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Blessings: How To Get Them

04/04/2016 By Keith Burnett

Life Lessons Blessings

Life Lessons – God’s Blessings

Why is the title intriguing? Aren’t people always concerned with bigger, better, and more? Or, do some have an honest lack of understanding about God and His blessings? Is there a way to know we can receive His blessings? The answers to my questions, in order, are:

  • Intrigue: It’s about self-interest – not necessarily a bad thing
  • Bigger, Better, More: Yes, that describes many (dark side of self-interest)
  • Misunderstanding: Yes, it is widespread
  • Can we know: Yes!

Life Lessons: Blessings Are Not About YOU!

If we want to receive a blessing, why is it not about us? Because blessings are all about the character and nature of God. What we think of as blessings-to-receive are, in most cases, things He has obligated Himself to do. Said another way, God has made it possible for us to benefit when He keeps His Word. Our wise Father employs our sense of self-interest to encourage us. What is the point of His encouragement?

Life Lessons: It’s Not About Bigger, Better, More

There is a healthy degree self-interest. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said:

You have not because you ask not.

Our healthy self-interest should take over right there! We should be obedient to the Father and ask! Why? Because our asking Him is His idea. In His wisdom, He uses a healthy self-interest to promote our obedience. Why? Our obedient asking focuses our thoughts and intentions on the One Who knows best to give us what is best. See it clearly. His instruction is for us to ask, trusting Him with the answer. He did not tell us to demand!

There is also an unhealthy degree of self-interest. Scripture also addresses this:

You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it upon your pleasures

Our motive matters! What should our motive be? To get the obvious out of the way, we don’t ask so we can have. We don’t yield to Him in obedience so we can get something. It’s true, He does promise to reward our obedience. But our motive is wrapped up in:

  • Love for Him (Greatest Commandment)
  • Faith in His Promises
  • His glory for what He does and provides

Life Lessons: Blessings Are NOT Payment-in-Kind

Is God a debtor to anyone? No. Does He say that giving to the poor among us is the same as lending to Him? Yes. Does He promise to repay in abundance? Yes. Now comes the misunderstanding part. Scripture makes statements like:

With the measure you use, it will be measured back to you, pressed down, shaken together and running over.

Even so, there is NO statement that if my gift is money God will give money in return. He may or He may not. What He will give is what is best for Him to give. He will give the best that’s possible and it will come abundance. Why? Because we exercised faith in His promises and faith in His goodness.

So how can we be sure we will receive a blessing from God? We must know what He says, believe what He says, and act on what He says. His blessing will follow and it will always be what is best, not necessarily what we think it ought to be!

Blessings To Be Claimed

Many of you are giving or your time, talents, and treasures to many good things. I am glad. For some of

Barahona

This Little Guy From Barahona

you, supporting this ministry is part of your giving. I am also glad about that! For others, you’re hesitant to trust and let faith guide you in helping others. May I suggest a small step is better than no step?

This Little Guy is a place you can help. Read about him in the link. ROW’s orphanage in Barahona, Dominican Republic is another place that needs your help. You can help financially and/or you can help with the construction of the new Orphanage Director’s quarters. We need to take a team in early June to do this work. I can’t think of better opportunities to experience the truth God tells us:

  • It is more blessed to give than to receive.

Soli Deo Gloria! 

 

Filed Under: Blog Page, Gospel of Luke, Life Lessons Tagged With: Faith, giving, Greatest Commandment, Life Lessons, ministry, obedience

Reminders Build a Better You – Podcast

12/11/2014 By Keith Burnett

Better You Better World Podcast

Better You Better WorldSimple reminders can help build a better you. Reminders like the string on your finger can help you perform better. However, they aren’t reminders with the power to build a better you.

Our Father takes care of us in a multitude of ways. We don’t even know them all! But that isn’t a foreign concept. Think about your own kids. You do things for them that escape their notice. They really don’t comprehend or fully appreciate your efforts until they become parents.

Our Father has stated what He desires very simply: Love the Lord your God with all your heart… In fact, we are told all God’s requirements stem from this commandment and the one that follows: Love your neighbor as yourself. That’s simple enough to understand. It’s a bit more challenging to do!

