Excuses, part 2
Those who make excuses will never reach their destiny. What is destiny? God's plan for each individual. God sees the ending from the beginning. It is not written in stone. It's up to each person to find his destiny and go after it.
James 1:21-24 (NLT) says, ...humbly accept the message God has planted in your hearts, for it is strong enough to save your souls. And remember, it is a message to obey, not just to listen to. If you don't obey, you are only fooling yourself. For if you just listen and don't obey, it is like looking at your face in a mirror but doing nothing to improve your appearance. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.
Live a life of daily expectancy. We should expect God to be working in our lives. Now some of us don't obey, or do the word given us, because of a fear that it will cost us something; but if we don't do the word given to us, it could cost us everything.
Faith is acting on what we believe. God moves when we move. He is waiting on us to move. The ball is in our court, (as He has already made the first serve by sending Jesus into the world.) Even in the old covenant God expected us to move first. Maybe it's because we are in charge on this planet.
2 Kings 7 (NLT) tells us this story about a siege on the city of Samaria, in Israel, which is cut off from supplies, leaving the inhabitants to either surrender or starve ...now there were four men with leprosy sitting at the entrance of the city gates. "Why should we sit here waiting to die?" they asked each other. "We will starve if we stay here, and we will starve if we go back into the city. So we might as well go out and surrender to the Aramean army. If they let us live, so much the better. But if they kill us, we would have died anyway."
So that evening they went out to the camp of the Arameans, but no one was there! For the Lord had caused the whole army of Aram to hear the clatter of speeding chariots and the galloping of horses and the sounds of a great army approaching. "The king of Israel has hired the Hittites and Egyptians to attack us!" they cried out. So they panicked and fled into the night, abandoning their tents, horses, donkeys, and everything else, and they fled for their lives.
When the lepers arrived at the edge of the camp, they went into one tent after another, eating, drinking wine, and carrying out silver and gold and clothing and hiding it. Finally, they said to each other, "This is not right. This is wonderful news, and we aren't sharing it with anyone! If we wait until morning, some terrible calamity will certainly fall upon us. Come on, let's go back and tell the people at the palace."
So they went back to the city and told the gatekeepers what had happened...then the gatekeepers shouted the news to the people in the palace...then the people of Samaria rushed out and plundered the Aramean camp...so everything happened exactly as the man of God had predicted..."By this time tomorrow in the markets of Samaria, five quarts of fine flour will cost half an ounce of silver[almost nothing], and ten quarts of barley grain will cost half an ounce of silver[almost nothing]." ~2 Kings 7 (NLT)
The world changed over night for this entire city, just as the man of God predicted (God had a plan from the beginning), but only after the lepers took a step and did something. Everyday we are at the entrance of our destiny, but we have to get up and do something.
Be willing to do what no one else "will," and get the results that no one else "has." Until we act, the "impossible" always seems impossible.
God says, "Obey the message." We as individuals are to say, "I can do that!"
Then the LORD said to Elijah, "Go to the east and hide by Kerith Brook at a place east of where it enters the Jordan River. Drink from the brook and eat what the ravens bring you, for I have commanded them to bring you food."
...but after a while the brook dried up, for there was no rainfall anywhere in the land.
...then the LORD said to Elijah, "Go and live in the village of Zarephath, near the city of Sidon. There is a widow there who will feed you. I have given her my instructions."
...so she did as Elijah said, and she and Elijah and her son continued to eat from her supply of flour and oil for many days. For no matter how much they used, there was always enough left in the containers, just as the LORD had promised through Elijah. ~from 1 Kings 17 (NLT)
God never starts something unless he has already finished it. He has the answer, which was ready before the foundation of the world, for the ones who act on His Word.
For those of us in the new covenant..."as we know Jesus better, his divine power gives us everything we need for living a godly life. He has called us to receive his own glory and goodness! And by that same mighty power, he has given us all of his rich and wonderful promises. He has promised that you will escape the decadence all around you caused by evil desires and that you will share in his divine nature." ~2 Peter 1:3-4 (NLT)
If we obey the commands then we will experience the promises. Do something with all that we are learning. Grow a great life.
notes on a strategy by T.J.
