Deaf Devotion 2/26/2010

“Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. (For we walk by faith, not by sight) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:6-8 KJV)

In the Christian community, we often hear the term “faith.” However, when such a word is used too much, it can become familiar. Then we sometimes grow unaffected by its great depth of meaning.

All people have faith. For example, it takes a measure of confidence to sit down in a kitchen chair without first testing its strength. Yet belief in the fact that furniture will hold our weight is quite different from entrusting almighty God with our lives. A wrong judgment concerning the kitchen chair may result in a physical bruise, whereas a decision to reject faith in Jesus Christ determines not only our success in this life but also our eternal existence.

So what, exactly, is a biblical definition of faith? Hebrews 11:1 tells us that it is the substance or assurance of things hoped for, and the evidence or conviction of things not seen. And we know that it is impossible to please the Lord without faith (Hebrews 11:6). In fact, there is nothing we can do that will earn salvation; the only way to heaven is by accepting Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross in our place, which paid the penalty we owed for our sin. What's more, faith is nothing we can create within ourselves. Scripture is clear that it is a gift of God (Rom. 12:3).

The clear message from God in His Word is for each person to accept God’s gift of faith and embark on the wonderful journey that He invites us to share with Him. God responds to searching hearts. If someone is unclear whether our lives are in God’s control and that we trust Him with full confidence, ask Him to guide us and reveal truth.

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:” (Romans 5:1 KJV)

It’s faith that enables us to live the Christian life.

To better understand faith, there are things faith is NOT. Faith is not a feeling. It is not positive thinking. Faith is not responding to emotions, feelings, or goosebumps up and down our spine. It is not miracles, signs and wonders. Faith is not believing that God can do something. Faith is knowing that God can and will fulfill His plan. Faith is taking God at His word. Real faith does not doubt. It does not know discouragement. It is blind to the impossible. This is the kind of faith we need.

Living by faith means that we know our Heavenly Father is watching us and watching over us even though we can’t see everything clearly. This holds true for every aspect of our lives. It is true in our churches, our homes. our families, our marriages, our finances, and so on.

How do we live by faith in these matters? We commit them all to God to use to glorify Himself. And then we let Him handle things since He sees everything clearly.

We must seek God with all of our Heart Mind, Soul, and Strength.
We must listen to God.
We must spend time with Him.
We must learn to recognize God’s Voice.

The problem is that most of us are not willing to wait.
We want to run out ahead of God and usually we are heading in the wrong direction.
PSALMS 46:10 SAYS: “Be still and know that I Am God.”
MATTHEW 5:6 SAYS: “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after Righteousness for they shall be FILLED.”

Let us continue to walk by faith and not by sight and enjoy, YES I said ENJOY, the plan that God has for us.


Give God the Glory

Mid Week Deaf Devotion 2/24/2010

There will be times when what God asks us to just does not make sense. God wants us to take a leap of faith, obey Him and then trust He will work out the details.

This is what happens in Judges 7:1-8. It is the story of Gideon. He starts out with 32,000 men to fight the Midianites. God says that Israel may use that number of men to boast that THEY are better and they defeated the Midianites by their own power. Under God’s direction Gideon sends home those who feel they do not have the courage to stay. Gideon is left with 10,000 men. God says there are still too many. God wants Gideon to bring the men to a stream for water. Those that bent over to drink the water by lapping the water up can go home. They were not careful. But those that kneeled and scooped up the water to their mouths while staying aware and looking around, those are the ones God wants. Another 9,700 men left and went home. God says, “Okay, Gideon, I am sending you with these 300 men up against the Midianites.”

You know what? God was victorious. Did what God showed Gideon make sense? It may not make sense to you and me. It probably did not make sense to Gideon. It made sense to God. But Gideon followed God’s plan.

We have to understand who we are and what God has called us to do.

We are not labeled by our problem. We are who God says we are. In other words, God sees something in us that we do not see in ourselves.

The story of Gideon offers scriptural guidance for times when the odds are overwhelming and defeat seems imminent. No matter what the challenges are, God is able to demonstrate His awesome power and deliver us.

God uses difficulty to build faith. Gideon was willing to believe God and go up against an army four times larger than his own. Trusting God is a process which must be learned through experience. At times God takes the people He uses and places them in impossible situations. In that way, they discover that God is faithful just as He said He would be. We may prefer to acquire faith by reading a book, but God knows that the best classroom is a place of utter helplessness.

