When Enemies Threaten

March 11, 2019 by Leave a Comment

Psalm 11, evil, wickedness, threatenThere seems to be a pervasive sense of unease and insecurity in our land.  It is true that we are threatened by evil men who want to do the world harm but we need spend our time being worried and anxious.  Evil men and those who threaten the righteous are not a new occurrence and good people have had to stand up to bullies (with God’s help) for all of recorded history.

In King David’s time, he and his people were similarly threatened and it is useful and instructive to look at the prayer that David offered to God in Psalms 11 as a model response to threat.

In the Lord I take refuge;
How can you say to my soul, “Flee as a bird to your mountain;
 For, behold, the wicked bend the bow,
They make ready their arrow upon the string
To shoot in darkness at the upright in heart.
 If the foundations are destroyed,
What can the righteous do?”  Psalm 11:1-3 (NASB)

In the first three verses, David asks a couple of questions and makes an observation about the situation that he and his people are in.  At first we get the sense that David is responding to those who have already given up hope and who are running for the hills.  David says, (paraphrasing) “How can you ask me to give in to despair when I have chosen to trust in God’s plan and find my refuge in him?” and that is a good reminder for us as well.  There might be a time when we need to physically retreat from a situation that is dangerous or unfeasible but that doesn’t mean we do so because we have given up hope or have forgotten about God’s provision for us.

David goes on to acknowledge that his enemies were getting ready to make war (they make ready their arrow upon the string) but then asks the question that we must all ask and answer: “if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”

These “foundations” refer to places of security and can mean the very fabric of society.  In other words, if my people, my country and my way of life are removed from me, what is my response?

The Lord is in His holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven;
His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men.
 The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked,
And the one who loves violence His soul hates.
 Upon the wicked He will rain snares;
Fire and brimstone and burning wind will be the portion of their cup.
 For the Lord is righteous, He loves righteousness;
The upright will behold His face.  Psalm 11:4-7 (NASB)

For David, his response was to look to God and to assure himself and those around him of who God is and what the fate of evil would ultimately be.  God sees and knows all that is in the hearts of men and regardless of how present circumstances might look the one who afflicts the righteous and practices evil will receive their due.  God is righteous and loves those who practice righteousness and his promise to them is that they will see His face.

Seeing the face of God implies being held close by Him such that we both feel his presence in the here and now but will also, one day, see him face to face with all barriers removed.  We are assured of God’s presence and protection and need not fear evil men or their schemes.  Continue to trust in the Lord, no matter what happens, and remember to praise Him at all times and in all seasons of life because He is worthy.

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Worth Considering

March 4, 2019 by Leave a Comment

A few ideas worth considering for the beliver.

Throughout all the time that I’ve written here my posts have tended to be about one topic or idea but today I am going to do something a little bit different. Instead of four to six-hundred words on one topic I have a couple of ideas I would like to discuss in smaller segments and the reason is just because I feel this is the way the Lord would like me to go with this.

Marriage, Family and Friendship – My wife, bless her, is a very busy person. She has a heart to give and to serve and her passion for Samaritan’s Purse: Operation Christmas Child means that she is often meeting someone at a church about new drop-off locations or on the phone discussing plans for an upcoming event.

On one such evening recently where she came home from working all day, ate a quick supper and then readied herself to head off again for a meeting I assisted her as best I could. Even though we only had a short few minutes to talk before she left again I made sure I found out about her day and about what was going on in her life. I helped her take various bags and items to her car that were required for her meeting and I opened the gate that leads out of our driveway so that she would not have to get out of the car in the rain to do it.

Truthfully, these are the things that a husband should do for his spouse but honestly I sometimes mess up and miss these opportunities. Sometimes I overlook the needs of those who are closest to me (not just with my wife but also with my friends and family) and that is an area where I want to improve, not only because I am called to be a servant but because I don’t want to take for granted the time that God has given us to be together.

If something happened to me and I was called home to be with the Lord, would my wife, my friends and my family know how much I loved them by the way I treated them during my time here? It’s one thing to say “I love you” (and we should tell folks that they are loved) but it’s an ever better and greater thing to show it and to live it.

