Week 17: Isaiah 30:18-26

 

Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him. O people in Zion, inhabitant in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you. Although the Lord has given you bread of privation and water of oppression, He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher. Your ears will hear a word behind you, "This is the way, walk in it," whenever you turn to the right or to the left. And you will defile your graven images overlaid with silver, and your molten images plated with gold. You will scatter them as an impure thing, and say to them, "Be gone!" Then He will give you rain for the seed which you will sow in the ground, and bread from the yield of the ground, and it will be rich and plenteous; on that day your livestock will graze in a roomy pasture. Also the oxen and the donkeys which work the ground will eat salted fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. On every lofty mountain and on every high hill there will be streams running with water on the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. The light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, on the day the LORD binds up the fracture of His people and heals the bruise He has inflicted.

Isaiah 30:18-26

 

 

I absolutely love this passage.  I apologize that it's a little long, but there is just too much goodness to ignore!  I don't think there are any of us out there who would be willing to say we don't want the direction of the Lord.  I am at one of those times in my life where I need His direction so badly.  So many life altering decisions that I have coming up, I really need God to guide my steps.  I think we all need to get to a point where this desire of God's direction becomes a necessity in everything we do, even in our daily routines.

That is what first drew me to this passage though.  Verse 21, "Your ears will hear a word behind you, 'This is the way, walk in it,' whenever you turn to the right or to the left."  I have actually had this verse written up on a little white board on our refrigerator at home for about a year.  Sadly, as too many things God bring to my attention, it has been up there so long that I had forgotten about it.  Just another decoration that's been hanging on the wall so long it now gets overlooked.

God brought it back to me this week though; and then some.  I saw that verse on the fridge and prayed for God to guide me.  Then I decided that I would go back and look up some of the different translations of that verse.  What I found was the rest of the promise!  It completely blew me away!  The promise could really go all the way to the end of chapter 30, but I decided to cut it off at verse 26.

I love how this promise starts off though.  God, the Creator of the universe, LONGS to be gracious to us!  God, the Lord of EVERYTHING, is literally waiting on His throne to have compassion...ON US!  And the only thing that is asked of us in return?  That we long for Him.

When we long for God, He longs for us.  Even when we don't, He still longs for us, He still pursues us.  He longs to be gracious to us; He waits to have compassion on us...so what are we waiting for?  He can't come to us with His promises until we come to Him.  We can't receive His gift until we ask for it.  Once we start to long for Him - the way He longs for us - that is when His promises start coming alive.  So let's look at the promises we have in store for us in this verse alone:

1. You will weep no longer
2. He will be gracious to your cry, hear it, and answer it
3. He will no longer hide himself from you - your eyes will see your Teacher
4. You will hear His voice and He will guide you
5. All idols, addictions, impurities - anything that gets in the way of your relationship with God - will be defiled in His presence.  He will give you the strength to tell these things "Be gone!" (How powerful is that?!?)
6. He will give you rain for the seed you sow, food from that seed and it will be rich and plenteous...in other words, God will bless your socks right off!
7. I love verse 26 too...your nights will be as bright as day, no more darkness!  Your days will be seven times brighter than they were before you came to Jesus!  He will bind you up and heal you!

God doesn't ask anything from us, but that we long for Him the way He longs for us.  Come to Him and He will come to you.  I was joking with Jake Kohring this morning because we were trying to isolate one of these verses to move on, but there was just too much goodness!  I made the comment that we should just move on the whole book of Isaiah this week.  There is so much truth in that though. 

We are moving on promises week by week.  One (ish) promise a week.  But when you come to Jesus - when you long for Him the way He longs for you, every single promise in the Bible becomes YOURS!  Even if you aren't real sure about all of this, come seek Jesus anyway.  When you find Him, and you will find Him, it will be impossible not to fall head over heels for His grace and mercy.

So let's move this week friends!  Let's pursue God with the same tenacity, desire, longing and love that He has been so faithful to pursue us with.  Let's long for God the way He longs for us, and let Him open these promises in our lives!

Week 10: Psalm 77:12(7-20)

Hey gang!  This week we are going to be moving on Psalm 77; sticking with the meditation theme for one more week.  The entire Psalm is outstanding, but verse 12 is the verse that has to do with meditation.