God may require us to do what seems unreasonable. The Israelites were already outnumbered, but God instructed Gideon to reduce the army to a mere 300 men. That made the odds 450 Midianites for each Israelite warrior! Although God's ways may seem illogical to us, His wisdom and power are far greater than ours, and His plan can be trusted.

God leads us to do that which brings Him glory. The army was now so small that its men could in no way take credit for the victory. God delights in demonstrating His awesome power and glory through our weakness and inadequacy.

One problem we create for God to show His glory is that we do not want to believe that God will use us to do something to glorify Him. We are who he says we are, we can do what he says we can do, we can go where he says we can go. Fear will paralyze us from doing the “impossible” things for God. The angel said to Mary when she learned God had favored her to be the mother of Jesus Christ, “For with God nothing shall be impossible.” (Luke 1:37 KJV)

Consider life's challenges as opportunities for God to build our faith and prepare us for ministry to glorify His Name. He uses those who are willing to obey Him even when the task seems illogical or impossible. And He takes pleasure in showing His faithfulness to those who trust in Him regardless of the situation.

Satan’s worst nightmare is that you and I will discover who we REALLY are in Christ Jesus.

Satan’s second worst nightmare is that you and me will wake up and not just realize, but on the authority of God’s Word that:
We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
Greater is he who is in us than those who are in the world.
No weapon formed against us shall prosper.
We are more than conquerors.
We are not bound, we are free.

Deaf Devotion 2/20/2010

“The Lord went ahead of them. He guided them during the day with a pillar of cloud, and he provided light at night with a pillar of fire. This allowed them to travel by day or by night. And the Lord did not remove the pillar of cloud or pillar of fire from its place in front of the people.” (Exodus 13:21-22 NLT)

One of the hardest struggles that anyone has is knowing what God wants us to do. Also we try to find out when God is saying to stay and when He is saying to move.

When we don’t know or when we struggle, is it God speaking? Is it family pressure? Is it even ourselves?

If we are not walking in the will of God we need to understand that God will not raise His voice.

If we are not close enough to God to hear Him whisper, then we will always be wandering in the middle of nowhere and wondering where God went.

God does not need to raise His voice to talk to the people that He wants to talk to. God says that if we are really interested in hearing from Him, we must move everything out of the way. This means everything that blocks us seeing God working. It means moving every barrier that blocks God from showing His leadership. It means removing every cover that hides His glory. It means getting rid of those things which are not conformed to the likeness of Jesus Christ. If we are interested in seeing God’s pillar of cloud in the daytime and pillar of light at night we must clear the path for Him to show us.

So the first thing need to do is get everything out of our life that might be blocking us from hearing God.

We need to get rid of the stuff in our life that does not please God, does not honor God, and keeps us from hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.

We cannot bring treasure in until we take the trash out.

God can’t bless a mess. To ask God to bless this or that before the barriers are removed blocks God from working out His plan. It is like putting grass seed, fertilizer and water on a concrete driveway and expecting grass to grow. It is not going to happen.

This may seem radical, but we need to realize that there are some things that God wants to do through us.

It may require a step of faith. It may even demand a leap of faith. A faith move is when we do not know exactly, specifically, precisely what God is saying. But we know that God is saying “JUST START WALKING AND I’LL SHOW YOU ON THE WAY.”

And there are times, moments and instances where God will not tell us in detail exactly what He wants us to do. But He is going to see if we will trust Him enough just to get up and move.

Let’s not misunderstand this. God was with His people in one cloud. It was not a pillar of cloud by day that went away and was replaced by a second cloud of light at night. No the cloud in the day became the light at night. It was the same cloud. There was not a difference.

God says “I may come in different ways but it’s still me. Sometimes I deal with you in the night one way; and the daytime of your life in another way. But it’s still me.”

Our problem is we have been looking to two sources. It’s me and you; me and the family; me and the job; it’s me and the Church. God says: NO…IT’S ME! SOMETIMES I’M YOUR JOB; SOMETIMES I’M YOUR MUTUAL FUNDS—BUT IT’S ME!

God can bless us through our job, through somebody else, through a stranger, or through us receiving a check we did not deserve or expect. BUT IT’S STILL GOD!

There are some people who believe that the Christian life should be an easy life. And yet, you and I know this isn't a Scriptural perspective. After all, Jesus told us to expect life to be challenging.

