Month: November 2019

From the Kitchen Table

Victorious Living Day 37

In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once.  When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ​‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”         Matthew 21:18-22

Things are just like we judge them.  How will we judge the things we see and do today?  Jesus said, “if you have faith and do not doubt (judge), you will …”  Doubting God is judging our thoughts more right than His thinking, our words better than His words.  Faith opens the door to the supernatural power & privilege of God as we judge, determine, that God’s word is right and real and right for our situation.  If forgiveness is the key to heavens door and thanksgiving is the handle that faith opens the door with, then prayer works as the hinges of that door.  Believers who pray, are the ones who judge God’s word as right and real.  Faith in God and His word stops to look at the tree, judge it according to God’s word and pray.  Faith opens the door to God’s supernatural generosity through prayer.  Judge God’s word today as right and real for you and your life.

From the Kitchen Table

Victorious Living Day 36

And they brought the boy to him. And when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. And Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.” And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, “He is dead.” But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”   Mark 9:20-29

This life with Jesus not only involves faith, it insists on it.  Forgiveness is the key and thanksgiving is the handle to heavens door but faith is what opens it.  It’s faith that opens the door to the greatness and generosity of God.  “All things are possible for one who believes.”   This life of Jesus happens in and through those who are convinced in Him and live with His convictions.  Convinced and convicted we pray.   Convinced by the words, walk and work of Jesus we live in the convictions of His word, work and will.  And prayer is where we learn to place our faith in His power and presence.  This pleases God who is pleased to please us.  This life insists on faith and faith insists on prayer.  It’s where we take hold of the hand of God so that we never have to walk alone and afraid on this earth.

From the Kitchen Table

Victorious Living Day 35

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.                    Romans 5:1-5

We’ve been justified by faith!  We’ve been made just because we’ve become convinced in the work, words and will of God.  We now live convinced in and convicted by God and His word through Jesus.  Convinced & convicted, we hold to God and His word as absolute truth and now we live in His peace, His promises, His power, His perspective, sharing His personal qualities.  That’s how deeply we are convinced and how powerfully we are convicted by His word, work, and will.  Our spirit lives by faith, what it believes to be true, not what we feel about truth.  Our spirit operates in what it believes to be true and if what we believe isn’t true, it won’t be trusted.  It’s a principle in life that we can only trust in what we believe in.  This all begins in our spirit and it happens through what we hear to be true.  Let’s live today in what God has said so that we can live today in what God has done.  It is our peace and prosperity.

From the Kitchen Table

Victorious Living Day 34

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”  So he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.                Luke 15:1-7

Heaven deals with reality and heaven rejoices over what is real, not just religious.  Looking for “joy”?  Get real about what’s wrong.  Repentance is about getting real about what’s really, wrong.  There’s nothing wrong with being religious unless being religious is about covering up wrong.   It’s so easy to be religious in our attendance, our attentiveness, and our appreciation for things that should be appreciated and miss the “joy” of heaven.  And it’s so easy to be accepting of religious attendance, attentiveness, and appreciation for things that should be appreciated that pretty soon the room is filled with what is religious, not real.  Don’t go there or don’t stay there.  Repentance is about being real with God, ourselves and others about what’s real and what really works.  There’s joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.  Sometimes that’s me and here’s what I know.  If I want the joy of heaven, here, it comes through repentance.  When we get real about what is wrong, we don’t have to be wrong about what is real and that’s where we find joy.  Repentance brings joy in heaven and around here.  Don’t be afraid to be real with God, yourself, and others and, by the way, don’t be wrong about being real.   This all happens best when it happens in love.  Just look at the lost sheep.

From the Kitchen Table

Victorious Living Day 33

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah Psalm 32:1-5
We can’t turn from something if we don’t turn to something else and we can’t conquer what is wrong if we don’t call it wrong. This thing of speaking is so significant. With our mouths, we call and call forth the life we live. It’s powerful! Conquering sin involves calling it what it is. When we call out wrong as wrong, we call forth right as right. There may be a lot of reasons why we did what we did but if we want to be free and forgiven, we must call wrong, wrong and right, right. There’s no freedom in calling out, cutting down or complaining about others. If we’re not happy, the problem is within ourselves. Wrong likes to cover itself with all the right excuses. The Psalmist said, “I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover up my iniquity…” Until we call it what it is, we will keep it as it is. We can make all sorts of excuses and blame whoever we want but if the house sticks, it’s because we’ve got a skunk in the mudroom. Admit it. God is ready to do the right thing in us and through us.

