Investing Time

There's a difference between knowing God and knowing about God. When you truly know God, you have energy to serve him, boldness to share him, and contentment in him. J.I. Packer

How well do you know God? Have you ever looked at your hardship as a true blessing?  When we decide to get to know God it will take an investment of our time.  We aren’t going to get to know him by just going to church on Sunday and praying every once in a while.

The best investment in our life is not going to be stock in Google or Starbucks.  Our best investment will be time spent with God.  Too often I think we assume that we know Him because we believe.  The part we miss is that we don’t dwell on his promises and spend time in His Word. 

When we decide to be friends with someone we don’t just get together once in a while and visit for an hour.  If I have a true friend in someone, I will get to know the whole person.  What I mean is we get to know their hurts and heartaches.  We spend enough time with them that when we speak with them on the phone or get together with them we are more concerned about what is going on with them than our own circumstances. These are the people we would do anything for or extend a hand when they need us most, even under the worst circumstances.  Have you also figured out that getting to know someone can get messy and cost us?

The question I asked myself this morning was, “Why don’t I do this with God?”?  He has given me the greatest gift on earth, “Salvation”, and yet I often don’t spend much time getting to know Him or understand what hurts Him. The benefit of getting to know Him is I will understand what hurts Him, which will lead to action by me doing something about it.

There is a song on the radio about a man who sees children being abused and sold into slavery and he shakes his fist at God and asks Him why doesn’t He do something about it.  The chorus of the song says, “That’s why I made you”.   If we are ever going to understand God we will first need to invest time with Him. When we figure out that what hurts God should also hurt us, that is the beginning of understanding Who He is. 

   

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, You are a better friend to me than I am to You.  I often don’t look past my own circumstances and troubles to see who You really are.  I need to spend more time with You so that I can understand what concerns You.  What concerns You should concern me.  When I begin to understand that I don’t deserve what You’ve done for me, that is the beginning of my friendship with You.  Help me to become more like You.  The best investment I will ever make is time spent with You.  

Scripture: Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.  Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. James 4:7-10

Five Loaves & Two Fish

The Pharisees minded what God spoke, but not what He intended. They were busy in the outward work of the hand, but incurious of the affections and choice of the heart. So God was served in the letter, they did not much inquire into His purpose; and therefore they were curious to wash their hands, but cared not to purify their hearts. Jeremy Taylor

I love finding wisdom in the Bible.  To me it is like the best treasure hunt ever.  Sometimes it takes a great deal of reading and searching, but when you find a nugget of truth it is like the search was worth all the time involved.

I was reading about Jesus and the feeding of the five thousand.  Remember how the apostles told Jesus to send the people away so that they could find provisions and lodging.  I love Jesus’ response.  “You give them something to eat.”  What was their response?  We only have five loaves and two fish.  The apostles decided that they couldn’t feed the multitude with five loaves of bread and two fish. 

Have you ever thought about how frustrating it would have been to be Jesus trying to teach the apostles in the short time he was here on earth?  These guys had Jesus in their midst and sometimes they just didn’t get it.   There are times when I don’t get it either, so I understand how trying we humans can be at the best of times. 

Jesus told the apostles, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.”  As the apostles stood around talking amongst themselves about how they forgot to bring bread, Jesus interrupts them and tells them He is not talking about bread but the corrupt doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees. 

Leaven consisted of dough that had fermented.  Jesus used the term as an illustration of the growth of the kingdom of heaven in the individual heart and the world.  Leavening of dough has multiple characteristics.  It is an outside source, it operates secretly, it spreads by contact just like a germ and it changes what it comes in contact with and multiplies. 

As the apostle Paul states in 1 Corinthians 5:7-8, Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.    

Prayer for the Day: Jesus, you give examples in the Bible of how we are to live out our days here on earth.  You remind us not to become like the Pharisees and Sadducees filled with malice and wickedness but to be filled with sincerity and truth.  I need Your help to become more like You.  I praise You for giving me examples to follow that I can apply to my daily life.  

     

Scripture:  The Leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees

Now when His disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. Then Jesus said to them, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.”

And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “It is because we have taken no bread.”

But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, “O you of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves because you have brought no bread? Do you not yet understand, or remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up? Nor the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many large baskets you took up? How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread?—but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Matthew 16:5-12

Broken Things

God uses broken things. It takes broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength. It is the broken alabaster box that gives forth perfume. It is Peter, weeping bitterly, who returns to greater power than ever. Vance Havner

When I read this quote I started thinking about how true it is in our daily life. We are a broken people living in a broken world.  When I think of Peter denying Christ three times it breaks my heart.  Peter loved Jesus but he was weak like us.  When push came to shove he denied Him. 

The thing is, we do this every day in our own lives. When we don’t stand up for our Savior we are just like Peter who denied Him over and over again.  One of the hardest things for me is to go against public opinion.  I am a people pleaser by nature and in the past I always wanted people to like me.  The problem is when you stand for Christ there are going to be a lot of people who won’t like what you have to say or appreciate what you believe. 

