To Be Or Not To Be

Today’s reading is one that causes me to ask myself a simple question: to be or not to be faithful? Which will I choose? Which will you choose? One is far better to be sure, however, for some reason we are quick to choose the other instead. Our country, states, cities, churches, and families, repeatedly choose to be unfaithful to God. As a result, we face the consequences of those choices. Obedience and faithfulness are much more important to God than you might think. Disobedience and unfaithfulness lead to sin, and God despises sin on every level and for any reason. All sin carries consequences and when we choose to be unfaithful we find ourselves separated from God and facing those consequences. Each day when you wake up you have a choice to make, to be or not to be faithful. I pray that at the end of my life and yours someone will be able to write or speak of our lives the way they did the workers in Chronicles 34:12 and say, "they did their work faithfully!" However, before anyone can say that, you and I must make our choice.

Without Cost

It seems like years since I last posted a blog but I am back (for now). Abby and I were out on vacation the week before last and then last Monday I took off so we could get our stuff moved into our new house. So I have not been in the office the last two Monday’s to blog. Today’s reading is one of those that one could write pages on. It contains many powerful truths and promises. But the passage that spoke to me the most this morning was Isaiah 55:1 “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost." The word here for “come” in the Hebrew is hoy. This word is often used in funeral laments or is generally attached to some form of judgment. But here the writer uses it as a simple interjection only to grab the reader’s attention. I believe it also shows that God cares about those who are thirsty or in other kinds of need. I find it especially moving to know that the God of the universe says come to me! No matter what, I can run to God for my needs and He cares enough to take care of me. He does not charge me for his services He simply provides for my needs without cost. It is even more moving when you remember that despite the fact that God’s provision is without cost for me, it was not without cost for Him. He has provided for me at great cost, through the blood of His own son.

Yes, No, and Contentment

There is just so much to share. I would like to encourage all of you to leave a comment from time to time, share the blog with other people, and encourage them to be reading as well. We are pretty much at the halfway mark. We hear from some of you from time to time when we miss a day or two or sometimes a whole week. Please forgive us for those times that we have all missed posting our blogs. As i checked up on a friend yesterday and read his blog, I realized just how important it is to keep up with mine. This picture is from the Pastors conference held this year in Africa. It reminds me of a people who don't have much but yet who are really blessed by that. With that in mind let me share.

As always there are a lot of things we can all focus on from the reading but i will choose just a part of the passage and not the whole.

It speaks a lot of Speech. It reminds me of the proverb, (even a fool if silent is consider wise). Today we are reminded of the power of speech, choosing our words wisely, and the weight that our words carry not just before people, but before our God as well. When we hit a stretch of the new testament, you will find this reinforcement, because He says that even our words we speak out of carelessness are called into account. I don't know about yall but that is pretty heavy.

So let your yes be yes and your no be no. I encourage people that the only vow that should be made is the day of their wedding, and if that is the case, be quick to fulfill it, be persistent in making the choice to do what is right.

Contentment, do you ever notice how over and over the poor might not have much, but they are grateful for what they do have, and they have much more contentment then the rich? It is written that those who are rich seem to be preoccupied with obtaining more, or are restricted from enjoyment, and seeming to have to watch others enjoy what they have had to work for. I know there is a great number of you who have wealth, but God has blessed you with it, you know that, and I believe a lot of you have been allowed to enjoy it and you enjoy seeing others blessed by it. Y'all are an exception to the norm. There are a vast many people who have and what they have is still not enough. They base their values on what they have. If you are friends with men and women who are like that, I pray that you are praying for them, I pray that as you get the chance, you are sharing the love and forgiveness of God with them. I pray that by your friendship that they are seeing it's not what they have that keeps you close to them, but it's who they are, it's who they can be, that keeps you close to them.

May our God who is alive and well bless you with uncommon relationships with people who need an uncommon God who loves them. An may you not fall into temptation with the wealth that your friends have, fight to keep you mind about you and do not become drunk with want and desire when they come to you out of genuine friendship. May you never hear these words from them, "you are just like everyone else, you just want my money"! Stay strong people of God and may our God hear your prayers and answer them in the lives of your friends and may they see how alive our God really is and how much He does care.

be content.

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.