Ask, Seek and Knock

Matthew 7:7  "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:"

ASK-  Ask, Seek and Knock.  The Lord Jesus Christ gave us a part to play when it comes to seeking our petitions of the Lord.  He places a condition on our petitions.  He wants His children to come to him by faith communicating their needs to Him.  Many times God gives us blessings that we haven't even asked for because it pleases Him to do so.  We do the same thing for our earthly children.  We give them things that they haven't asked for simply because we love them and want to bless them.  It's still nice to have our children come to us and ask for things.  It's good to know that they need us in their lives.  Our Heavenly Father wants us to come to Him with our needs and desires.  He knows what we need even before we ask, but He wants us to realize our total dependence upon Him.  Have you received any blessings from God lately?  He may be waiting for you to take the first step and ask.  Share your heart's desires with Him today and He will answer according to His will.

Give God your Best

Colossians 3:23  "And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;"

If we're not careful it is easy to get preoccupied with trying to please man.  We may have our eyes focused on that promotion at work and we want to do everything in our power to make sure that the promotion is ours.  We want the praise that comes from man to stroke our egos and make us feel great about what we did or who we've become.  This bible verse reminds us that the focus of our activities shouldn't be in pleasing men.  The purpose for everything we do should be to please the Lord.  Our efforts shouldn't be half-hearted, but done heartily as to the Lord.  This means we should give our best and work hard to please the Lord.  He is worthy of our best efforts.

All Things Work Together for Good.

Romans 8:28  "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."

When this Bible verse mentions "All things" that encompasses a lot of ground.  It mean that the good things that happen in life work to our good.  That's easy for us to understand.  It makes sense to us that good things are working for our good.  The hard part to understand is that the bad things that happen in our life are working together for our good.  God has made it abundantly clear in His Word that trials in our life are for a purpose.  God uses trials to strengthen us.  Trials are likened to the process of purifying gold.  The gold is heated to an extreme temperature and then the dross or impurities are skimmed off the gold leaving behind pure gold.  God intends for trials to have the same effect in our lives.  God permits the trials in our life to conform us to the image of Christ.  When we suffer as Christ suffered we learn to lean upon our heavenly Father.  We learn to trust that He is always doing what is best in our life.  How is your life today?  Are you on the mountaintop enjoying God's abundant blessing or are you in the valley of trials and dark days?  No matter where you find yourself today be confident that God is doing a work that will be for your good a little farther down the road.

Walk in Love

Eph 5:2  "And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour."

What a tremendous commandment that God has given to us.  The commandment is to, "Walk in love , as Christ also hath loved us..."   When we consider the love of Christ we stand in amazement at His Love for us.  He willingly gave Himself to be put to death on the cross for us.  He was totally innocent, yet He gave himself to die a criminal's death at Calvary.  When we consider the great love that He demonstrated toward us, the obvious question is how can we love with that kind of love?  How can we give as much as Christ gave for us?  The answer is that we can't give love as Christ gave apart from the empowerment of the Holy Spirit of God working in and through us.  We must remember as believers that we are indwelt with the Holy Spirit, God Himself.  It is by allowing ourselves to be Spirit controlled that we can begin to demonstrate to others the love of God working through us.  The Holy Spirit will empower us to sacrifice our lives for others.  It may not be a sacrifice that leads to death, but it may be a sacrifice of our time and energies as we allow our lives to be a conduit for the love of God to flow through us and on to others.  When we love others as Christ loved us our effort will be a sweet smelling savour to God.

Incredible Peace

Philippians 4:7  "And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."

The peace that God offers is a peace unlike anything that this world knows.  It is a peace that manifests itself in times of trial and trouble.  It is a peace that defies explanation apart from the supernatural power of God.  To know the peace of God, we must first have peace with God.  We live in the midst of a world that is desperately seeking peace, but it is elusive to them because they don't have peace with God.  It is always in that order in the Scriptures.  A person has to trust Christ as Savior to have peace with God.  After salvation we can know the wonderful experience of having a peace that passeth all understanding.  How is your peace today?  Do you have an abiding trust in Him?  A confidence that God is able to work in any situation in your life.

Child-Like Faith

Matthew 18:3  "And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."

In Matthew 18 Jesus calls a young child to Himself and then He uses the child to demonstrate the child-like faith that is required for a person to get to Heaven.  Jesus explained to His disciples that they needed to humble themselves as little children.  I'm thankful that Jesus Christ made salvation so simple that even a small child can understand the requirements of salvation.  Have you ever noticed how trusting and innocent children are.  Adults sometimes complicate the plan of salvation so much that they can't recognize it themselves.  They begin to over think the process and start adding to or subtracting from the steps of salvation.  They start to think that salvation really can't be this simple and they start changing it in their own thought process.  The danger of this is that they so distort the requirements of salvation so much that they miss the mark.

What did God explain in his Word that the steps of salvation are?
1)  Recognize that we are a sinner.
2)  Repent of our sin.
3)  Believe that Jesus died on the cross and paid the wages for our sin.
4)  Believe that Jesus arose from the grave on the third day.
5)  Call upon Jesus Christ and ask Him to save you.

