Category: Devotionals

Miracle Prevention

And He did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.
–Matthew 13:58

          What a sad verse of scripture! Sadder still is the fact that it describes the prayer life of many Christians.  Oh, they see answers to prayer from time to time, and they give God the thanks He is due for them, but the daily experience of walking with God and taking every need, big and small, to Him and seeing Him answer–this is foreign to them.
          Not just individuals, but families and churches can be like that.  Rarely seeing a powerful move of God.  How sad it is when a church accomplishes little or nothing that couldn’t be accomplished through human strength.
          Matthew 13 tells us that this lack of seeing God move is not the result of any deficiency in God’s love, His character, His power, or His willingness to do things that will bring glory to His Name in our lives.  It is because of a simple lack of faith.  God does some miraculous things where faith is absent, but not as many as He would like to do.  There is no surer way to prevent miracles than to have no faith that God can or will do them.
          Individuals, families and churches that are great in faith, however, see God move greatly and often.  At the end of every day, a man or woman of strong faith will be able to go to God and say, “Father thank You for answering these prayers and meeting these needs today,” and then list quite a few.  Brothers, I am convinced that this is what the Christian walk is supposed to be–a life of faith so strong that the praises for God’s miraculous blessings continuously outnumber the cries to Him for help, because those who walk in strong faith and utter dependence on Him see Him act in their best interests again and again and again.  Each time He moves, His Name is given glory, and our faith increases all the more.
          The mature Christian is pleased when God moves; the immature Christian is surprised.  The mature Christian walks by faith; the immature by sight.  The mature Christian is quick to trust in God’s promises; the immature trusts the promises only after they are proved.  Which is your experience?  Do you see God working throughout your day, or just occasionally?  How many prayers do you see answered in a week?  Two or three?  More?  Less?  God does not do much for those whose prayer lives are characterized by “lack of faith.”
          Problem is, it’s very difficult to develop strong faith.  It’s difficult because we try to develop faith by conjuring it up out of our own willpower and strength.  Trying to create faith by our own efforts is a lost cause.  It is not the flesh that creates faith, but the Spirit and the Word.
          When we realize our faith is deficient, we must look to Jesus Himself to strengthen it.  Like the man who sought a miracle from Him and said, “I do believe.  Help me overcome my unbelief.” (See Mark 9)  This man understood that in his own heart, he had some faith, but was lacking great enough faith to believe in Christ’s power and trust in His willingness to meet a need that could only be met supernaturally.  So he confessed that lack of faith and asked for a greater measure of faith.
And Jesus gave him that.  Miraculously freeing his son from a demon, Jesus proved Himself in a way that could not help but strengthen the man’s faith.  You see, we are not the author and perfecter of our faith; Jesus is. (Heb. 12:2)  He is the one Who creates our faith, inspires our faith, grows our faith, develops our faith, and completes our faith.  Don’t just rely on the insufficient faith you can develop in your own strength; humbly turn to Him in prayer asking for stronger faith.  Ask Him to bring about whatever circumstances (even trials) that are necessary in your life for the building up of your faith.  Turn to God’s word, planting it in your heart continually, so that it will yield a crop of faith.  This is an essential of Christian growth, and an aspect of Christian maturity that many fail to attain for far too long.
Let the Lord make your faith grow; and learn to pray expectantly. Then your epitaph will not read, “Jesus did not do much in this person’s life, because of a lack of faith.”

Refreshing the Heart of God


“Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest is a faithful messenger to those who send him; he refreshes the soul of his masters.”
–Proverbs 25:13

In the oppressive heat of late summer, work in the fields under the sweltering sun can become all but unbearable. If you’ve experienced that before, you’ve probably known moments of daydreaming about how wonderful it would feel if for a moment you could have a breeze as cold as the winter air that brings snow. How refreshing that would be!
Solomon’s proverb above describes that refreshing as what it feels like to be a sender of a message, and to find the messenger was faithful to get the message through in a timely manner, accurately presented, to the people you have sent him.
So think about this: As followers of Christ, we have been sent by God with His message of reconciliation to the world of people who need Him.
Let’s be faithful messengers. Let’s make it our priority to go where He sends us, without delay or distraction. Let’s show up where He sends us in the time of His open door. Let’s be faithful to walk with Him in a way that makes us effective proclaimers of His word. Let’s be careful to proclaim it clearly, accurately, boldly, and in love. And let’s be faithful to open our lips to share the gospel every time He wants us to do so.
A faithful messenger refreshes the soul of the one who sent him. If you and I are faithful in the task we’ve been given to deliver His message, we can please God that way. Ask God today to make it the deepest desire of your heart to please Him so.

