Encouragement: No one can boast

Today I bring you words and thoughts of encouragement from Ephesians 2:1-9

And although you were dead in your transgressions and sins,
in which you formerly lived according to this world’s present path,
according to the ruler of the kingdom of the air,
the ruler of the spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience,
among whom all of us also formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh,
indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind,
and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest…

But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us,
even though we were dead in transgressions,
made us alive together with Christ – by grace you are saved!
and he raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,
to demonstrate in the coming ages the surpassing wealth of his grace
in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you are saved through faith,
and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God;
it is not from works, so that no one can boast.

Biblical Studies Press. (2006; 2006). The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible (Eph 2:1-9). Biblical Studies Press.

Are you a boasting Christian?
Have you been blessed to overflowing with out any challenges?
Have you done everything that is possible and thus have obtained the great faith you have?

These are tough questions. They are even more of a struggle for people that can only stand by and see other people be given things that by all accounts they have no need for, although they may have want for such things.

So is it wrong to be given things in over abundance? No.
Is it wrong to boast? Most certainly YES!

So often I look at the blessings that I have in my life and really I did not deserve one thing I have. I know I have boasted that God gave me these things because of what I have done. I just had to have the faith of a mustard seed.

Rubbish!!!!!

Lets look at our text today. "For by grace you are saved through faith,
and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God;
it is not from works, so that no one can boast. "

Faith is a gift from God. It is all about Him. Faith is a gift and our salivation is a gift. It is by nothing that we do or leave undone that we create our faith. We all arrive here with nothing and we all leave this world with nothing. So in the end we have nothing to boast of our own doing.

What we can boast in is what God has done for us out of His love and His freely given grace.

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
even though we were dead in transgressions,"

"He raised us up with Him
and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,
to demonstrate in the coming ages the surpassing wealth of His grace"

Our blessing is not what we have or what we receive. Our blessing is in the overwhelming love that our God has shown in His saving of us and in the faith that He has given us. There is no greater faith than one who has to depend on God to make it through each day. By God's standard this is the super Christian. The one who can exclaim "my God is enough for me!"

So where does it leave those of us who have been blessed with every sort of gift.
You have to ask God the question "What is this all for God? How do I use it to Your glory.

Walking with God is full of ups and downs. Funny thing about the walk is that what often we perceive as the ups are perhaps the downs and what we see as rock bottom may well be the mountain top in God's eyes. When we are at rock bottom God has our full attention. He can work with us in that state. There is no "me me, I I" to get in the way of His glory. In this state He can to great things.

So where do we go from here:

• Never brag of what you have done and how you have been blessed by what you have done. Grab on to the fact that faith is a gift from God, and the story is all about Him not about you.
  
• When you are at rock bottom, open your eyes, God is all around you. Be open to His lead and call. Keep your focus about Him.

Both extremes fit together in God's story. Remember the story of Joseph in the old testament being sent to Egypt to be a storehouse for a future time of need. Well God still does this today, He sets up people with the means to help others. God uses people to give and receive to maximize His Glory. Remember also that at different points in our lives we change place. Today we may need to give to others and tomorrow we might need to receive.

God loves us.
He gave His Son for us in a finished work paid in full,
that we could belong to Him.
When God looks at us, Jesus is all He sees!

Amen

Music Encouragement: He Loves Us

Encouragement: Come to me

Today I bring you words and thoughts of encouragement from Matthew 11:25-30

At that time Jesus said,
“I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
because you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent,
and revealed them to little children.
Yes, Father, for this was your gracious will.
All things have been handed over to me by my Father.
No one knows the Son except the Father,
and no one knows the Father except the Son
and anyone to whom the Son decides to reveal him.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke on you and learn from me,
because I am gentle and humble in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy to bear,
and my load is not hard to carry.”

Biblical Studies Press. (2006; 2006). The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible (Mt 11:25-30). Biblical Studies Press.

