Study from God’s Word… 1st Kings 22: 29-36 [2nd Chron. 18: 28-34]; 2nd Chron. 19: 1-3; 1st Kings 22: 37-40, 52-53; 1st Kings 3: 4-5; 2nd Chron. 20: 1 – 37; 2nd Kings 1: 2-18; 2nd Kings 3: 1-3 … Passage for Reflection: 2nd Chronicles 20: 12 … NIV [Jehoshaphat praying when Judah was being invaded by the Moabites, Ammonites, and Meunites] For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but are eyes are upon You.
My Journal for Today: Dr. Smith is right with his contention in today’s devotional that we’ve all likely been in some situation of desperation, where the circumstances were overwhelming and there was no place to go within our own selves, and where things likely seemed hopeless. That’s where Jehoshaphat, the King of Judah, was in the readings from 1st Kings and 2nd Chronicles where I was lead to read in the OT today.
And the highlighted verse comes from 2nd Chronicles 20: 12, which was Jehoshaphat’s desperate prayer to God in the Temple, before the people of Judah, acknowledging that the armies of Judah (and God) were woefully inadequate to fight against the pagan armies which were invading their land. And this man’s prayer, as Dr. Smith aptly points out, is a model of how we should pray, both in attitude and wording specific to our circumstances, when we acknowledge that only God can take care of the situation.
As Dr. Smith points out, any desperate situation and our prayer to God in such circumstances requires three components. First, is our acknowledgement of Whom we serve, … i.e., recognizing that God is God and we are not. Secondly, we need to come to God with a thankful heart for what God has done in our past. A thankful heart is evidence to all and to God that we are truly humble; and only in humility can God pour His empowering grace (certainly never when we have a prideful heart [see Proverbs 3: 34]). And finally, any prayer of desperation is sealed with the open, honest, and vulnerable plea to God for His intervention.
Later, after Jehoshaphat had prayed desperately to God such a prayer in almost hopeless circumstances, the Spirit of the Lord came to one of the prophets in Judah, who spoke for God saying, “Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s.”
My friend, if you’re in a desperate situation which requires surrender and a plea for God to intervene in your circumstances, take the course Jehoshaphat took, and come to God with the attitude expressed in God’s word from passages like Isaiah 41: 10, Romans 8: 31, or 2nd Tim. 1: 7 (and I’m assuming that you know and believe what these verses truthfully express). We should never hold onto anxiety; should we? (You know what it says in Phil. 4: 6-7.) No, we need not be hopeless or even anxious; because, as with Jehoshaphat, we have someone to go to Whom we can always rely upon in desperate circumstances [see 1st Peter 5: 7]. And there are no circumstances He can’t handle [as we know from Luke 1: 37]. The question is not whether these passages and promises, which uplift us in times of desperation, are true; it’s whether we believe them and are willing to come to our God, acknowledging Him for Whom He is, thanking Him for where He has led us to that point in life, and to plea in our desperation, believing that we’re praying to a God where nothing is impossible.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, You know my heart; and I truly believe and pray to the same God in Whom Jehoshaphat believed and prayed. Amen
Sunday, June 06, 2010
Saturday, June 05, 2010
2010 – June 05 – Lord of Hills AND Valleys
Study from God’s Word… 1st Kings 20 - 22 … Passage for Reflection: 1st Kings 20: 28 … NIV 28 Then a man of God came and spoke to the king of Israel, and said, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Because the Syrians have said, “The LORD is God of the hills, but He is not God of the valleys,” therefore I will deliver all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the LORD.’”
My Journal for Today: Yes, Dr. Smith is right on today with a devotional we all need to study and believe. These people in Israel’s history, the Arameans with their king Ben-Hadad, believed that they could defeat the armies of the North in Israel if they fought them in the valleys; because they made the assumption that the God of Israel was a “hill-god.” And we read about such superstitions and haughtily look down on these ancient middle-eastern pagans as if they were so crude and idolatrous in their beliefs.
Yet, are their “pagan” beliefs that much different from our own? Don’t we perpetuate such “hill-God” and “valley-god” beliefs? Don’t we think that God is blessing us when we’re rolling along on the mountain-top highs of spiritual experience; and then, somehow, we think that some valley low in life is a “curse” from our God? But haven’t you, as a Christian, seen our God bring about incredible victories in the valleys as well as the hill tops of life? Well, I sure have.
As an Elder in our church, we’ve had brothers/sisters in Christ come forth with fatal prognoses out of obedience to God’s word (in James 5: 13-16) seeking healing prayer to God from their Elders. And we Elders prayed as we are exhorted to do in James 5, and some of these with “fatal” illnesses were delivered out of this valley of fear and despair, being healed where doctors could not explain the healing except to label it as a “miracle.” … I have personally experienced my God deliver me in the lowest valley of my life, when I could not find deliverance from my addiction to obsessive-compulsive sexual sin, … God providing me with the enabling/empowering grace I needed to walk out of that valley and climb to the mountain-top with my faith. So, you can’t tell me that the God of Israel in 1st Kings is not a God of the valleys as well as a valley on the hilltops in life today.
The question of our faith boils down to our belief level in the truth of in God’s Word in passages like Romans 8: 28, Romans 8: 31, 2nd Cor. 12: 9, and Phil. 4: 13; and I hope (and pray) that you have all of those memorized and internalized in your heart; because if you truly believe those passages, you know that we serve and worship a God of the valleys of life as well as of the hilltops. And when we read and study passages from Scripture like Isaiah 41: 10 and Proverbs 3: 5-6 and 2nd Tim. 1: 7 and Phil. 4: 6-7, we can be lifted up, clearly directed, and provided with the peace of God which surpasses all human understanding. Yes, my dear one, the more you know your God, the more you know that He’s with you in the valleys of life just as much as He is on the mountain-tops.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, You are ALWAYS with me. Amen
My Journal for Today: Yes, Dr. Smith is right on today with a devotional we all need to study and believe. These people in Israel’s history, the Arameans with their king Ben-Hadad, believed that they could defeat the armies of the North in Israel if they fought them in the valleys; because they made the assumption that the God of Israel was a “hill-god.” And we read about such superstitions and haughtily look down on these ancient middle-eastern pagans as if they were so crude and idolatrous in their beliefs.
Yet, are their “pagan” beliefs that much different from our own? Don’t we perpetuate such “hill-God” and “valley-god” beliefs? Don’t we think that God is blessing us when we’re rolling along on the mountain-top highs of spiritual experience; and then, somehow, we think that some valley low in life is a “curse” from our God? But haven’t you, as a Christian, seen our God bring about incredible victories in the valleys as well as the hill tops of life? Well, I sure have.
As an Elder in our church, we’ve had brothers/sisters in Christ come forth with fatal prognoses out of obedience to God’s word (in James 5: 13-16) seeking healing prayer to God from their Elders. And we Elders prayed as we are exhorted to do in James 5, and some of these with “fatal” illnesses were delivered out of this valley of fear and despair, being healed where doctors could not explain the healing except to label it as a “miracle.” … I have personally experienced my God deliver me in the lowest valley of my life, when I could not find deliverance from my addiction to obsessive-compulsive sexual sin, … God providing me with the enabling/empowering grace I needed to walk out of that valley and climb to the mountain-top with my faith. So, you can’t tell me that the God of Israel in 1st Kings is not a God of the valleys as well as a valley on the hilltops in life today.
The question of our faith boils down to our belief level in the truth of in God’s Word in passages like Romans 8: 28, Romans 8: 31, 2nd Cor. 12: 9, and Phil. 4: 13; and I hope (and pray) that you have all of those memorized and internalized in your heart; because if you truly believe those passages, you know that we serve and worship a God of the valleys of life as well as of the hilltops. And when we read and study passages from Scripture like Isaiah 41: 10 and Proverbs 3: 5-6 and 2nd Tim. 1: 7 and Phil. 4: 6-7, we can be lifted up, clearly directed, and provided with the peace of God which surpasses all human understanding. Yes, my dear one, the more you know your God, the more you know that He’s with you in the valleys of life just as much as He is on the mountain-tops.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, You are ALWAYS with me. Amen
Friday, June 04, 2010
2010 – June 04 – Time to Decide
Study from God’s Word… 1st Kings, Chapters 17 - 19 … Passage for Reflection: 1st Kings 18: 21… NIV Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal is God, follow him.”
My Journal for Today: Reading about Elijah, God’s Prophet in troubled times, being a man called by God to show the power of God when God’s people had wavered in faith, makes me wonder sometimes why God doesn’t do business today the way He did in the Old Testament. But then I realize that Elijah was merely an arch-type of Jesus; and now, having the chronicles of the Great One, the God-Man, Jesus, in our New Testament, we have all the power we need in the Person of the Holy Spirit, imparted to Christ’s Bride, the Church, to do business in a world which now, as it was in Elijah’s day, is in the midst of a famine, … though our famine is one of spiritual faith not one where the rains do not fall.
But we can learn much from the stories of Elijah, related in today’s focus passages from Chapters 17-19 in 1st Kings. And when you come to today’s verse, highlighted by Dr. Smith in his devotional for this date, can you sense the Prophet’s frustration with God’s children? Yes, … there Elijah was, seeing God’s people wavering between their traditional beliefs in the God Who had delivered them from Egypt and the indulgence of the flesh they got when they followed the promises of Baal, with worship which involved such things as sexual satisfaction in the priestesses of Baal who were prostitutes.
As Dr. Smith points out today, the phrase “waver between two opinions” in today’s verse is the Hebrew “pacah shena’yim ca’iph,” which can be pictured by birds hopping between branches, not knowing where to land. And Dr. Smith aptly asks his readers to empathize; because we’ve all been driving in traffic, frustrated by being behind a driver ahead who wavers between two lanes ahead of us, not knowing which lane to follow. Or as parents we see teens today, knowing in their heads that drugs are deadly, yet relenting to the temptation to give meth a try. And then they get hooked; followed by hating themselves for becoming addicted. They are flighty birds, bouncing between branches, not knowing where to land.
And everyday I deal with men, … men like I was once, who ride what I call the “repentance rollercoaster.” They know, as Christians, that sexual sin is lethal, … yet, they can’t seem to internalize that surrender to God’s power from His Spirit will give them the empowering grace they need to overcome the pull of the flesh which porn or same sex attraction holds in their lives. They are, as Dr. Smith, calls it, “spiritual schizophrenics,” … wandering birds who can’t decide which branch to land on … the one promised by God or the one which give such fleshly satisfaction offered by Satan.
Can anybody reading this identify? Well, as we read in these Chapters in 1st Kings, Elijah, was a strong Prophet of God, calling God’s people to the way of the Lord and showing God’s infinite power to take charge in the world; but Elijah was also the weakling who needed to be shown by the same God that the LORD would provide Elijah His enabling and providential grace when the Prophet became weak and needed help.
So, I hope we can all get the messages conveyed by God’s truth, through His word, in these chapters. And helping us to examine ourselves, my devotional author prompts me to ask myself (and you ask yourself), "Is my attempt to keep one foot in the world (or the flesh) while keeping the other on high ground robbing me of an inner peace I’ve never known (or desire to have)?" My words were added in the parentheses; but I think you get the idea. We so often can be spiritual schizophrenics as our lives are lived out as the modern definition of “insanity,” which is “… trying to do the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.” That’s what Elijah was challenging God’s people to realize in today’s study verse; and it is the truth we all need to answer for ourselves today.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, thank You for showing me the answer to this question in my life. Help me to carry my testimony to others and show them that YOU are the only choice and the only way for man to walk free from the call of the flesh. Amen
My Journal for Today: Reading about Elijah, God’s Prophet in troubled times, being a man called by God to show the power of God when God’s people had wavered in faith, makes me wonder sometimes why God doesn’t do business today the way He did in the Old Testament. But then I realize that Elijah was merely an arch-type of Jesus; and now, having the chronicles of the Great One, the God-Man, Jesus, in our New Testament, we have all the power we need in the Person of the Holy Spirit, imparted to Christ’s Bride, the Church, to do business in a world which now, as it was in Elijah’s day, is in the midst of a famine, … though our famine is one of spiritual faith not one where the rains do not fall.
But we can learn much from the stories of Elijah, related in today’s focus passages from Chapters 17-19 in 1st Kings. And when you come to today’s verse, highlighted by Dr. Smith in his devotional for this date, can you sense the Prophet’s frustration with God’s children? Yes, … there Elijah was, seeing God’s people wavering between their traditional beliefs in the God Who had delivered them from Egypt and the indulgence of the flesh they got when they followed the promises of Baal, with worship which involved such things as sexual satisfaction in the priestesses of Baal who were prostitutes.
As Dr. Smith points out today, the phrase “waver between two opinions” in today’s verse is the Hebrew “pacah shena’yim ca’iph,” which can be pictured by birds hopping between branches, not knowing where to land. And Dr. Smith aptly asks his readers to empathize; because we’ve all been driving in traffic, frustrated by being behind a driver ahead who wavers between two lanes ahead of us, not knowing which lane to follow. Or as parents we see teens today, knowing in their heads that drugs are deadly, yet relenting to the temptation to give meth a try. And then they get hooked; followed by hating themselves for becoming addicted. They are flighty birds, bouncing between branches, not knowing where to land.
And everyday I deal with men, … men like I was once, who ride what I call the “repentance rollercoaster.” They know, as Christians, that sexual sin is lethal, … yet, they can’t seem to internalize that surrender to God’s power from His Spirit will give them the empowering grace they need to overcome the pull of the flesh which porn or same sex attraction holds in their lives. They are, as Dr. Smith, calls it, “spiritual schizophrenics,” … wandering birds who can’t decide which branch to land on … the one promised by God or the one which give such fleshly satisfaction offered by Satan.
Can anybody reading this identify? Well, as we read in these Chapters in 1st Kings, Elijah, was a strong Prophet of God, calling God’s people to the way of the Lord and showing God’s infinite power to take charge in the world; but Elijah was also the weakling who needed to be shown by the same God that the LORD would provide Elijah His enabling and providential grace when the Prophet became weak and needed help.