We won’t just disappear at the rapture


“For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. Then the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.” –1 Thessalonians 4:15-17

With Bible prophecies beginning to unfold right before our eyes this month (if you’re watching what Russia and Iran are up to in regard to Iran’s plans for Jerusalem), it is apparent that more than ever before, we seem to be close to the coming of the Day of the Lord.
As the Body of Christ, for us that means looking forward to what is going to happen to us as God begins to bring that Day upon the world: the event we call the Rapture of the church.
(Speaking of that, if you’ve had conversations with Christians who don’t believe Bible prophecy is literally true, they may have tried to prove their point at some time by saying, “The word ‘rapture’ doesn’t even appear in the Bible.” Well, actually, it does. You see the word rapture is derived into English from the Latin word that means ‘catching up’ or ‘snatching up.’ When we say, “the rapture,” we are literally saying “the catching up.” Which is the exact terminology the Bible uses in 1 Thessalonians 4 to describe the event we usually entitle “The Rapture.” In fact, if you get a Bible in a Latin-based language like Romanian, the actual word “raptured” will be used, where your English Bible says we will be “caught up” in that passage.)
Anyway, though, as we look forward to being raptured, let’s take a moment just to imagine what it will be like. Sometimes in books and movies the event is shown as people just suddenly vanishing, unexpectedly even to them. Suddenly driverless cars crashing and mass mayhem, and the like. (The Left Behind series even had them disappearing from their clothes which fell to the ground.) But is that what is described in the Bible passage above? Hardly.
Now, the Bible does describe our being changed in an instant and being made like Him instantaneously when we see Him, so that our mortal bodies become clothed in the immortal. But that instant is just one piece of the event of the rapture. The event itself isn’t instantaneous, and has a chronology described in the Bible.
Look at the chronology in the passage above of what will really take place. The first thing you’ll notice is that Christ will come for us, and we will be aware of His arrival. He will shout, and we will hear Him, along with the sound of a trumpet and the archangel’s voice announcing Him in some way. And even if the lost world doesn’t hear Him, too, we will still realize He is here and have time in our minds to understand that He has come to call us to Himself. We won’t just suddenly be gone.
Then, after we hear His coming, and perhaps see Him with our eyes, too, before we are caught up, the dead in Christ will rise. All those who have gone to the grave in faith in Christ whose souls have returned with Him in the skies, will receive their resurrection bodies first, before our uprising. Perhaps we will visibly see their resurrections, since it will be a bodily resurrection, just like Christ’s, who was the first to experience this permanent resurrection from the dead. At any rate, some interval of time, brief as it may be, will pass between our realization that He is here for us, and our rapture.
Then, we who are alive in Christ and remain on the earth will be caught up to be with them in the air. We won’t just disappear; we will physically rise up into the sky—the literal sky above the earth, complete with clouds for us to touch. And perhaps the lost people around us being left behind will actually see us rise, not just see us vanish. Because we will, whenever we are changed, still have a physical resurrection body. And it will probably rise in just the way Christ ascended into heaven, when His disciples watched Him flying up, up, and away, and actually saw Him go into a cloud so that He was then hidden from their vision.
The way the Bible tells the event, it is so much more glorious and exciting than the way internet videos portray it, where we’re suddenly just gone. We won’t just disappear. We’ll hear the voice of our precious Savior calling. We’ll stop whatever we’re doing. We’ll hear the celebratory trumpet call. We’ll hear the archangel’s proclamation. We’ll see loved ones who have died in Christ rise again. Then we will be picked up, changed, and fly into the skies to be with the Precious One for whom our hearts beat forever. It will be the most thrilling and fulfilling experience we’ve ever had, and one we should look forward to with eager anticipation.
Maranatha!
“Behold I am coming soon!”

On a side note, the “one will be taken and the other left” passage about Jesus, if you read it in context, isn’t talking about the rapture, but His return to the earth to judge the earth, which will happen later. In that passage, the “taken” ones are taken away to be condemned. That passage, then, shouldn’t be confused with a description of the rapture of the church, leading to a misunderstanding that we’ll just “disappear.”

The Spirit and the Bride Say “Come”

Here’s the devotional video for the Dallas Sunday at Five that took place July 18. It looks at what the church really has to offer the lost world, and how we should keep our focus on offering it.

