Tag Archives: temptation

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Three Things You Can’t Do!

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“Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.  And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God!”  Romans 5:1-2

There are three things that you cannot do, no matter how hard you try!  You can pretend to do these things and many people do, but to what advantage?

You Cannot Save Yourself! Scripture tells us that we are “justified through faith!”  Our being justified (made right) comes through faith, but not just any ole faith will do.  We must have faith in someone or something that matters or it is all for nothing.  We are made right with God through our faith in Jesus Christ!  It does not matter how smart or slick you think you are.  You will never be smart or slick enough to save yourself.  Jesus came and died on the cross – to do for you and me – what we could not do for ourselves!

You Cannot Manufacture Peace! Because we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  I am not talking about a moment of no worries.  I am talking about an inner certainty that everything is going to be okay as we trust, yield and follow God.  The very best that we can do in our everyday living is to put a band aid on the situations and circumstances that are bringing us down.  When you are made right with God through faith in Jesus, then you know that whatever is going on in your life is being used for God’s glory and man’s blessing as we trust and surrender to God and His magnificent will!

You Cannot Waste Grace! Faith in Jesus allows us to stand and walk in grace!  I think a lot of people now a days are living with a “fake grace!”  We like to say that we have received this beautiful gift from God, but the truth is this: If you have the gift of grace – it will change your life and the way that you live it! I see a lot of people now a days wasting grace, but it’s not God’s grace.  It is a grace that man has made up to justify his doing whatever he wants, whenever he wants and that is not grace at all!  It’s real or it’s fake and the way to tell is by how you are living your life!

Where Do You Stand?

You can’t save yourself, but you can be saved!  Just put your trust in the only One that really matters and let Him take care of the justification.

You can have peace, but you have to get rid of that pretend stuff that you have made up to open up your life to the real stuff that flows out of a growing and meaningful relationship with Jesus!

You got grace just waiting for you to allow yourself to really experience freedom.  Not freedom to do whatever you want, but freedom to do the right things that guide your life into and through blessing!

Realize what you can’t do and get out of God’s way and let Him work!  As God works on, in and through you, make sure that you are living the life that is giving Him the glory and you can’t help but experience the blessing!

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U-Turn Blessings!

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u_turn_sign_2So you have heard from God and made the decision to turn your life around! The Spirit has spoken and you have listened from the inside – out!  The message inside your heart will change the outside of your life!  Now that you are heading away from the destructive patterns of the world and toward the constructive plans of Heaven – what should you expect?

When we repent, change, u-turn or 180, then we can expect God to show up in big ways! God wants to do an amazing work to you and through you!

First – we can look for REFRESHING! I talk to people every day about life stuff and have discovered that most people are tired, frustrated, discouraged and just plain weak from the blows that life has dealt them.  We all need and long for refreshing!  Refreshing is not something that we can do for ourselves.  Refreshing is the work of God.  You can open your life to it, but God has to do the work.  When we repent, we open our lives to the refreshing work of the Holy Spirit.  God comes into our tired, frustrated and discouraged lives and strengthens us with power, hope and encouragement.

Second – God will provide RESTORATION! This is an amazing and beautiful gift from God.  Often times as we live our lives and make mistakes, we will later discover that our mistakes were not cheap, in fact they often costs us so much more than we ever dreamed we would have to pay.  But God is more than faithful and when we repent, He begins to put back together the broken pieces of our lives.  Your life may seem like a big ole mess, but it is never to big of a mess for God.  In fact God specializes in taking the impossible and making it possible!  Just trust Him and do what you know you need to do!

Third – God will bring REVIVAL! God has a whole new spiritual place that He wants to take you.  He has things that He wants to show you that will change your life for all eternity.  God wants to grow you from the inside-out and enable you to do awesome and mighty things for Him and His glory.

Make sure that you have made the turn away from self and go running just as fast as you can into the open arms of a loving Heavenly Father!  You will be glad, so glad that you did – as you experience His refreshing, restoration and revival!

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Tempted!

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Are you ever tempted?  That is really a crazy question, because the answer is obvious!  We are all tempted in many ways, on just about everyday of our lives!  

It starts in the morning when you need to get up and get going – you are tempted to just stay in the warm and cozy bed.  You get up and you are tempted to take shortcuts in getting ready, but your looks and smells are to important to mess that one up.  You are tempted to skip breakfast or to just grab a Snickers, instead of taking the time to eat something that is good for you.  When you get in your car, you are tempted to not wear you seat belt and you are tempted to speed to work, because you are running late!  (In fact – some of us have already given into a few at this point!)

When you get to work you are tempted to clean some body’s clock, because they looked at you funny or said the wrong thing!  You are tempted to get on Facebook and day dream a little, but there is just way to much to do.  You are tempted to really blow it at lunch, but you know – you won’t be fit for the afternoon if you really eat all of that food at the Chinese Buffet!  You are tempted to leave early – who would know and would that really be stealing?

When you get home you are tempted to crash on the couch with a glass of milk and eat all of the Oreo cookies!  You are tempted to watch a lot of different shows, but instead you give into the temptation to just flip from channel to channel to channel for over an hour.  You think:  Why did I just waste so much time watching a bunch of nothing?

Finally, tired of it all – you fall into bed and remember that you forgot to brush your teeth – you are tempted to say skip it, until you lean over to kiss your spouse and they say:  “No way Oreo breath!”  You fall a sleep and dream about temptation and actually wake up feeling guilty because you gave into the temptation in your dreams!

I hope you will join me this coming Sunday morning at Northwood as we learn from Jesus about how to face and overcome some of the more serious and threatening  temptations of life!  Hope to see ya Sunday at one of our two campuses!