Encouraging Word

This week is the completion of a 40 day journey which ends on Easter, and it is a good time to think about our personal relationship with Jesus.  This week we celebrate His resurrection! Before Jesus’ victory over the grave, the garden of Gethsemane, the hill of Golgotha, and the cross of Calvary stood before Him.  This week was the final battle for Him.  Before He could come out of the grave, some sobering things took place to our Lord.  Let’s not only remember, let’s value what He did for us! Because of the cross we can have intimacy with God.  What a privilege! Thank you Jesus for your love for us.  Here is your encouraging word for today

This moment was what Jesus’ life was meant for. He came to fulfill purpose and that is exactly what He did. There would no longer be anything that came between God and us. This week in history had eternal ramifications. The veil in the temple would be torn, and separation between God and man was gone, and the bridge was opened. Jesus paid the penalty for our sin so that we could be totally forgiven and accepted. God made a way for family, for connectedness and togetherness. Now mankind could not only be just God’s creation, now we were God’s family, one of God’s own children with all the benefits and privileges of being family. The bloodied body of Christ, His sacrificial death, and triumphant resurrection made provision for the body of Christ to be beautiful. We, as Christ’s body on the earth, are His representatives, and we display His beauty as we fulfill our primary purpose on the earth to go and make disciples of all people. As we love God whole heartedly, and love people fervently, the beauty of Christ’s body is revealed. How beautiful is the body of Christ. Jesus’ eyes were set on the prize, you and me.  Let’s be committed to the purpose Jesus gave His life for.  It was for people who were, and who are, worth the cost. It was a purpose worth dying for.

E-Word 4-02-12

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I was trying to think of an illustration that might help clarify how the fruit of the Spirit works.  Maybe this will help. The mitten or glove without the hand is very unfruitful….duh!!!! We could try to make the glove scrape the ice off the window, or carry something outside, or even give someone a pat on the back. But the glove by itself can’t do any of those things.The glove is missing something very important.  It is the hand. J We can try all day to do things on our own strength, and it is like trying to make a glove move without a hand in it.  We are like the glove, and the Holy Spirit is like the hand. We are filled with Him, and everything is different.  We can accomplish things! We can be productive.  We can show love through a warm pat or a hug.  We can carry important things, and do anything that is necessary.  Without the hand, the glove is useless.  Without the Holy Spirit in our lives, everything we try will be unfruitful.  With Him, it is a whole different story. J Fruitful living is the result of letting our glove be filled with the Hand (The Holy Spirit).  The fruit of the Spirit is most evident in our lives (gloves), when the hand of the Holy Spirit is in us!

E-Word 4-01-12

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Eword for KIDz

We’ve been talking about being fruitful for the last several weeks, and the thing I love about kidz is that they do fruitful things without much fanfare.  If an adult does something fruitful, we like attention, we want a pat on the back, we want some applause, or we want affirmation that someone was watching.  What I’ve noticed with kids is that they do things most often from the genuine place of being kind and good.  I know there are times that you like applause too…..my kids would rather have cash! (I know you like it too$$$$$)  But really kids have this genuineness about them that we adults could learn from.  When we give something away….that should be enough reward. Telling someone else so that they will think we are sooooo generous is our natural instinct.  The Bible says that is all the reward we’ll get.  We should want to genuinely give out of the love of our heart. The right seed has been planted in you and you get to let the fruit show.  So keep on giving, and loving and sharing…..there won’t be any trumpet blasts, or cymbals crashing, or fanfare on the earth, but you can know that you have the applause of heaven because you are living fruitfully for the right reasons.  All the elements are in place to have a fruitful harvest in your life.  When that shows, your friends will want to know why, and then you can tell them about Jesus and how He has changed you.  What awesome fruit will result….your friends can get saved and come to know Jesus, because you are living fruitfully.

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In Matthew 10:7-8, Jesus is speaking and He tells us to “go preach everywhere,  saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand.  Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils.  Freely you have received, freely give.”   The key that makes living fruitfully natural is that by receiving fully, we can give fully.  We have received so much, that living out the fruit of the spirit is the overflow of what we have received. We have opened our hands to receive, and naturally we open our hands to give.  We are connected to the power source and through Him and in Him we have an abundant supply.  As vessels He can flow through, we receive it first, and then we give it away. It’s easy to love fully, when we know we are fully loved!  Because there are so many factors in our life that pull on us, we can feel like we are giving way more than we receive.  That’s where that drained feeling comes from.  But when we understand and realize that it isn’t by our power, or our own strength that we operate in, we can yield to the Holy Spirit and let Him breathe fresh life into us to freely receive again, so we can freely give again.  To keep all the candles in our lives lit, we need a constant supply of oil. That’s where the Spirit of God comes in!

 

When the oil of the Spirit of God reaches our core,

Our light will shine brighter than ever before.

As we have received, let us freely give

The fruitful life we were destined to live

The gifts and the fruit, are for others to taste

They are heaven’s extension reaching the right place

To meet a need or desire, to bring healing or cure

His power flows through you bringing blessings so pure

The seed has been sown, the plant grows up tall

When we abound fruitfully, we won’t ever fall (II Peter 1:10)

 

I’m encouraging you today to live full and give freely.

