Category: Faith Fix

Faith Always Does What It Takes

 

Faith is always forward moving. Faith is not idle. It does not cower. It presses through and it keeps going because faith does what it takes to see the outcome that faith is calling for. Faith does not accept defeat, make excuses, or stop believing because of pressure. Faith is inexhaustible and limitless in its reach. True, Godly faith can never be stopped or conquered but overcomes every obstacle.

Doesn’t faith sound like something to have? Look what Jude 1:3 says, “Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” Notice the same faith that was given to them was given to us. Jude tells us it was ONCE FOR ALL delivered. What does that mean? It means it was delivered once, for all. But the very nature of faith tells us it must be received. Besides from scripture, we know this because we can see that not all have that same kind of faith.

I encourage you, truly look at the life of the apostles after Jesus left and tell me if they looked weak. You won’t see weakness but what you will see is the faith I wrote about in the beginning of this Faith Fix. It is through their lives that we see the transition of this power that Jesus carried transferred upon ordinary men. Yet here is the truth, we, like them, MUST CONTEND for it if we want to walk in it. It is not enough to simply be enamored by it. You must desire it in the true sense of the word.

Faith is the muscle of God but like any muscle its strength is determined by the extent it is exercised. 1 Timothy 4:8 says, “For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.” Godliness, or thinking like God thinks, living by faith is profitable for all things. Faith is the promise for eternal life as well as life now. Faith is how we are meant to live.

Like any engine, each is designed to operate most effectively on a certain type of fuel. Imagine buying a vehicle with a diesel engine and putting gas in it. Imagine trying to run a gas engine on water. It just won’t work. Similarly, God designed us intending that we exist in faith, meaning that all we do and accomplish would be by and through faith. Contend for it the Word says. To contend for is to fight for. When trial comes against you do you fight to think as you should? Do you say it’s too hard or do you say what God says about it? Do you listen to the doubt in your head or do you quote the scripture back to it, answering doubt? This is what it means to contend for the faith, when it’s hard you do all you can do to stay there.

Sure you can give up. If you give up in your saying you’ve given up in faith. The result however will not be enjoyable. When the heat gets turned up in your life you can decide where it goes. The fire can either propel you forward or consume you but the choice is yours. Live by faith! Contend for it! Don’t give that devil any ground and live the way God made you! He’s got you, so you’ve got this!

Be Blessed, 

Pastor Jeff 

He’s Healer, Not Destroyer

1 Peter 2:24 (NKJV) says, “who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.” When Jesus died on the cross, He took all of our sin and all of our sickness upon His own body so that we wouldn’t have to live in it. From the fall of man until the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, death reigned on this earth (Romans 5:14). But Jesus! Jesus came so that we wouldn’t have to live in the error of Adam anymore, but that we could be restored back to the blessed plan God had for us from the beginning.

So many people, even Christians, think sickness and disease are some sort of loving spanking from God the Father. It’s as if He’s punishing a child for stealing a candy bar by forcing them to starve and die. It’s ridiculous thinking! God is not the author of death. He’s not the author of disease! He’s the author of life! And of that life, more abundantly! It’s always been and will always be, the plan of the devil to destroy mankind. Look at John 10:10 (NKJV), “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” 

Who comes to destroy? The thief, Satan, not God, the Almighty, loving Father and not Jesus! Look at the next verse, John 10:11 (NKJV), “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.” Why would Jesus have come to live and die to take our sins and yet, all along God wants to put sickness and disease on us anyways? Why would God be His own enemy? Why would our advocate also be our opponent? This is backwards, confused thinking, folks. 

1 John 3:1 (NKJV) tells us a very important truth, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!” The ultimate example of a good father is our Father God. Look at Matthew 7:11 (NKJV), “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” The Word of God describes our love towards our own children as evil compared to His love towards us! Yet, I don’t know any good mother or father who would willingly put sickness on one of their children. “Here, Sweetie, let me inject you with cancer today.” That’s so sick and twisted you’d be seeking justice, lock them up without a key type justice, if not worse. Why do people, even God’s people believe the lie from the enemy that God the Father wants to punish us and teach us a lesson through sickness and disease? 

God is Love! (1 John 4:8) He is a love more extreme, more wonderful, greater, higher, deeper and wider than we can imagine, yet His love is not opposite what we know about love. Love wants the best. Love watches out for safety. Love blesses. Love doesn’t destroy. Love doesn’t kill. Loves doesn’t make sick. 

Hosea 4:6 (NKJV) says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…” I encourage you, find the truth about God through a good Bible teaching local church. Get knowledge and get to know the one true living AND loving God.

Be Blessed,

Pastor Renee 

Whom Are You Seeking?

John 18:7 (NKJV)

Then He asked them again, “Whom are you seeking?” And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.”

