Walking Worthy

Several times in the New Testament, we are encouraged to "walk worthy" of the Lord. Walking worthy is an active practice requiring that one consistently remembers Who has redeemed them. None of us are really "worthy" of our salvation. All of us are sinners who were saved by God's great grace.

However, in thanksgiving for the gift that we have been given, the very least we can do is aim to walk worthy before God. Walking worthy involves getting the wisdom and knowledge that the Lord has for us in His word and applying that knowledge to our every day life.

Many of us are experts at garnering the Lord's wisdom. We have all kinds of study Bibles, prayer books, devotionals, and even Bible dictionaries and concordances to assist us with our study. Every Sunday, we dutifully take notes from the pastor's seromons. We stop by the tables after service and purchase all kinds of dvds and cds.

Yet, how many of us are applying all the knowledge we have? How many of us when encountering a real life issue, put into application all the head knowledge we've gathered up?

Today, I want to encourage you to "walk worthy" of your salvation! Put all your "Christian smarts" to good use and live out what you've been reading about! Apply what you've been studying! Put to good use what you've been hearing from the pulpit!

God has given you His most precious and special gift of salvation. What about your life reflects that?

Verse of the Day: That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins... Colossians 1:10-14

He Rose!

Yesterday, Christians around the world celebrated the fact that Jesus rose from the dead. Yes, Jesus endured great suffering. He was whipped, He was mocked, He had a crown of thorns jammed into His skull... He was forced to carry His own cross, He was then nailed to it, He was pierced in His side...

Yet, the story does not end there.

Jesus rose from the dead!

And the angel answered and said unto the women,

Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.

He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead;

 and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee;

there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.

Matthew 28:5-7

He's not in the grave anymore. He rose with all power in His hands! Jesus is victorious over death, hell, and the grave.

And because He lives, we have the opportunity to have eternal life with Him. We don't have to suffer. We don't have to go to hell. When we lay our physical bodies down, our spirits can enter into heaven's paradise forever. We can spend life in the presence of our King.

Have you embraced Jesus' gift of eternal life? Have you accepted Him as your Lord and Savior?

He died and rose so that you can be free!

Why stay in bondage any longer?

Verse of the Day: And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. Matthew 28:17-20

Amazing Grace!

Right now I'm taking an apologetics class, and we are studying other religions. One common denominator with other religions or cults is the fact that they have to earn their salvation. In order to please their god, they have to do something. It could be dressing a certain way, eating a particular diet, saying a certain number of prayers, visiting a specific city... the list is endless! But, they all have to work to gain their god's favor.

What I love about the true and living God is that He realized that there was nothing that man could do to earn His favor... and He chose to create a way for man to be close to Him anyway. God knew no matter how hard we tried to be free from sin on our own, we would always fail. God knew that only a pure sacrifice would cleanse us, and He knew the only One who would be worthy to take on the task.

God sent His Son Jesus to die in our place. He sent His Son to bear our sins on the cross. His Son received our punishment of death and separation from God. All so that we could have the chance to be with Him for all eternity.

Jesus' atoning sacrifice gave us grace. We have God's grace! We don't have to work, we don't have to earn it, we don't have to try to prove our worthiness. All we have to do is accept Jesus as Lord. All we have to do is receive His gift of eternal life. Simple acceptance of Jesus' precious gift grants us the grace to be in right relationship with the true and living God.

That's it.

That's amazing grace!

Verse of the Day: For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God... Ephesians 2:8

Fully Committed

This morning I've been thinking about the word commitment. When we committed our lives to God we entrusted them to Him. We gave our lives over to the Lord trusting that He would keep them safe. We commended them to His care.

Yet, many of us committed our lives to the Lord on a contingent basis. We confessed Christ and believed in our hearts. We knew that giving our lives to Jesus would ensure us eternal life and guarantee us entrance into heaven's gates.

But our commitment to Christ extends far beyond our confession of faith. It involves living a daily life in line with the Word of God. It entails living our lives in service to others. It means giving up our will for God's.

When we committed ourselves to the Lord, we were telling Him that we thought His way was the best way. We were signaling that we were giving up our desire and submitting to His.

Too many of us are not fully committed to God. We've said that He is our Lord, but our actions don't reflect that. We came to Him confessing that He was our Savior, but we haven't allowed Him to free us from all that we were bound to.

Today, think about what it means to be committed to the Lord. Look at your life and assess whether you've committed everything to Him. See if there's any places where you're still living what you think is best and not what God says is the best.

Ask God to help you to fully commit to His will. Allow His sovereignty to lead and guide you. Remember the day that you came to Christ recognizing His true saving power. Then let Him free you from all the things that you are bound to.

Verse of the Day: ...nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. Luke 22:42b

Chasing After the Best

Our society is obsessed with getting the best. We want the best job, the best house, the best clothes, the best cars. People overwork themselves so they can have more money to go to the best restaurants, and buy the best shoes and handbags. Even worse, people are in seas of debt after chasing after the best things that money could buy. Even people who supposedly have the best are still chasing after bigger and better things.