James 1:21-24 (NLT) says, ...humbly accept the message God has planted in your hearts, for it is strong enough to save your souls. And remember, it is a message to obey, not just to listen to. If you don't obey, you are only fooling yourself. For if you just listen and don't obey, it is like looking at your face in a mirror but doing nothing to improve your appearance. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.
Live a life of daily expectancy. We should expect God to be working in our lives. Now some of us don't obey, or do the word given us, because of a fear that it will cost us something; but if we don't do the word given to us, it could cost us everything.
Faith is acting on what we believe. God moves when we move. He is waiting on us to move. The ball is in our court, (as He has already made the first serve by sending Jesus into the world.) Even in the old covenant God expected us to move first. Maybe it's because we are in charge on this planet.
2 Kings 7 (NLT) tells us this story about a siege on the city of Samaria, in Israel, which is cut off from supplies, leaving the inhabitants to either surrender or starve ...now there were four men with leprosy sitting at the entrance of the city gates. "Why should we sit here waiting to die?" they asked each other. "We will starve if we stay here, and we will starve if we go back into the city. So we might as well go out and surrender to the Aramean army. If they let us live, so much the better. But if they kill us, we would have died anyway."
So that evening they went out to the camp of the Arameans, but no one was there! For the Lord had caused the whole army of Aram to hear the clatter of speeding chariots and the galloping of horses and the sounds of a great army approaching. "The king of Israel has hired the Hittites and Egyptians to attack us!" they cried out. So they panicked and fled into the night, abandoning their tents, horses, donkeys, and everything else, and they fled for their lives.
When the lepers arrived at the edge of the camp, they went into one tent after another, eating, drinking wine, and carrying out silver and gold and clothing and hiding it. Finally, they said to each other, "This is not right. This is wonderful news, and we aren't sharing it with anyone! If we wait until morning, some terrible calamity will certainly fall upon us. Come on, let's go back and tell the people at the palace."
So they went back to the city and told the gatekeepers what had happened...then the gatekeepers shouted the news to the people in the palace...then the people of Samaria rushed out and plundered the Aramean camp...so everything happened exactly as the man of God had predicted..."By this time tomorrow in the markets of Samaria, five quarts of fine flour will cost half an ounce of silver[almost nothing], and ten quarts of barley grain will cost half an ounce of silver[almost nothing]." ~2 Kings 7 (NLT)
The world changed over night for this entire city, just as the man of God predicted (God had a plan from the beginning), but only after the lepers took a step and did something. Everyday we are at the entrance of our destiny, but we have to get up and do something.
Be willing to do what no one else "will," and get the results that no one else "has." Until we act, the "impossible" always seems impossible.
God says, "Obey the message." We as individuals are to say, "I can do that!"
Then the LORD said to Elijah, "Go to the east and hide by Kerith Brook at a place east of where it enters the Jordan River. Drink from the brook and eat what the ravens bring you, for I have commanded them to bring you food."
...but after a while the brook dried up, for there was no rainfall anywhere in the land.
...then the LORD said to Elijah, "Go and live in the village of Zarephath, near the city of Sidon. There is a widow there who will feed you. I have given her my instructions."
...so she did as Elijah said, and she and Elijah and her son continued to eat from her supply of flour and oil for many days. For no matter how much they used, there was always enough left in the containers, just as the LORD had promised through Elijah. ~from 1 Kings 17 (NLT)
God never starts something unless he has already finished it. He has the answer, which was ready before the foundation of the world, for the ones who act on His Word.
For those of us in the new covenant..."as we know Jesus better, his divine power gives us everything we need for living a godly life. He has called us to receive his own glory and goodness! And by that same mighty power, he has given us all of his rich and wonderful promises. He has promised that you will escape the decadence all around you caused by evil desires and that you will share in his divine nature." ~2 Peter 1:3-4 (NLT)
If we obey the commands then we will experience the promises. Do something with all that we are learning. Grow a great life.
notes on a strategy by T.J.
posted by rachman | 2:57 PM
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