Divine Peace

One sunny afternoon my mom called all five of her sons to the porch and asked, “Who broke the chair?”   Clearly one of us broke it, it was lying in front of us in pieces.  The problem was, no one said anything. “Who broke it?” Still, silence from the boys.  “If whoever broke it doesn’t say something, you will all be punished.”  My twelve year old mind tried to quickly rationalize the problem to find a way out of being punished; I had more lizards to catch and did not have time for punishment.  But reality set in, the culprit was not going to say anything and therefore I was doomed to be punished no matter what, so it made sense to me at the time to just say I did it since I was destined to be punished anyway.  My brothers could then go off and keep catching lizards for me.  “It was me.”  I said in my best guilty voice. “Head to your room for lying and not saying anything when you broke it”, my mom replied.

At that moment, the punishment was being paid for and my brothers were at peace with our mom.  The broken chair issue will not need to be brought up again because it was behind us all.  The punishment was paid, and everyone was set free to go back to their summer fun, except me of course.  (I never told them it wasn’t me, but if one of you would like to confess now, that’d be fine!)

Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Not to be nitpicky, but could you read that verse again, slower.  Take that 5 word statement in the middle “we have peace with God”, and cling to it for a minute.  Turn it upside down, inside out, and mentally digest it.

There is nothing too fancy about that phrase right?  Well, try this phrase on for size, “you do not have peace with God”.  How does that thought make you feel, if you truly knew you did not have peace with God?

That phrase may make you squirm just a bit.  That is not an idea we savor, so we justify why we do have peace with God, in order to feel better about ourselves.

Peace with God is something everyone longs for, yet not all know how to find it.  The answer sits on the surface of the pages where Romans 5:1 resides and can be summarized by gluing together the first and last parts of the verse, “Therefore since we have been justified by faith…in our Lord Jesus Christ”.

Peace with God can only be found by faith through Jesus Christ.  Here is why.  Jesus Christ did not go to the Father and say, “Hey Father, I know these guys and gals are pretty messed up, why don’t you say, we just forgive them and call it a day?  It would make things a lot easier between all of us.” (I could only imagine trying that argument with my mom, “mom, I know we are a bunch of knuckleheads, but what do you say we all forget about this broken chair and the fact that one of us is lying to you and we all go our separate ways?”)  Rather, Jesus knew the Father’s wrath that had been stirred up by our sin needed to be appeased, and therefore said, “Father, I know these guys and gals are pretty messed up, and since you are perfect and holy, you demand an account to be made for their sins. Can I pay the price for their sins, so they can be at peace with you?  I love them too much to see them bear your wrath, so treat me as if I was them, sinful and messed up, then, and only then, can they live at peace with you.”

So Jesus bore the burden of the cross, separation from his Father, and death, in order for us to be at peace with God. 

But since death could not hold Jesus, Jesus was able to appease the Father’s wrath, at the same time becoming the mediator of our sins to the Father.

This is why faith in Jesus Christ is the ONLY way to have peace with God.  For those who turn to Jesus and put their faith, their trust in him, the Father’s wrath has been appeased. There is not an ounce of vengeance or punishment God the Father wants to pour out on you, you have perfect peace with Him, because the punishment of your sin has already been paid.

Therefore, you can go back to catching lizards, someone stepped and took your punishment.

Street Light

My street can be a dark and ominous place to walk at night.  As I was walking my street this morning around 4:30, I found shelter from the darkness under the street light that sits loyally on the side of the road. Night after night, the street light illuminates a portion of the street with its incandescent glow, bringing light to a small slice of my street, while the rest of my street sits in obscurity.

The daylight reveals the street light for what it really is, a warped piece of wood fashioned carelessly into a pole with an odd shaped lamp protruding from the top.  It really isn’t much to look at when the sun is shining, but at night, in the darkness, that lamp is transformed into a beautiful place of refuge as a power source brings life to the street light.

Without that power source, which lies a hundred miles away, the street light is nothing more than that some wood and metal.  It must be plugged into the power source to be transformed into a light, or else, the work of creating the lamp was in vain.

When the light of Jesus Christ shines on us, we are revealed for what we really are, imperfect and unholy, needing purpose in the darkness.

But when you connect to the power source, Jesus Christ, his light will shine in and through you and turn you into a place of refuge that people are drawn to in the darkness.  I know, I know, you aren’t much to look at, right?  What if people see what you have done?  What if they know about your struggles that run rampant through mind daily?  What if they see you as a fake?

