Category: Daily Bread

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Grieve The Ruin of Joseph

4 Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory and stretch themselves out on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall, 5 who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp and like David invent for themselves instruments of music, 6 who drink wine in bowls and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph! ~ Amos 6:4-6

Many of us sing the popular worship songs but never change. Does that mean there’s something wrong with the worship songs we’re singing? I don’t believe so. I believe it’s a problem with us. Our hearts aren’t in it. Worship is meaningless unless the heart of the worshipper is aligned with the heart of God. If we seek God and follow Him, then our hearts will match the heart of God. And our heart will weep for what the heart of God weeps for.

Sin should grieve our hearts. The pain of others should grieve our hearts. The darkening of this world should grieve our hearts. If our hearts don’t match the heart of God, then no amount of worship will save you. You have to change by letting God melt your heart. Worship is important; it can be a gateway to the presence of the LORD, but worship only works when you leave changed. If you don’t change, if your heart doesn’t match the heart of God, your worship is meaningless and just empty words.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Grieve The Ruin of Joseph.

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Appreciate Grace

13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? 14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, 15 and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me. ~ Psalms 50:13-15

Paul said that where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more (Romans 5:20-21). When we hear that, we get excited. We think it means that we can just sin and then ask for forgiveness later. This isn’t the purpose of grace. This isn’t the heart of God. The heart of God is love, but not the way that we see and define love. Love doesn’t take advantage of another, especially not another that we love. Love doesn’t rejoice in wrongdoing; love rejoices in Truth.

The desire of God isn’t for constant sacrifice so that our constant sins will be forgiven. His desire is that we worship Him. That we don’t fall into sin but boldly walk into the presence of God with thanksgiving and praise. God desires that we abide in His love so that we may remain in His presence. Grace isn’t a free pass to sin. Grace is the redeeming blood of Jesus that washes our sins away and gives us another chance to do what is good and right. Because we have received grace, we should be giving the LORD a sacrifice of thanksgiving. This is how we enter His presence through His redeeming blood. Faith in Him and a sacrifice of thanksgiving.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Appreciate Grace.

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Let Your Faith Be Multiplied

31 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, 32 yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade. ~ Mark 4:31-32

There is great importance in developing our faith and putting it into action. Because without faith, it’s impossible to please God. I also believe that if we don’t put our faith into action and grow that mustard seed, we’ll have to give an account for it on the day of judgment, and the results may not be so pleasant.

God doesn’t just give us faith to hide away within ourselves and never use. Jesus, Himself said that certain signs would follow believers. The only way to have those signs follow you is to have faith. We’ve all been given a certain amount of faith, some more than others, but we’ve all been given the capability to increase our faith.

If you want to see prayers answered, the sick healed, the prodigal returned, and the addict freed, then you have to grow your faith. It can’t remain stagnant. It needs to be planted and watered. It needs to be strengthened and multiple.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Let Your Faith Be Multiplied.

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Can It Withstand Fire?

13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. ~ 1 Corinthians 3:13

All things we do, whether good or bad, will be manifested before God at the Final Judgment. There’s nothing we can hide from God. He is the Light in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome Him. Our lives here on this earth aren’t pointless. We were each created for a great purpose. What we do on the way to fulfilling that purpose will be placed before the LORD. God knows that we aren’t perfect. He knows that we make mistakes, so He gives grace to those who follow Him and are striving for righteousness.

On that day, when the LORD will test the works of all of mankind, He will take into account grace. The grace that comes with salvation. We should never live stagnant in fear of making mistakes; neither should we live without regard for the laws of God. We have to hold the Word of God within our hearts. We have to live with the fear of the LORD. Not fear that causes us to live stagnantly, but the righteous fear of the LORD that shows us the difference between righteousness and unrighteousness. Good and evil. The fear of the LORD that guards our hearts against evil thoughts and intentions.

LORD God, please fill me with a healthy fear of You. Help me to not count You as common or without regard to the Holiness of who You are. Help me to strive for righteousness and goodness all the days of my life. Teach me right from wrong that I might not sin against You. Please give me a Spirit of Discernment that I might discern all that comes before me. So, that on that great day of Judgment, my works might withstand the test of Your righteous fire. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Double Your Talents

28 So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. 29 For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. ~ Matthew 25:28–29

One of the last parables Jesus tells is the parable of the talents. There were three different people who were given three different amounts of talents. The first two doubled their talents, but the third guy hid his in the ground. He didn’t use it. He didn’t try to build it up. He simply buried it in the ground out of fear of losing what he already had.

This backfired on him because the coin he buried and refused to use out of fear would be taken away from him and given to the one who has. The one who will do something with it. So, the rewards that he would have had and should have had will be given to someone who already has. But for him, he will be cast into outer darkness. A very frightening thought.

His fear brought forth the very thing he was afraid of, rejection and punishment. It’s like Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars. He feared losing his wife the way he lost his mother, and he gave in to the darkness around him. He didn’t use the talents he was given; instead, he buried them and sought another way of survival. And in doing so, he brought forth the very thing he feared. His wife died because of him, and he lost both children.