It’s a question that should be heavily pondered, “whom are you seeking.” There’s a lot today to grab our attention. There’s a lot of things enticing indeed but only one gives life. Jesus said as recorded in John 10:10, “I have come that they may have life…” This scripture obviously isn’t just talking about living and breathing because there are a lot of people who do that without Jesus. What it is referring to is real life, blessed life, life with purpose, life as God intended. See everything made is made with a purpose. If what is made doesn’t operate accordingly it becomes worthless to its creator. You have a God given purpose and you will only get there by seeking Jesus.

So many people, Christians included, have this idea that the purpose for their life is just to figure out who they are. The problem with this is that it creates a uselessness in people that is hard to see past. Our God has spelled out what it is to be created in Christ, making it plain in the scriptures. The good news is we don’t have to find who we are, we just need to seek Him and let Him guide us into what our specific role is.

Seek Him. This is the answer to all the questions we face. James 1:5 tells us, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” God is not mysterious. He wants you to know exactly what to do. The truth is, and something that many don’t even realize, He hasn’t made it hard to know. The problem is not that God is withholding pertinent information, it’s that people all too often are so distracted by things that don’t matter that they cannot begin to receive God’s direction. Either that, or they reject His direction because it’s not what they want. Do you have ideas about things that you can’t give up? Is your way of thinking so important to you that you won’t see the truth? As a Pastor now almost five years I have seen this over and over again. Our problems are never that God won’t come through. Our problems aren’t even necessarily the devil. Our problem is generally a certain way of thinking that we won’t allow to be corrected. After all, if you know everything then you will never ask God for the wisdom. The Bible tells us to ask for wisdom, not mull it over in your brain and figure it out. Your solutions are not what will help you, His are.

Matthew 6:33 tells us to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness or way of thinking and living. These things are not what you can come up with in your own mind, they are clearly spelled out for us in Scripture. They are not what you can imagine them to be, they are His and they are not hidden from us. 

Follow God and His plan not what you want or think. The end of pursuing only desires always leaves people empty and still searching. This is because these things are not sufficient to fill the God void in your life. You think it’s things or people you need and the whole time it’s been Jesus. Who are you seeking? Your answer should be Jesus of Nazareth. In Him are all the answers to every question. In Him is the fulfillment of abundant life.

Be Blessed,

Pastor Jeff 

Summer Time and The Living’s Easy

So often the summer season is a very bitter sweet time as Pastors. We love the beautiful sunshine like the rest of the world, but we also know what it means for the local church as a whole and also for many individual lives. Oh yes, summer time… picnics, putt putt, boating, vacations, late nights and open fires…these are a few of our favorite things. Summertime and the living’s easy! Or is it?

The worst D word for a Christian is DISTRACTION. And summertime seems to pull out all the stops in that area. Isaiah 26:3 (NKJV) says, “You (God) will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.” One thing we notice during the summer months is quite the opposite of peace. Instead, it seems good-hearted Christians struggle with anxiety, lack, depression and the like, and there’s one major factor in it all. It’s distraction. Christians are too busy having fun to think about God. Christians are too busy with recreational spending to put God first in their finances. It seems the pull of the world wins out against the pull of the things of God, especially in the summertime. But notice what the Word said in Isaiah, as we keep our mind stayed on God, we keep peace in our lives, perfect peace, God’s way. 

Galatians 5:22 (NKJV) takes this further saying, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness.” When you spend time with God, when you base your life on spiritual things, these are the byproducts that come along with it! If you’ve been experiencing the opposite in your life, you’ve got to ask yourself, how much time have you been spending with God? You can do an assessment of your life very quickly and discover the answer to this important question. Have you been walking in love and kindness with your family? Have you been patient with your spouse and colleagues?  Is there peace in your home and throughout your day? Have you been faithful to come and to serve in your local church or has summertime made you less faithful? Yes, the devil uses the distractions of summer to keep Christians out of the highest and best that God has for them, if we choose to let him. 

Look at Romans 14:17-19 (NKJV), “For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men. Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another.” Let’s not pursue a life that only revolves around the natural realm, what we will eat, what we will drink, how we will earn money, how we will buy our kids clothes, how we will go on vacation, etc. As we focus on God, all things we need will come to us (Matt. 6:33), and we will walk in peace and joy, which is what God considers acceptable. We should likewise consider it unacceptable not to live in joy and peace as we’re commanded to do in scripture. Pursue the things which make for peace. Pursue the things which edify and build up your life and the lives of those around you. Stop allowing that nasty D-word to rule your life. Amen?

