Hold on to the Promises of God

Scripture: Joshua 14:6-9

Then the sons of Judah drew near to Joshua in Gilgal, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, "You know the word which the LORD spoke to Moses the man of God concerning you and me in Kadesh-barnea. "I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land, and I brought word back to him as it was in my heart. "Nevertheless my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt with fear; but I followed the LORD my God fully. "So Moses swore on that day, saying, 'Surely the land on which your foot has trodden will be an inheritance to you and to your children forever, because you have followed the LORD my God fully.'

 

Insights: In today’s verses we see Caleb holding on to the promise the Lord gave him concerning his possession of the Land in Canaan.  There are so many truths found in these few short verses, but I am only going to focus on one.  The Lord Jesus has promised us some truths as well.  Just as God promised Caleb the land, the Lord Jesus has promised us His presence.  Now in the context of Jesus telling us He would be with us always it is in relation to our going out and proclaiming the gospel.  Here is the point.  Just as Caleb took his promissory note to Joshua and cashed it in by reminding him of God’s promise to Caleb, so we are able to take Jesus’ promissory note and go evangelize the world and can have full confidence Jesus is right there with us.  One of the things Caleb did was “remind” God, as if God needed reminded, of His promise to Caleb.  When we are quoting back Scripture to the Lord as a “reminder” of His promises to us, we are acting by faith just as Caleb did regarding the literal land.  Beloved, this is a good practice to get into because in order for you to “remind” God of His promises, you are going to have to spend time with Him in His Word, the Bible.  Let me again encourage you to begin now reading along with us in our daily Bible reading of the Scriptures.  Today’s reading is Judges 1:1-3:30.  Ask the Lord to open your heart and reveal His promises and truths to you from this passage of Scripture, then live life confidently in His great presence.

 

Questions:

1. What promises has the Lord given to you?
2. Are you willing to wait forty-five years for the promise to come to pass?

Prayer: Father, let my heart be strengthened and increase my faith so I might be able to believe without reservation or fear the promises You have given to me.  I know they will come to pass at the appointed time.  Let me not grow weary in   Amen.

Salvation is Followed by Obedience

Scripture: Deuteronomy 30:16

in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the LORD your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it.

 

Insights: It was in this third point that the emotional cloud I wrote about Tuesday needs to get clarified.  We had on our sign out front of the church an announcement for the movie Courageous written in Spanish.  It was a part of our C3 (Carrying Christ to our Community) outreach event we had over the weekend.  The event went late into the evening on Saturday and we had not gotten to the sign to change it before Sunday.  Some people in our church had the audacity to ask me if we needed to learn Spanish to attend FBCBG before the Sunday morning service and told me it was stupid to have a sign in Spanish.  Mind you, our community is comprised of 50% Latino/Hispanics and our outreach was geared specifically at them.  Today’s verse is a command to obedience.  It is a command to live and multiply.  Now when the Lord gave the Israelites this command it was about literal procreation, but we can take the same principle and apply it to our spiritual lives.  The only reason that one is left here on earth after his or her conversion is to “procreate” for the kingdom of God.  In other words, we are to obediently tell other people about the love of Jesus.  We are to spread the gospel.  We are to sow seeds of redemption to those who are perishing.  We had 51 surveys filled out during C3 and of those 22 were interested in a Bible Study in Spanish, 6 were interested in a Bible Study in Creole, 2 desired a Bible and 4 prayed to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  14% of those who were surveyed came to the movie (which was in Spanish with English subtitles) and they were blessed.  Beloved of FBCBG, let me tell you again, as I did Sunday, I will become all things to all people that I might when some for Christ (1 Corinthians 9:22).  As long as the Lord allows me the privilege of being the pastor of FBCBG, then I will be intentionally reaching out to our community which is comprised of Spanish speakers, Creole speakers, English speakers and others that I am unaware of as yet.  We, as a body of believers, are going to obey God’s commands and multiply in this land.  You have a choice.  You can choose to get on board and walk in obedience to the Lord or you can choose to rebel against the commands of the Lord and fight against those who are about proclaiming the love of Jesus to lost people.  Just be aware, if you choose the later, you will not falter the Lord’s plan to reach the lost of Bowling Green.  My prayer is you will humble yourself and realize it is not about you, but about Him and walk in obedience to Him.  Let His great name be praised in all the earth!

 

Questions:

1. Do you understand that if you are a Christ-follower, then your primary act of obedience is the proclamation of the gospel?
2. Do you understand that any form of resistance to those who are sharing the gospel is actually rebellion against the Lord and is the pinnacle of self-aggrandizement?

