Year: 2016

What Good Does God Expect From You?

Dr. Mike Bible Life Questions , ,
He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8 ESV.

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The Jewish religious leaders of Jesus’ time lived by a code of some 613 statutes which they believed God expected them to perform. Like most religious people throughout history, they believed more was better than less.

In the book of Micah, the question was asked and answered. What good does God expect from us in our daily walk? The answer wasn’t 600 plus but threefold: do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.

Imagine if our culture today simply lived by these three principles.

What if instead of closing our eyes to the infirmities around us, we exposed them and corrected them? Not through violence, but with kindness and humility.

What if instead of belittling others through social media who don’t live up to our standard of excellence, we humbly in love point them toward a better solution.

What if instead of jumping to a conclusion before one hears both sides of the story, we judicially gather all the facts first before speaking about it from a platform of love.

What if instead of boasting about the self, we humbly acknowledge our existence is dependent on a God who allows us to breathe air, play in His sandbox (earth), and share His gifts with others.

What if instead of supporting the status quo of those who claim to be rich, famous, or powerful, we express the rights of the downtrodden, homeless, and immigrant.

What if instead of being angry with the customer service representative who is there to help resolve your problem, we practice a little kindness.

What if instead of treating others from our standard of righteousness, we allow God to discipline and reward justice as He knows what is best.

What if instead of being the macho man of the house, we treat our family the way God treats us – with love, mercy, and a whole lot of grace.

In other words, let’s do good with less us and more Him.

Rooting For You in Christ!

Dr. Mike

Executive Director & Founder
Marketplace Bible Institute
& Resource Center, Inc
Author of e-Books:
 *  Great Business Emulates a Good God
 *  Be Radical…Follow Christ!
 *  Simply The Messenger
 *  Unequally Married

Does a Friend Need Encouragement…Share Today’s Message!

What Is Your Quest For Fulfillment?

Dr. Mike Bible Life Questions , ,
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Isa 55:2 ESV.

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How many of us spend years in search of the holy grail? We pursue our deepest wants without consideration of the cost. We think if we only could have the life that we want, we would be happy and fulfilled. Yet after we achieve our goals, we find there is something still missing. We are not as satisfied as we thought we would be. In fact, some of us may even become depressed, discouraged, and more dumbfounded.

Yet the solution lies right in front of us. But we are so confident in ourselves, we don’t recognize we are lost in the forest following every trail that comes our way. Instead of stopping and identifying which way is the true north, we keep moving thinking one of these paths will lead us to the promise land.

We spend money not on the essentials of life, but on trying to hide behind the illusion of who we are. We work for the sole purpose of making money, but never seem to have enough. We read self-help books by authors who don’t really have a clue themselves, but know how to market their product to people who are hurting and desperate. While they profit behind their insecurities, their readers become more confused trying to duplicate another fad of the times.

For most of us slow learners, we didn’t realize our condition until Grace overflowed into our lives. We heard about Jesus the Christ, but not until we made the commitment to accept his invitation for a heavenly marriage, did we know what we were getting ourselves into.

If someone told me in my more prideful days that Jesus Christ is the answer I seek, I would have felt sorry for them. But today, I have come to realize that real fulfillment does come by having a real, intimate relationship with heaven and earth’s King. For from this relationship, every blessing that man seeks, every experience that one wants to capture, and every virtue one desires to behold, comes alive.

When one allows Jesus Christ as the center of one’s life, and denies himself so that the Triune God may fully express Himself in and through you, you have come to the place of real fulfillment.

The more Jesus is allowed to live in you, the more you become transformed into his image. The more your character is morphed into a godly fashion, the wiser decisions you find yourself making. You find that these choices are built under the umbrella of God’s favor. The outcome is more than you ever expected from yourself. You are pleasantly surprised and eternally humbled by the experience.

You now realize that the King you serve is more than a Savior. He is the central core of Life. He shares everything he has with us so we may fully experience what it means to be human – the way God intended life to be from the very beginning of creation.

Rooting For You in Christ!

Dr. Mike

Executive Director & Founder
Marketplace Bible Institute
& Resource Center, Inc
Author of e-Books:
 *  Great Business Emulates a Good God
 *  Be Radical…Follow Christ!
 *  Simply The Messenger
 *  Unequally Married

Does a Friend Need Encouragement…Share Today’s Message!

Is God For You?

Dr. Mike Bible Life Questions

 

If God is for us, who can be against us? Romans 8:31

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One challenge many new believers have to deal with is overcoming the lack of assurance that God truly wants what is best for them.

Paul begins to address this issue in Romans when he boldly states that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God. That God cares for you more than you care for yourself. Yet because we don’t have a meaningful relationship with our Triune God, we walk from a position of untested head knowledge instead of personal heart knowledge.

Then there are those days when we believe we know what is best for us. We have standards of expectations higher than God’s. We believe we are entitled with certain rights and if God doesn’t meet them, then we accuse him of not caring. In many cases, we simply haven’t had enough of ourselves. We approach God as our genie. We give him our wishes and if he doesn’t deliver, we seek out other gods. Our allegiance goes to the god that satisfies our inner desires because we live under the presumption that we know what is good for ourselves. Yet just like Christ knocking on the church door asking to come in (Rev. 3:17), the people inside are spiritually blind even though they think of themselves as wealthy. The same is true for many today.

The longer we walk with our Lord, the more we come to realize that some of the best answers to our prayers was the “absolutely not” reply. In hindsight, if God had granted me every request, my life would be more upside down than ever before. The real answers come when we place our trust in Him and watch how He rearranges circumstances, changes people’s hearts, and organically produces an outcome that one never fathom the possibilities. Like Ephesians 3:20-21 states, He works through the Church (You & I) to produce more than we can ever imagine.

Yes God is for you. He wants what is best for you. Give him time. He is working with the impossible – You and me. Yet all things are possible through Christ who strengthens us. As the Spirit continues the work of transforming us into the image of Jesus, let us not lose heart. Instead, take the time to review all God has done for you since your birth. You may be pleasantly surprised by the outlay of events.

More so, God doesn’t abandon us even though we may temporarily abandon Him. He has been pursuing humanity since the day he created them. He has an eternal project that he is working through. You and I are included in that plan. And what I have seen in my short life is the fact he hasn’t abandon any of us who cling to Jesus. We have His promise that all that follow Jesus will be with him at the end of the age.

Rooting For You in Christ!

Dr. Mike

Executive Director & Founder
Marketplace Bible Institute
& Resource Center, Inc
Author of e-Books:
 *  Great Business Emulates a Good God
 *  Be Radical…Follow Christ!
 *  Simply The Messenger
 *  Unequally Married

Encourage a Friend…Share Today’s Message!