New Year coming

It seems like yesterday when we began 2010 and here it is just about to end. I don't know about you but I feel like I could have done more this year. I just needed a plan to get it done. This week I plan on taking some time to pray and see what God would have me do this year in the various areas of my life. This past Sunday I handed out some worksheets to help people look at their lives and puts some God directed goals on paper for the year. I encourage you to do this. If you would like a copy of the goals then send me an email at jhoffecker@gmail.com and I will shoot you over a copy. Have a safe and happy New Year!

Merry Christmas

I have been thinking a lot this year about what Christmas should mean to those who follow Jesus Christ. Our society and even many churches have made the holiday about things that really don't matter. Giving and receiving gifts are nice but not what Christmas is about. Parties and spending time with family aren't quite it either. Time off from work or school isn't what it is about. Christmas is about taking time to remember what we should think about every day. The God who created all things, the ruler of all that is seen and all that is unseen loved His creation so much that He sent His son so that we could know God. He loves us more that we could ever know. And God gave us the most incredible gift. The gift of Himself. Let's keep that in mind on Saturday morning and throughout every day of our lives. Merry Christmas!

2 Corinthians 9:7

2 Corinthians 9:7 says "Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." (NIV)
I have heard this verse used in many ways over the years and rarely in the way that I believe Paul intended it to be used. It says that each should give what he has decided in his heart to give. Not what he has then thought about with his or her head to give but with the heart. Because the heart if it is yielded to God has the desire to give. It is when we start to think about it and not go with the prompting of our heart that we feel reluctant to give or almost like we are being forced to give. You shouldn't be made to feel guilty to give to God. And God doesn't want you to give out of compulsion. I have heard it said that if you can't give cheerfully then you shouldn't give at all. I hate it when we use scripture as an excuse to not be faithful and obedient to God's word. All throughout scripture there is the command to give to God. Give off the top, to give generously. Yet we use this one verse to excuse our disobedience. We say that if I can't give cheerfully then I shouldn't give. But that disregards the rest of scripture and doesn't really speak to what this passage is saying. Paul is telling the Corinthian believers to give from the heart and to do it cheerfully. If you can't do it cheerfully, then you need to stop and figure out why. Why can't you do it? It doesn't say don't give if you can't do it cheerfully, but we should examine our hearts to see why we aren't cheerful about it. Maybe our money has too much of a hold on us and we need to give it away to break that hold so that we can be cheerful about it. God wants you to be a cheerful giver, but He also commands your obedience as His follower. We should not use a feeling as an excuse to disobey God. So learn to give cheerfully, ask God to show you why you have trouble giving but be obedient at the same time.

Psalm 37:8

I was reading this Psalm last week at this verse that I have probably read 30 times in my life jumps off the page at me. It says this. "Cease from anger and forsake wrath; do not fret; it leads only to evildoing." The part that really spoke to me was that we should not fret because it leads only to evildoing. To fret mean to feel or express worry of discontent. When we worry, when we feel discontent we are not putting our hope and our trust in God's promises. We begin to fear what may happen in the future, whether it is 10 minutes or years away. And that is when it leads to evildoing. We act or react to this fear or discontent in a way that does not honor God. Anything that brings dishonor to God is evildoing. When we confess that Jesus Christ is our Savior, we are putting our trust in Him for eternity, but sometimes it is hard to trust that He has our best interest at heart right now. God does have your best interests at the core of what He does. We need to take this warning to not fret seriously. I think that as followers of Jesus we sometimes give different weight to the various commands of Jesus. Some like anger and wrath we say of course we should not do those things. But many of us deal with worry every day. In this passage they are all put together. If our hope is truly in God and our trust is in that He has our best in mind then we need to trust that God will do what is best for us. Don't fret, because it only leads to evildoing.

Like Jesus

God has not said that He wants a improved you when you decide to follow Him. He doesn't want someone who is a better version of themselves. He gives us an example of what He wants us to be in this life. He wants us to be like Jesus. When I compare myself to Jesus I realize that I am not even close. It isn't as if I can fix a little bit here and tweak something over there and then I will be like Him. I can't do it. But Jesus told us how God wants to bring this about in our lives. He told us that He is the vine and we are the branches. The vine gives life to the branches. The branches die on their own. But when we are connected continually to Jesus, His fruit is what comes out. The character of Jesus is what comes out of us when we stay connected with the vine. When we disconnect from the vine our fruit becomes rotten. We can't bear fruit apart from Jesus. We can't have Jesus' character apart from Him.

Relying on God

I firmly believe that God uses our circumstances and trials in life to bring us to a place where we rely only on Him. In the beginning of the summer I began to ask God to move in my life. And He has answered that prayer time and time again over the last few months. He has brought to my attention areas that I need to change. He has allowed things to happen around me that make it so I can only rely on Him. I can't rely on myself because what He has asked me to do is far beyond my abilities. I don't have the strength or talents to do this on my own. But through yielding to God's will and allowing Him to work through me is how He is getting things done. I tell God quite often that I can't do this (whatever this is at the time) but He can through me and I ask Him to do it. And He does. He meets me and works through my weaknesses and my strengths to move. This week, ask God to work through your situation and see how He does it for you.

