Abundantly Generous

“I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10b).

Do you see God as being generous? He is! He gives abundant life for earth, and abundant life for eternity. This is the reason He came. To give His life for souls! To give us life instead of death! To give us victory instead of defeat! To speak peace instead of turmoil! To bring rest in the midst of the storms of life!

Jesus Christ came so that we may know overflowing life in Him. He gave all for that purpose. He sacrificed all He was for all the ugliness that we are. In His gift to us He becomes the vine that empowers. We are the branches. When the life of the vine flows into ours, we bring forth new growth! We flourish in His presence. Our being becomes one with His.

Whatever you might face today, He has already given victory. He is Peace, Joy, Strength, Power, Healing, Patience, Forgiveness! He is everything you cannot be alone. But when you are one with Him, He is all you lack. His Life flowing through you is all you need. So look to Him, the author of your faith, and take courage. It is only in Christ that you can have the greatest peace, strength, power, healing, patience, forgiveness. But you must live with Him, and in Him. Then and only then will His life accomplish the miraculous in your life.

This is abundant life!  He is abundantly generous beyond whatever you may imagine. He came to bring you this promise and purpose.

Practice His Presence

In the midst of crisis or change, Christ is with me. In the midst of the storm, He is my safe harbor. He keeps me from the breakers that would crush me. But He is more than just a secure sanctuary. He is my strength to not only endure, but to overcome. I can never fear change when He never changes. He is the one great constant in my life–the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). As I give Him my fearful heart, His peace calms my restless spirit (Philippians 4:6-7). Abiding in Him, He claims my thoughts and I discover that I, too, can be strong. I can be steadfast and unchanging. I can know His peace that carries me above the fray.

I must practice the presence of God, and seek Him daily in prayer, study, and devotion until His presence becomes like a habit–unconsciously rendered. I unconsciously learn to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). He is just “there” at the moment I need Him. He is just “there” in moments of sudden fear when, without Him, my world would cave. But practicing His presence has brought His immediate peace in that moment. My heart has prayed unconsciously and He has heard its cry. 

I don’t know always know to give Him my suffering and fear, but the Holy Spirit intercedes for me (Romans 8:26b). He prays my heart’s cry when I am unable to mentally render a thought. It is in a moment like this that I understand His peace. I have practiced His presence until He is always with me–unconsciously and consciously. I may go through my busy day with no problem, and my conscious mind is busy with my job, my schedule, and my list. I learn something that rocks my world, and the Holy Spirit immediately arises from the depth of my unconscious spirit to calm my shattered mind. Practicing His presence has brought His presence. I will remain steadfast in Him, and unchanging in my trust in His faithfulness.

Lynn Lacher

Embrace Discipline

Embrace Discipline!

Have you ever focused on a runner’s face as he crosses the finish line? In one moment the sacrifice of hard training is surpassed by incredible joy. He has reached his goal. Does he stop at this point? No. Not only must he remain in shape for the next race, but he must train for different hardships the next race presents. To finish the next race he is ready to embrace discipline once more. The joy of accomplishment surpasses the cost of any sacrifice.

Our spiritual lives are the same. Without spiritual training in righteousness we will not know the joy of crossing the finish line. Spiritual training involves throwing off everything that deters us from the goal. We run the race with perseverance when we determine to be pushed to the limit (Hebrews 12:1).

The only way to run the race with endurance is to focus every spiritual muscle upon Jesus Christ. The race began the moment he breathed spiritual life into us, and continues until the finish life of eternal life is reached. The little joys of sacrifice along the way are what carry us to the joy crossing the final finish line brings.

We realize the joy of personal sacrifice when we understand the great cost of His sacrifice. He endured the cross because of the joy that was to come. He endured the pain for the joy of resurrection. Yet in the moment of personal trial we forget He paid the ultimate price, and in the struggle we forget He is there to help us carry the load. We miss the opportunity to grow because our eyes are not fixed upon Him but upon our problem (Hebrews 12:2).

When you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you are adopted by God as His child. Because He loves you as a heavenly father, God disciplines you and tells you not to lose heart or become discouraged (Hebrews 12:5). When we understand who we are in Christ, we know Him as a loving father who only has our welfare at heart. We know the hardships we face are meant to create a stronger bond with Him, so we look for the lesson in them. (Roman 8:28). God pushes us to the limit for our own welfare, and for no other reason.

This Truth is only discovered when we embrace disciple.

