Holy Anger Turned Away

Posted July 12th, 2010 by Gary Borgstede

Scripture


Isaiah 12:1-2 “And in that day you will say: ‘O Lord, I will praise You; though You were angry with me, Your anger is turned away, and You comfort me. Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid.’”

Observation


In this passage, Isaiah prophesies of a day when the people of God will sing to the Lord and praise Him for turning away His holy anger and comforting them as God of their salvation. It is evident from this verse that God, in His holiness, can be angry with me which is a very sobering thought. However, it is also evident from this verse that God’s holy anger can be turned away from me in His comfort as I behold Him and trust Him as God of my salvation.

Application


As a believer, there are times when I can anger the Lord with willful sin; however, in His mercy that endures forever, the Lord can turn His anger away from me through His loving correction even though such rebuke is painful for the moment. In fact, Psalms 30:5 declares, “For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” King David expresses praise for the Lord’s everlasting mercy through this kind of loving rebuke from our holy heavenly Father when he says in Psalm 118:18, “The Lord has chastened me severely, but He has not given me over to death.” Therefore, just as God is holy, by the power of the Holy Spirit living in me, I must also be holy in all of my conduct as a redeemed child of the living God.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, thank You for Your mercy that endures forever and Your loving-kindness that leads me to repentance when I have sinned against You! I praise You Lord for You are Jehovah Tsidkenu, the Lord our Righteousness, who is faithful and just to forgive me of my sin and cleanse me from all unrighteousness when I fail You and confess my sin to You! I love You Jesus! Amen!

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Yesterday’s Faith

Posted July 2nd, 2010 by Dave Madden

Scripture


But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.
Jude 1:5

Observation


The Israelites trusted in God and pleased God while they were slaves in Egypt and God delivered them. However after they left Egypt they stopped trusting in Him and stopped pleasing Him. Therefore the same God who delivered them because of their faith, allowed them to die in the wilderness because of their unbelief.

Application


Just like the Israelites, we cannot rely on yesterday’s faith. Today is a new day with new challenges. Trusting in God is a daily, moment-by-moment choice that we must continually make. We must trust in God today. We must walk with God closely and listen to His voice today.

Prayer


Father God, I thank You for all the ways You have blessed me in the past. You have provided for all of my needs, healed me of all my sicknesses, and always been there for me. I remember what great things You have done. Help me to walk closely with You, trust in You, and be pleasing to You today. Thank You that that as I walk with You and trust in You today, You will do even greater things on my behalf… in Jesus name amen.

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Good Works

Posted July 1st, 2010 by Gary Borgstede

Scripture


Titus 3: 8 “This is a faithful saying, and these sayings I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men.”

Observation


In this passage, Paul is mentoring Titus, a trusted son in the kingdom of God, by directing him to constantly affirm with people who believe in God that they should be careful to maintain good works of faith because such good works are profitable to men. It is clear that Paul has an expectation for Titus to instruct and teach people in the body of Christ, the importance of demonstrating their faith by their good works which produces good fruit in Christ. At the same time, Paul clarifies in the previous verse that believers are saved by grace through faith in the Lord’s loving-kindness and mercy expressed toward us by Him and not by any works of righteousness of our own. With salvation firmly established in our hearts by the washing of regeneration and the perfect renewing work of the Holy Spirit in us, we are to maintain good works that demonstrate our faith in Christ and bless other people.

Application


As a believer saved by grace through faith, I must be careful to maintain good works of faith in Christ that demonstrate my faith and bless other people. In fact, the bible says in James 2:26 that “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” And even furthermore, the Lord Himself says in Matthew 5:16, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” Therefore, our good works as believers in the body of Christ really do demonstrate loud and clear to those around us how much we actually do love the Lord, our God, with our whole heart, mind, and soul and our neighbors as ourselves.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, thank You for the perfect work of salvation that You completed on the Cross for me to be saved by grace through faith. With my salvation secure in You for eternity through my faith in Jesus and Your sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in me, help me to demonstrate my faith each day by my good works in You that bless and benefit others. I love You Jesus! Amen!

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A United Heart is a Passionate Heart!

Posted June 29th, 2010 by Mike Cuccia

Scripture


Teach me Your way, O LORD;
I will walk in Your truth;
Unite my heart to fear Your name.
Psalm 86:11

Observation


In this verse of Psalm, David is praying to God for two things. The first request of David is to be teachable and the second request is to unite his heart to God’s heart. David was passionate about serving God. I think David knew walking in God’s truth was dependant upon being humble and teachable. I believe David realized that a divided heart leads to instability (James 1:5-8) because you cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6:22-24).

Application


Before you can begin to walk in God’s truth, you must be humble enough to admit that you need to be taught. I am only as teachable as I desire to be and as wise as the teachers I open my life to. A heart united is a heart that is passionate! When my heart is focused on Him and is not distracted, the passion to serve Him and walk in His truth as David did will be supernaturally natural.

