Month: June 2017

This week I have been playing catchup. We were on vacation last week. This is a rerun from a few years ago, but I really believe that the Holy Spirit has a reason for me choosing this one today. 

He Is Always Looking For Those who Are Lost

Luke 15:8-10

  “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?

“And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost! “Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

 

            The Lord has blessed me with the opportunity to teach a New Testament Course at Bevill State Community College here in Hamilton, Alabama. Today when I got to the church and looked for my USB drive in which I keep all of my past Friend and Family Devotionals along with some other important work I could not find the drive. When I back tracked I went back to where I parked yesterday and my USB drive was on top of the parking curb where I had parked and it was damaged from where either me or someone else had ran over it.

            J.J. has been telling me for weeks that I needed to put the info on another USB for a spare. Well I should have known that the Holy Spirit was speaking through her, but I just never thought about it anymore until today.

            Before I found the drive I had searched everywhere looking for it. I went back to my house. I looked in the pants that I wore yesterday. I looked in my cluttered basket full of coins, keys, and several things that need to be thrown away. I went to a great amount of trouble before I finally found it there in the parking lot at Bevill State.

            It was very much damaged when I found it, but it still looked usable to me. I have been trying all day to get it to work and at this point it will not. But I am not giving up yet. You know God will go to a lot of trouble to look for those who are lost. He will go into the classrooms. He will go into the bars and nightclubs. He will go into the crack houses and meth labs. He will go into the nice middle class homes that seem like they have it all together, but are hurting and lonely on the inside. He like the woman that Jesus was talking about in this parable will sweep the house very carefully until He finds the One that He is lost.

            The Lord may fix that USB drive for me and He may not. I know that He can if He chooses. There are many people who look worse spiritually than that USB Drive looks naturally. They look broken, fragmented and may feel that they have no purpose in life. You may be or know someone who is like that. But the one who is looking very hard for you or them can fix them in a way that no human being can. And when this happens a party breaks out with the angels. 

            My current attempt to get the USB drive to work involves leaving it in the refrigerator for a while and then trying it. God has a better plan for those He finds. He wraps them in His loving arms. Then He teaches them how to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit as He restores, repairs, and redeems all that has been lost.

 

Let Us Pray

Lord we thank You that You looked real hard for us. Thank You Lord that You did not give up when some of the places that you went looking for us were places that were very appalling to you. Some of those places stunk. In some of those places we committed gross evil, but thank You Jesus that You never gave up. For some of these who may be lost today. We pray that they hear Your voice saying Mt 11:28-30 “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Let the angels begin to party

 

In Jesus Name

Amen

 

 

 

Thanks to all of you who encourage u sin the Lord. We praise Him for you and for what He has done and will do in our lives and in yours.

Your Friend/Kinfolk

Preston

GET TOGETHER- THE STEPS OF THE REDEEMED ARE ORDERED
Ps 37:23 The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, And He delights in his way. (NKJV)
Let me ask you a question. Have you been born again by repenting of your sin and putting your faith in the precious shed blood of Jesus Christ to save you from your sins? The Apostle Paul talks about this in Ro 5:9 “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. (NKJV) If you have I have some good news for you today! This passage in Ps 37:23 is talking about you child of God! When Jesus died for our sins on the cross and rose from the dead He positioned us to receive all the promises of God that He has given to His children. 2Co 1:20 For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us. (NKJV)
On the other hand we do have to walk by faith for those promises to be fulfilled in our lives. There may be some circumstance going on in our lives today that to be honest the Lord didn’t order, but the forces of evil have come against us to keep us from walking in the steps that the Lord has ordered for us.
Let’s say a young man or woman has been given a lot of talent to glorify God through participating in athletics. Then the enemy comes and tries to get the young man, or woman off the steps that the Lord has for them by tempting them sexually, or in some other way. The young man or woman can use this as an opportunity to humble themselves before the Lord, or they can succumb to all the attention they are getting and fall to the temptation.
Sometimes the enemy may try to get us off the path that the Lord has ordered for us through sickness, sudden calamity, or by other means. Sometimes it can be through busyness. It can also come through apathy. So how do we stay on the path and fulfill the plan that God has for our lives? How do we walk out those steps that are ordered by the Lord? Here are three that come to mind at the present time as I am writing this. Certainly there are many more means of God’s grace that are steps to help us to stay on the right path, but these three will be very helpful to us.
1. First of all we make sure that He is first. He is the one that we desire to please. Not to get saved, but because we are saved. He has made us a promise and it is impossible for Him to lie. Joh 15:16 “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. Know that you have been chosen by him, appointed by Him, and anointed by him to bear everlasting fruit.

2. We don’t try to know the Bible for head knowledge alone but we meet with Jesus in the Scriptures. Through the Holy Spirit he meets us in every word: Heb 4:12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
3. Stay involved in your local church. I see a lot of things about what the church is doing wrong, but I praise God that when I had an unexpected medical situation come up last week that the love of the people in not just our congregation, but others was so overwhelming that a couple of days when I was in recovery mode they were praying, sending texts, and encouraging me. There is a reason for this passage: Heb 10:25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. (NKJV)
Let me give you an example of what I just mentioned. I had a procedure done on my heart. It was not a major procedure. However, for a couple of days after that I felt dingy from the anesthetic that they gave me. It brought back memories of when I used to do drugs many years ago. My thoughts were that is how people get addicted. They feel bad after the drugs wear off and then they want some more. I am thankful that as a believer in Christ these resources, weapons, and tools were available. As I said earlier these are just some of the means of grace that the Holy Spirit uses to help the righteous stay on the path that God has ordered for us. It would take a lot more room to list them all today.
Don’t forget that God has your steps ordered so draw on the weapons of our warfare and stay on the path. Believe that the Lord Jesus has awesome things set up for you. Not just awesome things, but eternal things!
Let Us Pray
Lord Jesus we thank You for paying the price for our salvation and for all that our salvation entails in this life and in the life to come. Help us to stay on that path that you have ordered. For we know that it is an eternal and glorious path.
In Jesus Name
Amen
I have gotten in a new shipment of the second book that I wrote Party Talk. They are marked down to $10.00 plus $4.00 shipping charge.
Your Friend/Kinfolk
Preston