Mark 11:22 And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.

Tags: A list of devotionals by chronological order, Faith & God's Promises by Nick Champlin
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Mark 11:22 And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.

Tags: A list of devotionals by chronological order, Faith & God's Promises by Nick Champlin
No Comments »

Mark 11:22 And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.

Tags: A list of devotionals by chronological order, Faith & God's Promises by Nick Champlin
No Comments »

Mark 11:22 And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.

Tags: A list of devotionals by chronological order, Faith & God's Promises by Nick Champlin
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Tags: A list of devotionals by chronological order by Nick Champlin
No Comments »

Tags: A list of devotionals by chronological order, Our Identification In Christ by Nick Champlin
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Tags: A list of devotionals by chronological order, Our Identification In Christ by Nick Champlin
No Comments »

Is. 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Is. 9:7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

The Mighty God is a title associated with God as the Almighty Warrior……

(from Strong’s Concordance) “Mighty = gibbowr, ghib-bore´; or (shortened) gibbor, ghib-bore´; intensive from the same as 1397 (a valiant warrior); powerful; by implication, warrior, tyrant:—champion, chief

The Kingdom of God is a Kingdom in exile from the Earth. And the people of the world lie under the domain of Satan, The Usurper; to whom they foolishly sold their authority and lives. Now God must re-enter the world through the friendship of loyalists to the rightful crown. And through the ministry of His ambassadors, must win back the hearts of a people, conditioned to slavery and void of the memory of freedom.

Every culture has its legendary stories depicting this eternal drama. Robin Hood was precisely that story of the rightful King Richard, returning from the Crusades, working through loyalists such as Robin Hood, to defeat the evil prince John who had supplanted the kingdom in his absence. These kinds of legends exist in all cultures because the basic theme of this drama is imprinted in the souls of men.

All the world is locked in spiritual warfare. And the wars of men and nations are but border skirmishes along the outposts of two kingdom’s in conflict. The escalation of wars, leading to His return, is only a physical result of the struggle of Darkness against the Returning Light.

As The Mighty God, Jesus is named the Commander of God’s armies. Both men and angels populate the ranks of His forces. In unison, we fight to free people captive behind fortresses of deception and prison bars of demonic lies.

Psa. 24:1 The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

Psa. 24:7 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.

Psa. 24:8 Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle.

Psa. 24:10 Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah.

Jer. 32:18 …the Great, the Mighty God, the LORD of hosts, is his name…

God has revealed Himself as the King of the Battlefield. He is The God of war in the struggle against evil. He has always revealed Himself as the One who will infuse the warrior with victory, who fights in His battles.

1 Sam. 17:47 And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD’S, and he will give you into our hands.

Jesus is the manifestation of God, being ever willing to enter the battlefield of faith, and fight on our behalf. He is not so much sending us to personally fight evil and deception, as He is positioning us to bring Him personally onto the scene.

If you want to see Jesus, The Mighty God, moving through you, you must get close enough to the Lord’’s battle.

Jehoshaphat and all Judah are delivered from the Ammonites, Moabites and armies of Mt. Seir, when their fight became God’s battle…

2 Chr. 20:3 And Jehoshaphat was afraid and turned his attention to seek the LORD; and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.

2 Chr. 20:4 So Judah gathered together to seek help from the LORD; they even came from all the cities of Judah to seek the LORD.

2 Chr. 20:15 And he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the LORD unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s.

2 Chr. 20:17 Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the LORD with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; to morrow go out against them: for the LORD will be with you.

The “Lord’s battle” is that conflict where a soul has cast all their hope and care upon God, making the struggle about repentance and redemption, instead of fighting to have their own way.

Psa. 46:9 He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the chariots with fire.

Psa. 46:10 “Cease striving [be still] and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

When the battles of life become about trusting the Lord, The Mighty God shows up in the behalf of those who have laid themselves out in dependence upon Him.

Psa. 3:1 LORD, how are they increased that trouble me! many are they that rise up against me.

Psa. 3:2 Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. Selah.

Psa. 3:3 But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.

Psa. 3:4 I cried unto the LORD with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah.

When God says that the battle is His, He means that at the core of the struggle there is a demonic resistance against God Himself and His purposes. This distinguishes the struggle from all other earthly conflicts in which men entangle themselves. The child of the King is not free from being a servant of the Lord. And as such, he is not free to engage in any battle he chooses, and expect the Mighty God to intervene on his behalf, simply because he is a King’’s kid. But those battles that are the Lord’’s, are such because His interests are at stake and not just ours. The “Lord’’s battles” also include delivering His children under attack, when they cry out in repentance and reliance upon Him. Because then the issue is one of honoring His covenant promise to deliver His dependents. The humble and obedient servants of Christ must remember they serve the Mighty God.

Josh. 5:13 When Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you one of us or one of our enemies?”

Josh. 5:14 He answered, “Neither one! I am here as the commander of the Lord’s army.” Immediately, Joshua bowed with his face touching the ground and worshiped. He asked, “Sir, what do you want to tell me?”

Josh. 5:15 The commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals because this place where you are standing is holy.” So Joshua did as he was told.

Tomorrow we will look at another of the 5 descriptive names that God said Jesus would be known as. Until then……

Stay On The Path!

Tags: A list of devotionals by chronological order, Our Identification In Christ by Nick Champlin
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Is. 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Is. 9:7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

Jesus’’ counsel always begins with you. He never taught plans for success or even methods for overcoming. His teaching is Counsel. It isn’’t academic. It’s parental and it’s authoritative.

Rev. 3:15 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot.

Rev. 3:16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth.

Rev. 3:17 Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing;’ and don’t know that you are the wretched one, miserable, poor, blind, and naked;

Rev. 3:18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich; and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see.

Rev. 3:19 As many as I love, I reprove and chasten. Be zealous therefore, and repent.

Rev. 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with me.

The target of His counsel is always your relationship with God.

John 21:22 Jesus said to him, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!”

Jesus never assumed that you were able to succeed by following a plan. He knew that the source of your troubles wasn’’t the lack of a plan, but the lack of communion with God. You needed The Counselor not another teacher.

Here is essentially the difference between teaching and true counsel. The goal of teaching is learning, but the goal of counsel is doing. When a teacher is finished teaching you will have learned. But when a counselor is finished counseling you will have succeeded.

Prov. 19:20 Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end.

Prov. 19:21 There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand.

The counsels of man are based on the idea that there are many ways of doing things. They are observations and opinions, at best. But the counsel of God is based in His own perfect will. He is Designer-Creator and has the power to bring all his counsel to pass. Therefore His counsels never change.

