Posts

Posted on

All Things New

“Make it work from here.”

 Let’s face it. The only perfect human to walk this earth is Jesus. The rest of us have issues! When we accept Jesus into our heart things change. On a spiritual level we are totally recreated into His image.

17Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 18And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 19To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

II Corinthians 5:17-19

However, we are three part beings. It is usually those other two parts that give us trouble. But God knew this would happen. So, He provided a way of escape from those things. He gave His Word. He tells us that as we spend time in His presence and His Word we will begin to renew our mind and the way we think will change too. And that really is the key to the third part of us, our body, beginning to change. Our bodies don’t take off and do things on their own. Our mind is what send the commands and that is why God gives us a path to change our thinking.

Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again (1 Thessalonians 5:23, NLT)

While our spiritual transformation is instant, our other parts (our soul and body) usually require work. And just like in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sinned, when we disobey God our righteousness doesn’t change, but our fellowship does. We are still created in the image of God. He still loves us! But now there is something that causes us to hesitate to spend time in God’s presence or in His Word. But God gave us a very easy answer to that.

 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

I John 1:9

Victory Action 

Everyday, I will remember and be thankful for what God has done for me! I won’t rehearse my past. I will refuse to get stuck there! In every situation I will go to God for His wisdom and direction.

Posted on

The Image of God

“You were created in the image and likeness of God regardless of what you see in the mirror.”

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: Genesis 1:26

 For I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  Psalms 139: 14b

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20 ESV

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come! 2 Corinthians 5:17

When we look at ourselves we often do it through the filter of what we know about ourselves. We know the good things that we have done. We also know the bad things that we have done. But we should find our image in the Word of God and who we are Christ. Because that is what God sees when He looks at us. He looks at through the filter of love and forgiveness.

But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved! Ephesians 2:4-5

For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. 2 Corinthians 5:21

Victory Action

I will make time to study the scriptures above to renew my mind to who I am in Christ. As I do I will be able to strongly confess that I am the righteousness of God in Christ! I will allow the Word to create a new image in me!

Posted on

God Loves You!

“Even thought you’ve missed it, God still loves you.”

4But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:  7That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 2:4-7

We don’t walk perfectly, but God’s love isn’t based on our actions. He loved us before we existed, sending Jesus to die for our sins even knowing what people would do. God acted in faith that we’d join His family, focusing on our hearts. Our restoration is guaranteed by Jesus’ sacrifice. No matter what your past includes, the Blood of Jesus has covered it so that even God doesn’t see that anymore. He looks at you and just sees Jesus.

Victory Action

Today, by faith, I will walk free from my past. I will set my heart to seek God and become more like Him through spending time in His presence and His Word. I will look forward with hope and live in peace with God because of the blood.

Posted on

Keep Me From Evil

(The following is an excerpt from Bob Nichols’ book, “How to Change Your Destiny.”)

Notice the final part of his prayer.  He cried, “…keep me from evil.”  This reminds me of the Lord’s Prayer: “Lead us not into temptation.”  Lord, do not let me be led into temptation.  Temptation is everywhere.  You cannot buy a quart of milk at the convenience store without seeing the suggestive and the sensual. We live in a world that is polluted by filth.  And there is something about this prayer that grabbed at my heart.  I almost did not read it through.  The Lord said, “Wait a minute.  Read it all.”  Jabez cried, “…keep me from evil.”  Just because God is blessing us and great things are happening does not mean we can be soft on sin.  Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Have you ever watched a marriage being torn apart as by a vicious animal because of sin?  Have you ever seen a happily married couple with everything in the world going for them, but one of them began to play with sin; one of them began to believe a lie of Satan? And two happy, beautiful people that have the world at their feet, see their life begin to fall apart because of sin.  Unfortunately, there is not much preaching on sin anymore.  According to Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” When you play with sin it produces death.  When you walk with Jesus the result is life. If you are going to keep your marriage relationship strong you must walk in righteousness.

A strong marriage is very important to me.  Joy and I have worked at having a strong marriage over these many years, and I thank God for it.  Someone has to stand up and say, “It can be done.”  Every time some silly, little nonsensical thing goes wrong you do not run out and slam the door, and go berserk!  That is not life – that is television!  That is hellish.  That is sin!  “Well, I can get a divorce for $49.50.”  No, you missed the point.  It could cost you forty nine thousand dollars and it would still not reflect the true cost of breaking a marriage covenant.  I am not speaking words of hurt to those that have had problems in their marriage.  Keep your marriage strong.  Divorce is not worth it.

If Satan has put a little thought in your head or if there is a little temptation working in you run from like you would run from a wild beast.  You do not play with those things, I have dealt with so much of it the last few years.  I have seen precious marriages torn into a million pieces because of sin.  I have seen precious teenage lives broken in pieces.

Girls, I do not care what a man may promise you until you are married keep your purity.  Every man out of matrimony that wants to do anything ungodly to your body is a liar and you tell him I said so!  It works both ways, seduction is a two way street. Young people the smartest thing you will ever do is keep your minds and bodies pure.  Young woman no man is worth missing God’s best in your life.  Young man no woman is worth missing God’s best in your life.  Five minutes of pleasure is not worth ruining your life.

