Monthly Archives: June 2017

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June 30, 2017

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Attitudes & Behavior, God's Plan, Obedience, Salvation: A New You

WHAT A DEAL!

Then he told them what they could expect for themselves: “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat—I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? [Luke 9:23-24 (MSG]

daisyAlthough we do our best to maintain our cars by getting new tires, touching up the paint, repairing dented fenders, and changing the oil, eventually we want a new one. How would we respond to an ad that said we could turn in the old car (no matter how battered or worn) and get a brand new one, absolutely free? Of course, there’s some fine print at the bottom of the ad. We won’t hold title to the car; it will belong to the manufacturer. Moreover, if we accept the new car, we don’t get to pick the model or accessories and we have to let the manufacturer decide how fast we drive, where we go and how we get there, where to park, what neighborhoods we travel through, how bumpy the ride will be, and when we arrive at our final destination. In full disclosure, there’s even mention that, while the ride will be quite an adventure, we’ll probably end up with some scratches and dents along the way. Would we make the deal?

But wait! When we continue reading the fine print on that arrangement, we learn that the car’s final destination is the Kingdom of God? Would we make the deal then?

Ever wonder why there is a stairway to heaven and a highway to hell? Apparently, there’s more traffic going to hell! [A bit of anonymous humor from the Internet]

Take it from me: Unless a person is born from above, it’s not possible to see what I’m pointing to—to God’s kingdom.” [John 3:3 (MSG)]

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June 29, 2017

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Attitudes & Behavior, Challenges & Difficulty, Faith & Hope, Fear & Doubt, Nature, Patience & Perseverance, Today: Make it Count

EMBRACE YOUR INNER TORTOISE

Don’t be impatient for the Lord to act! Keep traveling steadily along his pathway and in due season he will honor you with every blessing. [Psalm 37:34a (TLB)]

And let us not get tired of doing what is right, for after a while we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t get discouraged and give up. [Galatians 6:9 (TLB)]gopher tortoise - rabbit

 

In the familiar Aesop’s fable of “The Tortoise and the Hare,” the over-confident hare takes a nap midway through the course while the tortoise, plodding steadily along, passes him and wins the race. I’ve always seen the moral of the story to be “slow but sure wins the race” with an added warning to beware of over-confidence. I never thought about how the tortoise must have felt as he trudged along so slowly. Did he ever measure his pace and progress against the hare’s? Did he think he could even finish the course let alone win it? Did he ever entertain thoughts of quitting? If I’d been the tortoise in Aesop’s story, I’m afraid I might have given up in despair long before discovering the sleeping hare along the road!

We recently visited a nature preserve that is home to several gopher tortoises. After comparing them with the rabbits in our neighborhood, given a choice, I’d prefer to move like the rabbit. Sometimes, however, life moves at the tortoise’s pace. Progress seems to come in fractions of an inch instead of feet and it’s easy to get discouraged.

Lord, thank you for the course you’ve laid out for us. Help us accept that sometimes progress is painstakingly slow. Give us endurance and patience so we can travel steadily (and joyfully) along the path you’ve given us.

The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it. [Ellen Glasgow]

Be glad for all God is planning for you. Be patient in trouble, and prayerful always. [Romans 12:12 (TLB)]

But if we must keep trusting God for something that hasn’t happened yet, it teaches us to wait patiently and confidently. [Romans 8:25 (TLB)]

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June 27, 2017

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Attitudes & Behavior, Challenges & Difficulty, Faith & Hope, Fruit of the Spirit, God's Plan, Love & Works, Today: Make it Count

ONE DOES WHAT ONE CAN

Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else. For we are each responsible for our own conduct. [Galatians 6:4-5 (NLT)]

SparrowThere is an old parable about a small sparrow, lying flat on his back in the middle of the road with his little feet raised in the air. An elephant comes by and asks him what he is doing. “I’m holding up the sky,” is the small bird’s response. ”Hah,” scoffs the elephant, “What good can you possibly do with those skinny weak legs?” The tiny bird replies, “Well, one does what one can. One does what one can!”

Consider the effect a young shepherd named David had, not just on a giant and an army of Philistines, but on a whole nation. Reflect on the impact of a boy’s small offering of loaves and fish, of a peasant girl who led the French army to victory at Orléans, or of a tired woman who refused to give up her seat on a bus. Think about the influence of a mediocre Indian lawyer who introduced the concept of nonviolent protest, of a convert to Christianity who spread the gospel by writing letters while imprisoned, of a black minister who had a dream, or the effect of an Albanian nun who saw a need in the streets of Calcutta. These were people who simply did what they could. What is God asking of me today? What is he asking of you? Is there just one life that could be made better by something we do today? After all, one does what one can!

God does not demand that we do great things, only little things with great love. [Mother Teresa]

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. [Ephesians 2:10 (NLT)]

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June 26, 2017

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Attitudes & Behavior, Challenges & Difficulty, Faith & Hope, God's Grace & Love, God's Promises, Holy Spirit, Obedience, Prayer, Salvation: A New You, Temptation & Sin

WE NEED HELP!

But I need something more! For I know the law but still I can’t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t do it. I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time. [Romans 7:17-20 (MSG)]

butterfly weedWe all know the speed limit, but most of us break it. Obviously knowing a law is not enough to make us obey it. We know the guidelines for a healthy lifestyle, but most of us still eat and drink more than we should and exercise far less than recommended. Evidently, self-determination is not enough to make us behave as we should. We may believe in Jesus, but we still succumb to sin. Clearly, calling oneself a Christian doesn’t create an invisible shield against temptation and bad behavior.