I read another quote by Vance Havner that put it in perspective for me. “A preacher should have the mind of a scholar, the heart of a child and the hide of a rhinoceros. His biggest problem is how to toughen his hide without hardening his heart.” If we are take a stand for God, we will need all the ammunition we can get and tough hides.  It will mean standing up for unpopular opinions and bucking the system.  People will dislike you, ridicule you and talk about you. 

I like to think of it like a race.  When you think you can’t take another step you do it anyway.  Once you take that step you figure out that you survived it, so you take another and another.  We aren’t sprinting to the finish line.  Our life on earth is one long race and it can be the difference in a race well run or the opposite and that would be a race never run.

       

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I am broken.  What I do know is that if I place my trust in You and continue, You are there to guide and direct my steps even in the midst of my brokenness.  Without You I am nothing and will get nowhere.  When Jesus died on the cross, it gave me the opportunity to run the race of a lifetime.  Keep me focused on You and remind me to give all the glory to You.  

    

Scripture: Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written:

‘I will strike the Shepherd,
And the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’

 But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee.”

 Peter answered and said to Him, “Even if all are made to stumble because of You, I will never be made to stumble.”

Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.”

Peter said to Him, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!”

And so said all the disciples.  Matthew 26:31-35

 

God’s Power

God has defeated Satan through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Through this overwhelming victory, God has also empowered you to overcome any temptation to sin and has provided sufficient resources for you to respond biblically to any problem of life. By relying on God's power and being obedient to His Word, you can be an overcomer in any situation. John C. Broger

Our world runs on the power of electricity.  We use it for everything.  You only miss it when the electricity goes out.  That is when you realize how much we depend on a plug in the wall.  Have you ever stopped to think about everything you use electricity for each morning?

In a typical morning for me, I turn off the alarm that wakes me up each morning then I turn on the lights in the bathroom and kitchen.  I turn on the TV to watch the news while I am getting dressed.  I turn on the light in my closet to decide what to wear.  I walk into the kitchen and turn on the coffee maker.  I unplug my phone from the charger.  I open the refrigerator to get creamer.  I use a blow dryer to dry my hair.  I sometimes turn on the iron to press my clothes.  All of this power is used in the first hour of my day. 

This started me thinking about God’s Power.  How much more could we accomplish if we were plugged into His Power.  The problem is sometimes we don’t have enough faith to fully get plugged in.  Too many times we determine that we are “self” sufficient and are in control.  When we start thinking like that we are basically dimming the lights on God’s Power.  When we begin to think that we are in control we have lost the most powerful tool in our toolbox. 

How do we plug into His Power?  One of the hardest things for me to learn was to let go and let Him.  When my life is spinning out of control I have a tendency to try to grab the reins and take back control.  

When I was young we rode horses and one of the scariest things for me was to have the reins of the horse fall out of my hands.  In a controlled situation a horse is steered by the reins.  If you want the horse to go left or right you use the reins to pull in the direction you want to go.  When you drop the reins the horse gains full control.  You are no longer steering.  If the horse gets spooked then you are in trouble.  When a horse is spooked he will run uncontrollably anywhere and he totally forgets about the rider.  I’ve had them run up against trees and under low branches all while I am sitting on his back. 

When things in my life are out of my control I need to turn to Jesus and pray for His strength.  God also provided the Holy Spirit to help me in these times.  The key to doing amazing things for God’s glory is to let go and let Him lead.   

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I keep falling into Satan’s trap thinking that I am in control. Sometimes I hinder Your work in and through me, because I don’t trust You enough to be my strength.  Help me to let go and let You lead me where You want me to go.  You are all the Power I need.  I praise Your Holy Name.  

Scripture: Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:28-31

As Long as Necessary

Forgiveness is repeating the process as long as necessary.

“Peter came to him and asked, ‘Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?’” (Jewish law said you had to forgive a person three times, so Peter doubled it and threw one in for good measure.) “‘No, not seven times,’ Jesus replied, ‘but seventy times seven!’” (Matthew 18:21-22 NLT)

I was thinking about forgiveness as I read the passage in Matthew 18:21-22.  One of the ways that I always fail is when I know what is right but I don’t do it.  It’s self-defeating isn’t it?  I mean God tells us clearly what we should do, but we decide not to do what is right. 

The correlation between how God forgives us and how we are to forgive others is directly tied to how God will treat us one day when we stand before Him.  Remember the parable of the unforgiving servant who had his master forgive him of a debt but then he turned around and didn’t forgive someone who owed him. 

I think one of the biggest issues we face is that we think our sin is not the same as the next guys. We pull out a measuring stick and start measuring our sin against our brothers and sisters and we decide that our sin is not as bad as the other guys.  The reality is that in God’s eyes all sin is bad.  There are no degrees of sin.  If I start to look at my sin as equal to that of someone else, that is when I see the true blessing in God’s forgiveness of my sin. 

In this parable the words “over and over” again have new meaning.  When we take the sin that is committed against us and turn it into forgiveness we are becoming more like Christ. 

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I don’t always do what is right when it comes to forgiveness. Many times I start measuring my sin against someone else’s and I start to think I am not so bad.  The reality of it is I am just as bad as the next guy in my sin.  Help me to forgive as You tell us to in Matthew 18. I want to be more like Christ in my forgiveness of others.

