Wonderful Jesus!

Tag: obedience

• Under the Influence!

  Posted at 3:15 am by wonderfuljesus8, on January 24, 2020

  Luke 4:1 – “And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,”

  Today, we are influenced by many things. When someone is stopped by the police and that individual has been drinking, we say they are under the influence of the alcohol. When people are flying high and acting out of character, we say that they are under the influence of a drug, or a demon.

  Unfortunately, we can be under the influence of so much more! Influence is the capacity or power of persons or things to be a compelling force on or produce effects on the actions, behavior, opinions, etc. of others. Every where you look and everywhere you go, someone is trying to influence you.

  Whether that influence is for good or for evil; or whether that influence is direct or indirect, make no mistake, we are affected by the people and things around us. Other powerful influences on mankind include the music we listen to, the movies and shows we watch, the books we read. For example, when a young man wants to propose to his love, he sets the mood with music, flowers, and a meal to influence her decision positively. When in the store, different types of music is played to influence your spending. When you read the word of God your faith in Him grows. When you are in a church service, soft quiet music is played to put you in a reverential mood, and so forth and so on.

  But in our verse for today, Jesus is influenced by the Spirit of God and led to a destination. Luke wrote that Jesus was so full of the Holy Ghost that He led Jesus from Jordan and to the wilderness (Luke 4). The devil thought He had Jesus over a barrel. After all, He had been fasting for quite some time. But the Spirit of God led Him to fast and led Him to the wilderness to meet up with the devil, when the devil thought he was setting up the meeting. And because He was led of the Spirit, He whipped up on the devil with the Word of God!

  Jesus’ victory was assured because of the leading of the Holy Spirit. We can learn a very important lesson from this verse: If God leads us to a place or in a situation, our victory is guaranteed! And if He doesn’t lead us, and we find ourselves in a tough spot, we can turn to Him for direction to come out victorious! Hallelujah!

  Let’s return to the definition of the word influence and put the Holy Ghost in strategic places. When the Holy Spirit’s influence is upon your life, He is a compelling force on your behavior, your actions, your opinions, your words, and even your thoughts. His influence produces the desired effects upon every area of your life that you can name. He governs where you go, or don’t go; what you do or don’t do, what you say or don’t say, because you are under the influence. People worry about how to obey God’s rules. I like to say if we trust His leading, the rules will be taken care of! He will never lead us astray!

  Under the influence of the Holy Spirit we are able to live by faith as the word declares. Under the influence we are able to forgive others! Under the influence we can live a life free of sin! Under the influence we can operate in the supernatural. Under the influence we can do what God says we can do, we can have what He says we can have, and we can be all that He calls us to be! Under the influence!

  Don’t settle for a cheap imitation of influence when you can be influenced by the Spirit of God! Make up your mind today that His influence will have the greatest impact on your life, on your behavior, on your conversation, on your walk. The word tells us that those who are led by His Spirit are the children of God! Looking for proof that you belong to the Lord? Well, are you under His influence? Wonderful Jesus!!

  Posted in Attitude, Christian, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Luke 4:1, Victorious Living | 2 Comments | Tagged Believer, Christian, Faith, Forgiveness, Holy Spirit, Jesus, led by the Spirit, Luke 4, obedience, victory, word of God

• Do You Feel Forgotten?

  Posted at 4:47 pm by wonderfuljesus8, on January 4, 2020

  Acts 1:24-26 -And they prayed and said, “You, O Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which of these two You have chosen to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.” And they cast their lots, and the lot fell on Matthias. And he was numbered with the eleven apostles.

  As I have been pondering before the Lord which way should I go in this new year I have been reading through the New Testament. And as I was reading, this passage leaped out to me, and I knew that I wanted to share my thoughts regarding it.

  The apostles and followers of Christ are in the Upper Room waiting to receive the Promise of the Father, which is the Holy Spirit. While they are there waiting, Peter is reminded that there is some unfinished business needing their attention. As a matter of fact, he reminds everyone that the office Judas held is in need of another person to take his place.

  Two men were chosen, Barsabas and Matthias. Then they cast lots to see which would fill the position, and Matthias was chosen. He would be the twelfth apostle as the church entered into the Church Age.

  The thing that struck me is that Matthias was never mentioned before this time or after this time, but he was one of the twelve apostles. So why do we even care?

  When the apostles were looking to replace Judas, they had some qualifications that had to be filled. First, the man needed to have been a disciple of Jesus the entire time the Lord had been with them, from Jesus’ baptism all the way to His ascension. And then, he had to be a witness to the Resurrection. Now, although these are simple qualifications, they say a lot about both of these men.

