Showing posts with label FAITH. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FAITH. Show all posts

Friday, May 6, 2011

MY GOD REIGNS!

"The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good." (Psalm 14:1)

Most of us would never dream this verse could apply to us. After all, we're believers! We'd never say that there is no God.  But maybe we should think again. It's true that with our mouths we would never say something like that...but what about with our actions?

Do we say it by sinning just a little here and there and thinking it won't matter? Do we go to an immoral movie or have a gossip session about the pastor, ignoring God's command to the contrary?

With our actions are we saying, "There is no God?"

Psalm 14:1 connects that kind of thing to corruption. Whether he realizes it or not, the more a person acts that way, the more corrupt he's going to become.

Don't make the foolish mistake of publicly proclaiming Jesus as your Lord, and then privately denying Him with one little action at a time. Use wisdom in everything you do so that both your heart and your life shout loudly, "My God reigns!"

Sunday, May 1, 2011

DIG INTO YOUR COVENANT

"This cup is the new covenant [ratified and established] in My blood."
(1 Corinthians
11:25)

New Covenant. It's a familiar phrase to most of us. But do we really know what it means?

If we did, every one of us would be faith giants. Instead of struggling, "trying" to believe the promises of God, we'd be like Abraham. "Strong in faith...fully persuaded that, what God has promised, He is able to perform!" (
Rom. 4:20-21).

That's the kind of confidence that welled up in Abraham when God cut the covenant with him. It was an inferior covenant to ours, made with the blood of animals. Yet it transformed a doubting Abraham into the very father of faith. Why? Because, Abraham understood the significance of it.

He knew that entering into the Covenant of Blood meant you were totally and forever giving yourself away to someone else. Once you did it, nothing would ever be exclusively yours again. All that you were, all that you had or ever would have became the equal property of your covenant partner.

During the covenant ceremony in Abraham's day, the partners exchanged coats, each one giving their authority to the other. They exchanged weapons as a way of saying, "Your enemies are now my enemies. I'll fight your fights as if they were my own." They walked through the blood of slain animals, pronouncing their loyalty to one another, even to the death.

When God made covenant with him, Abraham knew there was no longer any room for doubt. God had proven how intensely He desired to be God to him. He'd given him every thing He had and bound Himself to Abraham in a relationship that could not be dissolved. Abraham comprehended the gravity of a covenant agreement. It convinced him once and for all that God's promises could be trusted. It became an anchor to his soul.

Do you want to be a faith giant like Father Abraham? Then dig into the covenant you have with God. Study it in the Word. Let the Holy Spirit show you what really happened when Jesus became the sacrifice that ratified your covenant with God. Let Him show you what it meant when He gave you His Name (John
16:23), His authority (Matt. 28:18-20), His armor and weapons (Eph. 6:10-17).

Once you realize what Jesus actually meant when He said, "This is the New Covenant established in My blood," your life will never be the same again.