Have any of you ever been around someone who so loved God, that their life just oozed His character to you?  Where they could almost say as Paul does in 1 Corinthians 11:1 – “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ”.  I hope that you have, because having someone like that in my life has been very helpful at seeing how Christ is a source of joy now and in eternity.  If you don’t know someone like that, I hope that God leads you to someone like that to mentor you.

My hope is that each of you would desire Jesus with your entire heart.  My hope is that you would see the infinite perfections of His character and the nature of God revealed in Him.  Here’s a task (helpful I hope) to try.  Write down the things you love about God’s character and nature, based on what you see in nature, in God’s church, and in the Word.  Start reading through one of the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, and have no other purpose than to ask the question over and over again “what does this tell me about the character and nature of God?”, followed up by “does my heart yearn to know the person of Jesus Christ more?”.  If not, earnestly wrestle with that lack of love, and take that prayer to God.    There are points in my life where I’ve dealt with a kind of spiritual depression, and that love hasn’t been there – sometimes it takes a while to develop or regain again.  That being said, God will never say “no” to a prayer seeking to know and love Him more, and I can say that with 100% certainty, because I know the character and nature of God.  Feed your heart on the Word.  The point of life is to point to God – do you desire Him?  Not just what He has/can do for you, do you want Him, a relationship with Him just because of who He is?  Brothers and Sisters, know that we have an eternity of joy unspeakable set before us, and His name is Jesus Christ. I hope you will diligently seek to know the Lord, to develop more and more affections for the person of Jesus Christ.  I’m right there with you, trusting that God is faithful and good in all His work.  Love you all.  Know you’re prayed for.

Grace and Peace,
Adam

There are two extremes that people fluctuate between – either falling on God’s grace too much, when they might not be saved, or worrying constantly that their sins may not be forgiven, and diminishing the Glory of God on the cross, by denying His full atonement for our sin.

Not sure where you all fall out, my struggle is more with the latter.  Here’s what I want to say: We all sin every day – every one of us.  We should hate our sin / desire more of God, because He is where our joy is found.  Our joy in God should be driving us to want more of Him, and in pursuing Him, our sin will become less (never fully gone).  My encouragement today is to ask yourself where you fall out, and evaluate yourself based on the scripture below.  Pray as you are led accordingly.  Know that each of you is a blessing from God, and we are all in this together.

1 John 1:5-10 ⁵ This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. ⁶ If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. ⁷But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. ⁸ If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Grace and Peace,
Adam

A lot of people’s problems understanding or finding comfort in God involves their inability to acknowledge that God is altogether different than us.  Meaning, that for us, we have a good idea that God is way more holy than we are, that he judges righteously, and that Jesus died to pay our debt and reconcile us to God.  We say that, but yet, when we are struggling with sin, or anxious about what this day may bring us, or are dealing with a new level of deep suffering, the first lie to creep into our heads is that “God doesn’t love me, He can’t love me because ….”  That voice is never from God – God’s love is not like our love, He is not dependent upon us for anything, Christ died for sinners – to reconcile all things to Himself, the sin that remains in us, the suffering in the world, all point us back to Christ.  My hope is that you would always find comfort in Him alone.

It’s because of that, as a fellow sinner in the process of sanctification and as one who is acquainted with the world not being as it should be; there are a few verses in the Bible that I find very powerful, and cling to often that I wanted to share with you all.  Hopefully you’ll read them, meditate on them, memorize them, so that your own hearts will continue to be encouraged as well.  Everything important in this email is bolded 🙂

Lamentations 3:22-23 ” ²² The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; ²³they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

     Romans 8:38-39 “³⁸For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

     Joshua 1:9 “⁹Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

Grace and Peace,
Adam

My encouragement today is from – Gal. 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ.  It is not longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.  And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

There is a past, present, future of the gospel.  Most of us understand the past, and future, but fail to enjoy the fullness of the gospel in the “now”.  We know that Christ has died for our sins (past), we know that he has purchased for us a future hope with Him for eternity (future), but we do not live a “gospel centered life” now.  God’s gift to us is that we can enjoy the fruit of the gospel in our lives today.  People often hear that we will receive glorified bodies in heaven, without sin, perfect for enjoying God for all eternity.  This can often be misunderstood, to think that this is separate from your sanctification now – it is not.  God puts things in your life today so that, out of a fullness of your identity in Christ, as a redeemed creation, righteous in the eyes of God because of the blood of Christ, you may now live in freedom to make much of Christ for your good and His glory.

