Day: September 10, 2018

September 11, 2018

Hebrews 12:3-13 New Living Translation (NLT)

God has welcomed humanity to come to his heart of Love. But, when he receives us we must submit ourselves to his discipline.  His heart is holy and pure in Love and we have to learn what God declares holy and loving living by accepting His discipline when we try to support unholy mindsets, emotions, and actions. Learning God’s love can be a painful process especially if we have spent years acting in a purely human understanding of love.  When God disciplines us, he is actually loving us with a deep and abiding affection, because he is the Father of our spirits.  

The Apostle Paul reminds his readers the Christian life is about hard work.  We must be willing to step away from whatever hinders our relationship with God and press on to finish the faith race.  We must be willing to accept God’s correction gratefully, because God has already declared his love for us through Jesus Christ.  So, live with the victory of pleasing God’s heart and love in a way that helps others long for a relationship with Him, too.  

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September 10, 2018

Hebrews 11:29-40 The Message (MSG)

It is good to be back from vacation; I must admit I truly rested and enjoyed myself. I did miss connecting with you through God’s Word, so let’s talk a bit about faith, today.

I recently had a conversation with someone dear to me about the essential work of faith in every Christ follower’s life. To many people faith is simply a word Christians throw around to sound spiritual. Yet, the Bible teaches without faith it is impossible to please God and faith is actually the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not yet seen (or in other words things yet to be manifest). To walk by faith is a choice we make each day. We can either think our faith is superficial and isn’t really required to walk in victory each day or we can grow in our understanding of the “bigness of God” and realize every day God is looking to bring his power to our measure of faith.

Your faith and my faith is put together with the biblical heroes of the faith in order to make a whole. In our passage today, we will review the faith of some of these heroes. God has a plan for you and for me and we walk it out by faith. We are people of faith who believe in a merciful, loving and all-powerful God who delights in blessing his children by manifesting the work of faith. How will you walk by faith today? It really depends on your perspective of God. How big is your God? Some of these heroes in our lesson served a big God.  Is God big enough to make you victorious in the plan He has for your life? If so, live today with purpose and faith. I will be on the faith walk with you…

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