Sometimes my computer has gotten so jumbled up, so over-filled, so taxed that the only solution was to hit the restore button. Sometimes our lives get so convoluted, so jacked up, so pressed down that restoration is the only answer as well.
The problem is hitting the restore or reset button - just exactly where is it? Some look to the bottom of a bottle,meeting to drink their troubles away but find that their troubles but never was a bottle deep enough.
A vacation at the beach or some faraway destination is a more likely place to get recharged or restored. However, so often, we return from vacation needing to rest up before returning to work. And, the stress we tried to escape from, if we didn't take it with us, is still here when we return.
Self-help books, spa days, power naps, meditation, exercising, yoga, chocolate, etc. have all been used in attempts to restore our soul, some are better choices than others but none truly restore our souls. We are always left missing something. So, what will?
Glad you asked. "The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul" (Psa 23:1-3). It is a God thing, only he can truly provide what is lacking or remove what is taxing our souls.
When we feel overburdened, overworked or overwrought, Jesus calls to us saying, "Come unto me, all who are burdened and I will give you rest" (Matt 11:28). The rest, the restoration, the peace you seek is not found in any other source than the Savior. Jus' Sayn.
I often hear people loosely quote 1 Corinthians 10:13 as "God will not give you more than you can bear." What the passage actually says is, "No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it."
You can see that God's promise and our loose interpretation are not at all the same. God's actual promise is generally dismissed as we make excuses for why we can't help giving in to temptation. We tend to agree more with Mark Twain's quip: "I can resist anything except temptation."
However, loose interpretation notwithstanding, I do believe that God does not give us more than we can bear as he provides us the resources to carry our burdens. Jesus says, "come unto me and I will give you rest" (Matt 11:28). And the Christian community is charged with "carry each other's burdens" (Gal 6:2). Through the Spirit of Christ and the fellowship of His children, God does provide that burden-bearing ability.
So, how is it that even Christians seem to be overcome with burden to the point of deep depression? First, they often do not avail themselves of God's help, choosing not to turn to Jesus or the church for help. Second, they increase the burden that God allowed. Really? How is that possible?
Jesus said, "Do not worry about tomorrow...each day has enough trouble of its own" (Matt 6:34). We take "enough" and make it too much by adding the worries of tomorrow to the problems of today. And, as if that were not more than enough, we tend to dredge up the regets of yesterday and add them to the pile. We just collapsed under the weight.
God doesn't give us too much - we do that on our own. Jus' Sayn.
When sheep ar following a shepherd, they don't particularly know where they are going. They don't know how long it will take to get there. They don't know what dangers they might face along the way. They don't know if they are on the way to be fed or shorn or bedded down. They just follow the shepherd, who provides for their safety, their nourishment and their shelter.
The Psalmist says, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall lack nothing...even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear for you are with me..." (Ps 23). The Psalmist didn't say, "I know I will not be led through a dark valley or that I know what will transpire along the path, he just said that he knew the Shepherd would be with him - Faith like a sheep.
The sheep, by the way, doesn't try to tell the shepherd which is the best way to proceed, he trusts in the shepherd. The sheep doesn't that he be taken to a sheep that meets his personal standards, he just follows the shepherd. The sheep doesn't insist on knowing where he is being led or what will happen when he gets there, from whatever direction he hears the shepherd's call, he simply heads out.
Can we really live like that? Yes we can, many have and do. Wanting to know and control the future comes from a lack of faith and ends in a form of rebellion.
Moses was quite clear when he wrote, "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law" (Deut 29:29). The future is a secret thing, only Gid knows what it holds. When he reveals a direction to travel or a work to begin, that becomes ours to follow, regardless of whether we know it's end.
When we can learn to have sheep faith, we can follow the Word of the Lord without fear or angst. We can trust that the Shepherd's got this, knowing we will lack nothing. Peace follows faith. Jus' Sayn.
As followers of Jesus, the early disciples saw themselves as an exclusive group, which exhausted the number of the "authentic ones." In their minds, anyone who was with them was a true believer, anyone not in their group was a pretender or at best a "wannabe disciple."
So, you can imagine their surprise when they encountered someone else casting out demons in the name of Jesus - it had to be unorthodox, unauthorized and unacceptable.: “Teacher,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us" (Mark 9:38). What else could they do? He wasn't listed on their denominational role.
They had to be astonished by the Lord's reaction, “Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us. Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward" (vv. 39-41).
