Monthly Archives: September 2011

Foundations

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One of the things I’ll never forget was when I was preaching in the delta. When I was there, at night, you’d see people outside watering their yards.

Nothing unusual about that.

But you’d see them after they finished watering their yards; they’d take the water and start watering their houses. I thought to myself, ok, this is an odd place.

I asked one of my members what they were doing, and they said that they kept the ground around their houses moist so that the ground wouldn’t settle and destroy their foundations.

So, to keep their foundations of the house strong, they literally watered their house.

Foundations are important. They keep us stable, they keep us safe in storms. They give us something to rely upon in times of trouble.

So, the question for us is this, what is the foundation of our lives. Is it Jesus? Or is it something else.  Listen to what Jesus says in Matthew 7: 24-27

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

In this passage, Jesus warms us that storms are coming. The wise one builds their house upon Him. And when the storm comes, they will be ok.

The foolish builds their house upon something else. And when the storm comes, they are blown away.

Storms will come in our lives. Troubles will come. What is your life built upon? It it’s upon Jesus, it might not be fun, but you’ll be ok.

If not, the storm will cause great harm.

Today, what is your foundation?

Puffed Up?

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It’s important for us to always been learning. It’s important for us to always be growing.

This side of heaven there is always something more that we should know. This side of heaven there is always more for us to learn.

That is very important. Knowledge is very important. Learning and growing is very important.

God gave us a mind for a reason. God wants us to use it.

But, as important as learning is, it is not most important.

Ok, then what is most important? Listen to what Paul tell us today in 1 Corinthians 8: 1-3:

Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.

Knowledge is important. But Love. Love is most important. Knowledge, without love, puffs us.

Today, if we want to make a difference in the lives of others, knowledge is important. We need to know the Bible and know how to talk about it.

But what makes the biggest difference is this – love. Love makes all the difference. In our lives. And in the lives of others.

May we not neglect knowledge. But may we cling to love above all else.

For to love to show the world who God really is.

Questions

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We should live our lives in a way that raise questions.

We should live our lives in a way that people that aren’t Christian wonder, what’s the deal with them? Why do they live the way that they live? Why do they do what they do? Why do they act the way that they act?

Today, in 1 Peter 3:15, we are told that our lives should raise these questions in others:

but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,

The light of Jesus should shine though us in such a way that it makes a difference. The grace of Jesus should just radiate out of us. The power of God should be apparent in our lives for all to see.

We shouldn’t have to go around announcing to people that we are Christians.

Our clothes shouldn’t be the the only thing that proclaims that we are Christian. Our music shouldn’t be the the only thing that proclaims that we are Christian. The symbols on our cars shouldn’t be the the only thing that proclaims that we are Christian.

Our lives must proclaim that we are Christians.

Our lives must produce questions in others.

And, we should always be ready to answer these questions; with hope, with gentleness; with respect.

Today, may our lives raise questions in others. And may give an answer to those questions – Jesus.

A Taste of Eternity

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One of the criticisms people can have of the church and of us as Christians sometimes is that we can be so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good.

We can focus on heaven to exclusion of other things.

Why work for change here upon the earth, when our reward is in heaven?

Why should we worry about the earth at all? Why should we try to change things at all. After all, this world is not our final destination.

Now, there is something to the notion that as Christians, this world is not our final home. This world is not our final security. This world is not our final hope.

Our final hope is in heaven.

Then, what is heaven?

Listen to what Jesus tells us in John 17: 1-3

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent

We see here that knowing God as God, and His son Jesus Christ. That is eternal life. That is heaven.

In heaven, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, we know know God fully, as He fully knows us. We will have that full knowledge of God and of everything.

Well, that journey starts now. Through knowing God here, through our walk with Christ here, we get a foretaste of heaven.

This is enteral life. Know God. So, today, through our knowledge of God, we are getting a taste of eternity.

Today, live in that great, joyous knowledge. Today is a day of eternity. Today, let’s live in that power.

Follow Me – Forgiveness Podcast

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The sermon podcast for Sunday, September 25, 2011 is up on Asbury Church’s website.  This is the last sermon in our series about discipleship and the transformed life entitled “Follow Me.” This deals with following Jesus to Forgiveness, starting with ourselves.  In it we examine the life of Peter. We look at Isaiah 53: 3-6 and John 21:1-19.  Also by clicking on these verses you can see my notes from the sermon as a note in the YouVersion online Bible.   You can listen to it by clicking here, or you can listen to it here on this blog by clicking below. And, as always, you can subscribe to my sermon podcasts through iTunes.

The Stuff of Earth

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It’s tempting sometimes to think that our help comes from the stuff of this world.

Our help, our hope, our salvation – it comes from the economy. Or it comes from our job. Or it comes from our status. Or it comes from, well, whatever.

When the stuff of this world seems to be out of whack or out of character, we can think, well, what hope do we have? What chance to do we have? What prayer do we have.

We can only focus on the stuff of the world, and forget eternity.

Listen to Psalm 146: 3-6 this morning:

Put not your trust in princes,
in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.
When his breath departs, he returns to the earth;
on that very day his plans perish.
Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord his God,
who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
who keeps faith forever;

This Psalm reminds us that our hope is not in the stuff of this world. It’s not even in ourselves. For all of us, even the most awesome among us, are but a breath.

One day we will draw our last breath upon earth and our time here will be done.

This is not eternity. This is not forever.

Our hope is not the passing stuff of this world. It is in the eternal hope of God.

