Reflections of a year gone by

As we draw close to the end of this year most of us will reflect over the past, our triumphs and failures, we will reflect on lost loved ones and miss them , we should reflect and be grateful for those days we had with them and rejoice with those we still have with us.

Life has no pause or reset buttons, it always leads onward.

As we reflect over the past don't let the demons of discouragement and despair get into your mind, they will only lie to you and deceive you. They will dishearten you and destroy your hope, joy and focus.

This is a time to refocus on God , look back and see where failure grew and raised it's ugly head is where we pressed on without God, we do things in our flesh and forget to ask and seek God, then ask Him why, when we fail.

This I know unless I surrender daily to Him, I will surrender to my flesh, the world or the enemies lies and deceit, which leads me to defeat.

I need God in order to love another person unconditionally. I need His help to overlook offenses. I need His help to guard myself against all the temptations that lurk around every corner. I need His help to become more like Christ so I can lay down my life for my family. Without Him, my marriage wouldn’t be anything special. Odds are it would end badly, just like so many do.

We all get to choose who we will surrender our will to daily, our weaknesses and our strengths , we must learn out of obedience to surrender to God before our feet hit the floor, our enemies wait in darkness to attack in our thoughts, dreams and mind.

You can have the life God wants you to have. But you can’t have it without God’s help. No matter what’s happened in your past, this is a new day. A new chance. A new beginning. A new year awaits, let's not squander this gift from God.

This is a new day the Lord has given to us, be glad and rejoice in Him. Things can be different, let's go forward in Christ in Him we will find healing, in Him we will be more engaging, in Him we can truly forgive as we've been forgiven, in Him we can have peace, strength and overcome what gets in our way,in Him we can be more intimate with our spouse, in Him we can become closer to others than ever been before.

The past is the past. It's dead and buried don't dig it up and relive it. We can’t change it. But God can change our future. He can take what the enemy meant for evil and use it for good.The enemy wants us to It feel like we have too much to overcome, like the damage is too great to be repaired. We don't and It’s not.

We don't have what it takes to face life alone, we need God .

Life is complicated, we need all the help we can get. Jesus said ““Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. All of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.””
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭11:28-30‬ ‭HCSB‬‬

We need to take Him up on this, we don't need to fight back fairly, we need to learn to fight like men and women of God. You don’t fight for victory; you fight from the victory God has given you.

““When you go out to war against your enemies and see horses, chariots, and an army larger than yours, do not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, is with you. When you are about to engage in battle, the priest is to come forward and address the army. He is to say to them: ‘Listen, Israel: Today you are about to engage in battle with your enemies. Do not be cowardly. Do not be afraid, alarmed, or terrified because of them. For the Lord your God is the One who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.’”
‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭20:1-4‬ ‭HCSB‬‬

“Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.” You don’t even know what tomorrow will bring — what your life will be! For you are like smoke that appears for a little while, then vanishes. Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So it is a sin for the person who knows to do what is good and doesn’t do it.”
‭‭James‬ ‭4:13-17‬ ‭HCSB‬‬

Speak the word

The Bible is filled with stories of demonic encounters and spiritual warfare, and it will not go away until Christ returns and sends them to the hell created for them and those who deny Jesus Christ.

Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!"

Revelation 12:12

In our times demonic activity is increasing and it is easy to see, idol worship, adultery, drunkenness, sexual perversion, truth is considered dangerous, right is wrong and wrong is right, God is rejected and mankind accepts whatever religious movement that is growing as truth, God's name is mocked by the world and those who play like they know Him, drug activity, wicked people , murder, abuse and so on all you have to do is read the headlines or listen to the news and you can see yourself.

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Galatians 5:16‭-‬26

We need to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit, not our flesh , we need to trust God and do what Christ taught us.