Will the Lord reject forever? And will He never be favorable again? Has His lovingkindness ceased forever? Has His promise come to an end forever? Has God forgotten to be gracious, Or has He in anger withdrawn His compassion? Selah. Then I said, "It is my grief, That the right hand of the Most High has changed." I shall remember the deeds of the LORD; Surely I will remember Your wonders of old. I will meditate on all Your work And muse on Your deeds. Your way, O God, is holy; What god is great like our God? You are the God who works wonders; You have made known Your strength among the peoples. You have by Your power redeemed Your people, The sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah. The waters saw You, O God; The waters saw You, they were in anguish; The deeps also trembled. The clouds poured out water; The skies gave forth a sound; Your arrows flashed here and there. The sound of Your thunder was in the whirlwind; The lightnings lit up the world; The earth trembled and shook. Your way was in the sea And Your paths in the mighty waters, And Your footprints may not be known. You led Your people like a flock By the hand of Moses and Aaron.
(Psalms 77:7-20)

Kind of a cool little personal story behind this verse:  A few weeks ago, we had a meeting with some of the friends joining us on these promises and decided to move on Joshua 1:8-9, then Psalm 119, then Psalm 77:12.  That was the order that I had presented them to the group, so that was the order we decided to move on them.

Then on February 25, while we were moving on Joshua 1:8-9, the Lord gave me the verse from Jeremiah 32:27, "Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for me?"  I really felt like God was telling me that something big was going to happen - maybe not even to me, but to someone moving on these promises.

It was a good kick in the pants to stop "praying like a sissy" and start trusting in the Lord to deliver!  I mean, come on!  He's God...NOTHING is too difficult for Him!  So for the rest of that week and into the next week meditating on Psalm 119, Jana and I pressed in and prayed hard.  We asked for the impossible.

And to date...nothing has happened.  In fact, last week I had a particularly bad week.  There have been "mountains" in my life that I have been praying to move and they all seemed to come crashing down on me last Wednesday.  I actually made the comment to Jana, "I know what David meant when he said, 'My eyes fail with longing for Your word, while I say, "When will You comfort me?"'  I have been looking for God's answer to this prayer for so long, I just physically don't know that I can look for it anymore."

"Ummm...Jeremy," you're probably thinking, "not the kind of thing you want to post to get people to join your group."  I know, it doesn't exactly inspire does it?  But that's because the story isn't finished!

I have to be honest, we chose these verses to move on because they all had to do with meditation.  I really didn't study all of them in depth before I picked them.  I read through the verses, but generally I don't read the context of the verses until a few days before we move on them...primarily so I can write this blog.

God knows His word though (duh!), and I believe that He laid out this plan and my circumstances perfectly for this exact moment.  Reaching a point of brokenness is no fun, but it can also be the most beautiful thing in the world.  When you reach the point when you can't solve the problem on your own, when you have exhausted all avenues and there is only one road left to take - total and utter dependence on God - that is when things can finally start to move.  You can't give up though.  You have to press in, even when your eyes fail looking for God to come to the rescue.

That's why I love Psalm 77 so much, and that's why I love that God designed it to come this week; the perfect time for me (and hopefully you as well).  Psalm 77 is all about pressing in.  The writer is filled with the same questions I have been asking this past week:

"Will the Lord reject forever? Will he never show his favor again? Has his unfailing love vanished forever? Has his promise failed for all time? Has God forgotten to be merciful? Has he in anger withheld his compassion?"

But look at what the author does when these questions threaten to destroy his faith.  When doubt begins to attack and strangle out the hope that is ours. 

Then I thought, "To this I will appeal: the years of the right hand of the Most High." I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds. Your ways, O God, are holy. What god is so great as our God? You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples. With your mighty arm you redeemed your people, the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. Selah The waters saw you, O God, the waters saw you and writhed; the very depths were convulsed. The clouds poured down water, the skies resounded with thunder; your arrows flashed back and forth. Your thunder was heard in the whirlwind, your lightning lit up the world; the earth trembled and quaked. Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not seen. You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

 The same is true today.  We serve the same God who parted the sea for Moses and Aaron.  The same God who brought down the walls of Jericho.  The same God who slew Goliath.  I don't know if we don't believe those stories, or if we just don't believe that they happen anymore, but we serve that same GOD! 

