Heavenly Conditions

Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. For all nations shall come and worship before You, for Your judgments have been manifested.' ...And out of the temple came the seven angels having the seven plagues, clothed in pure bright linen, and having their chests girded with golden bands. Revelation 15:4,6

Life is full of choices, and, you know what, sometimes it's nice when people simplify my choices for me. Would you like this, or would you like that?

Our verses today show us two sides of the biggest choice you will ever have to make-the choice of whether or not to believe in Jesus.

The first thing we see-or hear, really-is a song that is being sung by the saints who have died during the Great Tribulation. Now, these are saints who chose not to believe in Jesus before the Rapture, but have chosen Jesus after that time and have now stood strong against the anti-Christ, perhaps even being martyred for their faith. These are people who have paid the ultimate price for Jesus, just as He did for them.

And the song these people sing is a song of deliverance, glorifying God as the great and marvelous Lord God Almighty and declaring that all nations shall worship Him. Stop there. All nations will worship Him. That means everyone. And by that, I mean that eventually you won't have a choice; you will worship Jesus someday. The only question is whether you will choose while it is still an option.

But what about those who do not choose while it's an option. What about those who not only reject Jesus now, but also after the Rapture during the Great Tribulation? Well, that's where the second half of our verses today comes in, where the angels come out of the heavenly temple, carrying seven plagues, and are given the seven bowls of God's wrath.

They pour this wrath out on the earth, the final measure of God's judgment and warning, the final plea to all remaining people that they must turn and follow Him Which brings us back to our choice. There is time right now to believe in Jesus and begin living for Him. In fact, now is the best time, because no one knows how much more time we have. What I do know is that you want it to be you who makes the choice to worship Jesus. You don't want Him to make that choice for you, because once He makes that choice for you then it's too late-too late and His wrath is coming for you.

Choose Jesus today. Choose Him today, and receive mercy.

Prayer Lord Jesus,

Thank You for coming to save me! I know that I've done wrong things and run from You, but I turn to You today and receive You into my heart. Please lead me in a new life with You!

Amen

When Life Gets Worse Before It Gets Better

Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. Exodus 3:10

Quitting time: It's the favorite time of day for millions of Americans all across the country. But I have news for those of you who believe in Jesus: It's not quitting time yet; God still wants to use you.

Just look at the life of Moses. He's essentially orphaned as a child, raised as an Egyptian, and makes the mistake of his life at the age of forty when he murders a man with his bare hands. He spends the next forty years in the desert shepherding his father in-law's sheep.

Finally, at eighty years old, God appears to him and gives him the mission of a lifetimeGo and free my people from their slavery to the most powerful nation on earth.

How would you like to have that conversation with God? Well, personally, I think there's a lot we can learn from it that will help us see what God is asking of us.

First, you can't be abandoned beyond God's reach. Moses was dumped in a river, saved by a princess, and raised in a foreign household under a pantheon of pagan gods. Yet God reached in and grabbed him, redeeming and calling him to become the redeemer of His chosen son, Israel.

Second, you can't sin your way beyond God's redemption. Moses was a murderer. How many of you have messed up that badly? Even if you have, look at what God does-the closest He gets to mentioning it is telling Moses that those who sought his life were dead.

Third, you can't age your way beyond God's use. Moses was eighty years old. Considering that the average lifespan in our country is about seventy-seven, most of you reading this haven't hit that number yet.

Fourth-well, if you haven't caught on by now, there simply is no excuse to say no to God. Our ability to serve Him is not limited to our weakness because it is empowered by His strength.

A lot of times, people want to quit on God when life gets hard. We need to understand that life might be hard sometimes, but that if we remain unsurrendered to God, it's going to continue to get worse, never rebounding or getting better.

God's plans are always for hope and a future. Surrender to Him today and let Him lead you into His plans for your life.

Prayer Lord God,

Thank You that You have good plans for my life that lead me through the hard time I am facing right now! I completely surrender to Your plan for me and ask that You lead me every day.

Amen

Living in the Strength of the Spirit-Filled Life

Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and also took Titus with me. And I went up by revelation, and communicated to them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles. Galatians 2:1-2

You made a choice for Jesus, but then you had more choices to make.

As a brand new Christian, you probably knew a whole lot more about the world than you did about God. But something about Jesus and your desperate need for Him brought you in. Maybe you were like Paul and God knocked you off your proverbial horse to get your attention. But having turned to Jesus, now you needed to decide what leaders to listen to, which voices to follow.

