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The stories of Samson(Judges 13) and John the Baptist(Luke 1) are very similar. In both instances their parents were unable to have children and an angel appeared to their parents stating they were going to have a child. The boys were both to be Nazirites, which meant drinking no wine or fermented drinks and not cutting their hair, because they were separated unto God. However, there is a big difference in the way their fathers responded when God's angel appeared to them.
When the angel appeared to Samson's father he asked... “Pardon your servant, Lord. I beg you to let the man of God you sent to us come again to teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born.” God heard his prayer and responded by sending the angel back. Then Samson's father asked... “When your words are fulfilled, what is to be the rule that governs the boy’s life and work?” These are great questions to ask God about our children, but also notice that he believed it was going to happen.
T...
Psalm 127 is a short Psalm but it has some great promises. Here are some things to think about as you read this Psalm...
Psalm 127
1 Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain.
2 In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat— for he grants sleep to those he loves.
3 Children are a heritage from the Lord...
The Feast of Trumpets is coming up on the evening of Sept 6th. The trumpet in the Old Testament was used for signaling. It called the people to assemble, told them when to move, and when to stop. The New Testament tells us that at the blast of the trumpet the dead in Christ will rise. Trumpets is a reminder that we have been called to live a new life connected to God, and part of this new way of living is learning to make unwavering decisions. This is something I had to learn because I used to waver on many of my decisions. This requires being single minded, diligent in your decision making, and then following through. Here are some verses to meditate on about what we promise/decide and fulfilling our word.
Nor should you swear by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black. 37 Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ Anything more comes from the evil one. Matthew 5:36-37
God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that h...
This is a time of year when you may be experiencing an increase in pressure. But, when these pressures come it is an opportunity to roll them over to God and increase our gratitude. Something I am learning is that we are either in gratitude or we are not, and gratitude is one of the greatest expressions of faith. If we are lacking gratitude our focus is usually off. True faith thanks and praises God in the face of pressure, because we trust that his grace is sufficient for everything we encounter.
Think of Jesus feeding the multitudes. He was in a remote place with no way to naturally feed all the people. His first response was to be thankful for what they had, even though it wasn't enough. After gratitude the food began to multiply.
Every time there is pressure, there is a tremendous gift hidden in the pressure, the opportunity to know God in a deeper way. To know and experience him coming through again and again. When we fight pressure with gratitude the pres...
Here is the message for September.
There are several important dates on God's Calendar coming soon.
Don't Despise Small Beginnings
As I was thinking about the month of September Zechariah 4:6-10 kept coming to mind. Here is what it says...
This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty. What are you, mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of ‘God bless it! God bless it!’ Then the word of the Lord came to me: ‘The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple; his hands will also complete it. Then you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you’”
Who dares despise the day of small things, since the seven eyes of th...
Often we need the willingness to move forward by faith, when we don't have all the details. God will often give us a nudge in a certain direction or to start something, and he expects us to move even though we don't know the whole plan.
The other day I had my daughter do a writing exercise. She had just read the first few pages of Genesis and I asked her to write a few paragraphs on something that came to mind or how what she read could apply to her own life. At first, she kept saying... "I don't know what to write."
So we prayed and asked God for what he wanted to show us and I got her started by writing... Today I read in Genesis about...
About a minute later she started typing away and here is the summary of what she wrote.
When God created the world he did it in 6 days and then rested on the seventh. He could have made it all at one time because nothing is impossible for him, but he chose to make it in 6 days as an example for us, because my dad says that...
Never underestimate the power of one person. In Joshua 22:18-20 the people of Israel were reminded of the time when one man took plunder that was devoted to God after the walls of Jericho fell, and because of that one man the whole community suffered. Adam was also one man and we all were impacted by his sin. But this principle also works for the good as well. Jesus was one man, but his righteousness and obedience resulted in justification and life for all people.
Here is a passage of scripture to meditate on today from Romans 5:15-19
But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! 16 Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 17 For if, by the trespass of t...
After years of working in the health and fitness industry the insight that has helped me best understand how our bodies work is that they are symbolic of the body of Christ. A few years ago I discovered something I call touchpoints and it is one of the best ways to eliminate pain and restrictions in our physical bodies. It is also one of the simplest and easiest things you have ever done. Whenever you are moving or stretching and feel tightness, restriction, or pain in your movement simply give that area a very light touch with one of your fingers, using the same amount of pressure you would use to touch your phone screen, and then repeat the movement again. When you repeat the movement the restriction and/or pain will often be dramatically reduced or completely eliminated. Here is how I think of this from the perspective of the body of Christ.
Imagine a person in the body of Christ calling out to Jesus because they are in pain or because of some other issue, and ...
In the Old Testament when a person touched someone or something that was unclean they also became unclean. But, in the New Testament the tables have turned. Now, Jesus touches a leper and instead of Jesus becoming unclean, the leper is healed and made clean. The touch of faith has the power to cleanse. People often asked Jesus in the gospels if he was willing to heal and/or cleanse them, and his answer every time was... I am willing. When we reach out to Jesus by faith he is always willing to make us clean.
Here are some scriptures to meditate on today...
Matthew 14:36 And besought him that they might only touch the hem of his garment: and as many as touched were made perfectly whole.
Matthew 17:7 And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid.
Matthew 20:34 So Jesus had compassion [on them], and touched their eyes: and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him.
Mark 1:41 And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth [his...
In Mark 7 the subtitle of the chapter is That Which Defiles. We are coming into a time of the year on God's calendar, when everything was to be righted by the Day of Atonement(Sept 15-16). During this time the people would make sure not to defile themselves. But Jesus said it is the things that come from within that defile us. In Mark 7 the religious leaders are giving the disciples of Jesus a hard time because they are eating without washing their hands. Jesus went on to say that it is what comes from within that defiles, which is why what we are meditating on and thinking about is so important.
Here are his words from Mark 7:17-23
17 After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. 18 “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? 19 For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared a...
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