by donfinto | Jan 13, 2016 | The Good Report
“The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold,
but man is tested by the praise he receives.”
Proverbs 27:21
Don’t let that praise land on you! It’s all a test!
Turn it toward gratitude to the Lord for anything good that has come through you. As James says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (1:17).
If you have a good voice, it came from him. If you have a superior IQ, God is its origin. Do you have a healthy, even beautiful body and/or face? All of this began in God! Spiritual gifts? Athletically adept? Good at fixing things around the house? Creative? Hard worker? All from Him!
Let praise reverberate off of you and on to the Lord! Use every gift to fulfill that first and second great commandment! Love God! Love others! Love self!
“Let another praise you and not your own mouth, someone else and not your own lips.”
Proverbs 27:2
Pass the test!
by donfinto | Dec 30, 2015 | The Good Report
1 Samuel 30:6
David is one of my heroes. Not because he did everything right, but because he continually turned to the Lord. One of the most astonishing scriptures in the Bible for me is Acts 13:22, where God describes David as a “man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do!”
A man after your own heart, Lord? Don’t you remember that David was an adulterer and a murderer? I want to say to the Lord. And He seems to answer: Ah! But he always turned back to me with a heart surrendered.
I want that surrendered heart. I am a man “after God’s heart.” I may not yet have His heart, but I am “after God’s heart!”
There was one time in David’s life when everyone around him seemed to have turned against him. David’s village had been raided and his family and the families of all his men had been captured. The men were so upset, so “bitter in spirit because of their sons and daughters” that they were talking of stoning David. He was alone in his distress. So what did he do?
“David strengthened himself in the Lord his God” (1 Sam. 30:6 NASB).
Do you at times feel all alone, that no one really understands you, perhaps your dearest people seem to have turned against you? Remember David!
Strengthen yourself in the Lord your God!
Have a blessed day! In Jesus Name!
by donfinto | Dec 23, 2015 | The Good Report
Mark 6:31
In the midst of much activity, “get some rest.”
Those were the Lord’s words to His disciples after a full day. Their day had been so full that they had “not even had a chance to eat, so Jesus said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”
I just reread the story of John and Charles Wesley’s mother, Susanna. She had 19 children, ten of whom died in infancy. Her husband was such a poor money manager that he landed in a debtor’s prison for some of his life and Susanna was left to run the household alone often with little or no money. But she had promised the Lord early in life that she would devote herself continually to prayer. The children knew that when Mother threw her apron over her head that she was alone with the Lord and was not to be disturbed.
Do you have a good apron under which you can escape in times of stress? Jesus knew we all need that. He knew that He and His disciples had to find a “quiet place and get some rest.”
Happy quiets! Good rest to you! In Jesus Name!
by donfinto | Dec 17, 2015 | The Good Report
My normal reading brought me again this morning to Psalm 1, and I was reminded of what I call the “Godly Prosperity Promise.” Yes, the prosperity teaching has at times been relegated to a kind of “name and claim it.” I took a ride one time in a new Cadillac that was claimed by one who had carelessly taken that promise and tried to apply to material wealth. The Cadillac was repossessed shortly after my ride.
But there is a Godly prosperity that is ours. That does not mean that we are all to become multi-millionaires, with wealth to consume on our own desires. But it does mean that God will supply what we need in order to do His Work.
But how do we walk in this Godly prosperity?
- The promise given in Psalm 1 comes to those whose “delight is in the law of the Lord” and who is continually meditating on what God desires. The Psalmist says that whatever that person does “prospers.” I believe this, and will continually give myself over to listen and obey His promptings.
- Joshua was given this same assurance, that if he would be careful to obey the Lord, not letting the Word of God depart from his heart or his mouth, that he would be “prosperous and successful” (Josh. 1:8). I accept this for myself. This is God’s path to Godly prosperity and success.
- David had learned this lesson and shares it with us in Psalm 25:12-13: “Who is the man that fears the LORD? He will instruct him in the way chosen for him. He will spend his days in prosperity.” That’s mine!
- But there’s at least one hitch. According to the prophet Malachi, this promise becomes void if we withhold from God His tithe (See 3:8-10). 10% of our income never belongs to us. God allows us to receive it to see if we are faithful in returning it to Him. We never give the tithe; we bring it, we return it to the Lord and to His work.
I pray that during this season of gift giving, that we will be faithful to God with all our resources, because I am certain that He will be faithful to us!
Have a blessed Chanukah season/Christmas season/New Year!
by donfinto | Dec 8, 2015 | The Good Report
“In the last days the mountain of the LORD’S temple will be established
as the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills,
and all nations will stream to it.”
Isaiah 2:2 (Emphasis mine)
The highest of the mountains?
Exalted above the hills?
I was standing at the window in Sukkat Hallel (House of Prayer) in Jerusalem, looking across the valley to the old city, and was reading this prophecy from Isaiah, as translated in the latest NIV version, when it struck me that I should consider taking this Scripture literally. That should be our rule of thumb, should it not? Unless God specifically directs us otherwise, should we not take His Word literally?
Is that mountain where the Lord’s Temple is to be constructed to be raised up higher than any mountain in the world, I mused. How interesting!
Then I remembered the other word from Isaiah:
Make strait in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low…
and the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all people will see it together (40:4-5).
I believe the Lord wants us to use our Godly imagination. Imagine Jerusalem being elevated to the highest mountain in the entire world! And the Lord’s Temple on top of that high mountain!
Makes my heart beat a little faster just to imagine!
by donfinto | Nov 30, 2015 | The Good Report
“We will not fear though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.”
Psalm 46:2-3
“Do not fear…” (Matthew 10:28, 31, Luke 12:32), Jesus was constantly cautioning His disciples.
“God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV), Paul admonished Timothy.
“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear… he who fears has not been made perfect in love” (1 John 4:18), is the affirmation from John.
These are only a sample of the countless times throughout history when God has said to His children, “Do not fear!”
Terrorism is advancing across the world – senseless killings of innocent people – on buses, at bus stops, in shopping malls, church buildings and theaters. What is God’s counsel? “Do not fear!”
A picture that is indelibly etched across the screen of my mind is the beheading of those 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians a few months back. Why? Because of the peace that was written across their faces as they were about to be murdered for their faith in Jesus. If they can do this, so can I. I have the same Spirit of Jesus residing in me!
“Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me” (Psalm 23:4), we have recited for years. We overcome the enemy “by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of [our] testimony,” and by not loving “[our] lives so as to shrink from death” (Revelation 12:11), we quote.
It’s time to bring reality into our confessions.
We will not fear! We are those of whom Daniel prophesied: “Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness like the stars for ever and ever” (12:3).
As the darkness increases, the light becomes more brilliant.
We will not fear!
