Fuel to Fire

A new year is just around the corner, and each one of us needs to take stock of where we stand in our walk with the Lord. So many times we desire to start January with a list of goals we want to achieve without considering that growth just doesn't happen. Have you stretched yourself to the point that meeting one of your many goals becomes impossible? Are you so busy that the time for a daily Bible study and devotional time is placed on a back burner? We all need spiritual food to fuel our fire.

Studying Scripture inspires, but before it can do something lasting in your life, you have to dig it out. You have to pray about it. And you must study it from within its context. Everyone needs a structured Bible study. A systemically-structured study supplies the basis for the Holy Spirit to speak to you and for you to understand the message in the Word. If you haven’t learned something new from your study, look again. Expect to be surprised by the Word, and allow the Holy Spirit to teach you. Expectation rewards with spiritual surprise!

Remember that God breathed HIS life into the Word., and it trains us in our spiritual walk (2 Timothy 3:16). It was sent for His purpose in our lives, and it will accomplish what He wishes when we make the effort (Isaiah 55:10-11).

Make the effort. He will not disappoint you.

Faith, Prayer, & Fasting

Strong and abundant faith in God's constant faithfulness is discovered through prayer and fasting.

Prayer isn’t just telling God what you desire, but is about listening and understanding what He desires. Prayer doesn’t change God, but you. When you enter into holy communication with God, the Spirit of the Lord within you prays to the Holy Spirit. You have surrendered control (Romans 8:26). The heart prays and receives faith without the analytical perspective the mind attempts to interject. Satan’s lies can’t penetrate the shield of faith.

Fasting focuses the mind on God instead of circumstance. “You will keep in perfect peace him, whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you” (Isaiah 26:3). You know supernatural peace at the moment the mind surrenders its struggle for control. When the human mind is bypassed, the need for assurance is exchanged for His grace (Philippians 4:6-8). Satan tempted Jesus to turn stones into bread, but Jesus said, "Man doesn’t live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4). In another instance, the disciples insisted that Jesus eat, and he said, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about”. The disciples didn’t see any food. “My food,” Jesus explained, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish His purpose" (John 4:32-34).

When we surrender control to God—whether in prayer or food—we receive more of the Lord’s strength to handle life’s uncertainty, and to complete the work He has assigned us. As we grow in these disciplines, sensitivity to the Holy Spirit increases, revealing our own inadequacy, and teaching us how to walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).

Give Him You

Do you know that you have been called to a great work? Mary, the mother of Jesus, was called to a great work. The angel, Gabriel, came to her and said, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” Mary trembled at the news, but she replied, “I am the Lord's servant.”

Mary had a heart to obey. She never walked away from God's calling Don't walk away from what God has called you to do for the sake of time or personal need or even fear. The desire of His heart is for you to know Him completely, to be fulfilled in your calling, to have a pliable heart, to know the power of His presence, and to receive what He has promised. The promise is realized when you allow Him to work in your life, and you give Him the gift of an obedient heart. What God has promised you is true, and He will bring it to pass in His time.

Jesus is the reason for this wonderful season. Christ was born for you and me, and He died for us. It came at the greatest cost─His life for yours and mine─His pure life for our sinful one─His perfect love for our rejection─His pain for our stubbornness. And what will it cost? A repentant, and obedient heart. His will instead of our own. Perhaps you were once wandering, longing to be used by the Lord, longing to be fulfilled in His purpose. The Holy Spirit opened a door, and you walked joyfully through it, and knew the joy of His promise and His purpose. His purpose and His will is your anchor which sustains through all the trials and hardships. Never let go of it.

Have you made a decision about your life which has placed His will on the shelf? Have you let go of the precious gift of His calling for the sake of your own personal need or because of fear? Long ago I did. There was no joy in placing my desire before His calling. I knew great loneliness and pain. At the time my decision seemed so right, because my need seemed so great, but I learned later I had lost so much of what He had promised. And my greatest loss was in failing Him. I lost so much believing I was making the best decision, when all He wanted was for me to allow Him to be in control. He just wanted my obedient heart. He longed for me to trust Him to bring about what He had promised. And what it cost was the loss of His presence. Never again will I turn from His will for my life.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9). Mary realized the omnipotence of a great God, and the importance of what He asked. She realized that He was higher in every way than she could ever be─that His purpose and vision in every way surpassed Her own. If He has promised you something allow Him to bring it to pass in His time.

