the.Sold.Out.Soul

When we yield to God's will and take the steps that He desires, events do not always unfold the way we expect.  We might find ourselves on his ordained path wondering why things have turned out the way that they have.  We might even question whether, given the choice again, we would make the same decision.  If we know that we have followed his path, and that his will is perfect and for our good, then we should be confident in whatever we have decided.

The great masters of the arts put their work behind their passion.  They could not be sure that their work would create a legacy, immortalize them in our culture, or be tossed aside when the next great works appeared.  Beethoven and Rembrandt could not have known that we would be admiring and studying them today.  Let us focus not on our legacy but on our work, and let us trust that God will use that work to impact others long after we are gone.

Recently, I have been challenged to evaluate how I spend this time and this life while God still grants me minutes and hours here.  There is a lot we could be doing, and then there is a lot we should be doing.  Perhaps it is time yet again for us to seek God regarding whether there are a few more minutes or hours we can devote to him and his kingdom, a better way to spend this time.

Eras, seasons, and times. That is what we expect to experience in this life.  Or perhaps life is just one long yet brief season.  Or perhaps it is both.

When you think that this fallen world is too much to bear, don't pray to be taken out of it.  There is a real, perfect, renewed Earth to come when Jesus restores ALL things.  Focus on that future place, and ask God to show you your role in getting us from here to there.

We have seen proud or self-centered people fall far in this life.  We also have seen similar people seem to coast through life and end on a high note.  Yet, the word of God tells us that every proud and haughty person will be brought down.  This is still the case regardless of what we see in people's lives, and there is a foundational truth that requires it.

Paul told the Philippian church no to be anxious or worried but to be prayerful.  A recent dream had by a friend of mine painted a picture which might cause some to worry, but that same picture caused me to hope.  Let me share with you that dream and what I believe the Lord has shown me in it.

There is joy, meaning, and purpose to so much of this life, but the wrong perspective will send us looking for those things in places where we will never find them.  Let us seek God for direction for our fulfillment in life.

God puts hope in front of us so that we can bring that same hope to others.  Sometimes we accomplish this with words and sometimes with actions.  Let us ask God to reveal to us the opportunities we have today to be another person's hope.

To pursue God and his kingdom is about more than what we can gain.  Blessings, treasures, gifts, mercy, and eternal life are great.  Who would not want them? However, pursuing God is about pursuing holiness in us as well, a transformation only He can bring.  If we are not pursuing the development of godliness within us, we are not pursuing God.

We cannot afford to build temporary riches while neglecting true riches.  One can have a dozen zeros to that bank balance and still be bankrupt.  The difference is between the fortune we cannot take with us and the one that lasts an eternity.

Jesus is the Lion of Judah.  He is the original lion, but there is a counterfeit on the hunt.  He went after Job, and he will go after us.  The question is whether we are conscious of this daily battle and prepared for it.

I've heard it said that if you say something enough times, people will start to believe it.  Unfortunately, this method of teaching has been used in the Church for centuries.  We have adopted traditions that fly in the face of the scriptures, and that is unacceptable.  Let us reassess what we think we know by letting the Holy Spirit reveal the truth of God's word to us.

The same way we have to care for our physical muscles, that is how we must care for our spiritual muscles.  Once used, they require rest and rejuvenation.  Sometimes God has to get in there to get out some knots or release tightness, and that can be uncomfortable and painful, but it is necessary.  Let us ask God to perform this relieving and necessary work in us today.

The story of Samson and Delilah is short but compelling.  We will encounter many people, things, and ideas in this world which might seem good to us in one way or another but really have seduced us for our harm.  Let us pray to have more discernment than Samson, to see the seductress for who she is and flee her.

You can measure a man by his words.  After all, the bible tell us that the one who can bridle his tongue will be perfect.  Sometimes, the wisest words we can say are no words at all.  This is restraint that only the Holy Spirit can teach us.

