When we are firmly fixed ‘in Christ,’ we can become settled into a position of victory over past bondages. It will be the only way for us to get past our past.

I want to open this morning presenting you first with a passage of Scripture to set the pattern for the encouragement to follow:

“Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast.  I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me.  He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.  My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.  Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thy glory be above all the earth.  They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down: they have digged a pit before me, into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves. Selah.  My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.  Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early.  I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people: I will sing unto thee among the nations.  For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds.  Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: let thy glory be above all the earth.” (Psalms 57:1-11)

Have you ever found yourself trying to overcome the adversities of life, knowing that Christ is your refuge, but yet you feel so wounded and beat down that you do not know how you can possibly overcome?  The above passage is a beautiful Psalm of David that clearly shows the lifestyle of an Overcomer.  Oppressed, afflicted, defeated, and seemingly without hope, David realizes the importance of a heart firmly fixed “in Christ.”

Sometimes, Christ may be all we have.  It is in the times we dwell on all that we possess “in Christ” that we find the great sufficiency of our dependency is actually on Christ.  The need of God’s mercy for our past will always be great, no matter how much you know or how high you grow.  And that need for mercy should not be overlooked; but once mercy has been freely applied, but it is a steadfastness of a fixed heart that will help you overcome. The word fixed is defined as “to remain in a given place.” My friend, it is so important that we not allow the circumstances of life to cause us to stumble and fall in our God given place of meditation.  Why?  It is because our stability is dependent upon our fixed position.  Is your heart fixed on Christ today?  I think of the song, “I shall not be moved.” Our heart should be as that tree planted by the water that firmly stands, draws life from the water, and produces fruit.

Psalm 112 verses 6 and 7 detail this for us, “Surely he shall not be moved for ever: the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.  He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD.”

If we are desirous of overcoming the evil tidings of oppression, adversity or affliction, we have only to remain true to His holy name for that is the reason that He came.  My friend, I assure, this is the cure: He is our hope secure.  So, don’t be demure, bold confidence in Him is what it take to be sure.  This will ensure in Him and on Him we will endure.

The devil only tempts us when we are hungry. So, at only at His table we must dine, then and only then will we be fine.

I have often attempted to outsmart the devil in a myriad of different facets of life only to fail once again.  Usually I try to endure in an area of temptation until I see he is too cunning, and then I have to start running.  I have, however, found a remedy to these harrowing temptations in Scripture.  Allow me to share this remedy with you today.

The Bible says in Matthew 5:6, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” Hunger is a natural part of human nature.  All mankind hungers regularly.  Eating will satisfy the hungry, but it will not eliminate hunger.  To hunger is to have a craving, an appetite, or a great desire for something.  What is it we crave with regularity?  This craving, if unholy, will be met with regular temptation from Satan, for he studies the “designer desires” called in James our “own lusts”.  But, If we want the blessings of God on our life, we need to develop a hunger for righteousness.

Someone who is hungry seeks or does what is necessary to satisfy that hunger.  Are you hungry for righteousness; and in so being, are you seeking to satisfy your hunger with Him?  When He becomes your craving, you will soon start behaving and raving about His saving instead of always caving!

“Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.  Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.   For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.  Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.  And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.” John 6:31-35

Jesus is the only bread that satisfies.  He freely gives it, but, my friend, are you coming to Him to dine on the carbs of Christ?  The devil knows when we are not.  He knows when we are weak.  And he knows when to tempt us.  There is absolutely no fraction of satisfaction in what he offers!  Simon Peter, one of Jesus’ closest disciples, struggled with this.  Jesus warned him in Luke 22:31, “And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:” Satan is looking for an opportunity to provide disunity through a simple temptation of God’s creation, but he will leave you completely empty with no lasting satisfaction.
Jesus’ remedy for our hunger is clearly seen in John 21:12, “Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord.” If the Lord is calling you to righteousness in feasting on Him, do not reject or neglect His invitation.

“Come and Dine”

Jesus has a table spread
Where the saints of God are fed,
He invites His chosen people, “Come and dine”;
With His manna He doth feed
And supplies our every need:
O ’tis sweet to sup with Jesus all the time!

“Come and dine,” the Master calleth, “Come and dine”;
You may feast at Jesus’ table all the time;
He Who fed the multitude, turned the water into wine,
To the hungry calleth now, “Come and dine.”

The disciples came to land,
Thus obeying Christ’s command,
For the Master called unto them, “Come and dine”;
There they found their heart’s desire,
Bread and fish upon the fire;
Thus He satisfies the hungry every time.

Soon the Lamb will take His bride
To be ever at His side,
All the host of Heaven will assembled be;
O ’twill be a glorious sight,
All the saints in spotless white;
And with Jesus they will feast eternally.

