Pastor Goforth

Praying on your Spiritual Armor

December 17th, 2013

I am not one who uses written prayers very often. But I wrote this many years ago as a tool to help me and others to focus on putting on the armor of God
Perhaps you would use this in response to my previous blog to help you “put on the armor or God” in your morning prayers.
This isn’t a substitute for your own prayer but a jumping off point a starter prayer. I hope it is a help and a blessing. Maybe you could print it out and put it on the fridge or on your mirror or in your Bible

DAILY ARMOR PRAYER

Dear Lord,
To the best of my ability with the power of God’s Spirit within me, I intend to enthrone Christ as Lord in my life this day.
Lord I take on the MIND OF CHRIST, as commanded in Philippians 2:5, that is to be an obedient servant seeking only to please God.
I take on the BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, may I be faithful in heart, motives, and emotions.
I take on the BELT OF TRUTH, may your integrity within me keep everything else in my life in place.
I take on the SHOES OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE, may the message of Christ be the force that carries me through the day.
Lord when attacked today by the evil one, I will hold up the SHIELD OF FAITH, knowing that you have already won the victory for every battle that I will fight today.
Finally Lord, I give you free reign to use the SWORD OF THE SPIRIT, in my life today. I understand that it is powerful, to cut and to heal. I promise to practice and become familiar with it so that you may use it effectively in my life.
Thank you Lord, for loving me enough, to always equip me for the task of being your soldier, your sheep, and your sheltered child. I love you because you loved me first. Now, by the power and the name of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, God Almighty, I pray. Amen.

Be strong in The Lord in his mighty power

49.490810 7.907648
Put On the Armor

December 16th, 2013

If the struggle you face today, in your mind has a human face and a name, then we are missing the most important understanding in the battle. Eph 6 tells us that we wrestle NOT against flesh and blood.

But let me take a step back. verse 10 says “Be STRONG in The Lord in his mighty power” “strong” is the word endynamous. It is a verb in the present passive tense. It is also in the imperative tense. It is an instruction of importance to BE STRONG. But to BE passively strong in God’s power, we must PUT ON the elements that make Him who HE is.

“Put on” = clothe, dress oneself. Because we struggle NOT against flesh and blood, then we can’t put up our struggle in a fleshly way. We do not wage war as the world does. So we must Be strong not fight FOR strength or power. The devil it says is “scheming” methodeias … it’s plural he comes at us with many schemes. “Therefore” v13 says “put on the full armor of God” – How often do we leave part of God’s armor in the closet? It’s ALL ineffective without the other pieces

Without the Breastplate, our vital organs are unprotected. Without the Belt, fastened the breastplate bangs up and down and we can’t run to the battle. Without Shoes, we have no firm stance and we might as well be wearing socks on a freshly waxed floor. Without our Shield, we are bare-handed against flaming arrows. Without a Sword, we have no weapon. Without a Helmet, our head, mind, are defenseless and our decision making is under attack.

But we are to put on the FULL armor of God.

Put on, The Breastplate of Righteousness. Then our heart is protected for life and strength. Then we have intestinal fortitude to stand strong. OUR righteousness is filthy rags and our heart is deceitful above all else so we must put on the Righteousness of GOD.

Put on the Belt of Truth. How often do we fight the wrong battle, for the wrong reasons? It is because TRUTH isn’t secured in our life. Put on, take up, TRUTH

Put On The Shoes of The Gospel. When we are firmly rooted in His word, His Gospel of Good News, we can plant our feet here and lace up our shoes each morning.

Take up the Shield of Faith. We must believe that Christ has gained every victory for us at the Cross, believing that He leads us in Triumph, knowing his promises and standing in faith behind them. Then satan’s arrows are deflected and extinguished.

Take the Sword of the Spirit. It is our only weapon, the Word of God, which we fight under the direction of the Holy Spirit as he directs when and where to use it. Know it, use it, for His Kingdom and Glory.

Then put on the Helmet of Salvation. Having the mind of Christ, committed to Him, standing in his Salvation and having his attitude of Selfless Service.

Then fully outfitted, we can pray effectively in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers. Don’t get this out of order. Many things we pray for would be taken care of if we would but PUT ON the Armor of God. I think sometimes, when we pray, God points to our closet and says “THERE IT IS.” Put it ON. Perhaps we pray and we look over to the closet and there is still one piece or all is still hanging there.

Romans 13:11 and following says “understanding the time … wake up … 12 put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light … 14 … clothe yourselves with The Lord Jesus Christ.”