  You would have to go back and read the account in the gospels, but what Peter is actually saying is a mouthful. This person replacing Jesus had to have a record of longevity. He had to have seen Jesus baptized, he had to have seen the many miracles, he had to have heard the teachings, and been there through the good times and the bad. This man had to know firsthand of the betrayal of Judas, of the crucifixion and the resurrection. This man had to have seen Jesus ascend. This speaks of a man that was faithfully serving the Lord! No title, no known position, no recognition, but he was faithfully serving the Lord. His dedication to Jesus, and his unwavering faith in Him was as sound as that of the twelve. But he wasn’t one of them at that time.

  But one day, as he continued to serve the Lord by obeying His command to wait in Jerusalem until they received power from on high, God spoke to Peter about the need for a new apostle to take Matthias’ place. And he was where he was supposed to be, (with the 120 in the upper room), doing what he had always done, and God promoted him from obscurity to the apostleship. Now you may be saying, but he isn’t known! Do we really know what all of the apostles did after Pentecost? (Maybe that will be in future posts!) But we can infer that he went on to be a pillar of the Church, a teacher of sound doctrine, and one who operated in miracles, as did all of the apostles.

  Now, what point am I trying to make here? Matthias is unknown to us, but not to the Father! We have no written record of his exploits, his dreams, his family, or even his death; everything about him is speculation. But when God needed another to take the place of Judas, He chose Matthias!

  All of us are called to faithfully serve the Lord! And we are to do it, with a heart to please Him, and no one else. Most of us will serve in obscurity, (meaning we won’t be discovered or become well-known), but that should not be our goal anyway. Our focus should be on living a life that is well pleasing to the Lord! But when we see the people around us excelling in one thing or another, we often wonder, “what about me, Lord?” I know I have! But we are to still serve the Lord faithfully! No one may recognize all we do and it may seem as if no one cares about it, but God does! He is watching and He will not forget!

  Another reason for faithful service is that in do so, we keep ourselves in a position for promotion. I remember hearing Oprah Winfrey speak of her “sudden” thrust to fame: “Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity!” Some must have called her lucky, but she was letting it be known that she had prepared in advance for the opportunity that came. That is what Matthias did and that is what we must do. We must view every act of service to the Lord as preparation for what He has for us, and one day He will bring opportunity/promotion in our lives. Faithfulness is the key!

  So the next time your mind or your feelings try to talk you down and cause you to regret all that you have done and are doing for the Lord, tell it to shut up! Then remind yourself that you will be counted with the faithful, just as Barsabas and Matthias was. And although Barsabas was not made an apostle, he was faithful and God saw that, also! Dividends on this earth may be few and far in between, but we serve a wonderful God and a loving Savior who will never forget what we do for Him and His kingdom! Wonderful Jesus!

  Posted in Acts 1:23, Believers, Christian, service, Victorious Living | 0 Comments | Tagged Acts 1:23, Attitude, Believer, Christian, encouragement, Jesus, obedience, service

• God’s Commandments!

  Posted at 11:00 am by wonderfuljesus8, on September 17, 2019

  Psalm 19b: “The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes”

  When we read God’s word, often times there are different words that translate in English to appear to be the same word. Such as in studying the different names for the word of God. But as we have seen thus far, there is a difference, even if a slight one, of the six facets of revelation concerning God’s word.

  We have looked at the law, testimonies, and statutes and how they reveal a different characteristic of the word of God. Today we will look at His commandments.

  When I think of the commandments, I can’t help but think in terms of the Ten Commandments. However, I heard this past week that there are 603 other commandments in the word. No one can possibly keep that many commandments. The word tells us that! In this study I am not trying to get us to focus on trying to obey these commandments, but I think it necessary to at least be aware that the six different terms in Psalm 19 conveys six different things.

  Commandment in the Old Testament can be looked upon as both “prescription” and “proscription”; meaning “what we shall do” and “what we shall not do”! If we just look at the Ten Commandments it is easy to see the difference:

  • You shall not have any other gods before me!-proscription

  • You shall not make for yourself a graven image of anything in the heaven above…-proscription

  • You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain…-proscription

  • Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.-prescription

  • Honor your father and your mother.-prescription

  • You shall not murder.-proscription

  • You shall not commit adultery-proscription

  • You shall not steal-proscription

  • You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor-proscription

  • You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, etc.-proscription

  In this set of commandments there are more of what we shall not do (proscription) than what we shall do (prescription). But since people have a hard enough time keeping these ten, we won’t go through any others. Suffice it to say that the commandments of the LORD are about we shall do and what we shall not do!