The Apostle Paul was exactly the same way. At the very point of his conversion he could have become a lot of things. He could have become a man-pleaser. He says, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to be a God-pleaser.

He could have become a religious junkie, calling all the Gentile Christians to start acting like Jews. That's what he used to be, so it would have been a good fit, except that God had called him to become a new man.

He could have become a disciple of the disciples, just sort of staying in their shadow and doing whatever they said to do. Don't get me wrong, he honored their counsel, but he did not hang on their every word.

No, instead of becoming any of these things, Paul became led by the Spirit, enjoying the liberty to be himself. And we should all do the same.

Women, wouldn't it be nice to forget about what Revlon wants to turn you into, to walk into Nordstrom's where you hear, Let me make you up! I can make you beautiful! and just be free from all that, free to be the woman that God is calling you to be?

Men, how about you? Do you look at Paul, walking into that church in Galatia, all strong and confident to confront the issues he sees there, and wonder how he stood up against all the pressure that came against him?

It only happens in the freedom and power of the Holy Spirit. Whatever choice you made when you first became a Christian, I'm telling you this is the choice you need to make now.

Prayer Holy Spirit,

Thank You for the freedom You bring for me to be who You made me to be! I want that freedom, and Your help to live freely. Please come and have Your way in me, so that I can be free from the influence of the world and truly live as you call me to be!

Amen

Return of the King

Strike the Shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. Zechariah 13:7

Who is the Shepherd of your life? Hopefully you can answer with confidence that Jesus is your Shepherd, but did you know that God has given you junior shepherds to help you follow the Chief Shepherd?

It's true! These junior shepherds are called pastors. A pastor is someone who leads the sheep out into the pasture where they can find the nourishment they need for life.

Let me be clear no pastor is supposed to take the place of the Chief Shepherd in your life. However, a great responsibility lies on the shoulders of your pastor the responsibility of leading you into a Christ-like life! We who are junior shepherds will answer to the Chief Shepherd for how well we carried out our calling, and there is nothing Satan would like more than to strike the shepherds so the sheep scatter.

This means that those in the body of Christ who are sheep carry a great responsibility as well the responsibility to pray for their pastor.

Prayer is not just for the super-spiritual; it is not only for those who have it all figured out. If you belong to Jesus, then He hears your prayers! Prayer is powerful. Paul frequently asked his churches to pray for him. Jesus asked His disciples to pray with Him in the last hours before the cross.

Who is your junior shepherd? They need your prayers. We need your prayers. Will you please keep us in your prayers?

Prayer Dear Jesus,

Thank you for my pastor. Give him the wisdom and strength needed to care for Your sheep.

Amen

Project Mission

Now it happened one day that Jonathan the son of Saul said to the young man who bore his armor, Come, let us go over to the Philistines' garrison that is on the other side,' but he did not tell his father. 1 Samuel 14:1

Your Christian life should be an adventure. Do you know why? It's because there are people you don't know, sometimes in dangerous places, who don't know Him and it's up to you and me to reach them.

Jesus' mission was to save the world and following Jesus means actively getting involved in the His mission. It's the Great Commission-the co-mission-realizing we don't do it alone. It is His heart, passion, zeal, and courage filling up our hearts and saying, Come on the adventure! With Me, all things are possible.

Take a trip to Uganda I was part of, for example, where we could believe together for sending a righteous message into the heart of all of the witchdoctors who want to continue to mess with the lives of the children in that nation.

And, hey, I'm going to be honest with you today. When that witchdoctor, Kobi, bowed his knee and accepted Jesus Christ, broken over what he had done, I was just sort of conflicted by the whole thing. I mean, there was something in me that wanted to look at this guy in his prison and say, Not only is this what you deserve, but you ought to rot in Hell for what you have done, mutilating and sacrificing innocent children.

But all of a sudden, I see this wave of grace come through the warden's office. And not only does this witchdoctor's heart change as he surrenders his life to Jesus, but my heart changes, too, as the Lord brought me in tune with the reality of just how far I still have to go.

Listen, God's not through writing Kobi's testimony. And we have the opportunity to be part of that, since they invited us to go back and preach in that prison. But that would mean risk and adventure. That would mean getting uncomfortable for the sake of Jesus' glory. I mean, if you have soap in that prison, you're a wealthy guy. The prison was built in 1920 for 600 inmates, it's never been updated since 1920, and it now holds 3,500 inmates. If you have a mattress that's one inch thick, you're styling, man; you're a king.