If someone as devout as the Apostle Paul struggled with sin and couldn’t overcome it on his own, we are in good company. As Paul found, knowing God’s law is not sufficient and struggling to obey it on our own is unsuccessful. Like Paul, we will continually struggle with the attraction of sin. It’s not easy to repent and tougher to forgive. It’s challenging to love our neighbors and even harder to love our enemies. Having faith is only easy when we already know the results. Try as hard as we can, honesty, humility, and obedience seem to escape us while pride, anger and deceit rush in to take their place. Being God’s child is a life-long process. We will continue to be a work in progress for the rest of our lives. Willpower is not enough; we cannot do it on our own.

We must follow Paul’s example and call on the Holy Spirit to give us the power we need to change. God promises he will be there! Every time we fall (and, like Paul, we will fall many times), God will be there to pick us up.

“I told myself not to do it, but I didn’t listen!” [Neighbor girl’s excuse to her grandmother]

I am not what I ought to be, nor what I wish to be, nor what I hope to be – I can truly say that I am not what I once was – a slave to sin and Satan. And I can heartily join with the apostle and say that “by the grace of God I am what I am! [John Newton]

I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question? The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different. [Romans 7:24-25 (MSG)]

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June 23, 2017

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Bible Stories, Church & Worship, Joy, Knowing Him, Nature, Obedience, Prayer, Thanks & Praise

A FRAGRANT OFFERING

Offer the other lamb in the evening, along with the same offerings of flour and wine as in the morning. It will be a pleasing aroma, a special gift presented to the Lord. [Exodus 29:41 (NLT)]

But the internal organs and the legs must first be washed with water. Then the priest will burn the entire sacrifice on the altar as a burnt offering. It is a special gift, a pleasing aroma to the Lord. [Leviticus 1:9 (NLT)]

GARDENIAThe gardenias were blooming. The aroma of those beautiful flowers filled the air as I walked that morning and I paused in my walk just to inhale and relish the pleasant scent.

In the Old Testament, the Hebrews were instructed to offer sacrificial burnt offerings on their altars as gifts to God, making a “pleasing aroma to the Lord.” As a vegetarian, I found it difficult to picture how the odor of burned meat could be considered pleasant. That morning, however, I finally understood the verse’s meaning. It wasn’t the sacrifice of meat that smelled good to God; it was the prayers that accompanied the burnt offerings that made the pleasing aroma.

As I breathed in the scent of the flowers, I wondered, “Is this how God feels when He hears our prayers?” I want my prayers to be as fragrant and pleasing to God as the gardenias were to me. Perhaps gardenia isn’t your favorite scent; maybe it’s the aroma of fresh baked ginger cookies or, in my husband’s case, fresh cooked bacon. Either way, let your prayers be as pleasing to God as your favorite aromas are to you! By the way, I have a sneaky suspicion that praise and thanksgiving smell best to Him; whiny complaints probably smell a bit like burnt toast!

O Lord, please accept my prayers as a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. May you always find them sweet smelling.

Accept my prayer as incense offered to you, and my upraised hands as an evening offering. [Psalm 141:2 (NLT)]

And when he took the scroll, the four living beings and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp, and they held gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of God’s people. [Revelation 5:8 (NLT)]

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June 22, 2017

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Attitudes & Behavior, Church & Worship, Faith & Hope, Fruit of the Spirit, Holy Spirit, Knowing Him, Peace of God, Salvation: A New You, Trusting God, Wisdom & Guidance

THE DAILY BLESSINGS OF FAITH

By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. [2 Peter 1:3 (NLT)]

pale purple coneflowerI have a friend who describes herself as being a “Birth and Resurrectionist.” Her idea of Christianity simply consists of church attendance on Christmas and Easter (maybe), with an occasional funeral or wedding thrown in.

Setting aside the promise of salvation and how we will spend eternity, what would our lives be like if our relationship with Jesus and His church was merely a twice a year event? We’d still have a code of ethics, a sense of right and wrong. Yet knowing what’s right doesn’t mean we do the right thing. When we have a relationship with Jesus, we also get the Holy Spirit to guide (and prod) us through our moral choices. Without Jesus, our sense of worth would depend on things like social status, wealth, education and looks; without those assets, we would feel worthless and unlovable. With Jesus in our hearts, we know we’re worthy of God’s love not because of who we are or what we have but because of who made us. Without Jesus in our lives, the blessing of God’s forgiveness would be missing; we’d be burdened with guilt, regrets and even anger. If we had no relationship with Jesus, we’d miss that wonderful sense of peace that comes from Him. We’d always be searching for the next best thing without ever realizing that we have the best thing right beside us. Without Jesus in our hearts, would we be able to love? Probably, but certainly not with the unconditional love about which Jesus spoke. Finally, without Christ, we’d lose our sense of hope and trust; we’d fight our troubles instead of accepting them with the knowledge that God will get us through them. While salvation is the final reward for our faith in Christ, our daily lives are continually blessed for that faith.

Let us pray for those many “Christians in waiting.” May they accept Jesus as their Lord and come to know the joy and peace that can be theirs when, instead of occasionally visiting church, they have a daily relationship with our Savior. May they enjoy the rewards of Christianity that come both in this life and in the next.

Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures. The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life. [John 10:9-10 (NLT)]

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