Right from the first days of our lives we are groomed and encouraged to work very hard to develop our wisdom and be intelligent. At first read here I was ready to throw out all my wisdom. But with a little research it becomes clear that this description was referring to the leadership of the day. They were thinking they had it all figured out and it was their fixture of belief and lack of the openness of a child that kept them from seeing what Christ brought to the world.

So as we advance in our life experiences and gain wisdom we must strive to not let ourselves reach a point where we think we have it all figured out. We need to keep the eyes of our youth to continue to be open what God has to show us. I have come to learn that if we think we have it figured out then basically our view of God is just too small. Our God created all that we see, on earth and in the heavens. I was just watching a show on the Hubble telescope where they pointed Hubble to a blank piece of sky and just let it collect images over several days. It turns out that this empty piece of space contains millions of stars and galaxies. If we let our wisdom rule then we would define that part of space as empty. With our wisdom we would challenge anyone that would say different and in the assertion of our wisdom we would miss all that that piece of space had to offer.

Jesus then went on to say "All things have been handed over to me by my Father." and then we have Jesus's invitation "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." All who are weary could be translated "those who are tired from hard toil" and burden could refer to "those loaded down.

"Take my yoke on you and learn from me,
because I am gentle and humble in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls. "
People’s weariness comes from enduring their own burdens all by themselves, these burdens would probably be the burdens of sin and its consequences. Jesus is suggesting rather, that we should come and yoke ourselves with Jesus. By placing ourselves under His yoke and learning from Him, we may find rest for our souls from sins’ burdens we carry.

What a loving God we serve. A God that invites us and takes our burdens

May we all have the eyes and hearts of children that we can walk in the freedom of grace under the yolk Jesus.

Amen

Music Encouragement C.H. Masion Memorial Choir - Come Unto Me

Encouragement: Reserved in heaven for you

Today I bring you words and thoughts of encouragement from 1 Peter 1:3-9

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
By his great mercy he gave us new birth into a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
that is, into an reserved in heaven for you, undefiled, and unfading.
It is reserved in heaven for you,
who by God’s power are protected through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
This brings you great joy, although you may have to suffer for a short time in various trials.
Such trials show the proven character of your faith,
which is much more valuable than gold – gold that is tested by fire,
even though it is passing away – and will bring praise and glory and honor
when Jesus Christ is revealed.
You have not seen him, but you love him.
You do not see him now but you believe in him,
and so you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy,
because you are attaining the goal of your faith – the salvation of your souls.

Biblical Studies Press. (2006; 2006). The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible (1 Pe 1:3-9). Biblical Studies Press.

Our text for today just leaped out at me when I opened the word today. I have been struggling over the past little while with the resistance to the things that I have been trying to do, with the hope of bringing glory to God.

I just want to say that this "encourager" has been encouraged by several readers over the past couple of weeks each one lifting my arms when they seemed just too heavy to lift high. These words were greatly appreciated.

I have struggled wondering if this blog project even makes sense. With so much resistance, and the feeling that perhaps I am not worthy to be proclaiming anything of God's Word, this text snapped me right out of my wallowing and just made all this turmoil make sense.

So lets forget me and dig into this word.

We got to start out putting God first, not ourselves or our weakness or sin or guilt. It has to be God first.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! "

What did He do for us?

"By His great mercy He gave us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, that is, into an inheritance imperishable, undefiled, and unfading."

"It is reserved in heaven for you" and it "brings you great joy". Yes the things of God do bring you great joy when you find them.

The next line brought me to my knees. It brought a completely consuming lump to my throat.

"although you may have to suffer for a short time in various trials.
Such trials show the proven character of your faith,
which is much more valuable than gold – gold that is tested by fire,
even though it is passing away – and will bring praise
and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed."

How could Peter have known that we would need to hear these words almost 2000 years after he penned them. Can you imagine the joy Peter would have felt to know his words are of value so far off in the future. But again these are the words of God only penned by Peter.

