August 19, 2020

August 19

Running with Jesus  

Acts 3:19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.

      We all love refreshing! We travel to beaches, Sonic, buy tons of makeup, take long baths and pay for massages! We are a people who love refreshing. As Christians, we should long for refreshing and renewal. We get bogged down with the same old ways of worship and do the same things day after day. As I looked "intentionally" at this verse I first passed up where refreshment comes from, "the Lord"!  We are all longing for refreshment and we have to learn to live in God's presence! So how do we get into God's presence?   In John 14:23 Jesus replied, "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them."  Jesus himself gives us the conditional promise of how we get into God's presence by obedience to His Word and His teachings. We must learn to obey His commands. This truth has never changed from the days of old. He told His children, Israel, to choose blessings or curses. They were to obey His commands.  We will never have refreshing times without obedience, because obedience is the requirement for refreshing. 

     So let's chew on this piece of meat this morning! What one command can we start with He is telling us to do? Let's let the Holy Spirit search our hearts and reveal what area is hindering His presence in our lives which is not allowing us to have the refreshing we so long for.

Oh Father, create a clean heart in us oh Lord,  search us and reveal what You want us to do and empower us to obey because we want and long for Your presence and the refreshing of Your Spirit in our life.

     Let's sit quietly this morning! Spend some time confessing and refreshing! Whew! I almost missed that phrase, "the presence of the Lord"! Oh the little things in His Word are big things! Enjoy His presence! 

Let us run in the morning with unlearned and uneducated men! Meet them here tomorrow!

Judy Hollaway

Originally penned 2015

August 18, 2020

August 18

Running with Jesus

Acts 3:19-21 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.  And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:  Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.

     Peter’s message was the same message we preach hundreds of years later and it never gets old.  In this morning’s devotion,  I found sweet words to my soul.  Repent, turn to God, he wipes my sin away and then we’ll find refreshment from the presence of the Lord.

    The only way we can function is by running with Jesus.  He always brings us back to the Father where we find refreshment for our tired weary souls.  Life wears us down and out, can I get an AMEN over that one.  Once we come to know Christ, Satan has lost our souls and then he wears us out seeking to grab our joy which will lead us into all kinds of emotions that put us on a roller coaster ride through life.  People, places and things that we attach our souls to, fail us and disappoint us and these are your joy robbers.  Let a person say one word and off we go on a downward spiral. Let life place us in an undesired place and we squirm and moan and complain.  We depend on things to make us happy but in time we want something else and we are never satisfied.

     When we lose all the above and realize it is only Jesus we need to depend on, we can have a contented life and people, places and things come and go yet we are still stable.  It is in Him that we find refreshment.

     What is holding your joy back that you need to let go of this morning?  Run to Jesus and let Him give you refreshment.  He will restore our joy and give us just what we need to go through each day.  He is a well of water flowing up for us to drink from and sustains us.

Father, thank You for restoring my soul this morning and help my dear sweet friends have just a little taste from the spring of life and enable them to keep running today.  We love You and ask You to forgive and help us become the free person You created us to be.

Let’s keep staring intently to this refreshing, can’t wait to run with you and Jesus in the morning.

Judy Hollaway

Originally penned 2015

August 17, 2020

August 17

Running with Jesus

Act 3:11-12 And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon's, greatly wondering. And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?

     In verse 12 the New Living Bible says, Peter saw his opportunity.  The lame man had been healed and the people ran together to Solomon’s porch and this created an opportunity for Peter to stand up and preach the full gospel.

     Do we look for opportunities to share the gospel?  Most of us are not even focused enough on witnessing.  We aren’t aware that we are a witness all the time.  Our lives are on public display constantly.  Our actions and attitudes reveal the nature of our hearts.  What is your nature?  There are three natures in the Bible.  The first is the natural minded man,  a person who has not been born again and they operate in the physical world with fleshly desires, are self-focused and never mind the business of God .  The second is the Spiritual man who has been born again and his desires, mind and affections are set on doing the will of our God our Father.  He will follow the example of Jesus Christ the Son of God and strives to walk in obedience to God’s will and commands.  This man will look for those opportunities because he has his focus upon the Lord.  The third man is the carnal minded man. He has been born again but is in a backslidden condition.  You cannot tell him from the Natural man.  He is walking in the flesh and minds very little of the business of God.

     What is God’s business? Redeeming the souls of sinners and saving them from hell.

