Blog Archives

BUT IN POWER

8/9/2022

August 9, 2022 BUT IN POWER
1 Corinthians 4:20 “For the kingdom of God does not consist in words, but in power.”
It is the nature of man to use logic, words, and action to accomplish what he wants. Even as believers we can get caught up in thinking that it is up to us and our self-motivation and self-discipline to be whoever God wants us to be or to do what He wants us to do. We read and speak many words and our intentions may be honorable, but yet we may find ourselves lacking when it comes to living in and experiencing the kingdom of God here on earth in power. Words are very important and communicating is important; but words alone can be empty-just words. Jesus taught on the kingdom of God for the purpose of showing what life was like in the kingdom of God; and it is in great contrast to life outside the kingdom of God. From the verse above we see that life in the God’s kingdom is about power-not words only. One over-riding theme of the New Testament is that of being changed and being transformed, and being made new creations. As new creations, and because the Holy Spirit lives in us, we are able to live super-natural lives. There are many ways the power of God may be manifest in our lives, but today let’s look at some of the ways that this power works internally. For example, we have the power to be patient instead of being impatient; to be kind and gentle instead of being harsh; to prefer others over ourselves; to serve rather than being served; to be overcomers instead of being defeated; to be hopeful rather than being depressed; to be content; to be joyful in spirit; to be teachable rather than being stubborn; and the list could go on. The point is that we can live in the routines of daily life with the power of the gospel being experienced and expressed. With the power of God in us, life is not mundane; every day is a new day and a day in which we can experience God at work in us. You might think this all sounds too good to be true, like a dream world-not reality. For sure we do not live a perfect life; sometimes we stumble, YET we always have access to the power of God and God is always drawing us to Himself and inviting us to experience life in His kingdom. Let us not settle for less than living according to the power of God at work in us.
2 Timothy 1:7 “For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.”
Ephesians 3:20 “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,”
2 Peter 1:3 “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence,
Blessings,
Buddy

0 Comments

GIRD YOUR MIND

8/7/2022

0 Comments

August 7, 2022 GIRD YOUR MIND
1 Peter 1:13-16 “Therefore, gird your minds for action, keep sober in your spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children do not be conformed to the former lust which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written; ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’”
Gird is a word we rarely or never use in our day. It has the idea of putting on a belt, or preparing oneself for action. Our mindset is critically important; and we are responsible for the mindset we have. It seems that in our culture many have a mindset that is often in neutral, simply responding and soaking in whatever one chooses to read on line; responding and seeking entertainment seems to be much more prevalent than taking action. It is a good word for us-‘to gird our minds for action;’ Our minds are a gift from God and are to be used for the purpose of overcoming in life and for achieving our purpose in life. We think of action as being physical activity, but in this passage, the action is action that takes place in our thinking process-in our minds. We are to be sober in spirit; we are not to let our spirit be ‘intoxicated’ with anything that distracts us from living according to how God has designed us-His design is that we know Him, that we enjoy Him, and that we walk in His ways. If not alert, and if we do not take action in our minds, our spirits can become focused on ‘other things’-whatever they may be. We are to ‘fix’ our hope on all that will take place when Jesus returns; that hope is sure and will come to pass, and that hope impacts how we live until His coming. Because we are looking for His return, we are to be holy in our behavior; we are to be being conformed to His image-and He is holy. At salvation we are made new, we are not to be conformed back to who we were before our salvation; we are called to leave behind anything that is unlike Christ. This all may sound like a high and unattainable goal, but God has made such a life available to us; we can live as holy and righteous people. Living in holiness and righteousness does not make us better than anyone else and is not something we take pride in; knowing that we can live in such a way only because God has made it possible, humbles us and makes us thankful for His grace. So, let us guard our minds and put our minds in action to be sober in spirit, having our hope on the revelation of Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:4-5 “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.”
Blessings,
Buddy