Can you believe it? Jesus sanctions the faith and works of people we may not have formally recognized? There may be others besides those we recognize to be like us who are accepted by God? Could it be that it is God, not us who decides?
Is it possible that is what Paul was getting at when he said, "Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand" (Rom 14:4)? Yeah. It's bigger than us.
I wonder if, having just failed to cast out a demon from that boy (Mark 9:14-29), they were a little jealous and perhaps a little insecure? If people who are not just like us are authentic disciples, does that mean we're not authentic? See the thought process? Of course you and I have never felt that way - right? Jus' Askn. Actually, I'm Jus' Sayn: Let's get over ourselves.
There is a very interesting narrative in Matthew 17:1f, where Jesus is transfigured into a glorified state and is joined by Moses and Elijah. The apostle Peter was duly impressed by this scene and said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters---one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah" (v. 4).
As he was speaking, a bright cloud covered them and a voice from the cloud proclaimed, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him !” (V. 5).
Peter thought he was being respectful in wanting to honor Jesus and the two great men of Israel's past but was rebuked for his effort. Why was that? Why not "show honor where honor is due" (Rom 13:7)?
First, because, compared to Jesus, there was no honor due Moses and Elijah - Jesus is given "the name that is above all names" (Phil 2:9).
Secondly, rather than focus in what he could do or offer, Peter should have been marveling at what Christ was revealing about himself ax the fulfillment of the Law (Moses) and the Prophets (Elijah). He should have been humbled by what God was offering instead of making his humble offering.
Are you ever guilty as charged of putting men in the place, which is only to be occupied by God? Do we ever find ourselves trying to think up another way we can serve God instead of trying to listen to him direct your steps? Could we get so busy doing church that we have no time for ministering to those God is sending our way? Could we be so busy wth our plans and schemes that we miss hearing God's dream for our kingdom engagement? Jus' Askn.
In Galatians 2:20 we read, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me." What does that really mean - crucified with Christ? It means we die with him ("I no longer live") but in what sense? How is it that Christians no longer live?
The answer is found by including verses 19 and 21 in the mix. Verse 19 says, "I have died to the Law so that I might live for God." No longer are we under the burden of Law Keeping in order to stand justified before God. The burden of the Law was met at Calvary and paid in full when Christ died on its cross.
Grace is no longer "set aside" (v. 21) but are free to live in the presence of God and in His glory because we are dead to the Law and the Law is dead to us. We are made alive in grace so that, being dead to the Law and to the sin it brings to life in us, we can truly live.
To truly live, by the way, does not mean to live a life wasted on selfish pursuits and feeding our lusts. It means having the freedom to become what we were meant to be, to rise above the mundane of the flesh and live in the shadow of God's grace. It is to follow in the path of Jesus, living for God and serving mankind. It is to have purpose and a desire for true greatness as a servant of Almighty God.
In this context, to truly die is t truly live - to truly reach the heights for which you were created. Jus' Sayn.
In the Book of Matthew, we read about a man who brought his demon-possessed son to Jesus' disciples for healing as the boy had seizures causing him to fall into the fire or into water. The disciples, try as they may, we're not able to heal him or rid him f this demon.
When Jesus was approached by the boy's father, asking for his help, Jesus gave perhaps his strongest rebuke to his disciples, “You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me" (Matt 17:17).
After Jesus healed the boy, his disciples why they couldn't heal him. Jesus told them it was because of they had so little faith (v. 20). Mark's account adds, "This kind comes out only by prayer" (Mark 9:29).
Perhaps a better question for the disciples would have been, "Why were you so upset and disappointed with us?" They didn't seem to get the point that it was not the difficulty of the demon but the dense ness of the disciples. They were suffering from a misplaced faith: "why couldn't we?" Their faith was focused on themselves, therefore they were faithless in this case.
They were so full of self and their work of casting out demons that they didn't even consider going to the Father in prayer. What are we doing wrong,what could we have done differently, how can we improve our effectiveness? Sounds like some church board meetings I have been in where our focus was on our activity instead of in prayer and dependence on the Father.
Do you see why Jesus said they had too little faith to help this boy? Because their faith was in themselves and their activity - no prayer needed here, we've got this. Except they didn't. And neither do we.
We can be so focused on our church activity that we can become totally useless in helping those God sends our way. We can be so sure of our focus that we lose focus on God. We can have so much faith in our way of going about things that we go about without the power of God. Jus' Sayn.
