God promises you a cross.

God promises you a cross.


Matthew 16:21-25 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.


Luke 9:23 Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

In general, people don’t like to talk about or experience pain, heartache, trials, hard times, persecution and death. This was true during the time Jesus was on earth and is true now. We consider those things “bad” and we do all we possibly can to avoid them for ourselves and for those we love. This is even an area that many pastors avoid talking about because they’re afraid that they will scare people away. Yet Jesus never promised us an easy life once we became His, rather, He told us the opposite would be true. Most people today brush that aside and hide from it. Instead, I’d like to examine it and see just what Jesus was talking about.

Even before His death on the cross, our Lord used the idea of carrying a cross to get across to us the seriousness of becoming His follower. Let’s see just what this word meant to Him and what it says to us.

cross, an ancient instrument of execution. Originally the ‘cross’ was an upright stake to which the corpse of an executed criminal was bound for public display or on which the living body of a condemned person was affixed to await death
The cross, in the NT, is a symbol of shame and humiliation, as well as of God’s wisdom and glory revealed through it. Rome used it not only as an instrument of torture and execution but also as a shameful pillory reserved for the worst and lowest. To the Jews it was a sign of being accursed (Dt. 21:23; Gal. 3:13). This was the death Jesus died, and for which the crowd clamoured. He ‘endured the cross, despising the shame’ (Heb. 12:2). The lowest rung in the ladder of our Lord’s humiliation was that he endured ‘even death on a cross’ (Phil. 2:8). For this reason it was a ‘stumbling block’ to the Jews (1 Cor. 1:23; cf. Gal. 5:11). The shameful spectacle of a victim carrying a patibulum was so familiar to his hearers that Jesus three times spoke of the road of discipleship as that of cross-bearing (Mt. 10:38; Mk. 8:34; Lk. 14:27).[1]
1 cross \ˈkrȯs\ n
an affliction that tries one’s virtue, steadfastness, or patience

None of these things sounds very pleasant you’ll have to admit. So what was the Lord saying when He indicated that we too must carry our cross to be His followers? Notice as well that there was no “maybe” or “sometimes” in what He said. If you read the above verses again, you’ll see that Jesus specifically said that we “must” deny ourselves and pick up our crosses “daily”. I don’t think that many people in advertising would suggest using something like this to gain followers either. I found though that God’s Word frequently teaches us the very opposite of what the world teaches.

The Lord obviously felt this was very important. He is someone we can really trust. He never has and never will lie to us. We know that from His Word. We can see from the above verses that He has told us from the very beginning that being a real Christian is not going to be easy. So, let’s look at that first passage and see what’s happening. Let me post it again so we don’t have to keep scrolling up to read it:

Matthew 16:21-25 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.

Jesus has just told the disciples about the terrible things that are going to happen to Him. Peter did what I think most of us would have done. Peter loved Him and he didn’t want Jesus to have to go through such a horrible thing. This happens in our lives regularly too. The world has taught us that some things are “bad” and some things are “good”. When “bad” things happen, we tend to think that God sees them as “bad” too, so like Peter, we do our best to avoid them for our loved ones and ourselves.

However, Jesus did the last thing they expected! He rebuked Peter for what he had said! He then explained to him that he wasn’t thinking straight—he was thinking the way the world had taught him and not the way of God. I can just imagine Peter’s shock, can’t you? How could a loving God want His Son to go through such a horrible thing??? Peter was sure he could find a better way to do things. Isn’t that a lot like all of us? I know I often catch myself telling the Lord how I want things done and how I want things to turn out.

Which of us would willingly allow our children to get sick or hurt? Yet we know that catching a cold and getting over it is one way that our immune systems use to become stronger. Our immune system learns how to fight back by practice on smaller things so that when we catch something worse, it has a chance of fighting it off. So perhaps the reason the Lord allows some sicknesses is to prevent the person from succumbing to something far worse in the future. I realize that this is a poor analogy, but it does show one small way that things we consider “bad” aren’t always really bad.

What we have to remember though is that we are not God. We really don’t know what is best for us, or for others, just as Peter didn’t know what was best. If Jesus had not gone through with the Father’s plan, none of us would be spending eternity in heaven. For the most part we simply must trust God to do what’s best, and trust that He isn’t making a mistake in spite of what things look like. God has told us:

Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Since we know that we cannot really understand, at times like this we have to rely on what we do know as Truth. We know the Lord loves us, we know He will always work all things together for good for us; (even when it doesn’t look like it) we know that His plans for us are good ones, plans which include health, happiness and a good future. We know all these things and much more from His Word, and we know that He cannot and does not lie, so we know that we can trust Him. Therefore, in hard times, when things are unpleasant, we need to remember these things about our God, knowing that He is in control, and live by faith rather then by sight.

