Your First 5 Minutes With God

Meditation And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, (Philippians 1:9-10) Love, at least brotherly love, is not overly abundant in today’s society. The world is filled with opposite ends of racial, socio-economic and political spectrums. Animosity for anyone outside your little group is at an all time high. The people of this world are finding it easy to hate those different from them instead of ways to love one another. That kind of prejudice is usually caused by ignorance of those on the other side of the divide. There are more ways to learn about each other on the internet that have never been available before. After all, this is the information age. However, those tools to find out the two sides are more alike than different, are mostly unused or disbelieved. God is no respecter of individuals. He doesn’t think more high...

Meditation Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him, there is no cause for stumbling. (1 John 2:9-10) I cannot claim to be a Christian while holding a grudge, especially to the point of hatred. Before I was saved, I hated the people who had hurt me in the past. I didn’t understand how important it was for me to forgive them and not hate anyone, even those who hurt me. At first, I would say, no one could understand my pain. I thought my pain was supposed to excuse my hatred. I was quite unapologetic about my hatred, claiming the sin against me was far greater than anything I’d ever done to anyone else. Therefore, for quite some time after I thought I gave my life to Jesus, I was still in darkness. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit was patient with me. He was working on my heart. He was guiding me to where I would hear the message of Christ through different sermons in those formative mo...

Meditation Don’t participate in the fruitless works of darkness, but instead expose them. (Ephesians 5:11) There are a lot of really terrible things happening all around us, every day. Drug and alcohol abuse are rampant, tearing families apart. Domestic violence is tearing many more apart. Reports of sexual abuse and pedophilia claims are always in the news. Do I even have to mention the slaughter of unborn babies every day in every part of the world? How much sicker can this tired old world get? At times, it feels like some people take that question as a challenge, and then try to make it even sicker. How are we supposed to deal with the wickedness that is on every side, no matter where we try to turn? We can’t seem to escape the shadows of all the darkness. On top of all that, there is political strife, with each side screaming at each other. No one seems to be able to calmly discuss their differences anymore. That means there’s a whole lot of yelling, but very little ...

Meditation Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days, scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. (2 Peter 3:3-4) It’s very difficult for most people, who are corporeal beings with relatively short lifespans, to see the big prophetic picture. They can only see what’s happening to them right at that moment in time. I used to think in much the same way. People are born, and when they reach adulthood, they get married and have children. Then, after they’ve lived an average of 75 years or so, they die. It looks to everyone like nothing has changed since the beginning of time and therefore, never ever will. They are basically, walking through life with blinders on. God’s Word is the lens they should be looking through because God sees all. From the beginning to the end. They view the predictions of the second com...

Meditation There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. (1 John 4:18) I know from all that God has done for me that God loves me unconditionally. He loved me when there was very little about me worthy of anyone’s love, least of all his. There still isn’t a great deal about me to love, but he has made me ten times the person I was before. However, I am still a fallen sinner and I don’t deserve his love. I can’t imagine why he loves me. It must be because he is love. When I face uncertainty, I can rest on that total love. Any fear I have about what lies ahead, even if it’s my own death, I can know he will take care of me. I have no fear about my place in eternity so long as my focus is on Jesus Christ. That’s where I have difficulty; my focus. There are times when I lose that focus and start thinking about other unimportant things. My everyday life will cause me to become d...

Meditation The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. (Psalm 23:1-3) How much do I really trust God to direct my path and supply my needs? God gave me certain talents I used to provide for my family. However, before I was saved, I coveted my neighbors’ possessions. I wanted the things they had that I couldn’t afford. When I gave my life to Jesus, I started to realize how wrong those desires were. I thought I needed a better house, a newer car, and nicer things in general. Jesus gave me a new heart and I no longer wanted all those things. I had everything I needed to live because of his provision. A good shepherd will guide his flock away from danger and leads his flock to the best pastures. Some of the things I coveted would have been dangerous, not physically but spiritually. Additionally, a good she...

Meditation But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. (2 Peter 3:13) The promise of new heavens and a new earth is both awesome and frightening at the same time. I’m really tired of this world full of evil and violence, which are a part of everyday life. I want to live in a righteous world where sorrows, tears and pain are a thing of the past. However, as awful as this world might be, I pretty much know what to expect. There’s an old saying, “better the devil you know.” This new heavens and new earth are going to come after a period of terrible tribulation brought on by the wrath of God. During this period of time, over half the world’s population will be killed. That’s over 3.5 billion people in a period of 7 years. It’s frightening for me to contemplate what the people, who are alive during that period, will have to experience. I pray that no one I love will have to go through that. I’m pretty sure we’re ...

