TBT: “For Such a Time as This”

God Gold of the day

Esther 4:12-14

“And they told Mordecai what Esther had said. Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

In these verses there is a decree sent out to have all the Jews killed. Mordecai (Jew) and Esther (Jew), he’s giving her advice on what she can do to help since she was brought into the kingdom in the most unusual of ways, now she is the queen.

After reading this I thought, “do I think if I back away, stay over where I’m at, where I’m comfortable and nothing bad will happen in the tough situations brought up by being a Christian?” Do we want to be comfortable and nothing bad happen, or be uncomfortable and something amazing happens, not for us but for the Kingdom? Another crazy thought, no matter what struggle we’re in, what enemies are around us, just any situation we may have, God’s Kingdom is going to prevail no matter what we decide to do, so wouldn’t we want to suffer over a good cause, Godly cause rather than suffer to our flesh and let the world push us down? What if the people around you at your jobs or wherever you are have been divinely placed in your path for such a time as this? We going to stand up or shrink back? Suffer for the Kingdom or suffer for yourself? What if this message was sent for such a time as this? Really sit back, pay attention to all the moments in your day, it’s crazy how God works things out for His children, question is what are we going to do about it?

To add to this God Gold message that was written sometime back now, I want to reinforce the challenge here to you with the challenge given earlier this week and the context that we face now in our lives. God has a crazy way of working things together, to place two Jews in an area such as the Kingdom of the land in such a brutal and hard time for anyone that was a Jew. How crazy is that? To you, who may be at home, no work at the moment, you’re quarantined for a while in the midst of this virus that is going around causing fear come to many of the people around us, We have a choice to make. We can sit comfortably in our homes, watch Netflix and do whatever please us in this time. We can spend our time hiding from the hurt and pain that is plaguing the world around us and our neighbors and act as if it isn’t happening because as long as me and my family are good that’s all that matters.

OR, we can rise up, as the “church” of Christ, His hands and feet we can step up and reach out to others around us that are in need. We can look to ways to offer our assistance even if that is a loving voice to talk to or a message of encouragement over the phone. God has placed us here for such a time as this, He has rid us of distractions and given us the gift of technology for such a time as this! He has given us an opportunity to serve the hurting others around us with His love!!! To give them hope when all they see is hopelessness, to give them joy when all they feel is despair, to give them faith where their faith may have been running low! ‘

For such a time as this, God has given us a purpose to walk in and everything we need to do it!!! Let’s rise up and take hold of what God is going to do in our lives and even more importantly, in the many lives around us!!!

Send The Gold!!!

God Gold of the day

‘It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” ‘

Deuteronomy 31:8

‘And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, ‘

Hebrews 10:24

A Recipe for Good Relationships

God Gold of the day

‘And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭10:24-25‬ ‭

DAGGUM!!!! I don’t know about you but I’m still feeling the heat cominng off of the friendly fire brought from Chrishton where he gave a voice to a brother in need and shared his interaction with the Spirit of God!!!

I’ve spent a lot of time looking at this verse lately and just haven’t been able to put words to it but thankful for personal experiences and the experiences of others such as my buddy Chrishton, it is time. Today, we’re going to dig into relationships. In the world we live in it is super easy to overlook the importance of the relationships we have in our life. Whether it’s relationships with a spouse, a friend, or just a co-worker, whatever the relationship, everyone has a variety of different relationships in your life. The question we find ourselves in today is, “what’s our role in the many relationships that we have in our lives?”

There’s times I notice that I can be extremely self-centered in relationships. I have a problem of getting my mind so wrapped up around me, my problems, my to-do lists, and my desires that I completely lose focus of the role God has given me in relationships with people in ever area of my life. The problem that comes when we are focused solely on self is that we can overlook the people that we have standing right in front of us. Yeah, we can have conversations with them, listen to them but are we even really tuned in or are we already thinking about our own wants and needs or what we want to say more. Honestly, sometimes for me, I overlook relationships because of busyness in my life. I’m so focused on what needs to be done or what’s ahead on my to-do list that I am completely zoned out and overlooking the people God has placed in front of me. I wanted to share those examples with you because sometimes it’s good to look at what not to do to better see what God has called us to do.

