An Abundance

"To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away." (NLT) ( Matthew 25:29 ) 

Are you spending each day utilizing your God given talents? If not, think about doing things that take advantage of your special talents and then put a lot of muscle behind it. When we make wise choices and use our talents to the fullest extent, success follows.

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Marks of Maturity

Ephesians 4:14–15

To be mature is to be fully developed, complete, and "grown up." Becoming mature is a process of consistently moving toward emotional and spiritual adulthood. In that process we leave childish and adolescent habits and adopt a lifestyle where we are fully responsible for our own decisions, motives, actions, and consequences.

I heard someone say recently that maturity is developing and discerning competence as to how to live appropriately and to change rightly. In a word, it is stability.

We never "arrive." We are always in the process of moving toward that objective. I have also observed that when maturity is taking place, balance replaces extremes and a seasoned confidence replaces uneasy feelings of insecurity. Good choices replace wrong ones.

Do you have these marks of maturity:

Concern for others that outweighs personal concerns

Detection of the presence of evil before it's obvious

Self discipline

Compassion and involvement

Tempered emotions

Consistently growing in God's Word

How do your "marks" stand up? Will you work on improving them

before the next scoring period?

 With maturity, balance replaces extremes and confidence replaces insecurity.

A better way... Romans 12:10-13

Romans 12:10–13

Yourself. Yourself. Yourself. We're up to here with self! How very different from Jesus' model and message! Instead of a "philosophy" to turn our eyes inward, He offers a fresh and much-needed invitation to our "me first" generation. There is a better way, Jesus says. "Be a servant. Give to others!" Just listen: "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others" (Phil. 2:3–4).

Know what all that means? Well, for starters, "nothing" means just that. Stop permitting two strong tendencies—selfishness and conceit—to control you! Let nothing either of them suggests win a hearing. Replace them with "humility of mind."

But how? By regarding others as more important than yourself.

Look for ways to support, encourage, build up, and stimulate the other person. And that requires an attitude that would rather give than receive.

"Humility of mind" is really an attitude, isn't it? It a preset mentality that determines ahead of time thoughts like this: I care about those around me. Why do I always have to be first? I'm going to help someone else win for a change. Today, it my sincere desire to curb my own fierce competitive tendencies and turn that energy into encouraging at least one other person. I willingly release my way this day. Lord, show me how You would respond to others, then help me do the same.

To get started in this unselfish lifestyle, let me suggest three basic ingredients: giving, forgiving, and forgetting.

Once we make up our minds to implement the truth of Philippians 2:3–4 (taking a special interest in others) or Galatians 5:13 (serving others in love), those three basics will begin to emerge. Instead of always thinking about receiving, we'll start looking for ways to give. Instead of holding grudges against those who have offended us, we'll be anxious to forgive. And instead of keeping a record of what we've done or who we've helped, we'll take delight in forgetting the deed(s) and being virtually unnoticed.

It is impossible to give yourself away at arm's length.

 Don’t allow what selfishness or conceit suggests win a hearing or control you.

First fruits... Matthew 22:37

In His Presence: Matthew 22:37

The Bible calls the priorities of stewardship our "firstfruits." In the agricultural environment of the biblical times, people lived on the food they grew. Giving God their firstfruits would mean giving Him the best and the first of what they had to give.

Giving your firstfruits is a tangible, visible way of telling God that He is first in your life. God has always demanded that He be first because He is God. In Revelation 2:4, Jesus told the church: "You have left your first love." Jesus had slipped into second or third place. When God stops being first, we have a problem.

Colossians 1:18 tells us we should live in such a way "that [Jesus] Himself might come to have first place in everything." Jesus wants to be the focus of every aspect of your life all the time, without exception. Why? Because everything we have and ever will have is rooted in God. He deserves to be the focus because He is the Creator, Sustainer, Source, Savior, and King.

A passage from Haggai demonstrates where our priority as stewards should be: "You have sown much, but harvest little; you eat, but there is not enough to be satisfied; … he who earns, earns wages to put into a purse with holes" (Haggai 1:6). When God is not first, we can't possibly enjoy the stuff of life. Whenever the provisions of God become your god, you have replaced the true God with your own god.

One Minute Please

How dare we live for everything else and forget the Source.

Simple faith... Matthew 7

Matthew 7

When it came to clear communication, Jesus was a master. Children and adults alike had no difficulty understanding His words or following His reasoning.

This was never truer than when He sat down on a hillside with a group of His followers and talked about what really mattered. His hillside chat was an informal, reasonable, thoughtful, and unpretentious presentation.

People were fed up with the manipulation, the pride, and especially the hypocrisy of their religious leaders. Man-made systems of complicated requirements and backbreaking demands shut the people behind invisible bars, shackled in chains of guilt. They could not measure up. Many were losing heart. But who dared say so?

Then out of the blue came Jesus with His message of liberating grace, encouragement to the weary, hope for the sinful. Best of all, everything He said was based on pristine truth—God's truth—instead of rigid religious regulations. He talked of faith in terms anyone could understand. No wonder the people found Him amazing! No wonder the scribes and Pharisees found Him unbearable! Hypocrisy despises authenticity. When truth unmasks wrong, those who are exposed get very nervous.

