Archive for May, 2009
May 30, 2009 at 7:55 am · Filed under FCA, First Baptist Ocala
Hallelujah! Happy is the man who fears the Lord, taking great delight in His commandments. His descendants will be powerful in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever. Light shines in the darkness for the upright. He is gracious, compassionate, and righteous. Good will come to a man who lends generously and conducts his business fairly. He will never be shaken. The righteous will be remembered forever. He will not fear bad news; his heart is confident, trusting in the Lord. His heart is assured; he will not fear. In the end he will look in triumph on his foes. He distributes freely to the poor; his righteousness endures forever. His horn will be exalted in honor. Psalms 112:1-9 (HCSB)
Long before Jesus spoke the more famous beatitudes that are recorded in the New Testament Gospel account, the Lord inspired this passage about right attitudes, which inspired the beatitudes hundreds of years later. Right living begins with right actions and right attitudes. What is right is defined by the standard of what is good and right - The Lord of Lords and King of Kings! Our Lord God. Before God became incarnate in this world His Spirit guided the souls of His anointed sons and daughters in the Old Testament about much of what He would later record for all of mankind in the words of Jesus, His uniquely anointed and manifested Son who revealed God Himself to the whole world.
These words should be like beacons and guideposts to direct how we live our lives, and right living begins by honoring and revering the Lord by dedicating our lives to love and obey His Will, His Ways, and the Wisdom of His Word. We should delight in how following the Lord’s direction will bless not only our lives, but also our children and their children. Likewise, our sphere of influence will rain down upon so many others by our generosity of time, talents and our treasures, because we recognize the source of those gifts we have been endowed and blessed with. In the end the motive of the righteous is not to be remembered individually, but as a Child of God who was used as a channel of blessings to others.
May we never forget religion is not right living, because it is and has been always man-made, and man is certainly not perfect. Right living is also not following traditions and rules and standards, but living for God and His purposes. And God’s purposes should be seen as reaching and revealing God’s love for all of His creation! Discrimination, segregation, intolerance and all other self-righteous attitudes are not what God had intended. If you believe that God created everything and everyone, on what grounds can we declare any of His creation a mistake or unlovable. (I strongly remind everyone to read the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man, Luke 16:19-31)
Being the church in the world means far more to God than building the church and congregating separated from the world behind walls and doors that exclude! The Hebrews and later Jews made that mistake and their temple walls were destroyed and they were exiled, dispersed into the world.
Living day by day with God is real worship! That is the beginning or right living and Jesus strongly echoed that repeatedly in His ministry among us. Being in church is not bad as long as we remember what the purpose of His Church is all about…
Coach
May 29, 2009 at 5:22 am · Filed under FCA, First Baptist Ocala
Hallelujah! I will praise the Lord with all my heart in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation. The Lord’s works are great, studied by all who delight in them. All that He does is splendid and majestic; His righteousness endures forever. He has caused His wonderful works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and compassionate… The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow His instructions have good insight. His praise endures forever. Psalm 111:1-5, 10
What fear should haunt our very soul? What fear should make us tremble within our very bones? There is nothing that man can do to us that has eternal consequences! Even Satan has limits placed upon what He can do by the Lord of salvation and creation! So what should we fear the most? How about not fearing or never choosing to know the Lord, our God, personally and surrendering to His Will, His Ways, and the Wisdom of His Word?
If we fail to fear (revere) the Lord for who He is and what He has done for us, then our real fear is never knowing the wonders of the Lord and His covenant relationship. Facing life without the Lord’s covenant care means you would also face death without the Lord’s covenant care as well, and that should haunt any person.
What does it mean to fear the Lord the right way? It means seeking the wisdom that comes from studying the Lord, His works and His words. It is discovering how faithful and compassionate He truly is and how He loves you and me. It means being able to call Him by name and know He will answer your prayers and share His wisdom with you. To revere the Lord means wanting to intimately know Him more than any other person in your life because He makes all our other relationships truly meaningful.
The choice is for all of us: we can fear as in revere and worship Him, or we can fear and tremble the reality of being left out of His care and compassion. The choice is yours to make! God will not make it for you or coerce you.
