Feb 3 - Peter's "Aha" Moment

In Acts 10:34-35, Peter began to speak: "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.” Even though Peter in earlier sermons and teachings alluded to God saving all men, it wasn’t until his vision and being summoned to Cornelius’ house that he had his “aha” moment. At this time he then truly realized how wide-reaching this truth was and what it truly meant. Peter had gone from ignorance to faith, but in this moment, he progressed from faith to knowledge. A knowledge he wouldn’t always live in as at a later time, he would be confronted about his error in the double-standard he lived by regarding eating with the Gentiles – but still a knowledge that he now had by revelation and experience. I love those moments when something I've known in my head and maybe even have spoken in word, now becomes real in a new, "aha!" sort of way.

Jan 7, 2010 – Different Strokes for Different Folks – Luke 7

In Luke 7, after Jesus had been talking about the life and purpose of John the Baptist, in verses 33-35, he compared the perspectives of people's view of John and of Himself. He said that some people viewed John the Baptist and his ascetic lifestyle and thought he had a demon. Then he said about Himself that He came eating and drinking and people thought him to be a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. Then comes a key verse in 35 – “But wisdom is proved right by all her children.” In other words, John had a different role and purpose than Jesus. So they behaved differently. In both cases, wisdom was shown to be true in both their lives. We should not think someone is odd because they do ministry or service differently than we do. We should not think someone is a sinner because they do not follow the practices we follow. We should look at their life and see if they are bearing fruit. If God’s purposes are being served, then perhaps this person who is so different from us is also one of wisdom’s children. Learn to appreciate all the variety of wisdom personified in different people. God has good and great purposes for all His followers and we should not expect them to all look the same!

Dec 5 - Ps 119 - Take Delight in the Word

This will be a short entry today - but a challenging one. In Psalms 119:16, the psalmist says “I delight in your decrees.” I know that I should follow the Word of the Lord. I know I should seek and learn His ways so that I may walk rightly. But do I delight in His word and His instruction? Delight means something that gives a high degree of pleasure or enjoyment; joy; rapture. Is this my response to God’s word? Or is my reaction more a sense of duty, a knowing it is good for me like medicine. Lord, my prayer today is that you help me by your Spirit to find delight in your decrees.

Oct 1 - Whose life is it anyway?!

Luke 14 spoke to an issue I've been thinking a lot about lately. What is Christian commitment all about? What does it entail?

Luke 14:26 - "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters — yes, even his own life — he cannot be my disciple. "

I don't think Jesus is saying that we should hate those people who we are in significant relationship with. I think this is more about what you place hope in. Is your hope for happiness and fulfillment in your family or in the conduct of your own life or is it in your relationship with Jesus. Christian commitment starts with recognizing that it isn't about my life, it is about the Lord of my life - Jesus Christ.

Luke 14:33 - "In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple."

Is Jesus literally saying we should give away everything we have to be his disciple. Again I think he is speaking of a heart condition. Are you willing to give up anything you have for the sake of your relationship with Him. As with Abraham when God asked him to sacrifice his son Isaac, what God really wanted to know was that Abraham was willing to give anything in obedience to the Lord. So it is with us, God wants to know that we are not placing anything above Him.

It is easy to read this and think life is going to be hard and unpleasant; that anything we enjoy will be something we have to give up. But my experience has been that God wants to bless us with an abundant life (Jn 10:10). He knows how to give us good gifts (Matt 7:11). He wants us to have a balanced life - that is why he established a Sabbath rest for us each and every week. You will likely find that once you have let go of some things in your heart, that you now will be able to morefully enjoy those very things to the fullest.

Now it is interesting to me that this teaching from Jesus comes right after He describes those who have been invited to a great banquet, but when it came time for the event, many made excuses about why they couldn't come. I have at times in my life simply refused to come to the "banquet" when God was calling me. Someone would approach me with an opportunity to serve and my mind immediately went to all the reasons why I didn't have time or just couldn't do it at the time. Really the only reponse I or anyone should have when called upon is to seek the Lord to see if it is He who is calling. If the "invitation" isn't for me, I can in good faith decline the opportunity. If it is God's will for me, then there is but one response: "Yes."

The bottom line to both these teachings is to understand whose life it is anyway. When we come to follow Jesus, it is no longer our life, it is His. We just have to get over the fear that if we give our life up to Him that it will be all sacrifice all the time. That is not what He has in mind. Yes there will be times of sacrifice, but there will also be times blessing. Matt 16:25 says "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it." To find true life, we have to be willing to lose our life for Jesus. This doesn't just mean be willing to die for Him, but on a daily basis be willing to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him (Luke 9:23).