But one of the extraordinary aspects of our faith is learning that God's grace and presence are always with us… especially in the hard places. We see this so clearly in today's verse where we find the newly liberated children of Israel being lead in daylight by a pillar of cloud, and at night by a pillar of fire.

Do you know what these two pillars are? They are the same cloud. The same cloud that is there in the daytime is the same one that is there in the dark times .It is the majestic presence of God, what's known in Hebrew as the Shekinah glory of the Lord.

Can you imagine how comforting it must have been to look into the sky, by day or night, and see God's glorious presence leading you? Does God lead us like that? Well, He can and He does!

When we go through life's dry and barren places, we must keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and on His Word. Step by step, we will discover the presence of almighty God leading us into all he has promised us.

Here are some important principles in seeking God’s leadership in our life.

• Be serious about wanting him in the driver seat.
• Trust him—even while going through the desert.
• When he tells us to do something—do it immediately!

Maybe someone is putting off that phone call or restoring a relationship. Maybe God is asking us to go to a place where we are not comfortable. Maybe someone is putting off giving in to God’s leadership.

Jesus promised never to leave us or forget us. God said the same thing to His people in the desert. God desires to guide us every step of the way in our life. But we have to let him. We must keep our eyes focused on the cloud, the Shekinah glory of God that is with us always.

Mid Week Deaf Devotion 2/16/2010

“For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.” (Romans 8:29 NLT)

We are talking about being motivated by God’s presence in our life. The Apostle Paul points out that God knew ahead of time He would live with us in His Son, Jesus and in the Holy Spirit. God wants us to become like Jesus in character. Jesus is our example. Jesus is our model. But why?

Look at the previous verse, Romans 8:28. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (KJV)

There is one simple reason. God wants His presence to bring out the best in ALL His children.

Now, because God made us, our life begins and ends with Him.
Since God made us, only He can tell us for what He made us.
Our purpose in life revolves around Him.
It’s not about us.
It’s not about our needs, our wants, our satisfaction, our success.
It’s about God.

Now, that doesn’t mean our welfare has no importance to God.
On the contrary, we are incredibly precious to Him.
He loves us more deeply than we can possibly imagine.
He paid the greatest price for us that could ever be paid.
He gave His Son’s life in exchange for ours.
He sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross in payment for our sins.

But it’s crucial that we understand one thing: the way in which we come to enjoy all the good things God has for us is not by putting ourselves and our needs first, but instead by seeking to follow God and fulfill His purposes.

From the very beginning, long before the world was even created, God’s purpose has been to make us like His Son. His goal, right now, is to transform us. God wants to take us from wherever we are, and bring us through a lifelong process of change that will result in us becoming more and more like Jesus Christ.

What does that mean? It does not mean that we will become a little “god” with all the qualities of divinity. We will never become all-knowing or all-powerful, like God is. No, we will not become a “god,” but we will become Christ-like. We will become like God in his character. We share His values. We learn to think the way he thinks. We learn to act the way he acts. The possibilities are endless. That is energizing. That is freeing.

If we want to see how God thinks and acts, all we need to do is look at Jesus Christ. Read the accounts of His life in the Gospels. Because the Bible tells us that Christ is God and fully reveals God.

This should excite us like nothing else can. We are energized by God’s presence.

If we want to know what God is changing us into, if we want an advance look at the end result of this process of discipleship, then study the life of Jesus Christ. He is our model. Look at what he loved and hated. Watch how he treated people. Observe how he responded in different types of situations. As incredible as it may seem; God’s purpose is for our life to look like that.

Consider the example of Christ. He forgave even the people who nailed him to a cross. He didn’t have to. He could have come down off the cross and destroyed them all. And He would have been completely justified in doing so. But instead, he forgave them.

How many know that God will go to great lengths to get our attention?

How many know that it is God’s desire that we grow in the likeness of Jesus Christ?

We serve a God whose presence is energizing, exciting, eternal, and everlasting.

Deaf Devotion 2/13/2010

“And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:” 2 Corinthians 9:8 KJV

We know that God "can" do anything. But we seem to lose faith when it comes to God's willingness. The thought seems to become, “I know God is ABLE, but is He WILLING?” We have no problem trusting Him for both His ability and His willingness to save us from the penalty of our sins. Somehow, we believe God can and will make our salvation a reality.

But when it comes to trusting God for, say, our financial needs, we falter. When something happens with a friend or family member where the relationship is threatened, God seems to disappear. When we are confronted with a situation that we cannot see the other end or see our way out, the focus becomes ourselves and the situation. We fail to see God at the other end of the problem being glorified in how He works it out.

