Eph 6:24
24 Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with a love incorruptible.
(NAS)

We live in the computer age.  We do our checkbooks online, we do our school papers using a word processor and we receive most of our important communications through email.  Even our devotionals can be done online (just in case you hadn’t noticed).  Have you ever run across a message on your computer that pops up when you are trying to do something that tells you the computer cannot do the task because your file has been corrupted?  That means something happened to your file or your program.  Somehow the information was corrupted with bad pieces of information so that it won’t work.  I bring this up because Paul speaks grace to those who love the Lord with a Love incorruptable.  Meaning they love the Lord without compromise and without outside distraction.  Nothing gets in the way of that love and nothing interupts that love.  Do you have a love incorruptable for Jesus?

John 14:23-24
23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him.
24 ”He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.
(NAS)

Do you remember what a conditional clause was in English class.  It was an “if” and “Then” statement.  It is a statement that ends with a certain kind of result when you fulfill certain criteria.  This is one of those conditional statements.  If we love Jesus!  We have been focused on loving Him all week.  But this verse tells us what the results are if we indeed love him.  There are three resulting actions when we love Him.  First, it results in us keeping His words!  Why wouldn’t we want to do the things the one who loves us has asked us to do?  Loving Him results in obeying Him!  Second, it results in Him loving us!  ”If anyone loves me, the Father will love him.”  Want intimacy with God?  Then start by focusing on loving Him as the word says, “with all you heart, soul and mind!”  Third, it results in God being present with us throughout the day.  That is good news.  No matter what the day holds, He is present with us.  So often we focus on trying to be obediant.  Maybe we have it all wrong and the focus should simply be on loving Him.  It seems it can only lead to good for us!  Blessings!

Ps 63:1-4
1 O God, Thou art my God; I shall seek Thee earnestly; My soul thirsts for Thee, my flesh yearns for Thee, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
2 Thus I have beheld Thee in the sanctuary, to see Thy power and Thy glory.
3 Because Thy lovingkindness is better than life, My lips will praise Thee.
4 So I will bless Thee as long as I live; I will lift up my hands in Thy name.
(NAS)

David loved God.  He cultivated his relationship with God and it appears from this Psalm that he literally went after God on a regular basis.  He seemed to have an insatiable desire to know Him more intimately each and every day.   His compares his desire to that of a man in the middle of a desert longing for a cool drink in the heat of the sun.  Parched and needy.  That’s how David saw himself before the Lord.  And that’s how he cried out to Him.  The love of the Lord was more important to him than life itself.  In his own words, “it is better than life!”  I want to continue this week to encourage you to cultivate your relationship with Jesus.  Look at it from David’s perspective, as more important than anything life has to offer.   David’s perspective was that of a man who desperately needed a drink of water.  That’s how much we need our relationship with the Lord!   It’s life saving; it’s what allows us to go on through dry and weary lands.  Read the rest of this Psalm and like David, go after your God today!

Luke 9:57-62
57 And as they were going along the road, someone said to Him, “I will follow You wherever You go.”
58 And Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
59 And He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Permit me first to go and bury my father.”
60 But He said to him, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.”
61 And another also said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home.”
62 But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
(NAS)

All of these people came up to tell Jesus they were going to follow Him.  But, not now!  There were too many things on their plates that day.  Relationships that had to be handled, estates that had to be settled and some needs that had to be met.  They said they were followers but in reality they were pretenders.  They liked His message and wanted Him to know that, but they also wanted Him to know it would be a while before they could really literally follow Him.  How about you?  Are you following Him or have you been consumed by the affairs of life to the degree you are hoping to get started tommorrow.  Look, we are either following Him or we are not!  Each and every day we will be pulled away from following by the cares of this world.  Choose right now to follow right now.  There is nothing more important in your life than Jesus.  Place Him on the top of your priorities today.  Follow Jesus for real!

Matthew 13:51-52

1-28-07

I Jn 3:1-2
1 See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is.
(NAS)

I thought you might want to go into the weekend with a positive upbeat devotional.  You may not have won the lottery this week and yet you happen to be one of the most blessed people on the planet.  You are loved by God so much that He has decided to call you His children.  You didn’t earn the title and you don’t deserve the title.  God simply chose to bestow it on you to put a punctuation mark on how He personally feels about you.  So go into this weekend with a huge smile on your heart.  You are not just anybody, you are a child of the King!!

