"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 

 1 John 1:9

You can experience God's love and forgiveness!  If you have truly asked Jesus Christ into your heart as Savior and Lord, God has forgiven your sins.

 What happens if your sin once you are a Christian?  Dr. Bill Bright, the late founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, had a concept he called "spiritual breathing."  Just as we breathe out bad air and breathe in good clean fresh air, so we can "breath out" -- confess -- our sins to God.  We can ask God for His forgiveness and "breathe in" -- receive -- His great forgiveness and love.

God loves us and each day wants us to walk in His forgiveness and love.  If you have sinned, then confess your sins to God.  God can hear and forgive your sins.

To become physically fit, we need to exercise our muscles vigorously and regularly. If our goal is to be stable in soul, then we must apply our minds to learning to be self-controlled.

However, to become mighty in spirit requires something more than self-effort. You see, none of us were born with a spiritual connection to God. Because of Adam's rebellion, we were all dead in our sins and separated from the Lord.

No amount of personal effort can bring an individual to life spiritually. We're unable to change this condition for ourselves, but nothing is impossible for God. By accepting Jesus' sacrificial death as payment for our sins, we're forgiven. We're reconciled to Him. We're made alive in our spirit.

This is the beginning step of the Christian life, the indwelling Holy Spirit teaches us how to view life as Jesus did. The Holy Spirit embraces His values and priorities. The Holy Spirit helps us follow Jesus' example. The more we yield to the Spirit's control, the sooner we'll be transformed into Christ's image. This change will equip you to carry out the Lord's will and strengthen our inner spirit to serve Him.

God desires followers who'll dedicate themselves to His plan. He wants followers to serve as ambassadors for Christ to a lost and hurting world. He doesn't expect we'll train ourselves for this task. He's given His Holy Spirit to prepare us for the work ahead. Have you answered His call to service?

 

“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross!”

 

Philippians 2:6 8

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”

How easy is it to be harsh to others? Sadly, it is very easy. Think of when someone was mean or cruel to you. I still remember a bully who beat me up in school — and that was many years ago.

What is our response? In our flesh we want to be mean, and cruel and punish people. But Jesus Christ calls us to be merciful.

How can we do this? Let us remember Jesus Christ. Christ prayed for those who crucified Him, saying “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”

So, let us be kind and merciful to others. Has someone wronged you? You are to forgive them, even as God in Christ Jesus has forgiven you. You can ask God and He will give you the power to do this.

  "You will fill me with joy in your presence." 

Psalm 16:11

Our hearts are empty without God.  Our third reason to believe in God is this:  nothing can truly satisfy the human spirit apart from God. 

The famed French scientist Pascal said, "There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ."

Many of us spend all our lives searching for fame, money, or the right job promotion which we believe will give us the happiness we've been seeking.  Yet even King Solomon in the Bible, who had more riches than any man at that time, realized that apart from God there is no true happiness.

 "Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God..." 

 John 1:12

 You can be sure you are a Christian!  You are not a Christian just because you go to church, although that is a good thing.  You are not a Christian because you grew up in a Christian country.

 You are a Christian if you have sincerely asked Jesus Christ into your heart as Savior and Lord, and believe that He died for your sins.  This is what makes you a Christian.

As believers, we have a Father who loves us. He desires the best for us. We're part of a large spiritual family with many brothers and sisters. But sometimes we still feel lonely. This can happen even when there's no major crisis in our lives.

Our greatest loneliness comes from a separation from the Father. This is a spiritual problem. The source is sin. We experience a break in our close fellowship with the Lord when we disobey Him and go our own way.

The remedy is confession. Confession leads to restored intimacy with God. If we refuse to admit our sin, the separation grows worse.

Busyness and preoccupation with earthly affairs also cause this isolation. Sometimes we push aside time with God to fulfill our obligations. We might focus so heavily on daily living that we ignore Him. To overcome loneliness, spend time reconnecting with God through His Word. Take in the knowledge of His deep, abiding love. Meditate on His great promises.

Being in harmony with God renews our purpose and energy for life causing that sense of isolation to lessen. Hope replaces discouragement. Our focus turns from "self" to others. It's important to reconnect with people. So, look for opportunities to encourage, serve, love, and support those around you. Intimacy with the Lord is both the antidote to loneliness and protection from it.

 

“For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us." 

 

Psalm 103:11, 12

Clean within!  When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, the wonderful news is He forgives us all our sins! 

What does it mean to be forgiven?  Picture a dirty sheet which is covered with dirt.  Then it is put in the wash and it comes out clean, white -- just like new. 

Or picture your hands all covered with mud -- and you put them in a clear flowing stream of ice cold pure water.  When you take them out, they are clean and shining and the mud is gone.

The Bible says when God forgives our sins, He removes them totally from us.  "Though your sins were as scarlet, they will be as white as snow." 

It is wonderful to be forgiven -- to be clean within.  May God bless you as you seek Christ and accept the forgiveness that only He can give.

“’(Jesus speaking) ‘Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.’”

 

John 14:27

God can give us peace in the midst of a storm.

How can this happen? What are the storms in your life — and mine? Is it sickness — or depression — or lack of money — or a family health crisis? No matter what the storm, if you are a Christian then Jesus can be “there in the boat” with you.

Just call on Him and He will answer you. Will every storm in life go away? It may not. Sometimes Christ will calm the storm.

“Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, don't you care if we drown?’ He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Quiet! Be still!’ Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, ‘Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?’ “

Other times Christ may not calm the storm, but He can give you the peace of God in the middle of the storm. “Christ is our peace.”

 "If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God." 

