Monthly Archives: September 2018

• Today is the day!

  Posted at 6:16 am by sneuhofer, on September 6, 2018

  Psalm 118:24 (ESV) This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

  In Genesis 1, we read about the creation of the world. According to scripture, it took God 6 days to create day and night, the sky and the land, the seas, plants and trees, land and sea creatures, and finally mankind. As we read through this chapter in Genesis, we notice that at the end of each day, God says what He created is good. He made each day with order and purpose. Nothing God did in the creation of the universe was chaotic or unordered.

  Something jumped out at me as I looked deeper into the first part of Psalm 118:24. Read those words again:

  This is the day that the Lord has made

  If I think back to how God created the universe, I can be pretty certain that NOTHING about this day will go unnoticed to God. The Lord is near, overseeing everything. He is an active participant in the day, therefore I can rejoice and be glad in it – no matter the circumstance. I can know that the Lord is going to use whatever happens in this day to grow me, shape me, and mold me into the image of His son, Jesus. Throughout the day, I can lean in, press on, rely on HIM more than I did yesterday or the day before.  As I walk through this day aware of how close the Lord is, my relationship with Him will grow even deeper and stronger.

  So in this day, I can rejoice and be glad even if that means:

  • I am in the middle of financial difficulty
  • My marriage is failing
  • My world has been turned upside down by senseless violence
  • My teenager has fallen into the “wrong” crowd and is out of control
  • My health is failing
  • My family member is dying
  • My day doesn’t make sense
  • I’m overwhelmed at work
  • My new normal now includes a prosthetic arm or leg

  In whatever the circumstance…I can rejoice and give thanks because GOD IS GOOD. His steadfast (consistent, stable, constant, unwavering, faithful) love endures forever.

  This truth that I have discovered helps me to look at my day in a different way. I hope it does the same for you too. Every day, I am becoming more aware of God’s presence in the good and the bad – there is not one second of my day that God doesn’t see. I have not and will never slip out of His sight and in that, I can rejoice no matter what I’m walking through.

  Related scriptures:

  1 Chronicles 16:34, Psalm 106:1, Psalm 107:1, Jeremiah 29:11, Romans 8:28

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• If Christ is our Savior, we cannot be defeated!

  Posted at 9:00 am by sneuhofer, on September 5, 2018

  We are conquerors!

  1 John 5:1-5 (NCV) “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is God’s child, and whoever loves the Father also loves the Father’s children. This is how we know we love God’s children: when we love God and obey his commands. Loving God means obeying his commands. And God’s commands are not too hard for us, because everyone who is a child of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world—our faith. So the one who conquers the world is the person who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”

   

  In the final chapter of 1 John, we are reassured that we are God’s children if we believe Jesus is the Christ. But there’s a second part to that verse – there is an “and” too. The latter half of verse 1 says AND “whoever loves the Father also loves the Father’s children.” If we love God the Father, then we also must love his children – even the seemingly unlovable.

   

  So how do we know if we love? Thankfully verse 2 answers that question for us “When we love God and obey his commands.” Obeying His commands…is this easy to do? According to John, it’s not as difficult as we may think. He gives us a thought that will help us. In verse 4 John encourages us by telling us “everyone who is a child of God conquers the world.”
  
  Did you realize that? 
  
  We can be “conquerors” over the “things” that hold us captive and keep us from following God’s commands by tapping into the same power that God used to raise Christ from the dead (Eph 1:20). As children of God, we cannot be defeated.

   

  But how, how do we become victors in an all too often difficult and stressful world? John tells us – OUR FAITH. Trusting in God allows us to win against this world. Oh sure – things may get tough for a little while. But if you have placed your hope and trust in Christ and you believe he came and gave his life to ransom us from sin, you can rest easy. 
  
  You are a conqueror! This world will not defeat you!  Isn’t that an awesome truth to know?

   

  Related reading: Psalm 56

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• Have you ever thought about what heaven looks like?

  Posted at 7:00 am by sneuhofer, on September 4, 2018

  Reading through Psalm 15, David is clear that only those people that live their life totally surrendered to the Lord will be able to enter God’s Holy Tent and live on His holy mountain. I like the way the New Century Version translates this very small but powerful Psalm.

  “Lord, who may enter your Holy Tent? Who may live on your holy mountain? Only those who are innocent and who do what is right. Such people speak the truth from their hearts (emphasis mine) and do not tell lies about others. They do no wrong to their neighbors and do not gossip. They do not respect hateful people but honor those who honor the Lord. They keep their promises to their neighbors, even when it hurts. They do not charge interest on money they lend and do not take money to hurt innocent people. Whoever does all these things will never be destroyed (emphasis mine).” Psalm 15:1 – 5 (NCV)

  When I think about entering into the Lord’s Holy Tent or living on His holy mountain, I think about the eternity I am going to spend praise dancing Jesus! I couldn’t help but put that out there. We were made to worship the King and we will all be dancing around the throne in Heaven singing praises to the King of Glory. I can’t even begin to imagine what that is going to be like. I mean, I have heard songs about heaven…“Surrounded by your glory what will my heart feel? Will I dance for you Jesus or in awe of you be still?” Now I know how Bart Millard (of the band MercyMe) must have come up with the lyrics…but the fact remains it is simply hard to imagine anything like it!

  Ok, let me come back down to earth for a minute. I want to focus in on one other aspect of Psalm 15. In the passage above, I emphasized the words from their hearts. Committing your life to Christ is just that…a commitment! It is not a check the box thing or a follow the law thing. It is a living, breathing, life-altering, heart-changing thing. There will be no way to spend eternity with Christ if we just try to follow a bunch of laws and check a box at the end of the day saying we managed to “color within the lines today.”

  Everyone is separated from God because of their sin and their sinful behavior. The apostle Paul tells us in Romans (3:23) that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Paul continues in Romans (6:23) to tell us that the wages of sin is death. But the gift of life is through the price God’s one and only son paid on Calvary for your sin and for my sin. Jesus loves us so much that HE paid the price so that none of us had to die. Isn’t that wonderful news?!? This is the gift of grace. We did nothing to earn it. It’s a free gift. All we have to do is accept it. I love the way the Message sums it up in Ephesians 2:7-10:

  “Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he as gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.”

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