2010 – December 19 – Making a Good Finish

Study from God’s Word… 2nd Timothy: Paul’s entire 2nd letter to Timothy, often considered his last will and testament … Passage for Reflection: 2nd Timothy 4: 7 … NIV I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

My Journal for Today: How many people, in studying the Bible, have impressed you who started well in the faith but could not sustain their early courage and strength. Certainly there was David, who showed such promise and courage, dealing with Goliath in faith as a youth, then taking years to handle the assaults of Saul. He was truly God’s warrior and later God’s King. But, in his later years as King, he fell to temptation with Bathsheba, even to the point of having a dear friend murdered to cover his sin. Then there was David’s Son, Solomon, who was given, by God, more human wisdom than any other man; and he built the great Temple for the Lord. BUT, later in his life he also fell into foolish and fleshly living.

Think of all the contemporary Christian leaders who couldn’t sustain the “good fight.” There was Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, and Ted Haggard. And yes, all of these men, as well as David and Solomon, after their individual falls and folly, confessed and repented and experienced some degree of restoration in their lives; but they could not seem to sustain their faithful warfare against the flesh, the world, and the Devil during their life trek as a believer, falling prey … especially to their own fleshly desires.

And it was Paul in this final letter to his protégé, Timothy, speaking out strongly with exhortations and warnings to avoid the desires of the flesh (see 2nd Tim. 2: 22); and as he wrote to Timothy (and all Christians) in today’s highlight text, to do what Paul felt he had done as a warrior for Christ, … i.e., to finish the race and keep the faith. Paul may not have started well in his life, being the former persecutor of Christians; but once he let Christ into His heart, Paul was one who definitely finished well.

The question raised by today’s challenging devotional – at least for me – is: … Do I let discouragement or cynicism creep into my mind/heart to the point that it weakens my resolve to finish well as a warrior in God’s army? God has charged me (see Luke 9: 23, Acts 1: 8, and Matt. 28: 19-20) to keep-on-keeping-on in the faith, becoming and remaining strong as His witness and His warrior. Dr. Smith pointedly asks today: If I ever start slipping into a mode of cynical discouragement, what new vision can I capture to keep me going?

And these are questions we all need to have a battle plan to confront? I’m certainly no David or Solomon with regard to courage or wisdom. I’m no Paul or Peter when it comes to my evangelical zeal. But I am Bill Berry; and I have the same Holy Spirit in my heart Who raised Jesus from the dead and Who came into my heart to enlighten, enable, and empower me the same way He did those so-called “giants of the faith,” who some how fell in their faith and became victims rather than victorious. I have been called by Paul’s exhortation to Timothy (and, by extension, to me) to stick it out and finish the marathon we call the Christian life, … to fight the good fight all the way to the end for Christ. And I learned a long time ago from a mentor that anything we’re called to do by God, He will enable us to do it. The question – for me – is, will I stay in surrender mode and let Him?

So, I have a battle plan; and my plan is to march onward using the same plan which God gave to Joshua when this warrior for God’s way was down after Moses’ death [see Joshua 1: 1 – 9 - linked here]. And I charge you to go back and meditate on the charge and challenge – i.e., the battle plan – which God gave to Joshua to stay strong and carry out God’s plan with success; and you’ll see that God promised Joshua that he could cross the Jordan and take the promised land IF he would just believe God and stay in His book of the Law (which we now have in expanded form in our Bible).

God’s plan for Bill Berry to “fight the good fight” is to do what I’m doing right now; and stay in God’s word, daily, believing that my Lord will give me all that I need, through His Spirit, to fight the good fight and to win in my own personal race to the end of this life, … giving me a running head start into the next.

What about you? What’s your plan? And will you finish the race the way God is calling you to finish? >>> Oh, and I’ll say to you here what Paul said to his followers (see 1st Cor. 11: 1, which I’ll paraphrase here, … “Come on, follow me; because I’m following Christ!”