When the light of Christ shines through you, much like the street light, everything else around that light disappears and becomes less significant.  At night, I am attracted to the light itself, because that is what makes me feel safe, everything else fades into the backdrop of the night.

The street light still has its imperfections, but at night, in the darkness, they disappear, as the light shinning from it gathers all of the attention.  Likewise, your imperfections fade away when the light of Christ lives within you.

You have a choice. You can to let your light sine before men, that they may see your good works and worship the Father who is visible through you, or choose not to plug into the power source and wait with nervous expectation for the Son (pun intended) to come out hoping it doesn’t expose you for what you are.

Today, right now, become the bearer of the light that God designed you to be by turning to Jesus and plugging into him, allowing his light to penetrate the darkness that encompasses your world and the world of those around you.

Matthew 5:14-16

¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Jealousy

As I contemplated Matthew 6:24 this week, I realized the overwhelming jealousy God has for his children.

“You cannot serve two masters, for either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other…”

We could have been created with the ability to serve two masters.  That is not outside of God’s power to do, but he chose to create humans with the ability to only serve on master, and here is why.

God will not allow those whom he loves the ability to divide their love and service between two Gods. 

Exodus 20:4-6 says,

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. ⁵ You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, ⁶ but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

God’s jealousy for our love is so intense that he will not allow himself the place of second best in your heart.  If you say you love Jesus and love something in this world, then you do not love Jesus because you cannot serve Jesus and this world.

Think about from this angle, man’s jealousy is peaked when his wife is caught in the arms of a foreign lover.  This jealousy can lead a man to spit his lover out of his mouth until she comes to him in repentance.  Some men are even driven to murder because their jealousy is enraged by even the idea of their wife being devoted to a second man.

If we are but a blurry resemblance of the image of God, how much more will God’s jealousy for you be enraged if you are caught in the arms of another lover instead of the arms of a loving God.

Therefore, you cannot serve two masters, it just is not possible. For either you will hate the one and love the other, God will not allow love for both.

Boiling

There are three types of people who serve of the Lord.  The first type is the person who sits and talks about serving and never does serve.  He says how wonderful it would be to start this ministry and that ministry, but never gets out there and does it. His typical phrase is, “Let me pray about it”, and never moves from prayer to action.

The second person is the person who does serve, but is a busy body.  There is no passion in their serving; they simply serve God out of mere obligation of being his follower.  These people usually burden those around them with their lack of joy in their service.  When these people serve, they don’t serve God (although they would vehemently argue against that as they point to everything they have done) but they are serving their own glory.  They typically look for approval in their service by saying “look at me and what I have done”. 

Then there are those who actually serve the Lord.  They rightly pray and plan, but also implement their plans.  They know how to move forward, sometimes taking risk, accomplishing much for the Lord’s sake.  They also have a fire in them that gives them boldness and passion in their service.  These are true servants of the Lord.

Which one of these defines you?

Romans 12:11 says, “Do not be lazy in your zeal, but be passionate in your spirit, serve the Lord.”

Don’t fall trap to the enemy’s lie by saying you have the gift of developing ideas for ministry but never putting forth the effort to do ministry.  Or the opposite lie that says God wants you to be busy bodies for Him, always serving, but never orienting your service to God’s glory.

God is looking for men, women, and children who boil for him, both in active zeal and fervent in spirit.

THE HELPER

I want to carry on from yesterday’s thought, that is, how we can help prepare an anxious heart to go to God just by our uplifting words of encouragement.

I recently heard an amazing story from a good friend.  My friend was busy at work one day, in the middle of a meeting with a client when she was prompted in her spirit to send a quick message to her supervisor, appreciating her for the job she did and expressing her thanks for having such a wonderful supervisor.

Little did my friend know that her supervisor, at that moment, had a heavy heart about her job.  In fact her heart was so heavy (or anxious) that she was going to turn in her resignation that day.

A bit later, my friend bumped into her supervisor and her supervisor said to her, “You don’t know how much your message meant to me.  I was going to turn in my two week notice today, but after I got your message, I decided not to.”

Coincidence? No!  God!  My friend knows the Lord and since she knows the Lord she has the Holy Spirit as her helper.