I love the way these truths are written here; “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.” There is such a push there to be INTENTIONAL in relationships with others. We see that God has called us to not only put our self aside but to be others-focused. I saw the words, “And let us consider how to stir up,” and it hit me that God is telling us here to actually think about ways to encourage and stir up others. That blew my mind and convicted me greatly because how often is my thoughts and focus centered around me, myself and I? A LOT!!! Instead, God tells us to literally spend some time and be thoughtful about how we can stir up others around us towards love and good works. To be intentional in this way, it takes thought, it takes listening to others, hearing more about them, hearing what makes them upset and what gets them giddy with excitement. When we better know the person we have a relationship with, the easier it will be to go into that next step of being intentional about ways to get their fire burning. It starts with listening, getting to know them and then we can spend intentional time thinking of ways that will stir them up. Through this process of seeking ways to be intentional that’s where going to God in prayer and surrendering yourself to the power of the Holy Spirit within you, you see that there you have guidance and wisdom to take the next step in stirring.

It’s honestly like a recipe for a good relationship. Before you get to “stirring” all the ingredients together, you have to first know what ingredients you’re dealing with. Like any good recipe, you can’t just overlook that time of prayer and preparation or when it comes to stirring them up, and cooking it, you’ll be clueless and trying to make a beautiful masterpiece without the ingredients needed, and also the utensils you need to stir which is the guidance and wisdom of the Holy Spirit. God calls us to stir one another up towards good works and love but if we don’t do the prep work, how can we ever begin stirring?

What are some good ingredients to use for cooking up a good relationship with someone? Well, what are their interests? What do they like/dislike? What kind of personality do they have? All these things can be used as ingredients to find common ground between you and the other person. Sometimes I know we can get jacked up about pushing others towards love and good works but if you just push them into it, are you really stirring? It takes being intentional about finding common ground with somebody, where you can go from that common ground and then lift them up to living a life in God’s ways, towards good works and love. It’s really hard to just jump to higher ground and expect them to get there. Find where they’re at then gently and wisely nudge and stir them towards God’s higher ground of living. Now that’s some cooking!!!

To finish off the recipe, now that we’ve got the ground work laid, it’s time to stir up the ingredients and bake the cake. We’ve spent time listening and getting to know the person, we have found common ground to start at and spent time thinking and praying about ways to be intentional, so now what? Well, there’s one thing about being intentional that can be missed if we just skim over the recipe quickly. Having good intentions with someone is great and all but if we “neglect to meet together,” what good is it to have a bowl full of ingredients that have great potential to be something delicious but in reality it’s just a bowl of uncooked food. To be intentional takes action, taking time to be with that person or that group of people because how can you stir someone you’re not even with? Luckily, we’ve been given a little trick called cell phones so if our days are too busy then we can use our phones to our advantage to reach out and spend time stirring up people. But what’s best is just face to face cooking! That’s where the best relationships are built and that’s where the stirring can take place along with the beginning stages of cooking up an awesome relationship with someone that may not just move them to love and good works but who knows how many people they will impact, or how many those people will impact?? Think about all of the tasty relationships that are being cooked up out there just from reaching out and taking the time to stir one person. Maybe it’s something you do with words in conversation, maybe it’s just the example of living a life for God, modeling what love and good works look like. However God presents the opportunity, grab it and give all you have to others because you have no idea how God will use you to stir that person and how He will cook up good things in their heart and lives.

At the end of the day, stirring someone else is just loving them. That’s it. All that other gold was just extra but loving others around you covers all those more detailed pieces of the recipe. Relationships can be easy to overlook but open up your eyes, be present with the people around you. Put self aside and focus on being others-centered, constantly think of ways to encourage, or lift some one up by being intentional with speech and with action. People will be stirred up when they see God’s love working through us, that’s just what God does. Just don’t miss out on all the joy and awesomeness that comes with taking the time to be intentional and love somebody. You have no idea how great that feeling is until you live in it, and then who knows all the people’s lives that will be affected because you got intentional about cooking up a good relationship with one person!!! Spend some time in the kitchen today and embrace the relationships God has placed around you!!!!

 

Truth for You

God Gold of the Day

“16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

-John 3:16-17

Spent some time with a good friend today that I haven’t seen in awhile. This time spent with him was nothing but an awesome blessing. He’s a friend that spoke so much Gospel truth into my life, Gospel truth that I really needed to hear. He reminded me of some the truth that I so often forget, look past, and blind myself to see. It’s easy to walk through this life blinded to our sin, the enemy’s distractions and temptations and in a world that is so focused on “I” it’s easy to forget that it not about “I” but it’s all about God and the Good News of what He’s done for us by sending His Son Jesus Christ!