My Prayer for Today: Lord, I follow You to the tape. I will finish with You. Amen

2010 – November 25 – A Rough Road to the Kingdom

Special Blogger's Note: Your ElderBerry friend, Bill, here wanting to relate to any/all who come here - maybe today and maybe other days - to read or even meditate on what God leads me to write here in these daily devotional blogs. It's THANKSGIVING DAY; and I'm so very thankful to be reading through the entire Bible this year (still on track into the 11th month). And I'm thankful to have followers like you, who, knowing you're there, have helped to keep me accountable and motivated to <'KOKO>< , which means "to keep on keeping on in Christ!" Thanks to you, to God's willingness to give me a little more than a month more, and mostly to God's enabling grace, keeping me on track in this covenant to Him on January 1, 2010, I'm going to read/study through the entire Bible this year; and doing it will be all to God's glory. Thanks, some of you, for coming along with me. I'm so grateful for your presence. =====================

Study from God’s Word… Acts, Chapters 13 – 15 … Passage for Reflection: Acts 14: 21 - 22 … NIV Then they [Paul, revived after being stoned by offended Greek Jews on his first missionary journey to Asia-Minor, and Barnabas, traveling with Paul] … returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch (in northern Syria), 22 strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said.

My Journal for Today: Okay, today is Thanksgiving in this year as I read today’s chapters from Acts and, led by Dr. Smith’s devotional, highlighting a passage attributed to the teachings of both Paul and Barnabas, who were teaching Jewish and Gentile Christians on their first missionary journey to Asia Minor. And in this study, I come upon another of those perplexing doctrinal conundrums which cause us to pause to ask how much of good works, in the face of persecution or worldly, human trial, is necessary for a believer in Jesus, as The Christ, to enter the kingdom of God, which is our heaven-bound home as born-again Christians after we’ve lived out our lives here on this earth.

We know a lot as Christians; and we really learn the basics from the Bible about salvation by God’s grace, through faith, leading to good works and kingdom as we read and internalize Christ’s sermon on the mount and then Paul’s letters later to the Church. In passages like Ephesians 2: 8-10, we read that salvation only comes through receiving the free gift of God’s saving grace by faith in Christ’s death and resurrection for our sins; and then in verse 10 of that passage, we see that fully receiving this saving grace leads to the enabling/empowering and sanctifying grace of God which shapes Christians to be able to withstand the very “hardships” which Paul and Barnabas are teaching Christians about in today’s passage.

The question and the Christian conundrum though the age of the Church has always been what Dr. Smith wrote out in his devotional challenge for the day, writing, In light of Jesus’ teaching, how far do I have to go to enter the kingdom of God?” Well, let me comment on that briefly.

I KNOW that I will enter the kingdom of God upon my exit from life because first of all my commitment in faith to Christ as Savior AND LORD, is very real. I KNOW and have declared repeatedly to others that I was (and still remain) a sinner; but I’m a sinner who was saved by the blood shed by Christ on the cross; and furthermore I believe and KNOW the truth of His resurrection from the dead to show God’s power over death. And then finally, KNOWING the truth of God’s word in Romans 10: 9-13, where the process of salvation is clearly laid out, my life since I let Christ into my heart has been a process of confrontation with the world, Satan, and my own sinful flesh. But these hardships have happened with me experiencing the enabling grace given to me by God’s presence in my heart to become the “living sacrifice,” described by Paul in Romans 12: 1-2.

I believe; and I KNOW it’s true, as Paul/Barnabas taught to Christians (in the above verse) that one cannot expect to be in the kingdom of God unless the trials of life have shown the believer that he/she has the presence and power of God’s Spirit in them and working through them in order for us, as true, born-again believers, to exhibit the fruitfulness described in John 15 and Galatians 5: 22-23.