The Lord's Prayer Wrap Up

One of the things that I do as I pray through the Lord's Prayer is to also pray these same things for my family. I pray that God would be glorified in their lives. I ask that His rule and will would take place in their lives. I pray that God would meet their needs. I ask Him to forgive them and help them confess their sins and to forgive others. I pray that He would not lead them into temptation but if they are tempted to deal with it properly and I pray that God would deliver them from evil. As I finish praying through the Lord's Prayer I also then lift up anything that comes to mind. It may be is praying for others that come to mind or things in my life I want God to work on today. Try it for a few weeks and see if this helps you pray and seek God more consistently. I know it has helped me.

The Lord's Prayer "but deliver us from evil"

We now come to the end of the Lord's prayer. Now we ask for deliverance from evil or from the evil one. We pray to God for protection from evil. I take this time to put on the armor of God that Paul talks about in Ephesians 6. If you think about this armor that God has given us, it is like we are clothing ourselves with God. That He covers us and protects us from every evil as we depend on Him. I also pray against that attacks of the enemy in my life. I stand as a child of God under His kingdom rule and authority. Think of it this way, if someone were to attack an ambassador of our country it would be viewed as an attack on the nation itself. We are God's ambassador's and attacks against us are attacks against God. As Elisha says in 2 Kings 6, those who are with us are more powerful than those who are with the enemy. Depend on God to deliver you from evil and trust His guidance.

Lord's Prayer "lead us not into temptation"

This is a very important part of the Lord's Prayer. We ask God to not lead us into temptation which God will not do because according to James 1:13 God cannot be tempted and does not tempt to evil. If we are walking in God's will we will avoid most temptations but sometimes we stray and end up facing temptation. Sometimes the enemy will bring temptation to us. When we face temptation we have a few things we can do to overcome it. First, we can flee. Time and time again we are told to flee immorality and other sins. Sometimes you can't flee for some reason or another. We also have the promise that God will provide a way out from any temptation that we face (1 Cor 10:13). So we pray and ask God to show us the way out. We ask the Holy Spirit for help and guidance. We can go to God's word and see what it says about our situation and how to handle it. We can cry out to God for His help. There are times when we need to seek help from others when dealing with temptation. We need to find someone we trust who we can share our weaknesses with and have accountability for our actions and thoughts. Put all of this into practice and you will begin to see victory over temptation. But you have to want victory and to hate the sin. Until you hate your sin you will continue to fall. Ask God to open you eyes to the sins that you love and for Him to show you how damaging it truly is to your life and the lives of others.

Lord's Prayer "as we forgive those who has trespassed against us"

Last time we looked at how we need to ask for forgiveness. Then Jesus goes on to something that is critical as a follower of Jesus Christ. We need to forgive others. We need to forgive anyone who has sinned against us. Now that seems like a pretty tall order. Jesus clarifies this statement further in Matthew 6:14-15. He basically says if you forgive others, then God will forgive you, but if you don't forgive others, then you won't be forgiven. What does this mean? Think of it this way. Forgiveness is like a snorkel. If you go snorkeling you have a tube that you stick in your mouth that allows you to breathe in and out. If you clog the tube, you can't breathe. Forgiveness flows in the same way. If you have clogged the tube with unforgiveness then you are going to have a difficult time receiving forgiveness from God. The tube needs to be clear for forgiveness to flow. Ask God to reveal to you where you are holding something against someone, where you need to forgive others.
Now remember that forgiveness is an active process. It is not forgetting which is passive. You may remember how that person hurt you for the rest of your life. Forgiveness is making 4 promises. The first is that you will not dwell on this incident. You will not continue to stew and get angry about what happened. You will not get bitter. This promise is the one that needs to be made even when the other person has not sought forgiveness or admitted that they are wrong. Do not dwell on it. The other promises are for when someone has sought forgiveness from you. The second one is that I will not bring up this incident again and use it against you. Once you have forgiven someone and you bring the problem back up again you are showing that you haven't forgiven them yet. There are some times when there are exceptions to this rule when you have noticed a pattern of behavior and to not be able to speak about what happened in the past may hurt the person long term. The third promise is that I will not talk to others about this incident. Stop telling everybody and their sister about what this person did to you. You are damaging them in someone else's eyes and may need to seek forgiveness yourself. Th fourth promise is that I will not let this incident stand between us or hinder our personal relationship. Things need to go back to the way they would have been had this problem not intervened. It doesn't mean that you have to be best friends with someone if they were not close before the problem occurred. This is what God does with us and what He wants us to do with each other. None of these promises are easy. But our God is a powerful God who has promised to help us when we seek Him for help.

Lord's Prayer "forgive us our trespasses"

The word that Jesus uses here is also translated as debt. It is something that we are obligated to pay for because we transgressed. We are asking for forgiveness from the wrong that we have made. All sin even when it is against someone else is ultimately rebellion against God. When we pray through the Lord's prayer we first realign ourselves under His rule and will then we ask for removal of the debt that we owe our Lord. We owe God a debt that we cannot in a million years pay. In fact we have no way of repaying this debt at all. There is no currency with which to pay it back with. God knows this and sent His son to die on the cross and rise from the dead as payment for our sins. God has already forgiven your sins when you come to Him. He has already taken care of them but until you confess your sins and ask for forgiveness you cannot experience the freedom that He offers you. When I pray through this I ask God to remind me of the sins in my life that I may overlook as nothing. I ask for Him to bring my sins out into the light so that they are exposed where they can whither and die in the light. God will do this when you ask Him to expose your sin that you have been hiding or ignoring. Confess your sins to God, ask for forgiveness and ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate any areas that need work.