John 14:16-17 says, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, ¹⁷ even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”

My friend was prompted by the Holy Spirit to send that message.  The seemingly coincidence behind the timing is in fact the evidence of God’s work (some call it a miracle, others call it coincidence, call it what you want, I call it the hand of God).  Her words of encouragement were in fact not her words, but God’s words in and through her.

Is God about saving jobs?  Not necessarily.  But he is about using small miracles like this one to save souls.  We don’t know the sovereign plan behind God needing that supervisor to keep her job.  However, I know there is eternal purpose in it.

Today, right now, you are equipped, as a believer in Jesus Christ, to do every good work, including sending small encouraging messages that are used by God to uplift heavy hearts, because you have the Holy Spirit as your helper to carry out the work of God.

So next time your spirit prods you to send an uplifting message to a friend, family member, co-worker, or

even that elderly lady in front of you in the grocery line who is fumbling to pay her bill, go ahead and send it and let God do his work through you.

Anxious Heart

Proverbs 12:25 says, “Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad”.

I smile just reading that verse.  Quite simply, I get tired when I am told over and over again to stop being anxious and give it to God. Not that that advice is not Biblical, it certainly is, we find that principle in 

Philippians 4, but I get tired of it because of what Proverbs 12:25 tells us.

A good word from a brother or sister can help alleviate my anxiety and free me to go to God with my cares.  You can have a role in helping folks give their anxiety to God by just dropping simple words of encouragement.  Premature exhortations to give their anxiety to God, may only further the flames of chaos in their life, as it is only one more thing for them to do. 

For those who struggle with anxiety know how much a simple word of encouragement can help in those chaotic moments of life (myself included, Paxil didn’t do the trick, so I am left finding my answers to anxiety through God’s Word and friends.  This has proven to be a much better approach to my anxiety than medicines alone).  I have a couple of brothers whose mind works like mine does.  When my minds starts to spin out of control, and it is usually starts with something very small that starts this downward spiral, I will call my brother up and he always has an encouraging word for me that usually starts with , “Dude, I was just struggling with that this week, I know it’s tough for you right now.”  Those words can break the cycle of anxiety just long enough for me to give it to God.

If your heart is anxious today, let me say I get it.  Your mind often times feels like a tornado is sweeping through it picking up the debris of worry, fear, and anger and tossing it all around.  You become mad at things that normally don’t frustrate you, no amount of to-do lists can bring structure to your life, and at times, you are incapacitated and don’t know how to move forward.  Whatever is causing the worry or fear is real to you and God knows (as we just read in Proverbs) that it is a burden on your heart.  Therefore, I pray you find the right brother or sister who can put an encouraging word in your heart in order to help break the chaotic cycle and to put a smile back on your heart just long enough that you can, in return, give it to God.

On the other side of the coin, if you are experiencing a season of tranquility, praise God!  Can I encourage you to use that tranquility as a means of ministering to the person next to you who feels as if their world is falling apart?  Also, try avoiding pushing that person to enter into the state of peace that God has given you; that may take some time for that person struggling with anxiety.  I know you truly want them to experience what you are experiencing, but for today, give them a word of encouragement from Scripture, from your personal life, or just tell them how glad you are that they are a part of your life.  Then, when you see the smile begin to form on their lips, you can know that God’s Word is true and sharper than any two edged sword piercing to the souls of men. (As Hebrews 4:12 tells us)

Two Birds with One Crow

As I was taking a stroll around the block a couple of mornings ago, I was distracted by a crow that was flying by its lonesome.  I was thinking about the crow and where it was going, why it was up so early, and wondering if that crow had a big day ahead of it, when out of nowhere, two mocking birds flanked this crow with a tenacity that only mocking birds have.  These two birds were clearly on a mission to thwart this crow’s flight plans.

These two mocking birds were still smaller than the crow, yet they worked in harmony and their joined efforts were much more successful because they worked in harmony.

I know mocking birds’ behavior well enough to know that the crow got a little too close to one of their nests, and those two birds saw the crow as their enemy, and worked together to defeat him.

Regardless of the crow’s intentions that morning, these two mocking birds bring to life the Ecclesiastes 4 passage;

“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. ¹⁰ For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! ¹¹ Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? ¹² And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”

This passage has a general principle that can be applied to every area of life.  But one specific area that this applies to particularly well is the area of spiritual warfare.  We have an enemy prowling around, much like the crow I saw.  Our enemy looks for vulnerabilities in those who call themselves Christians, in order to thwart their plans to live as children of God. 

