Seize the Moment – Day 883
A Responsive Heart!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, August 17.
I have the privilege of preaching once per month in a state prison, the New Castle Correctional Facility. It is a privilege to be invited inside to minister to my brothers, and it’s a ministry opportunity that I look forward to because the men are so responsive to God’s Word!
How do you respond to the Word of God?
In 2 Kings 22, repairs were being done to the temple when Hilkiah the priest found a lost book of the Law, believed to have been a copy of Deuteronomy (5-8). Shaphan the scribe read the book to King Josiah, and in verse 11, the king responded to God’s Word by tearing his clothes as an outward sign of his grief. The Word of God revealed to him God’s covenant promises, he now knew that there was a coming wrath for their sins.
Josiah was the last good king of Judah, and he responded to God’s Word by inquiring of the Lord what he must do. In 2 Kings 22:19-20, the response of God to Josiah, given by Huldah the prophetess, is recorded:
“Because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants that they should become a desolation and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I truly have heard you,” declares the Lord. “Therefore, behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes will not see all the evil which I will bring on this place.”
God responds to tender hearts! Do you have a tender heart for the Lord and His Word?
Seize the moment and respond to God’s Word with obedience (John 14:15, 21, 23; 1 John 5:3; 2 John 6). Be responsive to the Holy Spirit’s prompting today!
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Seize the Moment – Day 882
The Willingness to Listen!
After Hezekiah reformed Judah and saved them from the Assyrian Empire, his son Manasseh became king at twelve years old and ruled for fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His introduction in 2 Kings 21:2-3, provides a scathing review of his kingship:
He did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord dispossessed before the sons of Israel. For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them.
Manasseh worshipped the sun, moon, and stars, as well as a myriad of other false gods, violated the Law of God in heinous ways – sacrificing his son, using divination, and witchcraft. He led Judah away from God. In 2 Kings 21:10-16, an unnamed prophet declares God’s coming judgment:
Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations, having done wickedly more than all the Amorites did who were before him, and has also made Judah sin with his idols; therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, “Behold, I am bringing such calamity on Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle” (11-12).
Could this have been the voice of Isaiah? Jewish tradition teaches that it was King Manasseh who martyred Isaiah. This evil king, like many others, tried to silence the Word of God by killing the prophets, but no one could silence God or stop His coming judgment. Jesus cried out in Matthew 23:37, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.”
Seize the moment and listen for the voice of Jesus, He is seeking to gather all who are lost (Luke 19:10). Don’t let sin silence the Word of God in your life!
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Seize the Moment – Day 881
With Every Breath!
Why do you want God to extend your days and give you long life? What do you plan to do with each breath He gives you? Hezekiah, the great king of Judah, became mortally ill during the assault of the Assyrians and cried out to God for mercy. He wanted to be healed and God spoke to him through the prophet Isaiah in 2 Kings 20:5-6:
I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord. I will add fifteen years to your life, and I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.
God extended his life and promised protection from the king of Assyria. This miracle is recorded twice, here, and in Isaiah 38 where Isaiah included a hymn (9-20), which Hezekiah wrote after his healing. In Isaiah 38:18-20, Hezekiah concludes his hymn with his motivation for asking to be healed:
For Sheol cannot thank You, death cannot praise You; those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness. It is the living who give thanks to You, as I do today; a father tells his sons about Your faithfulness. The Lord will surely save me; so we will play my songs on stringed instruments all the days of our life at the house of the Lord.
Seize the moment and use your every breath to praise the Lord. Do it right now, speak out loud, “Praise the Lord!” Singing along to your favorite worship music will help you do this throughout the day.
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Train to Live on Mission – Week 25
Battle Drill #25:
Commit Your Work to the Lord!
Proverbs 16:1-9 (NAS95)
Today, we are going to walk through the four action steps of a soldier’s training routine to learn the next battle drill – “Commit Your Work to the Lord!”