June 24 - 1 Tim 4:7-8 - In Training...

1 Tim 4:7-8 - train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.

The realization hit me as I read these verses: we can train ourselves, or at least be trained to be godly. Christians often say it is a life long journey and this is true. But we often forget it is a journey of intention and effort. We can't expect to just live 70-80 years and arrive at a more godly state. We must seek it.

This training can take on many forms. The establishment of new habit patterns by repeating the desired behavior or attitudes over and over again until they become part of our nature. The more subtle form of godly training is yielding more and more of ourselves to the Holy Spirit and allow His fruit to grow in us. As Romans 12 says, our we can be transformed by the renewing of our minds - even our minds can be trained to think differently. We were just talking about this in my Life Group, that we do not have to accept that the way we react to situations is something we are stuck with. We can by the power of the Spirit be trained to respond differently.

Imagine, today we get frustrated and angry because of bad traffic. Tomorrow, we can remain calm and realize that getting angry does not change how quickly we will get to our destination. Today we may respond angrily to our child who disobeys for the umpteenth time, tomorrow, we may be able to sit down with our child and explain yet again why that behavior is not acceptable and calmly impose the appropriate consequences.

It can be discouraging when we are disappointed in how we respond to various things in life, but I am encouraged by the prospect of being transformed more and more into His likeness (2 Cor 3:18) through the training in godliness. I think of how a Bonzai artist trains their plants to grow in certain shapes and patterns. The artist uses carefully planned pruning and applied pressure to get rid of what is not wanted and to direct the path of the branches. God uses similar tools to train us in holy living.




The other realization in this passage in Timothy is that training ourselves to be godly is not just something necessary for our eternal destiny in His kingdom, but it pays dividends today. As I described above, the way we experience life can be so different than how we experience it today. We can have more affect and influence on others by the testimony of our changed life. So I encourage you - begin your training program today!

Apr 3 - Ps 49: Oh God How Much You Love Me!

I read Psalms 49 a couple days ago and these select verses lept off the page to me:

Ps 49:7-8 - No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him — the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough —

Ps 49:15 - But God will redeem my life from the grave; he will surely take me to himself.

These verses scarcely need any commentary, but of course I can't resist. ;-} What no man can possibly do, for himself or for another, God assuredly does so. We do not possess what is necessary to pay for the ransoming of even one life that is lost to sin, but God has what is needed to redeem all mankind. And elsewhere in Scripture we see that he was pleased to do so and did this out of His love for us. Nothing we did provoked this loving response to our condition, God did this simply because He loves!

Verse 9 adds the point of this need for ransom - "... that he should live on forever and not see decay." The continuation of the thought in v.7-8 is that we can't pay enough to have life eternal. But v.15 says God will redeem us from the fate of eternal death and bring us to Himself.

All I can say is Praise God for how much you love me, how much you love all of us!

Mar 30 - Judges 2:7-13 Have you seen the Lord's work?

Reading in Judges lately has brought a couple things to light. First, In Judges 2, we read that Israel served the Lord all during Joshua's lifetime and the elders that outlived Joshua. These were all people who had seen first hand the great things that God had done for Israel. The implication is that they remembered these things and reminded Israel and kept them focused on serving Him. But after all those had died, a generation grew up that had not seen these things and they did not "know" the Lord personally. They immediately fell into evil and pursued their own view of what was right or they were easily influenced by other people's religious practices.

This says to me that we need to capture those times in our life when we know God worked in His awesome way, remember them, talk about them, teach our children about what He has done. Then what follows is an expectation and faith that He will continue to work in our lives if we trust Him. Failure to constantly remember God and all He has done places us in danger of falling into evil just as Israel did.

As I read further into Judges, a pattern emerges. Israel falls into evil. An enemy torments Israel. God raises up a judge to lead them. He delivers them from their enemy. Israel enjoys a period of peace. It has always been so easy for me to judge Israel and wonder how they could abandon God so quickly and easily. This is not really the case. When God saved them each time, they had significant periods of peace. Then it was during this time when things were going good that they fell away from God and into evil practices. Aren't we the same way? We often think less about God when things are really going well and we turn to Him more readily when things aren't so good. I am much less judgmental of Israel now and I realize that thanking God every day and staying aware of His hand in my life is important at all times - even more so when things are good.