He has already done enough

“Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty. But even if he doesn’t, we want to make it clear to you, Your Majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up.””
‭‭Daniel‬ ‭3:16-18‬ ‭NLT‬‬
“If He never does anything else, He has already done enough.” That’s what we hear a lot in church and we state sometimes. Can you truly say that you are willing to face this statement? Are you truly able to attest that if he never does anything else your okay with it? It’s hard to think that God would be a so harsh to do that. But the truth of the matter is that the things we have we don’t deserve. After all the things that we do, think and say. We truly should not have received the things and blessings we have right now. Some of us should not even be here at this moment.

HERE IT IS…

Those three Hebrew boys were faced with the fire literally and told the king that they believe that God would rescue them. However, in the event that he doesn’t they are prepared to die in his name. “If he never does anything else, he has already done enough.” The boys were not willing to compromise their relationship with God and have to ask for forgiveness later. No, they wanted to be faithful and true to God right then and there. They made a choice just like we have too. When your faces with an issue. Your faces with a problem. Your faces with a situation that is threatening your very being. Have a Hebrew boy spirit and believe that God will save you from anything, but in the event that He doesn’t, your dying won’t be in vain. Because he has already done enough.

Possible

“Then Daniel went home and told his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah what had happened. He urged them to ask the God of heaven to show them his mercy by telling them the secret, so they would not be executed along with the other wise men of Babylon. That night the secret was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven.”

Daniel 2:17-19 NLT

Have you ever been faced with a task so big or a obstacle in your way that seemed to be impossible? Just looking at it made you want to turn around and try and find another way to get it done but the only way is through? This is something we all have had to face and it’s hard to believe that we all have had to go through it. The thing that may seem impossible or to big to handle or just won’t work because of the way you have to go is that way because we are looking at it naturally. When we submit to God and allow to move in his way, we would not see it as impossible.

HERE IT IS…

The astrologist and magicians didn’t even want to try to figure out the kings dream because they saw it was impossible. They thought no one would be able to do it. They were looking at it through their natural eye. Daniel took the information to the one that nothing is impossible. He asked them all to pray and ask God to reveal the impossible task to them and God did it. They were rewarded for what God had done because of their request. Your impossible has the two things in front of it that makes it impossible to you. The word itself shows you when you put I in front of it and add an M it makes it impossible. If you take the I out of it and remove the M which is short for I’m or I am it gives the power over. Remove yourself and allow God to do it.

What not to do

“Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were four of the young men chosen, all from the tribe of Judah. The chief of staff renamed them with these Babylonian names: Daniel was called Belteshazzar. Hananiah was called Shadrach. Mishael was called Meshach. Azariah was called Abednego.”

Daniel 1:6-7 NLT

As a child I have played a lot of games and was very competitive. This one particular time playing baseball the team that I usually play for was not apart of the program anymore. Which then started a “draft” process for all the teams. I was placed on a rival team to play for. When I was on the team the coach placed me in a position I really didn’t enjoy to play. Catcher! I was good at it but it was not what I was really good at. I was a infield person. Once my father saw that he knew what was happening and told me what I should and should not do.

HERE IT IS…

My father saw what position that I was playing and helped me to become better in the position that I was in that I actually started to like playing the position I was in. Sometimes you will be placed in a position where you have to allow God to move in your favor because it’s setting you up to be used by God. It’s uncomfortable. It’s not what you wanted. It is not where you thought you would be. Your father can see everything that is going on and just as he will tell you what TO DO. He will also tell you what NOT to do. God will lead you even when they try to demean you, set you up, change who you are. You have to remember who your father is and follow his word.

Love over everything

“If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing.

Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever!”

1 Corinthians 13:1-2, 8 NLT

I have a heard that money can’t buy you love. I have heard that people who had all the “things” that they wanted still didn’t have the one thing they needed. How can you have all that you want and desire and still be unhappy? How can you have anything better than having all the “things” you want? It’s better to be loved and have someone in your corner, than to live foolish and with no one. We can get caught up in chasing the dream that we miss the present and it alters our future.

HERE IT IS…

The writer writes the first few verses of this 13 letter to the church and shows us just what happens when you have everything but love. He states that even if you had the knowledge of earth and angels, prophecy, Gods knowledge and did not have love. Then you would be nothing. Then in verse 8 he says that nothing else will last but love. All things will pass away but the word of the Lord will last forever.

“In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone.”

John 1:1-4 NLT

Love

“Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.”

1 Corinthians 13:7 NLT

There is a commercial that I have recently found a new love for. A Red Bull commercial that shows a zebra getting ready to cross a stream. In the stream is an alligator waiting for the zebra. Before the zebra crosses the stream it drinks a Red Bull drink. As the zebra collects itself and crosses it’s pulled down into the water. After a few seconds of tussling and sloshing sounds you see the zebra emerge without a scratch. As always the tag line rings out in the commercial “Red Bull gives you wings.”

