Consider: Acts 12

Here we find Peter being imprisoned by King Herod Agrippa. Herod had just executed James (the brother of John) and was going for more.

In the mean time, we find the church earnestly praying for the release of Peter (vs. 5).

They hadn’t given up even though they just lost James. Talk about faith and trust in the LORD who doesn’t always work the way we think He should.

Check out what happens in verse 6-7:

“The night before Peter was to be placed on trial, he was asleep, fastened with two chains between two soldiers. Others stood guard at the prison gate. Suddenly, there was  a bright light in the cell, and an angel of the LORD stood before Peter…”

We don’t know how long Peter was in prison, but we do know that the LORD was right on time… as if He could be late. The LORD is *never* late… because He is God. From our perspective He often seems to “come through” right at the last minute, but for Him He moves right when He wants to.

To us it seems like “the night before” or “suddenly” but He’s had these moments planned and has it all under control.

We should rest in the fact that He is on the throne and has our lives in His hands and when He chooses to will release the suddenlies we need to make it through.

Consider: Luke 5

We find Jesus teaching with some Pharisees sitting nearby. Apparently Jesus’ reputation had begun to spread so some guys brought a man on a mat so that Jesus would heal him.

As the story goes, the crowd was so thick that the men went up on the roof, tore it open and lowered the sick guy throw the new sky light.

First off, what an extreme amount of care for this sick man. We awesome they were friends of his… but any way you look at it they were intent on getting this man to Jesus.

What a challenge for us!

Secondly, it’s important to look at what Jesus did with this man: He both healed him AND forgave His sins. Jesus cares for both the heart AND the body. Interestingly enough, Jesus actually forgave the man’s sins before He healed his body. Jesus first and foremost wants our hearts!

It was then that Jesus turned and dealt with the hearts of the Pharisees.

They were not too happy that this man Jesus was forgiving people’s sins. “Who does He think He is…?” they questioned in verse 21.

And to show that Jesus had the authority to forgive sins, He turns to the lame man and heals him.

Jesus’ response is real and relevant and literally strikes to the heart. “Why do you question this…?”

This story can be applied to our lives in many different ways. But know this, Jesus’ desire is for everyone to come into relationship with Him. He wants our hearts. He also wants us to know that He not only cares for our hearts, but He also cares for our bodies.

Consider: Revelation 1

The Book of Revelation is an interesting book! It’s quite often misunderstood because many think the book is about the “end times”. Though the events that will occur surrounding the end times, the book itself is all about Jesus (see Revelation 1:1).

The whole first chapter, John lays out how he received this revelation and who/what it’s all about.

As I was reading it this morning, verse 8 popped out to me. It reads:

“I am the Alpha and the Omega–the beginning and the end,” says the LORD God. “I am the One who is, who always was, and who is still to come–the Almighty One.”

The footnote connected with verse 8 says this:

Greek: I am the Alpha and the Omega, referring to the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet.

Which got me to thinking. If we were to think of it in context of our English language, He is our A to Z. There are no other letters in our language than those that exist between A and Z. When it comes to God, there is no one else other than Him. There’s no one else that even comes close to comparing to Him.

He is the Alpha and Omega and He is the A to Z.

Consider: 1 John 2

John makes some incredible statements in chapter 2.

He says things like:

• “I am writing this to you so that you will not sin.”  (vs. 1)
• “If someone claims, ‘I know God,’ but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liat” (vs. 4)
• “Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.” (vs. 6)

People can SAY a lot of things… doesn’t mean it’s true. People can wear Christian t-shirts, but it doesn’t mean the wearer is a Christian. People can even go to a church service, but that action in and of itself is not proof of their salvation.

John clearly let’s us know it doesn’t matter what people say, if they aren’t living like Jesus, then they’re not really followers of Christ.

It’s gut-level, toe-stepping-on truth.

So who are you living like?

Consider: John 1

This first chapter of John holds nothing back. If ever there is the question concerning who Jesus was, read this chapter.

Check out the first 5 verses (from the NLT):

“In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God, and He was God. He was in the beginning with God. He created everything there is. Nothing exists that He did not make. Life itself was in Him, and this life gives light to everyone. The light shines through the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.”

The line I want to focus on is verse 3 which says “He created everything there is. Nothing exists that He did not make.”

How much more plain can that be?

He created everything.

Nothing exists without Him.

Nothing.

Simply approaching this passage with child-like faith (and plain English) clearly shows that Jesus is it. He is the One who created everything. He is the reason why we exist. We weren’t made by chance. He didn’t just start the creation process and sit back and watch everything happen. He actually did it. He created everything.

We should not only understand this in regards to the creation event itself but apply this to our lives in the fact that He has created us individually for a reason. You weren’t a mistake. You weren’t put on this earth by chance. Mother nature and karma had nothing to do with your birth. You were created by God to be on this earth for such a time as this.

Regardless of the circumstances that have surrounded your life in the past, you are precious to Him and He has made you for a reason… maybe not the reason you’ve thought of… maybe not the reason others thought of… but He definitely made you uniquely you.

Because nothing that exists came to be without Him.

