These words should be mounted in BIG letters in Congress and on the walls of every school. Life cannot be about anger and raised voices. I should know. I have a problem with my anger. Not all of the time but…it happens more than it should. Ever since I became a pastor at a small church, God has changed that part of me so that it doesn’t show up nearly as often. My wife has never heard me raise my voice, only my son has heard that part and I’m ashamed to admit it.
I suppose I’m like my Dad in that respect. I remember his raised voice from many years ago. Thankfully he wasn’t violent and he didn’t hit me or my Mom. God gives each of us a spirit but until we surrender our lives to Him, our human nature gets to “play” more than our spirit. Sometimes that is not a good situation nor a good outcome in many instances. Seek to know Jesus as your Savior and let Him change your spirit and your nature so that you will be more like Him rather than being the sinful person that your nature tries to mold you into. God know who you really are and only He can move you into the direction to be the child that He knows you can be.
On our nation’s 250th birthday, we need to seek Him and learn from Him how to live in our freedom in Christ and the freedom that we have in America.
The Lord is your Rock of all ages. He is the foundation of the Christian faith, and He is your Savior. Trust in Him for your eternal foundation. God loves us because we are His creation and His love is deeper than anyone can imagine. The problem that we have is that we live in a fallen world. The whole of Creation was impacted when Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s order not to eat of a certain tree and we have been living with the consequences of that ever since.
Resist the devil. What does that mean?
Any temptation that comes into your mind or your sight that tempts you to do something or want something that you shouldn’t have. Those come from the devil and his minions. Temptation comes in many forms but most are from things that God wouldn’t approve of. Jesus went through temptations when He was in the wilderness after His baptism. We see things, such as beautiful cars or trucks that we can’t afford and it is tempting to finance it, especially if we can’t afford it. It is a temptation to get what you desire rather than what God wants you to have. Resist these temptations and pray that God will show you what you should have and ask Him to help you to get it. Walking and living in His will is not hard to do, but you have to do it deliberately.
Eternity will be so much better than anything we are going through today. Life here has many problems and possibilities but for many of us we seem to have more problems than possibilities. Eternity with God will be so much more than anything that we have to live through here. Get to know Jesus. Read the Bible. It’s not just a book about what you can do or can’t do, it is God’s love letter to us. He shows us how much He loves us and that love is the basis of all of the blessings that we have now and the unknowable wonder of heaven that we will have there.
Our righteousness and justice both come from God and our relationship with Him. But so many people today don’t consider God as their Savior or even consider that our relationship with God should dictate how our lives should be lived. God gave us the wisdom contained in the Bible, regardless of which version you read, and it is the best guidebook for living that we could ever have!
God loves you and your life matters to Him. Live your life by following Him every day and you will find that life is not as hard to live. God’s presence in your life, beginning with reading even a single verse every day, can make your life so much better. Many don’t seem to understand that God’s presence in their life every day can make every day better.
The Living Message of Christ 