Give Him the gift of an obedient heart this Christmas. Give Him “you”. That special promise He has brought into your life will be fulfilled in His time.

Rest in His Presence

When I am tired, exhausted, overwhelmed, depleted, I go to Him for rest. But I don't just go. I stay. I wait. I let go of all that pulls me down and drains my heart and spirit. And I stay with Him. I stop all that rushes my mind and disturbs my spirit. I go to Him because I know He alone is my help and my restorer. He is my help in my time of need. His presence is constant and sure, and I wait until He fills every crevice of my tired and hurting heart. I fine peaceful rest in His presence.

His rest is fearless. His rest supplies all that I lack. His rest is complete, and is all that I need to complete my journey. I rest in Him until He shows me it is time to go again....until my spirit sings with His strength and purpose.

Whatever your struggle or pain or heartache or want, rest in Him until you are strong again, and your spirit sings once more with His strength and purpose.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28, NIV).

The Promise of Delivery

Are you going through a difficult time? Is it a time that overwhelms you? Does the pain of each moment bring fear to your heart? Do you wonder if God is even aware? You are not alone. At some time in our lives we will all face uncertainty and desolation. We will wonder where God is. We will cry out in our despair and long for a promise of peace in the midst of the storm. Maybe you have heard that you need to “consider it pure joy” when you go through pain. Perhaps you have heard that the pain will make you bitter or better. It will make your faith stronger. There are biblical truths, but at the point of your greatest pain, you need to hear something more. You need the promise that one day it will end. That one day there will be peace.

Tucked away in the book of Isaiah is a verse that I discovered years ago. It uses the analogy of birth for the promised new life for Israel. It also speaks to whatever pain we face. After months of pregnancy a woman discovers the intense pain of delivery, and at the moment when her pain is the greatest, there is release. What is the result? A new birth and a new life. Joy is the result. The months of discomfort, and the intense pain of delivery have been worth it. All along the way, she has anticipated the joy to come. She has believed in her promise, and the months of preparation have been worth the incredible result.

“'Do I bring to the moment of birth and not give delivery?' says the Lord. 'Do I close up the womb when I bring to delivery?' says your God” (Isaiah 66:9). No, He doesn't close up the womb. No, He doesn't stop the release that comes forth from all the pain. The intense joy that comes from your delivery is your promise. You are even protected from the pain that would be too much for you to handle. “Before she goes into labor, she gives birth; before the pains come upon her, she delivers a son” (Isaiah 66:7). What we might consider the harshest pain is not really what the most horrible pain might be. God has protected us. He has made our labor easier than it might have been, and has brought us to the point of delivery from it all.

Whatever trial you are going through holds the promise of peace. “So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised” (Hebrews 10:35-36). Hang on and find His will for you. Believe the promise is very real. During your time of “pregnancy” you will discover the biblical truths that make your faith stronger. Please believe that “weeping my stay for the night, but joy comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5b). The dawn of morning is your promise, and it will come.

The Tablecloth

I received the following in an email from a friend. Maybe you have heard it before, but it would like to share it with others who need to hear about God's amazing ways.

The brand new pastor and his wife, newly assigned to their first ministry, to reopen a church in suburban Brooklyn, arrived in early October excited about their opportunities.

