LET IT BE ACCORDING TO YOUR WORD
Luke 1:26-38 26 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” 29 But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. 30 Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. 33 And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” 34 Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” 35 And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. 37 For with God nothing will be impossible.” 38 Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. The first thing the angel Gabriel said to Mary was ‘rejoice, you are blessed.’ Do you feel blessed today? If not ask yourself why? Is it the circumstance in you life? Most of the time this is what drives our feelings of being blessed. Good times mean good blessings and bad times mean no blessings. Well, I want you to reconsider. Think about Mary, she is told to rejoice you have found favor with the Lord. This favor that Mary had found brought ridicule and rejection from her family and friends. She was surely discussed among the people and her reputation would suffer. Her future husband would seek to send her away. I am sure her family was ready to put her away as well. Let us continue with her favor with the Lord, she would deliver a child in a stable, not in the warm comfort of the Inn, but in a stable. Her journey was long and difficult, but she gave birth to the son Gabriel spoke of and I am sure there was joy in her heart. But let us fast-forward approximately thirty three years later and there is her blessing, her favor with the Lord, her precious child beaten, whipped, and nailed to a cross. Do you think Mary felt blessed at this time or do you think she had to depend on more than feelings, more than circumstance, more than what her eyes could see. I am here to tell you she absolutely had to turn her attention back to what God told her through the angel Gabriel. So what did Gabriel tell her? Beginning in verse 31 Gabriel tells Mary: 1. You will conceive. 2. You will bring forth a Son. 3. He will be great. 4. He will be called the Son of the Highest. 5. God will give Him the throne of His father David. 6. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever. 7. His kingdom will have no end. 8. He will be the Son of God (verse 35) 9. Elizabeth will have a son. 10. For with God nothing is impossible. Mary’s response to Gabriel’s words, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” Mary simply said, ‘let it be as you say God.’ Jesus has pinned us a Book, His Words are available to us and when our circumstance seems too difficult we must depend on the Word of God and the guarantees He has pinned for us. Just like Mary we may not understand all of it at the moment, but we have to trust God and simply be willing to say, “let it be as you say God.” Difficult? Yes! Troubling? Yes! Necessary? Absolutely! I am sure Mary during her very difficult times had to replay the words of Gabriel in her head. I am sure she had to go back to the assurances in the Words Gabriel brought from God. So do you and I when we face difficulty and we begin to wonder what in the world is going on, open God’s word and trust in Him to carry you through the storm! That is what He does. He brings you to it and carries you through it. Oh yeah and by the way everything that Gabriel said to Mary, that’s right, it happened! So today whether you are sky high walking with God or pushing through fighting through being neck deep in mud, go to God’s Word and let His words minister to you in a deep and powerful way. Let go and let God! Reaching for Him, Brother Big Daddy
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John 15:14 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
What keeps you from doing what God commands? You know many times we rationalize what to do. We attempt to make the scriptures say what we want them to say. We search the internet, people, books everything we can get our hands on something that will make the scriptures say what we want them to say instead listening to how the Holy Spirit is leading us in our heart. Don't get me wrong, the Holy Spirit cannot and will not lead you down a path that is contrary to the Word of God. If you are being lead down a path contrary to what the Bible says please understand that the Holy Spirit is not leading. The flesh and the things of this world are leading and that is both a scary place and a dangerous place. John tells us in the fourteenth verse of the fifteenth chapter that if you love Jesus you will keep His commandments. Basically our obedience is an indicator of our love of Christ. It really is a pretty simple concept when you think about it, if you love Him you want to please Him, you please Him by keeping His commandments. make sure we understand each other obedience is not what saves us, it is a result of being saved! If Jesus is living in you, then you should have a desire to do what He is telling you, that is the power of the Holy Spirit. There are times when people are just more concerned about their own wants and desires than what Jesus is teaching. They simply refuse to surrender and allow Jesus to take control. However, most of the time we refuse to surrender to Jesus out of fear. We know that when we surrender we lose our control and loss of control is terrifying. It is, but the other side of surrender is the sweetest blessing. Our surrender equates to our obedience which results in God taking our obedience and doing great and powerful things with it. It is time for you to let go and let God take control. Let Him do what you cannot. Let Him take you to places you will not reach without surrender. Deuteronomy 4:1 “And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you, and do them, that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you. What is on the other side of your obedience? Where is your promise land? What awaits? Your faith cannot be dependent upon a blessing. You have to step out in faith because you love Jesus and accept what ever that action step brings. You must know Jesus is in control and you are better off with Him. There is only one way to understand this and that is to step out on faith and allow Jesus to use your faith to accomplish much. Reaching for Him, Brother Big Daddy Psalm 9:1-2
