What does God want for me (us) in 2015?

I was thinking this morning about how blessed I was in 2014! Thank you Jesus. I then switched my thoughts to what does God want from me(us) in 2015? This is what God showed me:

1. Matthew 6:9-10

Pray then like this:
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.

A. Lift God's name up through my life!

B. Do God's will in my life every second of every day! The bible reveals God's will for us, it is not hard to figure out!

2. Matthew 6:33

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

A. Seek God not my own selfish desires. Bible study, prayer, church, and fellowship with the saints will reveal what God desires for me to do for Him. All are needed! Are you seeking Him?

B. God will take care of me when I obey Him. He always has! Jesus has never failed me and never will!

We can choose right now what we will do in 2015, what will you choose in 2015.....self or Jesus?

Joshua 24:15d
15 But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Tom

Draw a line in the sand!

I went to a youth conference a few days ago and heard a message that I wanted to pass along as we get ready to go into a new year. As followers of Jesus it's time if you aren't already to make a stand for our God! Thus the statement "draw a line in the sand". This means I will not cross what boundaries God has set for me and I have set for myself. If I may, let me give you a few pointers:

1. Line of conviction: As a follower of Christ, I have convictions and standards I will not cross....period! God has given us a guide book and expects us to follow it. Are we? Here is an example in the bible:

King Nebuchadnezzar commanded all to bow down to a statue to worship it. Everyone obeyed but three men:

Daniel 3:16-17

16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 17 If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king.

They had a line of conviction, even in the face of death! Don't cross the line drawn in the sand!

2. Line of association: It is no great revelation that the people you hang out with is who you become! This may be the time to adjust your friend list! The list of men in the last verse stood strong together. The bible says:

Proverbs 27:17 

Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.

While we are to try and win the lost we are to be very careful whom we spend great amounts of time with so we are not drawn into the ways of the world!

3. Line of confidence: Do you have confidence in your God? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did! "Our God is able to deliver"!!!! Oh yes He is!!! Here is another verse to grab on to:

Romans 8:31

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

We got God on our side!

So with a new year upon us...draw a line of conviction, draw a line of association, draw a line of confidence, and don't cross them!

Have a blessed new year and may we stand for KING JESUS!

Tom

Eyes #5

Hope everyone had a great Christmas! I will get back to my regular routine soon and again sorry for scattered devo's! Let's look at the proverbs today to see what they got to say about the eyes!



Proverbs 12:15





15 The way of a fool is right in his own eyes,

but a wise man listens to advice.



This is a common theme in the scriptures, that a fool is always right in his own eyes! I can attest to this myself. How many times have I found myself in sin in the past and tried to justify it will some kind of excuse. Not only trying to convince others I was right but also myself! Where instead I should have taken the advice of other followers of Jesus and most of all God's Word!!! LISTEN and READ Godly advice! It is the key to maturing in our walk with the Lord. Get pride out as we all seem to have a problem of seeing where we are wrong.



Proverbs 16:2





2 All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes,

but the Lord weighs the spirit.



Similar to the previous proverb. Don't miss here though to who is weighing our Spirit. Not self, not other people, but God Himself. You see when it all comes down to the end, we will stand before God, and He knows our hearts. Were we trying to follow Him or was it all about self? We can't fool God but we sure can fools ourselves if we are not careful. Don't fool yourself, God tells us what is pure in His Word, if you want to know you will seek it our, if not then you won't. Plain and simple.



Proverbs 17:24

The discerning sets his face toward wisdom, but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth.



So what are your eyes on? The ways of the world or the wisdom God has shown us?



Proverbs 21:4





4 Haughty eyes and a proud heart,

the lamp of the wicked, are sin.



Pride will get ya every time! Are you humble or full of pride?



Proverbs 23:26



26 My son, give me your heart,

and let your eyes observe my ways.



This defines where our eyes should be...on God's ways!!!!! Give God your heart, it is His main desire!!!



Chew on these today, where are your eyes???



Tom

Eyes #4

Today let us look at what the Psalms has to say about our eyes. Great advice!



Psalm 25:15





15 My eyes are ever toward the Lord,

for he will pluck my feet out of the net.



Where are our eyes focused? On Jesus our Lord or on the world whom Satan is the prince? Here we are told when we keep our eyes on Jesus, He will keep us out of trouble!!! Oh how I wish I had focused on Jesus as a child, but am thankful I came to my senses and finally gave my life to Him in my 20's!!! He is my Guide and Protector!



Psalm 101:3





3 I will not set before my eyes

anything that is worthless.

I hate the work of those who fall away;

it shall not cling to me.



Oh my! Think about these words for a bit. First thing comes to my mind is TV!!! How much value does TV have? Then thing of people who are not following Jesus, don't let their ways cling to you. Let us be committed to following our Lord in all ways.





