“I HEARD MY NAME”
I was at church, getting my things together at the end of a worship service, when I heard a voice behind me call out my name. I had never heard my name spoken by this voice before so it captured my attention. “Who is that?” I wondered within myself. As I turned around, I saw a kid standing there whom I see frequently in our church services but rarely ever converse with. There’s something special (at least to me) about hearing my name spoken by a kid. Kids have so many things vying for a place within their young minds: the names of friends, celebrities, sports heroes and social media influencers … the things they’re learning at school in math, history and science classes … the “every-day life” lessons they’re having to learn on a daily basis … etc., etc. So, when a kid takes time to learn my name, they’ve taken up valuable space in their memory banks! Maybe I’m overstating this whole thing, but that’s just the way I feel about it.

After conversing with them, I began thinking about the joy it brought my heart to hear this kid speak my name. I thought within myself: “I wonder if this the way God feels when a sinner calls upon His name for the first time” … when He hears His name spoken from a voice that’s never spoken it out loud before. Not calling out His name as an expletive or in irreverence, but in a humble request for mercy and forgiveness. When there are so many names, places, dates, and pieces of information vying for a person’s attention all the time, do you suppose it brings joy to God’s heart to hear His name spoken by one who has made room within their heart and mind to remember His name … and to speak it? I’m almost certain of it. After all, Romans 10:13 says, “Whosoever shall call upon THE NAME OF THE LORD shall be saved.” What a wonderful thought! When a person speaks His name in reverence and humility, requesting an audience with Him, what a beautiful moment that is in God’s kingdom. Jesus said that angels rejoice around God’s throne when a sinner repents and calls on the name of the Lord (Luke 15:10).

When a sinner becomes a child of God, they discover the POWER IN HIS NAME. So, it’s not a “one-time thing” where you call on His name one time and that suffices. You discover that name can help in life’s difficult situations. You call on it when times are hard and when times are good. And each time you call on His name, He hears and responds.

So, today, If you need forgiveness … CALL ON HIS NAME. If you want a fresh start … CALL ON HIS NAME. If you need strength … CALL ON HIS NAME. If you lack peace and joy … CALL ON HIS NAME. HE LOVES TO HEAR HIS NAME COME ACROSS YOUR LIPS!

Acts 4:12
Salvation exists in no one else, for there is NO OTHER NAME under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

John 14:13-14
And I will do whatever you ask IN MY NAME, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me for anything IN MY NAME, I will do it.

Acts 10:43
All the prophets testify about Him that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins THROUGH HIS NAME.”

A TARE-ABLE WAY TO LIVE
In Matthew 13:24-30, Jesus told a story about a man who planted wheat in a field. While he was sleeping, an enemy came along and sowed tares (weeds) in the same field. The man wasn’t aware of his enemy’s scheme until the tares and the wheat began to grow. He could visibly see the difference between the tares and the wheat when they were full grown, but when they were seeds and sprouts, the difference was unrecognizable.

There are several lessons we learn from this parable of Jesus.
1. You and I have an enemy that wants to confuse us about what is fruitful and what is fruitless in our lives. The enemy in the story could have just dug up all the wheat seeds and replanted tares … but he didn’t. God won’t let our enemy fully pluck up our future harvest, but God will allow him to test our perception of what is valuable versus worthless. If we choose the worthless over the valuable, we do not pass the test.

2. When the fruitful and the fruitless are in infancy stages (seeds and sprouts) there’s very little difference in their appearance. It’s not until they’re full-grown that we can actually see the difference. That’s why we’ve got to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s cautions in our lives. He will nudge us and let us know when we have misplaced affection on this world. He’ll speak to our hearts and warn us about the fruit we will produce if we continue nurturing the weeds in our lives. Oftentimes, weeds produce toxic fruit that can be both poisonous and deadly. That's why we've got to get rid of the weeds in our lives.

3. The devil plants tares/weeds in our lives “WHILE WE ARE SLEEPING” … that’s symbolic for the times in our lives when we aren’t paying attention. I'll admit … it can get tiring to have to pay constant attention to our spiritual lives. But honestly, we pay WAY more attention to our physical needs and desires than we do our spiritual needs and desires. And, because we do, we sleep (spiritually) through moments when the enemy is scheming against us. He’s not resting … he’s not observing a “cease-fire” … he’s not drawing up a truce with God’s people. No, he’s hoping we will just fall asleep so he can do his work in our lives while we’re not paying attention. In 2 Corinthians 2:11, Paul says, “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.” … Is that really true? Do we really understand that one of his schemes is to work in our lives “WHILE WE ARE SLEEPING”? Or, are we ignorant of this scheme. Something to think about today.

1 Thessalonians 5:6
So then, let us not sleep as the others do, but let us remain awake and sober.

IN SLOW MOTION
A couple of years ago, I put a plastic bag filled with old clothes and rags on the top shelf of my closet. I didn’t realize when I put the bag there that it was leaning forward slightly. It was sitting on some other items that were also leaning forward, ever so slightly. So, as soon as I released the bag from my hands, even though the movement was undetectable to the naked eye, that bag was slowly-but-surely moving … gravity was pulling it downward. Later that night, around 2:00 a.m. I heard a crash in my room. It startled me so badly that I sat straight up in my bed. At first I thought we had a burglar in our house. But, after I wiped the sleep from my eyes and turned on the lights, I discovered that plastic bag full of clothes and rags on the floor in front of my closet. It had been falling from the moment I left it on the shelf hours earlier, but I didn’t realize it until I heard the crash, some six-to-eight hours later.

