Sweet Lies by AD

Genesis 3:1-7

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

² The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³ but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

⁴ “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. ⁵ “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. ⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

From the beginning of time we have been attracted to things that look desirable to our eyes and desirable to our senses.  An example is Eve, the serpent approached her using her visual senses and lied to her so she may believe that the forbidden fruit is sweet and will give her good benefits. But it was a sweet lie. She accepted that lie because it spoke to her senses and emotions and ultimately she disobeyed God and lost everything.

The enemy will use the things that interest us, to do lead us into sin.  Even if the object of our interest isn’t sin, he can lead us into total obsession or dependence where we end up spending our time, mindshare and effort in that area, leaving us to ignore God.

But God doesn’t forsake us, He was there for Eve when she sinned and He is there for us today through His Son Jesus-Christ who is faithful and just to forgive us from our sins, all we need to do is confess and repent.

 

 

Desires by AD

Psalm 42: 1-2
As the deer pants for streams of water,
    so my soul pants for you, my God.
² My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
    When can I go and meet with God?

Each of us are created with a innate desire to find our creator and love Him. Often times we try fulfill this part of us by searching for things with only a temporary fulfillment.  Things like, food, clothes, money, school, work, friends, relationships. But in all these things our heart is not 100% satisfied, which leads to search further.

The above verse uses the deer as an example to illustrate our souls  desire to long  for God.  When a deer is running through the forest and it is hot or humid and is being hunted, it begins to want and need water.  And when it finds water it begins to gulp it down until satisfied.

Often times my heart longs for other things and I begin to feel distant from God. That is when I turn to the Bible and read this verse and make it my prayer. I ask God to increase my desire for Him or if I desire Him I pray for more of His presence. No  matter where you are in your spiritual walk this verse applies.

Take a moment to reflect in this verse and pray for God to put inside of you a desire to long after Him or increase the desire that you do have for Him.

 

Be truthful- Billy Graham

The Bible teaches that purity of conduct includes truthfulness. The Bible teaches that we should be truthful in our representation of ourselves. With what scorn Christ denounced the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees! In the Sermon on the Mount He rebuked all hypocritical giving, praying, and fasting. We should also be truthful in speaking of our past achievements in our particular vocation. God does not ask us to understate the facts—that might even be untruthfulness—but neither does He want us to overrate our achievements or our gifts, either in thought or in speech. A lie is anything contrary to the naked truth.

Daily Prayer

It is so easy, Lord, to embellish the truth. Give me Your wisdom to be completely honest in every phase of my life.

A Daily Process: Billy Graham

He who hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
–Philippians 1:6

Being a Christian is more than just an instantaneous conversion. It is a daily process whereby you grow to be more and more like Christ. When you start out, you start out as a baby. You must be fed on the simple things of the Bible, and you learn to walk in your Christian life gradually. At first you will fall down and make many mistakes, but you are to continue growing. However, there are many people who have stopped growing. They remain spiritual babies all their lives. I am afraid that this experience is all too common today. Perhaps it is yours.

Do you remember the day when you gave your heart and life to Christ? You were sure of victory. How easy it seemed to be more than conqueror through Christ who loved you. Thousands of Christians have struggles with themselves. The great need in Christendom today is for Christians to learn the secret of daily victory over sin.

PRAYER FOR THE DAY

Father, I fall so many times but how lovingly You give me Your strength to endure.

Waiting doesn't come easy by Max Lucado

Waiting is easier said than done! Waiting doesn’t come easy for me. I’ve been in a hurry all my life. Pedal faster, drive quicker. I used to wear my wristwatch on the inside of my arm so I wouldn’t lose the millisecond it took to turn my wrist.  What insanity!

I wonder if I could’ve obeyed God’s ancient command to keep the Sabbath holy.  To slow life to a crawl for twenty-four hours? The Sabbath was created for frantic souls like me; people who need this weekly reminder: the world will not stop if you do! Isaiah 40:31 promises, “Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

Fresh strength. Legs that don’t grow weary. Wait on the Lord—He will bring rest to your soul!

Test are Temporary by Max Lucado

All tests are temporary, limited in duration. 1 Peter 1:6 says, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.”  Some tests end on earth, but all tests will end in heaven, right?
In the meantime, let God train you.  He watches the way you handle the little jobs. Jesus promised in Matthew 25:21, “If you are faithful over a few matters, I will set you over many.” Do you aspire to great things?  Excel in the small things. Don’t complain.  Let others grumble.  Not you. When you’re given a task, take it. When you see a hurt, address it.  Compassion matters to God.
This is the time for service, not self-centeredness. Cancel the pity party.  Love the people God brings to you. He will work in you what is pleasing to Himself.  And you will get through this!

God is close by Ricke Warren

“The Lord is near to all who call on him.” (Psalm 145:18)

God is not as far away as the furthest star. He’s as close as your next heartbeat. He’s right there with you every moment. The Bible says in Acts 17:27, “God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us” (NIV).

You might feel like God is a million miles away. But your feelings and reality don’t always match — we all know that’s true. The truth is, God is with you right now.

Because he is a close Father:

God is never too busy for you. That’s how close he is. That’s the kind of love that he has. Psalm 145:18 says, “The Lord is near to all who call on him.” Every time you call, God is near. He thinks about you a lot more than you think about him. He thought about you before you were born. He thinks about you every moment of every day. The truth is that too many times, we get too busy for God. But he never gets too busy for us.

God loves to meet your needs. He doesn’t do it begrudgingly. He loves it! Mathew 7:11 says, “If you ... know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” You can enjoy the fact that God enjoys giving good gifts to you.

God is sympathetic to your hurts. Some of you are going through something tough this week, and you need this verse: “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34:18).

