Hiding His Word In Our Hearts

"Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee." - Psalm 119:11

First, let me say that it is good to be back blogging!  Last week we had a Prophecy Conference at FBC with Dr. Billy Martin.  It was a great week, but I did not have the opportunity to update my blog at all last week.

I want to share something that has been heavy on my heart over the last several months.  I have observed that our churches seem to be severely lacking when it comes to God's Word.  The statistics are very disturbing to say the least.

• Only 16% of churchgoers read the Bible everyday.

• Only 32% read the Bible at least once a week.

• Only 37% say that reading and studying the Bible has made a significant difference in the way they live their lives.

We must do something about this!  As I said, the statistics are very disturbing to say the least.  Just a little over 1/4 of our congregations are reading their Bibles only one time each week.  It is no wonder that our churches are in the shape that they are in!  Could you imagine only eating physically one time a week?  Most of us couldn't even imagine eating only one time a day.  We all know that if we skip eating that we are not going to grow physically; in fact, we are going to get weaker.  Why is that we do not apply the same standard to our spiritual lives?  How can we expect to grow spiritually if we are never in God's Word, or if we just read it once a week?  We are spiritually starving ourselves to death!

The most disturbing of these statistics to me is that only 37% say that reading and studying the Bible has made a significant difference in the way they live their lives.  This should not be!  If you are truly a child of God, every time that you read God's Word, it should radically change you!  I truly believe that what we have in many of our churches is a bunch of lost people trying to read the Bible and understand it, which is the problem.  I hear so much about how people say that they cannot understand the Bible.  Now let me be very clear, even as a Christian, you are not going to understand everything you read in the Bible, but you should have a general understanding.  As a child of God, when you read His Word it should convict you and stir your heart, it will change you!

I believe one of the biggest contributing factors to this epidemic is that many pastors and churches push reading your Bible through every year.  I have heard countless preachers talk about how many times they have read their Bible through during their lives.  I have even heard them make condescending remarks about those who have never read their Bibles through during the year.  It is not important whether or not a person reads their Bible through each year, but rather it is more important that they read their Bibles everyday.  We must encourage our people to get in God's Word everyday, even if they only read a few verses each day.

I will be the first to admit that I don't spend time in God's Word like I should, and if you are honest you would have to admit the same.  Purpose in your heart, that moving forward you are going to spend time in God's Word each day, but more importantly, that you are going to allow His Word to radically change how you live.  Get in the Word!!!

"The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver." - Psalm 119:72


"Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction." - Psalm 119:92


"O how I love thy law! it is my meditation all the day." - Psalm 119:97


"How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" - Psalm 119:103


"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." - Psalm 119:105


"The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding to the simple." - Psalm 119:130


Prayer For Today:

Heavenly Father, help me to spend time in Your Word each day!  Father, I pray that as I read and study Your Word each day that You would radically change my heart and my life to look more like Christ.  Father, give me a burning desire for Your Word!  In Jesus name, Amen!

Spiritual Transformation

"And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you; for the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in the earth beneath." - Joshua 2:11
 

Last Sunday night at FBC we began a series of messages going through the book of Joshua.  Most of us know that Joshua is a book of transition.  There is a transition in leadership from Moses to Joshua as well as many other transitions.  As we come to chapter 2 we find in one of these transitions a spiritual transformation.  This is what God desires for us all!  This coming Sunday night at FBC we are going to delve deeper into this transition and transformation.  I would like to share just a brief thought with you concerning this transformation.

The conversion of Rahab, the harlot, is a wonderful illustration of the transformation that God desires for us to experience in our lives.  First, we are radically transformed when we repent of our sins and place our faith and trust in Christ.  Second, we are to be radically transformed each day to look more like Christ and for our lives to reflect Him.  The life of Rahab illustrates how amazing the mercy and grace of the Lord is toward you and I. In the book of Joshua she is referred to as a harlot, however when you come to the book of Hebrews, she is referred to as a woman of faith.  Only God Himself can produce that kind of transformation in someone's life.

The thought I want us to ponder today is: are we allowing Christ to transform our lives in a radical way just like He did in the life of Rahab?  You might say, "I am saved, my life has already been transformed."  I am referring to salvation, but rather to allowing Christ to radically transform you and I to look more like Him each day.  Each day we must allow Christ to mold us and to make us more like Him.  Are we allowing Him to have His way with us to bring about this transformation?

I don't know about you, but I desire for Christ to work in my life in such a way that each day I am seeing a radical transformation in my life to be more like Him.  Just think about the Lord saved and radically transformed a woman who was a harlot and through her is the lineage of Christ.  Jesus Christ, our Savior, the Creator of this Universe, and God in the flesh, is descended from the a woman who was a harlot at one time.

Jesus Christ can radically transform any life, will you allow Him to transform yours?