Our fear will lie to us and try to control our destiny. But God has written a beautiful plan for our lives. A plan of hope and goodness. If we would only use the talents He gave us and put our faith in Him, we would be blessed beyond measure. So, follow your call. Use your talent(s). And never let fear dictate your life so that when Jesus returns, He may find you doing exactly what you have been called to do.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Double Your Talents.

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Only Run Your Race

1 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus Himself did not baptize, but only His disciples), 3 He left Judea and departed again for Galilee. ~ John 4:1-3

The Messiah taught, led, performed miracles, healed the sick, and even raised the dead, but He didn’t baptize. Why? Because Jesus knew His call. He understood His purpose. Many of us would see baptizing people as no big deal, but Jesus saw it as straying from His call. He didn’t have time to stray from His call because He knew He only had a short time. We each only have a short time to fulfill our call; we can’t afford to do someone else’s job. This life is so short; never stray from your call and your God-given job.

We are each given a job to do, but we can’t try to do it all ourselves. We have to stick to our God-given call. This is because we are the body of Christ. The foot cannot try to do the work of the hand, or the body will be unable to properly function. Therefore, we each have to follow our God-planned road and run the race set before each of us, not the race set before someone else. If we are busy trying to run someone else’s race, we’re going to get burnt out and not be able to finish our own race. God uses more than just one person. Pray for discernment that He might show you your call and who you are in His Church.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Only Run Your Race.

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Lead The Sheep

3 My anger is hot against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders; for the Lord of hosts cares for his flock, the house of Judah, and will make them like his majestic steed in battle. ~ Zechariah 10:3

We are all given different responsibilities in life. Some of us are given more responsibility than others. And when we’re put in places of leadership, it’s on us to guide the sheep to plains of green pasture regardless of whether the sheep want dry, dead lands or lush green pastures. They can always stay there, but you can’t let the 99 die in the dry, dead land because 1 wants to stay in the wilderness. You have to first get the 99 safely to lush green pasture, and then you go after the 1.

As a shepherd, you can’t sacrifice the 99 for the 1. You can’t put the entire flock in jeopardy because one wants to live in sin. You have to teach them all the Truth even if they don’t want to hear it. That’s the job of the shepherd. You’re supposed to lead the sheep. Why? To whom much is given, much is required.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Lead The Sheep.

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Live The Part

26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. ~ Matthew 23:26

One of my favorite songs is “Sometimes I Cry” by Jason Crabb. In it, he sings,

I look the part
Blend in with the rest of the church crowd

Some of us only blend into the Church, but we’re not a part of the Church. One of the scariest verses in the Bible, to me, is the parable of the goats and the sheep. See, Jesus said that at the Final Judgment, He was going to separate the sheep from the goats. The scary thing was that the goats didn’t even know they were different than the sheep. They thought they were the same, but the inside, the heart, was what separated them.

See, we can try to look the part and even act the part, but unless we live the part, it doesn’t matter. We have to do more than look like a follower of Christ; we actually have to follow Christ. We can’t live our lives one way, Monday through Saturday, catch the Spirit on Sunday, then go back to how we wanna live. Following Christ is an everyday thing that starts with the renewal of the heart and mind.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Live The Part.

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Rebuild The Temple

6 You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. ~ Haggai 1:6

Today, the Church prays but rarely sees an answer. We’re stricken with disease, cancer, and all else the world has. There is no longer a differentiation between the world and the Church. Why? Because we no longer act differently than the world. We have our bags full of holes because we try to make the Word of God fit the world’s standards instead of trying to make the world fit the Word of God’s standards.

God told Haggai that they weren’t getting all they asked for because they lost sight of Heavenly things. They were so busy building their homes and their lives that they forgot about the Temple of God. We today are the Temple of God. God dwells in us, yet we act as if He doesn’t exist. We pray and go to Church, even read our Bibles, but we never change. We don’t believe in judging between good and evil. We don’t believe in correcting sin because it’s not love. We, the Temple of God, are in Spiritual shambles, but we don’t believe in rebuilding it because we don’t want to change.

If we want to be accepted, we have to do what’s right. If we want to do what’s right, we have to know what’s right. The only way to do that is to read the Bible unbiasedly with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. To spend time in worship and prayer in order to build our relationship with the Holy Spirit so that we can better learn His voice and discern the Truth. We have to change in order to see a change. We have to build up the Temple of God regardless of how hard, impossible, or painful it may seem because if we don’t, our lives will never change for the better, and we’ll continue to be rejected just as Cain was.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Rebuild The Temple.

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God’s Greater Things

31 But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way. ~ 1 Corinthians 12:31

Paul said to seek the higher gifts, and he would show us a still more excellent way. We can never know too much of and about God. There will never be a time when we get bored with God. His ways and thoughts are higher than our ways and thoughts. But the only way to see higher and greater things is to seek higher and greater things.

So many of us are missing out on the greater things God has in store for us because of doctrines created by men and not God. These false doctrines keep us blinded just like they kept the Pharisees blinded during the time of Jesus. They were so blinded in fact, that they couldn’t recognize God when He came as flesh and stood before them. God is standing before us with something greater in store for us, don’t miss it.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Don’t Miss Out On God’s Greater Things.

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