TEMPTED?

I awoke this morning practicing what I preach...lol.  The first thought to enter my mind was an invitation for the Holy Spirit to fill me, to saturate me, to overflow within me.  I prayed this prayer off and on for maybe twenty minutes as I got up, showered, and prepared my coffee.  If you were at Grace River yesterday, then you know that this is from the message that I brought from Luke 4.  Just because I'm a pastor, it doesn't mean that I don't have tough days (weeks?). Even Jesus had tough days, weeks, and months.  Jesus experience with the devil (the slanderer) in the wilderness (the alone place) reveals five types of prayer declaration that we need to include in our every day in order to overcome the devil's attacks.

 

#1--"FILL ME WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT" - As Jesus was led into the wilderness to be tempted, he was full of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit's filling brings with it the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  It brings the power to heal the sick and to raise the dead. It brings the knowledge and understanding of God Himself--the once who created the day that we are now experiencing.  The Spirit's filling is the greatest resource that we can possess--almost as important as salvation itself.

 

#2--"I AM THE CHILD OF GOD" - The devil begins his conversation with Jesus, "If you are the Son of God...".  If?  He does the same thing with us..."If you are the child of God", "If you are loved by God", "If you are accepted and forgiven", "If you really matter".  My friends we do matter! We are children of the Most High God! We are the King's Kids!  If you are unsure of your identity, here are 40 Bible Verses to tell you: http://www.openbible.info/topics/identity.

 

#3--"IT IS WRITTEN" - Jesus responded to temptation with, "It is written..."  A verse a day keeps the devil away!  Get in the Bible! Find a reading plan on your Bible App! Dust off your printed copy and begin reading John.  Use the 40 Bible Verses on identity mentioned above. Read one each day, learn it, memorize it, declare it! 

 

#4--"I WILL WORSHIP THE LORD MY GOD" - Jesus response to the devil's suggestion that he bow down to him was simply, "You must worship the Lord your God".  We worship whatever we value. Start your day with worship expressions from your heart directed to the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit!  You will encounter names for God, revelations of His character, and descriptions of His attributes as you read the Bible. Use these biblical calls to worship to focus on declaring out-loud all that God is.

 

#5--"I TRUST GOD" - "You must not test the Lord your God", Jesus declared when it is suggested that he toss himself off of the temple in order to delivered by the angels.  No need to test God, when you trust God!  Declare it right now! "I trust God"...with my day...with my job...with my family...with my finances...with my life!

 

Friends, I'm practicing these five declarations today!  Will you join me?  Let's do it together and see what happens!  I suspect that Satan will depart until a more opportune time!  Let's chase him out of town with our declarations of faith in God!

MERCY

"But you would not have condemned those who aren't guilty if you know the meaning of this Scripture: 'I want you to be merciful; I don't want your sacrifices'" (Matthew 12:7).

 

The Pharisees strongly rebuked Jesus for allowing his disciples to, in their eyes, break the law. Jesus' response was to insist that the Pharisees did not understand the heart of God. The religious have always been good, then and now, at pointing out the shortcomings in others. God, on the other hand, has always been good. Yep....He is good!

 

Today, you and I will likely face the choice of either condemning or showing mercy. We will choose either to be right or to be good.

STIRRING

"Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool which is called in Hebrew Bethesday, having five porticoes. In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, waiting for the moving of the waters; for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted" (John 5:2-4).

 

"A man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He said to him, 'Do you wish to get well?'" (John 5:5-6).

 

The word translated here as "seasons" is kairos and the word translated "time" is chronos. The lame man had been there for a great many seconds . . . minutes . . . even hours . . . a great many days, months, and, yes, years waiting for the kairos--the opportunity for healing. Today, however, the stirring would not be in the waters, it would be in the voice of Jesus asking, "Do you want to get well?" He need only enter into the kairos that Jesus was presenting.

 

Today, your kairos (your opportunity for something special to happen) may come at any time and in any form. Don't miss it just because it's inconvenient or unexpected. Even now, if you listen carefully, you may just hear the whisper of Jesus...

JESUS AND KAIROS

"After these things Jesus was walking in Galilee, for He was unwilling to walk in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill Him. ² Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was near. ³ Therefore His brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing. ⁴ For no one does anything in secret ^[a]when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” ⁵ For not even His brothers were believing in Him. ⁶ So Jesus *said to them, “My time is not yet here, but your time is always opportune. ⁷ The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil. ⁸ Go up to the feast yourselves; I do not go up to this feast because My time has not yet fully come.” ⁹ Having said these things to them, He stayed in Galilee." (John 7:1-9)
 

The word, "time", found in verses 6 and 8 is the greek word "kairos". It is Spirit-time. It is the opportune time. It is the fragrance of time between the seconds on a clock face. Jesus lived his life according to "kairos"--according to the Father's timing. Jesus was not living his life according to his own timing, his brothers timing, or anyone else's timing--only the Father's timing. The invitation is for you and I to live our lives likewise--according to kairos.
 

Today, find the time (chronos) to experience kairos. Close your eyes . . . think of God's love . . . and escape the passing seconds and minutes that clutter your day.

TIMING

The New Testament was written in the Greek language and contains nuances that are not automatically captured in English. For example, there are two different words for "time" that are used in the New Testament. We use one word to convey both meanings in English. The first Greek word is "chronos" which defines time as we most often understand it: seconds, minutes, and hours.The second word is "kairos" and is a bit trickier to define. It might be easiest to think of it as hunter pulling back the string on his bow and then at just the right moment releasing the arrow. He must have good timing to hit a moving target. Kairos is also that experience of losing all sense of chronos time. It's when you are so caught up in an experience that time passes quickly without your awareness. It can also be defined as opportunity--a moment when something special can happen.

