DUSTY SHOES

Ask yourself, “Am I willing to get my own shoes dusty on the streets of this world in order to make the love of Jesus Christ available to those who don’t know Him?” If I am going to be like my Savior, the answer can only be “Yes.”

If ever there was an example of someone whose feet were dusty in the service of the kingdom of God, it was Jesus himself. In fact, He specifically said on one occasion that “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head” (Matthew 8:20). Jesus lived and ministered in the highways and byways of this world among people with whom the religious elite of His day would have nothing to do. He was often criticized for eating with “tax collectors and sinners” (Matthew 9:11).

Jesus was happy to socialize with those with whom He disagreed. The time that a woman with a sinful past washed Jesus’ feet with her own tears and hair was when He was eating a meal in the home of a Pharisee. Jesus made it clear that He came to help those who knew they needed help, not those who didn’t (Mark 2:17). And in order to reach them, he lived His life where they were. He went to them — He didn’t force them to come to Him.

John 20:21 summarizes what Jesus did and what He expects us to do: “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” Jesus lived His life with dusty feet because He lived in obedience to His father. If our feet aren’t equally “dusty,” it calls into question our obedience to His command to “Go therefore and make disciples...” (Matthew 28:19).

SORROW REMOVED

“He will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; He will remove the disgrace of His people from all the earth. The LORD has spoken.” Isaiah 25:8
Sorrow is the fruit of sin in a fallen world; it has the liberty to inflict pain. No one is immune from sorrow. Sorrow is created by sin, death, divorce, selfishness, poverty, rejection, loss, and fear. Sorrow is all around, circling its prey like vultures around a carcass, ready to pick away at the meat of your soul. Sorrow does not discriminate among races, gender, social class, or stage of life. It causes a weepy heart and a weary mind. It never goes away in this lifetime. Your sorrow may be overwhelming to the point of anguish and despair. The hurt is about to drive you crazy. You feel you can’t handle it. You have lost perspective and God seems a million miles away.

Things have gone from bad to worse; you have nowhere to turn. You have hit a brick wall and life seems to be crumbling around you. Sorrow is like a ball and chain around your joy and you live in the regret of the past rather than the hope of the future. Your current circumstances and worries are crushing down on you to the point of claustrophobia. However, you do not have to stay in this state of perpetual sadness. There is a way out, there is hope. There is a balm for your scarred soul; you can be rescued from drowning in your sorrows.

Jesus is the Savior; He will save you from your sorrows. He was a man acquainted with grief. Sorrow is not foreign to Him. He was a man of many sorrows. He was inflicted with, not just one, but multiple sorrows. He is a sympathetic Savior waiting to soothe your pain. He wants to gently wipe away your tears. So, ask Him to dive in and rescue you from thrashing about in the deep waters of your sorrows. He, at the very least, will be with you. He wants to walk with you during this dark night of your soul. He does not want you to battle sorrow alone.

Others may not understand, but He does. You may not know how to put your sorrow into words, but He still comprehends. Nothing is beyond the omniscience of your Sovereign Lord. His resources are limitless and always just what you need. Tap into a miniscule fraction of His grace, and you will find peace and forgiveness. He comforts and caresses your heart, and He can break the chains of sorrow that grip your soul.

So, take the medication of His grace. Administer larger doses in the beginning to stop the spread of sorrow’s infection. He wants you to experience His abundant life in Christ. He wipes away your tears in heaven and on earth. Sorrow removal is His specialty. Let God remove your points of sorrow one by one as if they were trees downed by a storm’s horrific winds. He will lift them individually from the objects they have crushed. He will replace hurt with healing. Sorrow is temporary with God; His joy is permanent. Let Him remove your sorrow, and you will be glad you did. So will the many others who love you and pray for you. He is the Savior of your sorrows. The Scripture is majestic: “…and the ransomed of the LORD will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away” (Isaiah 35:10).
 

TRUST OVERCOMES FEAR

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Psalm 23:4

Fear engages an ongoing assault on our heart and mind. If left unchecked, fear can whip our imagination into a frenzy of anxiety. Though only an ounce of what we fear may ever come to pass, we tend to give it a ton of attention. It is madness when we are overcome by fear. It may be the fear of death that dilutes our faith. It may be the fear of failure that drives us to control. It may be the fear of rejection that keeps us from speaking up. It may be the fear of financial ruin that refrains us from taking risks. It may be the fear of divorce that shatters our dreams of a fulfilling family. It may be the fear of losing a job that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Whatever fear preoccupies our thinking, we are not alone.