Prayer: Father, forgive me when I am selfish and self-serving.  Transform my heart and make it one that fully obeys You and desires to tell the world about Your great love in Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Salvation is a Choice

Scripture: Deuteronomy 30:15

"See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity;

 

Insights: Today’s verse sets before us the choice we all have to make.  The Father told the children of Israel the parameters that were set before them.  Those parameters were life and death.  They were either going to choose life with the Lord God or they were going to choose rebellion and turn away from Him.  If they chose rebellion then they would die and be separated from the love of the Father.  Those two choices are all we still have this day.  We are either going to spend eternity with God or we are going to spend eternity separated from God’s love and grace.  Let me interject here another truth in regards to this decision making process.  If you say, “I will wait and make that decision later,” then you have already chosen death and eternal separation from the Father.  In other words, you are not promised tomorrow.  You are not promised another hour of life.  You are not promised another minute of life.  If you were to die this very minute and had said, “I will wait and make that decision later,” then you would have chosen death.  Jesus Christ came to this earth to die for your sins and purchase a place for you in eternity with Him.  The only way you can enter into that eternity is to receive His grace gift of sacrifice as your atoning work.  In other words, you must cry out to Jesus and ask Him to save you from your sin and to give you eternal life through Him.  At the end of the day, these two options the Lord gives to us in today’s verse are the only options that we have—life or death.  It is my prayer you choose life.

 

Questions:

1. Which choice are you going to choose, life or death?
2. Do you understand that to say, “I will wait and make that decision later” is the same as choosing death?

Prayer: Father, this decision is the most important decision we as humanity will ever make.  We will either spend eternity with You or in eternity separated from Your love and grace in the Lake of Fire  I choose life, Father and thank You for this gift of grace.  Amen.

Salvation is Easy

Scripture: Deuteronomy 30:11-14

"For this commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach. "It is not in heaven, that you should say, 'Who will go up to heaven for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?' "Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, 'Who will cross the sea for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?' "But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may observe it.

 

Insights: I did not write my blog yesterday and have wrestled with writing for this week.  When one is at his weakest, Satan often attacks.  This scenario is what occurred Sunday in my life.  I preached the sermon the Lord prepared for me to preach, but I am still, as I reflect on the message, am not certain how much of the message was Scott and how much of the message was from the Holy Spirit.  After further contemplation, I feel compelled to write my daily Thoughts by Scott this week and try to smooth out some of the emotional wrinkles of this past Sunday.  These opening words are appropriate to start with for today’s thoughts because the content is fairly straight forward and easy to comprehend.  These verses from today’s reading express the simplicity of salvation.  In other words, we do not have to earn our own salvation.  If salvation was determined by our performance, then we would brag and boast in our accomplishment.  Rather, our salvation is near us in our mouths and in our hearts.  Paul wrote, “But what does it say? ‘THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART’ -- that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation (Romans 10:8-10).”  You are not capable of saving yourself.  It is a gift from God, which makes salvation an easy thing.  All that is required is to humbly surrender all of who you are to Him and trust Him only for your salvation.  My prayer is you will do that today if you have never entered into a relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ.  Call on Him today and be saved. 

 

Questions:

1. Have you come to the place in your spiritual life where you recognize salvation is not based on your ability, but that of God’s ability?
2. Are you still trying to save yourself?

Prayer: Father, thank You salvation is as simple as asking Jesus into my heart and surrendering to Him as my Lord and Savior.  Help me grow in grace with You.  Amen.

Periling Oration Presented

Scripture: Numbers 13:31-33

But the men who had gone up with him said, "We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us." So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, "The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. "There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight."
 

Insights: Our final thought this week, unfortunately, focuses on the negative aspect of the facts.  In other words, on Tuesday we learned that the spies gathered the facts of the situation while out on their excursion of exploring the Promised Land.  Based on those facts they then had a choice to make.  They could choose to focus on the positive or the negative.  Yesterday we observed Caleb’s firm commitment to the promises of God and the facts before him.  Ten of the spies, however, focused on the negative aspects of those very same facts and they persuaded the people to rebel against the Lord.  It was for this reason that I titled this past Sunday’s sermon The Perceptions of Reality.  Each spy observed the same things, but two of them had a different perception on the scenario before them.  They were found faithful.  The other ten focused on the negative and were judged according to their disbelief.  Beloved, the next time I preach, which will be the 23^rd of March, I will expand on this idea of choices.  I pray you come to our mourning worship service that day and learn more about our decisions and the consequences of such decisions.  Choose Christ and you will be amazed at His faithfulness.