Breaking What is Already Broken –Have you ever had a day where you felt like you were under attack? Like you were being squeezed for all you were worth by life and circumstances? I think we all have days like that and they can really be difficult to endure and hard to understand.

We know that there is a spiritual battle that is being waged and if we are trying to live for the Lord then the enemy is going to come against us and do everything that he can to disrupt and discourage us. And how we act and react during those most difficult days can tell us a lot about our spiritual maturity and those areas in our lives where we still need work.

We are all broken and flawed beings. Our Father seeks to repair and strengthen those areas of brokenness and redeem our mistakes while our enemy seeks to make us fail and to break what is already broken. We have a choice during those battles to fall once again into old habits and old temptations or to surrender to God’s grace, admit our brokenness and let his strength be made perfect in our weakness. What will we choose during our next battle? We need to prepare now, before the storm and the crises and in so doing we will be ready to call on the Lord and to thank him in the midst of all trials.

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Celebrate Love

February 18, 2019 by Leave a Comment

When we think about Valentine’s day most of us associate it with the romantic love of husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends and crushes both secret and no so secret. Our society reinforces this and our retail establishments cater to it strongly with cards, flowers, candy, chocolates, balloons and the color red absolutely everywhere.

And while I admit to enjoying Valentine’s day because of the opportunity it gives me to do nice things for my wonderful wife I also wonder how God feels about all of it. After all, God is love and without God we would not know what love is. God gave us the institution of marriage, he created the family unit and he modeled perfect love for us in the person of Jesus Christ.

For those of us who really get into it, there is the tendency to spend a lot of time, effort and money on Valentine’s day for that special person. But if we really stop and think about it no one is more deserving of our love and our adoration than Jesus Christ. He is our savior, he is our deliverer and he is our best friend. He has promised to never leave or forsake us and he never withholds his steadfast love from us.

So while I think God is pleased when we show genuine love and affection to one another I think we need to be very careful that we don’t leave God out of any celebration that we have of love and of the good things of life. God is the author and creator of all good things and he deserves all of our praise and should be the center of our lives.

We do well when we tell God that we love him and show it by the way that we live. God is pleased when selfless, agape love is practiced and that type of love and that type of living deserves to be celebrated. Valentine’s day may be a holiday that is catered towards romantic human relationships but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t remember to give love, praise and adoration to the one who is the author of love and life itself.

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I Can’t Wait

February 4, 2019 by Leave a Comment

It does us good to think and meditate on God’s word. It is to our benefit to closely study what the Bible tells us and to base our lives on its wisdom.

Proper Bible study has many benefits. It shows us God’s design and how he made the world and everything in it. It tells us who God is and shows us his character. It provides guidelines and instructions for life and it even gives us a glimpse of what awaits us after this life is over.

We are given one such glimpse in Revelations chapter 5. And although I have read it many times before I came back to it this week and something happened. God made it more real to me than it had ever been before.

Read these words and try to comprehend the magnitude of what is happening. Even if you have read this before, try to see it with fresh eyes and a heart and mind that is open to the Holy Spirit.

6 Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits[a]of God sent out into all the earth. 7 He went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. 8 And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people. 9 And they sang a new song, saying:

“You are worthy to take the scroll
    and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
    and with your blood you purchased for God
    persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.
10 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,
    and they will reign[b] on the earth.”

11 Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. 12 In a loud voice they were saying:

“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,
    to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
    and honor and glory and praise!”

13 Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying:

“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
    be praise and honor and glory and power,
for ever and ever!”

What a picture! What an event to have the privilege to see and experience! Try as I might I will never be able to come close in my imagination to what actually will take place. But one day I will get to see Jesus who is God in the flesh. And I will take part in praising him together with all of creation. I will get to be a part of the greatest praise and worship event that has ever been and I can’t wait.

How about you?

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A Different Kind of Stewardship

January 28, 2019 by Leave a Comment

stewardship,health,ministryI’m not discussing money or finances in this post.  I also won’t be focusing on talents or spiritual gifts.  No, the type of stewardship that I’m talking about today affects all of those things but is also completely different.