Heb. 6:17 Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promisethe immutability (unchangeableness) of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:

God cannot be persuaded of a better way. This is why Jesus is the great Counselor. He is the Way the Truth and the Life. He is the Counsel of God to you.

Avoiding Jesus The Counselor is to succeed for a moment at the expense of eternity. It is foolish to encourage yourself in your own plans (apart from God), just because the worst hasn’’t happened… yet.

Here is an example of Jesus The Counselor in action……

Luke 6:39 And He also spoke a parable to them: “A blind man cannot guide a blind man, can he? Will they not both fall into a pit?

Luke 6:40 “A pupil is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher.

Luke 6:41 “And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

Luke 6:42 “Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.

Luke 6:43 “For there is no good tree which produces bad fruit; nor, on the other hand, a bad tree which produces good fruit.

Luke 6:44 “For each tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a briar bush.

Luke 6:45 “The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.

Luke 6:46 “And why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?

Luke 6:47 “Everyone who comes to Me, and hears My words, and acts upon them, I will show you whom he is like:

Luke 6:48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation upon the rock; and when a flood rose, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.

Luke 6:49 “But the one who has heard, and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house upon the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.”

Here Jesus masterfully uses 4 dramatic illustrations to drive home His essential counsel to man….

1. Blind counselors will lead blind followers into the pit.

Is a blind counselor validating your life? Either a parent, relative, friend or perhaps a movie character or a personality you’’ve pieced together from a composite of characters.

2. You cannot avoid becoming like the one whose counsel you follow.

With a blind counselor as your teacher you cannot avoid becoming blind.

3. Helping others begins with being helped.

Why follow the counsel of hypocrites who are blind to their own faults and don’’t follow their own counsel?

4. Goodness is determined by the content of your heart.

To DO good you must BE good. The counsel of men will never change what you do or produce. Those changes must come from within you. To change yourDoing you must change your Being.

In summation, Jesus The Counselor is saying to us, when it comes to forming a basis for the actions of your life, there is no foundation in the counsels of men. Their wisdom is surface sand, because they simply offer observations and opinions about a life they haven’’t mastered. Building on their advice is a gamble at best. Notice in His Parable, that Jesus wasn’’t saying to find a place to go where there is no shifting sands. Instead He indicates that the solid foundation is to be found by digging down below the surface soil and striking your footing on the rock beneath. For there is a foundation under your feet, but you’’ll have to dig for it. You’’ll have to remove the shifting sands of worldly advice in order to get down to the Rock of your life, – Jesus The Counselor.

Psa. 1:1 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!

Psa. 1:2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night.

Psa. 1:3 And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season, And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers.

Tomorrow we will look at another of the 5 descriptive names that God said Jesus would be known as. Until then…

Stay On The Path!

Tags: A list of devotionals by chronological order, Our Identification In Christ by Nick Champlin
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Is. 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Is. 9:7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

The “Wonderfulness” of Jesus is that He introduces God to us as the One with whom all things are possible. Suddenly every dead end now has a way out. Hopelessness has been ransacked. And in Jesus Christ, anyone could now have the right to believe God loved him.

He removed the lid from our faith and instantly brought us into the world of infinite possibilities with God. Through Him we discovered a Father who is more than willing, He is eager, to manifest His power in favor towards those who worship Him. The willingness of God to manifest His mighty deliverance on our behalf is called “wonderful” because He does it out of His love as a Father. He’s not coaxed or bribed by our righteousness and promises. He’s not compelled by the desperation of our messes. But He is moved, as a Father, by the humblest petition of faith, from the heart of anyone who comes to Him as a child. That is truly wonderful news because it leaves room for anyone to qualify, regardless of their position and performance in life. That makes power available on the basis of love.

Now the worshipper of God is never stuck w/o a way out!

When the hurricane on Galilee was about to sink their boat…

Mark 4:41 And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?

When 5000 men (not counting the women and children) followed Jesus into the wilderness and became hungry, with no food to give them…

Matt. 14:16 But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart; give ye them to eat.

Matt. 14:17 And they say unto him, We have here but five loaves, and two fishes.

Matt. 14:18 He said, Bring them hither to me….

Matt. 14:21 And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children.

In describing Jesus, Isaiah uses a Hebrew word for Wonderful that far transcends any notion of earthly goodness. For all earthly experiences of goodness are temporary and based upon the sifting sands of circumstance.

The word Isaiah called Jesus was, “Miracle”…miraculous limitless wonder.

(6382 Strong’s). peh-leh; from 6381; a miracle:—marvelous thing, wonder(-ful, -fully).

In other words, all the wonderful things that come in this life are subject to the changing conditions of this life. What is wonderful today will most certainly not last. What is wonderful one day in this life can dissolve the next, as circumstances change.

Your gesture of love can be accepted as “wonderful” one day. But the next day, when your spouse is in a different mood - in a different place - your goodness can become an irritation; simply because the conditions for your spouse have changed.

The cruel lesson of life is that its goodness is never enough, and becomes meaningless, because the perspective of people is ever shifting. Every family member and married person knows this to be true.

The Holiness Of God…

But the “wonderfulness” of God is the product of His holiness, or ‘Otherness’”. God is “Other than” His creation. He is not subject to His creation. He does not draw His inspiration from the world, but from His own nature. He is pure objectivity, safe within the perfection of His own nature of divine love and righteousness.

Mal. 3:6 For I am the Lord, I do not change; that is why you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.

His goodness does not depend upon conditions, but upon standards set by His own righteousness and love. This is wonderful news for us who are constantly disappointed by the changing conditions of all earthly loves.

Heb. 6:13 For when God made [His] promise to Abraham, He swore by Himself, since He had no one greater by whom to swear,

Heb. 6:14 Saying, Blessing I certainly will bless you and multiplying I will multiply you.

Heb. 6:17 Accordingly God also, in His desire to show more convincingly andbeyond doubt to those who were to inherit the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose and plan, intervened (mediated) with an oath.

Heb. 6:18 This was so that, by two unchangeable things [His promise and His oath]in which it is impossible for God ever to prove false or deceive us,

Jesus is Wonderful because He is the payment of the Oath. Love’’s manifest changelessness.

Heb. 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.

The Omnipresence Of God…

In His holiness (otherness) God is omnipresent. That is, He is not limited to the laws that confine His creation, such as time and space. That means that He is completely and personally attentive, through His presence, at all times. In other words He is not just an immeasurable lump of love. One who is so large that there is enough potent, love-packed pieces to go around for everyone, so that the piece you get will be big enough for you. But if God’’s love is subject to the laws of creation, and measured in size, there’’s always that remote possibility that your need just might be the one that’’s beyond His allotment. There are always those people who fear that their mess is the ONE that will break the bank of God’’s compassion.