It is hard to argue that the world isn't getting darker. With the uptick in global violence and the downturn in moral virtue, with the growing amount of racial tension and the shrinking of bi-partisan accord, with the increase of personal demands and the decrease of cpersonal responsibility - well, the proof seems clearly to be in the pudding.
The question isn't whether or not it is getting darker, it is what ought we do about it? How do we go about turning back the darkness? Knowing that the liberal left isn't prone to pass any laws infringing on personal morality, ought we not make sure we vote in morally based candidates to push for moral responsibility?
I am in favor of electing candidates with strong moral fiber but I haven't seen any real success in legislating morality, have you? Attacking the darkness, in principle, is neither logical nor biblical. What? Am I saying we should not fight against the dark forces in society? No, I am saying that the battle has to be taken to a higher level.
Darkness will always be dark, it is what it is doing what it does. You can't beat it back or corral it by forcing it to stop being dark. What we have to do is become brighter lights. "You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven" (Matt 5:14-16).
You can't turn off the darkness but you can turn on a light. The federal government, even it it wasn't filled with corrupt politicians, cannot suppress the darkness of the human soul. The local church, however, if filled with light-bearers, can increase the light. We have to be better, kinder, more loving, more forgiving, more giving, more like Jesus - more light in the dark. Jus' Sayn.
Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot" (Matt 5:13).
So, we are to be salty and to lose that saltiness is to become useless in the Kingdom. Are you salty? How would one know? What are the qualities of salt that we are to have?
Principally, salt has three qualities, which make it so valuable that the ancient Romans used it as currency to pay their troops and Jesus used its characteristics to qualify his disciples:
1. Salt adds flavor to what otherwise would be bland. And, we are to add a heavenly flavor to an otherwise bland world. The apostle Paul instructs us to "let your conversation always be full of grace, seasoned with salt..." (Col 4:6).
2. Salt preserves that which would otherwise rot. The world around us is on a downward spiral of decay. We can either sink to its level or preserve what is vital and good. John warns us, "The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever" (1 John 2:17).
3. Salt heals. Although it may sting a bit, pouring salt on a wound can aid in your recovery. Ever gargle with a little warm salt water? James tells us to "confess your sins to one another and you will be healed" (James 5:16).
Does your life add flavor, preserve good and bring healing to the world around you? Is your life truly discipled by the Lord and therefore a blessing to the world? Just how full is your "shaker?" Jus' Askn.
In John 14:18, Jesus promises, "I will never leave you as orphans ". We can fairly take from that passage that he will never leave our side, even if we walk "through the valley of the shadow of death" (Psa 23:4). That does not mean, however, that we will never go it alone.
Jesus promises never to leave us but he doesn't promise that he will prevent us from leaving him. He has never and will never abandon us, but can the same be said for you and I, that we will never abandon him?
When I was a little boy, my dad let me tag along as he went hunting. I remember there was snow on the ground and we were heading through the woods to a clearing. My dad never left me behind. He would stop and wait on me when I would fall behind. When I got distracted and wandered off the path, he would call me to get back on it. My dad did not leave me behind, but neither did he walk with me when I wandered off the path, he stopped and called me back to it.
Jesus is not going to follow you when you leave the path of righteousness and wander aimlessly into sin. He will stop and call you back to the path. Remember the verse from yesterday? "Take up your cross and follow him" (Matt 16:24), not he will follow you.
There are two paths in life, one that leads to life, which God calls us to and one that leads to death, from which God calls us to leave (see Matt 7:13-14). God will never leave you alone but you can choose to go it alone. It is just as it was in the days of Joshua when he declared to the Children of Israel, "if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you then choose for yourselves whom you will serve" (Josh 24:15).
You never have to be left alone but God will allow you that choice. What is your choice? Jus' Askn.
A Christian idiom that is well known but generally not well understood is that of taking up your cross. We talk about our crosses as if they were inconveniences that are forced upon us, which interrupt or increase the level of difficulty we face as we live out our lives. Some have labeled bad backs or poor eyesight or even a cantankerous mother-in-law as their cross to bear.
However, to begin with, crosses weren't inconveniences to live with, they were instruments of suffering to die on. A cross was not a taking on of anything, it was a giving up of everything - it was to give up your life, it is, for the Christian, a dying to self. Therefore, it is not some inconvenient add-on in your life, it is an altering of your life that involves suffering and loss.