I’ll leave it to you, if you don’t know those passages I’ve referred to above, by heart, to look them up and meditate on them here at Thanksgiving; and if you are like me on this special day, you’ll be so thankful that you let God’s grace into your life so that you can be saved from your self and allowed and empowered to deal with the hardships of life. Be thankful today, my Christian friend, that you are in, and always will be in, the Kingdom of God.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, on this Thanksgiving Day, I’m so thankful that You, Lord, led me into Your Kingdom. Amen

2010 – August 1 – I Can’t Help Myself

Bogger’s Note: New Month, … new day, … new opportunities to share Christ and His truth with others.

Study from God’s Word… Jeremiah, Chapters 17 - 20 … Passage for Reflection: Jeremiah 20: 8 – 9 … NIV 8 Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the LORD has brought me insult and reproach all day long. 9 But if I say, "I will not mention him or speak any more in his name," his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.

My Journal for Today: When I read and study through these chapters of Jeremiah’s book, I really get a sense of the humanity, yet the humility, of this “weeping prophet,” chosen by God to bring a message to His recalcitrant, yet chosen, people. Jeremiah must’ve hated having to speak out to a people who had lost their sense of what God had done for them.

Yesterday, I gave a talk to a group of about 75 African-American high school football players. My message was on why God wants us to live lives of purity, especially sexually, so that He, The Lord, will be glorified. And as I talked to these young men, many of whom were drifting off asleep, I could read their thoughts, which projected, “Why should I even listen to this old, white, dude?!” Yet, there were a few – a very few – eyes which caught mine, … a few young men who wanted to hear the message of truth I had been led by God and this opportunity to share with them; and it was for those few, a remnant of believers, that I had a burn to speak on … to share the message of God’s truth with those few who might hear.

You know, my devotional author, Dr. Smith likened what Jeremiah must’ve felt like in those days when very few were listening to him to what Dietrich Bonhoeffer must’ve felt like just prior to WW2. You probably know that Bonhoeffer was the Christian theologian who was imprisoned by the Nazis for preaching against them; and he was executed by them in one of the holocaust camps just a few weeks before the end of the war.

Interestingly enough, Bonhoeffer could’ve ridden out the war in New York; but he chose to book passage on the last steamer allowed by the U.S. to go to Germany from the USA in 1939. Bonhoeffer went back to Germany because he had “a burn” in his heart for “his people,” the Germans, whom he could see were following a devil, Hitler, into unrighteousness. In his own words, writing to another theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr, Bonhoeffer in 1939 wrote, "I have come to the conclusion that I made a mistake in coming to America. I must live through this difficult period in our national history with the people of Germany. I will have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people... Christians in Germany will have to face the terrible alternative of either willing the defeat of their nation in order that Christian civilization may survive or willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying civilization. I know which of these alternatives I must choose but I cannot make that choice from security."

It’s tough to be a Christian, standing up for God, when you see the culture drifting into sin, death, and decay. One feels like the proverbial salmon swimming upstream with headwaters that flow rapidly against us. But like Jeremiah and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one must continue to speak out against ungodliness when we see it. Sometimes I hate seeing men fall like flies on the battle fields of life, succumbing, even as Christians, to the flesh and the world and Satan’s ploys. And like Jeremiah, it’s tough to have a burn to deliver a message which is considered politically incorrect at best and downright threatening at worst.

But like Jeremiah, those of us who have God’s message, especially those of us who know what has been charged in passages of truth like Acts 1: 8 and Matthew 28: 19-20 [oh, I hope you know those by now], we have the burn that Jeremiah or Bonhoeffer had for God’s message because we have the same Holy Spirit driving us who drove those men. And that Spirit is not the Spirit of the victim, it’s THE SPIRIT of victory (i.e., see 2nd Tim 1: 7 - linked).

I hope you feel driven, as do I, to keep on keeping on in our degenerating culture, … to bring the messages of truth from God’s word to God’s people and to the lost.

