merittmusings

Peace to You

www.bible.com/1713/heb.12.14.csb

Kind of a dire warning this morning, but one we should heed. Maybe your preacher never covered this one, because I know I haven’t. Pursuing peace is an essential part of our walk with Christ. This isn’t just with people we like, but with everyone. This finds an echo in the qualifications for elder ship where an elder is not to be a contentious man.

I don’t know how this will work out in your life, but I encourage you to comment below, so that in the end, we may see God.

God bless you today.

Lying Lies and the Liars Who Tell Them

www.bible.com/1713/exo.20.16.csb

What is truth? Shouldn’t we tell lies when they don’t hurt as much as truth? How can we know what truth is?

When we read this commandment of the law, we might get the impression that God is merely concerned about the integrity of the legal system, since testimony is part of accusation and proof to move to conviction. You certainly wouldn’t want someone accused falsely.

But what about everyday situations? Well, Lev 19:11 covers those when it says do not act deceptively or lie to one another. Truth matters to God, whether it’s on the stand or it’s in the home. So how do we know what truth is?

Jesus said “I am the truth”. Despite all the lies that we tell ourselves about our goodness and worthiness, Jesus is the gold standard of truth. Jesus came because we are sinners in need of a Savior. We are not righteous apart from Him. We have nothing in ourselves and our sinful inclinations that deserves salvation. Jesus stands in silent testimony against us. He proves by His righteousness that we don’t deserve it nor have earned it. But He also testifies to the love of God, and the grace extended to us. That too is truth. While we are sinners, Christ died for us, in our place, and extends his righteousness to us on our faith in Him. That is also the truth.

That’s the biggest truth. Truth for your everyday is fairly simple. Truth is that which corresponds to reality. Reality is determined by what you experience with your five senses under normal conditions. A lie would be to present a reality that does not correspond with the reality you’ve experienced.

Notice there is a great deal of wiggle room here. A person can tell a truth they’ve experienced that may not correspond to the way others have experienced it. That’s called getting both sides of the story. When you’ve examined all the witnesses to an event, you will receive a more balanced picture of what occurred. This is why it’s important for every witness to tell the truth.

We can only do as well as the reality that we believe in. If we are told lies about who we are and what we can do, then we will fail against the real world when we are tested. I.e., if you think you are a great survivalist without training, you will not last long in the woods. It doesn’t matter how confident or how sincere you are.

You may be sincere about your beliefs in Wicca or Atheism or a host of other believers. You may hold those “truths” to be self-evident. But if those truths do not correspond to the Truth, you may find yourself in the same woods as the unprepared survivalist. Even Christians who cling to “truths” not found in Scripture find themselves cast adrift when the reality they face doesn’t match their invented theology. The phrase “God doesn’t give you more than you can handle” isn’t true. God often gives us more than we can handle in order to test our faith in Him. If we could handle it, we wouldn’t need Him. Yet I’ve heard this simple phrase come from many Christian lips.

Be careful of the truths that you build you life on. You will find every one of them tested. If they are not true, you may be broken if you cannot adapt to what is true. Truth is found in the Bible, for God’s Word is true. I encourage you to study and read, reflect and share. Be prepared with the preparation of God’s Word.

God bless you today!

Find One

www.bible.com/1713/pro.17.17.csb

Good friends are hard to keep. Once you’ve got one, don’t let them go.

Morning Mercies

www.bible.com/1713/luk.6.36.csb

“I get blessed when I can put my feet on the floor in the morning.” Though I understood what he said, his meaning became more profound as he explained that the mere fact that God brought him through the night and woke him in the morning was proof of God’s mercy. I couldn’t argue with that. Wouldn’t want to.

Another might say that it was simply that natural processes, the autonomic functions of breathing and heartbeat that keep us going when we are asleep. Then there is that curious need to dream. It’s something beyond science at this point. Dreaming takes us into our memories and our stresses, but sometimes into our joys and delights. But when dreams go to dark places, I know I’ve woken up breathing hard with rapid heartbeat.

Sometimes I’ve had dreams where I have prayed in my dream, because I was afraid. I’ve had dreams where I’ve preached a whole message. Dreams are funny and complicated, and there are some I am glad to wake up from.

But my dreams have become less extreme since I started using my Bipap machine. Like using my Cpap before it, this machine makes sure I have enough air and don’t stop breathing. My wife noticed this a few years ago, because she would be cursed by my loud snoring. The machine has saved our marriage. And it’s probably saved my life. Because when you stop breathing, it puts extra stress on your heart. My family does not have a good heart history, so that was something I needed to be extra cautious with.

But all of these mechanical devices and assistance are just tools. The real person I have thank is God, because He preserved me all those years before the machine. And He continues to bless me every morning by waking me up so I can work on this blog. And you bless me by reading it.