When you live life with another Christian, another brother or sister who is watching your back, then there is less of an opportunity for the enemy to take you by surprise.

Being new to the ministry, I see this principle especially true to those who are called to serve Christ full time.  There is an uncanny attack on young men and women who just enter the mission work full time, as the enemy tries to hit you when you are weakest.   

It is my utmost encouragement to you, if you plan to go into ministry, to prayerfully ask God to send a co-worker with you.  One who can sharpen you, hold you accountable, pray with you, laugh with you, mourn with you, and do the heavy lifting of ministry with you.

For the rest, you need that one person that you can live life with, joined at the hip, as in the words of King Solomon, “two are better than one”.

Red Barn

On the side of highway five just about a hundred yards off the road sits an old red barn.  Day after day, passer-byers don’t take a second look at this barn, as driving by this barn has become part of their daily routine.

But if this was your first time to drive highway five, in the rolling hills of Kentucky, you’d be sure to take a gander at this barn, as it represents the deep heritage of the Kentucky foot hills.

Today, the barn is riddled with bullet holes and the wooden planks that encase the barn are showing signs of being weathered after surviving decades of summer heat and winter frosts.  The roof is hardly a roof anymore, and the red, that once so majestically cloaked the barn, has faded away.

This barn began to leave its impression 75 years ago as an old farmer took the utmost care to construct this barn with his bare hands. 

With every swing of the hammer, and stroke of the paint brush, the beauty of his imagination came to life, and soon birthed his prized possession, his one and only red barn.

Throughout the years, this barn began to make its impression on the country side of highway five.  The barn is not great in and of itself, but its unwavering consistency of being on the side of the highway day after day brings about a sense of normalcy to your fast paced life style. 

This barn has many memories behind it, as it has done its share of work over the years.  It has housed many bales of hay, it has had a number of horses and cattle reside within its protective shell, and on an occasion or two, it has even had the privilege of taking care of the people around it, who were seeking shelter in the midst of a storm.

But today, this barn shows many signs of wear and tear as it sits abandoned on the side of highway five.  Its rough shape is a constant reminder to the locals that this barn has seen better days and will soon have to go.

And when it does, the skyline of this meandering highway will be changed forever.  The passer-byers will recognize its lack of existence.  Some will pay tribute by reminiscing over the memories they had with this barn throughout their childhood years. Some parents will share with their kids about how there used to be a barn just a stone throw off the highway, and what that barn meant to them. Others will keep on driving, without seeing a need to consider the red barn anymore, but if they are honest with themselves, they will miss seeing this landmark that has stamped their countryside.

For now, the red barn on highway five survives another day, reinforcing into the minds and the hearts of those who drive by it daily the beauty of the Kentucky countryside and one farmer’s determination to make his living off this land.

We are much like this red barn.  We have been knit together by the careful hands of our Creator.  Every part of us is designed with purpose in mind.

Yet as the years wear on, we become riddled with the pains and trials of this life.  Our bodies show fatigue and our minds slowly fade away.  Yet, we stand with purpose; therefore we can leave a legacy behind that can radically change the lives of those around us. 

Many of us will live our lives quietly behind the scenes, having the chance to allow our relationship with Christ to ooze through the bullet holes of our wounds, while never knowing who is quietly watching our steadfastness during the storms.  We may never know who chooses to draw near to us because they feel safe around us, not because of who we are, but because of the strength of Christ living through us.  If you know Jesus Christ, then your bullet holes, your pain, your wounds in life have purpose in building the legacy of Christ through you.  Without a relationship with Jesus Christ, the pain and trials you suffer daily have no purpose except to reveal your need for a Sovereign God who can put purpose in your wounds.

Yet, a day will come, when we will be adopted fully by the Father and leave nothing behind except the memory of who we were.  If Christ lives in you, then you have a legacy that will withstand eternity because it is founded in a God who is eternal.  If not, then your legacy is built upon your life and will die shortly after you die.

What will your legacy be?

Isaiah 40:6-8 “    A voice says, “Cry!” And I said, “What shall I cry?”             All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. ⁷ The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it; surely the people are grass. ⁸ The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

Keep Your Ox

Saturday rolls around and you wake up 30 minutes earlier than normal because you want to utilize the morning to wash and wax your black Escalade. 