Prayer For Today:

Heavenly Father, thank You for You mercy and Your grace.  As You radically transformed and worked in the life of Rahab, it is my desire that You would transform and work in my life.  Conform my life each day to look more like Jesus.  In Jesus name, Amen!

Power In Prayer

"Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." - James 5:16


Have you ever heard the phrase "the power of prayer?"  Have you ever stopped and thought about the reality of that phrase?  If we are not careful it is so easy for us to take those words for granted.  Prayer is our conduit to access the power of our Heavenly Father that is available to us through Jesus Christ.  Prayer is not something that we are to take lightly or that we are to just do occasionally.  However, I am afraid that we ALL are guilty of both taking it lightly and just doing it occasionally.

Prayer changes things and it changes us!  I know that is a very simple statement, but it is so true.  As you and I begin to pray and pour our hearts out before our Heavenly Father, our hearts begin to change as we commune with Him.  Even if our circumstances never change, our hearts have been changed, and that will change how we view our circumstances or how we handle our circumstances.  The quality of your spiritual life will be in direct proportion to the quality of your prayer life.  This is why we have so many people in our churches that are struggling spiritually, because the quality of their prayer life is low or non-existent.

Instead of turning things over in our minds, we must learn to turn them over to the Lord in prayer.  You and I have the tendency to try and figure things out in our heads, constantly going over it again and again trying to figure out what to do.  What we need to do is to quit worrying about our next decision, quit replaying events over again in our minds, and give it to the Lord and ask Him to lead the way for us.  We must learn to constantly and consistently pray about all things, great and small.

Will you continue to ignore the power that is available to you through prayer?

"When prayer has become secondary, or incidental, it has lost its power. Those who are conspicuously men of prayer are those who use prayer as they use food, or air, or light, or money." M.E. Andross

Prayer For Today:

Heavenly Father, help me to bring everything to You in prayer; my hopes, my dreams, my doubts, my fears, and my burdens. Lord, may others see my utter dependence on You for everything in my life. It is my desire to devote my life to a life of prayer. Father, may I bring all things to You and may I trust Your will to be accomplished in areas of my life. In Jesus name, Amen!

Dejection

"But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done." - Luke 24:21


Do you ever feel dejected in your life and your walk with Christ?  The disciples sure did feel this way after Jesus had been crucified.  Just imagine, these men believed Jesus of Nazareth to be the Messiah, the One who would redeem Israel, and now they have just seen all of their hope and faith crucified on that cross with Jesus.

In the preceding verses every fact that the disciples stated was correct, but the inferences they drew from them were wrong.  Jesus Christ was sent from God, He did mighty miracles before all of the people, He was delivered to the chief priests and condemned to death, He was crucified on the cross, and He was the One to redeem Israel.  Their last statement is where they missed it.  The nation of Israel and even the disciples were looking for the wrong kind of redemption.  They were looking for a physical redemption from Roman oppression instead of a spiritual redemption from their sins.

If we are not careful, we will fall into the same trap that the disciples did.  Ask yourself this question: "What have I been trusting God to do?"  The disciples were trusting Christ to do something different.  Today, the immediate present, is the third day, and He has not done it, therefore we imagine that we are justified in being dejected and blaming God.  Does this describe where you are spiritually today?

I'm afraid that this is where many of us are when it comes to our prayer life.  Whenever our insistence is on the point that God answers prayer, we are off track.  The purpose and meaning of prayer is that we get a hold of God, not of the answer.  The disciples already had a preconceived idea in their heads of what they thought the answer should be, and when it did not happen that way the became dejected.  If you and I are honest, we are guilty of the exact same thing.

I would like to share with you a quote from Oswald Chambers about dejection:

"We look for visions from heaven, for earthquakes and thunders of God’s power (the fact that we are dejected proves that we do), and we never dream that all the time God is in the commonplace things and people around us. If we will do the duty that lies nearest, we shall see Him. One of the most amazing revelations of God comes when we learn that it is in the commonplace things that the Deity of Jesus Christ is realized."

Prayer For Today:

Heavenly Father, help me today not to be dejected and discouraged.  May I not have a preconceived idea of what I think You should do, but help me when I pray to seek You.  Help me Lord to see Your presence in the common things and people around me.  In Jesus name, Amen!

Vagabond Christianity

"When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth." - Genesis 4:12


This coming Sunday morning at Fairystone Baptist Church I plan to preach a message entitled "Vagabond Christianity."  I do not want to give away my entire message, but I just wanted to share a quick thought with you.  I was very intrigued by the word "vagabond" as I was reading through this chapter.  After Cain murders his brother Abel the Lord tells Cain that he will be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth.

What does vagabond mean?  How is that significant to us in our walk with Christ?  Websters 1828 Dictionary defines vagabond as someone wandering, with no settled habitation, no certain direction, and driven to and fro. Do you see the relevance and significance now?