No. Jesus is “Wonderful” because He is ever standing before you personally in His fullness. He is ‘Jesus - The Wonderful’ to every person. Made wonderfully available to every person through the nature of His holiness.

It is literally His holiness that provides each of us with His full, personal, unhurried and undivided attention 24/7. This is the miracle quality of Jesus’ wonderfulness: that no shifting circumstance of an ever-changing world, can force Him to deviate from His Love. Even His judgment and chastening is controlled by His holiness (freedom from the world’s manipulations), and moved only by His perfect love. We are never dealt with according to our failures but according to His nature and plan.

Psa. 103:10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

Psa. 103:11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him.

Psa. 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.

Psa. 103:13 Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.

He commands us to act on what His Love has given us. Jesus is Wonderful-Miraculous to us because He has imparted a love to us that lifts us beyond the limits of our failures, to receive His perfect fellowship, while we yet struggle against our outer circumstances.

1 Pet. 1:16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

It is literally His holiness that enables us to receive perfect relationship within us while we work through our circumstances and imperfections without.

Phil. 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

A little girl asks her parent why the mangled flower, she has tried to pry open, can only be opened by God.

“When God opens it it’s perfect. But when I try I just ruin it.”, she says.

Then before they can respond she breaks in, “I know. It’’s because God opens it from within.”

Tomorrow we will begin to look at another of the 5 descriptive names that God said Jesus would be known as. Until then……

Stay On The Path!

Tags: A list of devotionals by chronological order, Our Identification In Christ by Nick Champlin
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Is. 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Is. 9:7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

Who Is Jesus????

Men have been all over the map of truth trying to stake a claim for the answer to this question. Is He God? Is He man? Is He Messiah or simply a teacher? Is He from Heaven or simply earthly, like the rest of us? There is an answer that must be stretched over several questions in order to unfold entirely.

The Person of Jesus is so enormous that viewing Him from only one perspective will not reveal Him. It’’s like trying to explain the horizon before men figured out what the earth was. Like the horizon, our vision of Jesus is ever expanding before us as we move ahead. It’’s the last thing we see before our vision falls into infinity. It’’s the leading edge of our line of sight limited as it is, by our inability to see around the corners. That is, unless we’re assisted by elevation and movement.

Elevation And Movement

Eph. 1:17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.

Eph. 1:18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,

Eph. 1:19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.

Elevation and Movement describe the effect of the Holy Spirit upon our understanding. He lifts us and moves us forward, from glory to glory, as we stretch to see the Son of God with our understanding. It’’s like chasing the expanding horizon in the Space Shuttle, as opposed to standing in your backyard, looking west. To understand Jesus, one must have certain pillars of truth raised in their minds and firmly planted in their hearts.

So here are the 3 questions over which we consider, Who Is Jesus?

#1 - What is God – What is man?

This is a 2-part question, because only man can know God. To know God, we must understand our own unique creation. It’s not until we realize our own superior distinction among all other living things that we begin to grasp what God is.

Jesus calls Himself “the son of man”, 32 times in Matthew alone.

Matt. 16:13 When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?

As son of man, Jesus is the perfect display of humanity: the image of God. His Son, communing with Him. But Jesus also claims to be God.

John 8:58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.

So Jesus is the God-Man. He is the very image of God’s intended purpose for us, from the beginning.

Heb. 1:1 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,

Heb. 1:2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.

Heb. 1:3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

He represents our becoming!

1 John 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

1 John 3:3 And every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure.

#2 - Why don’’t we know God?

Moral blindness. We are spiritually incompatible with and unable to see God. God cannot be known simply as a principle. He must be known as an eternal moral Being. You believe Genghis Khan existed but you don’’t know him. We are separated by the darkness of sin.

To answer the question, ’Who Is Jesus?’, you must first understand that you are separated from God by sin, and that whatever Jesus is, He is designed to solve that problem.

John the Baptist knew Who He was, by knowing what was wrong between God and man:

John 1:29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold theLamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.

#3 - How can we know God?

We can’’t go to Him so He must come to us. So Jesus came to carry us to the Father. By His offering He bore us…carried us, to the Father.

John 17:13 And now I come to you…

John 17:21 May they all be one! Even as you, Father, are in me and I am in you, so let them be in us…

John 17:23 I in them, and you in me, so that they may be made completely one, and so that it may become clear to all men that you have sent me and that they are loved by you as I am loved by you.

John 17:24 Father, it is my desire that these whom you have given to me may be by my side where I am….

Jesus carries us to the Father…

Psa. 24:3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?

Psa. 24:4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.

Psa. 24:5 He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. (Jesus did this!)

Jesus Himself is the answer to each of those 3 questions.

He reveals God. – He reveals man.

He reveals why we don’’t know God.

He reveals how we can know God.

While all other religions and belief systems truly are the opiates of the human race, Jesus is man’’s ‘wake up’ from lethal sleep. In Jesus, Paul tells of having his eternal perspective awakened, as he begins to reach beyond his mortality, to grasp his identity. In Jesus, Paul is made aware of himself as an eternal being, and at the same time painfully aware of his ability to follow Him into eternity. This sets up Paul to begin to grasp the significance of the “Son that was given”, and the significance of His death and resurrection.

Phil. 3:10 that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;

Phil. 3:11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

(also, Gal 2:20)

Jesus is the literal bridge between God and man. Spanning both the temporal and eternal worlds, He is both the image of God and the template of man. And because He is our design and designer He is perfectly suitable to be the son offered on our behalf.

Gen. 22:10 And Abraham stretched out his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.

Gen. 22:11 But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”

Gen. 22:12 And he said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”

Gen. 22:13 Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son.

Gen. 22:14 And Abraham called the name of that place The LORD Will Provide, as it is said to this day, “In the mount of the LORD it will be provided.”

Gen. 22:15 Then the angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven,

Gen. 22:16 and said, “By Myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son,

Gen. 22:17 indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies.

Gen. 22:18 “And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”

We were made in the image and likeness of God so that we would seek to commune as He does, and He could respond to us in kind. We are perfectly engineered for fellowship. We were designed like Him so our actions towards Him could provoke reactions from Him.

Jesus was God giving us something we could offer to Him, a response that would provoke the blessing He desired to bestow upon us.

Jesus was God’’s response to Abraham’’s sacrifice.

Tomorrow we will begin to look at the 5 descriptive names that God said Jesus would be known as. Until then……

Stay On The Path!