For 25 years, I have learned how to start my day by committing myself and my day to the Lord. I have not done this perfectly each day, and there have been some seasons of drought in those years, but as a general practice, this battle drill has defined my Christian life. This is a very important daily discipline for me that became anchored in my soul during the late summer/early fall of 1997, during my second time in the two-month US Army Ranger School. The first time I went through the training, the winter of 1997, I only made it two-thirds of the way through it before I was medically dropped, but my deeper story was how my perceived failure broke me. I was sent to my unit at the 82nd Airborne Division without the coveted Ranger Tab that every Infantry Officer is expected to have earned.
Looking back, I realize that this was one of the most important moments of my life because how I handled my deep level of disappointment was a critical decision point on the person I was to become. By God’s grace, I chose wisely and started back to church. I rededicated my life to Jesus Christ and started my Christian discipleship with a renewed vigor. Six months later, I was graduating from Ranger School, and I testify to you that it was night and day. Not the school, but me! There was a dramatic difference in my experience because I had changed – Christ was now the center of my life! I went from being a basket case the first time to missing honor graduate by one spot the next time. Every single morning of Ranger School, that second time, I did two things: 1) I dedicated myself and my day to the Lord; and 2) I promised myself I wouldn’t quit. To the glory of God, I continue to make those two decisions as your pastor.
Being faithful is a trained behavior! It doesn’t happen by accident, and you must learn to train it daily. So, let’s take the first action step of a soldier’s training routine to live on mission.
Action Step #1) Know the Field Manual.
The battle drill we are going to learn and apply this week is from Proverbs 16:1-9:
The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. All the ways of a man are clean in his own sight, but the Lord weighs the motives. Commit your works to the Lord and your plans will be established. The Lord has made everything for its own purpose, even the wicked for the day of evil. Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord; assuredly, he will not be unpunished. By lovingkindness and truth iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the Lord one keeps away from evil. When a man’s ways are pleasing to the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. Better is a little with righteousness than great income with injustice. The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.
This is what the Field Manual says, let’s now take the second action step to learn how to apply today’s battle drill to our everyday lives as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.
Action Step #2) Train together as one unit.
- Deuteronomy 6:4-9. “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
- Joshua 1:7-9. “Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Let’s talk about how to do this. According to the Bible’s creation account your day begins with how you go to bed the night before. Listen to the refrain of creation in Genesis 1, “And there was evening and there was morning, one day” (5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31). We often miss this or hear it as a poetic device to separate the creative work of God in the creation account, but I believe that there is a profound truth here that will change your life, as it has mine. It’s simple, but not simplistic: How you go to bed determines your day!
Grace always comes first – sleep comes before work, just like grace comes before works. You don’t earn a good night’s rest because it’s all grace. You do nothing during your sleep, God’s got you and you are completely dependent on His grace to sustain your life until morning, which is why people still pray this very old Puritan bedtime prayer, “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep; if I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” Newer versions make it even more clear, “His love to guard me through the night and wake me in the morning’s light” and “Please angels watch me through the night, and keep me safe till morning light.”
Allow me to describe how I do this: I get up at 6 each morning so that I have an hour with the Lord before others in my family wake up. That is the most important hour of my day, and it often goes longer. It is when I pray, when I read Scripture, when I meditate upon what I’m reading and seek to apply it to my life. This is the time of the day when I commit my work to the Lord and when I resolve that today I will get in the easy yoke of Jesus, abide in the Vine, carry my cross, and remain faithful to my family and church. It’s a time that I decide that I will not quit – a time of covenant renewal as the sun rises.
But my key to success is not an alarm, though that is helpful on some mornings, but a good night’s sleep. I seek to be relaxed and ready for a good night’s sleep by 10 PM each night. That means well before that time the dishes are done, doors are locked, messes are cleaned up, the kids have been read to and prayed with, the work of the day is over so my computer and devices are off, all of that before 10 so that I can be in a place of relaxation to rest well, to get good REM and deep sleep, and not just shallow restless sleep. The quality of my morning devotion time is determined by how I get to bed the night before. Except for my personal Sabbath day, which is Friday night until Saturday night, if I want to get extra sleep, then I must go to bed earlier, not sleep later. My whole day is messed up if I don’t have this time to commit my work to the Lord. This time of devotion is hindered if I don’t take intentional daily steps to sleep well. Sleep is a gift from the Lord and a product of God’s grace, as Proverbs 3:13, 21-24 explains:
How blessed is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding. … My son, let them not vanish from your sight; keep sound wisdom and discretion, so they will be life to your soul and adornment to your neck. Then you will walk in your way securely and your foot will not stumble. When you lie down, you will not be afraid; When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.
