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Would Jesus call you ‘hypocrite’?

Sometimes I read the word of God and it just hits me with a 2 x 4. Ouch! That’s what it’s like reading through the Sermon on the Mount. Right off the bat, Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:20, “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

What was wrong with the scribes and Pharisees? Jesus called them hypocrites because their example and teachings kept people away from God.

The word “hypocrite” was used at that time for stage actors in Greece and Rome who wore masks to reflect particular moods and emotions. The audience never saw the real person. They witnessed only what the mask portrayed.

In the same way, scribes and Pharisees wore “holy masks,” while underneath they were anything but holy!

You and I need to ask the Holy Spirit to examine our hearts. Ask, “Holy Spirit, am I hypocritical in any way?” In some ways, we are all actors and, for that, we need to repent and ask the Lord to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

However, it’s not hypocritical to be nice to someone you don’t like. That’s obedience. God tells us to “love the unlovely,”and we don’t go by our feelings. On the other hand, if you are nice to that person’s face and tear them apart behind their back, you’re a hypocrite. If we act one way at home and another at church, that’s hypocritical.

A true Christian should be kinder to the person no one likes than the person everyone is falling all over. Why? Because he or  she needs their kindness more.

We sing songs in church like, “I Surrender All” but do we? Do we even want to, or are we happy the way we are? We read verses like “Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors,” but do we really?

Have you forgiven those who have wounded you or offend you on a regular basis? Jesus didn’t call the adulterers, the thieves, the drunks and liars “hypocrite.” No, He saved this harshest criticism for the religious church people of His day! I ask myself, “Don’t we all wear masks sometimes? Is it realistic to think that our heart can match what we portray on the outside? Can we truly be righteous inside and out?” And the answer is ABSOLUTELY YES!

If it weren’t possible, Jesus would never require it of us. What He requires He supplies. How does He do it? By coming to live inside of us, by filling us with His Holy Spirit, filling us with all righteousness. The Sermon on the Mount is only an impossible standard for us to live by if we refuse to let Jesus be Lord of our lives.

I don’t know about you; I can only speak for myself. I know there are a number of areas in my life that He isn’t Lord over because I haven’t let Him be. But I long for that to change, and I’m working on it.

I want the qualities found in the Sermon on the Mount to be a reality in my life and even in the areas I don’t think I want it. I’m willing to pray, “Lord make me willing to be willing.”


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Good idea or God idea?

Everything we do begins with a decision, and every day we make a multitude of them. Each decision brings with it good or bad consequences—consequences that will be compounded daily. If you don’t like where you are right now, it’s time to stop blaming others and recognize the part that your own choices have played.

Your destiny will be determined by choices you make today and, although you can’t go back and change your yesterdays, they influence your todays and tomorrows.  The God of all creation has planned a great life with a great ending for us, but our decisions can hinder those plans.

In Deuteronomy 30:19-20, God reveals the incredible power and privilege of choice we have been given and He encourages us to make the right choices. But He also warns us of the serious consequences of making wrong choices.

The responsibility of having God’s awesome plans fulfilled in your life is squarely on your shoulders and no one else’s. Here are some obstacles you should avoid.

1. People’s opinions probably influence our choices more than anything else. We make decisions (consciously or subconsciously) to obtain their acceptance. Know that you are extremely valuable and special in God’s sight. Stop trying to be a cheap copy of a great original! When God made you, He threw away the mold. Low self-esteem will directly influence the choices you make. Spend time with God and let Him reveal your true identity—the one He gave you.

2. Faulty motives like attention-getting, self-gain, ego and pride also influence our decisions. Ask God to search your heart and reveal the reasons behind your decisions. Galatians 6:8 says, “For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.” We should use our God-given freedom to make decisions that will advance His kingdom—not our own.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• Will the decision I’m about to make promote God and His agenda or me and my agenda?

• Will God receive all the glory from the decision I’m about to make?

• Will this decision focus the attention on God or me?

3. Money issues affect a lot of our decisions. We can easily be blinded by the power money holds over us. Mark 6:24 says “You cannot serve God and mammon.” Money can be a huge factor in deciding who we hang out with (or not); who we will and won’t serve; who we will or won’t go the extra mile for. We become a “respecter of persons” based on how people can benefit us.

4. Ethnic, family and religious traditions, prejudice and faulty beliefs also influence us more than we realize. Our choices are so critical to our destiny! It’s a good idea to take time before jumping into anything. Think it through and invite God into the process. Ask Him to reveal to you whether it’s a God decision or just a good one!

Your life’s destiny depends on making right choices. So today, right now, make a quality decision to start making great decisions.


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Pick your battles wisely.

Every day you engage in warfare. Your battleground may be on your job where someone gossips about you, and you are determined to straighten them out! It may be at home where you contend with your mate about family, finances or your relationship. The question we need to ask ourselves is: Is this battle worth fighting?

Too often we get consumed with battles that have no spoils and actually leave us in a lose/lose situation! We’re worse off after such battles than before we started.