Some people lose friends when they become serious about their faith. Others our cut off from their families when they make a decision for Christ. Missionaries give up their standard of living and the fellowship of everyone they know and the familiarity of everything they've known to serve Christ in a foreign land. Some give up careers to enter a life of full-time ministry, which demands they leave behind lucrative salaries and benefits for comparatively meager wages few, if any, benefits.
The cross you will be called to take up will not be an addition to your life, it will be life-altering, if you choose to take it up. That is the other thing about this cross, it is not thrust upon you, it is presented as a choice, which you can accept or reject. Listen to the words of Jesus, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me" (Matt 16:24). Whoever "wants," not everyone "will."
If you want a life that is not altered and requires that you never suffer loss, you do not want to follow the path (become a disciple) of Jesus. Jesus suffered loss that others might live. What are you willing to suffer or give up for others? Jus' Askn.
In this country, children are raised up to believe they can be anything they want to be. They are told that if they can dream it, they can achieve it. The focus is on what one personally wants out of life and/or what he wants to invest in it. It's your life, do want you want.
Their are a couple of problems with that philosophy. 1) We cannot necessarily be or do whatever we want. Very few have the skill and agility necessary to be an NFL player. With only one slot for president of the US, it is a safe bet that most won't make it. We are all made of equal worth but we are not all made equally - just look in the mirror and then look around. Not equal.
The second, and more important problem, is that life isn't about us getting and doing what we want. It is about being and doing what God calls us to. We tend to set our own path and ask God to bless our intentions, and then offer him praise for his part in our success story. But God isn't really interested in second-hand praise. He calls us to something quite different.
Listen to the call of Jesus to his disciples, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it" (Matt 16:24-25).
If we invest our efforts in securing "the good life," we will one day lose all that we have gained. Regardless of the height of your personal success, the depth of the grave is the same and there is no room for worldly goods or acclaim. Only what we do for the Kingdom will endure. Nothing we accomplish for self will last.
The good news is that "if we seek His kingdom and His righteousness as first priority, all the rest will be added as well" (Matt 6:33). Jus' Sayn.
One of our biggest mistakes in Bible study is in taking things out of context or failing to connect the dots. We so often read a statement af if it stood alone or was sent in a post card instead of a book or letter as it is actually written.
Some dots you may never have connected are in The Lord's Prayer where we read "forgive us of our sins as we forgive those who sin against us" (Matt 6:12) and "lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil" (v. 13) as if they were two totally separate requests.
However, in verse 14, there is a "for," which connects the two: Forgive us and lead us not... "For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins" (vv. 14, 15).
Do you see the connection? The temptation we are asking to avoid, which is a trap of the Evil One, is to not forgive. Satan's great trap, so great that it is singled out in the Lord's Prayer, is the refusal to forgive.
The unforgiving state is also an unforgiven state. Satan tempts us to embrace his world where forgiveness is not an option while rejecting God's world where forgiveness is the object.
I'm not suggesting forgiveness is easy - God had to send his only Son to die on a cross in order to forgive. It may cost you a great deal as well but it is the divine way and to do otherwise is the devil's way.
Jus' Sayn.
We live in a country that was built on the premise of personal freedom. And we live in a time where we have taken that personal freedom to new heights (or lows), where we are free to do anything we want - rejecting all judgment to the contrary.
People feel free to engage in sexual activity as if it were a ride at an amusement park where you are simply in it for the thrill of the moment. Homosexual activity is not only accepted, it is being raised to the level of marital equality and even legalized in state after state. The government is even beginning to legalize drug use for the sole purpose of getting high,which is par with getting drunk that is already legal everywhere as long as you're not behind the wheel.
So we have the right to choose pretty much what we want as we think the original framers of our constitution intended. Maybe, but there is one more aspect of that freedom that we are not so quick to embrace: The personal responsibility that comes with freedom and the acceptance of the consequences it brings.
God gives us freedom to choose but that doesn't mean that choice comes without cost or obligation. God call us to "be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God" (1 Thess 4:3-5).
He further warns us of the consequences of ignoring His call: "The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before" (1 Thess 4:6). He does give us freedom to choose between good and bad, right and wrong, life and death; but freedom to choose is not freedom from consequences.
Jus' Sayn.