Rather then avoiding the cross then, we need to “pick it up” which is another way of saying “accept it”. We accept our cross and walk in faith knowing that the Lord is walking with us. The world may cry out at us that what we’re going through isn’t necessary, or that it’s downright wrong that we should have to go through this, but we know better. We know the Lord wouldn’t ask it of us if it wasn’t necessary for our good and even the good of others.

Will you pick up your cross today? Will you have in mind the ways and thoughts of the world, or will you fill your mind instead with the Word of God and His love for you? Will we, like Jesus, have a heart full of joy, even as we endure our various crosses? We can you know. All we have to do is fix our eyes on Him rather then on the cross we’re carrying.

Hebrews 12:2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
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A Little About Me

For those who read these devotionals, I thought I should let you know a little about me.  My name is Cindy.  I am 53 years old, married, mother of 5 adult children and 9 grandchildren.  I first learned about the Lord as a child, although my parents were not Christians.  Although I took my children to church every Sunday, it took until I was 40 before I was finally saved.  I couldn’t get enough of the Lord from that point on and read my Bible and prayed for His enlightenment daily. 

Four years later I was hurt at work and became disabled.  Since I was unable to do anything at all physically except lay on the couch, my husband would turn on our stereo before he left for work.  It was programmed to play 60 praise and worship CD’s, and that is what I listened to day after day.  The only thing I was capable of doing was reading and praying, so I spent the 8 hours a day while my husband was gone, reading my bible, studying it and praying.  I grew more in those months then I had ever grown before!  It was amazing! 

As I healed physically, to where I could sit up and move around some, I felt the Lord wanted me to start a web site.  He told me that the name was to be Fresh-Hope, but I didn’t like that name and argued against it.  Guess what?  He won!  So I began the ministry the Lord gave me, opening Fresh-Hope.com on March 11, 2003.

If you would like to know more about Fresh-Hope, you can read about that here:

I wanted to share my heart with you

I still spend about 5 hours a day reading, studying and reflecting on God’s Word.  Each week, after talking to the Lord, I pick a subject and then each day write a devotional about that subject.  For example, if the subject is about how God has set us apart, The title might be God promises to set you apart, and each day that week I write something new about it.

I call these devotionals, mainly because I’m not sure what else to call them.  Mainly I’m just writing what the Lord has shown me about the subject and sharing it with you all.  I do try and keep it fairly short for your sakes.  I realize that I have a tendency to get very long winded and could usually write 10 times as much about a subject as I wind up posting.  For me, condensing things is the hardest part, because I so thoroughly enjoy digging in God’s Word, searching it with His help to discover what He has to say, that I hate to leave out a single step or a single word of the journey.  I have to count heavily on Him to keep myself focused so that I don’t get too long winded.  I realize that most of you don’t have the time to read and study that I do, so my goal is to share what I’ve learned and hopefully whet your appetite so that you’ll want to go check out what He says for yourself as well.

I would ask one thing of you.  Please, never take anything I say as “gospel truth”.  God’s Word is the only thing you can and should trust to always be right, not me, not your pastor, not your church.  I can promise you that I will always do my very best to never teach anything that is not exactly what God’s Word says, but being human, I can make mistakes.  So I ask that you always check what I say with God’s Word.  If at anytime you feel that I have made a mistake, please don’t hesitate to come to Fresh Hope and let me know about it.  I will most eagerly check what you tell me against God’s Word and if I am mistaken, I will admit it and post a correction as quickly as possible.

Let us then study together to present our approved, as those who correctly handle the Word of Truth, searching it daily to see what the Lord would say to us.

