“Write in a Book”

In Jeremiah 30:2, God tells Jeremiah to “Write in a book for yourself all the words that I have spoken to you.”

As important as it is to have a regular devotion life – where you are both reading the Bible and praying – it is also very important to keep a journal.

We may not have the prophetic ministry of Jeremiah but we can all benefit from keeping a journal and writing down the scriptures and words the Lord impresses upon our hearts as we spend time with Him.

Very often the Lord will give me a scripture and I wonder why is this particular verse staying in my head/heart?  Then sometime later – whether that day or week – I find myself in a situation that the verse is needed – it could be a verse of direction, or a verse of encouragement, or a verse of courage, or a verse for me to share with someone else.  Once it is written down I can go back to it and remember that the Lord really spoke to me on a particular day and be encouraged!

I like the way Jeremiah 30 ends: “In the latter days you will consider it.”

After 25 year of serving the Lord and keeping journals I can go back and see with my own two eyes, written in my own hand-writting, my own story with God.  All the times He came through, protected me, answered my prayers, helped my family, gave me revelation.  How encouraging it is to have that record of the One and Only Living True God relating to me!

Very often King David encouraged himself in the Lord by reminding himself of the faithful actions of his God – we know this because he wrote them down – they became the Book of Psalms.  Maybe one day your journal will not only encourage yourself but others also!

Has God done something awesome in your life lately?  Has He given you just the right scripture verse to encourage you?  Answered a prayer?

Then:  Write it down!

The One & Only!

In Acts 4, Peter and John have been arrested for preaching in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.  They are then brought before the Sanhedrin to answer this question: “By what power or by what name have you done this?”

Peter filled with the Holy Spirit responds by telling them about Jesus and in verse 12 states “for there is no other name…”

The Greek word used here that is translated into English as “other” is “heteross.”  It means “second choices, opinions, options.”  In other words when it comes to being saved and living a Godly life there are no other options – there is only One Way, One God – Jesus!  He is the only choice, the only option!

For us, Jesus is the One and Only!

Now in verse 13 we see the response: “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled.  And they realized that they had been with Jesus.“

Is Jesus your “One and Only?”

Do you want others to ask you “By what power or name do you live and speak the way you do?”

Do you want the world and those around you to know Him as well?

The most important thing you can do is spend time with Him – those around you should be able to realize that you have been with Jesus – your words, your actions, your character will reflect Him!

Spending time with Him will coorelate in others curiosity about you – and it’s always easier to walk through a door already opened to you – it’s easier to respond to a question than to start a conversation.

My dear Mary Fazekas is often asked “Why are you so happy?”  Her response is “I have Jesus” or to put it another way: ”I know the ‘One and Only!’“

Seven Times More Heated

I was recently rereading the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego found in Daniel 3.  In the story, King Nebuchadnezzar had made a giant gold image of himself with the command that it was to be worshiped.  The actually command was to ”all peoples, nations and languages.”  That pretty much covers everybody.  The punishment for not bowing down and worshiping the image was to be thrown in a fiery furnace.

We know the story - Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego refuse and are thrown in the furnace – a furnace heated 7x hotter than usual – so hot that the men who had the unlucky task of throwing them in died doing so.  However these three servants of God are not burned, and in fact, Jesus is seen to come to them in the fire itself!

The devil uses plenty of things or situations to intimidate us not to worship God and to give ourselves to him.  They may be direct and blatant or indirect and subtle – and as much as he loves your worship – he will settle for the fact that he can get you to just stop worshiping God.

What is your fiery furnace – that thing or those things that keep you from worshiping God and being faithful?  Anything that turns our attention away from God is an idol just like the massive gold image of Nebuchadnezzar.

Several thoughts came to me as I meditated on these 3 great men of God.  First, by faith they overcame a fiery furnace heated 7x it’s normal temperature – even at it’s regular temperature it was plenty hot enough to kill a normal man.  Truth is – we as follower’s have the same capacity by faith and the power of the Holy Spirit to not just endure but victoriously overcome any and all trials and challenges to the life God calls us to!

Another thought was how these three guys went from being cast down to being promoted – maybe our fiery trials are not the end but just the beginning of yet another excited adventure of faith in God’s plan for us.

Lastly, maybe we’d have more direct encounters with Jesus if we embraced our trials versus trying to avoid them – just a thought

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, living on the edge of death, go from underdogs to heroes of our faith that inspire us to greater faith!

Even hell itself – does not have a fire hot enough to consume Christ’s followers!