I don't know that you'll be in a situation where you literally need a sea parted so you can walk through it, but I know that God can do it.  I don't know that you or I will literally need to break down the walls of a fortified city or kill a giant threatening our nation, but I know that God can still do it!

It doesn't matter what you need as long as you know who you need.  When fear and doubt start to creep in and replace peace and hope, meditate on God's past works and mighty deeds.  He is the same God!  He hasn't gotten weak in His old age...in fact, He doesn't age!

So press in!  Remember God's miracles of long ago, meditate on them, and apply them to your life!  When you reach the point when your eyes fail looking for God's promise, remembering His faithfulness in the past will fuel your hope and give you the faith to push on.

"not one word has failed of all His good promise..."
1 Kings 8:56
 

God is Faithful! (Week 4 Testimony)

Hello all!

I wanted to share a testimony of the Lord's goodness and faithfulness. Just this past week we moved on the promise from John 15:7 which says, "If you abide in Me and My word abides in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you." We took this promise to heart and asked for some specific things this past week!

First of all, as a teacher I have the benefit of snow days and two-hour delays on occasion. I really desired to have a delay on Monday and the Lord provided as I asked. I know it sounds simple and unimportant, but the Lord cares about things big AND small! In addition to that He blessed me with a two-hour delay on Tuesday also! I'm really thankful for the extra hours!

In addition to asking for something small like a two-hour delay, I asked for something a little bigger this past week. My fiance and I are planning to wed on the 23rd of March (next month!!) and we recently put an offer on a house. The original closing date was scheduled for on or before Feb 15. If closing occurred on the 15th, I would not be able to move into the house until March 15th to give the seller a month to move out. That would only give us a week to get things ready before the wedding and we did not like that. We prayed and God provided according to His word!! Instead of closing on the 15th, we asked the Lord to close the house on the first of February (last Friday). He gave us the clearing on Wednesday of last week and the closing happened on none other day than last Friday (the first)! This gives us two extra weeks to set up the house and get me moved in before my wonderful fiance, Liz, joins me after our wedding.

Liz and I are so blessed in how the Lord has moved over the past 6 months or so. He is super faithful and never ceases to bless those who follow Him. Be blessed today knowing the Lord is on your side and as you call upon Him He will answer and provide even greater things than you might imagine. Don't be afraid to ask God for specific things and trust that, according to His word and will, He WILL provide!!

Week 2: Psalm 91:9-10

"If you make the Most High your dwelling - even the Lord, who is my refuge - then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent."

Psalm 91:9-10

 

Sorry everybody, I am a day late with this one.  I know you all have been sitting at home so ready to move on our promise for this week and are going to have to start a day late now because of me!  I suppose, like I said last week, it's better late than never.  And on that note, if you haven't yet, please join us!  God did some incredible things in our lives last week as we moved on the promise from 1 John 3:6. 

 

If you joined us, please let us know how your week went - we would love to hear how God moved in your life. 

 

If you are planning on joining us for this week, please let us know - we would love to pray for and with you while we move together on trusting our Lord and Savior!

 

Now on to the good stuff:

 

As much as this pains me to say as a Cleveland Browns fan, our promise to move on this week comes from Baltimore Ravens Linebacker Ray Lewis.  Following their victory last Sunday against the Indianapolis Colts he was sporting a shirt that had Psalm 91 written on it.  Jake decided to look up Psalm 91 (I am far too stubborn a Browns fan to look up a verse on a Ravens player).  Thank the Lord someone doing this experiment isn't an idiot when it comes to sports. 

 

As it turns out, Psalm 91 ties directly into the promise we moved on last week from John 3:6, in which we focused on abiding in Christ in order to eliminate sin from our lives.  So when Psalm 91:9-10 talks about making the Lord our refuge and dwelling place, it kind of caught Jake's attention.  He shared the verse with Jana, Liz and I and we all agreed that this would be a great promise to move on for this week.

 

In Psalm 91:9-10 the outcome changes a little though.  We are still focusing on abiding in the Lord.  We are making Jesus Christ our refuge, the place we run to when we are in need - of anything! - we are making Him our dwelling place.  Just like you dwell in your house or apartment or tent or cave.  When you are dwelling in it, you are surrounded by it, protected by it, it completely covers you.  That is what we have been focusing on in these past two weeks.

