Tag: Rev. Dr. Ken Crawford

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. — Colossians 2:6

“New and improved!” That’s the strategic marketing tag to re-introduce an older product that has fallen out of public perception. Make a few changes, freshen the packaging, and re-market the old product as something new and improved. The apostle Paul wanted the Colossians to know that Jesus does not need to be updated or add some spiritually new ingredient. Instead, they needed to follow him as Lord, just as they did when they first became Christians. That is our need, too! Our lives need to be rooted and nurtured in Christ Jesus as Lord, full of thankfulness for God’s incredible gift of grace in his Son. And we must realize Jesus is more than any additive-laden, updated, or new religious fad could ever be!

Loving Father and Almighty God, thank you for the gift of your grace given to me in Jesus Christ. Forgive me when I get fascinated by what is flashy and new or wanderlust hits, and I desire something fresh and novel. Please make my walk with Jesus fresh each day. Strengthen my appreciation that his lordship in my life will help me face the difficult circumstances along the way and greet the exciting new opportunities each day with joy, strength, hope, and power. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. — Colossians 4:5-6

Jesus warned us that we would have to answer to God for every idle word we share with others (Matthew 12:36-37). In our time when social media echoes with mean-spirited, ugly, and divisive words, we must hear the Lord’s warning about choosing our words carefully. Paul challenged us to be even more vigilant about what we say and how we say it. The apostle emphasized how significant our influence is on those who don’t know Christ. We want to seize every opportunity to open the hearts of unbelievers to Jesus. When we are around those who are not Christians, we must show kindness, demonstrate care, and exercise control in the way we use our speech. The eternal destiny of those around may be resting on our conversations with them. Let’s season our speech with care. Let’s take advantage of every opportunity we have to open the hearts of others to grace of Jesus!

Holy and Righteous God, I know we break your heart when we, your people, wound and drive unbelievers away with thoughtless and insensitive talk and unkind posts on social media. Please help me, O God, as I seek to display a winsome attitude with all people, but especially toward those who do not yet know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Use my life and my words to open people’s hearts to Jesus. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.
– 1 Peter 1:13

The reward of delayed gratification! If there were ever a verse that did NOT match the whims of our “modern” society, this would have to be it! Prepare… be self-controlled… focus your hopes on the future… none of those is an advertising slogan, but they all are the sustaining truths of the great souls who have gone before us!

Eternal God, please help me have the patience and faithfulness to let you fully form in me the character and the wisdom that my world so much lacks and I so much need. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.  — Proverbs 3:5-6

Everything that we know is subject to change without notice. Our values are tested in tough times and times of distress. It is vital to stay on course and move forward in the most difficult of circumstances. What do you use for your life’s compass? No matter how insightful, wise, experienced, or knowledgeable we may be, only God can guide our steps properly. God asks us to trust him and his wisdom even when we can’t immediately see the rationale behind it. He wants us to recognize his presence, guidance, and grace in all we do. As we trust and as we acknowledge his presence, we suddenly realize that our paths are a lot straighter and our destinations are a lot a closer.

Father in heaven, please give me courage to not lean on my own understanding. I know my thinking can be flawed and what I intend for good can blow up in my face. Please bless me with wisdom and insight as I seek to live for you in today’s confusing and immoral world. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Remember how you were when you didn’t know God, led from one phony god
to another, never knowing what you were doing, just doing it because everybody else did it? It’s different in this life. God wants us to use our intelligence,
to seek to understand as well as we can. For instance, by using your heads, you know perfectly well that the Spirit of God would never prompt anyone to say
“Jesus be damned!” Nor would anyone be inclined to say “Jesus is Master!”
without the insight of the Holy Spirit.
— 1 Corinthians 12:2-3 MESSAGE

Today’s Word

In the New Testament, the Holy Spirit spoke through human writers to give us some absolute truths. When the Holy Spirit lives inside people, they are not going to curse Jesus. Instead, the Holy Spirit impels them to confess Jesus as Lord and Master — not only as the Lord and Master of all creation but also as the Lord and Master to whom they yield their hearts! Because of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, the Holy Spirit declared the Lord Jesus Christ as the powerful Son of God (Romans 1:4).

Our Prayer

Almighty God, I confess that I believe that Jesus Christ is your Son, my Lord and Savior. I yield my heart to Jesus and pray that my life reflects his character and compassion. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart always be guided by your Holy Spirit and lead me to confess the glory and grace that I have found in my Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, in whose name I pray. Amen.

We know also that the Son of God
has come and has given us understanding,
so that we may know him who is true.
And we are in him who is true —
even in his Son Jesus Christ.
He is the true God and eternal life.
1 John 5:20 (NIV)

The Hula-Hoop, a hip-swiveling toy that became a huge fad across America when it was first marketed by Wham-O in 1958. An estimated 25 million Hula-Hoops were sold in its first four months of production alone. The enormous popularity of the Hula-Hoop was short-lived and within a matter of months, the masses were on to the next big thing.

Many fads come and go but Jesus is exactly the answer to the wanting of the heart. In our culture today, every new item to hit the market steals the headlines only for a brief moment and then fades into obscurity. God knows our short attention span and how easily we are distracted so He sent Jesus to be a permanent satisfaction to the longing of our hearts.

