What Does Your Before and After Picture Look Like?

Fresh Manna 2009© by Pastor Tim Burt

Acts 26:16 & 18 ‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you… to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

For my birthday Renee gave me this new health book Fit for Life. In this book, they have an entire picture section of people that have been through the program this book offers. You see all the before and after pictures of all these people. I love looking at before and after pictures of people that have purposed to change. It is so inspiring! In three to six months these people look completely different and so much better.

I have been thinking about the newness of life that God offers us. He empowers us by His Holy Spirit to live it out. His Word says we are to be transformed. As I was looking at these before and after pictures of these people I had this thought. Every one of us is working toward one of those two pictures. We are either creating a before picture or an after picture of our current life. Have you ever thought which picture you are presently creating?

In the book of the Acts of the Apostle in chapter 26, the Apostle Paul is giving his testimony while on trial. He is verbally painting the before picture of his life and then the after picture after Jesus got a hold of him. It became his testimony. Everyone that changes from a before to and after has a testimony. How powerful it is when our testimony is about what the Lord has done in us!

In some ways, I am living in my after picture. I say that because if anyone saw me now compared to thirty-two years ago before I knew the Lord, they’d tell you I was a completely different person. I am happy for that. At the same time, internally I feel like I am in a before picture compared to what I believe the Lord still wants to do within me and through my life. I realize that’s good. Otherwise I would be sitting in pride of how great I think I am and probably look like a Pharisee.

The after picture is our ongoing goal that we see in our hearts that God helps us paint. It is the shaping of our thoughts and desires to conform to His Word, His Will, and His purpose for our lives. It’s a path and a process in which we will continue to be changed as we pray and seek Him and purpose to live according to what He speaks to us through His Word.

Today’s Fresh Manna verse is the central focus for all of us as we walk out what God wants for our lives. That like the Apostle Paul, we become transformed and then we become the Lord’s witness of what Jesus has done and will do in our lives. Then we will be used to help others experience God’s life-changing and transforming power -”to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Jesus.”

An aimless and purposeless life outside of the Lord will always result in a before picture. Pressing toward God’s will for your life will help create after pictures. An after picture is not the end of all. It is actually only a step to the next after picture. What does your next after picture look like?

Published by Pastor Tim Burt
Copyright© 2009 Tim Burt, All rights reserved.
http://readfreshmanna.blogspot.com/

God Will Satsify You

Fresh Manna 2009© by Pastor Tim Burt

Psa 37:18-19 “The LORD knows the days of the upright, and their inheritance shall be forever. They shall not be ashamed in the evil time, and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.”

Have you ever sat at a meal and eaten too much? I don’t mean at Thanksgiving where probably everyone eats just a little more than they should. I mean where you eat enough but repeatedly continuing to eat until you are “full” or “stuffed” or even to where you hurt from eating too much. This is a common occurrence in the lives of many people.

Why do people eat past the point of satisfaction – eating until they feel uncomfortably stuffed? Could it be that they are already trying to satisfy their future hunger? That they want to eat enough to hold them for a long time? This has been written about and it is a unconscious fear for many people. You could say it’s a product of the “fear of not being satisfied,” or, not trusting that your next meal will be there when you want it.

Does that sound silly? It’s not. Let me show you. In Exodus 16:4 we see the Lord trying to teach His people to learn to trust Him. It says, “Then the LORD said to Moses,”I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions.” The Lord through Moses also instructed them to use up what He gave them. If they had more than they needed – share it, but don’t keep it until the next day or it would turn to maggots. Why did the Lord want to test them? Not to find out what they would do. He knew what they would do. He wanted them to see for themselves that they didn’t trust Him. We see their test score the next day. Exodus 16:20 says, “However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them.”

They flunked the test! Why? For fear of not having enough. The fear of “not being satisfied” – of not trusting that God would do for them what He said if they would just trust and obey Him. That fear causes people to hoard up.

This is where having faith in God’s promises becomes critical. The promise says, “In the days of famine we shall be satisfied.” Faith in that promise is such a powerful force. To get over and be delivered of the fear of not having enough later or tomorrow – to instead get to a position of faith where we hold on to God’s promise that we will be “satisfied” - can literally set people free from a multitude of things.

If you skip a meal, you might experience a hunger pain but you will not die. You may experience a different type of hunger pain or temporary sense of lack in other areas but you won’t die. Trust God for His provision and as a child of God hold on to your inheritance – to that promise of faith, that even in famine, because of the Lord’s faithfulness, you will be satisfied!

In His Love,
Pastor Tim Burt

Published by Pastor Tim Burt
Copyright© 2009 Tim Burt, All rights reserved.
http://readfreshmanna.blogspot.com/

“May I Have Your Attention Please!”

Fresh Manna 2009© by Pastor Tim Burt

Exodus 24:12 “And the LORD said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give you tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that you may teach them”

In today’s Fresh Manna verse, Moses is a new leader. Not young in age but young in leading God’s people. I’m sure his mind was often spinning concerning the things God asked him to do. God wanted to give Moses the Ten Commandments and asked him to come up to the mountain. In speaking to Moses, God said, “Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give you tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that you may teach them.” Look at those words and you will notice something funny. God said, “Come up to the mountain… and then continues by saying, “and be there…”

Why did the Lord say “Come up… and be there…?” Just go back to the last time you sat down to read and mediate on God’s Word or when you went to spend time in prayer. Did you find your mind drifting to other places? When you were in church, did you find your mind drifting to other places? When you’re talking to other people or better yet when they are talking to you, do you find your mind drifting to other places? That’s probably why the Lord said, “Come up… and be there.”

God doesn’t want us going through religious motions which is exactly what we are doing when we come to Him but aren’t with Him. It’s about the same as when your wife is talking to you but you have your mind on the television or business or the football game or whatever. She knows she doesn’t have your attention and there is no real communion going on. But then the husband wants her full attention and sex later on.

Whether it’s with God or with those we are supposedly with – are we really there? Are we listening and paying attention? Are we there to make the moment work? Let’s learn from God! “Come… and be there!”

In His Love,
Pastor Tim Burt

Published by Pastor Tim Burt
Copyright© 2009 Tim Burt, All rights reserved.
http://readfreshmanna.blogspot.com/