Detours

Posted on January 20, 2015 by Andy Stoddard

Ever had life all planned out? Knew what you were going to do? Had a schedule, had an agenda, had it all figured out?

And something happened that blew all of that out the water?

Ever had to take a major detour? Yeah, most of all of us have at some point in our life. That’s part of life. Something that happens all the time. It’s part of our human experience, something that we each go through.

It’s even something that Joseph and Mary went through. There were some very unexpected detours that they had to take in Jesus’ early life. Listen to what happens today in Matthew 2: 13-15:

Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

We see that they were in Bethlehem, but they they had to flee to Egypt to escape Herrod. We don’t really think about this, the chaos this would have caused to Joseph and Mary. Joseph had a job waiting for him back home. They had a life planned out. They were going to be faithful, they were going to follow God, but they knew what life would be about.

And now this. Now they have to run away to Egypt. They were being faithful. They were doing it right. And life still made a detour.

Why? Because God had a plan. He was going to call Jesus back out of Ebphy, just as He called the Israelites out of Egypt. God had an amazing plan for Jesus in this.

What may have looked like a detour to Joseph and Mary was part of God’s divine plan for Jesus.

Today, the detour you face may not be that. It very well may be part of God’s divine plan for you.

You just have to trust. God has a plan. He knows what He is doing. Even if we don’t know what He is doing.

These detours, they aren’t that. They are something greater, something bigger.

Today, trust. God will use your detours in amazing ways. Ways you can’t even imagine.

Today, may we trust in the detours of our life.

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Confidence

Posted on December 10, 2014 by Andy Stoddard

We all know, we all believe that we are broken vessels. We know that we are imperfect. We know that we make mistakes, that we fall, that we fail, that we all mess up.

Seriously, we know that. And it’s good for us to remember that. It’s good for us to know that we can’t do it all by ourselves. We need to learn to depend on God. To trust in His grace. To lean on His mercy.

To know that we are sinners, saved by grace.

But, that’s not all that we are. As weak as we are, we don’t stand by our strength. If we stand by our strength only, we will fall. But we don’t stand by our strength. We stand by God’s strength.

And when we stand by God’s strength, we stand with confidence. Listen to what it says today in 2 Corinthians 3: 4-6:

Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

We have great, great confidence in Jesus. We aren’t sufficient (or able) in ourselves. But we are sufficient; we are able in Him. You can do it today. Through Him, you can do it today.

No matter what it is. No matter what you face. No matter what you are dealing with you. You can do it through Him.

Have confidence. Have that trust. Have that faith. Have that hope. You can do it through Him.

Yes, your sin is great. His strength is great.

Yes, your weakness is much. His strength is more.

Yes, you feel that you can’t do it through yourself. But know. You can do it through Him.

This fact is true. As great as your sin is, the blood of Christ and the power of the empty grave, they are greater.

Today, you can confidence. Not in yourself. But in Him. Through Him, you can do all things.

Today have confidence.

Idolatry?

Posted on December 4, 2014 by Andy Stoddard

One of the constant Biblical commands is that we should not worship idols. That’s something that we hear over and again in scripture. Don’t worship idols. Don’t bow down to them. Worship God only. Don’t worship or serve idols.

And problem, we think, man, that’s the easiest of the 10 Commandments to follow. I’ve never worshiped a false God. We don’t have a family idol. There aren’t any idols in ours home.

Sweet. I’m good.

But here’s the thing about that. Idolatry is not what we make it. It’s not about just worshiping an “idol” but, it’s about placing our hope, our security, our lives around something.

The thing that we worship is the thing that we build our lives around.

So, to ask ourselves if we are tempted by idolatry, we don’t need to walk around our home, looking for false idols. We need to ask ourselves, what do we build our lives around? Where is our hope?

Is it in God? Or something else.

Listen to what it says in Psalm 115: 1-4:

Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory,
for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!
Why should the nations say,
“Where is their God?”
Our God is in the heavens;
he does all that he pleases.
Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of human hands.

The work of human hands. We may not have “false gods” made of human hands in our lives, but so many of the things in life that we turn to for home and security, they are things that we have made, things that we have earned, things that we can attain.

They are human in origin.

They are not God. They are made by human hands. And the will fail us.

Tim Keller said – An idol is anything that you turn to and say, “Save me.”

So today, in your life, where do you find your worth and your hope. Don’t give me the “Christian” answer, you know, the one you have to give; are supposed to give.

Where does your life say that you find your hope and your worth? If your hope and worth is in anything of this world, that thing will fail you.

If your hope and worth is in the True God of Heaven, then you have nothing to fear.

Today, what are the idols in our lives that we need to get rid up?

