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Psalm 27 a Confident Cry to God

2/25/2023

Psalms 27:1‭-‬14 NLT The Lord is my light and my salvation— so why should I be afraid? The Lord is my fortress, protecting me from danger, so why should I tremble? When evil people come to devour me, when my enemies and foes attack me, they will stumble and fall. Though a mighty army surrounds me, my heart will not be afraid. Even if I am attacked, I will remain confident. The one thing I ask of the Lord— the thing I seek most— is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, delighting in the Lord’s perfections and meditating in his Temple. For he will conceal me there when troubles come; he will hide me in his sanctuary. He will place me out of reach on a high rock. Then I will hold my head high above my enemies who surround me. At his sanctuary I will offer sacrifices with shouts of joy, singing and praising the Lord with music. Hear me as I pray, O Lord. Be merciful and answer me! My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me.” And my heart responds, “Lord, I am coming.” Do not turn your back on me. Do not reject your servant in anger. You have always been my helper. Don’t leave me now; don’t abandon me, O God of my salvation! Even if my father and mother abandon me, the Lord will hold me close. Teach me how to live, O Lord. Lead me along the right path, for my enemies are waiting for me. Do not let me fall into their hands. For they accuse me of things I’ve never done; with every breath they threaten me with violence. Yet I am confident I will see the Lord’s goodness while I am here in the land of the living. Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.

David's Confident Cry

In his lifetime, David endured many circumstances strengthened his which faith in God. His faith came from the relationship he developed with God. God’s faithfulness gave David the confidence to cry to Him for help in many circumstances, and so can we.

We can always remember that:

God loves you.
God has good plans for your life.
God sent His Son, Jesus, for you.
Jesus came to earth for you.
Jesus died on the cross for you.
Jesus rose from the dead and now sits at the right hand of the Father, interceding …for you.
Jesus sent His Holy Spirit to you.
When you surrender your life to Him, the Holy Spirit dwells in you.
The Spirit gives you the power to get through impossibilities.
You are never alone.

Pray Psalm 27

Here is a powerful prayer of Psalm 27 written by Meg Bucher and published on GodTube.com. Make this prayer you own when you are facing difficult circumstances.

Father, you are my light and my salvation- so why should I be afraid?

LORD, you are my fortress, protecting me from danger, so why should I tremble?
When evil people come to devour me, when my enemies and foes attack me, they will stumble and fall. Though a mighty army surrounds me, my heart will not be afraid. Even if I am attacked, I will remain confident.
The one thing I ask of You, LORD- the thing I seek most Is to live in Your house, LORD, all the days of my life, delighting in Your perfections and meditating in this Temple.
For You will conceal me there when troubles come; You will hide me in Your sanctuary. You will place me out of reach on a high rock. Then I will hold my head high above my enemies who surround me. At Your sanctuary, I will offer sacrifices with shouts of joy, singing and praising You, LORD, with music.
Hear me as I pray, O LORD. Be merciful and answer me!

My heart has heard you say, ‘Come and talk with me.’ And my heart responds, ‘Lord I am coming.’ Do not turn your back on me. Do not reject Your servant in anger. You have always been my helper. Don’t leave me now; don’t abandon me,
O God of my salvation! Even if my father and mother abandon me, the LORD will hold me close.

Teach me how to live, O LORD. Lead me along the right path, for my enemies are waiting for me. Do not let me fall into their hands. For they accuse me of things I’ve never done with every breath they threaten me with violence.

Yet I am confident I will see the LORD’s goodness while I am here in the land of the living. Wait patiently for the LORD. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the LORD.”

In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.

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Your Time is Valuable so Use it for Eternity

2/24/2023

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God wants us to know that we are stewards of everything that He has provided and that includes time. However, we view it, “time flies,” moves on, and there is just so much of it. God has given each one of us a measure of time to live in these bodies, because unless Jesus returns first, we will all die.

In this life, you only have a certain amount of time allotted to you. You can’t make time, you can’t borrow time, you can’t save time, and you can’t extend time. You can only use it. God gives to all equally. Others may have more talents, or spiritual gifts but we all have the same amount of time. Every person has sixty minutes to the hour, twenty-four hours to the day, and seven days per week. No matter how rich we are, time cannot be bought. No matter how poor, we cannot receive less. The president of our nation or the CEO of the largest corporation has no more time than you. If you don’t learn to manage your time well, you cannot manage anything else in your life—because your time is your life.

Sometimes we fail to make wise use of the time that God has given us.

We can sometimes just wish or waste our time away.

Time dragged by when we were children. It seemed that Christmas would never come, and we were wishing the days away until it did. The same was true for our birthdays, or until some party, or until school was out. We always want to grow up. We were wishing the time away.

Young children aren’t the only ones that wish time away. When we were teenagers, we fell in love or thought so. A few years must pass before we could marry, so we wished the time away instead of having the patience to say, “Let’s enjoy what we have now. We didn't realize how much responsibility came along with it.

We can be careless with time.

