Good News Brief For Men

John 21:1-3 Afterward Jesus appeared again to His disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way:  2  Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together.  3  “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So, they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. After three years of teaching from Jesus, we come across the third time Jesus appeared to the Apostles after the resurrection. Without Jesus these men appeared to be at a loss as to what they should do next. God had a plan. In John 21:3 Peter had a backup plan, return to their work in which they were familiar, FISHING! We see where Peter told them, “I’m going out to fish,” and they said, “We’ll go with you.” We do not see where these men consulted God on what they should do next, they just went fishing as they were accustomed to do...

Psalms 119:37 Turn my eyes from worthless things, and give me life through Your Word. (NLT) Worthless things give us nothing. The Word of God gives us everything. It gives us hope, guidance, peace, contentment, and historical accounts where we see the effects of worthless things as well as life through God’s Word. If we were to stop and look at the wonders of His Word, we would get a deeper understanding of life as well as a more complete approach to ways in living our life here on earth. Many things guide us to destruction, like the internet, reading material, and things that bring harm to our lives. We need to be aware that Satan moves about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. (1 Peter 5:8) We need to keep certain verses in mind to understand what and who we are up against. John 10:10 The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life. (NLT) The thief is Satan himself. Satan seeks to hurt us and discourage...

Psalms 119:36 Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain. (NIV) Do we ever stop and ask God’s direction for our lives? Do we ever consider the consequences? Do we ever wonder how our decision will affect the lives of others before we make that decision? I found the following from Dr. Charles Stanley that says it well. “If we allow wrong thinking to direct our actions, we, too, can get ourselves into a lot of trouble. It’s important to have a clear understanding of all the good things we’ve received through our relationship with Jesus. Learning to depend on Him will help avoid wrong approaches to getting what we need.” God is not a micromanager. He wants us to live and maneuver through life under His guidance and through His Grace. He builds into us the person He wants us to become. His guide is His Word, the Bible. He speaks to us with the same words through the Holy Spirit, but not the same way because we are all different. Key Thought: Talk to...

Psalms 119:35 Make me walk along the path of your commands, for that is where my happiness is found. (NLT) In the Book of Psalms King David frequently speaks of walking with God. David especially covers his walk with God quite clearly in Psalm 23. He also talks about it in the following verse. Psalms 116:9 And so I walk in the Lord’s presence as I live here on earth! (NLT) David relates well to his walk with God because it was always something he gained so much from. David found true happiness when he walked with God. The more he walked with God, the more familiar he became with God’s benefits in his life. The relationship grew. Our relationship will grow with God as well when we walk along the paths of His commands. God’s commands are built for us as believers so we can have reliable scriptural structure around us and deep into our lives so we can experience His happiness along the journey. Key Thought: Make me walk along the path of your commands, f...

Psalm 119:34 Give me understanding and I will obey your instructions; I will put them into practice with all my heart. (NLT) We need to look to God for understanding when we read His Word. We need to look for instructions as we read along. If we see something that is clearly speaking to us, we need to stop and review the deeper application. We need to ask, “Lord. What are You wanting to show me in this verse? Direct me in Your ways.” God wants us to practice His application to our specific needs and wants in our lives. We need to look to Him for clarity. We may even find that clarity in another verse as a reference. We travel on His path seeking His direction along the journey. Key Thought: Let’s try to adapt our scriptural reading with today’s verse and watch God develop it through putting it into practice. Before long, you will find it a part of your normal reading process. Prayer: Thank You Lord Jesus for revealing Your purposes in my life as I continue to seek Your d...

Psalm 118:5-7:   In my anguish I cried to the LORD, and He answered by setting me free. The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? The LORD is with me; He is my helper. I will look in triumph on my enemies. (NIV) How many times have we cried out to our Holy God and waited for an answer? The freedom that I think was experienced here was the relief of knowing that God was still in control. He sets us free of dealing with the problem ourselves, when we give Him control of the outcome.   “The Lord is with me; He is my helper. I will look in TRIUMPH on my enemies.”    Enemies do not have to be people. The enemy could be a circumstance that rears its ugly head at the worst time. So, who or what is the enemy today? Give the situation to God and watch Him work THROUGH you. He will give you peace in the midst of the storm as well as the wisdom to follow it through. Just remember one thing…. HE gets the praise. Pra...