Be encouraged! God gives us reminders. He wants to help us. This is true 365 days a year. But it gets very easy to see during the Christmas season. The Better You Better World Podcast will unpack five great reminders that can help build a better you. And this time of year, they are all around you. 🙂

Soli Deo Gloria! 

Playbar for the Better You Better World Podcast, OR, you can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.

http://keithburnettministries.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Better-You-Better-World-Podcast-Episode-5.mp3

 

Filed Under: Blog Page, Podcast Tagged With: Better You Better World, Greatest Commandment, podcast

Mission: Don’t end up someplace else!

09/29/2014 By Keith Burnett

MissionSome folks just have a way with words! Humor lets us smile at a recognizable truth.  In this case, we know the necessity of a well defined mission, goal or destination. Goals allow us to order our steps and our work. Getting from A to B is all about knowing one’s destination. Goals and destinations are necessary for personal or business success. They are essential to live life God’s way. The good news is God has set our goal.  The bad news is many Christians have let language and culture define it. How is that possible?

Here is our mission: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Language hinders understanding. We love our car, we love our toothpaste, we love our spouse, we love God, and we love the movies. See the problem?  If we don’t know where we’re going, we’ll end up someplace else. Our culture makes it even more problematic.

love with actionsDebbie and I were high school sweethearts. One of our first dates was to see Love Story. The defining line of that movie was, Love means never having to say you’re sorry. Huh?  Modern culture has equated love with sex. The ensuing emptiness proves love is more than sex and sex easily exists apart from love. Then there is love and sentimentalism. Love is so much more than mushy, gushy feelings. When real love is present, feelings will follow. But the feelings do not define love. How can we know what God’s goal looks like?

Based on the examples above, we should look elsewhere for an example of love. How does God love? A clue is found in Deuteronomy 7:7 and 10:15. In these verses, God says He has ‘set His affection’ on Israel through no doing of their own. So, God’s love was an act of His will. He chose it. Unlike humans, God lacks nothing and needs nothing. Therefore, His choice to love cannot be about self gratification. It’s to benefit the objects of His love (you and me).

missionLooking at the life of Jesus, His coming to earth in human flesh was a destination. Where did the journey begin? To arrive here, He left the splendor of heaven. He chose to sacrifice for the benefit of others. His death on a Roman cross confirms the idea of sacrifice, but the cross is where sacrifice ended, not where it began. There is another facet of God’s love to be noted. But God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, Romans 5:8.  God’s example says genuine love expresses itself. It demonstrates its existence through action.

This post provides the barest foundation for understanding real love. Love’s mission is to sacrifice for the benefit/betterment of another. That choice will be demonstrated. Apply this understanding to our God-given mission/goal: Love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Space only allows a start, but ‘finishing’ the application is a life-long mission. Loving Him means choosing His ways and His thoughts over my own. That is demonstrated by obedience to His ways and His thoughts (found in His Word). Loving Him means sacrificing anything about me that isn’t for His benefit.

You’re already thinking that I said God is complete and lacks nothing and needs nothing. That’s true, but there is something we can give Him because He is the only One worthy to receive it: glory. In fact He tells us, Let your light so shine before men that they will see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. He died for us; we live for Him and His glory.

Now, we have a good idea of our mission. Don’t end up someplace else!

Soli Deo Gloria!

Filed Under: Blog Page, Missions Tagged With: Deuteronomy 10:15, Deuteronomy 7:7, Greatest Commandment, Mission

Lessons in Legacy: Six Necessary Confessions

01/17/2014 By Keith Burnett

Asaph built a legacy. His legacy, and ours if we accept the challenge, is rooted in Asaph’s final 6 confessions.

1. The Confession of Presence (v. 23)

Asaph says, I am continually with You. But that’s not enough. When he says, You have taken hold of my right hand, he is confessing God’s presence with him. Presence is mutual: I am with You, You are with me.

2. The Confession of Counsel (v. 24)confessed

God’s Word was Asaph’s guide. He didn’t view it as good suggestions. The Word guided him because he obeyed it. And obedience to the Word has a future reward. The wicked get their reward here and now. Asaph’s reward was later, eternal, and worth waiting for.

