Gloomy

“Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress.” Those words caught my eye tonight as I read the daily reading. This should be the case for Christians but often times it is not. We are too often gloomy people. Just today I was a bit gloomy over some political matters that I was discussing with friends. Later tonight I found myself in personal gloom as well. This should not be the case. I bear the name of Christ. I am a Christ follower. I have an eternal hope, future, and home waiting for me. I have nothing at all to be gloomy about for I am a child of the KING! Next time you feel distress or gloom starting to creep in, cut it off at the pass and understand it is a trick and a lie from the evil one to bring you down. Christian, you have no reason for either gloom or distress unless it is for the lost souls who surround us all each and every day. May we speak truth and hope into their lives. May we show them the reason for our hope by refusing to be a distressed gloomy people.

The Simple Things In Life

We always talk about the simple things in life and how they seem to make us the happiest, but we choose so often to ignore them or make them more difficult to reach than what they really are. What keeps you from enjoying the simple things? For me, it’s no one else but me unfortunatly ,that keeps me from enjoying them. The everyday readings can cover a lot of territory in the Bible so with that, like so many others, I want to choose one area and comment on the simple things and the value of speaking up out of your circumstances.
First, there is a servant girl. She is a young girl that was captured and brought back and became a servant to Naaman’s wife. As she served in the home and learned about her master, she started to care about them. What we here in America often forget is the reality of powerful nations and the whims of men. America has been blessed by providing equal rights to any man or woman and that is a huge blessing that we take for granted. In other countries this is not the case. You have to know how to survive. You can observe some people and what they say about others. Some people would say this girl was a traitor, because she allowed herself to be captured, and then she worked as a slave. She had no real life to begin with or she would have escaped or died trying! On the other hand people may say, “she was very wise, she learned the system, she was alive, and she looked out for the welfare of those that were taking care of her, therefore giving her a better life in return.”
After observing men like Daniel and Joseph, hearing stories of men in prison camps that some men hated because they served the enemy, but not realizing the extra food, supplies, medicine, even water that they were able to smuggle to other prisoners because they choose to put their energy to helping any way they can. I see this in the life of this girl. She was taught a love for God and knew of Elisha the prophet of God. She carried that love of God into this home of a master despite the circumstances she was thrust into. She had to make a choice to live or to die. What choice would you make? Some say to die would have been heroic, some say to die would have been cowardly, some say to live would have been heroic, and some say to live would have been cowardly. My personal opinion does not matter here but yours does, because it determines how you live your life. So how do you live your life, how will choose to live your life, not making a choice of how to live is making a choice.
I do have to say this, I admire a man or woman who take the worst of circumstances, endure hardship, and bless one another in the midst of it. For a man or woman to do something like that, makes me believe they have grit, inner strength, passion, and a willingness do what others say is impossible. I admire this young girl. She lived, she brought value to those who were around her, and she brought life into a house. Now to speak to the character of Naaman. Even though this man was a man of God he was a “valiant soldier”. One thing you can observe, the girl had to feel safe and feel a great need to go the extra mile to share with Naaman that there was a prophet of God in Israel that could heal him. He had to have shown a great deal of love and care, not only to his family, but also to the servants of his house, for them to want good for their master, and for her to want her master to find healing speaks to who he was as a man. Are you that kind of boss? Do your employees look out for your welfare because they know you look after them?
Last but not least, the things God asks us to do seem to be so complicated when they are really so simple. Look Naaman, go to the Jordan, jump in and out 7 times and you’ll be clean! “What can’t I go climb a mount find a rare herb bring it back to you, can’t you come out here and do some kind of dog and pony show to call God down to heal me? Surly it can’t be as easy as go to this dirty, murky, muddy river and bathe in it 7 times. Surely it’s not that simple!” Yes it is that simple. Often we try make God’s commands for us more complicated than they really are. May today be the day that you look to what you thought was complicated and see that it was an easy task to do the whole time, you just needed to do it Gods way and not the way you thought it needed to be done.

So Sad...

It causes my heart to sink when I read verses like 2 Chronicles 24:18-19. “They abandoned the temple of the LORD, the God of their fathers, and worshiped Asherah poles and idols…19 Although the LORD sent prophets to the people to bring them back to him, and though they testified against them, they would not listen.” Perhaps I feel the way I do about these verses because I see this all too often in the ministry of today as well. People who abandon their faith, the church, and God, to worship the things of this world. I recently encountered this with someone I know from college who was, at one time, extremely faithful in his walk with the Lord. He was active in church, in fact he was a leader in the Christian community on our college campus and in our local church. He and his wife have decided that success, earthly pleasures, and careers are more important then their faith. They have quit going to church and have no plans to return until “later in life, when they have done all they want to do.” Another, once strong Christian couple, have recently become atheist and completely abandoned their faith. I see it time and time again even in our own church and it breaks my heart! God never gives up on these people, however. Verse 19 says that God sent prophets to them to bring them back. We can be thankful that God never gives up on us when we abandon him. But the question is will they listen? Here in our verses for this day, they did not, instead they killed the one God had sent. Have you ever felt like that? Have you ever felt called to deliver a word to someone who had fallen away from the faith only to be pushed away yourself? Many times they will not listen, but it is not our job to make them listen. As God’s messenger it is our job to deliver the message! We all know someone who has abandoned their faith in one way or another, let’s pray for them, and if called, boldly deliver the message of grace, acceptance, forgiveness, and God’s unending love and patience, to those who have fallen away.