1I will praise You, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will tell of all Your marvelous works. 2I will be glad and rejoice in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High. Let us praise Jesus today with our whole heart. All day long with all of our being let us praise Jesus. He is worthy to be praised He is our mighty Savior and powerful King. Let us tell of all His marvelous works today. Tell a coworker, tell a family member tell a stranger, the marvelous works of Jesus. You are one of those marvelous works and what He has done for you is worth telling someone, so tell it. Tell it with energy and excitement. Tell it with greater feeling than you would tell someone about the big game, or the hunting trip, or the engagement ring you gave or received. Shout it from the roof tops. Tell them with your words and tell them with your actions. Let them see His marvelous work first hand. Let us be glad in Jesus, let us rejoice in Him. Be happy today , redirect every thought to Jesus Christ and His love for you. When worry comes, redirect it to the love of Jesus Christ and how wonderful and mighty His love is for you. Tell yourself all day long I will be glad! Say that again, I will be glad in Jesus. No joy suckers allowed in my day, sorry you will have to ease on down the road. I will say it again I will be glad today. I must be glad today, Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior and He loves me. Oh yes, I will be glad. I will rejoice in Him all day today. Rejoice means to feel or show great joy or delight. I like to define it like this, to feel AND show great delight. True joy is experienced when you show it. Just think about dancing and jumping around praising Jesus. Do it today, so what if people laugh at you, so what if they say you are crazy. I am crazy in love with Jesus and I want to express it! Sing to Him all day long today. Whatever praise and worship song comes to mind sing it to Him boldly and passionately. Show Jesus today that you love Him. Don't hold nothing back today. Buy someone lunch today. Fix someone a cup of coffee. Buy someone a Bible. Buy a child a toy! Drop more in the Salvation Army Can. Tell the bell ring that the love of Jesus Christ abounds. Thank him or her for their dedication. Call someone up and just tell them that you love them. Be happy today! Be joyful today! Love today. Show that you are madly, passionately, completely, totally, unbelievably, sincerely, wonderfully, seriously, in love with Jesus Christ. Let it show, let it show, let it show! Reaching for Him, Brother Big Daddy Isaiah 58:7-9
7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; When you see the naked, that you cover him, And not hide yourself from your own flesh? 8 Then your light shall break forth like the morning, Your healing shall spring forth speedily, And your righteousness shall go before you; The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. 9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; You shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’ Isaiah tell us here we are to share our bread with the hungry, provide shelter to the homeless, clothe the naked, and be a presence in our own families. If we do these things look at what verse 8 says, then our light shall break forth like the morning, healing will come, our righteousness will go out before us and the glory of the Lord will be our protection. We will call and the Lord will say "Here I am." What beautiful words to hear. Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior responding to you and I, "Here I am." What an awesome thought. The creator of all, saying to an infinitely small portion of His creation, "Here I am." Amazing! Simply Amazing. So I wonder, am I hearing the words, "Here, I am?" If not, why not? Well if not we have to take care of the "if's" in the equation. What are those again? Feed the hungry, give shelter to the homeless, clothe the naked. Oh yes and then there is that last one, "And do not hide yourself from your own flesh." You can look at this scripture many ways and it can say many things to you but it asks me a question, have I spoke the gospel to every member of my family. A walk with Jesus Christ is who I am my own family should certainly know it. Oh yes and your family extends past the threshold of your home, just saying. Am I ministering to the needs of my family? Or have I written many of them off. You know what I mean, "the they will never change and never get it" attitude. We must love them into submission, but we must speak the words of truth to them. We must depend on Jesus Christ to do the saving and we be obedient to speak what He says, when He says, where He says. Additionally, we must present a walk in their presence that screams from the roof tops Jesus Christ is Lord of our lives. The later will speak much louder than your words, but coupled with your words can change every part of their lives through the love of Jesus Christ. Our actions must be in love and we must put our own feelings to the side and love them as only Jesus can. What I am telling you is not easy, but remember their life depends on it. They need you. You must be a rock! You must present a strong foundation in Christ Jesus and maybe, just maybe they will come to know Jesus Christ. May we commit ourselves today that we will not let this holiday season pass with presenting the gospel to those we love. AFTER ALL IT IS THE ONLY REASON FOR THE SEASON! Reaching for Him, Brother Big Daddy Hosea 13:2
