Category: Uncategorized

www.bible.com/72/jer.17.10.hcsb

Huh? I thought the Lord doesn’t give us what we deserve? Isn’t that what grace is all about? Seems God didn’t get that memo. But then, you might recognize that this is Jeremiah, before Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. And you might recall that later Judaism of Jesus’s time focused on external obedience to the law, straining out gnats and counting tithes of and dill. This idea that God looks at the heart may have been too much for them.

God is trying to impress upon His hearers that He is just as concerned about the heart as He is the hands. While many of the prohibitions of the Ten Commandments deal with what we do, some, like the tenth, deal with what we think. Our thought life is important to God, “for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”

God pays attention to your thoughts, and if your thoughts condemn you. He knows if you are thinking bad or good. He knows if your thoughts are pure or corrupt. (Note to self: thinking impure thoughts about a woman other than my wife will get me into trouble).

Don’t pretend that just because you can’t see God, He can’t see you. Adam tried that already. Rather, consider the presence of the Lord is constantly with you, because He is.

Something to ponder this afternoon. God bless.

www.bible.com/72/psa.37.5.hcsb

That word can take on a couple meanings, depending on whether it is voluntary. For example, someone who has been committed without their consent is usually on their way to a mental hospital. Someone who is committed may be in a mental hospital, or just submitted to the will and direction of something greater than himself. Being committed includes submission, includes repeated willingness to a task or project. It may be a condition of relationship. But it requires submission.

If you would submit your way to the Lord, what would that look like? Sound complicated? It isn’t. If you ever take a car, you submit your way to the rules and whims of the government, where they have decided to put roads, at what slopes and grades, how many lanes and stop signs, etc. even though a car is capable of driving in any direction, we submit our way to the road already laid out before us.

It is the same with life. God has already put out guardrails for your life, shown you what is good. Though we are capable of choosing evil (Thanks father Adam!) We find that we are much more successful in life if we choose the good. Like choosing the right road, we get to our destination.

The second part, to trust in the Lord and He will act, seems more broad, but it is simply to trust in your ruler, your benefactor. He will protect you. David lived in a world where kings ruled, and the peasantry were protected by their kings and nobles from national enemies. In God we can trust even more, since He never sleeps, always watches, and is all-powerful. We know He will bring justice.

Commit and Trust. Sounds like an old message that still applies today. Make today a good day in the Lord.

God bless you.

www.bible.com/72/rom.8.38-39.hcsb

I believe that Paul’s letter to the Romans predates Felix’s speech where he says to Paul, “Thou almost persuadest me to be a Christian.” What a contrast. Though many of us are Christians today, are we fully persuaded as Paul was that we would never be separated from the love of Christ?

Now most would say, “Yes, of course I am persuaded, even convinced. I will never be separated from the love of Christ.” There are times in my own life that my certainty came into question, as 8’m sure there have been in yours. After I lost my first church back in 1997, I wasn’t even sure if I was in the will of God, let alone His love. Now I’ve got nothing on Paul, who was not only often rejected, but often stoned, beat, and nearly killed by many churches. But I can tell you that it hurt very much. I was in a depression for a year after it happened. My poor wife bore me up, but even she had her limits. If I wasn’t in school at the time, I probably would have given up completely. I spent a year out of ministry, just trying to figure out what God wanted with me. He finally called me back in, and blessed my wife and I exceptionally, but only after we had been broken and cried out to Him in desperate prayer. We discovered He had not abandoned us after all, but put us through a time of suffering until we learned to come back to Him. Until we were persuaded once again of His love.

I imagine some of you are going through a similar time. Maybe worse, maybe not, but you are questioning if God has a purpose for you. God put you on his planet for a reason. You may not find out what it is until you see Him, but I believe even the child born who cannot have a “meaningful” life has a purpose to serve in this world. Be faithful, be broken before Him, be the vessel He needs you to be. Be persuaded that even now, He loves you. Never let go of that.

God bless you today my friend.

www.bible.com/72/php.1.6.hcsb

Ever get excited about something coming up on your calendar? I know I do. I get excited about vacations coming up, or finally finishing classes or assignments. Just to know that when a certain date comes, the stress will be over and I will be free. Well, the Christian life is like that too.

One day, it will all be over, literally. One day there will be nothing else to do, no one else to witness to, no one left to argue with, because on that day, Christ Jesus will be coming back. We have the best day to look forward to, don’t we?

But if you noticed in this verse, there is something else. On that day, we will be finished, but not in the sense that we are threatened. We will be finished in the sense that God will be done working on us. At that point, we will be completed, mature, ready for what comes next. We may not know the particulars, but we know that God is getting us ready for something more than this life. It’s as if we are in labor to bring our souls to life in new bodies; that our whole life has been 90 years of birth pangs in order to bring a new life into the next world. That’s a funny thought, isn’t it?

Our original genetic material began long before we were born, when our mother was in utero in her own mother, and all the eggs she would ever produce in her lifetime we’re formed. Our father’s contribution was created only a few days before we were conceived, to introduce us to 9 months of development. Our mother then went into labor to bring us into the world. Those nine months determined a lot about the kind of person we would be when we were born. So too these 90 years will determine a lot about the kind of eternity we will be found in. Something to think about.

God bless!

www.bible.com/72/jhn.15.4.hcsb

This enigmatic statement had gotten a lot of attention in scholarly circles, or more precisely, by those trying to closely define the meaning of these two simple words. Yet the more we understand about Christ, the more mysterious this phrase becomes.