Use Influence Wisely


“So the men Moses sent to scout out the land, and who returned and incited the entire community to complain about him by spreading a bad report about the land—those men who spread the report about the land were struck down by the LORD.”
–Numbers 14:36-37

Twelve men went to spy out Canaan, the land that God had sworn He would give to His people. They all saw the same thing, but they came back with contradictory recommendations on taking the land. Two of them, Joshua and Caleb, had faith in God, and pleaded with the people with all their might to trust in God along with them, and go and take the land.
The other ten chose not to believe God’s promise. Why? Maybe they thought God was lying. Maybe they thought He was incompetent. Maybe they thought He was weak. Maybe they just doubted He had really committed Himself to gaining the land for them, or just doubted His very existence. Whatever their reasons, though, they had no excuse. God had proven Himself. He had earned their trust. They could kid themselves all they wanted about having a reason to doubt Him—but the fact was there was no reason to doubt Him.
There’s no reason to doubt Him today, either. But people still do, fooling themselves with many arguments about why they shouldn’t trust God, if they even believe He exists in the first place.
Those 10 men learned too late the consequences of not just doubting God, but of using one’s influence to cause others to doubt Him. God spared the lives of everyone who listened to their discouraging report and refused to enter the promised land. But He didn’t spare these ten whose words robbed those multitudes of their chance to enter into the rewards God had set aside for them in the promised land.
There’s a lesson there for anyone who has influence. Be very careful how you use it. You can encourage others to know the Lord and trust in Him, or to encourage them to doubt His word and His will, thus missing out on the life eternal Christ already bought and set aside for them on the cross.
Every teacher who has tricked impressionable students into taking the ludicrous evolutionary theory seriously, and thus doubting the Bible, has made the mistake these 10 made. Every liberal “pastor” who has preached the silly notion that the Bible is flawed or that it is a nice set of allegories, but not absolute truth is also in this group. Every parent who has ever discouraged his child from taking a stand for Christ or following God’s will for His life, warning the child it would be a hard life, has done it too. The list could go on.
But what we need to realize is that we all have influence over someone somewhere. Use what influence you have to help people know and trust God, not doubt Him or His word. He has earned the trust of every person in the world. We have no excuse not to believe. And if we make someone think they do have a reason not to trust Him, we make a mistake that those 10 men were struck dead for making. We may live to see another day, but it won’t be because we deserve to.

Sunday at Five video devotional

“A cleansed temple is a place of fruitful ministry.” Here is the video devotional from the DFW Sunday at Five June 6, 2010. It looks at Luke 19 and Jesus’ cleansing of the temple, making it a place of fruitful ministry, and how that relates to us and His ability to purify us for His glory in the lives of those people we meet.
It is also a sort of “object lesson” looking at a church where they turned their temple into a “den of thieves.”
If, after viewing this six-minute video devotional, you would like to study the passage covered more deeply, you can listen to the full-length audio sermon I preached on the passage earlier this year by clicking here.
If the video above will not play on your computer, you can also see another version of it on YouTube here:

Defending the gospel


Dangerous false teachers that deceive people into relying on their flesh’s self-righteous efforts to bring them into God’s favor are prevalent worldwide, including the “evangelical church.” If you are in ministry and not engaged in the battle for sound doctrine that holds firm to the gospel of grace, then you are building a ministry that will not outlive you. A minister of the gospel must also be a courageous defender of it in the presence of wolves, for the sake of the sheep whose blood they crave and whose souls you’ve been given watchcare over. Keep in mind that those wolves always look like sheep on the outside, to every man’s eyes, including your own. And be very clear in your teaching, ceaselessly reminding the sheep that their eternal salvation is both obtained and maintained by God’s grace alone, received by faith alone in Christ alone. Nothing more. Nothing less. Nothing else.

“Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh….” –Philippians 3:2-3

God doesn’t have bad breath


Everything You Need

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
–2 Timothy 3:16-17
Paul’s time on earth is coming to an end, and he is writing the last words that the Holy Spirit will pen through him. The words are addressed to his beloved brother in Christ, the younger Timothy, whom he has mentored and continues to mentor in ministry. His last instruction reminds Timothy of what will be most important to his ministry after Paul is gone: proclaiming the word of God. The exhortation is preceded by the two verses here, which you may have committed to memory. The words of those two verses are worthy of a closer look.
“All Scripture” — Every part of the written word of God is included in this statement. Even the parts that differ with the traditions we have been taught by men. Even the parts that we would rather not agree with because they convict us in areas we want God to leave alone. Even the parts that exhort us to do things we’re afraid or unwilling to do. All of the written words of God are included, and all are to be revered and obeyed.
“is God-breathed” or “given by God’s inspiration” — These words are not merely the sanctified words of men. Not a single verse of the Bible originated in the mind of a human. The Scriptures are the Word of the Lord Most High.
“and is useful” or “profitable” — You’re not wasting your time when you’re getting to know God’s word. Every passage is valuable and will be put to good use in your life for the glory of the Author in heaven.
“for teaching” or “doctrine” — These words are the source of truth that will teach you, so that no falsehood can mislead you.
“rebuking” or “reproof” — The Scriptures will show you the error of your ways, thoughts, words, and deeds. The only way a Christian can persist in willful sin is to ignore the Word, because the Word reproves us.
“correcting” — The Word doesn’t stop at telling us what’s wrong, but redirects us to what is right, setting our feet back on the right path when we have strayed.
“and training (or instruction) in righteousness” — These beautiful, living, powerful words don’t just teach us the right and wrong way to live, but teach us and train us in HOW to achieve and live holy lives.
“so that” — All of the above valuable traits of the Bible are intended for a reason. God had a plan in mind when He authored His word. A purpose it would fulfill in our lives after we trust Jesus and are indwelled by His Spirit:
“the man of God may be thoroughly equipped” — Fully, completely equipped. Nothing is lacking in the equipping power of the Bible for any task in the Christian life. Everything necessary for successful Christianity, evangelism, and church life and growth is in the Book. (But how often we make the mistake of turning to other sources, people, seminars, tapes, and books, when we should just open God’s Word and search it diligently until an answer to our dilemma is found.) “for every” — That’s all-inclusive; God will not call you to accomplish any task for which the Word is not a sufficient source of strength, enlightenment, and guidance.
“good” — These works done by the man of God in response to the Word are not bad and not useless, and not worthless or temporal, and not pointless or in vain; they are good, productive, fruitful, lasting.
“work” — Our response as children of God to the word of God is not to remain passive, but to work in accordance with His will. There is a job to do. His glory and His salvation are to be proclaimed before all the peoples of the earth. The end result of our reading the Word and being equipped is that we will no longer sit back and leave the work to others, but engage in it ourselves, joining Him in accomplishing the works He has foreordained for us.
Brothers and sisters, He has provided everything we need in that Book of books that sits too-frequently-unopened on the shelf or desk or the seat of a car. We don’t have to live the fruitless life that results from remaining busy with lesser things than hearing the voice of God. Go right now, and pick up your Bible. Open it, and start reading. Make that a habit that you unconditionally require yourself to practice in your daily life. Learn God’s word well and obey it. Then you will prosper in everything He has called you and equipped you to do.

Don’t Kid Yourself (It’s about obedience, part 2)


“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”
–James 1:22
Imagine you’re the parent of a ten-year-old child, and this evening you want your son to go clean up his messy bedroom. You go into the living room and find him and say, “Turn off the TV now, and go clean your room.” He nods, agreeing to do what you’ve said, so you go into the kitchen to start making dinner.
A few minutes later, you listen to the sound from the next room and realize that the TV is still on. Incredulous, you walk into the room and your son is still sitting right where he was when you told him to go clean his room. Raising your voice a bit to get his attention, you say, “I told you to turn off the TV, get up, and go clean your room.”
And he looks up at you and responds, “I know — I heard you,” and turns his head back toward the TV screen again. He sits there confidently, as if you have absolutely no reason to be upset with him.
A little louder now, you say, “Get up now, and do as you’re told.”
“I’m not ready yet,” he says. “I might do it later. But either way, I want you to know that I fully understand what you’re asking of me. You want me to stop watching this program, turn off the TV, and get up and go clean my room. So there is no need for you to repeat yourself, because I was listening closely and I heard you. That’s all that matters, right?” And once again he returns his focus to the television.
How would you respond to that blatant disobedience and rebellion?
Before you answer that, think about this: Is there an area of your life in which you’ve been just like that in your relationship to the Heavenly Father?
You’ve heard God’s commands that you witness to the lost, but are you obeying them?
You’ve heard God’s commands about sexual purity, but are you obeying them?
You’ve heard God’s commands that you give to His work, but do you do it?
You’ve heard God’s commands to praise and worship Him, but do you do so?
James warns us that we can deceive ourselves into thinking we are accomplishing God’s will just by knowing it. “Don’t kid yourself,” he says. “God is not pleased that you merely hear His word, but that you obey it.”
Partial obedience is disobedience. Delayed obedience is disobedience. Understanding God’s word and failing to obey it is sin. It is worthless to know the will of God if you refuse to do it. As one pastor put it, it is far less important how much you mark your Bible than how much your Bible marks you.
If you’ve made it your habit to listen to God’s commands and then pick and choose which ones you will obey and which you’ll ignore, some repentance is now in order.
God is great and glorious. He is our Maker and our Father. He is King of kings and Lord of lords. And He is completely worthy of our immediate obedience in all things at all times. Let us come into His presence with a renewed attitude, saying to Him, “Speak, Lord, Your servant hears with a willingness to know and to do Your will.”
And remember what Jesus told us about His commands: “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” –John 13:17