We embrace that which we love. We hold it close to our heart. Such love has the power to hurt terribly or bring incredible joy. If we love Jesus we embrace His training during good and bad times. It means that we understand its eternal value in our lives. We discover incredible spiritual joy when we allow the Lord to reveal the good that comes from a hardship.

Jesus Christ urges us to finish our race, and to finish it well. Often we don’t hear His voice because we are not willing to embrace His discipline. If we really loved Him we would embrace the hardship that comes and hold on to it until the lesson has spurred us to greater faith in Him.

You are running a spiritual marathon. Life is the race. The problems of life pull the breath out of you, but you are seeking the second wind of His Spirit. The Lord runs beside you coaching you on to greater heights. Each pounding step helps you understand a little more of the cost of His sacrifice.

Embrace the discipline that comes through hardship. Love it for the lesson and training in righteousness that it brings. Look to Him who is the author and the finisher of your faith (Hebrews 12:2). He is the one who carries you through the race of life, and who will complete the good work in you (Philippians 1:6).

Living My Faith: The Cost

Never forget that living your faith is all about Him. You may begin your Christian life called out of love for your Savior. Your heart initially burns with the wonder of what God has started only to find along the way that your inability to surrender control to the Lord chokes out spiritual life. Never forget that you have no ministry without Him. Never forget that the least is greatest in the Kingdom of heaven. Jesus came to serve. You are called to have a servant’s heart, and are no better than those who look up to you. If a person feels the need to declare his humility, then humility is not really a part of his life. True humility is a powerful tool. It reveals that spiritual power in a believer’s life has been placed under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

The cost of living the Christian life should only be counted spiritually. Danger exists in humanly counting the cost of commitment. Taking too much stock in what is required personally causes you to retreat from the depth of inward commitment necessary. Too little human commitment and your desire to live for Him fades away. However, there is safety is spiritually calculating the cost. When the price com is spiritually counted and the cost is absolute surrender to Jesus Christ, then biblical paradoxes take on new spiritual depth! Servitude brings greatness. Weakness brings strength. To live is to die, and to die is to live.

Your life in Christ requires a personal willingness to grow. God doesn’t want you “burned out and used up” because of His call upon your life. He wishes you fresh, alive, and able to pour His life through you. Give whatever is necessary spiritually. You will receive the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit, and what is so important, you will inspire commitment. Spiritual growth within you and within those who God has brought into your life will be a reality.

Living My Faith: Knowing Possibilities

Living My Faith: Knowing Possibilities

In living your faith you face possible discouragement and even burnout. We have looked at managing our priorities, bible study and prayer. One of the greatest prerequisites for commitment is to have a teachable spirit. You can’t grow spiritually if you have all the answers. You must be open to new experiences in Christ or you become stale. Not only does your ability to inspire others vanish, but if you are not willing to learn, decay in your relationship with God is unavoidable. A leader is someone who others follow you. If you are a Christian someone is following you. A leader is first of all a student, and must be teachable.

Develop a positive attitude. Don’t dwell on past failures. “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,” Paul advises, “ who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). Allow the promise in these words to positively affect your attitude. If you have a bad attitude, others sense it. Your ability to remain encouraging and optimistic toward ministry diminishes. Not only do you burn out, those who look to you for guidance fall by the wayside.

Have reasonable expectations on yourself and on others. If those you disciple do not grow immediately, don't be discouraged. A new Christian, for instance, does not jump from new faith in Jesus to an immediate ability to apply the Word of God. Patience is required as people grow in holiness. Any unreasonable expectation places an unjust burden on both a you and a the person you are discipling. Expectation becomes an obstacle to growth and both experience frustration and undue stress. Don’t expect too much too quickly. Realize that not only are you both human, but that a high goal may only be found through the accomplishment of smaller reasonable goals.

Be honest when you make a mistake. Forgive yourself and others. “Now the Lord is the Spirit,” Paul writes, “and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (II Corinthians 3:17). Be humble enough to admit when you’re wrong or don’t have an answer. Trying to be a “perfect” Christian in the eyes of others only creates disappointment when you make mistakes. Let your mask down. A willingness to be vulnerable invites vulnerability in others. It inspires honesty, but, greater still, opens each person’s heart to the healing presence of the Holy Spirit.

If you fail, forgive yourself. If someone else fails, forgive him also. Don’t hold on to your failure. Examine it. Realize the lesson; apply the lesson and then give it to God. Don’t dig it back up. It’s gone. Forgiveness for your own mistakes and for those of others is consciously rendered. We decide to move on, and trust the Lord for the strength with which to accomplish it.