Coach
May 28, 2009 at 5:25 am · Filed under FCA, First Baptist Ocala
God of my praise, do not be silent, for wicked and deceitful mouths open against me; they speak against me with lying tongues. They surround me with hateful words and attack me without cause. In return for my love they accuse me, but I continue to pray. They repay me evil for good, and hatred for my love…But You, God my Lord, deal [kindly] with me because of Your name; deliver me because of the goodness of Your faithful love…Help me, Lord my God, save me according to Your faithful love so they may know that this is Your hand and that You, Lord, have done it. Psalm 109: 1-5, 21, 26-27
Stuck in the crowd of the community around around you and though you try to be the Christian you are, charges and accusations fly in defiance! Confusion, frustration, and distraction by the evil that is rebelling against the good intentions of a heart living for the Lord. Have you ever felt the offensive of those around you that reject who you stand for by your words and deeds? Many love applauding when you stumble and are caught in their web of deceit. They plot only to bring you down to make them feel lifted up…however, do not panic or fail to stand back up when you do stumble! God is faithful and will in His perfect time and way lift you up and reveal Himself to those who are attacking you. The Lord uses us in these times to reveal Himself to those who seek to cut you off and shut you up. Their offensive actions are actually defensive actions to preserve their arrogance and selfish lifestyles, and they know it!
However, be reminded that the Lord lifts us up for His name’s sake, not for our sake. We are not to boast of our deliverance to those who caused us to stumble in the first place. Our only response is to thank the Lord for His loving kindness and faithful love. Be thankful that through us the Lord may reach someone else for His sake. Praise God and exalt Him alone, never exalt ourselves as more special than those who accused you. God created us all and loves us all equally. Those who reject the ways of the Lord cause the Lord to grieve, and we should feel the same. Hate the action, never the person.
Thank you Lord for all you do to keep lifted up in challenges of this life so I might be of service to you and your kingdom on earth.
Coach
May 27, 2009 at 4:59 am · Filed under FCA, First Baptist Ocala
Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His faithful love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord proclaim that He has redeemed them from the hand of the foe and has gathered them from the lands - from the east and the west, from the north and the south. Some wandered in the desolate wilderness, finding no way to a city where they could live. They were hungry and thirsty; their spirits failed within them. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble; He rescued them from their distress. He led them by the right path to go to a city where they could live. Let them give thanks to the Lord for His faithful love and His wonderful works for the human race. For He has satisfied the thirsty and filled the hungry with good things. Psalm 107:1-9
Why do we choose to wander aimlessly, especially at the risk of hunger and thirst physically and spiritually? Yet, many of us do! We know what it means to live under the protection and provision of the Lord and receive His grace and mercy and love, but yet we still are apt to wander from the safety of His care. Maybe it is because we believe deep down inside of us we do not need anyone and we can survive on our own strength and ingenuity. At one time or another, multiple times for many of us, we have wandered off the right and safe path to pursue our own way only to discover we cannot do it alone. In the darkness of midnight in our despair we have cried out to God and sought His direction, protection and provision for our lives.
Interesting as this observation is, there remains this fact as well - some of the out front leaders in the Lord’s army are those who wandered out on their own only find their way back to the Lord’s ways. The Bible is full of stories about such lives. So I conclude by asking this question, does rebellion make us stronger and more committed to the Lord because we learn through the scars of the journey the value of the Lord’s ways, the Lord’s will, and the certainty of the Lord’s word to us? Also, can we assume that the Lord allows us to wander for that exact reason knowing He would never let us completely fail along the wayward path we ventured out upon.
What an awesome Lord we serve! Consider your own life. Why has He allowed you to wander? What greater purpose did He have in mind? Are you now more thankful and respectful of His love and care?
Thank you my Lord and Savior, my wounds are healed and I am satisfied by You alone.
Coach
May 26, 2009 at 5:24 am · Filed under FCA, First Baptist Ocala
Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name; proclaim His deeds among the peoples. Sing to Him, sing praise to Him; tell about all His wonderful works! Honor His holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Search for the Lord and for His strength; seek His face always. Remember the wonderful works He has done, His wonders, and the judgments He has pronounced…He forever remembers His covenant, the promise He ordained for a thousand generations…as an everlasting covenant. Psalm 105:1-5, 8-9
When we take the time to examine our lives before God there should little difficulty finding his handiwork all over our lives. We should have no reason not to praise the Lord for His faithfulness in protecting, preserving and providing for our needs in this life. Once we acknowledge the Lord for who He truly is and accept Him as our personal Savior we enter His covenant care. Once in His covenant care He instills His Spirit of truth and life within us to guide and direct our lives. He also gives us knowledge of Himself through the life, words and understanding of His Son, Jesus the Christ. By believing and loving Him with our total self, heart, soul, mind and strength, we remain sealed eternally in His absolute covenant care. Nothing can ever remove us from His hands! Is that worthy of being called by His name? Is that worthy of our testimony to others, in hopes more will accept His gift of grace?
