In the company of Christ

Friends,

Things go wrong in every man's life. But where do you turn? Do you retreat to the comfortable confines of the natural man? Or do you have the courage to go the family of Christ?

Proverbs 27:10 [NKJV]
Do not forsake your own friend or your father’s friend,
Nor go to your brother’s house in the day of your calamity;
Better is a neighbor nearby than a brother far away.

The family of Christ, in its current form, is yet being perfected. But it is headed by the Perfect Man.

The Lord Jesus has never erred in judgment, has only loved completely, and has never failed to comfort, strengthen and encourage. And if we place ourselves in the company of believers, then the love that Christ delivers is never far away.

Be encouraged, Jose

Inside ... then Outside

Friends,

It is so easy to make a good show of Christianity. But that is not what God commands or desires. The Lord is after your heart. That is what He pursues.

Proverbs 6:21 [NKJV]
Bind them continually upon your heart;
Tie them around your neck.

The Word of God must reside ... must live ... in the heart. Then and only then will the outward appearance reflect the true character of the Lord. 

Be encouraged, Jose

Hallmarks of a blessed life

Friends,

We still cling to a odd, temporal notion of what it means to be blessed. We see a big house, a nice car, a healthy family, or success in business and call that man blessed. We see a struggling family, or a disruptive illness, and choose not to see in any blessing in that.

But contrast that view with what God says about blessings:

Blessed is the man whose strength is in You,
Whose heart is set on pilgrimage.
As they pass through the Valley of Baca,
They make it a spring;
The rain also covers it with pools.
They go from strength to strength;
Each one appears before God in Zion.
Psalm 84:5-7 [NKJV]

The whole basis of whether a man is "blessed" or not has nothing to do with present-day circumstances. Rather it has everything to do with the eternal condition of the heart.
Does the heart draw its strength from the LORD?
Is the desire focused on moving through this world and to the LORD?
Are the eyes set on things above?

These, brothers and sisters, are the hallmarks of a blessed man. It is worth examining our hearts today for evidence of their presence.

Be encouraged, Jose

Meant to cause a change

Friends,

the LORD uses a remarkable event to demonstrate that His hand is upon His servant Daniel. He endows Daniel with the wisdom to accurately interpret King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, even though the king refuses to describe it to him. Daniel proclaims the reason behind this miracle to the king's court:

Daniel 2:30 [NKJV]
But as for me, this secret has not been revealed to me because I have more wisdom than anyone living, but for our sakes who make known the interpretation to the king, and that you may know the thoughts of your heart.

The miracle was for the king. And sadly, the king never acknowledges that the LORD is truly the Lord. He never repents of his idolatry and paganism. And he never recognizes his sinfulness or his need for redemption.

This is the danger we are faced with ... we have seen the handiwork of God but we do not change our hearts.

Sisters and brothers, do not let the mighty works of Christ be in vain. You have experienced His blessing and His divine disruptions. They are meant to change your heart.

Be encouraged, Jose

A walk of vigilance

Friends,

We have been called to a life of holiness. It is a life that expresses the gratitude and respect that we should have for the LORD, given what He has done for us. It is a life that stands in stark contrast to the life of those who refuse Jesus' call.

It is also a life that requires great vigilance. If we allow ourselves to devalue obedience, we will eventually only value disobedience. If we give ourselves permission to indulge in a trivial sin, we will be on the path to pursuing sin with no regard to the call of holiness.

Ephesians 4:17a,19 [NKJV]
This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk ... who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

There comes a point in a man's life that he no longer fears doing evil. We see it as children make the transition from being afraid of getting caught to boldly, brashly and publicly being teenage miscreants.

We are reminded in this passage to examine our walk daily. To vigorously guard our hearts against the plot of the evil one.To actively repent and pursue a life of holiness.

It is the walk that is worthy of the call of Christ.

Be encouraged, Jose

Gladness in our heart

Friends,

Consider all the LORD has done for you. Consider His kind admonishment and chastising. Consider His boundless generosity and overwhelming love...

Psalm 4:7-8 [NKJV]
You have put gladness in my heart,
More than in the season that their grain and wine increased.
I will both lie down in peace, and sleep;
For You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.

Lift up your voices, O people of God. Praise the King of kings!

Be encouraged, Jose

Be Magnified

Friends,

What is the proper response to the Lord's actions?

In everything He does, His will and His glory is evident. His will is perfect and good. The outcome will bring Him glory. And nothing is better or more important than that!