My Prayer for Today: As You are my witness, Lord, I carry on! Amen

2010 – April 25 – What God Lets Slip

Study from God’s Word… Psalms 120, 121, 140, 143, and 144 … Passage for Reflection: Psalm 121: 7-8… NIV 7 The LORD will keep you from all harm — He will watch over your life; 8 the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

My Journal for Today: According to my devotional shepherd, Dr. Smith, Psalm 121 is what Jewish tradition calls “a song of ascents,” which the Jewish pilgrims, after David’s time, sang when they were ascending from the low lands, through the hills of the Negev, up to Jerusalem. Certainly when David wrote this song, he was trying to escape enemies by traversing the mountains in the deserts of the Negev hills. He was escaping his enemies, like Saul, in caves. But the later Jews sang these songs to remind the people to keep their eyes on the trails, and to keep their footsteps safe, as they traversed through the mountainous passes where the walking was precarious.

And this is a good word picture of our life. We often walk along dangerous paths, even through minefields, in this life, where there is temptation and danger ahead, to the right, and to the left along the trail of living. However, when we do, we need to be reminded, as does this Pslam, that we can depend on our God, who will watch over us and lead us on the right path – IF – we but follow Him as instructed by our Lord in such passages as Psalm 119: 105, Prov. 3: 5-6, and Luke 9: 23, ,,, and so many other of the Psalms David wrote as “songs of ascent,” which I was reading this morning – written for the Jews and for us as well.

I can’t tell you how many times, in my devotional life, I’m brought back to the words of that old, famous, and pertinent hymn of the faith by Helen Lemmel, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus, which I guess is my “song of ascent,” often reminding me [I’m listening to it right now in my Itunes library] that when I keep my eyes upon my Lord as I traverse the dangerous trails of life, He will lead me safely along the path of life. I’m going to put the lyrics of this song – yes, again – for you to read and remember that Jesus wants to lead us along the precarious paths of life.

Meditate on these words, my friend, as with the old Hebrew “Selah,” to be uplifted by our God …

O soul, are you weary and troubled?
No light in the darkness you see?
There’s light for a look at the Savior,
And life more abundant and free!

Refrain:
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.

His Word will not fail you—He promised;
Believe Him, and all will be well:
Then go to a world that is dying,
His perfect salvation to tell!

PS: If you’re at your computer, maybe doing your devotional; and you’d like to hear Michael W. Smith sing the refrain to that old hymn, click on this link -

My Prayer for Today: Oh, my LORD, You walk ahead of me; and I follow You. Amen

2010 – Mar. 9 – Hopeful Disappointments

Study from God’s Word… Deut 31: 48-52; Deut 33: 1 – 29: Deut 34; 1 – 12; … Passage for Reflection: Deut 32: 52 … NIV 52 “Therefore, you will see the land only from a distance; you will not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel."

My Journal for Today: I have been up on the crowning point of Mount Nebo where Moses was led to go to see the promised land [see Deut. 32: 48-52 - linked here], into which he would not set foot in his physical lifetime. We know why Moses didn’t cross the Jordan, as would Joshua later, leading God’s people into that ever so elusive Promised Land, from which God’s People had been restrained for 40 years of wandering so that they would be purged and ready to claim for God’s glory. Moses was restrained from setting foot in the promised land because of the ramifications of past sin.

But as I looked out over the expanse of that Promised Land on that day in Jordan when I was up on Mount Nebo, being where Moses must have stood, I could not get a grasp on the disappointment and emotional discouragement Moses must have felt, knowing that it was nothing but the consequences of his own sin which kept him from entering into that wonderful promised land which God had set before His people. Then as I looked out over that expanse of green and fertile lands, I remembered, … Moses may have physically been restrained from entering that land of promise; but the Promised Land of God will be Moses’ eternally because of his faith.