Lord's Prayer "give us this day our daily bread"

When I am praying through the Lord's prayer and I get to this part I begin to lift up my needs and wants for the day. This part of the prayer comes after we remember who God is, how great and powerful He is and how He want His kingdom to rule in our life and His will to be done. Now we get to lift up our needs to Him in light of all of this. We get to come before our Father, who has all the power that exists with our small needs and wants. I ask for my needs for the day to be met. My physical, emotional, mental & spiritual needs. That there would be enough money to pay for the needs and some of the wants as I hear His will for my stewardship of what He has given me already. This part of the prayer cannot be separated out from the rest. It is an integral part of seeking God. Jesus said to seek His kingdom and His righteousness first then all these things will be added unto you. In the Lord's Prayer He shows us how to go about seeking the things of God first in the order He places the phrases. We don't start with our needs but with who God is and God's desires for us then we can move to lifting up our needs from our viewpoint. As you pray through the Lord's Prayer, remember to look for the answers He gives and praise Him for it. This past week I was praising God that I have never been homeless or without food of some sort. The Father has seen me through this far and that gives me faith for future provision.

The Lord's Prayer "on earth as it is in heaven"

When we pray that God's kingdom and His will would be done on earth as it is in heaven there are a few things to think about. The first thing is how does His kingdom work in heaven? His rule is fully over the realm of heaven. His rule is realized by all who reside in heaven. We pray that this world would feel the greatness and majesty of His rule. We ask that He would institute His rule over all of us.
The second thing to contemplate is how does His will work in heaven. I would surmise that when His will is made known in heaven that there isn't any argument, any second guessing, any unwillingness to complete His will. In heaven, God's will is done without delay. So when we pray that His will would be done on earth, we are asking that His will would be accomplished without hesitation. That we would do His will immediately as it is made known to us.
Take some time to contemplate what God Kingdom and His will would look like if they ruled your life. What would you do different knowing that God wants you to do His will without argument or indecision?

The Lord's Prayer "your will be done"

I have been praying this prayer a lot recently. I have asked for God's will to be done. Sometimes it is easier said than done. It can be hard to determine God's will for my life and how I should go about fulfilling it. I believe that this prayer is part of figuring out what God wills. When we ask for His will to be done and during the day we have something happen that was unexpected, a phone call, an interruption that really messes up our day, how do we respond? We asked for God's will to be done and now something seems to be getting in the way of our plans. Maybe, just maybe it is God interrupting our plans so that His will could be done. We need to be aware that when we pray this prayer that God will bring about His will. We should look for it to happen instead of looking at our plans and wondering why they didn't happen. Expect God's will to become known to you throughout the day and get on board with His will. Pray that you will see interruptions and disruptions as divine appointments in your day that God planned for you to see His will completed. Be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit throughout the day.

The Lord's Prayer "your kingdom come"

What is God's kingdom and how should we understand it? When we think of a kingdom we tend to think about a geographical domain that in under control of a leader or country. Or a realm of control. The United States of America has clearly defined borders where you can look on a map and say there it is or isn't. This isn't how the kingdom is used in the New Testament. When Jesus and the apostles use the word kingdom they mean something else. The kingdom is the right to rule and not real estate. When Jesus prayed for God's Kingdom to come he was asking that God would exercise His authority, His right to rule based on His might, power and glory. When we pray this prayer we are asking God to bring abut His right to rule on this earth. We want God to display His kingly rule and power over all of creation. We are asking Him to destroy the kingdom of darkness. We seek that He would be ruler over all. One day He will rule over all the realms of this earth. We pray that His rule would expand until the day comes when He takes the entire realm. Is His rule expanding over your life? Pray that He would rule in all your affairs this week.

The Lord's Prayer "hallowed be thy name"

Jesus continued the Lord's prayer with "hallowed be thy name." This is not meant to be a statement of praise. It is a request in the original language saying: "Father... sanctify your name!" You could paraphrase it like this. Father, lift up, exalt, single out, manifest and reveal Your name to all who inhabit the earth. Become famous for who you really are. Make the people of the earth come to know and adore you.
Jesus was in effect asking, and telling us to ask, His Father to glorify His own name. We need to recapture this meaning of hallowed be thy name. We are asking God to make His name known and praised in all the earth. It is a reminder that God is the one who does the work in and through us as we follow Him to make His name known in all the earth. So go ahead and praise God, but also ask Him to make His name known so that the whole world would praise Him also.

The Lord's Prayer "Our Father"

When Jesus was asked to teach his disciples he started out by saying "Our father." This is significant because God was not seen as a father figure. God was an almighty, most powerful God who created everything and had a list of rules and regulations to follow. Jesus introduces us to God, the Father. He includes his disciples in this when he uses the word our. God is our Father. He isn't a remote God who you cannot approach except in dire circumstances or with specific rituals. He is a father who cares deeply for his children. A father who sees exactly what they need and gives it to them. A father who is perfect. More perfect than even the best of fathers. Many of us can't even grasp what kind of father God is because our own earthly fathers have not been good examples of God's love. Take some time in the next few days to ask God to show you how he cares for you as a child. Look at your own earthly father and be honest with yourself in where he failed you and don't expect God to fail you in the same way. God is the Father that all of us fathers should strive to be like but fail so short of time and time again. Ask God to open your eyes to His love for you. He is Our Father.