So, I hope we can all get the messages conveyed by God’s truth, through His word, in these chapters. And helping us to examine ourselves, my devotional author prompts me to ask myself (and you ask yourself), "Is my attempt to keep one foot in the world (or the flesh) while keeping the other on high ground robbing me of an inner peace I’ve never known (or desire to have)?" My words were added in the parentheses; but I think you get the idea. We so often can be spiritual schizophrenics as our lives are lived out as the modern definition of “insanity,” which is “… trying to do the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.” That’s what Elijah was challenging God’s people to realize in today’s study verse; and it is the truth we all need to answer for ourselves today.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, thank You for showing me the answer to this question in my life. Help me to carry my testimony to others and show them that YOU are the only choice and the only way for man to walk free from the call of the flesh. Amen
Thursday, June 03, 2010
2010 – June 03 – Too Little Faith from the Faithful
Study from God’s Word… 1Kings 15: 8-11 [2Chron. 14: 1-5]; 2Chron. 14: 6-8; 1Kgs 14: 19-20 [2Chron. 13: 20]; 1Kgs 15: 25-26; 1Kgs 15: 31, 27-30; 1Kgs 25: 33-34; 2Chron 14: 9-15; 2Chron 15: 1-7; 1Kgs 15: 12, 14, 15 [2Chron 15: 8, 17-18]; 2Chron 15: 19; 2Chron 15: 9-15; 1Kgs 15: 13 [2Chron 15: 16]; 1Kgs 15: 16-17, 32 [2Chron 16: 1]; 1Kgs 15: 18-21 [2Chron 16: 2-5]; 1Kgs 15: 22 [2Chron 16: 6]; 2Chron 16: 7-10; 1Kgs 16: 7, 1-4; 1Kgs 16: 5-6, 8, 14; 1Kgs 16: 9-10; 1Kgs 16: 15; 1Kgs 16: 11-13, 20; 1Kgs 16: 15-19; 1Kgs 16: 21, 31, 22-29; 1Kgs 21: 25-26, 34; 1Kgs 15: 23b [2Chron 16: 12]-14; 1Kgs 15: 23-24 [2Chron 16: 11, 13]; 1Kgs 15: 23-24 [2Chron 16: 11, 13-14]; 1Kgs 22: 43, 46-47 [2Chron 20: 32-33]; 2Chron 17: 2-19; 1Kgs 22: 44 … Passage for Reflection: 2nd Chronicles 16: 12 … NIV 12 In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was afflicted with a disease in his feet. Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did seek help from the LORD, but only from the physicians.
My Journal for Today: Reading through the Passages edited by Dr. Smith today, we see the faithful in the divided Hebrew peoples being pitted against the faithless. It is a stark contrast, where, in the North the tribes of Israel did not follow the ways of God; and in the South, the tribes under two primary kings of Judah, Asa and his son, Jehoshaphat, basically followed the ways of God, even having God’s Law taught throughout the land. And God, true to His promise, blessed the people of Judah in the South and cursed those who were disobedient in the North. The application of that should have obvious application for all of us today, shouldn’t it?
But in today’s highlighted passage, and Dr. Smith’s devotional, we see that even the faithful can wane in their faith, trusting more in man than God. And this is illustrated by an illness of his feet incurred by Asa, one of those “good kings” in Judah; and Asa had been a man who pursued, by faith, God’s ways through God’s word. But in this one instance, when his foot ailment became too bothersome, he did what many of us believers would do; … he went to the doctors for help. But we read that he put all of his trust in the physicians for his healing; and if you read on in 1st Kings, you see that Asa died a couple of years later, apparently related to the disease in his feet (though that is not totally clear in Scripture). The question arises, … did Asa, this man of faith, die prematurely because he was unable or unwilling to take His health issues to God as well as to man (i.e., the physicians).
And Dr. Smith asks the very revealing and probing self examination question at the end of today’s devotional: ”When illness comes my way, do I ever make an appointment with the Great Physician?” Do we rely too heavily on earthly doctors when we’re sick, shying away from Peter’s exhortation (in 1st Peter 5: 7) to cast ALL our cares on God, Who truly cares for us; or ignoring Paul’s directive (in Phil. 4: 6-7) to cast aside anxiety and take our concerns to our infinitely faithful God, seeking His peace for the direction [or healing] we’re pursuing.
I’m an Elder in our church; and each week we have the privilege to be available to follow, in faith, the directions provided for healing prayer in James 5: 13-16 - linked. And when some from our flock come forward, in faith, as described in this exhortation from God through James, we are so privileged to pray for our brothers/sisters in Christ for healing. And we do so with expectation, because of God’s promises in His word. Now, we don’t know how or when the healing will take place; but if someone has come forward – in faith – having confessed their sins [see 1st John 1: 9], and carrying out the dictates of God’s word; and we Elders pray – in faith – expecting God to intervene, we KNOW that God’s healing will take place. As I said, we just don’t know how or when. And yes, the healing could be by God taking the person to be with Jehovah-Rapha, the God Who heals, by heavenly interdiction.
As Dr. Smith puts it today, “It is amazing how many people of faith, like Asa, minimize the power of God to work directly in the healing process.” So, the next time you are downed by health concerns, I hope you’ll realize that God cares for even small health challenges, like maybe a tension headache. But when ill health is overwhelming, consider a source of healing way above man’s expert and educated healing processes. Jehovah-Rapha is waiting to use doctors and earthly healing techniques; and if He so chooses, He can bypass all of that and just do it all Himself. And we Elders in our church have seen that happen on many occasions. But you may ask, “Does it always happen?” And I’d have to say honestly, “No.” But I know that bypassing God as the Great Physician and having faith only in worldly doctors is short-circuiting God, by lack of faith, the greatest source of healing we have available to us; and that’s just plain pride-filled foolishness.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, I’m convicted by my own shoulder pain today to do what I’m so privileged to do for others and that’s to take my own healing to You in prayer; and my prayer of surrender and submission is directed there today. Thank You, Lord. You are my Jehovah Rapha. Amen
My Journal for Today: Reading through the Passages edited by Dr. Smith today, we see the faithful in the divided Hebrew peoples being pitted against the faithless. It is a stark contrast, where, in the North the tribes of Israel did not follow the ways of God; and in the South, the tribes under two primary kings of Judah, Asa and his son, Jehoshaphat, basically followed the ways of God, even having God’s Law taught throughout the land. And God, true to His promise, blessed the people of Judah in the South and cursed those who were disobedient in the North. The application of that should have obvious application for all of us today, shouldn’t it?
But in today’s highlighted passage, and Dr. Smith’s devotional, we see that even the faithful can wane in their faith, trusting more in man than God. And this is illustrated by an illness of his feet incurred by Asa, one of those “good kings” in Judah; and Asa had been a man who pursued, by faith, God’s ways through God’s word. But in this one instance, when his foot ailment became too bothersome, he did what many of us believers would do; … he went to the doctors for help. But we read that he put all of his trust in the physicians for his healing; and if you read on in 1st Kings, you see that Asa died a couple of years later, apparently related to the disease in his feet (though that is not totally clear in Scripture). The question arises, … did Asa, this man of faith, die prematurely because he was unable or unwilling to take His health issues to God as well as to man (i.e., the physicians).
And Dr. Smith asks the very revealing and probing self examination question at the end of today’s devotional: ”When illness comes my way, do I ever make an appointment with the Great Physician?” Do we rely too heavily on earthly doctors when we’re sick, shying away from Peter’s exhortation (in 1st Peter 5: 7) to cast ALL our cares on God, Who truly cares for us; or ignoring Paul’s directive (in Phil. 4: 6-7) to cast aside anxiety and take our concerns to our infinitely faithful God, seeking His peace for the direction [or healing] we’re pursuing.
I’m an Elder in our church; and each week we have the privilege to be available to follow, in faith, the directions provided for healing prayer in James 5: 13-16 - linked. And when some from our flock come forward, in faith, as described in this exhortation from God through James, we are so privileged to pray for our brothers/sisters in Christ for healing. And we do so with expectation, because of God’s promises in His word. Now, we don’t know how or when the healing will take place; but if someone has come forward – in faith – having confessed their sins [see 1st John 1: 9], and carrying out the dictates of God’s word; and we Elders pray – in faith – expecting God to intervene, we KNOW that God’s healing will take place. As I said, we just don’t know how or when. And yes, the healing could be by God taking the person to be with Jehovah-Rapha, the God Who heals, by heavenly interdiction.
As Dr. Smith puts it today, “It is amazing how many people of faith, like Asa, minimize the power of God to work directly in the healing process.” So, the next time you are downed by health concerns, I hope you’ll realize that God cares for even small health challenges, like maybe a tension headache. But when ill health is overwhelming, consider a source of healing way above man’s expert and educated healing processes. Jehovah-Rapha is waiting to use doctors and earthly healing techniques; and if He so chooses, He can bypass all of that and just do it all Himself. And we Elders in our church have seen that happen on many occasions. But you may ask, “Does it always happen?” And I’d have to say honestly, “No.” But I know that bypassing God as the Great Physician and having faith only in worldly doctors is short-circuiting God, by lack of faith, the greatest source of healing we have available to us; and that’s just plain pride-filled foolishness.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, I’m convicted by my own shoulder pain today to do what I’m so privileged to do for others and that’s to take my own healing to You in prayer; and my prayer of surrender and submission is directed there today. Thank You, Lord. You are my Jehovah Rapha. Amen
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
2010 – June 02 – When Death Is an Honor
Study from God’s Word… 1st Kings 13: 33-34, 1st Kings 14: 1 – 18; 2nd Chron. 11: 5 – 12; 2nd Chron. 11: 18-23; 1st Kings 11: 18-23 [2nd Chron. 12: 1, 14]; 1st Kings 14: 25 [2nd Chron. 12: 2-4]; 2nd Chron. 12: 5-8; 1st Kings 14: 26-28 [2nd Chron. 12: 9-11]; 2nd Chron. 12: 12; 1st Kings 14: 30, 15: 6 [2nd Chron. 12: 15b]; 1st Kings 14: 21, 29 [2nd Chron. 12: 13, 15]; 1st Kings 14: 31 [2nd Chron. 12: 16]; 1st Kings 15: 1-2 [2nd Chron. 13: 1-2]; 1st Kings 15: 7b [2nd Chron. 13: 2b, 3]; 2nd Chron. 13: 13-21; 1st Kings 15: 3-5; 1st Kings 15: 7a, 8a [2nd Chron. 13: 22; 14: 1a] … Passage for Reflection: 1st Kings 14: 12 – 13 … NIV 12 "As for you, go back home. When you set foot in your city, the boy will die. 13 All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He is the only one belonging to Jeroboam who will be buried, because he is the only one in the house of Jeroboam in whom the LORD, the God of Israel, has found anything good.
My Journal for Today: Wow! If you were to take the time to look up all the references Dr. F. LaGard Smith has pulled from the parallel passages which I read today from 1st Kings and 2nd Chronicles in The Daily Bible in Chronological Order, it would likely take you hours. Yet, in a matter of 15 minutes or so, Dr. Smith’s work allowed me to glean a chronological, biblical history of the downfall of Jeroboam’s life and legacy in the Northern tribes of Israel and Rehoboam’s evil kingship of Judah in the South, including the highlight text from 1st Kings 14: 12-13, which Smith used for today’s devotional. All of this showed me how God scattered the Jews and allowed them to be conquered in Jerusalem by Egypt after the disobedient and evil rules of these two kings; and I am certainly indebted to the work of Dr. Smith by his editing of this Chronological Bible and his devotional book so that I could read about this history and study its application to our lives today.
So, … on to today’s devotional topic, involving death and when it would be considered unjust or premature. Jeroboam was definitely a bad dude as King of Israel; and as we study today’s readings, his son, Abijah, was chronicled as “the only one in the house of Jeroboam in whom the LORD, … found anything good.” So, why would God take or allow Abijah to die?
Have you ever had a loved one who died prematurely or whose death seemed totally unjustified? We read about drive-by shootings where seemingly random bullets kill innocent children. Maybe you’ve had a loved one taken by cancer in the prime of a very productive life. And you probably prayed, “What gives with this, Lord?!!!” And when you hear someone say at a funeral, “God called him home;” does that sometimes make you mad because, in your estimation, God should have spared the loved one who died.
But perhaps we’re not considering or not trusting that God always has HIS REASON for bringing someone into eternity; and yes, when we know, in our hearts, that the death was “too early” or seemingly unjustified from our viewpoint, we may be second-guessing our God, Who has a wonderful and very personal reason for allowing someone to come home “early” or in some inexplicable fashion.
Perhaps it is even an honor that your loved one dies with cancer as a child. Or should we consider that the dying testimony of that loved one will have more impact for God’s kingdom than would be that person’s living witness. I think of the incredible story of Cassie Bernall, who, at age 17 at Columbine High School, was gunned down by a teenage boy who allegedly shot here because she responded, “Yes,” when the boy asked her if she was a Christian. Perhaps, as humans we should remember and trust in the reality that we can never fully know the mind of God (see Isaiah 55: 8-9 - linked). Young Cassie, who was in the prime of her Christian life, might have been honored by God to be taken into His presence with God possibly knowing that I’d be relating her story right here, … and with it being a witness to God’s glory way beyond any witness her life may have afforded if she had lived on as a teenager in Colorado.
So, for those who have grieved over loved ones where our temptation is to say, “Why, Lord;” … let us consider and trust that God ALWAYS knows what is best for our lives, especially when that life is one which glorifies Him with belief and witness for His glory.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, You know best; and I trust in Your control of my life and all lives for that matter. Amen
My Journal for Today: Wow! If you were to take the time to look up all the references Dr. F. LaGard Smith has pulled from the parallel passages which I read today from 1st Kings and 2nd Chronicles in The Daily Bible in Chronological Order, it would likely take you hours. Yet, in a matter of 15 minutes or so, Dr. Smith’s work allowed me to glean a chronological, biblical history of the downfall of Jeroboam’s life and legacy in the Northern tribes of Israel and Rehoboam’s evil kingship of Judah in the South, including the highlight text from 1st Kings 14: 12-13, which Smith used for today’s devotional. All of this showed me how God scattered the Jews and allowed them to be conquered in Jerusalem by Egypt after the disobedient and evil rules of these two kings; and I am certainly indebted to the work of Dr. Smith by his editing of this Chronological Bible and his devotional book so that I could read about this history and study its application to our lives today.