A great warrior—before he invests his time, energy and his life—will choose battles whose victory promises great spoil. As warriors in God’s army, you and I need the wisdom to not fight unnecessarily. Satan loves to pull us into no-win situations so we miss the important battles we should be fighting, the ones that bring great victories. We’re called to engage in battles that advance the kingdom of God, promote us in His kingdom and that will spiritually mature us.

Retaliating against someone who cuts you off on the road or trying to prove how important you are by making someone who dishonored you look bad… these are not battles worth fighting. There are no rewards because they don’t advance God’s kingdom. In fact, they damage our spiritual growth and misrepresent the God we serve. As sons and daughters of God, we are His ambassadors here on earth.

Long before David becomes king and before fighting the battle God designed for him in which he defeats Goliath (1 Samuel 17:17-30), he brings food to his brothers on the battle field. It is here that he hears the giant Goliath ridicule Israel’s army. When David asks what the prize would be for defeating Goliath, he is told that he would have favor with the king, could marry one of the king’s daughters and live tax-free for life. That’s quite a spoil isn’t it?

While David is talking to the soldiers, his oldest brother Eliab starts to ridicule him in front of the men: “Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness?”

I believe the one thing that made David a true champion was his ability to engage in the battles that were the Lord’s and ignore the rest. He had the wisdom to walk away from Eliab (a battle with no spoils) and, instead, spent his energy on the battle the Lord had anointed him to fight!

David understood his value was in God, not in people’s opinions of him. Because he turned away from the wrong battle that day, he was available to fight the Lord’s battle and be promoted from zero to hero… from a shepherd over his father’s sheep to king of Israel, watching over God’s people.

Before you engage in warfare, ask: “Is this the Lord’s battle? Will it advance His purposes and plans in and through my life? Will it cause me to grow spiritually and be a better representation of Jesus?

I encourage you today to pick your battles wisely. Be strong enough to walk away from the many to fight the few that fulfill your destiny, the ones the Lord calls you into—not the devil. When a battle is the Lord’s, the spoils will be great!


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Why trusting God isn’t enough

Often, when people are asked about their plans for the future they answer, “I’m just trusting God.” Although as a Christian, that sounds right, it isn’t biblically correct.

Proverbs 29:18 says that people without a vision (a strategy or plan) will never reach their God-given destiny, no matter how much they trust God to do it for them. You see, to bring us to the fullness of our destiny, God downloads His plans and strategies and expects us to follow them.

Planning for our future is important and is God’s way to assure His success in our life. At the same time, counting on God to direct us is essential.  It’s actually a joint effort, a co-laboring between God and us!

Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens me.” In other words, God expects our cooperation to accomplish His will. We do it…but it’s through His strength!

Are you cooperating with God to accomplish His purposes and plans in and through you? Proverbs 13:16 tells us a wise man thinks (plans) ahead; but a fool doesn’t, and even brags about it! The fool says, “I don’t need to plan; I’ll just trust God.” Yes, we trust in God, but we seek His plan and rely on Him to order our steps daily. Ask yourself:

1. Am I following God’s plans and strategies (vision) for my life or my own desires? Don’t make your desires God’s. Instead, surrender to Him. Pray, “Lord, I want Your will, not mine.”

2. Make sure that every day you’re on His road to success and haven’t taken a detour. The Holy Spirit helps you stay on course by bringing deep conviction when you start to wander. Develop a listening heart to hear His still small voice. Ask if the choices you’re about to make align with His plans or if you need a course adjustment.

3. Watch out for pride. Pride happens when you take His designed plan and purpose into your own hands, making it yours. When we think that God will automatically put His stamp of approval on everything we do, we’re putting a stumbling block between us and success.

4. Write down the vision God downloads into your spirit. We easily forget His plans when too many distractions confuse the vision God gave us. I suggest you write down the vision, as Habakkuk 2:2-4 instructs. And review it often.

5. Finally… the strategy and plan that God gives you needs a constant upgrade. Why? Because He gives us what we need, but it’s usually one step at a time and the first few steps might be different than the second few steps. Depend on God (not yourself) to get from point A to point Z.

Change is the Christian’s way of life. God is always re-aligning us to His purposes, keeping us on the potter’s wheel so He can mold us into vessels of honor!

So don’t just say I’m trusting God for my future. Know His strategies and plans. Co-labor with God and live with the confidence that what He started in you He will be faithful to finish!

 

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When It Seems Like Life is Against You

If you’re like me, sometimes it seems like everything is going wrong and even life itself is working against you! Stress at work is off the charts; your financial problems are getting worse and your marriage and family life is in turmoil. And to make matters worse, it seems like God has turned a deaf ear to your immediate, desperate needs.

Jacob in the Bible experienced the same thing. It started in his mother’s womb, having to fight with his twin brother Esau, then being forced to leave home as a young man because he took Esau’s birthright. He also had to work 14 years for his wife Rachel because Laban tricked him into first marrying Leah, her older sister.

Jacob’s heart broke when Rachel died giving birth to Benjamin. Later on he thinks his favorite son Joseph was killed by wild animals as reported by his eldest son.

During a severe famine his finances are devastated and the Egyptians take his sons Simeon and Benjamin hostage in exchange for food. In Genesis 42:32-36 he makes this summation of the state of his life, “All these things are against me”. In other words Jacob is saying, “life itself is against me; how can I survive?”

