From the Kitchen Table

The Kitchen Table 2022     Day 6

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead..

1 Peter 1:3 (NIV)

Love creates hope that inspires faith.  Anything else is just lust.  Real love inspires us to be someone, to do something, and to go somewhere.  That’s what God’s love does in and through our lives.

The Kitchen Table 2022               Day 5

And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; ⁴ and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; ⁵ and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.                      Romans 5:3-5

Hope lives in the convinced and committed heart.  A lot of people want hope but they don’t have hope because they haven’t let the hope of God live in their hearts.  There is nothing easy about God’s hope, but it is simple.  It’s all a matter of believing God, not just believing in God.  It’s about believing God’s word and work and will over all other temptations and troubles.   Jesus said that we must be willing to take up our cross and follow Him.  That means we must believe and behave His word, work, and will at all costs.  Only heat, the cost of love, reveals the heart of the believer.  It’s not that God’s love ever stops toward us but that our heart doesn’t believe it.  God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.  Believe it!  Let His hope have its way in your heart today.

The Kitchen Table 2022               Day 4

³ Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴ and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵ 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 5:3-5

Let your faith inform your face and let your face inform your foes today.  We have the awesome love of God in our hearts, and we are full of hope.  Faith is what we believe in and hope is what we look for along the way.  And we know that in ALL things God is working for the good and so we rejoice rather than rumble in sorrow or fear.  The more we sing the stronger we get and the more sincere our hope becomes.  Sometimes we just need to say it out loud, Jesus is Lord!  Our flesh and our foe may try to slow us but faith that sings will see God show us His great love.

The Kitchen Table 2022               Day 3

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. ³ Romans 5:2-3

Hey, let your faith inform your face, it’s the only way to live this marvelous life God gives us by faith.  By faith, believing God, we have access to His grace.  Grace is right there for anyone who believes.  Jesus has already made it available.  We must tap into that grace and we do that by faith in His word and His work.  This is not a time to be sad and sorry.  When we believed we put our hand into the great big hand of the Almighty, All-powerful God and Creator.  So, rejoice!  Exalt!  Let’s let our faith inform our face of the future (hope) God has for us and REJOICE!  Faith is what we believe in, and Hope is what we look for in this life.

The Kitchen Table 2022               Day 2

Therefore, having been justified by faith,  we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.

Romans 5:1-2

Faith is what we believe in, and hope is what we believe for or look for in this life.  The ability to believe was woven into the heart of every man and the ability to believe God gives every believer access to the “grace” of God.  The grace of God is the undeserved, unreserved, and unrestricted love of God working in our lives.  The love we are walking in is directly linked to the one we’re believing in right now.  We possess and participate in God’s great love by faith, believing every word and work of God every step of every day along the way.  We can believe, God has given us the gift of faith so that we can live in the greatness of His love.  For by grace, you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; Ephesians 2:8

The Kitchen Table 2022               Day 1

Therefore, having been justified by faith,  we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. ³  And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; ⁴ and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; ⁵ and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Romans 5:1-5

Faith is what we believe for, and hope is what we look for in our lives.  We are justified by faith.  Faith is what we “believe” in.  Hope is what we look for because of what we believe in.  We are justified by faith or because we not only believe in Jesus, but we believe Jesus and everything Jesus said and did for us before the cross, on the cross, through the cross and after the cross.  That faith means that we constantly have the hope of His presence which brings peace.  Don’t look for your problem, look for His presence.  He is here!

The Game of Life Day 115

Navigating Life’s Highway: Defined

BLESSED ARE THOSE WHOSE LAWLESS DEEDS HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN, AND WHOSE SINS HAVE BEEN COVERED. “BLESSED IS THE MAN WHOSE SIN THE LORD WILL NOT TAKE INTO ACCOUNT.” Romans 4:7-8

Forgiven people are free to be happy, really happy, with the people they meet, the path they are on, and the purpose they live for in this life. For blessed people, pleasure isn’t a tool to deal with the pain. Blessed people are free to be in the moment, on the mission, and mindful of others along the way. That’s their pleasure. They make for great company on this highway of life. But forgiveness comes by faith in the One that really matters from the one that really matters. We need His forgiveness that comes from faith in His word and His work on the cross. The Bible says these people are blessed. This is where we start living by faith.

The Game of Life             Day 114

Navigating Life’s Highway:  Defined

But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness, ⁶ just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: “BLESSED ARE THOSE WHOSE LAWLESS DEEDS HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN, AND WHOSE SINS HAVE BEEN COVERED.                     Romans 4:5-7

Forgiveness is the key to every other thing in this life.  That sounds strange but it’s true.  All of us have forever but what we all need is forgiveness.  Forgiveness determines where we will live forever.  We receive forgiveness by faith in God’s word and work.  It’s disturbing how our memories of past actions and accidents cancel our confidence in life.  We don’t want to live or drive through this life in fear, failure, or fantasy.  It all starts with believing God for forgiveness.  God credits those who believe as innocent and right.  With that confidence, we can live in God’s blessing.

The Game of Life             Day 113

Navigating Life’s Highway:    Defined By Our Driving

What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? ² For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. ³ For what does the Scripture say? “ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.”                      Romans 4:1-3

We, because of sin, find ourselves living by works to work out how we live.  It’s really manipulation and manipulation is all the devil left Adam with following his disbelief and disobedience.  Living by works, rather than faith, is living by manipulation so that we can manipulate how we live.  God is not a man that He should live (Numbers 23:19).  God doesn’t work in manipulation and neither do His people.  Faith believes it doesn’t deceive.  Faith has fruit but it doesn’t work to produce it.

The Game of Life             Day 112

Navigating Life’s Highway;    Defined by Your Driving

For what does the Scripture say? “ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.”

Romans 4:3

Being precedes doing!  And what we believe determines what we will be and what we will be determines how we will behave.  We can’t hide.  Jesus said that a tree is known by its’ fruit.  Abraham was defined by his faith.  His faith determined how he drove through this life and that’s what faith does.  We don’t just look to faith when are in a place of need.  We live out what we really believe in and that is what we see on life’s highway.  Believe God; don’t just believe in God.  Faith comes by hearing what we believe to be true and driving finds out what we have faith in.