So, … on to today’s devotional topic, involving death and when it would be considered unjust or premature. Jeroboam was definitely a bad dude as King of Israel; and as we study today’s readings, his son, Abijah, was chronicled as “the only one in the house of Jeroboam in whom the LORD, … found anything good.” So, why would God take or allow Abijah to die?
Have you ever had a loved one who died prematurely or whose death seemed totally unjustified? We read about drive-by shootings where seemingly random bullets kill innocent children. Maybe you’ve had a loved one taken by cancer in the prime of a very productive life. And you probably prayed, “What gives with this, Lord?!!!” And when you hear someone say at a funeral, “God called him home;” does that sometimes make you mad because, in your estimation, God should have spared the loved one who died.
But perhaps we’re not considering or not trusting that God always has HIS REASON for bringing someone into eternity; and yes, when we know, in our hearts, that the death was “too early” or seemingly unjustified from our viewpoint, we may be second-guessing our God, Who has a wonderful and very personal reason for allowing someone to come home “early” or in some inexplicable fashion.
Perhaps it is even an honor that your loved one dies with cancer as a child. Or should we consider that the dying testimony of that loved one will have more impact for God’s kingdom than would be that person’s living witness. I think of the incredible story of Cassie Bernall, who, at age 17 at Columbine High School, was gunned down by a teenage boy who allegedly shot here because she responded, “Yes,” when the boy asked her if she was a Christian. Perhaps, as humans we should remember and trust in the reality that we can never fully know the mind of God (see Isaiah 55: 8-9 - linked). Young Cassie, who was in the prime of her Christian life, might have been honored by God to be taken into His presence with God possibly knowing that I’d be relating her story right here, … and with it being a witness to God’s glory way beyond any witness her life may have afforded if she had lived on as a teenager in Colorado.
So, for those who have grieved over loved ones where our temptation is to say, “Why, Lord;” … let us consider and trust that God ALWAYS knows what is best for our lives, especially when that life is one which glorifies Him with belief and witness for His glory.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, You know best; and I trust in Your control of my life and all lives for that matter. Amen
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
2010 – June 01 – Identifying with the Righteous
Study from God’s Word… 1st Kings 12: 1-19 [2nd Chron. 10: 1-19]; 1st Kings 12: 20; 1st Kings 21-24 [2nd Chron. 11: 1-4]; 1st Kings 12: 25-33 [2nd Chron. 11: 15]; 2nd Chron. 11: 13-14, 16-17; 1st Kings 13: 1 – 32 … Passage for Reflection: 1st Kings 13: 31 … NIV After burying him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave where the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones.”
My Journal for Today: When one reads and studies 1st Kings 13: 11 – 32, the story of the interaction between two prophets of God, one younger and one older, the scenario can be perplexing. There is a younger prophet who has confronted the King of Israel and even refused to stay with him because of God’s decree. And he communicates that story of faith to an older prophet, who then lies to the younger man of God, luring him to eat at the table of the older prophet, which is against what God had told the younger prophet to do.
It’s all pretty confusing; but when it all sorts itself out, and the younger prophet is killed by a lion, apparently dispatched by God for the younger prophet’s disobedience; and we see the older prophet burying the younger man of God and instructing the son’s of the older prophet to bury him next to the bones of the younger man of God. Go figure! And to be honest I’m not sure I can figure this whole deal out, … except to agree what Dr. Smith says in his devotional today, which makes some degree of sense out of a very perplexing story.
Dr. Smith uses this passage and highlighted verse to teach that we need to identify with the lives of those who really have a heart for God and desire to be obedient to our Lord in what they say and do. I think of the man who mentored me for many years as I was being discipled from a new Christian into a more mature version of a sinner becoming the saint God desired for me to become. My mentor was not a perfect man, being a man, like all of us, with a sin nature. But Dr. G., my mentor, was like a David … a man after God’s heart; and he had the same attitude – and posture – of an Apostle Paul, … like when Paul said to the Church at Corinth (in 1st Cor. 11: 1), “You can imitate me because I imitate Christ.”
And I came to identify and follow the heart of my mentor, as well as many of his actions, decisions, and teachings. Like the younger prophet in today’s passage, my mentor was not perfect. The Apostle Paul was not perfect when he was in the middle of his years of ministry and mission work. King David certainly was not perfect, was he? But these were/are men we, as Christians, can identify and follow; because, like King David and the prophets in our story from God’s word today, these were men who had a heart seeking after God’s own heart. And when a believer becomes sold out and surrendered to God, he (or she) may, being human, make mistakes; but following God’s path as obediently as we can, especially by following His word, we will be led toward the righteous path in life; and that is the path to which we must aspire and walk with every fiber of our being.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, shine Your light on the path You desire for me to walk, … that I may follow the Light and be privileged to lead others to You. Amen
My Journal for Today: When one reads and studies 1st Kings 13: 11 – 32, the story of the interaction between two prophets of God, one younger and one older, the scenario can be perplexing. There is a younger prophet who has confronted the King of Israel and even refused to stay with him because of God’s decree. And he communicates that story of faith to an older prophet, who then lies to the younger man of God, luring him to eat at the table of the older prophet, which is against what God had told the younger prophet to do.
It’s all pretty confusing; but when it all sorts itself out, and the younger prophet is killed by a lion, apparently dispatched by God for the younger prophet’s disobedience; and we see the older prophet burying the younger man of God and instructing the son’s of the older prophet to bury him next to the bones of the younger man of God. Go figure! And to be honest I’m not sure I can figure this whole deal out, … except to agree what Dr. Smith says in his devotional today, which makes some degree of sense out of a very perplexing story.
Dr. Smith uses this passage and highlighted verse to teach that we need to identify with the lives of those who really have a heart for God and desire to be obedient to our Lord in what they say and do. I think of the man who mentored me for many years as I was being discipled from a new Christian into a more mature version of a sinner becoming the saint God desired for me to become. My mentor was not a perfect man, being a man, like all of us, with a sin nature. But Dr. G., my mentor, was like a David … a man after God’s heart; and he had the same attitude – and posture – of an Apostle Paul, … like when Paul said to the Church at Corinth (in 1st Cor. 11: 1), “You can imitate me because I imitate Christ.”
And I came to identify and follow the heart of my mentor, as well as many of his actions, decisions, and teachings. Like the younger prophet in today’s passage, my mentor was not perfect. The Apostle Paul was not perfect when he was in the middle of his years of ministry and mission work. King David certainly was not perfect, was he? But these were/are men we, as Christians, can identify and follow; because, like King David and the prophets in our story from God’s word today, these were men who had a heart seeking after God’s own heart. And when a believer becomes sold out and surrendered to God, he (or she) may, being human, make mistakes; but following God’s path as obediently as we can, especially by following His word, we will be led toward the righteous path in life; and that is the path to which we must aspire and walk with every fiber of our being.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, shine Your light on the path You desire for me to walk, … that I may follow the Light and be privileged to lead others to You. Amen
Monday, May 31, 2010
2010 – May 31 – The Seasons of Life
Study from God’s Word… Ecclesiastes 3: 1 – 17; 11: 7 – 12: 8; 12: 13 – 14; 1st Kings 11: 41 [2nd Chron. 9: 29]; 1st Kings 11: 42-43 [2nd Chron. 9: 30-31] … Passage for Reflection: Ecclesiastes 3: 1 … NIV There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.
My Journal for Today: Today is the last day of May, which is a month identified with Spring; and then we move into the lushness and warmth of Summer. And during this weekend, at the end of May, we celebrate Memorial Day, where we honor our Veterans who died so that we might live. Can you see the seasons playing themselves out in that? Winter and Summer. Life and Death. In the seasons of our world there is balance; and we experience the ebb and flow of life as the seasons unfold.
That’s the message of Ecclesiastes 3; and I know you’ve probably read it … that there is a “TIME” for all things of life. As Smith taught it today in his devotional, ”How can we expect seasons of happiness without seasons of pain? Or seasons of growth without seasons of plantings? Or seasons of excitement with seasons of calm? To wish that our winters of distress could be milder is to risk missing the strength of perseverance harsh winters produce. … We learn from the seasons of nature that, while no season of life lasts forever, every season is important.”
Personally, that’s good writing and wise words; and it’s certainly supported by the section of Ecclesiastes introduced by the sentence Smith highlighted as the touchtone passage of today’s devotional. Yet, as humans, with a sin nature, we have a love-hate relationship with the seasons, don’t we? Some of us love being in the warmth of the summer; but those who love the summer many times hate the cold of the winter. Yet we know, intellectually, that we can’t have the warmth of the summer without the cold of the winter.
Oh how we love the excitement of Christmas; but somehow we, as Christians, know that the winter of Christmas is our reminder of the life which was born as the “reason for the season;” and He points us toward the very necessary death on the cross which we celebrate in the life affirming season of Spring. Yes, there is a time for birth; but there is also a time for death; and we must accept and understand the balance God has for all of the seasons of our life.
Smith’s question for today: Have I learned to welcome whatever season comes my way?
And I’m convicted by this question to more readily accept the pain I experience from my season of arthritis which reminds me of my age being in the fall of life, knowing that the winter which lies ahead will bring me closer to the season where I’ll go home to be with my Savior. When will that occur? I don’t know; but I do know, and accept that God is in control of the seasons of my life; and He has a season which is appointed and anointed to be mine … now … and in the future. And I trust that His seasons are always the right seasons, timed perfectly for His glory.
As Solomon was born to signify the eternal wisdom of God; yet his life signified the foolishness of the human condition. And so, studying Ecclesiastes we find the balance of Godly wisdom from the season of Solomon’s foolishness. To me the ultimate meaning of Ecclesiastes is found in the last two verses of this book, which I see as Solomon’s last will and testament, his declaration of wisdom to honor God after living a life riddled with foolishness. In verses 13-14 of Chapter 12 Solomon (and God) writes … 13 Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.
I hope – and pray – that we all get that … and live it out through the seasons of our lives.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, help me to celebrate the season of now so that I can live for the season of tomorrow. Amen
My Journal for Today: Today is the last day of May, which is a month identified with Spring; and then we move into the lushness and warmth of Summer. And during this weekend, at the end of May, we celebrate Memorial Day, where we honor our Veterans who died so that we might live. Can you see the seasons playing themselves out in that? Winter and Summer. Life and Death. In the seasons of our world there is balance; and we experience the ebb and flow of life as the seasons unfold.
That’s the message of Ecclesiastes 3; and I know you’ve probably read it … that there is a “TIME” for all things of life. As Smith taught it today in his devotional, ”How can we expect seasons of happiness without seasons of pain? Or seasons of growth without seasons of plantings? Or seasons of excitement with seasons of calm? To wish that our winters of distress could be milder is to risk missing the strength of perseverance harsh winters produce. … We learn from the seasons of nature that, while no season of life lasts forever, every season is important.”
Personally, that’s good writing and wise words; and it’s certainly supported by the section of Ecclesiastes introduced by the sentence Smith highlighted as the touchtone passage of today’s devotional. Yet, as humans, with a sin nature, we have a love-hate relationship with the seasons, don’t we? Some of us love being in the warmth of the summer; but those who love the summer many times hate the cold of the winter. Yet we know, intellectually, that we can’t have the warmth of the summer without the cold of the winter.
Oh how we love the excitement of Christmas; but somehow we, as Christians, know that the winter of Christmas is our reminder of the life which was born as the “reason for the season;” and He points us toward the very necessary death on the cross which we celebrate in the life affirming season of Spring. Yes, there is a time for birth; but there is also a time for death; and we must accept and understand the balance God has for all of the seasons of our life.
Smith’s question for today: Have I learned to welcome whatever season comes my way?
And I’m convicted by this question to more readily accept the pain I experience from my season of arthritis which reminds me of my age being in the fall of life, knowing that the winter which lies ahead will bring me closer to the season where I’ll go home to be with my Savior. When will that occur? I don’t know; but I do know, and accept that God is in control of the seasons of my life; and He has a season which is appointed and anointed to be mine … now … and in the future. And I trust that His seasons are always the right seasons, timed perfectly for His glory.
As Solomon was born to signify the eternal wisdom of God; yet his life signified the foolishness of the human condition. And so, studying Ecclesiastes we find the balance of Godly wisdom from the season of Solomon’s foolishness. To me the ultimate meaning of Ecclesiastes is found in the last two verses of this book, which I see as Solomon’s last will and testament, his declaration of wisdom to honor God after living a life riddled with foolishness. In verses 13-14 of Chapter 12 Solomon (and God) writes … 13 Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.
I hope – and pray – that we all get that … and live it out through the seasons of our lives.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, help me to celebrate the season of now so that I can live for the season of tomorrow. Amen
Sunday, May 30, 2010
2010 – May 30 – Avoiding the Extremes
Study from God’s Word… Today I was led to study the Proverbs of the Teacher – Sayings of Solomon dealing with life issues coming from the wisdom of having lived for many years … Passage for Reflection: Ecclesiastes 7: 16 - 18… NIV 16 Do not be overrighteous, neither be overwise — why destroy yourself? 17 Do not be overwicked, and do not be a fool — why die before your time?
For Scriptural Comparison: Ecclesiastes 7: 16 - 18… NKJV 16 Do not be overly righteous, Nor be overly wise: Why should you destroy yourself? 17 Do not be overly wicked, Nor be foolish: Why should you die before your time?