It’s about Obedience


“Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.”
–Psalm 119:11
Manifold reasons abound to study the Bible. Not the least of those reasons is the one taught us in the verse quoted above. We must learn God’s word to develop a lifestyle of obedience to the Lord and avoidance of sin.
Sins are the “bricks and mortar” that build the wall of separation between an unsaved person and the God Who wants fellowship with him. In like manner, sin in our lives as regenerated believers can put up higher and higher walls that prevent the increase of our intimacy with Him and usefulness to Him. If we’re going to be Spirit-filled and be used of God for His glory, the walls have to come down. So we need to know God’s word. And, more specifically, we need to read God’s word with a humble desire to obey.
That’s why we hide the word in our hearts. Not just to know God. Not just to feel good. Not just to tickle our ego and make us feel intellectually superior that we understand deep doctrinal truths. But to be transformed, and to be made increasingly holy in our conduct.
How tragic it is when we as Christians don’t act on what God teaches us. We hear a great sermon and say “Amen,” but when the service is over, we don’t do “Amen.” The message is forgotten before we reach the parking lot, because we didn’t approach the word with a desire to obey.
My brothers and sisters, let me speak plainly: If the word of God is not continually changing the way you think, speak, and act, then something is seriously wrong with your approach to it. Because God’s word, when served up by gifted teachers and applied to hearts by the indwelling Holy Spirit, produces not just good feelings, but deeply convicting ones. It is a sharp sword, cutting us to the quick and dividing bone from marrow. It searches the core of our being and brings to the surface every impurity, every falsehood, every evil passion, and every defect in our character. It places before us everything in us that prevents us from being conformed to the image of His perfect Son, and says, “This is the way you really are. Now let God change you.”
The flesh all-too-willingly trains itself to ignore the promptings of the Spirit and the Word. If you look into your heart today and find that you have been so trained, run to God’s word like a man parched with thirst in a scorched desert would run when he catches a glimpse of an oasis in the distance. Kneel at your bedside or in your prayer closet with Psalm 119 open before you, pleading with God to return to you a heightened sensitivity to His word and a broader vision of its value. Allow Him to re-train your mind, so that from this day forward, when He speaks, you listen with an ear willing to obey. That’s why His word is in your heart–so that you will obey Him. “My little children, these things I write to you, that you may not sin.” (1 John 2:1a)
Has church become a place you go each week and unwittingly miss opportunity after opportunity to be changed by God’s correction, encouragement, and instruction? Don’t delay in asking the Lord to remedy the situation. Allow God’s word to awaken you from spiritual slumber this very hour. Then praise Him for this wondrous truth: His word, hidden in your heart, will teach and enable you to “go and sin no more.”

SonDay @ Five

Here is my video devotional from last night’s Sunday at Five in Dallas. It looks at John the Baptist, and how we can be used of God to prepare the way into people’s hearts for Christ to come in.

If you have trouble playing the video in this format on your computer (particularly for macs), it is also available in another format now on YouTube here.

Fulfill your ministry

And say to Archippus, “See that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the Lord.”
–Colossians 4:17

Reading Colossians a few days ago, this verse gripped me. There in the closing of the book is Paul’s admonishment of a servant of Christ who apparently was dropping the ball. God had given him an open door to serve in some form of ministry, and he, for whatever reason, wasn’t being faithful to complete the work he had been given. So he needed a word of encouragement.
The verse gripped me, because I realized how often I, as well as many others, have needed to receive a word like that. Look at your life for a moment, and see if you need it, too, today.

The ministries that we do, which are jobs that the Lord Himself has given us, are works of service for His glory that He expects us to fulfill. He provides the grace, strength, guidance, stamina, and resources necessary to fulfill the task, as we turn to Him. So see that you get to the work He gives you without stall, without delay, and without giving up. And finish well.

Is there a ministry God has told you to start that isn’t started, even though He already opened the door? Then get to it.
Is there a ministry that you are no longer giving your whole heart to, and now you are slacking off because of disappointment or discouragement? Then get back to it. If He wants you to stop, He will close that door or open another that He asks you to go through. And He will be faithful to see you through on the job for as long as He desires.
Is there a ministry you have quit, or are about to quit, without His first releasing you from the task? Then make sure—see to it—that you keep on the job until He takes you off it.
“Fulfill your ministry.” (2 Timothy 4:5)