Living the Playbook of God

Verses: James 1 : 19 - 27

My thoughts about the verses:

The Bible is much like the playbook that a team has.  The playbook lays out exactly how to make just the right moves during a game.  During the game all a person has to do is call a number or a name and immediately the team knows what to do.  People playing certain roles know exactly where to go so the play will be successful.

The Bible is that same instruction manual for us.  We all share the same book.  Some choose to follow everything exactly like the Bible says.  Others choose to only follow bits and pieces of the word.  Even others choose to put the manual down and follow none of what God has laid out for us to do.

We need to read and understand the playbook.  The most important thing that we can do is trust in God.  When you trust in God you accept that the Bible is the map of your life.  You need to spend time reading, studying and mediating the Word of God.   As you learn the playbook that God has written you will grow wiser and stronger.

Yet, studying the word is not enough.  You also need to follow what has been written.  You need to do the things that show others love.  You need to clothed the poor and feed the hungry.  When we show compassion to others we are spreading the love of God to the word. 

Jesus has drawn out and lived the play that we most need to follow.   Jesus died on the cross out of love.  When we show others love we are passing on God’s love to the world.  We must understand that God wants us to be the hands of love the world needs.  We cannot save people from their sins.  Yet, by showing others love we can help direct them to the one that died for them. 

Look at yourself where would you be if someone had not showed you love.  Would you have found God?  Would you still be searching for someone to love you?  When you find love your world changes.  The things that seemed impossible become possible.  You have someone there on your side helping you make it through.  It is when you understand love that you can accept the love that Jesus offers.

Our actions are an extension of God’s love to the world.  Open yourself up and be the light that someone needs.  Do not keep the gift of life and love hidden in your heart.  Open the gift up to the world.  You will soon find that sharing your love of Jesus with others is the most rewarding experience you will ever have. 

Prayer:

We praise you God.  We thank you Jesus for loving us.  Help us show others love.  Help us to step outside and be a light to the world.  Help us study your word and turn it into positive change in this world of hungry souls.  In the name of the Savior we pray.  Amen

Questions:

Is today the day that you share love with the world?  Are you reading and living the playbook of God?

Avoiding the Path of Sin

Verses: James 1  : 12 - 18

My thoughts about the verses:

Imagine standing at the edge of a cliff.  You have two choices.  You can choose to turn back around and retrace your steps.  You can also choose to just jump and see where you land.

Now you may be saying I really didn’t have a choice in this situation.  Jumping off the cliff is going to most likely lead to me getting hurt if not killed.  Retracing my steps will at least get me back to where I was on the path before I got to the cliff.

Yet, how did we get to the cliff’s edge?  We didn’t just wake up and immediately find ourselves on the edge.  We actually had to take a path to get there.  Is it possible that we could have stopped ourselves before we got to the edge? 

Obviously we didn’t have to take the path that led us to the very edge.  Yet, how hard is it to make that choice?  In one way or the other we all take risks each and every day.  We all do things that are just outside the box.  We take a chance to go down the curvy, bumpy path thinking that we will be fine. 

This is how sin comes into our life.  We get to the edge by following our own desires.  We think that what we are doing is worth the risk.  We have a tendency to be riskier as our life is not affected.  We end up taking the path that leads to the edge of the cliff.  The cliff in this situation is dying in sin. 

God didn’t tempt us down this path.  We chose the twist and turns we wanted to take.  God was there to guide us back to the path we needed to be on.  Yet, we kept going down the road that led us to sin. 

We all have the choice in our life to stop where we are and let Jesus be our guide.  Jesus will not lead us to the edge of the cliff.  Instead of dying in sin we live in grace.  We do have the choice and when we chose to follow Jesus our life changes forever.  We will soon find that we are no longer by ourselves.  When we are tempted God is there helping us choose the right path.  We live without fear and doubt.  The path is no longer curvy and bumpy instead it is straight and even. 

Prayer:

We praise you God for your love.  We thank you for your guidance.  Help us not go astray.  Be with us and guide us throughout our life.  In the Saviors Holy Name we pray.  Amen

Questions:

Are you allowing God to be your guide?  Are you on a path that you need to back out of?  Are you standing on the Edge of death in sin or life in grace?

Endurance during Trials Leads to Maturity

Verses: James 1 : 1 - 11

My thoughts about the verses:

Think about seeing a baby as they are learning to do the very basic things that adults take for granted.  One of the pivotal moments is that moment when they learn to stand on their own and take that first step.  Yet, it doesn’t happen overnight.  There are many stages that they go through. 

They must first learn to roll-over and sit-up.  They have to learn to crawl across the floor.  Then they slowly learn how to pull themselves up using different things to steady their balance.  They eventually take steps by distributing their balance on items that they hold onto.  Then when you least expect it they take that step.  The moment they become independent in a lot of ways.