When things are running smoothly and we are comfortable, we know God "can" meet our needs. But when things start to go wrong we are just not too sure He will.

Jesus Himself pointed to this. In spite of everything Jesus said: ". . . it will be given . . . you will find . . . it will be opened . . ."

When we see "will" in Scripture associated with God's actions, it becomes a promise from Him. If He "can" meet our need He most certainly "will" meet our needs.

Theologian A.W. Tozer says, “Whatever God did and was able to do and willing to do at any time, God is able and willing to do again, within the framework of His will.”

Now here is where it gets really good.

“Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,” Ephesians 3:20 KJV

The last part is the key. “According to the power within us….”

What power?

It is the power that raised Christ from the dead. Remember Jesus told the Pharisees that the temple would be destroyed and three days later will be restored? Jesus was telling them He WILL rise from the dead. Death will not have victory.

Jesus depended on this power that is more than able and more than willing to do what is necessary when it is necessary.

There were lepers who sought out Jesus because they had no hope. Those with leprosy, who had no hope for a cure and was waiting for the leprosy to finally kill them looked to Jesus to become their “I AM.”

When Peter’s mother-in-law was sick, yes Peter was married, Jesus became her “I AM” and she was healed.

There were several men with whom Jesus came into contact who were possessed with demons. The demons within them recognized Jesus as the men’s “I AM”. Jesus was those men’s “I AM” and He cast out the demons.

When Jesus was walking down a street one day a woman squeezed through the crowd to touch the hem of His garment believing she would be healed. Jesus became her “I AM”.

When 5000 people were hungry after listening to one of Jesus’ sermons, He became their “I AM” and fed them.

When the disciples were out in the boat and a wind storm came and rocked the boat and they were in fear of their lives, Jesus became their “I AM” and calmed the seas.

When our sins were so great that we could not get back to God, Jesus became our “I AM” and gave His life as a sacrifice for our sins.

As children of God, God says to each and every one of us “I AM.” “I will be whatever you need me to be. I will be, I am Able, and I am willing.”

There is a difference between being able and being willing. If someone needs a car loan, they can go to the back to request one. The bank has the money and the power to give the loan. However, just because they are able to do so, they may not be willing to do so.

God has shared with us that not only is He ABLE to be everything that we need Him to be, He is also WILLING. All He is waiting on is us.

God the I am is the God who is able and the God who is willing.
God the I Am is within you and is within me.

When someone is having marital problems, God says, “I AM.”
When someone is sick, God says, “I AM.”
When someone is having financial problems and does not know how to make ends meet, God says, “I AM.
When someone is hurting, God says, “I AM.”
When someone is lonely, God says, “I AM.”
When someone is having problems at work, God says, “I AM.”
When someone does not have work, God says, “I AM.”
When someone’s kids are acting in such a way that it is frustrating, God says, “I AM.”
When someone’s car is acting up, God says, “I AM.”
When someone needs more knowledge of God, God says, “I AM.”
When someone’s faith has been shaken through life’s experiences, God says, “I AM.”
When people are gossiping and running our name through the mud, God says, “I AM.”
When someone fails and falls flat on their face, God says, “I AM.”
When life presses us down, God says, “I AM.”
No matter what we face in life, God says, “I AM able. I AM willing. I AM.”

God the I AM says that He will be whatever we need Him to be.

How willing are we to accept the “able” and “willing” of the I AM in your circumstances?

God is Able and God is willing. Are we able and willing to let God be God the I AM in very situation in our life?

Mid Week Deaf Devotion 2/9/2010

“And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” (Matthew 28:18-20 KJV)

We need to be energized by God’s Presence. Energized is to be eager, excited, thrilled, overjoyed, and tickled pink. Do those words describe how we feel about God’s presence?

Do we realize God is as far away as the furthest point in the universe and as close as right inside our heart at the same time? Do we realize that whatever we do, God is already there ahead of us waiting for us? There is no way for us to give more than God, love more than God, and do more than God. God is as near as a whisper and He will hear our cries and our tears.

God has given us our mission, our method, and our motivation.

Most parents and children have something in common. Someone can tell a child (and some adults too) to do something but then it becomes necessary to keep reminding them until the job is completed.

A sign of maturity is when you give a child a job and it gets done - no questions.

Being energized by God’s presence comes not from knowing what God’s wants for us in life. It’s in actually doing what He wants for our life.

