Personal Scripture

My dear children, I write this letter to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone sins, we have Jesus Christ to help us. He always did what was right, so he is able to defend us before God the Father. Jesus is the way our sins are taken away. And he is the way all people can have their sins taken away too. If we obey what God has told us to do, then we are sure that we know him. If we say we know God but do not obey his commands, we are lying. The truth is not in us. But when we obey God’s teaching, his love is truly working in us. This is how we know that we are living in him. (I John 2:1-5)

A long time ago, I had a pastor who told us it was okay to substitute our own names into scripture. For example, I could read this passage as, "My dear Lauretta, I write this letter to you...", making it come alive to me personally. When I began to realize scripture was written for ME, I began to find it both comforting and a little convicting. At times, it opened up doors for my healing and peace. At others, it brought me to my knees in repentance. Either way, scripture did its work IN me because it was written FOR me. It is written for all of us - you included!

Written that I may not sin - when I see it as a personal letter to me, I begin to appreciate how much care God takes to help ME live right. It isn't just the early church that received this letter to live in such a way that they didn't sin, but it was for each of us personally. The message is clear - God wants us to stop accepting sin in our lives as 'normal' or 'expected'. He wants us to forsake the selfishness of sin and settle into the selflessness of living for and with Christ. In turn, he gives us the means by which to do exactly that!

Sin doesn't need to hold us back - it can be taken away and we can find a new purpose in life - obedience to God. We might find it a little intimidating to hear some of these passages put in the personal tense, but if we truly want to be free of our sin, we need a 'personal God' who meets us right where we are. If anyone sins - it is pretty much a 'given' that we ALL fit that bill. We have Jesus to help us with being free of that sin - not just forgiven, but free from it. Too many times we fail to equate forgiveness with freedom. Jesus replaces that sin with his righteousness. We replace the desires to sin by getting truth INTO our lives.

Jesus deals with our sin, but we learn to deal with the temptation to 'sin again' by getting God's truth into us. The scripture doesn't have to be hard for us to understand, especially when we allow it to become 'personal' to us. Just sayin!

Welcome the light

The more we experience light, the harder it becomes to tolerate darkness. This is true in every area of our lives. Get up in the middle of the night, when darkness abounds, then try to avoid hitting your toe on the furniture if there is not even one hint of light to guide your way. You stumble around, hands held outward groping for something to guide the way. Then there comes a bit of light - it settles our anxiety, helps us make out what has been hidden, and helps us 'navigate' with safety. Light is perhaps not essential, but the more we experience it, the more essential it becomes!

God is light, and in him there is no darkness. So if we say that we share in life with God, but we continue living in darkness, we are liars, who don’t follow the truth. We should live in the light, where God is. If we live in the light, we have fellowship with each other, and the blood sacrifice of Jesus, God’s Son, washes away every sin and makes us clean. If we say that we have no sin, we are fooling ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, God will forgive us. We can trust God to do this. He always does what is right. He will make us clean from all the wrong things we have done. If we say that we have not sinned, we are saying that God is a liar and that we don’t accept his true teaching. (I John 1:5-10)

When that light is Jesus, the more we experience his light, the more essential our relationship with him becomes! Darkness isn't going to thrill us any longer - we won't desire to tolerate the things we once found we could 'grope our way through'. We will want light to be shed, perhaps only dimly at first, but then with the full brightness of his presence. Why do we desire to be free of darkness? It holds things that harm us. It creates a sense of fear within us. It creates 'images' out of lurking 'darker things' that we don't fully comprehend. So, we desire light.

Light sets things right. It dispels the myth that what 'lurks' in the darkness will harm us. When light comes into our spirit, the things that once hid in the darkness no longer have a hiding place. They are exposed for what they really are. In the night hours, that looming bookcase may take on the image of a giant monster, but in the light of day we see it for what it really is - a home for books. Light helps make the things that we imagine to be real evident for what they really are. When we trust God enough to give us the light we need, we are relying upon a light that will never go out. 

Light brings hope, dispels fear, opens our understanding. When we welcome light into our lives, we are actually asking darkness to flee. Just sayin!

Our best in his timing

To the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day. The Lord is not being slow in doing what he promised—the way some people understand slowness. But God is being patient with you. He doesn’t want anyone to be lost. He wants everyone to change their ways and stop sinning. (2 Peter 3:8-9)

To the Lord - we sometimes forget we are supposed to be looking at things through his eyes. We see things 'our way' so much of the time, forgetting entirely that God could see things just a bit differently than we do. We want this to happen, that to occur, things to be fixed this way or that, but we forget God may have a different plan. He may use whatever happened that we want to change in order to produce something quite grand in the end. We just have to be patient, listen intently to what he will say in the moment, and be obedient to whatever he shows us.

We see things today for what we think they will be tomorrow, while God sees things in the light of eternity. He knows the depth and breadth of the events, while we know the very limited 'vision' of what we see today. Some of us think God is being slow in answering our prayers, but is he really? He is likely just preparing our hearts for 'how' he will answer those prayers. It may be a clear 'no', 'yes', or 'not now', but his answer might just baffle us a bit. We want things to 'go our way', but we forget that 'our way' is not always a well-thought-out way!

God's purpose in the 'delay' is always our good. If we could just get that through our heads, so that it began to affect our minds, we might just chafe a little less when God 'takes his sweet time'. Our best is always in his mind - our worst is always what he is working to remove from our lives. In the scheme of things, one may take a little longer than the other! Just sayin!

Today's focus determines tomorrow's destination

...the Lord God knows how to save those who are devoted to him. He will save them when troubles come. (2 Peter 2:9)

We may not realize just how much God has his watchful eye upon us, or that he is hard at work protecting us from evil all around us, but he is right there, and he is 'at work'! God knows how to save us from ourselves, and he knows how to save us from all manner of evil that comes into our lives! When troubles come, look up. When anxiety reaches deep within your soul, praise God. When heartache seems to overwhelm every emotion, fall on your knees and pour your heart out to him. He is your Savior!

Several examples are given to us in the previous verses - examples of good men who served the Lord in very difficult circumstances. Noah served God with an unwavering heart, even in the face of evil people all around him. He lived a lifestyle that "told people about living right." Lot lived among vile and unholy people, who engaged in terrible acts of evil, all the while he "was greatly troubled by the morally bad lives of those evil people. This good man lived with those evil people every day, and his good heart was hurt by the evil things he saw and heard." In spite of it all, they served God and looked to him for their deliverance.

Everywhere we look, stressors abound. Everywhere we turn, evil is attempting to make an inroad. What can we do in the midst of such chaos? Live right, even when the crowds aren't. Live strong, even when the pressures seem to mount. Live with integrity, even when others are questioning why we live the way we do. In so doing, we welcome the presence of God into the 'chaos' of this evil world, and we become beacons of his grace and love to it. We may not see God at work, but we can trust that he is. We may not 'feel' God in our midst, but that doesn't mean he isn't there. 

God knows how to save those who are DEVOTED to him. The key to living in the midst of evil - live devoted to him. Zealous in our beliefs, loyal in our commitment to have no other god before him, and with affection that is genuine. Devoted individuals are constant in their focus - today's focus determines tomorrow's destination, so don't let your focus drift! Just sayin!