If you were to ask me, “When did that bag fall?” my first response might have been, “At 2:00 in the morning.” But, in truth, the bag fell the moment I put it in the closet. It all just happened in slow motion. The full manifestation of the fall happened at 2:00 a.m. but the bag had already been falling for hours.

You know, God told Adam and Eve to not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He told them that the day they ate from it they would “surely die.” Whether you realize it or not, when they ate that fruit they died. Of course, initially it was a spiritual death but it later manifested in a physical death as well. The bag that fell from my closet was falling from the moment I put it there. Adam and Eve were dying from the moment they ate the fruit. If you need to look at it this way, this might help you … it all happened in SLOW MOTION. You see, in God’s eyes, time is irrelevant. The Bible says “A day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day” in God’s eyes (2 Peter 3:8).

Romans 6:23 tells us that the wages of sin is death. But, because we don’t keel over dead the instant we commit sin, we assume that scripture is not true. Oh, but it is true. The moment we sin, death begins its work in us … just like a bag slowly falling toward the ground in slow motion. I sort of wonder if maybe God set it up that way to give us a little time to repent for our sins? After all, if we died the second we sinned, there’d be no opportunity to repent and get right with Him. I like to think about God’s mercy in that way … that He slowed down the whole process of time so we’d have an opportunity to make adjustments in our lives and receive His grace and mercy.

But, I’d be wrong to leave you at this point without telling you the positive side of this message. You see, it’s not just the bad things that happen in SLOW MOTION in our lives … it also applies to the good things, as well. When we pray for a loved one for salvation, for healing, for peace, etc., rarely does it manifest the second we pray it … but the whole thing is set into motion as soon as the prayer leaves our lips. Several time in His ministry, Jesus talked about God’s kingdom by relating it to a seed. Seeds work in slow motion. So much of what happens with a seed isn’t seen by the naked eye. It happens underground. It goes almost undetected. Slowly but surely the seed grows and finally pushes through the soil to expose the plant that will grow upward and eventually produce a crop.

So, you see, there is a lot happening right this very minute in your life. The problem is that most of it goes completely undetected … because it’s all happening in SLOW MOTION.

2 Peter 3:8
But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

Happy Father's Day tomorrow!

Hello everyone!

DRY BONES
I was giving blood at a blood donation center for a friend who sponsors a yearly blood drive. As I sat there with nothing to do except watch my life’s blood flow from my arm into the pouch beside me, I had a curious thought. I asked the woman who was drawing my blood, “So, how exactly does our body replenish blood after we give blood?” She replied, “Well, I’ve never been asked that before, so I don’t know the answer, but I’ll ask the nurse when she comes in.” The nurse stepped in a minute later and the phlebotomist asked my question for me: “This gentleman wants to know how his blood is produced and replenished after he gives his blood.” The nurse replied, “Blood is manufactured by our bone marrow. As soon as you give a pint of blood, the marrow receives messages from the kidneys that red blood cells are needed and the bone marrow produces it.”

So, get this … the Bible says, “Life is in the blood” (Leviticus 17:11), and our bones are the producers and generators of that life source within our bodies. That might not be revelation to you, but it is to me. You see, I remember hearing a couple of proverbs many years ago about our bones, and I always wondered what they meant. Proverbs 14:30 says, “A sound heart is life to the body, But envy [jealousy] is rottenness to the BONES,” and Proverbs 17:22 says, “A merry heart does good, like medicine, But a broken spirit DRIES THE BONES.” Now that I know our life’s blood is produced by our bones, I can see the relevance of those two verses.

Envy and jealousy makes our bones rot (according to Proverbs 14:30) and a broken spirit dries the bones (according to Proverbs 17:22). Speaking from a strictly physical standpoint, dry bones and rotten bones cannot produce healthy blood cells. So, envy, jealousy and brokenness are bad for our bones, bad for our blood, and thus, bad for our physical health.

Knowing this also brings further clarity to Ezekiel’s vision of the “Valley of Dry Bones.” Ezekiel 37:2 makes a point of saying that those bones were “VERY DRY.” There was no marrow in them … no ability to produce life’s blood. God asked Ezekiel, “Can these bones live again?” In the physical, Ezekiel knew the answer was “NO.” But he also knew the One who was asking the question was the Maker of the Universe, so he simply said, “Lord, You know.” Then, God told Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones. As Ezekiel prophesied, tendons, ligaments and muscles were attached to the bones, and then they were wrapped in flesh. From those DRY BONES, God created an army.

Are you living in envy and jealousy? Do you have a broken spirit? If so, your bones are being affected, as well as your life’s blood. But, God wants to make your DRY BONES live again. Receive the word of the Lord in your life today. Read His scriptures and let them breathe life into you. Repent of envy, jealousy and bitterness so your bones can be healed and your blood can be purged and replenished. Receive strength today from God’s Word!