We put so much emphasis on outer appearances. We want other people to see us and admire us. We want to appear like we have it all together. We want to project to the world that we are enjoying the best things in life.

We don't want them to know the truth. We don't even acknowledge the truth ourselves.

Chasing after the best things the world has to offer only leaves you feeling emptier than when you began. No matter how much money you have to buy all the best things you can order, you will still want more. You can never fill an inner void with physical things.

It is only Christ who can fill that ache on the inside. Only true relationship with Him will bring contentment and peace. Jesus is the only One who can bring real satisfaction.

Maybe you are saved, but you find yourself still chasing after what the world has to offer. You might have Jesus and still feel the need to run after other things to make yourself happy.

You already have all that you need! It's one thing to accept Jesus as your Savior, but it's another to accept Him as your Lord.

Allow Jesus full access to your heart. Give Him precedence over every area of your life. Spend time with Him, talk to Him, read His Word, spend time in worship. And watch how your life changes.

You'll see that void begin to fill. You'll learn what it's like to walk in perfect peace. You'll discover how you can be content in any situation. You'll be able to live with real joy.

With Christ in your life, you already have the best. Don't discredit the Gift you received when you received Christ. When you put Jesus as your Lord, all that other stuff you thought was the best will show up. But, you know what? It won't even mean as much to you anymore. Because you'll know you already have the greatest treasure of all: Jesus Christ.

Verse of the Day: But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you. Luke 12:31

Growing Fruit

Today's post is the opening of my upcoming book. Hope you enjoy!

It would have been wonderful if the moment we accepted Jesus as our Savior our whole beings were changed into loving, Christ minded, God obeying creatures. However, this was not the case. Our sinful desires and tendencies remained with us after we said the Sinners Prayer. We were just empowered to overcome those desires if we chose to fight against them with the Lord’s help.

Many of us ignored the call to arms.


Simply because our souls have been saved from hell does not give us a ‘pass’ to continue on in the same behavior that we engaged in prior to being saved. It became our responsibility to transform ourselves into the image of Christ in our thoughts, attitude, and behavior.

In other words, it was time for us to start growing fruit.

Developing fruit requires sacrifice on our part. Many of us have lived with wrong behavior so long, it’s second nature to us. We are quick to catch an attitude when something doesn’t go our way. We’ve perfected the lies we tell to cover our errors. If someone crosses us, we relish in retaliating and putting them back in their place. Insert your sin here.

Yet these kinds of actions grieve the heart of the One who saved and delivered us. It is His will that we live a loving life showing mercy, humility, and peace to others. As He has shown us love, it is only right that we show Him love in return by following His will.

Our desires should take second place to His desires. If God doesn’t like it, it should be crossed off of our lifestyle list.

The Bible says that we can make the necessary changes by renewing our minds. Renewing here means that we have to retrain ourselves to think along the lines of the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. We have to kick out every thought that’s not acceptable to God and actively sacrifice our will and replace it with His will. (Romans 12:1, 2)

Sacrificing our fleshly will and renewing our minds will be all the more easier as we actively follow after God. He has already given us His Holy Spirit to help guide us in the right way to go. We just have to make the effort to listen and obey Him instead of ignoring His gentle tugs to do better.

This is a process that takes time. It requires dedication, discipline, and resolve. Yet going through the process will result in our becoming more like Him.

Verse of the Day: So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. Galatians 5: 16, 17 (NLT)

By the Grace of God

Yesterday, I was able to throw my two cents into a lively discussion about faith. Some folks were wondering why Christians say that they believe the whole Bible, but in some respects ignore some of the rules that God put forth in the Old Testament.

It's true. We no longer stone people for sin. Some of us don't follow the dietary laws. We don't offer up animal sacrifices. We can wear whichever fabrics we choose. There's a lot of things that were put down in the law that God gave the Israelites that we don't follow today.

Are we being hypocritical?

No.

Jesus Christ is the reason why the law no longer applies. His sacrifice on the cross ended the need for any more animal sacrifices to absolve sin. His death and resurrection instituted grace in place of rigorous rules. Because of Jesus, we don't have to worry about a laundry list of laws. Through His love, we experience an inward change and are blessed with the Father's forgiveness.

True, there are some things addressed within the law that still apply under grace. Sin is still sin in God's eyes. Yet, if we come before Him repentant and ask for forgiveness, we receive His grace and are made right with Him again.

It's so amazing what Jesus accomplished for us!

Man has a way of getting caught up in rules. We focus on what we should or shouldn't do, we judge people by what we consider to be right or wrong. But under grace, all God is looking at is our hearts. He's looking to see a love for Him and a desire to please Him.

Our Father knows that when our heart is in the right place, our actions will follow. When we desire to please Him, anything we do against Him causes us remorse and we will work to make things right.

Today, give God thanks for the grace that He has shown you. Praise your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who freed you from the curse of the law. And show someone else that same amazing grace that was shown to you.

Verse of the Day: So it is clear that no one can be made right with God by trying to keep the law. For the Scriptures say, "It is through faith that a righteous person has life." This way of faith is very different from the way of law, which says, "It is through obeying the law that a person has life." But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. Galatians 3:11-13