I often can be heard being goofy and saying “Greetings and salutations and jalapeños.” The apostle Paul had a signature greeting from Ephesians to Philemon in almost every start of each book he starts with this at about verse 2-3 of chapter one of each book. Philippians 2:2 “May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.” In 1 Timothy 1:2 it’s a little different. “I am writing to you Timothy, my true son in the faith. May God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord give you grace, mercy and peace.” He greets these people with gifts from God. We’ve been going through a series at Real Life about the power of words called Sticks and Stones and seeing Paul’s greetings it got me thinking. When you interact with people do you bring God’s grace, mercy and peace along with you? Hmm maybe we should rethink our greetings and interactions.
Saturday, October 27, 2018
Sunday, October 21, 2018
Trust issues
Trust issue
There’s a line in the song Born To Be by Geoff Moore and the Distance and it says “It all comes down to a matter of trust and you don’t know what you got till ya let it all go.” Also in the song Independence Day by White Heart it says this “Freedom came when I gave it all away”. I told you recently that a lot of these blogs start with prayer and sometimes it’s a verse or a part of a song that sparks me to write. This time the verses brought the songs to mind. See I want to show you the end of Psalm 52 and show you the importance of the word trust. Trusting God changes things.
Psalm 52:8-9 “But I am like an olive tree, thriving in the house of God. I will always trust in your unfailing love. I will praise you forever O God, for what you have done. I will trust in your good name in the presence of your faithful people.”
I don’t speak a lot about this but the first girl I ever dated lied about a lot of things and it created trust issues for me. I became afraid of women hurting me I didn’t trust that a human being could love me much less God. But over time God changed that in me. David makes a comparison here of being like an olive tree thriving in the house of God. Now think about this for a moment because the olive tree it doesn’t worry at all. The only time a tree worries is if it’s being depicted in movies like Ferngully or the blue people Avatar movies. Trees don’t worry! So that brings us back to the word trust David mentioned twice. David trusted in God’s unfailing love and his good name. Two unshakable, unchanging features of God. Now I want you to catch this because when he uses trust he becomes like the olive tree and stops doing what humans do and that’s worry. His trust issues go away. I told the readers of the blog recently one of the most important verses you need to remember is 1 Peter 5:7.
“Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.”
See we’re back to that unfailing love that David mentioned.
Another observation here. I was home schooled from fourth grade on and one thing my mom insisted on was memorizing scripture. One of the first things my sister and I had to memorize was Psalm 1. The more I thought about David’s life as shepherd, king, warrior, writer, singer, harp player and more it hit me that he was talking about an olive tree. This guy has seen a lot of trees. But I want you to look at Psalm 1:1-3 and consider other things he says about people and trees.
Psalm 1:1-3. “Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers. But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither and they prosper in all they do.”
I want you to consider this as well. The verses talk about the trees or the godly being by the riverbank. Now think for a minute because years upon years later Jesus called himself the living water. Riverbank, godly person next to it, Living Water in it. Olive tree in God’s house thriving. King David being called a man after God’s own heart. I don’t know about you but some of these pieces are all connected. Pass me some more LEGOs.
Proverbs 18:10
“The name of the Lord is a strong fortress; the godly run to him and are safe.”
Here’s David’s son Solomon reminding us about God’s good name and the power it holds.
Martin Luther latched on to this years ago.
“A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing.”
David in two verses shows us every reason to trust God. He even connects it to thriving. So what do you do with your trust issues. I’ll be honest when I have issues I want them to turn into subscriptions to comic books but when it’s a trust problem I want to trust God. Things go better when I trust God. Rich Mullins had something to say about the house of God and I want to leave you with this.