2 Timothy 2:15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

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God promises to fill you with joy

This weeks promise. God promises to fill you with joy

Romans 5:1-5 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

1 Thessalonians 1:6 You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.

1 Peter 1:8-9 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

When we are born again, we are filled with God’s joy for He has just poured out His love into our hearts. I know for me that it felt so overwhelming that I wasn’t sure I could contain it all! Different people experience this differently and at different times. Again, although we usually consider this joy an emotion, it’s really much more then that. It’s an attribute of God and a fruit of the spirit that is given us by Him for our encouragement and to strengthen us. Once saved, we tend to crave more of God, like we can’t get enough of Him. This is also from the Lord. He uses this joy to cause this craving so that we will open that Bible and learn more of Him! He uses this to draw us closer to Himself so that we can grow in our faith, becoming mature and not lacking anything. However, being human, we tend to grow closer to Him during adversity. We often forget all about one of our strongest weapons during these hard times, which is God’s love and joy. Instead we tend to wallow in what’s going on in our lives. Let’s try today to remember that the Lord has not left us alone to face the world and our trials in it. He is right here with us, both standing beside us strengthening us and dwelling within us, always ready to fill us with His joy and love! All we need to do is to focus on Him instead of on ourselves, our circumstances and the world. Let the Lord fill you with His joy today, and we will praise Him together!

John 14:18-20 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.

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God promises to fill you with joy!

This weeks promise. God promises to fill you with joy!

1 Peter 1:3-6 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.

1 Corinthians 2:9 However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”—

Does your heart swell within you when you read these verses? I know mine does! In the passage above, toward the end where it says “In this you greatly rejoice”, the Lord is telling us again all that we have that others don’t and it should fill us with joy. We have Salvation right here and right now; which means also that we are shielded from the worst by God’s power, and we have a future inheritance that is so fantastic that it is impossible for us to even begin to imagine it! Not only do we have this fantastic inheritance guaranteed each one of us, but it will not be a fleeting one that is here today and gone tomorrow. Our inheritances will last throughout eternity! He tells us to remember this when we’re going through difficult times so that we will be encouraged. Remembering this will bring our focus right back to where it should be—on God!

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.

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God promises to fill you with joy!

This weeks promise. God promises to fill you with joy!

John 17:13 "But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves.

Remember how I suggested on Sunday that I think He is letting us partake in a small measure of the joy He feels because we have come home to Him? This verse is what makes me think that. Jesus was praying when He said this...talking to our Father. We are His joy! In return, as well as saving us, He gives us a measure of this joy! Isn't that wonderful? It's hard to imagine someone loving us that much. It's amazing, and I often find myself wondering how he could possibly love me at all, much less with a love and joy so deep that I can barely understand it. The Lord then showed me another verse which shows again how much He loves us and again shows that He is filled with joy over our salvation and desires to share that joy with us:

Zephaniah 3:17 The Lord your God in your midst, the Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you in His love, He will rejoice over you with singing!

Can you imagine a God who loves you so much that He rejoices over you with singing? That's what our God does! The next time you're feeling alone or unwanted, remember this verse which shows how very precious you are to the Lord of all creation!

I wanted to share some other verses with you that also show that our Joy in Christ comes from Him and is a result of our salvation and our blessed hope. Our blessed hope is when our salvation will be complete, because at that point we will have our new bodies and be with Him forever. The following verses show that the completion of our salvation brings joy to our Lord and that He also can’t wait for that day!

Psalm 132:16 I will clothe her priests with salvation, and her saints will ever sing for joy.

Isaiah 35:10 and the ransomed of the Lord will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

Isaiah 55:12 You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.

Just as the Lord gives us salvation here and now but will complete it at the rapture when we are given our new bodies, so He also gives us His joy now and will complete that too when He comes for us. What a marvelous and wonderful God we have that cares for us so very much!

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This weeks promise. God promises to fill you with joy!

This weeks promise. God promises to fill you with joy!

Hebrews 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

I’d like to revisit this verse today. People often miss the true meaning of joy because they always see joy as some over flowing happiness. Joy is much more than just happiness, it is something that caused Jesus to walk to the cross and endure the shame and the suffering that came with that cross. God wants to teach us a joy that can sustain you through the worst trials and sufferings that we could go through. A joy that isn't measured by how happy we are but how deeply moved and in love with God we are. The bottom line of the joy we have is in the understanding of God's love. It isn’t just an emotion but a quality that is given to us by God Himself and is derived from Him.

Isaiah 61:1-3 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.

The above verse is of course speaking of Jesus and shows that it is He that gives us this joy. All through both the Old and New Testaments, believers are shown experiencing this joy of the Lord. The following verse not only shows this but also explains why the person has this joy:

Acts 16:34 The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole family.