Vacation

I feel like it's been forever since I last posted and it has been. I have been on vacation. I realized when I thought about it that I haven't taken a vacation in just about 2 years. Not since the summer of 2008. That is a long time to not take a break from the normal every day stuff and spend time exploring new places and spending time that if focused on my family to the exclusion of most other things. We had a great time, met people all over the country, took part in a wonderful wedding and bonded with many great memories that we can pull out in years to come. We all need a break sometime from our crazy pace of life. We need to be reminded of the beauty of this place that God created for us. We need to know that the world is much bigger than the little part of it we see on a daily basis. We need to experience that our God is so much bigger than our problems. This vacation helped me gain some perspective on all of God's creation.

Romans 14:13

Paul says in Romans 14:13 "but rather determine this - not to put an obstacle of stumbling block in a brother's way." I keep coming back to the this verse and asking God if I am doing this in anyway. Am I by my actions or words putting something in front of other followers of Jesus Christ that would cause them to fall into sin? This is something we all need to be aware of in our daily life. Some people believe that certain kinds of music should not be allowed in church. I believe that God is ok with those same forms of music. If I were to go to their church and make them listen to it I would be putting up a stumbling block before them. Something to trip them up in their walk with God. I pray that God would reveal to me and to you if we are doing this and that we would be willing to stop so that our brother or sister in Christ is not led into sin.

Romans 12:1-2 continued

In verse 2 of chapter 12 of Romans we receive some commands from Paul. First he says that we are not to be conformed to this world. Conformed means to take on the same pattern. If you were to patch a piece of clothing you would want the pattern to match up so that the patch disappears. To use a patch that does not match the pattern would be for it stand out glaringly. We are not to blend in with the world. We should not be able to just fit into the patterns of this world. I am afraid that we do this to easily. But Paul doesn’t stop with just telling us what not to do. He tells us how to not be conformed.

Paul says for us to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. We once were the same pattern as the world and maybe we haven’t changed much. We think the way everyone else does and we act out of that.  But we can be transformed into something else. The word here has a root that means to metamorphose which is involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure which is usually accompanied by a change of habit or behavior.  As our mind is renewed through spending time in prayer and searching out the word of God we are transformed. And it should result in a change of behavior. Our pattern, what we look like and where we fit in should change. If it hasn’t then you need to take some time to examine where you stand with God.

The reason you need to be transformed is so that you may prove what the will of God is. As your mind is renewed you are better able to determine God’s will in all areas of your life. The word prove means to test or examine. As decisions and choices come before you and you decide what to do and where to go you are able to determine what God wants to do in this situation and how God wants you to respond. And His will is good, it is acceptable or well-pleasing and it is perfect.  We stand on this, that God’s will for our lives is good. 

Do not be conformed to this world, but let your mind be transformed so that you can do the will of God.

 

 

 

Romans 12:1-2

I was reading Romans 12:1-2 one morning this week and I took some time to think about what it was really saying. I have probably read this passage at least 30 times before this time. Yet I never stopped to ponder what it meant. Sometimes I get so caught up in making sure I read a passage that I never stop to find out what it means for me.

A couple of things jumped out at me. It says for us to present our bodies as a living and holy sacrifice that is acceptable to God. It sounds like a good idea but what does it mean? Obviously we can’t present our bodies as a traditional sacrifice since we still need to live afterwards. Once a sacrifice is offered to God it is no longer in your control or under your authority. When we present our bodies as living sacrifices we are giving authority over our flesh to God on whose altar we have placed ourselves. A sacrifice once offered cannot be used again for other purposes. Only for the purposes of God. Our bodies, our flesh are offered up to God and should not be joined into sin anymore. We are saying in effect we are dead to sin and all else except God’s will for our lives. This is how we worship God. We submit not just our spirits or mind to Him but also our very flesh to His will.

Next time I will go into what verse 2 spoke to me.

 

 

Sometimes the Bible is confusing

Take Proverbs 26:4-5 ⁴ Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself. ⁵ Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes. (NIV) At first read these two verses seem to contradict each other. In verse 4 is says to not answer a fool according to his folly and in verse 5 it says to answer a fool according to his folly. What do you do when you come across something like this? Well, there are several things that you can do. The first thing I would recommend is to pray about it. God has given us the gift of His Holy Spirit living in our hearts. God can and will illuminate the meaning of a passage as we ask Him to do so.

The second thing I would suggest is to read the passage through in a few other versions. www.biblegateway.com allows you to look at many of the versions out there for free. It we applied this to the above passage we see this from the NASB translation.  “⁴Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will also be like him. ⁵ Answer a fool as his folly deserves, that he not be wise in his own eyes.” In this translation verse 5 becomes much clearer. It doesn’t contradict the earlier verse. In fact it tells us to answer a fool as his folly deserves. Don’t answer according to his folly but give him what he deserves which may not be the answer he was looking for at all, but with the goal of making sure he realizes his own foolishness.

Another thing you can do when you have trouble understanding a verse or passage is to do some research. There are many sites on the internet that allow you to look at commentaries that examine the meaning of the passage. Places like net.bible.org or www.biblegateway.com . You can also do an internet search on the passage. I would put a caution here when searching. Not all of the pages you come across will be helpful or correct. You should always go back to a trusted source. One program I use often is called Bible Explorer 4. It allows you to download many commentaries and other study helps to your computer.