Each of us is in a race, and it should be our desire to finish and finish well. God sets the course, but we must do the running. Let us seek not only the ability to run but the discernment to see the course ahead because each has his own race.

Forget about the superficial cures.  Forget about the counterfeit remedies.  Let us get to the heart of the matter by allowing the Lord to truly treat that which ails our spirits.  Let us lead those who are spiritually hurt, broken, and dying to the great physician, the only One who can save a soul.

Where do we hang our hope?  Who do we seek in our need?  What fuels us to face our days with purpose and honor?  What gives us our sustenance and support?  Is there not one place, one person to fulfill all these?  Do we not already have all we need in him and his kingdom?

Worldly encouragement is not the same as the encouragement we are to have for one another in the truth.  A kind word and a pat on the back is so much less than we should be able to offer the brethren.  We need a lot more from one another than that as we wage this spiritual war.

We hope now for the promises which are to come, visions of his word which will become reality.  But we are not left merely to hope.  One day, we will have all we await.  Hope will be fulfilled, and we will hope no more.

This Christian life is about surrender, which will require that we give everything to God.  This expectation of generosity and willingness to let go should not make us nervous or bring thoughts of scarcity and need.  God's abundance is revealed when we abundantly surrender all to him.

Esther, Mordecai, and the Jews of their time certainly had their flaws.  Yet, God used them in a mighty way, and we are still talking about it today.  For them, the question was simple.  Would they be willing to face death individually and corporately in order to save their people from annihilation?  History shows us that they would be.  Would we be willing to do the same?

Before the return of Christ, a great apostasy will occur.  Unpleasant but necessary, this is a stage of the Church's purification that we cannot ignore or dispel as some future event too removed in time from us.  The warning is there for all that great deception is ahead and that all are vulnerable.

We have covered this general idea recently, but there is a specific delusion among us resulting from people's desire to identify with anything other than God.  As the Church, I believe our job is to pray against the deception and wickedness which leads to God releasing this delusion.  He ultimately gives them what they want, but we can pray that they would want the truth.  Let us pray for those under the crisis of human identity to have their eyes opened and their souls saved.

Church unity means a lot of things.  If the Church is really united, we can walk into any number of buildings on a Sunday morning and be among God's people worshiping him together in Spirit and in truth.  It should be like family even if we never have met them.  I pray that we all have that.

We follow and serve a king, a prince, whose throne sits at the pinnacle of power and authority.  And yet, He lived as a man no less ordinary than you and I for very clear reasons.  Let us explore the holy need for the plainness of Christ the man.

On December 25, we celebrate the birth of our Savior, but this was not the beginning of his work. That birth does not mark the beginning of our salvation story. The victory already was secure before the foundations of the earth were laid. The eternal Christ has been ready and able to save since the beginning.

Yesterday might have been great, and tomorrow might be better, but what about today?  In the Lord's prayer, Jesus gives us insight into the value of each day we live.  Let us recognize the value of each day while we have the opportunity to do so.

No matter where we have arrived spiritually, we all have so much further we can go.  There is unlimited potential for the children of God, and we need to tap into that potential.  Let us seek God to take us further and deeper, to increase our stamina and our strength, to make us fitter daily.

In this episode, we discuss the importance of spiritual resetting when we feel we've hit the wall and describe ways to reset.  Be encouraged that none of our dry times lasts forever.  God always has more for us.  

The Father's desire to save the lost is rooted in desperation.  His is a severe longing to redeem his creation, and He wants us to feel the same way.  Let us pursue from him the same longing to seek and save the lost, the same desperation to snatch them from the fire as we have been saved.  

God's Holy Spirit desires to produce good spiritual fruit in his children.  Unlike its natural counterpart, this spiritual fruit has no season.  God makes it available to us always if we only yield to its production through obedience and discipline.

As we go through life, we will be struck from all sides, even from within.  Cracks will appear, and we cannot afford to ignore them or put off addressing them.  We must repair them before they spread and cause us to shatter.