From the Kitchen Table

Victorious Living Day 32

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”                     John 1:14-15

There’s an important point to make, lesson to learn and it’s this, we turn to what we trust in.  That’s what repentance is, it’s turning away from one thing to turn to another because we trust in that other thing.  Jesus isn’t asking us to finally feel sorry and ask for His forgiveness, He’s asking us to turn away from our way of living and to His way of living.  Repentance is something we all must do at the get-go and it’s something we must be willing to do as we go.  This life of God begins with repentance and continues with repentance.  Walking in the supernatural presence and power of God will involve of repenting of our old ways of thinking and living to live in His way of thinking and living.  But we won’t turn away from something to nothing.  We can’t!  Our spirits live by faith.  We all believe something.  God is asking us today to believe, not only in Him, but in His gospel.  The gospel is God’s promise, perspective, purpose and practice for a life that is free, fantastic and forever.  The secret is to turn away from the world’s way to live in the God way because we’ve decided to trust in His way.  The secret to living this life is to choose His way over our way.

From the Kitchen Table

Victorious Living  Day 31

For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter         2 Corinthians 7:10-11

The Bible says that godly grief (sorrow) produces repentance.  It’s godly grief!  It’s the sorrow, shame, and suffering we feel when we’ve chosen death in some area of our lives and we’re able to acknowledge that we’ve been duped by the devil to live in death rather than life.  But because God is involved, we can be involved with God.  This sorrow isn’t about disappointing mom, it’s about disobeying the Master and this godly grief is something that’s going to happen.  Remember, because God is involved, we can be involved with God.  We get involved with God through what the Bible calls “repentance”.  Repentance is the process of exchanging our perspectives, passions, purposes, and practices for God’s perspective, passion, purpose, and practices.  It’s what happens when we confess our selfish attitudes, appetites, and ambitions as sin and we choose God’s word, way and will for our lives.  Repentance is not a one-time event in life but a lifetime exercise for life.  And remember, if God is involved, we can be involved with God.  When we repent, we can receive because He will respond.

From the Kitchen Table

Victorious Living Day 30

Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.        Acts 2:37-41

Cut to the heart.  That’s deep, that’s significant, that’s life-changing.  It’s what happens when we realize that we are in the wrong and what we did or are doing, hurts.  We live in a world of hurt that keeps hurting because the One who came to stop the hurt, we hurt and killed.  Yeah, we did that and do that with our stupid, selfish, stunts.  I don’t mean to be vulgar but our sin put Jesus on our cross and our sin will kill what Jesus wants to do in our lives if we don’t repent.  Repentance involves replacing what we’re thinking, what we’re doing and what we’re wanting with what God saying, doing and wanting.  Old habits die hard and that’s why we need to let God’s word cut us to the heart.  There’s going to be some pain but it’s for a greater promise.  God is doing something bigger and better in the lives of believers who are willing to replace their way of believing and behaving with His way.  That’s called repentance!  Here’s something to think about.  Where revelation ends, repentance stops.  When we quit  seeing and hearing God, we will quit honoring and serving Him too.  That’s what leaves us in a world of hurt.

From the Kitchen Table

Victorious Living Day 29

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. 1 John 2:1-17
Here’s the truth. We live for what we love, and we can’t hide it. And therein lies the problem to the victorious Christian life. That’s why we must look closely at what we do and why we do it. We can get so used to feeding the appetites of our skin that we neglect the hunger and thirst of our spirit. Remember, our spirit lives by faith, not food, not feelings, not the fortunes of this world. God created us to live this life believing in love and knowing the fun, fortunes, and future of that love. Maybe a lot of us like the idea of heaven but we love here. This life can be pretty, fantastic, but the secret is to love the Creator and Giver of life, not the life itself and He will give us a life of love The victorious Christian life is a lived-in love, on love and for love as we believe in, on and from His love for us. And it won’t be a guessing game, everyone in the seen and unseen worlds will know because we live for what we love.