0 Comments

GIRD YOUR MIND

8/7/2022

0 Comments

WHAT WE DO MATTERS

8/4/2022

0 Comments

August 4, 2020                                 WHAT WE DO MATTERS
2 Corinthians 3:9-10, 14-15, 17 “Therefore also we have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”        “For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, that they who live should live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.”     “Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old thigs passed away, behold, new things have come.”
What is our ambition? And, how do we live in this world and go about the necessities of life-all the things we have to do-and at the same time be pleasing to Him and to have Him as our priority in life? Can we work 40 hours a week, perhaps take a vacation, mow the lawn, clean the house-and etc., and still be pleasing to Him? Yes! However, it is possible for us to be focused on our life, and trying to work God into our schedule and into our life. The good news is that in our culture, in the day in which we live, we can live in a way that is pleasing to Him and in a way that will not cause us to be ashamed when we appear before Christ. What we do is important; but more importantly is the focus of our heart, because what we do flows out of our hearts. The key element of this is that since Christ died for all, including you and me, we also died. Christ died on our behalf, forgiving us, restoring us to the Father, making us new, and joining us to Himself; we belong to Him. Because of what He has done on our behalf and because we belong to Him, we should no longer live for ourselves but for Him who died and rose again on our behalf. We can be about the necessities of daily life, but we can do so with a heart of doing what we do as unto the Lord; and we can be alert to the leading of the Spirit and do the things that He puts in our hearts to do. Our life, the way we live, is to be a testimony of the presence of Christ in us. Obviously, there are things we should not do, and there are thoughts we should not have; we have the power to lay aside anything that is not pleasing to the Lord-and that is living for Him. When we come to know in a real and personal way the love of God, we find that His love ‘controls’ us just as it did Paul; our love for Him and His love for us becomes the motivating factor for the life we live. So, all we do really does matter; even what we do in private is done before Him. Let it be our heart to please Him in all we do.
Colossians 1:10, 3:23 “So as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.”       ”Whatever you do work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.”
Blessings,
Buddy

0 Comments

WHAT WE DO MATTERS

8/4/2022

0 Comments

ABIDING IN LOVE

8/2/2022

0 Comments

August 2, 2020                                           ABIDING IN LOVE
1 John 4:15-17, 2:5-6 “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, that we may have confidence in the day of judgement; because as He is, so also are we in this world.”      “but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him; the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”
What we see in these verses is amazing. Abiding is a key word. Grapes do not become grapes by trying; grapes become grapes by simply abiding in the vine. So much of what we hear in the ‘Christian world’ is about us needing to do this or that-pray more, give, more, memorize scripture, go to conferences-or whatever. Those things are good, but why we do them is the issue. You may ask, as someone did recently, what it looks like to abide in love. For sure, I do not have the complete answer, but God is helping me understand more about what it means to abide in His love. We must understand that human love is one thing, and the love of God is something else altogether. Unlike the love of God, human love is fragile and is often selfish in nature. The good news for us is that Romans 5:5 tells us that God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Another truth from scripture we must understand is that He has made us new (not refurbished) creations, and as His new creations, we are able to live in a way that reflects His nature. For example, because it is God’s nature to be patient, we can be patient; and like God, we can love the unlovely; we can be gentle; we can be kind-hearted-and etc. We are free from having to try to live a life that pleases God; we can now simply abide in Him, receiving nourishment and life that flows from Him. To abide does not mean that we are idle; to abide means we are receiving and putting to use what we receive. We abide by learning of Him through His word, by praying, and by letting His life flow through us, and by desiring to do the things that are pleasing to Him. It’s not about us living our life; it’s about us dying to ourselves and living as unto the Lord. The love of God cleanses us, makes us new, gives us new desires, and enables us to be expressions of His love to those around us. If we are abiding in, living in love, we are abiding in God for He IS love.
1 John 4:7-8, 3:1 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”         “See what kind of love God has given us, that we should be called the children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.”
Blessings,
Buddy

0 Comments

Forward>>

BUT IN POWER

GIRD YOUR MIND

GIRD YOUR MIND

WHAT WE DO MATTERS

WHAT WE DO MATTERS

ABIDING IN LOVE

Buddy Fitzgerald

Archives

Categories