Joy to the World

For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” Luke 2:11-14

It is December already and the count down is on for a new year. Where did the year go? Many people this time of year are focused on getting ready for Christmas and preparing for their traditions. Some people have family gatherings on Christmas Eve where a banquet is prepared for the invited relatives and gifts are wrapped and under the tree. Others go about it as if it were just another day. Some spend it alone because they have no relatives close by and still others dread this special day because of some pain or loss they experienced during this time some years ago.

For me, from the time I was 18, Christmas was always bittersweet. When I was a child, I counted the days till Christmas but after my 17th Christmas it became a time mingled with joy, sadness, and loss. Joy because it was Christmas! My favorite holiday! Sadness and loss because there were certain people I would not be able to share the joy of the holiday with. Funny thing, I didn’t understand the true meaning of Christmas then. I knew what it was or what it was supposed to be about but I didn’t understand. As a child it was a day where we would see relatives we hadn’t seen all year, open gifts, and eat good food. Now that I understand what the reason for this holiday is, I can step back and appreciate all the gifts I’ve been given through out the year; The gift of love, health, family, and most importantly salvation.

The day that Jesus was actually born is not certain but December 25th is the day that has been designated to remember His birth and what His birth meant to the world. His birth along with His death and resurrection, are a demonstration of God’s love for us. There is a song that says: How many kings stepped down from their thrones?
How many lords have abandoned their homes?
How many greats have become the least for me?
How many gods have poured their heart to
Romance a world that is torn all apart?
How many fathers gave up their sons for me?
Only one did that for me.
These words perfectly describe the reason we celebrate the birth of Jesus. When we consider all that He left behind to come and live among us, die for us, and ultimately save us, we can do nothing but be amazed. God’s love for us is so great that He sent His only Son to redeem us. Praise God!

Now as a married adult, the only tradition that my husband and I have on Christmas is that we get each other 3 gifts each and they are usually things that we have been wanting all year. Recently though, this past week to be precise, God has reminded me that material gifts are not important as long as you have Him. Psalm 37:4 says “Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” (KJV) My husband and I live in Florida with no immediate family close by. So it is pretty much just me and him. He never celebrated Christmas before he met me and I was used to being around family and the whole big shindig that comes with it. Since we have been in Florida it’s been just us and sometimes I feel the ache of having family close by to visit and share what God has been doing in our lives. Of course we call each other and send each other messages but it is not the same as seeing a dear face and squeezing them tight. It has been in my heart for many years to connect with my father’s side of the family but I didn’t know where to start and I didn’t have much information about them. In the past couple of days, God has given me that desire. I connected with my sister through Facebook and found out that my paternal grandmother and uncle live closer to me than I thought! God is amazing!!

This morning as I drove to work, I meditated on all that God has been doing in the past year in my life and I had to weep in His presence because He has been more than wonderful. I am filled with so much love and gratitude that I can barely contain it! This Christmas meditate on the blessings God has bestowed upon you and love on people – family, friends, someone you may not know but is in desperate need of it. Christmas is about sharing the gift that God so generously gave us – His son, His love. Tell others about Jesus and show them Jesus with love. Reflect on the goodness of God and His mercy on you and your loved ones. Whether or not you get those material gifts you wanted is not important when you see how much God loves you and how He keeps you. Share the joy of Christmas with others and treasure those moments God gives you with loved ones.

Merry Christmas!!

God bless you!

When Two Become One – A principle of Marriage

Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. 1 Corinthians 7:3-5

I want to touch on a subject that perhaps you have encountered or perhaps not yet - temptations in marriage. Perhaps you are married and have not encountered temptation – praise the Lord! Perhaps you have. Either way, I want to focus on the different areas that temptation can enter and not just the obvious one although that is an important one. The first two verses speak about the body and how it belongs to your spouse. When you get married you become one with your spouse. The bible says in Genesis 2:24 that "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh." The reason for this is because whenever a man and a woman come together sexually, the man deposits of himself in the woman and the woman receives him, making them one. So the husband's body belongs to his wife, and the wife's body belongs to her husband. There is no more "my body"; it becomes "his body" or "her body."

