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Leave Your Children An Inheritance

22 A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the sinner’s wealth is laid up for the righteous. ~ Proverbs 13:22

This Scripture might be talking about a financial inheritance in general, but it can be applied spiritually to spiritual inheritance. A father leaves a Godly inheritance to his children and grandchildren.

A good father teaches his son to be a real man. A masculine man. He teaches him responsibility. He teaches him manners and how to treat other people. How to treat women by being an example for him by showing him how, by the way you treat his mother, your wife.

A good father teaches his daughter what to expect from a man, how she should expect to be treated. You set the bar of expectation for the young man who will eventually date your daughter. So that when she goes out on her date, she knows how she is supposed to be treated and insists on being treated that way.

A good father teaches his children how to love the LORD God with all their heart, mind, and soul. This is the inheritance we men have to leave our children. We have to teach them how to be strong men and women of God.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Leave Your Children An Inheritance.

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The Love of Jesus

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. ~ John 1:1–5

Jesus is the All-Powerful God who created everything, yet for the love of mankind, He laid down His life. “For God so loved the world…” He, with joy, endured a terrible beating at the hands of Roman soldiers while He was tied to a wiping post. He was punched, spit upon, ridiculed, and mocked. He even had His hair and beard pulled out. He was so badly beaten, he was unrecognizable.

Then He was forced to carry His own cross up a hill called Golgotha, which means the place of a skull, according to Matthew 27:33. There, they stretched out his arms and drove nails into His hands and into his feet, nailing Him to a cruel cross. He hung there fighting for every breath, trying to push Himself up so He wouldn’t suffocate. As He strained to push Himself up, the rough wood would tear into His already shredded back.

He went there knowing fully well exactly what would happen to Him. Yet, for the joy that was set before Him, He endured it all. That is how much He loves us. Can we love Him any less? Think about it. He did not have to do that. He very well could have taken another lump of clay and start all over again, but He chose to endure the cross. For the joy that was set before Him, He endured.

LORD God, please help us to set aside our flesh for the joy that is set before us. For the joy of Your everlasting love. Help us to love you more than we love ourselves. In Jesus’ name, we pray, amen.

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Guide Them To God

7 Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. ~ 1 Samuel 3:7

Though Samuel was ministering and growing in the favor of the LORD, he didn’t know Him. Our children may be raised in church. They know Bible story after Bible story, they even share the Bible with others, but unless they have a spiritual relationship with God, they won’t know Him.

We have to make sure, especially in today’s world more than ever before, that our children have their own relationship with God. We can’t bring anyone else in through our own relationship with God. We have to train up our children to love and seek God so that they build their own relationship with Him, according to how we have taught them.

So when the world comes to lead our children astray, and they’re starting your and younger, our children will be able to stand firm. They will be able to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd leading them to living water and everlasting life. So that they will know right from wrong and good from evil in a world that has blurred all lines.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Help Them Build Their Relationship With God.

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Leave the Dirt

10 She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly. ~ 1 Samuel 1:10

Oftentimes, in our distress, we go to our friends or family, and we rant. I know because that’s what I do. I do one of two things, I rant and rage when things go wrong. Or I go silent and keep it bottled up inside. Oftentimes, I don’t even take it to God. Why is that? Why don’t we go to God first when things go wrong? Don’t we want a healing? Answered prayers?

I think as humans, we feel comfortable in the dirt. Leaving our comfort zone of self-pity or anger is hard. I think we know that when we bring it before the LORD, He’ll take it from us and clean us. Which in hindsight sounds good, but when we really think about it, it’s hard to be cleaned.

We no longer get to stay in our dirty comfort zone. We now have to put our flesh in check. We have to put our pride, feelings, and sorrow in check. We have to leave them behind and put on humility, love, faith, and hope. Those things sound good, but they’re hard to put on. They’re heavy at first because our flesh is weak, our Spirit Man is starved, but when we begin to start bringing things to the LORD, we will see a change in our lives. We will see a change in us.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Leave the Dirt.