Christ is God. In fact, Christ is the second person of God (and that offers us a great deal to ponder by itself). Christ’s particular role is to redeem humanity from sin by suffering the wrath of God in our place so that we could receive His righteousness, and so be covered by His blood. Because Christ has become our Savior (yes, become, because there was a time that He was not, a monkey wrench in the immutability of God), He is also Lord and Mediator between God and saved humans. As you can see, just to talk about who Jesus is can become complicated quickly.

So then to be “in Christ” to remain in Him as He remains in us, and to make this a quality of our relationship with Him as a believer requires from us some careful meditation. For this is a prerequisite of fruit-bearing. So let me simplify this a little bit.

To be in Christ is to spend time following, imitating, studying His words and work, meditating on His promises, and even experiencing His presence, since He is the Living Christ. He is a Living presence, and as Christians, we are told to be present in Him. So that means we ought to spend some time in prayer, just talking and listening, even in silence, just being in His presence. Sounds a little mystical, I know, and I am not comfortable with mystical. But the pause to the outside world and the quiet time spent just spending time in Him, in His word, in prayer with Him can be what He’s calling us to here. I encourage you to spend that time just being with Jesus. Let Him abide in you, as you abide with Him.

God bless you today!

www.bible.com/72/mat.5.14-16.hcsb

Being light all the time is tough. As this verse relates, being light invokes a few images. First the light of the world, much as sunlight is to the earth. We are responsible for bringing light to the whole world, to illuminate everywhere, not just in the places of our choosing.

We are the city on the hill, which can be seen for miles around. We are obvious by our activity in the day and by our lighted buildings by night. We ought to be obvious and difficult to be missed to the casual observer in our good works.

We are the lamp that shines in dark room (note how the images become more intimate) providing light to all who in the house. We are to be light to our own families, to all who live in our own house.

Lastly all of this light is in truth good works. If we are light, then we are doing good in our world. It’s isn’t enough to tell people about the light, but we must show them how to be light to others. Please don’t miss this. Christianity was never about your relationship with God alone. It always involves others. You cannot be a Christian and ignore your brothers in the faith. You cannot say “I love Jesus” and ignore the helpless, or hate the hurting.

I encourage you today to shine your light before men, showing them the goodness of God that we might save some. God bless you today!

www.bible.com/72/php.2.12.hcsb

As many of us have undertaken a Nee Year’s resolution or two to do some self-improvement, may I remind you not to neglect this one.

While we are saved through the blood of Jesus, and enjoy His grace and mercy through His love, there is also a need to work out our salvation, making the effects of our salvation sure, by practicing our faith, our love for one another, and participating in the body of believers.

Don’t neglect this part of your salvation, the part that reaches out to others. God bless you today!

www.bible.com/72/gal.5.14.hcsb

The whole law, all 613 elements of it, can be fulfilled by obeying this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” So, yeah, I guess that’s it for today.

P. S. – a note about “as yourself”.

So this verse unwittingly has become the foundation of the self-love movement, as The Scripture says here to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Inherent in this understanding is the concept of self-love. But let me tell you the difference between what is call self-love and what is here in this verse.

Self-love is about satisfying the self, exalting the self, and giving place to self when other’s have needs too. I may be exaggerating a bit, but this is where the self-love movement eventually ends up.

By contrast, this verse is talking about selfishness. It’s the same as self-live because it is self-interest, which everyone has. It is a natural inclination to preserve ourselves, take care of ourselves and protect ourselves. We really don’t need any Scripture telling us to do this. Besides, Scripture is not saying we need to live ourselves here. We already do that very well. What is is saying is that we need to love others with that same level of self-interest. We don’t do that naturally and Scripture offers a boost here, a moral compulsion if you will. Our natural self-love needs to be turned outward, and as such, when we do this, we fulfill the law.

It isn’t natural. It’s supernatural. God bless!

www.bible.com/72/jas.1.17.hcsb

I’ve always been fascinated with the ability of artists and playwrights to take a story and bring it to life, whether on stage or screen. What begins as words on a page become full-fledged reality with the hiring of actors and interpretations of characters. Yet even here, the actors are not given free reign. The are told and instructed by the Director, who is informed by the larger story to help each actor act according to their character in the story so that the story makes sense.

In turn, we find in Scripture that there is a Director guiding us and leading us on the story He has written. Much as a Director guides the lighting and the staging for a play, so The Director of All is the Father of Lights and gives gifts to us to encourage us to follow His story. When we follow the Direction of God, the story makes more sense. When we take our characters and freely interpret them to our choosing, there is chaos. When we go “off-script” it may be fun for a while, but we find that getting back is much harder. When we write our own story, we find that it is meaningless. God has a much greater story for us to be a part of.

God bless you today, and may you find your role in God’s story.

www.bible.com/72/mat.11.15.hcsb

Do you have ears? Seems obvious doesn’t it? But it’s not. Having ears enables you to hear. But there is a vast gulf between hearing and listening. Sounds occur all around us, even if we are deaf. As humans, we have the ability to filter our soundscape to focus in on those things we want to focus on, whether it be someone’s voice, the sound of a door opening at night, a tv program, or the sound of breathing of a dying loved one.

Jesus’ call to ears (calling a part for the whole) is to those who have ears to hear, ears to discern the signal from the noise. His call is to minds that can filter out the junk and the useless and focus on what’s important. His call is for the gospel to find its way in you, the good news that we can stop laboring to earn our salvation, our need to “get right with God”, for God has already paid the price for sin. He both calls us and justifies us.

Bask this morning in the joy that our struggle is over. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, receive His free gift of salvation. But you need to hear it, for “faith comes by hearing”. Listen.

God bless.