Seize the Moment – Day 870
S E R V _ : V is for Vow!
The next letter for the acrostic is V for VOW.
Matthew 5:37(NLT)
Just say a simple, ‘Yes, I will,’ or ‘No, I won’t.’
— Anything beyond this is from the evil one.
A vow is defined as a noun to be “a solemn promise” and as a verb to be “a solemn promise to a specific thing”. At a wedding, a couple does both the noun and the verb when they repeat their vows of commitment to each other. All throughout the Old Testament, we are told that a vow is not to be broken. And then in the New Testament, Jesus spoke to the crowd in His sermon on the mount to not make a vow, but rather let your yes be yes or your no be no.
Is this a contradiction? NO! The concept of the vow, a solemn promise, had been stretched, muddied, modified so much that it had become a contradiction to itself. When someone makes you a promise to do something, then they should show up. When they don’t, the response you normally will hear is “Oh, sorry. I forgot” or “Something else came up and I couldn’t make it.” This is not who we are to be as Christians.
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Seize the Moment – Day 869
S E R _ _ : R is for Respect!
The next letter for the acrostic is R for Respect.
“Respect everyone, and love the family of believers.
Fear God, and respect the king.”
RESPECT! The soulful voice of Aretha Franklin cried out that she just wanted a little bit! The world tells you that you have to earn it by doing things for them. But the Bible is very clear for the believer…we are to respect everyone, or as the NASB version says “Honor all people”, including those in authority over us.
WHAT?!? Have you seen the way they treated me or heard what they said to me? I know it doesn’t sound fair, but look at what Peter went on to say…
“You who are slaves must submit to your masters with all respect. Do what they tell you—not only if they are kind and reasonable, but even if they are cruel. For God is pleased when, conscious of his will, you patiently endure unjust treatment.” (vs 18-19).
As a believer, we are called to be servants of the Lord. If we measure everything with love and respect before we speak, we may find that our world will be a place filled with joy and peace.
Seize the moment today by looking for opportunities to show respect…for God in how you live your life; through your love for you family, both flesh and blood and the church, as you care for them; and others as you love them as God first loved you, even when they don’t deserve it. This is what keeps the joy of the Lord flowing in your lives.
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Seize the Moment – Day 868
S E — — —: E is for Effort
The Christian walk requires an effort on our behalf. While there is nothing that we can do to earn our salvation, we must make the effort to do our best to be our best by allowing the Holy Spirit to lead and guide our lives. We make the choice to accept or reject His leading, thus it demonstrates our level of effort.
Effort is defined as the “the conscious exertion of power; a serious attempt; the total work done to achieve a particular end.”* We make the choice and the effort to surrender. We make the choice and the effort to follow God. We know that love is an action verb, and we are told to “Love the Lord with all our heart, mind and strength, and to Love our neighbors as ourselves.” So we must make the choice and apply the effort to love God and others, even those that make it difficult for us to do so. And Peter reminds us that we are to make every effort to be right with God.
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Seize the Moment – Day 867
S _ _ _ _ : “S” is for Surrender
I Corinthians 13:3 (NASV95)
“And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.”
Many time, the word surrender carries a negative connotation. When in a battle, when you surrender you have given up and declared defeat.
But for a Christian, it carries a positive connotation. When we surrender our lives to Christ, we trade in all the strife, cares and worries of how we are going to make it, to find the promise of peace, joy and contentment in this life, knowing that He is taking care of everything.
We are not promised that we will not be faced with difficult times, but He did promise that He would be with us every step of the way. This past year has had some difficult situations in my life, but I found that when I fully surrendered those things into His very capable hands, that the joy came through the tears, knowing that He was at work.
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Train to Live on Mission – Week 23
Rejoice and Be Glad!
Proverbs 15:13-16 (NAS95)
Action Step #1) Know the Field Manual.
Action Step #2) Train together as one unit.
Action Step #3) Seek the Commander’s approval.
- Emotional stability according to Proverbs 15:13, “A joyful heart makes a cheerful face, but when the heart is sad, the spirit is broken.”
- Mental health according to Proverbs 15:14, “The mind of the intelligent seeks knowledge, but the mouth of fools feeds on folly.”
- Spiritual vitality according to Proverbs 15:15-16, “All the days of the afflicted are bad, but a cheerful heart has a continual feast. Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and turmoil with it.”
It’s about faith in your Commander, not about your feelings (emotional), perspectives (mental), or interpretations (spiritual) of your circumstances. Joy is about trust in God and His promises! Let’s walk you through five Scriptures to demonstrate this spiritual fruit from God:
- Psalm 16:11. “You will make known to me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever.”
- John 17:13. “But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.”
- Romans 15:13. “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
- Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”
- 1 Peter 1:3-9. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.”
Action Step #4) Live on mission.
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Seize the Moment – Day 865
Are You Washed in the Blood?
1 Peter 1:18-19(NASV95)
“knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.”
First published in 1878, this hymn was written by Elisha Hoffman. He was a minister in the Evangelical Church. He is also known for writing “I Must Tell Jesus”, “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms”, and “Glory to His Name”. It is both a call for salvation and a song that enumerates some of the many blessings of being washed in the blood.