Matthew 22:39   “And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”    (NKJV) In this second commandment, Jesus states that it is like the first one. We should have the Godly love that only He can produce, in order to love our neighbor as ourselves. Godly love will overcome obstacles. Godly love can clear a path to the heart of one whom you are trying to reach in His name. You shall be to that neighbor as Jesus would be to you. We must always remember that when we step out into the world, as it is today, that we represent Christ first. Our first step out into the morning sun or rain or some other inclement weather, must always represent Him first in every step we take. As believers, we need to be prepared to do this in a way that would always honor God. This means we need to stay in His Word and honor Him in prayer so that we may represent Him correctly to this lost and dying world. There may be another believ...

Matthew 22:37-38 Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind! This is the first and great commandment.”    (NKJV) Jesus ushered in a new attitude of what a believer is to cherish the most. God is above all in our hearts in all things. There is none greater. We are to reverence God with our entire being, heart, soul, and mind. This also tells us that our God is a consuming God. He wants all of us, in all we are so that we may be conformed to His image. Key Thought: We represent Christ to all we encounter. And we need to give God full control of all we can become. Only through this can we experience His peace and love, as He so desires. Prayer:     Dear Lord Jesus, help me to remember Your greatest commandments that I may reverence You in all and through all that I am and who I am to become in You. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen!!! Have a Blessed Day!!! In Christ,...

Romans 8:6   The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace. (NIV) “Sinful man” here refers to a person that has not experienced salvation through Jesus Christ. It also includes the carnal man or one that is not in right relationship with Christ even after salvation.  When we refuse to give up authority of our lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, we begin to falter in our relationship with Christ as well as other believers and loved ones. God refuses to take the backseat in the life of those He sacrificed His Son to save. As a fallen (backslidden) believer we open ourselves up to the influence of Satan himself at which point he begins to gain valuable spiritual territories that at one time belonged to Christ when He sat on the throne of our lives. Through our refusal of allowing the Holy Spirit to convict us of our wrongdoing we again allow Satan to regain former spiritual territories. Our refusal to allow Christ to live in...

Psalms 55:1-2   Listen to my prayer, O God, do not ignore my plea; hear me and answer me. My thoughts trouble me and I am distraught. (NIV) At this time in David’s life, he wants to retreat to a quiet place to sort out his thoughts, but that is impossible. He is in the middle of great controversy that is consuming his very being. So, he does the only thing he can do; he calls out to God where he is. David is in turmoil at the fact that he is facing the conspiracy in Jerusalem against a former friend. This verse could represent any one of us. How many times have our thoughts not been God’s thoughts? How many times have we thought malicious thoughts against someone who has done us wrong? Any one of these thoughts can make a person distraught. But what did David do? He went to God with his problem, right where he was. He did not seek a prayer closet or a quiet place. That was not an option at that particular moment. He went to God right...

Philippians 4:8   Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. (NKJV) Paul gave us some very serious guidelines for our thought life. If we do not control our thought life, how can we truly be children of God? Paul is giving us standards to live by. Maintaining this avenue of thought can benefit us greatly. If we control our thoughts and use this verse to guide us, it will produce healthy useful thoughts and that will be reflected in how we live in all areas of our lives. Is this easy? Of course not. Challenging? To be sure! Our thoughts need to be healthy. They need to be reliable. It takes time and it takes work. There is no time like the present to get this going in the right direction. Check out ...

Psalms 32:8   I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will  guide  you with My eye. (NKJV) Often, we enter each day in the same routine way, not giving much thought as to what lies ahead of us. That first cup of coffee is always a welcome sight, and it basically signals the day to begin. As routine as that is, all the way down to setting the timer and preparing the coffee the night before, it seems to be a somewhat automatic mode of just getting out the door. On our way to work, everything seems to change. We must be alert in traffic, and we need to always be on the lookout for careless and sometimes even sleepy drivers. We constantly review our mirrors and watch for those around us. And then, we arrive at work. Whew! We made it through traffic again unscathed. WHEW!  In our verse for today, I have underlined the word  guide . Often in our rush to get out the door to work so we will not be late, we seem to ...