God Corrects His Own

My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; for whom the LORD loves He corrects; even as a father the son in whom he delights.” (Proverbs 3:11-12)

My father never spanked another parent’s child however, I can tell you he believed that his own children needed to be corrected frequently. Correction did not always mean a spanking or switching. My dad corrected us because he loved us, not because he hated us. His correction kept me from getting in trouble many times.

God frequently finds it necessary to correct His children. The Bible makes it clear that if we belong to Him He will chasten us as it becomes necessary, not because He hates us, but because He loves us. If we as professing Christians are disobedient, we can expect to be corrected or even chastised. If we can continue in sin uncorrected the Bible says we are illegitimate and not His. (Hebrews 12:8) Like my earthly father, God doesn’t chastise someone else’s children.

You can leave the devil’s family and be born again into God’s family by repenting and trusting the Lord Jesus Christ.

When Do You Pray?

“My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, Oh LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.” Psalm 5:3

It is good to be “God conscious” early in the day.  Some people get a shower the first thing in the morning. Other folks must have a cup of coffee first thing. Sadly, there are those who have become alcoholics and must have a drink at the beginning of the day. There are the drug addicts who think they need an early morning fix.

The Psalmist declared that God would hear his voice in prayer in the early morning. One is reminded of Jesus going out a great while before day and praying. (Mark 1:35) Perhaps you choose to pray at night before going to bed. Another place we read, “Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and He shall hear my voice.” Psalm 55:17

The important thing is to communicate with God in prayer sometime every day. He desires to hear from us even as parents desire to hear from their children.

Send Help

“And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us.”Acts 16:9

There is a sign in big, bold letters that says, “SEND HELP.” It can be purchased and kept in your car or house and in case of trouble can be placed in a window of one’s car or house. It is a call for help in addition to a 9-1-1 call. I heard of a real life happening when there was some sort of emergency. Someone cried out, “Call 9-1-1.” The panicked reply was “I’ll do it on my cell phone. Quick! What’s that number? How do you dial it?”

As Luke writes the account of this vision crying out, as it were “SEND HELP,” he says, “And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia…”Acts16:10   The first person saved as a result of their response was a merchant lady named Lydia, of the city of Thyatira. She is the first recorded European convert. Then there was the girl possessed with the spirit of divination, followed by the Philippian Jailer and his household. The response to the call to send help has resulted in the salvation of millions of people from that day to this, including mine and my family’s salvation, and most of the saved people I know.

The call to “send help” is a very real call and comes from the heart of God. It comes from the cross. It comes from the empty tomb. It is a call from the lost family next door and the villages around the world. Isaiah heard the voice of God saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Isaiah said, “Here am I, send me.” Isaiah 6:8

Lord Help

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Psalm 46:1

A car stopped on the side of an interstate highway with its hood up and the emergency flashers on is a call for help.

There have been numerous times in my life and perhaps yours also, when I have called out to God from my “stranded” mode, “Lord, help... Ps. 12:1.  I’ve gone as far as I can go.” When we are in that kind of trouble our prayer must be that of the Psalmist, “Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man.” Psalm 60:11

Remember, our God is not a God “way over yonder.” He is a “very present help in trouble.”

The Potter and the Clay

“And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.” (Jeremiah 18:4)

Jeremiah, the prophet, had been instructed to go to the potter’s house and watch as the potter shaped a vessel of clay on the potter’s wheel. Then God gave him the message that God is the potter and Judah was the clay and that God had the right to do with Judah as He chose.

The message for us today is that mankind is the clay and God, as the potter, can shape us as He chooses. “God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” (Genesis 2:7) If we are not pliable as clay in His hand, as clay was pliable in the hand of the potter, He has the right and ability to alter our lives with circumstances, brokenness and difficulties and to rework us until we fit His plan.  The old hymn, “Have Thine Own Way Lord” says:

“Have thine own way, Lord. Have thine own way. 

Thou art the potter, I am the clay

Mold me and make me, after thy will, 

while I am waiting and still.”                                                                                                                        Copyright, 1935 by George C. Stebbins

Let us yield our lives to His masterful hand and allow Him to shape us into vessels He can use.

I Have Sinned

“I have sinned against heaven and before thee.” (Luke 15:18, 21)

 

Jesus used the story of the Prodigal Son as an illustration of God’s willingness to receive repentant, confessing, sinners and forgive them. The son’s coming to his father and acknowledging his sin is a perfect picture of repentance, confession and forgiveness.

 

There is another character in this Biblical story.  The older brother had sins that needed to be confessed and forgiven. I gather that part of the Savior’s lesson was that the Prodigal Son could not confess his brother’s sins, even though the older brother attempted to confess the Prodigal’s sins to the father. It will not help our sinful family and friends for us to confess their sins. All we can do is pray for them and gently lead them to the place of confession and repentance. It must be their decision. Let us pray that God would use us at witnesses to the unsaved.

 

 

Sinners Need a Savior

“But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

A church had called a new pastor.  Grandma felt bad and was not able to attend the service and to hear the new pastor’s first sermon.  When the family came home and were seated around the lunch table she asked, “What did the new preacher preach about?” Someone said, “He preached about sin.” Grandma asked, “What did he say about sin?” The reply was, “Oh, he was against it.”

We preachers and all other sinners had better be opposed to sin, but just opposing it will not change people’s lives and get them to heaven. Sinners need a Savior. The Savior sinners must have is the perfect Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who loved us and gave Himself for us, dying on the cross of Calvary to pay our sin debt. But our Savior is no longer dead.  He stayed in the tomb three days and arose. Today He is seated at the right hand of God where He ever lives to make intercession for us.  The Bible says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.” (Acts 16:31)