My Journal for Today: Yes, there are PROVERBS in the book of Ecclesiastes as well as those in the Book of Proverbs, both attributed to the teachings of Solomon. So, what’s the difference? Well, the answer lies partly in when they were written in Solomon’s life. Proverbs was written much earlier in Solomon’s reign, very likely for a younger father to impart what wisdom God had entrusted with him to his first born son, his family, and Gods’ people. But Ecclesiastes was written to impart wisdom to all of God’s peoples from a King who had lived many years in disobedience to God’s law and His commands to Kings of His chosen people. In Ecclesiastes these are the proverbs of experience rather than the teachings of anticipation we find in Proverbs.
Solomon had learned, by this time in his life, important lessons from life about life; and he was compelled, and I believe Spirit-led – to document those lessons into the Book of the Teacher, which we call “Ecclesiastes.” And today one of those lessons, which teacher Smith focused upon, had to do with doing what we can to avoid extremes in our life. The lesson, in a nutshell, is to find healthy balance in life so as to avoid the stresses from extremism which shorten our life span. “Moderation in all things” … is the saying we’ve probably all heard. And I enjoy the translators of the NIV version of Eccles. 7: 16-18 coining non-words, like “overrighteous” or “overwicked” to describe the extremes of life styles which we can choose to be a part of as we live for Christ. These may not be real words; but they communicate the meaning of moving in our lives to find the balance of Godly living which avoids extremism, legalism, and perfectionism.
But a teaching like this one raises questions, which are explored by author/editor Smith. We know that we’re all wicked (see Romans 3: 23). We’re all sinners; so avoiding being overly wicked is certainly an extreme I can see we should avoid. However, what about the admonition in today’s passage to avoid being “overrighteous?” Is it ever the case that believers should tone down our efforts to be sinless? Didn’t Jesus, as Smith points out, say (in Matt. 5: 48), Be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect? And that one caused me to pause a bit when thinking about today’s lesson from Ecclesiastes; because I’d certainly like to be a sinner who is striving hard to become like the model of “sinlessness” we have in our Savior, Jesus. And I know that God’s Spirit has been imparted into my heart to help reshape me, through sanctification, into my Lord’s image.
So, what about the words in Solomon’s teachings to avoid being “overrighteous?” Well, I agree with Dr. Smith that the answer lies in THE EFFORT to be sinless, not the aspiration toward sinlessness. Have you ever known someone, likely a very insecure Christian, who became “burned out” from mind-numbing and body-draining efforts to be perfect? This is the person who can – in their own eyes – never be good enough? And when we see such a person, we can reasonably say that we’re observing “graceless” perfectionism and a person who’s captured in the tentacles of legalism.
God’s grace, which was modeled by Jesus, is a life of balance between grace and truth; and that should be the life we live … with enough grace in our lives to forgive our own foibles and with a pursuit of truth which drives us into a lifestyle of worship where obedience to Christ’s commands is our goal and prize. We can avoid the extremes of self righteousness where legalism becomes a lifestyle. And hence, here is the self examination question, Smith uses to get us to look at ourselves in this regard: ”From what I honestly know of myself, do I need to be far more harsh with myself … or far more gentle?” And I’ll charge you to answer that one for yourself as I pray for myself.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, help me to be diligent in my commitment to be more like You; but give me the grace to forgive myself, as You do, when I fall short. Amen
For Scriptural Comparison: Ecclesiastes 7: 16 - 18… NKJV 16 Do not be overly righteous, Nor be overly wise: Why should you destroy yourself? 17 Do not be overly wicked, Nor be foolish: Why should you die before your time?
My Journal for Today: Yes, there are PROVERBS in the book of Ecclesiastes as well as those in the Book of Proverbs, both attributed to the teachings of Solomon. So, what’s the difference? Well, the answer lies partly in when they were written in Solomon’s life. Proverbs was written much earlier in Solomon’s reign, very likely for a younger father to impart what wisdom God had entrusted with him to his first born son, his family, and Gods’ people. But Ecclesiastes was written to impart wisdom to all of God’s peoples from a King who had lived many years in disobedience to God’s law and His commands to Kings of His chosen people. In Ecclesiastes these are the proverbs of experience rather than the teachings of anticipation we find in Proverbs.
Solomon had learned, by this time in his life, important lessons from life about life; and he was compelled, and I believe Spirit-led – to document those lessons into the Book of the Teacher, which we call “Ecclesiastes.” And today one of those lessons, which teacher Smith focused upon, had to do with doing what we can to avoid extremes in our life. The lesson, in a nutshell, is to find healthy balance in life so as to avoid the stresses from extremism which shorten our life span. “Moderation in all things” … is the saying we’ve probably all heard. And I enjoy the translators of the NIV version of Eccles. 7: 16-18 coining non-words, like “overrighteous” or “overwicked” to describe the extremes of life styles which we can choose to be a part of as we live for Christ. These may not be real words; but they communicate the meaning of moving in our lives to find the balance of Godly living which avoids extremism, legalism, and perfectionism.
But a teaching like this one raises questions, which are explored by author/editor Smith. We know that we’re all wicked (see Romans 3: 23). We’re all sinners; so avoiding being overly wicked is certainly an extreme I can see we should avoid. However, what about the admonition in today’s passage to avoid being “overrighteous?” Is it ever the case that believers should tone down our efforts to be sinless? Didn’t Jesus, as Smith points out, say (in Matt. 5: 48), Be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect? And that one caused me to pause a bit when thinking about today’s lesson from Ecclesiastes; because I’d certainly like to be a sinner who is striving hard to become like the model of “sinlessness” we have in our Savior, Jesus. And I know that God’s Spirit has been imparted into my heart to help reshape me, through sanctification, into my Lord’s image.
So, what about the words in Solomon’s teachings to avoid being “overrighteous?” Well, I agree with Dr. Smith that the answer lies in THE EFFORT to be sinless, not the aspiration toward sinlessness. Have you ever known someone, likely a very insecure Christian, who became “burned out” from mind-numbing and body-draining efforts to be perfect? This is the person who can – in their own eyes – never be good enough? And when we see such a person, we can reasonably say that we’re observing “graceless” perfectionism and a person who’s captured in the tentacles of legalism.
God’s grace, which was modeled by Jesus, is a life of balance between grace and truth; and that should be the life we live … with enough grace in our lives to forgive our own foibles and with a pursuit of truth which drives us into a lifestyle of worship where obedience to Christ’s commands is our goal and prize. We can avoid the extremes of self righteousness where legalism becomes a lifestyle. And hence, here is the self examination question, Smith uses to get us to look at ourselves in this regard: ”From what I honestly know of myself, do I need to be far more harsh with myself … or far more gentle?” And I’ll charge you to answer that one for yourself as I pray for myself.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, help me to be diligent in my commitment to be more like You; but give me the grace to forgive myself, as You do, when I fall short. Amen
Saturday, May 29, 2010
2010 – May 29 [SAT] – A Cord of THREE Strands
Study from God’s Word… Dr. Smith’s reading of Ecclesiastes in Chronological Order cover the topics of the emptiness of human wisdom, pleasure, achievement, human labor, the human condition, unshared lives [today’s passage], false worship, politics, wealth/materialism/prosperity, defiance, wickedness, injustice, and the emptiness of human strength … Passage for Reflection: Ecclesiastes 4: 11 – 12 … NIV 11 Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? 12 Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
My Journal for Today: Reading through the various passages selected by F. LaGard Smith today to emphasize Solomon’s realization of the meaningless of a life lived for self, one has to be struck with one repeated phrase which keeps being recited over and over again by Solomon as he exposes the elements of life which are lived without God and for self. The repeated sentence is, ”This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.” So, as man plays the “Lone Ranger” game of Christian life by seeking meaning through all of the elements documented above, to which Solomon refers in Ecclesiastes, have you not discovered by now that chasing life for self is “chasing after the wind?” BUT, seeking God (primarily through His word) gives a person, or, even better, a married couple, that extra strand to strengthen us when we find ourselves chasing after the wind in meaninglessness.
Today’s highlight verse emphasizes one such aspect of life which provides power, strength, and direction so that we will not be “chasing after the wind.” And Dr. Smith uses the word picture of a wedding ceremony which uses the ceremonial picture of showing the joining of THREE strands together in a “marriage cord,” invoking God as the third strand, to give the marriage so much more strength than it would have if the cord of marriage only was woven by two cords.
You know, my wife and I were married in a church; but neither of us had Christ in our lives. Therefore, our church vows were meaningless in God’s eyes, much like what Solomon brought out in Ecclesiastes. We were joined in life by a marriage contract of two coming together in agreement rather than having the third cord of God in our marriage. So, for the first 18 years of our marriage we tried to make life work together with two cords intertwined. And it didn’t work, almost coming unraveled at one point as we dealt with the winds of distrust and my own personal selfishness. Then we let Christ into our marriage; and our two-corded strand became a three-corded strand; and a marriage which had been chasing, but bucking, the head winds of life, was given that THIRD STRAND of Christ to turn our marriage ship into the wind, and use God’s sail to move us through life, together again, but this time with a three-corded strand.
Oh, how I pray that you’re not trying to go through life alone with only one cord to deal with life. You and God together, if you’re single, can be so much stronger. But if you’re married, and you’ve seen the advantage of a two-corded strand, working together for and with each other, you’ll add so much more strength and purpose to your marriage if it is bound by the covenant relationship of that Third Cord of Christ. And it’s never too late for a husband and wife to go to God and ask Him to become the Holy third strand in the cord of a marriage. And if you’re two-cords become three, you’re going to discover what my wife and I have discovered in the truth of Eccles. 4: 11-12; and I pray that you have God’s extra cord to wrap around your life for strength.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, You, as the third cord in our marriage, give us the strength we need and the direction we seek to live our lives TOGETHER for You. Amen
My Journal for Today: Reading through the various passages selected by F. LaGard Smith today to emphasize Solomon’s realization of the meaningless of a life lived for self, one has to be struck with one repeated phrase which keeps being recited over and over again by Solomon as he exposes the elements of life which are lived without God and for self. The repeated sentence is, ”This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.” So, as man plays the “Lone Ranger” game of Christian life by seeking meaning through all of the elements documented above, to which Solomon refers in Ecclesiastes, have you not discovered by now that chasing life for self is “chasing after the wind?” BUT, seeking God (primarily through His word) gives a person, or, even better, a married couple, that extra strand to strengthen us when we find ourselves chasing after the wind in meaninglessness.
Today’s highlight verse emphasizes one such aspect of life which provides power, strength, and direction so that we will not be “chasing after the wind.” And Dr. Smith uses the word picture of a wedding ceremony which uses the ceremonial picture of showing the joining of THREE strands together in a “marriage cord,” invoking God as the third strand, to give the marriage so much more strength than it would have if the cord of marriage only was woven by two cords.
You know, my wife and I were married in a church; but neither of us had Christ in our lives. Therefore, our church vows were meaningless in God’s eyes, much like what Solomon brought out in Ecclesiastes. We were joined in life by a marriage contract of two coming together in agreement rather than having the third cord of God in our marriage. So, for the first 18 years of our marriage we tried to make life work together with two cords intertwined. And it didn’t work, almost coming unraveled at one point as we dealt with the winds of distrust and my own personal selfishness. Then we let Christ into our marriage; and our two-corded strand became a three-corded strand; and a marriage which had been chasing, but bucking, the head winds of life, was given that THIRD STRAND of Christ to turn our marriage ship into the wind, and use God’s sail to move us through life, together again, but this time with a three-corded strand.
Oh, how I pray that you’re not trying to go through life alone with only one cord to deal with life. You and God together, if you’re single, can be so much stronger. But if you’re married, and you’ve seen the advantage of a two-corded strand, working together for and with each other, you’ll add so much more strength and purpose to your marriage if it is bound by the covenant relationship of that Third Cord of Christ. And it’s never too late for a husband and wife to go to God and ask Him to become the Holy third strand in the cord of a marriage. And if you’re two-cords become three, you’re going to discover what my wife and I have discovered in the truth of Eccles. 4: 11-12; and I pray that you have God’s extra cord to wrap around your life for strength.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, You, as the third cord in our marriage, give us the strength we need and the direction we seek to live our lives TOGETHER for You. Amen
Thursday, May 27, 2010
2010 – May 28 [FRI] – When Vanity Is Meaningless
Blogger's Note: I know I'm "jumping the gun" a bit by posting on Thursday night rather than as I usually do daily by posting my devotional in the mornings. But I'm at a Christian conference in Washington, DC (very powerful BTW); and tomorrow AM we'll be starting our conference day in prayer at 5am (4am my normal body time). So, I've done my devotional here on Thur. night and am posting it here. Thanks for the flexibility of reading this a bit out of my usual time schedule.
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Study from God’s Word… Ecclesiastes 1: 1 – 11; Eccl. 6: 10-12; Eccl. 3: 18 – 22; Eccl. 2: 12 – 16; Eccl. 9: 1-12; Eccl. 8: 16-17; … Passage for Reflection: Ecclesiastes 1: 1 – 2 … NIV 1 The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem: 2 "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."
Ecclesiastes 1: 1 – 2 [NKJV] … 1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. 2 “ Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher; “ Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”
My Journal for Today: I find great meaning and hope in reading and studying the book of Ecclesiastes, either written or dictated by Solomon later in his life or a book dedicated to Solomon’s later-life realizations and philosophies by some God-inspired Scribe. No matter the true author; Ecclesiastes is, and has become, part of our “Scripture,” and it is part of the Old Testament wisdom literature from God which we can use to guide our lives.
I find such personal hope from reading and learning in the Book, the title of which, “Ecclesiastes,” means in Hebrew, “The Teacher” or “The Preacher.” And studying this Book becomes a lesson from God in the meaning of life, especially directed from (or to) a man who has learned a great deal from making a lot of mistakes in life. And that’s certainly me!