It’s the most important truth we could ever come to know and as much as being reminded of it helped me in my life today, I want to extend the same truth and blessing to you so you too can be reminded of the only truth that really matters in this life. God loves us, He loves us despite our past, despite our sin, despite our putting Him second place in our lives when compared to ourselves and our desires. He loves us so much despite all that, so much He sent His only Son to die in our place. Jesus Christ died for me and you when we are still sinners. He paid the cost for our sins and the first moment we believe in Him, our sins are washed away, our sins are wiped clean, gone forever. Just because your sin nature draws you into committing sins today and the enemy tells you all these lies and excuses to why you’re so bad, why your situation of bad circumstances or addictions is impossible. We hear so many lies, we tell ourselves so many lies but the TRUTH is that as a follower of Jesus Christ, your sins have been forgiven.

You may feel at times so far from God because of your weakness or emotions of defeat and fear. But have faith! God is always there, He is always there for you in every situation. God is so loving and so faithful to us, He is there to meet our every need, we just have to ask. Stay in constant communication with Him because as a follower of Christ you have been given eternal life, a new life into adoption as a CHILD OF GOD!!! No sin, no person or ant lie the enemy tells you can separate you from your Father! Jesus didn’t die and give us life to the fullest so we could feel defeated and live a life in the lowest. Jesus died for us to give us LIFE, eternally and now! Jesus did everything for us so we could walk triumph, walk in victory of what He has done! Because despite all the lies, the truth is that we may face some battles, we may even lose some, but at the end of the day you’re still a Child of God and you can rest in knowing the TRUTH that the ultimate war has been won! You aren’t a product of your emotions, your sin, the past mistakes you’ve made or your current circumstances, you are a product of the cross!!! Have faith in what Jesus has done for you, have faith in knowing that no matter what you’re a child of God and have faith in knowing that nothing can come at you and there’s nothing you can do or not do that makes the fact that Christ has saved you, brought you to LIFE in Him and has washed your sins away. The price has been paid, there’s no need to try and pay something that’s already been paid!!! The victory has been won, there’s no need to walk in defeat as a victim when God has called you VICTOR!

Message somebody today, call them, go hang out with them, send an encouraging word their way, speak the TRUTH that God has given us to them reminding them and blessing them with God’s awesome love and truth of the Gospel! My buddy was that person for me today and I want to be that person for you so you can be that person for someone else! The truth breathes life into people, breathes life into you, breathe it, speak it, and live it today Child of God!!!!

God’s Word

God Gold of the Day

“For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience,”

‭‭Colossians‬ ‭1:9-11‬ ‭

Hope everybody is having a Tuesday filled with so much daggum awesomeness!!! I was feeling so much of it that I’m going to do something never done in God Gold history, write from the SAME verses as yesterday! There is just so much Gold in these verses and in the book of Colossians I’m feeling like the richest man alive! I pray this Gold from Colossians is helping you in some big ways too in your daily walk! I’m going to try and post some reminders and the verses ahead of time so you can read through Colossians with me this week so I’m jacked to see what God has for us!

This letter coming from Paul to the believers at Colosse, Paul is writing this to help these believers grow in their relationship with God and in strengthening their daily walk with God. He’s practically telling them how to live as true born again Christians. Why does Paul take the time to do this? Well the church is undergoing some big time attacks from the world around them, people teaching them false ideas about God and they are being literally attached just for being a Christian. Let’s see the truth that is written here to strengthen us in the same way today!

Paul states how he is constantly praying for them but what is he praying for? “We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,”(v.9).

Paul being more of a seasoned veteran in his spiritual walk with the Lord and in God’s Word. it’s awesome how he tells these believers what they desperately need to hear because he’s been some things with God, he knows God and he knows without God these believers don’t stand a chance. I want to note real fast too, look at Paul’s example of love for these people. You know I read earlier that Paul never even met these people. Paul never even met these people and he still is praying for them, writing them letters to help them grow in their faith and attack the mission we have as followers of Christ to get the gospel out to others and live as an example of Christ in each thing we do. Paul prays for people he’s never met in this way, that made me question myself. How often do I pray for others and their needs with this much love? Do I ever pray for anybody I haven’t even met? The answer to the first is not nearly enough and the second, no. Something to think about and learn from Paul here.