3.  Confession of Desire (v. 25)

The Greatest Commandment is to love the Lord with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. It’s instructional to note that Asaph did not  say, What have I in heaven but You? Asaph’s first thought wasn’t about golden streets, emerald crowns, or palaces of ivory. Whom have I…? He desired the Lord. That desire gave him perspective about the things of earth, I desire nothing on earth. In comparison to God, nothing here is noteworthy.

4. Confession of Inheritance (v. 26)

Asaph acknowledged human frailty. We will die. My heart and my flesh may fail,  BUT God…. Two magnificent words! God is greater than our frailties. He is Conqueror over death. And He is the portion (inheritance) of all who believe. Ephesians 1 says believers are Christ’s inheritance. It also says He is our inheritance. In the Old Testament (Numbers 18), God does not allow the priests to have an inheritance in the land. HE is their portion, their inheritance. It is the same for those mentioned in I Peter 2:9, You are a chosen generation, and royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

5. Confession of Judgment (v. 27)

God will judge sin and sinners. It will be in His time and His way, but it will happen.

6. Confession of Proclamation (v. 28)psalm 73-28

Ever notice how easily grandparents talk about grandchildren? What we love just leaks out of us. The nearness of God is my good. I have made the Lord God my refuge. What happens after that? I will tell of all Your works!

Asaph’s love leaked out him! Are you leaking?

Soli Deo Gloria! 

Filed Under: Blog Page, Psalms, Study Material, Teacher Resources Tagged With: 1 Peter 2, Asaph, Ephesians 1, Greatest Commandment, legacy, Numbers 18, Psalm 73

Just Because…

10/15/2013 By Keith Burnett

Why kid

Have you seen this kid?  His mouth is always open and every three seconds he asks, “Why?”  At some point, the endless parade of questions gets down to one answer, “Just because!”  Surely I am not the only one that has reached that point of frustration.  Many people have resorted to the “just because” answer and inquisitive minds learned not to ask questions.  That is not good because there are questions we ought to ask.  Want to know some?

Why are we to love God? (see Deut. 6:4-5; Mark 12:29-30)  There is a better answer than, “Just because.”  It lies in Who He is.  “Hear, O Israel!  The Lord your God is one Lord.”  This is a statement of God’s unique nature.  He alone is God.  No others can be God because He alone is Romans 5-8eternally existent.  He alone is perfect in all His thoughts and ways.  He is to be loved above all else because He is love’s ultimate, perfect, holy Object.  Love for anything else is falling short of love’s most worthy Object. Why would the Worthy One love unworthy ones?  Why wouldn’t unworthy ones love the Worthy One?

Why does He say, “With all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength”?  That is the measure of the Father’s love.  He loves with His whole Person and His Person is infinite.  That kind of love deserves a great deal more than a half-hearted response!

Loved you at your darkestThat’s a tall order and I find it very convicting.  Why? Just because it is!  Let’s pray for one another, that we love well.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Filed Under: Blog Page, God-Lovers Study Tagged With: Book of Deuteronomy, Christianity, God, Greatest Commandment, Israel, Lord, Love of God, Religion and Spirituality, Romance, Romans

Sentimentalism

10/07/2013 By Keith Burnett

Cloud HeartOur society suffers from a growing scarcity of critical thinking.  Simultaneously, sentimentalism is rising  rapidly.  Sentimentalism leads people  to believe God sees the earth and all human affairs through a hole like this one!

In CHRIST, we have redemption and forgiveness.  To love the Lord with our entire being is the Lord’s Great Commandment.  We are told to know His love which is unknowable.  These are simple restatements from the Gospels and Ephesians, but we often misconstrue.  To be free in Christ, we must relentlessly pursue truth.

It is true that God loves infinitely.  We cannot exhaust the depth, breadth, or height of His love.  However, God is just as righteous as He is loving.  He is just as holy as He is loving.  For Him to forgive, based solely on His love, would violate His other attributes.  Sentimentalism ignores this fact and assumes God’s infinite love must somehow overshadow all other aspects of God.

God loves enough to provide a way for forgiveness.God loves you this much  He meets His own requirement for justice by the death of Jesus Christ.  Having provided for forgiveness, He still will not force it on anyone.  He loves people enough to let them walk away. Remember Jesus’ encounter with the Rich Young Ruler?  Jesus let him go.  God put the tragic consequences of our sin on Jesus.  By His stripes we are healed.  He was bruised for our iniquities.  It is by the sacrificial work of Jesus that forgiveness comes to us.  God offers it out of His infinite grace but it is received by faith.