I blew off 22 years, living a life of “vanity,” being captured into my own patterns of disobedience and sinful living; and here I am, as was Solomon, later in his life, realizing that only a life lived for God and in obedience to God’s word can ultimately have impact on the world for God and His kingdom. It’s not that I wouldn’t have lived in heaven eternally if I had died on April 14th, 1983, the day after I received Christ as my Savior and Lord. No, if that had happened, like the thief dying on the cross and surrendering to Jesus on the day of Christ’s crucifixion, I would have been ushered into heaven to be with my Savior forever, but my life would have had – and has had – much more power by surrendering to God in obedience and living in humility according to His word [it the living out of Romans 12: 1-2].
And Solomon may have come to the realization that his life could have been so much more if he, like his father, David, had, earlier in life, come to live out those later years of his life in obedience and surrender to God’s ways rather than having lived a squandered life of selfishness and sinful disobedience.
Life doesn’t have to be all “vanity.” It can be a life lived for Christ with fruitful purpose and design (see John 15: 1-8 and Galatians 5: 19 – 25). But we, as Solomon ultimately declared at the end of Ecclesiastes, must live lives in surrender to God and His purpose rather than lives squandered in selfishness and sin.
We choose; and God supplies the grace for us to finish strong. (see 2nd Cor. 12: 9-10).
My Prayer for Today: Lord, help me to finish strong! Amen
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Study from God’s Word… Ecclesiastes 1: 1 – 11; Eccl. 6: 10-12; Eccl. 3: 18 – 22; Eccl. 2: 12 – 16; Eccl. 9: 1-12; Eccl. 8: 16-17; … Passage for Reflection: Ecclesiastes 1: 1 – 2 … NIV 1 The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem: 2 "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."
Ecclesiastes 1: 1 – 2 [NKJV] … 1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. 2 “ Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher; “ Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”
My Journal for Today: I find great meaning and hope in reading and studying the book of Ecclesiastes, either written or dictated by Solomon later in his life or a book dedicated to Solomon’s later-life realizations and philosophies by some God-inspired Scribe. No matter the true author; Ecclesiastes is, and has become, part of our “Scripture,” and it is part of the Old Testament wisdom literature from God which we can use to guide our lives.
I find such personal hope from reading and learning in the Book, the title of which, “Ecclesiastes,” means in Hebrew, “The Teacher” or “The Preacher.” And studying this Book becomes a lesson from God in the meaning of life, especially directed from (or to) a man who has learned a great deal from making a lot of mistakes in life. And that’s certainly me!
I blew off 22 years, living a life of “vanity,” being captured into my own patterns of disobedience and sinful living; and here I am, as was Solomon, later in his life, realizing that only a life lived for God and in obedience to God’s word can ultimately have impact on the world for God and His kingdom. It’s not that I wouldn’t have lived in heaven eternally if I had died on April 14th, 1983, the day after I received Christ as my Savior and Lord. No, if that had happened, like the thief dying on the cross and surrendering to Jesus on the day of Christ’s crucifixion, I would have been ushered into heaven to be with my Savior forever, but my life would have had – and has had – much more power by surrendering to God in obedience and living in humility according to His word [it the living out of Romans 12: 1-2].
And Solomon may have come to the realization that his life could have been so much more if he, like his father, David, had, earlier in life, come to live out those later years of his life in obedience and surrender to God’s ways rather than having lived a squandered life of selfishness and sinful disobedience.
Life doesn’t have to be all “vanity.” It can be a life lived for Christ with fruitful purpose and design (see John 15: 1-8 and Galatians 5: 19 – 25). But we, as Solomon ultimately declared at the end of Ecclesiastes, must live lives in surrender to God and His purpose rather than lives squandered in selfishness and sin.
We choose; and God supplies the grace for us to finish strong. (see 2nd Cor. 12: 9-10).
My Prayer for Today: Lord, help me to finish strong! Amen
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
2010 – May 26 [Wed.] – Pure Passion
Study from God’s Word… Psalm 127; Song of Songs [or “Song of Solomon”] … Passage for Reflection: Song of Songs 3: 5… NIV Daughter of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field; Don not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.
My Journal for Today: What do you do with Solomon’s love song, the “Song of Songs?” There’s been a lot of ink written about the meaning of this rather interesting piece of poetic wisdom literature, … a lot of speculation about it’s real meaning. To the Jews it was probably an allegory about the love relationship between Jehovah and his chosen people. To the New Covenant Christians it could be an allegorical expression of about the love of Christ for His Bride, the Church. Or it could have been Solomon, again writing for his younger family, a poem, expressing the true nature of God-given passion in the love relationship we know of as marriage.
But today, Dr. Smith, my devotional shepherd, discusses a strong point of emphasis that sexual or sensual passion must be bridled so that it can be blessed by God to pour forth its completeness in the lives and love expressions of two lovers whom God is pouring out His grace of love as being expressed by the two in the love language of sexual expression. Sexually expressed love, as God designed it, was not fashioned to be a “wham-bam-thank you, Ma’am” experience. No, sex between two God-anointed lovers is to be a work of art which takes time to be fashioned. As Dr. Smith puts it, “… the lesson [from Song of Solomon] is that a rush to physical intimacy kills the goose of emotional and spiritual intimacy that lays the golden egg of sexual fulfillment.” And he goes on to posit, “True love waits for pure love, … and pure passion,” which I think is aptly expressed by Solomon in his erotic, Spirit-inspired poem.
Satan and the world, especially our modern Hollywood culture, have done a “bang up” (if you would pardon my crude expression) job of perverting the image of “love making;” and have successfully extracted the context of the God-created sexual expression of love from its proper, God-anointed context, which is in the marriage between one man to/for one woman for life. Sex is to be, as properly expressed in the Solomon’s Love Song, a carefully crafted and sensually fashioned love experience; and that takes whatever time God would have the called-out couple need to express to one another what God has given them in their two bodies to become one.
And when that time is chosen and fashioned in the way God intended it, the Song of Solomon expresses just how beautiful that expression of sensual love can be for two intended to become one in the flesh. We all need to read and meditate from the one piece of sexually inspired literature which can/will produce God’s best for sex in our lives. Aren’t you glad God loves sex; and that He designed it so that we can love it too.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, thank You for sex the way You designed it. Amen
My Journal for Today: What do you do with Solomon’s love song, the “Song of Songs?” There’s been a lot of ink written about the meaning of this rather interesting piece of poetic wisdom literature, … a lot of speculation about it’s real meaning. To the Jews it was probably an allegory about the love relationship between Jehovah and his chosen people. To the New Covenant Christians it could be an allegorical expression of about the love of Christ for His Bride, the Church. Or it could have been Solomon, again writing for his younger family, a poem, expressing the true nature of God-given passion in the love relationship we know of as marriage.
But today, Dr. Smith, my devotional shepherd, discusses a strong point of emphasis that sexual or sensual passion must be bridled so that it can be blessed by God to pour forth its completeness in the lives and love expressions of two lovers whom God is pouring out His grace of love as being expressed by the two in the love language of sexual expression. Sexually expressed love, as God designed it, was not fashioned to be a “wham-bam-thank you, Ma’am” experience. No, sex between two God-anointed lovers is to be a work of art which takes time to be fashioned. As Dr. Smith puts it, “… the lesson [from Song of Solomon] is that a rush to physical intimacy kills the goose of emotional and spiritual intimacy that lays the golden egg of sexual fulfillment.” And he goes on to posit, “True love waits for pure love, … and pure passion,” which I think is aptly expressed by Solomon in his erotic, Spirit-inspired poem.
Satan and the world, especially our modern Hollywood culture, have done a “bang up” (if you would pardon my crude expression) job of perverting the image of “love making;” and have successfully extracted the context of the God-created sexual expression of love from its proper, God-anointed context, which is in the marriage between one man to/for one woman for life. Sex is to be, as properly expressed in the Solomon’s Love Song, a carefully crafted and sensually fashioned love experience; and that takes whatever time God would have the called-out couple need to express to one another what God has given them in their two bodies to become one.
And when that time is chosen and fashioned in the way God intended it, the Song of Solomon expresses just how beautiful that expression of sensual love can be for two intended to become one in the flesh. We all need to read and meditate from the one piece of sexually inspired literature which can/will produce God’s best for sex in our lives. Aren’t you glad God loves sex; and that He designed it so that we can love it too.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, thank You for sex the way You designed it. Amen
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
2010 – May 25 [Tues] – Man, Woman, and Mystery
Study from God’s Word… Proverbs 30 and 31 … Passage for Reflection: Proverbs 30: 18 - 19… NIV 18 "There are three things that are too amazing for me, four that I do not understand: 19 the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a maiden.
My Journal for Today: The Book of Proverbs closes out with two sets of poems, supposedly not by Solomon, … poems which express much wisdom about manhood, womanhood, and these creatures abiding with God TOGETHER; and today’s focus/highlight verse comes from the sayings of a man referred to as Agur, chosen by God’s Spirit to be a Psalmist [although some scholars have claimed that “Agur” was a pseudonym Solomon chose to use to write this one set of proverbs in Psalm 30. Whoever he is, Agur is a man of much wisdom when you read his poetic verses in this one Psalm.
And reading this poem and the great wisdom of the Godly woman in Psalm 31, one has to see that God created a great and perplexing mystery into the genders of man and woman. And man has always had some of the attitude even Adam must’ve had for his Eve, the attitude which is expressed by the character of Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, when he sings, “Why can’t a woman be more like a man?” Yes, like many of us men, we come to realize that when we married or felt “hooked” by a woman, we were wrapped around the perplexing finger of a creature who was almost our diametric opposite. And, when we’re able to humble ourselves to realize this truth, we have to see that this was God’s design, … to create the “perfected completer,” a woman for a man, who would be vastly different, making man complete when man and woman came together in his first institution, which was marriage.
What a mystery! Two opposites becoming one, yet completing one another, and creating unity out of difference. Is that not wonderful?!! Sometimes, when I think of the 45 years I’ve been blessed to share with my wife, Elly, I’m dumb-founded that two such opposites can be so perfectly matched to face life together as we have. And there have been times when the difference between us caused great, almost explosive, clashes; yet, here we are, after 45 years, experiencing a together of intimacy which only God could have fashioned, especially as our live together glorifies our Lord.
I’m not going to try to add any wisdom here or even try to explain how this mystery of man and woman can come together for God’s glory. All I can do is charge you, as I’m doing here, to praise God for his creation; and if you’ve been able to make a relationship work, as God intended, merely thank Him and go on making that relationship all God intended it to be for His glory.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, You gave me Elly; and all I can do is praise Your Holy Name for her. I, Your man, am completed by this woman. Amen
My Journal for Today: The Book of Proverbs closes out with two sets of poems, supposedly not by Solomon, … poems which express much wisdom about manhood, womanhood, and these creatures abiding with God TOGETHER; and today’s focus/highlight verse comes from the sayings of a man referred to as Agur, chosen by God’s Spirit to be a Psalmist [although some scholars have claimed that “Agur” was a pseudonym Solomon chose to use to write this one set of proverbs in Psalm 30. Whoever he is, Agur is a man of much wisdom when you read his poetic verses in this one Psalm.
And reading this poem and the great wisdom of the Godly woman in Psalm 31, one has to see that God created a great and perplexing mystery into the genders of man and woman. And man has always had some of the attitude even Adam must’ve had for his Eve, the attitude which is expressed by the character of Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, when he sings, “Why can’t a woman be more like a man?” Yes, like many of us men, we come to realize that when we married or felt “hooked” by a woman, we were wrapped around the perplexing finger of a creature who was almost our diametric opposite. And, when we’re able to humble ourselves to realize this truth, we have to see that this was God’s design, … to create the “perfected completer,” a woman for a man, who would be vastly different, making man complete when man and woman came together in his first institution, which was marriage.
What a mystery! Two opposites becoming one, yet completing one another, and creating unity out of difference. Is that not wonderful?!! Sometimes, when I think of the 45 years I’ve been blessed to share with my wife, Elly, I’m dumb-founded that two such opposites can be so perfectly matched to face life together as we have. And there have been times when the difference between us caused great, almost explosive, clashes; yet, here we are, after 45 years, experiencing a together of intimacy which only God could have fashioned, especially as our live together glorifies our Lord.
I’m not going to try to add any wisdom here or even try to explain how this mystery of man and woman can come together for God’s glory. All I can do is charge you, as I’m doing here, to praise God for his creation; and if you’ve been able to make a relationship work, as God intended, merely thank Him and go on making that relationship all God intended it to be for His glory.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, You gave me Elly; and all I can do is praise Your Holy Name for her. I, Your man, am completed by this woman. Amen
Monday, May 24, 2010
2010 – May 24 – Wearing Blindfolds to Please
Study from God’s Word… Many Proverbs concerning people issues listed in The Daily Bible in Chronological Order from Proverbs 1, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, , and 29, ordered by topics by the Editor, including Parents/Children, The Elderly, Women/wives, Kings/Rulers [Today’s Subject], Messengers, Companions, Caution, Reputation, Courage, and Hope … Passage for Reflection: Proverbs 18: 11… NIV If a ruler listens to lies, all his officials become wicked.
My Journal for Today: As Dr. Smith points out today by referring to the classic “The Emperor Has No Clothes” story, a king, political leader, or even a Church Pastor, can be ill served and get into very deep – very HOT – waters if he [and not bowing to political correctness, I say “HE” with a biblical reason] is surrounded by manipulative fools who use “yes men” tactics to protect themselves or control their leader.
Have you ever been a leader who did foolish things because you were given foolish advice which tickled your fancy but was not what you needed to hear to do the right thing? I’ve been there, done than, and as they say, “I have the T-Shirt” on that one. I’ve also been in the position of having to call out the truth when I knew that my “boss,” or the leader to whom I was responsible, needed to hear the truth and not what was politically correct or personally pleasing to him.
I’m convinced that some leaders, who make inglorious mistakes, maybe a President like Richard Nixon, do so because they’ve surrounded themselves by foolish “yes-men,” who’ll tickle their fancies rather than tell the truth. Hence, it is so important for leaders to surround themselves – or have access to – straight-talking, righteous followers, who will speak the truth in love and, like the little boy in the classic story, tell the King that he’s wearing no clothes.