How is this for your good if lets say, you’re going through a time of struggle?  Because everything God does, or puts in your path is to increase your dependence on Him, see Him more clearly, and draw you into more close fellowship with Him – all for your joy.  Without the hope of the gospel, everything you confront in life would only offer the superficial good or bad experience, but in Christ, whether good, bad, or in between, each day offers the opportunity to increase our joy in Him.

1 Peter 1:3-9
“³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, ⁵who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, ⁷so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. ⁸ Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, ⁹obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

Grace and Peace,
Adam

This message is probably the most important one I’ve sent out thus far.  If any of you wants to talk about what I mean by any of this, or want to know more, please let me know.

Most of what I write to you is not so much teaching, as it is my sharing what God is pressing into my own heart, and what I hope will be encouraging to you, as it has been to me.  For many of us, we grew up in the church that just told us to obey and say a prayer – sit in the pew, give us your tithes, and that pastor won’t make you feel too bad.  Basically, a sick agreement where people kid themselves that they’re ok, when they’re not.  Alternatively, our exposure to Christianity might have been a church that focused very much on emotions or service, and didn’t really get into the Bible very much to discern anything, let alone what the gospel truly is, what true Biblical faith is, and how Christians are to live.

Individually, and as a group, before we can continue on in our fight of faith, we must ask ourselves the question, what is the object of our faith?  As Christians, we would say that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the object of our faith.  This after all is what we often hear, or have heard all our lives. For myself and many others growing up we were told that if we trusted Jesus as our savior for our sins, we would be saved – of course none of us wanted to go to hell, or perhaps we just wanted to make our parents/others happy, so we did what we thought we were supposed to do, and probably felt good about it at the time.  This is how 90% of America can claim to be Christian, yet we look around and know this cannot be true – something is wrong.  Has God lied?  What is missing?

Here is a question – what does your heart say about God?  Not just the idea of God, but when you get into the Bible, what does your heart say about the God of the Bible?  What does your heart say about joy in God over whatever sin you have in your life?  This is where the rubber meets the road – Do you love God more than football, pornography, sex, money, power, friends, family?  Brothers and Sisters, when we get to Heaven, God will be there.  We will see Him clearly.  There will be no more need for scripture, to know Him in part, we will know Him fully.  For those who love God, that is a great hope.  For those who do not love God, that idea sounds pretty unappealing, they would rather watch a football game.  Here’s another question, would your heart be joyful if the only thing in Heaven was you and God?  What good is the “good news” of the gospel of Jesus Christ, if at the end, all you’re left with is eternity with someone who you do not love, or who isn’t a source of joy for you?

My questions are hopefully pointing to a defeciency in how we view the gospel, the object of our faith.  Christ paying the penalty for our sins, Forgiveness from our sins, Reconciliation to God, these are all essentials of the gospel, but they are not the good news themselves, they are just completely necessary and essential means to the good news – namely, reconciliation with God, to love and enjoy Him forever for His glory.

Brothers and Sisters, we are called Christians, we have received Christ, and bring Him to others – do not neglect the enjoyment of God for all eternity from the gospel, without it is no gospel.  We should have similar kinds of (and superior) affections for God as we do for whatever else we find joy in life with – if we do not, then pray to God for Him to give you that, maybe even for the first time, to start building up that joy in you, for your good and His glory.  This is the gospel, that Christ bore the wrath of God for our sin, died, was buried 3 days, rose again – all so that He might bring us to God for our enjoyment of Him.  He is our treasure – not escape from hell, not the ability to live a good life or have a better marriage; God is the Gospel.  Our faith, and our struggle must be for this gospel in our own hearts, and then to others.

1 Peter 3:18 –  “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit”

Grace and Peace,
Adam

Every day, people are constantly speaking to you, telling you something about who are you are, or the world around you via coworkers, friends, TV, the internet, etc.  Even as I write this email, my intention is to tell you something about both who you are, and the world around you.  My question is, who are you going to be listening to throughout the day?  Will you listen to the world around you or God?

