I am Content

 I  think we all want to enjoy our life, having food and shelter and a degree of health. In Christ we can enjoy life and in him we have our being.   In our flesh nature we worry about things. I recently found that my recurring cough was the result of congestive heart failure. We murmur and complain thinking of the worst possible things that await us. No, we are not to do that if we trust in God, in Jesus Christ His Son. All is well.

Php 4:11  Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. 

Do you have the Spirit of God to comfort, to help you and to give you peace? We live by faith in Jesus and rejoice in the knowledge that Christ loves us.

Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. 

A young friend likes to quote from Proverbs,

Pro 3:5  Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 

Pro 3:6  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. 

Pro 3:7  Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. 

Do you have a problem? God has this. Trust in the LORD with all your heart. All things are under His authority.

The Light

Last week as I was driving at night in a heavy rain, suddenly my car was out of control. I felt the bump of the curb, I swerved to miss a telephone pole. There was a burst of glass looking like an ice storm, oh no!  I finally came to a stop inside an antique store. It happened so fast. I was unhurt and very sorry for the destruction that I had caused.

I was to share from the Bible the next morning in our Fellowship Breakfast at a restaurant, but was not up to it.  The topic was what does it mean for a follower of Jesus to be the light of the world. I was not feeling so much as being the light.  Sometimes we look to the past thinking how we could do things then that we no longer can do.  We look at relationships, some good, some not so good.  Leave them where they are and hold onto what is good, or kind.  This morning I awoke from a dream of hard things that I had to do and was unable  to do now in my dream. I awoke saying to myself, when I had the hard things to do, I also had what was needed to do the job. It was done and I no longer am required to do that hard thing. I am no longer in bondage to this.  A Bible verse came to me:  

John 9:4  I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. 

John 9:5  As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. 

We are alive. We can still do things. We can share the good things of God, It is still the light of day.  When the darkness comes we will not be able to have the here and now of walking in the daylight.   There is the darkness of sin, or coming persecution or even illness or death. Can we still now get up and think?  Can we share goodness and kindness?  Then we are the light of the world. Some may already be in darkness. Bring them the light as Jesus has commanded. "I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. "

The Missing Truth

 Is there something missing in your life?  A person that I know who was a scholar and a seeker of truth in a  University, confided that she did not find truth in all of her studies.  Something is missing from our education, our pursuit of power, wealth and pleasure. What is missing is God.  We need God to find our way. His wisdom and his grace we need. We were created in the image of God. He was not our creation, He created all things and made us with a purpose and a plan for our life.  Our sins had separated us from God. God knowing that we were lost  and unable to connect with Him, He sent Jesus His Son to be the way of salvation and restoration. His suffering and death paid the price to free us from condemnation. By faith in Jesus we are restored into fellowship with Almighty God. Jesus lives and by faith in him we live again in our spirit, being born again.

Hebrews 11:6  Without faith no one can please God. Whoever comes to God must believe that he is real and that he rewards those who sincerely try to find him. 

John 14:6  Jesus answered, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. The only way to the Father is through me.

Come to God, through faith in Jesus Christ.

 

Omniscient God

 God spoke everything into existence. He is everywhere and he is omniscient; He knows everything, he has all knowledge. He knows the past, present and future. He knows what our soul thinks is true and he knows what really is true. As a child I remembered the Christmas song that said that Santa knows if you have "been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake."  When we become an adult we put aside the kids story of Santa but we still are accountable to our Omniscient God. He knows our behavior and he offers to us the most awesome gift of all. He gave Jesus his son to save us from the punishment for our sins . He forgives our bad and leads us into a life full of blessings.

Psa 147:4  He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names. 

Psa 147:5  Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure. 

Psa 147:6  The LORD lifts up the humble; he casts the wicked to the ground. 

Rom 11:33  Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 

Mat 10:28  And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 

Mat 10:29  Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 

Mat 10:30  But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. 

Mat 10:31  Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. 

God really does know all about you and what he wants for you to do,  He loves us and will correct us for our good.

Omnipresent God

On the cover of Time magazine in 1966 was the statement "Is God dead?"  One of the comments in the article was that people were too busy to seek him.  Hal Lindsey, evangelist and author shares that If anyone responds to this knowledge that God exists, God will move heaven and earth to meet with him. 

God is omnipresent. Omnipresence is God's characteristic of being present to all ranges of both time and space. Although God is present in all time and space, God is not locally limited to any time or space. God is everywhere and in every now. No molecule or atomic particle is so small that God is not fully present to it, and no galaxy so vast that God does not circumscribe it.

Jer 23:23  “Am I a God at hand, declares the LORD, and not a God far away? 

Jer 23:24  Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the LORD. 

 When my oldest brother was president of a manufacturing plant. He usually stayed separate from the workers, staying in the office. On occasion he would put on a white lab coat and stroll through the production area. The workers were well aware of his presence.  God is near. Our sins cause us to hide from him, but he has invited us to be made clean and white through faith in his son Jesus, who has paid the price for our redemption.

Psa 139:7  Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? 

Psa 139:8  If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! 

Psa 139:9  If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 

Psa 139:10  even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. 

Psa 139:11  If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” 

Psa 139:12  even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. 

Psa 139:13  For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. 

Psa 139:14  I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. 

1Jn 4:12  No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 

God is near and he loves us.

Omnipotent God

 If you have eyes to see you will see that there is great beauty and wonder in the design of the universe, down to the smallest cell as seen in the most powerful microscope.  Our God is omnipotent; omni meaning "all" and potent meaning "power."  He has all power over all things at all times and in all ways.  Our God is wonderful and he loves us. If a human born from Adam had all power, we would be in trouble. A wicked ruler makes the people to groan. Prov 29:2 Our God is a good God.

 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Gen 1:1

‘Ah, Lord GOD! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you. Jer 32:17

 “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.  Job 42:2

By the word of Jehovah were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. Ps 33:6

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 1 Cor 15:22

After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, Rev 19:21

The all powerful God has designed us to be greater than the angels and to have fellowship with God our creator.  In Christ Jesus we come to be made spiritually alive for all eternity. Our all powerful God cares for us and he keeps his promises. We are not self made, he made us. Give God the glory.

 

The Love of God

What is the greatest attribute of God towards humanity?  What is the greatest need of humanity? The answer is in a song that was number one in 1949.  The song title was "Nature Boy", sung by Nat King Cole. Here is that simple and great quote from the song:"The greatest thing you’ll ever learn Is just to love and be loved in return."

We love because God first loved us (1Jn 4:19)  Our sin has separated us from God and one another. God so loved us that he sent his son, Jesus, to be our payment for sins. (Jn 3:16) Because God has given to us love, we are to love others as well. (1Jn 4:21)  We should love God with all of our heart, soul, and mind. (Mat 22:37) There is a whole chapter in the Bible about how we are to love. (1 Cor 13)  If love is important to you you should read this chapter.  

1Co 13:1  If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 

1Co 13:2  And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 

1Co 13:3  If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 

1Co 13:4  Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 

1Co 13:5  or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 

1Co 13:6  it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 

1Co 13:7  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 

1Co 13:8  Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 

1Co 13:9  For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 

1Co 13:10  but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 

1Co 13:11  When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 

1Co 13:12  For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 

1Co 13:13  So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.