Did you notice that our Armor isn’t a thing, it is JESUS.

His Righteousness is our Breastplate

He is TRUTH, our Belt

His News is the Gospel Shoes we wear

Faith in HIS work at the cross is our Shield

His Word is our Sword

His Salvation is our Helmet

Put On Jesus Christ, Then you find, Passively, that you ARE Strong in His Mighty Power
I Will Bless

November 19th, 2013

Genesis 22:15-19 God says, specifically Jesus, The Angel Of the Lord, says “I have sworn by myself, I will bless you … through your offspring all nations”

Have you prayed the prayer “Lord bless me”? Maybe you didn’t word it that way, but perhaps you have said, “Lord I want to be appreciated, accepted, strengthened, loved, praised”. This word is the Hebrew word Ba-rek. In its simplest form, it means to kneel. The picture then is of a subject kneeling before a Sovereign. A more complete definition of it’s usage is “to fill with strength, praised, adored”

“God bless me, Lord have people appreciate me, recognize me, love me, praise me.” Well if that’s what you want, if you want the praise and approval of people, God might give you that. but when you have that, you have it and there is no more. But I would rather seek The Lord’s Blessing. His praise, strength, adoration is what i seek.

But notice that God told Abraham, “I WILL Bless You”. There are two noticeable aspects of that sentence grammatically and practically.

1) “I Will” means there IS a certainty of it. Not, “I might” but I WILL. The promises of God are certain, they are sure, they are done, so Yes, I can be sure that GOD will bless me … but

2) “I will” means a future event. Oh certainly, He HAS blessed us and is blessing us. But there is a FUTURE to the blessing. Praise the Lord, the best is yet to come. The greatest filling, greatest blessing, greatest praise WILL come when we see him face to face and he says “well done child … enter in.”

So then, let me expand on this with Three Quick Things I see here in this promise to Abraham of Blessing

1) God’s blessing alone is ENOUGH – We serve, follow, obey, not for the praise and glory of men but for an audience of ONE. If no one else praise me, then the pleasure of God is Enough. If they know HIS name and HE knows my name, then that is ENOUGH for ME, yes Enough, more than enough.

2) God’s promised Blessing to Abraham was more about others than about him. Remember the greatest part of the blessing was that “through your offspring all nations will be blessed” because of Abraham’s obedience and availability. It was about God being obeyed and others being blessed. The greatest blessing is to know that God will bless others through us. To know that God would praise, love, adore, fill with strength other through me is a great blessing in and of itself. So there is a “to do list” for the servant of God: a) praise b) love c) fill with strength d) for God’s glory e) as we obey his commands. And in THAT we are praised, loved, and filled with strength

3) God’s blessing was more of a Legacy than a present experience. Surely every breath from God was a blessing for Abraham. And God blessed him with many things, like a beautiful wife, so beautiful that as an Older Women men were still trying to steal her from Abraham. Abraham was blessed with success and prosperity though he lived his life mostly nomadic in tents. But the Big Promised blessing, Abraham spent his whole life looking TOWARD it, hoping in its fulfillment. His son wasn’t born until he was 100. But the presence of Isacc wasn’t even the fullness of the promised blessing. The promised blessing was a legacy. It would come after he died as Israel became a nation, became a light to the Gentiles, and became the birthplace for the Savior of the world. Our greatest blessings are a legacy, a promised inheritance. My joy is knowing that my physical and spiritual sons will advance the gospel and enlarge the Kingdom beyond my reach. The blessing of God is long term. Oh I like physically healthy days, but those days are just foreshadow of joy divine when I have a body like that of Christ’s resurrected body, no tears, no pain. The blessings of a powerful worship experience with brothers and sisters is but a foretaste of glory divine standing before the throne with every race, tribe, and tongue as we proclaim and praise our worthy lamb slain for our sins. My salvation is a blessing but just a down payment on an eternal blessing of light and life eternal, removed from the penalty, power, and presence of sin.

Bless Me Lord!

Bless me with you and that’s enough for me, today and for eternity, you are all I need!