How often do we find ourselves not listening to God’s commands? We know what we should do, we know what we are supposed to do, we know what God has commanded us to do but we simply don’t do it.

James 1:22 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. We will never know what it is to be energized by God’s presence until we obey what God commands us to do. We have our mission. We are told to go, make disciples, and teach.

Our mission is to make disciples or followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because we believe He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God and Savior, it is our desire to turn people onto Him! Teach them and turn them on! And do this worldwide!

Notice it just says to go, tell, and teach. The method is not important. What is important is the doing. God equips us for the doing. God gives us the methods. God will make a way. Our power for obeying God centers in the presence of God in our life. That would be God as God. It is not us allowing the presence of the false gods of our day – gods of materialism, popularity, or power to become the methods for obeying. Real power, the power of God’s presence, the power for life and living centers us being energized by God’s presence.

The basic method of spreading the Gospel is simply this: Someone goes and someone sends. We either go or else send someone in our place! That’s the method for spreading the Gospel. Are we focused more on the message or the method?

Being energized by God’s presence finds its source in fellowship with Jesus Christ. This is our motivation. Jesus reminded His disciples that through all the tough times, all the trials, all the temptation, whatever they did, that He was with them. We are not energized by religious observance. Believers find themselves energized by fellowship with the living God. Again, this is our motivation.

We’re talking passion, compassion and love. Our ultimate motivation is the love of Jesus Christ. Being energized by God’s presence is to be led by the love of Jesus Christ.

“I am with you always.” How long has it been since we have been energized by God’s presence? This is not about working for Him or even sitting in Church. It’s about recognizing that we are in God’s presence 100% of our time. That is 24/7 365 days per year. God never will leave us alone. That is energizing. That is exciting.

How long has it been since we have sensed His presence, trusted His guidance, or prayed more than a blessing on our food?

How long has it been since we really spent time alone with God?

Jesus said – Abide in me and I will abide in you. He compared it to a grape vine with us being the branches. We must stay connected to the source for life to flow. We become energized by God’s presence. If we lack excitement and power in our life today for living, take the advice of James “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”

The mission: reach people for Christ.
The method: any method is better than no method at all.
The motivation: God’s presence and the love of Christ in us.

If God’s presence and the love of Jesus Christ do not energize us, I don’t know what will.

Deaf Devotion 2/6/2010

“Don’t speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters. If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God’s law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you.” (James 4:11 NLT)

Why is it so easy to point out the faults of others and gossip about them instead of encouraging them? Don’t say, “I don’t do that.” The hard truth is that we all do it. Some do it more than others, some less.

Maybe it makes us feel better about our own weaknesses. Perhaps we just enjoy hearing "dirt" about other people. Whatever the reason, it is sin, yet many of us continue to do it.

In this verse from James, we are confronted with a problem everyone has. This is better known as “pride.” It is a real problem when it is found in the church. Evidently it was a problem in the church at Jerusalem and at times is a problem in every church.

Being human and being sinners, we tend to make snap judgments about people. We put labels on people according to clothing, race, sex, nationality, ability, or disability, etc. How many times do we judge people by what they look like? How many times to do we judge a smart person and think they are just showing off? How many times do we judge a person by what they can or cannot do? Honestly, can any of us say we really believe the labels we or others put on people? And yet we find ourselves agreeing with others about what they think people are.

There is a strong tendency...
- For the good person to judge and criticize the bad person.
- For the bad person to judge and criticize the good person.
- For the gifted person to judge and criticize the less gifted.
- For the less gifted person to judge and criticize the gifted.
- For the wealthy person to judge and criticize the poor.
- For the poor person to judge and criticize the wealthy.

Can we see just how foolish this becomes? We place ourselves over others because of what we see on the surface or we assume to be true.

One simple truth remains clear. We Are All Sinners.

There is only one Lawgiver and Judge. He is the one who is able to save and destroy. But us, what about us? Who are we to judge our neighbor?

The solution to judging others and placing one’s self on a pedestal and think they are better than others is to see people, including ourselves, through the eyes of God. “For what gives you the right to make such a judgment? What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if everything you have is from God, why boast as though it were not a gift?” (1 Corinthians 4:7 NLT)

He is God and we are not. Thankfully we worship a God who has mercy and grace on each of us. He loves each of us and desires that we come back to the permanent relationship that we are supposed to have with Him.