I’m just in time, His table is mine, if I come and dine. Friend, If hungry grazing we will resign; we will be fine because Satan He will confine and His bread will he refine to be all mine.

“If we truly appreciated our salvation, it would manifest itself in a desire to proclaim Him to others.”

Good morning! “Out of the mouth of babes” is a common phrase we hear around Reformers Unanimous. I am always amazed at the depth of doctrine that is uttered by our curious young believers as they grow and mature. They say some of the most profound things! What’s so amazing is that they seldom even realize that their words are so thought provoking and challenging to many of us in authority over them.

This happens most often when they give their closing testimonies during our RU School of Discipleship Graduation ceremonies. These particular students have spent from six to eight months living in a greenhouse of sorts. Our homes are intended to be an environment that protects them from the elements so that they can grow real fast. These students disciple for nearly three hours per day and they also work full eight hour workdays. Their schedule is tight and their discipleship is deep. They come to our program a baby and they leave a toddler, but those toddlers seem to understand things that even the proverbial parents could not discern themselves.

One such statement was uttered by a graduate on graduation night that I shall never forget. It was this statement: “There are those who are saved. And there are those who appreciate their salvation.” I don’t know if a shortly worded phrase has ever hit me as hard as that one did that day. It led me to a long pondering of my level of appreciation not only for what God had done for me, but how I was expressing that appreciation as proof of my gratitude!

In other words, we can say that we appreciate God, Jesus, the Cross, Salvation or even our church, but if we truly appreciated something our behavior would manifest it in some way that should be marked. We should have a marked appreciation!

If my behavior was such that I was willing to proclaim His name to any and all I come in contact with, I believe I would be expressing the highest form of appreciation possible. However, If I felt less compelled and shared Him with only those to whom is was most convenient or comfortable with which to do so, I feel as if my appreciation would appear to Him to be rather shallow.

How about you? Do you agree with that? Could your or our inactivity ever emulate or show proof of grand appreciation? In other words, if we are called on to prove “appreciation for our salvation”, would there be concrete proof to show it or would we need to get argumentative with Him on judgment day “I may not have shown it but I promise You, I was thankful!” How sad of a day that shall be.

Remember the story of the Gadarene demoniac? He was a crazed lunatic full of a legion of demons. Jesus cast out the demons and that man was saved, sitting in his right mind and eating with Jesus. Some disturber people of that country began to storm the banks in search of revenge. Jesus had destroyed a herd of their swine. Jesus hastily departed with the former demoniac hot on his heels. That right minded man began to compel Jesus to allow him depart with Him. He wanted to BE with the man who saved His life.

Can I ask you a question? Do you want to be with the One Who saved your life? No, seriously, does our behavior show that we WANT to be with Jesus? Do we take every opportunity afforded to us to spend quality time with Him?

The story unfolds with Jesus denying the man’s request to come aboard His boat. Rather, He encouraged the man to postpone his desire to be with Jesus until he could make an impact in the lives of others. It actually reads like this in Mark 5:18:

“And when he was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed [Jesus] that he might be with him. Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.”

Jesus instructed this recently bedeviled man to go share the miracle ministry of Jesus with all of His friends. He instructed him to proclaim His name. But not the Hell reserved for all deserving sinners. That’s not the good news. That’s the bad news! He wants us to share the good news of God’s grace, God’s forgiveness and the Hope and Abundant New Life!

So, we see that Jesus’ instructions were specific. Tell your friends the “great things [I] have done for thee” and how I have “had compassion on thee”. Jesus wanted His good works on behalf of man and His compassionate nature to be shared with this man’s friends and family. What was Jesus asking of this man? He was simply asking this man to express his appreciation for Jesus to those who may be in need of good things done for them; and those who may have been in need of His compassion.

The result was overwhelming the last verse in that chapter tells us “And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis (the ten city region around Gadara) how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel.” Complete success!

Salvation should be appreciated. What is appreciated WILL BE enunciated. With our enunciation we will produce more salvations! All we need to do to show our appreciation is “recognize that God has done great things for us! And that He has had such great compassion on us.” If we would recognize that consistently, I believe we will not only be saved, but we will appreciate that salvation

Good morning! We all have things in our lives that we long for; things that we repeatedly request from God with earnestness only to be told, “WAIT”. This is where God requires us to demonstrate patience. Ahhh…patience-the eight letter word that carries with it so much frustration!

I want to share with you two quotes from two notable individuals. Both of these quotes are profound, but present two entirely opposite viewpoints on a particular virtue: patience.

