MORE THAN ME

Life is about so much more than me and you.  There are those around us who depend on our faithfulness and strength.  When we choose to live for me, we take a chance on leaving them hanging or disappointed in how we live.  In Psalm 69, David prayed to the Lord in verse 6 that those who hoped in the Lord would not be disgraced because him (David) and they wouldn’t be put to shame as they seek the Lord.  He had just admitted his folly and guilt were not hidden from God.

 

That is where we all stand.  We know that the Lord knows all there is to know about us and we know how sinful we are, but those around us may not have any idea at all.  Can you imagine the disgrace and shame we could bring on our family and friends and God’s name if people really knew all of our sins?

 

My prayer today for myself and for you is that we will overcome and do the will of the Father by yielding to the Spirit that resides within us.  Our desire should be to bring glory, honor, and praise to the Name of the Lord in all we endeavor to accomplish.  We will be successful if we will do as I Peter 1:13 tells us to do – “Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.”  He will be revealed if we will do our part.  Be Blessed! 

 

 

Insignificant?

 

Do you ever question just how much of a difference you make for the Kingdom of God?  I have to be honest – I do.  The day to day work of the ministry sometimes leaves me scratching my head and wondering if I even make a impact on the world I live in and more importantly, if I make a difference for the world to come.  I have to acknowledge that in this performance based society that we all live in I do look around at others and compare my efforts with theirs and all too often find what I have done to be less than most.  My failures far outweigh my successes and I can really get down on myself. 

Then, I will read a passage of scripture or a devotional note from a man of God that refocuses my attention.  Today, I was reading “In His Presence” – a daily devotional that goes through the book of Matthew with commentaries from men like Charles Spurgeon, Matthew Henry, and John Wesley.  The passage of scripture for this morning was Matthew 10:5.  Alexander Maclaren focused upon the first five words of that verse – “These twelve Jesus sent out.”  At first glance you might be thinking like I was when I read it that there isn’t a lot of significance to these words.  But, Mr. Maclaren had great insight which was just what I needed to hear.  This verse follows the list of the twelve disciples that Jesus poured Himself into during His time of ministry on this earth.  Jesus sent twelve men out, but do you realize that six of those are never really mentioned again in the scriptures except in the list of the twelve in the book of Acts?  The work of six of these men is not recorded for us anywhere. 

Does this mean that they never did anything for Christ?  Does it signify that they didn’t follow the commands the Lord gave them?  Not so!  I realized that I can learn a great lesson from them about my own service for the King.  I am sure that most of my work will go unnoticed and unknown.  It may very well be remembered a year or two by those who love me or were impacted by that work, but in the annals of human history it will never be recorded.  According to the measure of success that man concocts, what I have done for Christ will pale in comparison to others of greater notoriety and stature.  But in the eyes of the One I serve, every little detail has been recorded and will be reviewed and rewarded. 

Christ has given us all a task.  How earnestly and accurately we strike the blow for Him is all-important, but how far it reaches is up to Him.  Our job is to keep swinging, keep doing, keep focusing upon the One for whom we are doing our work.  If it is for our own glory, it will leave us dissatisfied and unfulfilled.  If it is for the Glory of the King, it will leave us contented and anticipatory of the day when He will say, “Well done my good and faithful servant.”    

 

DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS

 

I have been reading a passage of Scripture in Exodus over the past couple of weeks that has truly peaked my interest like never before.  I have read this passage many times – as it is one of my favorites.  It is found in Exodus 33.  Moses has just come down off of the mountain after having been given the 10 commandments – only to find that the children of Israel had made a golden calf and reverted to worshiping an idol instead of the Lord their God.  This passage starts immediately following this sin. 

 

The Lord in talking to Moses tells him to go ahead and lead the children to the land He had promised to Abraham.  The Lord was going to stand good on His promise, but what He told Moses next really caused a reaction that makes me step back in my thinking.  He told Moses to go on, but He wasn’t going to go with him or the people of Israel.  Moses’ reaction to this was one of defiance.  Can you imagine?  Moses basically decided to say no to the God of all gods.  He chose to stand up to the Lord of lords and say – unless You go with us – I’m not going to go anywhere.

 

 Now I don’t how that hits you, but for me, it was a real eye opener.  In my righteous indignation I could easily think, “How dare Moses confront the Lord in such a defiant way?  Does he not know who he is talking to?”  But, quite obviously he did and it didn’t matter to him.  You see, Moses was so in tune with God that he felt free to banter back with the Lord – to call His hand – so to speak.  Moses knew the heart of God so well that he was comfortable with his decision to stay put.  Moses realized that he couldn’t lead a single soul without the Lord’s help.  He told the Lord in verse 15, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.”  Moses recognized in himself something we all need to recognize – without the Presence of the Lord in our lives we are lost.  We desperately need Him everyday.  He is our Source – for everything.  We can do nothing without Him, but we can do all things through Him.  

