold of without wavering as we go through our storms and trials.  Interesting word is wavering.  In the greek it means not leaning or inclining.  Think on that for a moment.  Now in context the writer is writing to the Hebrew Christians who may have been considering returing to Judaism.  They were wavering and beginning to lean back to their old ways. The ways of works.  And we to can have a tendancy to lean or start to slip back to a works mentality or back to the "old man syndrome" as if the blood of Jesus is not sufficient and has no effect. 

Anyway, the takeaway for me on this passage was this:  We see the "DAY" and know that the Lord could return anytime.  As we look around at the decay of sin and its effects on our lives let us be sure that we are not using our words and actions to stiffle the Holy Spirit in others but to spark those embers that need a little breath of encouragement to get them fired up again.  What i mean by that is that we can often sit back, play "monday morning quarterback" and yell at sin and point out all that Christians are NOT doing. On the contrary we should be getting involved in the lives of our brethren and allow God to work through us in the building up of His body of believers to fight the good fight of faith. Does God encourage us here to stir up a debate?  To stir up doctrinal war?  To stir up tradition? To stir up religious works?  No, thats not what i read here.  Let us stir up LOVE and GOOD works.  This is primarily done as we gather together as a unit.  So let us get plugged in so others can ber stirred up and God can be glorified!  Just a side note... Its not about you:)

Heavenly Father, You are faithful and you never fail us.  We can count on your promises.  In these days help us to stay the course and finsih well.  We thank you for the body of believers.  We thank you for your gift of fellowship amongst the brethen. Lord, may we not neglect the extended family we have in our brothers and sisters in Christ.  Help us Lord to stay sensitive to others and give us a heart of love that will manifest itself in the stirring up of your saints. For others blessings, Your glory and our eternal good.  In your name. 

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Jonah 2:1 “Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly.”

Jonah didn’t pray the minute he was swallowed. Three days and three nights passed before he prayed. Why do you suppose he waited so long? I suggest it was for the same reason we do.

When we’re in a place where we know we have rebelled against the will of the Lord and we’re in a tight spot because of it, we think, “No doubt I have blown it so badly and grieved God so deeply that He won’t listen to anything I say. Therefore, why pray? If I were God, I wouldn’t listen to me, either.”

We have the mistaken idea that God hears the prayers of “good people” but turns a deaf ear to those who are in a place of rebelliousness or weakness.

So often I mistakenly think my relationship with God is based upon the subtle supposition that if I’m really “good” - if I’m reading my Bible, going to church, and praying a lot - God will hear my prayers. But if I’m not, then He’s not interested. But that’s just not true - for, as Jonah is about to experience, God is gracious and merciful, kind and compassionate, ready to forgive and eager to respond to His children no matter where they’re at or why they’re there.  

- Daily Devotions with Jon Courson.

Luke 18:9-14

9 Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: 10 "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank You that I am not like other men--extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.' 13 And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!' 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

What camp are you in?  Think about that. 

Heavenly Father, You alone are righteous.  You alone are worthy.  Though our desire is to serve You and please You, we often can get on the self righteous religious train.  May You remind us often of the depravity of our own hearts and the Grace that has saved us.  May our gratefulness for what you can do and have done to the heart of a sinner bring a walk of humility with sincerity and give us compassion and hope for the blind and lost.  In your name

 1 Corinthians 8:1b “ …Knowledge Puffs up But Love Edifies.” 

It is a Love Letter Written by a Loving Father, Not a Legal Letter written by an Unloving Lawyer. 

