Monthly Archives: August 2010

Our First Option? Or Our Last Option?

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Troubles come. That’s part of life. Times of trial come.  That’s part of life.

What will be our response to our troubles. What will be a our response to our trials?

What will we do when we are in these tough times. When those we love are in these tough times?

I was reading about Peter this morning in Acts. It had gotten tough. James had been killed.  Now Peter was locked up, and would probably be killed later.

He was in jail, waiting, when an angel of the Lord came and freed him.

Then this happens:

11Then Peter came to himself and said, ‘Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hands of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.’ 12As soon as he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many had gathered and were praying.

The thing that struck me this morning in this text was not Peter’s imprisonment.  It wasn’t the angel freeing him.  It was the response of his friends and family.  What did they do?

They gathered, and they prayed.

In our life, we sometimes have to respond to unpleasant situations. Things that happen to us. To those we love. To those we care for.

How will we respond?  Will we grow angry?  Bitter?  Resentful?

Or, will we do what they did in the text today?

Will we pray?  Will we turn it over to God? Will we seek His face?

When the tough times come, when the trials come, what will be our response?

Prayer should not be our last option. For many of us, we pray when we’ve done everything else.

Pray shouldn’t be our last options.  It should be our first option.

May we be a praying people.

Make a Difference

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One of my favorite characters in scripture is Barnabas.  He doesn’t get all the attention that Paul gets in Acts, but without him, Paul wouldn’t be Paul. We see their friendship start today in Acts 11:

25Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, 26and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for an entire year they met with the church and taught a great many people, and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called ‘Christians.’

Paul had one of those dramatic conversion experiences. When he got saved, he got saved.  He went from being someone out to get the church; someone trying to destroy the church, to someone that was trying to grow the church.

He went from someone that was trying to stop the working of the Holy Spirit to someone that was a being led by the spirit.

And that’s awesome. Except that people didn’t know what to think. People didn’t know if they could trust him.  Not long before, he had been involved with the murder of Stephen. And now he’s on our side?

And in comes Barnabas.  You know what he did that was so awesome?  He simply loved on Paul.  He was his friend.  He encouraged him.  He walked beside him.  He was there for him.

He made a difference.

By being a friend.

Today, you can make a huge difference.  You don’t have to climb the mountain.  You don’t have to swim the ocean.  You don’t have to perform feats of unusual strength.

You can simply be nice to someone. Encourage someone.  Give a smile.  A hug.  A warm word.

And you may never know the difference that would make.  Today, you can be a Barnabas to someone.

Without Barnabas, there was no Paul. Without Paul, there is no Gentile Church. Without Paul, the Gospel would not have spread across the world.

Barnabas made a huge difference simply be encouraging someone.

Today, so you can you. Today, you can make a difference.

Today, you can change the world by touching someone’s life!

A Cool Drink

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It may have just been the case here in Petal, MS, but it’s been hot this summer.

I mean, really, really hot. The kind of hot that fogs up your glasses between the car and the front door.

The kind of hot that makes you sweat just walking outside to check your mail.

The kind of hot that we are used to most summers in Mississippi.

And on these hot days, there is nothing that is better than a cool drink. Be it water, Gatorade, a coke, whatever. We all want that cool drink when we’ve been out the heat.

It refreshes.  It brings us back to like.

Today in John’s Gospel Jesus talks to all that are thirsty, be it summer or not:

37 On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me,38and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’

I love the image painted in Scripture of Jesus being the one that gives true life.

Life that will not fail.

He is the bread of life.  He is the vine, we are branches.

He is the living water. That will satisfy.

The water that this world offers will not satisfy.  The water of success.  Of power.  Of fame.  Of money.  Of. . . . whatever.  It will not satisfy.

We will remain thirsty.

But, the water of life. The water of life that is Jesus Christ. When we drink from it, we will never thirst again.

To all that are thirsty, He offers life.  Don’t settle for that which does not truly refresh.

He is the living water. May we refresh ourselves in Him today.

Delight

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My kids make me really happy.

My reflection is a little later than I anticipated because they wanted to spend time this morning snuggling. And I’m a sucker for that.  Anytime my kids want to snuggle up to me in the morning, or at night, I just can’t help it.

Now, are their times they drive me crazy.  Of course.  Just like there will be times in the future I drive them crazy. And just like I’m sure I drive Holly crazy all the time 🙂

But, I love them. I delight in them at all times. And outside of my walk with God, they really are my truest joy in all my life.

And every parent understands that.  Every grandparent, Aunt/Uncle, each of us, we know what it means to delight yourself in that child.

Hear the words of the Psalmist this morning, from Psalm 18:

18 He delivered me from my strong enemies
and from those who hated me; *
for they were too mighty for me.
19 They confronted me in the day of my disaster; *
but the LORD was my support.
20 He brought me out into an open place; *
he rescued me because he delighted in me.