When they saw their church, it was very run down and needed much work. They set a goal to have everything done in time to have their first service on Christmas Eve.They worked hard, repairing pews, plastering walls, painting, etc, and on December 18 were ahead of schedule and just about finished. On December 19 a terrible tempest - a driving rainstorm- hit the area and lasted for two days. On the 21st, the pastor went over to the church. His heart sank when he saw that the roof had leaked, causing a large area of plaster about 20 feet by 8 feet to fall off the front wall of the sanctuary just behind the pulpit, beginning about head high. The pastor cleaned up the mess on the floor, and not knowing what else to do but postpone the Christmas Eve service, headed home. On the way he noticed that a local business was having a flea market type sale for charity, so he stopped in. One of the items was a beautiful, handmade, ivory colored, crocheted tablecloth with exquisite work, fine colors and a Cross embroidered right in the center. It was just the right size to cover the hole in the front wall. He bought it and headed back to the church.

By this time it had started to snow. An older woman running from the opposite direction was trying to catch the bus. She missed it. The pastor invited her to wait in the warm church for the next bus 45 minutes later.

She sat in a pew and paid no attention to the pastor while he got a ladder, hangers, etc., to put up the tablecloth as a wall tapestry. The pastor could hardly believe how beautiful it looked and it covered up the entire problem area. Then he noticed the woman walking down the centeraisle. Her face was like a sheet.

"Pastor,"she asked, "where did you get that tablecloth?"

The pastor explained. The woman asked him to check the lower right corner to see if the initials 'EBG' were crocheted into it there. They were. These were the initials of the woman, and she had made this tablecloth 35 years before, in Austria. The woman could hardly believe it as the pastor told how he had just gotten the tablecloth. The woman explained that before the war she and her husband were well-to-do people in Austria . When the Nazis came, she was forced to leave. Her husband was going to follow her the next week. He was captured, sent to prison and she never saw her husband or her home again.

The pastor wanted to give her the tablecloth; but she made the pastor keep it for the church. The pastor insisted on driving her home. That was the least he could do. She lived on the other side of Staten Island and was only in Brooklyn for the day for a house cleaning job.

What a wonderful service they had on Christmas Eve. The church was almost full. The music and the spirit were great. At the end of the service, the pastor and his wife greeted everyone at the door and many said that they would return.

One older man, whom the pastor recognized from the neighborhood, continued to sit in one of the pews and stare, and the pastor wondered why he wasn't leaving.

The man asked him where he got the tablecloth on the front wall because it was identical to one that his wife had made years ago when they lived in Austria before the war and how could there be two tablecloths so much alike? He told the pastor how the Nazis came, how he forced his wife to flee for her safety and he was supposed to follow her, but he was arrested and put in a prison. He never saw his wife or his home again in all the 35 years between.

The pastor asked him if he would allow him to take him for a little ride. They drove to Staten Island and to the same house where the pastor had taken the woman three days earlier. He helped the man climb the three flights of stairs to the woman's apartment, knocked on the door and he saw the greatest Christmas reunion he could ever imagine.

True story - submitted by Pastor Rob Reid
who says God does work in mysterious ways.

There are Times

There are times when God does not speak. There are times when He reveals nothing in answer to my prayerful questions. There are times when He gives no direct guidance. Thankfully, my path is clear enough to know I must grow more in knowledge of Him. I must trust in that I do not see or hear. Quiet prayer communion with Him will give me what I need even though I have no answers at the moment.

He may ask me to wait silently, and to expect just the grace of His presence. The wait will bring greater faith. And the result will be comfort and peace in the midst of any storm. I give Him all my struggles and questions and pain and unanswered questions, and in the giving I discover peace beyond any human words to explain.

Philippians 4:6-7

A Changed Heart

In the midst of the hurry of Christmas we are prone to forget the message of Christmas―the miracle of a changed heart. But this morning as I read one particular Bible verse I remember once again, as I do every Christmas, the miracle that Christ's love made in my life one Christmas morning when I was fourteen.

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you,” I read. “I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26). Fifty years ago this verse might not have meant much to me, but years later I would understand that this was the miracle the Lord had rendered in my stony heart that Christmas morning.

My father served that year as an interim Justice of the Peace in Woodstock, Georgia. We were in the midst of opening presents when the doorbell rang. A woman with two little children stood on the doorstep.