“Our patience will achieve more than our own force (efforts).” -Edmund Burke

“Patience has its limits. Take it too far, and it is cowardice.” -George Jackson

To understand the meanings behind these quotes, let’s apply them to a common American pastime, fishing. In fact, observing the tendencies of my two older sons demonstrates this well. Though senior to his brother, my oldest boy, Chase (8), seemingly does not have nearly as much patience as Channing (6). About a month ago, I took my three boys to a trout farm in Illinois to do some fishing. It is amazing how much you can learn about somebody’s personality by going fishing with them! And on this day, I made some observations about my boys that help me understand a profound Biblical truth.

It was a gorgeous Saturday afternoon when we rented a small rowboat and hit the lake with enthusiasm. Excitement was high as the boys had notions of reeling in “Jaws-like” fish monstrosities and taking them home to proudly present them to their mother. But after a little more than an hour into the expedition, tensions were beginning to mount as we had yet to catch one measly fish!

Throughout the course of this hour, Channing consistently stuck with the same technique and the same bait, a good ole worm! I observed as he kept his eye on his bobber with intensity, rarely pausing to talk to us or do anything that would otherwise distract him. I remember feeling proud of my boy for his steadfastness.

On the other hand, Chase fished hard in a similar manner for about the first 15 minutes. But after these fifteen minutes, he quickly became agitated and switched from using worms to a spinner bait lure. From there he switched to a plastic minnow, and then to a tail chaser… and so on he went. He must have used 10 different types of bait in that first hour; using none of them any more than 5 minutes.

Now, it could be said that Channing – who did not change tactics-took a stance in accordance with Edmund Burke’s ideology above. And likewise Chase aligned himself with the position of George Jackson.

As it turned out, both boys ended up catching their first fish within five minutes of each other. So in this case, it could not be proven which method was more effective. However, it was very thought provoking for me to observe how each boy approached his goal of catching that first fish. It should be noted, however, that my youngest son, Chance (6), spent most of his day trying to eat worms and untangle himself from his fishing line. So needless to say, the verdict is still out on which philosophy he will take up!

The point to all of this is that we cannot always hold to simply complacency while waiting for God to do that which we very well could do ourselves. Taking this to an even deeper level, it is imperative that we as Christians recognize that God will sometimes wait for us to do something before He will begin to supernaturally work in our situation.

A perfect example of this is me meeting my wife, Lori. I remember spending countless hours in my mid-twenties wishing and pleading for God to bring a special woman into my life. I was counseled, and believed, that I simply had to wait-display patience-for God to do this for me. While this was true to an extent, I now look back on those days and realize this was only part of the solution. You see, God required something of me first before He would bless me with a wife. What was this requirement you ask? He wanted me to remove my destructive tendencies!

Today I understand that God in His goodness and sovereignty would have never given me a wonderful woman like Lori until I first forsook my besetting sins. Once I got right, it took God all but six months to bless me with my future wife! Isn’t He just amazing? So, though I could have displayed all the patience in the world, God was not going to answer my request until I took His required action first!

David wrote in Psalm 139:23, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:” My friend, what is it in your life that is negating your efforts at patience? Like David, we must ask God to search our hearts and reveal to us the sins that are keeping us from maximum intimacy with the Lord. Granted, this is often painful and certainly not comfortable for us to do, but if you are longing for something in your life to occur and your patience is waning thin, God very likely is prodding you to make the first move.

Friend, you can continue to endlessly wait, or think it only to be fate, but the determining trait may actually be innate. It is for this reason we must ask ourselves the following question:

Have you considered sin removal to gain God’s approval?

Good Morning! As you get ready for the day, are you prepared to face the enemy? He will either attack or plan an attack today…are you prepared?

There are many different ways to fight an enemy. Indeed, it is important for us to strategize offensive measures for the perpetual warfare in which we are engaged against our archenemy: the prince of darkness; but it is equally important for us to understand how to defend ourselves when we are under demonic attack.

One of the enemy’s primary tools of destruction is tempting us into turmoil and tribulation. Satan’s goal is to tempt us to trust in ourselves or in external, erroneous information so that we may lose our confidence in the faith of Christ. The devil knows that once our heart becomes focused on our own faith, we will become discouraged and forfeit valuable place to him.

The Bible tells us in Ephesians 4:27 to “neither give place to the devil.” You see, when we allow ourselves to keep wrong thoughts on our hearts, we will inevitably surrender precious real estate to the devil, and he will use this to try to destroy us. Battles are almost always fought to gain territory. The phrase Paul uses to enunciate this forfeiture is to give place. The word place is the old English translation of the Greek word topos, which literally means topography or territory.