We cannot dress the way we used to because now we dress to please our spouse, not ourselves. We cannot neglect our bodies (we shouldn't anyway) because our bodies are no longer ours but our spouses. We can go on and on about what we can and cannot do with our bodies because we no longer have authority over it, as the Scriptures tell us. It is also one of the reasons why we cannot and should not commit or practice adultery. We cannot give away what is not ours to give. Our bodies are not ours to give when we are married and God clearly speaks against this behavior. (Exodus 20:14)

I want to bring your attention to verse 5 which tells us: "Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control." I want to focus on this verse because here is where we will see what kind of temptations can arise and why. Obviously, the verse is speaking about depriving each other of sex but when we deprive each other of sex the temptations that arise are more than sexual ones. For instance, there is the temptation to despise your spouse because of neglect. There is the temptation to be angry and bitter. There is the temptation to mock or speak ill of or to your spouse. Now this is something that you would see in a marriage without Christ but clearly the Apostle Paul is speaking to believers. Why? Because Satan doesn't tempt the unbeliever, he already has control of the unbeliever. It is the believer that Satan tempts because he wants to make the unbeliever fall.

To deprive one another can be more than sexual as well. You can deprive one another of companionship, affection, love, friendship. Clearly Paul is emphasizing sexual deprivation because this can lead to the temptation to fulfill your needs elsewhere. As a Christian, this is not an option and doing so will cause you to fall, yet many fall into these other temptations I mentioned above as well.

When you find yourself facing these temptations the first thing you must do is pray. Pray for your marriage, pray for that passion to return to your marriage. Pray for your spouse if that's where the negligence is or pray for yourself if it is on your part. Whatever you do, DON'T GIVE IN TO TEMPTATION. Study the word of God and what it says about the tongue and how you should speak blessings over your home. Pray over your home and if your temptation is sexual pray for your desire to be for your spouse and do what you must to engage your spouse. Remember the word says that if you are going to hold out on each other, it should be consentual for the purpose of fasting and prayer; for the purpose of setting yourself apart for God only. Anything else is no excuse. So be aware, be careful, and pray for your marriage and your spouse so that temptation does not catch you in a moment of lack of self control.

God bless!

Have You Abandoned Your Post?

"So you, son of man: I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore you shall hear a word from My mouth and warn them for Me. ⁸ When I say to the wicked, 'O wicked man, you shall surely die!' and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. ⁹ Nevertheless if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul. ¹⁰ "Therefore you, O son of man, say to the house of Israel: 'Thus you say, "If our transgressions and our sins lie upon us, and we pine away in them, how can we then live?"' ¹¹ Say to them: 'As I live,' says the Lord GOD, 'I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?' Ezekiel 33:7-11

Have you abandoned your post?

Definition of watchman – a person who keeps watch; watcher – one that sits up or continues awake through the night.

In the Old Testament the watchman was usually a prophet, the person that God used to speak to His people. Today the watchman is the church. You and I. We are responsible for letting the world know that there is salvation in the name of Jesus. We are responsible for letting the sinner know that they need to repent and be saved. We are responsible for teaching our children the way of the lord and correcting them when they go the wrong way. We are watchmen in our homes, our jobs, and our churches.

The role of a watchman –

Spiritual – the watchman is always on alert for the wiles of the enemy. A watchman can be man or woman, not necessarily a prophet, though in the Old Testament the prophets were called watchmen. She/he is the one who warns the people of spiritual dangers, the one who warns the world that there are consequences for sin and that they should repent. If the watchman does not warn the people and they die in their sin, the watchman is held accountable for their blood.

Military – In a military sense, the watchman is the one who stays up all night standing guard. She/he is the one who sounds the alarm when they see the enemy approaching. If this person did not blow the horn when danger was approaching and the people died, the blood of those people was on the watchman's hands.

Characteristics and responsibilities of a watchman -

Watchmen must have vision – she/he has to be able to see the enemy for who he is and know his tactics. To do this we have to keep our eyes on Jesus and live a life of worship.
Watchmen must be alert – she/he should not let her/his guard down but must constantly be on guard so as not to let the enemy sneak up on her/him. To do this we must develop a consistent prayer life. By consistent, I mean we must spend time in prayer everyday. Prayer is very important for the watchman. We must also fast for clarity and discernment.
Watchmen must speak – the watchman has to open her/his mouth when danger is approaching. She/he has to let the endangered know that danger is coming and in our case what to do about it.
The watchman is held accountable for what she/he does or does not say.

