Make The Most of Every Opportunity

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. (Galatians 6:9,10 ESV)

What about now? What about today? You realize that tomorrow has not been promised to any of us. What I do today is important. Don't let the failures of yesterday spoil today. Even a cup of cold water will not go without reward. For those of us who have "living water," let us offer some to others today. Freely you have received, freely give. Stay faithful!

Being Occupied With God

"Praise the LORD! Praise, O servants of the LORD, praise the name of the LORD! Blessed be the name of the LORD from this time forth and forevermore! From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the LORD is to be praised!" (Psalm 113:1-3 ESV)

In other words, every place on this mortal soil, is a proper place to worship and offer praise! Note, I didn't say the only place.

In the early '60's, when JFK was our president, his brother served as Attorney General. While on tour of Brazil, Robert Kennedy was introduced to a farmer from the interior of Brazil. He decided to ask this simple farmer a deep philosophical question. "What did the farmer esteem as his highest calling throughout the day in his existence in the interior of Brazil?" Without a moment's hesitation, the farmer replied, through his interpreter, "Being occupied with God."

Certain that the farmer had misunderstood his question, Kennedy asked him the same question once again. Again, the simple farmer immediately responded through his interpreter, "Being occupied with God." Unbeknownst to the Attorney General, the simple farmer living in the immense Amazonian Rain Forest had recently responded to the Gospel call of a missionary and had come to know the Maker of the Universe in an intimate way.

Being occupied with God is one simple way we can fulfill the Scriptural admonition to praise the Name of the Lord from the rising of the sun to the setting of the same.

Predestined To Be Conformed

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,..." Colossians 3:16a ESV "I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you." Psalm 119:11 ESV

Scripture, God's Word, is to be at home in our lives in a very copious, magnanimous way. It is the Spirit's work to conform believers to the likeness of Jesus Christ. However, the Holy Spirit does not work in a vacuum. The Spirit always uses the Word of God in our day-to-day transformation.

During His earthly ministry, Jesus told his disciples that when the Holy Spirit comes He would bring back to their memories all that Christ had taught them. The Word that we hide in our hearts, is the same Word that the Holy Spirit uses to conform us to the image of the Son that He loves. Just as a potter keeps his hands wet as he molds the clay, the Holy Spirit wets His hands with the "water" of God's Word as He molds and makes us into the image of the Beloved Son.

Let us renew our efforts of hiding God's Word in our hearts so that God's Spirit may continue His work in our lives