Seek First The Kingdom of God and His Righteousness

  Matthew 7:24 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: More than any time in my life I see people who claim to be Christian, and I believe many are, who are either ignorant of what God has said, ignore what God has said or try to twist what God has said. I would think that by this time in human history we would realize, and admit, that we are not smarter than God. That when God tells us something He knows what He is talking about and even more so is that He didn’t waste His time in telling us for His benefit.  Everything and I mean everything in scripture is said for our benefit.  I wonder if everyone would consider, if even for a moment, that everything God says to do or not do is because it is for our benefit? I have yet to find ANYTHING in scripture that if we do the opposite that it works out for our benefit. Going all the way back to the garden. God says don’t eat of 1 tree be...

  Haste and Hurry Recently I have felt impressed to slow down and not be in a hurry in every part of my life. Honestly this is a process, a very hard process for me.  I have been in a hurry for the majority of my life mostly because I don’t like waiting for things.   In our society there is also rewards built in for the things being done quickly.  Those who are quick witted, those who are physically quick in their work or in athletics, the whole fast-food industry and the billions it makes every year is a reward for being quick. Really there are many great rewards in this world for those who are in a hurry but along with those rewards are consequences. A quick wit can get one into trouble because their wit causes their mouth to speak before their brain has thought through the impact of their words on others. Being physically quick can produce unforced errors in actions and I believe we all know that fast food is the opposite of healthy food. ...

  Pentecost This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday. This is important to many of us because it was on this day almost 2 thousand years ago that the promise of the Father began to be poured out. I encourage everyone reading this to go to Acts 2 and read the account of all that happened.  I would like to draw attention to a couple of things.  The first is that the Father hasn’t stopped the pour.  Acts 2 was the beginning not the end. Second the most important result was not the 120 speaking in tongues (Acts 2:4) but that 3,000 souls were not only saved but added and continued steadfastly in the apostle’s doctrine and fellowship (Acts 2:40-42).  The promise of the Father was never meant to be kept in the house (Acts 1:80). 

  The Ascension Today is celebrated as Ascension Day.  The book of Acts in chapter 1 verse 8 records the last words spoken by Jesus to His disciples as such: “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”  We Pentecostals/Charismatics/Full Gospel people love to focus on the “shall receive power” part of the coming of the Holy Spirit upon a believer.  What we overlook or even misunderstand is the purpose for that power.  It is for being WITNESSES to the world around us.  Our purpose is not to hold up in our church buildings to impress one another with our Spiritual gifts.  It is to GO into all the world and make disciples of ALL nations.  The police don’t sit around the police stations waiting on the criminals to turn themselves in, the firemen don’t wait around the fireho...

  I had the great privilege of meeting with John Abbe this morning before work.  (Even though I got myself messed up and was about 30 minutes late John gave me much grace and waited for me. Thank you again John) We had a very interesting conversation about unity in the body of Christ.  As I have been meditating over this conversation  Ephesians 4:13 came to mind specifically the first part.   “ till we all  come to the unity  of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;”   There are several things that jump out to me now.  We come to unity.  Unity doesn’t just happen it is something that we come to.  It seems to me that this has the implication that unity has an aspect that is dependent upon us to choose.  I would say that many times where there isn’t unity it is because we haven’t made the choice...

  Conversation   Have you ever just had a conversation with the Lord?  I mean a real two-sided conversation, one in which you and He both got to speak?  How about one of those two-way conversations that isn’t about anything deep but just a simple conversation like you would have with your spouse, or a friend?  I wonder if we understand that frequency of conversation tells a lot about the quality and depth of relationship that we have not just with people but with the Lord? The slogan that I have heard in the church most of my life is that it is not a religion it is a relationship. While this is the truth of how things are supposed to be, I wonder how many of us really have quality in that relationship. Sadly, I think that we don’t spend the time developing the relationship we have in Christ through genuine conversation.  We have settled for a acquaintance level relationship instead of the intimate one that is made available to us.  ...

  The Price and Cost for more of God and His Presence I was reading an account of a preacher’s experience that I had previous heard him describe before in a sermon. Thought the account was familiar to me this time though it hit different.   The experience was during a time he had spent months desiring and seeking more of God and His Presence.  There were two statements that the preacher made from this account that the Lord highlighted for me.  The first was “My request for more of God carried a price” and the second was from his cry to the Lord “I must have more of You at any cost!”. These statements when I had heard them before sounded very true and I totally had agreed with them.  In fact, they had inspired me.  This time, though, was different.  This time there was at first, for a moment fear and not a Godly fear.  No, it was a fear that the price I would have to pay would be the cost of the life of one or mor...