People of the Second Chance

You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart. 2 Corinthians 2:6-8

Have you heard of the new thing? A lot of people these days are just looking for the newest thing, the biggest announcement, the latest gadget, the hippest style. But I'm telling you today about the best new thing you can possibly imagine-a new life.

This new life comes through a new covenant that God has offered to us, and a covenant simply means community, so the new covenant is talking about God's community. Let me tell you about it:

First of all, the new covenant provides the real deal. The old covenant was a religious deal, but the new one is the real deal. This means that the old way of life was artificial, but the new is actual. See, in the old way you had a goat or sheep that represented the Lamb of God, but in the new, actual system is the real Lamb of God-Jesus Christ-who opens the way to His presence.

This kind of Christianity is written on your heart and soul. It's not some written law that remains outside of you, but it has now gotten to the core of who you are and transformed you from the inside out.

This law written on your heart finally becomes legible so that you and everyone else can read it. It also becomes convincing because you are now living a first-person relationship with Jesus. In the old way, you were stuck with a vicarious relationship that went through a priest who went into the Holy of Holies once a year, but now you can enter right in for yourself. It also becomes persuasive because now you have the living Creator of all things dwelling inside of you, and there is nothing as persuasive and real as a changed life.

All of this is Christianity in its most enduring form. The old covenant was written on tablets of stone that crumpled to dust millennia ago. If your religion is based on them, then what good is that now? Those tablets could never take the place of what God has for us now.

Real Christianity is the divine Christianity that God has written on our hearts. No surgeon can write on your heart, but God can, and He will make Himself this personal, this powerful, and this real to you if you will just ask.

Prayer Lord Jesus,

I confess that I have been living with less than real Christianity, but I want more. I want the real deal. Please come and write on my heart today, even right now, so that I can enter into the fullness of all You have for me!

Amen

Heartguard

I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children I warn you. For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. 1 Corinthians 4:14-15

Let me tell you God's plan-it's that you would have a father and not just a teacher.

The difference is that you look like your father, you have his name, you sound like him, you pick up the same mannerisms so that you act like him even on accident, and even if you don't like it, you still often can't get away from these things.

But a teacher, you know, I can't tell you how many teachers I've had in all my years of school. A small handful of them stand out to me, but maybe none of them impacted me the way my father did. You can probably say the same thing.

Only someone who comes along and fathers you in the faith can impact your life in a way that compares to the impact of your natural father. This kind of spiritual fathering is a good thing, but here's the deal-there will not be many fathers in your life. Their impact will be profound, shaping your faith, your doctrine, your beliefs, and your way of life.

That's why you need fathers, because fathers will help shape you. Teachers, on the other hand, are so numerous that you can pick which ones you want to hear and reject the rest.

It is way too easy to change churches these days. I mean, I praise God for all the churches in America and I thank Him for our Christian heritage, but not every church preaches the truth. Too many dance around the difficult, hard hitting issues that might offend people. But you know what? The Bible has issues in it that might offend people, so I don't have a choice; I'm going to preach on everything and I have and will offend people.

That's because I want to be a father. I'm not just a teacher, trying to make a living off of you, so I'll tickle your ears with whatever you want to hear. No, I'm trying to be a father who cares about you, so I tell you what you need to hear whether you like it or not.

What this world needs right now is not more teachers. What it needs most is more fathers.

Prayer Father God,

Thank You that You're a good father who cares enough about me that You save me from driving my life the wrong way! Thank You for loving me enough to point me in the right way. I choose to humble myself today and listen to the fathers you have put in my life.

Amen

Hijacking the American Dream

By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 2 Peter 1:4

I hope that you get hijacked today. No, really, I do. Because the hijack that I'm talking about is one of the best things that could ever happen to you.

Did you read the verse for today? You need to, because in it, Peter tells us that we can be partakers of the divine nature. This means that it is no longer you and me limited by our own gene pool, going bald because of grandpa or having the heart disease because dad had the heart disease. It is now for us to be fulfilled by becoming partakers in the divine nature-a new DNA.

This is the hijack-being filled with our Father's DNA. It hijacks everything that we are naturally and brings us to a whole new experience and vista.

Now some people I know are still stuck in the Adamic nature of the flesh. And maybe they think they've grown out of it a bit because they've added a little bit of faith, but really they're deceiving themselves.

