Body Dedication

 

    Christians are set apart from the world.  When it comes to the body, the world should be able to know you are set apart.  God gave you your body, so you should dedicate it to purity, holiness, and worship of God.  That does not mean that you can never get married.  You can.  You and your spouse can keep your bodies dedicated to God and each other in a form of worship within marriage.

    Your body is a living sacrifice that does not live like the rest of the world.  You are transformed once you become a Christian into a new being in the same body.  Your mind is what is transformed and you work on it until you get your eternal body.  At that time you will be complete.

    To dedicate your body to God is to remember that He is your creator.  He sent Jesus to pay the high price for your freedom.  Your body is the home of the Holy Spirit.  You are a representative of God in this world.  That makes you special and yet no more special than anyone else.  You just have the privilege in knowing and understanding the truth.

    To have your body dedicated God, is there anything you need to change in your life?  Think about it.  Pray over it.  Listen to the Holy Spirit as He may direct you toward some changes: big or small.  The point is that your body should glorify God every day through purity, acceptable, love, and light.  The world should see the Holy Spirit in you.  You should not completely fit in.

    Adopt the attitude of Jesus.  He was sent here to serve, teach, and to be the ultimate sacrifice for all mankind.  He initiates faith that is perfect.  He did all this because he loves you, me, and everyone else.  He lived out truth that still exist and will never stop existing.  This truth should make you feel special, intrigued, loved, and chosen.  Your salvation is everything.  Let your faith be your motivation and never give up.

Psalm 139:13-16, Romans 12:1-2, 1 Corinthians 6:18-20, Hebrews 12:1-4, & 1 Peter 1:17-20

Bought & Paid

 

    God created your body.  It belongs to Him.  However, He also gave you free will.  That means you decide if you are going to be obedient or not.  If you are a Christian, then you said you would follow Jesus no matter what.  That means your body is to be obedient to God's Word.  

    If you are a Christian, then the Holy Spirit lives in your body with your soul like a marriage.  Do you want to make the home of the Holy Spirit a hostile environment?  Do you really want to treat Him like the enemy?  Do not disrespect your own body by ignoring what has been given to you.

    Your body is a temple of worship to God.  It is where the Holy Spirit lives to guide you in life.  God has given you your body, but it was paid with a high price.  Honor your body to honor God.  God owns your body and He will be giving you the replacement body to live in for eternity.  Be thankful and keep your mortal body holy and pure.

    You do have an eternal body.  The day you face God is when you will get this new body that will not age or deteriorate.  It will be a Heavenly body transformed and clothed anew.  You get this new body so you can live eternally with God as a citizen of Heaven.  Your new body will be even more glorious than your mortal body because you will be more like Jesus.

    Your eternal body will reflect God's glory.  The body you have now can only reflect a fraction of God's glory because this world is so tainted by sin.  However, your mortal body is still God's temple that shines light in this dark world.  If you are a Christian, then your body should be dedicated to God.

Matthew 17:1-3, 1 Corinthians 6:18-20, 15:1-9, 2 Corinthians 5:1-5, Philippians 3:17-21, & 1 John 3:2

Sanctified Body

 

    God connected with His people through creation and the garden, the meeting tent, Tabernacle, Temple of the Lord, through Jesus, and in us.  God has never stopped pursuing us since He created us.  We were created to be sanctified, but so many people never find out what that means.

    God sent His son, Jesus, to die for you.  He chose you.  He loves you.  He made you for a purpose.  In return all He wants is a relationship that glorifies Him.  You are able to pray, read God's Word, proclaim God's Word, and live as a holy sacrifice (die to selfishness).  You can do all that, but it is your choice on if you will.  If you do, then you will live a life of glory to God.

    Take a good  look at yourself and your life.  Do you physically and spiritually glorify God?  What does your prayer life look like?  Do you read the Bible?  Do you think about the Bible or God at all throughout your day?  Are you present when you are in God's Word?  Do you look for ways to apply what you learn when you read God's Word?  

    If you are a true Christian, then you are sanctified.  The past is the past, but you should be trying to get closer to God and willing to stand out from the world more and more every day.  Are you allowing the Holy Spirit to make the changes in you that you need to make?  

    When you become a Christian the Holy Spirit basically marries your soul and they become one.  This sanctifies you, but you still have to work at the relationship every day to make your body a home for the Holy Spirit.  What you eat, listen to, read, and act all matter.  One day you will be in our eternal body and answering God for how you lived your life.  Don't you want the Holy Spirit to give a good testimony?  Honor the sanctified body God gave you today.

