Monthly Archives: July 2013

A Great Weapon

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You have at your disposal today one of the greatest weapons known to mankind. Today, you have the ability to use a weapon that can cause great harm today, and that can reverberate through many years to come.

This weapon is so powerful, so dangerous, and each of us use it each day without really even thinking about it.

What is this weapon? Listen to the words of James 3: 7-10 this morning.

For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

Taming_our_Tongue_175x175-175x175Our tongue is full of deadly poison. With it, today, we can tear down. We can destroy. We can devastate. We can do such great harm. With our tongue we can harm those we don’t know. And those that we do know.

And here’s the sad part, at least to me. I found in my own life, the folks that I sometimes speak the harshest too are the folks that I love the most.

James tell us today, out of the same mouth we bless our God and we tear down our brothers and sisters. This should not be so.

We have to use our tongue, our word, to build up today. To be a blessing not a curse. To be a help, not a hinderance. To be a way to encourage, not to destroy.

You have at your disposal today something that can do great harm. Or bring great life. Your tongue. Your words.

How will you use it today?

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones

Rest

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Mark is my favorite of all the Gospels. Each one of them has a different thing that they emphasize. Matthew make connections with the Old Testament. Luke looks at Jesus love and connection with the entire world. John answers the deep questions of faith.

But Mark is simple. Mark is shorter. Mark is fast. And in Mark, Jesus is always going. As someone that’s a little (or a lot) ADD, I really like the emphasis on action in Mark’s Gospel. Jesus and the disciples are always going, always acting, always on the move.

Except for the passage we read today. Listen to Mark 6: 30-32:

The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.

Rest_Stop_Brown_Bear-insert-in-postThe disciples had just come back from doing ministry and they were excited. The way the text describes it, I can almost see them gathered around Jesus like little children talking fast and telling Him everything that had happened.

And He said, let’s rest for a while. They had gotten so busy, they hadn’t even had time to eat.

Let’s rest.

We are supposed to go. We are supposed to be active. We are supposed to do and take the Good News everywhere. We have kingdom work to do today! We are supposed to be on the move. Time and daylight is wasting.

But, sometimes, we get ourselves worn out. We can do too much. We can get too busy. We can get off track and sideways.

And we need to rest.

Listen to me friends, you don’t have to do everything. The fate of the free world doesn’t rest of your shoulders. I know it feels that way sometimes, anyone that knows me a little can tell you that I often feel that way. So I’m preaching to me as much as I am to you.

Rest. Rest in Jesus. Breathe. Calm down. Slow down. Rest.

He has a lot for us to do for the kingdom. He has a lot that we need accomplish for His work. But have to take care of ourselves.

Today, perhaps, today you need to rest. Rest in Him. Rest in His purpose and plan for your life.

Rest.

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones

Live Unafraid

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Greetings from Shiloh Camp Meeting.  My first night of preaching went great last night, I’ll be preaching today at 11 a.m. and again at 7 p.m. today, and each day through this coming Sunday.  If you’re around the Jackson area, come join us!

unafraidIn life, fear creeps up, doesn’t it? Fear of the unknown. Fear of the known. Fear of the past. Fear of the future. Fear of the present sometimes.

Fear of others. Fear of so many things.

It’s so easy for us as people to be afraid. To give into fear. To give into worry. To give into the things that terrify us.

It’s so easy. And we do it so often.

That’s why one of the main commands of scripture that we see over and over again is this – do no fear. Do not be afraid. To not give into that killer of fear.

Listen to this command in Psalm 56: 10-12:

In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me? I must perform my vows to you, O God; I will render thank offerings to you.

I love that encouragement. I just in God. What can man do to me? Seriously? What can man do to me, or to you?

God has us. God has our back. God is on our side. God goes before us. He is our light, our shield, our fortress.

Why should we worry? Why should we fear?

Who should we fear?

No one. Live today unafraid. For you have no one to fear. God is for you. Who can be against you.

Live with that courage and that confidence today!

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones

Grumpy

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Holly always tells me that when I get busy, I get grumpy. And she’s pretty right. And unfortunately  my natural condition is stay busy. Which means, in time, I’ll get grumpy.

I’ve been grumpy recently.  When I get like this, I only see the things that are wrong. The things I’m doing right, the things that Asbury isn’t doing right, the ways that we are missing the mark. Things that other pastors are doing. Things that other church are doing. Things that I’m not doing, that we are not doing. And I think man!  I’m terrible at this!

Did you know that a pastor could feel that way?  Maybe I’m the only one, but I do sometimes. I compare.  I fret.  I worry.  Especially when I’m in the grumpy mood.

When I’m in that mood, you could show me 100 things right, I’ll see the 1 wrong. I am thankful that this is not my natural condition. But, when I get too busy, I get tired, and when I get tired, I get grumpy.

So, today, I’ve just been discontented.  We’ve been away for a couple of days as a family, and a chance for me to catch my breath before starting Camp Meeting this Sunday. And I’ve just been thinking and praying and worrying and fretting. Tonight, though as I sat here, a thought hit me.  Now, I know this thought is from God, because it’s smarter than anything I’d think of.

Andy – you worry. You fret.  You get aggravated   You get annoyed.  You look at other churches, other pastors, other people and other things and see how you dont’ measure up.

You don’t pray.  Not like you need to.  Not as you ought. Not as I need you to.

You don’t pray.

And so, that’s where I am.  I need to pray.  I need to stop being grumpy, stop fretting, and start praying.

Maybe you’re in the same place.  Maybe instead of comparing yourself or worrying about everything you need to pray.  I know that I need to.

So, let’s pray.  Let’s give it to God. And let’s be faithful, in that, and in all things.

Seek Peace

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the-peace-of-the-lodToday, seek peace. It could be very easy to seek trouble. To respond in anger. To respond in hurt. To respond in pain. To give back for what we’ve been given. To strike first. To lash out.

Don’t do it.

That doesn’t make things better. That doesn’t help. That doesn’t bring life or joy or peace. It only brings hurt. Listen to the words of Psalm 34: 11-14 today:

Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.

Keep your tongue from evil. Turn away from evil. Do good. Seek peace.

Today, when you are tempted to respond from a place of hurt or pain or anger.

Don’t.

Today, when you want to give back to them for what they’ve given to you.

Don’t.

Today, when you want to strike back or lash out.

Don’t.

Seek peace. Do the right thing. Even it’s hard or it hurt or it is not easy. Seeking peace is the right thing. It will bring life. Even when it’s hard. Striking back is easy. But it will bring pain. Seeking peace is hard, but it will bring life.

Today, do the right thing. Seek peace.

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones

Daily

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Sorry these posts have been so irregular recently. Summer has been helter skelter for me.  I will post tomorrow and then I will attempt to post next week as well. I’ll be preaching Camp Meeting at Shiloh in Rankin County starting Sunday and will be preaching through the next Sunday. If I have internet access I will up date each day.  If not, I may not be back into the routine until the first Monday in August. We’ll see!

Romans 12:1-2 is one of my favorite passages of scripture. It’s one of those neat passages that has so much to see and look at when you first see it, but the deeper you look, the more that you can see.

Listen to what it says:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

We could spend a lot of time talking about not conforming to the world and how our lives, our thoughts, our dreams, who we are, they should be different from the world all around us.

We are called to be holy. To be holy is not be perfect, it’s to be different. We start being different by having our mind in the right place – on Jesus.

abo2But, look above it. There’s that great verse about being a living sacrifice. And I love that image of us, as a living sacrifice, laying our entire lives down upon the altar of God. I love that image, I love that though, I love thinking about.

Our entire life, it is a sacrificial offering to God. Everything we do. Every moment of our lives, everything. It’s a sacrifice to God!

And that’s awesome. Except for this one thing. A living sacrifice can get up off the altar and walk away. So, today, we lay our burdens down upon the altar. We lay our worries down upon the altar. We lay our fears down upon the altar. We lay our sins down upon the altar.

And, because we are living, we walk away. We pick them back up, and we walk away. Because we can.

It’s not a one time laying these things down – fear, worry, sin, etc – it’s a daily laying them down. Every day. Because as a living sacrifice, we can crawl off the altar, and take our stuff with us.

So, today, lay it before Jesus. And tomorrow. And the day after. And the day after. And the day after. Lay it there. Give it to Him. Daily.

Every day. Lay it down.

And in doing that, we will that peace, hope, and life that we are seeking. May we do it, daily.

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones

Didn’t See that Coming

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I really love when the Bible catches us off guard. When we read something or see something or something within the text gets us in a way that we do not expect.

When we see something unfold in the text the we didn’t see coming.

Like what we read today in Mark 3:1-5. Listen to this text and see if the same thing that hit me hits you:

Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.

Man-with-withered-handWe see Jesus come into synagogue, a place of Jewish teaching. And we see people plotting against Jesus, because it was in the man-made law (not the Old Testament law) that people were restricted from work on the Sabbath. Why? Because one of the Commandment is to honor the Sabbath and keep it holy. It should be a time of rest. But, the religious leaders had moved this to a commandment that had far exceeded its actual religious purpose and had moved it to just straight legalism and control.

So, Jesus is there, and he says, is it against the law to help someone?  And they are silent. And there it is.

“He looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart.” Jesus got angry! Didn’t see that one coming! He got angry.

We have this milk toast image of Jesus as just laid back, smiling, walking around, always happy, not very passionate, just kind of there. Today, it says when He was confronted by folks that would rather observe a man-made law than would help someone, He got angry.

Because they valued man-made laws and regulations over the true law of God. What is that true law? To love God and love neighbor. Jesus valued people over everything. That’s why He came. And that’s what He longs to teach us.

To value people over everything.

And they didn’t. The valued their rules over people. And it grieved Him. And it made Him angry.

