He Lives

What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life—  and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us—  what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.  
1 John 1:1-4 (NASB)


I have been meditating on this passage for the past few months and I've often pondered what it would have been like to walk with Jesus. Many people travel to Israel, to walk where He walked and see the places He had been. 

Well as I write this today I'm here to tell you, He lives!

As I share this, this morning, I am testifying of what I have seen with my eyes and my ears have heard and my hands have handled in regards to the Word of Life.

That's why I have hope when I like everyone else walk through great sufferings and trials. There is a conviction of my heart that He lives!

Not because it's a doctrine or because I believe in the doctrine of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. 

It's because He has become real to my heart. 

What gives me hope is, "I believe He lives!" 

Because He lives I can face tomorrow, just like you can.

Because He lives, we can face today, trusting and surrendering to His plan and path for our lives and our families.

I want to encourage you today to pause for a moment and meditate on the reality that, He lives.....and He hasn't forgotten about you. 


He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying. Matthew 28:6 NASB

For further devotional study today, enjoy this audio message:

Obeying God's Calling

Some of you today might be sitting in the midst of the church and saying, "My life is such a waste. There is nothing spiritual about my life and my job doesn't seem to have any real value to God's kingdom. BUT if  you could only see in the spiritual realm, the tsunami, the flood of prayers from the saints for the people all around you that do not know Christ. You have no idea who is praying at this very moment for the people you work with every day. Find the place that God has you and begin to give your life away. Sometimes we resist the very plan that God has for us. Consider the Book of Jonah in the Bible....

The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.”  But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. 

Think about these verses for a moment this morning. Why does God even have to say anything to Jonah? Why not speak to someone in Nineveh? For some reason He spoke to Jonah and said "I have something I need you to do. I have heard cries for help for this city, I have seen affliction there and people wrestling with despair. They have no light and have lost hope."

Jonah said, "No."

Are there places in your life where you have said no to God? Jonah ran from the Lord and wasn't willing to obey Him. God sent a storm into Jonah's life until he was willing to admit, "Guys, I'm the problem." Then the sailors threw him overboard and the word says that God sent a great fish to swallow Jonah. Things got harder and harder until Jonah was willing to obey and the fish spit him out on dry land. How many of us start to obey until things get better in our lives and then we stop being obedient again?  So often we forget the vows we made before God. "I surrender all......"

I can remember in my high school years I was listening to a tape by a man named James Robinson and his daughter had just gotten married and he said on that tape how his desire was to be one who helps God's bride get ready for the bridegroom. I heard that and I thought, "God, that is what I want to do! Help the bride get ready for the bridegroom." I can remember that just like it was yesterday and that began my journey.

  Well, then I became a youth pastor and the church was starting to grow and then it happened.....the church broke apart. I remember thinking, I'm done. I didn't want to go through that again with another church. My Dad had always told me that the one thing no one could take away from me was my mind and If I ever don't know where to go, just go back to school. So I enrolled back in college and had decided I would finish and go to work for my Dad's law firm.

Everything was really moving along and I then I remember sitting in this class and I had an important exam and my mind just froze. I had prepared and studied and yet my mind was blank. My mind just locked up and after two hours I turned in a blank piece of paper.

I had no interest in even being there and I left totally discouraged and went to the house of a family who had invited me to a Bible study. A friend of mine there, who is like a sister to me, could tell that I was discouraged and pressed me until I told her what had happened. I told her how my mind went blank and I had no interest in even being there to take the test.

So we went to the Bible study and God spoke to me and asked, "Are you willing to put your complete confidence in the fact that no one can take your mind away? I've let you run for two years and now it's time to get back to where you belong."

I knew God was getting my attention and out of the blue I got a phone call from a church asking me to be a youth pastor.

God has a redemptive plan that includes you. He doesn't need us and doesn't have to use us but he chooses to. When Isaiah came to the place of seeing God in all His glory he fell on his face until God cleansed him. Then his immediate response of gratitude was, "Lord, here am I....send me."

So often God is waiting for us to say yes to Him. All you have is today to be an expression of God's love into someone else's life. I hope you'll consider this devotional as you begin your day today.  God is for you and you can trust His direction because He is not playing games with your life.

For further study today consider my podcast:

The Parable of the Sower Part 3

Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. Mark 4:7

We have been talking about the war to keep the Word of God from finding ground in your heart. 

Today I'd like you to think about the seed that was sown among thorns. The seed in this verse began to grow and grow but all of a sudden thorns began to grow around it and choke it. The thorns are the worries of the world, the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things. I was talking to the church in one of the prison units and I was telling them the reason I thought the church was flourishing in the prisons. 

The reason that God is so alive in the church in the prisons is that there is no "escape" for them. You and I can, "go home," if we are weary from life's trials  and even if we want quiet time away from others we can close the door.  Think about it though, in the prison they can't do that. They are around people who are using foul language and being unkind and they can't get away from it. When they come to church they are ready to hear from the Lord and to fellowship with other believers and receive from the Word of God. 

