Blessed Assurance

Posted on January 30, 2012 by David

Jesus is mine…..

Before we burst into song let’s think of a few things. I heard the question posed today, “After death if Jesus were to ask you why He should let you into Heaven what would your response be?” I asked the boys this very question tonight and both of them had the same response. “I’m not worthy.” That sparked a whole discussion of our sins being covered by His blood. We are worthy after we accept him to enter into Heaven.

Anyway, that was just a sidebar. Blessed Assurance has been running through my heart for the past couple of weeks. I sang it during devotionals last week and we sang a couple of verses of it last night. How special is it when you have a song in your heart and you get to sing it during church?

A few words have really been sticking out to me lately, “This is MY story, this is MY song”

What does my story mean? God has written a story for my life. I am living the story. Is the story I’m living what God has intended for me or am I writing my own story? Nothing I do is catching Him by surprise, but am I living what He would have for me and my family? As we go from day to day what is filling the pages of our story? Are we simply filling up pages as filler or are we spinning a tale that is honoring to God? Would someone reading our story even associate us a follower of Christ? MY story is personal, it is not your story. I will be held accountable to God based on my story, not your story.

Simple thought, simple song. Deep thought, deep song.

Praising my Savior all the day long.

Doubting {Insert Your Name Here}

Posted on January 26, 2012 by David

Last night during our nightly family devotionals we discussed John chapter 20. We setup a 2 year reading through the Bible plan and it has been working out pretty well. We ended talking about Didymus or Thomas.

²⁵The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the LORD. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.

Wow! How could he be such a doubter?

Wait, let’s think about this. Unless He shows me a sign I will not believe. What we hear today is, “I’ll believe it when I see it!” We may not say it that way, but our actions speaker louder than our words. Do we take God’s promises that He left us in His word for granted? I’m not going to go through all the promises, but let’s look at two.

^{Proverbs 1:33}But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.

If we have accepted Christ do we feel safe? What do we fear? Do we live a life knowing that He is in control and in no part of our life should we face fear?

^{Philippians 4:19} But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Do we live day to day knowing that God is going to supply our needs? Sometimes we have to go back to the Kindergarten Character Study of Needs v. Wants. What are our decisions based on? Fear of providing for our needs? Combining two of the above that contradicts God’s promises.

If someone tells you that they don’t believe you, you have two choices. You can prove them wrong or you can write them off. Thank God He doesn’t write us off. We see how he deals with Thomas.

^{John 20:27} Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.

²⁸And Thomas answered and said unto him, My LORD and my God.

I’m sure Thomas was embarrassed or maybe he wasn’t. I tend to think that all that didn’t matter at the time he saw Christ again. I bet looking back on it those words did come screaming back to him though. We can only imagine the great things those disciples heard and witnessed until His ascension. The clear fact is that Thomas was still with the disciples. He was in the place Christ had told them to stay until He returned. Thomas may have doubted, but he was still there. Jesus didn’t kick Thomas out of the upper room when he returned. He does the same for us over and over again. He takes our doubt and continually proves it was unwarranted!

In the Dark

Posted on January 19, 2012 by David

I took the opportunity yesterday during my computer classes to teach the kids about copyright issues. Many of them took the side of “if you’re not going to get caught it is ok” mentality. Isn’t it funny how a lot of people never leave this stage in their lives. Yes, I did try to set them straight with one of my favorite quotes.

Character is what you are in the dark.

I had to search to see who this quote was attributed to. You know, give them the proper credit. I was surprised to see that most attributed it to DL Moody. I have read behind a lot of his sermons and guess I picked it up from there at some point.

How many times in a day do we think something is OK because no one saw it or no one will found out? I’m not talking about when you trip over that rock and you check to see if anyone saw you. Those things you try to justify in your mind even though you know are wrong. This may sound like a simple Sunday School lesson, but I think sometimes we need to be reminded.

Christ is with us.

“And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.”—Ephesians 4:30