There is an old hymn by Fredrick Brook: My Goal is God Himself

My Goal is God himself, not joy nor peace

nor even blessing, but himself, my God;

‘Tis His to lead me there – not mine, but His

At ANY COST, dear Lord, by ANY ROAD

2

So Faith bounds forward to its goal in God

and love can trust her Lord to lead her there

upheld by him, my soul is following hard

Till God hat full fulfilled my deepest prayer

3

No matter if the way be sometimes dark

no matter though the cost at times great

He knoweth how I best shall reach the mark

The way that leads to him must needs be strait

4

One thing I know, i cannot say Him nay

One thing i do, i press towards my Lord

My God my glory here, from day to day

And in the glory there, my great reward
The 10 On Prayer

November 16th, 2013

The 10 on Prayer

Men’s Breakfast Bible Study

Faith Baptist Church November 16, 2013

Prayer Is … Prayer does …

I’ve always loved the nature of Abraham’s relationship with God. The Lord appears to him in Genesis 18 and I love what he says, it would be a great way for us to begin a prayer session, v3 says “If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, do not pass your servant by”.

But then down in verse, God is heading down to destroy Sodom for its wickedness and he says “shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?” … I LOVE and am in continual desire for this kind of relationship with God. I want the lines of communication open. I want to know and sense God’s presence so that if he did something around me, I would know it, unless he hid it from me?

So, some simple thoughts on prayer, on fellowshipping with God, like a countdown to Liftoff …

First

10. Prayer Is Communication with God –

I know this states the obvious but we make prayer into something we can’t figure out what to do. But do we know how to Communicate don’t we?

What our prayer involves in the nature and person of God should help us determine HOW to Pray and to Whom we address.

If your world has fallen apart, if you need recreation, restoration, restoring of order, Address God as Creator God … “Creator, Create in me” …, “Creator, maker of everything, designer of the world, sustainer of all things, Jesus Christ please …”

If you need strength, direction, inheritance, family business, address the Father. If you are hurting, crawl into his lap “Abba, Daddy, Father, hold me close”

If you need to understand scripture, to remember the words of Christ, strength in prayer, knowledge in how to pray, pray to the Holy Spirit our Intercessor, our Guide, “Spirit, Intercessor, Teacher, Guide me Holy Spirit”

Communicate with God … when you start the day off, instead of “Lord it’s morning”, why not “Good Morning Lord”, Talk to him as you would talk to the one who has all you need, who knows the answer, who meets our needs … Communicate … it is simple as “hello”, “simple as Lord do you see this, do you hear me, I’m struggling …”

Communication is TWO way … God spoke to Moses like a man speaks with a Friend

God revealed to Abraham his plans around him … so, we have to ask, listen, tarry.

Hebrews 4:16 – Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Countdown, 10 …

09. Prayer is Worship –

We tend to separate out so much of our life.

This is Worship, this is preaching, this is Bible Study, this is Prayer, This is Obedience … Can I say that it is ALL Worship …

When we pray, we are worshipping God by saying “You are God, and I am not” – “You are Able to meet my needs” – “I Love you and You Love Me” – “You have the answers I seek” that is all worship

Psalm 86:8-12 “Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord; no deeds can compare with yours, all the nations you have made will come and worship before you, O Lord; they will bring glory to your name. For you are great and do marvelous deeds; you alone are God. Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart that I may fear your name. I will praise you, O Lord my God with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever”

That is beautiful worship in prayer from David. See how he began with worship, then spoke of his desire for the world to come to Christ, because he is great and there is none like him. Then he asked God to Teach him how to live, a promise to live according to him, and give me a single hearted desire to live that way and I will give you the praise and glory. That is a comprehensive prayer of worship4

Countdown, 10 … 09 …

08. Prayer Relieves My Fears …

When I realize God is on the throne, He is aware, He loves me, He is able, He makes me able, He shows me how … Prayer confesses those things

Psalm 27:3 Though and army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me even then will I be confident. One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle and set me high upon a rock”

Communicating with God in worship, relieves my fears

Countdown 10 … 09 …08 …

07. Prayer Is Instruction from my Sovereign and Savior –

God has a plan, God is doing something … If you think that God is not at work in your office, on your block, in your home, in your like … you need to hear from him

Jesus said John 5:17 “My father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too am working” … God is busy … HE IS at work … do we stop long enough to hear from him, to know what he is doing. Do you receive instruction from him for the purpose of joining him?

Jesus told the Father John 17:4 “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do”

“God reveal to me your plans and I will complete them”… “you are my Sovereign and my Savior and worthy of my grateful obedience”

Countdown 10 … 09 … 08 … 07 …

06. Prayer is an Exercise in Trust

1 Tim 1:5 says Jesus is the mediator between God and Man. But put that verse in context. It is in the middle bookend instructions on prayer.