Scripture: Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?”

Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.  Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made. The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, ‘Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’ Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt.

“But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, ‘Pay me what you owe!’ So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’ And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done. Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’ And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. “So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.” Matthew 18:21-35

All Things Work Together For Good

Anger and bitterness are two noticeable signs of being focused on self and not trusting God's sovereignty in your life. When you believe that God causes all things to work together for good to those who belong to Him and love Him, you can respond to trials with joy instead of anger or bitterness. John C. Broger

One of my favorite verses is Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” I admit that for years I struggled with this verse.  I would ask myself, “How could God mean it for my good when I suffer or go through trials?” 

On Friday I ran by the bank on my way to work to get cash.  It’s 5:45am and I pull up to the ATM and slip my card into the machine.  I’ve come to think of the ATM machine as All Things in a Minute.  The machine goes blank.  There is nothing on the screen and the only thing flashing is the card slot where you insert your ATM card.  So I press the cancel button and nothing happens.  I did that several times just in case I didn’t press it hard enough.  Nothing.  So here I sit with my ATM card stuck in the machine. 

I will confess here that I didn’t automatically think of God at this point.  So I look over and there is a phone number to call in case of emergencies.  I am thinking that this is an emergency so I call the number.  I get the automated machine and there was no option for an ATM machine eating your card.  So I immediately start thinking that if I drive off with my card still in the machine will it all of a sudden decide to spit my card out to the next person who comes along.  Then my mind jumped to identity theft.  So I had to make the hard decision to drive away and leave my card in the machine. 

As I drove off I finally started thinking about God.  Then I thought of Romans 8:28.  If all things work together for good to those who love God, then why am I worrying.  The Bible doesn’t say a few things work together for good, or some things or a couple of things.  What then came to mind was how could this be good for me?  I mean I am not Bill Gates with more money than I could possibly hope to spend in a lifetime.  Any thief who got my card and tried to steal money from me would be sorely disappointed.  I could just see them putting my card in the machine punching in the code and then saying “Are you kidding me?”  

When I calmed down long enough to really think about the situation and pray about it here is what I decided.  I canceled the card when the bank opened. The second thing I thought about was this is a great way to save money.  I don’t carry checks with me anymore since I always use my debit card so if I have no access to my account that is a good thing. 

What is the moral of this story?  If I spent half the time thanking God for the trials that are meant for my good I would be a pretty happy and joyful person. 

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I am sorry I didn’t think of You first.  I went into full out panic mode.  When I finally moved to thinking about You, there was a sort of peace that eventually came over me.  It reminded me that You do mean all things for my good if I love You and if I can always look at it from that perspective, I will spend less time stressing and worrying over things that don’t matter. 

Scripture: And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?  Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written:

“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 8:28-39

Encouragement & Discouragement

What an encouragement to realize that God has reserved you and me for a special task in His great work. In His hands we're not only useful, but priceless.  Joni Eareckson Tada

The Christian life is not a constant high. I have my moments of deep discouragement. I have to go to God in prayer with tears in my eyes, and say, 'O God, forgive me,' or 'Help me.'  Billy Graham

If you look at the words encouragement and discouragement they both contain the word courage. 

One of my favorite stories in the Bible is David and Goliath.  If anyone had reason to be discouraged it was David.  He was the smallest of his brothers. Do you remember what one of his brothers said to him when he asked “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?”

Remember how his oldest brother became angry because David was asking the soldiers what they were going to do about this huge Philistine who was defying the armies of God.  His brother actually told him he knew the pride and insolence of David’s heart and asked him why he left his sheep to come down to the battle. 

I don’t know about you but that would have discouraged me.  But David didn’t stop.  He just turned away from his brother and asked the same question of the next person.  When David continues to question why someone isn’t doing something about this giant someone brings it to the attention of Saul and Saul sends for David to be brought to him.    

In 1 Samuel 17:32 David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.”   Here is where David should have been discouraged again because Saul tells him, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.” 

So look at this from our perspective. His oldest brother has gotten angry with him and basically told him to go back to his sheep.  Saul has told him that he is not mighty enough to fight the Philistine.  Then Goliath adds his two bits and makes fun of David and curses him and his God. 

David had the courage of God in his heart on that day.  He wasn’t going to let anything discourage him from standing up for God.  We need that very courage today in a world that ridicules our God on a daily basis.  God is looking for warriors to fight the battle of a lifetime and the only way we will get the courage we need is to go to God.  If we have Him going before us we can’t lose.

      

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, sometimes I lack courage to face daily obstacles.  The thing I often fail to do is to turn to You for the courage I need.  I pray for the courage of David who knew whose he was and he had a heart for You.  Please give me that same heart.  A heart that will not accept words against You.  If I go to You for courage You will give more than I will need.  Thank you for giving us examples to follow like David.

Scripture: They wander about for food and howl if not satisfied.  But I will sing of your strength, in the morning I will sing of your love; for you are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble. You are my strength, I sing praise to you; you, God, are my fortress, my God on whom I can rely.  Psalm 59:15-17