I hope we all have someone in our lives, someone very close, who has a discerning spirit, … one who is Godly-wise, … and one who will confront us in love with the truth – THE WHOLE TRUTH – when we need to hear it. Personally, I need this badly because, by nature, I’m a very gullible man with a Jeremiah 17: 9 heart, … a spirit which is vulnerable to lies which make me feel good. So, I’m blessed, in my role of family Priest, Church Elder, and Ministry Leader, to be surrounded by a wife, Brother Elders, and ministry followers who, if I was walking naked into the world, would cry out, “Bill, you’re wearing no clothes!!!” And I listen to them; because I know they love me and will always speak the truth into my life.
I pray that you have truth-speakers in your life as well.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, I thank you for leading people into my life who speak the truth in love to me when I need to hear You speaking through them. Amen
My Journal for Today: As Dr. Smith points out today by referring to the classic “The Emperor Has No Clothes” story, a king, political leader, or even a Church Pastor, can be ill served and get into very deep – very HOT – waters if he [and not bowing to political correctness, I say “HE” with a biblical reason] is surrounded by manipulative fools who use “yes men” tactics to protect themselves or control their leader.
Have you ever been a leader who did foolish things because you were given foolish advice which tickled your fancy but was not what you needed to hear to do the right thing? I’ve been there, done than, and as they say, “I have the T-Shirt” on that one. I’ve also been in the position of having to call out the truth when I knew that my “boss,” or the leader to whom I was responsible, needed to hear the truth and not what was politically correct or personally pleasing to him.
I’m convinced that some leaders, who make inglorious mistakes, maybe a President like Richard Nixon, do so because they’ve surrounded themselves by foolish “yes-men,” who’ll tickle their fancies rather than tell the truth. Hence, it is so important for leaders to surround themselves – or have access to – straight-talking, righteous followers, who will speak the truth in love and, like the little boy in the classic story, tell the King that he’s wearing no clothes.
I hope we all have someone in our lives, someone very close, who has a discerning spirit, … one who is Godly-wise, … and one who will confront us in love with the truth – THE WHOLE TRUTH – when we need to hear it. Personally, I need this badly because, by nature, I’m a very gullible man with a Jeremiah 17: 9 heart, … a spirit which is vulnerable to lies which make me feel good. So, I’m blessed, in my role of family Priest, Church Elder, and Ministry Leader, to be surrounded by a wife, Brother Elders, and ministry followers who, if I was walking naked into the world, would cry out, “Bill, you’re wearing no clothes!!!” And I listen to them; because I know they love me and will always speak the truth into my life.
I pray that you have truth-speakers in your life as well.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, I thank you for leading people into my life who speak the truth in love to me when I need to hear You speaking through them. Amen
Sunday, May 23, 2010
2010 – May 23 – Securities and Trust
Study from God’s Word… Many Proverbs listed in The Daily Bible in Chronological Order from Proverbs 3, 6, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, and 29, ordered by topics by the Editor, including Wealth/Poverty, Benevolence/Generosity, Oppression of the Poor, Industriousness, Conversation, and Surety for Another … Passage for Reflection: Proverbs 18: 11… NIV The wealth of the rich is their fortified city; they imagine it an unscalable wall. Prov. 18: 11 … NKJV … 11 Rich people trust their wealth to protect them. They think it is like the high walls of a city.
My Journal for Today: Dr. Smith, my devotional shepherd, asks the probing personal question at the end of his entry for today, “If I’m being completely honest, in what seemingly unscalable walls do I trust for my security?” And I immediately, from the truth of God’s word, which wells up from my memory of what God’s word says, I recall Proverbs 3: 5-6 and also Prov. 3: 9-10. I hope you know what those say to our minds, hearts, and lives. But if not, I charge you now to go and find, read, and meditate on these truths, which were included in the Proverbs I was led to read this morning from the passages Dr. Smith led me into in his edited version of The Bible in Chronological Order.
And Dr. Smith this morning also points to an interesting, almost comical, irony when we consider that stocks and bonds, the financial entities into which so many of us invest so much of our lives, are ironically called “securities.” And given what is happening in the stock market these days, do you really have a lot of “security” in these stocks and bonds? And when you read this morning’s highlighted verse in Proverb 18: 11, don’t you just love the name of the human institution where we trade our “securities.” We call it “Wall Street.” And remembering the world bending “crash of 1929,” and seeing where “Wall Street” is headed right now, are we ever going to get the picture that the walls of “Wall Street” are not secure? We may put “In God We Trust” on all our coins; but when will we learn that motto in real life; and when will we learn that we can never put any degree of life-saving trust in the coins which bear this motto?
If we put our trust on any institution or entity which we believe has impenetrable walls to protect us, we could be headed toward a monumental crash. The citizens of Jericho built great walls to protect themselves; and those walls came tumbling down before God. Many people put their trust in their walled cities of education, science, or political institutions; and don’t we really see how shaky those walls will be before the same God Who is the source of the knowledge which built those walled cities? There is only one great “Wall Street”; and it is in Him where we must invest our “securities” of Spiritual surrender. And it is only when we quit trying to trust worldly “Wall Streets” and give our lives over to the One Who is our only real “Security” can we expect to find real protection and peace in this life.
So, answer with me the pertinent and poignant question, “Where do I find my “securities;” and where is my ultimate “Wall Street?”
My Prayer for Today: Lord, I am surrendered to You as my “Wall Street” of life, here and in Heaven. Amen
My Journal for Today: Dr. Smith, my devotional shepherd, asks the probing personal question at the end of his entry for today, “If I’m being completely honest, in what seemingly unscalable walls do I trust for my security?” And I immediately, from the truth of God’s word, which wells up from my memory of what God’s word says, I recall Proverbs 3: 5-6 and also Prov. 3: 9-10. I hope you know what those say to our minds, hearts, and lives. But if not, I charge you now to go and find, read, and meditate on these truths, which were included in the Proverbs I was led to read this morning from the passages Dr. Smith led me into in his edited version of The Bible in Chronological Order.
And Dr. Smith this morning also points to an interesting, almost comical, irony when we consider that stocks and bonds, the financial entities into which so many of us invest so much of our lives, are ironically called “securities.” And given what is happening in the stock market these days, do you really have a lot of “security” in these stocks and bonds? And when you read this morning’s highlighted verse in Proverb 18: 11, don’t you just love the name of the human institution where we trade our “securities.” We call it “Wall Street.” And remembering the world bending “crash of 1929,” and seeing where “Wall Street” is headed right now, are we ever going to get the picture that the walls of “Wall Street” are not secure? We may put “In God We Trust” on all our coins; but when will we learn that motto in real life; and when will we learn that we can never put any degree of life-saving trust in the coins which bear this motto?
If we put our trust on any institution or entity which we believe has impenetrable walls to protect us, we could be headed toward a monumental crash. The citizens of Jericho built great walls to protect themselves; and those walls came tumbling down before God. Many people put their trust in their walled cities of education, science, or political institutions; and don’t we really see how shaky those walls will be before the same God Who is the source of the knowledge which built those walled cities? There is only one great “Wall Street”; and it is in Him where we must invest our “securities” of Spiritual surrender. And it is only when we quit trying to trust worldly “Wall Streets” and give our lives over to the One Who is our only real “Security” can we expect to find real protection and peace in this life.
So, answer with me the pertinent and poignant question, “Where do I find my “securities;” and where is my ultimate “Wall Street?”
My Prayer for Today: Lord, I am surrendered to You as my “Wall Street” of life, here and in Heaven. Amen
Saturday, May 22, 2010
2010 – May 22 – A Better Way of Seeing the Light
Study from God’s Word… Many Proverbs listed in The Daily Bible in Chronological Order from Proverbs 1, 3, 6, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, and 29 ordered by topics by the Editor, including Violence, Murderers, Causing Others Harm, Revenge, Dissension/Strife, Meddling, Truthfulness, Accurate Weights, Boundary Stones, Wrongfully Obtained Gains, Bribery, False Witness, Open-Mindedness, and Justice … Passage for Reflection: Proverbs 18: 17… NIV The first to present his case seems right, till another comes forward and questions him.
My Journal for Today: “Seeing the light” … and … “finding the truth” requires an open minded and rigorous search through all the evidence to determine if perceived truth is real truth. And Dr. Smith in his devotional entry for today asks the self challenging question, Is my truth really as true as I believe it to be.”
I’m one who believes in the truth which I’ve read, written by Paul in 2nd Tim. 3: 16, 17. I hope you can quote what it says. All Scripture (i.e., the entire Bible) is inspired by God; and is profitable for doctrine, for instruction, for rebuke, and for correction in righteousness; … that the man of God may be complete and thoroughly equipped for every good work. Do you believe that to be true? Have you examined the facts, in a Berean way (see Luke 17: 10-15), to see if examined evidence backs up the claims of this Scriptural position? As today’s Proverb posits, if we take the Bible and we scrutinize it with the facts of history and the findings of such sciences as archeology, we’d have a lot more confidence in the claimed promises and theological positions in the Bible than if we just went with what it said in THE BOOK.
Well, I went off to college believing that the Bible was true. Then I had an atheist room-mate who asked a bunch of questions about the so-called inconsistencies in the Bible; and he destroyed my faith. For many years I came to believe that THE BOOK was just a bunch of fables and myths, until I was challenged to really look at it; and the latter actually occurred AFTER I had declared Christ to be my Lord and Savior.
BUT (and here is another one of those big “BUTS”), as an atheist, the more I researched the facts which support the promises and claims of the Bible, like those Bereans did when they heard the teachings of Paul in Acts 17, I came to realize – and believe – that THE BOOK is the truth, … the whole truth, … so help Him, God. Other former atheists, and intellectual giants, men like Josh McDowell, Lee Strobel or C.S. Lewis (if you go to this website, you’ll see a long list like those three), men who have come to conversion to Christianity and full belief in the veracity of the Bible by merely being willing to look at the evidence of scriptural truth. If you go and read their books, Evidence that Demands a Verdict [McDowell], The Case for Faith [Strobel], or Mere Christianity [Lewis], you will see why these men, when they really cross-examined the Bible and those apologists who argued for its veracity, came to a faith changing decision to make Jesus Christ the Lord of their lives; and now they teach and preach what they know to be the truth of the Bible and it’s Gospel message. I challenge anyone of unbelief, who questions the truth of the Bible, to read all three of those books above and then to come back and make the same claims of unbelief.
Oh, how I pray that all who read this have examined the evidence for the truth of Scripture; because if you do, … no matter how deep you go into cross examination of the facts, you’ll come to see, as all those on that list at the website I linked you to above have realized, that the Bible is the real deal; and by believing in its truth, you are believing in the truth of Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world [and that include you and me].
My Prayer for Today: Lord, I have examined the truth; and I believe! Amen
My Journal for Today: “Seeing the light” … and … “finding the truth” requires an open minded and rigorous search through all the evidence to determine if perceived truth is real truth. And Dr. Smith in his devotional entry for today asks the self challenging question, Is my truth really as true as I believe it to be.”
I’m one who believes in the truth which I’ve read, written by Paul in 2nd Tim. 3: 16, 17. I hope you can quote what it says. All Scripture (i.e., the entire Bible) is inspired by God; and is profitable for doctrine, for instruction, for rebuke, and for correction in righteousness; … that the man of God may be complete and thoroughly equipped for every good work. Do you believe that to be true? Have you examined the facts, in a Berean way (see Luke 17: 10-15), to see if examined evidence backs up the claims of this Scriptural position? As today’s Proverb posits, if we take the Bible and we scrutinize it with the facts of history and the findings of such sciences as archeology, we’d have a lot more confidence in the claimed promises and theological positions in the Bible than if we just went with what it said in THE BOOK.
Well, I went off to college believing that the Bible was true. Then I had an atheist room-mate who asked a bunch of questions about the so-called inconsistencies in the Bible; and he destroyed my faith. For many years I came to believe that THE BOOK was just a bunch of fables and myths, until I was challenged to really look at it; and the latter actually occurred AFTER I had declared Christ to be my Lord and Savior.
BUT (and here is another one of those big “BUTS”), as an atheist, the more I researched the facts which support the promises and claims of the Bible, like those Bereans did when they heard the teachings of Paul in Acts 17, I came to realize – and believe – that THE BOOK is the truth, … the whole truth, … so help Him, God. Other former atheists, and intellectual giants, men like Josh McDowell, Lee Strobel or C.S. Lewis (if you go to this website, you’ll see a long list like those three), men who have come to conversion to Christianity and full belief in the veracity of the Bible by merely being willing to look at the evidence of scriptural truth. If you go and read their books, Evidence that Demands a Verdict [McDowell], The Case for Faith [Strobel], or Mere Christianity [Lewis], you will see why these men, when they really cross-examined the Bible and those apologists who argued for its veracity, came to a faith changing decision to make Jesus Christ the Lord of their lives; and now they teach and preach what they know to be the truth of the Bible and it’s Gospel message. I challenge anyone of unbelief, who questions the truth of the Bible, to read all three of those books above and then to come back and make the same claims of unbelief.
Oh, how I pray that all who read this have examined the evidence for the truth of Scripture; because if you do, … no matter how deep you go into cross examination of the facts, you’ll come to see, as all those on that list at the website I linked you to above have realized, that the Bible is the real deal; and by believing in its truth, you are believing in the truth of Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world [and that include you and me].
My Prayer for Today: Lord, I have examined the truth; and I believe! Amen
Friday, May 21, 2010
2010 – May 21 – Bad Timing, or Blind Self?
Study from God’s Word…Many Proverbs listed in The Daily Bible in Chronological Order from Proverbs 10, 11, 12, 13,14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, and 21, ordered by topics by the Editor, including Wise/Foolish Talk, Righteous/Wicked talk, Appropriate Speech, Maintaining Silence, Controlled Speech, Flattery, Slander/Gossip, Hurtful Speech, Quarreling, Lying, and the Power of the Tongue …Passage for Reflection: Proverbs 27: 14 … NIV If a man loudly blesses his neighbor early in the morning, it will be taken as a curse. … Proverbs 25: 11 … A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.
