He Will Lift the Burdens

Psalms 34:18-19 The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers him out of them all.

In this life we will be weighed down by many things. We allow the concerns of this world to crush us with worry. The world hates the things of God. Hence, we suffer persecution (if we are truly living for Jesus). We have an enemy who hates God; therefore, he also hates us. To make matters worse, we live with an adversary that we cannot escape...self. The circumstance we experience in life can certainly leave us broken-hearted. However, the Word of God promises that the Lord is near to those with a broken heart. This does not only refer to one whose heart is broken because of some sorrowful event, but it also refers to someone whose heart is broken over their sin. How many of us, today, are truly broken over our sins? How many of us go before the Lord, and admit that we see our sins, as God sees our sins, or do we continually go before Him making excuses? James 4:6 clearly states, "But He gives us more grace. Therefore He says: 'God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.'" So many of us want to see God do great things in our lives, and we want God to eradicate evil; yet, we continue holding on to unconfessed evil called "sin". It is time we humble ourselves under the mighty and loving hand of God, and let Him lift the burdens in our lives that have been the result of sin, and the storms of life. Matthew 11:28-30 reminds us that true rest from life's burdens can only be found in Jesus, the Giver of eternal life.

Today, God extends an invitation to you to accept His free gift of salvation (Rom 6:23). Will you accept it? Anyone who calls on Jesus, by faith, in repentance, confessing your sins, will receive eternal life. Do not put off calling on Him, and receive Him and His free gift of salvation today (Rom 10:13).

Stop the Foolish Arguments

Psalms 33:4-5 For the word of the Lord is right, And all His work is done in truth. He loves righteousness and justice; The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord .

If we talk to any number of people long enough, we will find that everyone has their own opinion about something. Usually, we put so much weight on our opinions that we end up with what we see a lot of today...arguments, disagreements, and even broken friendships/relationships. We behave as if our opinions, often based on little proof or flawed information, are truth. As followers of Jesus, we may even fall into the trap of believing that our personal convictions are truth, and end up doing more harm than good, for the cause of Christ, with our attitude towards others who do not follow "our" convictions. The enemy loves to get us sidetracked with useless arguments over things that have no eternal value. Let us stop falling for the trap of listening to the world's rhetoric, and stop letting the enemy draw us into useless, and foolish, arguments. Instead, why not take what we see and hear, and test it in light of the only truth that exists...God's Word. The Bible is clear that the Lord's Word is right. Jesus is Truth. What God calls righteous and just is what is righteous and just. No one else determines that; especially not our miserable opinions. Regardless of what we see happening in the world today, or what God allows us to experience, His goodness surrounds us. No matter what our nation and its leaders, or any other nation, plots, plans, and executes, the Word makes it very clear that, "The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the people of no affect." (v. 10) It is time we stop engaging the world on its foolish terms, and start focusing on what we are called to do...preach Christ! We need to stop with the foolish arguments, and start living out, and speaking, God's truth. I cannot say this enough, "Our time here is short, and we need to be busy leading the lost to Jesus!" Do not let this day be wasted by the foolishness we have allowed to blind us. Instead, let us make it a point to speak God's truth, and speak the Name of Jesus to those who need it most. That is what our mission is here on earth, for God's glory. Mark 16:15 puts it plainly and clearly, "Go into the world and preach the gospel to every creature."

Today, God extends an invitation to you to accept His free gift of salvation (Rom 6:23). Will you accept it? Anyone who calls on Jesus, by faith, in repentance, confessing your sins, will receive eternal life. Do not put off calling on Him, and receive Him and His free gift of salvation today (Rom 10:13).

