“…Render therefore to Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.” – Matthew 22:21

In Matthew 22, Jesus is confronted by the Pharisees and others who were trying to trap Jesus in his speech. They asked Jesus if they should pay their government taxes. Jesus asked them to look at the coin and tell Him whose image they saw. They replied, “Caesar’s.” So Jesus said, “Then give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” This banter has been made famous for many reasons, but there really is a follow up question to this.

Go look in a mirror. Whose image do you see?

The bible teaches us that we were made in the image of Almighty God. Just like a self portrait of a great artist, you are a reflection of God and His likeness. One bible translation even says in Ephesians 2:10 that we are God’s masterpiece. Just like any masterpiece, you are one of a kind. Not a duplicate or a carbon copy, but a single work of art.

This is what makes us special. The creator of the heavens and earth also made you. It’s not about your name, your job, or your good or bad deeds. You are special because of whose you are; whose image you are endowed with. That’s why it’s so important to take care of yourself. Your Father in Heaven made the person you see in the mirror. If He wanted you to be someone else, He would have made someone else. Be proud of who you are.

You can’t make something without putting a piece of yourself into it and that’s just what God has done with you. The bible says that God formed man and “breathed into him the breath of life, and thus man became a living being.” The very seeds of greatness and the power that created everything also courses through your veins as well, so much so that we have been allowed by God to enter into His creative power in order to bring new life into this world. New life that, just like you, has been created to know God, love God, and serve God so that we may be happy with Him in Heaven for all of eternity.

Don’t give up on yourself, because when you do, you are giving up on your Creator. God is perfect and although we are definitely not perfect, we are on the road to that perfection that is allowed to us through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Rest assured that the Creator has a plan and that plan includes you. Not who you think maybe you should be, but YOU!

Next time you are concerned with your inward and outward appearance, know that you were born the child of a king. Be cheerful in the image that you see in the mirror, because when you look at yourself, the eyes of God look back at you.

God’s blessings to you. 

DH

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven.” – Matthew 5:16

 

Take a moment to realize just who Jesus is and was on this earth. The God of the universe chose to take on a physical presence among us. He could have chosen to be born a prince or someone with prestige, but He instead chose to be born of simple means. Jesus grew into a working trade, since His earthly father Joseph was a carpenter. Not the most powerful of positions, but God knows what true power is and it doesn’t have anything to do with money or status. It has everything to do with loving and caring for others. That is something that Christ takes seriously and so should we.

 

Jesus wants us to follow in His footsteps. Yes, He performed miracles that we cannot, but His main objective was to help people and show love whenever He could. That is something that we can definitely do in whatever area of society we are in. You don’t have to be big or powerful to show love or to take care of someone. You don’t need to hit the lottery to feed the homeless and you don’t need to be president to change the world. No matter what position you hold in this world, you can change peoples’ lives for the better.

 

St. Teresa of Avila once said that God moves about the pots and pans. What she was saying was that there is holiness and importance in even the most mundane of duties. No matter how great or small, each task can have a tremendous impact on this world if you take the time to see it. If you are a cook, you give people physical nourishment so they can keep strong in their lives. If you are a mechanic, you repair automobiles that can carry children safely to school every day. Don’t think for a second that you or your work is insignificant. You touch lives in ways you don’t always see or understand, but God does.

 

This is not telling you to think that you are better than anyone else. Certainly not. We are all sons and daughters of the King of Kings. We all hold a place of importance and deserve the best. Your attitude should be that you are doing the work for someone you love. You aren’t working for your company or your boss, you are working for the God Most High and His beloved children.

 

If your work is tedious or tough, then all the better to show your sacrifice. Jesus offered Himself to God for our sins out of love. It was a love offering, the highest and best there could be. Just the same, you should offer your best work up to God as a sacrifice out of love; love for God and love for your fellow person. When you show that you care about what you are doing, it makes all the difference in the output of your work. Also, over time, you might just find that your work isn’t as stressful or as boring as it used to be. Your importance rests less on the recognition you get from people and more on the reward of a job well done.

