"First Love And First Works"

"I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.  Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent".  Revelation 2:2-5

The Lord said that these people had lost their first love.  Have you lost your first love?  Is Jesus the focal point of your life like He was at the beginning?  Do you still love Him with all your heart, soul, strength and mind?  Or has your love for Him dwindled?  Has He taken a seat further down the line, or at the end, of your affections? 

How does this happen?  We allow the cares of this life to cause us to start turning from Him.  We let others come between us and Him.  There are many reasons.  But more important than "why did this happen?" is "how do I get that first love back?". 

When Jesus told us the problem, He also gave us the solution.  "Repent, and do the first works".  The first step is to repent.  Confess this falling away to Him.  Confess this lack of love to Him.  Repent of it, turn and start heading back toward Him.  Next, do the first works.  If you noticed, He first commended them for their "works".  So, they were doing works.  They were still working for Him and doing His work.  So which works is He talking about?

If you look up the word work in the original language it also means:  that with which anyone is occupied.  Do you remember when you first got married, or were dating someone, how you were occupied and preoccupied with that person you were in love with?  No one else mattered.  Your whole world- your interests, schedule, money, time, plans, every waking moment-- was spent planning how you could be with or see that person.  You longed to be with them.  All you could do was eat, think, drink, sleep, dream about them.  You couldn't wait to be with them and didn't want to leave once you were.  That person was the center of everything you did.  Everyone and everything else came second.  This is the work that He is talking about-- being occupied with Him more than anything else and not letting anything else stand in the way of you being with Him.  You do the first works by being preoccupied and occupied with Jesus.   

Have a great day.  Have you lost your first love?  Are your thoughts and life occupied with Him?         

"True Appearance Or Not?"

"Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment". John 7:24

As many of you know our ministry runs a thrift store.  Years ago a friend came up to me and told me that she and her husband had passed by the shop one day while I was closed and thought someone had vandalized it.  She was so upset that anyone would do that.  The reason she thought that was because the windows had red paint "scribbled" all over them.  She had her husband turn around so that could take a closer look and clean the paint off of the windows.  Upon closer inspection, they discovered that the paint was also on the inside.  They concluded that I must have done it.  

Let me now tell you the story behind the windows.  When my granddaughter was eight years old, she would "volunteer" for me on Fridays during the summer.  Well, she found a tube of red glass paint.  So, she decided to do a little "artwork" and write some messages and draw on the windows.  Me being the "wonderful" Nana I am--- I let her.  

A lot of time we will "jump to conclusions" based on appearance.  We will act according to what we see.  Many times, what our eyes are telling us is the truth, but sometimes it isn't.  After looking at the windows I could easily see how they drew that conclusion.  (I probably would have too if I had not known the truth.)

I said all that to say this:  Our judgments should not be after appearance.  They should not be solely based on our feelings or opinions.  They should not be based on everyone else's opinions as well.  We should seek the Lord and ask for His understanding in the situation.  God corrected Samuel the prophet for this very thing when he went to anoint a new king of Israel.  He was looking at the statue of the man.  He was looking at the brothers' appearances.  He was following Jessie's opinion, who didn't even think David was good enough to be king, so he left him tending sheep. 

You have heard it said, "Things are not always as they appear"-- this is often true.  Things are not always as others say they are.  Things are not always as we perceive them to be.  So, again, seek the Lord.  Get discernment from Him.  Ask Him to help you see the situation clearly.  Don't just take everyone else's word for it, or make a judgment based solely on the way things look.  It might not be true. 

Have a great day.  Base your judgments on truth, not on appearance only. 

 

"Fight With Your Mouth"

".... and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God".  Ephesians 6:17b

How does the Bible tell us to fight our enemy the devil?  It tells us to fight him with our mouth.  He comes to steal, kill and destroy and he fights against us with his mouth/words.  This is how he fought against mankind in the Garden of Eden-- with words.  "Did God say?"  He is still fighting against us with words.  Words of fear, guilt, shame, condemnation and accusations.  

Many of you are trying to fight him the wrong way.  You think that if you just ignore him, he will go away.  You think that if you talk to him, you will be sinning.  You believe that just because Jesus already defeated him that you don't have to do anything else.  You don't understand that he is to be spoken to in order to defeat or resist him.  I didn't say we are to converse with him.  I said we are to speak to him.