Tested and True?

In the past there were false prophets among God’s people. It is the same now. You will have some false teachers in your group. They will teach things that are wrong—ideas that will cause people to be lost. And they will teach in a way that will be hard for you to see that they are wrong. They will even refuse to follow the Master who bought their freedom. And so they will quickly destroy themselves. Many people will follow them in the morally wrong things they do. And because of them, others will say bad things about the way of truth we follow. These false teachers only want your money. So they will use you by telling you things that are not true. But the judgment against these false teachers has been ready for a long time. And they will not escape God who will destroy them. (2 Peter 2:1-3)

We are living in a time when believers are bombarded on all sides by one teaching after another - in media of all forms, in personal contact, and even from our public 'pulpits'. We must know how to evaluate the teaching of those we choose to listen to as wise students of the Word. We must learn to filter out the truth from the lie - God gives us the ability to do so, but so many choose just to 'blindly believe' all they hear and see. Understanding in the spiritual sense is never from a man's own understanding - it has come because God has granted that individual the wisdom to understand. We need God's protection over our lives in order to avoid falling prey to any manner of 'false teaching'.

Ideas that will cause people to be lost - those words really say it all. We would not believe an outright lie, would we? We might believe it if it was 'sandwiched' deep inside some truth from God's Word, though. That is how the false prophet works - he brings the 'untruth' with just enough truth that we imagine it must be true, as well. Eventually, that untruth will take us down paths God says we were to avoid entirely, but we were 'duped' into believing it was okay to travel them anyway. One thing about those who bring false teaching is pretty apparent - they 'use you by telling you things that are not true'. If we were to evaluate their teaching against truth in God's Word, we might find little bits and pieces of 'untruth' has been mixed in - muddying the teaching of God in small ways at first and then in bigger ways later on.

This is why it is so important for us to discover God's Word for ourselves. We must allow it to get into our hearts and spirits so we can recognize any untruth when it is cleverly masked within truth. God also gave us his Holy Spirit who will bear witness to truth but will also give us an uneasy feeling toward any untruth that we may encounter. When that uneasiness comes, we can either reject it and continue to just go along with the false teaching, or we can heed it, rejecting the teaching as unwise, unhealthy, and untrue. The Bereans were commended as those who took every teaching and compared it to the scriptures. They 'tested' the teaching they heard to see if it was true. We'd do well to do the same! Just sayin!

Called and chosen

God called you and chose you to be his. Do your best to live in a way that shows you really are God’s called and chosen people. If you do all this, you will never fall. And you will be given a very great welcome into the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, a kingdom that never ends. (2 Peter 1:10-11)

Called, not just chosen. Sometimes we forget we have more to do in this walk with Jesus than just attest to our Christianity. We are called to work alongside Jesus in being witnesses in this very harsh world. We are called to be bold in our faith, standing strong in the midst of things we don't understand fully. In being examples of his grace and love, we can change a very harsh world into a much kinder one. We can make a difference, but only when we are willing to be used by God wherever he places us. 

We must never forget that Christ is in control of our comings and goings, but we must also remember that he calls us to action. Witnesses do more than just show up. They get involved, go the extra mile, and give even when it doesn't seem like there is any difference being made. Grace demands actions of kindness even when faced with resistance. Those who merely 'show up' in their Christian walk are subject to believing things they shouldn't have believed, doing things they were told to avoid, and getting little done for the Kingdom of God as a result. 

From the beginning of time, God has used people to share his message. He has used people to touch the lives of other people - with physical hands and feet that are involved in his work. We might build houses for the poor, help out at the food bank, or even clothe the homeless. If it is done in the name of Christ, the work is far more valuable than if we just 'give our time' to 'do those tasks'. What message does your life portray? Is it one of trust and hope? Or is it one of fear and skepticism? If our devotion to God is active and growing, so will be our testimony. Our actions will be grace based, our words will be kind, and our trust will be evident. Our lives will be sacrificial, and our works will give evidence of God's goodness. Just saying....

Squandering time?

I think there are times in life when we perceive it to be one time but may not realize it is later than we think! The message today is to consider the time, for it may be later than we think. We may perceive time to be endless, especially in our youth, but as we age a little, we see just how quickly it passes. I dreaded summer vacation off of school as a kid because I liked the mental stimulation of school. A couple weeks of break and I was ready to go back! Time seemed to stand still as those three months passed! Now, a week can be gone in the blink of an eye! What once seemed unending now appears quite limited.

For everything there is a season, a time to every activity under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest. (Ecclesiastical 3:1-2)

In life, we have opportunities that come our way at a particular time in our life. They may not come our way again because they are more or less "time sensitive". I would have to say relationships are one of those things. We can twitter away fragments of time without ever realizing it, all the while believing we have time, neglecting the important things within that relationship. It may be God is asking us to pay attention to that time a little today - like he is calling us back into focus. Whenever he does this, it isn't to punish us, but rather to help us recognize the true time, for we never really know when it will be "later than we think". "How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flown. How did it get so late so soon?" (Dr. Suess) The age-old question: How did it get so late so soon? Define for me what the difference is between late and so late. Some might say the difference is being able to meet a deadline or being there just on time compared to totally missing the deadline or the timing for whatever needs to be done. Regardless of how we define it, the time we hold in our hands today will be gone all too swiftly and we know not if we are guaranteed more!

We want to imagine things as endless, but in reality, God is the one in control. He counted out the grains within the hourglass which fall all too quickly to the bottom of that glass. All we can do is manage well what we have been given today and ensure we don't miss the opportunities to show someone how much we love them, or how precious their relationship has been to us as time has passed. Someday all we will be left with are the memories of how we used our time. We all want those memories to amount to a legacy. Don't squander those moments...it is later than you think! Just sayin!

Live well

So don’t lose a minute in building on what you’ve been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others. (2 Peter 1:5-7)

Jesus has the power of God - so, if he indwells your spirit, don't lose one minute in allowing him to put that power to use within your life. Faith is good, but we need renewed thoughts, changed behavior, and a whole lot of 'umph' to get through the testing of that faith! We need his power - we have his power - but most of us still feel 'powerless' to live as we should. It is because we think we have to do all this 'changing' in our own power, not HIS.

Good character comes as we begin to allow his indwelling power and his word to bring conviction to any area of our 'character' that isn't upright. That conviction should turn us away from those things that muddy our character and point us toward those things that will build up the good character of one who is truly devoted to God. Spiritual understanding may not be immediate, but when we said 'yes' to Jesus, his Spirit came into our lives in order to bring us into more and more understanding of 'spiritual things'.

Many times, the 'failure' to develop 'good character' begins by allowing our focus to drift back to old ways of thinking and acting. Alert discipline is called for in this walk with Jesus. It is more than 'being on alert' for the enemy's attacks - it involves being open at all times to receive the 'teachable moment' within that circumstance we are facing. Patience may seem a little bit 'passive' to some, but in reality, there is a great deal of 'passion' behind our patience. We know Jesus is about to break down walls, remove past hurts, heal unhealthy emotions, and create a newness within us. We are eager to see it done but wait on his perfect timing with expectation and hope.