Yesterday, I wrote about "unfailing love," which stretches our modern view of it. Today, I intend to blow our view out of the water with the unbelievable kind of love Hosea was called on to show his wife, now get this name, Gomer (that name would be my first hurdle to get over).
"Gomer," by the way, means "completion." It signified that she was completely used up as a prostitute and then sold into slavery, which was parallel to the Children of Israel at the time whose adulterous behavior had brought them face to face with slavery.
As God stilled loved Israel and intended to buy them back from slavery, he told Hosea to buy his wife back from slavery, set aside the fact that she had left him for the life of prostitution and live with her again as husband and wife (see Hosea 3:1ff).
So, your wife leaves you in order to become a prostitute. Then, after she is so used up that she can no longer sell her services and must become a scrub maid, you go to her, pay off her debts and take her home. By the way, she hasn't asked for your help or told you she was sorry or even wrong when you made this choice. Really?
Yes, really! This is the kind of love God has for us and the kind of love to which he calls us: "...love your enemies....Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt 5:44-46). Loving those who have turned on us, hurt us and may not even love us is very challenging, to say the least. But it is the love to which we are called.
Can we love like that? Yes. Will we love like that? Maybe. Should we try to love like that? Absolutely! This kind of love is the kind that defeats Satan and wins the world. It isn't easy love, it is warrior love. It is the love that breaks down the prison bars of hell and sets captives free. Jus' Sayn.
The word "love" in our culture is used very loosely. We talk of loving our wife, our dog, our truck, our shoes, a movie - all with the same string of consonants and vowels. But the fact is, we don't really love all the things we say we do - we may not even love our friends or family. It is quite possible any given person doesn't really love his/her spouse, but I am more than certain we don't love even our very best pair of shoes.
The reason for my certainty that we don't love all the things we claim to and may not even love the people we claim to is the frequency in which we detach and reattach it's object. We love this truck until we buy that one. We love this pair of shoes until a new line comes out. We love this spouse until we don't.
The trouble with love in the cases above is that love isn't something that can be assigned to inanimate objects to begin with. Love is a manifestation of personhood - it exists only between those capable of expressing it. Love also is not a feeling that comes and goes with the tide of emotions, it is a choice that is made and expressed in word and deed that continues despite the rise and fall of emotions.
"Love never fails" (1 Cor 13:8): "It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." (1 Cor 13:7). The ones you love may disappoint you, irritate you or even turn their backs on you. But when you love someone, you keep on loving them even when you don't like them or accept what they say and do.
True love, that which comes from God, who is Love, does not give in or give up - it keeps on keeping on just as God continues to love us despite the level of sin and rebellion we have risen to. His love continues and His offer of grace keeps going out - regardless.
The object of love may fail but love never does. Jus' Sayn.
We live in an age where relativism is the coin of the realm - what people bank on. Our culture wants to believe that right and wrong have no real meaning, that those words are relative to each one's situation and point of view.
Imagine if we applied that thinking across the board. What if the actual volume of a gallon of gas you bought was determined by the station owner? What if 13oz was the actual weight of a pound of meat as determined by the butcher? Would you feel comfortable deciding precisely the volume of chemo to be injected or exactly where and how much radiation to apply to your cancer?
I've helped build a few houses in my lifetime. Each time we employed the use of plumb lines, levels, chalk lines and such. Why not just decide each time what was straight or level or plumb? Why go back to a standard of orthodoxy in distance and direction and level set so long ago? Because straight is straight and level is level and x many inches is x many inches. The standard is there because the standard is actual and factual, not relative to individual whims.
The apostle John wrote, "the one who does what is right is righteous" (1 John 3:4) and "the one who does what is wrong is not a child of God" (1 John 3:10). John is plainly saying that there is a right and a wrong in God's sight. And God, despite how much we might want to waffle, "does not change like shifting shadows" (James 1:17).
Despite our fickle cultural mores, there always has been and always will be right and wrong, good and evil, true and false. It is not up to us to determine what those are but rather to discover what they are by searching out the truth from God's Word and from His creation.
Jus' Sayn.
In John 14, Jesus assured his disciples of their future place with him and that they knew the way to the place where he was going [Heaven]. The disciples, however, didn't quite get what he was saying: "Thomas said to him, 'Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?' Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me'"vv. 5-6).
