My Cross

Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.
All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him.
~Isaiah 53:4-6~

It is humbling and truly breath taking to see the weight that Jesus carried for each one of us. How He bore all OUR sorrows, pierced for OUR transgressions and crushed for OUR iniquities. He laid down His life for OUR sinful lives even though we would not be born for another 2,000 years.

So what are we doing with this Earth shattering scripture? It’s impossible to read the words in Isaiah 53 without being moved. To know that Jesus took our place, died our death and suffered all our sufferings! That has to be life altering! Jesus was crucified on my cross!

This week lets allow Jesus to change us. Lets live with the understanding that He died on our cross!

For more information about accepting Jesus, please click Salvation.

Highway of Holiness

Long Road ca. 1980s-1990s

A highway will be there, a roadway, and it will be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean will not travel on it, but it will be for him who walks that way, and fools will not wander on it.  No lion will be there, nor will any vicious beast go upon it; these will not be found there. But the redeemed will walk there,
~Isaiah 35:8-9~

What does it mean to be on this Highway of Holiness?
How can we get on it?

The Highway of Holiness is having a living, breathing relationship with Jesus. Allowing Him to lead us every day. It means that we open up to Him and let God have the driver’s seat of our life.

The verse says that “fools will not wander on it.” This does not mean just because we do goofy things every-now-and-then that we can’t be on this Highway of Holiness.

Lets be real for just a second. God is no fool. He’s not stupid or dumb. We are talking about the Maker of the Heavens and the Earth, the Alpha and Omega, Beginning and the End. He is in control of every breath we take, every cloud in the sky and whether the second hand on the clock ticks one more time.

So now that we have established that….He knows if we are “playing church”, pretending to follow Him, or if we even truly ever repent for our sins. We can fool everyone around us, but there is no way to fool God. He knows who we are better than we know ourselves. He has numbered every hair on the estimated 7,324,782,000 people currently living on Earth!! We are only fooling ourselves if we think we can slip one past God.

Contrary to popular belief there is only ONE way to get on this Highway of Holiness, and that is by accepting the gift of salvation that Jesus provided for us when He willingly died for our sins. See Salvation for more details.

This week lets work on establishing a living breathing relationship with Jesus! Let’s ask Him to speak to us throughout each day, and to lead our hearts and minds to be more like Him.

Cost of Living

Unless the Lord builds the house,
They labor in vain who build it;
Unless the Lord guards the city,
The watchman keeps awake in vain.
It is vain for you to rise up early,
To retire late,
To eat the bread of painful labors;
For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep.
~ Psalm 127:1-2 ~

Many of us strive from day to day to become successful at our jobs, hobbies and just life in general. We’ve been ingrained with the mentality that if we work hard enough, long enough or want something enough we will get what we want or where we want to be. Taking it even a step further, we will even sacrifice our health, time and relationships to achieve what WE want.

Typically, the first thing we sacrifice is our relationship with God. You know, since God’s feelings don’t get hurt (sarcasm).

The sad part is that we as Americans have come to a point to where we’ve assigned a dollar amount to certain areas of our life. Every day, we wake up and begin to put FOR SALE signs on everything that makes us who we are…

• Time with our kids – $10,000
• Time with our spouse – $5,000
• Time with God – $5

We have twisted the very essence of what life is about, and have come to believe that it is all about the size of our bank accounts, the clothes we wear, cars we drive and credentials after our names.

The scripture today points out the fact that if the Lord is not the focal point of what we are doing in our life, it doesn’t matter how hard we work or what we sacrifice, everything we do will be in vain.

Lets turn our lives around today with a decision to strive to live for God and to focus on doing His will every second of every day.

~Have a blessed day =)

It’s All About Perspective

O Lord, what is man, that You take knowledge of him?
Or the son of man, that You think of him?
Man is like a mere breath;
His days are like a passing shadow.
~ Psalm 144:3-4 ~

Our perspective on life can lead us to have many different emotions. We are drawn to live in the short to mid-term future. Never truly living in the present and not really planning too far down the road. This could be why we all feel almost trapped or running on a hamster wheel. Doing all kinds of STUFF, but never really doing anything at all. Yes, we have our accomplishments, diplomas, championships and other achievements. But isn’t life deeper than a few snap shots of our “great” accomplishments. Life has to be more than staring at pictures in a year book, certificates on the wall or polishing trophies.

Living in the moment we have and each breath we take is all that matters. No one is promised tomorrow. When we live in the moment, we can experience life the way God intended. Full of excitement, mystery, suspense and adrenaline! All the things we miss by planning out every second of every day, for months on end.

We’ve gotten to the point where we don’t know what to do with ourselves, given we have an unplanned day with absolutely nothing on the agenda. To live in the moment is to be mentally present with our spouses, kids and friends. It means that we can look to God every second of the day to see where He may lead us.

Finally, if we have God’s perspective on life everything seems small; from our troubles to our accomplishments. In the scope of eternity the only thing in life that matters is our relationship with God. After all, we are only here on earth for a very brief time.

Today, lets live in the moment. Have an out-of-body experience where we elevate above our perspective and take a look at the way God sees life. Most of all, lets share the love that only God can provide.

Have a blessed day =)

BreadRock Update

I would like to thank everyone for all of the Likes, Shares, Comments and Feedback. It has truly been a blessing for me to hear from a lot of the readers.

By now I am sure some have noticed that I am currently making my way thru the bible. If anyone is interested or is wondering what study/reading plan I am following it can be found here:

http://thebible.net/read/chron.pdf

A lot of what I am inspired to write will correspond to a recent reading. So if anyone would like to read along with me, it will definitely be a life changing experience!

I pray that we, as the body of Christ, will all continue to grow closer each day in our walk with Jesus, and that thru our growth we would be changed to be more like Him.

Again, I thank each and every one of you!

Have a blessed day =)

What’s the Cost?

However, the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price, for I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God which cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
~ 2 Samuel 24:24 ~

     God had ended a pestilence that was devastating the nation of Israel, and David went to make an offering to God. Araunah was willing to give all necessities for the offering David was asking for, but David refused to accept any of it for free. David demanded that he pay full price for everything because he knew that an offering that costs nothing to him is worthless to God.

     The concept of giving something up that we’ve worked so long and hard to obtain is unheard of today. We have come to use the term “offering” instead of its original form of “sacrificial offering.” We tend to only offer out of our surplus. Never truly giving sacrificially.

     Jesus was the ultimate example of how to give an offering. It cost Jesus everything to be able to offer us the gift of eternal life, breaking the chains of sin which bound each of us to hell.

     Today, lets offer God our entire life. Every single nook and cranny. If we wonder if we have given enough…ask ourselves this question….Has it cost me anything?

*Click here to find out more about Salvation

Scrub-a-dub-dub

Be gracious to me, Oh God,
according to Your lovingkindness;
According to the greatness of
Your compassion blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
Against You, You only, I have sinned
and done what is evil in Your sight,
So that You are justified when You speak
and blameless when You judge.
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin my mother conceived me.
Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.
Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
~ Psalm 51:1-7 ~

This life altering prayer given to us through David is eyeopening to say the least. Our sinful filthiness is made very clear and spoken to us on a personal level (by a man). Just a normal human being like the rest of us.

Everyone, at one point or another in our life, comes to realize just how sinful we truly are. The question is…How are we responding to the knowledge of our sin?

Typically, we respond in one of 3 ways.

1. We compare ourselves to other “good” people. The problem with this is, people do not make good measuring sticks because we are all born in sin.
   

   “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
   and in sin my mother conceived me.”

2. We brush off the revelation, thinking that life is all about us and our 65-80 years here on earth. We should do whatever we want, when we want to do it. The problem with this way of thinking is the lack of love. If everyone lived this way, there would be no compassion, no help for the needy, and most children would become orphans. This is the most direct and destructive response, which will result in hurting a lot of people.
3. We mirror the response of David. Recognizing our filthiness by coming to repentance, and giving all of our self to God. This will result in washing away of all our filthy sin, and will leave us as white as snow.

Today, lets fully submerge ourselves and give God the scrub brush. Allowing Him to cleanse us from all our sin.

Have a blessed day =)

Get Out Of Hell Free

Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has taken away your sin; you shall not die.”
~ 2 Samuel 12:13 ~

David had just had an affair with Bathsheba and had her husband, Uriah, killed in battle. The prophet Nathan came to king David and made known his sin. Today’s scripture is an excerpt from the conversation following that encounter.

We, like David, have all sinned against the Lord. We are all deserving of the penalty of our sin, which is death. No matter how great or small our sin may seem to us. Sin is sin to God, and the penalty for sin is eternal death.

Let us not forget that we are not perfect, but human. We make mistakes, and sometimes we do things intentionally. BUT….we have a Savior that is bigger than our sin!

Thankfully, God gave us a way out, a “Get Out Of Hell Free” card. Jesus! He came and lived a sinless life, which we are unable to accomplish, and then He died to take our place. All we have to do is accept His free gift.

Today, lets grab hold of that “Get Out Of Hell Free” card and throw it down on the board of life with a huge smile on our face.

*For more information on how to accept Jesus into your life, please click Salvation.

Have a blessed day =)

Distress

In my distress I called upon the Lord,
Yes, I cried to my God;
And from His temple He heard my voice,
And my cry for help came into His ears.
~ 2 Samuel 22:7 ~

All of us face different challenges throughout our lives. We live very stressful, demanding and completely overwhelming lives. Sometimes it can be so overwhelming that it becomes suffocating to the point we can’t breath anymore. Where or what we turn to in these times of distress determines where our hope lies and whether or not we will overcome the difficulties we face.

Places we tend to turn to…
Friends and family are only human and eventually will disappoint us, there is always a bottom to the bottle and other means of relief are just temporary. As quickly as the escape from reality fades away, it returns like a crashing wave down on top of us. Never allowing us to get our heads above the surface of the water to catch our breath.

Fortunately for us, we have the ability to cry out to a God who actually hears us! Not only does He hear our cries, but He is the only one strong enough and able to help us.

Today, lets direct our distresses toward the only one that can actually do something about them….Jesus!

*See the Salvation tab at the top to of the page to accept the help that Jesus offers us

Have a blessed day =)

Illuminate

For You light my lamp;
The Lord my God illumines my darkness.
~Psalm 18:28~

Any area of our life that we do not allow God into can be considered as darkness. These areas are different for everyone, and could be as diverse as finances, habits or simply not listening to the Holy Spirit telling us to do something. It is imperative that we allow God unhindered access into our entire self. Every little nook and cranny, so to speak.

Some Christians tend to shy away from digging into God’s Word on a regular basis because it is impossible to read God’s Word without being changed. As everyone probably knows…change is hard! It doesn’t come easy and will require us to rely a lot on God, as opposed to relying on our own strengths and abilities. Because we are moving away from something we are naturally/carnally drawn to.

The good news is that all of our struggles, when it comes to giving God full unobstructed access to out lives, will be greatly rewarded. We just have to allow God to shine His light on the portions of us that we don’t like to let other people see.

Today, lets put the lamp in God’s hand and let Him shine the light where ever He wants.

Have a blessed day =)