 

Sarah Ban Breathnach in her book, Simple Abundance, contrasts the two words: “Chronos is clocks, deadlines, watches, calendars, agendas, planners, schedules, beepers. Chronos is time at her worst. Chronos keeps track. ...Chronos is the world's time. Kairos is transcendence, infinity, reverence, joy, passion, love, the Sacred. Kairos is intimacy with the Real. Kairos is time at her best. ...Kairos is Spirit's time. We exist in chronos. We long for kairos. That's our duality. Chronos requires speed so that it won't be wasted. Kairos requires space so that it might be savored. We do in chronos. In kairos we're allowed to be . . . "

 

The Bible says, "Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil" (Ephesians 5:15-16). Care to guess which word for time is used here? Yep, kairos!

 

Today there will be all kinds of kairos opportunities throughout your day. Don't miss them because you are so busy doing chronos.

Nothing to Laugh About

"Is anything too hard for the Lord?" (Genesis 18:14)

 

Genesis 18:14 is the Lord's respnse to Sarah's laughter. Sarah laughs when she overhears the Lord tell Abraham that she will have a baby boy in a year's time. She laughs because never before has she been able to become pregnant. She laughs because she is ninety ears old. She laughs because she is a worn-out woman who long ago gave up the dream of a baby of her own. She laughs because she has lived for years with the indignity and shame of being childless. She laughs because she is all out of tears...

 

What about you? What dream are you laughing at?

FLOODS

"But God remembered Noah and all the animals in the boat. He sent a wind to blow across the waters, and the floods began to disappear." --Genesis 8:1

 

Someone today needs to know that God is remembering you in the midst of your great flood, floating around in your little boat. It's going to be ok! You may not can see it happening, but even now the floods are starting to recede.

 

You may be encouraged by this song today: http://youtu.be/04y_KfO7GzI

REACTING

"You will be accepted if you respond in the right way. But if you refuse to respond correctly, then watch out! Sin is waiting to attack and destroy you, and you must subdue it." --Genesis 4:7

 

So how do you respond when life knocks the wind out of you?...when you get less than what you think you deserve?....when friends betray?...when jobs go away?...when kids disobey? Have you ever considered the possibility that when "things going wrong" in your day (week or month) that it's a test of your emergency response system? I've found that crisis is a great revealer of who we really are. Do you get angry when you don't get your way? Then you're an angry person! Do you get depressed when friends leave you out of their plans? Then you're a depressed person. God allows crises to reveal who we are so that we can start down the path of healing. If you choose to run away and hide, then you won't get better...you'll get bitter! Sometimes we remove ourselves from the source of our discomfort only to discover that the pain was there for our gain--for our healing.

 

Sometimes people leave the church because they feel left out or they get their feelings hurt. Rest assured it happens to all of us--me too. The truth is that there is only one good reason to leave the church--That reason would be that God's Holy Spirit is drawing you on to your next assignment. A wise man once told me, "Make sure that you're running to something and not away from something!" If you're being led out--make sure that it's the Holy Spirit doing the leading and not some other spirit!

 

Today, let's choose to respond in the right way to whatever may come our way!

A WORLD WITH NO SHAME

"Now, although Adam and his wife were both naked, neither of them felt any shame." --Genesis 2:25

 

It takes a great deal of imagination for me to consider a world with no shame. I suppose that we have always known shame in our lives--at least I have. I have early recollections of being told that my actions, my feelings, my wants...were either selfish...or were misguided...or were somehow shamefully out of line. I think shame was used as a tool in my life to attempt to modify behavior and to establish compliance. I experienced shame a lot--to the point that I began to believe that I was, in and of myself, shameful. It's taken a revolution of my heart over the past few years to help me understand that I am, in essence, not shameful, but rather good--created in the image and likeness of God Himself. Transparency (nakedness) has been my road out of the valley of shame. The more I've opened up--the more I've experienced God's healing grace. Like Adam and Eve, we were all created to be naked and unashamed.

 

Perhaps this year will be the year when you gain the courage to share your secrets with a trusted friend. Over the years, I've had the role of hearing people's secrets and I can tell you that not one time have I ever received these burdens with any spirit other than the spirit of grace. No shame...just grace! Got secrets? Then you've got shame!  Isn't it time to come into the light and to discover God's glorious grace?

HOW TO HAVE A PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!

"Oh the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with scoffers. But they delight in doing everything the Lord wants; day and night they think about his law. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season without fail. Their leaves never wither, and in all they do they prosper." --Psalm 1:2-3
 

I love the fact that the very first Psalm tells us how to have a prosperous new year! It's right there in the text, "Their leaves never wither, and in all they do they prosper." In the words that precede the promise, a formula for success is revealed:
 

Don't follow the advice of the wicked!

Don't stand around with sinners!

Don't join in with scoffers!
 

But rather...Delight in doing everything the Lord wants!
 

Day and night think about his law!
 

The best way to know what the Lord wants is to spend time thinking about his law. If you haven't yet today, then let me encourage you to find a Bible and start a reading a plan for the year. A great resource on your computer or smartphone is https://www.youversion.com/. I use "The Two Year Bible" (NLT) for my daily reading plan. It doesn't matter the translation or the plan or whether you use a book or an electronic device--just get in the word! Think about His words--and do what He says! God promises that you will prosper! As I shared on Sunday, Jesus says, "He who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst" (JN 6:35).