So we know that this joy the Lord gives us is only given to true believers. Others might be able to fake it for a time, but they will never truly experience it because they don’t have the experience of Jesus living within them. The psalmist then explains that it is Jesus, who is the Path of Life and His presence in us that gives us Joy and eventually eternal pleasures with Him in heaven. How can we not be filled with joy when we have His presence living within us??? Unfortunately that happens when our focus is no longer on Him, but is instead on ourselves or our circumstances. The good news is that it is quite easy to fix! We simply have to keep our eyes on Jesus!

Psalm 16:11 You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

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This weeks promise: God promises to fill you with joy!

This weeks promise: God promises to fill you with joy!

1 Thessalonians 1:6 And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit,

This verse shows us that we can and often do feel this joy even when we're enduring much affliction. How can this be? As seems to be often in the case of God, He turns the world upside down on us! The joy He sends us actually helps us to endure hard times better then we could without it. His Joy is our secret weapon! How can the enemy possibly win when we're filled with that Holy Joy? He can't! God wins every time!

Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23. gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

Note that this joy is also part of the fruit of the Spirit. The more centered and focused on the Lord we are, the more we will experience this Joy. These fruits, including joy, are things we should strive to have more of in our lives. Be aware that we can't make them happen. Only God can do that in us. When I say we should strive for more of them, I mean only that we should strive to be ever closer to the Lord. Then in turn we will experience more of this joy and the other fruits.

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This weeks promise: God promises to fill you with joy!

This weeks promise: God promises to fill you with joy!

Romans 14:17-18 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.

You see the joy God gives us is not based on our physical circumstances. They have nothing to do with it. Our joy comes directly from the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. Our joy comes from the fact that we've been saved and the realization that God loves us. Do you remember the first time you were filled with this joy? For many it occurs the day of their salvation. What a wonderful experience! It's just a taste of what we'll experience in heaven with Him!

This joy is something non believers see in us and they wonder what it is that makes us so happy. This is especially true when our circumstances don't warrent the joy they see in our eyes. This joy can be a great witnessing tool because of that. It's unlike a human joyful feeling...it's deeper and more meaningful...almost personal. It's very hard to explain isn't it?

Acts 2:46-47 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Zechariah 2:10 “Shout and be glad, O Daughter of Zion. For I am coming, and I will live among you,” declares the Lord.

Today, people get saved and may feel this joy, but afterward, because of the apathy of the Church, it can be like a big let down. The joy fades and the new believer is left wondering what happened and if what they experienced was real. This, as I said, is most often due to the lack of discipleship in the churches today. When we read Acts we see what the early church was like. “They met daily”, not just once or maybe twice a week. More, when they met it wasn’t an experience outside their daily lives, but instead was an integral part of their daily lives. They experienced being saved as the most important event that had ever happened to them or ever would, outside of eventually being reunited with the Lord. This was such an integral part of them that it carried over into everything they did. They wanted to be with others who had also experienced this fantastic miracle and because they did, they sought them out and those others became “family” to them. That’s who they spent their time with when they weren’t at work or doing necessary daily chores. Other believers became their closest friends and confidants. They couldn’t get enough of hearing about Jesus and what He had done, nor could they have stopped themselves from telling others about what He’d done for them! Their lives weren’t divided up into work, home and church; their lives were church! This is what today’s churches have lost. Today, many, if not most believers lives, look no different from the lives of an unbeliever. How that must break the Lord’s heart!

The reason I bring all this up is because this is why many are not experiencing the joy of the Lord. They have relagated the Lord to a specific corner of their lives rather then making Him the head of all of it. Instead of hanging out with fellow believers, they’re just as content to hang out with unbelievers, even though they should have nothing in common with them anymore. So instead of growing spiritually and being renewed daily with fresh joy, they are just ploding along life’s path wondering what’s wrong. Often they will look into the heresy of the false teachers and prophets because they know they are missing something and hope that will fill the hole. Sadly for them, it only fills them with Satan’s lies and leads them further from the Truth they so badly need: God’s word, rightly divided.

The bottom line is that these verses show us two things: that the Lord fills us with the joy of the Holy Spirit and that in order to keep that joy, we must stay in tune with the Holy Spirit. We stay in tune with Him by always remembering our first love, Jesus and what He did for us. Secondly that we keep in mind our blessed hope, that He will be back soon!

Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

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This weeks promise: God promises to fill you with joy!