Do you desire to know the Author or just gain knowledge of the writings of Scripture?  These writings are just another meaningless history book that you will shelf, will not comprehend and has no life changing power unless you truly know the Author.  Some Christians will even use it as a tool to gain knowledge to usurp authority over another.  God is not concerned with how much you know about His Word.  He is more concerned with how much you know Him. The Bible is not some novel from a distant author or an instruction manual you read once and throw away with the DVD box.  This is not a history book about some ancient World Hero that you idolize but will never be.  This is not the Guinness book of records where you find useless facts.  This is not a school text book that you memorize so that you get a 100% on your test.  This is a Love Letter written from out of this world personally to you from your Heavenly Father.  In this book you will find His Love for you. He expresses His love through His word by sharing the real truth about eternal life.  His loving words correct, teach, warn, direct, comfort and inspire us to live a life that is free from the bondage of this world system, satan and self and gives us a confident hope for eternity all designed to draw you to HIM for eternity. Nevertheless, if you don’t know the author then it is futile to gain the knowledge of this book.   If you do know the Author then He will give you the desire to not only read it but understand His heart and be compelled by His love to walk in it.  God so yearns to speak with you!  Not just to give you some facts to store up for a debate next week or to play scripture ping pong with your Christian friends or to tell people what they are not doing.  He has something to say about you and Him.  Don’t let pride keep you from edification, instruction, correction and direction.  Don’t let it keep you from HIM.  Get to know Him more intimately by opening this love letter.  Open It! 

Heavenly Father, Give us a hunger for a deep relationship with you that will lead us to your Word. Give us a desire to open up the best letter ever written. Our flesh often dampers the Spirit that brings revelation of Your word, so please Holy Spirit illuminate it.  Help us father to open your Word with no preconceived notions and get to know you more deeply.  Please plow up our hearts and implant your Loving Word.  May your Word transform us!

He knew me before I was conceived.  He knew my prideful, arrogant, selfish attitude that would bring Him dishonor and cause others pain and heartache.  He knew the decisions I would make that would hurt others and benefit myself.  He knew my lust for woman, money and success that would cause fornication, abortion, debt and undeserved position and power.  He knew my anger that would cause broken hands, hearts and bloody faces.  Yet through it all He loved me.  He pursued me. He met with me.  On that day as I came face to face with His Grace my heart was crushed by the reality of my sin. He didn’t scold me for my wrong.  He didn’t shame me for my acts.  He didn’t point and wave the finger of disappointment.  No, Oh no!  He stretched out His bloody hands and pulled me into his beaten body and wrapped me up In His loving arms and whispered in my ear and said...It’s ok, I got you, you are covered, I love you, it is Finished.  Now come, come follow me.  I have some work for you.  I have a purpose and plan that is not of this world.  It is not going to be easy or even make sense at times but it’s not about you anymore.  It’s for Gods glory, others blessings and your eternal benefit.   You are going to give like you have never given, You are going to love like you have never loved,  you are going feel compassion like you have never felt, you are going see like you have never seen, hear like you have never heard, smell like you have never smelled, speak like you have never spoken.  Your battle is different now.  It’s not with flesh and blood anymore.  But I want you to know that I have Won the war.  So he took my guilt, my pain, my lust, my greed, my pride, my selfishness, my anger, my bitterness, my unforgiveness and wrapped me in His Peace, Joy, Love, Kindness, Gentleness, Longsuffering, Faithfullness, Self Control and Goodness.  My life has never been the same and never will be.  For I know and am fully convinced that Almighty God met with me, despite of my sin,  at an appointed time and by the power of the Holy Spirit illuminated Jesus Christ and Him Crucified and Risen and eliminated my sin forever.  Now I have no other choice but to be zealous, compelled only by His love for me, for the cause of the one who purchased me by His blood…Jesus Christ!.  This is the Grace that has gripped my life.  This is the Grace that causes me to bury self daily and allow Him to live through me.  This is the Grace that gives me hatred toward sin and a Love for that which is good.  This is the Grace that unlocked the truth that set me free. This is the Grace that can Save, Sanctify and fully Redeem a human soul.  Red, instead of Green, is my favorite color now. 

Everyone has a testimony.  The detail of that testimony varies from person to person depending on how the sin manifested itself.   Whether in appearance you are an adulterer, murderer, liar, stealer or cheater, the reality is we are all of these in our heart and sin has come forth from there.  We can try and have tried many “things” to contain sin, but there is only one antidote that can fully kill and heal it:   The Blood of Jesus Christ. 

Do you think God came in the flesh and humbled himself amongst men so we could bolster our doctrinal views?  Do you think He gave up all that He had and came and sat with sinners so we can become more intellectual about scripture? Do you think Jesus Christ cried out "Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will" so that we would can live our “best life now”?   Do you think Jesus Christ took on a brutal crucifixion so we could have a motivational-social gathering on Sunday's?  Do you think that He became obedient unto death so that we (Christians) could walk in disobedience unto life?  I think not.  Jesus Christ, God incarnate, came to save sinners.  He came to rescue us from the fall.  He came to pull us out of the religious rubble.  He came o take our place of death and pay our debt in FULL! Paul said it well in 1Ti 1:15 This [is] a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.   

This is often the simple truth that we can get so far from that we forget the Who in the equation.

Lord, help make the simplicity of the Gospel be so profound in our hearts that it causes us to give thanks always for what you have done at the Cross.  That it separates us from a life of disobedience to you that brings dishonor to your name and a superficial self serving Christian life. Lord make it bring a realness of who you are and who we are not that we walk in all sincerity.  Thank you O Lord for dieing on the Cross and defeating death that we may have eternal life with you forever

 In John 19:30 Jesus proclaimed this word:  Tetelestai.  For those of us who are not Greek Scholars and dont care to be, this word has no meaning to us right now.  But hang in there it will!

To the disciple of Jesus Christ this word has a profound impact on how we live our lives.  This declaration brings us victory in our battles, it brings us hope in our valleys, it brings us comfort in our sickness, it brings us rest from legalism and freedom from religion.  It releases us from the "have to"  to the "get to".  It lets us know that even when we fall (and we will) for the day, the week, the month we are ok.  It shouts to get off the performance treadmill of Christianity, take a deep breath and find rest in Him. 

The word Tetelestai is translated:  "It is Finished!" What an awesome promise! We stand on the finished work of Jesus Christ !  In other words "put a fork in it"

Lord,  may this truth of Yours bring a gripping of your Grace to our hearts that carries us to a rest in your accomplished work on Calvary and compels us to live a life that brings you honor and glory.

"The key to a deeper faith is not trying harder or doing more, it is trusting Jesus" - unknown

Psalms 118:24 This is the day the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it.

We all have been the sender and receiver of this scripture many of times.  We all have had those days that we wish we could fast forward through.  One of those days when we first wake up that we have already surrendered ground over to the enemy.  So we pray “Lord please get me out of this day” or “I can’t wait until this day is over.”  But the Lord is replying “Hey knuckle head (or maybe “excuse me my joyful servant”) this day is going to happen whether you like it or not and I am unchangeable and so are my days.”  Look, it’s not the day it’s our attitudes.  It’s not the other people around us it’s us.  So the takeaway is this:  God is not looking to change the day, He is looking to change us in the day.  So may we allow our gratitude for what Jesus Christ has done for us at the Cross manifest itself in our attitudes that we may Glorify God and be a blessing to others.

2 Corinthians 4:18 While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.  For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. 

Let us not just throw out what is about to be said as another Christian cliché but let us take a serious look at who and what we are living for.    What lens are we viewing life from? The Eternal or External?  What are our eyes fixed upon or even more important “who” or “what” has our heart?  The challenge is not so much the “what” it is the “who”.  If we get the “who” right then the “what” will follow.  Is your gaze upon your kingdom or God’s Kingdom?  In the book of James we are exhorted to understand that our life is but a vapor.  It’s like the morning fog that evaporates before your eyes.  God desires to get us to understand eternity.  David spoke many times in Psalms about the shortness of life.  He writes in Psalm 39

Psa 39:4 "LORD, make me to know my end, And what [is] the measure of my days, [That] I may know how frail I [am].
Psa 39:5 Indeed, You have made my days [as] handbreadths, And my age [is] as nothing before You; Certainly every man at his best state [is] but vapor. Selah
Psa 39:6 Surely every man walks about like a shadow; Surely they busy themselves in vain; He heaps up [riches], And does not know who will gather them

Look, God doesn’t want us to walk around with a lemon in our mouth and have eyore as our best friend thinkin of death all day, He just desires us to understand that this is not our forever home.  That every day matters to Him.  He knows that the more we comprehend that our lives are about eternity, and it could be closer than you think, it will allow Him to live more fully through us in this present life.  Peter referred to his body as a “tent”. He says in 2 peter 1:13 “Yes I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent…”  You see a tent is not permanent.  It can easily be picked up and moved.  Peter was not staking his life to this external world.  As Christians we must come to an understanding that this is not our residence.  What we see is not always what is going to be.   

Nevertheless here we are and the world tugs at us for our attention.  So now what?  Well God's Word declares that we are in this world but we are not of it.  In other words we dont blend in, we are unique or as Peter puts it "we are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, His special people, sojourners and pilgrims."(see 1 Peter 2:9-11).  We are here but for His purposes not ours.  And God desires to dwell in these tents.  He desires to use us as vessels for His glory and others blessings.  By His Grace He has taken up residents in our hearts to accomplish His will here on earth.  God does care how we live in the here and now.  Our lives do matter to God and we should have a strong desire to allow Him to be alive in us while we are living in this world. 

However sometimes we get off course and our vision becomes blurred and we need to be reminded of our limited time here on this earth.  It may be bad choices that have caused some unwanted circumstances or you’re just a victim of the ripple effect of sin.  Life happens and we are not exempt from trial and tribulations.  It may be a bad marriage, it may be a death in the family, it may be a call from the doctor that it’s not getting any better, it may be bankruptcy, it may be past sin that is causing tremendous guilt, it may be a loss of a job, it may be depression, it may be your child has walked away.  Whatever it is, God is asking you to get your focus back on Him.  To look to Jesus Christ and the Cross and His Resurrection.  To see beyond these external problems and come to Him who is Almighty, Everlasting, and Eternal.  To allow Him to accomplish His work in and through the situations for His purposes.   To see that He will take these circumstances and use them for someone else’s encouragement .  And to fully know that one day we will be home in Glory with Him. 

You may be on the cold side of the pillow and you’re doing very well.  Job is great.  Just got a promotion and a pay raise.  Marriage is good.  Finances are booming.  Your investments are getting a great return.  So now your striving forward to build that new house, get that new vehicle, planning to take that 2 week vacation to the Bahamas.  And God is saying wait!  Stop!  Don’t forget about my work I want to do through you.  You’re too busy about “things” that will have no bearing for eternity.  Your plans and efforts have not revovled around Me!  You haven’t sought my will in any of these things.  You’re to busy about the wrong business.  He is asking you to stop for a moment.  Take a breath.  Get humbly before Me and spend time with Me that I may share my Heart with you in these matters.  He may ask you to go build an orphanage instead of a new house.  He may ask you to buy a vehicle for the single mother who takes the bus to work every day.  He may ask you to withdraw your investments and give it to a local family in need.  He may ask you to go on a mission’s trip instead of to the Bahamas. He may even tell you not to take the promotion because He knows it will take away time from your eternal purposes. 

Take a moment to look 100 years from now and vision you before our Lord.  Now ask yourself what i would do differently.  At this moment take those answers and bring them prayerfully before the Lord and by the power of the Holy Spirit start taking some action.  Don't allow fear of man, the pride of self and the what ifs to quench the Spirit of God.   

So whether on the Mountaintop of life or in the Valley of life let us keep the eternal perspective.  Live with the end in mind.  And know that you have bought with price:  The blood of Jesus Christ. 

If you do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ and have not come to a saving knowledge of Him then today is the day.  If you are a Christian and are walking in habitual disobedience then today is the day.   If you are Christian and are discouraged over life then today is the day.  If you are any of these persons then please first open God’s Word and Pray.  Then for further assistance please leave a message on this site and we contact you. 

Galatians 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ,” Paul declared. “Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but it’s Christ Who lives in me”

It’s not a matter of trying to be like Jesus. It’s not keeping outward rituals or spiritual customs, as the people were doing in Jeremiah’s day. Growth in the Christian life comes from saying, “I’m a sinner, Lord, and the only way I can be changed is by You forgiving Me through Your blood and living in me through Your Spirit. So I come to You with brokenness and honesty, asking You to live Your life through me.” - Jon Courson