This is loveToo many folks get hung up in sentimentalism.  “Because God is so loving, surely He will overlook the sin.”  That thought will cause those who hold it to suffer great tragedy.  If God were to ‘overlook’ sin He would cease to be God.  That cannot happen.  To be “in Christ” means we have the righteousness of Christ applied to us.  Our salvation is all about Him.  It was His work, His love, His sacrifice, and His resurrection that allows us to become sons and daughters of God.  So it is to His glory that we live and move and have our being!

Soli Deo Gloria!

Filed Under: Blog Page, God-Lovers Study Tagged With: Attributes of God, Ephesians, Greatest Commandment, Jesus Christ, Religion and Spirituality, Rich Young Ruler

Vocabulary Test

09/06/2013 By Keith Burnett

vocabulary testThis one is different than those in elementary school.  Is it possible for a vocabulary test to connect  to the Second Commandment?  Loving our neighbor as ourselves is a consuming command.  Acts of  kindness and compassion are examples of loving a neighbor.  Generous giving to meet a neighbor’s genuine need is an act of love.  Jesus said if we visit the imprisoned, feed the hungry, and clothe the naked it’s the same as doing it to Him. They are all acts of love.  But they are tangible.  What about something intangible?

Words are intangible.  Words make up vocabulary.  Vocabulary needs to be consistent with the 2unwholesome word Greatest Commandments.  The New Testament book of James has a great deal to say about our tongues, i.e., our words or vocabulary.  Colossians 4:6 give a positive instruction,  Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.  What is salt?  It’s a preservative.  Speech should preserve character, reputation, and dignity.  Ephesians 4:29 sets the idea as a negative, Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.

Let’s just apply this idea of loving with words inside the church.  Few of us have been physically assaulted in church hallways.  How about the verbal kind?  This could go further, but it’s enough to set up the vocabulary test.  It’s a self-test, it’s ‘open book,’ and it’s self-graded.  No report cards!  Sounds easy, right?

Here’s the test:  If the following verse was the standard for our speech as Christians, how much of our speech would be eliminated?salt

So Balaam said to Balak, Behold, I have come now to you! Am I able to speak anything at all?  The word that God puts in my mouth, that I shall speak, Numbers 22:38.

Now, here’s the real deal. If that verse challenges very much of our speech, is it any wonder the world we are commanded to reach isn’t listening? Our words  are part of loving the family of God and the lost world.  Make sure the words are fit.  Make them salt!

Think about it!

Soli Deo Gloria!

Filed Under: Blog Page, God-Lovers Study Tagged With: Colossians, Ephesians, Greatest Commandment, Numbers 22

First Things First

08/05/2013 By Keith Burnett

The Ten Commandments on a monument on the grou...

Image via Wikipedia

We know the phrase, ‘First things first.’  Understanding the principle isn’t usually the problem.  Correctly identifying ‘first things first’ is.  What ‘first things’ are first in Christian living?  Jesus gave the Great Commission in a context and setting consistent with the Greatest Commandment.  We see it in Matthew 28:17: When they saw Him, they worshiped Him. Worship was followed by a command.  This sequence is vital to our understanding.  The precedent for this pattern goes back to the Ten Commandments. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Blog Page, First Ebook, God-Lovers Study Tagged With: Christianity, God, Great Commission, Greatest Commandment, Jesus, Priorities, Ten Commandments

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The 29:29 Principle

The 2929 Principle book cover Get your digital copy today. Read it on your computer, phone or tablet!

29:29 – What people are saying

There's a lot of meat in this book; the more times you read it, the more you get from it. Challenges you to see scripture you have read many times in a fresh new way and apply to your daily life.

Judi T

The 29:29 principle caused me to go deeper in the scriptures. I saw things that I had not seen before. The fact that it was free for me and not free any longer should not keep you from reading it.

Charles H. Dallas, Tx

There's a lot of meat in this book; the more times you read it, the more you get from it. Challenges you to see scripture you have read many times in a fresh new way and apply to your daily life.

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