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Discern Your Delilah

15 And she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and you have not told me where your great strength lies.” 16 And when she pressed him hard with her words day after day, and urged him, his soul was vexed to death. 17 And he told her all his heart, and said to her, “A razor has never come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If my head is shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man.” ~ Judges 16:15-17

Samson had become blinded by his own fleshly desires, his own lust for Delilah. He had put his desire for her above his desire for God and had spiritually fallen asleep. Three times Delilah came to him asking for the secret to his strength, and each time what he had told her, she had done to him. He was so spiritually asleep that he could no longer discern that Delilah was against him. That she was his enemy wanting only to destroy. He had allowed his fleshly desires to control him and put his spirit man to sleep.

This is like us today. We allow our fleshly desires to consume us and put our spirit man to sleep so that we don’t have any discernment. When we allow ourselves to love our sin, we lose that spirit of discernment, and we believe the lies of the enemy. We no longer see our sin as death, but instead as the life, we were meant to have. We, like Eve and Samson, are deceived by our own desires and give into sin.

And just like Samson and Eve, when we give in to sin, we spiritually die. Our discernment completely leaves us. We no longer even realize that we are completely separated from God. We no longer realize that we are living in sin because our discernment leaves and our spirit man dies. But don’t lose hope; there is redemption and new life in Christ Jesus.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Discern Your Delilah.

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Unbind Your Strong Man

7 Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, then I shall become weak and be like any other man.” 8 Then the Lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she bound him with them. ~ Judges 16:7-8

Samson had become so Spiritually asleep that he didn’t feel Delilah binding him with fresh bowstrings. Samson had allowed the enemy to enter into his life and bind him. Oftentimes, this is exactly how we are today. When we become spiritually asleep, we allow the Devil to enter into our lives and bind us. We allow our past strongholds to return and bind us as they try to bring us back into slavery to sin.

Jesus said you must first bind the strong man before you can pillage his home. When we aren’t spiritually awake, we allow the enemy to enter into our lives and bind up our strong man, our spirit man. And if we aren’t careful, the enemy won’t just bind our spirit man up; he’ll kill him, which will spiritually kill us.

Peter warns us to stay awake, for our adversary is like a prowling lion seeking someone to devour. God warned Cain to rule over sin because sin was constantly crouching at the door with the desire to overcome and rule him. We have to stay spiritually awake that our strongman will never be overcome and bound so that we may never return to our old self. So that we may grow spiritually in Christ Jesus, becoming more and more like Him.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Unbind Your Strong Man.

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Pray Even In Babylon

1 In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. 2 And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the vessels of the house of God. And he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and placed the vessels in the treasury of his god. 3 Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility, 4 youths without blemish, of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king’s palace, and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans. ~ Daniel 1:1-4

The enemy always tries to take us back to the land that the LORD has rescued us from. The LORD called Abram out of Ur of The Chaldeans. And now, several generations later, the people of Israel gave into temptation, and the LORD handed them over into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. He then goes on to not only take vessels from the Temple and put it in the temple of his gods, but he took the young men of Israel who were wise, well-educated, good-looking, and understand learning. He took the best of the best back to his land to reteach them and indoctrinate them.

He took them back to the land that God had called them out of. He not only took them back but tried to re-education them. He taught them the language and the literature of the Chaldeans. The literature isn’t just funny stories; the literature would be filled with their religious beliefs and rituals. The same religious beliefs God called Abram out of, yet Nebuchadnezzar dragged them back into it.

Even when we think that we’ve overcome something, if we slip in one area and refuse to repent and turn away, then the Devil will have a foothold in our life and will pry open enough room so that he can drag us back into our past. He will try to re-educate our religious beliefs, our very language. Our language is the way we communicate; it’s our impact on the world. If the Devil can change our language, then he will change our actions, and we will fall back into our old habits.