So again, I ask you ... how should the men and women of God respond to what the Lord does?

Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You;
And let those who love Your salvation say continually,
“Let God be magnified!”
-- Psalm 70:4 [NKJV]

We who seek the LORD are a unique people. We recognize that the sovereignty of God is absolute and complete. His hand touches and directs all things. So we see the events of history unfold and proclaim that the LORD is good and worthy to be praised! Let us magnify His Name!

Be encouraged, Jose

Verfiying the heart

Friends,

Almighty God wants us to know that we belong to Him. He wants us to be confident in His love for us.

Psalm 11:5 (NKJV)
The LORD tests the righteous,
But the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates. (emphasis added)

The word "tests" is translated from the Hebrew word bachan and means to examine, try, or to prove. By putting His sons and daughters through this process, The LORD brings us to a place of peace and comfort. The process reveals our heart to ourselves. We will be forced to end any self-deception. And then we will know what He already knows. Then, we can rest in knowledge and security of His gift of salvation.

Be encouraged, Jose

Keeping a promise

Friends,

It happens so often.

Things work out, but not quite the way you expected them to. In the end, the desired result is achieved, but the path you took was far different from the one you had planned.

Mark 14:31 (NKJV)
But [Peter] spoke more vehemently, “If I have to die with You, I will not deny You!”
And they all said likewise.

Of course, we all know the familiar story of Peter's inability to resist denying that he knew Jesus. We know that Christ brought Peter back to Himself after His resurrection, and that Peter went on to be used by the Lord for great and far-reaching work.

In the end, Peter was executed for His steadfast refusal to disobey Jesus. But he did not accomplish this on his own. When he utilized his own strength to accomplish his own plans, he failed spectacularly.

But when the Lord directed Peter's steps, the fragility and limits of his strength were rendered irrelevant. And the Lord demonstrated, in spectacular fashion, His faithfulness to accomplish what He begins.

Be encouraged, Jose

No barriers

Friends,

What are the kinds of things that come between and your beloved, especially when there is an opportunity for intimacy? What is distracting you when they want to be the focus of your attention? Is it the list of chores? Is it the stress of work? Is it the pursuit of your ambitions and goals?

Don't you know that these same things that get in the way of being truly intimate with Christ.

Mark 10:23
Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!” - NKJV

Entering the Kingdom is an act of deep and lasting intimacy. We enter into the Kingdom in order to enter into His presence. And in His presence, nothing else can exist. Nothing of this world is worthy of the holiness that He deserves. Not our achievements, our credentials, our possessions, our sadness, our lack of forgiveness, nor our altruistic works.

Be prepared to leave all of that behind. It's worthless in eternity anyway. Why cling to it? Let it go, and instead take hold of the gift of simply being in the presence of the One True God.

Be encouraged, Jose

The quest for peace

Friends,

It is an age-old quest.

Men and women, once they have satisfied their most basic needs, seek something that will bring a sense of fulfillment and completion in their lives. Essentially, they are chasing after one thing: Peace.

Don't believe me? Then why do people say, after some great event or accomplishment, "Now, I can die in peace"? Why does society say to the dead, "Rest in peace"? And why, when some conflict is finally resolved, do we decide that we "are at peace with it"?

Peace is a universal desire. We may disagree on how to achieve peace. We may disagree with what peace looks like. But make no mistake, every single one of us is chasing it.

Psalm 132:3-5
“Surely I will not go into the chamber of my house,
Or go up to the comfort of my bed;
I will not give sleep to my eyes
Or slumber to my eyelids,
Until I find a place for the LORD,
A dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob.”
[NKJV]

The LORD reveals to us, in these short verses, something truly remarkable. First, He understands our passionate desire for peace. He has put this desire into each one of us.

Second, He shows us that there is a way to this peace we so desperately want. Once we have given place to the LORD in our hearts, we will be able to rest comfortably and sleep soundly.

What happens when something else has possession of our heart? There is no rest. There is no comfort. There is no peace. We will keep searching and searching, driving harder, working more feverishly. No effort will be spared. But peace will not be found.

Give the Lord your heart. He will possess it. He will live there. And you will have peace.

Be encouraged, Jose

Come into the open

Friends,

In our study of Mark, we have been learning how the Pharisees had placed unconscionable burdens on their followers. We are seeing how they broke their own Sabbath rules in order plot evil in their hearts. Time and again, our Lord hears not only what they say with their lips, but discerns the hatred and murderous intent of their hearts. These religious leaders, who were revered in the community as pillars of piety and morality, held a dark secret ...