Jesus taught us how to defeat the enemy when He was in the wilderness.  He did not carry on a conversation with the devil.  He did not simply ignore him.  He did not stay speechless.  He spoke the Word of God to him-- "It is written".  When Jesus and His disciples were in the boat and the storm came up, it was no ordinary storm.  It was demonic in nature.  It was the enemy trying to detour and destroy Jesus from reaching His destination.  What did Jesus do in the storm?  He spoke to the storm.  He told it to "shut up and be quiet"! 

In your time of "attack" you are going to have to do the same thing.  You are going to have to open your mouth and use your Sword-- the Word of God.  The Bible tells us we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the Word of our testimony.  Are you using God's Word to fight the devil?  Are you being quiet and not saying a word?  Are you ignoring him and hoping he will go away?  It wasn't until Jesus had told him three times that "It is written" that he finally left-- but he did leave. 

Have a great day.  You have to speak to the enemy and tell him what the Word of God says.   

Scripture reference:
Genesis 3:1
John 10:10
Revelation 12:10,11
Mark 4:39
Matthew 4

"Diligent"

"Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth".  2 Timothy 2:15

The word for study here means to endeavor, give diligence, be diligent.  The word for diligent in the dictionary means:  constant in effort to accomplish something; attentive and persistent in doing anything.  So, are we?  Are we diligent when it comes to our relationship and service to the Lord? 

It seems that we are diligent about everything else but our relationship with Him.  We are diligent about our education, in our careers, in our relationships with others, and so on.  That is a good thing.  We don't need to be lazy or slothful in any area of life.  If we say we are a Christian, then we need to be diligent in what we do and be people of excellence.  But our first priority is to please the Lord.  We should endeavor to serve Him with all our hearts.  We should endeavor to give Him our best.  We should endeavor to make His love known to others.  We should be diligent in our study to know Him in deeper depths.  Striving for a close intimate relationship with Him should be the greatest desire of our hearts.

We have been brought into a relationship with the Lord through the sacrificial shed blood of Jesus Christ; therefore, we are not working to be saved.  But we have to be diligent in our salvation.  We have to be diligent, attentive and constant in our relationship with Him.  We can't neglect it and take it for granted.  We can't be "off and on" or "wishy-washy" with it.  It should be our first priority.  It should mean more to us than anything else.  It should be the cry and utmost desire of our hearts.  Is it?

Have a great day.  Are you diligent in your relationship with the Lord?  Does it mean more to you than anything else?

"You Must Be Born Again"

"Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God".  John 3:3

When Nicodemus came to Jesus at night, he said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him". Jesus didn't say back to him, "You are right.  My Father has revealed this to you. I am glad you recognize who I am".  He said none of that.  Instead, He said something odd-- to me it made no sense.  It sounded like it had nothing to do with what Nicodemus had said.  Jesus immediately responded by telling him he had to be born-again.

Jesus never beats around the bush.  He always goes to the heart of the matter.  He was letting Nicodemus know that entering into the kingdom and having eternal life was more than just having the right belief.  Jesus sets the criteria.  Although Nicodemus had all the "credentials", his credentials were not the criteria.

Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a religious ruler, a teacher, he had a place in the temple, he recognized that Jesus was from God, he knew He could do miracles, he knew God was with Jesus, he followed Him in the crowd, but that wasn't enough.  He still had to be born-again.

Just because you go to church, just because you are a Sunday School teacher, just because you sing in the choir, just because you are on the deacon board, just because you give tithes and offerings, just because you pastor a church, just because you joined a church, just because you shook the preacher's hand, just because you raised your hand in secret and repeated a prayer does not mean you meet Jesus' requirements for entering into the Kingdom of heaven.  Let's take it one step further, like He did for Nicodemus-- just because you believe that Jesus is from God and He is the Son of God doesn't mean you are saved.  Even the devils believe that Jesus is who He is, but they aren't and never will be saved.  Jesus said you "must be born-again". 

A person gets into a family here on earth by either being born or adopted into it.  If you haven't been born into God's family, you don't belong to Him-- you are not in the family.  If you are not in the family, you will not live with Him forever in His house in heaven-- only family gets to do that.  Nicodemus was religious but he was not born-again.  He believed the right thing about who Jesus was, but he was not born-again.  You can be a faithful church goer, you can be religious, you can believe the right thing about Jesus, but if you are not born-again you are still lost and will not enter into God's Kingdom.  That is what Jesus said-- and He makes the rules!

Have a great day.  You have to be born-again in order to enter into God's Kingdom.  If you aren't, you won't!