Proverbs 14:5-6
5 An honest witness does not lie;
a false witness breathes lies.
6 A mocker seeks wisdom and never finds it,
but knowledge comes easily to those with understanding.
This is such a true statement...it has to be from the Word of God.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
"Go with the strength you have..."
11 Then the angel of the Lord came and sat beneath the great tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites.
12 The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!”
13 “Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The Lord brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.”
14 Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!”
15 “But Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!”
16 The Lord said to him, “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.”
When God called Gideon, he wasn't even sure if it was real, and it looked as though he was a little miffed about all the stuff that had gone on in the country. God had already decreed that what was happening had happened because of Israel's specific disobedience, but they didn't really respond to correct that. So, God called this one guy, Gideon, who was just threshing wheat, to do what was necessary.
Gideon had a list of things that disqualified him and made it "impossible" for him to win, but God knew better. He told him in vs. 14 to "go with the strength you have..." I guess that's what all of us need to do. We need to stop complaining about what "we" don't have/get/like/agree with and go with the strength we have when God presents something unavoidable in our path, and the Midianites, if you read the backstory on this, were pretty much that...unavoidable.
Really, life comes down to one thing...are you going to be with the Lord and be obedient, or are you just going to keep coming up with excuses...urrr...."reasons" why you won't submit to what is obviously before you? Gideon figured it out...and he went with the strength he was given.
Lesson from the story: If God puts it in the path of your life, do it. "Go with the strength you have..." and you'll see that God will take care of everything that is beyond what He gives you...just like he did for Gideon...read the story.
P.S. Serving God isn't about what you are doing. Serving God is about Who you are willing to do anything for.
Please pray for us as we attempt to be a church in west Palm Bay for Jesus at Bay West Church.
12 The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!”
13 “Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The Lord brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.”
14 Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!”
15 “But Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!”
16 The Lord said to him, “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.”
Judges 6:11-16
When God called Gideon, he wasn't even sure if it was real, and it looked as though he was a little miffed about all the stuff that had gone on in the country. God had already decreed that what was happening had happened because of Israel's specific disobedience, but they didn't really respond to correct that. So, God called this one guy, Gideon, who was just threshing wheat, to do what was necessary.
Gideon had a list of things that disqualified him and made it "impossible" for him to win, but God knew better. He told him in vs. 14 to "go with the strength you have..." I guess that's what all of us need to do. We need to stop complaining about what "we" don't have/get/like/agree with and go with the strength we have when God presents something unavoidable in our path, and the Midianites, if you read the backstory on this, were pretty much that...unavoidable.
Really, life comes down to one thing...are you going to be with the Lord and be obedient, or are you just going to keep coming up with excuses...urrr...."reasons" why you won't submit to what is obviously before you? Gideon figured it out...and he went with the strength he was given.
Lesson from the story: If God puts it in the path of your life, do it. "Go with the strength you have..." and you'll see that God will take care of everything that is beyond what He gives you...just like he did for Gideon...read the story.
P.S. Serving God isn't about what you are doing. Serving God is about Who you are willing to do anything for.
Please pray for us as we attempt to be a church in west Palm Bay for Jesus at Bay West Church.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Addendum to "Value influence" from today
We talked about the gift of "influence" that gives us in the way of relationships in our lives today at Bay West...and these are not just "saved" people. We all have lost friends and the question always comes up if we should distance ourselves from our lost friends.
A couple of caveats and a stressing of a point I made today:
1) People under the authority of others - Teenagers, especially. Until you are on your own, you are under the wisdom of your parents. Because of the mandate that God has given them, they need to have a say in who you choose for your tight circle of friends. Listen to their wisdom, because God has them in your life.
2) Jesus modeled influence management in several ways, but here's two. 1) He met with the Father regularly and often, and He studied the Word and knew it by heart. As we know in God's Word, this is prime way to keep yourself from trouble. 2) Jesus had a tight network of support through the believers around him...that helps for us to make us able to maintain our relationships out in the world in a healthy, God-honoring way.
A stressed point: the only way that ANY of this works is keeping the relationship with Christ as the trump for EVERYTHING. If you begin to value the approval of others above that, whether they are saved, lost, or Klingon...whatever...the structure crumbles when you look to others for things God is meant to provide or to place them at a higher priority level than Jesus.
Just wanted to stress that stuff. Please pray for us as we continue to try to be church in west Palm Bay at Bay West Church.
