What's this Lordship thing?

A new Christian may think the future will be  wonderful, but then they run into this "Lordship" thing.

God has a call on every believer's life, not just the preacher, and all should be in His Word, studying to be fit for the kingdom of God. That's our training ground Monday through Saturday. 

Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

We need to give God permission to be Lord of our lives. If we don't, we are operating in our own wisdom. We need to get out of the driver's seat and give Jesus the keys. He is capable. Partial surrender is no surrender.

What do you lose when you totally surrender to God, and what do you gain? We lose everything and gain everything. That's a good deal.

Why don't we give Him permission to be Lord of our life? We have to get rid of our pride, but we are getting something back we can be proud of: His righteousness.

Is He truly your Lord or do you just call Him that? Have you given His Lordship permission?

Give God your tongue...

The tongue is a little member, but it has great power. 

Matthew 15:18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.

God can use our tongues to direct others into the way of life and to delight them in the trials of life. The following words can transform your life.

"Please and "Thank you." When you use these three words you are treating others like people and not things. You're showing appreciation.

"I'm sorry." These two words have a way of breaking down walls and building bridges.

"I love you." Too many people read romance into these words, but they go much deeper than that. As Christians, we should love the brethren and our enemies. This statement can carry tremendous power.

"I'm praying for you." And be sure that you are. When you talk to God about people, then you can talk to people about God.

Give God your tongue and your heart each day and ask Him to use you to be a blessing to others.

Mama said someone left a box of groceries

. . .  on their doorstep during the great depression. They never knew who. She also said jobs were scarce and people struggled to survive. Desperate, Aunt Ruth and Uncle Joe moved in with them for awhile. I wasn't born yet, but I can imagine a covey of hungry kids running through the house. Songs like God Will Take Care of You, I Need Thee Every Hour, and Great Is Thy Faithfulness gave them something to lean on.

Today, we take things for granted. If I have to chose, you can have my toys and games, my television and computer. Take my dishwasher and air conditioner, my automobile and fortune and fame. Withhold food, swelling my belly. You can have it all, but give me Jesus.

I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold;

I'd rather be His than have riches untold;

I'd rather have Jesus than houses or lands;

I'd rather be led by His nail-pierced hand.

He's fairer than lilies of rarest bloom;

He's sweeter than honey from out of the comb.

He's all that my hungering spirit needs;

I'd rather have Jesus and let Him lead.

Rhea F. Miller 

How to Have Victory in Trials

There are four essentials for victory in trials:

1. A joyful attitude
2. An understanding mind
3. A surrendered will
4. A heart that wants to believe

James 1:2-4 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations: knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

Outlook determines outcome, and attitude determines action. God tells us to expect trials. The believer who expects his Christian life to be easy is in for a shock. Jesus warned his disciples. "In the world ye shall have tribulation" (John 16:33). Paul told his converts that "we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22).

Some trials come simply because we are human -- sickness, accidents, disappointments, even tragedies. Other trials come because we are Christians.

When we face the trials of life, we must evaluate them in the light of what God is doing for us. This explains why the dedicated Christian can have joy in the midst of trials: he/she lives for the things that matter most.

While Jesus and His disciples eat at the house of Simon

. . . the leper, a woman suddenly joins them. Actually, Mary is out of order. This culture does not allow women in groups of men. But she is so overwhelmed with Jesus that she must express her love in a unique way.

Breaking an Alabaster box containing ointment of spikenard, a very expensive perfume, Mary pours it on the head of Jesus, and the Jews make a big fuss. She pours the rest, mingled with her tears, on His feet and wipes them with her long hair.

Judas, the self righteous traitor, said the perfume should have been sold and the money given to the poor ($10-$15 thousand in our money). 

Mark 14:6,7 And Jesus said, let her alone; why trouble ye her?  She hath wrought a good work on me. For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will, ye may do them good; but me, ye have not always.

Mary broke the bottle to give all she had. Sometimes Jesus breaks us so He can have all of us. 

What about you? Are you showing your love for Jesus with all you have? 

A new Christian may think the future will be wonderful,

. . . but then they run into this "Lordship" thing.

God has a call on every believer's life, not just the preacher, and all should be in His Word, studying to be fit for the kingdom of God. That's our training ground Monday through Saturday. 

Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

We need to give God permission to be Lord of our lives. If we don't, we are operating in our own wisdom. We need to get out of the driver's seat and give Jesus the keys. He is capable. Partial surrender is no surrender.

What do you lose when you totally surrender to God, and what do you gain? We lose everything and gain everything. That's a good deal.

Why don't we give Him permission to be Lord of our life? We have to get rid of our pride, but we are getting something back we can be proud of: His righteousness.

Is He truly your Lord or do you just call Him that? Have you given His Lordship permission?

Growing up in a large family, we made do

. . .  with what we had. My folks didn't buy chips or cookies or ice cream. If we got hungry between meals or after school, we ate mustard and sugar sandwiches. We blended sugar, cocoa, and milk, called it gooey and spread it on saltine crackers. We didn't get a phone until I was pre-teen. 

Hebrews 13:5 Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as ye have; for he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. 

Contentment cannot come from material things, for they can never satisfy the heart. Only God can do that. Be on your guard for all kinds of greed.

A man's life doesn't consist of his abundant possessions. When we have God, we have all we need. The material things of life can decay or be stolen, but God will never leave us or forsake us.

This promise was made to Joshua when he succeeded Moses, and it is fulfilled to us in Jesus Christ.

Athletes wear training weights to help them prepare

. . .  for events. No athlete would actually participate wearing the weights. It would slow them down. What are weights in your life that should be removed? It’s everything that hinders your spiritual progress. A winning athlete doesn’t choose between the good and bad; he chooses between the better and the best.

Hebrews 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.

The sin(s) that so easily entangle us my be the sin of unbelief. It was unbelief that kept Israel out of the Promised Land, and it is unbelief that hinders us from entering into our spiritual inheritance in Christ.

We must ask Jesus to show us our sins so we can lay them aside. Looking at the faith heroes in the previous chapter we see perfect examples of what God can do with our lives if we let Him.

True Bible faith is not blind optimism

. . . or a manufactured “hope-so” feeling. True Bible faith is confident obedience to God’s Word in spite of circumstances and consequences.

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

This faith operates quite simply. God speaks and we hear His Word. We trust His Word and act on it. The circumstances may be impossible, and the consequences frightening and unknown, but we obey God’s Word just the same and believe Him to do what is right and what is best.

The world fails to realize that faith is only as good as its object, and the object of our faith is God. Faith is to a Christian what a foundation is to a house: it gives confidence and assurance that he will stand. Faith is an inward conviction that what God has promised, He will perform.

When they stepped out by faith, people laughed at the great men and women noted in Hebrews Chapter Eleven. But God was with them and enabled them to succeed to His glory.

Faith is the victory that overcomes the world.

When the flesh of Jesus tore on the cross,

. . . and His life sacrificed, God tore the veil separating the holy of hollies in the Jewish Temple where only the high priest could enter. This symbolized the new and living way now open for all who believe.

Because we have a living high priest, we have an open invitation to enter the presence of God every moment of each day. What a tremendous privilege!

Hebrews 10:19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.

20. By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;

21. And having an high priest over the house of God;

22. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

God could have created the entire universe

. . . in an instant, yet, He preferred to do it over a period of six days. He could have delivered Israel from Egypt in a moment, yet, He preferred to invest eighty years in training Moses. He could have sent the Saviour much sooner, but He waited until the fullness of the time was come.

You may or may not know God's plan, purpose or timeline for your life, but if you let him, He will make you a vessel of honor.

Romans 12:1,2 I beseech you therefore, brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

And be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Have Thine own way, Lord

Have Thine own way.

Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.

Mold me and make me after Thy will

While I am waiting, yielded and still.

Adelaide A. Pollard, 1907

From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is God's love letter

. . . to us. He loves the world and each of us individually. As a father loves his children, He protects us. The Agape love of God goes deeper than man can fathom, and it can't be measured. We can never use it up.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

God loved us when we were unlovable -- spiritually dead. A great gulf separated us, and His love reached across, giving us a path to him.

When God looked down and saw me, a wretched sinner, He said, "I love you. Will you accept my gift of salvation? I will clean you up. I will give you a new life." Praise God, He did.

God sacrificed His very jewel of heaven. Whether you feel loved or not, or you think you are not worthy, He loves you any way. As God loves us and we love him, we have love for each other.

You can't earn God's love, you accept it. Because of grace and love, you can hold the very hand of the one that was nailed to the tree.