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." But he answered, "It is written,  "'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, "'He will command his angels concerning you,' and "'On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.'" Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, 'You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.'"  Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." Then Jesus said to him, "Be gone, Satan! For it is written,  "'You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.'" Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

Matthew 4:1‭-‬11

1st Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit, let me tell you this if you're being led by your flesh you are already defeated we must submit our lives to the Holy Spirit, then we will be doing the will of God.

2nd Jesus spoke the truth, God's word against the devil, He didn't call out devil get out of here, He spoke the words of God His Father, the same word we have and the devil left.

If anyone had authority over the devil, Jesus does and one day He will crush him and his minions with one word, He already defeated them and gave us the victory over them and sin and death.

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

Colossians 2:13‭-‬15

Stop speaking to the devil, listen and be led by the Holy Spirit, learn the word of God both testaments, Jesus did not speak new words to the devil He spoke words we find in the Old Testament, the Bible was given to us by God, every word is from the Holy Spirit who spoke it to man, He still speaks we need to listen to Him and grow.

It is time men and women get off the milk and eat the meat of God's word, focus on God and not the enemy, and speak only to God and the words of God.

Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me. Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.

2 Timothy 1:8‭-‬14

Would you call God a liar?

I don't know any Christian who would look at God and call Him a liar.

But day after day the way we live says just that, we call God a liar because we doubt Him, we do not trust Him to see us through whatever we face.

Of course this is not always seen on the outside of us, but in our hearts. God searches our hearts and when we fear, doubt God can answer our prayer, worry about our needs, are anxious about things that might happen, we are saying to God I just don't believe you're able to handle this.

But God who created all things says there is nothing impossible for Him

Don't call God a liar by the way you live, seek Him today ask for forgiveness and trust Him. He will never fail you.

"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?  And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?  And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,  yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'  For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.  But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.  "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Matthew 6:25-34

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

James 1:5-8 ESV

Do you trust in God's providence?

The providence of God is written on the pages of time, and is displayed ever second of everyday in our lives.

Just as God provided everything for Is real as He led them through the wilderness He does us, our faith may be stretched but do not lose heart, God is faithful always.

Trust in Him and His providence.

God's providence is shaping our lives, and shaping history. We are not at the mercy of a cyclical, happenstance repetition of events or ideologies, moving aimlessly through time and space. Our destiny is not controlled by powerful nations, great men or circumstances. It rests securely and comfortably in the hands of God.

For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this immense wilderness. The Lord your God has been with you this past 40 years, and you have lacked nothing.’ Today I will begin to put the fear and dread of you on the peoples everywhere under heaven. They will hear the report about you, tremble, and be in anguish because of you.’ “Then the Lord said to me, ‘See, I have begun to give Sihon and his land to you. Begin to take possession of it.’ The Lord our God handed him over to us, and we defeated him, his sons, and his whole army. There was no city that was inaccessible to  us, from Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Valley, along with the city in the valley, even as far as Gilead. The Lord our God gave everything to us.

Deuteronomy 2:7, 25-25, 31, 33-33, 36

My way

Frank Sinatra sang it so did Elvis Presley and many others have recorded this song, and every person ever born except one has lived this out.

The song, the life choice is My Way.

The chorus goes

I've lived a life that's full

I've traveled each and every highway

And more, much more than this

I did it my way

So many live this way and in the end they reflect over life and see where and how they missed it.

Jesus said we don't need to do life alone, that He would take our yoke and we can take His. For His easy.

Let me ask are you tired, weary, broken, hopeless?

Are you missing joy, peace, comfort, security?

How is that working out for you?

Are you ready yet to surrender, or do you need to continue on your path?

Come rest in the Lord and see what He has planned for you today.

At that time Jesus said,  “I praise   You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to infants.  Yes, Father, because this was Your good pleasure.   All things have been entrusted to Me by My Father. No one knows   the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son desires   to reveal Him.  “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  All of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Matthew 11:25-30

Holiness it's what I long for.

Israel was in captivity in Egypt for over 400 years when God set them free with Moses leading the way.

They had adapted Egypt's ways and rituals into their own, God led them out but had to teach them His holiness.