Before we go any further, I think we should have an accurate definition of stewardship.  In Christian circles we almost always use it in reference to money matters.  By association, the word has become very finance centered when in reality the definition is much broader.  The Miriam-Webster Dictionary says “the conducting, supervising, or managing of something;especially :  the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care” and I really like that definition; especially the last part.

God has entrusted a great many things to our care but the most precious of those is our very life.  How we care for ourselves, our health and well-being, determines in large part our ability to be a steward in other areas.  I have seen this firsthand in the last few weeks and it can be a hard lesson to learn.

When I am overly tired and not taking care to rest my body and my brain, everything else suffers.  I make mistakes at work.  Simple tasks take longer.  Writing becomes more difficult and my thoughts are harder to grasp.  And I am not the blessing to those around me that I should be.  In short, when I don’t take care of myself the ministry that God has entrusted to me is harmed and He is not glorified.

One of the biggest challenges to anyone in ministry is the challenge of giving of yourself completely to others while also taking adequate time to rest and recharge.  Burnout is a very real problem among those in the ministry and it is precisely because we often take better care of others than we do of ourselves.  And while God has called us to work and to serve He has also called us to be  good stewards of our minds and bodies; one is not more important than the other.  Neglecting either one is just as sinful.

We need to make time to rest.  We must make time to give our brains and bodies a break.  We can start by ensuring that we are getting enough sleep at night; seven and a half to eight hours should be a minimum goal.  And that’s just physical rest.  Mental rest and time for fun is equally important for our well being.  Scheduling vacations and using our off time to recharge our mental batteries needs to be a priority.

How about diet and exercise?  Despite being a discussion that’s probably been heard more often than we would like, it’s still an important part of our overall well-being.  Being a well rested person with a terrible diet who doesn’t get enough exercise is only going to cause us health problems sooner or later.  As I recently discovered through the Daniel Fast, we really don’t need most of the fat and sugar that most of us consume.  Small improvements in the areas of diet and exercise now can help ensure that we remain healthy in the service of the Lord for many years to come.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I have several areas that need improvement in my effort to become a better steward of this life that God has given me.   The Lord needs us at our best each and every day and we can only give Him our best when we’ve properly taken care of ourselves.  Let us encourage each other to take care of ourselves and to be the best possible stewards of this life that God has blessed us with.

 

 

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Love, Prayer, Forgiveness and Surrender

January 21, 2019 by Leave a Comment

love, prayer, surrender, forgivenessIf we were, just for a moment, to talk about a few of the most powerful actions and ideas available to us then my top four would be 1) love in action, 2) prayer, 3) surrender and 4) forgiveness.  In these, Jesus Christ is our model and we can be assured that in order to become more Christlike we must work towards being excellent at all four.

And I say “work towards” because we don’t start our walk with Christ being strong in these areas and none of us, no matter how long we have been a child of God, are perfect in all four.  We’ve all got work to do or perhaps it’s more accurate to say we must continue(or begin) to surrender our selves to the Holy Spirit so that He can work in us and on us.  It is the work of God to change us, it is the responsibility of the person to surrender themselves so that they may be changed.

(So there’s number 3 from our list, right there, and please bear with me even if this is not in numerical order!)  Just as Christ surrendered his position in heaven and left his throne to come and live as a man, and just as Christ then surrendered his life for all so must we surrender our rights and desires to Him.  Our surrender is what allows us to accept Jesus Christ as savior and Lord and it is our daily (or even hourly) surrender that allows us to continue to grow and know Him better.

Closely related to surrender is forgiveness(number 4 from our list).  God forgives us of our sins and cleanses us from all unrighteousness and this forgiveness is applied to our past, present and future!  The entirety of the sin debt of every man, woman and child who has ever lived or will ever live has already been paid for.  The enormity of that act is difficult to comprehend but what it means for us is that we no longer have the right to withhold forgiveness from anyone or anything.  God forgave it all, every last sin, at the exact moment that the sin debt was laid on His only son Jesus.  For us, who have been so forgiven, we are now free to surrender our right to retribution, hatred, revenge and all thoughts of “getting even”.