1 Sam 16:6-7
6 Then it came about when they entered, that he looked at Eliab and thought, “Surely the LORD’S anointed is before Him.”
7 But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
(NAS)

Samuel was looking for the new King for Israel.  He thought he found him.  A perfect speciman of a warrior, a ripped body, and good looking to boot.  But God said, ”Do not look at his appearance!”  We get tricked when we look at the outward.  We tend to give more credit than credit is due.  We tend to trust before there is a reason to trust.  That’s what happened to Samuel in this instance.  He got caught up in what looked good to him.  But God doesn’t care about what looks good.  He cares about what we are made of way down inside.  David was 10 years old, ruddy and no where near ready to be a King, yet, that was God’s choice.  He wasn’t fooled by what would come later.  He knew the successes and the moral failure that awaited the young man’s future.  Even that did not keep God from choosing David.  He sees beyond our weakness and our falling downs.  He sees the inner man and the resolve of the heart.  Remember that today as you live your life for Him.  He doesn’t care what you appear to be.  He cares about who you really are!

Gen 3:22-24
22 Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”–
23 therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.
24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
(NKJ)

I have had a lot of days of regrets to live through in my life.  No matter how old you may be, you too have a lot of days of regrets to look back on.  I don’t want to get into the personal details of my life, but I do want to point out what I believe the historic words Adam spoke as he was being escorted out of the garden!  “That was the dumbest thing I have ever done in my life!”  We all say those words in one way or another at different times and for different reasons.  But that is the consequence of decisions that cause us to loose something we did not value in the heat of the moment.  Adam had the chance to walk with God everyday of his life, to walk with him and discuss the creation of the world and the intricacies of life.  He got to see God in all His glory on the same basis as you and I see our family members everyday.  Can you imagine that even for a moment?  Now can you imagine what Adam felt like in that moment that he stood outside looking in?  Jesus has given us a new chance to be on the inside looking out.  He calls us to “follow Him” and to become fisher’s of men.  Don’t pull an Adam today and give up your chance to walk with God, to bask in His love and to be directed by His hands.  At the end of today you do not want to be on the outside looking in wishing you had not done what you cannot undue.  Today you have a chance to Follow the King!  Choose Wisely! 

Col 1:9-12
9 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
10 that you may have a walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
11 strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy;
12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.

If you are wondering how to pray for others in our church when you don’t have specific requests, why not look into the prayers of Paul for other Christians.  When you look at his letters to the Philippians, Ephesians and this passage in Colossains you will get an appreciation for what to pray for others.  This prayer is chuck full of requests that will better the persons being prayed for by you.  Who could doesn’t need to know more about God’s will and then have the wisdom to apply it to ones life?  Who doesn’t need more help walking in the Lord, pleasing only Him and being fruitful as a Christian?  I always hear Christians say, “I just don’t understand why God is doing this to me.”  So wouldn’t it be great to have deeper knowledge of who He is and what He is like?  And which one of us doesn’t need the strength of the Lord to stay patient and focused during the trials we encounter in life?  I have an idea.  If you want to pray for me, please pray for these things in my life.  I’ll show my appreciation by praying the very same things for you.  If God answers, and I know He will, think of the kind of Church we would become.  Have a great day!

Ps 20:1-9
1 May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble; may the name of the God of Jacob defend you;
2 May He send you help from the sanctuary, and strengthen you out of Zion;
3 May He remember all your offerings, and accept your burnt sacrifice. Selah
4 May He grant you according to your heart’s desire, and fulfill all your purpose.
5 We will rejoice in your salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners! May the LORD fulfill all your petitions.
6 Now I know that the LORD saves His anointed; he will answer him from His holy heaven with the saving strength of His right hand.
7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
8 They have bowed down and fallen; but we have risen and stand upright.
9 Save, LORD! May the King answer us when we call.
(NKJ)

I want you to be aware of how we pray for those we love and care about.  I also want you to know why we pray this way.  It is because we know God alone is our answer in the middle of whatever we face daily.  It is God who has promise to never leave us and to give us all we need according to His riches in glory (Matthew 28:20, Phil 4:19).  Therefore, it is God alone who can meet our every need.  This is an honest prayer by David for the nation going up against its’ enemies.  Those who were entering war with others needed to know that their trust was not in the weapons they had been given, nor in the skills they had mastered.  Their trust was to be in God who does save and who does answer.  No matter how the battle went they were encourage to “rise up and Stand tall.”  I call you to the same today.  As you start this week in a fast, do “rise up and Stand Tall” in the Lord.  Who can stand against our God and His purposes?  The enemy will be defeated in our lives as we put our trust in His promises and His directions for our lives.  May God truly bless you this day for looking to Him!