 

Moses then ask a question to which he had already come to the answer, but, it is one we all need to ask ourselves as we live our daily lives.

 

 “How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us?  What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?” 

So this is what I had to ask myself.  “Does anyone recognize that the Lord is pleased with me?  Do I have any distinguishing characteristics which allow the world around me to know that I am a child of God?”  Sometimes being introspective can be extremely painful because it makes me see the real me – the one God sees.  I know the thoughts I have had toward others that don’t honor God.  I know the way I reacted to that person who cut me off in traffic or said something about me that wasn’t true.  I know what wrongful thoughts or deeds I had which caused God to cringe.  I could go on, but I think you get the point.  I know me well, but I don’t know me near as well as God knows me – yet He still loves me.  He still forgives me.  He still extends His hand of mercy and grace. 

 

As I live my life before you and before others, I pray that I will be as distinguished as my Savior.  I pray that the characteristics that separate Him from all others will separate me from the world and that people will truly see the distinguishing characteristics of Christ in me.   

 

 

Tim Ramsey

 

“WE”

I had a man email me this week who has been going through some very tough situations in his life over the last two and a half years and he was once again needing prayer for direction and strength in the day to day. He has come a tremendously long way in his walk with the Lord and I am so proud for the strides he has made and for the successes the Lord has brought into his life.

So, as I was looking for another verse from God’s Word that would encourage him in the battle, I was once again drawn to a passage in II Corinthians that has become increasingly familiar to me over the last few years. I once again read this passage and began thinking about what I was going to type to him to encourage him and the Lord showed me something that I had really never noticed before in that passage. As I mulled it over in my mind, I became increasingly aware of how misguided my own thoughts can get at times when I am going through struggles of my own and how down and discouraged I become because I don’t sense God moving or working in my situation. What started out to be a quest to help a brother, became a lesson for me. I would like to share with you what I believe the Lord spoke to me.

II Corinthians 10:3-5

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

Did you notice the two letter personal pronoun in this passage – WE? I don’t know about you, but that little word changed my perspective on how spiritual battles are fought and won. You see, I am more than happy to pray to the Lord for His hand in the difficult circumstances of life, but I so often sit back and wait on God to move and work in situations that I have the power to change. God has given us the weapons we need, loaded with His divine power, and ready to go to war yet we sit on the battle field with those weapons at our disposal and wait on God to do some miraculous, cosmic type of manifestation in our circumstance that will get us out of the trouble we are in. We sit like so many of this generation who have been taught that we are victims and deserve compensation or reward for our plight.

Instead of waiting on God to fight the battle, why don’t we just pick up the tools He has given us and go after those wrongful thoughts, those spiritual barriers, and DEMOLISH them ourselves using the divine power God has placed within each of us who have accepted His gift of salvation. The Lord challenged me to get up, get out, and get working on those strongholds and then “WE” – Him and me together – can win the war.

HOPE

 

I had a member of the choir email me a story last week that had been published in ESPN Magazine about a football game that took place in Grapevine, TX toward the end of last year.  The Gainesville State School had come to town to play.  The Gainesville team is made up of 11 players that are incarcerated in a maximum security correctional facility.  The Grapevine school is the Faith Christian School.  Their coach had decided to have fans of his school team root for the other school.  Can you imagine what that must have been like?  Parents of players on the Faith Christian School’s team cheering the players from a maximum security prison on to victory against their children.  I won’t give any other details because I would encourage you to look up the archives of this story online and read it for yourself.  However, I will tell you that the writer of this story from ESPN realized by the end of his story what many people today never realize.  That there is something that can be given that is free – HOPE.

 

One definition of HOPE that is given in Webster’s Dictionary is to cherish a desire with anticipation.  Imagine if you will what life would be like without HOPE.  Why would you get up in the morning? What would there be to anticipate?   What motivation would there be to be successful, to have a family, to live life on this planet we call Earth?  I can’t begin to grasp what life would be like without HOPE.  There are a lot of things that you and I might HOPE for in this life.  We each one have our own hopes and dreams, but what would our lives be like without any of those hopes and dreams?  Why go on living? 

 

The story that inspired this dialogue in me touched me in a way that I can’t begin to describe and sparked within me a new desire to give the gift of hope to the world around me.  Now I will be honest, I can’t truly give HOPE, but I can give direction and insight into how anyone can obtain it.  You see, HOPE is not going to be found in anything that this world has to offer.  You will never have enough money, enough stuff, enough health, enough joy to truly have HOPE.  The only way to truly have HOPE is to know the One who is our Ultimate Hope – the Lord Jesus Christ.  He came as a baby in a manger to bring HOPE to a world that is filled with hopelessness.  He came to give a reason to HOPE in the future.  The only way to have this HOPE is by coming into personal relationship with Jesus and this is done through acknowledging Him as Lord and Savior of the world.  He came to that manger to complete a mission that started before time began – redeeming mankind.  He came to give eternal life to anyone who chooses to believe in Him and accept Him into their lives.  It sounds too good to be true and too simplistic to be effective, but that is all it takes.  Romans 10:9 tells us that if we will confess with our mouth that “Jesus is Lord” and will believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, we will be saved – that simple. 

 

Now, for those of us who are children of God and have received Christ into our hearts, we have a job to do.  We have the awesome privilege of living before the world around us with such HOPE that they want what we have.  We have the task of demonstrating that HOPE everywhere we go.  If we live it, the world will take note.

 

If you have never accepted this free gift of eternal life and HOPE, then my encouragement to you would be to receive it simply by asking for it.  It is as simple as praying to God and letting Him know that you believe in His Son, Jesus Christ, and He will meet you where you are and give you, not only new life, but HOPE.       

 

Your sins are forgiven!

Have you ever had one of those moments when it truly struck you what those words mean? I had one of those this morning. As I was praying one more time for the Lord to forgive me of my sins and to cleanse me from the errors of my ways, it struck me. I’m nearly 49 years old. I can’t even begin to recall all of the sins of my life and the many times I have prayed for forgiveness. I can somewhat recall the sins that I have continually had to confess, but to truly know of every sin I have committed would be totally mind boggling.

That is when it struck me. I know that over the years I have sinned more than is even comprehensible, yet the Lord forgave, forgives, and will forgive every one of them. “As far as the East is from the West, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:12) Can you imagine? You can start going East and you will never meet West and the reverse is true. Isn’t God good!? You realize that if He had said that as far as North is from South, I have removed your transgressions that it would mean there was a point where He could go back and find them. You can only go so far North and then you are headed South, but you will never, ever find West by going East. Our sins have been removed – forever! God can’t even find them! Is that not the most awesome thing you have ever heard!?

Now, here is where you and I come in. The Lord can’t find our sins. The Lord doesn’t remember them. Do you or I? I’m afraid that I have to be honest and say yes. Yes, I remember those sins that I have repeatedly committed. I remember the things that I did wrong yesterday. I remember confessing them this morning and I still have a tendency to carry the guilt. AND, I’ll be honest, I can remember the sins that others have committed as well. I remember those who have sinned against me. I remember the failures of others around me. BUT, if the Lord can’t remember them or find them, why am I still fishing in the sea of forgetfulness or why am I headed East trying to find West?

Therefore, the time has come to allow God’s Amazing Grace to flow over us and truly remove the guilt and shame of our past failures in order for us to walk forward in freedom and release. And just as God has released us from our sins, we need to release others from theirs as well. I pray that you and I will be able to do that today – for ourselves and for others.

 

Are You Discouraged?

 

            Have you ever felt as though the Lord had a call on your life for a particular purpose and yet feel as though that purpose is never going to be fulfilled?  Have you ever just known in your spirit that something greater and more meaningful was on the horizon, yet it seems as though the hill you are currently climbing has blocked the view of the landscape?  Have you felt as though your day to day is not accomplishing anything for the Lord?  Well, I believe there is hope for all of us.

 I have been in those places and still sometimes feel overwhelmed by them just as anyone else.  As I was reading the devotional “My Utmost for His Highest” by Oswald Chambers this morning I was reminded that God doesn’t waste anything and that His call on all of our lives is never taken away or put on the back burner – so to speak.  No matter what you feel as though the Lord has put in your spirit to accomplish, God has a master plan that is far greater and higher than you or I can imagine or think.  Remember Moses?  He saw the oppression of his people in Egypt and came to the realization that God was calling him to be their deliverer.  He, in his own strength, tried to help God accomplish the deliverance by killing an Egyptian man who was taking advantage of one of the Israelite people.  Then, God sent him to the desert for 40 years until the pride and arrogance of Moses could be brought down to the place where Moses said, “Who am I that I should go?”  It took the Lord all those years to prepare Moses for the task He had ordained for him.  Do you think Moses was ever discouraged during that time?  Do you think he ever wondered about his people and family back in Egypt?  Do you think he ever questioned whether he had missed God’s call altogether?  I am sure that he did, but in those 40 years of shepherding sheep, Moses learned valuable lessons from God that truly equipped him for the task at hand. 

            I don’t know what God may be preparing you for or even what he may be preparing me for, but I have learned this.  That during the times in our lives where we feel as though our hum drum day to day has no meaning, God is working in us to accomplish His plan.  Don’t give in to the notion or idea that you have been put on the shelf.  Press into the Lord and continually seek His will and guidance for your life, and at some point along the way you will here His voice reviving that call once more in you for His purpose and glory.  He will complete the work in you that He began so long ago.  Keep seeking.  Keep listening.  Keep worshiping.  Keep going.  God is near and He is working.