The last suggestion I have is to ask others. There are many people in our church who have vast amounts of knowledge of the Bible from years of study. Use them as a resource. Ask your house church leader or pastor. Seek out the answer. Don’t let the hard questions or things you don’t understand stop you from learning more about God. Seek out answers to your questions so that you can better understand God’s grace to you.

Sin's reign is over

Romans 6:12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

We face many choices each day whether to let sin reign in us and be our master or to present ourselves to God. Each word spoken, each action taken falls into one of these two categories. Either we serve God or we serve sin. There is no in between. There is no grey area. We are to consider ourselves dead to sin. If we are dead to sin then it cannot reign over us and we are no longer subject to it. We don't have to sin anymore. Let me repeat that, you don't have to sin anymore. When we do sin we are choosing to do it whether we admit it or not. If we live like we are truly dead to sin we can then use our members, our bodies, as instruments of righteousness to God. Count yourself dead to sin today and live the life that God has called you to live.

Dead to sin but alive to God

What does is mean for you in Romans 6:11 when Paul says “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. “ When we are baptized we are symbolically dying to sin and raising to new life as Christ did before us. Now, Jesus is living a life unto God. The old way is dead and gone and the new way of living is in its place. Count yourself dead to sin. Sin has a hold on you as long as you are alive. But when you become a follower of Jesus Christ something happens. You are now identified with the death of Christ and also with the new life that Christ brings. You are now dead to sin. Sin does not have a hold of your life. You are dead to it. When it comes to knock at your door you can say, “Who? That person died.” It is like a bill collector who keeps calling and you know they have the wrong house but sometimes you answer and get all caught up. You are dead to sin. I am dead to sin. But do I live like it? And further more do I live my life to God in Christ Jesus? Are all my post death actions ones that are for God and not myself or sin? Sadly, I fall short in this area also. This is part of getting our thinking right about God. We are dead to sin and alive to God. Before we were dead to God and alive to sin. The tables have been reversed. Things don’t have to be the way there always were and in fact aren’t the way they always were. We need to adjust our thinking to the new reality we have in Christ that we are DEAD to sin and ALIVE to God in Christ Jesus. Live like you know this truth today!

Blessed to bless others

I am taking a class for my ordination that covers world missions. In the first class it covered how God had blessed Abraham so that Abraham's descendants would be able to bless all the peoples of the earth. God didn't bless Abraham so that he could have a whole lot of stuff. He bless Abraham so that Abraham could be a blessing to others.

We live in a nation that has been blessed beyond possibly all other nations ever. With that blessing comes the responsibility to bless others who have not been so fortunate. God requires that we don't just use the blessings He has given us for our own enjoyment but to be able to bless others which is something we can enjoy also. God has blessed me in so many ways and I need to be looking for ways to bless others. How has God blessed you and how does He want you to bless others?

Works of the Law

I am currently reading in Romans and I was reminded again about how what we do does not justify us. Our good deeds and works do not make us right in God's eyes. It is by the blood of Jesus Christ that we have forgiveness of sins. We cannot earn it by anything we do with our lives. I think there is a danger that followers of Jesus Christ begin to forget this and we start to depend on what we have done after we have become followers of Jesus Christ to make us right with God. That we need to make sure we spend 30 minutes a day with God or He won't be pleased with us. Maybe we think that we have to be involved with every program to earn our salvation. The worst part is we deceive ourselves. We do this by never examining our motivation for doing the works of God. If we do them out of love for God we are on the right path. If we do them because we think we have to then we are trying to earn something that cannot be earned. Grace is a gift from our loving heavenly Father. So why do you do the things you do? Have you taken time recently to examine your own motivations? Take some time today to think about what you do and how it may point to where your heart is.

Life happens (follow up to paths)

After I wrote the last blog about paths and how God is constantly working on us I ran into a situation that I was able to later identify as God digging some roots out of my life. I got angry over a set of circumstances that I didn’t like. I felt like everything was working against me. As I processed through why I was angry and began to pray a little bit I realized it was all about my own selfishness. I was being selfish. I was thinking only about how I felt and about how things affected me and my plans. I was not looking at it from a viewpoint of how can I most serve God in this situation but how could I get what I wanted. Thankfully I did not get what I wanted and God was able to show me at least this tendril of root. The only problem is that the roots of selfishness are similar to the roots of bamboo. They snake all over the place and continue to grow even when you think you have gotten them all out. I pray that God would open my eyes sooner to my own selfishness in the future so that I can see Him and glorify Him through how I respond. What is God using in your life to open your eyes to how you need to change?

 

 

 

Paths

Over the last 2 weekends I worked on putting a brick paver path from the front door out to the side walk. It was about 28 feet long and 39 inches wide. I had to dig down (with a lot of help) about 7 inches overall to get the foundation set. It was a difficult and tiring process. Once the digging was done I needed to put in the landscape fabric to keep the stones from migrating away from the path. Then I needed to put the layer of stone which needed to be packed down. Then came the sand which needed to be packed down and then leveled to the correct depth. After that was the layer of pavers and then finally the edging to hold it all together. It was a long process and all the steps needed to be followed to get a good looking, long lasting final product.