It’s Going to Be Ok

Posted on November 18, 2014 by Andy Stoddard

I saw a cool thing yesterday about perspective. It talked about how vast the universe is and how truly small we are. It shows the earth in comparison to other planets, then the sun; then the sun compared to other stars. Then our galaxy. Then the knives.

It is truly mind-blowing to see how amazingly big the universe is, and yet how small we are in comparison. It really gives you some perspective than things are different that what we may think that they are.

Today in our reading, we kind of see the same thing with James 4: 13-14. Listen to what it says:

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

The thing that you are worried about. That thing. That think that is consuming you. That is robbing your joy; robbing your peace; taking over.

Let me ask you. How important is it really? Stop right now, and ask yourself that question. How important is it really?

Will it be as important tomorrow? Next week? Next month? Next year? A year from now?

It’s going to be ok. Really. It is. No matter what. It is. There is a huge, mighty God that made all of this that we see, all that is going on, all that is around us. Made it all.

And He wants to know you.

Today, remember. This life is just a glimpse in eternity. Don’t be consumed by this moment. Don’t be consumed by this problem. Don’t be consumed by this circumstance.

It’s going to be ok. It is. Remember there’s a God that is bigger than us, stronger than us, mightier than us.

And He loves us.

Trust Him today. Trust Him for eternity. It’s going to be ok.

Relax

Posted on November 5, 2014 by Andy Stoddard

Today, relax. Just relax. Breathe in deep. Be calm. Relax.

There is a balance that we need in faith. Sometimes, we need faith to be really intense. Really focused. Really looking, seeking, going, just at it hard. That’s a good thing.

Monday, I talked about how Jesus wants to make a choice. Sometimes, we have to just, in that moment and day, make a choice.

But we never need to forget what Psalm 127: 1-2 tells us:

Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.

Unless it is God that is at work, we labor in vain. Unless God builds the house, it is not worth it. Unless God watches the city, the ones that watch it watch in vain.

We rise early; we go to work, we go, we do, we sweat, we toil, we do all these things. We are anxious. We are stressed. We are worried. We are afraid. We are tired.

And we are told God gives His beloved sleep.

We need to remember that. God has it. He is the one that makes it happen. He has it.

The weight of the entire world does not rest upon you. It doesn’t. It really doesn’t. Relax today. Breathe today.

God has it. He knows what He is doing. You can trust. You don’t have to do everything, be everything, go everywhere. God has it.

Trust. Relax. It’s ok. It really is. It’s ok. Today, no matter what is happening, what’s going on, what you are doing, know that God has it, He has you, and you can trust.

Relax.

What is Peace?

Posted on October 16, 2014 by Andy Stoddard

What is peace? What do you think of when you think of peace?

For most of us, we think of some vague feeling or concept, something that we “feel” that we may not even be able to explain what it is that we feel or experience. We think of the passage where it says that the peace that passes understanding will guard our hearts.

So, for most of us, we associate peace with that “sort of” feeling.

And that is great, but the only problem with associating everything with feelings is what about when we don’t “feel” it. What happens when we don’t have that feeling? Do we still have peace? Or joy or whatever?

I want to share with you something I read this morning. Listen to what it says in Ephesians 2: 14-19:

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers

It says in Ephesians that peace is not a feeling or a concept, but it is a person. Jesus. We are told today that Jesus is our peace. He guards our hearts. He is the one that keeps it all together.

What does this mean for us today? Seek Jesus. If you want peace, don’t seek “peace.” Seek Jesus. Because here’s the thing.

If you seek a feeling, you may or may not get it or feel it. It may not happen. But, if you seek Jesus, if you chase Him, if you are faithful to Him and seek Him, with your whole heart, you will find peace.

You will.

Jesus is our peace.

Peace is not a feeling. Peace is a person. Jesus. He will guard us. He will keep us. He will save us.

Today, don’t chase after that feeling. Chase after that person. Chase after Jesus. And you will find peace. Because He is our peace.

When God Delays

Posted on October 7, 2014 by Andy Stoddard

One of the stories that may be most famous for us in scripture is the story of Golden Calf. This is a story of ideology, of the people of Israel making an idol, and worshiping it, instead of God, while God is literally right above them

And it gets bad. And it causes a lot of trouble, almost ending in their destruction. But how did it all start? What happened? Listen to what the word says in Exodus 32: 1-4:

When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”

The people saw that Moses delayed in coming down. They had a schedule and time for everything to happen, and it didn’t happen on that schedule.

Moses delayed. Things did not go according to play. Things didn’t go according to their schedule.

And they turned away from God. They turn from Him and made idols at that time. Because God delayed.

God was late.

God was not when they wanted. God was not where they wanted. God didn’t do it they way that they wanted it done, when they wanted it done.

So they doubted. They turned aside. They looked away. They did their own thing. Instead of trusting in God, they did their own thing.