Wow, everything does not have to go perfect. We can walk in the light and while walking in the light we may have to suffer short times of trials. But the word tells us that these trials are more valuable than gold.

We do not look for these trials they find us. Such trials show the proven character of our faith.

That "You have not seen him, but you love him. "

"You do not see him now but you believe in him,"

"and so you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy"

"because you are attaining the goal of your faith – the salvation of your souls. "

It is really hard not to doubt in this crazy world, but we have been provided with much guidance through His word. Words recorded by men who walked and struggled and faced trials and were inspired to share and carry on the calling put in their hearts by a loving God who gave them and us an imperishable inheritance reserved in heaven.

May the grace of God fill all our hearts with a touch of joy that can bring us through our times of suffering and trials and help us see it is all about Him, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Amen

Music Encouragement Bebo Norman - Borrow Mine

Encouragement: He removes the guilt

Today I bring you words and thoughts of encouragement from Psalm 103:1-12

Praise the Lord, O my soul!
With all that is within me, praise his holy name!
2 Praise the Lord, O my soul!
Do not forget all his kind deeds!
3 He is the one who forgives all your sins,
who heals all your diseases,
4 who delivers your life from the Pit,
who crowns you with his loyal love and compassion,
5 who satisfies your life with good things,
so your youth is renewed like an eagle’s.
6 The Lord does what is fair,
and executes justice for all the oppressed.
7 The Lord revealed his faithful acts to Moses,
his deeds to the Israelites.
8 The Lord is compassionate and merciful;
he is patient and demonstrates great loyal love.
9 He does not always accuse,
and does not stay angry.
10 He does not deal with us as our sins deserve;
he does not repay us as our misdeeds deserve.
11 For as the skies are high above the earth,
so his loyal love towers over his faithful followers.
12 As far as the eastern horizon is from the west,
so he removes the guilt of our rebellious actions from us.

Biblical Studies Press. (2006; 2006). The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible (Ps 103:1-12). Biblical Studies Press.

"Praise the Lord,
O my soul!
With all that is within me,
praise His holy name!"

It takes great courage to do this when we feel our whole world is falling down around us. We are all sinners, we all walk in this world. Sometimes our guilt or our failures to be what we feel we should be, bring us to our knees with tears flowing.

Thing is no matter how grim things seem to be, the Lord is with us. He surrounds us with angels ready to protect us. He places people around us to help and takes others from our sight to make sure that we can praise Him.

"Do not forget all His kind deeds!" In that time it is so easy to forget what a loving God we have. "He is the one who forgives all our sins, who heals all our diseases, who delivers our life from the Pit"

He is the one "who satisfies our life with good things, so our youth is renewed like an eagle’s."

"The Lord is compassionate and merciful; He is patient and demonstrates great loyal love." He shows us this again and again so that we have the strength to make it through the valleys.

"He does not deal with us as our sins deserve;
He does not repay us as our misdeeds deserve.
For as the skies are high above the earth,
so His loyal love towers over His faithful followers."

"He removes the guilt of our rebellious actions from us" through the finished work of Jesus Christ.

So what ever our fear, what ever our pain, what ever our tears. With all that is within us, praise His holy name! And walk in the freedom of Grace that God gives to us so freely.

Amen

Music encouragement: Casting Crowns - East to West

Encouragement: I send you

Today I bring you words and thoughts of encouragement from Jeremiah 1:4-10
The Lord said to me,
“Before I formed you in your mother’s womb I chose you.
Before you were born I set you apart.
I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations.”
I answered, “Oh, Lord God,
I really do not know how to speak well enough for that,
for I am too young.”
The Lord said to me,
“Do not say, ‘I am too young.’
But go to whomever I send you and say whatever I tell you.
Do not be afraid of those to whom I send you,
for I will be with you to protect you,” says the Lord.
Then the Lord reached out his hand
and touched my mouth and said to me,
“I will most assuredly give you the words you are to speak for me.
Know for certain that I hereby give you the authority
to announce to nations and kingdoms
that they will be uprooted and torn down,
destroyed and demolished, rebuilt and firmly planted.”