I've told the men that the very danger this particular parable talks about becomes evident when they get out of prison. The first thing they do is get a job and then after a while they get two or three part time jobs because they say they need to buy some of the things they need now. They begin to be consumed with work and obtaining things they think they need now that they are on the outside. They forget the very God that met them in the prison and to neglect the Word of God that is their very life. 

 How about you? In your community and world have you neglected one on one fellowship with Jesus? Has the worries and cares of this life caused you to pursue things other than the fellowship with the church and hearing the Word of God? If you will cast your cares upon God and then get still and hear what the Lord would speak to your heart, He already know everything you have need of. 

This work that He has begun in your life He wants to complete it but you need time with Jesus, you need to not neglect fellowship with other believers. Those that will challenge you to do what is right and encourage your walk with the Lord. If you will make that time to spend time with the Lord and His Word and to get still with Him, God will prepare you for the place He has for you. The divine purpose you were created for will become a reality as you make time with God a regular, consistent priority in your life. 

Lord I pray this very day for everyone reading this devotional, that there would be a sense of peace and joy that arises within them that you are involved in their circumstances. You know the worries and cares of their lives because you care for them. You are their provider and their purpose in Life and as they turn their hearts to you today, may they find their happiness in fellowship with your Holy Spirit. I pray they will embrace a renewed vision to make fellowship with You a priority in their lives. In Jesus name, Amen.

For further study today we invite you to enjoy this video message:

In the Marketplace

After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

 Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes.  In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, [waiting for the moving of the waters; for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted.] 

 A man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.  When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He *said to him, “Do you wish to get well?” The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”  Jesus *said to him, “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.” Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk.

John 5:1-9 (NASB)

  So often we think of the church as a place of healing but here in this passage we find that God had a special place that He would send down mercy, and it was in the Marketplace. It was in a place where people were coming and going about their daily business.

Our prayer should always be wherever we go, that in the marketplaces our eyes would be open to the maladies around us.

Blindness can be a physical condition but it can also be a spiritual affliction.
Jesus said in His word to, "Ask for eye salve that your eyes might be opened up."

There are maladies that we cannot always see with our physical eyes.

Sometimes there are abrasive people in our lives who can be so difficult and we wonder why we have to deal with them.
Well, if you knew the story of their life and could see them as emotionally crippled in an area of their life, would you have compassion for them?

If I see someone using a walking cane or a walker dragging their leg, I would not expect them to be able to run a race. Believe me that so often there are emotional sicknesses and spiritual maladies going on in the lives of people. If we could truly see it we would be merciful to them.

 It is easy to say about someone in prison for example, that they are getting what they deserve. I understand they have been separated out because they have a judgement against them, but what was it that brought them to that place? Something I heard someone say years ago, was that you would be a whole lot less likely to make a judgement on someone if you knew their story and where they came from.

I can't tell you how many people I have sat with and as they begin to tell me their story, I think, it makes sense to me. I see it. Things can look perfect but inside there are wounds that just don't get healed overnight.

There are things that people are walking through because God's purpose and intention is to make us whole. The marketplace is the place where God has called us to be aware of those who are afflicted among us.

So often we are afraid to be aware of the hurt and pain going on and choose instead to entertain ourselves. I'm not against entertainment, movies or television, but often it is a distraction to keep us from those in pain and hurting all around us.

Many times God is calling you to be an extension of His grace, kindness and love in those places. Some people have almost given up hope that they will see any kind of good in this life, much less in the next. As we are led by God's Spirit we can lay down our lives as a living sacrifice, allowing Christ to use us as an instrument of His love and peace. It's amazing how a smile or kind words can give someone hope and encouragement to get through another day. Or how a single prayer can move mountains or remove the dark cloud over a person's life.

Lord, give us eyes today, to see the needs around us in the marketplace. Help us be sensitive to your Holy Spirit's direction of how we may be a living sacrifice for your glory. Speak through us and act through us so that we may be conduits of your divine love. In Jesus name, Amen.

But Peter said, "I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene-- walk!"

Acts 3:6 (NASB)

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Help!

Give ear to my words, O Lord,
Consider my groaning.

Heed the sound of my cry for help, my King and my God,
For to You I pray.  Psalm 5:1-2

What stood out to me in that verse is that there is nothing more sincere than, "Help me!"

 So often in the scriptures we can see God respond to the cry for help. There is one thing that I've shared with my children in regards to that very subject. In fact it's one of the things I shared with my son when he graduated....

"If you ever find yourself in a dark place and you feel like the waters have gone over your head and you feel like you've missed the mark, cry out to God for help. He WILL meet you in that place.

Your situation may not change overnight but He will help you through it.

God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.
Psalm 46:1 (NASB)

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Recalibrate Your Anticipator

And looking at them Jesus said to them, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Matthew 19:26

How many times do we pray to God without anticipation? There was an old country boy I met, he was a mechanic and he once said to me, "You know what? Sometimes we need our anticipator recalibrated!" 