Yet, all these steps come with trials.  They fall way before they walk on their own.  Yet, we keep encouraging them to try.  They want to be so much like us that they keep trying over and over again to take those steps.  Even when they start to walk there will be numerous times that they fall back to the floor.  Yet, through our encouragement and their drive they will continue standing and walking.  Until at last they find that independence and can walk on their own.

Christians are a lot like this.  When we first accept Jesus in our life we try our best to act and behave like a mature Christian.  We are shocked the first time that our faith is tested.  We have choices to make in that moment.  Do we pull ourselves back up and try again or do we turn away from God?  Those that are lucky enough to have friends and family that are Christians have the same support as that baby learning to walk.

Yet, for those that do not have that support have to depend on their connection with God to move forward.  We will all stumble yet, God is there giving us support to keep us balanced.  God gave us the blueprint to help us grow spiritually.  When we depend on the Bible as our study tool we are able to learn to walk in faith.

We will soon to come that trials lead to our maturity.  We would never have a reason to depend on God if all was good.  Just think what happens when they baby starts to walk on their own.  They only want help when they have fallen and hurt themselves.  This is how we are Christians are.  We learn to depend on God as we go through the day to day struggles life throws our way.  As we depend on God we will grow and mature in God.

Prayer:

We thank you God for your strength.  We rejoice in the trials that come in our life to help us grow closer to you.  Help us never forget to praise you for the guidance you give in our life.  Help us study you word.  In the name of the Righteous Savior we pray.  Amen

Questions:

Have you accepted Jesus?  Are you learning from the trials in your life?  Are you reading the word of God?  Are you allowing God to guide your life?

Praise God Today, Tomorrow and Forever More

Verses: Psalms 150: 1 - 6

Song inspired by the chapter:  Song has been uploaded from YouTube.com and is not my original.

My thoughts about the verses:

Take a look at your life for just one moment.  We all have that one thing that we consider to be the most important person in our life.  We may think that our parents are the most important thing that we have in this life.  We may have a soulmate that we put before anything else.  Our children may be the most cherished thing that we have.   We may have friends that make us feel that our life is complete.

We spend a lot of our time praising the most important thing in our life.  We go out of our way to make them happy.  We buy them gifts.  We give them hugs and kisses.  We dedicate ourselves to making sure that they know how special they are to us.

We hope for love in return.  Yet, it doesn’t matter to us if it is reciprocated.  The thing that is important to us is that we show our love to them.  We are there for them no matter what happens.  We try our best to cheer them up when they are down.  We celebrate with them when they are up.  We keep them in our hearts and mind all the time.  No matter what they are the one that we care for and others know it by the way we interact with them.

Yet, I want us to stop a moment and think upon this isn’t God the reason we have this special someone in our life.  Didn’t God help us find our soulmate?  Were we not blessed with the parents we have.  Our children are the very gift of God.  It is God that brings friends in our life.

Since God has done all this for us are we really concentrating on who should be the most important person in our life?  We need to reevaluate for a moment who we should be praising.  When was the last time that you thanked God for the special people in your life?  When was the last time that you praised God for the gifts that you have been given.

This Psalm makes it clear that there should never be a time in our life that we do not lift up our praises to God.  God is worthy to be praise.  Praising God should be the most important thing in our life.  God has given us more love and compassion than we can ever give a person.  Knowing this we should offer our lives up as a witness of Gods enduring love.  We should praise God in a way that the whole world knows we have the most important thing in our life.

Praising God isn’t an option.  Is it an option for a soul mate not to show love to their other half?  Is it an option to not love the friends that God has placed in your life?  Is it an option to let that someone special not feel loved?  If these are not an option then how it is we forget to offer up praises to the one that has given this all to us. 

We are to praise God both morning and night.  We are to praise God today and forever.  We are to praise God in our low moments.  We need to praise God when we are in our best of times.  The next time that you feel the need to do something special for someone, can I suggest that you give that praise to God first.  When we praise God for the people in our life we are thanking the one that has sent them.  We are also blessing the person that we love with our commitment of love and praise to the greatest of all loves.

Prayer:

We praise you God.  Hear our praises for they are for you.  We lift our voices to sing praises to the one on High.  We lift our hands in praise to you Dear God.  We thank you for the people that you have placed in our life.  Help us never forget that you are the light that guides us.  Help us to always remember to praise you no matter what is happening.  For we know God that you are always there.  In praise we call upon your Holy Name.  Amen

Questions:

Have you thanked God for the special people in your life?  Are you praising God with all of your heart, soul and mind?  Are you worshipping the one that has made you whole?  Is today the day that you start praising God above all other things?

The Jubilant Arrival of Jesus in the Chariot of Redemption

Verses: Psalms 149: 1 - 9

Song inspired by the chapter:  Song has been uploaded from YouTube.com and is not my original.