Lord, may my life be a louder witness than my words about who you are and your faithfulness! What about you today?
Coach
May 25, 2009 at 6:19 am · Filed under FCA, First Baptist Ocala
My soul, praise the Lord! Lord, my God, You are very great; You are clothed with majesty and splendor. He wraps himself in light as if it were a robe, spreading out the sky like a canopy, laying the beams of His palace on the waters [above], making the clouds His chariot, walking on the wings of the wind, and making the winds His messengers, flames of fire His servants. He established the earth on its foundations; it will never be shaken. Psalm 104:1-5
In majesty and splendor the Lord reigns and rules over His creation, yet there are times our perspective places God under our imagination. We try to define and limit God’s influence on us. Yet, how can the pottery define the potter? How does the painting instruct the painter? Does the building define the limits of the builder?
Man is God’s special creation, yet he strives to be like the creator. The closer we believe we are to God, the less the reverence we have for the Creator God! Instead we applaud and worship our own accomplishments. However, can the created ever be the Creator? Will there ever come a point in man’s history where the Creator will worship and be less than the man He has created? Never!! Though man would like to achieve it and believe it… man will remain the image of God, but never God. Just as a painting or picture, no matter how lifelike it seems, can ever be the original, neither can man become God, the original.
Life is a gift from God, His breath instills life within us, and that same breath serves to instruct us in His ways, His will and the Wisdom of His Word. The pneuma, as the Greeks referred to it, is the Spirit of God which sustains us and empowers us to seek the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. The Spirit of God invites us to honor and worship the Lord of the universe, our Creator. The Spirit of God helps us to recognize how the Lord walked among us as the Christ, the anointed one of God, to show us how to live for Him and to serve Him and most of all love Him.
As God has said in His Word, Be still (be at peace within us and with others) and know I am God! God wants us to be all we can be, but He also says understand what you can never be as well. Place your faith in the Lord of life and the source of light (truth and understanding), and walk in His ways. When life is put into proper perspective, we can focus upon the truth and enjoy the position God, our Creator, has created us. Amen…thank you Lord, my God.
Coach
May 24, 2009 at 5:38 am · Filed under FCA, First Baptist Ocala
My soul, praise the Lord, and all that is within me, praise His holy name. My soul, praise the Lord, and do not forget all his benefits. He forgives all your sin; He heals all your diseases. He redeems your life from the Pit; He crowns you with faithful love and compassion. He satisfies you with goodness; your youth is renewed like the eagle…For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His faithful love toward those who fear (revere) Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear (revere) Him. Psalm 103:1-5, 11-13
WOW! When we can know the Lord like the psalmist here knows the Lord, and we can claim to know the true depth and magnitude of His love as our heavenly and eternal Father, then we truly know what it means to revere and honor the faithfulness of His relationship with us. Why would anyone who realizes the faithfulness of the Father’s love ever feel abandoned or orphaned ever again in this world? Why would we try to escape the care and compassion the Lord offers us? Our selfish ways could never, ever match the benefits of this kind of relationship.
Earthly parents are never perfect. Sometimes one or both abandon their own children for a lot of selfish reasons, but the Lord never abandons His children. The Lord protects, provides for, and preserves His children, raising them in knowledge of His ways, His will, and the wisdom of His Word! His discipline is righteous and His love and compassion have no limits! If only we could have parents like the heavenly Father!
As a father and a grandfather, I pray for forgiveness when I have faltered, knowing that my ways are not His ways and thus my children may have been hurt by my selfishness from time to time. However, because I seek my heavenly Father’s example, I always have tried to be there for all my children and their children as well, when they needed me. Whatever sacrifices I have made have all been worth it and the rewards far exceeded the personal value of the sacrifice it took to help my children. Thank you Lord for being there for me when I needed you. And thank you for forgiving my transgressions as a father to my children.
Hug your parents today and thank them, especially those who know the Lord and try to follow His example as a parent of His children.
Coach
May 23, 2009 at 8:15 am · Filed under FCA, First Baptist Ocala
I will sing of faithful love and justice; I will sing praise to You, Lord. I will pay attention to the way of integrity. When will You come to me? I will live with integrity of heart in my house. I will not set anything godless before my eyes. I hate the doing of transgression; it will not cling to me. A devious heart will be far from me; I will not be involved with evil. Psalm 101:1-4
What a statement of commitment the psalmist proclaims in this great passage! Yet, it is also the type of commitment we must remind ourselves about each day as well. Making right choices in our actions, deeds and words is so important in establishing and maintaining a lifestyle that reflects obedience to the Lord’s will, the Lord’s ways, and the wisdom of the Lord’s Word.