My Journal for Today: Today, Dr. Smith took me (and his readers) through a series of Proverbs dealing with the effect of rightly as opposed to wrongly applied speech. And any time I read or review these Proverbs, two NT passages bubble up into my consciousness and they are the writings of James in James 3: 1 – 12 and Paul’s wise words in Ephesians 4: 29. I have provided links for you to go back and review these passages. You may know them; but if not, I would suggest you review them before going on to read what God is giving me to write in my blog/journal this morning this about the Proverbs F. LaGard Smith had me review today, especially the highlighted verses.
Words are powerful; and when they are directed in a God-led manner or to be expressions of His grace or His love, they can prove incredibly powerful for our God’s glory. However, the opposite side of that coin is true as well. When we do not conform to the exhortation of Paul in Eph. 4: 29; and corrupt communication proceeds from our minds and mouths, great harm can take place. That is the message James put forth in Chapter 3 of the book written by him … that the tongue is such a small, but potent, organ of the body, … capable of poisoning the waters of life, misdirecting the course of our ships of life, and being the match which sets fires to vast numbers of living trees. Three different word pictures; but all reinforced by most of the Proverbs Solomon wrote to give his readers the message that what we say and when we say it being so very important in our lives.
The focus verses today are also very truth serving. We can say one thing at one time or in one context where the same words will have vastly different meanings if spoken at another time or context in someone’s life. And I know you’ve experienced the scenario of speaking words, which, when taken out of context can create a fire-storm which you didn’t intend to set. Don’t you just know not to say exciting things early in the morning to a person who is not a “morning person?” Being a morning person myself and my wife NOT being so, I learned a long time ago, not to bring exciting observations (in my estimation) to her attention until the cobwebs had been cleared and it was later in her morning. And most certainly I’ve experienced the scenario of a person misunderstanding my words because that person took what I said out of context. When we say certain things can be just as important as what we say.
Most certainly the admonition of Paul in Philippians 2: 3-4 is absolutely true [linked for you here]; and we should consider the feelings and positions of others before our own. However, when we are communicating to others, we need to realize that the understanding of what we say may be drastically altered by when we say it and how we communicate those words. I pray today that we all internalize this important lesson.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, give me discernment on how and when to say what I say … speaking only word of Your love and letting my words be expressions of Your grace. Amen
My Journal for Today: Today, Dr. Smith took me (and his readers) through a series of Proverbs dealing with the effect of rightly as opposed to wrongly applied speech. And any time I read or review these Proverbs, two NT passages bubble up into my consciousness and they are the writings of James in James 3: 1 – 12 and Paul’s wise words in Ephesians 4: 29. I have provided links for you to go back and review these passages. You may know them; but if not, I would suggest you review them before going on to read what God is giving me to write in my blog/journal this morning this about the Proverbs F. LaGard Smith had me review today, especially the highlighted verses.
Words are powerful; and when they are directed in a God-led manner or to be expressions of His grace or His love, they can prove incredibly powerful for our God’s glory. However, the opposite side of that coin is true as well. When we do not conform to the exhortation of Paul in Eph. 4: 29; and corrupt communication proceeds from our minds and mouths, great harm can take place. That is the message James put forth in Chapter 3 of the book written by him … that the tongue is such a small, but potent, organ of the body, … capable of poisoning the waters of life, misdirecting the course of our ships of life, and being the match which sets fires to vast numbers of living trees. Three different word pictures; but all reinforced by most of the Proverbs Solomon wrote to give his readers the message that what we say and when we say it being so very important in our lives.
The focus verses today are also very truth serving. We can say one thing at one time or in one context where the same words will have vastly different meanings if spoken at another time or context in someone’s life. And I know you’ve experienced the scenario of speaking words, which, when taken out of context can create a fire-storm which you didn’t intend to set. Don’t you just know not to say exciting things early in the morning to a person who is not a “morning person?” Being a morning person myself and my wife NOT being so, I learned a long time ago, not to bring exciting observations (in my estimation) to her attention until the cobwebs had been cleared and it was later in her morning. And most certainly I’ve experienced the scenario of a person misunderstanding my words because that person took what I said out of context. When we say certain things can be just as important as what we say.
Most certainly the admonition of Paul in Philippians 2: 3-4 is absolutely true [linked for you here]; and we should consider the feelings and positions of others before our own. However, when we are communicating to others, we need to realize that the understanding of what we say may be drastically altered by when we say it and how we communicate those words. I pray today that we all internalize this important lesson.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, give me discernment on how and when to say what I say … speaking only word of Your love and letting my words be expressions of Your grace. Amen
Thursday, May 20, 2010
2010 – May 20 – The Virtue of Patience
Blogger’s Note: For those who expect my devotional journal entry to be posted relatively early in the morning, I am tardy today, having awakened with some sort of malaise and physical malady – undetermined at this time – general achiness, feeling almost febrile with no fever, a lot of sinus drainage and coughing up mucous from lungs. UGH!!! So, please forgive my late entry; and understand that my mind is not quite as focused on being with God today as it might be generally. But nonetheless I feel grateful to be here with my God; and I know He has something for me today as He does everyday. So, I will do my best to seek His mind and convey it here as best I can.
Study from God’s Word…Many Proverbs listed in The Daily Bible in Chronological Order from Proverbs 5, 6, 7, 12, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, and 29, ordered by topics by the Editor, including Self control, Rashness, Temper/Patience, Drunkenness/Gluttony, Adultery, and Prostitution …Passage for Reflection: Proverbs 14: 29 … NIV A patient man has great understanding, but a quick-tempered man displays folly.
My Journal for Today: Have you ever, as an adult, had a temper tantrum or some explosion of temperament where you said or did something really embarrassing or stupid? If you answered “No” to that, you are a rare individual; and I’d like to tap into your sense of self control.
Personally, I explode with my temper every now and then; but it’s interesting to reflect on this because I’m not one who lets it be known to the public. No, I have my temper tantrums only in the presence of my wife, the one whom I declare to love the most on this earth. I’ve even put my fist through a wall once. I’ve broken things in her presence; and always my anger is directed towards my own stupidity or some circumstance which is out of my control; and I’ve never hit or directed my anger at anyone else. For example, I’ll bang on the steering wheel of the car when traffic patterns anger me in my wife’s presence. Interestingly, I never do that when I’m alone or with others in the car – only when Elly is in the car. And another interesting pattern about my degree of emotional self control. I never – and I mean NEVER – get angry when circumstances involve other people. I seem to have great patience with other people but can – and often do - fly off the handle very easily – but once again, in my wife’s presence only. And looking back on these situations, the circumstances are always so trivial.
So, what’s that all about? Maybe you have a pattern of emotional explosiveness that is like mine … or maybe one that is very different. My wife finds it very easy to get mad at other people; but almost never gets angry and loses control in the face of tough external circumstances. Maybe you’re more like Elly than like me. Perhaps you have your own pattern of emotional volcanic eruptions. But then again, maybe you’re the rare one who is very self-controlled and extremely patient in all circumstances.
I do know, though, that I’m more self controlled now as a Christian than I was as a non-Christian years ago; and that degree of emotional self control is also likely tempered by the fact that I’m older, and hopefully wise,r than I was years ago. Certainly we know that our kids and grandkids cannot be expected to have the same degree of patience in handling the world as do their parents or grandparents. So, we would hope that we all grow into more patience. But we can know, as Christians, that God has given all believers His Spirit-imparted fruit of patience (see Gal. 5: 22-23). And that fruit will only mature and become sweeter in the life of a Christian who is in surrender mode to God’s Spirit, letting God impart his enabling grace to help us meet the circumstances of life. That is what we read and get from passages like 1st Cor. 10: 13 and 2nd Cor. 12: 9.
And so, taking all of this into account, I can expect for God to give me the empowering grace of patience I need to handle tough circumstances in life, IF – and that depends on my attitude – I humble myself, seek and receive God’s grace to cover my weakness of impatience. I believe the fruit of patience is growing and maturing in my life. I just need to have the patience to let God shape that fruit into me to the point that He is glorified by that fruit becoming more evident in my demeanor. Yes, that’s a paradox. I become patient by choosing to be patient; and I become more impatient to the degree that I’m impatient. It’s like answering the question: How does one become spontaneous voluntarily? And the answer is … one becomes spontaneous by being more and more intentional.
So, how do we become more patient? ANSWER: We become more patient by choosing to be patient. And so, I now pray for patience … knowing that God loves for me to be patient; and also knowing that He may put me through trials of circumstantial fire to purge the impatience from my soul. BUT … wanting to be more patient, that will be my prayer today.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, help me to be more patient; but be merciful and ever patient with Your impatient child in the process of maturing me in this fruitfulness. Amen
Study from God’s Word…Many Proverbs listed in The Daily Bible in Chronological Order from Proverbs 5, 6, 7, 12, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, and 29, ordered by topics by the Editor, including Self control, Rashness, Temper/Patience, Drunkenness/Gluttony, Adultery, and Prostitution …Passage for Reflection: Proverbs 14: 29 … NIV A patient man has great understanding, but a quick-tempered man displays folly.
My Journal for Today: Have you ever, as an adult, had a temper tantrum or some explosion of temperament where you said or did something really embarrassing or stupid? If you answered “No” to that, you are a rare individual; and I’d like to tap into your sense of self control.
Personally, I explode with my temper every now and then; but it’s interesting to reflect on this because I’m not one who lets it be known to the public. No, I have my temper tantrums only in the presence of my wife, the one whom I declare to love the most on this earth. I’ve even put my fist through a wall once. I’ve broken things in her presence; and always my anger is directed towards my own stupidity or some circumstance which is out of my control; and I’ve never hit or directed my anger at anyone else. For example, I’ll bang on the steering wheel of the car when traffic patterns anger me in my wife’s presence. Interestingly, I never do that when I’m alone or with others in the car – only when Elly is in the car. And another interesting pattern about my degree of emotional self control. I never – and I mean NEVER – get angry when circumstances involve other people. I seem to have great patience with other people but can – and often do - fly off the handle very easily – but once again, in my wife’s presence only. And looking back on these situations, the circumstances are always so trivial.
So, what’s that all about? Maybe you have a pattern of emotional explosiveness that is like mine … or maybe one that is very different. My wife finds it very easy to get mad at other people; but almost never gets angry and loses control in the face of tough external circumstances. Maybe you’re more like Elly than like me. Perhaps you have your own pattern of emotional volcanic eruptions. But then again, maybe you’re the rare one who is very self-controlled and extremely patient in all circumstances.
I do know, though, that I’m more self controlled now as a Christian than I was as a non-Christian years ago; and that degree of emotional self control is also likely tempered by the fact that I’m older, and hopefully wise,r than I was years ago. Certainly we know that our kids and grandkids cannot be expected to have the same degree of patience in handling the world as do their parents or grandparents. So, we would hope that we all grow into more patience. But we can know, as Christians, that God has given all believers His Spirit-imparted fruit of patience (see Gal. 5: 22-23). And that fruit will only mature and become sweeter in the life of a Christian who is in surrender mode to God’s Spirit, letting God impart his enabling grace to help us meet the circumstances of life. That is what we read and get from passages like 1st Cor. 10: 13 and 2nd Cor. 12: 9.
And so, taking all of this into account, I can expect for God to give me the empowering grace of patience I need to handle tough circumstances in life, IF – and that depends on my attitude – I humble myself, seek and receive God’s grace to cover my weakness of impatience. I believe the fruit of patience is growing and maturing in my life. I just need to have the patience to let God shape that fruit into me to the point that He is glorified by that fruit becoming more evident in my demeanor. Yes, that’s a paradox. I become patient by choosing to be patient; and I become more impatient to the degree that I’m impatient. It’s like answering the question: How does one become spontaneous voluntarily? And the answer is … one becomes spontaneous by being more and more intentional.
So, how do we become more patient? ANSWER: We become more patient by choosing to be patient. And so, I now pray for patience … knowing that God loves for me to be patient; and also knowing that He may put me through trials of circumstantial fire to purge the impatience from my soul. BUT … wanting to be more patient, that will be my prayer today.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, help me to be more patient; but be merciful and ever patient with Your impatient child in the process of maturing me in this fruitfulness. Amen
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
2010 – May 19 – Of Hidden Motives
Study from God’s Word… Many Proverbs listed in The Daily Bible in Chronological Order from Proverbs 6, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 and 29, ordered by topics by the Editor, including Self motivation, False Worship, Duplicity, Love and Concern, Faithfulness, Hatred and Compassion, Kindness and Mercy, Welcome, Pride and Humility, Selfishness, Jealousy, Envy and Greed … Passage for Reflection: Proverbs 16: 2 … NIV All a man's ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the LORD.
My Journal for Today: If you read and meditate on today’s highlight verse, letting it be a self analysis of our own motives for doing what we do, one could become convicted pretty quickly. I sure am!
For example, why are you here, reading along with Bill Berry in this devotional? Is it to grow in Christ or so that you can check off – honestly – on Facebook that you liked what I had to say? Or another one; … why did you put your tithe in the offering plate last Sunday? Is it because you gladly want to give the first fruits of God’s providence back to the Lord for Him to use it for His glory; or is it because you wanted that person sitting next to you in church to see you putting the envelope in the plate? … I know, I’m meddling; but let me ask you one more. … You exercised five days last week [okay, I’m being optimistic], doing aerobic and toning exercises. Did you do it to maintain God’s temple, the body, as we’re charged in 1st Cor. 6: 19-20; or did you do it so that you can look good in a mirror and be able to wear a bathing suit with pride this summer?
Yes, motive is important, isn’t it? It’s certainly important in a murder trial; but it’s even more important when it comes why we do what we do daily – for God’s glory or for selfish pride. As Dr. Smith points out with such brutal honesty today, ”… in God’s eyes it’s not just WHAT we do that counts, but WHY!” And he goes on, prodding me to ask myself (or you, yourself), ”When was the last time I double-checked my motives for doing even the good things I do?”