Tags: A list of devotionals by chronological order, Our Identification In Christ by Nick Champlin
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Mark 4:26 And He was saying, “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil;

Mark 4:27 and goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts up and grows— how, he himself does not know.

Mark 4:28 “The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head.

Psa. 90:12 So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

Life has a rhythm, a lot like walking. The foot that’’s reaching ahead to where you want to go will soon be the same foot you withdraw from where you’’ve been. In the motion of walking – like the motion of living – we straddle both where we were and where we’re headed with each step.

Where you are today is the result of steps you took yesterday. And tomorrow you will either regret or rejoice in the steps you take today.

Sowing & Reaping…

The entire Kingdom of God operates on the sowing and reaping principle. The farmer sits at his table today and eats the fruit of last years’ labors. He then gets up and returns to the field to labor for next years’ happiness.

Mark 4:26 And He was saying, “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil;

Just like the natural laws that govern farming, our lives also are the result of sowing and reaping. If one can manage his life with that rhythm in mind, rather than always living only in the moment, he can live a productive life. Today’’s decisions can set up tomorrow’’s happiness. So don’’t react negatively to today’’s regrets over the fruit of yesterday’’s planting; but simply correct your sowing for tomorrow’’s improvement.

Like the stride of a walker, the value of his steps lay in the direction of his path. It’’s where he’s going that makes each step important. In the same way, the value of the present is that it’’s an opportunity to either reconsider or reconfirm the direction of yesterday. Then either renew or change your direction for tomorrow. The present is the ONLY POINT along your path where you can insert a change of direction.

It is certain that the Bible teaches the great principle that happiness is harvested. In that very principle, the Apostle Paul paced himself as he pursued God’’s purposes for his life.

Phil. 3:13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it (perfect spiritual maturity) my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,

Phil. 3:14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Phil. 3:15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.

Paul understood that his life, lived in its present moments, was no better than the pursuit in which he invested those moments, while they were his to control. Standing around, trying to find happiness and meaning in each solitary moment of life is a sure recipe for depression. Because the aimless, unproductive soul is weary. Purposelessness deprives the soul of its power of life.Thus Proverbs declares:

Prov. 20:4 The sluggard does not plow after the autumn, so he begs during the harvest and has nothing.

Paul also understood that sowing his life into the pursuit of “the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” was what made life worth living. Previously Paul had sown all his efforts into developing the best life he could live for himself now. But after finding Jesus he realized the ultimate worthlessness of “pressing on toward” his best life now, rather than “what lies ahead”. In fact, the principle of sowing and reaping was exactly what Jesus had in mind when He called us to discipleship by saying:

Matt. 16:24 “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.

Matt. 16:25 “For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it.

The words of Jesus countermand the entire modern Christian concept, of using the divine principles found in the rhythm of life, in order to develop your best life now, rather than sell it off in sacrifice, for His best life now and forever. This is exactly what Paul understood. And he reconciled the sins and failures of his past with the blood of Jesus. That ended all grieving and remorse. Time to move on. He then reset all his priorities and redirected all his efforts towards fulfilling Jesus’’ claims over his life. This won’’t remove trial from your life, but you will live days without regrets. Because you’’ll enter each new day in the peace produced by your efforts of the previous days. I know that tomorrow, when I come to it, I’ll be happy in the fruit of the life I’ve lived for Christ today.

In one of the rare glimpses of our life with Him in eternity, Jesus prepares us by stressing this important principle: that our faithfulness today will set up our position in the life that awaits us.

Matt. 25:23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’

Paul also reinforced the same focus for us, as we walk with God today.

1 Cor. 3:11 For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

1 Cor. 3:12 Now if any man builds upon the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,

1 Cor. 3:13 each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it, because it is to be revealed with fire; and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work.

1 Cor. 3:14 If any man’s work which he has built upon it remains, he shall receive a reward.

1 Cor. 3:15 If any man’s work is burned up, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire.

So the rhythm of life, with it’s overlapping cycles of sowing and reaping, will carry us right into eternity. When our life is weighed out for all it’s worth, be certain of this, that your deep concern will not be whether you were happy in every day, but did your days bring you to a happy place.

Stay On The Path!

Tags: A list of devotionals by chronological order, Challenge, Conviction & Encouragement by Nick Champlin
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Mark 4:26 And He was saying, “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil;

Mark 4:27 and goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts up and grows— how, he himself does not know.

Mark 4:28 “The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head.

Psa. 90:12 So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

Life has a rhythm, a lot like walking. The foot that’’s reaching ahead to where you want to go, will soon be the same foot you withdraw from where you’’ve been. In the motion of walking – like the motion of living, – we straddle both where we were and where we’’re headed with each step.

Where you are today is the result of steps you took yesterday. And tomorrow you will either regret or rejoice in the steps you take today.

Living for the moment…

No one who lives solely in the moment ever lives a successful life. But like the painter’’s canvass, life is stretched between the past and future. The moment we that find ourselves in, never exists unto itself, but it’’s a place we’’ve arrived at along a path we’’ve been traveling. The reason why significant and dramatic change is usually difficult to make is because people usually want to experience it instantly. But a true turn-around in life is more like navigating a large ocean-going vessel, in which a wheel must be turned, and held, until the rudder has affected a true redirection of our course. God can insert pivotal moments into our lives if we allow Him to. But then it takes faithful determination on our part to stay in the radius, endure the pressure of the turn, until we can straighten out the wheel, and move in a new direction. So instead of life unfolding in minute second-by-second movements, the increments of our life are more like a person throwing a ball, catching up to it, and throwing it again. We are always pursuing the place where our actions have led us.

One of the great themes running through the Bible is the plant-and-reap rhythm of life. You sow today for tomorrow’’s harvest. God has designed life to flow along the course of this principle. All of nature is locked into its rhythm:

Gen. 8:22 “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”

The wise individual understands that life is a walk across time. The person who only has vision for the moment and regrets over the past will never learn how to walk successfully with God, through life. To walk with God one must coordinate evaluating the past, discerning the present and focusing for the future, with each step they take. For when tomorrow arrives you will have become what you’’ve prepared to be, through your actions today. Paul writes in Galatians about this inescapable law of life.

Gal. 6:7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.

Gal. 6:8 For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life.