He will not disappoint us. He will not fail us. He will not forsake us. His hope is real and forever and lasting.

And we can truly trust in it today.

Today, where is your hope? Where is your trust? In the stuff of earth? Or the stuff of heaven?

Today, may we realize that our true hope is not in the stuff of earth. May we realize our true hope is in the king of heaven.

You are Beautiful

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Thomas is excited because today is “mismatch” day at school. He is wearing one of his crocs, and one of his flip-flops. I never thought he’d like anything as much as his crocs.

Until he got his flip flops. He thinks they are the coolest thing ever. He has hasn’t told me why, but I think it’s because he thinks it’s cool he gets to see his feet all day long.

It’s like being barefoot, except not.

We don’t often think of feet as cool or neat, or really something worth talking about about.

But Paul listen to what Paul says today in Romans 10: 14-15

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?  And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

Paul says today that when are our feet are obedient and take the gospel to others, they are beautiful. They are beautiful for they are being used for a beautiful purpose.

To tell others about the grace of God.

There is not a part of us, of our story, of our lives, of all that we are, that God can’t use for beauty. There’s not a part of us, that when we submit it to God and use it for His purpose and plan that isn’t beautiful.

Today, you are beautiful. Today, through His grace and for His purpose, you a beautiful.

Today, live in His grace and for His purpose. And through that, know how beautiful you are.

What We Have Going for Us

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A real quick techie note. If you use the YouVersion app on your iPad, or Smartphone or their website, I’m going to start cross posting these devotional thoughts there.  So, you can click on any of the verses referenced in this reflection through YouVersion, and read this devotional.  Feel free to contact me if you any questions about this.

Now, on to today’s reflection. . . . .

Sometimes when we read the Old Testament, we think to ourselves, what’s wrong with these people! I mean, come on!

God divided the sea so that you could pass through and be saved! I mean, you saw that with your own eyes, right?

And He led you with a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night. I mean, really? How could you miss that? I mean, really?

He split rocks in the wilderness! Come on now!

And the people forgot. They sinned against Him. They did not keep their promises to Him. They did not remember their word.

Listen to what it says in Psalm 78:

They forgot his works
and the wonders that he had shown them.
In the sight of their fathers he performed wonders
in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.
He divided the sea and let them pass through it,
and made the waters stand like a heap.
In the daytime he led them with a cloud,
and all the night with a fiery light.
He split rocks in the wilderness
and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.
He made streams come out of the rock
and caused waters to flow down like rivers.
Yet they sinned still more against him,
rebelling against the Most High in the desert.

Two words to us then, in the year 2011. First, let’s not forget. Let’s not forget what He has done for us. Let’s not forget how He has saved. How He has restored. How He has given. How He has been our right hand the the source of our strength and hope and power.

Let’s not forget what He has done for us. Never forget the joy of your salvation.

And it’s easy think upon the Israelite and say, really? I mean, really? Look at what all you had, and yet you forgot. I mean, you saw these amazing miracles, and yet you turned away. How could you?

While we may not see things like a pilar of fire by night, we have something even better. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, God dwells within us.

God calls us. Convicts us. Challenges us. Moves us. Loves us. Cares for us. Dwells within us.

So, while we might now see what they saw, we have something even better. We have the power of Almighty God, living within us.

Let us not forget that. Remember the power, through His Spirit, that you have. Never forget.

May we never forget what we have going for us.

What We Say about Jesus

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Paul can be really confusing to read sometimes. Dr. Harold Bryson, one of my professors at Mississippi College used to always joke that we preachers like to preach on Paul, not Jesus, because Paul was hard to understand. He said Jesus wasn’t hard to understand, He was just hard to follow.

There’s nothing confusing about loving your enemy. It’s just hard to do!

One of the more interesting books to read in the Bible is 1 Corinthians, because when you read it, you see Paul going through so many different emotions with the church in Corinth. He gets angry. He gets frustrated. He loves them. It runs the gamut.

Today he says something amazing in 1 Corinthians 4: 14-15. Listen to what he says:

I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me.

He says; if you want to see what a Christian does, imitate me.

If you want to see how a Christian lives, watch me, and do what I do.

If you want to follow Jesus – follow me.

Wow! Those are big words. Can you imagine going out to the world and saying – he y’all, you want to see a Christian? Watch me.

Wow, that’s a big and bold statement. That’s what Paul tells the church. I have a theory as to why he said it, though.

He said it, because it was reality. It was what was already happening. Whether he said it or not, the church was going to watch him to see what they should do. To see what a Christian should do. To see how a Christian should act. To see whom they should be.

And today, in our lives, the same thing is going to happen to us. There are going to be eyes watching us. Seeing what we do. Seeing how we live. Listening to what we say. Following us.

Seeing if our lives match our words. Seeing if what we say about Jesus matches what we live about Jesus.

Today, folks will be watching us.

Today, what will they see? Today, may what say about Jesus match what we live about Jesus.

Today, folks will be imitators of us. May with our lives, may we set for them an example of what a Christian should be.

Follow Me – Love Podcast

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The sermon podcast for Sunday, September 18, 2011 is up on Asbury Church’s website.  This is the next sermon in our series about discipleship and the transformed life entitled “Follow Me.” This deals with following Jesus to Love and we examine the life of John. We look at Luke 9: 51-56, 1 John 4: 7-11, and Romans 2:4. In these we see how following Jesus changed John.  You can listen to it by clicking here, or you can listen to it here on this blog by clicking below. And, as always, you can subscribe to my sermon podcasts through iTunes.