When we look at our lives and compare, there is only one comparison that counts, "All have sinned". We are all on level playing ground.
We are sinners, lost, without a hope.
It does not matter if our skin is black white purple or green.
It does not matter if we are male or female.
It does not matter if we are Deaf or hearing.
It does not matter about a college degree.
It does not matter who is your mother, father, brother, or sister.
It does not matter what is your family name.
We are all sinners.

The only difference between us and anyone else is Jesus Christ. One’s relationship with Jesus is the only thing that matters when it comes to comparison.

One person found a way to combat the problem of talking behind other people’s backs in their church. It was a formula they came up with that the members of the church had to use before speaking to anyone. It also becomes true when we want to talk about someone else.

“T.H.I.N.K.”
T - Is it True?
H - Is it Helpful?
I - Is it Inspiring?
N - Is it Necessary?
K - Is it Kind?

Before we talk about another person, we need to THINK. If what we are about to say does not pass the above test, then we need to stop and decide if what we have to say about the other person will uplift the person and honor God.

Today, we need to pay attention to what we say to others about others. Are we gossiping and slandering or are we a source of encouragement? If we cannot honestly say we are a person who encourages others, we need to ask God to soften our heart and help us become an example of His encouraging love to ourselves as well as to those around us.

There is a time and place for us to confront and correct a brother or sister. James is not talking about that. James is talking about those who consider themselves to be better than others and then boast about it. James’ point is that God is the judge. Leave it to Him. Focus more on telling others about Jesus Christ and uplifting others in a way which honors God as our creator.

Mid Week Deaf Devotion 2/2/2010

“All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17 NLT)

God’s Word:
• Teaches us: It gives correct information.
• Convicts us: It repairs wrong ways of thinking.
• Corrects us: It corrects character flaws.
• Trains us in righteousness: It is training to be ready to make right choices and right decisions

God expects His people, His children, and citizens of His Kingdom to act in a certain way. His expectations are in His Word.

The world cannot understand or accept this.

But why do we need the Bible? We can make fairly decent decisions without it. We have a fairly good idea of what is right and wrong.

When we accept Jesus as Savior, we are able to make reasonably good decisions and we have a good idea of what is right and wrong. But, we must understand we are all sinners. We all fall short. We need God in our lives. We need a Savior.

But, we also realized that:

We were inexperienced in what God wanted - His will, His desires, His expectations.
We were untrained in God’s type of righteousness.
We did not yet have full confidence because of sin in our lives & in the world around us.
And, we didn’t understand the importance of God’s Word for the direction of our life.

We may have had a Bible on the coffee table in our house when we were growing up. We may even have read it. But we did not know the power and truth it contains.

In order for God to use us to our full potential these things need to change. This is part of the reason God gives us His word; to change us.

The simple truth is that we need God’s Word in our lives. We need to follow the truth, teaching, conviction, and righteousness it contains. We need God’s Word to become as much a part of our lives as breathing.

Anything less would be a tragedy.

Sometimes God’s Word may say something that is painful to us or something that we just do not want to accept as truth. Some people also think God’s Word applies to everyone else. It’s a mistake to overlook God’s Word. That’s tragic. But the question is: how do we correct that?

If we know that God’s Word has the power to change us,
If we know that God’s Word has the potential to protect us against sin,
If we know that God’s Word has the ability to help us receive the rich blessings of God,
And do nothing,
Then we rob ourselves. We are cheating ourselves.
Why would we cheat ourselves every day we deprive ourselves of the truth of God’s Word?

How can we get God’s Word into our lives?

We need to decide that it is most important to read the Bible. If we are not convinced of the Bible’s truth and importance, it will stay on the coffee table collecting dust. God’s Word is alive and more than able to address every part of our life. God planned it that way.

We need to find every avenue we can to pour God’s word into our souls. Read it in the morning at breakfast. Read it at night before you go to bed. Read it at lunch when we are at work. Read it in different versions. Read it. Drink in its truth. Stand its righteousness. Learn its ways and its truth. Embrace its power.

Don’t stop there. Memorize it. Meditate on it. Hide it in our hearts. Why? Because it is God’s gift to us, and through it we can receive of God’s other gifts.

Let me share something else. God’s Word affects someone else even more than you and me. It affects God. Can we possibly imagine how much God is proud, pleased, and impressed?

Every time we pick up and read His Word, it tells God that what He says us in His Word is important to us and that we desire the best He can give us. God planned it that way from before creation.