When we approach the Lord in prayer, it is not necessarily meant to be a one-sided monologue.  Prayer can be a conversation, which means that communication should flow in both directions.  Let us honor our intimate prayer time with God by not only speaking to him but also waiting for him to speak to us.

The difference between fear and faith is the recognition and acceptance of God's mercy.  A mercy which is powerful enough to save a soul certainly can meet any natural need we have.  Instead of reacting out of fear, nervousness or anxiety, let us take advantage of the opportunity God gives us to respond in faith by tapping into his mercy.

The power God gives us to take captive our thoughts is the same power we have over the feelings we store in our hearts.  Particularly in this world where people are emotionally charged about one cause or another, and so easily offended by God's truth, it is important for us to make sure that we have command over our emotions.  We cannot afford to let our feelings be in command of us.

There is one more supper Christ will be attending. Will you be there? Will you be ready?

We come before God with filthy rags, poor and dirty.  He gives everything so that we can gain everything, and then He rewards us for the work He himself has done through us.  He does it all, then He gives us eternal reward in return.  How rich we are! 

Let us focus our prayers on order being restored in this world, on the idolatry of creation being replaced with true worship of the one true God, on mankind awakening to the value of mankind and the reason for that value.  The originally intended natural order of this world will return completely one day, but we can see that in part today and be part of that process of restoration.  

Esther, Mordecai, and the Jews of their time certainly had their flaws.  Yet, God used them in a mighty way, and we are still talking about it today.  For them, the question was simple.  Would they be willing to face death individually and corporately in order to try and save themselves from annihilation?  They would be.  Would we be willing to do the same?

We serve a God who is a creator, a builder.  It is no surprise that He calls us to build as well.  If we are wise, we will follow the Lord's counsel to build on the solid rock.  Not only that, but we will build with good spiritual stones and not with grains of sand.  After all, no sand castle ever lasts.

Are you all-in?  Are you maybe in for a little here and a little there but not fully committed anywhere?  Are you straddling the border and thinking that life simply must be that way in this imperfect world?  Let us consider once more what it means to be all-in with the Lord and what it takes to sustain that.

We have been freed.  The chains are gone, the doors are open, and we have been shown the way.  Those who are wise would appreciate that freedom and do whatever it takes to keep it.  Yet, so many of us willfully walk back into bondage.  Let us ask God to show us how we have imprisoned ourselves again so that we can break out of the pattern.

The truth is simple; we were made for one another. No one can go it alone. There is no such thing as a 1-on-1 relationship with God yet without his people. His word does not leave room for that. In God's kingdom, you must be part of the Church to be part of him.

Let us learn a lesson from Judah.  There will come a day when repentance no longer is available.  Our Lord will come like a thief in the night, so we must be ready today.  Make today the day you change.

We serve a God who will quench our thirst for him, but that really depends on us.  We can have a little thirst for him, or we can thirst for him like the wandering Ibex searching for a stream in the wilderness.  How much of God do you want?  How thirsty are you? 

As we walk out our salvation with fear and trembling, we have a responsibility to make sure that we have subscribed to the truth.  We do not take the words we hear in teachings and simply accept them.  We are to take what we are taught and compare it to the word of God to see whether it is true.  Let us be sure to discern between the truth and the lies so that we are not deceived by false teachings, by false gospels and man's own ways.  The Spirit reveals the truth of the scriptures to us if that is what we are really pursuing.

What do we say when asked the simple, foundational, yet controversial truths of our faith?  The answers will tell us what we really believe and who we really follow.

The Lord will have his way.  The scriptures are clear that He one day will set all things right for eternity.  In the interim, while we still reside in this fallen world, God also will move justly in response to our prayers.  We do not always see the result of our requests for God's justice, but we can be sure that He will answer us.  Let us not lose heart but have the faith always to contend for justice with expectation.