Practice for 2016

“Practice what you preach.”   “Did you go to football practice today?” 

“How many days a week do you practice?”

“I practice Medicine….”  “My practice is to read at least one book a month.”

How many of you have heard or said any of these common phrases or statements?  What do you practice? We spend our time and sincere effort doing a lot of things.  Practice is an investment of time and effort, so that typically means that if we practice something, we put value in it. The bible says some interesting things about what you practice.  I know in 2016 I will be practicing following and obeying the promptings of the Holy Spirit.  I will be practicing using my gifts, skills and abilities that God has given me to His glory.  I will be practicing at spending time with God in His word and in prayer.  These are the things that will bring joy.  These things will bring me peace.  These habits that I will practice will help me operate in the kingdom of God so His will will be done and His kingdom will come on earth as it is in heaven. 

So what will you practice in 2016?

1 John 1⁶ If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

1 John 3⁷ Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.

The bible is full of God’s people practicing other things that only brought them destruction and strained their relationship with God.  We even see in Psalm 141 David praying for God to help him not practice evil…

Psalm 141⁴ Do not incline my heart to any evil thing, To practice wicked works With men who work iniquity…

It is my hope for you and I that we practice love, first of all loving God by worshiping and obeying Him, and second by loving one another.

1 John 3¹⁶ By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. ¹⁷ But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? ¹⁸ My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. ¹⁹ And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. ²⁰ For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. ²¹ Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. ²² And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. ²³ And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment. ²⁴ Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.

Here’s to purposeful practice in 2016!

The Secret of Joy

What are you?  Are you allowing God to enable you to be a witness for Him (Acts 1:8), so that you can make disciples (Matthew 28:19)? Oswald Chambers says in The Method of Missions that “….you cannot make disciples unless you are a disciple yourself.” 

This is a powerful statement, yet it is simple.  The power of it can sometimes escape us if we have not truly evaluated to see if we are allowing ourselves to be discipled by the Lord Jesus.  So what does the word Disciple mean? Merriam-Webster defines it as: one who accepts and assists in spreading the doctrines of another: as a convinced adherent of a school or individual; a student or a pupil.  This means if you are a disciple of Jesus that you are learning about and from Jesus, and are convinced in the doctrine (teachings) of the bible.  Does that describe you?

Oswald goes on to say, “Don’t rejoice in successful service— the great secret of joy is that you have the right relationship with Me” (see Luke 10:17-20).  I want the secret of joy…don’t you?  I am a witness to Oswald’s statement, because I can feel the peace and joy of the Lord when I am walking in the Spirit in close relationship with God. Our right relationship comes through the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ.

So who is for Joy?  Let’s not just do church work, let’s not just do community service, let’s be in right relationship with God as His disciples serving Him with joy. 

The Danger of Deep Sleep!

Jonah 1⁵ All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.

But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. (NIV)

When I read this I was immediately intrigued…I have been where Jonah is, as part of my process with God.  See we might look at Jonah and judge him.  We might look at the other sailors and say “why are they crying out to gods who can’t help?” All of these are valid perceptions, but we have to look with our spiritual eyes.  We don’t know Jonah’s story up to this point, we just know that God has told him to go and do something he REALLY does not want to do!  I have been there too.  We don’t know what Jonah’s has been through or where he is in his God process. He might be waiting on God to do something in His life.  He might be in a long season of wait, dealing with trials and tribulations.  I know that when I get spiritually weary, all I want to do is go to sleep and make it all go away.  I can imagine that is where Jonah was.  Make it go away.

I. Don’t. Want. To. Do. It. God.

At least the sailors were doing something.  They were at the crying out stage.  Jonah was just done.  When we are in that place we have to understand the danger of giving in to the deep sleep.  We can get stuck there.  It might look like depression.  We might wonder why we are so tired and can’t catch up on sleep.  Whatever the symptoms, the root cause is weariness in our spirit.  The only thing that will cure it is perseverance and obedience.

The Holy Spirit will empower us to move forward.  Get up.  Even if it is not pretty.  So I encourage you today if you are feeling that your trail has been too long, persevere and do whatever is next to do.  Even if you don’t think you have the strength, God will give you the strength if you wake up, get up and cry out to Him.