This weeks promise: God promises to fill you with joy!

Acts 13:52 And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

This is something that many people just don't understand. A believer is filled with JOY no matter what their circumstances at the time are. I have often felt that I was so full of joy that I was going to burst! It's God's gift to us. I think He is letting us partake in a small measure of the joy He feels because we have come home to Him.

So what if you're not feeling this joy? Does that mean you're not saved? No, it means that you're going through a dry spell most likely. There are "seasons" in this joy simply because we're human and dealing with our flesh. It can come over you at the most unexpected times and places. Often it does if we are thinking about the Lord or some aspect of Him and then the Holy Spirit just fills us up all over again. When it does dissipate and even seem to leave at times, it is our flesh getting in the way.

Hebrews 12:2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

God doesn't take the joy away. This joy is always available but we must be focused on Him and not on ourselves to feel it. If you aren’t feeling this joy, all you need to do is focus on Jesus as the above verse says. Focus on Him and what He’s done for you personally. Usually when we’re not feeling this joy it’s because we’ve allowed ourselves to get all wrapped up in our every day circumstances, or all the things that we see as “going wrong” or being “bad”, that need to be fixed so we can be “happy”. What we’re doing is not only focusing on the negative, but we are focusing on ourselves rather then on our Savior. Shift your focus back to Him, to all that He’s done for you; starting with your salvation and the joy comes rushing right back in.

So enjoy this special gift to you from the Lord.

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Proverbs 27:1 “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.” Brought to you by BibleGateway.com. Copyright (C) . All Rights Reserved.

God promises you will hear His voice!

God promises you will hear His voice!

John 10:3-5 The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.”


John 1:1-4 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.He was with God in the beginning.Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.In him was life, and that life was the light of men.


Revelation 19:13 He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God.


This verse is assuring us of several things. Once again it is pointing to a personal relationship with the Lord. Notice it says He calls us each by name and that we know Him. You can't get much more personal then that! Once again this verse also assures us that we will hear His voice and recognize it. Oh sure, Satan may try to place doubt in our minds, but deep down we'll know it's Him. He created us to know Him!

Keep in mind as well that Jesus says that we will follow Him because we know His voice. As sheep we may not understand what He’s saying all the time, but we will follow because we know it’s Him.

At the end of this passage we are told that we won’t follow a stranger (or a false teacher) but will run away from them because they don’t speak with His voice. Why then do so many Christians follow after imposters? It’s simply because they do not know the voice of the Lord. The only way to know His voice is to listen to Him, to know Him personally and to spend time with Him. Yes, yet again we are right back to know His Word, the Bible. Jesus Christ is the Word of God. We have that Word in written form and He expects us to know it inside out. When we do, we will instantly recognize when someone is teaching something that is not of the Lord, because it won’t be His voice. We will know Him so well that anything wrong will be very obvious to us. We may not understand why it’s wrong, but we will know that we shouldn’t listen and we will “run away” from the stranger.


When we are saved, our proper response is to follow Him. The way we do that is by reading our bible, and spending time in prayer and in listening to Him. Unfortunately most churches forget to tell people that so we wind up with a lot of newborn baby Christians who don’t have the foggiest notion of “how to follow Christ”, or that they have any responsibility at all in this transaction.

One other thing I want to remind you of before we close out this week. God can not lie! Therefore everything He has said in this verse (and of course all the others) is totally true. It's true for you personally and it's true for everyone else. You will hear His voice and He will speak to you!

Hebrews 6:18 that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.


2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by His power He may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith.We pray this so that the Name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

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1 Peter 1:3 “Praise to God for a Living Hope] Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,” Brought to you by BibleGateway.com. Copyright (C) . All Rights Reserved.

God promises you will hear His voice!

God promises you will hear His voice!

2 Kings 19:14 And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. 15. Then Hezekiah prayed before the Lord,.........20. Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus says the Lord God of Israel: `That which you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.'

Here we have an example of the lengths God will go to to speak to us and make sure we hear Him. Hezekiah did the right thing in going to the Lord and taking his problems to Him. For whatever reason though, he didn't think the Lord would speak directly to him, so the Lord spoke to Isaiah and told Isaiah to give Hezekiah His answer.

God still does this today as well. He will often use other people who are more accustomed to His voice to get an answer to someone who is just not believing that He will speak to them. Or perhaps they have heard His voice but doubt that it was Him and need the confirmation.