Love caps it all off - because God is love and his presence creates that love within us - the love that has no strings attached. We cannot love well until we have truly made the commitment to 'live well'. We only 'live well' when that living is guided and empowered by the Spirit of Christ that indwells us! Just sayin!

Be Free

Jesus is the one who saves us. He is the God that we serve. I pray that God will help you and give you peace in your minds more and more. You will grow as believers because you know God and you know Jesus, our Lord. God is very powerful because he is God. He has used that power to help us. He has given us everything that we need to live in a good way. We can do things that make God happy. This is possible because now we know him. God has chosen us to be his people because he is very great and very good. Because of this, God has promised that he will do very great and valuable things for us. As a result, you can do what is right, like God does. The people who belong to this world want to do bad things. Those bad things make them become worse and worse. But God gives you the power to be free from all that. (2 Peter 1:2-4)

The power to be free from all that - those words speak volumes, don't they? We lived as slaves to sin, but now we live as free men and women, in submissive service to the one who has redeemed us. It seems like a bit of a conundrum to some - slaves before we say yes to Christ, but servants after we say yes to Christ. What is the difference? In the first case, as slaves to sin, we have no say in how we live or what we serve. As servants to Christ, we submit willingly, as free men and women - free to choose to serve rather than in bondage of service. 

How is this possible? We are given everything that we need to live in a good manner, no longer serving the sin nature within or the pull of temptation that attempts to lure us back into bondage. If we have been given everything we need, why do some still struggle so much? Perhaps it is because we haven't really let go of the chains that once held us captive! We are freed from those chains, but we hold onto them - fearful to break the connection we have with our past lives. The thing we fear most will always hold us captive. We must let go of that fear and let God give us his peace - the peace that will allow us to drop those chains and finally walk free.

God has used his power to help us - giving us more and more peace in our minds. The further we walk away from those chains of bondage, the more peace we will receive. The steps we take to be free 'from' sin are never wasted steps. We cannot redeem ourselves - Christ does that for us. We DO take steps away from those things that held us captive, though. We remove ourselves from the vicinity of sin and form a new community of 'free men and women' living this life together. As we come together in community with other believers, we discover the strength of God exists in many varying ways in each life he has touched. His strength and ability are limitless. We learn of his goodness and grace in community - the community of the 'free'. Just sayin!

An inheritance

Lord, you give me all that I need. You support me. You give me my share. My share is wonderful. My inheritance is very beautiful. I praise the Lord because he taught me well. Even at night he put his instructions deep inside my mind. I always remember that the Lord is with me. He is here, close by my side, so nothing can defeat me. (Psalm 16:5-8)

It is good for us to remember who is right there with us, even when the hardest of things come to pass and we see no way out. God hasn't ever abandoned his children, and he isn't about to start now! We have ALL that we need to overcome whatever we face - we may not always see it immediately, but we have MORE than we need!

As this psalm draws to a close, the words of our psalmist really reveal his heart: "You will teach me the right way to live. Just being with you will bring complete happiness." He desires God to teach him the right way to live - to help him with his choices. He wants his 'happiness' to be God-given, not something he can find in anything he could seek on this earth.

God's greatest joy is hearing one of his children ask for him to teach them his ways - the right way to live. The prayer for wisdom isn't prayed in vain - there is always an answer from our Creator. We have various ways of 'hearing' or 'seeing' God's wisdom, but it is always there for those who have chosen to make God their support and their source. 

There are many 'sources' for happiness, but only one source for true joy. There are many 'sources' for peace, but only one source for the peace that passes all understanding. We can seek an 'inheritance' in this world, or we can seek an inheritance that will make our world great. The choice is clear to me. How about you? Just askin...

Don't concede that ground

We speak often about compromise - making subtle 'adjustments' in the way we see things in order to either justify what we are doing or to convince ourselves that the rules God has laid out for us are old fashioned and outdated. The concessions we make in life may eventually be our undoing. We may not see that now, but at the end of every concession is another one. Compromise doesn't take us from 100% loyal to God's 'rules' to being 100% disloyal to them in one step. It is a build-up of steps, tiny ones at first, leading to bigger ones the further we move away from the 'rule'.

“In the last times there will be people who laugh at God and do only what they want to do—things that are against God.” These are the people who divide you. They are not spiritual, because they don’t have the Spirit. But you, dear friends, use your most holy faith to build yourselves up even stronger. Pray with the help of the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves safe in God’s love, as you wait for the Lord Jesus Christ in his mercy to give you eternal life. Help those who have doubts. Rescue those who are living in danger of hell’s fire. There are others you should treat with mercy, but be very careful that their filthy lives don’t rub off on you. (Jude 18-23)

It is impossible for truth to be 'untouched' when compromise occurs. It is as though we 'remake' truth to fit the circumstances. Whenever we alter truth, we move one step further from God. Adjusting our reference from 'true center' is always going to cause us to live 'off-balance'. We are created to keep God at the center, but we struggle to remove ourselves from that 'seat' of authority, don't we? A divided soul is open to compromise and sin. God's place is central in our lives - the seat of authority belongs to him. Unseat him and all of life gets a little wonky!

When we make adjustments to what God says to be true, we are actually turning away from truth. We are telling ourselves it isn't 'valid' for the situation. How does sin get an inroad into our lives? By 'validating' what isn't really 'valid'! With every concession we make toward sin, our love for God becomes secondary. It isn't that we don't love God any longer - it is that we don't give him his right place in our lives. We still want to 'keep him around', but we don't want to make him our all in all. Sin's pull is hard to resist at times, but the first sign that we are making a concession for our behavior is the very moment we need to fall to our knees and ask for God's strength to resist that urge to concede that ground to the enemy of our souls! Just sayin!

Have a goal, but...

 "Give light and the darkness will disappear of itself." (Desiderius Erasmus)

You have not seen Christ, but still you love him. You can’t see him now, but you believe in him. You are filled with a wonderful and heavenly joy that cannot be explained. Your faith has a goal, and you are reaching that goal—your salvation. (I Peter 1:8-9)

We have not seen Christ, yet we trust his coming was genuine, his undeserved grace beyond wonderful, and the hope he gives of a future spent with him throughout eternity magnificent. He walked among believers many, many years ago, and he still 'walks among us' through the power of his Spirit within us. Our faith does indeed have a goal - our ultimate salvation - eternity in his holy presence.

Without goals, we kind of drift, more or less just choosing whatever feels like it might be good for the moment. Scripture puts it this way, "Where there is no vision, the people perish; but happy is he who keeps the teaching." (Proverbs 19:18) In another translation, it is put this way, "When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild. But whoever obeys the law is joyful." Are we listening to the voice of God? Do we merely 'hear', but not 'obey'? Goals involve not only plans, but execution!

Wherever darkness has invaded a life, causing one's life to 'mirror' that of this world so closely that it is hard to tell if Christ dwells in that man's heart, light is needed. The more 'light' we get into our lives, the less room there is for darkness of any kind to dwell. Light comes from the word of God, his Spirit's guidance in our lives, and the testimony of those who also walk in the light. We may look for light in all different ways, but there is only one true source of life-giving light - Christ Jesus.