Daddy guided them into the kitchen, and Mother followed. We three children were left in the living room with our grandparents. No one said anything. Why did these people have to interrupt our time together? We couldn’t open our presents without Mother and Daddy. I heard Mother in the kitchen preparing food. They would be around all the day, and it would spoil everything! I looked through the living room door. The woman sat at the kitchen table with Daddy listening to his soft voice. She nodded every few seconds. Daddy handed her a pen, and she signed some papers on the table. The little girl sat in her lap. The boy held on to her arm, his thumb in his mouth, tears streaming down his cheek. Mother came into the living room to tell us that a warrant had been sworn out against the woman’s husband, and they would stay with us until he had been arrested.

I was angry. Our Christmas was no longer pure and untouched. Ugliness had come into our home. The little boy unexpectedly came into the living room, toddled over to me, and placed his curly head on my knee. One little blue eye gazed up at me. The soft skin around it was swollen. I slowly reached down and stroked his reddened cheek. Everything changed in that instant. The ugliness had not invaded our home this morning. The ugliness had been in me.

A changed heart is what God requires. It is an on-going process for Him to keep my heart and your heart spiritually soft as flesh. My Christmas prayer for you and for me is that our hearts would continually break for Him, and that we would always have a heart that He can move.

Friendship

Luke writes of a man who might have missed his healing without the determination of his friends to literally carry him. Four men bring their paralytic friend to a house where Jesus is, but can’t get through the mass of people. Determined, they climb to the roof of the house by an outside stairway. After removing roof tiles and prying up the mud and wattle, they lower the paralytic’s pallet through the opening. Jesus looks up, and observes the pallet being lowered. What does he see? He sees the faces of four men looking down at him filled with a stark longing need for their friend’s healing. But He also sees great faith revealed in their faces. Jesus looks at the paralytic and announces, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” To show the Pharisees that He has the power to forgive sin, Jesus tells the man on the mat, “Rise up, and pick up your mat. Go home” (Luke 5:16-24)!

In Proverbs Solomon lists three strong values found in a good friend. He loves at all times (Proverbs 17:17); he is closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24); he never forsakes his friend (27:10). The example of the paralytic in Luke supports Solomon’s observations. He received constant love from his friends. He was closer than a brother, and his friends did not forsake him. They believed in his healing and did what they could to help him. Maybe the paralytic was embarrassed to be the center of attention. Perhaps he asked them not to cut a hole in the roof. Or maybe because he was unable to do anything for himself he was relying upon his friends. What can we deduce about friendship from this example of the four friends’ commitment? No matter what your friend’s belief or lack of belief, you believe in the very best for him. True friendship does whatever is necessary to bring about the promise but does not sacrifice the heart of his friend.

Three years ago a dear friend gave me a calendar that had been printed off the Internet. In the upper left hand corner was a simple statement that showed the true value of a Christian friend. “A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart, and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.”

Consider your own special friendships this week, and value each as the gift God has imparted to your heart.

Listen and Learn

How many times do we discover that we have done things that have hurt others? Thing that were not intentional that hurt those we care about so deeply? I know I have. Sometimes in an attempt to lessen a friend's pain and ease a breaking heart, we try to fix things that can't be fixed. The best we can do is just be there and listen.

We have been studying Job's friends in Wednesday night Bible Study. They thought that were helping Job with their "advice", but they were only hurting with their words and accusations. They really didn't understand the "larger" picture, and neither do we.

So if we have hurt another, I can say and you can say...

"Please forgive me, friend, if I make mistakes that hurt you. I don't do them on purpose. I try to be the best friend that I can be, but I often fail in my attempt. My heart hurts for you, but so many times it tries to fix things that it should never attempt to fix. The best I can do for you is pray for you and ask the Holy Spirit to make me sensitive to your needs, and keep me from making mistakes or saying things that hurt you."

C. H. Spurgeon once wrote, “Friendship is one of the sweetest joys of life. Many might have failed beneath the bitterness of their trial had they not found a friend." This is the kind of friend I wish to be.... one who knows he can't solve the problem, but one who realizes that in listening to my friend's heart, I have given the very best I can give.

Listen to the Holy Spirit, and to our friends.

2 Corinthians 3:17