Reasons a watchman will abandon or neglect his/her post –

Fear - For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7)

Fear is a tool the enemy uses to keep us from being all that we can be in the Lord. It keeps us from speaking out against injustice, sin, and unrighteousness. Fear will cause you to question yourself and say "let somebody else do it, who am I to judge?" But God speaks specifically against this by reminding us that He has given us power, love, and a whole mind (my emphasis) never fear! If God gives us all these things then why do we allow fear into our lives and let it detain us?

Weariness - "If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? And if in the land of peace, in which you trusted, they wearied you, then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan? (Jeremiah 12:5)

The NLT reads it like this - "If racing against mere men makes you tired, how will you race against horses? If you stumble and fall on open ground, what will you do in the thickets near the Jordan?

How does this apply to what we are talking about now? If you become weary and abandon your post, how will you deal with the greater things God has for you? He cannot give them to us until we have learned to stand firm no matter how weary we become. He is our strength and our sustenance. Weariness can cause us to make bad decisions. It can blur our vision. When we are weary we must go to the One who said "Come to me all you who are weary and heavy burdened and I will give you rest." We cannot rest on our own knowledge. We cannot rest in our family, friends, or anyone else. We cannot rest in our money, our job, or anything else but the One who created all things and called us to our post!

Wounded - He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. (Psalm 147:3)

Many times when we are hurt, we forget our purpose, we forget who called us, we forget our responsibility and we dwell. We focus on our wounds and how much it hurts and we forget that there was One who was wounded far worse that we can ever be wounded. We forget that He suffered everything we suffer and we forget that He is with us in our suffering.

Distraction - But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me." ⁴¹ And Jesus
answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. ⁴² But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her." (Luke 10:40-42)

Ahhhh, distraction is a tactic the enemy uses to sneak up on you. When you are distracted you cannot be alert. You cannot focus on your post. Your primary mission is sidetracked. There are many things that can distract us. Anything that occupies too much of our time and takes time away from God, is a distraction. Sometimes we get distracted by things we aren't even aware of.

Reclaiming your post - Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. (Ephesians 6:10)

If you have experienced or are experiencing any of these symptoms, I have good news! First you are not the first to experience this! Second, God has a remedy for each of these ailments! If you are wounded, cry out to him and he will heal you, restore you, and make you whole. If you are distracted, examine yourself and set aside the distractions – seek god and spend quality time with him. if you are fearful, take your fears to him and he will remind you that fear is not of him and he has given you what you need to proceed. Take courage! God is with you. When you are weary – don't give up!! He will give you rest!

I will leave you with this verse from Joshua 1:9 as motivation to reclaim your post. Assume the responsibility the Lord has given you and march forward in all that he puts in your hands because one day we will have to give account for everything we say and do. I would like to hear him say "well done, my good and faithful servant."

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go." (Joshua 1:9)

God bless!

Watchman Video/Chris Preaching

God’s sacrifice

 

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16

Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. John 15:13

The reason I chose to use both of these verses for this week's devotional is to show how they both relate to the sacrifice that God made for us through His son Jesus. I will explain what I mean but first I want to say that this week's blog is dedicated to all those who are struggling with doubt, loneliness, questions about who God is and if He is even real. I want to tell you that God is very real and He cares a great deal for you.

The first verse explains why He sent His Son – because He loved us. He loved us so much that He sent the one who was most precious to Him because it was the only way to save us. Let me explain what I mean by the only way to save us. You see, when God created man, He created him perfect, in His image. God also created man with free will. In other words He gave us the right and privilege to be able to choose between right and wrong. You may ask why He would give us free will when He is God and can just make us serve Him. Well the reason for that is because He wanted us to love Him by choice and not because we have to. He also gave man dominion over the land and everything in it. Now man has free will and he is confronted with a choice to obey God or disobey Him. There was a tree that God gave Adam strict instruction not to eat from it. The serpent (the devil) then tempted Eve to eat from the tree. Man (Adam and Eve) chose to disobey God's commandment and ate from the tree. Once they ate from the tree, they were in disobedience to God (sin) and they had handed over their dominion (land and everything in it) to Satan. Because of this the land was cursed and every man and woman since then is born into sin. (Genesis chapter 3 for the account of Adam and Eve).

