Monday, May 28, 2018

Shine the light

Shine the light

Psalm 37:5-6 "Commit everything you do to the Lord.  Trust him , and he will help you.  He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn, and the Justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun."  

Sunlight we can see and it lights our way during the day.  These verses talk about innocence radiating and justice of your cause shining.  There are other times where God talks about light and noonday sun when referring to good works.   Proverbs 4:18-19 "The way of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, which shines brighter until the full light of day.  But the way of the wicked is like total darkness.  They have no idea what they are stumbling over."  

God wants his people to shine!  Years back someone at one point probably sang to you the old song "This little light of mine I'm gonna let it shine."  

Matthew 5:14-16 "You are the light of the world- like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.  No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket.  Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand where it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your Heavenly Father."

I heard an interview a few years back of the late Rich Mullins and he said this about the Christian church as a whole.  "God created us as Christians to be an example to the outside world and there is no plan B."  We need to be actively shining and reflecting God and the changes made in our lives by living out our salvation.  But do others see it.  We have to draw closer to God by being in his word and surrender to God.  Is there enough evidence to convict you of being a Christian.  If there isn't back up and evaluate your life.  If God wants us to shine and you aren't "Danger Will Robinson danger!"  The sinful world needs to see God at work in you.  Stop playing church and actually be the church.  

















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Sunday, May 20, 2018

Ongoing Mission

Ongoing mission 

I've often said when it comes to doing this blog I don't always get a lot of feedback from people.  In a way it's similar to Star Trek because it is an ongoing mission.  I post things and send it to people via email or share it on Facebook.  I trust God to touch hearts.  I pray for the readers.  I pray that God would give them hope and draw them closer to him.  Even though I don't always get to connect the faces to the reader I know I am still doing what I have been called to do.  Here's the thing I have come to care about those people.  I want better for you.  But more than that I want God's best.  See about 2 years ago I was asked if I had considered changing the name of the blog as far as advertising it at church and it became A Weekly Dose of Hope.  My friend Chris Godoy once said it was "like a weekly shot of spiritual vitamins."  A B12 if you will. See if you show up for church on Sunday you get a sermon but sometimes by midweek you need that shot of vitamins, gamma rays, super soldier serum something to keep you on the right track.  See walking with God is our ongoing mission.  Paul has our encouragement we need in Ephesians 3:14-21

"When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.  I pray from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.  Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him.  Your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong.  And may you have the power to understand as all God's people should how wide , how long, how high, and how deep his love is.  May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully.  Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.  Now all glory to God, who is able , through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.  Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen."

Paul wanted that for his people.  I want it for you.  You should desire God's best as well.  

My ongoing mission is to encourage you.  Yours is to draw closer to God on that journey.  

"And So dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you.  Let them be a living and holy sacrifice-- the kind he will find acceptable.  This is truly the way to worship him.  Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world,but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.  Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good pleasing and perfect."  Romans 12:1-2  



Never in the course of working on the blog have I changed the music as much as I have this week.  There's a theme here with the blog and the music and that would be encouragement.  I was going to remove some songs but I chose not to.  See we all have different music styles we like and my normal hope is that someone finds something that works to build them up and help them draw closer to God so there is always a variety.  The general theme though as I said behind it all is encouragement.  There is an extra song being sent as an mp3 to the email portion simply because I have yet to find a video for this song.  If you want to look it up on a music program it is called You Belong Here by Sheila Walsh.  Basically it is the theme for this whole blog because it is in essence designed for the busy people who don't really connect to regular small group Bible studies.  

























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Sunday, May 13, 2018

A Rare Legacy

A rare legacy 

Mary the sister of Lazarus has a rare and distinct legacy in scripture that we often seem to overlook.  I've been paying more attention to it this week.  Marion a few months back bought me a New American standard Life Application Bible and I've been using it to get some history on this woman.  See Jesus said something spectacular about her.  On one hand he predicts the Bible as lasting for years and years and on the other he creates a legacy most people who I have heard preach the gospel seem to skim or miss completely.  Matthew 26:6-13 " Now when Jesus was in Bethany, at the home of Simon the leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at the table.  But the disciples were indignant when they saw this and said 'Why this waste?  For this perfume might have been sold for a high price and the money given to the poor.'  But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, 'Why do you bother the woman? For she has done a good deed to me.  For you always have the poor with you; but you do not always have me.  For when she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial.  Truly I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her.'"  

Both of my Bibles I have looked at the NASB and NLT reference this same event and woman to being none other than Mary the sister of Lazarus and Martha.  This woman has sat at the feet of Jesus listening to him teach and absorbed the things he has said.  This was in my Life Application Bible and I think it is beautiful.  "Our last glimpse of Mary shows her to have become a woman of thoughtful and worshipful action.  Again she was at Jesus' feet washing them with perfume and wiping them with her hair.  She seemed to understand even better than the disciples, why Jesus was going to die.  Jesus said her act of worship would be told everywhere, along with the gospel, as an example of costly service."  She anointed him with perfume that cost roughly a year's wages.  

Another thing I want you to see is through Mary, there was a prediction by Jesus that God's word would last. See he said in Matthew 26:13 "Truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her."  In that statement he cemented her place in history and in scripture.  His statement also matched up with this in Isaiah 40:8 "The grass withers the flower fades but the word of our God stands forever."  1 Peter 1:24-25 mirrors this.  This woman had an amazing life and legacy.  She got to sit at Jesus' feet, see her brother raised from the dead and then anoint Jesus' feet and head.  She had the right idea she wanted to be closer to Jesus.  

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