Not only that, we must forgive ourselves and not hold on to guilt or failure.  And sometimes, we even need to forgive a situation or circumstance.  Sometimes things happen that aren’t in our plan and are not welcomed or appreciated and if we aren’t careful we can develop bitterness that will poison our lives and everything that we touch.  God’s children must forgive and the only way this can be done is in the power of the Holy Spirit and in Jesus’ name.  We simply lack the ability to forgive and let go apart from the power of God in us.

So then, how do we access the power of God in us and live lives that are filled with the Holy Spirit?  We do this through prayer (number 2, here it is!) and meditation on God’s Word.  The Bible says we are to “pray continuously” and that we should “always, in everything, make our requests known to God with thanksgiving” and then, once we’ve done that, we can start to be amazed at what God can do through us and around us.  Prayer is powerful, not because of the words we say but because of who we are praying to; Jesus, in whom we live and move and have our being.  When we choose to communicate and cooperate with God it will always make an eternal and life changing difference.

And all of this, everything that we do, must be done out of a Christlike love for all people and to show love in action (number 1, here we are!)  Not love in feeling, which ebbs and flows and is only based on human emotion, but love like Christ has for all people and love that motivated Him to give up his own life to save all mankind.  Again, only God can change us to have a love like that and only through prayer, surrender and forgiveness can we share it with others.

God’s love never fails and never changes and He chooses to share it with us.  All that he asks is that we love Him in return by the way that we live our lives and the way that we treat others.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.  1 Corinthians 1:13 (NIV)

 

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How Love is Learned

January 7, 2019 by Leave a Comment
How Love is Learned

The beginning of a new year is a natural time for reflection and for taking the time to look back and remember. And as I have done so over the past few days what has really stood out to me is the incredible love that I have been shown, not only in this past year but throughout my life.

To be sure, the pinnacle of love and the very way that love is defined is God himself. God is love and love is God and we will never know a stronger, more pure or more powerful love than the love we will experience in him. But before we can get to the place where we can understand God’s love it is enormously beneficial to have seen and experienced real love from those people who are most influential in our lives.

I know I would not be where I am today if it were not for my amazing parents. I surely did not understand or appreciate the value of their encouragement, protection, support, teaching and stability while I was being raised but I can feel it strongly now as an adult. They modeled an incredible, sacrificial love in how they brought up their two sons but they also set the pattern for how I would love my spouse in the way that they loved each other.

Besides my parents, I know I have been shown and taught love by various teachers, mentors and friends throughout my life. To be sure, they also had a large influence on who I am today and in teaching me what real love looks like.

I wonder how my life would be different and how my relationships would be different if I had not been so blessed. Who would I be today and how much worse off would I be if I had not been so loved? And most importantly, would I have been able to accept God’s love if I had never known real love before?

These are questions worth asking even if the only result is that my gratitude and appreciation is increased for the blessings that I have received. Even more so if they challenge me to take a look at my understanding of love and my relationship with God and with those people that God has placed into my life.

Because I have been so loved I have a strong and enduring responsibility to show love. Because I have been so blessed I have a responsibility to bless others. Because God’s love has been poured out in my heart I have a responsibility to pour that love on others and to consistently express my gratitude to my heavenly father.

And so do you. If you know God and have been so loved and so blessed then your responsibility is the same. God has called us to be ambassadors of his love and to teach it and model it with the things we do and the things we say. The same way that we have learned love we must teach to others, according to God’s word and the leading of his Holy Spirit.

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What Else Is New?

December 31, 2018 by Leave a Comment

Tomorrow marks the beginning of a new year. On this day tradition would have it that we take stock of our lives over the past year and make resolutions based on areas where we would like to improve. Be it weight-loss, better eating habits or the learning of a new skill it seems we all have a resolution or two that we would like to accomplish as we begin the new year.

Or at least, that’s the ideal. The reality is closer to January 1 being just another day on the calendar and most of us being pretty much the same on that day as we were on the days leading up to it. Human nature being what it is, unless something within us changes (or is changed) we aren’t likely to accomplish our goals, succeed in our resolutions and become the people that we should be.

That may seem like a skeptical point of view, but it is a viewpoint based on God’s word and the nature of sin. According to the Bible we’ve all fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) but that doesn’t mean we have to stay that way or are doomed forever to a life of misery. The Bible also says whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Romans 10:13) and that those who do so can experience abundant life in the here and now (John 10:10).