Love God with all your heart and you will actually yearn for his guidance - you will not be content to wander this earth without it. That discontent drives you into his word, compelling you to soak it in, then it helps you to embrace it and act upon it. Goals are always good, but execution is best. Salvation isn't a stagnant thing - it is a growing, developing thing. Allow his grace to grow the seed that was planted in your heart, and you will see darkness soon pushed away from you. Just sayin!

Is it just information we need?

T. S. Eliot asked, "Where is all the knowledge we lost with information?" If you are observant, you may have noticed we are 'knowledge rich', but 'wisdom poor' in many ways within our world today. The more 'knowledge' we obtain, the less we use our 'God-given reasoning' and 'conscience' to help guide our decisions. We seem to be lulled into just going along with the flow, whatever current it may be taking us down. We are never without 'resources' to know what is wise and what should be rejected, though. We have God's word - we just need to get into it and allow it to get into us!

God’s word is alive and working. It is sharper than the sharpest sword and cuts all the way into us. It cuts deep to the place where the soul and the spirit are joined. God’s word cuts to the center of our joints and our bones. It judges the thoughts and feelings in our hearts. (Hebrews 4:12)

Truth isn't subjective - it is objective - the object of truth being God himself. When we get into God's word, we find truth is alive and active, even in places and ways we had not noticed before. It is impossible for his word to be spoken or 'taken in' without it having an impact. One way or the other, his word sets to work 'dividing' what some call 'information' from 'knowledge and wisdom'. Within short order, there is a light that reveals what others cannot see - not because you are smarter than others, but because you allowed his word to guide your steps and make clear the way you should walk.

Alive and working. His word is alive, meaning it can reproduce life. His word is working, meaning it isn't a dusty book in the corner of the room but rather a transformational power waiting the opportunity to go to work within us. Many have Bibles, but few actually learn what his word says, how it brings life to dead places within us, and how it weeds out misguided beliefs we should never have embraced. His word isn't afraid to 'cut deep' because without the removal of untruth, truth hasn't done its work! Thoughts and feelings may be laid bare under the scrutiny of God's word, but that is its intent. Whenever we 'take in' his word, we can count on it to 'reproduce' God's grace and goodness, while removing anything that is simply 'information' we need to let go of in order to move on with him. Just sayin!

A message of hope

All Scripture is given by God. And all Scripture is useful for teaching and for showing people what is wrong in their lives. It is useful for correcting faults and teaching the right way to live. Using the Scriptures, those who serve God will be prepared and will have everything they need to do every good work. (2 Timothy 3:15-17)

There have been times when I have used scripture to beat someone over the head - oh, not physically, but metaphorically. I have picked the most inopportune times, used the harshest scripture I could find that applied to the issue, and whammo! Yes, I am guilty of causing a 'scripture hit and run'! I was young, not really aware of how God could intervene without 'all my help', and kind of stubborn myself at times. I have mellowed a lot since then and have even been the 'victim' of a few 'scripture hit and runs' from others. Perhaps those helped me to realize the folly of spewing scripture 'at' someone. Scripture is all powerful, but it is a tool best used in conjunction with the leading of the Holy Spirit.

When the Holy Spirit prepares his Word for a particular situation, it rings true in the heart of the one hearing it. When the heart is ready, the Words might just bring conviction, but they also bring great hope and comfort in response to that conviction. We can use words to 'condemn', but we will never be able to use words to bring 'conviction'. God's plan was always to use his people to help one another walk in the light of his truth, but to do it with grace and understanding. There is no room in his church for 'hit and run' preachers! All scripture is useful - in the hands of the Holy Spirit. Yes, the Holy Spirit can move through us to bring a word to one in need of understanding, but we must be sure it is his leading and not our own.

The difference in timing, delivery, and outcome is made when he is behind the words because he has prepared the heart to receive them. If all scripture did was point out what was wrong in our lives, we'd dread ever discovering the truth within its pages. Scripture might bring conviction, pointing out some area where our lives require some adjustment, but it always shows us a certain aspect of light and life as it does. This is where grace bring hope into our lives. Truth uttered by our lips and empowered by the Holy Spirit will always bring hope - even in the midst of conviction. Just sayin!

Small pictures matter

If we are to move forward with Christ, we must realize if we are actually moving, standing still, or falling behind. Until we realize where we are at, there is not much effort we will put into any forward movement. If we are lucky enough to find ourselves moving forward, it could be that Christ wants to put a little more 'pep in our step', so to speak, in getting us to move at a different pace. The sad truth is that many are 'standing still' - allowing movement all around them, but not even realizing how much damage is being done when 'standing still' is our present condition. A flood may come, but the things that survive the flood are the things that can move away from it!

Brothers and sisters, I know that I still have a long way to go. But there is one thing I do: I forget what is in the past and try as hard as I can to reach the goal before me. I keep running hard toward the finish line to get the prize that is mine because God has called me through Christ Jesus to life up there in heaven. (Philippians 3:13-14)

In order to move forward, one might need to become discontent with the past. If we are too well attached to the past and the way it makes us feel, we will likely never desire to move forward. Even being too focused on the 'good things' that are happening in our present might not be exactly the right focus for us to have. Perhaps Christ wants us to look at the past with less fondness, be just a little discontent with our present, and yearn for what is just ahead for each of us. Perhaps we hear clearly that it is time to move forward, but have no idea how to accomplish this, or the issues surrounding moving forward make it a huge challenge. When God initiates the movement, we can count on his presence and power to be with us as we take steps forward.

One of the first things we might need to do is realize things can be different in our lives. If we have been so totally attached to our past, it may seem impossible to ever move beyond it. It is though we can see nothing but that part of our lives - it anchors us in stagnation. We might not change the entire world by our forward movement, but we might see OUR world changed. That may not seem significant in the big picture, but every 'big picture' is actually made up of small pictures - take small steps, make incremental changes, and see a 'big God' reveal how your 'small picture' changed the 'big picture' around you. When we move forward, we aren't abandoning the lessons of the past - we are embracing them, having learned something of deep value from them as we lean into the lessons of the present and the preparation for the future ones we are about to learn. Just sayin!

Grace to take the next step

 Out of difficulties grow miracles. (Jean de la Bruyere)

We don’t want people to find anything wrong with our work. So, we do nothing that will be a problem to others. But in every way, we show that we are servants of God. We never give up, even though we face troubles, difficulties, and problems of every kind. We are beaten and thrown into prison. People get upset at us and fight against us. We work hard, and sometimes we get no sleep or food. We show that we are God’s servants by our pure lives, by our understanding, by our patience, and by our kindness. We show it by the Holy Spirit, by genuine love, by speaking the truth, and by depending on God’s power. This right way of living has prepared us to defend ourselves against every kind of attack. (2 Corinthians 6:3-7)

The followers of Christ are never guaranteed an 'easy path' - they are just guaranteed the presence of God with them on that path! We will face difficulties in life, but we have to choose how we will allow those difficulties to affect us - will they help us to grow, or defeat us right then and there? When we face life's issues with the attitude that 'in Christ's power and grace' we will never give up, it is quite different from facing it with "I WILL NEVER GIVE UP". One relies upon Christ in us, while the other leans heavily on our ability, talent, or perseverance. Only one of those will bring us through to the 'miracle'.