Thoreau said, “You cannot kill time without injuring eternity.” Victor Hugo said, “As short as life is, we can make it shorter still by the careless waste of time.”

There are three things that may take the enthusiasm from the life of the Christian: first, carelessness with prayer; second, carelessness with money and third, carelessness with time. Often these three things make for a dismal life.

We can be ruled by time.

We Americans have more time-saving devices and less time than any other people in the world. We need a better perspective on time. We have an abnormal desire for hectic activity. We admire the person who is always rushing off to keep an appointment. We assume that person must be highly successful. We are time-conscious people. When we use time in the wrong way, time passes and with it our expectations and hopes, unfulfilled, just as buds fall from the trees without having become fruit.

Make Your Time Count

Colossians 4:6 NKJV Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.

One of Satan’s strategies is to get you so busy doing unimportant things that you don’t have time for life’s important things, like preparing for eternity. Satan knows that he doesn’t have to get you to sin; if he can’t get you to be bad, he’ll just get you to be busy.

How you use your time is one of the ways God tests you on Earth as you prepare for eternity. He’s watching to see how you manage your time now to determine what he’s going to have you do in eternity.

Acts 20:24 NIV However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.

How can we “make the most” of our time and opportunities?

We must determine our priorities.

We must decide what to do first. We cannot do everything, so we must decide what we will give time to, and then do it. An old proverb says, “One has to spend money to make money.” It's the same with the time you must spend time to save time. The efficient person who gets the most done in a twenty-four-hour period is the person who has learned to make time work for him or her through careful scheduling, budgeting, and planning. We make time for those things that we consider most important.

We must change our pace.

This is necessary if we are going to avoid high blood pressure, heart disease, and a host of other ills. At least, that we know of, under intense pressure Jesus told his disciples, to chill and rest.

Mark 6:30‭-‬31 NIV The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

We need to concentrate on the main things, not the noise of life that says “Now hear this!” And we had better listen. Jesus urged us to concentrate on the main things the primary things:

Matthew 6:33‭-‬34 NIV But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

This is both a command and a promise and I can tell you from personal experience that this works. It will work for you too, but you must try it.

The Apostle Paul said this.

Philippians 3:12‭-‬14 NIV Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

It was like he was saying that he was not going to waste time worrying about the foolish mistakes and sins of the past but, concerned with the main thing, he was going to press on toward the goal ahead.

We must dedicate our time to God. We need to offer God everything, not only our abilities, our money, our energies, but also our time.

God wants to use you—but he can only do that when you’re investing your time in the most important things. Use your time in view of eternity so God can see that you are focused on the main thing—his purposes.

Romans 8:28‭-‬30 NIV And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. (Emphasis mine)

You’ve got to use your time in view of eternity. You’ve got to ask yourself, “How much of what I’m spending my time on is going to count five or 10 years from now? How much is going to count in eternity?” Then you’ve got to refocus.

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Comparing Yourself With Others Can Easily Become Pride or Envy

2/17/2023

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Who are you letting determine your identity?

Is it your friends and family? Maybe it’s the folk on social media that seem to have it all together. Maybe it’s even you who are comparing yourself to the high school or college classmate who didn’t have the grades that you had but who has accomplished much more than you. We compare everything. We compare our size, our shape, our color, how we talk, and our intelligence. We compare our families, our kids, our jobs, our talents, and even our lawns.

Here’s the problem. Pastor Rick Warren says that “comparing is the root of all envy”. Just like the love of money is the root of all evil means that your priority is money and not God, when you compare yourself with another person you fall prey to pride or envy.

God warns us about comparing yourself to someone else.

2 Corinthians 10:12 NIV We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.

Every time you compare, you fall prey to either pride or envy. When you find someone who’s doing a better job than you, you fill up with envy. When you realize you’re doing a better job than someone else, you become filled with pride.

Always remember that God created you to be unique to be one of a kind. Every one of us is a person of unique and awesome design. We don’t have to measure up to others. Far from being a problem, we can learn to use our personalities constructively. Each one of us has a contribution to make that no one else can. Your unique and specific mannerisms, insights, and style are the very qualities that make you uniquely positioned to fulfill a specific need, the one that God purposed for you.

Ephesians 2:10 NLT For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

You are incomparable.

Galatians 6:4 NLT Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else.

When you get to heaven, God’s rewards won’t be based on talent you didn’t have or opportunities you weren’t given. He will reward you based on how you lived and what you did with what you were given. Salvation is by grace, not by works, but rewards are according to the works of the believer. Salvation is a gift; rewards are earned.

God has called you to be the best you can be in light of your background, experiences, and the talent that he’s given you. It’s time to stop focusing on others and instead make the most of those gifts that are uniquely yours.

There’s no need to compare yourself with others. In fact, you can’t focus on your own purpose while you’re focusing on other people.

Romans 8:29 NLT For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
When you get to heaven, God won’t say, “Why weren’t you more like this person or that person?” No, instead he’ll ask, “Why weren’t you more like the person I purposed you to be?”