A couple of caveats and a stressing of a point I made today:
1) People under the authority of others - Teenagers, especially. Until you are on your own, you are under the wisdom of your parents. Because of the mandate that God has given them, they need to have a say in who you choose for your tight circle of friends. Listen to their wisdom, because God has them in your life.
2) Jesus modeled influence management in several ways, but here's two. 1) He met with the Father regularly and often, and He studied the Word and knew it by heart. As we know in God's Word, this is prime way to keep yourself from trouble. 2) Jesus had a tight network of support through the believers around him...that helps for us to make us able to maintain our relationships out in the world in a healthy, God-honoring way.
A stressed point: the only way that ANY of this works is keeping the relationship with Christ as the trump for EVERYTHING. If you begin to value the approval of others above that, whether they are saved, lost, or Klingon...whatever...the structure crumbles when you look to others for things God is meant to provide or to place them at a higher priority level than Jesus.
Just wanted to stress that stuff. Please pray for us as we continue to try to be church in west Palm Bay at Bay West Church.
Friday, April 16, 2010
On the clock...retirement is not recognized
Just ran across this verse this morning in Quiet time.
Joshua 13:1 When Joshua was an old man, the Lord said to him, “You are growing old, and much land remains to be conquered.
For the folks who want to throw out they're too old...sorry, God doesn't recognize that. If you're breathing, you've got a role to play. The Lord said "you are growing old, you've got a lot left to do" and laid out the list for Joshua...not the retirement plan. And if you think, God was saying "you are growing old, so one day you can't", thinking of his one day Earthly retirement, nope. That's not true...the Scriptures say Joshua was ALREADY an "old man"...God seemed to be saying, "you've got this to do, before you die"...as long as you are here, God has a plan. Retirement is just a man thing. For God, there's only one place to retire to...that's Heaven, the rest of the time, you may change roles, you may do something different, but you are on the clock, man. Act like it.
BTW...if you aren't reading the Word, you're missing something that God had for you that you needed today.
Please continue to pray for Bay West Church, as we continue to try to be a church in west palm bay that honors Christ with all we do. We meet Sundays at 10am ...
Joshua 13:1 When Joshua was an old man, the Lord said to him, “You are growing old, and much land remains to be conquered.
For the folks who want to throw out they're too old...sorry, God doesn't recognize that. If you're breathing, you've got a role to play. The Lord said "you are growing old, you've got a lot left to do" and laid out the list for Joshua...not the retirement plan. And if you think, God was saying "you are growing old, so one day you can't", thinking of his one day Earthly retirement, nope. That's not true...the Scriptures say Joshua was ALREADY an "old man"...God seemed to be saying, "you've got this to do, before you die"...as long as you are here, God has a plan. Retirement is just a man thing. For God, there's only one place to retire to...that's Heaven, the rest of the time, you may change roles, you may do something different, but you are on the clock, man. Act like it.
BTW...if you aren't reading the Word, you're missing something that God had for you that you needed today.
Please continue to pray for Bay West Church, as we continue to try to be a church in west palm bay that honors Christ with all we do. We meet Sundays at 10am ...
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Losing your life...
I was reading in Luke 17 and happened upon an interesting verse.
32 Remember what happened to Lot's wife.
33 People who try to save their lives will lose them, and those who lose their lives will save them.
It's interesting that Jesus references Lot's wife here. If you know the story of Lot, he was the kinsman of Abraham and he travelled from his home with Abe. They chose to pick places to settle when they reached their destination and Lot chose to settle in an easier place...a lush valley. Abraham chose the worse of the two, but God prospered him.
Well, Lot prospered as well...you know the place he lived. It was in the region of Sodom and Gomorrah. A place of wickedness it became and God got a little tired of the nastiness. He decided to destroy the place and all in it. Abraham pleaded for the place, mainly because Lot and his family lived there and God understood. He warned Lot to leave and Lot did. He left the easy life he'd created for himself and took his family with him. The story goes that as they left, Lot's wife chose to look back and she turned into a pillar of salt.
No one really knows what was up with Lot's wife or why she did what she did, but in Luke, the reference to "remember what happened to Lot's wife" gives us some insight into a possible reason. "People who try to save their lives will lose them, and those who lose their lives will save them." It is obvious that some affinity for what she was leaving drew Lot's wife back to look. It may have been a great place for her. She might have been away from the nastiness of the place and may have carved out a nice existence for herself. Doesn't mean she was evil or anything...just means she enjoyed what she had.