It reminded me of how God works in our lives. He digs out the unneeded soil where things have taken root in our lives that would disrupt the path He wants us to take. He puts in a firm foundation of His word that everything else rests upon. Then God works to level out the rough and uneven spots in our lives before He can complete the work. But our lives are much longer than a 28 foot path. Time and again we come to a new section and the work starts over. Realize that all that is going on in your life if God's way of doing the work that needs to be done for you to become what He desires. God began a work and He does all things right the first time, so sometimes it seems to take longer than it should. Trust that the Master Builder has a plan and purpose for all that you go through.

Easter is coming!

The next 2 weeks in the yearly calendar of the church are the most important. More important than Christmas even though Christmas seems to get more attention. Easter is when we take time to be reminded once again that Jesus Christ, God in flesh, came to this Earth to lay down His life for each of us and then 3 days later pick it back up again to be glorified at the right hand of God. God sent His only begotten son to die on a cross because of my sin and because of your sin so that we can be made right with Him. Easter is about remembering this and celebrating that we are God's children when we have accepted the sacrifice made on our behalf.

I recently read a survey in which many people in this country didn't know why we celebrate Easter. It seems absurd to me that people don't know what Easter is about but it is true. Even people who attend church regularly are unsure of what Easter is about. Maybe that is because we as followers of Jesus Christ fail to speak about it or focus on it ourselves. This year, make the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ the focus of your Easter and let the egg hunts and parties take a backseat to what is really important.

Judges 13 - Sampson's parents (continued again)

The final thing that I was wondering about in Judges 13 isn't spelled out in the text and is just one of those things as a parent I wonder about. I know how Sampson's life turns out. I know that choices he made, I know how God used the poor decisions that Sampson made. I just wonder what role his parents played in him making poor judgments. Did they coddle him and speak to him about how special he was all the time so that he began to think he was better than others? Did they just do that things the angel said and forget to teach him about God's law? Did they teach him everything they were supposed to teach him and he still choose the path that he did? We may never know this but I would like to think that I am raising my girls to know God and follow His will for their lives. I just have to remember that I need to do what God has called me to do and leave the outcome in His hands. If you look at Sampson's life you see that God used Sampson's sins for His own glory. God can and will use all things for His glory and I need to trust Him with my children.

Judges 13 - Sampson's parents (continued)

Another thing that I never saw before in this story is contained in verses 6-8. The angel of the Lord appeared to the wife of Manoah who was barren. He tells her that she will bear a son and that he is to be a Nazirite from birth. She comes home and tells her husband. In verse 8 we see how Manoah responds. He prays to God for the man to come again to teach them how to raise this child. What I found significant was that he didn't doubt what his wife said to him from what was recorded. He trusted her and went to God with it. And God answers his prayers in verses 9-14 by sending the angel of the Lord to them. I was convicted because sometimes I don't have the level of trust in my own wife that Manoah showed. And the problem isn't that she has done things to lose my trust. I just don't put the trust in her that she deserves. I need to work on this one in my daily life.

to be continued...

Judges 13 - Sampson's parents

I was reading through Judges 13 this morning and I was struck by a few things. The first thing that jumped out to me was that once again the people of Israel turned from God and He put them under the rule of the Philistines for 40 years. That is a long time. If I lived in that day and I was born at the beginning of this time of subjugation to the Philistines there would still be 6 more years left before Israel is delivered. It took that long for the nation to wake up and turn back to God. I hope and pray it doesn't take 40 years for God to get my attention to turn back to Him if I fall into sin. Sometimes the hard things in our lives are the result of sin. We reap the consequences of what we have done wrong. Some choices we make now, will affect us later in life in ways we can't even understand. That is why it is important to stay in God's will since He know what the future holds for us.

I will share the other things that jumped out to me in future posts.

Gideon and his legacy

I have been reading in Judges this past week or so in my quiet time. When I was in Proverbs it was easy to find something to apply to my live and hear God speaking. In the book of Judges I have had to dig deeper into the stories to get at the heart of what is going on. I read through the story of Gideon and it is a great story of how God works with and through people who yield to him. But at the end of chapter 8 in verse 30 that Gideon had seventy sons because he had many wives and he even had a child with a concubine with whom he had a son. Now it is virtually impossible if you have that many children to raise them properly much less remember all their names. Yet Gideon continued to expand his family. The problem is that it leads to the next chapter of Judges where the son of the concubine kills all his brothers except one who escaped. Abimalech (the son of the concubine) then is proclaimed king. His kingship doesn't last long and both the city that initially put him forth as king and Abimelech are killed. I see this as the fault of Gideon for not controlling himself and having more children than he could possibly raise. He did not use wisdom in how he ran his household and out of this came the survival of only one son who escaped. The decisions we make in our lives and how we live will affect our children for good or bad and we need to be aware of this so that all our decisions are guided by God's word.

Patience

I read a really good article on patience yesterday. It was a very comprehensive overview of patience and why we need it so badly in our lives as followers of Jesus Christ. If you would like to read the article is in on Christianity Today's website and it is entitle The Virtue of Patience. Or click on the title and it will lead you to the article. One of the things suggested was practicing patience and how the author had read a book years ago that talked about how you can go about putting the practice of patience to work in your life. I was up last night for a few hours unable to sleep. I was getting impatient with being awake and I remembered one of the things that the article put forth. So I attempted to put it into practice. One suggestion was to take 10 minutes and just slowly count as high as you can without rushing. Sounds easier said than done especially after you have been lying in bed awake for over an hour. Over the next hour or so I did attempt this several times but never for the full 10 minutes. I can't say I failed because I did attempt it. Some things just take practice before you can do them. Read the article if you get a chance and maybe something will jump out at you to put into your life.

