"Joy Stealer"

"Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength." Nehemiah 8:10

"The joy of the Lord is your strength". When you want to render your opponent, or enemy, helpless and vulnerable, you can use either one of two strategies. You can find his weakness and use that weakness against him. Or you can find his strength and try to dismantle it. When the Philistines were trying to defeat Samson, they sought out the source of his strength. They knew if they could destroy the thing that made him so strong they could defeat him.

The enemy of your soul is looking for not only your area of weakness but your area of strength also. He is after the thing that makes you strong so he can disarm you of your strength. And he knows what it is. He knows that we get our strength from the joy of the Lord.

He is out to steal your joy. He uses a variety of schemes and devices to try to steal it. He will use a health issue. He will use a relationship. He will use a situation that is not going as you hoped it would. He will use time elements-- things aren't happening when you want them to happen. He will use other people. There are an endless number of things that he will try to use to steal your joy.

It is up to you to not let him steal it. It is up to you to keep on guard and watch for the thief. It is up to you to keep your "heart house" fortified through praise, prayer and God's word, so he can't get in to steal. So this morning, keep an eye on your joy and make sure it is still intact.

Have a great day. The enemy is trying to steal your joy.

For further reading:

Judges 16:5
Psalm 5:11; 21:1; 51:12

"A Sad Life"

"The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." John 10:10

The other night I had a dream that I want to share with you.  I won't go into all the details of the dream but in a nutshell it was about a man who was old.  He lived his adult life in sadness.  He wouldn't allow himself to be happy.  He did not enjoy life.  The reason was because he was grieved over things he had done in his past.  He couldn't live his life with any pleasure and enjoyment because of the guilt and condemnation that ate him up had robbed it from him.  The man died in my dream having never truly lived.

I was so hurt for him, but of course it was only a dream.  I don't have a clue who he was other than just a character in my dream.  Even sadder than the dream is the fact that this dream is more than a dream, it's a true-life story for so many people. There are so many who are walking around on earth but are not living.  They have no pleasure, no joy, no happiness.  Every time something remotely good starts happening to them, they withdraw from it believing they don't deserve any happiness.  They feel the need to live their lives in self-punishment based on past mistakes and failures.  

Jesus said that He came to give us abundant life.  This is not abundant life.  The Bible tells us that when Jesus came, He did not come into the world to condemn us, but to give us everlasting life.  The Bible also tells us that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ.  Jesus wants you to live a full, peaceful, joyous, free, happy, contented life.  The devil (who is the enemy of your soul) wants you to have a miserable, quilt-ridden, sad, existence. 

If you are the "man" (person) in my dream, it is time that you get out of that place.  Look to Jesus.  He will take your past, your failures, your mistakes, your sins, the things that you did that you aren't proud of and forgive you and give you a brand-new life-- one filled with joy and peace. It is not His will that you live under the weight of guilt, condemnation and shame.  Let Him free you from it today so that you can start living and enjoy life.

Have a great day.  Don't live a miserable life because of your past, give it to Jesus and let Him give you a new joyous life.   

"Who Are You Following?"

"The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want." Psalm 23:1

The shepherd leads the sheep. The sheep follow the shepherd. That's the way it is suppose to be. But that is not always the way it is. Sometimes the sheep follow something else. They get their eyes on something other than the shepherd and gravitate that direction.

We are the Good Shepherd's (Jesus) sheep, but are we following Him? Often, we can think we are following Him, but aren't. We are following religion, programs, fads, other people and think that it is Him we are following because they "bear the image" of the Shepherd or we think that His "stamp of approval" is on it.

Jesus warned us that the false would come. He told us there would be false shepherds, false teachers, false Christs, false doctrines, etc. that would try to capture our attention. The purpose of that which is false is always to pull you away from what is true.

The answer to following the true and not the false, to following the Shepherd and not just religious things is to keep your eyes focused on the Shepherd, keep your ears attentive to His words, and know His voice better than you know your own.

Have a great day. Make sure you are following the Shepherd and not something that gives the appearance of being Him.

For further reading: Matthew 24:24 Mark 13:22 John 10:11,14

"Dark Paths"

"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." Psalm 119:105

When my mother-in-law was still alive, she lived next door to us, so we would often walk when we would go to see her. Sometimes it would get dark before we left her house. We have no streetlights, only the light of the moon when it isn't hidden behind the clouds. So, when was dark, it was really dark. As many times as I had walked that path from my house to hers, I always preferred not to walk it in the dark. Why? Because, even though it was a familiar path to me, I never knew if there were new obstacles that are there. And when it got dark, I could lose my bearings and get off the path.

We all walk through "places" in our lives- you know what I mean. Same are strange to us- we have never been down them before. Some are familiar- we have been down them often. But whether it is a new place or a familiar place, each place is different. Even familiar places are cloaked in darkness sometimes. And each place needs the guidance of God's word to help us navigate safely and wisely through them.

We can't trust our ability or familiarity to get us through any path of life. The path is always changing, new obstacles are continually appearing, new pits are being dug by the enemy, we can easily lose our sense of direction. But God's word will always keep us going in the right direction, will always reveal pit-falls, will always make the way in front of us as clear as if we were walking in the light of the noon day sun.

Have a great day. It doesn't matter how familiar a path of life looks, or how many times we have walked down it, we still need God's word to guide us through it.

For further reading:
Psalm 119:130; 33:4
Proverbs 6:23
1 John 1:5

"Seeing Faith?"

"Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes." Matthew 11:21

You have heard the saying- "seeing is believing"- that's not always the case. Jesus did many mighty works before the people and some of them still didn't believe. His works testified that He was who He said He was, and they didn't believe. It is human nature to want to "see something". It is no different when it comes to our relationship with God. Have you ever prayed, "Show me a sign, Lord."; "Show me something."?

After the resurrection Jesus appeared to His disciples-- all but Thomas who was not there with them. When the others told Thomas that Jesus had appeared to them, his reply was, "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe." Thomas wanted to "see" it for himself. Jesus later appeared to Thomas and allowed him to see His hands and side. But His words to Thomas were-- "Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed."

Man's way is to want to see something. God's way is the way of belief without seeing. Faith believes even though it doesn't see. It is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. We want to "see" so that we will believe, God wants us to "hear" so that we will believe. "Faith comes by hearing. For we walk by faith, not by sight".

Faith based on sight is no longer faith. If you see it, you don't need faith to believe for it. This morning, is your faith based on what you "see" or what you "hear"? God puts more emphasis on hearing than on seeing. He also said there was a blessing that was attached to our faith when we believe even though we haven't seen. "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed."

Have a great day. True faith is based on what it hears rather than on what it sees.

For further reading:
John 20:19-29
2 Corinthians 5:7
Romans 10:17
Hebrews 11:1