My encouragement with advocating scripture memorization, and these emails is to give you God’s Truth to meditate on throughout the day, to preach these truths and promises of God to yourself when things get hard, and ultimately my goal is for your joy and peace in Christ as believers.  In Colossians 3:2-3 God actually commands us to meditate consistently on this:

“² Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. ³For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” 

Please take 30 seconds right now, and meditate on this.  YOUR OLD SELF HAS DIED THROUGH CHRIST’S DEATH ON THE CROSS (GAL 2:20).  GOD IS OUTSIDE OF TIME – WHEN HE WENT TO THE CROSS, HE KNEW EVERY TRANSGRESSION YOU WOULD COMMIT FROM BIRTH TO DEATH AND IN LOVE, TO DISPLAY HIS OWN GLORY (HIS SOVEREIGNTY, GOODNESS, JUSTICE, MERCY, UNFAILING LOVE, and ON) PAID FOR THEM ALL BY POURING OUT INFINITE WRATH ONTO CHRIST.  BECAUSE OF WHAT CHRIST HAS ALREADY ACCOMPLISHED, WHEN GOD SEES YOU TODAY, TOMORROW, 10 YEARS FROM NOW, HE WILL ALWAYS SEE THE SAME THING – THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST (COL 3:3). 

What does this say to you today about who you are?  What does this say to you today about the world around you, and your related anxieties/fears/struggles?  What would happen if I had God’s truth so in my head/heart that constantly I was thinking about Him/His Will/and my future place with Him in eternity.  What peace and joy might rule over my life? 

God loves us, and has given us His Word to know Him, and to seek after His Kingdom and Righteousness for our good/joy and His glory.  My hope is that today, God’s Word encourages you, and your joy is ever increasing as you know more about our God and Savior, and we each anxiously await eternity with Him. 

Grace and Peace,
Adam

What God is pressing into me today, is how as Christians, we should be marked by our love for each other.  God desires us to reach out into the world, but before we do that, God first wants us to love our brothers and sisters in Christ.  God wants to use the church to make the world ask, “why do these people love and serve each other unselfishly, even to their own detriment at times”?  That kind of love flies in the face of worldly wisdom to seek after your own good, and will by the grace of God, draw many to ask the question of us, “what is the hope that is in you?” (1 Peter 3:15) Our answer will come from Psalms 39:7 – “And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you.”

I hope as you dig in the Word, God becomes more beautiful to you day by day.  I hope that your trust in Christ’s death as the final payment for all your sin, past, present and future, will deepen, bringing you greater peace day by day.  I hope that your trust in Christ’s resurrection, gives you a wellspring of hope in your heart that overflows into acts of service and love to those around you, especially your brothers and sisters in Christ.  That’s my prayer for each of you, and myself.  I hope the verse below will be held in your mind to meditate on, and will be an encouragement to you throughout today.

^{Galatians 5:13-14} “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

One of my biggest struggles is anxiety over the future – where will I work, how am I going to pay for (insert misc. expense here), how can I get all of this work done before the end of the week, how am I going to deal with that person later on this week, etc.  God in His love and mercy has caused negative things to happen to me over the last year to show me some things – 1) No matter how hard we try, control is an illusion; God alone is in control – and that is a very good thing  2)  Every ounce spent worrying is wasted 3) God uses our trying circumstances in the world physically to point us to a spiritual truth about ourselves – namely, we must be dependent upon Him and His righteousness / grace extended to us day to day.

God doesn’t mean for us to bear the burdens of life, He wants us to trust Him by turning them over to Him in prayer by faith.  As I’m writing this I’m reminded of things coming up that have been weighing on me, that I need to again turn over to God in faith.  I hope the following verse will be an encouragement to you all – I’m really looking forward to this Tuesday!

1 Peter 5:6-7 – “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”

Grace and Peace,
Adam

What is Truth?  If God calls us to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth (John 4:24), what does that mean?  What God is continuing to press into me is that as he has chosen me (and all of us) to use as a vessel of proclaiming Him to the world – my hope is that I never stop merely at facts.  I never want to focus so tightly on a point of Biblical doctrine that I miss an opportunity to convey what is said about the person of Christ, and hopefully show Christ to be rightly as beautiful, worthy of worship, and a source of comfort and joy.