  The commandments of the LORD are pure. David wrote, “The words of the LORD are pure words, like silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.” This word pure also means innocent or free. If I had to choose which word the psalmist meant, it would be free. The commandments of the LORD, contrary to popular belief, are freeing, not binding!! Our Pastor likes to say, “when you know what God wants, give it to Him!” It’s freeing to know what God approves of and what He doesn’t approve of. Don’t you think? It has a way of letting you know His very heart about certain things. I have a daughter who always check with me about what she is doing. She just wants to know what I think about the things she is doing or want to do. She wants my approval! I get that, because I want God’s approval! Sometimes she doesn’t even have to ask because she knows what I will say, but she asks anyway. Especially if she thinks I will change my mind. Similarly to God, sometimes people ask God to change His mind about His commandments. Trust me when I say, you are wasting your breath!

  “Enlightening the eyes” is a phrase used in the New Testament. Paul prayed in Ephesians 1 “that the eyes of our understanding may be enlightened.” What does this even mean? In the New Living Translation it states the commandments are for “giving insight for living”. Doesn’t that sound like freedom? When you know the right and the wrong way to live life, it is freeing. Having insight into what is wrong and right causes your eyes to be opened and your understanding to be clear. One would think that the commandment to not steal, or kill, or even to not commit adultery would be easy to keep and easy to understand, but sad to say, they are not easy to some people! And I would venture to say that those people are looking for a reason for them to not make sense!

  Again, I am not doing this study for bondage sake, but for understanding sake. As I mentioned before, some people struggle with the restraints God’s Word places on their lives, but these restraints are for our good. For our freedom. And although we are not bound by the Old Testament commandments, even Jesus expected us to refrain from adultery, thievery, lying, and many of the other proscriptions in the law. Not to bind us, but to free us. In Galatians Paul wrote, “It is for freedom that Christ set us free!” Jesus wants us as free today from the bondage of sin, as He has always wanted us. Nothing in my study of the word has shown God in a selfish light. If anything, it has shown the magnitude of His love and His heart towards mankind.

  Don’t allow the devil and your desires to lie to you about obeying God’s word. They are not burdensome! It isn’t about Him as much as it is about you. For your right living! For your victory! For your freedom! Now go and walk in it! Wonderful Jesus!

  Posted in Believers, Christian, Psalm 19, the Word of God, Victorious Living | 2 Comments | Tagged Believer, Christian, encouragement, freedom, obedience, Psalm 19, word of God

• A Lesson from Ezra!

  Posted at 3:28 am by wonderfuljesus8, on July 30, 2019

  Ezra 7:10 – For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach His statutes and rules in Israel.

  Ezra was both a priest and a scribe. His genealogy traces all the way back to Aaron the first earthly high priest. Ezra was obviously a well respected Jewish leader both to the captives and before the Babylonian king because we are told that he asked for the king’s permission to go to Jerusalem and he was sent. As I did a simple research on him, I discovered that in Jewish tradition he became known as a second Moses and was heavily regarded as one who was responsible for reconnecting Israel with the Book of the Law.

  When I read this verse, it leaped off the pages for me. I have read the Bible through on several occasions. There have been times when I have read it through 3 times in one year. So when I say I have read this scripture before, I have! But this time it truly caught my attention and I wanted to blog about it.

  The first thing mentioned in this verse is that Ezra set his heart to study the Law of the Lord! He made it a point, he resolved in his heart, he was determined to the study the Law. We call it the Word of God because we have the totality of it in the Bible. The point being, he was determined to study God’s Word!

  Studying the word of God is a vital part of the Christian faith. I would venture to say that it is the concrete that keeps us from floating all over the place. 2 Timothy 2: 15 encourages us to study the Word to show ourselves approved unto God, a workman not ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth! In order to rightly divide the Word, you have to study it. Not just read it, but study it. Ezra understood this as a priest and a scribe and made it a way of life!

  Studying the word could involve:

  • Reading it over and over again
  • Reading other versions
  • Meditating on it
  • Looking at the entire text around it, maybe the chapter
  • Looking at the setting
  • Understanding who spoke it and why
  • Understanding the culture of the day
  • Understanding the Hebrew word or the Greek word
  • In other words, it is not reading it once and saying, I studied it!

  Second, Ezra said he had resolved in his heart to do, or practice the Word of God. What is the point in studying the Word if there is no commitment to obeying the Word? When Ezra discovered in the Law that he was supposed to do something like keep the feast, he kept the feast. He had just settled it in his heart that he wasn’t going to try to figure out how to get around what the Word said, but that he was going to obey the Word!