It’s not that your rich, by no means, and that you want to show off your Escalade to your neighbors, but you have saved for three years to buy this beast and you have finally saved enough money to purchase it, and so for the last 8 months, you have dedicated every Saturday to take care of your toy, keeping it in pristine condition.      

Many of us have our Escalades, metaphorically speaking, in which we have that one thing that is near and dear to us.  It may be your vehicle, your house, or maybe it is a talent that you have worked so hard on perfecting. 

Hold on to that thought, as I want to connect it and you to Psalm 69 and a tough time David was having with his enemies.

How has life been treating you?  Are your children in line with the Lord, your finances prosperous, do you have some enemies that are making your life miserable?  How is your marriage?  Is it holding together, or do you seem to go through spouses almost as often as you change the tires on your car?

If you can resonate at all with the above situation, meaning, if your life seems to be falling apart, then you can identify with David in Psalm 69.  Here is a peek into David’s life, as revealed in Psalm 69:

1 – Save me oh God for the waters have come up to my neck

2 – I sink in deep mire

3 – I have become weary from crying out

4 – More in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me.

David’s issue was his enemies.  He always had enemies that were out for him.  David wanted nothing more than for his life to be at peace.  And he knew that this peace ultimately came from God.  He realized this as he wrote the latter section of Psalm 69;

30 -         I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving. ³¹ This will please the Lord more than an ox or a bull with horns and hoofs.

David knew that the key to worshiping God and earning God’s favor was ultimately the worship of his heart and not his hands.

Sacrificing your bull or ox or your Escalade, your house, or your time to God does not please God as much as worshiping God from the depths of your heart.

David, in his time of need says, “What I really need to do right now is to worship God with my heart not my hands.  It is more important to magnify God in his hour of need with words of thanksgiving and songs of praise, than to give to God a physical sacrifice.”

Maybe you have tried this before; you have tried to get God to move to action by doing some sort of good deed.  Going back to the Escalade in the beginning, let’s say you have hit a rough spot in life, and it was impressed on your heart that if you do something nice or good that God will be pleased with you and will begin to make your situation better.  So you decide you are going to straight out donate your Escalade to an orphanage in Romania so they can sell it and use the proceeds to provide much needed meals for the children.  After making the donation, you sit back and wait for God to now return the favor by alleviating your pain in life.

Yet, David, and much of Scripture says you have it backwards. 

Preceding your sacrifice or in place of your sacrifice is something more significant; a sacrificial heart.  Before the sacrifice should come a time of getting on your knees in worship and praising God by magnifying (make big) his name in and offering up thanksgiving for all he has given you.

Our God is much more pleased with a heart of sacrifice rather than a physical sacrifice designed as a religious duty or obligation in hopes that we evoke a response from God.

Please don’t misread this, your Escalade donation is a wonderful thing, but that should come out of a heart of worship, not from a mindset that that is how you worship God, by giving Him stuff.  Rather worship starts in your heart.

I encourage you today to ask yourself, “Am I giving God the worship of my heart and of my hands?  Is what I do for God my attempt to make God be pleased with me or is it a result of my heart worshiping, rejoicing, and be thankful towards my God?”

Hebrews shows us the importance of worshiping God with our hearts and our hands, but how the heart worship precedes the hand worship.

15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.   

It is usually in our times of need that we become desperate for God to move.  This Psalm shows us that in our time desperation, it behooves us most to spend time in worship with our God than by scrambling to do things in hopes to get him to move.

Brotherhood

Paul uses some “not so manly” words to describe the love we should have for brothers and sisters in Christ.  He says, in Romans 12:10 to “love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another in showing honor”.For me, it is always weird when a guy tells me he loves me (being a guy myself, in case you were not aware of that reading this).  Maybe I am just weak, but it is hard to swallow when I hear those words and I typically stumble back with an awkward response like, “yeah, ok, whatev, wuv ya too”.

Yet, God’s word is littered with this 4 letter command.  This type of love that Paul is referring to in Romans 12:10 is a love that bonds or knits to souls together, much like that of Jonathan and David in 1 Samuel 18.

How do we love each other with brotherly affection?  Paul explains right behind the comma in verse 10, “outdo one another in showing honor”.