OUCH!!! Well, Dr. Smith, … that one hurt!! I guess I need to ask myself, why I’m sitting here writing this today. Am I doing it to get to know my God more deeply and intimately and to share what I learn with others? Or am I doing it so that I can imagine you saying, “Look how disciplined that Bill Berry is!” I’d like to think that my motive is the former; but sometimes, I have to admit, especially when someone makes an affirming comment about my discipline, I revel in gleeful pride that my brother/sister in Christ has noticed and is affirming my work.
Like it says in 2nd Cor. 13: 5 [linked] we all need to examine ourselves in the faith periodically to determine our motives and to get ourselves back into surrender mode to the Holy Spirit’s work of reshaping our attitudes and actions into those which mirror our Savior, Jesus. And to that end I pray today. >>>
My Prayer for Today: Lord, keep me open to Your enlightening and enabling grace, convicting me and directing my motives to glorify You in all I think, say, and do. Amen
My Journal for Today: If you read and meditate on today’s highlight verse, letting it be a self analysis of our own motives for doing what we do, one could become convicted pretty quickly. I sure am!
For example, why are you here, reading along with Bill Berry in this devotional? Is it to grow in Christ or so that you can check off – honestly – on Facebook that you liked what I had to say? Or another one; … why did you put your tithe in the offering plate last Sunday? Is it because you gladly want to give the first fruits of God’s providence back to the Lord for Him to use it for His glory; or is it because you wanted that person sitting next to you in church to see you putting the envelope in the plate? … I know, I’m meddling; but let me ask you one more. … You exercised five days last week [okay, I’m being optimistic], doing aerobic and toning exercises. Did you do it to maintain God’s temple, the body, as we’re charged in 1st Cor. 6: 19-20; or did you do it so that you can look good in a mirror and be able to wear a bathing suit with pride this summer?
Yes, motive is important, isn’t it? It’s certainly important in a murder trial; but it’s even more important when it comes why we do what we do daily – for God’s glory or for selfish pride. As Dr. Smith points out with such brutal honesty today, ”… in God’s eyes it’s not just WHAT we do that counts, but WHY!” And he goes on, prodding me to ask myself (or you, yourself), ”When was the last time I double-checked my motives for doing even the good things I do?”
OUCH!!! Well, Dr. Smith, … that one hurt!! I guess I need to ask myself, why I’m sitting here writing this today. Am I doing it to get to know my God more deeply and intimately and to share what I learn with others? Or am I doing it so that I can imagine you saying, “Look how disciplined that Bill Berry is!” I’d like to think that my motive is the former; but sometimes, I have to admit, especially when someone makes an affirming comment about my discipline, I revel in gleeful pride that my brother/sister in Christ has noticed and is affirming my work.
Like it says in 2nd Cor. 13: 5 [linked] we all need to examine ourselves in the faith periodically to determine our motives and to get ourselves back into surrender mode to the Holy Spirit’s work of reshaping our attitudes and actions into those which mirror our Savior, Jesus. And to that end I pray today. >>>
My Prayer for Today: Lord, keep me open to Your enlightening and enabling grace, convicting me and directing my motives to glorify You in all I think, say, and do. Amen
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
2010 – May 18 - Disciplining for Eternity
Study from God’s Word… Many Proverbs listed in The Daily Bible in Chronological Order from Proverbs 3, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 19, 20, 23, 25, 27, 28, 29, ordered by topics including Advice/Rebuke, Advisers, Discipline, Lawkeeping, Repentance, as well as Good and Evil … Passage for Reflection: Prov. 23: 13-14… NIV Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with the rod, he will not die. Punish him with the rod and save his soul from death.
My Journal for Today: What do we do with this truth? It is proverbial truth, isn’t it? But the “spare the rod and spoil the child” principle has wavered in our culture with application, hasn’t it?
Personally, with regard to our own parenting, we used “the rod” sparingly, … but effectively; and it seemed to help our two girls, who could be a bit difficult at times in their formative years of development. And they have turned out to be very “good” girls with great parenting skills, both of whom, BTW, use disciplining with their “wooden spoons,” which we’ve observed being used selectively and effectively to raise our grandkids.
But I want to take this discussion a bit beyond the application of family parenting this morning and discuss something raised by Dr. Smith; and that is how Churches, or the family of God, use discipline to help raise up the children of God in the family of God for Christlike discipleship and the glory of God. As an Elder in a rather large church, I don’t think churches today take this proverbial principle of solid discipline seriously enough to let God, the Holy Spirit, use the church to help disciples grow in their faith and avoid death-producing sin in their lives. And I really don’t have enough space/time to discuss this very complex, but pertinent, topic here today.
Save it to say, churches today have gotten away from what Jesus taught in Matthew 18, as well as some of Paul’s teachings, to help the church to discipline its members; and by being slack in this area of discipleship, I believe we do not allow God’s Spirit to work as effectively and powerfully as He could to help God’s flock to grow into the abiding and fruitful relationship with Christ which I believe God desires for all of His children.
I hope you meditate on this passage today, maybe considering how you have parented your children; but also from the standpoint of how your church disciplines its members. When is the last time you knew of a brother or sister in Christ being disciplined by your church as is prescribed and taught in the New Testament Scripture? Perhaps if families disciplined their kids more strictly and lovingly and churches lovingly and strongly disciplined their members, we would not have many of the social evils we see growing in our culture and churches today.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, help Your body, the Church, to execute loving and rightful discipline as You have spelled it out in Your word. Amen
My Journal for Today: What do we do with this truth? It is proverbial truth, isn’t it? But the “spare the rod and spoil the child” principle has wavered in our culture with application, hasn’t it?
Personally, with regard to our own parenting, we used “the rod” sparingly, … but effectively; and it seemed to help our two girls, who could be a bit difficult at times in their formative years of development. And they have turned out to be very “good” girls with great parenting skills, both of whom, BTW, use disciplining with their “wooden spoons,” which we’ve observed being used selectively and effectively to raise our grandkids.
But I want to take this discussion a bit beyond the application of family parenting this morning and discuss something raised by Dr. Smith; and that is how Churches, or the family of God, use discipline to help raise up the children of God in the family of God for Christlike discipleship and the glory of God. As an Elder in a rather large church, I don’t think churches today take this proverbial principle of solid discipline seriously enough to let God, the Holy Spirit, use the church to help disciples grow in their faith and avoid death-producing sin in their lives. And I really don’t have enough space/time to discuss this very complex, but pertinent, topic here today.
Save it to say, churches today have gotten away from what Jesus taught in Matthew 18, as well as some of Paul’s teachings, to help the church to discipline its members; and by being slack in this area of discipleship, I believe we do not allow God’s Spirit to work as effectively and powerfully as He could to help God’s flock to grow into the abiding and fruitful relationship with Christ which I believe God desires for all of His children.
I hope you meditate on this passage today, maybe considering how you have parented your children; but also from the standpoint of how your church disciplines its members. When is the last time you knew of a brother or sister in Christ being disciplined by your church as is prescribed and taught in the New Testament Scripture? Perhaps if families disciplined their kids more strictly and lovingly and churches lovingly and strongly disciplined their members, we would not have many of the social evils we see growing in our culture and churches today.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, help Your body, the Church, to execute loving and rightful discipline as You have spelled it out in Your word. Amen
Monday, May 17, 2010
2010 – May 17 – Wising Up, … the Hard Way
Study from God’s Word… Prov. 22: 17 – 21; Prov. 1: 1 – 7; Prov. 25: 1; Prov. 9: 10 – 12; Prov. 10: 27; Prov. 14: 2, 26-27; Prov. 15: 33; Prov. 29: 23; Prov. 28: 14; Prov. 3: 5 – 8; Prov. 14: 12 [16: 25]; Prov. 16: 3, 20; Prov. 18: 2, 4, 10; Prov. 19: 3; Prov. 20: 24; Prov. 21: 22; Prov. 26: 12; Prov. 28: 26; Prov. 29: 25; Prov. 15: 3; Prov. 16: 1, 4, 9, 33; Prov. 19: 21; Prov. 21: 30-31; Prov. 22: 12; Prov. 27: 1; Prov 13: 14; Prov. 15: 24; Prov. 16: 22: Prov. 17: 13; Prov. 24: 7, 13-14; Prov. 26: 4 – 11; Prov. 27: 22; Prov. 29: 9; Prov. 10: 13, 23; Prov. 13: 15; Prov. 14: 6, 8, 15, 33; Prov. 15: 21; Prov. 16: 16; Prov. 17: 24; Prov. 20: 5, 12; Prov. 10: 14; Prov. 13: 16; Prov. 14: 18; Prov. 15: 14; Prov. 18: 15; Prov. 19: 2; Prov. 20: 15; Prov. 21: 11; Prov. 23: 12; Prov. 24: 14 … Passage for Reflection: Proverbs 1: 7… NIV 7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.
My Journal for Today: The proverbs, which I read this morning and documented by number above, were pre-organized by Dr. Smith for the disciple’s study into various topics related to wisdom, … topics such as … The Purpose of the Proverbs, Fear of the Lord, Trust in God, Divine Providence, Wisdom Versus Folly, Dealing with Fools, Discernment and Understanding, and Knowledge. It would have taken me a long, long time to organize these proverbs into study topics like this; so I’m deeply indebted to the work F. LaGard Smith has done in his Daily Bible in Chronological Order so that seekers such as I can read through God’s Proverbs in topical order like this. It makes it so much easier to glean truth and personal application through such a study; and today’s highlight verse zeroes in on one truth which cannot – and must not – be ignored by disciples of Christ; and that is the connection between fear (i.e., “fear of the Lord”) and discipline.
Ugh! “Discipline!!!” That concept just seems to resonate with negative emotions, doesn’t it? We think of being afraid of our parents when we were naughty because of the “discipline” which might (and often did) result. Or we think of all that dedication and “discipline” an Olympic athlete, like a Michael Phelps, had to have to become a Gold Medal winner, … let alone one who wins eight of those suckers.
Yes, “discipline” seems such a hard thing to take; and the concept of “fear,” also found in today’s highlight passage, is another concept which resonates with negative. Yet, like “discipline,” the idea of fear can have enormously positive implications. It is fear of harm which keeps us from doing impulsive and foolish things, isn’t it (or shouldn’t it be)? And it is “fear” and “discipline” which, when applied to one’s life, leads one to excellence, as it did for Phelps swimming for all those gold medals.
So, the question becomes, “How do I apply the FEAR OF THE LORD to my life in a way that I will apply the DISCIPLINE I need to obey Him, serve Him, and glorify Him?” And that’s a matter of faith and belief, isn’t it? If we believe God’s word, which implies the discipline of knowing God’s truth from His word, we will do what God says; and that requires the discipline to read, learn, and apply the precepts found in the Bible to our lives. My challenge has always been CHOOSING to believe that the outcomes are worth the effort it takes to reverence my God – through His truth – enough to dig it out, interpret it for my life, and then to apply it to what I choose to do. And in that process I will become a worthy and effective DISCIPLE (the core of “discipline”) for Christ … OR NOT!!!
I can only pray that I believe and choose to live as a Proverbs 1: 7 disciple of Christ, making Him the Lord all I think, say, and do.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, You know my heart; and I do fear You because I know how much You have loved me by dying for me. And oh, how my reverence leads me to know You more today than yesterday … and even more tomorrow than today. Amen
My Journal for Today: The proverbs, which I read this morning and documented by number above, were pre-organized by Dr. Smith for the disciple’s study into various topics related to wisdom, … topics such as … The Purpose of the Proverbs, Fear of the Lord, Trust in God, Divine Providence, Wisdom Versus Folly, Dealing with Fools, Discernment and Understanding, and Knowledge. It would have taken me a long, long time to organize these proverbs into study topics like this; so I’m deeply indebted to the work F. LaGard Smith has done in his Daily Bible in Chronological Order so that seekers such as I can read through God’s Proverbs in topical order like this. It makes it so much easier to glean truth and personal application through such a study; and today’s highlight verse zeroes in on one truth which cannot – and must not – be ignored by disciples of Christ; and that is the connection between fear (i.e., “fear of the Lord”) and discipline.
Ugh! “Discipline!!!” That concept just seems to resonate with negative emotions, doesn’t it? We think of being afraid of our parents when we were naughty because of the “discipline” which might (and often did) result. Or we think of all that dedication and “discipline” an Olympic athlete, like a Michael Phelps, had to have to become a Gold Medal winner, … let alone one who wins eight of those suckers.
Yes, “discipline” seems such a hard thing to take; and the concept of “fear,” also found in today’s highlight passage, is another concept which resonates with negative. Yet, like “discipline,” the idea of fear can have enormously positive implications. It is fear of harm which keeps us from doing impulsive and foolish things, isn’t it (or shouldn’t it be)? And it is “fear” and “discipline” which, when applied to one’s life, leads one to excellence, as it did for Phelps swimming for all those gold medals.
So, the question becomes, “How do I apply the FEAR OF THE LORD to my life in a way that I will apply the DISCIPLINE I need to obey Him, serve Him, and glorify Him?” And that’s a matter of faith and belief, isn’t it? If we believe God’s word, which implies the discipline of knowing God’s truth from His word, we will do what God says; and that requires the discipline to read, learn, and apply the precepts found in the Bible to our lives. My challenge has always been CHOOSING to believe that the outcomes are worth the effort it takes to reverence my God – through His truth – enough to dig it out, interpret it for my life, and then to apply it to what I choose to do. And in that process I will become a worthy and effective DISCIPLE (the core of “discipline”) for Christ … OR NOT!!!
I can only pray that I believe and choose to live as a Proverbs 1: 7 disciple of Christ, making Him the Lord all I think, say, and do.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, You know my heart; and I do fear You because I know how much You have loved me by dying for me. And oh, how my reverence leads me to know You more today than yesterday … and even more tomorrow than today. Amen
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