God is close to you, and he understands. Turn to him.

Talk It Over

• What do you need to call on God for today?
• What changes do you need to make in your life so that you are not too busy for God?

Revolutionary Love By Kenneth Copeland

Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances and it endures everything [without weakening]. Love never fails--never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end.

– 1 Corinthians 13:7-8

Love never fails. Nothing works without it, and there can be no failure with it. When you live by love, you cannot fail.

It takes faith to believe that love's way will not fail. The natural mind cannot understand that because the natural man and his world are ruled by selfishness.

But when you practice love by faith and refuse to seek your own, you put the Father into action on your behalf. As long as you stay in love, God the Father seeks your own. He sees to it that you succeed. Walking in love is to your great advantage!

Agape love is a new kind of power. It makes you master of every situation. No weapon that is formed against you will prosper. No one even has the power to hurt your feelings because you are not ruled by feelings but by God's love. You are loving as He loves.

This love is revolutionary. If we fully understood the great return from living God's love, we'd probably be competing with each other, each of us trying to love the other more. And without a doubt, everyone would emerge from that competition a winner! For love is truly the only sure secret to our success.

Genesis 50:20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

Everyone has a story. I have a story. You have a story. And chances are, there are large dark spots in your story, like there are in mine, places where someone we loved disappointed us, even took advantage of us. I’ve been fortune to have grown up in a loving, wonderful household. I was blessed with two parents who loved the Lord and raised with me with love and grace.
But most of the young people I encounter don’t share this good fortune. The canvas of their childhood is marred with ugly spots. An abusive, alcoholic father. A neglectful mother. Verbal abuse. Sexual abuse. Poor teachers, angry coaches, cruel siblings.
This is the baggage, the junk of life in a fallen world. But while your past is part of your story and you’d do well to work through it, it doesn’t have to be the main story. You don’t have to be defined by what happened to you. You don’t have to be a victim.
We have a tendency to want to use the abuses of our past as an excuse for our own failings. And in some ways, the patterns we learned in childhood, the empty places in our souls—these are catalysts for negative behavior.
And yet we don’t have to be defined by what happened to us. God through Christ offers us to the opportunity to rewrite the script. We can be renewed. We can embrace His plan. We can have confidence that we don’t have to stay the way we are simply because that’s the way we are. We can change and grow.
But sadly, here is what I find with many Christians. They grow comfortable in their misery. Rather than face the reality of their own sin and tap into the beautiful cleansing grace of God, they like to swim in the pool of their past, using their circumstances as a weapon against the God who wants to restore them to their original purpose.
In some ways, we’re all victims. We live in a fallen world and so life has handed us many unfortunate things. Some have suffered more than others. But I’m finding that spiritual success is not tied to how much you have suffered, but how you handle it. Do you allow God to use the trial to chisel away at the unredeemed parts of your heart or do you hang onto bitterness so you can have a ready excuse for your sin?
I know some who have suffered extraordinarily and yet they have gone farther in life than they should have. One of my best friends never knew his father, yet he became a terrific father and is now a grandfather. He’s a great leader in our church. He could have played the victim, but didn’t.
You’ll have all kinds of opportunities to blame others for the life you live. And you can do that if you want. But if you really want to experience God’s great joy, you’d release your bitterness to the Lord and allow Him to use your trials for your good and His glory

Intergrity and Credibility

Matthew 5:34-37  But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; ³⁵ or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. ³⁶ And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. ³⁷ All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one

Have you ever been in a conversation with somebody and you didn't quite believe what he or she was saying? Maybe this person has a history of exaggerating the truth a little bit to make the stories seem cooler. Or perhaps this person is known to make promises that are never kept. Whatever the reason, you believe this persons story lacks credibility. Sensing your disbelief this person says "Right hand to God that's what happened", or, "I swear on a stack of Bible that it's the truth".

Do these phrases annoy you? If so, you're not alone. Jesus doesn't care for stuff like that either. First of all, it's demeaning to God. But Jesus also points out that if you have to resort to calling on God's name as a way to convince people to believe what you are saying, perhaps you're not a person of integrity.

Jesus simply says, "let your yes be yes, and your no mean no". In other words, people should believe what you are saying because you always speak with truth and honesty. People should be able to trust you because you never gossip and you are always faithful to your promises.

With all their Heart

God makes certain, special promises to those who determine to seek Him with all their hearts. One such promise is a covenant of His presence.

However, this covenant is strictly conditional. Scripture makes it clear that if we abide by the rule of this covenant, we will enjoy the incredible blessing of God's presence in our lives. And this does not refer only to issues of salvation. It speaks of being such seekers after God that His awesome presence is poured out on us and it is seen and known by all.

God revealed this covenant of His presence through an unnamed prophet who delivered a message to Eli, the high priest of Israel. At the time, Eli was backslidden. The Lord had been speaking to him, warning him against allowing sin and compromise. But Eli had ignored all of God's words. Now this unnamed prophet said to Eli, "The Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now the Lord saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed" (I Samuel 2:30).

The phrase "lightly esteemed" has to do with the lifting of God’s presence. This does not mean a person is damned, but rather that he will have to walk in the power of his own flesh. God was telling Eli, "I intended to bless your house, to favor you. But you have scorned me, becoming soft on sin and allowing your lusts to push me aside. Now I will take My presence from you."

Many people come to Christ with a great, initial burst of faith. Yet over time their zeal wears thin, and they begin to neglect the Lord. They “lightly esteem” His commands and turn back to their old, sinful ways. Yet they still believe God's presence remains with them. But that is a lie, a delusion. The Bible makes it clear that if you forsake Him, He will forsake you!