Jesus is the ONLY reason that I can ask God ANYTHING,

read vv1-8 “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone – 2 for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3 this is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5 for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all men – the testimony given in its proper time 7 and for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle – I am telling the truth, I and not lying, and a teacher of the true faith to the Gentiles 8 I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing”

Prayer is trust on display. When we know who Jesus is and what he has done for us we can come to him with every kind of prayer – determine to trust

Ps 56:3 when I am afraid, I will trust in you

Ps 91:2 I will say of the Lord ‘he is my refuge and fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’”

Lord I Believe … I trust you

Countdown 10 … 09 … 08 … 07 … 06 …

05. A Means to Which God Changes Me …

We think that prayer is about changing God, getting God to do our stuff …

As if HE is the branches while we are the vine … we command and he does … we need and he provides … apart from us he is still God … but apart from HIM we can do NOTHING

Yes FAITH is a critical aspect in prayer. And we must believe and not doubt. But sometimes the reason we doubt, is because the thing we are praying for is not in the Lord’s plan. We can believe all we want but God is trying to change our plans so that we come in line with what HE is doing. If I’m “at the table” with the Lord and telling him my heart’s desire, but he is saying “But Jim, I have a different plan, I have a plan that will transform you into the image of Christ and will bring me glory and advance the kingdom”… At that point, I need to HEAR my Sovereign Savior and CHANGE to his plans.

On the flipside, if my nature is to be weak, and doubt, but God is telling me clearly to press in and press on … BELIEVE … CHANGE

Prayer receives instruction from God … So prayer is me saying “God, shape me mold me, direct me, inform me, change ME

Countdown 10 … 09 … 08 … 07 … 06 … 05 …

04. Prayer IS the Battleground,

it doesn’t prepare us FOR the battle ground. It is where the battle is fought and often won or lost.

Let me take a little liberty and remind you that in our spiritual armor the belt is truth, but the belt included the skirt that held it up which went down to the knees … Prayer is where we discern the TRUTH of our circumstance … Prayer is where we defeat strongholds and pretenses set up against us

2 Cor 10:4-6 the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of this world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 6 and we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, one your obedience is complete

The battle is in the mind and heart through prayer, deciding to fight for obedience

Take CAPTIVE every thought. When a thought enters that is contrary to the Lord, that thought is a temptation to turn away from the Lord … if we dwell on it, play it out, it becomes sin in our heart and eventually sin in our actions … Take CAPTIVE every thought and make it obedient … Philippians 4:4-9 is a great companion passage. Rejoice, always … don’t be anxious … prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God … whatever is true … noble … right … pure … lovely … admirable … excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things … put it into practice and the God of peace will be with you.

Take captive every thought … Prayer is the battleground

Jesus succeeded on the cross because he had already died in the Garden

Countdown 10 … 09 … 08 … 07 … 06 … 05 … 04 …

03. Prayer is a Lifeline –

We all get down, we get we get over the cliff hanging on by a thread … who’s your thread? Are you hanging on to the scarlet thread? The Cross of Jesus gives us hope …

Ps 63:4 I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.

Psalm 28:2 hear my cry for mercy as I call to you for help, as I lift up my hands toward your Most Holy Place

Reach Out, Cry Out, Look Up … “Lord pull me up, set me right, set my break, sooth my wound”

The Lord is my shepherd, I have all I need

Countdown 10 … 09 … 08 … 07 … 06 … 05 … 04 … 03 …

02. Prayer Is a Means to Grace Being Alive in My Life –

When I fail to pray … I miss the active grace of God all around me

Every good and perfect gift is from above … we don’t deserve any of it so that makes everything grace …

When I don’t pray I miss the grace that is active around me. I don’t realize what God is doing for me and for others. I don’t come in line with what God is doing. I am not aware of his active grace. I am not aware and actively living gratefully in the Grace around me

When we pray and seek his answers for life, the grace around us then

Pro 1:8-9 listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. They will be a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck

Gal 6:18 the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers amen

1 Peter 1:13 prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed

Countdown 10 … 09 … 08 … 07 … 06 … 05 … 04 … 03 … 02 …

01. Prayer is an Opportunity to Touch ETERNITY From my place in TIME

I have wanted to change the world, my whole life. Maybe that’s you. But sometimes I get so myopically focused on my moment in time and don’t realize that I have an opportunity to get off the Launchpad. I fail to realize that prayer is an opportunity to break out of the gravity of my situation and blast off into the realms of the Heavenly, the Eternal

Psalm 144:3-7 O Lord, what is man that you care for him, the son of man that you think of him? 4 Man is like a breath; his days are like a fleeting shadow 5 part your heavens, O Lord, and come down; touch the mountains, so that they smoke. 6 Send forth lightning and scatter the enemies; shoot your arrows and rout them. 7 Reach down your hand from on high; deliver me and rescue me from the mighty waters, from the hands of foreigners

Psalm 6:9 The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the Lord accepts my prayer.