Salvation brings newness. Believing on the name of Jesus and receiving a new heart and a new spirit (Ezekiel 36:26) within us is transformational. The addictions and weaknesses of our past selves lose their grip and we become beings who are no longer enslaved to sin but are free to live lives of wholeness.

God’s promise is that he will never leave us or forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:6) and that he will provide for all of our needs (Philippians 4:19) as we walk with him, day by day. This relationship, this experience, this transformation is the newness that we all need and is better than any new year’s resolution that we could ever imagine. And the work has already been done. The groundwork is already laid. All that remains for us is to believe and accept and abide.

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.   2 Corinthians 5:17 (KJV

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What We Leave Behind

December 17, 2018 by Leave a Comment

Will we be remembered?  What will we be remembered for?  Once our lives are over and our time here is completed, what will be our legacy for those who come after?

I am hopeful that I will be remembered as someone who truly loved the Lord and tried to encourage others to do the same.  I want my legacy to be that of someone who pointed the way to Jesus Christ as a teacher of the Word and as a brother in the family of God.

My inspiration in this comes from the apostle Peter.  Listen to these profound words:

So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have.  I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body,  because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.  And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.  2 Peter 1:12-15 (NIV)

Peter was nearing the end of his life and what was foremost on his mind was the discipleship and the teaching of those whom he felt responsible for in the faith.  Notice how he states he thinks it is right to remind them to continuously work out their calling and their election (go back to verses 10 and 11 to see this) not only while he remains in this life but also after he departs.

His letters and writings would be there for all to see and anytime someone read one they would be encouraged in their faith and challenged to put aside evil and cling to good.  Even now, nearly two-thousand years later, we can still reference the writings and teachings of the apostle Peter and through the power of the Holy Spirit, be transformed into the further likeness of Jesus Christ.

What a legacy!  What a thing to leave behind!  What a thing to aspire to!  That our words and our teaching would continually enrich and bless the lives of others, long after we are gone- that is something we should be working towards and the goal for every mature Christian.

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The Road that Leads Back to Him

December 10, 2018 by Leave a Comment

Let me start by asking a question.  This is not going to be a question that we necessarily enjoy dealing with but it is an important one nonetheless.

What role, if any, does sorrow and grief over our sinful condition play in our spiritual development?  Or, asked another way, does sin’s lament have a purpose and can anything good come out of the grief that is a result of falling short of the glory of God?

This is the question that formed in my mind as I began to read the book of Lamentations recently.  Lamentations, it seems, is not a popular book for Biblical study.  In fact I can’t remember ever having been through a proper study of the book of Lamentations in any of the Sunday school literature, devotionals or sermon series that I can recall.

Lamentations is thematically dark and difficult.  It deals primarily with the author’s (who is never named but Christian tradition holds that it was Jeremiah who wrote it) sorrow over the fall of Jerusalem.  It describes in vivid detail both the author’s feelings and the horrible things that he has seen that has lead him to his present state.  Jeremiah, over and over, puts pain to page as he cries out to God and recounts the broken and desolate state of the once flourishing Jerusalem. 

God’s Spirit lead him to write but for what purpose?  What is so important about the very difficult book of Lamentations? 

Lamentations does several things.  It first serves as a reminder that sin has consequences and that God’s judgement comes as a result of our sinful behavior.  Secondly it shows us that sorrow and grief as a result of sin is not new but has been experienced by all people down through the ages.  The times may change but God’s response to disobedience does not and the basics of the human condition are the same today as they always have been.

Most importantly, Lamentations shows us that even in our darkest moments of our own making, we can hope in the eventual restoration and deliverance by God.

I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.
 I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.
 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:

 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
    for his compassions never fail.
 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”  Lamentations 3:19-24 (NIV)

Jeremiah could express this hope because he believed in the goodness of the Lord.  Jeremiah knew, as should we, that God’s chastisement is always aimed at our rehabilitation and restoration.

If our sorrow and grief lead us to cry out to God and to seek him anew then we are exactly where we need to be.

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