One thing is certain though, God prefers to speak to us directly. He wants to deepen His relationship with you and converse with you. That's really what it's all about. That’s what God is telling us from the Old Testament through the New Testament. God already knows what you want, and what you need. He doesn't "need" to hear from you... He WANTS to!

Revelation 3:20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

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Proverbs 29:25 “Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe.” Brought to you by BibleGateway.com. Copyright (C) . All Rights Reserved.

God promises you will hear His voice!

God promises you will hear His voice!

1 Samuel 3:2-10 One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place.The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was.Then the Lord called Samuel. Samuel answered, “Here I am.”And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” But Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down.Again the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” “My son,” Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.”Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.The Lord called Samuel a third time, and Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy.So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’ ” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”



Now we're back to that thorny problem of God speaking to us audibly which people really don't like to talk about. As you can see from these verses, He does do this. He did it then, and He does it now. How can I say that for sure?

Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Malachi 3:6 "For I am the Lord, I do not change;


Notice in the above passage that the Lord doesn’t just call Samuel once and then give up. He keeps calling Him until Samuel realizes who it is and responds. That’s how the Lord is with us as well. Another point to ponder is that Samuel did not yet know the Lord personally when God spoke to Him. It was God’s call to him now that began his personal relationship with the Lord. One last point to think about is that the Lord called him personally, by name. This shows us yet again that the Lord has always been a “personal God”. He has always wanted a personal relationship with each of us, and He knows us each by name.

Now the scriptures from Samuel are not the only ones that show the Lord speaking aloud to people, they were just the easiest to show here for this purpose. The Lord speaking to people audibly was totally acceptable and not questioned back during the Old Testament times. As we noted before, it’s society that has taught us that this is something to be skeptical of and afraid of. However, unbelievers will always be skeptical as they have no understanding of the spiritual things of God.

Does God speak audibly frequently? I honestly don't know, but I rather doubt it. Now days, hearing God’s voice audibly seems to be a rare occurrence. Of course it's entirely possible that is because people are afraid to talk about it! Those who have heard Him speak to them audibly say that it's certainly something they will never forget! Remember though it's not so important "how" He speaks to you. What's important is that you be ready and spend time listening so that you hear what He has to say to you!
 
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Matthew 5:11-12 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Brought to you by BibleGateway.com. Copyright (C) . All Rights Reserved.

God promises you will hear His voice!

God promises you will hear His voice!

John 10:16  "And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.
 
Deuteronomy 30:19-20 This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

As you see from the first verse, we are told that we WILL hear His voice. Jesus is speaking to the Jews here and the "other sheep" He is referring to, are the Gentiles--in other words, us!

The second verse, from Deuteronomy, is one that’s probably familiar to us all. Yet as often as I have read it, I always seemed to skip over the part that said, “listen to His voice.” As you can see, the Lord has been speaking to people since the very beginning and has been telling us each since day one to listen and pay attention. Our society is set up in such a way however that to even discuss this openly, especially to unbelievers, could quite easily land us in a psych ward. The world can’t believe in hearing from someone that they can’t see. Although unbelievers will readily believe in “angels” whether or not they’ve seen one, they cannot do the same with God. Even seeing or hearing angels however can cause unbelievers to think we’ve lost our marbles. That’s why this subject isn’t spoken about very much, which is unfortunate because the lack of our leaders teaching us about this, and the attitude of society toward the idea of hearing from God, cause many new believers to resist hearing God’s voice and has caused many to wonder if something was wrong with them. It has also led to false doctrine about this subject being accepted because no one is teaching the truth about it. New believers who do realize that they’re hearing from the Lord aren’t taught to discern His voice from the world, Satan, and even their own imaginations, so many begin to believe that everything they hear is from God and that too can be disastrous. The easiest way to determine something like that is to always remember that God will never tell you anything that goes against His Written Word.

On Monday I told you that nothing can get in the way of us hearing His voice, and while that’s true, He won’t force us to listen. It’s like the difference of a child hearing what their parents are saying and listening to what they are saying. Parents cannot stop their words from going in their child’s ear and right out the other one. The Lord won't push Himself on us if we don't want Him to. He will speak to us, but if we choose to ignore Him, or if we allow doubt that it's Him and not respond, we can miss that voice when He speaks to us. Of course that's not what He wants us to do, but He will allow it. So you see it’s not so much that we don’t hear His voice, it’s more that at times we choose to ignore it.