I think we all can get into that mode. We have a place of existence in which we are comfortable and it's natural to be drawn to that, to want to stay there. Sometimes, like Lot's wife, God directs us to a new "place"...emotionally, physically, careerwise, maturity-wise etc... Every time that God directs you to a new place, you don't automatically want to go. It might make perfect sense to you to stay, because things seem fine...but there's a danger...the danger of Lot's wife.
When we become a follower of Christ, we begin to recieve our direction from Him and not from our desires. And like Lot's wife, if we chose to hold onto the desires of the old life, we can become a pillar of salt. Salt is used in both the positive and negative in the Scriptures...because we can all be both. We are to be the salt to the Earth, in a positive way for Christ, but salt can also be harsh and distasteful. I don't think Lot's wife turned into the positive kind and neither do we when we kick against the will for God in our lives. We can become bitter and "salty"...insert adjective here...you know what I mean. It can carry over into our existence, because when salt hits the plate in abundance, it seems to get on everything...even things that we never intended it to get on...it can bitter up our whole life for us, even things that are seemingly unrelated.
The problem is that when we think we can clamp onto the thing that God doesn't have for us anymore, it ends up like the bar of soap. We end up losing our grip on it. It's like staying at the party too long after the person (God), who was the reason you enjoyed it so much, has gone.
The only way to save our life is to do the same thing we did when we became a follower of Christ...we lay it down at the feet of Christ and entrust it to Him. It's difficult to do and there's nothing easy about it, but it's the solution...or we can choose the pillar of salt. Lot's wife chose the latter and she lost it all...she never regained the life before, she lost the life she had at present, and she lost the better life that God had prepared for her that was ahead....by looking back.
32 Remember what happened to Lot's wife.
33 People who try to save their lives will lose them, and those who lose their lives will save them.
It's interesting that Jesus references Lot's wife here. If you know the story of Lot, he was the kinsman of Abraham and he travelled from his home with Abe. They chose to pick places to settle when they reached their destination and Lot chose to settle in an easier place...a lush valley. Abraham chose the worse of the two, but God prospered him.
Well, Lot prospered as well...you know the place he lived. It was in the region of Sodom and Gomorrah. A place of wickedness it became and God got a little tired of the nastiness. He decided to destroy the place and all in it. Abraham pleaded for the place, mainly because Lot and his family lived there and God understood. He warned Lot to leave and Lot did. He left the easy life he'd created for himself and took his family with him. The story goes that as they left, Lot's wife chose to look back and she turned into a pillar of salt.
No one really knows what was up with Lot's wife or why she did what she did, but in Luke, the reference to "remember what happened to Lot's wife" gives us some insight into a possible reason. "People who try to save their lives will lose them, and those who lose their lives will save them." It is obvious that some affinity for what she was leaving drew Lot's wife back to look. It may have been a great place for her. She might have been away from the nastiness of the place and may have carved out a nice existence for herself. Doesn't mean she was evil or anything...just means she enjoyed what she had.
I think we all can get into that mode. We have a place of existence in which we are comfortable and it's natural to be drawn to that, to want to stay there. Sometimes, like Lot's wife, God directs us to a new "place"...emotionally, physically, careerwise, maturity-wise etc... Every time that God directs you to a new place, you don't automatically want to go. It might make perfect sense to you to stay, because things seem fine...but there's a danger...the danger of Lot's wife.
When we become a follower of Christ, we begin to recieve our direction from Him and not from our desires. And like Lot's wife, if we chose to hold onto the desires of the old life, we can become a pillar of salt. Salt is used in both the positive and negative in the Scriptures...because we can all be both. We are to be the salt to the Earth, in a positive way for Christ, but salt can also be harsh and distasteful. I don't think Lot's wife turned into the positive kind and neither do we when we kick against the will for God in our lives. We can become bitter and "salty"...insert adjective here...you know what I mean. It can carry over into our existence, because when salt hits the plate in abundance, it seems to get on everything...even things that we never intended it to get on...it can bitter up our whole life for us, even things that are seemingly unrelated.
The problem is that when we think we can clamp onto the thing that God doesn't have for us anymore, it ends up like the bar of soap. We end up losing our grip on it. It's like staying at the party too long after the person (God), who was the reason you enjoyed it so much, has gone.