And now in the heart of that prison, there's Kobi, the former witchdoctor, now a son of God, proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ, all because some people took an adventure for Jesus.

God wants to make your Christian life an adventure. Will you go?

Prayer Lord Jesus,

Thank You for going on the ultimate adventure, leaving Heaven and coming to Earth to save me! Please put more of Your heart in me today and lead me on the adventure You have for me in this world!

Amen

Jonah-Jacked

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.' But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. Jonah 1:1-3

Hope and Change.

That sounds like a great slogan, doesn't it? Wait, you're saying that it's already taken? Well, we're going to use it anyway, because there's still plenty more change that needs to hap-

pen, amen? And we know that God is the only one who's able to give us hope for the change we need in our lives and world today.

In fact, I want to revisit one of the greatest stories of change in all of scripture-the story of Nineveh. Now, let me first say that there is no city in our world today with problems that Nineveh didn't have going on. I mean, they had every form of wickedness you can imagine, and the city was huge. But God loved the people and wanted them saved, so He sent Jonah.

Mark that. In order for that change to happen in Nineveh, what had to happen first? Jonah had to go. But Jonah didn't want to go, so God needed to hijack him. Jonah fled in the opposite direction of which God had sent him, but-and this is a big but-but the Lord brings on a storm that cancels out Jonah's little trip.

God forced the issue of Jonah's rebellion and disobedience. In other words, it was like God was saying, Hey, Jonah, I want to save Nineveh, but I'm not doing it without you. Get your big but out of that boat and come with me!

Jonah had a big but and a lot of us do, too. Jonah's but was, But I don't wanna! Does that sound familiar? Maybe you've caught yourself saying that a time or two to the Lord.

We need to get hijacked. Surrender. Forget the excuses.

Well, I was going to go down to Mexico, but... Well, I was going to tithe, but... Well, I was going to serve, but...

In order for that great city to be reached, it required Jonah to get hijacked. Listen, we've got a world to reach today. We've got a city to reach that's as lost and sinful as Nineveh was back then. And we can't continue to come up with excuses why God can't use us.

What is the city, nation, people group, or realm of society that God has put on your heart? Now, are you hijacked enough to do something to bring God's change to them?

Prayer Lord God,

I need Your help! I do not want to be like Jonah, fleeing from Your presence and disobeying Your voice. Please give me wisdom and boldness to follow You to bring change to this world!

Amen

This Changes Everything

Now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, Peace to you.' But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit. And He said to them, Why are you troubled?' Luke 24:36-38

What's troubling you? Perhaps it is the economy, the way the government is running the country, or all the turmoil in the Middle East. Maybe you've lost your job, or you don't like your job but are afraid to leave because you know how hard it might be to find a different one.

With all that is going on in the world that could potentially trouble you, you probably don't need me to give you a list of suggestions. Most of us can probably think of something right away on our own that makes us a little unsettled, and maybe even scares us.

That's where the disciples found themselves. Jesus had died, their dreams were shattered, their lives were at a dead end, and now some of them were reporting that they had seen Jesus alive. As they gathered together to share stories of their emotional roller coaster-BOOM!Jesus appears right in the middle of them.

Can you picture yourself standing in that room? I wonder whether Jesus appeared right in the middle of them or kind of off to one side in a corner. Did He wait around to see how long it would take before someone noticed Him? Who saw Him first? Or did they all see Him at the same time?

However it happened, everyone reacted the same way. They were terrified and frightened (as though it wasn't enough to just be one of these two!). They thought they were seeing a ghost.

And there, in the midst of all their trouble, Jesus speaks out, Peace!

As He had spoken in the middle of the storm, Peace! and the waves were stilled, He now spoke to His disciples to still their worries and fears.

Peace, I am not dead. I am alive, and I am with you! In an instant, everything changed.

Can you hear Jesus speaking to you right now? He is saying, Peace! He is saying, I am with you, even right now, and My presence changes everything.

What is troubling you? Jesus is the answer. His death and resurrection mean the promise of peace no matter what we face. Will you ask Jesus for His peace right now?

Prayer Lord Jesus,

Thank You for Your peace! Right now in life I am facing trouble and I don't have peace, but I know that You do. Please come, give me Your peace, and help me through my troubles!

Amen