God's Way

When we & or our faith feel attacked let us pray the Armor of God and remember, our God is bigger.

Ephesians 6:10-18

Sometimes life throws us some doozies doesn't it? And throughout these complicated problems, 9 times out of 10 we have a knack for messing them up even worse than they started.

Why?! Why can't we seem to keep silent instead of keeping our mouth open and why can't we look to God and search Him before we search our own self-seeking hearts? 

That sinful nature of ours never seems to give us a break does it? Thank the good Lord that He cared enough to give His son Jesus to die for those sins. Sins we might have to answer for here on earth in the form of consequences but sins that have also been forgiven and no longer shackle us to an eternity separated from God.

The heartbreak that last statement gives me could shatter all windows within a couple hundred miles of me. I think of the heartbreak I feel when I get into arguments with loved ones and know how that hurts so but just like the heartbreak of complete separation from Christ can be a remedied problem through faith in Him so can us learning from our mistakes through the healing power of Christ.

He heals our hearts and sets our minds on Him and purifies our thoughts so that we know how to speak and act in ways that glorify Him.

Let us remember to pray before we respond to any circumstance, even if it's a quick prayer asking God to help us say or write what is appeasing to Him and will ultimately shine on His glory.

When we mess up it is not the end but instead the begining. Another chance to enter into a similar position and handle it better and say to all who see, "I handled that this way because God changed me."

Upon everything we have done let's rest a new way to handle the same problem but this time, God's way.

Sons of Thunder

I often times get ahead of myself in thought, word, and deeds. I need to remember although God gave me a voice and permission to use it for Him, I must make sure that I am speaking for Him and not myself, that my words are pleasing to His ears, and that my actions following what I speak are pleasing to Him.

The following is a great example of two familiar apostles of Jesus' that had the loud voices & the passion for Christ but sometimes got ahead of themselves. So much so, He nicknamed them the "sons of thunder".

John 15:13

No one has greater love than to give up one's life for one's friend.-James

Boanerges

Sons of thunder

James son of Zebedee and his brother John.

Lets follow suit and never think timidly about Jesus again.

Let us be forthright about preaching the word and like fisherman calling out to each other over the waves we should shout praises to our Lord over crowds. Lets shake the world for God. Let us not be silenced. Let us worship so loudly that everything in hell is bending at the knee to the One and only God.

Let us not be as useless as thunder with no sight of lightening. How then can people see reason for our hollering? We will look like fools. Let us be the thunder that is followed by an act. Finishing our loud rumbling with lightening instead of those who thunder but never follow up with actions. When the disciples state they won't deny Jesus, with voices loud in assurance, only to have their fire fizzle out by lack of action during the arrest & crucifixion a passerby would never know real love for Christ and someone who was in their lives might have questioned their faith.

With our actions should be wisdom in Christ.

Much like James and John we often speak before we think and get ahead of ourselves by our own self-inflated egos.

When James and John asked Jesus if they should command fire to come down from heaven and consume this village for not receiving Him, He rebuked them saying, "you do not know which manner of spirit you are of. The son of man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them". Luke 9:51-56 N(KJV)

We must watch our thunder and our lightening and make sure our deeds create life, & love, ending in rebirth in Christ instead of ruin and death of faith. We are to be good examples and stewards in Christ. Bringing forth hope. Let us know the nature of ourselves. Let us show love for our savior Jesus Christ by giving our old selves to death and our new lives to Him so that His will may be accomplished through our thunderous preaching and love and our deeds that bring our words full circle. There is no greater responsibility.