 

The change in this promise comes in the outcome.  Where as abiding in Christ eliminated sin from our lives last week, this week abiding eliminates evil and plagues from our lives.  Now while I can't say that I am incredibly worried about plagues befalling my house, I would be more than happy to see sickness eliminated from my home.  And that is what we are counting on!

 

The rest of Psalm 91 continues to lay out the protection, deliverance and long life that come to those who make the Lord their dwelling and refuge.  I would highly suggest you read the entire Psalm.  I would also highly suggest that you join us in moving on that promise.  Cling to Him!  Cling to Him so tightly that He becomes absolutely everything - even the air that you breathe.  We learned from experience last week that abiding in Christ can eliminate sin from our lives.  This week I fully expect to see how abiding in Him also eliminates evil, sickness, danger and fear.

 

Just to make sure that this experiment is fully put to the test, Jana decided to come down with strep and I have developed a pretty nasty chest and sinus cold.  If there is anything last week taught us, and the Bible continually teaches us, it is that God's promises are faithful and true!  Give it a try...He won't let you down!

 

MOVE!

Abiding In Christ

So the first week is almost in the books.  It happened just like I hoped it would too!  I had such a great week MOVING on the promise of abiding in Christ and that resulting in the complete absence of sin in my life.  It wasn't just that though.  His promise was true (if you had any questions about this, I'll spoil it for you: they always are!) and I did not sin at all while I was abiding in Him.  The few slip ups that I had were all times when I was not abiding very well.

Along with not sinning though, I also found myself in such a better mood overall.  I was slow to get frustrated at work and even while driving...GASP(I tend to be a little impatient while behind the wheel)!  I had a smile on my face a good majority of the day, I was a better father and husband, I was even a better coworker.  I could feel God's love with me the entire time I was abiding in Him, and I was therefore able to love those around me...even those I am normally not particularly fond of.

Now some of you may wonder how one abides in Christ, or gets started doing it anyway.  As I wrote in my post that described what we were going to be doing this week, abiding in Christ is simply being IN Him every single part of the day.  Like one abides in their house or state or country, you remain in Him in everything you do.  This is not as easy as it sounds and it takes a lot of getting used to.  I found myself getting better and better at it as the week went along.  I happened to have a fairly easy time getting started on it because I worked by myself for the majority of the first part of the week.

Now this was the approach that I took in abiding in Christ - it's not the only way, it's not the right way, it's just the way that I did it.  I am sure that for those who are used to abiding in Christ it probably comes very naturally.  I am hoping that this little experiment leads to that...in fact, I know that it will.  Since I am not to that point yet though, I had to continuously remind myself to abide in the Lord.  I did this by quite literally praying and worshiping the Lord all day long. 

As I said, I worked alone most days, so I was able to pray and sing out loud.  This made it very easy to abide in the Lord.  Being constantly reminded of His presence, constantly offering up praises to Him, which in turn, reminds me exactly who He is, makes it very easy to be in a good mood.  Forget Arby's, my good mood food is the Bread of Life (sorry, that was a little cheesy...but seriously, they should make Christian shirts with that)!  Even when I was working with people though, I still got into the habit of praying silently or humming or whistling worship songs.

For anyone wanting a little boost in their walk with Jesus, I would definitely suggest giving this abiding in Him a try.  Even if you set out to only do it for a week, I think...no...I know you will find it too awesome to stop.  This is something that I am going to continue for the rest of my life.  When I first started this experiment I had a feeling that this is how these weekly promises would turn out.  I imagine this is similar to what David was talking about in Psalm 34:8 when he said, "Taste and see that the Lord is good..."

All it takes is a taste of the Lord to find out exactly what He has to offer.  It doesn't say to take a bite and then keep going even though the first bite isn't very good...eventually you acquire a taste for it.  Once you experience a little bit of the Lord, you know it's all good!