Let’s look at what Paul does say though. Paul prays not just for these believers to have knowledge of God, but that God fills them with the knowledge of His will. Paul states this before ever saying do this or do that because without knowledge of God, who He is, what He’s capable of and what He wants, how could we ever please Him? Shouldn’t we desire deeply to know what pleases God before we run off trying to please Him? We can try to understand God and His will in a ton of different ways but the only true way to know more of God and His will is through God’s Word. God gave us His Word to see His heart, who He is and how He feels about us. We also see there what pleases God, what is good and what is bad, what is right and what is wrong. It’s a lot more fun to talk about Christian living, being stronger, more courageous, beating tough circumstances we have in our life, living this life of freedom and victory that God has given us. But to do that we must first completely immerse ourselves in God’s Word, it’s the knowledge and wisdom from God’s Word that changes our lives, that changes the way we live, the way our minds think, the way our mouths speak. It’s God that’s given us life in the first place, so why don’t we go to Him first and more constantly to live this life in a way that pleases the God who gave us everything.

I’ll be honest, majority of the time in my life I talk a big game about wanting to be better, impact more people by the way I live but I feed myself with junk and turn my dependence to things of this world to live the life God wants me to live. To simply live in His will. The most awesome part about this is we don’t have to rely on our experiences, other people’s opinions, or worldly things to find out what God’s will is and how to live it. God has given us HIS WORD. His literal Word as a map of where to go and what to do, a biography almost of who He is and what He’s about. That’s why Paul’s prays for these believers to learn through the power of the Holy Spirit within them, giving them discernment and understanding to what God is telling us in His Word, He is showing us Him and His will. It honestly makes me sick to think about all the times I go other places, leaning on things or what I hear another person say when I’m struggling with something and seeking an answer, when I’m hurting and need help, when I don’t know what to do and need guidance and wisdom. WHYYY????? WHAT’S THE POINT???? This is what I ask myself but as humans we all do this. Ask yourself the same question. It may not feel great to be wrong but daggum does it feel a whole lot better to be on God’s side being right in His eyes!!!

I love how Paul says this foundational truth that these believers can go to, fully immersing themselves in the Word of God to transform the way they think, eat, and sleep. That big SO going into verse 10, to live a life pleasing to God, pleasing to God in EVERY way, even the ways that pleases us that may hurt to give up. Understanding better who God is and the fullness of LIFE He’s given us isn’t it worth it to lay down our opinions and our wants to live a life pleasing to Him? Bearing fruit in every work we do, being an example to other’s around us who may not know God, or His will, who may not have experienced life in this magnitude. Who honestly may not even know of the doom that awaits them after death or the possible eternity that God gives us freely instead. Bearing fruit in every good work!!! Fruit is the change God brings into our lives that overflows out of us into the world around us. Once again how do we know if a work is good or bad if we don’t know God and dig deeply into His Word?

Continuing in the results that come from better understanding God’s will by diving head first into His Holy Word. To grow in knowledge of God, to experience God more deeply in each moment of our days, to see how God takes seemingly impossible situations in our lives and makes them possible, and so many other moments. The more we grow in knowing Who God is we see just how capable He is, how much He deeply loves us and works everything for our good. And so we are strengthened with His glorious power, me and you are strengthened with God’s glorious power!!! God’s power! Think about that?? The same God with the same power that created the heavens and the earth and everything we  see around us!!!! And also so we can run this race of life with great endurance and patience. If you haven’t figured out, we face some tough days in this life, we face hard decisions and we face hard battles. And as Christians we are constantly being hit by the schemes of Satan because He doesn’t want us to live this way or grow in the knowledge of God because with that knowledge comes LIFE!!!! When we dig deeper into God’s Word, learning more of who He is and what He wants, like I mentioned earlier our thinking changes completely. The things that used to get us down and hurt us, we know see through God’s will that we stand in confidence of who God is and in the reality of the life that is to come outside of this world. We see struggles different and we handle them different. People of the world who don’t know God handle them differently than children of God do so don’t fall into the surrounding example. God shows us how to have joy in trials, how to attack the daily grind no matter what comes our way, God is growing us and strengthening us. We know better of who God is so we are able to be patient in our trials, run the race with peace and security knowing that yeah, to the world this may not look that great but God is working things for our good so we can keep on keeping on knowing that our current experiences are nothing compared to the power of God and the eternal glory that awaits.

Wow, all that from just seeing what happens when we don’t just pick up God’s Word to say we did it or read for cool facts, but when we pick up God’s Word to deeply seek Him through it, grow in our knowledge of Him and His will, living a life that pleases Him, living a life that makes people turn their heads and ask questions. Live a life in the fullest and most awesome ways. Yep. All that from God’s Word. And don’t pat me on the back for this gold, it didn’t come from me, it came from God’s Word!!!!! Stinkin blows my mind.