Like Israel when God set's us free from captivity we need to unlearn our old ways and learn His holiness, this means we must let Him lead us and work in our lives. We must learn to seek Him. We must submit to His ways for they are perfect.

Do not harden your hearts to what God is doing in your life, He is teaching you and I holiness.

Read the stories of the wilderness journey today see how God moved and directed Israel, then reflect over your journey and see how God is directing your life and teaching you His holiness. And thank Him for rescuing you from captivity.

Consecrate yourselves and be holy, for I am Yahweh your God. Keep My statutes and do them; I am Yahweh who sets you apart. “You are to keep all My statutes and all My ordinances, and do them, so that the land where I am bringing you to live will not vomit you out.  And I promised you: You will inherit their land, since I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am Yahweh your God who set you apart from the peoples.

Leviticus 20:7-8, 22, 24

Are we living as priests of God?

God set Israel aside to be His priests to the world, to be set apart to show the world His power, love and grace. He set the entire nation apart not just the Levite's.

But they became spiritually proud and failed even though time and time again God warned them and they swore they would listen.

God set Israel to the side because of their disobedience and hard stubborn hearts, He has blinded them to His truths but has kept a remnant for Himself for the end of days.

God called the Church to be His priest to the world through the complete work of Christ through His life, death and burial and resurrection from the dead and ascension into heaven. He has called us to be set apart to obey His word and to take the gospel to the world.

We can see what happened to Israel for their spiritual pride, and disobedience but we do not see that we the Church are following the same path.

It is time that the Church get back to repentance and obedience, that we stand on the word of God, out of love not throwing down the law as a weapon but using it in our lives and to others to show that there is a  need for forgiveness and God has taken care of how we may be reconciled to Him and made to be with Him through Christ.

Take God at His word, trust Him and obey Him not in word alone but in every aspect of your life.

God will not be mocked, if we live outside of His ways and will, we are taking His name in vain, and that will not go unpunished.

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”

Exodus 19:5-6

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.  As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”  So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”  and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.  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. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.  Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.

1 Peter 2:1-11 ESV

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

Exodus 20:7 ESV

A work in progress

We are all a work in progress, God is not done with any of us yet for He has a greater purpose than wake, eat, work, rest, repeat.

He has called us to a higher calling to glorify Him and worship Him in all we say and do. To love Him with all our hearts, minds, body and souls, and to love those around us as ourselves.

Now this is not obtainable on our own, so He has put His Holy Spirit in us to accomplish this task.

Start seeking 1st the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and watch what God will do, step out of His way today and walk in obedience and faith and behold His glory.

Let brotherly love continue. Don’t neglect to show hospitality, for by doing this some have welcomed angels as guests without knowing it.  Remember the prisoners, as though you were in prison with them, and the mistreated, as though you yourselves were suffering bodily.  Marriage must be respected by all, and the marriage bed kept undefiled, because God will judge immoral people and adulterers.  Your life should be free from the love of money. Be satisfied with what you have, for He Himself has said, I will never leave you or forsake you.   Therefore, we may boldly say: The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?  Remember your leaders who have spoken God’s word to you. As you carefully observe the outcome of their lives, imitate their faith.  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  Don’t be led astray by various kinds of strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be established by grace and not by foods, since those involved in them have not benefited.

Hebrews 13:1-9

The state of the world.

The state of our world is not good, morality is being redefined daily into whatever people feel like. World leaders believe themselves to be above their people, above the laws, above God.

War, death, hate, famine, disasters, terror rule the headlines daily. Men and women gather around the alters 24/7 daily to hear the priest of perversion spread the message of propaganda from the world, leaders say they know how to fix this , as they lie to our faces and empty the coffers of treasure.

Man is clueless, believing in himself as the answer.

There is no hope in this world outside of Jesus Christ, this world for each of us will be soon be gone, what matters today is who we live for.