 

Questions:

1. Are you presently choosing to focus on the negative and disbelieve God’s promises for your life?
2. If you are, what will it take for you to stop and start choosing to focus on the positive aspects of faith and God’s promises?

Prayer: Father, thank You that each day I have a chance to start over.  I can draw a line in the sand each day and say, “Starting today, I will choose to follow the Lord.”  Help me Lord to be faithful throughout this day.  Amen.

Perfect Opportunity Presented

Scripture: Numbers 13:30

Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, "We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it."

Insights: Today we will look at the first kind of response to the facts we have observed.  In other words, we noticed yesterday that there were both positive and negative facts presented by the spies who went into the Promised Land.  Based on those facts we can focus on the positive aspects of the facts or we can focus on the negative ones.  The choice is ours and our decision reflects our faith.  In today’s verse we see the response of Caleb.  As a side note, Joshua was also a voice for this decision.  Caleb focused on the positive aspects of the facts.  He believed in the God who had promised them that He would take them into this Promised Land.  As a result, his response was, “let’s go take the land, boys!”  Beloved, Caleb’s response ought to be our response.  I think it is safe to say that most of us have witnessed men and women who live their lives based on this kind of obedience.  When we look at those individuals is it not safe to say that we are inspired by them.  In fact, often times, we wish we had that kind of faith.  Let me challenge you to believe the truth of who you are in Jesus.  If you are truly born again, then you have that kind of faith.  You can hold fast to the promises Jesus gives to you.  As a result, by faith, you can choose to focus on the positive possibilities in regards to the facts before you.  I promise you, your life will be a much more enjoyable journey if you choose to follow after Jesus and believe His statements regarding the facts of your situation.  Walk with all of your heart toward Jesus.

Questions:

1. Are you presently walking by faith and believing the Lord for the promises He extends to you?
2. If you are not, what will it take for you to start choosing to focus on the positive aspects of faith and God’s promises?

Prayer: Father, change my heart and lead me into the paths of righteousness.  Allow my life to reflect complete obedience to Your will and Your ways.  Let me clearly know Your commands and promises and be glorified through my devotion to You.  Amen.

Proofs were Obtained

Scripture: Numbers 13:27-29

Thus they told him, and said, "We went in to the land where you sent us; and it certainly does flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. "Nevertheless, the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large; and moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there. "Amalek is living in the land of the Negev and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites are living in the hill country, and the Canaanites are living by the sea and by the side of the Jordan."

Insights: Whenever the Lord gives us a new assignment it is wise to investigate and research as many aspects regarding the assignment as possible.  As we conduct our inquiries we are going to learn some positive facts, as well as, some negative facts.  The Israelite spies came back and reported to the people the truth in regards to the land that was flowing with milk and honey.  They even brought back grapes to show the fruitfulness of the land.  At the same time, they also reported back about the people of the land and the cities in which those people lived.  At this point in the report, they have done nothing wrong.  They are just telling the facts of the situation.  Beloved, it is important for us to remember this truth whenever we begin a new campaign for the Lord.  The Lord is the One who gives us the instruction to go and then we obey.  As we are going we use our gifts and talents to examine the situation.  From these observations we will learn both positive and negative aspects in regards to the Lord’s commission for us.  What is at stake, however, is how we respond to the information we have acquired.  The rest of this week we will focus in on the two types of responses we can give in regards to the information obtained.

Questions:

1. Are you able to accurately assess your situations you are about to face?
2. Do you focus more on the positive or the negative aspects of your assessment?

Prayer: Father, forgive me when I focus more on the negative aspects of Your commands and grant me the ability to see with Your eyes.  Let me see what is truly possible in the midst of every situation and challenge which lies in front of me.  Amen.

They Partially Obeyed

Scripture: Numbers 13:25-26

When they returned from spying out the land, at the end of forty days, they proceeded to come to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the sons of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; and they brought back word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land.