For me to commit myself and my work to the Lord, then I must daily get back in the easy yoke of Jesus to work from a place of rest because everything I have is by God’s grace and not the work of my own hands nor earned by the sweat of my own brow. It’s for the glory of God alone. That takes us to the third action step.
Action Step #3) Seek the Commander’s approval.
Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.
We commit our work to the Lord because work was God’s idea first! Work is not what you do to earn your daily bread or find your identity. Both of those come from the Lord. When we commit our work to the Lord, then we put our work in a right perspective, which is under the Lordship of Christ. The Apostle Paul made this very clear in Colossians 3:23-25:
Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality.
There is a divine purpose for work, it is a part of God’s plan that we work hard. When we commit our work to the Lord, then our work becomes a part of God’s mission to demonstrate the rule of God to the world. No matter what it is you do, when your work is committed to the Lord it can be used by God to bring glory to His name and advance the Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven. That brings us to the final action step.
Action Step #4) Live on mission.
Your work is intended to have eternal fruit – results that last! Jesus taught us this in John 15:12-17:
This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. This I command you, that you love one another.
Faith, hope, and love are the currencies of Heaven, and they are our greatest commodities here on Earth. Faith, hope, and love are what we use to build the Kingdom of God. Paul soberly admonishes us in 1 Corinthians 3:10-16 to be wise with which we build the Kingdom:
According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
Your legacy is determined by your work so be very wise in where you are investing your most precious commodities – your time, your love, your energy. When I do graveside services, after I have done the committal prayer, I read Revelation 14:13, “And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, “Write, ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!’ ” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.” After I read this, I look out at the people who have gathered, make eyes contact with them, open my arms, and say, “You are the good works who follow this person’s life.”
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Seize the Moment – Day 879
O That Will Be Glory
Romans 8:18 (NLT)
“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”
Charles Gabriel was a self-taught musician who grew up in Wilton, Iowa. After moving to California for two years, he moved back to Chicago, IL, where he became friends with Ed Card, a minister with the Sunshine Rescue Mission. Card always had a smile on his face and would often say during a sermon “GLORY” instead of ‘amen’ like most folks. Thus, he had the nickname “Old Glory Face.”
Card would also close his prayers with a reference to heaven, saying “And that will be glory for me.”
This is where Gabriel got the inspiration for today’s hymn. It went on to be used in Billy Sunday’s revival services and translated into many languages and dialects, becoming one of the most popular hymns sung during those meetings.
O that will be glory for me, glory for me, glory for me.
When by His grace I shall look on His face.
That will be glory, be glory for me.
We need to wake up and sing this song with the same faith, hope and joy that moved the author to write this hymn. Look forward to the day when we shall see Him face to face and join with the angels as we sing and bring glory and honor to God.
YOUTUBE:
O That Will Be Glory
And I am safe on that beautiful shore,
Just to be near the dear Lord I adore
Will through the ages be glory for me.
O that will be glory for me,
Glory for me, glory for me;
When by His grace I shall look at His face,
That will be glory, be glory for me.
I am accorded in heaven a place,
Just to be there and to look on His face
Will through the ages be glory for me. [Refrain]
Joy like a river around me will flow;
Yet just a smile from my Savior, I know,
Will through the ages be glory for me. [Refrain]
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Seize the Moment – Day 878
H E A R T: T is for Truth!
In order to serve properly, you have to put your heart into it!
Ephesians 4:15 (NLT)
“ Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.”
In a courtroom, the witnesses are sworn in to “tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” When someone is in the doctor’s office awaiting test results, they ask the doctor to ‘give me the truth. Tell it to me straight.” There may have even been a time in your own life when you have asked for the truth, and the person responded, “You couldn’t handle the truth.” Let’s face it, hearing the truth can be difficult. How we receive it is determined by how it is delivered.