“And the moon is a sliver of sliver like a shaving that fell on the floor of a Carpenter’s shop, and every house must have it’s builder
And I awoke in the house of God
Where the windows are mornings and evenings
Stretched from the sun
Across the sky north to south
And on my way to early meeting
I heard the rocks crying out
I heard the rocks crying out
Be praised for all your tenderness
By these works of your hands”
|
Sunday, October 14, 2018
Each Day
Each day
Psalm 42 starts out a bit depressing and it’s a Psalm of the descendants of Korath and it says it’s for the choir director. Part of the psalm sounds like the basis of the old hymn Count your blessings. Maybe you’re having a rough day or week but the author gives us some stuff to latch on to. Verses 5-6 and then 11 are just what you need to change your perspective. They say the same thing. “Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again— my Savior and my God.” 98% of the battle of the mind is what you focus on. Like every good Psa from G.I.Joe cartoons “and knowing is half the battle.” The other 2% is refocusing. Then if you read the chapter I want you to look specifically at verse 8 because this is where you can say mic drop and walk away. Once you’re refocused you realize what a reality this verse is.
“But each day the Lord pours his unfailing love upon me, and through each night I sing his songs, praying to God who gives me life.”
Overflow by Shine like stars If you have never heard this song you seriously need to pay attention to the lyrics because it reminds you that everything comes from God.
Heard a song this week new to me I’m including just because of how good it is.
Sunday, October 7, 2018
Where is it?
Where is it?
I find it sad to see how many people turn to things other than prayer to deal with problems. I’ve been guilty myself. I relate to Po from Kung Fu Panda. When I’m stressed I eat stuff I know better than to eat. It’s easy to do for a diabetic. I was driving to work tonight for a four hour shift knowing I needed something for the blog for this week. I was praying before reading my Bible. Psalm 33 is amazing but there were a few parts I wanted to bring to your attention. See Peter Parker aka Spider-Man has built his life around a word but most specifically a phrase. “With great power comes great responsibility.” I do a weekly Bible study blog that you the reader have given me your trust to bring you hope. I have to be responsible to acquire and present that to you. I could as some have thought I do build a whole blog around comics or anything else but I would fail you the reader. So in order to give you hope I have to present it to you from God’s Word where true hope can be found.
Complaining is easy but praising God is the hard part. But here’s reasons why you need your attention shifted.
Psalm 33:1-5. “Let the Godly sing for joy to the Lord; it is fitting for the pure to praise him. Praise the Lord with melodies on the lyre; make music for him on the ten-stringed harp. Sing a new song to praise him; play skillfully on the harp and sing with joy. For the word of the Lord holds true, and we can trust everything he does. He loves whatever is just and good; the unfailing love of the Lord fills the earth.”
Now maybe like me you can’t play an instrument or sing too well God is interested in your heart and you can still sing along to music. As I type this I have one song in mind to go with the blog. Part of the reason I leave links to music is because it is also an act of worship. Minor detail but a lot of blogs have started with a song lyric or Bible verse. I promised you hope and though we live in a broken sinful world the above verses said God’s unfailing love fills the earth. Too often we want to present scenarios and say “How could a loving God allow this or that.” We forget that he allows us to make choices and this world has been slowly going bad since sin entered the world. We have the choice to follow God or choose evil and too many people take the wrong choice. Maybe you doubt the part about unfailing love filling the earth but honestly that has been the message of the cross for over two thousand plus years. We are sinful creatures no chance of redemption but then you get to one of my life verses. Romans 5:8 “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” There is so much hope and love captured in that one verse.
To give you the reader hope I will always point you to God’s Word and to the cross.
But the last part of this chapter says it better than I can.
Psalm 33:20-22. “We put our hope in the Lord. He is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. Let your unfailing love surround us, Lord for our hope is in you alone.”
So one of you may ask knowing all this what is the point? The point to this whole post and if this were a wrestling promo I’m going to give you your “go home line.” As Christians we have hope. In the Green Lantern comics there is a light spectrum to the power rings and they represent things. The Blue Lantern corps signifies Hope. As Christians we are to spread hope found in Christ to other believers to encourage and to non believers to show them the way to Christ. What are your spreading?
I’m going to introduce you to my all time favorite song by Sandi Patty because the entire song talks about things found In the Name of the Lord and hope is one of them.
If we’re His by Lisa Bevill New song I heard for the first time this week.