Today, let’s practice listening to the Lord and reflecting on what He says to us.

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Philippians 1:9-10 “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ,” Brought to you by BibleGateway.com. Copyright (C) . All Rights Reserved.

Verse of the day

John 3:20-21“Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.” Brought to you by BibleGateway.com. Copyright (C) . All Rights Reserved.

God promises you will hear His voice!

God promises you will hear His voice!

Exodus 19:9 And the Lord said to Moses, "Behold, I come to you in the thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and believe you forever.'' So Moses told the words of the people to the Lord. .......

Exodus 20:19 Then they said to Moses, "You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.''

Please take the time to read Exodus chapters 19 and 20 so you can get the full picture of what happened here...it's so much like us! Here God tells Moses that He will speak to the people personally, and it scares them to death!!! They don't want any part of this! God has been trying since the very beginning to have a personal relationship with each of us. He doesn't want to go through priests, pastors or prophets. He wants to talk to you. Read how it was in the garden:

Genesis 3:8-10 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

Although this talks about after Adam sinned you can see by this that it was God's habit to walk in the garden and talk with them. They were very comfortable with each other. This is how God planned it to be. He has always wanted a personal relationship with each one of us. Since the fall however, the very idea of it seems to terrify people. Only through the Holy Spirit dwelling in us are we able to overcome the fear and have this relationship now.

Unfortunately society and "science" have also taught us not to trust this. Anything to do with God is brought into question. People become afraid that if they "hear a voice" or feel a leading in their heart that they are being psychotic or something. Nothing could be further from the truth. We have to remember though that Satan loves to mimic God so some of those "psychotic" episodes some people have may even stem from that. It's how Satan twists our relationship with God. He brings fear into the picture.

1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear

The Holy Spirit dwelling within us combats Satan's deceptions with love. For God IS perfect love and in Him can be no fear! So take some time today to tell your Father that you want to have an even closer relationship with Him as He intended. Then be ready for an awesome adventure!

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God promises you will hear His voice!

God promises you will hear His voice!

John 10:27  "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.

Notice that in this verse there is no mincing of words. Jesus Himself is saying this and He says that we hear His voice. He doesn't say maybe, or if, or but, or that we'll try to, or that we'll work at it. He says we WILL! It is His Will that you hear Him. Nothing can get in the way of that. However, Satan will try to convince you that you're nuts, or that it's just your imagination, etc and ruin things for you. Satan loves to make us doubt our God. So the next time this happens, take authority over Satan, which Jesus gave you, and don't allow him to take this wonderful experience away from you!

Now for the million dollar question! Does God speak aloud to us? Yes, He can and sometimes does, but usually He simply speaks to our hearts.

John 5:25  "Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.

This verse is speaking of how He speaks to our hearts. Before we were saved, we were all dead in sin. It was through hearing Him in our hearts that we came to salvation. Our Father called to us and our hearts, spirits and souls answered Him and we were saved. This verse, like many, has more then one meaning and is also referring to the power of God who will literally raise the dead with His voice at the rapture, but for the purpose of our study, we’re going to be concentrating on it’s first meaning.

The Lord will often speak this way to us. He often also speaks to us through His Word, the Bible. This is yet another reason it's so very important to read our Bibles daily and get to know them well. Some Christians only read the New Testament, but if you do that, you're missing out on so much that is truly wonderful. You're missing out on many, many things the Lord could be speaking to you about. If the Lord hadn’t intended us to read the entire bible, then He wouldn’t have given it all to us. When the Bereans were praised for searching the scriptures to determine the truth about Jesus, they weren’t searching the New Testament, they were searching the Old Testament. So please, take my advice and read the entire Bible. You'll be very glad you did!

Now as we get to know Him, He will speak to us more and more, especially if we invite Him to do so. He loves to speak to us and rejoices when we take the time to actually listen to Him! So take some time today. Find a quiet place and have a little talk with Him. Only this time, allow it to be a two way conversation! Enjoy!

God promises you will hear His voice!

God promises you will hear His voice!

1 Kings 19:11 Then He said, "Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.'' And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; 12. and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice. 13. So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. And suddenly a voice came to him, and said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?''