John 17:13-19, Romans 12:1-2, 1 Corinthians 6:18-20, & 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8, 5:23-24

Your Body, God's Temple

 

    If you are a true believer that walks with Jesus, then you have the Holy Spirit living in you.  That means that God created your body, but it is now His temple to reside in.  You are no longer alone in this world.  You are no longer an enemy of God.  This is something holy and precious that doesn't need to be taken for granted.

    You were created to be in a close relationship with God.  You know that is true because God created man and woman to be different, set apart from all other creation.  It was not until sin entered the world that the connection was broken.  However, God still pursues you.  He still wants you.  

    After sin entered the world, God worked to stay connected to His people.  He wants to reside with His people.  He stared with the Tent of Meeting.  God revealed Himself as a pillar of cloud.  His people followed His presence.  When He was outside of camp, that meant they were to move.  If He was hovering over the Tent of Meeting, then Moses would go in to listen to God.  Moses didn't speak.  He listened.

    Later came the Tabernacle.  God worked with man to design and create a beautiful building.  Once it was completed, God came as a cloud again and hovered over the Tabernacle.  His glory filled it.  Next came the Temple of the Lord.  This was the home of God.  It is where the ark of the covenant was kept.  It is where sacrifices were made.  It was holy and sacred.

    Hundreds of years later came Jesus.  He is God and human.  God sent Jesus to be the living, holy Temple that walked and lived among people.  He completed all that God began since sin entered the world.  He lived out God's unfailing love and faithfulness to His people.  God's glory became flesh and blood to make a way for you to have a real relationship with God.

    Today, you are that temple.  It is your spirit merged with the Holy Spirit that is seen.  This is good, holy, and lovely.  It is impossible, but God made it possible.  Jesus is your example on how to live as a holy temple that glorifies God with your body.  The church is God's holy people coming together as one.  Together we can do the impossible because we have God in us.   

Genesis 3:14-19, Exodus 33:7-11, 40, 1 Kings 7:51-8:11, Acts 2:1-4, & 1 Corinthians 6:18-20

Joy of God's Presence

 

    When God is present, then everything is good.  It provides unmatched and un mistakable joy.  I am ending the joy series on the source of joy.  If you want to go back, I suggest starting a joy journal using all the methods to see God working in your life.  It will help your joy grow and get stronger.

    God pursues you to give you a relationship with Him.  In that relationship you can find comfort, purification, be invigorated, inspiration, encouragement, strength, serenity, and joy because He does not change.  He is always the same, so He is where you find your stability in this world.

    Make it your goal to pursue God in return.  He is going further than you will ever have to go.  He will open your eyes to the truth and deception in this world.  You are naturally selfish, impure, have untrue thoughts.  When you begin a relationship with God they are all revealed and you can see yourself for who you are.  He gives you the Holy Spirit to help you change to be more like Jesus.  There is joy found in this process.

    Be intentional in cultivating your relationship with God.  This is how joy is sustained and refreshes the soul on a daily basis.  It does require practice, but He is with you every step of the way.  This relationship is irreplaceable.  No one else will ever be able to give you what God does.  When you are in a right relationship with God, then He can help you have better relationships with people.  However, there is an order to it: God first then other people.

    You can never loose your connect with God.  If He feels far away, then it means you are allowing the world to influence you too much.  It is getting in between you and God.  Take a moment, pray, and figure out what is taking your attention off of God.  It takes a little work to live in God's presence because distractions are so easy to follow.  If you put in the effort, then your mindset will be altered to bring you joy.

    God is all the way in there with you in your trials, life events, troubles, and tribulations.  He knows exactly how you feel and why.  If you can remember that, then it doesn't have to be as difficult because you are not going through it alone.  You can be on the same page as God.  He is trying to make it better for you, but it does not mean that you don't have to go through it.  

    In time as you drop the bad habits, poor choices, and destructive behavior you will discover that some of your hardships go away.  It all starts with where you are today.  What is God telling you that will make your life better today?  Do you appreciate what God has given you today?  Are you contemplating God's nature?  Are you lovingly praising God?

    Communication is the key to all relationships.  God doesn't need to hear from you to know how you are doing, but He loves hearing it anyway.  It is amazing how pouring out your soul to Him will make you feel better too.  Don't let it be once or twice a day.  Talk to Him all day like you text your favorite person.  Be saturated by Him meaning stay in His Word, so you can hear Him in return.  He has you.  Will you trust Him to provide you with the joy you need today?

Psalm 16:9-11, John 16:19-24, Romans 12:9-16, Galatians 5:22-23, Philippians 4:4-7, & 1 Peter 1:8-9

Joy of Simplicity

 

    If you want joy in your life, then remove the clutter.  The fewer distractions, less mess, or the mentality of keeping up with the Jones the more you can enjoy what you do have.  The more you have the more life becomes complicated, heavy, and wearisome.  Simplicity allows you to relax, be carefree, and lively.