Live pure lives - making choices to serve Christ even when it is not easy. It might be easier to follow the crowd, but it won't produce the same results. It is in serving Christ, choosing his plans over our own or those of this world, that we actually become 'witnesses' of how his power and grace can bring us through even the most difficult of circumstances. I have come to realize we don't have to understand all God is doing in order to be obedient. We just need to choose the path least traveled, and we will 'grow into' that understanding. The path least traveled might require more 'moxie' than any other path afforded us today, but you can trust me on this one - it is the one that will produce the greatest reward!

God's power isn't always seen or felt, but we are assured it will be with us when we take steps toward obedience. We rely way too much upon what we can see or feel, making it harder for us to take steps of faith where they are needed. God's plan is to grow our faith - as we take the step forward. Faith isn't grown first and then we are obedient. It comes to maturity WITHIN obedience. Our understanding is expanded, our patience for the 'long haul' expands, and our hearts develop some kind of 'supernatural kindness' ON THE PATH. What happens is that our hearts, minds, and will are all learning to depend fully upon the power of God within us. As we move further and further away from what others may see as 'the way' into what God shows us as 'THE WAY', we will realize more and more of his power - the power that stems from grace - grace that helps us take each step of obedience. Just sayin!

Nagged into obedience?

Brothers and sisters, someone in your group might do something wrong. You who are following the Spirit should go to the one who is sinning. Help make that person right again, and do it in a gentle way. But be careful, because you might be tempted to sin too. Help each other with your troubles. When you do this, you are obeying the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to do this, you are only fooling yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Just look at your own work to see if you have done anything to be proud of. You must each accept the responsibilities that are yours. (Galatians 6:1-5)

Have you ever tried to 'nag' someone into obedience? It doesn't work well, does it? In the long run, one or both of you will come to have ill feelings toward the other. Nagging doesn't change behavior - it might even intensify it as the other seeks to magnify the 'annoyance' the disobedience brings you! We all do things we shouldn't do from time to time - we are all human, all have a sin nature, and all think way too highly of our 'self' at times. It is 'when', not 'if' we do something wrong, because we will all eventually find ourselves in need of a helping hand to be free of whatever it is we are struggling to overcome. Notice, it is a helping hand God asks us to bring, not the conviction of criticism, annoyance of nagging, or condemnation of shame.

Gentleness is key to helping one trapped in the downward spiral of sin. Foolish behavior seldom just goes away - it requires consistent change, and that change is only possible when Christ is the driving force within that change. What happens when we go to a person who is making foolish decisions, attempting to persuade them otherwise with a whole lot of 'opinion' as to why their decisions are wrong? They frequently reject such 'advice' as 'not applicable' to their circumstances, don't they? They cannot see that our 'opinions' matter all that much because 'their circumstances are different'. Nagging won't do the other person any good and may even drive a wedge that splits the relationship we had with that individual.

Christ asks us to come alongside - be gentle, not critical. Be open to hearing their heart and sharing in their hurt. Take those troubling things to God on their behalf. In other words, do 'warfare' in the spiritual realm when they aren't up to the fight themselves. We each have so much to offer one another, but it must be done in a loving, caring manner. It cannot be motivated by selfish ambition or pride but must be with humble spirit. When we care for each other in a loving, compassionate manner, we are opening the door for Christ to heal hurts and set paths straight once again. Sometimes we will be able to give advice, but what another does with it is their choice. We can never fill the place or position of the Holy Spirit in their lives. He will help with the choice - we stand alongside and pray them through to the other side of that choice! Just sayin!

Reading the moment

Have you ever said the wrong thing at the wrong time? Maybe you actually said the right thing, but at the wrong time. Either way, the 'thing' you said was not taken well, or it was completely ignored. Why? The 'wisdom' it takes to say only what needs to be said, in the right timing is an 'art'. It might not come easily to some, but it can be learned at the feet of Jesus. We just need to spend enough time with him to see how what he notices, when he chooses to speak, and the words he chooses when he speaks.

Everyone enjoys a fitting reply; it is wonderful to say the right thing at the right time! (Proverbs 15:23)

While I am not an expert on this subject by any means, I have learned there are just times when someone will not hear what you are saying no matter how many different ways you attempt to say it. The heart just isn't in 'receiver' mode. They aren't open to hearing, so even if the timing might be right and the word you bring is pretty spot on, if the heart is blocking the message all the brain hears is 'Wah, Wa, Wa, Wah, Wa, Wa'. 

It takes two to communicate. This might be the hardest lesson for us to learn because we sometimes think just speaking is enough. If the one being spoken to isn't willing to hear, or the heart isn't ready to receive, the communication is one-way. I am sure we have all been there - someone is trying to tell us how we should do something, but we are not focused, our intent is not to learn the stuff, or our mind is made up that the things being said just don't apply to this circumstance.

A fitting reply is both the right word coupled with the right timing. Learning to read the moment is important, but it may not come as naturally as we'd like. We might be ready to speak but the one who needs to hear us is far from prepared. The moment matters as much as the openness of heart. When we get the moment wrong, the heart is rarely prepared to respond to what is being said. We would all do well to seek God's help in both 'reading the moment' and preparing the words we will bring forth when the heart is ready to hear. Just sayin!

Here I am

Lord, you made me understand this: You don’t really want sacrifices and grain offerings. You don’t want burnt offerings and sin offerings. So I said, “Here I am, ready to do what was written about me in the book. My God, I am happy to do whatever you want. I never stop thinking about your teachings.” (Psalm 40:6-8)

At times, we might think God wants this or that from us, like an offering upon the altar of the Old Testament times. Things don't matter to God as much as our heart does. When he asked the people to bring a lamb or goat to offer in the Temple, it wasn't because he wanted the meat of the animal - he wanted to see the heart of the people - to see if they were willing to choose the best and dedicate it to God. All God asks of us is to choose him first - period. Nothing we 'bring' to him is of real or lasting value until he has our full heart!

The words, "Here I am", these are what God wants most. When the heart is behind those words, the world we live in changes. We begin to see things in a different light - his purposes become plain, his protective power is felt, and our lives take on an atmosphere of hope. When the people of old brought the sin offering, they were filled with hope that their sins would not be remembered against them. When we bring ourselves to the altar and ask God to forgive our sins, with truly contrite and open hearts, he instills a hope that we will finally live free of those things. 

Ready to do...all of life isn't about doing whatever we want to do when we want to do it. When we finally realize the sacrifice of a dedicated life means a change in the actions of that life, we are moving closer and closer to what God intends for us. Doing our 'own thing' might be okay for a while, but at some point, we will grow weary in following that path. When we place our lives on the altar of grace, we are asking God to change our priorities - to refocus our plans, so to speak. At first, this might seem a little uncomfortable because we had things 'all worked out' to be going one direction, but in time, the more we submit to his will, the easier it is to actually leave what we had 'worked out' and take on what he had planned for us from the beginning of time.