The key is to honor each other, or as Philippians 2:3 says, “consider others more significant than yourself”. Your view on people, be a high view of respect or a low view of disrespect will determine value of your honor.  If you have much respect for an individual, you will honor them highly and the opposite is also true if you have little respect for them.

Listen to the sermon titled, “Brotherhood” to learn more about loving each other with brotherly affection (http://www.midtownchurchfl.org/brotherhood-mtc153/) As you listen, pray that the Lord will reveal to you that which is keeping you distant from the brotherhood in Christ, be it pride, wounds from other Christians in the past, or some reconciliation that needs to take place.

There is a love that can bind a church together as if we were true brothers, and that love is nearly inseparable, let us aim to love each other in this way.

Hands Off

Psalm 46:10 says, Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!

The Hebrew term for God as referred in this verse is Elohim.  Referring to God in this sense declares him as Creator, Judge, Mighty One, the only God.  It sets God apart from all the false gods we produce in our minds and with our hands.  There is one and only one God and His name is Elohim.

Guys, gals, I wake up too early in the morning.  It’s not that I long to roll out of bed before the rooster wakes up, the thing is, it is my only time in my day that I can isolate myself to do any type of personal devotions and physical workout. 

In my world, when the sun goes up, my mind gets rolling like a freight train and I can’t stop it.  I move, I think, I do, and I don’t stop until I crash at night.  This is why I can’t do any good reading at night because the moment I slow down, I crash.  It is very hard (unless literally all of my to-do lists are blank, which is rare) for me to take my hands off of life during the day to be still.

There is a gem in all my busyness that I discovered, back in college, and I am just now rediscovering it and its benefit to me and it involves taking walks.

I love to take walks.  In college, while in Mississippi, I would walk to explore.  I would bring nothing with me on my walks, just my imagination and a sense of adventure.  I would walk abandoned train tracks, climb out of date water towers, or just go get lost in the woods.  I loved to do this because, while I was in college, I was doing full time school while working 4 jobs, so my walks were my chance to “be still”.  Today, my walks are much different; usually I have some sort of music playing, or something in my hands, or I am practicing a sermon on my walks. 

But something happened on a walk a couple of weeks ago that was life changing.  I started on my walk and I forgot to bring something along, I literally had nothing in my hands, in my ears, and nothing in my mind.  So I thought, “This could be nice” and I walked, no I strolled casually around the block with absolutely nothing except myself.

How refreshing to be still mentally, emotionally, and, for me, in a lot of ways, physically, as strolling around the block is one step above sleep for me.

Why do I have to be still and know that God is Elohim?  Because, once my day gets going, I start to grab a hold of duties, thoughts, task lists, and begin to conquer them.  If they don’t get done then my life feels as if it spirals out of control and I start the next day even more stressed (and try to wake up even earlier in order to get it all done…BTW I know it’s not healthy).

So I want to share with you a little exercise that I have learned to do. I want you to try it out right now.

Don’t count, but take approximately 30 seconds, clear your mind, set everything down, shut off your computer screen, and close your eyes.  During this time I want you to take 7 deep slow breaths in…then out…The only thing allowed to penetrate the awkward silence of being still is this thought, “God, you and you alone are God.”  Are you ready?  Deep slow breaths, clear your mind and everything around you, close your eyes, and only allow the thought that God is God alone slip through the barricade you are erecting in order to enable yourself to be still….Go ahead, I’ll wait…

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Great Job!  Now, one more step in this exercise.  I want you to take a survey of your life (I know, it doesn’t make sense).  Are your finances any worse than they were 30 seconds ago?  Is the roof still hanging above your head?  Are you still breathing?  Did the food in your kitchen disappear?  My point: you let go of full control, you took your hands completely off of your life for a moment and determined to know that God is God and everything still held together just fine.  This exercise proves that you and I can learn to take moments out of our day to be still and know that God is God.  You are not God, therefore you are not in control of your chaotic fast paced life, and no other thing is God, only Elohim is God and in Him and through him all things are created and are held together.

Now for your next challenge…45 seconds of being still.  You can do it!

If It Smells Like Fish It Probably Is

Dude!  It stinks in my garage right now!  A few days ago I noticed my garage developing an ominous odor and I overlooked it as a mystery odor that would go away on its own.  Nothing could be farther from the truth!

I woke up yesterday morning and walked into my garage and was taken aback by the dense smell in the garage.

