Jesus Listens

What do you think about prayer? Do you think that God really wants to talk to you? Do you think He really wants to hear what is on your heart?

The answer is, yes, He really does. He is an attentive counselor who listens to you. You understand this picture if you know what it's like to sit and talk to someone who really knows how to listen. They hear you. They get it. You can see in their eyes that they're tracking with you. Psalm 116:1-2 tells us "I love the LORD, because He has heard my cries. Because He bends down and listens."

Picture your closest friend, turning his ear to you, and you cup your hand around your mouth and whisper your need. That's the picture. God knows exactly what's going on in your life. He’s aware of your needs and your heartaches and your worries about the future. God totally gets it - that one truth has inspired and comforted and ministered to God's people through thousands of years of history.

Not only is God listening to your prayer, but He will give you wisdom about the difficult season of your life if you ask Him for it. James 1:5 tells us, "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him." That phrase "without reproach" means literally that God won't sink His teeth into you. God won't be like, "What? What are you asking Me that for!?" He's not the impatient parent who doesn't have time for you or the irritable boss who snaps back. No, He's the attentive counselor, listening to you. Hebrews 4:16 assures you to, "with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

Take to heart the comfort of Psalm 62:8: "Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.

"Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace,

that we may receive mercy and find grace to

help in time of need." - Hebrews 4:16

Be Blessed & Be A Blessing to One Another!

Dawn

PLAYING THE FOOL

Life is filled with choices—dozens, hundreds, even thousands of choices each and every day.Maybe you are at a fork in the road of your life where you are facing an important choice right now. Perhaps it is a decision regarding a relationship or a career. Maybe it is something else.Whatever decision you must make, make the right choice. Choices produce consequences, and actions produce reactions.We find a clear and tragic example of this in the life of Saul, Israel's first king. His life is a study in contrasts.

He started his reign in victory and ended it in humiliating defeat.His life stands as a warning that you cannot rebel against God and get away with it. Your choices and actions will catch up with you—maybe not today, maybe not even tomorrow. But sooner or later, the Bible says, your sin will find you out unless you repent.Saul's story begins with the nation of Israel, which until then had been ruled by various judges, along with prophets who would give the word of the Lord to them. But the people grew tired of that. They wanted a king, because other nations had kings.So they complained to the prophet Samuel.

As God instructed him, Samuel warned them of the consequences of having a king. Still, they were intent on having one.Samuel brought Saul before the people of Israel and told them: "Here is the king whom you have chosen and whom you have desired . . . If you fear the Lord and serve Him and obey His voice, and do not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then both you and the king who reigns over you will continue following the Lord your God" (1 Samuel 12:13–14 NKJV).Not long afterward, Saul began an inexplicable course of self-destruction. He became a victim of himself—full of impatience, pride, rebellion, and jealousy, ultimately leading to attempted murder.

Over a period of years, he descended from being a great leader to being a paranoid tyrant. And when he directly disobeyed God's command, Samuel said to him, "You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you. Had you kept it, the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom must end, for the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart . . . " (1 Samuel 13:13–14 NLT).After this, Saul went from bad to worse. It wasn't long before David emerged on the scene, and Saul began to relentlessly pursue him out of paranoia and jealousy. Saul eventually died a pathetic death on the battlefield, taking his own life.Saul started well, but he finished badly. In effect he wrote his own epitaph when he said, "Indeed I have played the fool and erred exceedingly" (1 Samuel 26:21 NKJV).We too can "play the fool." We play the fool when we disobey God, even in the smallest matters. Spiritual decline is gradual. It is not for us to pick and choose what we like about God's will for our lives. It is for us to do what the Bible teaches.We play the fool when we attempt to justify the wrong we have done. More than once, Saul blamed others for what he had done. He was more concerned about the opinions of people than the opinion of God.We play the fool when we forget that how we finish is more important than how we start.

Finishing well is important. Saul forgot that.We play the fool when we allow hatred to control our lives instead of love. Saul's jealousy ultimately destroyed him. He thought everyone was out to get him, but he was self-destructing.We are all going to slip up in life. We are all going to make mistakes. We are all going to sin. But you don't want to look back on your life one day and think, I threw my life away by the stupid choices I made.The question is, can you learn from your mistakes? Can you say, "That was such a bitter experience, such a hard pill to swallow, I pray that I will never do that again"?If so, you have learned something. Something good will have come out of something bad.But if you go back and do the same thing again and again and again, then you are falling backward. And ultimately, you are going to play the fool.


BE BLESSED & BE A BLESSING TO ONE ANOTHER!

DAWN

WORSHIP IS A WITNESS

From Harvest Ministries

What an attractive group the early church was to a lost and watching world as they learned, loved, cared, worshipped, prayed, and helped out one another. The world watched and paid attention, and people came to faith. So witnessing is not just something we do; it is something we are.

There is a direct connection between worship and witness. We are being watched by the outside world. And the outside world marvels when a Christian can praise God when they are going through hardship. It is a powerful testimony.
Sometimes that outside world even joins us in the pew. So what kind of worshipper are you? What kind of a witness are you? You may think it doesn't matter, but actually it does, because unbelievers are checking things out. Maybe someone sitting near you has never been to church before. But while the worship was going on, you are preoccupied. You are chatting with a friend or daydreaming or texting. It is important to pay attention and engage during worship, because unbelievers may be watching you.
I can speak from personal experience on this, because I came to faith as a result of Christians who worshipped. No one invited me to their meeting. No one broke the gospel down for me and explained how to come to Jesus Christ. But when I saw a group of Christians sitting on the front lawn of my high school campus and singing songs to Jesus, I watched them and thought, They have something I don't have. It opened my heart to hear and believe the gospel message that was given that day.
There is a connection between our worship and our witness. So let's be a good one, and let's make sure that our heart is in the right place with God.