But don’t be discouraged. Even though Daniel was taken as a slave back to the sinful land his ancestors were called out of, he wasn’t overcome by sin. He overcame sin. Even if you have given in to sin and you have been dragged back into the generational curses of your past and/or ancestors, if you turn to God, you will overcome. You could be thrown in the fiery furnace like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and God will be with you. You could be thrown into the lion’s den like Daniel, and God will be with you.

Don’t let the past have any say in who you are today. Instead, call upon the name of Jesus, repent, turn from your sins, and you will be saved. You may not be pulled out of Babylon the moment you repent, but you will overcome Babylon the moment you repent because Jesus has overcome your past for you. All you have to do is follow Him.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Pray Even In Babylon.

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Turn Your Tears to Joy

6 And her rival used to provoke her grievously to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb. 7 So it went on year by year. As often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she used to provoke her. Therefore Hannah wept and would not eat. ~ 1 Samuel 1:6-7

Hannah would cry because of the torment she received, but she never lost hope. Instead, she took that sadness and pain and turned it into fuel. She didn’t let it silence her, nor did she let it define her. She knew the loving God whom she served. So she prayed desperately for a child, and God answered her prayers.

For a season, her womb was closed, and she was tormented. But, the next season, she had a son who would grow up to be one of the greatest Judges and Seers Israel ever had, Samuel.

Sometimes our lives look bleak and hopeless. But as Paul said,

8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;

2 Corinthians 4:8-9

In life, sorrow will come; pain is inevitable. Tormentors and mockers will try to bring you down, but when you build your life on that great and mighty Rock, nothing can move you. Trust in the LORD, and He will give you strength.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Turn Your Tears to Joy.

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Find Your Redemption

14 Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel!” ~ Ruth 4:14

Naomi felt hopeless. Her husband had died. Both of her sons had died. Her two daughters-in-law were foreigners. She felt alone as if God Himself had forgotten her. This is how we feel sometimes. Everything around us seems to be going wrong. We lose our job, our home, a loved one, a friend. It feels like our entire world is coming down, crashing around us, but if we hold on. If we just keep going. If we look to God for help, we will find our redemption.

When Naomi was at her lowest point, she remembered who she was and where she was from, so she returned to her home. She returned to her people. She returned to her God. And when she returned, she found her hope. She found her redemption. God hadn’t forgotten Naomi, neither has He forgotten you.

God is like the father going to the foot of the road every day, hoping that His child, who is far off, will return home. He is like a shepherd whose sheep ran off and got lost, so He goes out in search of His sheep no matter how far or how long it takes Him. He’s like the father who sees that His child has to walk through fire, so He runs to their rescue, picks them up in His arms, and shields them from the flames. Our God never forgets us. No matter where we are, no matter how alone we feel, God has a plan for our lives. All we have to do is seek Him, and we will find our hope. We will find His plan. And we will find redemption.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Find Your Redemption.

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Keep Your House Full

14 Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him. ~ 1 Samuel 16:14

When the LORD rejected Saul, the Spirit of the LORD left him, and a harmful spirit filled him instead. Saul did not do all that the LORD had commanded him to do. He heard the words of the LORD. He was anointed by the LORD. He was king of the people of the LORD, yet when he refused to obey the words of the LORD, it was as if he gave the Spirit of the LORD an eviction notice. And because the Spirit of the LORD departed from him, another spirit, not of God, took up residence in him.

Our body is a house that must remain full. This is why Jesus tells us we cannot serve two masters and that we must abide in His love. If we obey Him, we will abide in His love, but when we live in disobedience, we are evicting Him from our life. When we evict the LORD, then we welcome unclean spirits into our lives. We welcome sin, torment, stress, pain, anger, evil and wickedness of all kinds.

When the LORD left Saul, he was never the same. Fear, anger, regret, and envy overcame him. What do we allow to overcome us by disobeying the LORD? Sin is crouching at the door, just waiting for the opportunity to move in and take control of our lives. We have to stay on guard. We have to obey the commands of the LORD. We have to seek righteousness, holiness, and goodness. Because what we seek, we will find. Most of all, we have to seek the LORD so that our house is never empty.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Keep Your House Full.

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