Jesus' words revealed a great truth that many of His disciples still don't get to this day. We do know the way, even if we don't realize it. Say what? How can we know what we aren't aware of? Let me illustrate. If I said you know the way to the address I have in mind, you might reply, "How could I know that?" But if I told you that I was thinking of your address, you would have to agree you did know it. Make sense?
Jesus was telling them that they way to Heaven was not coming to know and practice a collection of rituals, complex theology or comprehensive doctrine; the way to where He was going was to simply follow Him. It is much like meeting someone at a familiar spot and following them home. You don't have to know how far, how many turns or what the house will even look like - you just have to follow your friend home.
Jesus was telling His disciples, therefore, telling us: You know the way to Heaven because I am the Way and you know Me. Our path is not to ferret out some elaborate system of religion but to have a relationship with Him in which we follow closely in his steps - be disciples - do what Jesus did, following His example in the Bible and the urging of His Holy Spirit within our hearts.
His call has always been the same, "Come follow me" (Matt 4:19). Jus' Sayn.
When 2 Corinthians 1:20 is read, "For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ," the notion is often reached that, no matter what we ask, God has promised to say yes.
However, there are at least three firm reasons to reject that notion: 1) Our human experience reveals otherwise - sometimes He says "no". 2) we know he did not answer "yes" to Jesus' request to "remove this cup" (Mark 14:36). 3) What loving father doesn't sometimes say "no" for his child's benefit.
Another good reason to reject the previous notion is that the passage simply doesn't say God will always answer "yes". The passage says that the promises he "has made" are yes in Christ. Throughout Scripture, God has made promises of blessings, peace, life, etc. And these promises, the blessings ground in the Bible, are for us. When you, as a Christian, read one and ask, "Is this for me?", the answer is "yes!"
2 Corinthians 1:20 is not an endorsement to start asking God to promise to give you or do things for you, it is an endorsement to search His Word, looking for His Promises, knowing they are "yes" for you.
Jus' Sayn.
It is a popular notion that everyone is created with a purpose - that when God created you and me, He had something special in mind for us to do in this world. And, in principle, I believe that to be true. However, I think the focus of that concept is generally wrong.
What I mean is that we tend to think of ourselves and our work for which we are created as the focus of our lives. People spend their lives searching for or wondering what their purpose might be. I so often hear people say, "I know God has a purpose for me. I just don't know what it is."
The trouble is, if the focus is always on me, I will always be out of focus because I am looking in the wrong direction entirely. The focus of our lives and of the universe is not us, it is God. God does not particularly have a purpose for me, he has a purpose to which he calls us. A purpose, by the way, clearly defined in Scripture.
God's purpose, to which he calls us, is the redemption of this fallen world: "For God so loved the world that he sent his one and only Son, that whosoever believes on him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).
We can all participate in that purpose in countless ways throughout the day and throughout our lives. Perhaps there is even a special ministry opportunity to which you are drawn but your purpose is to serve God by reaching out to a fallen world.
People are broken and need the healing hands of a Savior who absolutely wants to work through your life, touching people with whom you come into contact. Maybe it's the widow across the street or the child across the country or the family on another continent. Wherever you see a need, you have opportunity to serve God's purpose.
Jus' Sayn.
In Philippians 4:6, the apostle Paul tells us to "be anxious in nothing, but in everything, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." The result he promises is "the peace of Gos, which transcends all understanding" (vs 7).
Imagine not having anxiety about anything. Imagine living with a spirit of thanksgiving, regardless of your circumstances. Imagine living in an envelope of peace that Hell itself cannot shake. Now, don't imagine but know that you can live like that.
It begins with your faith in His promise to provide and protect, and your trust that His answer is right and good - always! It then requires a decision to thank God for the blessing he will provide in the middle of your circumstance. Then, knowing that God is good and that he will provide what is best, lay before him your concerns and rest in the knowledge that God's got this.
Am I saying that this is easy? Not particularly, even the best among us can fail. Remember when Jesus called Peter out on the water and, after beginning to walk on it, became anxious and started to sink (cf. Matt 14:30)? All of can relate to being overcome like that. But, do you also remember what Peter did next? He called on the Lord and was pulled out of the water.
Living with abandon, fully trusting in God and being anxious in nothing but thankful in everything, is not easy for us because we struggle with our faith and our trust in Hus power and goodness. So, chances are that you and I will not, anytime soon, perfectly live anxious-free lives, experiencing the "peace that transcends all understanding" (v. 7).