They come to church and by Monday, they're monsters again. By Tuesday they're tweaked and twisted by this culture and by Wednesday they're weird. Thursday, they're a train wreck and Friday they're freaking out. On Saturday, they have sunk so low into some sin that by Sunday they can barely slide into church.

You're reading this right now and you're thinking to yourself, Yeah, why is that? You just read my mail. The reason is because you're still operating under the old DNA. What you need is the new DNA-the Divine Nature Applied. And you need it applied not just Sunday, but every day. You need it applied not just externally as something you know you're supposed to do, but as something marked on your heart as deeply as your DNA.

It should not be some battle between the American dream and our Father's DNA in us, because we have escaped the corruption that is in the world through its unending desires. Our nature has been transformed and our desires have shifted. Instead of choosing the apple that God forbade, we have now become the apple that doesn't fall far from the tree.

Become hijacked today. Let God's DNA, His nature fill and transform you as you have never been before.

Prayer Father God,

I need to be hijacked! I confess that I have still been living by my old nature, but I realize today the promise that You have given me. Please fill me with Your nature and let me be like You-my Daddy!

Amen

Re-Tooled

Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance. Isaiah 55:1-2

Who is the provider in your house?

Most of the men reading this will answer, Well, I think I am. I provide for myself and my family. A lot of wives will say the same thing about their husbands, with maybe some of them saying, either bitterly or proudly, I provide for my family.

I want you to think carefully about those answers, because if that is what you believe about your provision and your household then you are failing to provide what is best for your family.

Here's a secret-God wants to supply us with things we never could have bought or accomplished on our own. We begin to access the precious things of God when we acknowledge Him as our provider, releasing our pride in being able to take care of ourselves.

Perhaps you don't believe you need God to be your provider. He can give you salvationa ticket to eternal life-but you don't think you need Him in this life. If that's you, then tell me, who gave you the job you have? Who gave you the mind and talents you have that qualify you for your job? Because the Bible says that every good and perfect gift comes from God. He is the one who gave you your job and the ability to perform it.

God says that the best things in life are the things He has, things that satisfy us, things that cause our souls to delight in abundance.

Think about that for a moment-abundance. Are you living in abundance of soul right now? Are your emotions abounding in goodness? Is your mind overflowing in peace? Are your stress levels at record lows? Are you experiencing the abundant life that Jesus said He came to buy for us?

Rich or poor, God has more for you than you can buy on your own. Will you let Him be your provider today?

Prayer Father God,

I confess today that You have more for me than I could ever achieve on my own, and I accept You as my provider. Please fill my soul with abundance, and give to me the things You have that I could never buy. I choose to delight myself in You!

Amen

Warrior Dad

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:12

We are not alone.

When God created the world, He created many different creatures and among them were angels. A third of those angels fell from heaven when they decided to follow Lucifer, a fellow angel, in a revolt against the Most High God.

These fallen angels, these demons, were swept to earth, where they continue to war against God, doing whatever they can to drag as many human souls to hell with them as they can.

There is a spiritual war going on around you at all times, whether you are aware of it or not. I do not advocate looking for demons, but we should not be ignorant of their existence or their schemes. If you believe the Bible, then you believe angels and demons exist whether you can see them or not.

The point, though, is what to do about it. Because the reality is that there are evil forces out there fighting to destroy your family. And if you do not stand firm and fight back, then who will?

You must be the warrior dad and warrior mom, even the warrior kids, for the sake of your family.

Here are three things you must know as you fight:

First, we are not fighting to gain ground. We only have to claim ground, because it all already belongs to God. If you see an area that seems lost, stand firm and say, No way can you have that. It's mine.

Second, we fight from victory, not for it. That's the promise and guarantee over your hearts and homes, because the victory has already been won and we fight from victory.

Third, we have to be different. If we look and act just like the enemy, then we've already lost. What if you've failed in this? Then there is grace to start again. All the great champions of the Bible except Jesus were failures at one point in time or another, but what made them great was that they overcame by clothing themselves in God and pressing on.

As husbands, fathers, wives, mothers, and children-as families-it is time to go to war. There is an enemy who wants to destroy our homes. But as we stand firm together in Jesus' victory, we will do more than keep our families from being changed by the world-we will change the world.