The only way to save our life is to do the same thing we did when we became a follower of Christ...we lay it down at the feet of Christ and entrust it to Him. It's difficult to do and there's nothing easy about it, but it's the solution...or we can choose the pillar of salt. Lot's wife chose the latter and she lost it all...she never regained the life before, she lost the life she had at present, and she lost the better life that God had prepared for her that was ahead....by looking back.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Just because He hasn't lately, doesn't mean He won't now
I was reading in Deuteronomy this morning and happened upon the "changing of the guard" from Moses, who was "retiring", to Joshua...the new guy. Here's the account...take a minute and read it.
Deuteronomy 31
1 When Moses had finished giving these instructions[a] to all the people of Israel,
2 he said, “I am now 120 years old, and I am no longer able to lead you. The Lord has told me, ‘You will not cross the Jordan River.’
3 But the Lord your God himself will cross over ahead of you. He will destroy the nations living there, and you will take possession of their land. Joshua will lead you across the river, just as the Lord promised.
4 “The Lord will destroy the nations living in the land, just as he destroyed Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites.
5 The Lord will hand over to you the people who live there, and you must deal with them as I have commanded you.
6 So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.”
What was interesting about this is that this changeover comes after 40 years of Israel wandering around in the wilderness. The land that God was going to give to them was the land He'd promised years and years before. He rescued them from Egypt and in "the great Exodus" they travelled toward this land, fighting battles, enduring strange stuff, being provided for in weird ways, on this incredible journey to what God had promised.
When they got to the cusp of what they had been promised, a group of spies were sent into the land and all but 2 came back saying "no way...the people are giants and we are not enough." The people as a whole revolted (a striking note to the inmates ruling the prison) and said we aren't going. God told them they'd wander about for 40 years...basically, in effect, letting the untrusting adults and leaders die off and God would bring the next generation into the Promised Land...they basically forfeited their prize and took on a bunch of grief and hardship for them and their children...kind of like...no, I won't say it. :D
Fast forward in time...So here...after all that, they are about to enter into the land and what does Moses tell them..."The Lord has told me...But the Lord your God himself will cross over ahead of you. He will destroy the nations living there, and you will take possession of their land." So basically, they didn't have to life a weapon...God was taking care of it all. So, after all the mess about them being not big enough to take on the people of the land 40 years earlier...God did it himself and didn't even employ people.
That's a lesson for us, because if God puts a task before you, He may not even need you to do it, just to go along with it, because He might be going to cover it himself...without your "help"...just your participation.
Deuteronomy 31
1 When Moses had finished giving these instructions[a] to all the people of Israel,
2 he said, “I am now 120 years old, and I am no longer able to lead you. The Lord has told me, ‘You will not cross the Jordan River.’
3 But the Lord your God himself will cross over ahead of you. He will destroy the nations living there, and you will take possession of their land. Joshua will lead you across the river, just as the Lord promised.
4 “The Lord will destroy the nations living in the land, just as he destroyed Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites.
5 The Lord will hand over to you the people who live there, and you must deal with them as I have commanded you.
6 So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.”
What was interesting about this is that this changeover comes after 40 years of Israel wandering around in the wilderness. The land that God was going to give to them was the land He'd promised years and years before. He rescued them from Egypt and in "the great Exodus" they travelled toward this land, fighting battles, enduring strange stuff, being provided for in weird ways, on this incredible journey to what God had promised.
When they got to the cusp of what they had been promised, a group of spies were sent into the land and all but 2 came back saying "no way...the people are giants and we are not enough." The people as a whole revolted (a striking note to the inmates ruling the prison) and said we aren't going. God told them they'd wander about for 40 years...basically, in effect, letting the untrusting adults and leaders die off and God would bring the next generation into the Promised Land...they basically forfeited their prize and took on a bunch of grief and hardship for them and their children...kind of like...no, I won't say it. :D
Fast forward in time...So here...after all that, they are about to enter into the land and what does Moses tell them..."The Lord has told me...But the Lord your God himself will cross over ahead of you. He will destroy the nations living there, and you will take possession of their land." So basically, they didn't have to life a weapon...God was taking care of it all. So, after all the mess about them being not big enough to take on the people of the land 40 years earlier...God did it himself and didn't even employ people.
That's a lesson for us, because if God puts a task before you, He may not even need you to do it, just to go along with it, because He might be going to cover it himself...without your "help"...just your participation.
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