Now they sin more and more, And have made for themselves molded images, Idols of their silver, according to their skill; All of it is the work of craftsmen. They say of them, “Let the men who sacrifice kiss the calves!” In Hosea 13 we see where God gets very frustrated with the Israelites because of their sin and their disobedience, mainly their worship of idols. We here in the land of the red, white and blue don't think much about idol worship because we don't melt down our gold and silver and make images of them to worship them. Well before we can truly say this, we must understand what the Israelites were doing? First an idol is anything that takes the place of God. Anything that you as an individual make more important than God. In America that can be anything. It can be the newly constructed deer stand. It can be the golf course. It can be the movie theatre. Idols can come in the form of the TV. A singer, a movie star, a shopping spree. It can be food. It can be clothing. It can be our hobbies. There are so many things that takes the place of God in the lives of the American people. We must guard against those things. You may ask the question, does this mean that hunting, listening to music, playing golf shopping etc. is a sin. My answer, not within itself...you make it a sin when you give it the wrong position in your life. I have blogged before that God will occupy only one position in your life and that is the position of number ONE. You are only fooling yourself if you think He will take slot four, five, six or even two. He is not even interested in one and a half. So how do we make something and idol? When we say yes to it and no to God. Let me give you some examples, you know God wants you to study His Word, spend time with Him, pray and communicate with Him on a daily basis. You are a very busy person, work a lot of hours so you try to spend time with God during the day but life takes over and there are not enough hours and opportunity just slips away. This happens over and over but you just keep saying, "it will be ok... maybe one day I will have enough time." You think about getting up earlier and having time with Jesus first thing, but you say things like this, "I just can't get up in the morning," or "I am just way to tired during the day when I get up that early." Well here comes fall and the leaves start falling, coolness fills the air, October rolls in and something amazing happens, you can get up long before the sun comes up and hunt every single chance you get? But what happened to I just can't get up? What happened to just being too tired all day long? Idol worship kicked in and it brings you false hope and destructive energy. How about this, the church is helping with the homeless shelter this weekend and have asked the congregation for volunteers. You feel moved to serve and ask about the details. Detail number one, we will meet at the church at 8:30am Saturday morning. CRISIS ALERT!!! CRISIS ALERT!!! You go shopping with your girl friends each Saturday morning and you just can't miss this time. You might say things like, "I just have to have this time, it relaxes me and gives me the peace I need to get through another week, not to mention it keeps me in touch with my dear friends" or you might say, "Well I will just give them a donation." You get up Saturday and worship hard and I am sure you are better off because of it...NOT A CHANCE! One more example, the guys at work are talking about helping a family in need at christmas and they are taking up donations. You don't know why but you feel like you should give $50.00. You think about it and you say but I have this golf tournament this weekend and I have to buy the new iphone26 (that you will stand in line for 2 hours for) on Friday. So you decide to give $10.00. That same night you take your family to dinner for a warm and welcoming $56.50. But look at this way the idol worship was free! You see the bottom line we can make anything an idol when it is more important than God and what He is telling us to do. Please see that the Israelites took their gold and silver to melt down for the idols they worshiped. Where are your spending your money? Does it come before God? They used their God given talents and skill to make these idols? What are you doing with the gifts God has given you? What are you doing with your skills? Are you a walking testimony for Jesus at your workplace or are you a walking testimony for the world and worldly living? The Israelites said, "let the men who sacrifice, kiss the calves." Where are you affections? Do you show God and those you love that you love them through tender loving care? Or is that reserved for the movies? Reaching for Him, Brother Big Daddy |