God doesn't stop teaching us as we grow in grace. In fact, his teachings become richer, more meaningful. We find ourselves actually craving the knowledge and wisdom contained within those teachings. Today it may seem like we don't really have that 'intensity' of dedication, but when we are willing to allow it to be developed within, laying down our lives upon the altar of grace, we are placing ourselves exactly where his work can begin. Just sayin!

Exchanged birthright

The moment we begin to justify sin in our lives is the moment we need most to turn back to what God says about each of us. We were born to do wrong - sinners even before we left our mother's womb. Born with the 'birthright' to sin. We aren't born without a will, but rather with a will that is oftentimes opposed to the will of our Creator. As we begin to develop, we use that 'will' to get what we want. As I have said in the past, we don't need to be told to be selfish, self-centered, or self-directed. It comes quite naturally to want all the toys, attention, and permission to do whatever we want!

I was born to do wrong, a sinner before I left my mother’s womb. You want me to be completely loyal,
so put true wisdom deep inside of me. Remove my sin and make me pure. Wash me until I am whiter than snow! (Psalm 51:5-7)

If we have this 'birthright' of being born sinners, how do we overcome sin? There has to be an exchange of nature - our nature for the nature of Christ placed deep within our souls, spirits, and hearts. God relishes the moment we realize our need for his grace - for the removal of sin and the desire to be made pure before him. When we cry out for grace, his response is to lavish it - not in limited quantities, but in overwhelming 'quantity'. He is generous in grace - a gift we will never find anywhere else. As our psalmist cries out, he reminds God that he needs God's wisdom, not just in bits and pieces, but in ways that will affect him at the core of his being. Maybe we have been content with bits and pieces of God's wisdom in our lives, but the more we realize our 'bent' toward compromise in our life, the more we will recognize we need more than just dribs and drabs of his grace and wisdom! We need to only ask - he does the washing. We need only to cry out - he fills the void deep within our spirit that was made for him, and him alone.

Complete loyalty is something most of us yearn for in our walk with Jesus. Yet, sadly, we all seem to struggle with this on occasion, don't we? We get our eyes off of him, placing them squarely back on us, what matters to us, what will make us feel good, or what will fulfill some plan we have concocted in our finite minds. Then, when things seem to be failing with those choices, we find ourselves crying out once more. Someone once asked me if I thought God ever got tired of our ups and downs in this faith walk. I know he is disappointed when we fall into sin, giving into temptation in our lives, but his grace is never far away. His love never wanes. His hand never stops reaching. We may not realize the intensity of his love, the faithfulness of his grace, or the depths of his wisdom, but it is there even when we don't realize we need it! We may not realize we need to exchange one 'birthright' for another, but he does and the way has already been prepared for that to happen. We need only ask! Just sayin!

Peace unyielded

Don’t get upset about evil people. Don’t be jealous of those who do wrong. They are like grass and other green plants that dry up quickly and then die. So trust in the Lord and do good. Live on your land and be dependable. Enjoy serving the Lord, and he will give you whatever you ask for. (Psalm 37:1-4)

It is easy to get rattled by what we see and hear these days, isn't it? Did you ever stop for a moment to consider the great 'filters' God has given us so that we aren't easily swayed by what we see and hear? His Word, Holy Spirit, and our own conscience can do a 'bang up job' of interfering with those things so we don't become swayed, giving into fear, or much worse - believing and following what we see or hear. Trust God, live uprightly, and give into the joy that comes from doing so. God isn't swayed, nor is he caught off-guard by the political climate, the threats of war, or even the rumblings of this earth along quake lines once silent. He is still in control. We just need to press into his truth more, learn what he says, look around us at the evidence of his grace that still remains, and trust him. 

It is easy to get upset - it is harder to trust. There is only one choice for a believer, though, and that is to trust with all your heart! Begin to be 'dependable' in the way you live, and you will begin to realize all the 'saber rattling' of our enemy is really nothing more than scare tactics meant to sway us from our convictions. Satan has done this 'saber rattling' from the beginning of time and he isn't about to stop now. We have truth and that far outweighs anything he can throw our way! Sometimes he is so proud of himself because he manages to steal away our joy by all these worries. The longer he interrupts your joy in serving Christ, the more you will fear the 'saber rattling' you hear and the attacks you see coming. Settle back into that joy that is based in trusting God with all that is going on and he soon realizes you possess an 'unrattled resistance' to his attacks!

Trust in the Lord - not your own understanding. Do good - even when it seems there might not be any outward evidence that things are changing for the better. Live for him right where you are - being dependable in your work, service, and worship. Let his peace and love bring about a truly 'unrattled' joy within you. Others will see how you live, observe your peace, and they will be curious as to how you can remain so 'at peace' in unsettled times. It is then that God can use your life to be a testimony to those who seek similar peace. Just sayin!

You paying attention?

I’m sure now I’ll see God’s goodness in the exuberant earth. Stay with God! Take heart. Don’t quit. I’ll say it again: Stay with God. (Psalm 27:14)

Whenever things are repeated in scripture, it is so we will know God wants us to pay particular attention to the details he is expressing. Just some stats here: 

    35 times we are told to draw near to God

    32 times we are told to be watchful because there might be something we'd miss or be duped by

    25 times we are told not to quit, but to keep pressing forward

If God cares enough to remind us of the importance of drawing near, being ever vigilant in our attentiveness, and not to get tired of pressing on, we had better pay attention!

God's goodness will be seen, even when we don't see any evidence of it right now. There can be all manner of turmoil or chaos around us, but God tells us to take heart - he will reveal his goodness all around us if we are watchful and never stop seeking him. Don't quit - stay with God. How do we develop such 'staying power'? I think it is a gradual thing - we put one foot in front of the other and keep on doing it until we develop some sort of 'stick with it' focus. Faith doesn't have to be complicated - it just needs to be consistent!

Draw near, pay attention, and never quit. These are three very important instructions to us, repeated time and time again. Draw near - get 'tight' with Jesus. Don't be afraid of being near his holiness because his holiness is now your holiness! Don't be concerned he will 'find fault' with you for one thing or another, because even if he points out something that needs a bit of his attention, he gives us the grace and wherewithal to deal with it. Pay attention to him - not just one day a week at church service, but each and every day. He is found in the small things as much as he is in the big ones!

Never quit - stick with it. You may not feel like your faith is developing at the pace you thought it would, but if you are continuing to put one foot in front of the other with Christ at the center of your life, you are moving in the direction that will create a deep and lasting faith within you. Quitters have lost hope, but God even gives us the hope to continue on even in the midst of things that might try to derail us from moving forward. Just sayin!

Tripping 101

If I keep my eyes on God, I won’t trip over my own feet. (Psalm 24:15)

I don't know about you, but my 'feet' get in the way a lot! I seem to 'trip up' over some things others see coming a mile away. Sin is just like that for most of us - others can see it coming, while we are standing there totally oblivious to its soon coming attack! Why do we get our eyes off of God so easily and find ourselves looking in places for our help? I think it is because we have so many 'influential voices' in our world today - we just lose focus and don't even know we are allowing it to happen. It is as though our society has created the perfect environment for 'passivity'. God never wanted 'passive followers' - he wants followers who will keep paying attention, regardless of the circumstances.

