0 No Looking Back…

Now that we have entered a new year, we want to remind you friends to forget what is behind and strain toward what is ahead. Don’t let the enemy hold you back by keeping you focused on mistakes or failures. You can’t move forward if you’re focused on the rear-view mirror.

No matter how you’ve failed this past year, no matter how you’ve missed it, God’s love is greater. We are reminded how Peter betrayed Jesus in the Lord’s greatest hour of need. Nonetheless, God entrusted Peter with a leadership role in his newly established church because of Peter’s repentant heart.

Remember Paul who intensely persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. Despite this, God used Paul to write two-thirds of the New Testament. Paul did not let his past hold him back. Paul received God’s forgiveness and moved on. As he so wisely stated in Philippians 3:13-14:

But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

We pray all God’s best for you and yours this new year. Know that he has a plan for your life and that plan is for good. Move into his best for you by forgetting what is behind and embracing the best yet to come. Blessings friends in this year of feasting and gladness.

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0 Why Do We Celebrate Christmas? What’s So Special about Jesus?

In the beginning, God gave mankind dominion, or better said, authority to rule over earthly affairs. See Genesis 1:26-28, Psalm 8:4-6.  Mankind rebelled against God and handed over his authority to rule to Satan.  See Genesis 3, Luke 4:5-7.  Since the time of Adam and Eve, the devil has been exercising dominion over mankind, stealing, killing, and destroying.

God could not violate His Word in Genesis 1 where He delegated authority to man by taking the authority back.  When God decrees something, it is established.  Isaiah 55:10, 11 states that God’s Word accomplishes that for which He sends it.  It does not return to Him void.  God cannot break His Word.  It is a matter of personal integrity for Him.  Thus, God had to devise a legal way to free mankind from the devil’s dominion and control.  And, of course, this is where Jesus fits in.

Jesus had the right to exercise authority on the earth for two reasons:

1)  Jesus was born a man.  Remember, God gave mankind dominion over the earth.  But being a member of mankind was not enough because mankind sinned against God and gave up their right to rule.  Mankind’s sin made them a slave to the devil.

2)  So Jesus also had to be a sinless man.  While on earth, sinless Jesus rightly exercised the authority that sinless Adam and Eve once had (which is why Jesus is called the “second Adam.”).  Jesus was not born of an earthly father (Jesus' father was God Himself through the virgin birth) so He did not receive the sin nature that we receive from our earthly fathers.  We have a natural inclination toward evil.  Jesus did not, which explains how He could remain sinless.

As a result, the devil had NO authority over Jesus.  See John 14:30, 31:

30 I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming.  He has no hold on me, 31 but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me.

God asked Jesus to use His human authority to destroy the works of the devil.  See 1 John 3:8 ("The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.").

How did He destroy the devil’s work?  By healing people and delivering people from demon oppression and possession.  See Acts 10:38 ("How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.").

Ultimately God had an even bigger plan.  Because of mankind’s rebellion against God, mankind was doomed to eternal separation from God, otherwise known as the second death, or spiritual death because God is just and He must punish sin.  So even if Jesus healed a person or delivered them from a demon, the person would still be subject to eternal punishment in hell upon natural death to pay for their sin . . . UNLESS . . .

. . . a sinless member of mankind would be willing to take the punishment in mankind's place.  God could then legally pardon all sinners.

And God asked Jesus to do this.  Why?  Because God is love, desires to show mercy, and wishes that none perish.

God, nor angels, could have taken the punishment, only a member of mankind.  Jesus was eligible.  Although God Himself, Jesus was born of a woman which made Him also human.  The genius of God’s creation is that He made mankind in His own image so that He could be born as a member of mankind to save us.  God did not have to give up His divine sinless nature.

Ultimately, Jesus submitted His own desires and will to do what God asked of Him.  He gave His life for ours.  Why is He special?  Because without Him, we would all be lost.  Remember as you celebrate Christmas the wonderful gift of God in Jesus.  Blessings friends!