He Knows

Psalms 32:3-5 When I kept silent, my bones grew old Through my groaning all the day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah

Why do we hold on to sin, as if God did not know, or as if He were blind? Even worse, why do we hold on to sin, as if God just sits back and winks at it, and says, "It's okay. I still love you." The latter part is true. God does love us. However, He does not just overlook our sins. That would be to say that Jesus' sacrificial death meant nothing to the Father. God forbid! Today, too many preachers, and too many Christians, make light of sin. We are afraid to offend people by pointing out the fact that we all sin, and that we all need to repent and confess those sins. We are so busy preaching that God is love, that we fail to preach that He is also a God of justice, who hates sin! If we do not believe that, then we need to spend much time reading the Old Testament, and reading, in the New Testament, about the wrath that was poured upon Jesus, because of our sins. We must not take lightly the one thing that is the reason so many are on their way to an eternity without God. There is no way any of us can live a sinless life. However, a way has been made for us to continually go before the Lord, in repentance and confession, in order to be forgiven; that Way is Jesus. For so many of us who wonder why it seems that heaven is silent to us, or why we feel so far from the Lord, it might be that we need to do a bit of house cleaning. Today, and every day, we need to take time and ask the Lord to examine our hearts, show us what is there, and then bring those exposed sins to the Lord. Now, more than ever, we need to be walking with the Lord, with a pure heart, serving Him faithfully, and proclaiming the Gospel message. Our time is short, and there are still too many who are on the path to eternal condemnation, without Jesus. Repent! Confess! Get right with God, and proclaim His Good News! After all, what you think you have hidden...He knows.

Today, God extends an invitation to you to accept His free gift of salvation (Rom 6:23). Will you accept it? Anyone who calls on Jesus, by faith, in repentance, confessing your sins, will receive eternal life. Do not put off calling on Him, and receive Him and His free gift of salvation today (Rom 10:13).

Blessed Are We

Psalms 32:1-2 Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

Do we truly appreciate how blessed we are in Christ Jesus? If we claim that we are, does it show in the way that we are living for Him? Would we have to admit that we have really been living for ourselves, and not for the Lord? In Christ, rather than impute our iniquity unto us, Jesus' righteousness is imputed unto us. By this, we are acceptable to the Father, and have been given a home in Heaven. Do we truly understand the magnitude of this? That sinful beings like us, who deserve eternal punishment, are now children of God, in Christ, and are heaven-bound, with such great hope, in a lost and dying world? What are we doing with our lives that is demonstrating to God, and the world, that we are eternally grateful for such an undeserved gift? Do we start each day in fellowship with the Lord, in prayer and the study of His Word? Do we strive to take up our cross each day, being dead to the world, and our flesh, but alive to God? Do we strive to live a life obedient to Jesus' commands, and ready to repent and confess our sins when we fail to live up to who we should be, in representing the Lord? The bottom line is that we can never repay the debt that was paid for us, by the Blood of our Lord Jesus. However, we can certainly live our life in such a way that it is plain to see that we appreciate the undeserved blessings we have in Christ, from the day we called upon His Name, and accepted His free gift of salvation.

Today, God extends an invitation to you to accept His free gift of salvation (Rom 6:23). Will you accept it? Anyone who calls on Jesus, by faith, in repentance, confessing your sins, will receive eternal life. Do not put off calling on Him, and receive Him and His free gift of salvation today (Rom 10:13).

He Is Always There

Psalms 31:9-13 Have mercy on me, O Lord , for I am in trouble; My eye wastes away with grief, Yes, my soul and my body! For my life is spent with grief, And my years with sighing; My strength fails because of my iniquity, And my bones waste away. I am a reproach among all my enemies, But especially among my neighbors, And am repulsive to my acquaintances; Those who see me outside flee from me. I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind; I am like a broken vessel. For I hear the slander of many; Fear is on every side; While they take counsel together against me, They scheme to take away my life.

Is there anyone out there who has ever felt lonely, abandoned, betrayed, or despised, even by family, or those who once we called "friends"? This is life, my brothers and sisters. We live in a world of imperfect people, to include self. It may be that our actions towards others have also made them feel this way. However, in the darkest of moments, when we are feeling like we have no one in our lives who care enough to check on us, help us, or simply fellowship with us; we do have One who never abandons us. As a matter of fact, we have One who remains faithful, even when we are unfaithful. His Name is Jesus. I love that King David always had a balance in writing the Psalms he wrote. Although he expressed his sadness or despair, he always acknowledged God's faithfulness, love, mercy, grace, forgiveness, protection, and deliverance (just to name a few). In the very next couple of verses (14 & 15), in today's Psalm, David wrote, "But as for me, I trust in You, O LORD; I say, 'You are my God.' My times are in Your hand; deliver me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me." When all is said and done, the only One who never forsakes us, and is our faithful Companion, Jesus. In Psalm 27:10 we read, "When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take care of me." When we put greater trust in men to be our companions, our providers, protectors, or the ones who fill that void that only God can fill, we set ourselves up for misery, loneliness, and disappointment. Yes, God wants us to have fellowship, and companionship, but we must never make it a priority over, or a replacement for, the one intimate relationship that should always be number one in our lives; our relationship with Jesus. If we value our time with the Lord above all others, when persecution comes, when loneliness comes, when abandonment comes (and they will come); Jesus will always be the One who is there with us, to take care of us, and shelter us.