Yes, there would be another leader of God’s people, the Chosen People, Who would die before He would physically see the realization of God’s plan for His glorious elect. And that One, Whom we would know as our Savior, must’ve felt even more “hope-filled disappointment” when He languished in the garden of Gethsemane that night before His crucifixion.

Sometimes we encounter someone in this life who seems to die “before their time.” Maybe it’s a younger parent or grandparent who never gets the physical/emotional opportunity to see their children or grandkids blossom fully. Perhaps it’s someone who had a great idea which was developed after his death by someone else. I think of Martin Luther King, who had “a dream,” which is now unfolding, … but only after he was so ignominiously and precipitously killed. But, as F. LaGard Smith points out, there is no such thing as a “premature death,” … a concept which is really a spiritual oxymoron; because if someone had a small part in God’s will or His plan for God’s people, that promise will be fulfilled; and that person, who may have died before realizing that dream in this life, will see the fruit of his/her efforts in glory. As Smith writes it, ”No dream or efforts made that are consistent with God’s own good pleasure will be unfulfilled or wasted.”

The question becomes what are we doing NOW which is from or part of God’s will for our lives or for the future God has for His people. And we should (well, really, we MUST) know that anything which is launched or hatched today in God’s Name, of which we are a part, will be realized in God’s future; and being a part of His chosen ones, you or I will see the fruit of our labors growing, if not in this life, … in glory.

So, what we must do is seek to live within God’s will and for His purpose … for as long as we can; … and to move His dreams and plans forward as much as we can. We may not see the endpoint in this life; but as Moses will see the Promised Land and walk in it with his Savior, so we will be able to see our completed future unfold in eternity with God.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, point me in Your direction; and may I do all I can to see my part of that glorious plan unfold in my lifetime. Amen

2009 – Day 316.Nov 13 – Disappointing Results

Passage for Study: Acts 14: 1 - 20 … Linked for your study …

My Journal for Today: As we read in this Acts 14 passage as well as other accounts in the mission/ministry of the Paul, the converted Apostle didn’t experience missionary success everywhere he went. Certainly in this account, Paul was stoned and left for death because of his preaching. Rejection was often his close companion.

Swindoll also recounts the life of a dedicated missionary, James Gilmore, who is quoted by Pastor Chuck after years of missionary work to tribal peoples of Mongolia to have no converts. He came to Mongolia with great hope and enthusiasm; but by all worldly standards of ministry (i.e., the number of converts), after YEARS, there were none. And Swindoll uses the Acts 14 account, as well as the story about Brother Gilmore, to illustrate that missionary or ministry work should not be for the faint of heart.

When a couple of days ago I wrote, “God’s calling is God’s enablement,” I wasn’t saying that God will call you to the mission field or into a personal ministry and then make your success the head-count of souls or the numbers of people who flock into your ministry. Head counts are often the world’s way of measuring the success of His calling. When Pastors gather, one of the oft asked questions is “How big is your church?” But those sorts of data gathering methods are man’s way of seeing success … NOT GOD’S.

Take it from someone who, about 15 years ago, was called to found and build a ministry to help Christians walk free from habitual sexual sin. And at that time – as it is now – the field of ministry was “white unto harvest.” With over 50% of Christian men and over 25% of Full-time Ministers deeply hooked on porn, damaging their ability to be a husband or a father, or to have any power in personal ministry, I thought God would see hundreds, if not thousands, of men convicted and redirected to fruitfulness as Christians by coming into and through BattlePlan Ministries. >>> Well, after those 15+ years, there have been a number whose lives have been brought from sexual addiction to an abiding and productive relationship with Christ. However, the ministry of Satan in this area seems to be growing so, so much faster than the lives which Battle Plan Ministry touches – or all the ministries like ours in the country for that matter. Sometimes, I feel like God has led me to the task of trying to empty an ocean with a tea spoon.

But I’m not called to save the world. That’s God’s job. I’m not called to convict and redirect the lives of all sinners. I’m just called to be available, vulnerable, accountable, and ready to serve any Christian who comes to Battle Plan Ministry for help. And if I get discouraged or disheartened by encountering and being turned back by Satan’s super-weapons of sexual warfare, I would become no use to God in going up against Satan’s best or the world’s warfare.

My friend, … if you have a calling from God, the task may seem overwhelming. But rather than becoming discouraged by numbers or the lack of same, be like Abraham or Moses or Gideon or Nehemiah and just go, following God’s calling to do God’s work. Go with God and for God; and let God be God, remembering (and here it comes again), YOU ARE NOT! God is the One Who produces the “head count.” We do what we’re called to do, doing, to the best of our ability, what HE has called us to do, … no more, … no less. And we, who are called, if we are truly doing all we can do, must accept the harvest to be God’s.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, help me not to be into counting; but rather into commitment. Amen

2009 – Day 310.Nov 07 – Press On

Passage for Study: Acts 12: 25, 13:5, 13: 13 - 15 … Acts 12 – 13 Linked for study …

My Journal for Today: Though we’re studying Paul’s ministry and movements in the Book of Acts, it was Paul’s words in Phil. 3: 14 which succinctly summarize what today’s message is all about. To the church at Philippi, Paul wrote, ”I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

In today’s passages, there was a point in their travels in Asia Minor, in what we now know as Turkey, that the companion assistant, John Mark, for whatever reason, decided to go back to Jerusalem. But Paul and Barnabas didn’t let that deter them from their called missionary journey. They pressed on!

Today, Chuck Swindoll points to a reality that we all face in our upward calling to/for Christ (see Acts 1: 8 and Matt. 28: 19-20); and that is we often face Satan’s weapon of discouragement. Here were Barnabas and Paul in a strange land; and historians tell us that somewhere, about this time, Paul came down with a severe illness, likely malaria or some semi-tropical disease. And then there was John Mark taking a hike on them. But what did they do? They pressed on just as Paul wrote about later in Phil. 3: 14.

It’s easy when we’re out there in the world, trying our best to live and witness our faith. In case you haven’t noticed, the world is becoming ever more hostile to any who stand for Christ. I know you’re probably saying sarcastically, “Duh, Bill, really?” And then there’s the discouragement of people, maybe even dear friends, who backslide or even abandon their previously declared faith. Satan has a way of buffeting us with circumstances which can bring us down into discouragement or even situational depression. And it is often tempting to just cut and run; but then the truth from Paul, quoted above, rings with conviction in our hearts. We simply must “press on toward the goal,” having been given the calling to stand for our Lord, to shine His light through our good and Godly works so that our Father in Heaven will be glorified. [I’ll bet some of you are already quoting Matt. 5: 16 here right, aren’t you? ;) ].

My Prayer for Today: Lord, we all, as your called ones, need Your strength to bolster us when Satan comes against us with discouragement. Help us to press on for Your calling. Amen

2009 – Day 261.Sept 19 – Learning From Suffering

Passage of the Day: Job 28 … Linked for study …

My Journal for Today: At the end of his devotional for this date, Chuck Swindoll zeroes in on a pertinent and powerful truth from this study in Job, especially from Chapter 28; and that is we learn that “… the greater the suffering, the better we determine what really matters.” That’s what Job had learned; and be begins to assert this truth in Chapter 28 by his commitment to dig deeply into the mind of God to find the Lord’s wisdom to replace his own confusion and doubt.

This very date, a dear friend of mine was lamenting his long struggle with his weight and the outcomes of being overweight physically (high blood pressure, joint problems, and fatigue). And oh, how I empathize with that, having become obese myself some years ago and incurring diabetes as a result. However, when I was diagnosed with diabetes, God showed me I need not languish in my own habitual sin nor my feelings of defeat from my chronic obesity. God revealed to me that I could choose to be an “overcomer” because Christ had been THE OVERCOMER [see John 16: 33].

God’s Spirit led me to recognize that I need not live, as did Paul, in the lie of Romans 7: 14-23, I could rather live in the truth of Romans 8 - link provided. I need not live in the weakness and pain of 2nd Cor. 12: 7-8; I could rather live in the strength and victory of 2nd Cor. 9-10 - link provided. But if I bought into the lies the enemy would have me believe, such as those Job had heard from his three friends, I would not be able to share in the victories God had for me to experience in my future.

Job, in Chapter 28 made the decision to stand for God’s truth rather than to surrender to Satan’s lies. He decided to go deep and mine for God’s mind, rather than listen to the surface logic of the world. Job declared for all to hear that God was in control; and he (Job) was going to dig more deeply for Godly wisdom rather than rely on human logic.

And that’s what we need to do; … we need to learn from our suffering rather than to succumb to its pain. We need to begin mining for Godly wisdom rather than relying on human experience or logic. We need to find God’s way rather than man’s will. And you know, as do I, the primary source of those choices; … and that is God’s truth from His word.

So, are we going to choose to dig deeply into God’s mind; or are we going to listen to our own deceit-ridden heart or the world’s logic? Are we going to live in Romans 8, rather than Romans 7? Are we going to choose to receive God’s strength, or are we going to rely on our own weakness to deal with the challenges presented by the world?

Choices!

My Prayer for Today: Lord, help me to choose Your way, … not mine! Amen

2009 – Day 143.May 24 – The Best I Can

2009 – Day 143.May 24 – The Best I Can

Passage of the Day: 1St Chronicles 28: 1 – 11 … Passage linked for study …

My Journal for Today: Today’s passage is a great illustration of a dedicated servant of the Lord who could have expressed regrets and wallowed in self pity, but rather chose to acknowledge God for what he was allowed to do in his life and praise His Lord for what God will do through others to see His kingdom glorified. And I totally identify with David in this scenario as he passes the mantle of God’s will on to his son Solomon.

Perhaps you’ve lived with a big dream which, at this stage in your life, you realize God has put on hold for someone else to accomplish. Perhaps you’ve had to endure some personal challenge in life; and you realize that only in heaven will you be free of some thorn or handicap. Perhaps God had said “No” to your dream of romance or marriage; and you will only find fulfillment in your eternal relationship with our Savior now or in Glory. And you must, as did David in today’s passage, move onward without realizing the fulfillment of your dream.

I’m there, my dear one. For years I’ve dreamed of seeing big numbers of Christians walk out of the self-induced prisons of habitual sexual sin and into the freedom they can find by surrendering to follow Christ. And in my later days, I’ve come to recognize that God has entrusted me with a much smaller effort in this regard than I would have liked to see for His glory so that someone else, one day, can be blessed to see great numbers walk free in Christ. Battle Plan Ministries [website link provided], the calling which God has ordained me to lead, has been blessed to lead many, mostly men of God, to become more Godly Christians and to find the freedom path which can only come by following Christ (see Luke 9: 23, which, by now, I hope you have memorized). And I have yet to identify, as David did, a successor who could lead big numbers of Christians to freedom and to move away from self imposed prisons of sin.

But I praise God that He has allowed me, as He did David, to acknowledge and confess my own sin; and to sing praise to my God in my lifetime for finding and taking the path of honesty and vulnerability so that I might show others that God way is the only way to follow in this life and on into the next. And I praise God that He has allowed me to build the plans for God’s dream, as did David, where others can see what lies ahead for God’s glory. And I praise God that, as David did, I’ve been given the charge to pass this dream on to someone else, one who can move God’s kingdom plan and will to another level.

And if such a place is where you are in life, I pray that you can praise God and revel in what you’ve been allowed to do and what lies ahead for the glory of God. … David did; and so can we.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, thank you for allowing me to see Your dream and to get it started. Amen