God made the plan incredibly simple.  Have you trusted Christ as your Savior?  If you would like more information click on the link on the main page of this blog.  "Salvation Plain and Simple"
If I can answer any questions free to email me at drcmh@yahoo.com

Importance of Charity

1Corinthians 13:13  "And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."  The bible places tremendous emphasis on charity.  It is by the charity of God the Father that Jesus Christ was given and offered up for the sins of all mankind.  God demonstrated His great love for us by giving His own Son to die on the cross for us.  When we consider the great love that Jesus Christ demonstrated to us by willingly allowing Himself to be crucified to pay the wages of our sins the very least we can do is demonstrate charity toward others.  It is through this demonstration of love toward others that people's hearts are opened to the Gospel message.  If people know that we care, that we love them, then their hearts become receptive to the message of the Gospel.  If people know that we are sincerely concerned it gives our witness tremendous credibility.  People will listen and trust our message about the saving power of Christ.
How is your charity today?  Are you demonstrating the love of God as you reach out to those that are hurting around you?  If you don't have the proper level of charity confess it to God and ask Him to help in this area in your life.  God stands willing to give us the proper heart attitude if we will simply ask!

Stages of Life

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;”  Ecclesiastes 3:1

Our lives are broken into stages.  As children we live under the care and protection of our families.  It is a time of learning and safety as we watch, learn and listen.  It is the time that we head off to the schoolhouse to receive an education.  A time to learn those things that will lead us to being productive citizens, workers and community members.  Those school days are a stage in our life.  The day that we graduate high school begins another stage in our lives.  Some choose college, others choose a job and some choose to begin careers in the military.  If we're sensitive to the leadership of God in our lives we find ourselves meeting the spouse that God has for us.  We get married and yet another stage with all of it blessings begins.  The next step or stage in our lives is to raise the children that God blesses us with.  Then the day comes when we have to stand at the schoolhouse door and bid our children goodbye as they enter their first day of school.  The day eventually comes when we stand at our door and bid our child goodbye as they head off into the world to make it on our own.  Then the empty nest stage begins.

Our lives consist of one stage after another.  We move inexorably from one season to another.  We can't look down through the halls of our future and see everything that is in store for us just over the next horizon.  It's probably for the best that we can't.  The future would probably scare us to death if we saw what we will have to face.  As Christians we have the awareness that we don't have to face the stages of life alone.  Our God goes with us day by day and year by year throughout every moment of all of the stages.  We often find ourselves perplexed and puzzled at different stages, but we serve a God that is never confused or befuddled.  He sees the path ahead perfectly clear and He knows the plan that He has for us every stage of our life.  We need to simply trust that He knows best and He wants what is best for us.  What stage are you going through in your life?  Is it a time of mountain top experience or are you trudging through the valley.  Trust God to see you through!

Handling Trials

James 1:2
"My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations."  This verse on the surface appears to be a paradox.  How can we be joyful when we fall into various trials?  The idea of being joyful in a trial seems ludicrous on the surface.  How can we be happy in the midst of misery?  We need to consider the source of our joy.  As Christians the source of our joy is our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.  He has promised to never leave us nor forsake us.  He has unlimited power to help in times of trouble.  He is a very present help in time of trouble.  He cares about what is going on in our lives.  His presence encourages and strengthens us as we spend time in His presence through prayer and bible study.  The idea of being joyful in trials seems strange until we realize that our joy is not dependent on our circumstances, but our joy is dependent upon a right relationship with Christ.  How is your joy today?  Are you relying upon circumstances for joy or the real source of joy?

Spiritual Renewal

A time of refreshment is important in every Christian Life.  During the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ there were times when Christ had to separate Himself from the throngs of people that were crowding in on him and begging Him for assistance.  He would separate from the hustle and bustle of the daily ministering to the needs of the masses and would retire to a desert place to spend time alone in prayer.  Jesus was modeling a wonderful example for us as believers.  He was demonstrating the need for a time of spiritual renewal and refreshment.  Jesus knew full well that the power of the Holy Spirit of God was available through prayer.  As believers we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit.  A famous preacher once stated that it's not how much of the Holy Spirit we have, but how much of us does the Holy Spirit have.  Time in prayer alone with God strengthens our walk with God and enables us to carry out the ministry that God has assigned us as His ambassador.  How is your walk with God today?  Are you walking through dry, barren places?  God wants to refresh and renew your spirit today.  He wants to be a spring of living water rising up within you to refresh you for the journey ahead.  Take time to spend time with God today and go forward in the strength of His Spirit!

What's Next? Discerning God's Direction

There are times in life when we don't feel a clear direction from God, but we have a very important decision that must be made.  What do we do during those times.  We pray, but it seems that our ceiling is made of lead and our prayers are falling back down to us without leaving the confines of our room.  As Christians we know that God doesn't operate on our timetable.  There are times when we expect an immediate answer, but that immediate answer doesn't come.  These are times that we have to wait patiently, by faith simply trusting that our Lord's timing is always perfect.  He has promised that all things work together for good to them that love Him.  We have to trust God as sovereign to always do those things that are in our best interest.  He will always do what is best for us.  We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus.  What practical steps do we take when we simply don't know what to do?  We need to wait on the Lord, don't get hasty and rush ahead in our own wisdom.  We need to keep doing those things that are in accordance with the Word of God.  The things that we know are right and in God's will.  Finally we have to maintain an abiding trust in God.  He will answer, He will move at exactly the moment that is best in our life.  We serve an awesome God.  He has unlimited power and ability to help in every circumstance in our life.  Trust Him!