Proverbs 10:19

"When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable, but he who restrains his lips is wise." This is something to take to heart. If you talk way to much eventually there will be something said that brings conflict. Once you get someone talking they will eventually share something that they probably should not have shared. Time and again we are asked to restrain our lips in scripture and told that even a fool is thought wise if he keeps his mouth shut. What we say matters in this life and we will be called into account for all that has come out of our mouths. Sometimes it is better to bite your tongue and be thought wise than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

Proverbs 14:3

"In the mouth of the foolish is a rod for his back, but the lips of the wise will protect them." What the fool speaks will eventually bring a rob to his back. Some sort of discipline will come upon a fool because of what he says to others. It will come back and beat him at some point. But, the lips of the wise will protect them. The wise one uses words as a shield to protect themselves from needing a rod of discipline. Are our mouths the mouths of fools or of the wise?

Proverbs 29:25

"The fear of man brings a snare, but he who trusts in the Lord will be exalted." I don't know about you, but I don't want to be caught in a snare. I have some knowledge of trapping animals and a snare was not about catching an animal alive. It was about killing it. Fearing men can lead you into a trap that could bring about death, maybe not death right now, but eternal death as you decide not to follow Jesus Christ because you fear man. But this proverb doesn't end with a snare. It goes on to show what happens to those who trust in God. They don't fear man, they fear God who is the one who has ultimate control and God will exalt those whose trust is in Him. Maybe not in this life, but throughout all eternity we will experience the riches of His grace. Trust in Him today and everyday and leave the trap that fearing man brings behind.

Proverbs 29:7

"The righteous is concerned for the rights of the poor, the wicked does not understand such concern."
One of the ways we can show God how much we love Him is to be concerned about the things He is concerned about. He looks out for those in need and so should we. We should be aware of how we can help those in need around us and in the global economy we live in around the world. Items we purchase may be used to keep others down and don't pay them enough to live on. Be a well informed shopper who knows what items you purchase only support the large corporation and not the person who actually does the work. If you don't care about the poor, then you need to examine your heart and find out why. Ask God to change you and make you desire the things that He desires.

Blessings

We do need to be reminded from time to time how much God has blessed us. In Sunday's sermon, Dave Mannon shared about how God has blessed us for a reason. He hasn't blessed us just because. He has blessed us so that we can make His salvation known to all the world. We have many opportunities to do this. We can pray for people all over the world to come to know Christ. We can give and support missionary work both local and international. We can go and serve in a mission field or stay home and serve in a mission field. God has blessed you in many ways for a purpose. Make sure you are living your life for His purpose which is to make His salvation known in all the earth.

Interruptions

Have you ever prayed that God would work through you and then all your plans go out the window? How do you respond? This happened to me this week and at first I was really annoyed that what I had planned to do wasn't working out. But God is good and He reminded me that I had asked Him to be in charge of my life and it is about what He wants to do in me and through me that is important. I shouldn't look at interruptions as bad things but as God changing my plans to fit His. How will you look at interruptions in your life? Pray that God would use you and then look to see how He does it. He will use you if you let Him.

Proverbs 26:20-21

"For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, contention quiets down. Like charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to kindle strife."
I have experienced this many times both inside churches and in the workplace. All it takes is one person sowing the seeds of discontent to fan something in a large fire that is very destructive. But when that contentious person isn't there things move along fine. There may be embers of discontent about but without the fuel to get the fire going the embers die out. We need to be on the lookout in our lives that we are not influenced by someone who is contentious into starting a fire but also that we are not that person who adds fuel to the embers and fans it into flames.

Proverbs 25:4

"Take away the dross from the silver, and there comes out a vessel for the smith;" Until the dross or impurities are removed from silver it cannot be used by the smith to make anything useful. Our lives are like the silver and we contain a lot of impurities that need to be removed for us to be used effectively in God's service. God uses many things to bring this about. We experience trials and suffering so that we can be refined into a useful piece of silver in God's hands. He is not content for us to be only 80% pure or even 99% pure. His desire is to make us into the image of His son and He will continue to leads us through the refining process until we get there. Just remember that whatever you face each day, whatever challenges or struggles are all part of the process to remove the junk from your life. Everything we face in life is an opportunity for God to work out some impurities that we sometimes don't even realize are there.

Proverbs 24:1

"Do not be envious of evil men, nor desire to be with them; for their minds devise violence and their lips talk of trouble."
This proverb is good warning for everyone to take into account in their daily lives. We see things on tv and in the media that show people in a way that encourages us to envy what they have and instills the desire to be with them. We put forth people as heroes that never would have merited that moniker before. Yet at their heart, they are evil because they are enemies of God just as we were at one time until we experienced the grace of God through a relationship with Jesus Christ. Our culture constantly puts for evil as good and seems to make good things evil. We have gotten things so upside down. We need to keep this in mind, that evil men devise violence (which is all over tv and movies) and their lips constantly talk of trouble. Be on guard against envy of evil men because in the end they are still under the judgment of God because of their sin. Pray for them and guard your mind.