Sunday, September 30, 2018
No Vacancy
No vacancy
My dad taught me something years ago and I quote it a lot. I just had a mess of a week. Not every night when someone crashes into your parked car in your driveway. I find myself praying a lot about the car being worked on, the motorcyclist who hit it and other things stressing out my wife and I. Sunday night I needed some reminders. So for those reading waiting for what my dad taught and “for the thousands in attendance and the millions watching at home.” Here are three fundamental facts.
1. There is a God
2. You are not him
3. There is no vacancy
See part of my world has been falling apart and I’m having to pray and trust God a lot. But Sunday night I was at work reading Growing in the Seasons of Life by Chuck Swindoll when I was pointed to Psalm 115:3. “Our God is in the heavens, and he does as he wishes.” Chicken Little said “The sky is falling.” He was wrong. Psalm 19:1-6 says an emphatic NO!
“The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. Yet the message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world. God has made a home in the heavens for the sun. It bursts forth like a radiant bridegroom after his wedding. It rejoices like a great athlete eager to run the race. The sun rises at one end of the heavens and follows its course to the other end. Nothing can hide from its heat.”
See as I drove to work much too early in the morning I was praying a lot. I remembered that God went before Israel as a cloud and a pillar of fire. God always surrounded his people. And He is non linear he already knows what and when and how. I needed to remember he was still on his throne and he was not leaving any vacancy. He’s still in control. Doesn’t always have to make sense to us and until we reach Heaven it probably won’t. I just pray that I respond how he wants me to. Because I may say the sky is falling and He says it’s still where I left it. Sun comes up, moon tags in. Nope the sky is still there.
“Though the winds may blow
And though the floods may grow
I shall not be moved
Because I am on the Rock!”
Psalms 24:1-2
“ The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it. The world and all it’s people belong to him. For he laid the earth’s foundation on the seas and built it on the ocean depths.”
So most all the songs here lyric wise have something to do with the blog posted. But the last song here has been one I rediscovered after years and it is here because the song is so great I wanted to share it with others. And one night Marion reminded me I just put links up for you the reader if I put a little or a lot it’s still your choice to read or listen. It’s a blog designed for busy people and you get out what you invest into it. I just have to be willing to post it.
Minor note if I ever quote a song in the blog I will leave a link to it. Unless it’s a secular song I won’t do that. As Sean Connery said “Here endeth the lesson.”
Sunday, September 23, 2018
Living Water
Living water
In John 4:10 Jesus tells the Samaritan Woman he can give her living water. And in verse 14 he says this “But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them giving them eternal life.” This portion of scripture came to mind as I read John chapter 2:1-12. I want you to see something here that fits this all together.
“The next day there was a wedding celebration in the village of Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there and Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the celebration. The wine supply ran out during the festivities. Jesus’ mother told him. ‘They have no more wine’.
‘Dear woman, that’s not our problem.’ Jesus replied. ‘My time has not yet come.’
But his mother told the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’
Standing nearby were six stone water jars, used for Jewish ceremonial washing. Each could hold twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus told the servants, ‘Fill the jars with water.’ When the jars had been filled, he said, ‘Now dip some out, and take it to the master of ceremonies.’ So the servants followed his instructions.
When the master of ceremonies tasted the water that was now wine, not knowing where it had come from (though, of course the servants knew), he called the bridegroom over. ‘A host always serves the best wine first,’. He said. ‘Then, when everyone has had a lot to drink, he brings out the less expensive wine. But you have kept the best until now.’
This miraculous sign at Cana in Galilee was the first time Jesus revealed his glory. And his disciples believed in him.
After the wedding he went to Capernaum for a few days with his mother, his brothers and his disciples.”
I want you to think about something here. We as Christians are called vessels and people at first don’t see changes in us and then when the Living Water, Jesus himself changes us that’s when we become vessels of honor. What kind of liquid comes forth when people see you?
