Jesus

A short time ago I came across this account of the life and ministry of Jesus. The author is unknown but I felt this was a truly accurate picture of Jesus. I would like to include it in this day’s devotion.
Jesus was the poorest man who ever walked the dirt roads of this life. Born in poverty and reared in obscurity, yet He lived to enrich mankind. A stable was Hs birthplace, a manger His cradle. For twenty years He worked as a carpenter in a poverty-stricken and despised village, which bore the scorn of man as they asked, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?”
He began His ministry at the Jordan River, with no organization to support Him, no patrons to enrich Him. He publicly began a life of poverty that ended in a borrowed tomb. He preached without price, and wrought miracles without money. As far as we know, He never possessed the value of one dollar. How pathetic His words, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have their nest, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head.”
He was an itinerant preacher whose parish was the world. When invited, He entered men’s homes for dinner. When unasked, He never went hungry. He sought breakfast from the leafing fig tree, but found none. He ate grain from His hands as He walked through the fields of corn, His support came from the gifts of a few women, and His treasurer stole part of the pittance put therein. He walked over the hills of Judea and by the waters of Galilee enriching men, Himself the poorest of all. He slept often under the open sky, in the wilderness without food, by Jacob’s well without water, in the crowded city without a home. Thus He lived and loved, toiled and died. His value was thirty pieces of silver when sold—the price of a slave, the poorest estimate of human life.
So poor was He that He must carry His own cross through the city until, fainting, He fell. He was nailed to that cross between two thieves, stripped of His robe, the gift of His love, for which inhuman soldiers gambled as He died. With no estate with which to endow His weeping mother, He bequeathed her to the love of the beloved John. Then He gave His peace to the disciples, His pardon to the thief, His life for the world, His body to the cross, and His Spirit to God. His burial clothes were the gift of a friend; He was laid at last in a borrowed grave.
Truly, Jesus Christ was the poorest man that ever lived and walked the dirt roads of earth. Though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that we, through His poverty might become rich.

Hindrances to Prayer

In I Peter 3:7 Peter writes the words, “that your prayers be not hindered.” “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will no hear me.” So reads Psalm 66:18. Every child of God should pay close attention to these two statements. To do less has the potential of keeping us from God’s richest blessings. As Christians we need a prayer life and we need to have our prayers answered. If there is something amiss in our lives that are causing our prayers to go unanswered then maybe we need to look within ourselves and see what is causing the problem.
Jesus gave us an outline how we are to pray. He taught His disciples to ask for daily bread and expect to get it. He taught us to ask for daily forgiveness and deliverance for evil. He set the example we are to follow when we pray. Remember as He prayed in the garden He said, “I knew that thou hearest me always.” (John 11:42) Based on that we should believe the normal Christian life to be a life of regular, daily answer to prayer. But sadly far too many do not have a normal prayer life. The only time they pray is when they need something or get into trouble.
Peter taught that wrong relationship between husbands and wives could cause our prayers not to be answered. I Peter 3:1-7 admonishes us to take a close look at our home life. Do you find hindrances there? If so seek the answer from God’s Word about how to make a home life that is pleasing to God.
Jesus taught in Matthew 5:23,24 that wrongs unrighted, debts unpaid, and offended brothers unreconciled, all have a direct bearing on our prayer lives. There is a way to correct this flaw in our lives. Seek God and ask Him to show you how to make all things right. Ask for forgiveness from God. You do believe God will forgive you? He will only if you are willing to forgive others. If you hold a grudge and are unwilling to forgive your brother or sister God may be unwilling to hear and answer your prayers.
Unforgiveness greaves the heart o God. Jesus said, “But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matt 6:15)
One of the greatest hindrances to prayer in the church is covetousness. God truly hates this sin in His people. Yet many in the church today are eaten up with this cancer. They seek power, position, money material gain and possessions to be seen of men. Any church member who is guilty of this great sin not cannot expect to get his/her prayers answered and will hinder the growth of the church they attend. The spirit will be hindered and one that may need to get saved just might not get that chance. God’s record books will show how this sin is to be dealt with. How do you want God to judge you should your sin keep someone from meeting Jesus or causing the church Jesus died for to stagnate? If this sin is not removed from the Christian then God cannot hear their prayer.
If you have problem you need God’s help with all you have to do is ask. But first you must make sure you are in the right place, in the right frame of mind and right with God. Have you forgiven all who have wronged you? To get forgiven you must forgive.
God will do His part but He expects you to do your part.

