Renewed

In 2 Kings 22-23 King Josiah finds the book of the law. He then tears his clothes and assembles the whole nation of Judah together and reads the law to them. They then completely reform their society based on what God had commanded. How ironic that the "people of God" had forgotten the law of God. Sometimes I feel like we do the same thing though. As a "Christian" nation and as the Church that bears Jesus' name we forget to live our lives by what God so clearly communicated in the Bible. We get caught up in the day to day life and forget that there is a bigger picture out there, God's Kingdom. As one author put it "we are so close to the cross but so far from Christ.". Our culture is immersed in Jesus, and I'm afraid we have become desensitized to His Word. Today I pray that we "rediscover the law", take some time and see how your life lines up with what Jesus taught us. This is His world, for His glory.

Faded or Worn?

I saw a Bible today (in the lost and found no less!) that was faded on the cover. It looked so old and worn i thought "wow". But after i looked the pages were crisp and seldom used. I remember my dad having a Bible that he had to get duct tape and tape it up because the pages were falling out. One Bible was faded from sitting in the sun and the other was worn from use. I wonder if that says anything about the person it belongs to? We live in a country where the Word of God is plentiful, and we could care less. A Bible is not valuable to us, most of us have more than one. In China Christians share one page of the scriptures and trade with others when they memorize that page. They hungrily look forward to the scripture and what God wants to teach them through it, we hungrily look forward to lunch as we stuff the Bible back in the dash of our vehicle. God wrote us a book and wants to reveal who He is and what He has done. Is your bible faded or worn?

Mercy

Until we stand before God at Judgement Day, we will not fully grasp what the word Mercy means. Holy, perfect, all-knowing, all-powerful God sees our dark hearts and yet does not destroy us! We take God's warning that sin will kill us, hurt us and break our fellowship with Him, and completely disregard it and thumb our noses in His face; yet Jesus still poured out His Blood for us! What an AMAZING God we serve!!! I do not deserve mercy, but He gives it anyway!!!! People, we MUST lay down our stupid, false games and realize we serve a consuming fire who has Mercifully stayed His hand until Judgement Day. HE IS ALL THAT MATTERS!!!!!

Reconciliation

Every fractured relationship needs reconciliation, the bringing together of two conflicted parties for peace. When we fight with each other few things are sweeter than reconciliation. God also desires reconciliation. We have offended the Holy, Perfect God of the Universe by choosing our way over His. He is the offended party, yet He took action and sent Jesus to reconcile us to Himself. Jesus paid a debt we never could and paved the way for a relationship we never deserve. If you have been reconciled to God you now have been given the ministry of reconciliation (I Corninthians 5:11-21). You were not ransomed and redeemed just to have fellowship with God but to pass on the gift you have been given. If you know Jesus, make sure you pass on the fact that reconciliation with God is ours through the Blood of Jesus!

30,000 feet

I'm amazed that Jesus never made a Pharisee or religious leader spontaneously combust. I mean seriously, they nipped at His heels for 3 years and questioned everything He did. Bombarded Him with dumb questions and plotted murder. Jesus didn't get bogged down by idiots or the day to day trash that seems to strangle me sometimes. The reason Jesus didn't get trapped by the cares of this life is He had a 30,000 foot view of this life. Jesus understood that He was here for eternity's sake! The mundane tasks and hardships that keep us tied in knots, He understood they were obstacles on His path to the cross. I really struggle to focus on the future and not get bogged down in smaller problems. Life is not easy. Next time it feels like your breath is caught in your throat and the walls are closing in, take just a minute and remember this life is not the end. Jesus died and rose so we could be with Him forever. Stop and ask yourself if it will matter in 200 years (yes, long after you're dead). Let's focus on eternal problems and see the small issues of life from a view of 30,000 feet.

The Easy Life

Far too many times we hear how a person who knows Christ should live a life of luxury and that God's blessing equals an easy life. The only problem with this theory is the Bible! A person truly seeking Jesus and His will for their life WILL encounter problems and crazy situations. Jesus lived a perfect sinless life and was crucified and mocked for His efforts, how can we as His servants expect any less? I Corinthians 16:9 Paul is talking about visiting Corinth but he can't, "...for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.". The part that blows me away is there is a "wide door for effective work" and in the same breath Paul says there are "many adversaries". Brothers and Sisters, when God has amazing work to be done there will be people who oppose, slander, misunderstand and try to stop you. Remember that Jesus has you EXACTLY where He wants you! Follow Him and let opposition strengthen your resolve because if you are being opposed you are going the right direction!!! Remember Galatians 6:9, "let us not grow weary in doing good". God's will for your life does not equal the Easy Life, but it does equal the BEST LIFE!!!

Hands Unseen

As the events of this week unfolded, I watched God's Hands move people exactly where they needed to be. Events that seem to happen without reason I now look back on and see how precisely God positioned each person. WOW is all I can say. This life may never make sense until we look at it on the other side of Eternity, but I got a glimpse this week of how amazing God's timing is!!! Providence is a seldom used word these days, but it adequately describes how God masterfully sets each scene. I saw a church unite as a family and witnessed the answer to thousands of prayers!!! God You are AMAZING!!!!!!

Do you ever wonder?

Have you ever read through the Old Testament and wondered why some things are there? Like in Joshua 13-21. I wonder why we need to know every town that every tribe of Israel occupied. BUT, God in His divine knowledge includes these, seemingly, dry passages for a very good reason. At the end of all these verses we see Joshua 21:45 "Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.". Wow! The promises God made to Abraham all the way back in Genesis, He fulfilled every word. Looking back on all the promises God fulfilled in the Bible it is so encouraging to know that all the promises made to us WILL be fulfilled!!!!! Just like in the Great Hymn "Standing on the Promises", I can't wait for Jesus to come back and fulfill His promises!!!!! Rejoice in this today, God will NEVER let you down!

Sowing the Seed

The Church spends so much time trying to get people to come to church. We create programs to appease all comers. We want everyone to come to us, don't get me wrong, coming to church is a good thing. But, I wonder if we have it a little wrong? Jesus didn't hide in the Temple and throw stones at people as they went by, He went TO THE PEOPLE. Jesus talked to people He was culturally not supposed to, He ate dinner at shady men's homes and told everyone the Gospel. Let us today be more consumed with telling someone the Gospel, showing someone the Gospel, loving our fellow man more than ourselves and take the Gospel to the streets. Church, we must stop thinking everyone needs to come be like us! We are called and commanded to go (Mark 16:15) and sow the seed. We will reap what we sow. If we sow church and programs we will reap more programs and church activities. Let's sow the Gospel and watch God do what only He can do!!!

Obey Your Master

Remember the Metallica song 'Master of Puppets'? First, what a great song! Second, it reminds me of 1 Corinthians 6:12, Paul says "All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be enslaved by anything." The word enslaved can also be translated Mastered. Who is your master? Romans 6:16b "..you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness". When we focus on what we want and what will make us happy we are slaves to sin. When we are more consumed with Jesus and what He desires we are slaves of obedience. A friend of mine starts every prayer with Master... what a vivid reminder of who He is speaking with. Take a few minutes today and think back through the last day, are you Mastered or controlled by your own desires or the desires of Jesus? We will make our master known by how we live? So.... who do you obey?