Good News Brief For Men

Colossians 1:11 We also pray that you will be strengthened with all His glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy. (NLT) The Lord wants us to grow in our appreciation of His mighty power. He also wants us to experience the joy life has to offer through knowing Christ as our Savior and Lord. Often this takes endurance and patience, both of which we need in life. Endurance for the long haul and patience to conquer the necessary steps along the way. Endurance would be like reading the Bible through in a year, where patience would be the life lessons along the journey. Life lessons by far would take more time and effort as we encounter the development of patience while dealing with verses along the way. Personally, I have found the Word of God (Bible) to be excellent in developing patience because I am depending upon the One who created me and knows my character as only the Creator can. God knows what I need, and when I need ...

2 Tim 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” (NLT) The Lord does not want to see us hindered by our fears. Fear of the unknown is reasonable, but it shouldn’t paralyze our spirit to inaction. Have you ever wanted to share your life in Christ with others? Have you ever seen someone with a serious health issue that would benefit from your testimony in Christ? When Nehemiah was standing before King Artaxerxes in Nehemiah 2:1 he had already spent time anguishing over the news from Jerusalem. He had already been praying about what needed to be done. What we don’t see is that God was already preparing the heart of the King to answer what needed to be done. Verse 4-5 The king asked, “Well, how can I help you?”  With a prayer to the God of heaven ,  5  I replied, “If it please the king, and if you are pleased with me, your servant, send me to Judah to rebuild the city where my ancestors are buried.”  God had ...

Philippians 1:2 (1-11) Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ., (NKJV) Paul wrote this letter while imprisoned in Rome. His environment was dark and dismal. Even from there he offered this small struggling congregation ENCOURAGEMENT. Philippi was a city of idolatry and paganism. This church suffered persecution, internal strife, and discord among the congregants. They lacked leadership. In spite of these difficulties, Paul wrote this encouraging letter covering the following issues they were facing. God has not given up on you. Don’t give up on yourselves He reminded them that they were part of God’s family. They were facing discouragement and needed to remember where they had come from. We need to remember how we came to faith in Him. We need to remember where we began and the place where we found forgiveness. We need to return to the place where we experienced God’s grace. We need to return to Calvary, to that Old Rugged Cross. As we close our eyes in p...

John 15:16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. (NKJV)   The life of a believer must be a fruit bearing life. Fruit bearing is giving something back to God, other than our tithes and offerings.   Bearing fruit represents our gratefulness to God and reflects our trust in Him to help us bear fruit in Christ, in all we say and do. God wants us to have His best. It does not come to us if we sit still asking for God’s best without positioning ourselves to receive this great gift.   We position ourselves by reading His Word, prayer, and meditation on what God has poured into our hearts. We need to watch and wait expectantly.   Key Point: We need to watch as God places the ingredients of blessings into our lives and move toward what He may be expecting from us through a fruit bearing life.   Prayer: Dear Father in He...

Joshua 24:14 Now therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth; put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. (NASB) I remember when I accepted Christ as my personal Savior in October 1992, at the age of 35, I knew there would be changes in my life. At first, it was very frustrating waiting for God to move. But I waited and I studied His Word. The more I studied, the more I learned through the Holy Spirit. As a result of my newfound desire to seek Him, He answered my prayers.  Many of the friends I had before 1992, I still have today. You see, I thought I was saved since 1971, but I never actively made the commitment to accept what Christ did for me on the cross. So even before I was saved, I was active in my church through choir, Sunday School, and various other ministries. But I did not know God. In 1992 I settled it for good, and now I know beyond any doubt that I am His and He is mine. I have experienced God grow...

Philippians 1:10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ. (Phil. 1:9-11) (NIV) Through the knowledge and depth of insight, it is Paul’s prayer that we will be able to discern what is best and pure and blameless and that we hold onto these values until the coming of our Lord. Through time as we learn, these values become a great asset. We grow deeper in wisdom through the study and application of God’s Word in our lives.  Sometimes we need to look at our lives in comparison to the life of Christ and make adjustments in our course that will guide us to that spiritual discernment that God has for us. Our scale of comparison is Christ himself. Yes, it is true; we can never be identical to Him in His absolute completeness for if we could then the Cross would not have been necessary. We could have done this on our own.  It is interesting to match our personal life silhouette outlines with the life of Christ. Everyw...

Philippians 1:9   And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, (NIV) In today’s verse, we see Paul’s concern for the Philippians. His prayer is that their love will abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight. Depth of love can be better understood when we compare it to the love that Christ has for us as believers. God only wants what is best for us as His children. His best involves the same depth of love that took Christ to the cross, dying for our sins that we may spend eternity with Him in Heaven. The knowledge and depth of insight involving the love Paul is referring to does not include selfish motives. The knowledge and depth of insight concerning the kind of love Paul is referring to is the same kind of servanthood love that only comes from the desire to love someone through the giving of oneself as Christ did throughout his ministry here on earth. This kind of love does no...

Psalms 1:1-2 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night. (NIV) The other day I was in my morning quiet time and God drew me into this verse. We get the warning first, and then we get the benefit. We are not even to give thought of walking in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful. We are to steer clear of the things that can cause us harm. We are to express delight in the law of the Lord and in His law, we meditate day and night. This is to bring us incredible pleasure. When we dwell on Bible verses, we need to invite God to lead us throughout the day with reflection of His Holy Word. Our quiet times alone with the Scriptures and time in prayer, God impacts our lives in powerful ways. We need to remember to be still and know that He is God (Psal...