There are so many traps waiting for us in the world we live in. Television, Internet, school and community activities, and even in the choices of friends that we hang out with. And, for some of us, even our place of work places us in a compromising position many times. How can we overcome the challenges and temptations? Commit our hearts, souls and minds upon the Lord each day. We cannot live absent in the world, but we must be willing to walk as a living witness of our Lord’s impact on our lives in this world. As the Apostle Paul stated, we are to not be of the world, but we are to live in this world. We have a purpose that God has placed before us, and He gives us the power and ability to walk the right way through this lifetime free of the temptations and challenges that surround us, but only if we commit ourselves and trust in the Lord’s ways.
Have you committed yourself to making the right choices in your life? Always remember for every choice we make a consequence results, for good or for bad…the choice is always yours to make.
Coach
May 22, 2009 at 5:25 am · Filed under FCA, First Baptist Ocala
Shout triumphantly to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs. Acknowledge that the Lord is God. He made us, and we are His - His people, the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the Lord is good, and His love is eternal; His faithfulness endures through all generations. Psalm 100
Have you ever wondered why it is so quiet in the churches? The job of the worship leader is to get the people excited about being in church on Sunday morning. What a sad statement of our faith and relationship in the God of the Universe, the Savior of all creation, the Spirit that freely offers us life everlasting! Why do we struggle once a week to have a special time with Him while sharing that relationship with other like minded believers? Why should we have to be inspired and prodded by a worship leader to shout and sing praises to the Lord?
And, why must we only have that kind of joyful celebration but once a week? Why can’t we rejoice in our relationship with the Lord every day? He is with us everyday and demonstrates His love everyday too! It reminds me of the little boy who ran outside to play with his friends and was excited over the prospect of being with his friends everyday. The little boy was always happy and smiling and singing, but his friends grew tired of his enthusiasm and slowly shunned him away so they could go on being melancholy and bored in their idle lives. The little boy was only disappointed until he found new friends that enjoyed his company. The Lord wants you to come out and be His friend everyday! He wants to share His joy and to sing songs together with you.
Being a Christian is not be a sentence of separation from the joys of this life, but we should relish the joys as God’s gift to us as we focus our feelings of joy back to Him as our thanksgiving offering of praise. God has plainly said, He desires not our money and other sacrifices that mean nothing to us, because they certainly mean nothing to Him, BUT He said what He desires is a joyful heart that offers Him the love and honor that brings a smile to His face. That is what God desires as our offering to Him. Everyday should be an offering day to the great God we serve and songs should flow from our heart in that relationship as we seek to know Him better each and every day.
Coach
May 21, 2009 at 4:49 am · Filed under FCA, First Baptist Ocala
Sing a new song to the Lord; Sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, praise His name; Proclaim His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His wonderful works among all peoples. For the Lord is great and is highly praised; He is feared (revered) above all gods. For all the gods of all the peoples are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before Him; strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. Psalm 96:1-6
And the winner of the real American idol is: all that sing praises with a sincere heart to the Lord, for His vote alone is worthy of our songs of praise. In the grand scheme of life, I would trade a 100 million votes for the American idol fame to receive the one vote that genuinely changes our lives forever and ever. People are fickled and fame if fleeting. Old stars may be recognized years long after they were on every one’s minds, but they are forgotten when there are other artists who come along and replace the interest of the people. However, God is an audience of one who remains a loyal fan for all eternity to those who sing His praises by the way they live their lives and influence others for His glory.
When the lights go down and another season of American Idol begins, thousands once again will line up for hours for their minute of fame in front the panel of judges who will say yes or no to the next round. Yet ultimately, disappointment will be the destiny for all but the final couple of contestants. Then, even they will face disappointment in time when the lights dim and the applauds fade as the people turn their fickled attention to the next winners of their applauds. That is such a reminder of the reality when we focus only upon the fame, fortune, and fickled responses of this world to give us meaning - it all is fleeting, no matter who we are.
As the psalmist declares: focus upon singing our praises to the eternal, everlasting Lord of the heavens and earth. Do not focus upon the idols of our making. He created us to sing our songs for our joy, but also for His pleasure as well! He offers a reward for our singing that far outlasts anything this world can offer you.
Coach
Next entries »
2010. Powered by