Standard

Posted by

Posted on

October 20, 2014

Posted under

Attitudes & Behavior, Family, Friends & Fellowship, Temptation & Sin

POISON

10-20-14web2People can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, but no one can tame the tongue. It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison. Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God. [James 3:7-9 (NLT)]

“Something is eating my flowers!” I said. Immediately, I got out the pesticide and started spraying with a vengeance, until I met the culprit! There he was, in his glorious bug beauty: a praying mantis! Coming face to face with my target, I just couldn’t continue to spread the poison. He was as surprised to see me as I was to see him. After his initial shock, he left my garden quickly; if he was lucky, he lived to see another day in someone else’s garden.

Gossip is like that bug spray; while it is easy to spread and looks harmless, it is poison. Just as a few teaspoons of pesticide made the water toxic, a few poorly chosen words can turn an innocent conversation into gossip. Unlike the bug spray, gossip doesn’t come with a label that easily identifies it as such. How do we know when we’re harmlessly chatting and catching up or when we’re gossiping? An easy test is asking ourselves if we’d say those same words if we were face to face with the person about whom we’re speaking. There’s nothing like being eye to eye with our prey to stop us from spreading poison! Just as the praying mantis quickly fled from my pesticide, we also need to make a quick exit when someone is spreading poison (or gossip)!

The gossip of bad people gets them in trouble; the conversation of good people keeps them out of it. [Proverbs 12:13 (MSG)]

Listening to gossip is like eating cheap candy; do you really want junk like that in your belly? [Proverbs 18:8 (MSG)]

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

October 16, 2014

Posted under

Attitudes & Behavior, Joy, Today: Make it Count

OPEN THE PRESENT

Both day and night belong to you; you made the starlight and the sun. You set the boundaries of the earth, and you made both summer and winter. [Psalm 74:16-17 (NLT)]

Seasons come and seasons go and it seems as if we’re never satisfied with the season we’re in. In the fall, we can’t wait for December and the holidays, but by January we’re protesting the cold and wondering when spring will arrive. Spring finally appears; we complain about the rain, saying we can’t wait for summer’s sun. In the summer, it’s too hot and humid for us; we grumble about the garden work and wish for the cool of autumn. When autumn arrives, we gripe about the shortened days and piles of leaves and anxiously await the first snowfall. Of course, we complain the first time we shovel snow and the cycle starts again.

Life has seasons, too, and some of them, like the weather, are more pleasant than others. We can’t wait until we get out of college, only to miss the flexibility, fun and long holidays we enjoyed in school. When we’re poor newlyweds, we can’t wait until we’ve got great careers and a big house, only to discover how much stress goes along with high pressure jobs and large mortgages. When our children are babies, we can’t wait until they’re bigger and then, when they’re teens, we realize how nice those toddler years were!

Let’s not make the mistake in life’s seasons of dreaming so much about the rewards of the future that we miss the gifts of the here and now. We all probably know of someone who put off vacations and time with his family so he’d have a big “nest egg” in retirement, only to die or become incapacitated before ever having a chance to enjoy those golden years. Today is called “the present” for a reason; let’s be sure to enjoy every last minute of it.

9-20-14 presentWEBLord, sometimes we’re so anxious about getting to tomorrow that we miss the beautiful scenery of today. Help us find joy in our present circumstances, whatever they may be. Keep us from wishing away the pleasures of this season for another one that may not be any sunnier.

One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today. [Dale Carnegie]

One today is worth two tomorrows. [Benjamin Franklin]

For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. [Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NLT)]

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

October 14, 2014

Posted under

God's Promises, Holy Spirit, Joy, Salvation: A New You

BELIEVE AND RECEIVE

God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son so that whoever believes in him may not be lost, but have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world guilty, but to save the world through him. [John 3:16-17 (NCV)]

What a beautiful promise Jesus makes to us: everlasting life! There is, however, a stipulation: to get this wonderful gift, we have to believe! This belief is not just an intellectual exercise of acknowledging that someone named Jesus lived in Israel over 2,000 years ago. It’s more than knowing a few Bible verses and stories. This belief requires us to trust Jesus’ words and to rely on his Holy Spirit to make a change in our lives. We need to have confidence in Him as our Lord and Savior. We need to be confident enough that we will give Him our lives. That’s a lot of belief!

If we believe, God promises us a gift: everlasting life. This will not be a continuation of the life we have now on earth. There will be no death, sin, sickness, pain, enemies or anger. The wonderful thing is that we don’t have to wait until we die before we start enjoying this new life in Christ. All we have to do is believe and accept the gift of His Holy Spirit right now. Christ’s love will live in us and we will start experiencing a new life immediately.