I can help but wonder how many people we have in our churches that are simply vagabonds.  They are wandering, they have no settled habitation, they have no certain direction, and they are driven to and fro.  Does this describe you?  Is this an accurate description of where you are spiritually today?

There are so many people in our churches today that are simply existing, they are wandering into the middle of nowhere in their spiritual life.  They literally are floundering and starving to death spiritually because they are vagabonds.  I'm afraid this is why we are not seeing the spiritual growth in our churches like we should is because of this very thing.

If you read on in Genesis 4, you will find one of the saddest statements ever made.  The Bible says that Cain went out from the presence of the Lord.  Unfortunately, that is the end result of "Vagabond Christianity."  Examine your heart today and ask God to show you if this describes in you spiritually today.  Are you a "Vagabond Christian?"

Prayer For Today:

Lord, please help me today to examine my heart to see if I am vagabond in my spiritual walk with You.  Help me Father to be rooted and established in Your Word everyday.  I desire to grow closer to You each day and to have a higher level of intimacy with You than I presently do.  If I begin to wander and stray towards being a vagabond, I pray that You would open my eyes and show me through Your Word.  In Jesus name, Amen!

Spiritual Nourishment

"If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained." - 1 Timothy 4:6


Do you spend much time in God's Word?  How you answer this question will determine much about your life.  It will determine the strength and direction of your faith.  It will determine your priorities.  It will radically affect every area of your life!  I like the way one preacher put it when he said, "the Bible should not be prominent in our lives, the Bible should be preeminent!"  Is God's Word preeminent in your life?

You must decide whether or not God's Word will be the light that guides your path each day or whether it will be just a dim nightlight that occasionally flickers in the dark.  This is a decision that only you can make, but it is the most important decision you will ever make other than trusting Christ as Savior.  Your decision will have an impact on your life in ways that you cannot even imagine right now.  Either way you decide, it will radically affect your life!

God's Word is our map and blueprint for how to survive and thrive in this pilgrimage that we are on.  It is our source of strength and comfort for our journey.  The Word of God is a source of wisdom and truth that never fails.  Will you make God's Word preeminent in your life?

Prayer For Today:

Heavenly Father, thank You so much for Your Word!  Help me to make You Word preeminent in my life, that it would be light for my path and strength for my journey.  I will purpose to study and meditate upon your Word daily and apply to every area of my life.  Lord, use Your Word to stir my heart and radically change my life as I serve You.  In Jesus name, Amen!

Growing In Christ

"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." - 1 Corinthians 13:11


I would like to share a few thoughts about growing in our walk with Christ.  As I read through Paul's first letter to the church at Corinth I cannot help but think of how spiritually immature they were in their walk with Christ.  From the very beginning they were split into factions, one saying that he was of Apollos and another saying he was of Paul.  It is very similar to what we see today in Fundamentalism.  People are so quick to identify which camp they are in and then they want to know which camp you are in.  Of course, if you are in what they perceive is the wrong camp, then they will want nothing to do with you.  Before I run too much of a rabbit trail here, the point I am making is that we must get past our spiritual immaturity and grow in Christ to be spiritually mature Christians.

Our journey towards spiritual maturity will last a lifetime.  That means that we are never going to arrive at complete spiritual maturity on this side of eternity.  Each day that God gives us to serve Him we must continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  This does not mean that we just accumulate more head knowledge about Jesus Christ, it means that we are to become more like Christ each day.

I'm afraid that there are many in our churches today who have ceased to grow spiritually.  There are some who are not faithful to their church services so they miss out hearing God's Word preached and they miss out on growing with the body of that local congregation.  There are others who never have a time of daily worship with Christ.  While it is VERY important to be faithful to all of the church services, it is also EQUALLY important that you have a time of worship with Christ EVERY day.  This means you must set aside time each day to spend in God's Word, pray, and fellowship with Jesus Christ.

Many of us have become stagnant in our spiritual walk with Jesus Christ.  Why?  It is because we fail to spend time in God's Word, we fail to have a prayer life, we do not obey His commandments, we are not faithful to our local churches, and we are not cultivating the relationships with other believers that are necessary for our spiritual growth.

John Maxwell said, "Every great company, every great brand, and every great career has been built in exactly the same way: bit by bit, step by step, little by little."  How are you going to grow in Christ and be a spiritually mature Christian?  You must do it bit by bit, step by step, and little by little.  You can start by being faithful to your local church, then you must determine to spend time EVERY day in God's Word, develop a prayer life and not just a prayer time, and cultivate relationships with other believers in Christ that will further your spiritual journey.

Examine your heart and spiritual journey today.  Are you growing in Christ or has your spiritual walk become stagnant?

Prayer For Today:

Heavenly Father, help me as I continue on my walk with Christ to grow in Your grace and knowledge.  Help me today and each day to become more like You and reflect more of You in my life.  Help me to put away childish things that would hinder the work of Christ.  May I reflect your grace in my life today.  In Jesus name, Amen!