HERE IT IS…

With Love you will have to do what this zebra did. One you have to prepare yourself and make sure that you are ready. Place your your mind in Gods hands and put your best foot forward. But realize once you step in the stream you may have to battle with some things. You may have to put up a fight. You may have to go beyond what you thought you could. Like the scripture says love never fails. Never gives up. Endures and is always hopeful. God went through the fight for you. That’s Love.

IN to Justice

“It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.”

1 Corinthians 13:6 NLT

One of the biggest injustices in history is coming up in a week. This injustice is an old story but seems to constantly repeat itself. This has happen hundreds of times that we know of and that we don’t. Injustice that continues to happen and at some points rejoiced about when it happens. What happens when this injustice is celebrated? What happens when this injustice is given an opportunity to be swept under the rug? What happens when it seems that love is not being used?

HERE IT IS…

Jesus went to Calvary to save a wretch like you and me. That’s love. They hung him high, and stretched him high, he hung his and for me he died that’s love. But that’s not how the story ends because three days later he rose again. That’s love. And even though we celebrate this injustice we have to remember that it wasn’t the injustice that made us who we are. But it’s because we’re brought INTO justice because of Christ. That’s the love I know. Where it didn’t matter what I did. Who discriminated against me. How many times people said no. But it’s because he said yes to bringing me IN to justice.

Love

“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud”

1 Corinthians 13:4 NLT

We often times think of the word Love as a romantic word. We tend to direct this to a girlfriend or boyfriend. A husband of a wife. In fact it’s a word that displays and shows the care we have. It’s not just to show how romantically involved we are. In fact when we love someone there is so much more that goes into it let’s look at it from a different direction. The scripture shows love being a word that displays patience, kindness, and not being jealous and not being boastful or prideful. Think on what your loves says about you? Does it say that you love with wanting something back? Do you love with condition?

HERE IT IS…

The love of Christ doesn’t come with conditions because if it did we would all be out of here. The love Christ shows us comes in it’s truest form. Imagine if you knew all the people that would do you wrong? Imagine that you had a glimpse into your life to people that would ever hurt you? Would you still love them? Would you still try to help them the way you do now? God says that he knew you before you were formed in your mother’s womb. Yet he still blesses you and he still died for you. Love is an action that doesn’t see what is wrong or right. It’s something that you do out care and love for someone. Love today no matter what!

What will you do?

I will sing of your love and justice, Lord . I will praise you with songs. I will be careful to live a blameless life— when will you come to help me? I will lead a life of integrity in my own home. I will refuse to look at anything vile and vulgar. I hate all who deal crookedly; I will have nothing to do with them.
Psalms 101:1‭-‬3 NLT

What will you do? By far a question that’s hard to answer. When someone pose the question, “what will you do?”! Something of when a situation arises and a problem comes we have to ask ourselves the same. We also have to state this when we are declaring a change in our life. We are given chance after chance to make a chnage, but how? What will you do different to make it happen, and make that change.

HERE IT IS…

I encourage us to use this 101st chapter of psalms to make that change in our life. The bible states that when we come to Christ we are new, old things will pass away. That’s when we have to constantly deny ourselves the open possibility to go back. David states in the chapter what he will do to please God. What will you do different? What will you do to make that step into a new way of thinking? A new way of living? A new way of life that pleases God. What will be your, I WILL… statement?

Commitment

“Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.”

Psalms 37:5-6 KJV

Years ago as I was applying for jobs I remember one thing that stuck out to me. They would send an offer letter to you after you have been selected for the job with the details of the job. It would have the start date. The position and the pay that you would receive. This letter that came via email asked that you read over the offer letter and if you accept the offer letter to sign the letter of commitment that was included in the email. This meant that you would agree to the terms and that you are commuting to act accordingly and fulfill the duties discussed.

HERE IT IS…

God issues us a commitment letter every day that we wake up. Every time you take a breath in and out you are committed to being a Len employee of God. Truth of the matter sometimes we forget what that means and entails. We sometimes don’t always act accordingly and we are late to work. We miss time. We call out on God. We even sometimes quit. I find it so amazing that God never fires us, but instead never ends your employment. He will reprimand us but we are still employees. He is never late paying us and he always covers us with insurance of insurance. I urge you to commit to God today and see how your life changes when you accept his offer letter.

More

I want more…

“If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities.
Luke 16:10 NLT

“I want more”. A statement that all of us has made. Something that we all desire, whether it is more money, food, clothes, shoes, cars, houses. Whatever it is we have all said that we want more of it or better of what it is. We have all prayed to god for increase in our life. One thing that I had to learn to ask myself is what would I do with it, and how would I take care of it. If I have a 1983 Honda and I don’t take care of it how could I ask God to have a expensive car like a BMW, or Bentley. The issue that I have is that if something happens to it, I can fix it but the parts are expensive. How can I ask God for something greater when I don’t take care of what I have.

HERE IT IS…

Jesus told this parable to his disciples to explain to them that, we can not try to serve to Masters. I cannot say I’m faithful to God’s word and still do the same thing as I did before and still expect God to bless me. If I’m not faithful to what I have now through God how much increase do you expect. Be faithful to your now, so your future endeavors will be blessed.