Psalm 23:5 says “You prepare a feast before me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings.” See the living water God puts into us should overflow and splash out of the vessels that we are. In Jeremiah 18:1-17 God shows the prophet a lesson in pottery and clay. God is constantly at work on us and our lives much like the vessels for water at Cana shaping us to be the people he wants. See if God is not changing you then you seriously need to step back stop and ask questions about your salvation because you may still be an empty water jug. Jesus also said this about our salvation.
John 3:5 “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.”
Here is more about us being vessels.
2 Corinthians 4:5-7
“You see, we don’t go preaching about ourselves. We preach Jesus Christ is Lord, and we ourselves are your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, ‘Let there be light in the darkness,’ has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our power is from God, not from ourselves.”
Romans 12:1-2 gives us our flight path and contrary to Peter Pan and Captain Kirk it is not “Second Star to the right and on till morning.”
“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.”
God wants us transformed into willing vessels to be used by Him.
In the words of Optimus Prime “Autobots transform and roll out.”
Saturday, September 15, 2018
Still useful
Still useful
Sometimes my brain latches on to things. We as humans are often stupid and make bad decisions. Traffic in Corpus Christi can be a good example of that. In the book of Judges you can find the story of Samson. This guy messed up almost as many times as Peter did. In Judges 13:6-7 we learn of what he was supposed to be. “The woman ran and told her husband, ‘A man of God appeared to me! He looked like one of God’s angels, terrifying to see. I didn’t ask where he was from, and he didn’t tell me his name. But he told me, ‘You will become pregnant and give birth to a son. You must not drink wine or any alcoholic drink nor eat any forbidden food. For your son will be dedicated to God as a Nazirite from the moment of his birth until the day of his death.’”
Samson was a guy that messed up a lot but I want to show you something that my brain missed so many times reading before because Samson as flawed as he is somehow ends up doing what he is supposed to and it defies all logic. He’s like Captain Kirk on Star Trek the Wrath of Kahn. Samson just looks like he’s on a collision course with stupidity.
Judges 14:1-4 “One day when Samson was in Timnah, one of the Philistine women caught his eye. When he returned home, he told his father and mother. ‘A young Philistine woman in Timnah caught my eye. I want to marry her. Get her for me.’ His father and mother objected. ‘Isn’t there even one woman in our tribe among all the Israelites you could marry?’ They asked. ‘Why must you go to the pagan Philistines to find a wife?’ But Samson told his father. ‘Get her for me! She looks good to me.’ His father and mother didn’t realize the Lord was at work in this, creating an opportunity to work against the Philistines, who ruled over Israel at the time.”
Now my first thing I want to say here and I speak from personal pain and experience when your family and friends warn you about a man or woman you’re interested in and tell you to stay away. Do it! Stay away! Samson was about to embark on a path of destruction.
Now that being said I am also in no way shape or form condoning or encouraging Samson’s approach to getting a mate. If women complain about men now they would have plenty more reasons to complain about his attitude.
But here’s what caught my attention reading this. In verse four it says his parents didn’t realize God was at work in this. So here’s a guy being stupid and making bad decisions and somehow God uses it. You yeah you the reader I’m talking to you directly. God used David, Peter, Gideon, Sarah, Abraham, Jacob, Elijah, Jonah and more they made bad choices like you and me. God in his mercy used them still. The question is with all your mistakes and mine and so much we’ve been forgiven of are you still willing to repent turn to God and like Isaiah say “Here Am I Lord send me.”
Samson is a redemption story. The Philistines meant so much harm and did so much wrong to him and the nation of Israel but God used it for his glory. It reminds me of the story of Joseph in Genesis 45 when he reveals his identity to his brothers because all the harm his brothers did to him God ended up using it for good.
See with all our sins and mistakes God ends up using us as flawed as we are to show our need for salvation and redemption.
Years ago David Meece said it correctly in revealing our need for a savior.
“And we were the reason that he gave his life. We were the reason that he suffered and died. To a world that was lost he gave all he could give to show us the reason to live.
I finally found the reason for living it’s in giving every part of my heart to him. In all that I do and every word that I say I’ll be giving my all just for him. For him.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)