That is exactly what this first week has been: a taste of what is to come if we take God at His Word.  If we move on the promises He gives us, we will find so much more than what we are expecting.  I started this week expecting to eliminate sin from my life while I took God at His Word and started abiding in Him.  I got so much more though.  I got an entire life makeover.  He turned my world upside down, showed me how to love, showed me how serve, showed me how to LIVE!  To be honest, I don't want to remember what it's like to live outside of abiding in Him.

So now it's your turn.  Give it a try!  I promise you'll like what you find!

MOVE!

Week One:1 John 3:6

Hey everybody!  I know that this is a little late, being that we actually started our "promise moving" on Monday, but better late than never.  Don't let the tardiness stop you from joining us.  Just like the parable Jesus tells in Matthew 20.  Whether God "hires" you first thing in the morning or with one hour left on the shift, we all get the same blessing in the end: eternal life with the Creator of everything!

The promise we decided to start the year with comes from 1 John 3:5-10,

But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.
 

This is no new thing.  I think that a lot of us only look at half of this wonderful truth though.  We are so enthralled with the fact that Jesus forgives us of our sins that we forget something even bigger.  Jesus takes away our sins.  In Him there is NO SIN.  No one who lives in Him keeps sinning.  No one born of God continues to sin.  This is completely different than simply forgiveness of sins.  This is life changing.  This is world altering!

I really like the New American Standard Bible's interpretation of verse six, "No one who abides in Him sins..."  I love that word, "abides".  When I think of the word abide, the first thing that pops into my mind is an abode, another word for your house or the place that you live.  So to abide means to live.  Now we are all familiar with the fact that we are to live for Christ and that He will live in us, but how many of us really follow through with that?  I know that I never used to.

So that is the promise we are moving on.  Abiding in Christ.  Absolutely drowning in Him.  Not just for an hour in the morning during Bible reading and prayer time, not just before bed, or any other silent times in the day while we are praying.  Abiding in Christ is just like living in your house.  If you are there, you are constantly there, constantly under your roof, constantly wrapped in your houses protection from the outside elements.  The difference though, we can take Christ with us.  We don't have to only abide in Him at home.  We can abide in Jesus in the middle of the chaos that swirls around us daily.  The promise is that if we do that, we are 100% incapable of sinning.  We don't need forgiveness (we do, just not while we're abiding in Him because forgiveness is already present) because He promises us that as long as we are immersed in Him we will not sin.  It's impossible to.

One important distinction should be made before I end.  The focus of this promise is very important.  Should you choose to join us (and we all really hope you do!) the priority MUST be abiding in Christ.  If the focus becomes the result of the promise, not sinning, then you are serving the law and not Jesus Christ.  That is, by definition, legalism.  Even the end goal of this promise isn't necessarily to stop sinning.  Don't get me wrong, I want to stop sinning, but the goal of this whole process is to draw closer to God.  That has to be our end goal for everything.  If it is not, then we end up running after the wrong prize and will not like the destination we end up finding.

So there it is; there is the first promise to move on.  Some of us will be blogging a little later in the week to let you know how things are going or how the week went.  I know my week has been incredible and I can't wait to share more.  Now, I will leave you with the words from the band Switchfoot:

"I dare you to MOVE"

Introducing The Promises

Last year, my wife and I participated in this really cool thing that the National Community Church and their pastor Mark Batterson put on dubbed the “7:14 Experilent”.  Every day at 7:14 during Lent, people around the world dropped to their knees and humbled themselves before God.  The inspiration came from 2 Chronicles 7:14.  Overall the experience was very cool and my wife and I experienced some awesome breakthroughs as we joined other Christians around the world, humbling ourselves before our Lord.

Part of this process was that we would receive text messages every day at 7:14 to give us different things to pray about and reflect on.  One of these text messages was burned into my mind and I haven’t been able to shake it since.  It read, “The world has yet to see what God can do through a person FULLY CONSECRATED to Him.  Why not you?  Why not now?”  It’s a beautiful, yet convicting message.  I looked this quote up before I started writing this and found that it was first said by Henry Varley, a friend of the great evangelist D.L. Moody.  These were supposedly the words that inspired Moody to begin pursuing becoming an evangelist.  Varley’s exact words were: "The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through and in a man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him."