It is impossible to live only for the moment and be happy, because the status of your happiness in this very moment was largely determined by your actions yesterday. Though we may mourn our sins and failures, the Lord is gracious to blot them out when we repent. But we live with the heartbreaks over lost opportunities to do good, which we can never go back and recapture. So one of the best things you can do with the “moment” you have, is to realize that there are moments to come, and invest yourself wisely towards them. Happiness is a cumulative experience. In part, we are made happy by our immediate circumstances and state of being. But in addition to that, our happiness is also contributed to by the thanksgiving of others, over things that we have done well, which have benefited them. The satisfaction this brings today is the result of unselfish sacrifices we made towards the good of others yesterday. Those sacrifices rarely bring joy in the moment they are made. In fact, they are often made at some expense to our own immediate happiness. But the deep joy that the thankfulness of others (who are benefited by our sacrifice) brings to us today, far outweighs any momentary happiness we may have sacrificed yesterday. And knowing the worth of this joy, and the awful weight of regrets over missed opportunities, let us wisely navigate the rhythm of life; sowing today for tomorrows harvest.

Stay On The Path!

Tags: A list of devotionals by chronological order, Challenge, Conviction & Encouragement by Nick Champlin
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Tags: A list of devotionals by chronological order, Our Identification In Christ by Nick Champlin
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Matt. 13:44 The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field. When a man discovered it, he buried it again. He was so delighted with it that he went away; sold everything he had, and bought that field.

Let’s define elements in Jesus’ illustration:

The Treasure is Jesus, Himself, the Savior and Lord of all.

The Field is the Gospel, the whole message of Jesus.

The Kingdom of God is the entire sphere of Christ’s rule.

The Finder should be YOU.

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

The heart of this message will arrest your conscience and force you to think hard, once it finally dawns on you.

Purchasing the Field is the only way for the Finder to gain legitimate ownership of the Treasure.

The Finder joyously went and sold everything he had in order to come back and purchase the Field. Jesus (the Treasure) is free, but you must buy into the Gospel (the Field) to possess Him. The Finder sold everything he had, requiring him to live in the new Field he had just purchased. Simply stated, Jesus’ explanation of the Kingdom of God is the story of relocation. The Finder sells everything, freeing himself from his old habitat, for the privilege of moving in with Jesus!

This is the biggest reason why Christians experience frustration and futility instead of results and fruit, when they attempt to pray for the provisions and blessings that Jesus has stated He would provide. It’s because they try to remove Him from the Field - take Him out of the environment of His Word (the Gospel). They try and bring Him into their kingdom and get Him to bless their will, rather than moving into His kingdom and doing His will, which is blessed. Many Christians like to use the Field with the Treasure as a vacation home. They don’t live there, but just drop in for R and R on occasion. That will NEVER work because Jesus said that you must ABIDE in Him and stay in His yoke, in order to bear fruit and have peace.

The reason Jesus said that the Finder sells all to purchase the Field is not because you must buy salvation, but because you must relinquish the world’s demands over you, your relations and your possessions, and bring yourself and them under the Lordship of His kingdom.

Have you ever wondered why God usually removes people from their home, country and friends, before He uses them in His kingdom? Think about it with me, for a minute. Abraham, God called to leave his family, home and country and travel to a place where He would use him greatly. The naturally minded person would argue against the apparent absurdity of such a move, saying, “If God is God, He can do what He wants ANYWHERE. And Abraham doesn’t need to uproot his family and leave in order to serve God.” But what if the price of disassociation with the familiar, were necessary for the development of Abraham’s faith. Clinging to the familiar could be the reason why so many believers are weak in faith.

Consider Moses, of whom it was said, “He forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the Pharaoh, and endured as seeing Him Who is invisible.” Some people have to clear their eyes of the familiar and comfortable before they can see God.

What about King David, who was removed from his father’s house and then further driven even from the country of Israel, suffering separation from everything dear to him, before he took possession of his destiny as King of Israel.

Paul the Apostle came to Jesus and instantly became an outcast among his people, living for the next 14 years in separation, before he emerged as the great Apostle to the Gentiles and author of most of the New Testament.

All the disciples left their homes and dreams to follow Jesus, and many even had their very names changed as they entered citizenship in a new Kingdom.

All these were people who “bought the Field” in order to possess the Treasure. Paul wrote in Philippians 3:8,

“Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ…”

As a Finder of the Treasure and purchaser of the Field, you may not be called upon to physically move from your familiar surroundings. But you, still the same, must sell all to purchase the Field. And that means that from the day you enter His Kingdom, your life activities, plans and possessions are the property of the Kingdom of God, for with them, you purchased the Field. That means that your business is now the business of the Kingdom of God and the interests of His Gospel must come first. That is a thought, of which you must sit down and contemplate the worth. But know this, that every sacrifice of your time, will, energy and substance, invested in favor of His will, cannot result in anything less than your blessing and His glory.

Stay On The Path!

Tags: A list of devotionals by chronological order, Our Identification In Christ by Nick Champlin
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Matt. 13:44 The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field. When a man discovered it, he buried it again. He was so delighted with it that he went away; sold everything he had, and bought that field.

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

Nothing could be more clear in Jesus’ statement about the Kingdom of God:

The person who found the treasure bought the entire field in which it was found, and did not simply pluck out the treasure and run home with it.

Let’s define elements in Jesus’ illustration:

The Treasure is Jesus, Himself, the Savior and Lord of all.

The Field is the Gospel, the whole message of Jesus.

The Kingdom of God is the entire sphere of Christ’s rule.

The Finder should be YOU.

The message of Jesus is the offer to you of a new life in a new Kingdom. His offer is not one of a “fix” for your kingdom, but an offer to live anew, in His kingdom. In His illustration about God’s Kingdom, the Treasure comes with the Field.

Jesus is not offering Himself apart from His Gospel, but through His Gospel.

It’s purchasing the Field that gave the Finder legitimate right to the Treasure. Jesus’ illustration never conceives of a Finder who simply lifts the Treasure from the Field and scurries home with it. Like oil in the ground, the Treasure of the Kingdom cannot be separated from the Gospel. Think about that for a moment. You can actually trace most people’s failure in faith to attempts at taking Jesus into their hearts but still living deep within the interior of their own lives. Is it possible to have Jesus in your heart without entering His Kingdom, living in opposition to His Gospel? The fact is that there is a big difference between going to Heaven with Christ in your heart and living a fruitful and productive life in His Kingdom, here upon the Earth. The thief on the cross had no time to live out his faith in the few moments he had left after meeting Jesus at Calvary. But Jesus never presented that model as a recommendation for people who plan to go on living.

Jesus is a King with a kingdom.