Many people have trouble with the idea of God speaking to us. Even the Israelites had trouble with that, but we'll cover that on another day. For today I just want to point out that God does and will speak to us. When He speaks however it is in a still small voice. We must be listening for it to hear Him. This requires a personal relationship with our Father. He doesn't want us to just ply Him with requests and demands, but instead wants to interact with us and communicate His thoughts and desires to us. This is the same as with a physical earthy relationship with someone. It should never be just a one way communication.
Learning to hear the Lord and communicate with Him requires practice and patience. It’s very similar to when a baby first learns to talk. Babies aren’t born knowing how to speak, they listen and copy what they hear and learn. So it is with us when we are learning to distinguish our own thoughts from God’s communicating with us. We must first listen, and then we must practice, just like babies do. The one important rule to keep in mind is that the Lord will never, ever say anything to us that contradicts His Word. That is how we test what we hear.
To have a personal relationship with our Father and hear from Him, you must spend time with Him, and you really need to know His Word. Some people seem to think it’s enough that they spend time listening and/or talking to other people who know Him, like a pastor or teacher, but it doesn’t work that way. To be close to someone, you must mainly spend time with them, not with other people that you think know them. We all can see how silly that sounds when we look at it from the perspective of an earthly friendship, and the same thing applies to our relationship with the Lord.

In the above verses the Lord is trying to show us that we don't need to be afraid of hearing from Him. He will not hurt us or startle us. He speaks quietly and never pushes Himself on anyone. Have you listened to His voice lately?

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Verse of the Day

Romans 5:3-4“Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” Brought to you by BibleGateway.com. Copyright (C) . All Rights Reserved.

This week's promise: God promises you an anchor for your soul!

This week's promise: God promises you an anchor for your soul!

Hebrews 6:17-20 Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath.God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged.We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain,where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.

The anchor for our souls is Jesus Himself. We are told time and again that we can count on Him and He will never let us down. The world may go crazy around us; circumstances may look bleak; friends may desert us; family may disown us; but Jesus will NEVER let us down. He is the anchor of our souls and the anchor holds!

Think for a minute what an anchor does. Here's what the dictionary says about it:

1. Nautical -A heavy object attached to a vessel by a cable or rope and cast overboard to keep the vessel in place either by its weight or by its flukes, which grip the bottom.
2. A rigid point of support, as for securing a rope.
3. A source of security or stability.
4. Sports
a. An athlete, usually the strongest member of a team, who performs the last stage of a relay race or other competition.
b. The person at the end of a tug-of-war team.
5. An anchorperson.

This is what Jesus does for us! He keeps us in place spiritually so that we aren't swayed by false teaching, heresy, or blasphemy. He is our security and the stability for our faith. He is our assurance that we are forever saved. All we need to do is keep our eyes on Jesus and we can never be swayed or moved as we journey on toward maturity in our faith!

“Keeping our eyes on Jesus”, just what does that phrase really mean? To keep our eyes on Jesus actually means that we are doing several things. First it means that we are following Jesus, and not our pastor, or our favorite Christian author, or our favorite Bible Commentary, and not even our denomination.

So then, how do we follow Jesus? Try thinking about it this way, so it doesn’t seem so mysterious. How would you “follow” your best friend? To follow them you would need to know what they thought and believed about everything. Would you go to your best friends neighbors to find out what they think and believe? Maybe you’d go to the same grocery store? No, of course not! If they’re you’re best friend, then you’re going to go straight to them and ask them aren’t you? Of course! No one else can possibly know them better then they do themselves. So it is with the Lord. He wants us to turn to Him to know the Truth about everything. He gave us His Word to read so that we could even have it in writing to go over whenever we wanted to. Best of all though, He tells us that He wants a personal relationship with each of us, so that He can talk to us Himself. This is how we follow Jesus, and “keep our eyes on Jesus”. We spend time daily in His Word and we spend time daily talking with Him in prayer.

There is however a big difference between our spiritual anchor and physical anchors. Physical anchors are anchored downward, and our anchor, Jesus, is anchored in Heaven. Physical anchors are used to hold things still, but our anchor is used to hold onto as we move ahead. Physical anchors can break, but our anchor is sure and can never break, we have God’s own oath on that!

Lastly in the above verse, Jesus is also said to be our forerunner. He has gone ahead of us with the intention that we follow Him. So let’s lay hold of our anchor and follow Him, always studying to show ourselves approved, and never having to fear that we will be tossed about by strange doctrines. Keep your eyes on Jesus, stay in His Word, and never fear, for even in life’s strongest storms our anchor holds!

Romans 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?