Be Blessed & Be a Blessing to One Another!

Dawn

The Sacrifice of Praise

There are times when we are not in the mood to praise God. But did the first-century believers always feel like praising God? They were harassed. They were beaten. They were mocked. And that was all before breakfast. Yet they worshipped the Lord nonetheless.
The Bible doesn't say to give thanks to the Lord because you feel good. Rather, the Bible says, "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever" (Psalm 106:1). The Bible also tells us to "offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name" (Hebrews 13:15).

Yes, praise and worship can sometimes be a sacrifice. There are times when we are down or depressed or things aren't going well, when there is a hardship or a tragedy, and we don't want to thank God. But do you think Job felt like praising God when he lost everything? He lost his family. He lost his home. He lost his possessions. He lost his health—all in one fell swoop, in effect. But what does the Bible say he did? He "fell to the ground to worship" and said, "I came naked from my mother's womb, and I will be naked when I leave. The Lord gave me what I had, and the Lord has taken it away. Praise the name of the Lord!" (Job 1:20–21). Now that is the sacrifice of praise.

The sacrifice of praise is also something we are to verbalize. Notice Hebrews 13:15 says that offering a continual sacrifice of praise to God includes "proclaiming our allegiance to his name." We need to verbalize our praise to God. It is not that God needs praise from us, but He wants it. And He tells us to verbalize our praise.

"Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice

of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name"

Hebrews 13:15

Be Blessed & Be A Blessing to One Another!

Dawn

Preparation for Greater Service

In Luke 17:5, the apostles asked Christ to increase their faith. The Lord told them that if they had faith as small as a mustard seed, they could do great things. God does not enlarge our faith instantly. He begins with what little we have and proceeds to grow it.

Elijah was in a faith-building program. The Lord gave him increasingly difficult challenges of reliance and obedience. Back at the brook, the prophet had to depend on the Lord for his own survival. But at Zarephath, he trusted God to provide for both himself and a widow. And in today’s passage, he served her in an even larger way by raising her son to life.

Each act of believing God and the ensuing step of obedience resulted in increased opportunities for Elijah to serve the Lord and others. Raising the dead may seem like the height of his ministry, but it was to be followed by an even greater opportunity to influence an entire nation for God. Elijah was about to face the biggest spiritual battle of his life (1 Kings 18)—all his previous demonstrations of faith and obedience were the Lord’s way of preparing him.

God wants each of us to be influential in His kingdom. He knows which faith challenges to present so that we can be entrusted with even greater tasks.

The Lord will provide occasions for you to believe Him and respond in obedience. These situations are what we call “problems.” Begin to look at each difficulty as an opportunity designed by God specifically for the purpose of increasing your faith so He can do great things in and through you. READ 1 Kings 17:17-24

Be Blessed and Be a Blessing to One Another!

Dawn

Protect Your Joy

James 1 tells us that above all other human traits, endurance is the characteristic that God is trying to build into your life and mine. Perseverance. Steadfastness. Keep on going. Continue making and keeping the commitments of life. No matter how hard, don't quit.

Endurance is the funnel through which all Christian virtue flows. If God can just get me to not be a quitter, He can get every other good thing into my life. If I won't quit my marriage and I won't quit my kids and I won't quit my job and I won't quit my church and I'm not going to run around thinking the grass is greener somewhere else; I'm going to believe, this is where God has me! This is where I'm going to put down roots and plant my life and make a difference; if I'll stay right here under the pressure, it's unbelievable what God could do in my life. But I've got to be willing to commit for the long haul in order for God's trials to have their purpose in my life.
I want to share a cool related verse in James 1:12, "Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life."

While I think there are literal crowns that we'll receive from the Lord, I'd like to suggest that the "crown of life" means the quality of life which God promises to those who love Him. If you endure, if you stand the test, there'll be a better life for you on the other side of this trial. Your best and most fruitful days are ahead. Your most God-glorifying days are ahead. God has a purpose for every difficult thing that you face, and if you hold up under it you're going to receive the "crown of life." It's a quality of life that comes to those who successfully pass the test - those who love Him. For some people it will be in eternity, but for most people it'll be at some point later in this life. Protect your joy - remain under the pressure and don't let this trial steal what's ahead.

Be Blessed & Be a Blessing to One Another!

Dawn

Matters of the Heart

Those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart.
—Matthew 15:18

Every time Susan opens her mouth, it sounds like the blare of an ambulance siren. This TV commercial uses humor to indicate that a dental problem could reveal a more serious physical ailment. So she’d better see her dentist soon!

The commercial made me think about what comes out of my mouth when I open it. Jesus said that our words come from our heart (Matt. 15:18). He offended the Pharisees when He said, "Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man" (vv.11-12). They thought they were right with God because they followed strict rules, including ritual cleansing of their hands before eating and eating only "clean" foods. Jesus upset their pride.

Jesus upsets our pride too. We may think we’re godly people because we go to church regularly or pray, but then we gossip or talk about people behind their backs. James 3:9-10 says, "With [our tongue] we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men . . . . Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. . . . These things ought not to be so."

If a siren blares from our mouth when we open it, we need to examine our heart and ask the Lord to forgive us and to help us be a blessing to others. Try saying this prayer...

Lord, cleanse our hearts so what we speak
Will be reflective of Your grace;
And help us to control our tongues
So we’ll not bring on You disgrace. —Sper
Every time you speak, your mind is on parade.

Be Blessed and Be a Blessing to One Another!

Dawn