What we see of God in the Bible, teaches us about who He is.  This is the God that bled and died for us.  He is the treasure that awaits us.  I want myself first, but all of us together to see our time in the Word as a means not to know “about” God, but to know God and find our comfort and joy in Him.  Even God’s commandments serve two purposes – one, they are always resulting in our good, and two, they teach us about His character.  As we know Him we will see our idea of “truth” change.  Our worldview will change.  If our joy as Christians is not in maximizing our physical comforts / physical pleasures now, but rather in a future hope of eternity with Christ – how important is it to know who He is, and treasure him for all the facets and depths of who He is?  How else can we go out each day to face the struggles each of us faces in joy, without this hope?  So my hope is that as we know God from His word, we will see our ideas of “truth” change, to be less grounded in our own understanding, and more grounded in the person of Jesus Christ.

To give you an example:  Before I knew God from the Bible, my idea of “love” was at best my making someone feel special, and at worst, was related to how they made me feel.  If you’ve been to a wedding, you’ve no doubt heard 1 Corinthians 13 read off which speaks of all the things “love” is.  My idea of love was a lie, and so I adjusted it.  The Bible then also tells us that God demonstrates His love for dying for us while we were still sinners (Rom 5:8).  I didn’t realize that the 1 Corinthians type of love meant service unto death for someone even while they mock me.  My idea of love still needed to change, so I adjusted it.  Finally, the Bible tells us that God is love (1 John 4:8).  That means, whatever is true about the word “love” finds its fullness in God.

I’m stealing this from Paul in 2 Corinthians 13:14, because his words are way better than mine for encouragement:

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all,
Adam

I bet you all were thinking… he’s out of town on vacation, there’s no WAY he’s going to send out a WFTD… soooo HA, I am!  Hope you all are well, I’m enjoying fantastic 75 degree weather here in beautiful Kentucky.  I hope these messages are encouraging.  I never want these to come off as if I’m writing about something I’m not dealing with myself – I know that each day pursuing Christ is a struggle, and we all need encouragement, myself especially.  I’ve found the best way to encourage myself and others is through meditating and reminding people of our joy in Christ through the scriptures, so that’s what I’m trying to do.

God has really been pricking my conscience the last day or so with the question “Are you in awe of Me (God)? Does the deepest joy you experience involve sitting in admiration of Me, knowing I have redeemed you for this purpose?”  Before you get discouraged, know that my answer at the moment was “no”.  God did not just redeem us from hell, he isn’t merely a “get out of jail free” card.  Christ did not just redeem us from the just punishment for our sin – when we die we will not simply remain as we are.  No, Christ died to bring us to God.

1 Peter 3:18 – ” ¹⁸For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God”

We are told that God himself is the source of a fullness of joy for all eternity.

Psalm 16:11 – “¹¹You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

Here is where God turns things on their head though.  God is not merely the “source” of our joy… like if God gave us a Ferrari or something.  Knowing God IS our joy.  1 John 3:2-3 says this – “²Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. ³And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.”

If this doesn’t make sense, think about why people go to the Grand Canyon, or the Ocean.  Being in front of such a massive work in nature doesn’t make someone feel self-important, rather it shows them how small they truly are.  Their joy is in admiring the beauty and majesty outside of themselves.  Now imagine that you are without sin, you are in the presence not of the Grand Canyon or an ocean, but of the almighty eternal God who created ALL things, who is perfectly loving, good, kind, and righteous.  What joy that must be!  We do not yet know God as we will, but God has revealed Himself through His Word to us as believers.  His Word is not to condemn us, but to strengthen our faith in joy, as we see Him clearly in the Word and find, in knowing Him, a joy that surpasses anything the world would tempt us with.

Nehemiah 8:10 – “… the joy of the Lord is your strength”.  May each of us together abound in joy as we see and treasure Christ from His Word.  Sorry for the length, I just wanted to do this justice!  Hope you all are having great weekends, and as always know you’re prayed for.  Let me know if there’s anything going on specifically you’d like prayer about.