There Is Liberty

 

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

2 Corinthians 3:17

Many years ago, I was a very conservative Christian, with many ideas of what was right and what was wrong and very vocal regarding these.

However, as time went on, I was frequently persuaded that some of my views were wrong and I became much more merciful in my view of mankind's shortcomings.   

This change came as a surprise to some of my friends, one of whom said to me, "I am surprised that you being so conservative, have some views that are so liberal."  

My answer was, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."

May we all be sensitive to the direction of the Spirit of the Lord and know when to change direction.   

When We Cry For Help

When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.

Psalm 34:17-20

What a good and tenderhearted God we serve.  He does not blame us for our troubles, but delivers us.  He tends our broken hearts and repairs our crushed spirits.

We know that even the righteous suffer pain and illness and hard to define bad times.  Yet, all the while God is there ministering and protecting and saving us over and over and over again from life's pitfalls.

God is with us, and for this we are grateful.  

 

Run Well

 

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.

Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

We do somethings for personal gain. We go to work get money to take care of our needs. We buy car insurance so if we have an accident we do not suffer a huge financial lost. Most of what we do is for our own benefit.

But the Apostle Paul points out that while we are doing these things we need to consider that we are children of God, and act like it. This means we operate with honesty, we treat people fairly and in some cases better than we think they deserve. We are generous and merciful. We treat others as we want to be treated.

And, we do not hesitate to share why we do this. We do this because Jesus is our Lord, Master and Savior, and we invite others to know Jesus, too.

Our purpose is not to gain great wealth, but to serve God.

Joy In Heaven

 

Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

Luke 15:7

God loves everyone and He seeks those who are lost.  It does not matter what sins a person has committed, God forgives all who repent and turn from sin and ask Jesus to be their Lord, Master and Savior.  Ask God to forgive you today, and experience His love and there will be joy in heaven for you.

God Cares For You

 

Praise the Lord!

For it is good to sing praises to our God;

For it is pleasant and praise is becoming.

The Lord builds up Jerusalem;

He gathers the outcasts of Israel.

He heals the brokenhearted

And binds up their wounds.

He counts the number of the stars;

He gives names to all of them.

Great is our Lord and abundant in strength;

His understanding is infinite.

Psalm 147:1-5

God cares for us. He not only cares about our physical health, He cares about our emotional health.  We should not loose sight of this.

No matter what, God is on our side and at our side to help and heals our broken bodies and our broken hearts.

God's promises are true, and so, are these.  He cares for you.

It Is Not About the Buffet

 

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Romans 14:17

In the early church there was a lot of disagreement about what Christians should and should not eat.  There were converted Jews who still abstained from pork and there were Gentiles who ate everything.  

What the Apostle Paul told them was it did not matter what they ate or drank because they were redeemed by Jesus and and made right in the sight of God, and God would not judge them based on their diet.

We too can sometimes become encumber by man made rules that will cause us to question our salvation.  Let us be diligent in evaluating whether rules are from God or from man, and so act on them so that we can know the peace and joy of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. 

Good Medicine

 

A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.

Proverbs 17:22

How can we be healed of hurt and pain that come from disappointment?  

The answer is not to wallow in our disappointment, but to move on.  We may move slowly and we may have setbacks on our road to recovery, but God is with us every inch of of the way.  He does not want us to suffer, He wants to restore our joy. 

We can trust God because He has everything under control and know that everything will be alright.

May you experience the good medicine of a joyful heart.