So let me bless you once again, and send God’s mercies to you. God bless and have a great day!

Discipline Training

www.bible.com/1713/heb.12.11.csb

How is your life enriched, made deeper and more fulfilling?

Some folks work on their lives by physical discipline, training their body to endure and become resilient, running, walking, weight training and exercise. In this way they find out more about themselves and deepen their ability set.

Others travel, often to as far as their skills and abilities will take them. Whether it be on the well-trod path of hotels and interstates, or deeper into the backcountry and wilderness. They discover much about the world and the creatures that live in it.

Others, like me, don’t get out much, so we read. We like to read, expand our mind’s limits, live someone else’s life for a little while, or deepen our understanding of the world around us, even the unseen world of the Spirit.

I can’t tell you which of these is better. I think we all need all three, and the many more options that are out there. But there is one area that I know no one wants any more knowledge about: suffering.

The Lord chastises those He loves, but He seems to have favorites, doesn’t He? I have heard some of the worst tales of woe a person can hear. Man’s cruelty to his fellow man knows no bounds. But hard times are not always evil done by others. Sometimes God chastises is for our good, giving us the oxgoads and the pricks instead of honey and milk. Have you ever made a decision without God and immediately regretted it? Took a job without holding it up in prayer and realizing you have made a terrible mistake? Joshua and the Israelites did that once when the Gibeonites deceived them. Joshua was so confident in the rightness if his decision the text says very pointedly that he did not consult God. The Gibeonites became servants, but were also a thorn in their side.

But the discipline of the Lord can also be preemptive, because He knows what’s coming, so he prepares us ahead of time with hardship. Like when Joseph was sent to Egypt by his brothers. What they intended for evil, God intended for good, through His slavery and imprisonment, Joseph learned and became Prime Minister of the most powerful country in the world. Why? So he could save his family from the coming drought. He learned through hardship the discipline needed for hard times.

Not everything you suffer from is your fault. In fact, I suspect the majority of it is not. I believe suffering can be punishment from God, but it it can also be training. It can be God punishing someone else and you are caught in the crossfire. It can be the evil of this world, through which God will see you through.

Whatever you are going through today, let us pray with you, not only to hear through it, but to learn from it, if there must be anything to learn.

In talking with many caught with medical issues after a long period of health, I’ve found that many blame God for their illness. They say, “I’ve been good. Why is God punishing me?!” My response is often, “Maybe God wants to know if you will love Him no matter what happens to you. Is God only worth loving when life is going your way? Does He deserve your praise only as long as He gives you what you want?” Many of us are learning the lesson Job: “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.”

I do not presume for speak for God, as He is fully able to do this for Himself. But may I suggest that the discipline of the Lord is always a good thing. It produces a harvest or righteousness and peace for those trained by it.

God bless you today!

Unspoken Groanings

www.bible.com/1713/rom.8.26.csb

As I get older, I notice that I can often communicate with a groan or a sigh as much or more than with actual words. If my wife is deciding on making a purchase in store and she hears me sigh, she interprets that as “i don’t like this”. And she says, “ok, i don’t need this today”.

Now, before you get the impression that I am a sighing monster, I don’t consciously do this. I don’t think about sighing as a means to discourage her. It just happens. It usually means I have seen everything I need to see and am bored. But, if we save a little money, well, . . .

I think the Holy Spirit is better at this than I am, certainly. When I go to the Lord in prayer, I have no fear in what to say, because even when I say nothing, God is in communion with Himself and can share far more within Himself than I can with mere words. God knows all about it. So why pray?

Pray involves the act of submitting to the Lord, of agreeing in your heart that He is God. Of bowing your head before Him in acknowledgement of His Sovereignty and His Lordship. Prayer is all of that, but also talking to my Friend, sharing stuff that happens, and just spending time with Him. We need that. He wants that.

So take a few today to spend time with Him. God bless you.

I Saw What You Did There

www.bible.com/1713/1pe.3.12.csb

Call me behind the times, but I’ve recently discovered that this is a thing. I am not sure if it’s a meme or something else. But the “I saw what you did there” phrase is attached to something meme-ish. Yeah, I’m getting old. I probably need to ask a sixteen year-old to explain it to me.

However, the phrase works extremely well for what our verse says this morning. God is very much in this business, for He sees everything. He sees the good that we do and the bad. His eyes are on the righteous but his face is against the wicked. When God sets His face against you, you better watch out. He controls every atom in your body and He wrote the laws of physics, so I would worry.

Listen, God does not owe us anything. There is nothing we can do that can remotely compare to what God has done. God can build galaxies out of nothing. What can you do?