When you allow the Lord to deal with your heart and mind, you have a teachable spirit. The renewing of your mind creates the ability to see have reasonable expectations. It creates a forgiving heart that believes in God's faithfulness. With these kind of qualities stress, discouragement, and burnout are things that will no longer have the ability to render you spiritually helpless. Living your faith will be as natural as breathing.

Living My Faith: Giving Him TIme

Have you stretched yourself to the point that meeting one of your many goals becomes impossible? Are you so busy that the daily time you need for Bible study and prayer is placed on a back burner? Take stock of your daily activities. List and classify each one as necessary or unnecessary. In each category prioritize every activity and determine how much time is necessary to complete it. This includes commitments at church. Too obsessed with your commitment, you may become frustrated when a goal is unattainable. Too little, and your faith is not applied. Trim the excess, and prayerfully decide what you can do and what you can’t do. You will discover more time for prayer and Bible Study. Sacrifice those nonessential activities for the Lord who died for you. He greatly honors your time when you seek His face. In Him and Him alone, you realize that His joy is the strength you need, and burnout will be an something that becomes less and less.

Evaluate your Bible Study and prayer time. Studying a Scripture inspires, but before it can do more than inspire you have to understand it from within its context. Everyone needs a structured Bible study. A systematized 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!

Prayer is your one-on-one time with the Lord. Without it, you have no strength, no guidance, no purpose, no peace, and no victory. Stress and burnout are inevitable. The Holy Spirit must pour Himself into you for you to spiritually impart Him to others, and as you are emptied, you must continually be refilled. Don’t become discouraged in prayer. Paul writes, “We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will” (Romans 8:26a-27). Just allow Him to search your heart, and He will pray for you.

God doesn’t want you “burned out and used up” because of His call upon your life. He wishes you fresh, alive, and able to pour His life through you. Find time and give Him your best.

Perception

Life is difficult. It is especially hard when I allow the enemy to distort what is true. His distortion might certainly appear to be truth, but it never is. I must pray and look beneath His lies to see God’s truth in each matter. Appearance does not always reveal what is true. My perception is where his lies can take root. Prayer and Bible study are essential to understand the enemy’s distortions. Just as he used Scripture to tempt Christ, he will certainly use it to tempt me to believe his lie.

I must seek God’s truth in all matters. I must realize that the parables Jesus’ spoke teach that appearances are not always true. There is always more beneath the surface. He explained this to his disciples in Matthew 13: 13-15. “This is why I speak to them in parables: ‘Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’”

I do not want to have a calloused heart and mind that listens to the enemy’s lies, and never perceives what Christ really imparts. I want to perceive with an open heart, ears, eyes, and mind. How I long for Him to see in me the quality He saw in His disciples! “But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it” (Matthew 13:16-17).

Help, me, Lord, to be one of these who hear, see, and understand your truth with my heart and mind and spirit. I don't want to live through another person's faith. I want to live my own faith. I want to hear from you. I will give you my time to seek and understand your Word so I can perceive what you have for me. If I see, hear , and understand what you are speaking to me, then I will be healed of everything that hinders me from my potential in you. I will be changed.

Perfect or Permissive?

A friend asked me yesterday what I believed was the difference between the permissive and perfect will of God. This morning I thought of Habakkuk (chapter 2), and his need for an answer from God. Habakkuk waited for God’s answer. He stood firm, and believed He would hear. God didn't immediately give the answer Habakkuk desired, but what He told Habakkuk, speaks of the faithfulness of a God who is never late. “Though the answer may linger,” God said, “wait for it! It will certainly come, and will not delay.”

When I have a question I believe I need answered right away, how do I respond when I find I must wait for it? Habakkuk stood firm, and declared he would not move until He had heard from God. He did not stand in an attitude of his right to have an answer, but one of humility in the awareness of God’s faithfulness. Having brought his question to God, he believed He would hear. He stood, and he waited. He did not struggle for an answer. He waited, and knew God's promise that an answer would come in God's Time.