  I am convinced that the reason some Christians live such shabby lives today is because they have no personal convictions of the Word of God because they spend no real time in personal studying of His Word! Don’t get me wrong, we all need to be taught, but then we need to go back and revisit what we are taught and make sure it lines up with the Word of God! And when we understand it and have received a revelation of its truth, then we need to practice it, not debate it or try to justify why it isn’t applicable to our lives or today! The Word of God plainly states that we are not to commit adultery or fornication, yet, people are still trying to justify why they do it!! Seriously! Spend some time studying the word so that you can understand He didn’t say it to keep you from fun (although I personally don’t see the fun in either of these), but to keep you from the devastation sin brings with it! All sin brings devastation!!

  Lastly, Ezra said that he resolved in his heart to teach the Word. It wasn’t enough for him to study it and do it, he had to teach it. It’s a simple principle of life, you learn, you practice, you teach! That’s what Ezra did! When he saw the riches in the Word and how living those truths blessed his life, he wanted everyone to experience the Word. So he committed to teaching it. When he learned that there were things that pleased God and things that didn’t, he wanted to teach those statues so that the children of Israel would know God the way he was learning to know God!

  If studying the Word of God only resulted in us knowing the dos and don’ts of the Word, it wouldn’t be much different then studying a textbook. And that’s the truth! Ezra studied the word and began to understand the God of the Word. That’s why he was so committed to studying the Word. And as he learned of God, he wanted to obey Him! And as he began to understand his God, he wanted others to know Him! And so it is for us! We don’t study the word to “know” the letter of the Word, but to know the Author of the Word. And as we know Him, we love Him and are more willing to obey Him. And as we know Him, we want to teach others to obey Him! Or we should!

  Apply this simple truth to your life today! Purpose to study the Word, do the Word and to teach the Word, because in doing so, you search the Scriptures and learn of Jesus! Wonderful Jesus!

  Posted in Jesus, obedience, teaching the Word, the Word of God, Victorious Living | 0 Comments | Tagged Jesus, obedience, teaching the word of God, word or God

• Learn From the Rechabites

  Posted at 3:27 am by wonderfuljesus8, on April 21, 2018

  The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying, “Go to the house of the Rechabites, speak to them, and bring them into the house of the Lord, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink.” “-Jeremiah 35:1-2

  God tells Jeremiah to bring the Rechabites to the house of the Lord and give them wine to drink. And Jeremiah obeys Him. The only problem with this is that they did not drink. 

  When Jeremiah tells them the purpose of the gathering, they refuse to drink the wine that was offered to them. They tell Jeremiah that they have never had a drink of wine and didn’t plan to start just because they have been brought to the house of God. (I’m paraphrasing!) But in all honesty, they tell him that they are obeying the traditions or commands of their forefathers and that they would not drink the wine. If you have not read the account of the Rechabites before, I encourage you to do so to get the full story.

  God knew this when He had them invited. He wanted to prove a point. The point He wanted to prove was that men will obey an earthly father, even after many years since his departure; but His people would not obey their Heavenly Father. As a matter of fact, He points out that He had repeatedly tried to get His people to obey Him and they repeatedly refused to do so.

  God was not pleased with them. He told Jeremiah to tell the men of Judah that He had sent His prophets to tell them on many occasions to repent so that He could bless them, but they wouldn’t listen. They apparently thought God had a different agenda in mind for them, other than blessings.

  And He told Jeremiah to tell the Rechabites that because of their obedience to their father Rechab, they would always have a man to stand before Him! Not their obedience to God, but their obedience to their forefather Rechab. There obedience had gotten God’s attention.

  Obviously, obedience is pleasing in the sight of God in the natural as well as in the spiritual realm of our lives. When He sees obedience He is pleased, and when He doesn’t see it, He is displeased.

  Today, make a decision to seek to be more obedient in your walk before the Lord. Whether at work, at home, at school, in church, or out in society, know that your obedience is a sweet aroma to the Father. Wives obey your husbands! Ouch!! Children obey your parents! Employees obey your employers! Students obey your teachers! Drivers obey the signs! And the list can go on! Don’t let others convince you to do what your Father has asked you not to do, and don’t let them talk you out of doing what He has told you to do.

  Obey Him because you love Him! Obey Him because you fear Him! Obey Him because He is your God and King! Obey Him because it’s a blessing in store for you when you obey! Obey Him because He commands it! Wonderful Jesus!

  Posted in Victorious Living | 0 Comments | Tagged Christian, obedience, Rechabites

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