It is important to realize that the devil may not build anything on the territory we render him right away. Oh no, the Angel of Light is more cunning than that. He knows that if he moves too quickly, he will alarm us to the fact he is constructing strongholds in our lives. More often than not, the devil will patiently wait until we have allowed him to reside within our minds—the conceded territory—for a period of time so that he may silently construct infrastructure in our thought processes that he will later use to devour us.

So we see that it is absolutely imperative that we are diligent in our guard and not allow the enemy to capture any territory in our minds. Again, one of the primary ways the devil will seek to advance upon us is through temptation. If his tactic of temptation is successful, we will be faced with an onslaught of turmoil that will likely interrupt our peace and overwhelm our meditations. My friends, Jesus clearly tells us that He does not want this to occur. Let us take a look at a portion of Scripture that demonstrates this truth.

We see here that one of the Comforter’s––the Holy Spirit’s––primary jobs is to bring things to our remembrance. It must be noted, however, that if the Spirit is to bring something to our remembrance, it must first have been something that we previously had known. In other words, we cannot remember something that has never been a part of our memory!

Knowing this, it is clear that God intends for us to prepare for turmoil by spending quality time in His Word and committing the knowledge therein to memory. When we do this, God promises us, the Comforter will enable us to remain at peace in the midst of difficult circumstances and not fall victim to temptation and its resulting turmoil.

Have you spent quality time with Him this morning? Have you committed to memorizing what God needs to bring to your mind later? When the devil brings an attack, are you ready…or His peace do you lack?

  “The number one way to prove we are exercising His faith, rather than ours, is during difficult times. Our first weapon would be prayer, our second is pause and our third and final weapon is . . . PATIENCE!”
 
Good Morning! ACT; REACT; ACT; REACT!!!!  It seems to be the story of my life.  Either I am IN Christ and I am acting and reacting properly or I am IN me and acting and reacting improperly.  It true for me, I’m either IN or I’ve SINNED! 

But I can always tell (usually AFTER my mistakes) why I am acting or reacting improperly.  It is a lack of His faith.  We know that James taught us that faith on trial through various temptations will produce patience.  Thus, it is understandable to a loving and patience Father that we will often lack patience.  But it is safe to assume if it takes successful trials to develop patience that we will not have an acceptable level of patience until we have learned to yield to His acceptable measure of faith for any given situation. 

I seem to lose my cool every day.  Sometimes this heated moment remains within and few, if any, realize it.  Some think that’s not so bad.  But to be honest, that attitude produces pride.  “As long as no one knows I “got hot” under the collar, they assume I have great patience”.  No, great patience is formed from successful trials and trials are ONLY successful when IN MY HEART I have yielded to His faith in my difficulties not mine own faith, my own doubt, or heaven forbid, mine own unbelief! 

If I exercise mine own faith, it is me that is doing the work.  I may be able to keep my temper composed, but it will not exercise His faith, so He won’t be glorified.  He is never glorified by my self righteous acts of the soul.  I will look good, but He will not be lifted up. 

If I exercise my own doubt, then not only will He not look good, but neither will I.  Though my self righteous faith will keep my temper in, unrighteous doubt will always let it out!  I won’t be able to maintain my composer for long if I doubt the TRUTH which say’s everything “going wrong” is actually “going right”.  For if all things work together for good . . . then I should never struggle with doubt.  My “bouts with doubt” will make their way out.  When they get out then my reputation is criticized and Christ’s is minimalized.

Finally, if I respond in my own unbelief, I will be of all men, most miserable.  There will be no patience, for there will be no peace.  The Spirit knows what I need when He leads me into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  If I reject those divine circumstances and deem them “unnecessary”, my rejection will produce a reflection of my circumstances.  A “reflection of rejection” manifests itself in negative, pessimistic, critical thinking.  It is at this stage my unrighteous acts of unbelief will cause me to look bad and literally hinder the work of the Lord. 

My only recourse is to refuse to ACT; REACT!  Rather, I must REST/RELAX!  I must rest in the fact that Christ will manifest Himself to me if I would but relax in my stressful situations and wait for Him.  That is what patience is.  It is not as much enduring as it is waiting.  We must endure as we wait, but how hard is it to endure when we have faith the endurance is bringing about things that work together for good?  That’s not hard at all.  If I understand through His faith that I must endure these situations that seem bad but work together for good, then I will find the necessary calm to rest IN Him as I relax and wait ON Him.

That willingness to relax and wait on the Lord is the patience He is looking for in tumultuous times.  For it is that patience that is produced by trials of temptation. It is those trials of temptation that prove we are yielding to His faith and it is yielding to His faith that glorifies God and lifts up Christ that others might be drawn unto Him. 

I guess we need to get serious about all this stuff and just lighten up!  Sound like an oxymoron?  No, rather, it’s much simpler than that.  He is my proxy or I am mine own moron!