Be Blessed,

Pastor Renée 

Resistance Is Not Futile

James 4:7

Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

The greatest fight you will ever fight in life is what the Bible calls the good fight of faith (1Timothy 6:12). That is, trusting God’s Word no matter what life throws at you, no matter what attack comes for you. That is, staying in the realm of knowing what God said is true no matter the opposition you are currently facing. The purpose of every attack is to remove you from that place of faith (the place of trusting God) so that you will falter in your foundation. The devil knows that once he gets you into the place of unbelief, he has you trapped. This is why the trial comes. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that without faith you cannot please God. The trial is trying to get you to believe all hope is lost. So much of scripture focuses on living by faith and the effects of not doing so. It is how God designed us to live and not just live, but to flourish. This is the trick of the devil, if he gets you out of faith he hinders your ability to flourish. 

A few years ago we went on a little road trip to buy some trees. Still a little too early to plant them when we arrived at home, I stuck them in our garage which has no windows. I kind of forgot about them for a few months and needless to say, they died. It wasn’t because they were unhealthy, or that they were from bad stock, but because I kept them from one of their most important needs, sunlight. I couldn’t call the nursery and complain because I refused to do one of the most basic things that needed to be done. What sunlight is to a plant, faith is to a Christian. Faith is what separates us from the rest of the world. Without faith we wither, powerless, with the rest of humanity. 

The Bible instructs us, resist the devil. He is going to bring his best and if you aren’t standing on the solid foundation of the Word, you will fall and great will be your fall. Resist the devil. This is a purposeful response to purposeful opposition. How do we resist? The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 10:5, “casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ.” The knowledge of Christ is the truth of the Word, above our thoughts, feelings, desires, or experiences. We have to cast these down, we have to not accept them as truth, and we have to resist the devil if we want him to flee. 

Resistance is a purposeful reaction. It’s pushing back, not accepting what is said, not succumbing to emotion. Will you stand against it? Will you determine that the devil is not going to win? Will you say yes to God and no to satan? Will you resist the devil? 

Like a fly buzzing around your head, just wishing it would stop gets you nowhere. The Bible says resist and so resist is what we must do if we want to see the attack thwarted. Resistance is our answer. It’s not always the fun thing to do but it’s a must. Sure you might not have chosen the opposition but that doesn’t mean you aren’t the one to deal with it. Trial is never enjoyable but the faith you build in the midst of it, if you choose right will stay with you forever. It sets you up for things that will try and take you out later. Like a person who trains for an event, when the event comes they are well able to overcome. Not everyone becomes a marathon runner because not everyone pushes back or resists when it’s time to train.

We don’t have to wait on God to do the thing He has already told us to do. You don’t need prayer when your answer is before you. Jesus said when we’re facing a mountain WE are to move it by what WE say and believe. This is faith and this is how we win. Not pleading, not begging, not shouting at God. If you want the prize, if you want the victory of life, then you must do the things that it takes to win. There is no other way. Resist the devil, he’s the one trying to stop you. Resist the devil and he will flee.

Hebrews 10:35-36 

Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.

Be Blessed,

Pastor Jeff 

Be Good Ground

Matthew 13:3-9

Then Jesus spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

We see here there’s a sower and this sower sows seed. Some seed falls to the wayside. It becomes food for the birds. Have you ever heard the saying “food for the birds?” It means it’s dead. It’s useless. It’s gone before it accomplished anything. Some seed falls on stony places. It has enough soil to sprout, but the ground has no depth so it can’t get rooted and ends up scorched by the sun, again producing no fruit. Some seed falls among thorns. The thorns were stronger and they choked any growth that was there. But, some seed falls on good ground. Good ground yields a crop, some much more abundant than others. 

In this parable, the seed is the Word of God, the truth of the Bible. The soils in these scriptures are the different states of the human heart. The lesson in this parable is, that however faithful the pastor, and however truthful the message, the effect of the Word depends on the hearer’s heart. The Word is alive and powerful. When someone reads the Word and hears the Word, the Holy Spirit deals with their hearts and emphasizes what they need to hear, but if we won’t hear, heed, or follow what the Holy Spirit shows us through His Word, we’ll never produce fruit. This is why Jesus said, “he who has an ear, let him hear.” 

We see in this parable that only 1/4 of Christians actually walk in the blessing and plan God has for them.  Too many Christians are letting the Word of God go in one ear and out the other, as if it’s not their direction from God Himself. Too many Christians are letting the cares of this world and the distractions of daily life keep them from obeying God at His Word. Too many Christians are getting excited for the things of God, only until the trial comes and then they’ll quit.  But see, seed that falls on good ground has crop that not only springs up, but it increases and produces. 

You must determine what ground you will be. Mark 4:14 tells us that, “the sower sows the word.” If you’re not around a sower, that is a true Bible teaching minister, you’re not getting the seed sown into your life the way God intended. Let it be planted in you by the pastor God put into your life to feed you and teach you. Get where you can hear.  Then, I encourage you to not only be good ground for your pastor, but also delve into the Word of God on your own. Get it in you, so in you, that it’s not easily burned up, not easily devoured, and not easily choked out. Amen?!

Be Blessed,

Pastor Renée