Jesus walks with us through our valleys. He may not deliver us out of the valley, but He mostly certainly does not abandon us in the valley. He walks with us through the valley of doubt. He walks with us through the valley of shame. He walks with us through the valley of transition. He walks with us through the valley of disease. He walks with us through the valley of the shadow of death. Our fear, many times, is but a shadow of Satan. It is not real. It seems like reality but it is not. It is but a reflection of the evil one. So we have no need to fear because our heavenly Father casts His bright light of love. A shadow assumes a light. Therefore, the light of Christ is there to guide us through the shadows of our soul. Death stands next to our path of life and attempts to cast a shadow, but the light of heaven guides our way. We trust Jesus. Trust overcomes fear.

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people he chose for his inheritance.” Psalm 33:12

God blesses a nation because of its prayers, not its power. He blesses a nation because of its character, not its commerce. He blesses a nation because of its trust in Him, not its advanced technology. God blesses a nation because of its fear of the Lord, not its fear of man. God blesses a nation who loves God and expresses that love in caring for the impoverished and diseased. God blesses a nation because of His church, not the size of that nation’s economy.


Prosperity may be the result of a God-fearing nation, but it is not the cause. People believe in God when they get enough of themselves and realize there has to be more to this life than simply meeting their every need. God blesses a nation when individuals gather corporately in vibrant Christian worship; the church is God’s means to awaken a nation. Nations who try to control the church lose God’s blessing. God’s blessing cannot be governed.

I Am Most Like Jesus When I Serve Others

The foremost characteristic of the life of Jesus Christ was and is service. We are most like Him when we serve as He served.

Many seem to think that a person is most like Jesus when he preaches like Jesus preached, teaches like Jesus taught, heals like Jesus healed, or performs miracles like Jesus performed miracles. They look only at the outward manifestation of a person’s witness and ministry.

They need to look beyond the outer manifestation to the motivation for Jesus’ life. That motivation was always service. Jesus preached, taught, healed, and performed miracles in order to help others, never to call attention to Himself. He poured out His very life so that others might be saved, never thinking for a moment to save Himself. Time and again, Jesus said to those He had healed or helped, “Don’t tell anyone what has happened.” The reason for this was that Jesus didn’t want others to respond to Him as an earthly political savior. He didn’t want them to focus on His potential to rule over them, but, rather, to focus on our loving heavenly Father and on Jesus’ role to serve humanity as Savior, Deliverer, and Redeemer.

The critical point for us to recognize is this: God has called you to serve others just as Jesus served others. He didn’t save you or call you to service so that you might be exalted, praised, glorified, or put on a pedestal. He saved you so that you might serve others and in so doing, bring praise and honor to God’s holy name.

Stanley, C. F. (1997). Developing a Servant's Heart (electronic ed.). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.

BECOMING LIKE CHRIST - THROUGH HIS WORD

The word Christian means Christ like - After we get saved, we spend the rest of our lives learning how to take on the character of Christ, to become more like Him. And we learn how through His Word. Abiding in God's Word includes three activities.

God uses the Word, to teach us how to become like Him. Matthew 4:4 tells us we must feed on every word. "But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

Christianity is the only religion in America that is under constant attack by the secular society. The reason is, is that they know that it is the truth. Spiritual growth is the process of replacing lies of the devil, with the truth of the word. Jesus prayed in John 17:17 "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth."

Sanctification requires knowledge. And knowledge comes through the Word. The Spirit of God (Holy Spirit), uses the Word of God, to make us like the Son of God. To become like Christ, we must fill our lives with his Word. The Bible says in 2 Timothy 3:17, "that through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us." (The Bible prepares us to do His will).

James I:18 tells us "that God gave us life through the word of truth so we might be the most important of all the things he made". He put us above all other creation. All of creation exists because "God said It." He spoke it all into existence. Without God's Word we would not even be alive.

The Bible is far more than a guidebook that we use for church doctrine. God's Word generates life, creates faith, produces change, frightens the Devil, causes miracles, heals hurts, builds character, changes circumstances, brings joy, overcomes adversity, defeats temptation, infuses hope, releases 
power, cleanses our minds, brings things into being, and guarantees our future forever! We cannot live without the Word of God!

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