Tag: Daily Bread

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The Peter Syndrome

21 When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?” 22 Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!” ~ John 21:21-22

Just before Jesus’ ascension, He asked Peter 3 times if he loved Him. Peter replied, “Yes, LORD, I love You.” Jesus then told him to feed His sheep. No one is called to be idle; we all have work to do, and that work is feeding the sheep. You don’t have to be a full-time lead pastor to feed sheep; we just need to be knowledgeable ourselves and committed.

Then Jesus goes on to tell Peter how he would die. Peter didn’t seem to be pleased with what he learned about his future. He apparently turns away from the conversation because the Scripture says that he turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them.

He points his finger at him and says to Jesus, “What about him?” This is often us. We look at our trials and tribulations, then at others, and we feel envious of them and their journey. But we have to remember what Jesus explained to Peter. Your job is not based on someone else’s job. Your call is not based on someone else’s call. Their experience is not your experience. Their situation is not your situation.

Your job is to follow Jesus and be obedient to His plan for you. When things get hard, and persecution gets rough, always remember that you are not your own; you are bought at a price. Therefore, the life you live does not belong to you but to Jesus.

You will receive your life in eternity. This life here on earth is only for a very short time, and it is a preparation for eternity, and it is to be lived for Jesus. That is not too much to ask since He purchased your life by giving His own life. Did you notice what Jesus said to Peter? Don’t look around and notice the lush lifestyle someone else might seem to be living compared to yours. What is it to you if it is Jesus’ will to bless someone else extravagantly? You follow Jesus; never forget that.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Remember Whom You Follow.

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Hold Tight To This Hope

29 Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” ~ Mark 10:29-31

Remember Joseph? Joseph was loved by God. He was blessed and highly favored. But still, he was hated by his brothers, who sold him into slavery. Someone will ask, how can that be favor? Being sold into slavery by his own brothers who hate him, is that really favor? Not only that but he was falsely accused of attempted rape and thrown into prison. Is that favor?

Favor, as defined in Webster’s New World Dictionary, means:

friendly or kind regard; good will; approval; liking

It doesn’t mean that you will spend your life wallowing in the lap of luxury and sleeping on a bed of roses. The favor and grace of God come with a price. There is a price to pay, but the reward is way, way greater. The reward is eternal life without all of the cares and worries of this world.

  • Never again to persecuted
  • Never again to hungry or thirsty
  • Never again will we be scared or worried
  • Never again will we be concern over things
  • No more tears
  • No more sad goodbyes
  • Because there will be no more death
  • No more lies, or murders, or cheating
  • There will be eternal peace and the eternal joy of the LORD

When the LORD returns for us, we will be rewarded for all that we have gone through for the sake of His name. Right now, you may be feeling the hatred of the world, but if you turn your focus to the love of God, their hatred won’t tear you down. It won’t destroy you or depress you. Why? Because when you focus on the favor of the LORD, His love surrounds you, encourages you, and gives you hope.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Hold Tight To This Hope.

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Dwell In This Great Hope

6 And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. ~ Philippians 1:6

God wants us to enjoy His favor. He has given us the opportunity to seek Him so that He can grace us with His unfathomable favor. Grace is often defined as the unmerited favor of God shown to unworthy men and women, which Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter one that God has lavished His grace, or His favor, upon us. The LORD’s favor is what wakes us up in the morning, what keeps us through the day, and what lays us down at night. But best of all, it’s God’s favor or His grace that saved a wretch like me.

God’s grace has saved you, and it is God’s grace that saved me. Without God’s great favor, we are hopeless. But please understand that God shows His love, His grace, and His favor on all people when He lets His rain fall on the wicked as well as the just. And causes His sun to shine on the righteous as well as the unrighteous because He is a good, good God.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Dwell In This Great Hope.

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Embody Salt

13 You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. ~ Matthew 5:13-16

Some people say that salt was so important in ancient times that it actually enabled society to expand; thus, salt came to actually represent great power and value. What does that mean for us?

We are to be that kind of salt:

  • Influential
  • Powerful
  • Valuable

We’re influential because of our message of the Gospel. The only Gospel that changes lives, restores relationships, gives hope to a hopeless world, and saves souls.

We are powerful because we are connected to the ultimate power, Jesus. He said all authority in heaven and on earth is given to Him, and He gives us access to that power and authority through His Holy Spirit and His Holy name.