 

You woke up today, you’re breathing, and your heart is beating. Those three things right there should tell you that God isn’t done with you yet. You are important to Him and to His children. Don’t limit yourself to “if only I could…” kind of thoughts, you are significant right here and now in whatever job you do. We all have a part to play in this world, so do your best work. If you do, then I promise that one day, when time gives way to eternity, you will hear God say, “Well done my good and faithful servant. Now at last, enter into the joy of your Master’s house.”

 

God’s blessings to you.

 

DH

 

 

“I say to you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repents, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.” – Luke 15:7

 

In Luke 15, Jesus is telling a story about a shepherd that has 100 sheep. One gets lost. The good shepherd, knowing the 99 are safe, goes out and finds the one that ran away. Upon finding the little sheep, the shepherd puts it on his shoulders and brings the sheep home. As if that wasn’t enough, the shepherd is so happy to have the lost sheep back that he calls his family and neighbors and has a party celebrating the return of the sheep.

 

That’s the kind of Heavenly Father we have. He knows we are sinners.  He asks us to stay with Him, but we always seem to turn to the bad things in this world for comfort instead of Him. The trick is that when we realize we’ve gone too far down a bad path, it seems like it’s too late. We are virtually buried in our sins.

 

However, while we have breath, our story isn’t over. Jesus, our Good Shepherd, searches for us. And He doesn’t quit until we’re home. Our God loves us enough to keep going until we release ourselves to Him. By then, we are usually broken and defeated by the wickedness of this world. That doesn’t stop Jesus though. He picks us up, puts us on His shoulders, and marches home. And the Bible teaches that whenever a single sinner repents and accepts Christ, the whole of Heaven sings out with joy and celebration, for the one who was lost has been found.

 

Joy, peace, forgiveness, and a triumphant return. That’s what He offers us, even though we don’t deserve it.   Love… That’s my God.

 

 

God’s blessings to you.

 

 

DH

 

 

“They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.” – Luke 9:17

In Luke chapter 9, we read about Jesus feeding the 5000 with 2 fishes and 5 loaves of bread. Jesus blessed the meal and then handed out pieces to everyone. After they all got their fill, they picked up the scraps that were left over and they filled 12 wicker baskets.

In our lives, we are blessed everyday. If you have a warm meal, a safe place to sleep, or even if you simply woke up this morning, you have been blessed by the Lord. The disciples and people following Jesus were blessed by getting the loaves, but what about the scraps?

God said He would bless those who love Him and that He’d do it abundantly. The things we see as being good are definitely blessings, but so are the bad. We focus on the big things, the loaves. What we don’t see are the scraps. The small portions of blessings that we are given daily. All of those little irritations and annoyances we experience everyday are occasions for us to cultivate holiness in our lives.

Stuck in traffic? Try thanking God that you have a vehicle or somewhere you are needing to go. The waiter serves you a cold meal? Thank God you have the means to purchase a meal. Children needing your help on homework? Thank God you have children and have their trust enough for them to ask you for help.

These are the little scraps of holiness we take for granted everyday. You may not have thought about it before, but you woke up today, which make this the perfect opportunity to give God something you didn’t give Him yesterday. Thank Him for the scraps.

God’s blessings to you. 

DH

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” – 2 Corinthians 5:17

Much of my early life was spent learning how to act like a Christian. On Sundays, I would put on a nice outfit and do my best to show people how godly I was. I did really well acting like a Christian. The biggest problem was that I would go back to being myself after church. I was an angel on Sundays and a hellion the rest of the week.

The fact was that even though I had accepted Jesus, I didn’t accept Him into every area of my life. It was like me telling Him, “You can have this part of my life, but I really like these sins over here, so don’t mess with those.” That’s not the way to live the blessed and abundant life God wants for us.

When we truly break down the worldly barriers to accepting Christ, the bible says that we will be transformed into His image. (2 Cor. 3:18) The original word used for ‘transformed’ is the Greek word metamorpho, which is where we get our English word metamorphosis. I like knowing this because it says to us that accepting Christ is like a caterpillar changing into a butterfly. We are made brand new, with all of our old sins and pain washed away by the blood of Jesus.