My thoughts about the verses:

Think about the last sports game you watched.  You are sitting there waiting for that decisive moment that your team takes the lead that cannot be beat.  You are waiting on it excitedly knowing that at any moment the star will jump in and score that precious point.  Then it happens out of nowhere a person that you never expected comes and makes the pivotal play.  Your heart races you know that your team has scored the pivotal point that will change things.  The other team will have no chance of catching up. 

We live in a world where we all are waiting for that big thing to happen.  We are not sure what it is going to be, but we know there will be something that will change us forever.  I know for me the moment that changed my life happened over thirty years ago.  I didn’t have to wait as long as others and for that I feel blessed.

See for me the thing that changed my life was that moment when I came to see Jesus as my redeemer.  I had figured out that I was doing things that were wrong.  I went through a time period when I was afraid if I didn’t get things straightened out I would die a horrible death.  Then sitting in a Vacation Bible School Class I learned that Jesus was there.  Jesus had already paid for all of my sins.  I only had to accept the grace to be free. 

That decision has guided my entire adult life.  I cannot say that things went as I thought they would.  I had hard times and times that I hid.  Yet, God always corrected me and got me back on the path.  My task was to spread the gospel of redemption to as many people as I can.  Just like that player that came out of nowhere to score that was what God laid on my heart for me to be.

Yet, there will come and even greater day.  The day, the saints of the Lord, have waited for.  Jesus will come in a chariot from Heaven above to call us home.  The one thing that we have longed for will happen in a flash.  We will not know the day or the hour yet, we will know that this is what we had searched for.  Our lives will be changed from that moment.  We will become the victors in Jesus’s name.  The world will tremble; nations will fall as the Son of God comes to claim his own.  It is that moment that the final battle will be one.  Jesus will defeat evil and take his saints home.

We know in our hearts this will happen.  Yet, we worry is it today.  The thing that we must remember is that Jesus will return.  With this knowledge, we should praise our Redeemer.  We need to shout from the mountains that our Savior is the true Messiah.  We need to live with a joyful spirit knowing that the one that loved us from the beginning will love us forever. 

Lift up your voices in praise.  Rejoice with your hands held high.  Allow the spirit to overflow in your life and those around you.  Dance in the grace that comes from the redeemer.  Be ready for that moment when you will find your ultimate victory.

Prayer:

Praise your Holy Name.  We praise you for your redeeming power.  We praise you for your love.  We praise you for your victory over death.  We praise you for our freedom.  Dear God help us to never forget that you are our Redeemer.  Help us share your grace with the people of the world.  In the name of the Redeemer and Savior we pray.  Amen

Questions:

Have you had that pivotal moment in your life?  Do you feel the need today to turn it over to Jesus?  Are you praising the one that will come to claim the victory?

Praise God All Creation

Verses: Psalms 148: 1 - 14

Song inspired by the chapter:  Song has been uploaded from YouTube.com and is not my original.

My thoughts about the verses:

This is a Psalm dedicated to praising God.  All creation needs to praise God as they are capable.  This goes not only for the people of God but for every creature.  Imagine the world if all were praising God.

God created not only man but all that exists.  God loves all that has been created from the smallest insect to the heavenly beings above.  We are to give God praise for the very love that God gives to each and every one of us.  The love of God is enough to worship and praise God.

Think about the love that people have towards their pet.  Look at the love that the pet returns to their owner.  It is a dedicated love.  The owner knows that they have the love because the pet needs them.  The pet returns the love because they need the owner to survive.  They need each other and in their own ways show love to each other.

Think about the love of a parent to a baby.  The enduring love the baby returns to their parent.  They have a very deep bond.  They need each other.  The parent needs the child for they find a person that loves them for just who they are.  The baby needs the parent because of the provisions that the parent gives the child.  The connection grows over time as each learns how to give more and more love to each other.

Think about the love between two adults.  The love is a deep bond shared by two adults.  They need each other to feel connected to the world.  They share love because they need each other.  They share mutual love with each other.

God’s relationship with us goes much deeper.  The commitment that God has with us is stronger than any bond that anyone can have with us.  We need to remember that God loves us no matter who we are.  Understanding God’s love should lead us to praise God. 

One other thing that we need to look at is that we are to praise God as we are able.  God knows that each and every one of us will lift up praise in different ways.  No matter how you choose to praise God you need to do it to the best of your ability.  I think of the baby that can only smile at their parent.  The parent feels the love in return.  We need to praise God to return the love that God has for us.

Prayer:

Dear God we praise you for your love.  We thank you for being with us through all of our life.  Help us to always remember that praising you should be our first priority.  Help us focus on giving our lives over to you.  In the name of the Holy One we pray.  Amen

Questions:

Do you praise God for the love that is given to you?  Have you given your life over to God?  What do you need to do today to praise God?