Month: December 2019

December 30, 2019 Jfuglerwriter Comments Off on Rest and Listening to God

Rest and Listening to God

When I joined a webinar the other day, the automated voice punched through my speakers with the words, “You are in listen-only mode.” In a recent conference call, when I dialed in, I was greeted with, “You are muted.”

I think that’s how we should approach God. In listen-only mode. Muted.

Maybe that should be our new attitude for 2020.

Can you imagine what our relationship with God would be like if we closed our mouths and listened? Not for 60 seconds. Or five minutes. How about 15 minutes of silence before God? That sounds so painful! Actually, the opposite is true. It’s one of the most refreshing practices you can develop.

Wayne Cordeiro, a pastor in Hawaii, tells the story of how he burned out after 30 years in the pulpit. You might wonder how someone can burn out in Hawaii. Yes, it happens even there.

To get his life back, Wayne forced himself to be silent before God in a peaceful, quiet setting. For days. Even weeks. He went to a monastery! It wasn’t easy at first. He snuck out a couple times to use his cell phone. Eventually, Wayne did get his life back, but it took a long season of listening to God.

I’m not prescribing a monastery for you, but what can you do to assure that you’ll spend time in listen-only mode? Not once or twice, but consistently. Make a habit of it.

When we love someone, we want to be with them. God loves you and enjoys being with you. This desire is so great that he sent his Son to the cross to make it possible for you to have a relationship of oneness with him.

What an amazing invitation from the all-knowing, all-loving, everlasting, omnipresent, all-powerful, sacrificial God. Can you imagine what you’d learn about the God of the universe by spending time with him in listen-only mode?

You’ll learn a lot about him. More importantly, you’ll know him. It will get better every day.

Listening to God in silence is one thing but listening with your Bible open is another. We learn in 2 Timothy 3:16 that “All Scripture is breathed out by God.” (ESV)

We have 66 books of the Bible, God speaking to us. Have you ever thought of it that way? If you want to know what God thinks, read his Word. Not to study, but to listen.

When you spend time listening to God, come from a standpoint of relationship. You’re not trying to get something from God or hear some revelation. Your relationship with God is the most important thing in your life. Listening to God makes it stronger.

Today, when you practice resting, spend some time quietly listening to God.

(From my 30-day devotional: Your Life With God: 30 Days of Rest. Available on Amazon in Kindle and Paperback)

December 23, 2019 Jfuglerwriter Comments Off on Jesus Their Savior

Jesus Their Savior

With Christmas two days away, pray that those who don’t know Christ will meet him this year.

You and I know many people who we long to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus. Family members, friends, co-workers. You’ve been praying for some of them for years. Yet, their hearts are still cold to Christ.

In Luke 13, Jesus told people to “strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” (Luke 13:24 ESV)

Jewish people in that day were wound up in their traditions. The Scribes and Pharisees amplified that and taught that tradition (rule-following) was the path to heaven. Their legalism was adopted by the common Jew.

Before we scoff at the Scribes and Pharisees, consider that society today isn’t that far off. While the average person doesn’t keep a written laundry list of cleansing behaviors, there’s one thing that most people feel will get them into heaven: good works.

That’s where your unsaved friends live today. They live with the false belief that they are doing enough good things that God will accept them into heaven. It has nothing to do with faith but everything to do with keeping the “law.”

In reality, they are not bound for heaven. Jesus describes their destination: “In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Luke 13:28 ESV)

How agonizing. Complete absence of God is a horrifying eternal destiny for your friends who do not know Jesus.

Jesus is their Savior . . . when they accept his gift of eternal life. However, it must be on his terms, not theirs. “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction.” (Matthew 7:13 NIV)

The gate is narrow, but Jesus opens it.

Are you agonizing over the salvation of your lost friends and family? The thought of their eternal destiny in hell should drive you to heart-wrenching prayer. For me, I don’t pray enough like that. However, as I read Luke 13, the Lord moves my heart and soul.

Will you pause right now and pray through that mental list of needy people? Pray that God will soften their hearts. Pray that they will see that doing good does not give them entry into heaven. Pray that they will surrender to Jesus, who has opened the narrow door.

(From my devotional Your Life With God: 30 Days With Jesus, available on Amazon in Kindle and Paperback).

December 16, 2019 Jfuglerwriter Comments Off on Jesus My Savior

Jesus My Savior

With Christmas upon us, let’s place our focus on the One to whom we owe our lives.

It was my junior year in high school. I came to a small church that cold winter night to hear a college football coach speak. His name was Rock Royer. My football coach had encouraged me to attend. I was the kid in the back row. 

I thought he was going to talk about football, but he spoke on how to be “born again,” using John chapter 3 as his backdrop. I had never heard the Gospel before. That night, I walked from the back row to the altar to give my life to Jesus. 

I came home and told my parents that I had been born again, not knowing anything else. 

It took me more than a year to understand what I had actually done that night. 

Or, more importantly, what Jesus had done for me. He had become my Savior that night and I didn’t even know it!

Fast forward a year and a half later. Another believer took me under his wing and discipled me in my faith. That’s when it all came into view.

Jesus my Savior.

Jesus your Savior.

We throw that word around casually. “Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” is a term we hear and use often, to the point that it becomes ho-hum. It has lost its significance.

Without Jesus, you’d be separated from God forever. No connection. No relationship. Spiritual death. Eternity in darkness. In Satan’s kingdom and under his rule. Hell is very real and that would be your destiny.

In the here and now, you’d have no hope for significance beyond this life. You’d be defined by the physical world. You might search for connection with God through all sorts of false alternatives, but you’d never attain a relationship. Your meaning and purpose would come to an end with your last breath. 

That’s what Jesus has saved you from. All of that and more. Quite frankly, he has saved you from eternal destruction. 

Does the word “Savior” carry more significance now?

And how about what it cost Jesus to become your Savior? The enormity of it all. He left his glorious home in heaven to walk this earth for 33 years, endured persecution to the point of death, took all your sins and the sins of humankind on his shoulders, suffered the torture of total separation from God the Father on the cross – and did all of this willingly because he loves you.

Jesus your Savior. 

May we never again hear or use this word casually. Becoming Savior cost Jesus so much.

(From my 30-day devotional Your Life With God: 30 Days With Jesus. Available on Amazon in Kindle and Paperback).

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