What is God's perfect will and His answer for my life? I believe I have an answer when I am completely submitted to Him. I hold nothing back. I wait in anticipation of His faithfulness. I wait for my answer. I may be frustrated like Habakkuk, but I know God is faithful, and I take my frustration to Him just as Habakkuk did. I let God have it, and I take no action until I hear from God. In humble honestly, I boldly come before Him and seek my answer. When I am broken and spilled out in my heart for Him, I know His will, because I yearn with all my heart to be in His will. When I am renewed in the spirit of my mind, and I am transformed and looking for His perfect and pleasing will, I discover it without struggling. If I yearn for His desires to be my desires, I am absolutely willing to surrender my personal desires for His. I am willing to wait as long as necessary for His will or His promise to come into being. I am willing to believe in that promise even if that promise doesn't come into my sight (Hebrews 11:6). Don't I sometimes get so focused on what God's will is for my life, I forget that this very moment when I am seeking His will, the spiritual growth I'm discovering, is His will? I find His will, and I am in His will when I trust Him perfectly. He knows that He is the focus of all my desire, and not His will. I just want Him completely transforming my life.

I also believe that God has a permissive will for my life. You might not agree with all of this, but I ask you to hear me out, and then draw you own conclusion. I believe that when I am lost in a struggle to discover His will, and I believe with all my heart that I have absolutely surrendered, there may be a part of my will that has not absolutely surrendered to His will. It may be a lack of trust in His faithfulness. It may be questioning Him as to why I haven't seen His hand move when I believe with all my heart that He has told me His will, and I haven't seen it. I may “feel” time closing in... whether it is nor not. Proverbs 16:3 says, "Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.” This says to me, that if I commit to the Lord my decision to act, and He knows I want to serve Him from a humble heart, He will allow my plans to be successful. This I believe is His permissive will. He knows I love Him and I want to be His always. Because of my love for Him, (and if that direction does not compromise Him), He may allow me to move in a direction He might not have initially called. I believe He allows His permissive will when He knows that I love Him completely, and perfect trust is something He knows that I desire with all my heart, and for whatever reason, I have not just found it. Perhaps I stumble into it because my greatest desire is to serve Him, and He knows that I long to serve Him with all my being. He knows my humble impatience, but He also recognizes my love. He knows that, even though I may struggle, He is still the focus of my desire.

There is a great danger, when in struggling to know God's will, that I might actually move out of God's will. When I take matters into my own hand–when my heart is so frustrated that my impatience has become a tool in Satan's hands–when my personal desire to be in His will has become greater than His actual will for my life, I will totally fail Him. Because of my need to "feel" His approval and have His answer, I completely miss His perfect will. I even miss His permissive will. My impatient heart has become so hardened by what “I” feel I need, that I have lost completely a heart for what “God needs”. I move forward and make my plans from the desire of what I believe I need. I have become so obsessed with the desire to be in His will, that I miss it altogether. I have forgotten my life is about Him, and not just about His will. The plans that I make may be mine alone, because they have not come from a surrendered heart. They have come from my need to "feel" and just "know", and there is the downfall. I find myself totally out of His will and lost in a feeling and need for approval that knows no bounds.

Habakkuk felt He has been pushed to His limit. His heart broke for a world disintegrating around him. He longed to understand why evil existed, and always appeared to win. Habakkuk boldly brought his complaint to God, and then waited for God’s answer. He waited with a heart that knew God would answer. He humbly refused to give up, but he didn't struggle. God’s answer and the promise it offers is timeless. “Though the answer may linger,” God said, “wait for it! It will certainly come, and will not delay.”

A Believer's Repentant Heart

A Believer’s Repentant Heart

Once more the pastor had shared the message of God’s sanctifying grace. Once more he had reminded his congregation that heart change was an on-going process. Once more he had bared his soul. You might have thought his own “me too” as only one couple knelt at the altar would have revealed his own repentant heart to the congregation. He had prayed that God's people would have a teachable spirit just as David had when faced with his own failure. Had the sermon fallen on deaf ears?

Jesus once told his disciples why he spoke to others in parable. “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: 'You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them’” (Matthew 13: 13-15).

With closed eyes and ears, many people that morning had never entertained the idea that their pastor’s convicting message was for them. Others had heard the message and were literally unwilling. Afraid of what others might think - disinclined to submit to the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, they stood with hands gripping the pew in front of them, not even realizing that they had said “no” to the will of God. They were not even aware that the attitude of their hearts had been dictated by human will instead of a Holy Spirit altered heart and mind. 

As a believer I am to have an open spirit to what the Lord instructs. I do not have the option to ignore the transformation of the Spirit. “Therefore, I urge you, brothers,” the apostle Paul declared, “in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:1-2).

My life should be an act of spiritual worship to the God who became a living sacrifice for me. Spirit and truth are inseparable. If I worship God in spirit and truth (John 4:23-24), I offer a yielded heart to His replenishment. Spiritual transformation is discovered in the renewing of my mind. A willingness to be renewed means that I am ready to admit I am not perfect. It means I seek His perfect will, not just stumble into His permissive will.