 1 John 4:15

Why should we believe in God?  The most important reason is that the Holy Spirit draws us to the truth that is God Himself.  God alone is truth, and our hearts recognize Him as Lord and bow before Him.

Before we can comprehend man's eternal destiny, however, we need to clearly understand what man is now.  We are physical beings composed of the chemical substances on earth.  That is how God created us.  "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

But almost all ancient religions taught the error that man is more than just a physical being.  They taught that man has a dual composition, that a human being is both a physical body and an immortal soul.

Even today most people believe that after our physical body dies our supposedly immortal soul will continue as a living and conscious entity party from the body.

Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

 

Love never fails.  But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge.  It will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.  When I was a child, I talked like a child.  I reasoned like a child.  When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.  Now we see but a pooor reflection as in a mirror, then we shall see face to face.  Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

 

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of the is LOVE.

In the very beginning God said, "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shalll become one flesh" - for the purpose of filling the earth (Gen. 2:24).  Mankind was created to build a familiar relationships, to have children and nurture those children with express purpose of enabling God through Jesus Christ to bring many to glory - to salvation in His Kingdom (Heb. 2:10).

 

God expects fathers to play a critical role in His great plan.  The Bible unequivocally defines the family as a unit headed by a father and mother with the father occupying the primary leadership role.

 

The apostle Paul provides guidance that is essential in building a strong father-daughter relationship:  "And, [you] fathers, provoke not your children to wrath:  but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. (Eph. 6:4)

During your next Quiet Time (time alone with God) ask yourself these challenging questions.

1. Am I consciously or unconsciously creating the impression that
I am a better person than I really am? In other words, am I a
hypocrite?

2. Am I honest in all my acts and words, or do I exaggerate?

3. Do I confidentially pass on what was told to me in confidence?

4. Can I be trusted?

5. Am I a slave to dress, friends, work, or habit?

6. Am I self-conscious, self-pitying, or self-justifying?

7. Did the Bible live in me today?

8. Do I give God time to speak to me everyday?

9. Am I enjoying prayer?

10. When did I last speak to someone else about my faith?

11. Do I pray about the money I spend?

12. Do I get to bed on time and get up on time?

13. Do I disobey God in anything?

14. Do I insist in doing something in which my conscience is
uneasy?

15. Am I defeated in any part of my life?

16. Am I jealous, impure, irritable, touchy, or distrustful?

17. How do I spend my spare time?

18. Am I proud?

19. Do I thank God I am not as other people, especially as the
Pharisees who despised the publican?

20. Is there anyone I fear, dislike, criticize, or resent? If so,
what am I doing about it?

21. Do I grumble and complain constantly?

22. Is Christ real to me today?

 

My brother relayed the answer my sister had to the following question: Why was it that God chose Jacob over Esau?  Because “Abraham, Isaac and Esau” would sound funny.  It is one of the age old questions, why did God choose Jacob and say he hated Esau.  Did he look down through Esau’s life to see the many bad choices he would make?

Last night’s reading brought us to the point of Esau’s third marriage.  This guy just didn’t get it.  He sold his birthright for a mess of pottage, he marries two women from the Caananite land, and when Jacob gets sent away to find a wife from Abraham’s family (and for other reasons too), he thinks that’s the problem and goes out and married a
third woman– one from Ishmael’s line!  Now, granted, Jacob was the sup planter, he did deceive his father, “stole” the birthright, and even will fleece Laban in a little while here, but how could Esau miss the mark so badly?

It’s hard to think of this as a time where there would have not been a complete Bible available.  Isaac probably told his sons about God, and they would have heard about all of what had happened so far.  One would hope that Esau and Jacob would have been told about the difference between Cain and Able’s sacrifices.  One could easily imagine Isaac telling them about how Rebekah was selected from his home, and yet Esau still made choices for himself.

How about you and I?  It’s easy to look back at Esau and see where he made his mistakes.  It’s especially easy when the most we see about him are his mistakes!  Yet Isaac loved him more than Jacob (not that parents should have favorites) for more than the fact that he made good venison.  There must have been redeeming qualities within the mistakes.

Do we make colossal mistakes in our lives that we live with the consequences of– sure we do?  My mom says “We live with the decisions we make” and that’s what I take away from Esau.  He kept trying to please his family and kept goofing it up because he guessed at what he needed to do.  We have no excuse.  We have God’s complete revealed Word.  Think about it…

Still another thing that struck me as interesting reading through the account of Joseph was what he did with all the food that he had collected.  If you’ll read it, he first sold food back to the people, then he took their livestock for food, and then bought their land.  No
wonder Pharoah kept him on as second in charge– on Joseph’s watch Pharoah got possession of everything in the area.  What a switch when the next few years, where the Israelites go from welcomed guests to servants…

So, I’m almost finished with the latest Left Behind book, “The Rising“. I think that the worst part about these books is that just the time that you’re into the story, figured out the characters and have trouble putting it down, it ends. That being said, this is probably the first book in the series that didn’t follow the usual big event and then the reaction pattern. In the first book, you had the rapture, and then people dealing with it. In this one, it’s all build up. That being said, there are twists and turns along the way.

One of the things that struck me in both the book and my Bible reading is about how faithful God is to His Word and promises. When He promises something, you can count on it. Like when David sinned and repented, he could count on God’s love. When we sin and do those things that God doesn’t want us to, we can count on His love. All too often we put too much trust in others to be what only God can be– holy and just. We expect those around us to be there, to always have the same feelings and act the same way– but only God can be that unchanging.

Just wondering: What effect do you think it would have on the Roman Catholic church if the new Pope stated that they should stop Mary worship, no more confessionals, the priests were to marry, and that the parishioners should get saved (if they weren’t)? Would people follow?