Are you washed in the blood, in the soul cleansing blood of the Lamb
Are your garments spotless, are they white as snow
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb
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Seize the Moment – Day 864
Ministry Partnerships Get the Job Done!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, July 29.
Has God called you to do something for Him with your life? Don’t try to do it alone. Even great leaders like King Hezekiah need partners to accomplish their plans. God raised up Hezekiah for such a time as this, but he could not stand against the evil of the Assyrian Empire by himself. Unlike Ahaz who turned to evil in his distress, Hezekiah turned to God. In 2 Kings 19:6-7, he sought the counsel of God’s prophet:
Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own land. And I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.” ’ ”
Whereas both Ahaz and Hezekiah had received a prophetic promise through Isaiah, it was Hezekiah who submitted himself to God’s Word. In 2 Kings 19:19, Hezekiah prayed that God would receive all the glory through the defense of his nation, “Now, O Lord our God, I pray, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O Lord, are God.”
God saw Hezekiah’s humility and He responded (20-35). For God’s name’s sake, the angel of the Lord struck down 185,000 Assyrians in a single night and the king of Assyria fled to Nineveh. All because Hezekiah knew he needed help and didn’t want the credit, but desired for God to get all the glory.
Seize the moment and pray to God for His assistance in the plans He has entrusted to you. You never know who He might bring into your life to help you get the job done for His glory.
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Seize the Moment – Day 863
Pray at the Crossroads!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, July 28.
Have you ever come to a crossroads and didn’t know what to do?
Every nation will come to the crossroads of their own history, and we need leaders who know what to do. God raises up leaders “for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14). King Hezekiah of Judah was such a leader, as we read in 2 Kings 18:5-7:
He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel; so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who were before him. For he clung to the Lord; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses. And the Lord was with him; wherever he went he prospered. And he rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him.
Hezekiah was a political leader who secured independence from Assyria, and he was a religious reformer who rescued the people of Judah from the false worship of his predecessors. His story is expanded in 2 Chronicles 29-32 and Isaiah 36-39. Hezekiah is one of the most celebrated kings in the Bible because he stood firm in his faith at the crossroads of Israel’s history with the Assyrian Empire rampaging the region, including destroying the northern ten tribes. Hezekiah preserved Jerusalem for future generations, while also calling the people back to covenant faithfulness.
I am praying for God to raise up leaders for such a time as this, today. We need political leaders who will secure our independence against evil, and we need religious reformers who will rescue the Church from the false worship of our predecessors. God did that for Judah in the one man of Hezekiah, He will do it again in our land when we cry out to Him in repentance (2 Chronicles 7:14).
Seize the moment and pray that God will raise up leaders in today’s crossroads of history (1 Timothy 2:1-4).
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Seize the Moment – Day 862
Heed God’s Warnings!
2 Kings 17
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, July 27.
What is God warning you about in your own life? Are you listening?
The sons of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they did not depart from them until the Lord removed Israel from His sight, as He spoke through all His servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away into exile from their own land to Assyria until this day.
God had been actively working to bring His people to repentance for generations. God was “slow to anger,” but they would not listen. They were stubborn and stiff-necked people. They were reminded of these warnings in 2 Kings 17:13-14:
Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah through all His prophets and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments, My statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you through My servants the prophets.” However, they did not listen, but stiffened their neck like their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord their God.
God is still speaking to His people today through His Word and through faithful men and women who teach and preach God’s Word. He speaks to get our attention and to return us to Him in covenant faithfulness. Are you listening?
Seize the moment and respond to God’s grace by repenting of your sin while there is still time (Hebrews 12:12-17).
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Seize the Moment – Day 861
Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, July 26.
You’ve repeatedly heard it said, “Two wrongs don’t make a right.” Why do so many people fall into this trap?
Ahaz, the king of Judah, refused to band together with Israel and Aram in the defense of their region against the Assyrian Empire, so they attacked him at Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 28:5-15; Isaiah 7:1). In a string of wrong responses, Ahaz retaliated by seeking the protection of the Assyrians (2 Kings 16:7-9). In his distress, he made a sly political maneuver that cost him far more than he anticipated – the soul of his nation. Ahaz made a foreign altar and offered burnt offerings at it, polluting himself and corrupting the nation of Judah (2 Kings 16:10-18).
King Ahaz let his survival instinct take control of his decision-making process. He took matters into his own hands and disregarded the Word of God as given to him by Isaiah (Isaiah 7:1-16). Ultimately, by his lack of faith, he forsook God and responded to evil with evil, as recorded in 2 Chronicles 28:22-23:
Now in the time of his distress this same King Ahaz became yet more unfaithful to the Lord. For he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus which had defeated him, and said, “Because the gods of the kings of Aram helped them, I will sacrifice to them that they may help me.” But they became the downfall of him and all Israel.
In 2 Kings 16, we witnessed how a king responded to evil with evil in hopes of something good coming from it. That never works out for the good! Jesus posed a probing question in Mark 8:36, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?”
Seize the moment and defeat evil by aligning yourself with God to do good. “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21).
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