Since man is born into sin, salvation cannot come from him because the sacrifice has to be sinless. Here is where Jesus comes in. As God's only begotten son, He was with God, in God, and is God. He came in the form of man as a sinless sacrifice for the redemption of mankind. Simply put He lived as man but he did not sin. He was crucified on a cross for the forgiveness of our sins. Not only the forgiveness of our sins but also for our health, to give us life. Here is God the Father's sacrifice – He sends His only son, who when He is carrying the sin of the world, has to be separated from Him. God cannot look at sin, so when Jesus was on the cross, He was separated from His son for that moment. Can you imagine the tremendous pain of being separated from your child? But we were also His children, He created us in His image, and He had been separated from us for a long time. God wanted a way to bring His children back to Him.

Now the second verse is Jesus speaking to His disciples. These 12 men, who believed that He was the son of God, and followed Him, had become His friends because they had a relationship with Jesus. He was telling them this to make them aware of His purpose on this earth. He was letting them know that soon He would give His life for them so that they would have eternal life. How many of us would give our life for our best friend or even our family? I dare say not many. Jesus was letting us know that His love for us was so great that He was laying His life down so that we could become His friends by way of a relationship with Him through His Holy Spirit.

Now these two verses work together because God loved the world (us) that He gave His only son (Jesus), Jesus (God in the flesh) gave His life so that we could become His friends because He was the only one who could bring us back to fellowship with our Father.

For those of you that are not in a relationship with God, I challenge you today to think about the sacrifice that was made for you and me and your need for the love and mercy that God offers. I am not saying that your life will be all peaches and cream, but I will tell you this – since I accepted the Lord Jesus Christ almost eleven years ago, I can honestly say that my life is better. My life has purpose and though there are trials, God is with me through all of them. He never leaves me alone.

Your life has a purpose – will you seek that purpose in God or will you let the opportunity pass you by? If you are feeling God knocking on the door of your heart right now, don't let the opportunity pass you by. Acknowledge that you are a sinner and that you need God and then ask for His forgiveness and invite Him into your heart and life and see how He will transform you. You can say this simple prayer to receive Christ into your heart:

Jesus, forgive me for my sins. I believe that You are the son of God, who died on the cross and rose on the third day for the redemption of my soul. I believe that you are alive and want a relationship with me. Come into my heart and wash me clean. Write my name in the book of life and transform my life. Show me how to live according to your will and strengthen my faith every day so that I may please you. Thank you Lord for the forgiveness of my sins. In Jesus name, Amen.

If you have just prayed that prayer, welcome to the family of God! You will need to get yourself a bible and study the word of God. Also find yourself a church that preaches and teaches the word of God so that you may grow in the Lord. If you do not know how to go about doing this, please respond to the blog and we will help you with resources depending on where you are as best we can. God bless you!

 

 

God is Near

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit.  Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You. Psalm 51:10-13

I have found myself drawn to this passage of Scripture many times when in affliction. It is one of my favorite Psalms, but these verses in particular have resonated in my heart in mind in the past months like never before. Many times we pray and ask God to change our heart but do we know what we are asking for? To ask God to give us a clean heart requires an examination of ourselves and our motives. We need ask ourselves are we honoring God in all that we do? Are we walking in obedience to Him? Are we spending enough time with Him or are we spending time with Him at all?

The past year had its challenges and opportunities; challenges to our faith and who we are in Christ and opportunities for us to draw closer to our Father. For some of us, myself included, it has been a tremendous struggle to stand firm and planted but God has been faithful to give us the strength to keep pressing forward. Personally it was a time of drought. A time where I literally felt like I was gasping for air and clawing my way forward yet by the grace of God, here I am. Specifically in this time I have cried out to God to "create in me a clean heart and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me."

You see, there are times when we as Christians, will go through periods where we may think that we are alone and we don't hear God speak to us, we don't see Him moving for us, or like me, feel very far from Him and His presence. That does not mean that He is not there! In these moments of loneliness, despair, and intense pain, Jesus is right there with us. Our human nature does not recognize that He is there because we are hurting, frustrated, angry even, and we cannot see past our situation to know that He is there yet He is.

This year I have determined to seek God with pure motives – with all that I have, all that I am, and all that is in me. I have determined to teach the transgressors His ways so that sinners may be converted. The Psalmist David was going through his own personal struggle when He wrote this Psalm but God renewed a steadfast spirit in him and lifted him up because he humbled himself and cried out to the only One who could help him. Today I have renewed strength and I am going to press even harder in the Lord and I pray that you do to. Be encouraged if you are struggling, you are not alone. And if you're not struggling, praise God because He is good!

 

God bless!