“You were taught,” Paul also wrote,” with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4: 23-23).

I am also created to be holy as God is holy (I Peter 1:15), but I cannot be like Him until my attitudes and desires are what He wishes. In repentance I discover God’s desire instead of my own. The reason that repentance is ongoing is because absolute holiness of heart is a goal. When my heart and mind is constantly renewed, repentance creates the ability to put off the old and put on the new. On earth holiness is a goal that is daily discovered. It is the culmination of daily surrenders which brings me closer to the ultimate target. In heaven when I stand in the presence of God, holiness shall be a goal completely realized. No longer will I see Him through a glass darkly, but then I shall see Him. face to face (I Corinthians 13:12).

God seeks the whole earth for those whose hearts totally belong to Him. To such a person God gives His strength which empowers personal change (I Chronicles 16: 9). Christians who constantly experience the renewing power of the Holy Spirit view God’s omnipotence with humble amazement at His love. When David’s sin with Bathsheba was brought to his attention by Nathan, David hit the ground in repentance. There was no hesitation in his humble heart. His example teaches that even those with a heart that loves the Lord, need to be spiritually open to the convicting presence of the Holy Spirit. David experienced God’s immediate forgiveness because of his repentant heart. If his heart had been calloused, David never would have realized at what point the Holy Spirit had left him.

Only the blood of Jesus brings new life to what would otherwise remain dead in transgression in a Christian’s life. When I repent God cleanses my heart, and washes away the impurities. He promises, “I will give you a clean heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36: 26). 

Where once my heart was as hard and unyielding as stone now he promises it shall beat with the pulsating blood of His living sacrifice. Where once calloused inner pain held God’s renewal at bay, now I shall be energized by His living presence. A new heart and the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit fills me with the desire to keep His laws and commandments- not because they are rules to be followed, but because I love Him above all else. His law shall be my delight, and in every way He shall be my God and I shall belong only to Him (Ezekiel 26: 27-28). 

Sincere holiness comes as a result of a rejuvenated heart, and not as the result of a legalistic-type rule, and is the outward expression of inward renewal. Because the sacrifice of His blood has made me clean, holiness expects absolute surrender to the will of God. Christ’s blood flows easily and fully into a repentant heart.

Repentance is a life changing experience. It means that you have been halted in your tracks, and made a complete turn around. True repentance comes from knowing the convicting power of the Holy Spirit and changes your heart attitude. It is not measured in a personal outward change as the Pharisees instructed. It is measured in the change of your heart. It calls for a transformation that inspires vulnerability to a Holy God and the transforming power of His Word.

Jesus compared his yielded disciples to the multitude with deaf ears. “But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it” (Matthew 13: 16-17).

Do I realize that a believer’s repentant heart is my only hope?  If I don’t, then I have missed His best. Realized, I know unparalleled intimacy.

A Fruitful Vine

Today is Sunday, and I consider who I really am. If He my reason for living, or does He stand on the other side of the door waiting to be invited inside? Do I believe that I am just fine, when perhaps I am really dying on the vine? When I believe that I am just where I need to be in my relationship with Him, then I am dying on the vine.

“I am the vine; you are the branches,” Jesus speaks. “If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples” (John: 15:5-8).

He is the vine, and I am the branch. If I seek Him and daily yield my heart to Him, my life will overflow with His purpose and His power. If I don't, I will fail. If I don't, there will be no direction. I I don't seek His heart, my existence is only that. Just existence. But if He is the heartbeat of my life, His Spirit brings life-giving power and strength to accomplish what otherwise seems impossible.

If I bring a heart surrendered to God’s purpose, then I reap His sufficiency instead my own. However, a heart that believes it has surrendered to Christ, but has not, is a heart that doesn’t realize it has its own agenda. If I bring such selfishness to ministry, I am impotent and purposeless. Instead of bringing life, I bring death. I become a branch that is picked up and thrown into the fire.

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener,” Jesus teaches. “He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful” (John 15:1-2). Lord, I don't want to be a branch that is cut off because it bears no fruit. I want to be a branch which bears fruit, and is willing to be pruned in order to bear more. It may hurt, but it is for His best and my best. “Those whom I love,” Jesus implores, “I rebuke and discipline” (Revelations 3:19a). When I bring a surrendered heart, I bring one that is easily rebuked and disciplined. It is not hardened or self-sufficient. When I am willing to listen to His voice instead of my own, I have invited Him to come in and change me. I have become a fruitful vine.