Prayer

Father, give me the humility to learn from You and others that you place in my life. May my heart be solely focused on You and Your ways so that Your passion will empower me to do Your will today.
In Jesus’ name, Amen!

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No Fear

Posted June 25th, 2010 by Gary Borgstede

Scripture


2 Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

Observation


In this passage, Paul is writing to encourage Timothy and build up his faith as he leads the church at Ephesus. He exhorts Timothy to stir up the gift of God that is in him [the free gift of the Holy Spirit] by the laying on of his hands and emphasizes to him that God does not give us a spirit of fear. Instead, God gives us His Spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind which overcomes any fear from the enemy and empowers us to walk in peace as bold witnesses of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to the world around us.

Application


As a believer, there will be times when the devil will attack us in our minds with the only weapon he has – fear – because he knows that he can rob, steal, and kill everything that God has for us if we live in fear rather than faith. When this happens, we must recognize that any such spirit of fear is not of God because God gives us His Spirit of power, love, and sound mind which overcomes any spirit of fear cast toward us by the enemy. 1 John 4:4-5 states, “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” We can overcome fear because the Holy Spirit lives in us and He is greater than any illegal trespass of fear by the enemy. Plus, the simple truth is that fear has no chance at all with us because the Lord loves each of us perfectly and 1 john 4:18 states that perfect love casts out fear.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, thank You for Your perfect unconditional love for me which casts out all fear. Because You are Jehovah Shalom, the Lord Our Peace, I am thankful to walk in Your peace, peace not as the world can give, but peace that only You can give as my Lord and Savior. I love You Jesus! Amen!

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The Fight of Faith

Posted June 24th, 2010 by Doug Armand

Scripture


Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. – 1 Timothy 6:12

Observation


The apostle Paul describes our walk with God as a fight. Faith comes out of a heart that trusts in Jesus and to maintain a posture of trust will require our engaging in this battle.

Application


Every day circumstances, events, distractions, misplaced desires or even evil suggestions try to press upon our soul to move us from a place of trust in Jesus – that He has a great plan for us and for those around us. Our part is to fight this fight of faith – to deflect every blow with a more determined step forward further into God’s plan for us. Our greatest weapon is His Word in our mouth spoken in confident trust that God will do what He said He would do and always knows what is best for us. We can and should trust Him. That trust is worth fighting for!

Prayer

Jesus, thank you that you are always faithful. Your Word is truth and you can be trusted fully. Help me to recognize the strategy of the enemy against me today. Help me to recognize the clear attacks against my faith in you. I will speak your Word, the Truth whenever an attack comes. I will trust in you – strengthen me for the battle today and thank you that you “always lead me in triumph in Christ”(2 Cor.2:14)! You are faithful! Amen.

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Partial Obedience, Partial Blessing

Posted June 23rd, 2010 by David DeGarmo

Scripture


Thus Jehu destroyed Baal from Israel. However Jehu did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin, that is, from the golden calves that were at Bethel and Dan. And the LORD said to Jehu, “Because you have done well in doing what is right in My sight, and have done to the house of Ahab all that was in My heart, your sons shall sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.” But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the LORD God of Israel with all his heart; for he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, who had made Israel sin. – 2 Kings 10:28-31

Observation


After the reigns of David and Solomon, the nation of Israel began to spiral into a chaotic state of civil war and rebellion against God and was ultimately conquered and led into captivity. There were a few leaders and kings who followed God and tried to lead the people back into the blessing of their covenant relationship with God. Once such king was Jehu, who in his zeal for the Lord, destroyed the temple of Baal and killed those who worshiped him. However, in our passage today, we see that for some reason he stopped short of completely obeying the Lord in ridding Israel from other forms of idolatry and sin. The Bible doesn’t say why Jehu only partially obeyed God. Perhaps it was out of his own traditions that he stopped short of complete obedience, or maybe it was for convenience sake. It could have been that some of his relationships would have been affected by such radical following of God’s Word. Whatever the reason, we know that Jehu’s unwillingness to obey God completely ultimately affected not only him, but his family and the entire nation of Israel.

Application


As children of God, we are constantly challenged by Scripture and the Holy Spirit to respond in obedience and faith in different areas of our lives that God wants to make us more like Him. There are any number of reasons that we don’t always respond fully to Him, including those I mentioned earlier. The truth is that when we obey Him, His blessing always follows, but when we don’t, it affects us and those around us. I often tell my children that partial obedience is really disobedience. God’s work in our lives is always to bring us into a greater experience of His blessing and abundance in our lives, but it often requires that we go through periods of difficulty, sacrifice, adversity and suffering. The promise of Scripture in 2 Corinthians 4:17 is this: “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” Is there some area of your life that God is asking you to respond to Him in faith and obedience, but your response has been partial at best? Trust Him today, obey Him completely, and see His faithfulness and blessing work mightily in your life and circumstances!

Prayer


Father, grant me the courage today to completely trust and obey You. I want Your best in my life, and I don’t want to settle for partial obedience and partial blessing. I want all that You have for me, my family, and those around me. For Your glory, and in Jesus’ name, Amen!

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