Ourselves or Jesus, whose kingdom will you build today the one that will soon be burnt away or the one that will last forever?

Put off the past, do not focus on man seek God above, love those around you. See people and things in light of eternity not the here and now, for soon here and now will be yesterday and gone.

Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.  Therefore, all who are mature should think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this also to you. In any case, we should live up to whatever truth we have attained. Join in imitating me, brothers, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. For I have often told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction; their god is their stomach; their glory is in their shame. They are focused on earthly things, but our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of His glorious body, by the power that enables Him to subject everything to Himself.
Philippians 3:13-21

Hell is real

C. S. Lewis’s In The Great Divorce, describes a busload of people from hell who come to the outskirts of heaven. There they are urged to leave behind the sins that have trapped them in hell. The descriptions Lewis makes of people in hell are so striking because we recognize the denial and self-delusion of substance addictions. When addicted to alcohol, we are miserable, but we blame others and pity ourselves; we do not take responsibility for our behavior or see the roots of our problem. 

Lewis writes:Hell … begins with a grumbling mood, and yourself still distinct from it: perhaps even criticizing it. … You can repent and come out of it again. But there may come a day when you can do that no longer. Then there will be no you left to criticize the mood or even enjoy it, but just the grumble itself going on forever like a machine.

Modern people struggle with the idea of God’s thinking up punishments to inflict on disobedient people. When sin is seen as slavery and hell as the freely chosen, eternal skid row of the universe, hell becomes much more comprehensible.

Jesus said those who reject Him have condemned themselves (John 3:18) , so God does not send us there, we choose to go there. 1st, sin separates us from the presence of God (Isa. 59:2), which is the source of all joy (Ps. 16:11), love, wisdom or good thing of any sort (James 1:17)…

2nd, to understand hell we must understand sin as slavery. Romans 1:21-25 tells us that we were built to live for God supremely, but instead we live for love, work, achievement or morality to give us meaning and worth. Thus every person, religious or not, is worshiping something—idols, pseudo-saviors—to get their worth. But these things enslave us with guilt or anger or fear or a lust for things. Guilt, anger and fear are like fire that destroys us. Sin is worshiping anything but Jesus—and the wages of sin is slavery.

Perhaps the greatest paradox of all is that the people on Lewis’s bus from hell are enslaved because they freely chose to be. They would rather have their freedom as they define it than salvation. Their relentless delusion is that if they glorified God, they would lose their human greatness (Gen. 3:4–5), but their choice has really ruined their human greatness. Hell is, as Lewis says, “the greatest monument to human freedom.”

Hell Is Less Exclusive Than So-Called Tolerance Nothing is more characteristic of the modern mindset than the statement: “I think Christ is fine, but I believe a devout Muslim or Buddhist or even a good atheist will certainly find God.” A slightly different version is: “I don’t think God would send a person who lives a good life to hell just for holding the wrong belief.” This approach is seen as more inclusive.

In preaching about hell, then, I need to counter this argument: The universal religion of humankind is: We develop a good record and give it to God, and then he owes us.

The gospel is: God develops a good record and gives it to us, then we owe him (Rom. 1:17). In short, to say a good person, not just Christians, can find God is to say good works are enough to find God.

You can believe that faith in Christ is not necessary or you can believe that we are saved by grace, but you cannot believe in both at once.

So the apparently inclusive approach is really quite exclusive. It says, “The good people can find God, and the bad people do not.” But what about us moral failures? We are excluded.

The gospel says, “The people who know they aren’t good can find God, and the people who think they are good do not.” Then what about non-Christians, all of whom must, by definition, believe their moral efforts help them reach God? They are excluded.

So both approaches are exclusive, but the gospel’s is the more inclusive exclusivity. It says joyfully, “It doesn’t matter who you are or what you’ve done. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been at the gates of hell. You can be welcomed and embraced fully and instantly through Christ.” And Christ alone, John 14:6

Dr. Timothy Keller senior pastor of New York’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church