You Can Find Forgiveness

Through all of the arrows, the swords, the blood and the battles, Ahab was able to repent and find forgiveness from God. This is Ahab! The wort king ever in the history of Israel! How amazing is that? Ahab had a heart that chased after evil! I guess I could go on and go on about this reading but the fact that he received forgiveness after all that amazes me!

So just how evil do you perceive your heart to be? How wicked do you think you have been in your folly? In the midst of your reasoning as to why God doesn’t want a relationship with you, just repent and realize that He does! No matter how bad it’s been you can still find His forgiveness.

Tell Us What You Really Think...

June 16
Tell Us What You Really Think…

Before I comment on today’s reading let me first apologize. For the past few weeks my posts have been coming on Tuesday instead of Monday. It seems that Monday’s have been so full I have barely had time to read my reading for the day, much less sit down and write about them. Tuesday’s to be honest have not been much better but I am committed to getting something up no later then Tuesday if at all possible. After next week some of the things, which have been demanding my time early in the week, will be out of the way so I hope to be able to post earlier. Thank you for your patience, prayers, and prodding to keep me on task.
There was so much in today’s reading that one could elaborate on. However, I could not get away from the sections out of Psalms. The writer certainly thought highly of God. The descriptions of God’s power, control, steadfastness, love and glory are wonderful in this section of scripture. As I read many of these verses I thought to myself “what a line!” Or, “I wish I would have said that!” May I ask you a question? How would your place of employment, school, town, or community be different if you spoke this highly of God? When was the last time you even attempted to tell those you know or love what you really think about God? What do you really think about Him? Who is He to you? Have you ever thought about it? The world would be different if we really knew God the way the writer of these Psalms did, and if we had the courage to tell the world what we really thought about Him. Strange isn’t it, we tell the world what we think about politics, family, religion, taxes, and ourselves, but we seldom express what we really think about God. Why? Maybe it is because we don’t know. Taking the 192 challenge myself for the fourth year has taught me this one thing. I still have much to learn about God. There is more to know, more to experience, and more left to understand of Him then I can even comprehend. I want to know God like the writer of the Psalms did. Not for my own benefit, although that will be a welcomed byproduct, but I want to know God like this so I can tell people what I really think about Him. Why are we holding back? Join me and make it your aim to tell someone what you really think about God each and every day you are given the breath to speak!

Ok, so I’m sitting here reading today’s scripture, and after that first section, I’m thinking “ man, how would you like to tell this news to that lady?” This lady is sent by her husband, because their son is sick, and then bam! He lays it on her. Not only that, but this is the kings wife, its not your average Joe’s wife. It’s amazing that Ahijah didn’t even flinch when telling her the things that needed to be said. Think about how many of the apostles did the same thing, Stephen preaching to the crowds right before he was stoned, or Paul, who even after being beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, and thrown in jail numerous times, always delivered what it was that God told him to speak. They didn’t try to sugar coat it to please the crowds, didn’t side step are try and drop hints as to what God was telling them to say. They delivered the cold, hard facts. I’m all for grace, but sometimes what we need to do is deliver exactly what God tells us to do. Not worrying about how the other person is going to react, or take the message. Will they get offended or cuss me out, will they stumble farther back or get on the right track? Sometimes we need to slay our flesh and just do it. You can lead the horse to water, but you can’t make it drink, no matter how sweet or pretty you make the water look. Its time that we starting being bold in the things God has called us to do and remember who he is, and who is bigger.

Is it really better?

Today’s reading starts in part by saying; The day of death is better then the day of birth. It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting. Really!? Which house would you choose? Which sounds better to you, a feast with family and friends, or a day at the funeral home to lay one you love to eternal rest? If we are honest I doubt many could say they would prefer the latter. But when we stop to think about the hope we have in Christ it should be an easy choice, for to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord for the believer. As hard as it is in times of loss and mourning to rejoice we certainly should. The day of death is better then the day of birth for the deceased even if it is not for those who are left to wait for their own passing to be with the family of God on the other side of eternity. May we rejoice for and with those we have laid to rest and eagerly anticipate the great reunion we will soon experience.

Halfway!

Can you believe it? You are roughly halfway through the 1-92 challenge!!! You are doing great so keep it up. If you have fallen behind jump back in with us on today’s reading and try again, but whatever you do, DON’T STOP OR GIVE UP NOW! Keep making time in your day to read God’s Word and be blessed by His wisdom and guidance.
We are in the Proverbs now, and while they are great nuggets of truth, they can also be hard to read. These chapters don’t read like narrative or prose. They are short statements and often times the previous statement has nothing to do with the next. It is also important to remember that the Proverbs are probabilities not certainties. For example “He who loves pleasure will become poor; whoever loves wine and oil will never be rich.” The probability is if you love pleasure and wine you will not be rich, however we could all name people who are indeed rich, but they love earthly pleasures and drink much wine. Or the proverb that says “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” This is a probability. If you train up a child in the way he should go the probability is that the child will grow up to follow the Lord and be a productive member of society. But this is not a guarantee it is a probability. We could all name parents who have done a wonderful job raising their children only to see them grow up and depart from the things they were taught. We could also name those who did a horrible job raising their children and the child grows up to be wonderful. So as you read these proverbs don’t get locked in thinking that these things are certainties or promises. Most of them are probabilities and wise counsel that we should follow in our daily lives to increase our faith, success, prosperity, and social standing in life. Once again keep up the good work, we have learned a lot in the first half of the year and we will learn much more in the coming days!