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Having Assurance of Salvation and Discerning True Versus False Teaching are Two Sides of the Same Coin.

2/16/2023

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For a long time, I have been burdened by the fact that the church is full of false teachers and prophets. Their teaching has damaged, even destroyed many in the church. Many, although not all, of these teachers lead large congregations and have huge organizations and thousands of followers. I have prayed for years against false teaching and specifically that false teachers and prophets be identified, exposed, rejected, and discredited. This post is my extension of that prayer and to my readers to help you identify, expose, and discredit the false teaching that is running rampant throughout the Body of Christ.

2 Timothy 4:2‭-‬5 HCSB Proclaim the message; persist in it whether convenient or not; rebuke, correct, and encourage with great patience and teaching. For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear something new. They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths. But as for you, be serious about everything, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

About three-quarters of all Americans believe Jesus was a real person, born in Bethlehem. These people will even say He’s the Son of God. Less than half, however, according to a recent study by LifeWay Research, think Jesus existed prior to the Incarnation. They don’t view Him as coeternal with the Father.

That’s a problem because most Americans see Jesus as only human and not divine.

This is a false belief and must be rejected.

There have always been false prophets and teachers

In the Old Testament, we find prophets in Israel who claimed to speak for God, but who were clearly false prophets.

1 Kings 22:5-6, 23 (HCSB)5 But Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “First, please ask what the LORD’s will is.”6 So the king of Israel gathered the prophets, about 400 men, and asked them, “Should I go against Ramoth-gilead for war or should I refrain?” They replied, “March up, and the Lord will hand it over to the king.”23 “You see, the LORD has put a lying spirit into the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and the LORD has pronounced disaster against you.”

Ezekiel 13:2 (HCSB)2 “Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who are prophesying. Say to those who prophesy out of their own imagination: Hear the word of the LORD!

Jesus warned us about false prophets.

Matthew 24:24-27 (HCSB)24 False messiahs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.25 Take note: I have told you in advance.26 So if they tell you, ‘Look, He’s in the wilderness!’ don’t go out; ‘Look, He’s in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it.27 For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

There were also other warnings.

2 Peter 2:1 (HCSB)1 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, and will bring swift destruction on themselves.

2 Peter 3:3 (HCSB)3 First, be aware of this: Scoffers will come in the last days to scoff, living according to their own desires,

Jude 1:17-19 (HCSB)17 But you, dear friends, remember what was predicted by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ;18 they told you, “In the end time there will be scoffers walking according to their own ungodly desires.”19 These people create divisions and are unbelievers, not having the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 11:12-15 (HCSB)12 But I will continue to do what I am doing, in order to deny the opportunity of those who want an opportunity to be regarded just as our equals in what they boast about.13 For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.14 And no wonder! For Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.15 So it is no great thing if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their destiny will be according to their works.

The Apostle John wrote extensively about false prophets he called them antichrists.

1 John 2:18 HCSB Children, it is the last hour. And as you have heard, “Antichrist is coming,” even now many antichrists have come. We know from this that it is the last hour.

John urges believers to exercise spiritual critical thinking skills and “test the spirits to see whether they are from God”

1 John 4:1 HCSB Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to determine if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

In John’s day Gnostics were teaching that Christ did not come in the flesh. Those who believed in a real Incarnation were from God, while those who did not were not from God.

1 John 4:2‭-‬3 HCSB This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. But every spirit who does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist; you have heard that he is coming, and he is already in the world now.

While it’s important for us to discern false teaching, we can rest assured that God is “greater” and has already won the victory over it.

1 John 4:4‭-‬5 HCSB You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world. Therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them.

Many teachings may be popular with the world, but they are not from God. Again, John contrasts the two kingdoms: One is marked by light, truth, life, and salvation. While the other is darkness, lies, death, and condemnation.

1 John 1:5‭-‬7 HCSB
Now this is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in Him. If we say, “We have fellowship with Him,” yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth. But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

Being sure of our identity in Christ (assurance of salvation) and discerning true versus false teaching are two sides of the same coin. The Holy Spirit inside us testifies to the truth that we are God’s children. The same Spirit helps us determine what beliefs and teachings are biblically true or untrue. When we listen to Him, we stay on the right path

1 John 4:6 HCSB We are from God. Anyone who knows God listens to us; anyone who is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.

Let's work together to rid the Body of Christ of the false teaching that casts a shadow over the love of God for mankind, the sacrifice of Jesus for our sin, and the power of the Holy Spirit to sustain us.

My prayer;

We are easily deceived, Lord. Teach us to rely on Your Spirit’s leading. The better we know Your voice and Your ways, the better we can recognize those who truly serve You and resist deceivers. In Jesus’ name Amen

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Psalm 27 a Confident Cry to God

Your Time is Valuable so Use it for Eternity

Comparing Yourself With Others Can Easily Become Pride or Envy

Having Assurance of Salvation and Discerning True Versus False Teaching are Two Sides of the Same Coin.

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