What about us? What do we do when God delays? What do we do when God’s schedule is not our schedule? What do we do when God’s time is not our time?

Do we turn to other things? Do we put our faith in something else? Do we turn away from God? Do we get angry and storm off?

God delayed. And they people made terrible mistakes. When God didn’t work on their schedule, they turned away.

What about us? What do we do when God delays?

Help is Coming

Posted on October 1, 2014 by Andy Stoddard

Sometimes in life we just beat up. Sometimes, nothing goes right, something it falls apart, sometimes we know what we should do; what we should believe.

And we just can’t. We can’t do it.

Life is hard. We are tired. It’s not working. We just want to lay in the muck and sadness and just sit there for a while. We are at our wits end; we are just done.

Every felt that way? You may feel that way right now. You don’t know what to do; where to go; how to handle it all. It’s just about as bad as it can be.

You can know this, at least. You are not alone. We’ve all felt that way. All of God’s children have felt that way. I was reading in Exodus recently when I read this passage I forgotten about. Listen to what it says in Exodus 6: 6-9:

Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord.’” Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.

God comes to the people through Moses and says, soon, very soon I will save you. Soon I will deliver you. But they could not hear. They were too defeated. They were too broken. They were too defeated.

Even though, their deliverance awaited. Even though, it was soon to be there. Even though it was soon to happen. They just couldn’t believe. The pain, the hurt, the fear of that moment, it clouded their eyes.

They couldn’t see help was coming.

So is it for you today. No matter where you are today, help is coming. Even if you can’t see. Even if you can’t believe. God has not forgotten His promises to you. He has not forgotten you.

He hasn’t. Hold on. Help is coming. Don’t give up. Don’t quit.

Keep going. He doesn’t forget His people. They didn’t believe it at the time, but help was already there.

The same is true for us today. God is with us, even if we can’t believe it. Help is coming. Hold on. It’s coming.

Trusting

Posted on September 17, 2014 by Andy Stoddard

It is easy sometimes in life to think that things are spinning out of control. It’s easy to feel that the world is spinning out of control.

It’s easy to feel that our lives are out of control. That our families are out of control. That things are spinning too fast, that things are coming unglued.

What are we going to do! Ah!!!!! Oh!!!!!!

Seriously. Ever feel that way? I know I do sometimes. I know I am not sure of how things are going, worried about things in my life, my church, my family, the world.

As a worrier, it’s kind of what I do. So, it’s good for me to hear the words of Job 42: 1-3 this morning:

Then Job replied to the Lord: “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted. You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.

What purpose (or plan) of God can be thwarted. What plan of God can be ended? What plan of God can be stopped?

By who? Me? You? The world?

Nope. God knows what He is doing. He’s got a plan. He’s got a purpose. He knows what He is in the midst of accomplishing.

And it will be accomplished.

It will.

So today, trust in Him. No matter what. No matter what is going on. No matter how crazy it may seem. No matter how bad it mean seem. No matter how uncertain it may seem.

Trust. Trust in Him. He’s got it. He knows what He is doing.

Trust. No purpose of God can be stopped. It’s going to be ok. He’s got it. When you don’t know what He’s doing, trust in who He is. You can trust Him, in all things.

Who is This?

Posted on September 8, 2014 by Andy Stoddard

We like for faith to make sense. We like for things to be neat and crisp and wrap up neatly into a little bow.

We like for faith to fit into our schedule, into our plans and to have its role within our lives. A role that we like, that we can monitor, that we can keep under control. A role that benefits us, but doesn’t really change too many things about us or our lives.

That is what we often wish that faith could be and would be.

But, in reality, that’s the one thing that true faith never is. It is never predictable. It is never safe. It never fits neatly into a box. Listen to what happens today in Luke 8: 22-25

One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they set out, and as they sailed he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”

Who is this Jesus that the wind and the water obey Him. That’s not something that is safe. Jesus is never predictable. He is never just safe. He is never just ordinary.

He is the Son of God. He is savior of the world. He is the Lamb that was slain before the foundations of the world. He is God Himself. He is part of the Trinity. He made all things, and all things were made through Him and for Him.

He is the Christ. He is the Messiah. He is the Master and Lord of all. And He is our Lord and our Savior.

He is not ordinary.

He doesn’t want to be ordinary in your life. He wants to change it. He wants to change you. He wants you, today, to know real, awesome, amazing life.

He does.

Have you considered who He is today? His power. His majesty. His mercy. His grace. His love. His life.

And wants you to share in that power today. Really. You. Power. Today. That’s what He wants. Really.

Today, your faith doesn’t have to be plain or vanilla. It can be more alive than you’d ever think possible. It can be.

Who is this Jesus? Today, may He be Lord of all. And may His life give us the life we seek.

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