I am not trying to be sensational.  If I could instant replay the things I have gone through trying to help people you would understand.  To me sin is not funny!  Sin will make you stupid.  Sin will take you further than you intended to go and it will cost you more than you ever intended to pay.  Sin does not just hurt you; sin hurts everybody.  You say, “It is my business what I do.”  No, it is everybody’s business because sin hurts everybody.  Anybody who sins hurts more than just themselves.

The Psalmist, David, whom I love dearly, was a man after God’s own heart.  Thank God that when Samuel pointed his finger and said, “Thou art the man,” David was man enough to fall on his face before God and pray the powerful prayer, “Have mercy on me, O God.”  There is forgiveness for sin.  The tragedy is that so many people say, “Well, there is forgiveness, so what?  Big deal! I will sin and get forgiveness later.”  But before long their conscience is seared as with a hot iron.  Then they think they can sleep anywhere, drink anything, do anything, watch anything, and feel that they have a biblical excuse for it.  The devil will provide an excuse if you are looking for one! It is not about what you can get away with!  Just because God has not let the sky fall in on you does not mean you are getting away with what you are doing. The Bible says, “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart” (Psalms 24:3-4). I say to every minister and every young couple: keep yourself pure.  What you fantasize, you will get involved with; Satan will see to it.

If you have seen the ravages of alcohol, like Joy and I have seen in our families, you would stay far away from drinking.  I had an uncle that could have been anything in life.  He was one of the most talented men that I ever met, but he died at age 55 because of alcoholism.  My uncle had a good heart, but he gave himself to things that destroyed his life.  I could tell you a lot of stories much like this.  It all started with compromise, a little slip, a little slide, a little drink here, a little drink there and ended up with another shipwrecked life.  If you drink a little, you will drink more.

You can feel temptation coming on.  Just a casual meeting, a casual glance, conversation and chemistry kicks in.  You know what is going on.  Do what Joseph did! Run if you have to!  Do not stand there and wallow in it and then say, “I just do not know what happened to me.”  Someone else might say, “Well, I do not know what I would do if I was caught in that situation!”  I will tell you what you are going to do.  You are going to take the path of least resistance.  Make your decision now what you are going to do.  I have had to walk away from certain friends in the ministry over the years because I have made up my mind I am going to have God’s best.  Satan has every kind of a trap in the world to trip you up.  Get smart!  Be wise!  Jabez said, if I am ever going to break out of this born-to-lose syndrome; I need God’s hand to be with me.  Oh, God, deliver me from evil and the grief that it brings.

Posted on

Going Against The Flow

(The following is an excerpt from Bob Nichols’ book, “How to Change Your Destiny.”)

I have not been able to figure my church out.  We have always done what we are not supposed to be able to do.  We have always been able to go where we are not supposed to go.  We have been able to buy where we are not supposed to buy.  We have been able to do things that others say, “will not work.”  When we moved to downtown Fort Worth, Texas in 1976, several people said, “You have committed church suicide because everybody is going out to suburbia.”  I do not have any criticism for that, but God said, “Go downtown.”  Sometimes, I wondered why He wanted us to go downtown.  But now I can see it, because the downtown area was going to become a focal point for our city. Praise God!  God put us where He wanted us.  God wanted the anointing and the power of the Holy Ghost in downtown.

Can you imagine Jesus sending out forms all over Fort Worth to determine what people wanted church services to be like? I cannot imagine Him walking around and saying, “Now, just why are you so discouraged with churches?  What kind of a church would you like us to be?”  And then we all go in the back room and say, “Oh my Jesus, we need to have sad singing.  We have to change everything around.  We cannot preach over twelve minutes because people do not have the mental capacity to handle over a twelve minute message.”  You know, that would insult my intelligence.  I make no apology that the Spirit of the Lord God is upon us and God has anointed us to see blind eyes opened, to see broken hearts healed, and to see marriages that are shattered put back together.  We are seeing those whose lives that have been ravaged by cocaine, alcoholism, pornography, and filth being set free – praise God!  There is nothing on this earth like the power of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to turn people’s lives around.

Posted on

The Anointing Is On His Word

(The following is an excerpt from Bob Nichols’ book, “How to Change Your Destiny.”)

The hand of God in a person’s life could be seen as the anointing.  When the anointing is on a person it produces results.  “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him” Acts 10:38. When Jabez prayed “…that thine hand might be with me…” he was asking for God’s anointing to face a difficult task.  Some commentators believe that the occasion of Jabez’s prayer was the expulsion of the Canaanites from his territory. The only thing that was going to get him through that situation was the anointed direction of God.

