Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Letting Go Of Our Agendas


We woke up today with a plan for the day. We have a plan of how to get through the day. In some ways we have an intentional plan, while in other ways we operate out of habit. Even though we have things all planned out and are prepared to face the day, may I suggest that we remember to let go of our agenda and leave room for God's agenda. Sometimes we can miss what God wants to do in our lives because we won't allow Him to disrupt our plans. When God wants to let us in on His agenda often it looks like an inconvenience to us.

I'm reminded of the story of Moses. It's says one day he was walking and noticed a bush burning and not being burned. The Bible says the following .....
So Moses said, "I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up." (‭Exodus‬ ‭3‬:‭3‬ NASB)
Moses could have kept walking. He could have stuck to his plans for the day, but no, he allowed his plans to be interrupted. He turned aside.
Look at what the Bible says happened next...
When the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." (‭Exodus‬ ‭3‬:‭4‬ NASB)
Notice when God saw that Moses turned aside, God began to speak to him. This whole scenario was the beginning of God telling Moses that he was the man who was going to go to Pharaoh and tell him to let God's people go. And it all started with Moses turning aside.


Be encouraged today, if God interrupts our plans it's a good thing, and there is probably a good reason. I can't guarantee that everything in your life will go smooth and you won't have any problems in your life by allowing yourself to be open to God's agenda, but you can go through life having peace knowing you are trying your best to follow what God wants to do in your life. 
Troy

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

God Loves Us At Our Worst

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)


 There is a huge misconception when It comes to following Jesus with our lives. Generally, most of us feel that we aren't good enough. We have thoughts like, "I need to clean my act up first",or "God would never accept me the way I have lived" and so on and so forth. What we don't realize is that what we are really saying is that... at some point we can be good enough for God. Somehow we feel that we can earn Jesus dying on the cross for us. We somehow forget that our sins have separated us from God and that we needed Jesus to restore the relationship.
 

 Basically I have found we usually fall into one of two camps when it comes to our sins:
1. the idea that they really aren't that bad or,
2. the idea that our sins are so awful that even God can't forgive them.

 We are wrong on both accounts. Romans 5:8 shows us that we are sinners, but the good news is that it shows us that even though we have sinned, Jesus still died for us. He didn't wait until we cleaned up our act. While you and I were doing those things that we are so ashamed of, that is when He died for us. As the verse says this is how God has demonstrated His love towards us.
In my 20 + years of following Jesus I have studied all the world religions and
beliefs etc... One thing that separates following Jesus from every other religion is that in the other religions we have to become good enough to be accepted. We have to attain to some level. We have to reach up to whatever the diety is. In following Jesus, we find that we are accepted not because of what we did, but because of what Jesus did. He came to us!!!






 Be encouraged today, God has demonstrated His love towards YOU!!! He sent Jesus to die for YOU!!!. And He didn't wait until you were "good enough" He already did it !!! Remember, God doesn't just love us when we are at our best, He also loves us at our worst!!! "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)
Troy