Prayer is my change to touch the one who is IN Eternity. “Lord … Part the Heavens and Come down …”

Get out of the realm of the now and then and when, and into the realm of completed. Jesus Christ is out of time and he sees my situation completed. God sees us as known, called, justified, glorified. When we pray we break out of the possibilities and into the realm of what God knows is done and we can live according to faith which is the substance of the things hoped for the evidence of things not seen. When I touch eternity I give God the chance to tell me how to act how to live, to be what He wants me to be.

Daniel 10:12 Do not be afraid, Daniel, Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your god, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. 13 but the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. I have come to explain to you what will happen …

When Daniel prayed something happened in Eternity but it wasn’t until later that it came into Time and Daniel experienced it. Fear not, wonder not if God heard … He IS at work

Communicate – commonly and continually

Worship

Fears Gone

Instructions from Sovereign

Exercising Trust

God changing me

Fighting the battle on our knees

Holding on to our lifeline

Laying Hold of Grace

Touching Eternity

We CAN …
Veteran’s Day 2013

November 10th, 2013

According to Barry Loudermilk’s book “And they Prayed: Moments in History Impacted By Prayer”, Captain Nathan Hale was not unlike the men and women I see every week at Faith Baptist Church in Kaiserslautern, Germany. He was good looking, fit, intelligent, and bright eyed, with the cause of freedom firmly rooted in his heart.

Historically he is paraphrased as having said “I regret that i have but one life to give for my country.”

Yet I believe his greatest commitment to freedom was that of the freedom we have in Jesus Christ. He was a well known and devout Christian. He prayed for the souls and bodies of men. He was a teacher by trade, graduating from Yale at just 18 years of age. But when the Revolution began, he requested and received a commission in the army. Then he volunteered for a mission from General George Washington to gather intelligence on British positions on Long Island.

He was captured by British General Howe and ordered to be executed the following day. He spent the night praying and quoting scripture though denied the service of a chaplain and the request for a Bible. So the next day he was taken to an apple tree, climbed the steps of a ladder and a noose was placed around his neck. Standing there, noose around his neck, seconds from death, he spoke. His actual last words, as recorded in Loudermilk’s book, were “You are shedding the blood of the innocent. If I had Ten Thousand Lives, I would lay them all down, if called to do it, in defense of my injured, bleeding country”

I stood in our church today and looked at men and women with the same commitment. I shake their hands, hug their necks, I pray and laugh with them. I am in awe of them, men and women who would have traded places with Nathan Hale. So for all of them and to all who have served our country, on behalf of a grateful nation I say “Thank You.”

Freedom demands a response and we are accountable for what we do with freedom

In similar commitment I heard Adrian Rogers say “If I had a thousand lives to live, I’d give every one to Jesus Christ”

I too, since giving my heart to Christ on a Saturday in 1969, then hearing God’s call to ministry on a Sunday morning in 1975, have laid down my life, one step at a time, one “yes Lord” at a time for the Cause of Eternal freedom ever since.

Freedom is a trust, Salvation is a trust. Because we have been set free in Jesus Christ, we have a responsibility and we must be faithful stewards of the freedom that we have in Jesus Christ

Thank you to all the veterans of Freedom, National, Physical, and Spiritual
Distance? Who Moved?

November 6th, 2013

The day was when all of our cars had bench seats, not bucket seats. When my wife and I started dating the “thing” was for the girl to sit in the middle, close to her boyfriend/husband, who was driving. So the story goes that an “experienced” couple was at a traffic light, each sitting next to their respective windows, when a young couple pulled up next to them, and the girl was sitting in the middle close to her man. The more “experienced” lady asked her longtime husband, “how come we don’t sit close like that anymore when we are driving?” Her husband gave a matter of fact reply, “well, I haven’t moved.” 🙂

If there was distance, it wasn’t the driver’s fault. So it is in our relationship with the Lord, if you look up and feel like “wait a minute, there’s some distance in my relationship with the Lord.” You can ask the Lord “what happened, why the distance?” To which he will reply, “I haven’t moved.”

James 4:8 says “Come near to God, and he will come near to you.”

Are we close to the Lord, or far away? The Greek word translated “Come near” is the word engizo = to come near(distance), come near(time). In Matthew 3:2 the word is used when John the Baptist begins preaching, his message was “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near” … He was “turn around, stop going that way, come THIS way because the Kingdom is right here and right now! It’s time to be near to God and he’s over here.”