We are valuable because Jesus, God the Son, Himself, came and died to pay the price for us. God Himself dwells within us. And God molds us into His image as He redeems us from our past. We are valuable.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Embody Salt.

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Follow The Caller

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. ~ 1 Peter 2:9

When we repent and choose to follow Jesus, we change. We don’t and can’t continue on in our sin and filth. The majority of the Church is distracted by celebrities and Hollywood. We know more about our favorite celebrities and movies than we know about the Word of God and who God is.

Aleister Crowley called himself the Beast, 666, and was deemed the Wickedest Man In The World by the British press. He was the founder of the Thelema religion, which a lot of musicians follow today. Here is what he said:

….to hell with Christianity, Rationalism, Buddhism, all the lumber of centuries.
 I bring you a positive and primaeval fact, Magic by name;
and with this I will build me a new Heaven and a new Earth.
 I want none of your faint approval or faint dispraise;
I want blasphemy, murder, rape, revolution, anything, bad or good, but strong.

He certainly has it today, with society calling evil good and good evil. That is what is wanted today, blasphemy, murder, rape, revolution. Look at the riots that took place. The police are told by the mayors and those in charge to stand down while businesses were being looted. Communities destroyed. Lives disrupted. Innocent people murdered. Parents raped right in front of their children and in their own homes.

Even with all of this, this isn’t the end; it’s only the beginning. Darkness has to be almost completely interchangeable with light. Why? Because the love of many has to grow cold before the LORD returns. Unless we want the Great Tribulation to take place and Jesus to return in our lifetime, we have to make a change. We have to be careful who we allow to influence us. We have to be careful what we allow in our homes. We have to be careful what we allow in our churches. We have to be careful what we allow in us. We aren’t a part of the world. We have been chosen out of the world by God Himself. Therefore, follow Him who called you and not the world who deceives you.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Follow The Caller.

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Don’t Be Stupid

22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. ~ Romans 6:22

We are no longer slaves to sin. We cannot have one foot in the church and one foot in the world. But someone will say, “You can’t judge me! Only God can judge me.” But let me ask you, “Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water” (James 3:11-12). Therefore, how can we know if the water is fresh or salt if we don’t make a judgment call? How can we know if the fruits are olives, grapes, or figs? Again, we have to make a judgment call.

That is one of the most misinterpreted verses in all of Scripture. The verse is not telling us to stop calling sin, sin; otherwise, Scripture would contradict itself, and Scripture never contradicts itself. John said that if we see our brother in sin, we are to show him his sin using Scripture; we are not to pass judgment on him/her. Leave that for God. That’s His job. When we do that, we put ourselves in God’s seat (1 John 5:16).

Paul advocated for restoration in gentleness by correcting your brother when you see him in sin (Galatians 6:1). Jesus advocated for the same thing in Matthew 18:15-17. We have now been set free from the bondage of sin, so why do we allow pride to keep us from accepting correction? Solomon wrote that the person who hates correction is stupid (Proverbs 12:1). According to Solomon, stupidity has taken over not just the Church but the entire world. Pride is the root of stupidity that rejects and hates correction. Correction isn’t about you; it’s about building a better Temple for God to dwell in. We are the Temple of God now. Therefore, how can we expect God to dwell in a temple that is weak and run down by sin?

Our actions define who we are, and if our actions don’t match the Word of God, we should all pray that the LORD fill us with conviction and surround us with people who love us enough to show us a more accurate way to live as Priscilla and Aquila did for Apollos.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Don’t Be Stupid.

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Watch What You Grow

24 Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. 25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately. ~ Acts 18:24-26

In a TBN interview with Donnie McClurkin, Steve Harvey said, “That it is just my job, everybody has a job to do, and my job is playing music. I play artists like Lil Wayne…and you know when you listen to Lil Wayne, you have to get saved all over again.” So then, why are you still playing those kinds of songs?

Listen, I’ll tell you what John Cougar Mellon Camp said in his song Rain on the Scarecrow. He said,

Calling it your job Ole Ho’se sure don’t make it right,
But if you want I’ll say a prayer for your soul tonight.

Calling it your job doesn’t make it right. When we get saved there are things we use to do, and there are things we don’t do anymore. There are things we use to say, and there are things we don’t say anymore. We put off the old and put on the new. Let me break this down a little bit for you. This is how absurd this mentality is:

That’s like a doctor working in an alcoholic’s recovery place trying to help get young people off alcohol, but he also has a night job as a bartender selling these same young people he just got off alcohol or is in the process of getting them off alcohol. After handing them their drink, saying something like, “Remember your appointment tomorrow at the Alcoholics’ Recovery Center.”  It’s that absurd.

