In these 3 chapters Christ starts out by proclaiming blessings or beatitudes, after that he lays out some very basic principles for us to live our lives by, there is also the golden rule as we call it, a description of what judgment will be like and then at the end he makes a very point blank and powerful statement.
Matthew 7:24-28
Therefore whosoever hears these sayings of mine, and does them, I will compare him to a wise man, which built his house on a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and does not fall because it was built upon a rock. And every one that hears these sayings of mine, and does not do them, shall be like a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
I find it interesting that Christ used the analogy of building a house. I am going to take a guess and say it is because he was trained as a carpenter when he was a boy. If you will notice with me, the key factor in the two houses he talks about is the foundation. If you will think with me this is not the only time he used construction terms in making his point. In Matthew the 16th chapter while talking to his apostles he stated he was going to “build” his church and talked about the foundation of the church and that it would be built upon a rock. Now I am no Greek scholar but I have been told the Greek word used by Christ to describe the foundation the church was to be build on is the word “petros” meaning a boulder or bedrock. So Christ saw the importance in building on a solid and firm foundation.
For the next few minutes I want to think of some reasons why it is important for us to build our lives on the teachings and the gospel of Christ. As I mentioned a moment ago, if one will take the principles found in Matthew 5, 6, and 7 and apply them to their life, Christ compares this person to a man who would builds his house on a rock. The wind, rain and floods Christ talks about represents the trials, persecutions, and various issues we are faced with in our lives, and if we have our lives built on a rock, then as the house that was built on a rock, it will not fall.
So why is this important? Well, most usually end up finding themselves a spouse. If I am trying to build my personal life on a firm foundation chances are I am going to find someone who is trying to build their life on a firm foundation. Then after a while we as married couples usually have a child or two or three and we instill our values and beliefs, or at least try to, into our children which in turn creates a spiritual or Christian home, which the Apostle Paul talks about in Ephesians 5 and 6.
Last if you have a Christian person or individual who finds a mate who is a Christian and raises their children in a Christian home and you put several of these homes together with the purpose of worshiping and praising God, then you will have the strong and faithful church build on a solid foundation that Christ talks about in Matthew 16. Every day I try to better myself so I can better my family and hopefully encourage and support the people I worship with every week. We can not make it in this world alone, we need help and I can think of no better way to find the strength and encouragement I need to keep going than worshiping with my fellow brothers and sisters every week.
I hope you have found these thoughts to be encouraging and uplifting.
On a personal note before I close, I have a very special and dear friend who is dealing with some issues right now so I would like to solicit your prayers for this person. For the privacy of this person, I am not going to give their name but if you will pray for “Mike’s friend” I think God will know who you are praying for.
Thanks for watching today, I sincerely hope you have enjoyed the program, have a wonderful day and God bless.
Showing posts with label Wake Up Call Devo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wake Up Call Devo. Show all posts
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
The Lost Boy
In the gospel of Luke the 15th chapter, we find three different parables. There is the one about a lost coin, one about a lost sheep, and the one about the lost boy. The third one is the one I am going to look at today. In Luke 15:11….
In a nutshell the Father has 2 sons, the younger son one day decided to cash in on his father’s inheritance move out of the house and be on his own. Well this was a cool plan or so it seemed until he spent all of the money he had. When he had lots of money he had lots of friends to help him spend it and when the money ran out so did the friends. It ended up that the young man was so broke and hungry he ended up feeding pigs and would have eaten the same stuff he was feeding the pigs. Finally one day he realized he messed up and decided to go back home, knowing that he did not have any more inheritance left to be given to him he was going to ask to at least be a servant in his father’s house.
How many times have we made decisions and afterwards realized that we made a big mistake. The awesome part of the story is that it has a happy ending, when the young man went home his father was very happy to see him, even had a big party for him to welcome him home and accepted him as his son once again rather than making him a servant. Our bad choices can have a happy ending too, Just as the young man left his father’s house when we make bad choices we leave our heavenly father’s house, and just like the young man in the story we can come back home and our heavenly father will accept us if we are willing to admit we have made wrong decisions and are willing to turn away from our decisions.
I can not tell you how many times I have read Luke 15 and thought that story was written about me. Yes I have made some bad choices and decisions in my lifetime and I am very thankful that God was willing to take me back when I realized I needed to go back home. Maybe you have made some bad choices or decisions and need to turn around and walk away from the choices you have made, yes I know it is hard, many times we do not want to admit or realize we have messed up. However our heavenly father is waiting on us to come home, the door is always open, we just have to make the decision to go back home.