Luke 12:28 also uses the word saying “lift up your head because your redemption is drawing nigh” Oh don’t be discouraged any longer, hope is here, and provision is almost made, look this way!

When God is calling us to draw near, we need to act. In observations on this verse, Oswald Chambers says “the paralysis of refusing to act leaves a man exactly where he was before. When once he acts, he is never the same” (My Utmost for His Highest – November 4)

So, what happens? How did the distance arise in our relationship? Well there could be a myriad of reasons, but perhaps we can group them into three groups, as suggested by James 4.

The FIRST is our Affections – James 4:4 calls them “adulterous people”. That’s a pretty strong word but we understand it, do we not? Sometimes our affections get divided, misplaced. Sometimes we give affection and attention from our heart to things/people in areas that we should be giving to the Lord. It’s not always bad things, but just we’ve let our heart get divided. We are seeking support, encouragement, advice, direction, illumination, from others instead of our God and King, Savior and Friend. James 4:4 further says that “a friend of the world is an enemy of God” and verse 5 says that The Spirit within us “envies intensely”. When there is distance in our relationship God is understandably Jealous.

There is a Second area that cause distance and that is Attitude – the word is PRIDE. It goes on to say there in James 4 that “God Opposes the Proud”. There is only room for ONE person in our relationship with God to be the greatest, head, leader, direction, and King. When we TAKE that roll, it unfortunately causes distance. God is not going to stay close, if we want to run the show. God will not share his glory with anyone. Jesus said “I am the vine, YOU are the branches”(john 15:5) … Not to say that he LEAVES us, but certainly he cannot relate in closeness to us when PRIDE causes us to think we can take his rightful place in our life. We would never SAY that we are God and King, but we can act that way sometimes can’t we?

The Third thing that causes distance then is Action – James 4:7 instructs us “submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee”. Distance comes when God is asking for obedience in an area and we will not submit, obey, and follow. And you can be sure that wherever God is asking for obedience, satan is working against us. When we are focused on fighting satan, we look up and find ourselves away from the Lord. That might sound strange, and you say “but I was fighting satan”. But God is asking for your attention. Submit to him and HE will take care of satan. Are we focused on obedience, or on disobedience?

SO THEN … Let’s flip it, how do I get back to the closeness in my fellowship with Christ? Again quoting Oswald Chambers he says “The moments when I TRULY LIVE are the moments when I act with my WHOLE WILL”(ibid)

Same three things – First Affections – What did Jesus tell the Ephesian church in Revelation 2? “You have left your first love“. He gave them the remedy, “repent and do the things you did first“. For a couple that has “fallen out of love” or for the child of God who has found distance, the instruction is the same, “turn around and do what you did when you were close”. If you don’t feel it, do it UNTIL you feel it. Love, Confess, Talk about, Brag on God. Worship him. Turn your back on inordinate friendship with the things of the World, set your affection on him

Second – Attitude – The Lord doesn’t love sacrifices, he loves a broken and contrite heart. It is in humility. Proverbs 15:33 says “The fear of the Lord teaches a man wisdom, and humility comes before honor” Proverbs 22:4 says “Humility and the fear of the Lord bring wealth and honor and life.” And James 4:10 says “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up” We should say “Lord, i need your grace, because i am weak and without the ability to be close, i am sinful, Lord you know how I am made, help me draw close”

Finally then, we draw close in Action – One other quote from Oswald Chambers. “Never allow a truth of God that is brought home to your soul pass without action on it” (Ibid). What will you do with this truth? James teaches again in 4:7 “submit to God, resist the devil”. That is the proper order … Turn your face to the Lord and say “YES Lord”… in every area. Turn your back on temptation and move toward obedience. ACT on the Obedience requested, so then when you resist the devil, it is basically a passive result of the active obedience and the Devil will FLEE. No confusion here on the translation. The word pheugo means to disappear quickly, become invisible. POOF … when we ACT in obedience, satan has no power.

When my Affection, Attitude, and Actions are FOR God, when they BURN for Christ, I look up and guess what? I am NEAR HIM and He is Near Me

Prayer: Oh Lord, search me and know me. See if my affections have waned, see if my attitude is prideful instead of humble. Lord search my actions to see that I am submitting to you in every area. Then lead me in the way everlasting from a loving, humble, obedient heart, draw me close. For the Glory of Jesus, Amen

Bless the Lord

Come Lord Jesus – Maranatha
That We Might Become …

October 8th, 2013

One of the most quoted verses about salvation is 2 Corinthians 5:17 “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things have passed away, behold new things have come” (NASB) … When we come to Christ, when we are IN Christ, we don’t “turn over a new leaf”. Jesus doesn’t reform us, rework us? No, we become a NEW Creation. YAY! I like New Things. But what does that mean? How could that even BE?