    Simplicity is not following a cookie cutter blueprint, but discovering your personalized path with God.  Anything that doesn't fit into that plan is just stuff that takes up your valuable time and attention away from God.  God is the source of joy, so the closer you are to Him the more joy you will have.  

    Clutter may may make you feel normal, but why do you want to feel normal?  Why not be different and live a spectacular life with God.  Living a life going through the motions just is not living.  It destroys you little by little everyday.  You live day by day not looking for God's blessings or feeling passion.  Push away normalcy and look for what is lovely, pure, true, and excellent that is in your life.

    Clean up your life to be able to appreciate all the good stuff you have.  You will discover that your life flows better.  You can enjoy the time you have.  You have the opportunity to become creative, grow, look for opportunities, and live our your purpose more successfully.  Everything else just eats up your energy.  

    There are different types of distraction or clutter in life: spiritual, emotional, mental, physical, financial, legal, and relational. Spiritual clutter is the deficiency of inner peace due to a lack of intimacy with God.  Emotional clutter is lack of forgiveness or meditating on negative thoughts or feelings that cause fatigue, boredom, fear, or anxiety.  Mental clutter is disorganized priorities that cause you to postpone what is important causing a lack of focus.  You need to manager your character to get priorities inline.  

    Physical clutter is being disorganized in life.  It is amazing how cleaning up will make you feel better.  Financial clutter is a personal messy economy: debt, weak to nonexistent financial plan, no budget, insubstantial insurance, or failure to work with your spouse.  Legal clutter is not addressing legal vulnerabilities, ignoring planning (home, death, or retirement), keeping up with paperwork, or not defending what God has given you.  

    Relational clutter is the most emotionally draining.  It has lingering affects that can last years.  They can be relationships with no closure, toxic, unequally yoked, business, or betrayal.  These will take your eyes off of God.  You have to work them out for yourself, even if you never get it completely worked out with the other person.

    One area of clutter is not good, but understandable because no one is perfect.  However, you add on multiple areas of clutter and it will really run you down and you will eventually burn out and crash.  They consume your mind and keep you from joy or productivity.  Declutter and focus on God.  You will enjoy relationships more, set achievable goals, solve problems easier, feel innovated, have clarity, and behave more wisely.

    Take the time to to spend with God, pray, meditate, and assess your life.  What do you really need?  Do your desires align with God's desires for you?  Work with God for your long-term goals.  Simplicity will bring harmony back into your life and that will produce joy.  Work a little everyday to declutter until you get to where you need to be.  Write out a declutter plan and mark through as you get rid of what is on the list.  It will feel satisfying.  

Psalm 131, Proverbs 14:30, 15:13-16, Ecclesiastes 4:1-6, Matthew 6:25-34, 1 Timothy 6:6-8, & Hebrew 13:5-7

Joy of Thanksgiving

 

    Gratitude is being thankful in the moment.  It doesn't last and is often times superficial.  It is real, but doesn't stand out over time.  It is a sign, gesture, or short comment to acknowledge when someone has been kind, polite, or given your something.  Thanksgiving makes it go deeper.  It is genuine and brings true joy to your life.

    When you turn routine gratitude into thanksgiving it turns into exceptional gratitude.  This is when you become intentional and consistent with having genuine thanksgiving every day.  This is when you take the hard times and find something to be grateful for.  It is when you have a difficult person in your life you can't get rid of and you choose to find ways to love them.

    Acts of thanksgiving is knowing that God's hand is in it and you are searching to see what He is doing.  It takes practice to always be looking for the small things that God is doing.  It is a gift to see Him at work, but can only be received if you are looking.  Having a heart of thanksgiving is a blessing.

    Thanksgiving that fills your with joy is knowing God's love, loving your body, loving your mind, enjoying weather, enjoying nature, freedom, having relationships, and more.  You can't hold in the thanksgiving.  You have to share it in small ways like a smile, hug, helping where needed, encouraging another, act of kindness, educating when needed, and more.  

    Transforming thanksgiving is making a habit of appreciating what God has given you, but also the people that He puts in your life.  Everyone has value.  If you value yourself the way God made you, then it will help you value other people.  When you value your relationships, then they can become stronger and bring more joy to your life.  You have to pour out gratitude to get more thanksgiving which produces more joy.

Psalm 95:1-5, 100, 107:1-3, 1 Corinthians 1:4-9, Philippians 4:4-7, & Colossians 3:16-19