Today, God extends an invitation to you to accept His free gift of salvation (Rom 6:23). Will you accept it? Anyone who calls on Jesus, by faith, in repentance, confessing your sins, will receive eternal life. Do not put off calling on Him, and receive Him and His free gift of salvation today (Rom 10:13).

It Is Only For A Season

Psalms 30:10-12 Hear, O Lord, and have mercy on me; Lord, be my helper!” You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, to the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.

It is no big secret that we, as Christians, are not exempt from experiencing hard times. If we think that we will escape persecution, as the church, then we are very much deceived. We are fooling ourselves, if we think that these last days will not bring persecution before the Lord's return. Today, the Psalmist reminds us that our time of suffering here on earth is short, and will be turned to rejoicing. Even if it lasts our lifetime, compared to eternity with Jesus, it is just a blink of an eye. The Apostle Peter put it in the proper perspective for us in 1 Peter 1:6-8. He reminds us that we should greatly rejoice in the fact that, if need be, being grieved by various trials, the genuineness of our faith is tested by fire, all for the honor and glory of Jesus. King David also reminds us, in today's Psalm, that even God's anger is only for a moment, but His favor is for life. So, even in those moments when the Lord must discipline us, "our weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning". In the end, we receive many blessings as a result of suffering, regardless of the source or the circumstance. If we suffer unto death, then we know we will be with Jesus. If He chooses to leave us here to endure, then our faith is strengthened; and if we are disciplined, then the end result is "the peaceable fruit of righteousness" (Hebrews 12:3-11). Ultimately, all our suffering will end when we are either called home to be with the Lord, or He returns to get us. Either way, our suffering is only for a season, and as we walk through troubling times, we find comfort in the fact that God is walking with us through each, and every, circumstance.

Today, God extends an invitation to you to accept His free gift of salvation (Rom 6:23). Will you accept it? Anyone who calls on Jesus, by faith, in repentance, confessing your sins, will receive eternal life. Do not put off calling on Him, and receive Him and His free gift of salvation today (Rom 10:13).

Beauty from Within

Psalms 29:2 Give unto the Lord the glory due to His name; Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

If we read this Psalm, in its entirety, and truly ponder the power of God, how can we not be brought to a place of worship? The power described here, as in many other places in Scripture, is a power that should make men tremble with fear; and yes, there will soon come a time when men will try to hide from God's wrath, in great fear. However, for those of us who know the Lord, as our personal Savior, the demonstration of this power should bring us to a place of great admiration and reverence for our Holy and Mighty God. As we see God's anger toward the wicked, that same anger should bring us comfort, as He rages against those who would harm His children. It is for this reason, for there are many, that we should glorify His Name before a lost and dying world. We should exalt His Name by the way we live for Him. Our worship should not be limited to a short gathering every week. Our worship is, and should always be, our words, actions, and deeds, not only toward others, but those done in secret. In other words, when we worship Him in beauty and holiness, it is not about the outward appearance of holiness, but an inward holiness and righteousness, that can only come from a personal relationship with Jesus. It is His righteousness in us, and the Holy Spirit working in and through us, that will transform us from within, and enable us to truly worship the Lord with a heart that is right toward Him. The Lord is not interested in our outward, fake, and hypocritical, displays of worship. He wants us to worship Him with the beauty from within that is founded and grounded in His Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Today, God extends an invitation to you to accept His free gift of salvation (Rom 6:23). Will you accept it? Anyone who calls on Jesus, by faith, in repentance, confessing your sins, will receive eternal life. Do not put off calling on Him, and receive Him and His free gift of salvation today (Rom 10:13).