In your life’s journey, please remember that we need to BE like Christ towards all people rather than to just act like Him when it suits our needs. Kindness, peacefulness, and love aren’t just for Sundays. Break down your internal walls and let Jesus into your heart. Easier said than done sometimes, but your reward will be greater than you can possibly imagine.

God’s blessings to you. 

DH

“For He has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of His dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.” – Collosians 1:13-14

This world lacks hope. Without a savior, you just can’t see anything past the doom and gloom that overshadows this present age. However, even good, solid Christians have their moments of doubt and pain. Many people that I know who have given their lives to Christ first expected everything to be sunshine and lollypops and rainbows. Sorry, think again. I wish it worked like that, but even a soldier has to go through some tough training before they are skilled and trusted in combat. If we faint in the sight of hard times, there would be no way we could show someone else how to perservere and be free from their own struggles. You need what I call “proof of purchase.”  

The hard reality of life is that there will be times of struggle and hardship that come to all of us, but the promise of God is that nothing we go through is ever waisted.  

Those times of heartache give us purpose, and it’s not just for ourselves, it is for the betterment of all people. If you have been homeless, you know the value of a home and can help others find a decent home as well. If you’ve gone hungry, you know the value of your next meal and you know how important it is to make sure other starving people have food. That is exactly where your own “proof of purchase” should come in to play. You can make the difference in someone’s life and future, much more than you realize. 

God led Moses and the Jewish people through the desert for 40 years, not because nobody could read a map, but because it took them that long to get ready for the blessings that God had in store for them. They just had not gotten their “proof of purchase” yet. The promised land flowing with milk and honey sounds great, but can easily get spoiled for everyone if people don’t know how to apprecaite it or what to do with it. There are people all around us that are going through their own desert right now. Those people need you more than you know, and frankly, they won’t respond to someone who doesn’t know the struggle they are in.  

Your experience through trials and even your failures can go towards helping to free others who are held captive by sin. If you have been addicted to drugs but have gotten free from them, you have that “proof of purchase” needed in order to tell someone that drugs are bad and how much better life can be without them. If you’ve lost a loved one through a tough fight with cancer or other sickness, you have that “proof of purchase” to help others to keep strong in their own fights.  

God uses His angels all of the time to help us, but some of His best tools are right here on Earth. You can be one of those blessed tools to help someone be free from their pain and suffering. The Bible even makes mention of a man named Simon who helps Jesus carry His cross. Simon was ready to help Christ; how about you?

God loves you with a love that’s bigger than you could possibly imagine. He wants you to experience His best and be able to share that with others. When the time comes, and it will definitely come, God wants you to use your “proof of purchase” to let someone else know of that same love. You have been saved, now God wants you to help others in their war against good and evil. There are many who are going through their own dark times. They need someone who has passed from darkness to light. They need someone with that “proof of purchase,” paid in full by the blood of Jesus.  

God’s blessings to you. 

DH

“I tell you the truth,” Jesus said, “this poor widow has given more than all the rest of them. For they have given a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she has.” Luke 21:3-4

In Luke 21, Jesus saw the wealthy donating some of their surplus money, then he marveled at a poor widow who gave just two coins. Those two coins weren’t much, but they represented her entire livelihood. Jesus was proud of that poor widow because she gave Him all she had out of love.
The fact is that God is God. He created everything and needs for nothing, but He completes His heavenly works through us. We are to serve Him with all we are, not just what we have materially.

Take a tip from the saints. Most of us can’t do big things for God, so do small things, but with great love. Those small things can include everything you do when you offer them up to God. The Apostle Paul said in the book of Romans to offer yourselves as a living sacrifice, then again in First Corinthians to do everything for God’s glory.

Being an attentive and caring mom is one of the most noble tasks in His kingdom. Offer it up. Working hard day in and day out for your family is also a great task. Offer it up. Even giving someone a compliment or a kind word is a blessing that will reap great rewards. Those things may seem small or average to you, but they resonate in the minds and hearts of those you do them for.