Insights: In order to understand today’s Thoughts by Scott you need to understand a little of the back story behind this passage.  If you were to go from chapter six of Numbers, which we looked at Sunday evening on the second of March, to this thirteenth chapter and give a one word summary of those chapters, what you would find is: complaining.  The Israelites grumbled, murmured and complained through every bit of their travels from Sinai to Kadesh-Barnea.  If you have been surrounded by negativity for days on end, how do you think your attitude is going to be?  Are you going to have a positive or negative attitude?  Without the help from the Lord our God, more than likely your attitude is going to stink.  When your attitude stinks, you are less likely to fully give your heart and activity to the objective before you.  In other words, you are going to give second bests and the leftovers of your energy.  Now that brings us to today’s verses.  These twelve men went into the Promised Land.  These twelve men brought back evidence of their adventures.  These twelve men gave a report.  Of these twelve men, however, only two were fully obedient to the Lord.  As we unpack this passage this week we are going to discover the full extent of these ten men and their disobedience to the Lord.  So, Beloved, here is the point of today’s thoughts: partial obedience is not obedience at all.  In fact, partial obedience is disobedience.  These men did do some of the commands of the Lord, but their hearts were not in it.  As a result, they persuaded the rest of the Israelites to rebel against the Lord and this action reveals the true nature of their hearts.  Whatever the Lord commands us to be about; we need to give our entire heart, mind, soul and strength to it.  We must whole heartedly obey the Lord and serve Him for His glory and fame.  Beloved, don’t be satisfied with partial obedience when the Lord’s standard is total obedience!

Questions:

1. Is there a command the Lord has given to you that you have not fully obeyed?
2. Are you aware that partial obedience is really disobedience?

Prayer: Father, forgive me when I partially obey You, which is really totally disobeying You.  May my life reflect total obedience to You and may my obedient actions bring You glory.  Amen.

If You Bless the Lord, He will Bless You

Scripture: Leviticus 26:9-13

'So I will turn toward you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will confirm My covenant with you. 'You will eat the old supply and clear out the old because of the new. 'Moreover, I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul will not reject you. 'I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people. 'I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would not be their slaves, and I broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.

Insights: We close this week with the benefit we receive if we are a blessing to the Lord.  We are the ones who are truly blessed.  Look at the verses for today’s reading again.  The Lord is promising a relationship with us.  He has taken on the responsibility of providing for us, His children.  Let me caution you about blessings from the Lord.  I believe this is truly an American phenomenon, but because of so many of our TV preachers, we in America often times associate God’s blessing with money.  It is true the Lord will bless us monetarily from time to time.  Often it is in regards to our basic needs.  It is not, however, a promise from the Lord to make us all healthy, wealthy and wise as our name it and claim it preachers espouse.  The blessings the Lord Jesus promised to us are many, but the three predominant were: 1. His peace. 2. His Joy. 3. His presence.  In other words, He would never leave us nor forsake us.  Beloved, I promise you the peace, joy, and presence of the Lord Jesus are far greater than any financial blessing you could ever obtain.  Let me also speak briefly as to our attitude in regards to God’s blessings.  We ought not to take His gifts of grace for granted or with a heart of entitlement.  The Lord does not HAVE to give us anything.  As our spiritual Father, I feel pretty confident in saying, it gives Him pleasure to bestow blessings on us in the same way an earthly father is brought pleasure when he surprises his child with a gift.  We ought to express a sincere and true response of gratitude to the Father for His grace.  I cannot fully communicate the joy one receives as a result of being blessed by Jesus with His three predominant blessings, but it is truly overwhelming.  May our response bless the Lord!

Questions:

1. In what ways has the Lord blessed you this week?
2. Have you responded with a grateful heart or an entitlement heart?

Prayer: Father, forgive me when I take for granted Your blessings or am presumptuous as to demand or expect such blessings from You.  Let my heart rather be one of gratitude for Your hand of favor.  May my response to Your grace be appropriate in Your eyes.  Amen.

Courageously Advance the Lord's Kingdom

Scripture: Leviticus 26:6-8

'I shall also grant peace in the land, so that you may lie down with no one making you tremble. I shall also eliminate harmful beasts from the land, and no sword will pass through your land. 'But you will chase your enemies and they will fall before you by the sword; five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword.

Insights: Today´s verses specifically deal with the Lord´s blessing on the children of Israel as it relates to advancing the geographical territory of their land.  As I preached it Sunday, however, was from a spiritual perspective.  I want you to understand I recognize this passage is not speaking about a spiritual advancement of God´s kingdom, but a literal land conquest for Israel.  In regards to the spiritual, we, as born again Christians, are to be about the business of reproduction.  In other words, we are to be about advancing the Lord´s kingdom courageously.  In the physical sense God told the children of Israel that five would chase a hundred and a hundred would chase ten thousand.  In the same way we ought to be about sharing the love of Jesus.  Could you imagine what the church could accomplish, under the power of the Holy Spirit, if five people were intentionally sharing the gospel with people every week?  Visualize what would happen to a community if one hundred people said, “I am going to share Jesus with at least one person this week.”  How many of those conversations would lead to a genuine conversion experience.  Imagine even further if we were really courageous and each of those one hundred said, “I am going to share with at least five people this week.”  The impact of such a resolve would be incredible.  Beloved, let me challenge you this week to intentionally look for opportunities to share the gospel with lost people.  Intentionally start up conversations with people you don’t know and start building relationships with them.  Step outside of your comfort zone and began allowing the Holy Spirit to be your strength, guide and the One who empowers you for the advancement of Christ Jesus’ kingdom.  May God be brought glory as we obey Him!