Prayer Father God,

Thank You for being my warrior Daddy! I choose to stand in You in victory over everything that wants to destroy my family and I claim my family for You! Show me how to fight, so that my family will overcome.

Amen

The Key of Forgiveness

Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4:31-32

Every guy likes their power-tool collection. I know I do. And there's this funny thing about us guys, in that a lot of us have no idea what to do with half our power tools, but we still feel better about ourselves because we have them.

God has a power tool that He wants all of us as His children to have. And not just to have it, but to use it. That power tool is forgiveness.

Really, there is perhaps nothing we have at our disposal that is more powerful than forgiveness. What does forgiveness do? Well, let me tell you.

Forgiveness unlocks the bondage of chains from our past-whether it's Christ forgiving us for our screw-ups or us forgiving others for theirs, it sets us free. Forgiveness unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hate. It breaks the power of the chains of our shame and bitterness.

All this is true, yet for some reason, as simple as forgiveness could be, a lot of us seem to not get it. So here are five things forgiveness is not to help all of us out:

Number one, forgiveness is never easy. I'm just being honest, but it's true. Sometimes it takes a continual choice to forgive. And remember, forgiveness wasn't even easy for God-it cost Him His only Son.

Number two, forgiveness isn't forgetting. A lot of us remain in prison simply because we think forgiveness and forgetting are the same thing, but they aren't. Forgetting is a change of memory, but forgiveness is a change of heart.

Number three, forgiveness isn't overlooking evil. Simply put, if we overlooked the evil then we wouldn't need to forgive. Forgiveness comes in light of the evil, in spite of it, not in ignorance of it.

Number four, forgiveness isn't destructive. Forgiveness does not empower destructive behaviors or abuse to continue, but hands them over to God for Him to be the judge.

Number five, forgiveness isn't the same as approval. Think about it, if you approved of what happened, then you wouldn't need to forgive.

There is more to forgiveness than these things, but even these will set you free as you apply them in your life. If you will begin today, you will quickly feel the freedom.

Prayer Lord Jesus,

Thank You for forgiving me! I know that forgiveness is never going to be easy, so I choose to forgive the people who have hurt me. Please set me free from the guilt, shame, bitterness, and pain of my past!

Amen

Never Saw It Coming

The words of the wise are like goads, and the words of scholars are like well-driven nails, given by one Shepherd. And further, my son, be admonished by these. Ecclesiastes 12:11-12

It can be easy to forget what really matters. Do you remember? Even the wise King Solomon had forgotten what was really important, and it's almost as if he wrote our verses for today to remind himself of what he already knew was true.

Who wrote the book of Proverbs? Oh yeah, that was me, he says. Then he goes on to say, Hey, yeah, those Proverbs I wrote? They aren't just pretty words to admire. They are words to embrace, to study, to meditate on and memorize, and ultimately, to allow to speak into your heart and life. They are words to remind you what really matters.

He says that these words are like goads. Do you know what a goad is? It is a stick used by shepherd to get their sheep to move, a method of discipline to bring the sheep into good pastures. They are like well-driven nails, hammered into just the right place, dividing between soul and spirit, bone and marrow, hitting you right where you need it in the best way possible.

But this kind of language goes cross-grain to what our culture says today. Our culture says that disciplining our kids is abuse, that we shouldn't nail them down, so to speak, to what really matters, that they need the freedom to determine for themselves who they are and what truth is.

Hogwash. Lack of discipline is why your kid is a monster, staying out too late, breaking your rules, getting drunk, sleeping around, driving crazy, and killing themselves. I don't know many Christian parents who tell their kids these things are okay, but if you don't discipline them to enforce what you tell them then why would they listen to you? Have you forgotten that you're the parent, the one who's actually in charge?

Or maybe we've just forgotten what's really important in our own lives-the fact that God's in charge, that we're His children, and that He does discipline us. Why does God discipline us? Because He loves us, and so that we'll listen to His words.

Even as earthly parents, we want our kids to listen to our words because we know that if they do, then we can help them have a better, more successful life. How much more is this true with God?

If we will listen to God's Word, good things await us. Let God's Word admonish you today. Let it remind you what really matters.

Prayer Father God,

Thank You that You are a good Father and that no matter what my earthly father was like, I can trust You. I know that I can trust Your words to lead me into a better life, and someday, into the fullness of eternal life that You have for me. Please lead me with Your Word today!

Amen