Consider: 1 Peter 1

Check out what Peter says in 1 Peter 1:3 -

“All honor to the God and Father of our LORD Jesus Christ, for it is by His boundless mercy that God has given us the privilege of being born again…”

Boundless mercy. Think about it: boundless. No boundaries. It doesn’t end. It doesn’t run out. It doesn’t dry up. The fountain is endless. The waves of His mercy are boundless.

Yet so often we live life as if there are limits to Him and His mercy. Or maybe for our own lives we believe in boundless mercy, but when it comes to others, there is only so much the LORD will give mercy for.

NO. His mercy is BOUNDLESS.

I’m grateful for boundless mercy. I’m thankful that His mercies are new EVERY MORNING (see Lamentations 3:22-23).

Consider: Hebrews 11

What a chapter to blog about! Obviously there is no way I could adequately communicate the fullness of what this chapter means. The stories of these men and women who have lived their abundant life of faith before us is amazing. Simply amazing.

One thing I do want to point out though is hidden in verse 2, which reads:

“God gave His approval to people in days of old because of their faith.”

The Gospel is simple, right? Yes, absolutely. We are saved by Grace through faith. It’s simple.

It is SIMPLE, but it is not without action.

Let me explain what I mean.

It seems as though we live in a day and age where a large portion of the human race “believes” in a deity of some sort. For many, Jesus is that deity… for many others it is Allah, Buddha, etc. There are many options out there when it comes to belief, and what some would consider faith.

So belief, in and of itself, is not enough. Dare I say faith in this regard, in a deity is not enough?

What God considers as faith is completely different than how we see it.

It is faith in God and Jesus, His Son that is the requirement (see John 17:3).

But it shouldn’t stop there…

Some say they have faith in God and in Jesus. But that’s where it stops, thus making their faith quite inactive and really ineffective. I’m not talking about works in order to be saved… but what I am saying is that those who say they are saved should take their faith beyond simply SAYING they believe.

Hebrews 11 is full of men and women of faith. They had faith. But if you’ll notice their faith is nothing like many people’s faith today. They did something WITH their faith. They didn’t just SAY they had faith, they LIVED their faith. They did things that forever changed the Kingdom of God. And without many of them, we wouldn’t have the lineage that brought us Jesus.

The faith that pleases God (Hebrews 11:6) is faith that is active and alive, not just a moment in our lives or a statement we like to throw around.

As James says, faith without works is dead (see James 2:17).

Consider: Isaiah 9

One thing that gets me excited is when the Word highlights part of God’s personality. If you weren’t aware, He does have personality. He isn’t just the cosmic operator in the sky.

Isaiah lays out a prophetic word in chapter 9. This is a very popular passage as this is where we have listed the various titles of Jesus: “Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (see Isaiah 9:6).

A line in this passage that is passed over many times when the above Scripture is read is the end of verse 7. Check out what it says:

“The passionate commitment of the LORD Almighty will guarantee this!”

We have a guarantee that is based on the passionate commitment of the LORD.

But think about it. The LORD did not have to put this in the Scriptures. It has already been establish in other portions of Scripture that “He is not a man that He should lie”. So just His simple Word is guarantee enough. Yet He throws in His passionate commitment to let us know how He feels about this topic of Jesus coming to save the day.

Rest in the fact that our God is passionate, He is passionately committed to Jesus ruling and reigning and He is passionately committed to His relationship with you (see also Exodus 34:14)!

Consider: Hebrews 2

Hebrews is such a great book! In chapter 2, we get a glimpse at the greatness and the amazingness of Jesus. I don’t know if amazingness is even a real word… but it is in context of Jesus. This chapter is all about the One God sent to redeem us.

The chapter closes with this encouragement:

“Therefore, it was necessary for Jesus to be in every respect like us, His brothers and sisters, so that He could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. He then could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people. Since He Himself has gone through suffering and temptation, He is able to help us when we are being tempted.” – Hebrews 2:17-18

Did you catch that? HE IS ABLE.

God is not just One who is in heaven who doesn’t understand or doesn’t care… HE DOES! He understands very much so what we go through on a daily basis because He Himself went through those things. He was tempted as we are tempted and suffered as we suffered.

You are not alone, and yes, Someone understands YOU.

You may feel alone… you may feel like no one understands your pain or what you’re going through. But there is Someone who does… His name is Jesus.

He is able to help you. He is able.

Consider: Titus 3

If you haven’t gotten it already, you’re not good enough. You’re just not. I’m not either. None of us are. If we were than Jesus’ death would have been pointless. It seems so often we try, try and keeping trying to prove something to God that we’re good enough to get into heaven, but the fact is, we’re not.

In Titus 3: 5-6, this is what Paul says about not being good enough:

“He saved us, not because of the good things we did, but because of His mercy. He washed away our sins and gave us a new life the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us because of what Jesus Christ our Savior did.”

Check out a few bits from that passage:

• He saved us, not because of the good things we did
• It’s all because of His mercy
• He generously poured out His Spirit on us because of Jesus

It doesn’t say “He sparingly poured out His Spirit”… or “once we got our act together, He poured out His Spirit”… no. It says He generously poured out His Spirit because of Jesus and what He did for us.

Today, rest in the fact that you’re not good enough. May be an odd way to look at it, but it’s the truth.