Today, as the people of God, seeing others hurt should make us angry. Seeing children with no food to eat should make us angry. Seeing women and children abused should make angry. Seeing sin run rampant in the world should make us angry.

But, we can’t just get angry. We must do something about it. Jesus just didn’t get angry. He healed the man.

Today, these things that make you angry, these things of injustice and hurt. What are you going to do about them?

How are we going to act to help someone today? For in doing that, we are really living out the law that God wants us to live. And we are making a difference in for the kingdom.

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones

Oh, You’re a Christian?

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A few weeks back, I read a blog post that’s stuck with me. It was entitled, oh, you’re a Christian? You can read it by clicking here. Basically its the story of two folks talking and one realizing that the other is a Christian, and being surprised by that.

Why were they surprised?

They said, you don’t seem judgmental enough.

That’s stuck with me a lot since I read it. I’ve referenced it in several sermons and teaching moments. It has really bothered me. Why?

How have we, as the followers of the One that is love, is mercy, is grace, how have we gone from being defined that mercy and grace, to being defined as being too judgmental.

Listen to what Jesus does today in Mark 2:15-17:

And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

wanted2The Word says that He ate with sinners and tax collectors. Those that were seen as less than, or not as good, not as holy, not as righteous. He ate with them. He loved them. He came for them.

He came for sinners.

Jesus Christ came for sinners. Of which I am the chief one.

We have got to be more graceful. How do we do that? Be remembering that we too are sinners that Jesus came to eat with. We too are sinners that Jesus came to save. We are not perfect. We are not superior.

We have to remember who we are. Remember how Jesus has loved us. And as saved us.

And love others in that way.

Today, may we seek to be like our savior. May we see to love everyone as He did. And may we seek to point others to His love and grace.

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones

Putting the Cart Before the Horse

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One of the constant battles, struggles, whatever word you want to use, that we face sometimes as Christians is this struggle between faith and works. We are saved by faith, right?

And if we are saved by faith, then our works don’t matter at all. For our works don’t save us, they don’t make God love us, they don’t do any of that.

So, we have no reason to worry about our works or really even focus on our works in any way at all, right? Our works, the stuff we do, they just don’t matter.

Well, that’s not quite right. Listen to how Paul talks about all this today in Galatians 2:15-20:

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

cart-before-the-horsePaul says, yes, we are justified or “saved” by faith, not by works. Our salvation occurs not because of anything that we have done, but totally because of what God has done for us in Christ. As he says in, because by works of the law no one will be justified (saved).

But then, after that Paul reminds us, that we if we have saved, then it is Christ who lives within us. And we die to ourselves, our desires, our flesh, our sin. Our stuff. Our works don’t save us. We are not saved by what we do or not do. We are saved by what Christ has done.

But, it is Christ that now lives within us. And if we lives within us, then it will change our lives. It will change our thoughts. It will change who we are.

We aren’t saved because we “do” stuff. But, because we are saved we “do” stuff. We put the cart before the horse. We want to get clean and then get saved. And we get frustrated because we are never clean enough.

Don’t worry about cleaning yourself. Come to Jesus. And He will clean you. He will wash it all away. He will take care of it.

Don’t put the cart before the horse. Focus on Jesus. And He will take care of your actions. For we are saved by grace through faith.

But that salvation will truly change us.

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones

Before You Go

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Sorry these reflections have been sporadic or nonexistent the last few weeks. Been out pocket with revivals and Asbury’s BaseCamp. Should be back in the saddle now!

One of the things I love about each of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) is that they each have a different emphasis and purpose they are trying to accomplish. I often put it that Matthew, Mark, and Luke are answering the questions of who, what, when, and where of Jesus’ life and ministry. John is answering the question of why.

But within that, each gospel is showing us something about Jesus life, death, and resurrection so that we have a full picture of who Jesus is. In Mark’s gospel, for instance, we are always getting a picture of Jesus on the move, always going, doing, serving, full of action.

That’s why today’s text is so important. Listen to what it says in Mark 1:34-39:

And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.” And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.” And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.

jesus-prayingWe see Jesus going. We see Him healing. We see Him going out to preach. We see Him doing a lot. But, notice what happens in the middle before He goes out to “do.”

We see Him withdraw. And pray. Before He goes about His tasks, His purpose, His calling, He stops. He finds time. And He prays.

When I talk about the prayer life of Jesus, I always remind folks of this. Jesus wasn’t just another man. He was God Himself, in the flesh. God from God, light from light. And, so, Jesus, even though He was God, makes time to pray to His father. To seek His father’s face. To have communion with the Father.

Before He went to go, He stopped to pray.

How much more should we? How much more should we seek our Father’s face? How much more should we stop and pray? How much more should we take this moment. And stop. And pray.

So, before you start this day, before you start these tasks, before you get so busy, stop. Pause.

And pray. For, without the prayer, our going won’t really even matter much. If we accomplish anything today, may that something be prayer.

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones