A Prophetic Word

Living in abundance 5/19 - 5/25

I recently had a conversation with someone that’s going through problems in their lives.  They were at their wits end and said what can I do life is a struggle then you die.  This interaction led me to consider how I look at life when struggles enter.    First thing I need to remember is that God is the creator of life.  Psalm 100:3 says, Know that the Lord is God.  It is He that has made us and not we ourselves.   Because man is made in God’s own image (Genesis 1:27), each life is of great value to God.  When troubles come, we also need to remember that as long as God is with you, we have everything that we need.

I remember hearing a Sunday School teacher say, if you never suffered:

How would you know that God is a healer.
How would you know God is a provider.
How would you know God is a restorer.
How would you know that God answers prayers.
How would you know God is a protector.
How would you know God is a problem solver.
How would you know God is a heart fixer and mind regulator.
How would you know that God is with you always.

The first thing that's very important is to make sure your walk is right with God.   Always keep in mind that when you're presented with a opportunity to sin, there's also an opportunity to turn away.  Also consider when you know the situation is a sinful one and still decide to walk down that road, God cannot go with you.  That's why repentance is necessary.  The rule is sin causes God to separate from us, but repentance brings Him back.

The keys to abundant living are:
Have a active prayer life.
    Pray without ceasing.
    Pray for one another, for governmental authorities, for families, for spouses, for kids, for church members, for preachers, for bosses and for co-workers.
    Pray for direction, guidance, wisdom & protection.
    Confess your sins, pray for forgiveness and repent.
    Pray for the sick, lonely, for those that are suffering and for those that are broken hearted.
    Pray prayers of intercession.  Even if they say they are praying, still pray for them anyway.  Much prayer, much power.
Pray for your enemies and for those that despitefully use you.
Think positive thoughts and keep your mind free from even thinking of committing sins.
Flee from sin.  Don't even let sin creep up in your mind.
Seek God's approval first and his righteousness.
Discover your gifts and/or talents.
Work in your gift/talents, speak it into existence, praise God in advance for your accomplishments, have faith, write a plan and carry it out.
Sow spiritual seeds.  Remember you reap what you sow.
If you say you are saved, then walk and live as if you're saved.
    Talk the talk, walk the walk.

Did You Know?

This segment will highlight facts, little know people and insightful inspirational nuggets to further implant God, God's word & Godly things into our lives. This week we will highlight God.

• Just as God has special ways to keep the sun, moon, and stars in place, He also wants you to know the facts that will make you safe and keep you in a loving relationship with Him.


• God loves you and wants to show you His wonderful plan for your life!


• Regardless of what people say, God is the creator of the earth and everything that’s in it, and what God has created He says is good. God loves us even if He doesn't love our sins.


• God created us to seek His will for our lives, to praise Him on earth like we would when we are in heaven, to study His words diligently, to pray to Him daily, and to build a close relationship with Him, like we’re family.


• God has given His people a call to be set apart from the world. He has given His people a call to be holy.


• In His Word, God gives us principles that guide our walk into holiness.


• Disobeying God’s rules is sin. A sin is an act that violates a known moral rule. The term sin may also refer to the state of having committed such a violation. Sin causes closeness to God to be broken, and causes separation between us and Him.


• The true Christian obeys God because of what God has done for him in Christ. We obey Him out of gratitude for what He has done for us. We obey Him because we love Him, and we love Him because He first loved us and died for us on the cross.

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APPROVAL

We’d discover that the only approval we need is God’s. How many of us try to win others’ approval? Perhaps we dress in the popular fashion, use language that really isn’t appropriate, or even compromise our integrity to be in the “in crowd,” get a good grade, get a promotion, or win an account. 

What if, instead of doing things to please others, we do things to please God? What if we take to heart the passage from 2 Timothy?

• “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved by him…” (NRSV).
• “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God…” (NASB).
• “Concentrate on doing your best for God…” (The Message).
• “For yourself, concentrate on winning God’s approval…” (Phillips).
• “Study and be eager and do your utmost to present yourself to God approved (tested by trial)…” (AMP).

This sure would make life easier. We wouldn’t have to worry about others’ opinions, which change quickly. Polls show us how temporary approval ratings are. People are changeable; God is changeless. 

Nothing is more lasting, more satisfying, and more rewarding than God’s approval. And you know what? We already have it! God is very pleased with His creation: “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good” (Gen 1:31 NRSV). God always sees us as His beloved children. Knowing that God’s stamp of approval is already on us helps us make choices that reflect the good God already sees in us. When we concentrate on God, we are able to know what God approves. 

If we’re ever wondering or confused about what God approves, we can get quiet and ask ourselves, “Would this thought, word, or behavior be acceptable to God? What would God want me to do?” We can trust that we’ll get our answer. But we have to be willing to change our thoughts and actions if we get a “no” answer. We have to have the courage to do only those things that are approved by God. We know God wants to bless us. So if the action doesn’t bless, then it won’t have God’s approval. Acting with God’s approval keeps us safe and satisfied; it makes us truly happy.

STUDY TO KNOW AND FEEL GOD’S APPROVAL

By Marjorie Foerster Eddington

What do we study? Homework, English, math, music, dance, business models, the stock market, politics, fashion, people, how to do something?

Why do we study? To get good grades, perform with excellence, get a raise, start a business, know about the world, succeed financially, learn, win approval from someone?

We read in the Bible, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Tim 2:15 KJV).

How would our lives change if we really studied God and what God knows about us?

Relationship Status Check: 5/12 - 5/18

God & You: Assessing Your Relationship 

 I was spurred into thought about this topic by an article called “A Challenge to Your Faith” by Keturah Alvin recently. She asked several very pointed questions in the article, such as:

• Do you really trust God in even the worst situation or circumstance?
• What if the doctor tells you that you only have 6 months to live?
• What if your employer hands you a pink slip?
• What if your child is strung out on drugs?

Where is your faith then? ? Is it made void by the harsh circumstances of life? ?Is it replaced by fear and disbelief?? Can you stand firm and unwavering in your faith even if others call you nuts because they don’t understand?”

My feeble attempt reflects my personal perspective, based on what I perceive that God is saying we should be doing through the Bible. I don’t pretend to have the definitive answers or any unusual level of insight in this area, and frankly I don’t score nearly as well as I should using this – I think fairly objective – set of criteria. But I do think it makes for a very interesting spiritual exercise. After assessing your own situation based on these criteria, I’d appreciate hearing your feedback. Do you think that an objective set of descriptions is possible, practical, or useful? If so, what kinds of things would you included that are not listed here, and which elements do you think are not relevant? What do you think?

Even David sinned - A man after God's heart

2 Samuel 11:2-5 One late afternoon, David got up from taking his nap and was strolling on the roof of the palace. From his vantage point on the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was stunningly beautiful. David sent to ask about her, and was told, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam and wife of Uriah the Hittite?” David sent his agents to get her. After she arrived, he went to bed with her. (This occurred during the time of “purification” following her period.) Then she returned home. Before long she realized she was pregnant.

As David walked on the roof of his house one evening, he saw a beautiful woman taking a bath. Someone told him she was Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, a Hittite soldier off fighting with David’s army. David should have put Bathsheba out of his mind when he heard she was married, but he didn’t. 

2 Samuel 11:5-13

David asked Joab, a commander in chief of King in his army, for news on the war.  Chapter 11 begins with David ordering the Ammonites to be destroyed for good.  Uriah was a solider fighting in this war.  After giving a report to David, Uriah was given instructions to go home and get a good night's sleep.  Verse 11 says Uriah responds to David “The ark, Israel, and Judah, are out there in tents, Joab and his servants are roughing it out in the fields. So, how can I go home and eat and drink and enjoy my wife? On your life, I’ll not do it!”  Verse 13 says
The next day David invited him to eat and drink with him, and David got him drunk. But Uriah still didn’t go home.

The Malicious Murder Plot
David instructed Joab to  put Uriah on the front line where the fighting was the fiercest and have the soldiers pulled back so Uriah will be exposed and killed.    The end result The enemy was too much for them. They advanced on them in the open field, and they were pushed back to the city gate.  Eighteen of the king’s soldiers died, including Uriah.  2 Samuel 11:14-27.

Covetousness 5/6 - 5/12

The Characteristics of Coveting

"You must not covet your neighbor's house. You must not covet your neighbor's wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor." (Exodus 20:12-17)

 As we search the Scriptures we learn that the coveting which is forbidden in the Tenth Commandment (and elsewhere in the Bible) has certain characteristics, which make it possible to identify this evil in it various forms:

(1) Coveting is a desire. It is a matter of the heart, an attitude, a matter of strong emotion. As such, coveting is somewhat unique among the evils condemned by the commandments. The evils prohibited by the other commandments were such that one could be tried and found guilty of committing a certain act. This act was based upon attitudes, of course, but a society cannot convict people for what they are thinking and feeling. The final commandment is a forbidden feeling, as it were, not a forbidden act.

(2) Coveting is a strong desire. Coveting is a desire, a motivation so strong that the one who covets something will have it if there is any way possible to do so, even if it involves evil. Coveting is a consuming desire, which is highly competitive. It is an evil attitude, which will likely lead to an evil act. Coveting is a kind of conspiracy in one’s soul to commit evil.

(3) The coveting which the Tenth Commandment condemns is the desire to have something which one does not have, or which one does not think he or she has enough of. In brief, coveting wants more. It is not content with what it already has, no matter how much that might be. As Habakkuk put it, “He enlarges his appetite like Sheol, And he is like death, never satisfied” (Hab. 2:5).

Ecclesiastes also describes the futility of the man who is discontent with what he has:
There was a certain man without a dependent, having neither a son nor a brother, yet there was no end to all his labor. Indeed, his eyes were not satisfied with riches and he never asked, “And for whom am I laboring and depriving myself of pleasure?” This too is vanity and it is a grievous task (Ecc. 4:8).

(4) Coveting wants not only what one does not have, but what one cannot have. Coveting wants what is forbidden, that which belongs to another and which cannot be obtained. It is possible, of course to buy a neighbor’s animal, but not his wife. The assumption here, I believe, is that what we covet is what we cannot have, that is, what our neighbor either cannot give up (like his wife, or his land), or what he will not give up.

(5) Coveting is a deliberate desire, of which one is conscious, and for which one is responsible. The coveting which this commandment forbids is one for which the individual is responsible. In effect, the individual is held accountable for discovering the sin, and for dealing with it. This is necessary because no other human being can know our thoughts. God thus holds us responsible for what we determine in our hearts and minds.

(6) The coveting which the commandment prohibits is a well defined desire. Coveting must be distinguished from lust. Lust is a general desire. Greed is a lust for money and possessions. Coveting is a specific, focused desire, a desire to have a particular thing, which belongs to a particular person. Greed may desire money or material things; coveting desires our neighbor’s car, or his house, or his wife. Coveting is lust well defined and specifically focused. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor” (Exod. 20:17).

(7) Coveting is a selfish desire, which is willing to gain at the expense of others. The covetousness which is condemned is that which wants what one’s neighbor has. This kind of covetousness is clearly self-centered.

Do not weary yourself to gain wealth. Cease from your consideration of it. When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings, Like an eagle that flies toward the heavens. Do not eat the bread of a selfish man, Or desire his delicacies; For as he thinks within himself, so he is. He says to you, “Eat and drink!” But his heart is not with you. You will vomit up the morsel you have eaten, And waste your compliments (Prov. 23:4-8).

(8) Coveting is a devious desire that is complex and complicated, which is often well concealed. The heart, we are told, is deceitful and desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9). We must expect that covetousness, which is a matter of the heart, is deceitful and deceptive, and that it may be well disguised.

(9) Covetousness is a detrimental, destructive, desire. One of the reasons why covetousness is condemned is because of its consistently detrimental effects. There are several dimensions of this destructive impact of covetousness. First, covetousness hinders the generosity which God requires of His people.

Praise and Worship

Praise and Worship is an important aspect of our spiritual well being.  We worship God to glorify, honor, praise, exalt, and please Him. Our worship must show our reverence, adoration and loyalty to God for His grace, blessing, protection, loyalty and love He constantly gives us.

Whether we know it or not, sin puts us in bondage.  God wants us to be free to live our lives without the restraints of consequences and judgment that sin brings.  God is a God of order, love, timing, peace and unity.

When entering worship we must prostrate of our souls before Him in humility, openness and repentance to be able to commune with Him.

James 4:6, 10 tells us, "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up". Our worship to God is a very humble and reverent action.

Jesus says in John 4:23-24, "But the hour is coming, and now is, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is a spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth."

Praising and worshiping

Praising and worshiping God creates the atmosphere for His presence. Like any atmosphere it must be ideal for Him to dwell with us. Just like a fish has water or plants have the earth, God's presence or His glory dwell in the atmosphere where He is praised and worshiped.

Need a reason to praise Him?

Psalm 150:1-6 ESV / 

Praise God becuase your in His sanctuary; Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! ...

Psalm 100:2 ESV /

Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!

Psalm 150:6 ESV / 

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!

Colossians 3:16 ESV / 

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Hebrews 13:15 ESV /

Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.

Psalm 117:1-2 ESV /

Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol him, all peoples! For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord!