I believe that it is fundamental that our hunger and thirst for God, and the manifestation of his glory, to grow daily in our lives as well as to recognize the need for a holy consecration of our lives both before God and man. It pains me to see (and hear) the conduct of “godly” servants of the Lord. At times it seems they are more “carnal” than “spiritual”. It is embarrassing to see what it done in “the name of the Lord”. We need to elevate the role of the minister of God. We can’t succumb to the temptations of this world.

A passage of scripture that has really impacted my life is Isaiah 6. Note with me three important events. First: The prophet Isaiah “saw the Lord.”
“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings; with two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: “holy, holy, holy is the Lord almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” At the sound of their voices and the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.”
There is a real need to see God in all his majesty and glory. This kind of glory will revolutionize our lives. It is only when we get to the end of ourselves, when we are ready to put aside our pride, our holiness or any other thing that takes precedence in our lives that we are ready to participate in God’s glory. Uzziah represents our dependence on ourselves. When the “Uzziah” in us dies, that is when we are ready to see the majesty of Christ.

The second step that Isaiah did was to “shout to the Lord.”
“Woe unto me! I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty. Then one of the seraphs flew to me and with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touches my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
Isaiah was able to see himself as he really was. He saw a lost and sinful man, but he also saw a way out. When we cry out to the Lord, He will always be ready to respond to our need. An encounter with our Lord should change our “lips” into lips that give honor and glory to God. An encounter with Him will change the way in which we act and the way we think.

The final step is to “hear the voice of the Lord.”
“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said “Here am I. Send me!” He said, “Go and tell this people” “be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing; but never perceiving. Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn and be healed.”
Every encounter with the glory of God should change our actions. It is time to act and make changes regarding our character, our pride and the way we act and speak and seek the Lord. My prayer is that God will help each one of us to become the men and women that God wants us to become and that each of us will be willing to give every area of our lives to Him.

“I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery and impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.” Romans 6:19

I believe that all of us have had a destructive habit that has affected our lives, whether it seems something as small as our thought patterns, it is a destructive habit. The Apostle Paul tells us that there are “limitations to our human nature”. How important it is to have victory in every area of our lives. God’s desire is that his children walk and live in complete liberty, which is, a life of holiness. Before Christ we offered our bodies to impurity and evil, but now that we serve Christ, He leads us towards holiness. I don’t believe that you can talk about liberty without talking about holiness. But how can we live in this world full of sin and still be victorious in Christ? This begets another question: How can we conquer a destructive habits?

In his book, “The Search for Holiness”, Jerry Bridges mentions three areas that are needed to achieve the liberty and holiness. He comments that the first principle to be free from the slavery of a bad or destructive habit is to develop and re-focus the frequency of the repetition. The more we sin, the more we fall into a sinful lifestyle. But the opposite is true as well. The more we surrender ourselves to justice and purity; we rise towards a new level of holiness.

The second principle towards the search for holiness is breaking the habit of sin and acquiring new healthy habits. We need to make every effort to avoid failure. No one makes it their goal to sin exceptionally. When we pay more attention to the times we fall, we enforce the bad habits. We need to re-focus our efforts on good habits.

The final principle towards the search for holiness is to not get discouraged by failure.
Everyone has low moments; it is what we do after the failure that is really critical. Are you going to make the choice towards liberty or towards failure?

Today is the day you can take the first step towards becoming free from habits that don’t glorify the Lord. What ever it is, the victory is yours beloved servant. You aren’t just anybody. God has made you to “serve righteousness.” We know we can’t do it without God’s help. God is waiting for you to walk in freedom and to lead your church towards freedom from habits that don’t glorify Him.

Until next month,

Rocco

Are you afraid of change? Do you resist anything new as if it were the enemy? We live in a world of change. Don’t make the mistake of getting stuck where you are at! You need change! If we don’t make the changes God asks of us, we risk the possibility of slowly moving away from Him. Change is never easy, but is nothing compared to the consequences of not changing when God asks you to.

Proverbs 1:32 exhorts us to make room for change in our lives. The complacency of the foolish will ultimately leads to destruction.

1. Not leaving room for God:
“But since you rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand, since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke…”
Proverb 1:24-25

2. God laughs at those who ignore Him:
“..I in turn will laugh at your disaster; I will mock when calamity overtakes you- when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you…”
Proverbs 1:26-27

3. God does not respond to those who ignore Him:
“…Then they will call to me but I will not answer, they will look for me but will not find me. Since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the Lord…”
Proverbs 1:28-29

4. The unwise choices of the foolish lead them to destruction:
…Since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke, they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes. For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm.”

The foolish don’t look to God for help and as a result they reap the fruit of their actions. The way of the foolish can only lead to destruction; but the promise of God is for those who obey Him and live quietly trusting Him regardless of what is happening all around them.

This is great news for those of us who live in a world full of change. What road will you choose to take? God’s way or the fool’s way? Are you prepared for the changes that God wants to make in your life? Don’t be afraid…..God will sustain you!

“Be completely humble and gentle, be patient bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”
Ephesians 4:2-3 (NIV)

As Christians our attitudes are of supreme important. Paul speaks of three critical
virtues in our walk with God.

1. Humility
In the Greek culture, humility was thought to be a practice limited to slaves or the lower class. But Paul states that Christians need to be completely humble in their daily walk.
Humility is the opposite of pride and arrogance. Likewise, Christians shouldn’t have to promote false humility; they just need to recognize who they are in God’s plan. Paul
placed humility first in the list of virtuous characteristics on purpose, because he wanted
to promote unity in the body of Christ. Pride creates division, humility promotes unity.
You have to fight a prideful attitude with humility. Jesus Christ was the supreme example of humility. (Philippians 2:6-8

“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” II Corinthians 10:5

2. Gentleness
A believer needs to be gentle. Gentleness is the opposite of anger and rebellion. We need to keep our emotions under control. We need to make sure that we are getting angry
at the proper moment and never get angry at the wrong moment. Christ was gentle and had humility of heart. Yet, he got angry when the Jews wanted to use the temple as a place of thievery. (Matthew 21:12-13)

Gentleness is power …under control!

3. Patience
The third attitude mentioned is patience. The opposite of patience is impatience and anxiety. Patience is having a spirit that never gives up. It has to with continuing on
in the face of adversity right to the end. (James 5:10) The patient person never seeks
revenge.

Patience is enjoying the differences in others!

How important it is to walk in unity in every area of your life: with your spouse, with your family and with those in your church.

I remember when our first son was born. What an incredible feeling to know that God had gifted us with this child. Throughout the years I’ve learned how to love him, understand him and to give him what he needs. It was fun to be able to give him gifts that first Christmas (he was only two weeks old) but as he grew and came to understand the value of a gift, it was even more satisfying to be able to give him what he wanted. As he grew and came to realize the he could actually ask me for something, it gave me great pleasure to be able to respond to his request. Now that both of our boys are older (and the cost of the gift seems to be getting higher each year!) I still enjoy giving them gifts.

Yesterday the Holy Spirit reminded me my Heavenly father wants to give his children the gift of the Holy Spirit when they ask. I was reminded of what Jesus said in Matthew 7:9-12; “”Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” If our earthly father desires to give us good things how much more our Heavenly Father longs to give us good gifts!

We need to seek the heart of our Heavenly Father. The power that you need is at your disposition when you ask Him for it. We need to learn to ask our Heavenly Father when we are in need or have a request. Matthew 7:7 tells us that our Heavenly Father will open the door to your request when you ask in faith believing.

We have to ask for the power of the Spirit to be able to do the work of the Lord here. What is your need? It’s time to ask your Father.

Luke 11:13 “..how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Your Father loves YOU!

Rocco