He rescued David this morning because He delighted in David.

This morning, God delights in you.  You make Him happy.  He really does love you.  No matter what you’ve done.  No matter what.  Just as a parent delights in their child, so does God delight in you.

You make His eyes light up.  You are precious to Him.  You are His delight.

Today, no matter what.

We had an awesome Sunday this past Sunday at Asbury, and I knew it was going to be a great day when our first song was “Come as You Are” by the band Pocket Full of Rocks.  It starts off this way:

He’s not mad at you
He’s not disappointed
His grace is greater still,
than all of your wrong choices

God delights in you.  He’s not mad at you.  He loves you.

He delights in you.  Live in that knowledge today and each day.  You are His delight.

May He be our delight.

What Consumes Your Soul?

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This morning as I read through some scripture this morning, I was thinking about the things that happen that get me in trouble.

Why do I choose to do wrong sometimes?

Why do I choose sin? Why do I choose the wrong path?  Why do I make bad decisions.

We all do, don’t we?  It’s part of our human condition. As Paul said, “The things I ought to do, I do not do, and the very thing I should not do, is the very thing I do.”

Why?

What can keep up from picking that wrong path?

Then I read part of Psalm 119:

20 My soul is consumed at all times *
with longing for your judgments.

What consumes your soul?  What is it that really consumes you?

What do you think about?  Where does your mind drift?  What is it that occupies your thoughts?  When you are thinking about nothing, what are you thinking about?

Is it God? Does God consume your mind?  Your will?  Your imagination?  Your very life?

Scripture tells us that God is a consuming fire.  He desires to consume all of us. Take of all of us, transform all of us.

Are we letting Him do that today? Are we letting Him consume us today?  Are we giving Him all of us today?

He desires to consume us.  Do we desire to be consumed by Him?  In that, in doing that, in allowing Him to consume us, we will find life.

What consumes you?  Is it God?  What consumes your soul today?

Hard

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Sometimes it’s hard to follow Jesus.

The Christian life is a not a bed or roses. Sometimes life gets really hard. Sometimes the things He asks of us are hard.  Sometimes the trials we go through are hard.

Sometimes there are no easy answers and there seems like there is no easy way.

Sometimes we may be tempted to say, it’s not worth the work, worth the trouble, worth the effort.

Sometimes we can feel like walking away.

And we read what happens today in John 9:

66 At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him. 67 Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “Are you also going to leave?” 68 Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. 69 We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.

Lord, to whom would we go?  That’s the question that Peter asked. Where else is life.

Yes, it’s hard sometimes.Yes, there are trials sometimes.  Yes, there are times when we aren’t sure that want to keep going.

But, where else could we go.

Life is found in Jesus.  He is life.  He is what matters the most.  He is where life and love and peace and joy are found.

We will not find it anywhere else.

If we are looking for life, it is found only in Jesus.

Not in our work, or family, or finances, or successes.  Only in Jesus.

The trials, the troubles, the tests, they are worth it.  For in Jesus, we find life.

Today, even when it is hard, may we remember where life is found.

Is This Not the Man?

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This morning, as I was reading and praying, I was thinking about how hard it is to change.

We all have things in our lives we’d like to change.  We all have things in our lives we’d like to do different.

But, if you’re like me, you find that change is hard. We fall into routines, we do things the way that we’ve always done them, we pick up bad habits that are hard to drop.

And we can think, well, this is just the way that it is.  I won’t be able to change.  It is as it is, and this is just the way that it’s going to be.

I was thinking about change this morning, and I read this passage in Acts 9:

19b For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus, 20 and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” 21 All who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem among those who invoked this name? And has he not come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?”

The people ask of Paul, “Is this not the man that. . . ?”

Paul had changed.  But, if we remember the story of Paul, it wasn’t that he had enough will power to change. It wasn’t that he wanted it badly enough to change.  It wasn’t his desire to be changed that changed him.

It was God.

He had an encounter with God, and God changed him.  He was knocked off his donkey and the Lord changed him.

It was God that did it.  Not Paul.

Perhaps we are frustrated today because we are trying to do it ourselves and finding that we can’t.  Perhaps we finding that we don’t have enough will power. Perhaps we fall back into the old habits and feel guilty.  And feel like we can’t do.

And really, guess what?

We can’t do it.

Alone.  We can’t change ourselves by ourselves.

But God can.

What do you want to change today?  Give it to God. And give it again, and again, and again, and again.  Give it to Him each second, each minute, each hour.

Give it over and over again.

You will take it back.  I do, we all do.  Give it back.

God changed Paul to the point where folks couldn’t believe it was him.

He is still God. And He can still do it.

What do you want to change today?  Give it to Him.  Again and again.  And, He will change us.  For our good and for His glory.

Give it to Him.