Questions:

1. Have you shared your faith this week with anyone?
2. In what ways are you strategically looking and seeking to spread the gospel for the advancement of Jesus´ kingdom?

Prayer: Father, forgive me for those times in which I have failed to boldly share Your love with a lost world.  Increase my burden for the lost and grant me a passionate heart to share the love of Jesus with all I meet.  Amen.

Offer Your First-fruits to the Lord

Scripture: Leviticus 26:3-5

'If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments so as to carry them out, then I shall give you rains in their season, so that the land will yield its produce and the trees of the field will bear their fruit. 'Indeed, your threshing will last for you until grape gathering, and grape gathering will last until sowing time. You will thus eat your food to the full and live securely in your land.

Insights: In today’s verses we see the Lord promising to bless the people in their agricultural or financial realm.  On Sunday I used this as a spring board to express our side of this equation and our blessing the Lord with our finances.  In other words, God requires we give Him the first-fruit of the produce we receive from His blessing of abundant crops.  A first-fruit starts at ten percent of our gross income.  Now I emphasis that it starts here, because the reality is we are living under the age of grace and ought to regularly seek the Father out and ask Him if we ought to give more.  In fact, we ought to get to the place where we are living on the minimal amount and giving the majority of our income to the Lord for the advancement of His kingdom.  The Lord expects these first-fruits as a test on our obedience to Him, as well as, a reflection of our trust in Him.  There are going to be times, Beloved, when it makes no sense whatsoever to tithe to the Lord, but it is what the Lord requires.  Your actions, in that situation, are going to prove whether or not you believe the Lord is going to be faithful.  If you obediently give, then you are proving your faith.  If you say, things are too tight, I can’t afford to give, then you are still proving your faith.  In this later case, you are proving your lack of faith.  Beloved, let me challenge you to be a blessing to the Lord and faithfully give your first-fruit tithe to the Master.  You will be better off for it in the long run, even if it does not make sense right now.

Questions:

1. Are you withholding your first-fruits from the Lord?
2. Do you understand the requirement of tithing is actually a testing of your faith?

Prayer: Father, all that I have belongs to You.  Help me Lord to live my life in complete and total obedience to You.  May my financial stewardship show this kind of faithfulness to You.  Amen.

Worship the Lord ONLY

Scripture: Leviticus 26:1-2

'You shall not make for yourselves idols, nor shall you set up for yourselves an image or a sacred pillar, nor shall you place a figured stone in your land to bow down to it; for I am the LORD your God. 'You shall keep My sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary; I am the LORD.

Insights: In our world there are a lot of things that fight for our worship.  Family, careers, possessions, hobbies and the list could go on and on regarding things that fight for our worship.  Yet, in today’s verses we see that our worship is to be given to the Lord ONLY.  He is the only One worthy of our worship and we ought to give it to Him in our private life, as well as, in our corporate life.  I state the private life because in verse one it is focusing on the land of a singular individual and the conduct of such a person.  I then mentioned verse two because it is focusing on the communities worship in the sanctuary, which is the corporate meeting location for the body of believers.  Beloved, here is the point: every moment of our lives ought to be centered and focused on the Lord.  He ought to be the first thing we are thinking about when we wake up and He ought to be the last thing we are thinking about before we go to sleep.  He also ought to be the focus of our thoughts throughout the day and whatever task the Lord has given us to accomplish throughout that day ought to be done as an offering to the Lord.  If we are living our lives in such union and worship to the Lord, then there ought to be an incessant desire to meet with the rest of the body of believers and worship the Lord together.  Yet, we allow all of those things previously mentioned to grab our attention and before we realize it, days and weeks have gone by and we have not even thought about the Lord, let alone worship Him.  Beloved, let me encourage you to begin right now to reorient your focus on Jesus.  Let Him be your all consuming passion and desire.  It is, after all, what He commanded of you because He is the LORD.

Questions:

1. Have you awoken this day ready to offer worship to the Lord in your private life?
2. After the joy of corporate worship yesterday, are you already longing for Wednesday?

Prayer: Father, let my life be consumed with worship for You.  Transform my heart and make it sensitive to Your presence and conform my life to Your will and desires. As I walk in such obedience may it be a pleasing offering of worship to You.  Amen.