Proverbs 23:17

Do not let your heart envy sinners, but live in the fear of the Lord always. As I read this verse, God brought to mind how I have done this in my life. From looking at others "things" that I could have if I worked more or didn't tithe. I have been guilty of looking at what others have and wanting it for myself. I have also seen the other side of things. I see how they have stumbled into work because of a late night out involving lots of alcohol. I see how their relationships crumble so easily without the bedrock of Christ. I see the downside of how sinners lead their lives and yet because I am still a sinner in need of a savior I am still pulled in their direction. But the verse doesn't just end with do not let your heart envy sinners, it has a but in there. But live in the fear of the Lord always. This is how I counteract the draw of sin in my life. I live in the fear of God always. Each and every day I live in the fear of God. This makes me take stock of the future and realize that the life of a sinner leads to death. I am on the road to life and need to live like it.

Proverbs 23:12

Proverbs 23:12 says this, "Apply your heart to discipline and your ears to words of knowledge." Sometimes verses jump out at me as I read them and this was one of them. I have been contemplating how I can apply my heart to discipline. To begin with, I need to remind myself that discipline is not a bad thing in my life. I actually need discipline if I want to live a successful life in God's eyes. I can't do anything without discipline except sit on the couch and watch tv. So I need to change my thinking about how discipline works in my life to be a positive good thing for me and not a negative thing to avoid. The verse also say to apply your ears to words of knowledge. I should be listening to things that increase my knowledge. I have been working on this for a while to be listening to things that challenge me and help me understand God better. I have tried to avoid those things that don't increase my knowledge and are in a sense only empty calories for my brain. I should also listen to those people in my life who have knowledge in areas that I lack so that I may gain insight and understanding.

King Saul and the witch of Endor

This past Sunday we spent time looking at an episode at the end of King Saul's life where he faced an army and when he went to God for help all he received was silence. Instead of taking time to examine his life and see if there was unconfessed sin in his own life, Saul went to get direction from someone else. He sought out a medium to find out what he was to do next. He gave up on getting direction from God and went to other sources. No one else know the future but God. He is the only one who knows what is going to happen so when we go somewhere else for direction we are saying to God that we don't trust Him. We don't believe in our hearts that He really knows what He is doing and that we know better. We set ourselves or others up at a god, or idol, to us when we do this. We say that someone or something else knows things that God does not know. This even applies when we go to someone for direction who doesn't follow Jesus Christ. When we read a self help book that isn't based on Biblical principles we are saying the human wisdom is better than God's wisdom. When we listen to a someone on a tv show because they are famous we put their wisdom ahead of God's. We need to be very careful who we seek guidance and direction from so that we don't fall into the same trap Saul did which led to his death.

Adoption

Lisa and I are looking into adopting. We have had this on our hearts for years but it never seemed to be the right time. We were living in an apartment and there was no room for another child or 2. Now we have a house and space and things seem to be moving in that direction. I am looking forward to the process and learning more about God's love for each one of us as we go through with this. The parallels between God adopting us into His family and us finding a child to bring into ours is amazing. I know there will be ups and downs through all of this but I have faith that God will see us through to completion.

Boxes

I have been thinking lately about how we try to box God into our preconceived ideas of how we want things to work. We say to God in effect that I will only accept something as coming from you if it fits into these specific parameters. We limit where God can work in our lives and in the lives of those around us by saying that you can to x, y and z but not a, b and c in our lives. God has a way of making us look outside these boxes to expand our ideas of how He can work and use us. Where have you boxed God in? Is it a career choice and you say God you can only give me a job with this amount of income and these hours? Could it be looking at a circumstance in your life and saying that God needs to do something but you have limited the options to what is acceptable to you and disregarded God's plans? In our church, could we be boxing Him in with our list of what we want to see happen, where we meet and what the facility looks like, what the name of the church is and how it came about? We come to God so many times and say do this when what He wants to do in us and through us is the complete opposite of what we want. Is following God about our desires and wants or about Him? It should be about Him but often we make it about us. Let's allow God to work for His glory through us an stop trying to box Him into our limited point of view.

King Saul

This past Sunday I spoke on one episode of King Saul's life. As I have been studying about him I have found a lot of things that have applied to my life. Take the fact that in Deuteronomy 17:18-20 God tells the king what he is supposed to do in advance of Israel even asking for a king. What he is supposed to do is keep God's commands, His authoritative prescriptions on how to live your life always before him. The king needed to be in God's word daily so that he would stay the course. Saul did not do this and it led to his downfall. Just as in any new thing we add to our lives we need to integrate a lifestyle change for it to work long term. We can't say I will just tack this on to everything else. We need to mesh it with what we do already and get rid of stuff that isn't working in our lives for it to become part of us and make a difference in our lives. We need to integrate spending time in God's word and in prayer (or dialogue) with God daily if we are to become the people He wants us to be. How can you integrate your time with God on a daily basis? What would need to change in your life for this to happen?

Buildings are not the church

I am reminded once again the the church is not about where we meet, but the people who are part of it. Just like a family is not about the house and is still a family wherever they are. Loving Grace Alliance Church is not about a building or where we meet but about the loving relationships we have with God through His grace and with one another that would go one whether we meet in a building or a tent or some other place. We are all part of God's family together. I am excited to see how God is going to work out how we gather corporately in the coming months and I await His miraculous provision for our church family. My prayer is that He gets all the glory through this process and we can stand back to see how God has moved in our midst.