These important steps will help you if you find yourself in the same position as Jacob:

#1. Don’t let your problems impress you more than the God you serve. Idolatry is when you have more fear and respect for something (your problems) than you do for your God. 1John 4:18 says, “There is no fear in love”.

When you truly comprehend God’s love and protection in the deepest part of your heart, fear of failure and destruction will lose its long-term hold on you.

#2. Create an atmosphere of faith by rehearsing what God has done for you in the past, believing He will do it again. We are our own worst enemy when we create a negative atmosphere by complaining and saying our situation is hopeless.

Hebrews 11:6 says, “It’s impossible to please God without faith”. It pleases God to deliver you from your current struggles. Give Him an atmosphere where he can work on your behalf. You have the ability to invite God into your impossible circumstances.

#3. Stop talking with the snake. Yes you heard me correctly! Many of us talk with satan and his gang more than we do with God. You can tell whom you’ve been talking to by your negativity, complaining and hopelessness.

Come into and agreement with what the Lord says about your circumstances…. not with what satan wants you to say. Matthew 18:19 says “Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.” What an amazing promise! Let’s start agreeing with God from now on.

#4. Don’t judge a thing too soon. Don’t make a permanent decision on a temporary circumstance because God says that what you face today is temporary.

Maybe you didn’t have a good start but your finish is what counts. With God’s presence in your midst, temporary circumstance you find yourself in can suddenly become a blessing.

#5. Remember, God is working in it so don’t quit no matter how it looks or feels. Don’t grow weary in planting good seeds during trials. Galatians 6:7 says, “God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows that he will reap.”

#6 Know that the trials and tests we go through releases God’s glory. So don’t give up, give in, or back down. God’s deliverance from life’s problems is guaranteed. Jacob had Joseph, Simeon and Benjamin restored to him when it looked like life had defeated him. He also was restored financially.

He had moments of weakness but he finished strong in faith. God even named Himself “the God of Jacob”.

When all looks lost and it seems like life itself is closing in on you, remember it’s not over till it’s over and you are on the winning team. There is nothing you and God together can’t overcome.

Put these simple but profound principles into action and watch life turn around for you today.


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God Will Never Do What You Can

God expects us to use the natural talents and abilities that He has given to each one of us. Yet, too often we ask Him to do the things that we can easily accomplish on our own. He’ll never waste His grace to help us do what we can do alone. No, He is waiting to help us do what we know we can’t do!

You don’t need faith for what you can do. You only need it when your natural abilities can’t meet the challenge of your circumstances. That’s why God will many times lead you into a state where you are needy, a place where you know you can’t possibly fix it yourself.

He told the Apostle Paul, “My grace (my ability) is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect (complete) in weakness”.

Weakness, vulnerability, helplessness and circumstances beyond our control are the places we all fight to avoid. But in those places where we have done all we can do and have nothing left in us to solve our problems, meet our needs or get the answers to our dilemmas—these are the places where God intervenes on our behalf.

Why is it so difficult to just let go and let God? Could it be that we really don’t trust God to do what we can’t do? Or to say it another way, do we trust ourselves more than we trust God?

If that’s true, that would make us a “god” to ourselves and that is called idolatry!

Could it just be that we don’t truly know who our God is? It’s hard to completely trust someone with your entire life if you don’t know who they are and what they can do.

You see, faith is totally trusting in the one you believe. We say we have faith and that we believe in God, but we still insist on staying in control over our own lives.

Many Christians live their life in deception, thinking they truly trust God when in reality they don’t. Here are a few warning signs that reveal your lack of faith in the one and only true God:

1. You can’t forgive those who have hurt you because you don’t trust that God will be just in dealing with them.

2. You stop worshiping God through giving tithes and offerings because you really don’t trust Him to meet your financial needs. Remember… actions speak louder than words. Or as the bible says, “faith without works is dead”

3. You won’t serve God if it’s outside your comfort zone. You choose comfort over servanthood. Advancing God’s kingdom is no longer a priority.

4. Prayer is a last resort because you’ve gotten used to meeting your own needs with our own efforts. It takes faith in a living, all-powerful God to pray. Praying for your daily needs proves your reliance on God as your source. Not praying proves that you trust in yourself.

5. You no longer desire to lead people to a saving knowledge of Jesus. You’ve become self-focused instead of caring about the lost souls around you.

6. You’ve lost your hunger for more of God and now your passion is directed toward other things.

There are no elevators in the kingdom of God— only steps. The “process” is necessary to bring progress.  If you are asking God to do things on your behalf, but you haven’t done all that you can do first, you have held Him back. You’ve delayed the “process”.

Ask the Lord right now if there is anything more you can do in your circumstances. Should you plant more seeds of love, reach out to more people or extend extra mercy to those who have hurt you? Should you give more of your time, talent and resources to advance God’s kingdom?

God desires to show off Himself on your behalf! So, take an honest look at your life and start doing what He equipped you for. God always did great things for people who were busy, not lazy. All of heaven is waiting for you!…

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