I sincerely hope these thoughts have been helpful for you and will motivate you in your daily walk. I pray that the rest of your week will be a great one, we are half way through this one another weekend will be here before you know it. My challenge to you today is to make sure you tell your spouse or significant other if you are not married that you love them and give them a big hug. I can not wait till Susan gets home this afternoon so I can give her a hug.
Quote of the Day
If you believe in the Gospel what you like, and reject what you don't like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself. - Augustine of Hippo
I hope you have a wonderful day, thanks for watching and God bless!
In a nutshell the Father has 2 sons, the younger son one day decided to cash in on his father’s inheritance move out of the house and be on his own. Well this was a cool plan or so it seemed until he spent all of the money he had. When he had lots of money he had lots of friends to help him spend it and when the money ran out so did the friends. It ended up that the young man was so broke and hungry he ended up feeding pigs and would have eaten the same stuff he was feeding the pigs. Finally one day he realized he messed up and decided to go back home, knowing that he did not have any more inheritance left to be given to him he was going to ask to at least be a servant in his father’s house.
How many times have we made decisions and afterwards realized that we made a big mistake. The awesome part of the story is that it has a happy ending, when the young man went home his father was very happy to see him, even had a big party for him to welcome him home and accepted him as his son once again rather than making him a servant. Our bad choices can have a happy ending too, Just as the young man left his father’s house when we make bad choices we leave our heavenly father’s house, and just like the young man in the story we can come back home and our heavenly father will accept us if we are willing to admit we have made wrong decisions and are willing to turn away from our decisions.
I can not tell you how many times I have read Luke 15 and thought that story was written about me. Yes I have made some bad choices and decisions in my lifetime and I am very thankful that God was willing to take me back when I realized I needed to go back home. Maybe you have made some bad choices or decisions and need to turn around and walk away from the choices you have made, yes I know it is hard, many times we do not want to admit or realize we have messed up. However our heavenly father is waiting on us to come home, the door is always open, we just have to make the decision to go back home.
I sincerely hope these thoughts have been helpful for you and will motivate you in your daily walk. I pray that the rest of your week will be a great one, we are half way through this one another weekend will be here before you know it. My challenge to you today is to make sure you tell your spouse or significant other if you are not married that you love them and give them a big hug. I can not wait till Susan gets home this afternoon so I can give her a hug.
Quote of the Day
If you believe in the Gospel what you like, and reject what you don't like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself. - Augustine of Hippo
I hope you have a wonderful day, thanks for watching and God bless!
Saturday, March 20, 2010
March 16 Wake Up Call - Faith vs Fear
This morning I want to offer a few motivational thoughts about faith and fear.
In studying about the Children of Israel and their exodus out of the land of Egypt I have always been amazed at how they lost faith when the slightest hint of trouble crossed their path, weather it was the Red Sea, no water, no food or what ever the situation might have been. Each time Moses would go to God and he would take care of their problems and issues, and the Israelites would be happy until the next problem and once again they would soon forget that God was on their side and would see them through. If you remember God led them to the promise land twice, the first time Moses sent 12 spies to check out the land and bring back a report (Numbers 13:21 - 14:9). The spies came back after 40 days and revealed to the Israelites that the land was rich, flowed with milk and honey, even brought back some of the fruit of the land. They brought one cluster of grapes that was so big it took 2 people to carry it back!! All 12 spies saw the exact same thing, they saw the big thick walls around the cities, they saw the giants in the lands and ten of the spies were ready to throw up their hands and call it quits saying they could not take over the land. Yet Caleb suggested that they go up and take the land at once (Numbers 13:30), Joshua suggested that with God on their side they could take the land (Numbers 14:8). Sad enough the Children of Israel listened to the 10 and not Caleb and Joshua, crying to Moses that he should have left them in Egypt and not brought them to the wilderness to die.
Remember, all 12 men saw the exact same thing so why is it that 2 of them were willing to go and take the land and 10 were ready to throw in the towel? Two of the men had faith and the other 10 had fear!! Let’s take a look at what faith is and what fear is.