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Have you ever had a friend in your life who was reliable, loyal and steadfast?  Were they devoted to you, trustworthy, and unwavering in their love for you?  That would be an awesome, faithful friend! (Those really are all attributes of God, and He certainly is the best friend you’ll ever find!) Someone said once that if at the end of your life you have had 5 faithful friends you would have been blessed.  People like that can be hard to come by. But that is the kind of friend God wants you to be!  God’s seed of faithfulness is already in you. Remember 1 Peter 1:23? You have the power within you to become not only a faithful friend, but also have all of the other fruit of the spirit growing in your life.  Amazing! Just think, little ole’ you are going to grow up to be an awesome oak tree.  You may feel like an itty-bitty baby acorn now, but just wait!  The seed has been planted, the roots are going down deep and you are becoming the man/or woman of God that He wants you to be.  It definitely is a process, but it is worth the effort and certainly the taste of the fruit will be incredible. You want to have deep roots so you can have lasting fruit! So maybe you know someone who needs a friend.  Why not sow a seed of faithful friendship in their life.  Maybe you’ll be blessed to be one of their top five! So today I’m encouraging you – to be reliable, loyal, steadfast, trustworthy and totally faithful!

E-Word 3-29-12

In concluding this study, it is interesting to me that fruit just grows naturally when all the right elements are in place.  When you plant a peach seed, you get years and years of fruit.  We should be fruitful not only day after day, but year after year!  To get a continual harvest, we have to be continually planting. We are farmers for LIFE! That means that our life is all about daily planting (through words, deeds, finances, etc.).  What is so cool about daily planting is that you get to affect everyone who is around you.  When fruit is growing, it naturally is shared with others.  So your family gets to see your fruit at work. They get to see the best you, and hear your best words, and be recipients of your best behavior. Most the time we do it all backwards.  We put our best self out for strangers and let our family have our worst. YIKES! Let’s be our best self always!  Not because we’re trying to be good, but because we are letting the goodness of God show in us. It is the goodness of God that draws men to salvation.  We can be magnets for the lost, to see them come to know Jesus. What they see in us is what they want. That is the best kind of fruit we could ever have!

 

Fruitful living is: Consistent giving, Perpetual planting, Continual reaping, God pleasing, life changing and most of all…..Kingdom expanding!

 

This one point can truly make living a fruitful life more natural and effortless than you can imagine.  Living fruitfully shouldn’t be a strain!  It should be a natural outflow of Christ in us, as familiar to us as taking our next breath.

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We’ve made it to the last fruit listed in Galatians 5:22-23. This may be the hardest one too!  If we get the first one (love) and the last one (self-control) in order, the rest fall into place pretty naturally. Another word for self-control is temperance, and I think we all could agree that being in control of our “temper” is definitely part of temperance.  Being temperate means saying no to any excess, in any realm….. from appetite, to physical urges, to passions and desires.  To be temperate means to be “in power or in control, or to have power over one’s self.”  When we are in adverse situations, Jesus admonishes us to maintain control and choose how we respond.  That takes self-control!  When we choose to bless instead of curse, that is self-control. When we choose broccoli over Snickers….that is self-control! When we are wronged and we choose to respond in love, that is self-control! Without self-control, we are like a city with a broken down wall.  Proverbs 25:28 says exactly that.  The cities of old were walled for protection.  Self-control is like our wall of protection!  It fortifies all that is within.  Self-control is operating within the boundaries of victory.  Any “out of control” area is an open invitation to the enemy.  Let’s lock him out of our lives, by operating always “in power” over ourselves through the power of the Holy Spirit within.

E-Word 3-27-12

Fruitful Living –Faithfulness. We are benefactors of God’s faithfulness.  I’m sure each of you can look back over your life, and think about the many times that God has demonstrated His faithfulness to you.  There are probably too many incidents to count!  The greatest act of the faithfulness of God was on the cross when a sinless lamb became the sacrifice for the sins of the entire world.  What a faithful God! He is completely dependable, unwavering, committed, reliable, steadfast and loyal.  What He promises He does deliver!  The promise way back in Genesis 3:15 (when God spoke about the seed of a woman bringing deliverance to His people), was faithfully fulfilled in birth, death and resurrection of Jesus.  What I have noticed more than anything while studying Fruitful Living is that for each fruit to operate in my life, a starting point is to actively respond to that attribute of God.  I can mirror His faithfulness to me, by remaining faithful to Him. (It works with all the other fruit too!) When we determine to emulate Christ and be faithful, there are three things that are important.

 

We must:

Stay true to God, stay close, and give Him your full attention and all of your heart

Stay true to others, be a true friend, be reliable, steadfast, and constant.

Stay true to yourself, be authentic, the real deal, totally sincere.

 

If we want to be called faithful at the end of our life, we must run the race, and finish the course.  There may even be some fighting along the way. We do fight the good fight of faith! We recognize that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but are mighty through God and can even pull down strongholds. Most importantly we can outlast the devil! We win, he loses! We are more than conquerors.  God will always be faithful!

 

My God has been faithful to me, His goodness and mercies I’ve seen

When hearing well done, your race has been won,

I’ll know I’ve been faithful

His Word has proved faithful,

He has been so faithful to me

 

I encourage you to mirror God’s faithfulness!

E-Word 3-26-12

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As we finish looking at fruitful living with peace and patience, let me give you an illustration about patience that Max Lucado shared in his book, A Love worthy Giving.  He uses the definition of patience as taking a long time to boil.  When it comes to a boiling pot of water, oatmeal or whatever, what factor determines the speed at which it boils?  It is not the stove, and not the pot, or even the ingredients in the pot, but it is the intensity of the flame.  The pot boils over when the flame is high, and it doesn’t boil over when the flame is low. That’s not a heavy revelations, but it does get a point across!  He brings out the point that a patient person keeps the burner down, they keeps the flame low.  They wait.  They listen. God treats us with patience, and that is how we should treat others.  If we really want to be fruitful in live and learn to operate in peace and patience, we need to keep the flame low.  We must learn to respond patiently. Hebrews 10:36 reminds us that if we want to receive the promise, we must live patiently.  We can run this race with patience, just like Jesus did.  We can lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily throws us off course, and run with patience, as we look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Now that’s fruitful living!

E-Word 3-25-12