Yes, Jesus the Savior entered our world; made by Him, placed under our management. The kingdom of man had collapsed, having fallen into the hands of Satan. Jesus entered it, not to become it’s new King, but to offer it’s fallen subjects the opportunity to enter a new Kingdom, the Kingdom of God. Jesus cannot heal your old life and make it meaningful in the fallen kingdom of darkness. He can’t make things right for you, if you insist on holding onto your old citizenship in a sin-cursed kingdom. The Finder in Jesus message of the Kingdom of God, sold off all his assets and claims in this world, in order to purchase the Field of Treasure. In other words, you must take the Gospel (the Field) and make it YOUR NEW HOME in order to have its Treasure, Jesus. What does this really mean in practical terms?

Jesus is telling us that if He is going to be able to be a “Treasure” to us, then we must live within the guidelines and priorities of His Kingdom in order to receive His benefit. In short, when we are pulled between the demands of this life and the claims of the Gospel’s higher priorities, we should be putting His Kingdom’s interests first. In the simplest of terms, if Christ is King then His interests should rule. The business of the Gospel is the business of His Kingdom. While our “business” is of interest to the Lord, His business is His priority, and that’s how it should be with us.

Do Christians today feel as though they’ve bought the Field?

When a Christian leaves church and heads off into a new week, how does he/she view their path? I gave God His time, so now my time can be blessed? God is not unsympathetic to our responsibilities, but if something needs to be done for His Kingdom, are we open to disrupting our plans in order to answer the call? Why did Jesus say?

Matt. 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Wasn’t that statement a reminder for those who want the Treasure in the Field? No Field, no Treasure. Jesus proves the real worth of His Treasure every time we put prayer, fellowship, witnessing, sacrifice for His Church, and the like, before our own interests, and then watch Him bless us (and others) for it. The Kingdom of God is expanded every time a believer inconveniences his/her own schedule to give their time and energy to the cause of Jesus’ Gospel. Individuals adding Jesus to their agendas do not make the Kingdom of God visible. But when individuals set aside their agendas to join the efforts of His Church, they are acting in His interests and under His rule. That’s the Kingdom. That’s purchasing the Field.

But how far do you go with such sacrifices. The needs of the ministry seem never to end? For that answer, be sure to read tomorrow’s devotional. In the meantime……

Stay On The Path!

Tags: A list of devotionals by chronological order, Our Identification In Christ by Nick Champlin
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Matt. 13:44 The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field. When a man discovered it, he buried it again. He was so delighted with it that he went away, sold everything he had, and bought that field.

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

Jesus’ message concerning the Kingdom of God is very revealing in this statement. But because of the brevity of His comment this powerful statement could be easily overlooked. Here is the most important truth in Jesus’ statement about the Kingdom of God:

The person who found the treasure bought the entire field in which it was found, and did not simply pluck out the treasure and run home with it.

Let’s define elements in Jesus’ illustration:

The Treasure is Jesus, Himself, the Savior and Lord of all.

The Field is the Gospel, the whole message of Jesus.

The Kingdom of God is the entire sphere of Christ’s rule.

The Finder should be YOU.

The message is clear: the Finder, after discovering the Treasure, leaves it in the field and goes away to make arrangements to purchase the entire field. He does not attempt to remove Jesus from the context of His message, the Gospel. He doesn’t simply snatch up Jesus and attempt to fit Him into his life, as it presently exists. In fact, the Treasure, having been found in the Field, is considered the property of the Field. And removing it would be tantamount to stealing. The Finder actually has to purchase the Field in order to have proper ownership of the Treasure.

Jesus isn’t available to us apart from His Gospel.

Think about that. Removing Him from the Gospel is not an option in Jesus illustration. Remember that Jesus is explaining the Kingdom of God. So if we try to take Jesus out of the Gospel, and simply attempt to fit Him into our routine, we lose the Kingdom of God. In other words, Jesus is not presenting Himself as a fix or solver of our lives. He is presenting Himself, within the Gospel, as the way to enter the Kingdom of God. In reality, Jesus never preached a “fix” or “solution” for your life. Instead He provided a way for you to sell off your life and enter into a whole new life, in a new kingdom, governed by new principles, under a new Lord: Himself. The Finder actually sells off his entire life to buy the Field, the Gospel with Jesus in it. Are you beginning to see how totally opposite Jesus’ actual message is, compared with the way people present it today?

Consider these similar examples. Could you purchase an exotic fish at the pet store, bring it home, lay it on the coffee table and expect to enjoy it for long, without buying the fish tank? Could you go to a concert where you were thrilled by the music, purchase the instruments, bring them home, and enjoy a perpetual encore? Throughout life there are many wonderful things that you have to step out of your life’s routine to experience. In the case of Jesus Christ, He is the highest epitome of that principle. He is a King Who comes with a Kingdom defined by His Gospel. His Kingdom will not enter yours and exist. You, the Finder, must liquidate ALL that is valuable to you, in order to afford the value of citizenship in His Kingdom. What does that mean, really? Read tomorrow’s devotional and find out.In the meanwhile…

Stay On The Path!

Tags: A list of devotionals by chronological order, Our Identification In Christ by Nick Champlin
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Heb. 3:5 Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later;

Josh. 24:15 “If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

John 2:15 And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables;

John 2:16 and to those who were selling the doves He said, “Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business.”

John 2:17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “ZEAL FOR YOUR HOUSE WILL CONSUME ME.”

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

Joshua turned around one day and told the Israelites he were leading, “Okay, if it’s too much of an imposition on you to serve the Lord, fine; decide who you want to serve and go follow him. But I am going to lead my household to follow the Lord. “The foundation of success for every great follower of God is the decision to possess their own house. An obedient home is the support for public authority. Joshua knew that there was no way he could lead Israelites to public victory who weren’t serving God in their private lives. Leaving the backdoor of compromise open to the devil, in your home, leads to withdraw of God’s covering in your public life. The Lord is nothing, if not decisive. God and wishy-washy people don’t mix well. The Holy Spirit can correct people who are wrong but not people who are indecisive.

James 1:6 …For he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.

James 1:7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.

James 1:8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

The double minded are unfaithful. They are absolutely sincere…for the moment. As I said in yesterday’s article, too many parents put their foot down, and then shift it around whenever they feel their popularity is being threatened. Households like that receive nothing from the Lord. They are unstable in ALL THEIR WAYS. The refusal to make godly decisions and stick to them is the basis for being unfaithful.

Christianity is all about restoring authority to lost people. We become responsible under God’s authority. Then God expects us to exercise authority over the sphere of responsibility He has given us. That requires being decisive, and possessing your house. Ultimately you can’t make your children be what they don’t want to be.But you sure don’t have to contribute to their confusion as to what is the right way. Kids NEED honest, decisive influences in their lives. It’s a total lie of the devil that kids today, won’t respond to traditional leadership. Modern Christians keep giving in to pressures to compromise with righteousness, in order to “reach” their kids. By doing so, they’re not saying they don’t believe that kids will understand authority. What they’re really saying is that THEY don’t have any faith in true godly authority. It’s THEIR OWN DUPLICITY with which they are poisoning their kids, and not pressure from society. We have many believers today who are double minded in their own moral code, and so they are “unstable in all their ways“.