Jeremiah 23:24
“Can anyone hide himself in secret places,
So I shall not see him?” says the LORD;
“Do I not fill heaven and earth?” says the LORD.

Psalm 10:8
He sits in the lurking places of the villages;
In the secret places he murders the innocent;
His eyes are secretly fixed on the helpless.
- NKJV

Both of these verses contain the phrase “secret places”. It is translated from the Hebrew word mictar (pronounced mis·tär’, and we should understand it to mean a place where someone lies in wait, preparing to perpetrate a crime. Does that not perfectly describe what Christ is seeing in the religious elite of that era? On the outside, the Pharisees were holy and wholesome, demonstrating great indignation when someone challenged their teachings and fully believing that they were right. Inside their hearts, though, they waited secretly to accuse Christ and put Him to death.

We know, of course, how those events unfolded. Jesus went to the cross at the hour appointed by the Father (not the Pharisees). The Pharisees, along with many others, were used as God's instrument in that drama. And therefore their hearts were revealed as evil.

Today would be a good day for each of us to examine our own hearts.
As believers, perhaps we are outwardly moral and upright, but inwardly we may be harboring unforgiveness, bitterness or malice towards another. It can happen with surprising ease. It only takes a momentary lapse of concentration and vigilance for the enemy to establish that foothold. Fortunately, we have the perfect remedy. We cry out to Jesus and plead for His mercy. We rely on Him to bring us to repentance. And the love of Christ will fill us anew.

Be encouraged, Jose

p.s. You can listen to the study of Mark any time - day or night - at Bible Study Audio.

A better day

Friends,

Check your heart today. Are you holding anger inside towards another? Have you neglected to forgive in a meaningful and purposeful manner?

Numbers 35:33-34
So you shall not pollute the land where you are; for blood defiles the land, and no atonement can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it. Therefore do not defile the land which you inhabit, in the midst of which I dwell; for I the LORD dwell among the children of Israel. [NKJV]

Matthew 5:21-22a
You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. [NKJV]

Anger and bitterness and unforgiveness wield remarkable power in our daily lives. Some effects are obvious ... depression, lashing out, ulcers. Some are not as obvious, but they are real nonetheless.

Brothers and sisters, let today be the day you release any anger. Today, make it your business to explicitly forgive those who have sinned against you. You'll be amazed at how much better today becomes!

Be encouraged, Jose

Giving Attention

Friends,

What were you paying attention to earlier this morning? As you were preparing for work, what was on your mind?
Was it the list of tasks?
Was it the conversation you had with your spouse last night?
Was it the worry over paying next month's bills?
Was it the ball game that kept you up until late?

1 Timothy 4:13 - Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. [NKJV]

Perhaps, dear brothers and sisters, there is something better for you and I to be thinking about.

Be encouraged, Jose

Weight Loss

Friends,

One of the most insidious side effects of sin is the weight that it brings. Guilt. Condemnation. Self-recrimination. They are crippling. They are an unseen burden that can eventually bring to an end all progress and growth, leaving us paralyzed even as we walk through the motions of life. We go to work. We fellowship with the church. We read our Bible everyday. But they are empty motions, taking us from place to place but never actually going anywhere.

Luke 5:24 [NKJV]
But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins — He said to the man who was paralyzed, I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.

Just as Christ was making a point to the religious leaders of that time in this passage, He is making a point to you and me. The weight of unforgiven sin had paralyzed that man. He blended in with the world around him. On the outside, his situation was bad, but on the inside it was debilitating ... and no one seemed to care.

Well ... One cared.

Jesus, who sees past all of our acts of kindness and acts of cruelty, sees past this man's paralysis. He sees the broken heart. He sees the scars left by years of sin. He sees the elected creation, crying out for forgiveness.

The Lord is speaking today to you and to me.
He says, Arise!
Your sins are forgiven you.
No more shall you be crippled by sin.
By My grace, you shall be holy ... as I am holy. .

Be encouraged, Jose

The forgiveness imperative

Friends,

All to often, the notion of forgiving one another is seen as merely a good idea. We forgive because it leads to our own healing. We forgive because failing to do so perpetuates and exacerbates the pain. And as a reminder ... let us remember that we are commanded to forgive ...