Let Us Rise Up and Build

The Bible has many examples of building, and how it is to be done. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah teach us about building the city of Jerusalem and God’s Temple. The new Testament teaches how to build the church. Building is as old as time. Man has always built something from simple shelter to massive cathedrals. Most of the building man has done down through the ages has been for the wrong reasons. Seldom does man build anything to honor the Lord.
God’s children ought to be builders, but should be sure they are erecting the right kinds of buildings. We definitely need to build strong Christian homes. Our homes today reflect our strength. Satan from the very beginning has sought to destroy the home. For he knows if he succeeds there he can defeat God’s people. Today we do not have a strong home life centered around God the Bible and the church. No nation is stronger than the homes of which it consists. No church is stronger than the homes, which represent that body.
As individual believers we need to build our character. Character is what a person is made of. His reputation is what others think of him. Yet a person is more that the opinions of others. This generation has tried to substitute money for character; it doesn’t work now and never will. If Christian character is not built into a child in the home and in the church he has very little chance of becoming somebody in this world.
Our churches should be built on strong doctrine not on traditional thinking of man-made ideas. Today we see churches with small congregations and some with multitudes in attendance. There are congregations made up of wealthy people and there are those made up of poor people. Neither of which should a church be build around. Some churches are built around a pastor because of his strong personality. God pity the man who wants to build around himself! The problem in most churches today is the lack of God inspired and spirit filled leaders and teachers. We need men and women in every area of the church who are sound in doctrine and grounded in faith and are washed in the blood. There is much confusion today in the church caused by those who are not sound in the faith.
We cannot build strong churches today and cling to the ways of the world. The church must be in the world, but the world must not be in the church. Many preachers today find it easy to compromise with the world, because it helps them to grow in number. Building a church means building a people who will walk in God’s way. Who have faith God will provide and care if a sinner is lost or saved.
We need to build evangelistic churches. Done God’s way and in God’s time. In the book of Acts we find God added to the church such as should be saved, and added three thousand in one day. Once a person is saved and baptized there needs to be discipleship, people being taught about and from God’s Word. The Great commission is to reach the world with the gospel. That world starts in your neighborhood. When was the last time you invited your neighbor to church?
We must build for the glory of God. To do less is to build for the glory of man.

The Wind

The wind. You don’t know where it comes from and you don’t know where it is going. When the wind blows the leaves that have fallen or are not securely attached to the tree are blown about. People that do not have a strong faith in God are like leaves in the wind. Just like the wind that carries leaves away from the tree, a life that is not rooted in faith and sound spiritual truths will be blown around like leaves in the wind. Jesus tells us in John 3:8, “The wind bloweth where it listh, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of spirit.”
The wind blows and we see the leaves on the wind. We cannot see the wind but we know it is there. The wind can cool us with a gentle breeze or can destroy our lives in an instant. Sin is like a strong evil wind.
In Eph 4:14 we find, “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the slight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.”
We need a strong faith in God and His Word to be able to stand against those who would deceive us with the strong wind of false doctrine. Even if we have a sound attachment we still are vulnerable to false teaching and the harsh wind of misleading doctrine. Only when we keep our eyes on Jesus and listen to what He has to say can we stand against the falsehoods Satan would have us believe. For he knows if he can get us detached from our roots we will be blown away by his evil wind.
So keep your eyes on Jesus and you heart in His hands and you will be secure even in the worst of storms. For He is our rock and shelter and He will protect us and keep us safe.