I don't know anything about calibration, I know it must have something to do with adjusting but I never forgot that statement. 

As you read this blog, think about that for a minute. How often do we pray with no anticipation or expectation that God is going to hear us?

The Psalmist David said, "I will lift up my prayer in the morning and I will begin to anticipate how you will answer me."

I decided to start writing a gratitude journal. Every day I write down three things I am grateful for that day. 

With me I have found that beginning the day with gratitude is helping me to anticipate God's faithfulness throughout my day. 

Walking daily in faith and gratitude, expecting to see God and meditating upon Him, will transform your day into something beautiful.


When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He *said to him, “Do you wish to get well?”  The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”  Jesus *said to him, “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.”  Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk.

John 5:6-9

For further study today consider this video:

Passing Through

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

Hebrews 11:13 (KJV)

One of the things I love that a friend of mine used to say is that when he was in prison, he never called it home. That always made me think of a passage in the old testament. 
The children of Israel had been taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar to a foreign land. Jerusalem was burned with fire and God's blessing was on those who submitted and went into captivity. 

It was a season of affliction and difficulty that was not meant by God to be permanent but the children of Israel began to plant roots and make it their home. They were living among a foreign culture with foreign gods and they lost sight of Jerusalem, lost sight of the place they were meant to be. 

In the same way many of us have made this world, or a place that God has us, our home and have planted roots. 

In the Book of Nehemiah and Ezra, when God began to rebuild Jerusalem, one of the first things they did was to establish the Feast of Booths. It was to remind the people that we are just passing through. 

God may be shaking our lives in order to get us from here to where He wants to take us.


For a Christian, you will never be able to find your home in this world. That's because this broken, fallen world can't satisfy you. Many people feel like they would be content if they could just make a little more money. There is never enough money to bring contentment or lasting peace. You go out and make money only to put it in a pocket with holes. Something tells you this car is not good enough, you need a better car, you need a bigger house or the newest gadget. You keep buying the same things over and over but they never bring fulfillment.

God will not allow any of those things to satisfy you here because He is trying to take you somewhere. 

If you look at the life of Abraham, God called Him to leave everything and travel to a land that was unfamiliar to him. God told him to leave everything.  

He did except he brought Lot with him and I believe that represents an attachment to what is familiar. 

How many of us when we are moving into the unfamiliar want to take someone or something with us that is familiar to us? Something that brings us security because of our fears. God will allow it for a season but there comes a place where flesh does not mesh with Spirit. In His mercy God will say to us, "Turn it loose.  I've let you carry Lot this far but now there's constant bickering and fighting in your heart."

What is it that you are trying to take with you on your journey that God is trying to cut out of your life? Today, don't harden your heart, simply get still before Him and listen for His still soft voice. 

God wants to take you a way you've never been before.

Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built.

 Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste? Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways.

Haggai 1:2-5 (KJV)

For further study, consider this video:

   

Ignore the Score, Run the Play

Jesus said to him, "Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed." John 20:29


I'm reminded of a dear friend of mine, 

Bob who lives in Alabama who shared 

a story with me from his life that really inspired me. 

He played college football and came to a place where he really disliked football. 

His children grew up and started playing little league football and at one point 

the coach asked if he would assist. Bob was really hesitant to do it but he did 

and their team was the worst team in the league and lost every game.  

They got to their final game and it just happened to be against the best team 

that had won every game they had played.

He said they practiced that week and the kids worked really hard and it 

was just like a movie where the coach couldn't be there and Bob was the one 

coaching. The first half of the game was just like you'd expect and their team 

was getting really clobbered, 21-0. At halftime he sat with the kids and it just 

came out of his mouth, "Ignore the score and run the play! 

They fought their hardest and that team came within 5 seconds and one play  

of winning the game. As he drove home that night the Lord spoke to him 

and said,"I was talking to you Bob, ignore the score and run the play!" 

The enemy is always trying to get your eyes on the scoreboard,(your 

circumstances or difficulties.) He's always telling you to live by what you see

and trying to get you to believe a lie.

When I was sharing in the prison, one of the men told me that he didn't make 

parole and his family is just falling apart. He said he is giving up! 

I don't know where you are at in your life but I can't give up! There is nothing 

for me to go back to because I've burned the bridge behind me. That doesn't 

mean that I understand what God is doing but He is always working 

and setting the stage to do something supernatural. We just have to trust 

Him and get our eyes off of ourselves and off of our circumstances and look to 

Jesus, our living hope.

When we do not trust God, it's because we don't really believe He loves us.  

He not only loves us, He is orchestrating things in order to reveal His 

redemptive purpose.


also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will,  to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. 
Ephesians 1:11-12 NASB

Special thanks to Bob McLeod, http://ourfathersarms.org/author/bobmcleod/

For more unconventional Bible study today, watch this fun video....