How can I become new and what is that anyway?

A few verses down, verse 21, clues us in to such a beautiful truth. “He made Him, who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him”
God made Him, Jesus, who knew no, or had no sin to become sin FOR us, SO THAT … we in him might become the Righteousness of God

Think with me for a minute. Jesus Christ was eternally perfect, eternally in perfection and holiness. Eternally he was pure and worshiped in the splendor of holiness, never knowing the dirtiness of sin. He then was thrust into the dirtiness of our sinful world. Have you ever come into a really dirty place, I mean where you didn’t even want to touch anything? You ever gotten that feeling, where you just about freaked out at the dirt? How about Jesus Christ, from the Holiness of Heaven to the sinfulness of earth?
Jesus Christ knew no sin, and he came to us and became sin FOR us. He came into our sin soaked world, wow what a creepy crawly, holy germophobic experience that must have been. Yet he was still sinless walking purely in an impure world.

Then, on the cross, he became our atoning sacrifice, our propitiation. At that moment there on the cross, God turned his back, the sun stopped shining, the earth shook, Jesus Cried Out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” As God forsook Christ he was reaching out to us. Why? “SO THAT” … God always has a purpose. “So That” WE … who knew no righteousness, WE who only knew self-righteousness, we who have righteousness that is like filthy rags … We knew we were in a mess, and we try to clean it up, but have you tried to clean something with a stained or oily rag? Won’t work. So we who knew nothing but a swirly sin stained mess … needed something.

And so WE, though we knew no righteousness, … find that in the combination of the moment that he became sin for us and the moment that we receive it as our atoning sacrifice, we became something NEW, RIGHTEOUS. And not just any righteousness. Jesus Christ didn’t die on the cross to make me the best version of myself. No, In Christ, we become The Righteousness of God!

I can’t even wrap my feeble mind around that blessed truth. But IN Christ, I become like Christ, that I might, as 2 Peter 1:3-4 says we can participate in the divine nature.

Oh Blessed Grace … The Righteousness of God IN ME as I am IN Christ, and so, I am a NEW Thing, the past is gone, everything New. Christ in me, the Hope of Glory! Hallelujah!
Godward

September 16th, 2013

Where are your eyes?

Oswald Chambers begins the writing recorded for September 16 in “My Utmost for His Highest” with the statement: “the main idea in the region of religion is – your eyes upon God.”

Where will you look today? I wrote a praise song several years ago entitled “Look Up”

Look up! Don’t look down. Look up! don’t turn around. Look up! Don’t look here or there, God’s everywhere, Look up!

Isaiah 51:6 says “Lift up your eyes to the heavens (skies) look at the earth beneath; the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment and its inhabitants die like flies. But my salvation will last forever, my righteousness will never fail”

Stop for a moment right now, look up, down, and around. Look to the person near you, over you, ever pursuing you. All of that will fail, will fall, but our salvation, our righteousness will last forever, it will never fail.

Psalm 121:1,2 says “I lift my eyes toward the mountains, where will my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of Heaven and Earth“ Then verse 4 says “Indeed … (He) … does not slumber or sleep”

I am choosing to “LOOK UP”. When I am in the Valley, surrounded by darkness, when the shadow of circling storms comes over me and I’m looking for help to come over the mountain tops … My help is in The Lord.

Psalm 123:1-2 says “I lift my eyes to you, O God, enthroned in heaven. We Keep looking to the Lord our God for his mercy just as servants keep their eyes on their master, as a slave girl watches her mistress for the slightest signal”

We often look to the Lord, but if he doesn’t respond as we want immediately, our gaze goes elsewhere. However, the act of worshipful faith comes as we keep on looking in expectation and confident hope. We look too often in the wrong direction. We want the help of man. We desire man’s approval and pleasure. All the while, things of this earth and people with their eyes on earthly things disappoint us.

Look Beyond!

Determine today, I Will Look. I will KEEP ON looking to the Lord. Faith is not faith if we can touch it, explain it, and understand it. Faith is the certainty of Hope until tactile reality shows up in my front yard.