If I keep my eyes on God... That pretty much says it all right there. We must maintain our focus - God doesn't do that for us. We must train our eyes to 'retain focus', not just stare blindly in any old direction. As I was training in the military, we'd go out to the shooting range. On this range, the targets started out 'stationary' so we could learn to 'zero in' our rifles and get used to firing them. In rather short order, we were placed on ranges with 'moving targets', popping up here and there all over the range, making it necessary to focus on the entire range, not just a stationary piece of paper a few hundred feet away. Those targets would pop up, requiring us to direct our focus, aim, and fire. Your overall score was based on how well you recognized the target. We didn't have to always hit the center of it, but we did need to hit it!

God might just be interested in training us to recognize him wherever he is and in whatever he is doing. We want a 'stationary target' in life, but God's actions in and around us are seldom 'stationary'. He is a creative God, even a 'recreative' God. As he goes about his work in us, he expects us to maintain focus. We may not always hit the target dead center, but when our focus is attentive, we see the target and our aim is adjusted so we hit it! God knows there will be lots of distractions in the 'range', but he wants us to recognize the target and aim for it. Aim requires attentiveness. Perhaps we trip up so often because we aren't as attentive as we need to be to his voice, his prompts, and his Word. Just sayin!

Do you have living faith?

A person’s body that does not have a spirit is dead. It is the same with faith—faith that does nothing is dead! (James 2:26)

Faith is meant to produce something - it isn't just an ethereal thing that we 'have' but never put to use. Faith is meant to have feet and hands - it is meant to be put into action. Democritus once said, "Our sins are more easily remembered than our good deeds." Wouldn't it be wonderful if our good deeds were the things others remembered instead of our sinful actions. It takes only one bad deed to damage a reputation, and it can take thousands of good ones to restore it!

Faith and deeds are interrelated. You cannot separate one from the other. Ephesians reminds us that we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ, not our 'good deeds', but that living for and in Christ Jesus means that we will produce good deeds. In other words, our life is lived for others, not just ourselves. Prior to welcoming Christ into our lives, we did 'good works' in the hopes we might find our way to right standing with God. After welcoming him into our lives, our attitude toward doing good works actually changes - we do them as an outflow of grace.

Transformational grace has a way of working its way out of us - it turns us away from the 'me, me, me' focus and toward seeing the needs of others. It helps us see beyond the end of our own nose, so to speak. In seeing needs around us, there is an urgency within us to be used in whatever way God desires - allowing the grace resident within us to affect the lives of those around us. These 'works' are not to earn favor with God but are an act of gratitude for all he has already done for us!

As a body without a spirit is dead, so is a 'stated faith' without the evidence of 'grace actions' flowing from it. We might say we are 'Christian', but does our life reflect the transformation of Christ within us? If so, it is natural to see the actions of grace extended beyond our lives - we become the hands and feet of Christ to a hurting, mixed up, and crazy world. Faith without works is dead, but faith isn't accomplished by works. They are an outflow of his work in us. Just sayin!

The clamor of the reasonable

Do any of you need wisdom? Ask God for it. He is generous and enjoys giving to everyone. So he will give you wisdom. But when you ask God, you must believe. Don’t doubt him. Whoever doubts is like a wave in the sea that is blown up and down by the wind. People like that are thinking two different things at the same time. They can never decide what to do. So they should not think they will receive anything from the Lord. (James 1:5-8)

"The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously." (Henry Kissinger) Wouldn't it be nice to have absolutely NO alternatives to obedience? In such a world, all our choices would be to submit to the will of God the Father without any argument, reluctance, or confusion. We'd just know the right thing to do, and we'd do it. Indeed, when there are no alternatives, the mind is already made up, isn't it? We don't live in a world without 'alternatives' to our choices, though. We live in a world riddled with not only one alternative to our decisions, but many! Learning to choose the right one in the chaos of all the others can sometimes make it harder than we'd like it to be, but we must learn to choose wisely.

Alternatives abound - ask God for wisdom. Alternatives entice - ask God for wisdom. Alternatives seem reasonable - ask God for wisdom. 'Reasonable' is not always the right choice. It may seem reasonable to take the express way home one night because it is the quickest way to get home, but when we hear of huge storms on the horizon, we may want to take the surface streets and go a little slower for both our safety and that of others on the road. Reasonable choices are not always the wisest choices, but are they wrong choices? Not always, but they may not be the 'best' choice for us to make. We need God's guidance to actually see the difference, don't we?

There have been times when all the chaos of conflicting choices has made it hard for all of us to 'sort out' the good from the bad. It gets hard to hear God's voice in the midst of such clamor, doesn't it? Perhaps this is why Jesus challenged us to get to know his voice when there is less clamor and the opportunity to pay closer attention to how he speaks, when he speaks, and where we find him in the midst of uncertainty. He wants us to be prepared for the 'clamor' of the 'reasonable' in order to hear the 'clarity' of the 'best'. Obedience is easiest when we can clearly recognize his voice in the midst of all the 'reasonable clamor'. Just sayin!

No longer all that strong

Yesterday we began to look at embracing change before it becomes a requirement to change. While we all know we resist change in various ways, we ALL resist it sometimes. The more comfortable we become with some choice we are making, the easier it is for us to make that choice time and time again. The more we desire to change that choice, the harder it can become. Hence, we need Jesus and the Holy Spirit to help us embrace change. Good change is encouraged - change that still leaves us somewhere short of the 'bullseye' in a spiritual sense just isn't cutting it. Change to be like Jesus - don't change to be like the world around you!

Don’t change yourselves to be like the people of this world, but let God change you inside with a new way of thinking. Then you will be able to understand and accept what God wants for you. You will be able to know what is good and pleasing to him and what is perfect. (Romans 12:2)

Knowing what is good is probably easier than we might think since we are given lots of examples in scripture, have the Holy Spirit to help guide our conscience, and even have God's Word to help us sort out good from bad. Choosing to do good all of the time isn't easy because we have this little thing called the 'will' that gets in the way at times. We struggle at the level of our 'willpower' so many times. We somehow think our own power will be enough to bring about right choices, but then we find ourselves falling somewhere short of those right choices.

The human will is not sufficient to resist temptation, though. Try as we might, we somehow choose things that make us 'feel good' but may not be the lasting kind of 'good feeling' that comes when we make a choice to live in obedience to the revealed will of God. Like it or not, life on this earth will always involve a struggle between our will (influenced by the things this world says will be 'good' for us) and God's will (bringing us out of this world's pursuits and into the pursuits of his Kingdom life). Willpower seldom produces 'internal' change - it is temporary, usually influenced by our feelings, and is often produces some other form of conflict within us.

God's will isn't just going to one day 'manifest' in our lives. We must make active choices to resist the things that are temporary or fleeting and choose rather to pursue that which remains, is well-founded, and has a transformational aspect - the things God offers through is Son, Jesus Christ. Living in a way that actually 'craves' internal change in the areas of our character that don't actually help us make right choices is not for the 'strong willed'. In fact, those who are willing to admit their will is weak are those God can transform the easiest! Just sayin!