Proverbs 9:10 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” (NKJV) Here the “The fear of the Lord” is not a terrifying fear, but a reverential fear pointing to His power, awe and might, a holy respect of who He is as God. As we grow in the Word of God by the reading and studying, along with prayer, we continue to further our wisdom and knowledge of who God is to us as individuals. We learn of His desire to fellowship with us from here throughout eternity. We were created for fellowship even in the beginning in the Garden of Eden. As Adam spent all of his time in the garden he experienced a time of divine visitation with God. Do not be tempted to sin breaking the fellowship, with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Adam and Eve had an incredible time being in the presence of God as they walked in the garden of Eden. When we sin as believers, we do NOT lose our salvation! We lessen the impact of what God is trying to do through our ...

Psalm 121:3 He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. (NKJV) As King David had discovered along his journey, his position in fellowship with God is strong and powerful, but more than that, it’s reliable. God’s position in our life as a believer will not change. If it did, His strength through us could waiver. His stance in our life could change. He would be moving about, and it would be hard to anchor into Him because the anchor would not be secure. God is not like that. He is the immovable God, He waivers not. When the storm winds are blowing you about, He is the stable one. We find strength in His presence. We find stability in His Word. We find promise in His Son Jesus Christ. We can rely on God to keep the security of our stance in place as He builds Himself into our lives hour by hour. We may have ideas concerning things we need to do, but Proverbs 16:9 A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. (NKJV) God w...

I Thessalonians 5:19-20 19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not treat prophecies with contempt (NIV) We have a warning from Paul that we should not "quench the Spirit," so we must always be aware of how the Spirit is quenched. When we quench the Spirit, it is like putting out a fire. Our sins quench the Spirit. Our decision to turn from God and respond in a bad way to the temptation of sin and commit sin quenches the Spirit. God sensitizes our hearts to do what is right and good. We desensitize it by the frequency of sin that we allow into our lives. Some people say that this is our conscience letting us know when we do wrong. God has placed safeguards in our lives to make us aware of His presence. We know when we do wrong and this quenches the Spirit. Making us aware of the wrong we have committed is one of the tasks of the Spirit. We must adapt to a conscious awareness of when we quench the Spirit, so we will be aware of what is taking place in our lives. We will be held a...

Psalm 117 1  Praise the Lord, all you nations. Praise Him, all you people of the earth. 2  For His unfailing love for us is powerful; the Lord’s faithfulness endures forever. Praise the Lord! (NLT) Today’s Scripture is the shortest Chapter in the Bible. It is worth the time to commit it to memory. You may not feel like praising the Lord. You may be having a very seriously challenging day. You may have just completed surgery or are in recovery of some kind. You may have joints and muscles that seem cantankerous today. Praise God anyway! It will change your attitude. Praising God in the tough times is like a shot of hope in the heart. We ALL need to stop and praise the Lord. Praise Him for His unfailing love. He is faithful and powerful in our lives. When we stop and take time to praise Him for His powerful and unfailing love for us, He provides a sense of calmness in our current storm. We need to praise Him for His incredible faithfulness which endures fore...

Proverbs 6:22 Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. (NKJV) Training from an adult standpoint is a powerful responsibility. However, the responsibility does not stop when the child reaches eighteen; it changes to a more mature version of who we were when our kids were young. Our kids are still watching us and how we as adults reflect Christ to them as well as others. If you have not taken today’s verse seriously, it is time to rethink that. Our kids are watching. What do they see when you face struggles in your work and personal life? Is your Bible collecting dust, or are the pages becoming worn from use? What about the times when the children and adult kids are not around? How is our walk in Christ and what do others see? Many years ago, I had mentors in my life who never knew they were impacting my life in deep and powerful ways. These were strong believers that I wanted to be like. Their life was peaceful even in times of sto...

Jeremiah 18:3 This is the Word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 4 But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. (NIV) When looking at where we are in Christ and where we currently stand in His shaping us, we need to be aware that God continues at work in our lives. So, I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. God is the Potter; we are the clay. We are the ones that move away from His fellowship. The further we get away from God the more He alters our paths for us to see Him and His direction for us. Conviction occurs, and we sense Him making directional changes in our lives. We do not want to hang out there very long. D.L. Moody has said “keep short accounts with God.” Do not let sin direct your life and ...

James 1:22 But be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. (NKJV) Reading the Word of God is several things. It can be relaxing, challenging, instructional, and peaceful. I am sure you can name a few more. We could be a shut-in, and the Scriptures lead us to pray and contemplate the love, power and righteousness of God. We can be in the workforce and are led to encourage someone who is dealing with life issues. We can be in need of instruction and wisdom, and God is there in His Word. If we read it and choose to do nothing, then we are not obeying God’s desire for us. He has never said to read the Word and take a nap. No. He expects us to do something with this investment of time for His Kingdom. If we believe we are to do nothing, then we truly are deceiving ourselves. God says that His Word will not return to Him void. So, when we read it, we need to look for ways to put what the Scriptures say into action. Sometimes God is adding your current reading to other ...

Isaiah 55:6 Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. (NKJV) Have you ever sensed God calling out to you through His Word or through your heart like Gideon? You may have sensed that more than once in your life. Often God calls out to us when He has a plan that He wants us to be involved in. When we put God off or tell Him no, we end up being responsible for those actions. When we tell Him “no” enough our hearts begin to harden to His call and God seems far away. So, we need to “Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.”   Gideon had more than a “King-sized” task in front of him. King-sized? Sure. Anything that the King of Kings calls us to do is always “King-sized” because His calling is Kingdom focused and will produce Kingdom-related results. Because Almighty God was involved, it could have scared Gideon away. God over time, up to this incredible point in Gideon’s life, was building Gideon just for this task and for the purpo...