Yet, sometimes I can’t see to look. David said, in Psalm 88:9, “My eyes are blinded by my tears. Each day i beg for your help, O Lord, I lift my hands to you for mercy.” There is a lot of truth for us to see there, not the least of which is that every earthly problem is ultimately our fault because of the scope of human sin. We started this wildfire so we are culpable. We have no right to ask God for anything. But we beg for his mercy, for him to give us grace we don’t deserve. We deserve death and every result of our sin, but we cry out for mercy.

When your eyes fill with tears so you can’t see, then lift up your hands, reach up to your loving daddy “Abba” Father.

When your arms are too tired, lift your voice and cry out to him

When your voice fails, be still and know that he is God, lift your heart.

Ultimately the point is to keep your whole being, eyes, hands, voice, Godward

Godward

Godward, what a beautiful one word vision of the foreseeable future. What a beautiful one word mission objective, that every intent, passion, thought, look, step, exertion, be ever

Godward

Where are your eyes? Godward?

Where are your hands? Godward?

Where is your heart? Godward?

Godward

Godward

Godward!
Take Captive Every Thought

September 9th, 2013

2 Corinthians 10:5b says “take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ”

“Captivity” seems like such a negative word and “Freedom” such a good word. Such a very “American” word is Freedom. We love that word.

But sometimes, when it comes to thoughts and actions, “freedom” at what cost and “captivity” for what purpose?

When we allow our thoughts to run in “freedom”, then danger is just down the road.

James taught us that Tempation is the conception place for sin. Temptation begins wtih a look, then a thought, then a possibility, then an action and eventually the result that James says is always death.

So it goes back to a thought by thought discipline. We need the discipline to take each thought and bring it under the discipleship of Jesus Christ. We need to take into captivity every thought, good or bad, and make it obedient to truth and to life. Do you have the vision to see the end potential for the thought that has entered your heart? This takes discipline, foresight, and a vision for the future.

When the idea springs into my thoughts, I have to ask “where does this lead?” “How will it affect me?” “How will this affect my personal, spiritual, and relational health?” I need to ask “How will this affect the advancement of the Kingdom? Does it have an impact on those with whom I serve in ministry?”

taking captive every thought gives me the opportunity to examine the thought, intent, motives, and be sure that it reflects Christ, his love, his character, and his eternal purposes.

When I take that thought captive and don’t let it simply run free, then 2 Corinthians 10:5a says that I demolish arguments, and pretension that sets up against the knowledge of God. Have you ever jumped into a defensive argument before your thought about it, only to realize that you are defending an undefensible position? Take Captive Every Thought

Have you ever deceived yourself into believing something that isn’t true and gone long down the path to destruction following a faulty assumption? Take Captive Every Thought

Relationships are too important to not take every thought captive

The Eternal work of the Kingom is too important to not take captive every thought.

The will of God is that all who are known by him be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, so take captive every thought and be sure that it will advance you in the image of Jesus. So when the thought comes, ask, “who does that thought make you look like? Jesus? Or the Enemy everything Holy?

Remember Jesus said that “the thief” comes to steal, kill, and destroy. He is out to destroy us and everythought that is not obedient to Christ will have the purpose of destruction. So, take into captivity everything thought, put it under God’s discipline and see if it has a thieving, deadly, destructive nature, and if so, then do not let it out of captivity.

Jesus continued, in John 10:10 that HE came to give us abundant life. So, when I take my thoughts, ideas, desires into captivity, the only ones I allow to run free are the ones that bring life, abundant life.

Be disciplined and take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ.
This Is My Dream

August 28th, 2013

Dr. King had a dream. That dream inspired me growing up. I wrote a song on MLK Weekend in 2002

I had a dream, I woke by the sea, people all around me, far as the eye could see

I focused on the faces from ev’ry tribe and tongue, lifting up praises as one to the throne

And I cried “Father, what’s happened to the dream? Why don’t we have this freedom that I see?” It was Jefferson’s Declaration, Mr. Lincoln’s Proclamation, and Dr. King’s Enunciation of the Heart of the Savior of all when he prayed

“Father, let them be one, I am in you, they are in me, may they come to us in complete unity” he prayed

“Father, let them be one, that the world may believe that they can be free, may they understand, love is the key” This is my dream

That we shall overcome, we shall overcome, by the word of our testimony and the power of the blood, greater is he within me great is his love

There is a dream, there is a hope, that you’ll not be judged by the color of your skin, but by The Lord who lives within

I know what will be, up there by the sea, but why not now, why not today, why not you, why not me?

This is my dream

This Is My Dream (c) 2002 – Jim Goforth