And don’t ever think that just because we can shock someone back to life means we can raise the dead. They are not even close. There is a very short time after someone’s heart stops that it can be viably started again. And if you wait too long, the brain starts to die. We are beautifully and wonderfully made, and we have but a brief time. Enjoy your family while you can. You might need to lose that weight to linger longer.

You might note that inside the verse above, there was a promise. The ears of the Lord hears the prayers of the righteous. Yes she watches over us, and He sees what the wicked does, but He hears the prayers of the righteous. Know this: when you pray, God hears you. God offers a hearing before the Almighty at any time. All you have to do is speak.

I saw what you did there. I hear what you said there. Ought to be a meme about that.

God bless!

Refresh Rate

www.bible.com/1713/psa.51.10.csb

How often are you refreshed? Refresh rate refers to your computers memory or screen, both of which need to be refreshed with energy when they are actively holding information. Without it, the information would be lost. It’s not unlike something we often need in our connection with God.

If you go a long time without prayer or even a verse of Scripture, your spirit begins to lose its connection with the Lord. David’s Prayer is apt. Renew in me a loyal heart. We need to be refreshed and reminded of our connection with God. Without it, temptation easily grabs hold of us and we lose our memory of how bad it was before we met Jesus. We forget His promises and our hope.

What is your refresh rate? I hope, with the help of this blog, that it is often.

God bless!

Free

www.bible.com/1713/gal.5.13.csb

Freedom isn’t free. Everything costs someone something. Free samples at the grocery store costs the store something to entice you to try new products. Buy one get one free costs the store, and you still have to buy one, but it may attract you to shop there again. Free healthcare and free college is a loss both to the hospital and the college, as they still have to pay staff to provide a service. People rarely work for free.

Your salvation in Christ is also free. No money changes hands when you offer yourself to Jesus and are baptized. But you know that the transaction was paid for at the cross. Your salvation, free to you, was paid in blood.

Paul calls attention to another freedom in us. He says we have been called to be free. We are called by God to be free. But this freedom isn’t for indulging the whims if the flesh, but for serving one another. You were not made free to “do whatever you want”. That is an improper and selfish kind of freedom, and it usually leads to bondage. No, we have been called to be free, free from our sins and our ever present anxiety of death, to use our hands and help, our eyes and ears, our hearts and minds to help one another.

That may not sound much like American Freedom, but remember we threw off the tyranny of an English King in the hope that we could govern ourselves as individual citizens. Which means we would become educated on the issues and do right by our neighbor. We would elect sound men of good character to run the government. We would be faithful to interact in our communities. We would give our loyalty to our own country and be willing to die for her because we believe in her ideals. That is freedom.

As Christians we have the freedom to be educated in the Bible. To love and pray for our neighbors. We have the freedom to jump in and help when help is needed. We are called to be free. Let us use it, for we were not called to huddle in our churches.

God bless you on this Independence Day!

Isn’t it?

www.bible.com/1713/mat.6.25.csb

Is life more than food? You are reading the words of someone for whom food is life. I am not a foodie, per se, but I like me some good grub. And I struggle with eating no more than I need, have since I was a kid. Call it insecurity or an unhealthy lifestyle, but I eat too much and it shows. So this question is prime for self-reflection.

Back when Jesus said this, the daily acquisition of food was never a done deal. People always worried living day to day, especially the people he was talking to, the downtrodden, the poor, the ordinary folks who worked for a living. They probably made enough day to day to satisfy their most basic needs, but they also had to pay taxes, and pay debts and so on. Getting their daily bread wasn’t certain, and their anxiety often settled there.

Jesus asks them about the flowers and the birds, who seem to love carelessly, but the Father feeds them daily. He asks his audience if they are worth more than birds. Surely the Father cares for them more than birds.

My problem isn’t having enough food. It’s making food my source of comfort instead of God. I know that’s what it’s about. That feeling of fullness and satiety feels good, and for some reason my brain is wired to want that in order to feel good. Now I resist getting that second helping. Because life is more than food. I resist that feeling of anxiety I get when I’m hungry, and try to eat only enough to satisfy the need. I’m not there yet, but weight loss is a goal.

I don’t know what you are struggling with today, but anxiety is not worth it. You have a loving Savior and an Infinite God who provides everything you really need. I am sure you’ve been praying about. You also need to let it go. You have to actually give it God and do the things you can do, not worry about the things you can’t. God loves you and He sees the big picture. He knows what will truly bless you and build you up. So if you’ve been praying for a better job, or a better family, or someone really bothers you, God knows it. He is already working behind the scenes to make it better. It may not be what you want, but it will be good. For God works all things out for the the good of those who love Him and obey His commandments. Don’t expect God to change your circumstances if you aren’t willing to change for Him.

I hope these blog posts are blessing you and helping you in your walk. If so, that makes me happy. I hope you have an excellent day and God bless!