Biblical Studies Press. (2006; 2006). The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible (Je 1:4-10). Biblical Studies Press.

It really encourages me when I look into the bible and find all these dudes that try to find excuses that they are not good enough to be God's person for the moment.

I have struggled being a "Blog writer for Jesus". Doing this blog has pushed me to points where I am thinking "Who am I to be writing encouragement notes? I am not ........ {insert excuse of the moment here}. I am the one who needs encouragement!!!" However, if God wants something seems He gets His way with or without your cooperation.

So how does God treat those He has called for action. 


First He reassures His agent. 


Then He basically says and I paraphrase here "Hey you, I choose you and I gave you the tools to what I have called you to do.  Now get to it!"

"Do not be afraid of those to whom I send you, "

“I will most assuredly give you the words you are to speak for Me.
Know for certain that I hereby give you the authority"

So given all this do I think I am called? 


I think God calls us all. We must each search ourselves to look for the signs of God's hand in our lives. 


It is important to remember and to know that when we have even the slightest interest in the things of God be assured you are called.

So with all this do I think I can do what God calls me to do?


No! but with His help and guidance and the touch of His grace, I will submit to Him and try to allow Him to order my steps one day at a time, one step at a time. The ultimate goal is to bring glory to God in all we say and do.


Praise Him, walk in the freedom of grace only He can provide. Let Him order your steps. Take it all one day at a time and in each day strive to make a difference in this old world.

Amen
Music Encouragement: Order My Steps

Encouragement: Tear away the ropes

Today I bring you words and thoughts of encouragement from Isaiah 58:6-12

No, this is the kind of fast I want.
I want you to remove the sinful chains,
to tear away the ropes of the burdensome yoke,
to set free the oppressed, and to break every burdensome yoke.
I want you to share your food with the hungry
and to provide shelter for homeless, oppressed people.
When you see someone naked, clothe him!
Don’t turn your back on your own flesh and blood!
Then your light will shine like the sunrise;
your restoration will quickly arrive;
your godly behavior will go before you,
and the Lord’s splendor will be your rear guard.
Then you will call out, and the Lord will respond;
you will cry out, and he will reply,
‘Here I am.’
You must remove the burdensome yoke from among you
and stop pointing fingers and speaking sinfully.
You must actively help the hungry and feed the oppressed.
Then your light will dispel the darkness,
and your darkness will be transformed into noonday.
The Lord will continually lead you;
he will feed you even in parched regions.
He will give you renewed strength,
and you will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring that continually produces water.

Biblical Studies Press. (2006; 2006). The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible (Is 58:6-11). Biblical Studies Press.

New years has always been a reflective time, where I look in to where I have been and where I am going. I often find it hard to let go of one year and enter into the wonder that the new year may bring.

I struggle because this brings in to my heart such a me focus. In our society today it is so easy to isolate one's self from the world and bring our focus to be totally on ourselves and have the attitude of everyone must look after themselves. This is the message of our me me society.

I really like this text from Isaiah. I have it marked as one of my bible support favorites. Isaiah tells us to set free the oppressed, feed the hungry and provide shelter to the homeless. Look after each other. Then you will call out, and the Lord will respond; you will cry out, and He will reply, ‘Here I am.’ Then your light will dispel the darkness, and your darkness will be transformed into noonday.

The Lord will continually lead you;
He will feed you even in parched regions.
He will give you renewed strength,
and you will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring that continually produces water.

What a promise just for looking after each other. What a promise to stop focusing inward but to focus on others as our Lord Jesus Christ would have us do.

Let us look for ways to serve one another. Do not let the world isolate you with it's me me focus. Do not let the world seperate you from the love of God and leave you all alone.

Let us boldy go forth into the new year and search for ways to bring glory to Christ.


Amen

Music Encouragement Jason Upton - Not Alone