How about saying “No” to temptations? Perhaps this thought will help.
For the grace of God…teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age. (Titus 2:11-12)
How does grace teach me to say, “No”?
The more I realize how much it cost Jesus to extend grace to me, the more I will realize what I can do to show gratitude for this amazing gift. I show my appreciation for this inestimable gift by saying “No” to ungodliness, AND saying “Yes” to godliness.
Saying “Yes” to my sinful passions is like a slap in the face of God. It’s saying that what I want to indulge in is somehow more valuable than Christ’s death on the Cross.
To live a self-controlled, upright, godly life is the bare minimum I can do to show my gratitude to my Savior! Grace is not a license to live as I want to live. Grace teaches me to say “No” to anything that would offend Jesus Christ.
George Whitefield said, “Think of the love of Jesus and let that love constrain you to keep near unto Him.” Which reminds me of a stanza of an old song—
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Have you ever noticed how quickly we label people? We tend to give them a label based on their education, their socio-economic status, their race, their age, their job, even their choice of vocabulary.
We may not verbally express these labels, but we think them. And we will always treat people as we label them! In fact, it’s impossible to treat someone differently than you think about them.
What sort of label does God use? Well, He says that He knit you together in your mother’s womb; that He saw all of the days of your life before you were even a twinkle in your father’s eye; He knows the number of hairs on your head; He knows the thoughts in your head; He knows what you’re going to say before you say it. And then there’s this beautiful thought—
For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10)
The label God puts on you:
My one-of-a-kind, irreplaceable, invaluable masterpiece!
When you are givingthanksgiving for people (that means you are always thankful for people), you will begin to see them as God’s masterpieces too!
Everyone you meet is God’s gift. He gave them to humanity to do the good works which He prepared in advance for them to do. You are surrounded by gifted people!
If you don’t see people this way—or if you tend to label them with less-than-flattering tags—perhaps you should begin to pray for them. Try a prayer like this:
I thank my God for you; in fact, I always thank God for you. And every time I thank God for you, I pray for you, night and day. In all my prayers for you, I always pray with joy, being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. And this is also my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. So I urge you to join me in offering requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving for everyone.(This prayer is taken from Romans 1:8; 1 Corinthians 1:4; Colossians 1:3; 2 Timothy 1:3; Philippians 1:3-11; 1 Timothy 2:1)
Don’t just express your thanks for people on Thanksgiving Day, but be givingthanksgiving all the time. Remember: everyone you meet is a gifted person because everyone you meet is God’s one-of-a-kind, irreplaceable, invaluable masterpiece.
This is a weekly series with things I’m reading and pondering from Oswald Chambers. You can read the original seed thought here, or type “Thursdays With Oswald” in the search box to read more entries.
A Hard Word
Have you ever heard the Master say a hard word?—if you have not, I question whether you have heard Him say anything. Jesus Christ says a great deal that we listen to, but do not hear. … Our Lord has a perfect understanding that when once His word is heard, it will bear fruit sooner or later. The terrible heartbreak is that some of us prevent its bearing fruit in actual life. …
Beware of allowing anything to soften a hard word of Jesus. It is a terrible thing to see how we keep Jesus Christ waiting. … We twist His words and debate about their meaning, we discuss His teachings and expound His Gospel, and all the time we leave Him absolutely alone because at the center of our heart there is the gnawing grip of one of His hard sayings that keeps us sorrowful, and He waits until we come and lay it all down.
All the time in between has been utterly wasted as far as Jesus Christ is concerned, no matter how active we have been, or how much we have been a blessing to others, because none of it has sprung from devotion to Him but from devotion to an idea….
Not a question of saying, “Lord, I will do it,” but of doing it. There must be the reckless committal of everything to Him with no regard for the consequences.
Jesus, when you speak a word to my heart—no matter how hard it seems—may I quickly obey what You have spoken. May I never waste time trying to figure it out, water it down, or soften a hard word, but may I be recklessly obedient to You.
The word good means things that are beautiful, excellent, and praiseworthy. In other words, good is what is God-glorifying. And faith means that it’s not about my opinion or my advancement.
The bottom line: Don’t fight unless God’s Word or God’s character is being maligned.
Paul said, “Turn away from godless chatter and opposing ideas.” The King James Version describes these as vain and profane ideas. These sorts of battles are un-winnable and therefore unworthy of your time and effort.
My spiritual battles should not be chosen strategically, but biblically.
We need to put on our armor and fight, but the fight must be the good fight of faith. Don’t take the bait of those who just want to quibble over obscure and irrelevant opinions. But when the attack comes against God’s honor or seeks to diminish His glory, it’s time to storm the battlefield!
May God give us the wisdom to know the difference.
I was so honored to be a part of the Veterans Day memorial service in Cedar Springs yesterday. A small crowd braved the cold, windy weather to show their support for our veterans.
Pastor Craig Carter served as the master of ceremonies, Pastor Mary Ivanov offered the invocation, Col. Tom Noreen shared some important things for us to remember about our veterans, the Kent County Honor Guard was on hand for the 3-volley salute, Ethan Sommer brilliantly played taps, and I got to offer the closing prayer of blessing on our veterans and their families.
Even though Veterans Day 2012 has past, please continue to find ways all throughout the year to show your gratitude to our past and current military personnel for their service to our country.
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Thank you Harrison for snapping these pictures while your fingertips were freezing!
I am reminded again that my stressful feelings come because things are not going according to my plans. This can only mean one thing: Somehow I have let myself believe that I am in control of all my circumstances!
Enough!It’s time to once and for all give my concerns to the only One who can handle them.
“‘Come unto Me,’ says Jesus, ‘and I will give you rest.’ Do Jesus Christ’s words apply to me? Does He really know my circumstances? Fretting is sinful if you are a child of God. Get back to God and tell Him with shame that you have been bolstering up that stupid soul of yours with the idea that your circumstances are too much for Him. Ask Him to forgive you and say, ‘Lord, I take Thee into my calculation as the biggest factor now!’” —Oswald Chambers
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
If you’ve ever been to a doctor’s office, you have probably experienced the patellar reflex test. It might be better known as the “knee-jerk reaction.” This is when the doctor taps your knee just below the kneecap to test your body’s involuntary response. How you respond (or don’t respond) tells the doctor a lot about your nervous system’s health.
Did you know that we have a spiritual patellar reflex too?
Consider this verse—
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. (Philippians 4:6)
How you respond spiritually to stressful things says a lot about your spiritual knee-jerk reflex.
We see this spiritual knee-jerk reflex in the well-known story of Daniel in the lion’s den. Some of the guys who were jealous of Daniel trick the king into passing a law that forbids everyone from praying to anyone other than the king. Look at Daniel’s spiritual knee-jerk reflex:
Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. (Daniel 6:10)
Daniel’s knee-jerk reaction was to hit his knees in prayer!
This is because hitting his knees in prayer was a spiritual habit for Daniel. Check out this key phrase: he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. The verb tense here is one that means unbroken continuity. In other words, Daniel always prayed, so when anxious times came his spiritual knee-jerk reflex was to do what he always did: Pray, giving thanks to God.
I think every day in the United States of America should be Veterans Day, as we have too many special people to thank in just one day! But it is fitting and proper for us to at least have one day where we honor those who have put themselves in harm’s way to preserve our freedom.
In Cedar Springs, a special Veterans Day memorial will be held at noon on Monday, November 12, in the Veterans Memorial Park. I hope you can make the time in your schedule to join me at this memorial service.
Do you have a hard time saying “No”?
Craig T. Owens 