One good thing to remember is that your blessings will be magnified if you do them when it’s not convenient or when you don’t really feel like doing them. Jesus didn’t feel like going to the cross, but He did it for the good of everyone. He offered Himself as a sacrifice. Consider your good deeds as a living sacrifice. And like the Nike commercial says, “Just do it.”

Offer your heart up to God when you do anything for the good of others. God sees your secret intentions and will reward you openly.

God’s blessings to you. 

DH

“And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed.” – Exodus 17:11

 

In Exodus 17, the people of Israel were fighting a desperate war against the Amalekites. Moses took the high ground to watch over Israel and pray for them.  As long as Moses kept his hands up and prayed, the battle would go well. If his hands fell, the Israelites would start to lose. So to help the army of Israel, Arron and Hur helped lift up the hands of Moses to keep him praying. In the end, the Israelites won the war.

 

This story held a lot for me personally as a Christian in today’s world. Our first obligation is to keep in close contact with God to know more about His will and what He thinks is right rather than what this fallen world defines as good. We come close to God through prayer, which is a dialog between us and our Lord. It’s where we find out more about Him and thereby find out more about the life we were truly meant to have. Unfortunately, we all get tired sometimes. We may even hit some dry spells in our prayer and our walk with Jesus Christ. That’s when the rest of us need to be lifting those weary people up in prayer, and in doing so, we can all continue to fight the battle.

 

When we feel led by the Spirit to pray and talk with God, we are blessing those we pray for.  However, when we feel dry and walking through a kind of spiritual desert, our prayers mean even more.  It is those times that we don’t quite feel like praying that we have the most power in our prayers.  We aren’t being led to pray, we instead do it because it’s what we ought to do.  Those times when we are free to pray or not are the times that we really strike back at the devil the most. True freedom is not just doing whatever we want; it is being able to do what we ought to do.

 

You can’t have it both ways.  Either we are working for God or the devil.  The devil wants us to use our freedom for the wrong things in order to tear down the kingdom of God.  If we instead use our freedom to further the help and healing of the nations, we deal a serious blow against his wicked ways.  With every prayer, we can help change the story for another lost soul. We don’t always pick the right way for ourselves from day-to-day, but other good and faithful Christians lifting us up in prayer can make all the difference.  So go forth and do the same for others, no matter what your day has been like or whether you feel like doing it or not.

 

Some people are concerned about what to pray when talking to God.  I say that if you can’t muster up what you think is a solid prayer, then pray about praying.  God likes honesty and knows what’s in your heart.  And if you are in a situation that knocks you to your knees and all you can get out is the name of Jesus, take heart.  The precious name of Jesus is one of the most powerful prayers there could ever be. He is our stronghold in times of trouble. Run to Him, no matter the circumstances.

 

Also, just because you had a rough day and maybe made some sinful choices, don’t think that God isn’t listening to the pleas of His children. Although you fail sometimes, that doesn’t make you a failure. God will never see you as a failure, even if you yourself do. God knows His own and is ready to be a good father to us, even when we aren’t necessarily ready to be good children for Him. No matter how strong we are or how holy we think we have become, we can always backslide if we aren’t careful. The devil is a tough opponent, but one we are promised we will defeat as long as we stick close to Jesus.

 

So don’t give up and don’t give in to the devil. And just because you and I may be preachers, pastors, or good professing Christians, don’t you think that it can’t happen.  We can all fall now and then.  It takes the prayers of the faithful to keep the rest of us in the battle.  So please, you pray for me and I’ll pray for you. Together we shall be victorious.

 

God’s blessings to you.

 

DH

 

 

“And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.  For I determined not to know anything among you, except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” – 1 Corinthians 2:1-2

 

It could be said that the Apostle Paul was the most religiously schooled person of all the apostles.  He learned under highly regarded Jewish leaders, read and memorized many of the scriptures, but to use his words, he counted all of this as garbage when compared to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.  To Paul, Jesus was the one and only thing worth knowing.