The interviewer, Donnie McClurkin (a long-time Christian), just laughed and accommodated it. This is the temperature of the Church today. We no longer want to correct because it’s judging, and judging is bad. We, as Christians, are called to judge the fruit (Matthew 7:15-20), the actions of others, in order to distinguish between sheep and wolves in sheep’s clothing. If we remove all forms of judgment, then we’ll all be spat out of the mouth of Jesus.

That’s what’s lacking today. Mentors. People make mistakes, and people need guidance, but sometimes those very ones that are supposed to be guiding us need to be guided themselves (Hebrews 5:12). The same people we are supposed to look up to and follow their example are the same people who lead us astray. They exploit their own notoriety and influence to support folks with agendas that are in direct conflict with what the Bible lays out as the right way to live.

I want you to understand that what you believe is what you support; otherwise, you are a hypocrite. What you support is what you sow, and what you sow is what you will reap. Therefore, sow good fruit, and you will reap eternal life.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Watch What You Grow.

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Look For The More Accurate Way

24 Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. 25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. ~ Acts 18:24-26

Although Apollos was eloquent and competent in the Scriptures. He was fervent in spirit and taught accurately and boldly the resurrected Jesus, but Priscilla and Aquila took him aside and discipled him, taught him a more accurate way.

They were not jealous of his talent, or threatened by his eloquence, or even taken back by his boldness; they saw Apollos’ as a fellow worker and one in need of a little discipleship.

Notice also that Apollos was not insulted by their interest in him or their taking him under their wing, so to speak, for a time in order to teach him a more accurate way.

This is the kind of discipleship we need in the Church today. Not blasting someone on a YouTube video filled with hatred for views, but honest correction out of love. And in return, we need to be able to take correction when we are shown the error of our ways. We can’t allow pride to keep us from growing and understanding. Why? So that we might grow in the LORD. If we stop growing, we’ll become stagnant, and our spiritual life will suffer for it. Bearing fruit and growing in the LORD are how we please Him and grow closer to Him.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Look For The More Accurate Way.

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Measure Your Love

10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. ~ Romans 13:10

Our spiritual temperature depends on the amount of love we have in our hearts. It’s the root of all other fruit and the foundational block of all gifts. Without love, we have nothing, not even salvation. Why? Because love fulfills the law. Therefore, if we don’t have love, we can’t please God.

Fear is overcome by dwelling in the love of God. Faith is powered by dwelling in the love of God. Patience is built up by the amount of love we have for others. Joy is founded on the love we have for God. Everything is founded on love. If you are struggling in an area, ask yourself:

Do I need to love God and the things of God more?
Do I need to love my neighbor more?
Do I need to love myself more?

Love fulfills the law. Therefore, love, and you will grow in the LORD.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Measure Your Love.

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Enjoy The Feast

5 You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings. ~ Psalms 23:5 NLT

I never thought about the table that was prepared in the presence of our enemies as a feast before. Feasts were celebrations and commemorations of future promises soon to be fulfilled. What does that mean for us?

It’s like when we’re surrounded by doubt, fear, grief, anger, and all manner of spiritual and physical attacks, the LORD prepares a feast for us, reminding us of our past victories and our future promises soon to be fulfilled. That’s why hope is so important.

Without hope, those things won’t encourage us. Those promises won’t lift our hope. Those past victories won’t strengthen our faith. Why? Because without hope, we have no faith. And without faith, not even God can move in our lives. Therefore, we must all cling to hope and be encouraged at the feast God prepares for us in the presence of our enemies.

It’s like that song says:

All I need is a memory of a victory
Like a stone in the sling
All the times that you fought for me

Sometimes all we need is a feast prepared for us to be encouraged and strengthened, but here’s the catch. God is faithful, but we aren’t always. Oftentimes, we get distracted by the enemies surrounding us and the situation we’re in to even notice the feast prepared before us. So, what do we do? We shift our focus. We focus on God instead of the world. We focus on God’s promises instead of the world’s trials and tribulations. We focus on God’s Truth instead of the world’s lies. And in doing so, we will cling to hope.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Enjoy The Feast.

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