Meditation but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; (1 Peter 3:15) Whenever I think back to the time before my heart was filled with the Holy Spirit, I remember how empty how empty I felt inside. I remember how nothing I did to fill that emptiness ever lasted very long. I would wake up the morning after a party with nothing but a hangover. There was a time when I thought being a player with the ladies would fill that hollow feeling. I finally realized I felt more alone than ever. I also thought working long hours for more money would be sufficient to fill that void. The company I worked for moved overseas. All that hard work got me was a pink slip. Why would I ever want to go back to feeling like that again? At a particularly difficult time in my life, when that hole in my heart seemed enormous, I gave my life to Jesus. My life problems didn’t instantly disap...

Meditation Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. (Romans 15:7) My first experience with attending a church, after I was saved, brought mixed results. The pastor welcomed me with open arms but most of the rest of the congregation was less hospitable. I tried getting active and involved, joining several small groups, however, I always felt like I was struggling to belong. After I attended there for several years, I decided it was time to move on. The next church I attended, the pastor never spoke to me until the Sunday I decided was going to be my last. Another church I attended for four weeks, no one spoke to me even once. I don’t want to sound like a pouting child, but those churches, and one other I didn’t mention, could have done a much better job at welcoming newcomers. When a new person walks into our churches, are we trying to make them feel welcome? Are we doing our best to make a new Christian feel like a member of the ...

Meditation He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their face he was despised, and we esteemed him not. (Isaiah 53:3) Imagine your sorrow if you were the richest person ever, and you left behind the comforts of your paradise home to come pay the debts of all your wayward children that you love. They have utterly no way of paying their debts, but it changes nothing in how they think of you. Now imagine they were unappreciative to the point of treating you like a common criminal. Imagine now they want to kill you and bury your memory, as if you never existed. How would that make you feel? I know I would be crushed in spirit. Jesus knew all this would happen to him, but he loved us so much, he came anyway. This passage was written approximately seven hundred years before Christ was born but it is as accurate and tear-jerking as if it were written yesterday. The book of Isaiah is, of course, part of the Ol...

Meditation For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” (Romans 8:14-15) When I truly follow Jesus, not just on Sundays but every day, I feel completely like a child of the Almighty God. When I really stop to think about that I am humbled. He doesn’t have to even acknowledge my existence. I am a normal sinner with more flaws in my character than I care to admit or disclose. I deserve an eternity of punishment in hell for the things in my past, and for the things I’ll do in the future. Still, knowing every sin I would ever commit, God thought enough of me to offer Jesus up to die on the cross to pay the price for my sins. If I pay attention, my heart will hear the Holy Spirit call me to live a holy life. Have you ‘heard’ the Holy Spirit speak to you? He does you know. He speaks to me through the lyrics of a song, in...

For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so, turn and live. (Ezekiel 18:32) God offers me eternal life so that even when my mortal life is over I will live again at the resurrection. What price do I have to pay to live again in the afterlife? That’s the best part! The offer is free, the expense has been paid, my afterlife can be secure, but it is totally up to me to accept or reject. God will not force anyone to follow him. He wants me to come to him freely, out of love and gratitude for him, without reservation, and not only for fear of eternal punishment. The Father has given us a way, through his Son, to be saved from an eternity in hell. If my only motivation for seeking salvation is to avoid that eternal punishment, but I have no love for God, I’m wasting my time and I’m not going to be saved. He knows our hearts. What am I turning from? Before I was saved, I thought I was a good person. I didn’t believe in God or heaven, but I thought if he...

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. (Philippians 2:3-4) There are many television preachers and so-called evangelists in the lime light who have lost their way. Their focus is not on adding souls to the Kingdom of God but on lining their pockets. They’re more interested in how much money they can take in, or how much acclaim they can garner, than bringing the lost souls to Christ. They build huge mansions for themselves and spend the donated money on worldly pleasures. They have been seduced by the gods of money and praise they get from their ministries. They may know the right preachy words to say to their audience, but their words do not even penetrate their own hard-hearts. If Jesus were here on earth today, he would be calling them a brood of vipers and hypocrites. I don’t, however, have to be a nationally known preacher to h...