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0 Don’t Buy the Lie: See You as God Sees You

You have an enemy.  He is called by many names, satan, lucifer, the devil, etc., but one characteristic and label in particular defines him best – the deceiver.  When referring to your enemy, Jesus said he “was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44).  Indeed, the very first story where your enemy appears in the Bible (Genesis 3), he is found lying.  And what was he lying about?  God’s love for people (He tried to convince Eve that God lied to her and God was trying to keep something good from her by denying fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.).  


It’s the enemy’s favorite subject to lie about because if he can get you to doubt God’s love for you, then you will not trust God for help with anything, including salvation, healing, or finances.  In fact, if you buy into his lies about what God thinks about you (e.g., you are a failure, you never do anything right, God is mad at you because you continue to sin over and over again, you don’t read enough Bible, you don’t pray enough, etc.), you’ll be more apt to fear God and run from Him and hide.  This is the enemy’s goal – to alienate you from God.


Look at the first recorded interaction between the devil and Jesus.  After Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, a voice came from heaven and God said to Jesus: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22).  Immediately after, Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.  Notice the first statement that the devil made to Him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” (Luke 4:3).  The devil repeated back to Jesus what God said to Him at His baptism . . . except, do you notice what the devil left out?  Yes, the devil conveniently left out that God loves Jesus and is well pleased with Him.  The devil will never remind you that you are loved by God and God is pleased with you because then you would be empowered to reject his lies.

Now let me dispel the lies of your enemy and tell you today how God sees you according to His own words contained in the Bible.  If you are a believer in Jesus Christ (that is, you believe that God raised Jesus from the dead and confess Him as your Lord), you belong to God through the blood of Jesus (Ephesians 1:7).  You are forgiven of all your sins (Acts 10:43).  And you have become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).  What does it mean to become the righteousness of God?  When God looks at you, He doesn’t see what you have done wrong, but what Jesus did right.  Jesus’ righteousness (or said differently, His right standing with God because He never sinned) is imparted to you.  Thus, just as God loves Jesus and is well pleased with Him, God loves you and is well pleased with you.  So the next time the enemy tries to feed you his lies, don’t buy them.  See you as God sees you.

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0 It’s Never Too Late!

The other day I was reading in the book of Joel.  I came across a verse that most of us are familiar with: “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten” (Joel 2:25).  God promises further in this chapter:

I am sending you grain, new wine and olive oil, enough to satisfy you fully; never again will I make you an object of scorn to the nations.  (Joel 2:19).

You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the LORD your God, who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be shamed.
Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the LORD your God, and that there is no other; never again will my people be shamed.  (Joel 2:26, 27).

The Holy Spirit had me stop and meditate on the context of these promises.  He revealed something to me that had totally escaped me before.

The first chapter of Joel recounts the lack, misery, and trouble visited upon God’s people as a result of their disobedience to God.  God’s people had gotten into sin, turned away from Him, and tried to live life without acknowledging Him as the source of all the good in their lives.

In the second chapter of Joel, God calls out to His people to return to Him with all their heart.  If they would, He promised to change their situation and bless them as recounted in verses 19, 26, and 27.  Really not so surprising as there are so many promises in the Word of God that if we walk closely with Him, giving Him our whole heart, He will consider it His duty to care for us, financially, physically, mentally, etc...  But then there is verse 25 speaking of repayment.

One would think that if God is repaying someone as stated in verse 25, they must have been owed something.  Surely, the individuals to whom He would repay must have been wrongly deprived of something.  But as stated above, this is not the context of the book of Joel.  God’s people had wronged God.  They deserved to lose everything.  But even despite this, God promised that if they would turn back to Him with their whole heart, He would restore to them what they had lost as a result of their own bad decisions.  He would repay them for what the locusts had eaten.

Return to the LORD your God,
   for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
   and he relents from sending calamity.  Joel 2:13

I want to encourage you today.  Even if you have disobeyed God or missed his direction in any area of your life, and, as a result, you feel that you have lost out on opportunities, provision, time, relationships, or health, it is not over for you.  God never disqualifies us.  God never writes us off.  Do as God told His people to do.  Return to Him with your whole heart, cry out to Him, and He will restore what you have lost and then some.  Nothing you’ve done is beyond the mercy of God.  It’s never too late.  Your best days are not behind you.  The best is yet to come!

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