However, we can make it our goal and keep calling out to Jesus as Peter did. And, like Peter who started out so shaky, become a rock in the faith. Jus' Sayn.
In Romans 14:23, We read a very interesting and important truth: "But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin."
Doubts about eating is sinful because it doesn't come faith? Is this implying that some foods are doubtful? Didn't the Lord give the apostle a vision in Acts 10:9ff, showing him all kinds of four-footed animals, birds and reptiles, telling him to not call them unclean? Did he not set aside the Jewish dietary laws as he opened the way for Gentiles?
As a matter of fact, yes. So, what is the deal with eating certain kinds of meat in Romans 14? It wasn't certain kinds of meat, it was certain meat - meat that had been ceremoniously served up to idols and later sold in the market for consumption. Many believed that meat to be defiled and therefore sinful to consume.
Paul's personal belief was that idols were nothing and meat sacrificed to them was not defiled. However, if another man believed it defiled, for him it was and he could not eat it according to his faith and therefore, it was sin to him.
That fact is why he warned so heavily against judging our brothers and sisters in Christ - there are individual components to faith that allows one person a freedom not allowed to another. Just because something is a no or a must for you doesn't mean it is necessarily true for everyone else.
This doesn't mean that right and wrong is alway and only determined by personal beliefs or feelings, but it does mean we have to leave room for the individual component in others. It also means, we cannot simply follow the crowd, so to speak, in our individual lives. Jus' Sayn.
The writer of the Book of Hebrews warns, "let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles" (12:1). The warning clearly teaches two important facets of sin: 1) we have been given the ability to identify what is sin in our lives and 2) we have the power available to us in order to cast it off.
It is important, therefore, not to allow ourselves to accept the lie that our sin is a sickness over which we have no control or a weakness that we lack the strength to overcome or a mistake for which we are not truly to blame and can't be expected to forsee or take into hand.
We need to identify our sin, own it and then freely confess it to the Lord and seek the power He has offered us to destroy it.
A man does not beat his wife because she made him or he can't control himself, he does so because he denies his sin and chooses to be disobedient. One is not obese because he/she can't help over-eating or gains weight just smelling food, it is a choice to disobey while denying His power to free you. You name the sin and the problem is the same: denial and disobedience.
Certainly sin can progress to an addiction, in which case it may become necessary to seek professional and/or medical help. But even then, admitting sin and seeking to cast it off are key. God has given us the power, and part f that power may be invested in others around you, but the power is available.
Many, by the way, have overcome addictions without professional help. Some have had immediate release by fully accepting the Spirit's power to heal. Regardless if direct or indirectly through another, the power to cast off sin (even if progressed to addiction) is available to us.
"Confess your sins, one to another and pray for each other and you will be healed" (James 5:16). Jus' Sayn.
"God is our refuge and strength, an ever- present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea …" (Psa 46:1-2).
What if the above passage was really true in our lives? I mean to say, what if we really believed it and lived like we believed it? What would our lives look like? How would it change our day-to-day life experience? How would it change the way others perceived us?
What if, no matter what happened, we faced it with a smile in our hearts knowing, "God's got this." What if the peace and joy we feel on our best days was just as present on our worst?
What if we finally got it that while troubles are as ubiquitous as mosquitoes and as varied as snowflakes, God is omnipresent and never changing, that He is here and in control of our lives?
Wouldn't it be wonderful if we would lay our anxieties to rest and bury our worries in the depths of our faith? Wouldn't it be amazing if we lived with the ever-present confidence that God is our "ever-present help" and even if our world should "give way," we would "not fear" nor would our hearts grow faint?
If we did, really believe God was always with us, then we could "rejoice always" (Phil 4:4) having "learned the secret of being content not matter what the circumstances" (Phil 4:11) and knowing that we "can [endure] all things through Him who gives [us] strength" (Phil 4:13).
Jus' Sayn.
Luke tells of two disciples, who were walking down the road to Emmaus after the death of Jesus. They were puzzled and their hearts were downcast as they reflected on all that had happened.
While they were walking, Jesus, the risen Christ, joined them but they were not able to recognize him. As they walked, he opened the Scriptures to them and explained the teachings and prophecies regarding the Suffering of the Messiah - what had to happen concerning himself.
When they reached their home, they invited him to stay as it was getting dark. They prepared a meal, Jesus took bread took bread and when he broke it, they recognized him. Then he disappeared from their sight.
