Whom Can You Trust?

As for me, I look to the Lord for his help. (Micah 7:7)

Whom can you trust completely? Is there anyone in your world on whom you can depend on without reservation? Many of us have a wife or husband who comes to mind. I trust my wife implicitly, without reservation. But what if I turned my back on her and left? What if I forsook our marriage vows and moved on? As loving and forgiving as she is, I’m sure I could push her too far and fall out of her good graces. Of course, I don’t intend to ever let that happen, but the possibility for pain and disappointment exists in every human relationship.

Maybe you come from an unbelieving family, and your siblings don’t understand your faith. Can you trust them with your heart? Can you turn to them in a crisis? Is there anyone on earth without the capacity to let you down under the right set of circumstances? According to Micah, the answer is no.

“Don’t trust anyone—not your best friend or even your wife! For the son despises his father. The daughter defies her mother. The daughter-in-law defies her mother-in-law. Your enemies will be right in your own household” (Micah 7:5-6). Micah understood that people are people, no matter how close you are to them. We are flawed and often unforgiving. Our love may be genuine and true and deep, but it is not entirely without condition. Turn your back on your friend, and it won’t be long before he’ll turn his back on you.

But God is not that way. “As for me, I look to the Lord for his help,” says Micah. “I wait confidently for God to save me, and my God will certainly hear me” (Micah 7:7). People have turned their backs on God time and again, yet he has never given up on us. We have let him down over and over and over, and each time he retaliates with forgiveness. We spit in the face of his Son, and he embraces us with his love and redemption.

If you think you can fall out of God’s graces, think again. If you think you can push him so far that he’ll never accept you back, you’re wrong. If you believe his love has an ounce of condition attached to it, just look at the story of humanity.

So let me ask again. Whom can you trust completely? Only God. 

Today’s Reading 

Micah 7:5-7

Reflection 

How can you and I trust God for the things we need? Have you accepted his unconditional forgiveness and love? If not, go to him today.

Quote 

“If you have placed your trust in Christ alone for salvation by grace through faith, you are a true tribulation saint.” (The Mark, 337)

The Strictest Discipline

The Strictest Discipline

“If your right-hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell” (Matthew 5:30).

Jesus did not say that everyone must cut off his right hand, but that “if your right-hand causes you to sin” in your walk with Him, then it is better to “cut it off.” There are many things that are perfectly legitimate, but if you are going to concentrate on God you cannot do them. Your right hand is one of the best things you have, but Jesus says that if it hinders you in following His precepts, then “cut it off.” The principle taught here is the strictest discipline or lesson that ever hit humankind.

When God changes you through regeneration, giving you new life through spiritual rebirth, your life initially has the characteristic of being maimed. There are a hundred and one things that you dare not do—things that would be sin for you and would be recognized as sin by those who really know you. But the unspiritual people around you will say, “What’s so wrong with doing that? How absurd you are!” There has never yet been a saint who has not lived a maimed life initially. Yet it is better to enter into life maimed but lovely in God’s sight than to appear lovely to man’s eyes but lame to God’s. At first, Jesus Christ through His Spirit has to restrain you from doing a great many things that may be perfectly right for everyone else but not right for you. Yet, see that you don’t use your restrictions to criticize someone else.

The Christian life is a maimed life initially, but in verse 48 Jesus gave us the picture of a perfectly well-rounded life—“You shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

My Utmost for His Highest

Copyright © 1992 by Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Ltd. Original edition copyright © 1935 by Dodd, Mead & Company, Inc. Copyright renewed 1963 by Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Ltd. All Rights reserved.

United States publication rights are held by Discovery House Publishers, which is affiliated with RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49512

For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. or scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement (Rom 5:6-11).

Greetings Brothers and Sisters, grace and peace to you in the name of God our Father, The Son and the Holy Spirit. I thank God for you and the opportunity He has given me to share His word with you. I only hope that God opens your eyes of understanding so that you can incorporate His word into your life. Help me Lord God as I share your word concerning the verdict resulting from your Judgement. Thank you, Lord, in Jesus name, Amen.

Have you ever had to go to court to answer charges that were made against you? Maybe you feel you were falsely accused, or maybe you feel as though you were the one that was wronged. either way going before the judge to settle all differences would be the final disposition of the matter.  Maybe you have never experienced it personally, but maybe you have asked yourself what if I had to go before the judge and you think of the different scenarios you could face in this situation. Can you imagine being adjudicated in a court of law and facing a possibility of receiving the death penalty? Imagine this you are in court and the Judge has made His decision The judgment is guilty, the verdict is death. First, you go into shock, you know that you are receiving that which you deserve. You thought you could get away with it, but now you realize that there is no way out of this predicament. You want to live you ask the Judge for mercy, just one more chance. You realize you are powerless, just like a man in quicksand the more you struggle the faster you go down, your mind is darkened, your life is degraded. Sin is your way of life, you have missed the target God has set before you. Not because you are not a good shooter but because you purposely missed it. You understand that you deserve  God’s wrath. To put it plainly we are God’s enemies. This is a very dangerous position to be in with an awesome and powerful God, who is able to do anything He wants to do, being accountable to no one but Himself.

