"I will help you."

"It is but a small thing for Me, your God, to help you. Consider what I have done already, What! Not help you? Why, I bought you with My blood. What! Not help you? I have died for you; and if I have done the greater, will I not do the less? Help you! It is the least thing I will ever do for you; I have done more, and will do more. Before the world began I chose you; I gave up My life for you; and if I did all this, I will surely help you now. In helping you, I am giving you what I have bought for you already. If you had need of a thousand times as much help, I would give it to you; you require little compared with what I am ready to give. It is much for you to need, but it is nothing for me to bestow. Help you? Fear not! If there were an ant at the door of your granary asking for help, it would not ruin you to give him a handful of your wheat; and you are nothing but a tiny insect at the door of My all-sufficiency. I will help you."

O my soul, is this not enough? Do you need more strength than the omnipotence of the united Trinity? Do you want more wisdom than exists in the Father, more love than displays itself in the Son, or more power than is manifest in the influences of the Spirit? Bring here your empty pitcher! Surely this well will fill it. Hurry, gather up your wants. and bring them here--your emptiness, your woes, your needs. Behold, this river of God is full for your supply; what else can you desire? Go forth, my soul, in this your might. The Eternal God is your helper!

Fear not, I am with you, oh, be not dismay'd!
I, I am your God, and will still give you aid.

chs | morning by morning, January 16

election day

Today is election day. Regardless of the outcome, it helps me to remember:

Daniel 2:20-21

"Blessed be the name of God forever and ever,
to whom belong wisdom and might.
He changes times and seasons;
he removes kings and sets up kings;"

Daniel 4:17

"The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men."

Proverbs 21:1

"The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD;
he turns it wherever he will."

Rest in God's sovereignty, knowing that He is in control of the government. Everything is going exactly how it was planned.

It is also important to remember what kind of attitude to adorn in regards to responding to our government.

1 Peter 2:13-18
"Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor. Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust.

The interesting thing about Peter's letter is that he was writing to Christians living under the rule of Emperor Nero, who was torturing Christians. With this in mind, he tells them to "honor the emperor". This may be tough for us, but if Christians could do that under Nero, then I'm sure it's possible for Christians in America. My question is "are we honoring our rulers with our words?" 1 Peter's emphasis is the Christian's testimony ("Aliens and strangers" 1 Peter 2:11). Are people wondering what the reason is for the hope that is in us? (1 Peter 3:15) Do we look different from the world? Or are we complaining like EVERYONE else? I pray that the Lord takes control of my heart, and that I will always respond with "gentleness and respect" (v.16) I pray my focus will be on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 3:18
"For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit"

Everyday

So here I am in Hawaii on vacation. Praise God for his faithfulness, and his grace, allowing me to be in this beautiful place. And I went to a worship service while here. This morning.

We were singing the song "Everyday"

Let me bust an Ernesto and post the lyrics.

What to say Lord
It's You who gave me life and I
Can't explain just how
Much You mean to me now that
You have saved me Lord
I give all that I am to You
That everyday I can
Be a light that shines Your name

Everyday Lord I'll
Learn to stand upon Your word
And I pray that I
That I might come to know You more
That You would guide me
In every single step I take
That everyday I can
Be Your light unto the world

Everyday, It's You I'll live for
Everyday, I'll follow after You
Everyday, I'll walk with You my Lord

It's You I live for everyday
It's You I live for everyday
It's You I live for everyday

Ok now that the melody is in your mind...
I remember having a conversation with Baltasar about this song. We said that our mind would replace a few letters in this song, causing it to have a different meaning.

The chorus says
Everyday, I'll follow after You
Everyday, I'll walk with You my Lord

But, on occasion, BJ and I had accidentally said
Everyday, I'll wallow after you.

Quite a different message. Wallow means to luxuriate or revel in something. Even dictionary.com's example of the word is "wallow in self righteousness"

Man that got me thinking. Isn't that how we live sometimes? We wallow in our faith! We act like we are better than everyone else because we have found Jesus.

Sorry my friends. Jesus has found us. And it was not on our own. It was a gift from God. Not of our works, that way nobody can wallow!

Of course that is a paraphrase of a popular verse, but its still true! Don't wallow after God. Follow Him.

Thank you God

Romans 3:22-26

This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

Praise God. Thank you for the righteousness that you give me because of my faith in Christ. Thank you for the redemption I have in Christ.

Trust God

1 Peter 5:6-11

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

We must cling to the Almighty God and resist the devil. I think that so often we are consumed by our lives and the problems we face, that we forget that the creator of the universe, the maker of heaven and earth is for us. If God is for us, who can be against us? We must stay focused on God and trust in him.

zeal.

J.C. Ryle preached this message about having the same zeal that God has.

This is a quote about that zeal:

"It will make him willing to cut off his right hand, or pluck out his right eye, or make any sacrifice, if only he can attain a closer communion with Jesus. Isn't this just what you see in the Apostle Paul? He says, "I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.-I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal" (1 Corinthians 9:27, Philippians 3:13-14).

the cross before me, the world behind...

Matthew 14:28-33

28And Peter answered him, "Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water." 29He said, "Come." So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. 30But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, "Lord, save me." 31Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" 32And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God."

In verse 30, when Peter begins to look around and see the wind and the storm, he becomes afraid and starts to sink. So many times in our lives, we look around and see the world, we see the wind or the storm in our lives, and that takes our focus off of Jesus. We must maintained focused on Jesus, and always keep in mind how he has chosen to use us. There is no storm, no wind, no problem that should or can derail us from our purpose of loving and serving God.

When we look at persecution, what others may think or us, our surroundings, the hurdles or hills we have to climb, or our world in general, we begin to look at our our power and ability. No wonder Peter begins to sink, he cant walk on the water alone! Its only with God's power, with God's will, with God's blessing, with God's authority and sovereignty that we are able to serve and honor him. When we forget that, only then do we begin to sink and doubt. When we maintained focused on that, there is nothing God can't do through us.

Check this out, this is my favorite part. Even after Peter looks around, doubts, looses his faith, forgets that Jesus has personally called him, and takes his eyes off of Jesus, what is our Lord's response? A hand. Jesus reaches out his hand to help Peter. He doesn't let him drown because Peter has doubted, but he aids, assists, helps, and ultimately, he shows love to him. No wonder the only way Peter and the men on the boat could respond was to worship Him!

Dead Faith

James 2:14-26

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

But someone will say, "You have faith and I have works." Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe--and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness"-- and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

James is obviously not saying that we earn our salvation, because we know that we can not do enough to be right in God's eyes and its only by the blood of Christ that we are made right in God's eyes. However if we truely believe in what Christ has done for us we will do more than believe, we will live like Christ. James says show me true faith that doesnt have good deeds. We should be encouraged by this passage to show kindness, love, and patience towards others. We should not just tell people we have faith we should live like we have faith. I pray that God would makes us humble and enable us to live a life that glorifies him.

Righteousness, Faith, Love, and Peace

2 Timothy 2:22-26

So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

This is my prayer for our church. That we would flee youthful passions and chase after and long for righteousness, faith, peace and love. That we would have nothing to do with foolish and ignorant issues, which start fights. That we would teach each other and endure persecution with patience knowing that God is most glorified when we suffer for him. I pray the devil would not have a grip on our church and that Christ would be glorified through us.

Notice that Paul doesn't say to walk away from sin, no he says flee, run away from it. We need to run from sin and run to righteousness, faith, peace and love. If we pursue these things we will acceptable in God's eyes. So lets not chase after what we want or what the world wants for us, lets chase after what is right in God's eyes.