Ezekiel 37:9-10 (NKJV)
Also He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” ’ ” So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army.

(June 14th devotion from "My Morning Walks with God, Vol. 5" - available on Amazon).

DRY BONES
I was giving blood at a blood donation center for a friend who sponsors a yearly blood drive. As I sat there with nothing to do except watch my life’s blood flow from my arm into the pouch beside me, I had a curious thought. I asked the woman who was drawing my blood, “So, how exactly does our body replenish blood after we give blood?” She replied, “Well, I’ve never been asked that before, so I don’t know the answer, but I’ll ask the nurse when she comes in.” The nurse stepped in a minute later and the phlebotomist asked my question for me: “This gentleman wants to know how his blood is produced and replenished after he gives his blood.” The nurse replied, “Blood is manufactured by our bone marrow. As soon as you give a pint of blood, the marrow receives messages from the kidneys that red blood cells are needed and the bone marrow produces it.”

So, get this … the Bible says, “Life is in the blood” (Leviticus 17:11), and our bones are the producers and generators of that life source within our bodies. That might not be revelation to you, but it is to me. You see, I remember hearing a couple of proverbs many years ago about our bones, and I always wondered what they meant. Proverbs 14:30 says, “A sound heart is life to the body, But envy [jealousy] is rottenness to the BONES,” and Proverbs 17:22 says, “A merry heart does good, like medicine, But a broken spirit DRIES THE BONES.” Now that I know our life’s blood is produced by our bones, I can see the relevance of those two verses.

Envy and jealousy makes our bones rot (according to Proverbs 14:30) and a broken spirit dries the bones (according to Proverbs 17:22). Speaking from a strictly physical standpoint, dry bones and rotten bones cannot produce healthy blood cells. So, envy, jealousy and brokenness are bad for our bones, bad for our blood, and thus, bad for our physical health.

Knowing this also brings further clarity to Ezekiel’s vision of the “Valley of Dry Bones.” Ezekiel 37:2 makes a point of saying that those bones were “VERY DRY.” There was no marrow in them … no ability to produce life’s blood. God asked Ezekiel, “Can these bones live again?” In the physical, Ezekiel knew the answer was “NO.” But he also knew the One who was asking the question was the Maker of the Universe, so he simply said, “Lord, You know.” Then, God told Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones. As Ezekiel prophesied, tendons, ligaments and muscles were attached to the bones, and then they were wrapped in flesh. From those DRY BONES, God created an army.

Are you living in envy and jealousy? Do you have a broken spirit? If so, your bones are being affected, as well as your life’s blood. But, God wants to make your DRY BONES live again. Receive the word of the Lord in your life today. Read His scriptures and let them breathe life into you. Repent of envy, jealousy and bitterness so your bones can be healed and your blood can be purged and replenished. Receive strength today from God’s Word!

Ezekiel 37:9-10 (NKJV)
Also He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” ’ ” So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army.

(June 14th devotion from "My Morning Walks with God, Vol. 5" - available on Amazon).

PIE IN THE SKY?
I went out for lunch with some friends after church yesterday. At the end of our meal, we all ordered a slice of pie. I was having a difficult time trying to decide between the coconut cream and chocolate pie. I finally made my decision. Three of us ordered coconut cream and one friend ordered chocolate. When the waitress returned with the pie slices, she had two coconut cream and two chocolate. She handed me one of the chocolate pies. Someone remarked, “I thought you ordered coconut cream?” “Yes,” I replied, “But I’m fine with the chocolate.” The waitress apologized profusely for getting my order wrong, but I just replied, “It’s all good … I’ve never met a pie I didn’t like!”

When the waitress brought us our checks, she handed me a small box … it was a free slice of coconut cream pie. Glory! That was one time when being compliant really paid off! HaHa! (P.S. Do you realize that the word COMPLIANT and COMPLAINT has the same exact letters? The “A” and the “I” just change positions. Maybe if we all stopped COMPLAINING so much we’d receive a few extra blessings in our lives.) Anyway, I got two slices of pie (my favorite dessert) for the price of one. What a blessing that was!

Now, just think about the blessings we get in our lives when we yield to God on a daily basis. He doesn’t just give us GOODNESS … He also gives us MERCY. “Surely GOODNESS and MERCY shall follow me all the days of my life” (Psalm 23:6). He doesn’t just give us ETERNAL LIFE … He also gives us ABUNDANT LIFE. “I am come that they might have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). We don’t have to make a choice between whether we want JOY or PEACE … He gives us both … “The fruit of the Spirit is LOVE, JOY, PEACE…” (Galatians 5:22).

Father God has blessings for us in the “HERE AND NOW,” but there’s also more to come in the “SWEET BY AND BY.” Some people accuse Christians of believing in PIE IN THE SKY … but I’ve been getting quite a few slices daily here on Earth!

Psalm 68:19
Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loads us with benefits, The God of our salvation! Selah!

Hello everyone!

Any comments on Matthew 25?