The Judge of all the earth had mercy on us before He created the world, knowing all things completely past, present, and future.  God in His great love and mercy planned to provide the life of His son to pay the price and take the penalty handed down demanded by the law, in order to pardon us for the sins committed. God planned to exchange the righteousness of His Son for our unrighteousness. God planned to take our sin and impute them to His son, and take His Son’s righteousness and impute it upon us. This was not an impulse from God, nor was it plan B in case plan A  don’t work. It was God’s only plan. God’s Son came, shared His plan, told all who want Him the Son of God to take their place and pay the penalty what was required of them. He will be our sacrifice and we will be His people.

God wants us as His people to bear fruit. He wants us to grow as Christians (Matt 21:18-22). God wants us to be doers of the words, not just promises as the two brothers Jesus spoke about (Matt:21:28-32). If you live on the property of the landowner and He sends His Son to conduct business with you, it would be very wise of you to receive Him with respect and honor. (Matt 21:33-46). God is having a banquet and you are invited all you have to do is put on the right garments, the ones that are given to you, not your own (Matt:22:1-14). Be a good citizen in your present country and a good citizen in Heaven (Matt 22:15-22). God wants us to be ready for Him when He returns. God wants us to be ready and to stay ready. God wants us not to slack, we don’t know if there is a delay or not, nor should we stop doing what God wants us to do (Matt 24:36-5:13). God wants us to use what He has given us to help others come to Jesus. God does not want us to receive the knowledge He given us and waste it or to keep it for the sake of having it (Matt 25:14-30).

My friends remember Paul’s words, while we were still without power, unable to do anything to save ourselves from the retribution to come as payment for our sins, Christ died for us. While we are still sinners, deserving of death, and fire and hell, Christ died for us. Christ took our place, Christ paid the penalty demanded by the Holiness and the righteousness of God. God must punish sin, His righteousness demands it, His holiness demands it, His very Nature as God demands it. God love the creatures that He created so much that He gave the life of His son as payment for our sins so that we will live and be restored to a right relationship with Himself. While we were still His enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son. God the Judge of the entire universe the highest court that exists, reverses His own just verdict and sentences His own Son, not to just serve time for us, but also to be executed in our place. We have been justified, declared to be not guilty by the Judge of the universe. Not based on our innocence, but based on Christ paying the price for us. We are saved from the wrath of God and the doom that the unsaved will endure later. We are reconciled to God, We are changed from enmity with God to friendship with God. The Action is on God’s part but needs an acceptance on our part. Brothers and Sisters, I hope this message encourages you and builds you up in the Lord. My friends if this message help you understand God’s great love for you, choose Jesus today. Thank you, Lord Amen.  If this message help you in any way Blog my post

God Bless You

Rev. Reginald Stevens

Are You Ready To Be Poured Out As an Offering? 

“If I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all” (Philippians 2:17).

Are you willing to sacrifice yourself for the work of another believer—to pour out your life sacrificially for the ministry and faith of others? Or do you say, “I am not willing to be poured out right now, and I don’t want God to tell me how to serve Him? I want to choose the place of my own sacrifice. And I want to have certain people watching me and saying, ‘Well done.’ ”

It is one thing to follow God’s way of service if you are regarded as a hero, but quite another thing if the road marked out for you by God requires becoming a “doormat” under other people’s feet. God’s purpose may be to teach you to say, “I know how to be abased …” (Philippians 4:12). Are you ready to be sacrificed like that? Are you ready to be less than a mere drop in the bucket—to be so totally insignificant that no one remembers you even if they think of those you served? Are you willing to give and be poured out until you are used up and exhausted—not seeking to be ministered to, but to minister? Some saints cannot do menial work while maintaining a saintly attitude, because they feel such service is beneath their dignity.

My Utmost for His Highest

Copyright © 1992 by Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Ltd. Original edition copyright © 1935 by Dodd, Mead & Company, Inc. Copyright renewed 1963 by Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

United States publication rights are held by Discovery House Publishers, which is affiliated with RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49512

The Discipline of Hearing

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“Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops” (Matthew 10:27).