Psalm 119:18





18 Open my eyes, that I may behold

wondrous things out of your law.



Here we see a prayer we all need to voice often. God let us grasp your Word!! Then apply it daily to our lives. Let us see clearly.



Psalm 119:37





37 Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things;

and give me life in your ways.



Similar to a previous verse. Help us oh Lord to keep our eyes on YOU! Our eyes are so valuable in our walk with Jesus. He is true Life! The things of this world are not.



Psalm 123:1



123 To you I lift up my eyes,

O you who are enthroned in the heavens!



So again we ask the question to whom or what are you focusing your eyes on? For the follower of God their is only one choice....HIM who is on the throne is heaven! The maker of the heavens and earth.



I hope you are catching on to the importance God places on our eyes and what we are focused on! It is convicting for sure.



Tom

Eyes #3

Sorry about the scattered devotions! So much going on this time of year! Let us continue to look at what God says about what we allow into our eyes!



Today this looks at what God sees from us! What is going into His eyes is very important to us! While this is talking about Israel, it sounds very familiar to what is going on here in our nation today!



2 Chronicles 29:6

6 For our fathers have been unfaithful and have done what was evil in the sight of the Lord our God. They have forsaken him and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord and turned their backs.



I have noticed something as I am sure you have too. My great grandparents generation was faithful to the Lord and His church. Rarely missing the gathering of God's people unless something unavoidable was going on. My grandparents generation was faith to the Lord and His church but occasionally would miss the gathering of God's people. My parents generation was not as faithful but was still fairly strong in the gathering but would miss if they felt like it. Now my generation is not faithful at all. The miss the gathering of God's people anytime there is something that they feel is better going on. Do you see the pattern here? What will the next generation do as it seems each generation turns away from God just a little bit more?



Of course this is just an example, if we look at the evil God sees just look at the news now and what you would have seen 30 years ago. Evil is getting more and more wicked!!!!



Folks God sees all! What is God seeing in your life? God centered living or evil? Take time to think about this today....what is God seeing in me?



Tom

Eyes #2

Thinking again about our eyes and what we allow into our eyes, let us look to the Book of Deuteronomy today and see what God has to say there and then relate it to us today:



Deuteronomy 4:19

19 And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.



What do we allow into our eyes and then worship it? Hmmmm interesting question. Astrology has been a problem since the beginning of time as we see God warn about here. We are to worship the ONE who made the stars, moon, and planets not his creation! I see those who claim to be followers of Jesus posting their horoscopes and the such today....noooooooo! Stay away from those who claim to read the stars and can tell you your future. These are of the devil. It is not limited to just astrology though, we have celebrities we see with our eyes whom we worship...look at clips of Elvis, Michael Jackson, Athletes, and stars of today and look at their fans crying, and trying to touch them it is worship! Very sad! This worship is reserved for God only!



Deuteronomy 10:21

21 He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen.



God is the ONE who is our praise and has proved Himself over and over in our sight! While talking to Israel here in this verse it applies to us too! It is not hard to see what God has done and He has told us what the future holds....heaven or hell, our choice.



Deuteronomy 12:8

8 “You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes,



Wow does this ever describe us here the USA today. We do what we think is right not what God has said is right! It is no wonder the USA is sliding on a downward spiral and we will continue to do so unless we turn back to God and do what HIS WORD SAYS!!!!!



Deuteronomy 13:18

18 if you obey the voice of the Lord your God, keeping all his commandments that I am commanding you today, and doing what is right in the sight of the Lord your God.



It is a clear biblical teaching over and over in the bible that God will bless those with taking care of their needs if they obey Him and do what is right in HIS EYES not ours.



Pretty straight forward truth here this morning. Chew on it. Are you doing whats right in your eyes or God's eyes?



Tom

Eyes

Over the next several weeks I am going to look at a few parts of the body, eyes, ears, and the mouth to see how important they are in our walk with the Lord. It is very important as you will see of what we allow to go in our eyes and ears and then what we allow to come out of our mouths. Take time to think about each of these and apply it to your own walk with Jesus!



First let us start with the eyes. Somethings we see can control like T.V., Magazines, and some places we choose to go. Sometimes we see things that are beyond our control. I want us to focus on what we can control! Look at the value Jesus put on our eyes:



Matthew 6:22-23

22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!



Wow! So we need to examine our own eyes and see if they are healthy or bad! What do we let into our eyes? So many that claim to be followers of Jesus willingly let immoral things into their eyes that goes straight to the brain. When allowed to sit in the brain it then can scar the heart and we then become numb to immoral things and accept them as ok. We see in the above verse that God calls it darkness and that it can be great darkness which equals great sin!



We will dig deeper in this tomorrow and the days to come. Have you thought about what you allow into your eyes? If not now is the time!



Tom