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and if you believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you will be saved. [Romans 10:9 (NCV)]

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

October 13, 2014

Posted under

Attitudes & Behavior, Peace of God, Prayer

THE PRAYOMETER

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. [Colossians 4:2 (NIV)]

I recently received a FitBit: a digital pedometer that syncs with my phone and computer. It keeps track of my steps, mileage, calories burned, and “active minutes.” During the day, I get encouraging texts and a little face on my device has a big grin once I attain my goal of 10,000 steps. Like the “Map My Walk” app, it doesn’t allow me to fool myself; it keeps an accurate record of my activity. I thought I was active, but my FitBit made it clear I sit a lot more than I thought I did! No matter how busy I am throughout the day, unless I set aside specific time for a walk, I usually don’t manage to achieve my goal. Time needs to be set aside for more than just exercise; it also needs to be set aside for prayer!

A few years ago our pastor challenged the congregation to spend ten uninterrupted minutes in prayer every day for the following week. The first morning, finding myself continually looking up at the clock, I set the kitchen timer for ten minutes and started praying, planning on stopping when the timer rang. I was amazed that I ran out of time long before I ran out of prayer! When the week was up, I stopped setting the timer but continued the practice. As time has passed, however, sorry to say, I’ve become less consistent about the time I spend in active prayer.

Perhaps there’s a need for another kind of monitoring device: a FitBit for prayer. This “prayometer” would keep track of the actual “active minutes” spent in communion with God. I think we’d all find that, unless we set aside a specific block of time for Him, we won’t spend nearly enough time in prayer during the rest of the day. Just as a successful business often starts with a staff meeting, it’s a wise practice to start our day in a staff meeting with God. I can’t promise you a smiley face or an encouraging text on your phone, but I think you’ll find that ten to twenty minutes (or more) spent in prayer each morning are a small price to pay for the clarity, perspective and peace comes from it.

Do not have your concert first and tune your instrument afterwards. Begin the day with God. [James Hudson Taylor (English missionary)]

The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. [James 5:16b (NIV)]

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

October 8, 2014

Posted under

Attitudes & Behavior, Salvation: A New You, Today: Make it Count

THROW OFF THE OLD

I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. [Philippians 3:7-9a (NLT)]

I’ve been cleaning closets and cupboards and am amazed at the amount of useless stuff I’ve accumulated through the years. To some extent, we all have difficulty with emptying out possessions that clutter our homes. Old things are often tied to memories. We may be afraid that when we let go of these assorted mementoes and souvenirs that we will lose the memories as well. We cling to reminders of where we’ve been, what we looked like, or what we once were able to do.

Just as many people cannot clear the clutter from their homes, many of us cannot clear the clutter from our spiritual lives. We often find it difficult to rid ourselves of old attitudes, beliefs, habits, and even associations that are keeping us from a relationship with God. Having grown comfortable in the debris of our lives, we may hold on to resentment, prejudice, curse words or bad attitudes. We may even want to retain unhealthy, even toxic, relationships. It isn’t easy to get rid of things we’ve had for so many years; they’ve become a part of us. If we refuse to give up yesterday, however, we deny ourselves the wisdom and gifts of today. Moreover, when we cling to the clutter of our past, we are unable to face the future and receive its blessings. If our spirit is going to be renewed, we need to discard our former way of life.

Throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy. [Ephesians 4:22-24 (NLT)]

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

October 7, 2014

Posted under

God's Grace & Love, God's Plan, Prayer, Trusting God

HE KNOWS BUT DO WE?

Don’t be like them, because your Father knows the things you need before you ask him. [Matthew 6:8 (NCV)]

If He already knows our requests, why bother to pray? Needing to get free of debt, a couple prays for raises or better jobs; what they need, however, is to learn how to live within a budget. A friend “needs” her children to get married so she can have grandchildren. Perhaps what she really needs is to accept that her children are moving at their own pace and to ask the Lord to bless them with someone to love who will love them in return. A wife prays for her husband to be healed of Parkinson’s when what is needed is guidance in learning how to live joyfully within the confines of the disease. A father prays that his child will be freed from his addiction; God knows that the father needs to stop enabling the child’s behavior. What we want and what we need are often not the same things.

We believe we need certain things (people, money, possessions or occurrences) so we pray for those. Much for which we pray, however, we don’t need or shouldn’t have and we’ll never get. We also believe we need to be freed from other things (consequences, disease, discomfort, and disagreeable tasks). Much of what we want God to remove, however, we need to learn to live with and accept that it’s here to stay. We tend to want our requirements met quickly and easily but God doesn’t seem to work that way. He wants us to know Him and to trust that He knows our every need (far better than we ourselves do). We may not know what we need, but God always does. He will, indeed, provide everything we truly need at the correct time and in the right way.

Father in Heaven, thank you for knowing our innermost needs. Help us to understand the difference between what we want and what it is we truly need. Give us grateful and accepting hearts for however and whenever our prayers are answered.

Let us, then, feel very sure that we can come before God’s throne where there is grace. There we can receive mercy and grace to help us when we need it. [Hebrews 4:16 (NCV)]