A head on collision course

Someone once said the best time to change is before you actually have to. I would say that is usually the best way to embrace change - when you desire it rather than when it is forced upon you as the only option. Scripture reminds us to allow God to examine us from time to time, knowing full-well that he will observe something within our character that doesn't quite match what he expects to see of one who draws near to him. He will then set out to work on it, but that work goes much easier when we have asked God to begin it rather than waiting for him to point it out once we have already headed down some road of compromise!

"God, examine me and know my mind. Test me and know all my worries. Make sure that I am not going the wrong way. Lead me on the path that has always been right. (Psalm 139:23-24)

We all know there are things within our character that don't quite 'measure up' when we hold them up to the example Christ set for us, or what we see modeled by others who God has used in scripture. We might realize we haven't even hit the target, much less the bullseye! When those times come, the next thing we might do is try to tell God why it was too hard for us to embrace the needed change. It isn't all that easy to argue our way out of change, though! If we don't want to embrace it now, we will embrace it later on because God isn't going to allow it to just go unchanged. He will work in another way, and it may not be as easy to go through as when he first pointed out something within us that required some work.

Now lest you think you are the only one who argues with God when he seeks to change something within you, think again. I am right there in that boat with you. We might even be 'rowing partners' in the excuses boat on occasion. Change isn't easy and it usually deals with something we don't want to face head on. I have to ask - if we saw a car heading down the road at a high speed right there in our lane, would we be inclined to veer away from that oncoming car? Of course! So, why do we resist God's request for us to 'veer' from our course with whatever it is that is about to cause a 'compromise collision' in our lives? We might not realize it, but playing 'chicken' with sin isn't EVER going to end well.

Change before you need to change - that is a lofty goal, but one I think begins with a simple prayer to ask God to show us where we might be compromising in our daily walk. When he begins to reveal those tiny compromises that will eventually lead to the bigger ones, it is the right time to ask him to help us to work on them one by one until we no longer need to deal with them. Just sayin!

The fire

The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire. (Richard M. Nixon)

My brothers and sisters, you will have many kinds of trouble. But this gives you a reason to be very happy. You know that when your faith is tested, you learn to be patient in suffering. If you let that patience work in you, the end result will be good. You will be mature and complete. You will be all that God wants you to be. (James 1:2-4)

While none of us actually wants to embrace the 'furnace' of trials and troubles of all kinds, it is actually how we realize the greatest growth in our faith and inner character. Be that what it may be, we don't usually run right into the face of trials and get all up in their grill, so to speak. We actually might just want to turn tail and run when we see them coming - especially when they are coming so rapid fire that we just don't seem to have any breathing room in between them. God's plan isn't to leave us devastated by allowing these trials - though they be harder than we might want to endure, they ALWAYS bring something we might not have ever known possible!

Faith increases in the midst of trials. Somehow, we know that we need to turn to God, to seek his help, to listen closer to his voice. We dig in deeper in our prayer life, seek answers from scripture, and even spend more time with others who also believe. Why? We know we are toast without his help! Could we imagine a world without trials or troubles? Yes, but we'd all be selfish little brats, looking out for ourselves, and too caught up in all the 'stuff' around us to notice we had left God's side! Ease presents some very real challenges, just as trials present their own set of challenges! Neither state is without issue - but only one draws us to the bosom of Christ!

Faith is tested - not tempted. There is a difference between tests or trials and temptation. Temptation comes into play when our own desires and lusts get brought into play within our lives, luring us to give into something we know better than to do. Trials and tests carry an element of 'stretching us' beyond where we have become comfortable. They actually show us we have more 'capacity' for things God is teaching us, even when we think we are at 'full capacity' right now. In temptation there is very little patience, but in testing or trials, it is all about developing that deeper level of patience that actually results in a deeper faith.

We might not like the 'fire' of trials, but we will reap more than we imagined possible when we endure them with grace, hope, and trust. Just sayin!

Restore my peace, God

I must calm down and turn to God; only he can rescue me. He is my Rock, the only one who can save me. He is my high place of safety, where no army can defeat me. (Psalm 62:1-2)

We have talked many times about the protection of God, but I would like us to focus today on what our psalmist reminds us here: WE must calm down and WE must turn to God. When all is spinning like what seems to be 'out of control', we can never forget that God controls what we cannot see, hear, or even imagine with our finite minds. It is our responsibility to trust - plain and simple.

Sometimes we need to be reminded to just settle down, refocus, and listen. To calm oneself down is an art form, especially when turmoil of all manner keeps coming your way. You might 'want' to calm down, but the things that keep happening just seem to take their toll on your emotions. You find yourself spiraling out of control faster than you thought you would, all because your emotions were perceived quicker than your faith was!

To truly calm down, one must turn to God - in other words, we have to get our eyes off of what is spinning out of control and focus on who still remains in control. This might mean we stop the 'madness' of the moment in spite of feeling all the tremendous pressure to just keep on going. Remember this - God never works in the frenzy - he isn't a God of chaos. He works in the littlest ways, the stillest moments, and the quieted hearts!

Satan wants us to continue in the frenzy - God tells us to calm down. Satan is never happier than when our focus is the stuff that gets us all anxious - God is happiest when we nuzzle up to him and allow him to show us how this storm is to be conquered. We might turn to God, seeking his help to actually 'calm down', but we must be the ones to admit we are spinning out of control. We need to recognize our peace has been disturbed and take the steps to see it restored. Just sayin!

Are you really listening

Listen to advice and accept discipline; then you, too, will become wise. People might make many plans, but what the Lord says is what will happen. (Proverbs 19:20-21)

One of the most difficult things for some of us is this idea of actually listening when God speaks. We go through life thinking we aren't hearing anything from God, but in actuality, we are just not heading what we hear. Many times this is because God is trying to get us back on track as we have allowed some amount of compromise to creep into our lives. The message isn't easy to hear, so we wonder if it is his voice. God never shamed us, that is the voice of Satan. He never runs us down. He will give us clear warning not to proceed with a certain course of action, or to lay down one we have been engaging in that hasn't been the wisest choice for us. 

What happens when we don't listen when God speaks? We might find that his voice seems to get harder to hear, but in truth, we have just drawn further away. Our ear isn't exactly in "listening range". The moment we take notice of his voice being a little harder to hear is the exact moment we need to stop and press in to listen closer. We give all manner of excuses for not being able to stop to listen, but if we are honest, stopping is exactly what is necessary. When we really want to hear, don't we still our environment? It helps us tune into what we hope to hear. Whenever I think I hear someone about to leave a delivery, I mute the music and listen for their approach to the front door. Why? I am expecting something. Sometimes we don't really hear God's voice because we aren't expecting to!

His plan is for us to ask, but more importantly for us to listen when he answers. To listen means we get close and pay attention. Why do the sheep hear his voice? They have spent enough time together to really know each other well. God knows our tendencies just as well as the shepherd knows those of his sheep. He works with those tendencies, but there will come a time when he will need his sheep to listen even when there are lots of distractions to the contrary. God is speaking, but are we really listening. Just asking!