Jesus came to reveal God to us. He has given us the clearest picture yet of what God is really like. Because of Jesus, we can know God, the only one who is truly genuine. Because we are in Christ, we share that special bond with the Father and find in him a whole new quality of life. This life won’t end when our bodies die, and eternal life begins now, as we walk with him each day and extends unto forever. For the eternal and transcendent God to make himself known to us is grace. For him to do it in Jesus is salvation… God is the same yesterday, today and forever… no need for a new and improved savior!

Holy and awesome Father,
I know that because my life
is joined to you through Jesus,
I will enjoy your presence forever.
I love you for all you have done for me
and the terrible price you paid
to redeem me from my sins.
I love you for creating me
and having a plan for my life
when no one else knew
I was even conceived.
Most of all, I love you for being God
and choosing to be the kind of Father
who wants his children
to know and love him.
In Jesus name. Amen.

It is not good to have zeal without knowledge,
nor to be hasty and miss the way.
Proverbs 19:2 (NIV)

“God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” (John Piper)
Maybe one of the most important things we can do to grow in spiritual maturity is to find the right things to get passionate about. We can get riled up about some of the most inconsequential issues. We can get wildly passionate about everything from sports to chocolate pie. But zeal, passion for an issue, must be anchored to spiritual wisdom and understanding. We can get worked up over something and completely miss the will of the Lord because we were blinded by our own passions. While I want zealous people around me, I want them to be zealous for God’s things and for Kingdom issues.

Powerful and perfect God, I find it so easy to get “all wound up” about something and then lose my zeal for it by the next morning, or I get so roused to action, I act impulsively and do terrible damage. Dear Father, please give me the wisdom to see what is best and right and true. Holy God, I want to serve and honor you and bless others in your name. In Jesus’ wonderful name I pray.  Amen.

It is not that we think we are qualified
to do anything on our own.
Our qualification comes from God.
He has enabled us to be
ministers of his new covenant.
This is a covenant not of written laws,
but of the Spirit. The old
written covenant ends in death;
but under the new covenant,
the Spirit gives life.
2 Corinthians 3:5-6 NLT

Unfortunately, most folks who claim to follow Jesus miss the incredibly radical claims of the apostle Paul. We are not under law. It’s not that the righteous demands of law are bad, but they have no power to change us — not down inside where the problems in our behaviors really reside. Instead, when we surrender our lives to Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside us. With the gift of the Spirit’s presence come both the power and the urge to be more like God — holy and righteous, gracious and compassionate. Written laws ultimately convict us of our failures, but this “law,” the principle of living by the Holy Spirit of God within us, is life-inspiring and enabling. Rather than a law demanding us to be holy, we have the presence of the Holy One inside us urging, leading, empowering, convicting, and transforming us to be like Jesus.

Holy God,
I appreciate the Ten Commandments
and the rules, regulations, and laws
you gave your people through Moses.
I hear your call to me to be holy —
to be righteous and compassionate
like you are. Yet I know, dear Father,
that without the empowering presence
of your Holy Spirit and the gift
of your grace in Jesus,
I would never measure up.
I ask that you give me life,
hope, holiness, joy, peace, passion,
endurance, and grace as I seek to yield
to the Spirit’s influence in my life.
I ask this in Jesus’ name.
Amen.

 

Salvation is found in no one else,
for there is no other name under heaven
given to men by which we must be saved.
Acts 4:12 (NIV)

While many substitute saviors have been offered, only the True Messiah saves. While we often live for many masters, but only one Lord liberates and sets us free from sin and death. While many ways are claimed to bring us close to God, Jesus insists that he is the only way, the truth and the light.

By wisdom a house is built,
and through understanding it is established;
through knowledge its rooms are
filled with rare and beautiful treasures.
Proverbs 24:3-4 (NIV

So we’re driven to one ultimate reality: do we believe salvation is in Jesus alone, or do we not. It’s our choice. But what we decide about Jesus is really deciding about everything. Is Jesus your Lord? Is Jesus the name above all names in your life? Is Jesus your Savior? If not, then please reconsider, for the Bible says: “Salvation is found in no one else.”

Thank you, Almighty God,
for choosing to share your
grace with me in Jesus.
May I never take the precious
name of Jesus in vain.
May Jesus himself come and reign
as Lord in my heart and in my life.
May Jesus be seen in the
way I treat others.
May Jesus know that there
is no other rival for
my allegiance to him.
In that precious name of Jesus,
your Son and my Savior, I pray.
Amen.

“It’s no good to sit up and take notice
if we just keep on sitting.”
– Author Unknown

But he said to me,
“My grace is sufficient for you,
for my power is made perfect in weakness.
“Therefore I will boast all the more
gladly about my weaknesses,
so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
2 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV)

To do what I want, not necessarily what is best or most expedient for those around me or for the good of the Kingdom. I don’t like to hear that God told Paul that he had asked enough about deliverance from his problem. Instead, Paul needed to learn that God’s gracious strength and mercy were enough to sustain him even in trial. While I know I need to learn this same lesson, it is daunting. I want God to keep things nice and tidy for me. But then I remember I am a follower of Christ. If I am to become like my Savior, then I have to let go of my requirements on God’s answers and open up to God’s work to redeem others through me, no matter the personal cost. Only then can I truly know that his grace is sufficient for me!

Patient and loving Shepherd,
guard my heart from discouragement
in tough times and guard it
from arrogance in good times.
I know that without you
I have nothing that is permanent.
Thanks for giving me a permanent,
steadfast hope of heaven with you,
because of your grace and
strength shared with me.
In the name of Jesus I pray.
Amen.