So what does Jesus want? What was He getting at?

He was simply saying that He wanted His followers to be people of simple faith, modeled in grace, based on truth. Nothing more. Nothing less. Nothing else.

Jesus put it straight: "Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them" (Matt. 6:1). In other words, stop acting one way before others when you are really not that way at all.

Following His passionate reproach against hypocrisy, Jesus also warned the people against judging each other. "How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' and behold, the log is in your own eye?" (Matt. 7:4).

Jesus was encouraging tolerance. Be tolerant of those who live different lifestyles. Be tolerant of those who don't look like you, who don't care about the things you care about, whose fine points of theology differ from yours, whose worship style is different. Be tolerant of the young if you are older . . . and be tolerant of the aging if you are young.

Jesus' words that day on the hillside were powerful. When He finished speaking, nobody moved. Small wonder. His words were like spikes nailing them in place.

People of faith mean what they say and do what they hear.

They do not substitute words for actions or pious discussion for personal involvement.

 Everything Jesus said was based on God's truth instead of religious regulations.

Precious things...1 Peter 1:7

The price of precious things

“That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:7).

There are sometimes rare and beautiful wares brought into the market that are invoiced at almost fabulous rates. Ignorant people wonder why they are priced so high. The simple reason is that they cost so much to procure. That luxurious article labeled £75 was procured by the adventurous hunter, who, at the hazard of his neck, brought down the mountain-goat, out of whose glossy hair the fabric was wrought. Yonder pearl that flashes on the brow of the bride is precious, because it was rescued from the great deep at the risk of the pearl-fisher’s life, as he was lifted into the boat half-dead, with the blood gushing from his nostrils. Yonder ermine, flung so carelessly over the proud beauty’s shoulder, cost terrible battles with Polar ice and hurricane. All choicest things are reckoned the dearest.

And so it is that the best part of a Christian is that which was procured at the sorest cost. Patience is a beautiful trait, but is not worn oftenest by those who walk on life’s sunny side in silver slippers. It is the product of dark nights of tempest, and of those days of adversity whose high noon is but a midnight. For “the trying of your faith worketh patience.” Purity of soul is like purity in gold, where the hottest fires turn out the most refined and precious metals from the crucible.—Theodore Cuyler.

When other things are broken, they are nothing worth,

Unless it be to some old Jew or some repairer;

But hearts, the more they’re bruised and broken here on earth

In Heaven are so much the costlier and the fairer.

—W. R. Alger.

Those who are broken in wealth, and broken in self-will, and broken in worldly reputation, and broken in their affections, and broken oft-times in health; those who are despised and seem utterly forlorn and helpless, the Holy Ghost is seizing upon, and using for God’s glory. “The lame take the prey,” Isaiah tells us. God must have broken things.

“By reason of breakings they purify themselves” (Job 41:25).

Al Rosario 

Sent from my iPhone

Self Pity...1 Kings 19

1 Kings 19

A severe case of ingrown eyeballs strikes all of us every once in a while. In both dramatic and subtle ways, the stubborn enemy of our souls whispers sweet little nothings in our ears. He reminds us of how unappreciated and ill-treated we are . . . how important yet overlooked . . . how gifted yet ignored . . . how capable yet unrecognized . . . how bright yet eclipsed . . . how valuable yet unrewarded.

But the most damaging impact of self-pity is its ultimate end. A frown will replace your smile. A pungent criticism will replace a pleasant, "I understand." Suspicion and resentment will submerge you like a tidal wave, and you will soon discover that this sea of self-pity has brought with it urchins of doubt, despair . . . and even the desire

to die.

An exaggeration? If you think so, sit with me awhile beneath the shade of a juniper tree located at 19 First Kings, the address of a prophet named Elijah.

Elijah had just won a great victory over Ahab and his Baal-worshiping pawns. In fact, God stamped His approval upon Elijah in such a way that all Israel knew he was God's mouthpiece. As a result, Jezebel, Ahab's spouse (he was her mouse), declared and predicted Elijah's death within twenty-four hours.

Now, the seasoned prophet had surely been criticized before. But this threat somehow found the chink in his armor.

So Elijah ran for his life. Then, beneath the tree, overwhelmed with self-pity, he said, "I've had enough . . . take away my life. . . . I've worked very hard for the Lord God of the heavens; but the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you and torn down your altars and killed your prophets, and only I am left; and now they are trying to kill me, too" (1 Kings 19:4, 10 TLB).

Yet God didn't rebuke His man, nor strike him dead. He encouraged him to take a rest, enjoy a catered meal or two . . . and get his eyes off himself and his situation so that they might get back on the Lord. God even gave him a close friend, a fella named Elisha, with whom he might share his life and his load.

Feeling sorry for yourself today? Why not try God's remedy: Take a break, stop trying to work things out yourself. And take a long, loving look at your Savior in His Word . . . and then spend some time with a friend. You'll be amazed at the outcome.

Self-pity is the smog that pollutes and obscures the light of the Son.