Paul was writing to the church in Ephesus to remind them that they are no longer ‘infants’, weak in their faith, quick to follow or imitate whatever is right in front of them and possibly leading them astray. He was correcting them, ‘speaking to them in (agape) love’ (love of God) in order for them to recognize their growth in their faith and the need to continue to mature, becoming the body of Christ they had been called to be.
Seize the day and purpose in your heart to stop and think before you speak, even if you are speaking the truth. We need to ALWAYS speak the truth in God’s love so that people can see that it is His Love that is in our hearts, for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks!
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Seize the Moment – Day 877
H E A R _: R is for Restore!
Psalm 51:12-13(NLT)
“Restore to me the joy of your salvation and make me willing to obey you. Then I will teach your ways to rebels, and they will return to you.”
Tina and I enjoy finding old furniture and restoring it back to what it used to be. That means that we must know what it looked like before in order to accomplish that task. The best way to do that is to look for pictures published by the one who originally created it.
When God originally created man, it was for us to be in communion with Him. When man sinned, it broke that relationship. While this broke God’s heart, He immediately began working out a plan to restore us to Him. He sent His Son as the ultimate sacrifice to bring us back into that original relationship. His desire was and is to restore His children. And we have been given the privilege and honor to share this message and help restore others so they can return to the Father.
Seize the moment today by asking God how you can be used, allowing the Holy Spirit to lead you and give you the words to share. When you do this, you are both serving God and serving others by helping them find their way back to Him.
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Seize the Moment – Day 876
H E A _ _: A is for Actions!
The next letter for the acrostic is A for Actions.
1 John 3:18-19 (NLT)
“Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions. 19 Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God.”
When someone repeats something, they are usually trying to make a point and assure that you have been listening to what they are saying. The same is true here in John the Apostle’s first letter. He uses the phrase “Dear children” or “Dear friends” thirteen times in its five short chapters! Much like a teacher might say “Listen up! This is important”, John was emphasizing the need to point out that our actions carry just as much weight as our words.
From the Expositor’s Bible Commentary (Abridged Edition): New Testament @2004, it states: “ John admonishes with the tone of a spiritual father pleading for the heartfelt response of his children. Love requires more than idle talk or exalted theology. It demands simple acts, which anyone can see, in order to meet the needs of brothers and sisters in distress.”
Seize the moment today and look for opportunities where you can be the hands and feet of Jesus and serve someone in love. You will find that it will not only bless them, but bring your own heart joy!
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Seize the Moment – Day 875
H E _ _ _: E is for Energy!
The next letter for the acrostic is E for Energy.
“Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.”
Energy! That source of power that drives every living thing. And this morning, I felt like I had none! The sound of the thunder and rain made me just want to curl up and stay in bed. But I knew I had to get up and get going, so I said my daily prayer of “Good morning, Lord. As I start this day, I ask you for the energy I need to accomplish all that You would have me to do. And keep my spiritual ears open to the Holy Spirit as He leads and guides me.”
As Peter told us in today’s scriptures, we are to do all things with the strength and power that He gives us. If we only rely on our own strength to ‘git ‘er done’, we will find ourselves tired and weary and not able to finish well.
Seize the moment today and plug in to the true power source of our lives. Stop right now and take a moment to reflect, refresh and restore your heart and mind by tapping into that never ending source of strength and energy that comes from God, knowing that He is working all things together for your good.
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Seize the Moment – Day 874
H _ _ _ _: H is for Hope!
PSALM 25:5 (NLT)
“Lead me by your truth and teach me,
for you are the God who saves me.
All day long I put my hope in you.”
One of my favorite hymns has the line “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.” Hope is more than just wishful thinking. It is a demonstration of our faith and trust that it will be done. Doubt and fear are the nemesis of hope and are the tools that the devil uses to cause us to stumble or even waiver in in our Christian faith.
But hope has a name, and that name is Jesus. As I told the church yesterday in the message, we are to cast all those cares, doubts and fears at Jesus’ feet and KNOW that He will be taking care of it. When we pray, we ask and place our hope, faith and trust in the God who is able to all things.
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