For the longest time, I didn’t do anything of importance with these words.  Out of nowhere though, they came back to me a few days ago.  Believe what you will about spontaneous memory of past events, but I don’t believe in chance.  If you believe in the Christian God of the Bible, then you shouldn’t either.  He is the Grand Weaver, the Architect of everyday, there is no chance or coincidence or happenstance with my God.  I believe that He brought this text message back to me on New Years Eve of 2012 to rock my world in 2013.  I want to document it too, so that your world can be equally rocked.  Why should I have all the fun?

Last year, just after the new year started (January 10^th to be exact), I decided to step up my prayer game.  I experienced some huge breakthroughs from it too.  I was baptized in the Holy Spirit for the first time and spoke in tongues.  I was baptized in water for the first time since I was an infant.  I was so close to God.  He was talking to me and I was talking to Him.  It was such a sweet time in my life.  Then about six months ago the communication line started to go bad.  I could still feel God with me…He just wasn’t talking to me anymore.  I think that time is over now though.  I think that might have been my little vacation.  My time of rest before it was time to get knee deep in the Lord’s work.  Up to my elbows in it.  And believe me, after being so on fire and then having six months off…I am ready to get to work!

As I stated, I believe that this whole plan came from the Lord.  I have been thinking about trying to write a book for awhile and actually started writing a few chapters of a book that was going to be about the promises that God has made to us in the Bible.  Then this text message came back to me.  “Why not you?  Why not now?”  Why not me?  What if I started taking God at His Word?  What if I started living by God’s promises to me?  Through all of history and for the rest of eternity, God has never and will never break one of the promises He has made.  So why am I not living according those promises?

There is an old hymn that most of you are probably familiar with, “Standing on the Promises”:

Standing on the promises of Christ my King,
Through eternal ages let His praises ring,
Glory in the highest, I will shout and sing,
Standing on the promises of God.

Standing, standing,
Standing on the promises of God my Savior;
Standing, standing,
I’m standing on the promises of God.

Standing on the promises that cannot fail,
When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail,
By the living Word of God I shall prevail,
Standing on the promises of God.

Standing on the promises I now can see
Perfect, present cleansing in the blood for me;
Standing in the liberty where Christ makes free,
Standing on the promises of God.

Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord,
Bound to Him eternally by love’s strong cord,
Overcoming daily with the Spirit’s sword,
Standing on the promises of God.

Standing on the promises I shall not fall,
List’ning every moment to the Spirit’s call.
Resting in my Savior as my All in all,
Standing on the promises of God.
(Source: http://www.hymnal.net/hymn.php/h/340#ixzz2GqNxmmgI)

I absolutely love this song.  Those lyrics are so rich and just dripping with God’s truth and goodness.  Just thought I’d get that out of the way so no one thinks I am saying anything against this hymn.  The problem in my life with “Standing on the Promises” is that I am tired of standing on them.  I want to MOVE on them.  The world needs more movers and fewer talkers.  The book of James is big on this topic.  James 1:22 says, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.  Do what it says.”  James 2:18 continues, “But someone will say, ‘You have faith; I have deeds.’  Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.” and in verse 20, “You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?”  Perhaps the most well known verse from James is 2:26, “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”

I think James was going through the same thing I am: just fed up with all the talk.  Jesus said the same thing to His disciples.  Don’t just listen.  Do it!  Jesus compared it to a person building their house on a firm foundation (the one who does what Jesus teaches) versus one who builds on a foundation of sand (the one who listens but does not do).

So I am done standing on the promises of God.  I am ready to start doing the promises of God.  That’s my New Year’s resolution.  Every week, my friend Jake, his fiance Liz, my wife and I are going to search out a promise God gives us in the Bible and we are going to LIVE by that promise.  We are going to document it each week too.  The successes and failures.  The good, the bad and the ugly.  Hopefully it will inspire some of you to join us.  If this little experiment works the way I think it will, it will be something that will change us forever.  By the end of this experiment, the world WILL know what God can do “with and for and through and in a man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him”.

 

If you would like to join us in this "experiment" please let Jake, Liz, Jana or I know.  We would be thrilled to have you along for the ride and just KNOW that God is going to do some insanely wonderful things through this small act of faithfulness.  Even if you just leave a comment on this blog that you would like to be a part, we will let you know what promise we are focusing on for the week and you can join in on the MOVING!  Ball is in your court...

 

MOVE!