Consider Jesus famous parable of the talents:

Matt. 25:28 Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents.

Matt. 25:29 For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.

Matt. 25:30 And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The sin here was not that of failing to make money. It’s that of failing to make decisions! The talents didn’t represent monetary value to God. They represented authority. It was the refusal to exercise authority - to make decisions and stick to them. God had no sympathy for the man who was afraid of making a decision. Upon reading the whole parable we find that the guilty man’s refusal to be decisive stemmed from his bad attitude towards authority. Parents who have “problems with authority” themselves, always think they’re doing their children a favor by refusing to dictate solid policies for their home. Then they’re shocked when their kids don’t appreciate the “open range policy” under which they’ve been allowed to grow up. They’re amazed that their children are rebellious, hateful, unappreciative, or confused. How in the world do kids have a chance at becoming solid, responsible, self-controlled and loving, when they were allowed to pursue their impulsive natures without any consistent consequences. Children raised in such homes become clever at discerning people’s moods and how to navigate around them; but they seldom learn to respect others. Why would God endorse, with His blessing, a home that subverts His authority, and makes it subject to the arbitrariness of indecisive parents.

You don’t need money to make decisions. You don’t need an education to use authority properly. You don’t even need others to support and agree with you, in order to take a stand on what is right in your own home. If Satan were truly powerful enough to just waltz in and capture whole families, he wouldn’t need the plethora excuses he offers parents, to get them to hand their authority over to him.

“My kids won’t love me…”

“If I take this stand it’ll drive them away…”

“They’re gonna find a way to just do what they want anyway…”

“You can’t legislate morality…”

“My Mom and Dad just loved me, and I’m OK…”

“They’ll hate God if I MAKE them follow the rules…”

“I know he/she has a disrespectful mouth, but there’s a reason…”

Let me hasten to add that rules are no substitute for leadership and care. Sometimes parents make rules to replace leadership. That’s copping out on responsibility. Nothing replaces personal interaction and TIME WELL SPENT. Children aren’t cattle; they’re people. Rules designed to keep parents from having to listen to a matter and make a decision, are doomed to become traps for your kids. You can’t enforce rules that The Heavenly Ruler won’t endorse. The most important rules in the home should have to do with having a right relationship with God and with parents. Doing well in school, excelling at skills, keeping a clean room, handling money well, having friends; these are all good things for kids to learn. But there’s going to be a lot of educated, talented, orderly, popular kids that are going to reject God, because they got all the advantages, except for consistent godly leadership at home.

The greatest ministry in the world begins with “Possessing Your Own House!”

Stay On The Path!

Tags: A list of devotionals by chronological order, Challenge, Conviction & Encouragement by Nick Champlin
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Tags: A list of devotionals by chronological order, Outreach & Evangelism by Nick Champlin
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Ex. 20:1 And God spake all these words, saying,

Ex. 20:2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Ex. 20:3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Ex. 20:4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

Ex. 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

Ex. 20:6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Ex. 20:7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Ex. 20:8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Ex. 20:9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

Ex. 20:10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

Ex. 20:11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Ex. 20:12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

Ex. 20:13 Thou shalt not kill.

Ex. 20:14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Ex. 20:15 Thou shalt not steal.

Ex. 20:16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

Ex. 20:17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.

Ex. 20:18 And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.

Ex. 20:19 And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.

Ex. 20:20 And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

All man’’s ills stem from failure to keep the 10 Commandments. This wonderful consolidation of moral light encompasses the entire complexity of human sin. Never was a more perfect and simple charter set before men. Every errant, deviate group known to man is flushed out and caught like flies on a “Shell No-Pest Strip”, by this simple document of decency. There’’s something on this list to offend everybody. Like a great divinely impartial locator, the 10 Commandments zero in to find that specific spot in each heart, where rebellion has lodged its poison.

Every crime, atrocity and misery of humanity derives its inception from the rejection of one of these commands from our Creator. With the 10 Commandments, God has given mankind the great gift of defining right from wrong. Over the framework of the 10 Commandments, man is able to fashion every instrument of law and self-government.

These are in essence, the 10 Reason why we fail. An honest study of exactly what these commandments meant to God, will reveal why we will never do more than destroy ourselves, if we insist on proceeding without Him. Their wisdom escapes none but the self-confident fool.

Here they are……

6. You shall not Murder.

Ex. 20:13 Thou shalt not kill.

“Kill” = (7523 Strong’s Concordance). jAx∂r ratsach, raw-tsakh´; a primitive root; properly, to dash in pieces, i.e. kill (a human being), especially to murder:— put to death, kill, (man-)slay(-er), murder(-er).

7. You shall not commit adultery, breaking the marriage covenant.

Ex. 20:14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.

8. You shall not steal.

Ex. 20:15 Thou shalt not steal.

9. You shall not lie against your fellow man, perjuring yourself.

Ex. 20:16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

10. You shall not lust after anything belonging to your fellow man, not his wife, his house his material possessions or any of his advantages.

Ex. 20:17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor any thing that is thy neighbor’s.

Most all reasoned people agree that these are good ideas. But because these are, in fact, not ideas or suggestions, but commandments from God, the God-rejecters in our society are fighting against them. They agree in principle with all but the first two commandments, which have to do with honoring God.

The 10 Commandments, with God removed, is a sterile sentence of death, leaving man with no possible means of success. But the 10 Commandments, taken as they were given, with the presence of God, as the Law Giver, provides the opportunity for help and mercy, when we fail at the Law. If we have no God, then we have no Redeemer.  And no Law can redeem, but only condemn. Remove God, and with Him, take away the possibility of mercy and 2^nd chances, and eventually people will abandon the Law itself.  Because under the Law, all eventually become guilty.  And to be guilty under the Law, without God, is inescapable condemnation.

The basic human need for freedom cannot survive under condemnation.  People will always seek to free themselves.  And if they have rejected God Who alone can free them from failure under the Law – then they will reject the Law to be free of its condemnations.  The 10 Commandments give us the 10 basic Reasons for our failures. They reveal the 10 basic roots of sin. And it is vital that we treat the breaking of these laws as sins, for the word “sin” means the transgressing of God’’s commands.  If the 10 Commandments were reduced to eight, with the first two removed, we would be doomed; for broken Law may not be forgiven, if the Law is to be preserved. But sins can be forgiven, because God, the Law Giver, has the authority to grant mercy to repentant transgressors, since the sins are against Him personally.