 

We, too, should have that aim in our lives.  This world can be a tough one at best.  We are bombarded daily by temptations and evils of all kinds, and if we don’t have our eyes focused on the right things, we can easily succumb to the devil’s wicked ways.  In short, keep your eyes on Jesus.  We can try to be good people and we can even try to be as religious as possible, but unless we have Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are fighting a loosing battle.

 

Don’t get me wrong, church and religion is a good thing, but it cannot be the only thing in your life.  You can be a regular at Bible study and may be able to spout off hundreds of verses at will, but my question is, “Are you living those verses?”  The Bible is an important book; really, it is THE most important book.  That being said, it is only a collection of words and stories without the Holy Spirit helping you along.  If you have not accepted Christ and His finished work on the cross, you do not have the “necessary equipment” yet to really understand what the Bible has to say.  It all starts with Jesus Christ.

 

No level of supposed holiness can save your soul.  No matter what anyone says, paying massive amounts of money to a church will not give you eternal life or get you a better seat in heaven.  Positive thinking is a good thing, but it can’t get you into heaven either.  Facing east five times daily or hopping up and down on one foot singing kumbaya doesn’t get the attention of God any faster.  The one and only bridge between God and man is the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, suffered and died on the cross, was buried and raised from the dead to remove your sins so you can get into Heaven.  Strive to know that truth more than anything else.  If you have accepted that, you have been born again and are destined for Heaven.  There’s a lot of other details to this life, but they are just that, details.  Jesus Christ is the source, the center, and the summit of life.  Jesus alone saves us and not the details.

 

Throughout eternity, God spoke but one word, “Jesus.”  He has nothing more to say.

 

God’s blessings to you.

 

DH

 

 

 

 

“But Paul shook off the snake into the fire and was unharmed.” – Acts 28:5

 

There is such a thing as righteous anger, but it’s hard to know where the line is drawn. Take for example the story of Jesus kicking the money changers and other hooligans out of the temple.  The Bible says he drove them out.  This was not a little wimpy “please sir, would you mind leaving…”  This was Christ turning over their tables and fashioning a cord to whip them with.  People don’t take into account that Jesus was a carpenter prior to His earthly ministry.  They didn’t just pull the Chevy truck up to the wood and haul it home.  He carried trees and lumber for a living.  Jesus was a physically tough guy.  Our Savior brought “the gun show” and wasn’t afraid to use them.

 

The fact is that Jesus wasn’t going to stand idly by while people defiled God’s temple. He taught love and acceptance of all of God’s children, but what He didn’t accept was sin.  The old adage of “love the sinner, but hate the sin” is completely true.  However, too many times we see ourselves poisoned by our anger until we are no better than those we are fighting against.  We all face times of anger and that’s OK, but what are you doing with it? Some times when it seems like the devil is hitting us from all sides.  We all deal with it differently, but we only make things worse when we engage in those same actions.  If someone is cruel to us, it seems only fitting that we should be cruel back to them, right?  Certainly not.

 

Christ said that if someone hits us, we should turn the other cheek to them. Unfortunately, our first instinct is to turn the other cheek, then come back around with a left hook.  That’s not God’s way though.  Sometimes we do have to stand up for what’s right. There are good fights and bad fights.  The Bible is replete with God-sanctioned wars, but those are people of God versus the forces of evil.  The lines were clearly drawn. Now, those lines are so fuzzy that we often have no idea who is on what side.

 

My point is that we should never find ourselves being pushed so far by evil that we, in turn, do evil while on our quest for good. We get wronged so we feel we must get some payback.  It’s hard, but we must fight against ourselves to keep from fighting against others in some situations.  In your battle against sin, do not become sin yourselves or your fight is for nothing.  God said that He is the judge and will avenge our wrongs, so let Him.  He can do a much better and more thorough job at it than you or I ever could.  Sometimes, it may look like things are going nowhere and those who do evil are getting the upper hand, but God is the ultimate strategist.  Trust in Him.

 

The devil is a snake waiting for his chance to bite you. When you stay with Jesus, you will be able to shake the devil off into the fire where he belongs.

 

God’s blessings to you.

 

DH