Stunned, they said, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?" (Luke 24:32).
Their story was unique in some aspects but one that we can share in a very important way today: Our hearts can be ignighted as we study the Scriptures and the Spirit of Christ opens them to us.
While we may not have the physical encounter along the road, we can "walk in the light as he is in the light" (1 John 1:7). And we can hear his voice during our quiet times of study, prayer and reflection.
Encountering The Lord, whether physically or spiritually, has the same effect of setting our hearts ablaze. The opportunity did not end in century one, it continues in century twenty-one.
Jus' Sayn.
Not everyone will appreciate your Christian faith. As you walk the walk and talk the talk, there will sometimes be push back. Your words and your works can shine a light on the beliefs or activities of another that exposes their sin or challenges their belief system.
You may find yourself the object of persecution. In fact, it is more than a possibility or even a probability. If you consistently live out and share your Christian faith, the apostle Paul affirms, "In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted" (2 Tim 3:12).
So, if you haven't had pushback or outright persecution yet, it is coming. If you have, it is probably coming again. So, should we be worried? Should we watch our "P's & Q's?" Should we go with the flow and keep our faith to ourselves? Should we live in fear of what we believe and how we live will impact us?
The answer is positively, not! "For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline." (2 Tim 1:7). When believe in His Word and live by His Spirit, there is a power to love others enough to tell the truth and the self-discipline to follow the path of righteousness.
The Spirit empowers us to fear not what others may say or do. It also empowers us to choose to do right even if we are wronged. Even when we have given way to fear or have given in to weakness, the Spirit empowers us to turn back to righteousness.
We don't have to live in fear of what others might say or do. We don't even have to fear how well or poorly we may live. We have the power to act and to be forgiven by the Holy Spirir of God.
No fear. Jus' Sayn.
In Galatians 4:16, the apostles asks people, who up til then had loved him, "Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?"
Why would that even be? Don't we want people to tell us the truth? Yes and no. People don't want to be lied to but when the truth you tell doesn't align with another's firmly held beliefs or what they firmly want to believe, it can really tick them off.
I've been watching a bit of a bru-ha-ha on Facebook, involving a video of a c-sectioned abortion of a 16 week old baby/fetus. Whatever you want to call it/him/her doesn't change the fact that if the doctor had left it in the womb until it's birthday, it would have been someone's child.
Whether you see it as a choice or him/her as a child, the truth is that at 16 weeks, the abortionist/state licensed executioner stops a beating heart that, for the believer, was started by God and for the non-believer, started by the procreative act of two individuals. Whatever - the heart was started and someone was both sanctioned and paid to stop it.
For the believer, life begins when God imparts a spirit, that could be any time from inception forward. So, unless you are truly able to speak for God on this subject, you would have to agree that abortion is, at best a lucky shot in the dark and, at worst, a state-sanctioned murder.
In our culture, abortion is a choice. However, it should be an agonizing choice as you are choosing to end the life growing in your body - a life given by God with an untold purpose, which will forever remain silenced. If you're not a believer, it's still a life with potential for untold purpose.
Is inception the moment of personhood? God only knows - not you or me or the state. I do know that personhood is taken off the table when the abortionist finishes his/her work. Jus' Sayn.
Psalm 1:1 presents a very clear picture of the downward slope of sin, where one walks with the wicked, stands with the sinners and finally sits with mockers: Walking - standing - sitting.
You can almost see someone walking along perhaps Bourbon Street in New Orleans at night, stopping out front of an "exotic dancing" establishment and then going inside to take a seat.
Sin so often starts with no commitment, just going along with the crowd, checking things out. It progresses with no more than a pause to consider taking a closer look. And then, before you know it, you've drawn up a chair and are right in the middle of it.
No wonder Paul uses the analogy of "falling into the devil's trap" (1 Tim 3:7). It is so easy to do when we take our eyes off Jesus, when we stop seeking out good, when we just allow ourselves to go with the flow. The flow, after all, always goes downhill.
Contrary to the one who goes with the flow is the one in Psalm 1:2-3, who delights in God's word and meditates on it. This person is like a tree planted by streams of water that produces fruit in season, has leaves that do not wither and is blessed by The Lord.
Focused on the world or focused on the Word - that choice determines whether we are going with the flow or going with God. That choice will set us on a downward slope or an upward journey. The choice is yours. What are you choosing?
Jus' Askn.