Hebrews 11:1 defines faith: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for and evidence of things not seen". OK, what is the "substance of things hoped for" and the "evidence of things not seen"? I ask myself that question often. A few years ago I came across this definition of faith: "Faith is trusting in the fact that what you can not foresee will happen". I do not think Caleb and Joshua knew exactly how it was that God would help them take the promise land, but they trusted in the fact that God would deliver it to them.
So what is fear?? "Fear is trusting in the fact that what you can not foresee will happen"
Now you are saying hold on Mike is that definition for Fear the exact same definition you gave for Faith?? I am impressed, you listen quite well!
The other 10 spies trusted in themselves alone and did not factor God into the equation for taking over the promise land and chances are they were correct in their observation. On their own the children of Israel would have been slaughtered if they had tried to go into the promise land and take it over. All they saw was the big walls and big people and they got scared and said we can not do it.
Conclusion:
How often are we faced with obstacles or problems and think we can take them on ourselves and forget to factor in God?? We are told to take our petitions to God (I John 5: 14-15) and he will hear us. How often do we quote Philippians 4:13 and do not put our faith in Christ to help us??
We, just as the children of Israel, are trying to get to the promise land with our promise land being Heaven. Paul tells us to keep running the race (I Corinthians 9:24-27) and that God will reward faithfulness (I Corinthians 15:58). The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much (James 5:16).
I hope these comments this morning have been motivating and uplifting for you as you go through your daily walk with God. Thank you for watching, call someone and tell them that you love them, have a wonderful day and God bless.
In studying about the Children of Israel and their exodus out of the land of Egypt I have always been amazed at how they lost faith when the slightest hint of trouble crossed their path, weather it was the Red Sea, no water, no food or what ever the situation might have been. Each time Moses would go to God and he would take care of their problems and issues, and the Israelites would be happy until the next problem and once again they would soon forget that God was on their side and would see them through. If you remember God led them to the promise land twice, the first time Moses sent 12 spies to check out the land and bring back a report (Numbers 13:21 - 14:9). The spies came back after 40 days and revealed to the Israelites that the land was rich, flowed with milk and honey, even brought back some of the fruit of the land. They brought one cluster of grapes that was so big it took 2 people to carry it back!! All 12 spies saw the exact same thing, they saw the big thick walls around the cities, they saw the giants in the lands and ten of the spies were ready to throw up their hands and call it quits saying they could not take over the land. Yet Caleb suggested that they go up and take the land at once (Numbers 13:30), Joshua suggested that with God on their side they could take the land (Numbers 14:8). Sad enough the Children of Israel listened to the 10 and not Caleb and Joshua, crying to Moses that he should have left them in Egypt and not brought them to the wilderness to die.
Remember, all 12 men saw the exact same thing so why is it that 2 of them were willing to go and take the land and 10 were ready to throw in the towel? Two of the men had faith and the other 10 had fear!! Let’s take a look at what faith is and what fear is.
Hebrews 11:1 defines faith: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for and evidence of things not seen". OK, what is the "substance of things hoped for" and the "evidence of things not seen"? I ask myself that question often. A few years ago I came across this definition of faith: "Faith is trusting in the fact that what you can not foresee will happen". I do not think Caleb and Joshua knew exactly how it was that God would help them take the promise land, but they trusted in the fact that God would deliver it to them.
So what is fear?? "Fear is trusting in the fact that what you can not foresee will happen"
Now you are saying hold on Mike is that definition for Fear the exact same definition you gave for Faith?? I am impressed, you listen quite well!
The other 10 spies trusted in themselves alone and did not factor God into the equation for taking over the promise land and chances are they were correct in their observation. On their own the children of Israel would have been slaughtered if they had tried to go into the promise land and take it over. All they saw was the big walls and big people and they got scared and said we can not do it.
Conclusion:
How often are we faced with obstacles or problems and think we can take them on ourselves and forget to factor in God?? We are told to take our petitions to God (I John 5: 14-15) and he will hear us. How often do we quote Philippians 4:13 and do not put our faith in Christ to help us??
We, just as the children of Israel, are trying to get to the promise land with our promise land being Heaven. Paul tells us to keep running the race (I Corinthians 9:24-27) and that God will reward faithfulness (I Corinthians 15:58). The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much (James 5:16).
I hope these comments this morning have been motivating and uplifting for you as you go through your daily walk with God. Thank you for watching, call someone and tell them that you love them, have a wonderful day and God bless.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)