We all face situations where we need to hear from God.  Many times God will speak to us during a church service where the Word of God is being preached.  I have heard of this happening to business people in my congregation more times that I can recall.  They were just sitting in a service and the Spirit of God would give them direction for their business.  He would show them what adjustments to make to get out of financial crisis.  The message preached that day would not even be about finances, but the anointing on the Word brought them direction.  That adjustment would not have been thought of without the anointing touching their life.  I love God and want to please Him. I want the hand of God on my life!  The anointing on my life will help me be a good husband and father.  Let the hand of God be upon me!  Anointing, fall on me – live big within me!  Touch me!  Anointing of God take this piece of clay and do something with it.

Posted on

Forgiveness

“When God forgives, He forgets.”

For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. Hebrews 8:12

As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Psalms 103:12

  I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. Isaiah 43:25

You cannot sin so much as God can forgive. If it comes to a pitched battle between sin and grace, you shall not be so bad as God shall be good. I will prove it to you. You can only sin as a man, but God can forgive as a God. You sin as a finite creature, but the Lord forgives as the infinite Creator. – Charles Spurgeon – 

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace. – Ephesians 1:7

  Victory Decision 

I acknowledge what God’s Word says about me is true! I declare that ALL my sins are forgiven and I am the righteousness of God in Christ. I will not dwell on my past. I will meditate on the blood of Jesus and receive everything He died for me to have.

Posted on

Why Pray?

(The following is an excerpt from Bob Nichols’ book, “How to Change Your Destiny.”)

So, what do you do when the deck is stacked against you?  What do you do when everything says you cannot make it? When life is against you, you can do what Jabez did.  He prayed. He prayed to the Lord his God. And I am telling you, you cannot keep a praying man or woman down.  He prayed.  That is what the Bible says, “And Jabez called on the name of the God of Israel”  (I Chronicles 4:10).

One has wisely said, “Until I pray nothing significant is going to happen, but after I pray the options are unlimited.” So when everything seems to be against you, what can you do?  First of all, you can pray about it.  I want you to notice the flow of his prayer in verse 10.  He prayed: “that thou wouldest bless me indeed” – not a little bit – but God bless me abundantly!  It is okay to ask God to bless you abundantly if you are going to give tithes and offerings to Him and bless others in the process.  It is selfish to pray, “God bless me abundantly,” and do nothing to help others.

God bless me indeed. I am a blessed man.  I am a blessed pastor.  My wife, Joy, is a blessed woman.  We’re blessed! And we have learned that we stay blessed by blessing others.  God said to Abraham, “I am going to bless you and make you a blessing.”  If your motive is to bless others God will see to it that you are blessed.

Jabez prayed, “Lord, enlarge my coast.”  In other words, expand and enlarge my influence.  Enlarge my ability to help others.  As a church we can pray, “God, multiply our outreaches. Multiply the workers for our outreach. Give us more territory and give us more people to help us take that territory.”

Posted on

The Best Is Yet To Come

(Below is an excerpt from Pastor’s book, “How to Find Life in Dead Situations”)

So many things happen in the world today.  Sometimes you wonder what it is going to take to wake people up.  We are facing some challenging days ahead.  We need to pray that Jesus will be glorified in these times.  I heard a story from a United States Marine cadet.  He went to chapel for the first time on his base, not knowing what he would find.  He told me that the chapel was full of young cadets praising and worshiping God.  He said, “When the service was over, we were all on our faces before God praying and crying out.”  Listen my friend, God is at work all over the world.  We need to just keep the switch of faith turned on.   I know the Word of God says that God “. . . is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20). Our most exciting days are yet to come.  I believe the church is being positioned for God’s glorious outpouring across the world.

The final thing that happened in John 11 is so simple; I had never noticed it before.  The Bible says, “. . . then many . . . believed.”  Many believed – that is what happens in every church service, every time you open the Bible or read a book like this.  “Many . . . believed . . . But some of them went their ways . . .” So many people leave a church service without really knowing what the preacher said.

Some just shuffle off down the freeway of life.  Folks, we need to hear from God every day.  We need to use our faith.  We need to stay excited and thrilled about the things of God.  We must press in with our faith as never before.  It is all by faith.  God help me not to be lazy in my faith.  I must press in for myself, my family, and my church.  We must press in.  The will of God is not going to happen because it is a good idea or because it has happened in the past.  It is going to happen because we keep our faith on the line.

Some of you have been through tough situations.  But I tell you this situation is not unto death, but it is unto the glory of God.  God’s going to receive the glory.  You can believe to see the goodness of God in the land of the living.

 

Posted on

Turn It Around

(The following is an excerpt from Bob Nichols’ book, “How to Change Your Destiny.”)

When I was in school very few students owned cars. I remember a certain student, whose father was a doctor, had a brand new Ford convertible.  That young man always had more money than he knew what to do with.  He had a brand new car when everyone else was walking, but he was given too much too quick, and it ruined him.  He became an alcoholic.  The last time I heard about him he was on his last leg and I pray to God that something turns his life around.

You can be born with a silver spoon in your mouth and turn out to be a zero. This young man thought his future was made because he had wealth, but in reality he was heading toward disaster because he had no one directing his path. He was in need of a master and he chose the wrong one. As long as you are partners with God, you can make BIG plans. It is not up to chance, it is Jesus being the Lord and the Savior of your life that makes the difference. It really is!