And thus when you become guilty before God He presents you with an Advocate.  And you have a choice other than condemnation and death. The whole purpose of the Law is to point us to the broken relationship with our Creator. The absolute worst thing our society can do, in their ignorance, is to reject the 10 Commandments, especially the claims of the first two. For to reject the 10 Commandments, and the divine claims of the Commander, is to forsake the mercy we so desperately need.

Rom. 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Rom. 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

Rom. 8:3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, Goddid: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,

Rom. 8:4 in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

Stay On The Path!

Tags: A list of devotionals by chronological order, Challenge, Conviction & Encouragement by Nick Champlin
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Tags: A list of devotionals by chronological order, Challenge, Conviction & Encouragement by Nick Champlin
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2 Tim. 3:1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.

2 Tim. 3:2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,

2 Tim. 3:3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,

2 Tim. 3:4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God;

2 Tim. 3:5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; and avoid such men as these.

“…difficult times will come…”

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

We have moved into a time of great moral confusion.  Those who want to live upright before God are beginning to find it hard to maintain moral clarity and purity.  Common sense, and the most basic understandings of right and wrong have begun to collapse.  Society is falling back into the dark period of the antediluvian world, when ““men did that which was right in their own eyes”.” Distinctions between the moral standards of the fallen world and those of Christians are dissolving, and confusion is flooding the Church.  In Matthew 24:38 Jesus warned us about the times we are now entering:

“”As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.””

The Collapse of Reason

There is one basic shift in the Christian world view, which will open the floodgates to allow the collapse of reason. It will be a major paradigm shift from a God-centered view of morality to a man-centered view of morality. In other words, the basic concept of right and wrong will be determined by what individuals want rather than what God wants. Morality will be determined by what seems to appeal to people, as opposed to the claims of God, as they are laid out in scripture.

So far as it relates to this era of moral confusion, it is quite apparent by now that we have crossed a line and fallen within the grip of Biblical prophecy. Paul precisely quantifies the root of moral collapse by leading off his commentary with this observation…

“For men will be lovers of self…”

While the events of ecological and political upheavals may be debated, as signs of the end times, the degrading of moral certainty is blatantly apparent.

Today this paradigm shift is manifest among Christians in 2 basic moral failures: Addiction To Acceptance and Fear Of Making Judgments.

Fear Of Making Judgments…

Because accepting people, along with their sin, has become the new way to show love, many people now believe they have a right to have their behaviors protected from rejection.  They have extended the meaning of ‘love and acceptance’, to include all their behaviors and not just their souls. Most Christians now feel pressured to “show love” towards behaviors that they should be reproving.  They are intimidated into accepting peoples’’ sins in order to accept the person.  They have abandoned their Biblical responsibility to exercise simple judgment toward moral corruption. We’’re not talking about condemnation, but simply exercising discretion and discernment. Jesus made clear that we ought to examine the fruit of people’s’ lives:

Luke 6:43-44 For there is no good tree which produces bad fruit; nor, on the other hand, a bad tree which produces good fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a briar bush.

Under the pressure to accept (“love”) everyone, it’’s becoming increasingly unpopular to call sin for what it is. In order to avoid people feeling rejected, Christians are reclassifying sins as problems. Everyone simply has “problems” regardless of whether their behavior is good or evil.  And of course, “problems” don’’t reflect on a person’’s moral standing.

The concept of good and evil is now being classified by popular opinion rather than any Biblical standard. A thing is good or bad based on whether it’s helpful or hindering to what people want,instead of whether or not it agrees with or violates God’’s righteousness.  Wrong doing is no longer viewed as sinful because it’’s an offense against God, but only if it’’s an offense against man.  The desires and standards of people have become the determining factor in deciding society’’s moral tolerance.  And God’’s laws have been tossed aside as meaningless.  Murder is still wrong in our culture, but no longer because it breaks God’’s commandments, but because it violates man’’s laws.

Because we are no longer willing to tolerate the concept of a God who sets absolute moral laws and makes judgments accordingly, a new image of God has evolved in our culture. The new concept of God is one who is the facilitator of your dreams. He’’s viewed as simply watching over people, with divine sympathy, as they struggle in their sins; waiting for them to let Him bless them. We have privatized sin.  Therefore moral neutrality is the new position many churches take in order to fulfill what has become the goal of ministry: helping people live their best life NOW.  And because of this new ministry focus, Christians are afraid to judge anything as sin, choosing rather to morally sterilize all bad behaviors as problems or issues.

But problems and sins are not the same thing:

People solve Problems between themselves….  But sin is something between you and God.

Being overdrawn at the bank is a problem.…  Fornication, Immorality, homosexuality, lying, etc. are sins.

I can accept your problem and maybe I can help….  But I can’’t accept your sin… - I don’’t have that right because your sin is against God.  I don’t even accept my own sin.

Confused Christians increasingly see their role in the world as givers of social charity without calling people to reconciliation with God.  But how then do we account to God for the mission He has entrusted to us as His Ambassadors?

The more we fail to be honest about God’’s requirements, the more people are losing their tolerance for a God with requirements.  It’’s a church that’’s losing its saltiness that enables a world to become more rebellious.

Jesus never forgave unrepentant people. On the cross He offered forgiveness for those who crucified Him in ignorance.  But to make the forgiveness complete one must accept it by confessing their sin and asking for the mercy.  In that case the forgiveness is immediate and sure.  Beside Him on the cross He responded to the man who took responsibility for himself, but ignored the unrepentant sinner.  It’s cruel for Christians, who have been given the responsibility to represent the claims and Gospel of Christ, to hide behind a veil of neutrality what they know is right from wrong,  realizing that God will judge the world for it’s works.  How can we even pretend to come close to representing the Gospel, by refusing to tell the truth about what God says in His Word concerning sin.   John the Baptist, the great forerunner of the Savior, introduced Him by calling the world to repentance for its sins.  He was specific, straight, unapologetic and unflinchingly honest in his presentation.  If those who shun the light demand that we dim our standards for the sake of their comfort, and we accommodate them, then all we have done is made ourselves more likeable while pushing them farther from Heaven. When we are dealing with the eternal destiny of other people how can we take liberties with the Truth in order to make our own selves appear more popular? Since Jesus died for the sins of the world, we who have become the beneficiaries of His grace are obligated to tell the truth about it.

Stay On The Path!

Tags: A list of devotionals by chronological order by Nick Champlin
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