Month: January 2020

The Kitchen Table  Day 11

Text:  Psalm 40:1-11; Genesis 27:30-38; Acts 1:1-5

But you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit…  Acts 1:5

There is a blessing that comes to those who believe.  That blessing is the promise of position, power, privilege and prosperity.  That blessing is connected to believing.  In the Old Testament, Jacob believed in it and stole it from Esau by deceiving his father Isaac.  It all sounds so wrong, but Esau took it for granted and Jacob took it to heart.  Isaac could pass the blessing down to one, but Jesus passes the blessing to all who believe.  That blessing comes with the presence, power, privilege and passion of God and we all need that promise.  Believe in a way that causes you to behave, want and wait for this blessing of God’s presence, the Holy Spirit.  He will set you apart and set you up to live in heaven.  The Holy Spirit comes from heaven and He brings heaven with Him.  Believe and behave today, wanting and waiting for the Holy Spirit’s counsel, care and capabilities.  It’s a blessing!

The Kitchen Table Day 10

Text:  Psalm 40:1-11; Isaiah 22:15-25; Galatians 6:6-12

Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust…  Psalm 40:4

Don’t forget where you came from or where this whole new life thing started.  It wasn’t you; it was Him.  The one who continues to trust in Him will be blessed.  God’s promises are real, and His word is true.  Through witness and worship, a believer walks in the blessings of God.  It’s a love thing.  Keep living in God’s love while living to love God and you’ll see.  Don’t be like Shebna who became proud and forgetful and lost his secure place, like a nail that wiggles loose in the wall and eventually falls out, dropping what it was holding.  Don’t be like the Galatians who exchanged Holy Spirit revelation or man-made religion.  That too is pride prying us lose from our secure place.  Don’t forget where you came from and let your witness and worship glorify God and no one else.  God blesses those who trust in Him.

The Kitchen Table Day 9

Text:  Psalm 89:5-37; Isaiah 51:1-16; Matthew 12:15-21

Righteousness and faithfulness are the foundation of His throne;

steadfast love and faithfulness go before Him.               Psalm 89:14

A bruised reed He will not break and a smoldering wick He will not

extinguish until He leads just to victory.                        Matthew 12:20

Here’s something to think about.  The ministry of Jesus grew as much from who He touched as it did from who He told.  He touched people; He didn’t just tell people.  There’s a saying that says, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”  The Bible says that righteousness and faithfulness are the foundations of His throne.  Those aren’t things we just talk about; they are things that describe what we do.  A testimony comes from the people we touch more than the people we tell and that’s what grows influence, respect and revival.  Today, don’t just talk to someone about the power of God, touch them with the power of God. 

The Kitchen Table   Day 8

Text:  Jeremiah 1:4-10; Acts 8:4-13

Before I formed you in the womb, I knew You…  Jeremiah 1:5

The most important thing about today is that God chose you to be here today.  He not only chose you for today, but He appointed you for today.  You’re here because God wants you here.  That’s easy to forget when life gets busy, difficult and ungrateful.  He has plans for you and through you,  Don’t be afraid of small or sorry beginnings.  God chose Jeremiah from nowhere and Saul from everywhere.  God is the Lord-Almighty, El-Shaddai.  Remember, He can love the most unlovable, help the most helpless, change the most unchangeable.  He can and will work in and through the poor and the rich, weak or the strong, the most significant or insignificant.  All He needs is a heart.  He can fix and form the rest.  So He waits for our hearts, not our history.  He is able to do what we can’t.  Just give Him your heart and let Him have His way. 

The kitchen Table Day 7

Text:  Psalm 89; Gen 35:1-15; Acts 10:44-48

The Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word.”  Acts 10:44

Understand this, God walks and works with those who hear His word.  He is not far from the worried, wounded and wanting but He walks with those who hear His word, who allow His word to live in their hearts.  He did that for Jacob at Bethel in Genesis 35 and David talks about it in Psalm 89.  He is El-Shaddai, God Almighty.  He can!  There is no one greater, stronger or more loving than He.  He is God-Almighty.  He can love the most unlovable, help the most helpless, heal the most hurt, save the most lost.  He walks and works with those who hear His word.  The Holy Spirit fell on  all who hear the word.  Be a believer today and walk with God.