And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
Ephesians 4:32 [NKJV]

But sometimes, we hold on. We say we forgive, but in reality we do not. How many times has this happened in your heart? And when this happens, our hearts slowly but surely lose their tenderness, becoming hardened and brittle. The kindness we would normally display quietly fades into thoughtlessness and then to hostility.

Christ Jesus knows that you have been wounded. He knows that those wounds are deep and painful. And even so, He rightfully demands that you forgive those who have hurt you. It may be an instantaneous relief, or it may take a long time. But it must be done, brothers and sisters. It is vital to your heart.

Be encouraged, Jose

Higher than your mountain

Friends,

Hear my cry, O God;
Attend to my prayer.
From the end of the earth I will cry to You,
When my heart is overwhelmed;
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
Psalm 61:1-2 [NKJV]

This is a remarkable prayer. It is not a plea to remove troubles from us. It does not give voice to a desire to escape the troubles of the present day.

It is a solemn and humble recognition that there is a place that is higher than any issue, than any obstacle, than any concern of this world. The psalmist asks Almighty God to bring him to the rock. You and I might even go so far as to capitalize the "Rock" in these verses. For it is entirely appropriate that, when our heart is overwhelmed and our vision is consumed by the mountain before us, we call upon the Lord to bring us to Himself.

The troubles may still be all around us. But we will stand upon the Rock ... and be strengthened.

Be encouraged, Jose

The joyful path

Friends,

Every man, woman and child struggles with emotions from time to time. It is part of our fallen, human nature. We who are believers have a means to overcome this struggle; to ensure that emotions cannot become our master:

Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God;
For I shall yet praise Him,
The help of my countenance and my God.
Psalm 43:5 [NKJV]

This short verse expresses a dramatic change in the heart of the child of God. It does not negate the current circumstances, nor does it diminish their importance. Yet, the inevitable result is a changed perspective.

As imposing or daunting as a situation may appear, it cannot compare to the majesty and glory of Almighty God. When we look to the Lord, it changes how we view everything in our lives - whether physical, emotional, intellectual, or even spiritual. Our perspective changes, and therefore our heart and soul are lifted.

And we praise Him!

Be encouraged, Jose

Start with the heart

Friends,

Our words have great power. We know how our words can impact one another. A wrong word from a father can devastate a child. Words spoken in anger can cause enduring damage to a marriage. And yet, their power cannot go beyond the bounds of what is in our hearts.

But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man.
-- Christ Jesus, as recorded in Matthew 15:18

Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things.
See how great a forest a little fire kindles!
-- James 3:5 [NKJV]

Are you searching for a way to control your tongue?
Then the place to start is the heart. Search for the word heart in the Bible. You will see that it appears over 950 times in scripture. It is central to our faith and to our relationship with Christ. It is also central to our relationships with one another.

Sisters and brothers, take prayer time today to lay your heart before the Lord. Beseech Him to stand guard over it, to protect it, and to heal it. He has promised to create in us a new heart, and as He does so, we will find our words will edify, encourage, and strengthen. They will become powerful forces for the advancement of Christ's Kingdom.

Be encouraged, Jose

Prayers for truth

Friends,

Perhaps you've been questioning recently whether prayer really works. maybe that situation, that you've targeted with your prayers, hasn't improved. For me, I've been praying for a job. Maybe you are, too. Or maybe you've been praying for health, or for strength in resisting one sin or another. Maybe it's time to take a hard look at the truth of our prayers ...

Hear a just cause, O LORD,
Attend to my cry;
Give ear to my prayer which is not from deceitful lips.
Psalm 17:1 [NKJV]

There is a brother in the Lord who ministers to men in my hometown. At the root of the problem for most of the guys is an inability to be (in his words), "Who we really are before who God really is." That simple phrase aligns beautifully with what David is writing in the opening of Psalm 17. He is declaring before God that his prayers are honest and true... that they do not come from "deceitful lips."

Sisters and brothers, this is the first and most important condition for the praying believer. Our prayers must not be manipulated to sound holy, or to be what we think God wants to hear. Our prayers must be honest and true. There is no room for lies or deception before the Lord ... who sees right through them, anyway. There is no need for eloquence or rhymes or soaring rhetoric.

All that is needed is for you and I to be who we really are before who God really is. Admit to being scared, worried, exhausted, or just plain ticked off. Admit to being joyful, relieved, or full of energy. Be authentic. Be real. And from that authenticity, our amazing and generous Lord will bring blessing and strength.

He will answer our prayers.

Be encouraged, Jose