     This day the restored Peter was God focused and had a mouth full to share.  He shared the complete message of Jesus coming to earth to die for the sins of men.  How Jesus was rejected, hung on the cross, buried and rose again from the dead overcoming Satan, our final enemy death. 

     My questions today are; “What is filling your mind?”   Are we like Christ and Peter looking for witnessing opportunities?  Are we thinking only about worldly things and not eternal things?

Father, as we go through this day let us be mindful and focused on what really matters and that is souls being reached before they end up in hell for all eternity.  Nudge us and give us boldness to speak and authority to share the gospel.  We all know this world is in desperate need of You.

Repent and times of refreshing, will come see you tomorrow!

Judy Hollaway

Originally penned 2015

August 16, 2020

August 16

Running with Jesus

Acts 3:6 Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have given it thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.

     This is the story of a lame man. It was customary for them to sit near the entrance to the temple because the Jews believed it noble to give them a love gift.  We know the religious wanted to be seen by all in a good light. On this day the lame man ask for what he thought was his need, money.  He had no job and was probably treated as an outcast cursed by God for some sin.  God would show up and give him what he needed, to walk!

     We get our wants and needs mixed up and we go to God making request and we get a strange answer and we begin the question of why’s. Oh you have been here too!  Later down the road we discover God is greater, wiser and smarter than man.  God being all-knowing knows what our greatest needs are and we have to lie those why’s down at the cross and leave them there.  Life is about us getting to know God better every day.  Every day we have to learn to trust Him more and more with our lives.

     What is it that you ask Him to do today?  Is it a need or a want?  Don’t be surprised if it comes in a different package than you want. Do remember that God knows exactly what we need?

Father, another day on earth and another opportunity to trust You to meet our every need.  We want to thank You in advance for all the things that come our way that You are going to work for good in my life.  You are my sure foundation and stronghold.  You are the light, the way and truth and we want to run through life with You.  We give You all praise and glory. There is none like You, God.  I chose to trust You with my wants and my needs.

Tomorrow: Looking for opportunities, so be sure to come back!

Judy Hollaway

Originally penned 2015

August 15, 2020

August 15

Running with Jesus  

Acts 3:1 Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.

     The Jews would go to the temple to pray 3 times a day, morning at 9:00am, afternoon at 3:00pm and evening at sunset.  The ninth hour would be 3:00 pm.  As we grow in Christ we too must develop a consistent prayer life.  We see this in the life of Jesus Christ and by this time we see the disciples were following the life of their master teacher.  You and I will never accomplish anything for the cause of Christ if we are not consistent in prayer.  We already talked about prayer just a few days ago.  As we pray we are storing them up in heaven and we never know when we will get the answer poured out upon us.  I want to share a little story about this.

 I teach a Puggle’s class on Wednesday nights that consists of two and three year olds.  They love puzzle time and one of our puzzles are shapes.  Last year somehow we lost the heart shape.  In my thoughts I kept saying Lord where is our heart and then as I went through some things it was always on my mind.  We are about to begin our AWANA session back after summer so I wanted to organize and redo my room.  As I organized and decorated I couldn’t find my Puggles CD of songs for the kids, so I began to search through the Sunday school class cabinet to look for the CD and all of sudden I spotted the pink heart shape that was missing.  I wanted to shout “Praise the Lord!”  I had given up but it was still on my heart.  Then I said ok Lord now where is that CD and I went a little deeper and found the CD.  I had to lose the CD to find the heart.  I know this is a simple little story, however, it demonstrates how prayer is answered when we least expect it! 

     We can pray about every detail in our lives and that is exciting.  God is so interested in us He knows how many hairs are on our head.  Would you want to count them? I didn’t think so.  He also knows what we are thinking before we speak and He looks on our hearts and knows what is in them and the Word says He will give us the desires or our hearts.

     After Pentecost His Spirit was able to come and enter all men who accept Christ.  When we don’t know how or what to pray the Holy Spirit intercedes for us.  Just remember we can pray about anything and prayer is our life line so learn and develop a consistent prayer life.  Combine reading the Word and praying to God the Father in Jesus name, it will change your life forever.  Prayer changes things.  Let’s never forget our praying.

Father, thank You for always being there with us and You are at our beckoning call twenty-four seven.  I can’t do anything a part from You.  I am leaning on You Lord when I don’t know what to do You are right there every step of the way.

     Got any “Amen” takers today?  Let’s have one of those shouting fits because we serve an awesome God!

Looking for opportunities, in the morning!

Judy Hollaway

Originally penned 2015