The Kitchen Table

Topic:  The Voice of the Lord

Text:  Psalm 29; 1 Samuel 3; Acts 9:10-19

The voice of the Lord is powerful;

The voice of the Lord is full of majesty  Psalm 29:4

Learn to hear the voice of the Lord.  One of the first things and most important things a believer can learn is that God speaks and they can hear Him.  Those who hear the voice of God can and will live in the volition of God.  Those who can’t, won’t.  Without the voice of God we are left with the exemptions and excuses of man trying to be religious.  God does nothing without telling His servants.  Learn to hear Him.  We learn to hear Him as we get into His word, worship and with His people.  The word of the Lord is powerful and majestic.  The word of the Lord can and will call the most unqualified, qualified.  He called the boy Samuel and He called the murder, Saul who became Paul.  It’s His voice that clears the clutter and creates a way in the darkness.  Listen for it.  Actively listen by getting into His word in worship and with other believers.

The Kitchen Table  Day 8

By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.  Hebrews 11:27

Read:  Exodus 2:11-25, Hebrews 11:27-28

Learn to hear God!  Hearing God is one of the most important things a new believer can learn and an old believer can know.  God speaks to us.  He always has and always will.  That’s what makes this a relationship more than a religion.  His presence, power and purpose are found in His word and His word is real because it works and His word is right because His word is true.  Learn to hear the word of God and you’ll learn to hear the voice of God and it’s His voice that will give you courage, confidence and clarity in this life.  We are made strong by His voice and His words.  Learn to hear God just because you can.

The Kitchen Table

Day 7

By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.             Hebrews 11:27-29

There’s something about living this life with someone that makes a huge difference in our lives. That presence, that partnership, has a way of deflating our fears.  Moses was chased out of Egypt in fear but walked back in by faith and friendship with God.  The Bible says that he walked back in not being afraid.  By faith he lived with God and for God and the Bible says that the Destroyer could not touch them.  Let me tell you something, this life isn’t meant to be lived alone.  Relationships are God’s idea and we find the resources we have in this life in the relationship we make in this life.  Friendships fight fear, they just do.  So many think they can live this life on their own but that’s not God’s idea, that’s their idea.  Church is a God idea.  Marriage is a God idea.  Family is a God idea.  Want to defeat fear and foolishness in this life?  Develop your relationship with God and His people who will help you live by faith.  Get involved with God and His church and watch God change your fear to faith.

The Kitchen Table

Day 6

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.   Ephesians 3:14-21

This morning I want you to know that you don’t have to live this life on your own, if you don’t want to.  The love of God provides for us His Holy Spirit to help us.  Don’t neglect Him.  He will give us the muscle, mindset and morality we need to live from heaven.  The Holy Spirit will give us the power, the ability, and the convictions we need to live with God.  He has all we need.  We can’t even imagine all that God can and will do for us, with us, in us, and through us.  Just imagine God living with us 24/7.  You’ll find God where you find faith and He can do far more than you and I can even imagine.  Let that light up your day!

The Kitchen Table

Day 4

Genesis 28:10-22; Hebrews 11:13-22

“For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”  God (Genesis 28:15)

The story today finds us in a field with Jacob.  He’s running from his past and toward his future and in the middle of the night God has appeared to him in a dream at the top of a ladder that reaches to heaven with a promise.  One again, God’s plans are in His promises.  I’m going to bring you back and bless you, just know that.  Jacob, still in his rebellion, bargains with God.  If You do this, then I’ll do that.  That doesn’t stop God even though it will hurt Jacob.  When it’s all said and done, Jacob will have a heart-broken wife, unloved and unloving children and a heart pierced with pain.  But there will be God’s promise.  It will take faith to possess that promise and we know from Hebrews 11 that Jacob died in faith.  When God wants to change our fate, He addresses our faith., not necessarily our flesh.  The best way to break out of the old is to believe in the new.  We say, “show me and I’ll believe.”  God says, “Believe and I will show you.”  God never takes His promises away, but only those who live by faith come away with His promises.