Sometimes God puts us through the experience and discipline of darkness to teach us to hear and obey Him. Songbirds are taught to sing in the dark, and God puts us into “the shadow of His hand” until we learn to hear Him (Isaiah 49:2). “Whatever I tell you in the dark …”—pay attention when God puts you into darkness, and keep your mouth closed while you are there. Are you in the dark right now in your circumstances, or in your life with God? If so, then remain quiet. If you open your mouth in the dark, you will speak while in the wrong mood—darkness is the time to listen. Don’t talk to other people about it; don’t read books to find out the reason for the darkness; just listen and obey. If you talk to other people, you cannot hear what God is saying. When you are in the dark, listen, and God will give you a very precious message for someone else once you are back in the light.

After every time of darkness, we should experience a mixture of delight and humiliation. If there is the only delight, I question whether we have really heard God at all. We should experience the delight for having heard God speak, but mostly humiliation for having taken so long to hear Him! Then we will exclaim, “How slow I have been to listen and understand what God has been telling me!” And yet God has been saying it for days and even weeks. But once you hear Him, He gives you the gift of humiliation, which brings a softness of heart—a gift that will always cause you to listen to God now. 

My Utmost for His Highest

Copyright © 1992 by Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Ltd. Original edition copyright © 1935 by Dodd, Mead & Company, Inc. Copyright renewed 1963 by Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

United States publication rights are held by Discovery House Publishers, which is affiliated with RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49512.

The Devotion of Hearing 

Devotion Of Hearing

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“Samuel answered, ‘Speak, for Your servant hears’ ” (1 Samuel 3:10).

Just because I have listened carefully and intently to one thing from God does not mean that I will listen to everything He says. I show God my lack of love and respect for Him by the insensitivity of my heart and mind toward what He says. If I love my friend, I will instinctively understand what he wants. And Jesus said, “You are My friends …” (John 15:14). Have I disobeyed some command of my Lord’s this week? If I had realized that it was a command of Jesus, I would not have deliberately disobeyed it. But most of us show incredible disrespect to God because we don’t even hear Him. He might as well never have spoken to us.

The goal of my spiritual life is such close identification with Jesus Christ that I will always hear God and know that God always hears me (see John 11:41). If I am united with Jesus Christ, I hear God all the time through the devotion of hearing. A flower, a tree, or a servant of God may convey God’s message to me. What hinders me from hearing, is my attention to other things. It is not that I don’t want to hear God, but I am not devoted to the right areas of my life.

I am devoted to things and even to service and my own convictions. God may say whatever He wants, but I just don’t hear Him. The attitude of a child of God should always be, “Speak, for Your servant hears.” If I have not developed and nurtured this devotion of hearing, I can only hear God’s voice at certain times. At other times I become deaf to Him because my attention is to other things—things which I think I must do. This is not living the life of a child of God. Have you heard God’s voice today?

God Love you and He cares for you so much that He sent His Son to redeem you to Himself. God so Love the World that He gave His only begotten Son so that whosoever believe in Him will not perish but shall have life eternal.  If you believe this congratulation. Let me know, blog me. 

God Bless You

Reginald Stevens

Are You Listening to God?

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“They said to Moses, ‘You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die’ ” (Exodus 20:19).

We don’t consciously and deliberately disobey God—we simply don’t listen to Him. God has given His commands to us, but we pay no attention to them—not because of willful disobedience, but because we do not truly love and respect Him. “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). Once we realize we have constantly been showing disrespect to God, we will be filled with shame and humiliation for ignoring Him.

“You speak with us, … but let not God speak with us … .” We show how little love we have for God by preferring to listen to His servants rather than to Him. We like to listen to personal testimonies, but we don’t want God Himself to speak to us. Why are we so terrified for God to speak to us? It is because we know that when God speaks we must either do what He asks or tell Him we will not obey. But if it is simply one of God’s servants speaking to us, we feel obedience is optional, not imperative. We respond by saying, “Well, that’s only your own idea, even though I don’t deny that what you said is probably God’s truth.”

Am I constantly humiliating God by ignoring Him, while He lovingly continues to treat me as His child? Once I finally do hear Him, the humiliation I have heaped on Him returns to me. My response then becomes, “Lord, why was I so insensitive and obstinate?” This is always the result once we hear God. But our real delight in finally hearing Him is tempered with the shame we feel for having taken so long to do so.

My Utmost for His Highest

Copyright © 1992 by Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Ltd. Original edition copyright © 1935 by Dodd, Mead & Company, Inc. Copyright renewed 1963 by Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

United States publication rights are held by Discovery House Publishers, which is affiliated with RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49512.