It was too much.  So I began trying to find the source of the smell, assuming something had crawled up and died in a corner somewhere.  It literally smelled like (and still does) rotten fish.  But I had no fish anywhere, so it couldn’t have been that (so I thought).

Well, my sniffer led me to the fridge that sits in my garage.  I looked at my fridge and thought, “What could be in there that is smelling so bad?”  I opened the fridge, and nothing, the fridge was empty.  But in the freezer was death.  I have a tough stomach.  I have not vomited for years (except the one time and old lady tricked me into gargling with straight vinegar, I puked 5x’s then.  Ok, she told me to dilute it with water, but I was too eager to kick the cold I had, so I went all in), but when this door flung open, I did everything in my power to not add to the smell by leaving my breakfast behind also.

In my freezer was a bloody fishy mess.  I caught some fish about 8 months ago that I have never cooked.  I forgot it was in my freezer.  I also forgot that I unplugged my freezer three days ago and forgot to plug it back in.  Now my garage smells like rotten fish.

This reminds me of the old adage that says, “If it smells like fish, it’s probably a fish”.

All too often in life we struggle with grey area sins.  You know, those sins that, in societie’s eye are permissible, but in God’s eyes are evil.  Take for example the sin of lust.  What man, outside of Christ, would say it’s wrong to gaze upon a woman?  Or what person, of the world, is convicted that gossip is wrong, seeing it nothing more than a casual conversation?  What individual, without the conviction of the Holy Spirit, would be brought to their knees in confession over a white lie?  These sins may seem less depraved in our eyes, but still produce the smell of death in the sight of God.

The Psalmist says in Psalm 38:5 that his wounds stink and fester because of his foolishness. The rottenness of his sins has left a stench that he cannot ignore.  Listen to the graphic effect sin has on his life as he utters his confession to God:

Verse 2 – God’s arrows have sunk into me, and your hand has come upon me.

Verse 3 – There is no soundness in my flesh, no health in my bones

Verse 7 – My sides are filled with burning

Verse 8 – I am feeble and crushed, I groan because of the tumult of my heart

Verse 10 – My heart throbs, my strength fails me, the light of my eyes, it also has gone from me

Verse 17 – I am ready to fall, my pain is ever before

Then, then comes verse 18.  A verse I can, and we all can learn from.  Instead of wallowing in the guilt and pain of his foolishness, he turns to God and says, “I am sorry”. 

Verse 18 -  I confess my iniquity, I am sorry for my sin. 

Only after his confession can he plead for God’s mercy in verse 21 and 22,

Do not forsake me, O LORD! O my God, be not far from me! Make haste to help me,  O Lord, my salvation!

Hey, if it smells like dead fish, it probably is.  If it smells like sin, it probably is.  If there is something you are dabbling in, in life, that casts doubt, tension, or guilt in you, then it needs to be addressed.  Ask the Lord to reveal to you if there is any foolishness that you need to seek his forgiveness from, and then confess your sins to him.  The amazing news is, He is faithful and just to forgive you of your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

For now, the fish smell in my garage is a grave reminder of the condition of my heart, it has been cleansed before God the Father by the blood of Jesus Christ, yet there is still the effect of sin I have to deal with and confess day to day.

A Screen Door on a Submarine

One of my favorite artists was Rich Mullins.  I grew up listening, no jamming, to his popular Christian music that had just a touch of bluegrass in it (although he might deny that).  One song that I particularly liked had the phrase that went like this (pardon my singing voice, I am a little rusty…),

                “Faith without works is as useless as a screen door on a submarine.”

Every time I hear that song I picture myself in a submarine while the captain declares, “DIVE!” as an enemy ship spot us in the distance.  As we dive, he yells to the crew, “Make sure the screen door on the hatch is closed, we don’t want to take on water!”

Then I giggle as I picture that (men giggle too) because of how absurd that idea is.  If a submarine had a screen door for a hatch, it would sink.

Likewise, James says, in no contradiction to any other Scripture, that faith without works is dead.  Meaning that if you claim to have faith and yet you live a lifestyle that contradicts the Holy Word of God, your faith is dead.  James 2:18-20, 26

¹⁸ But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. ¹⁹ You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! ²⁰ Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? ²⁶ For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

“But Greg, what about Ephesians 2:8-9 that says you have been saved by grace and not of works?”

Great question!  James does not contradict Paul in any way.  For it is by grace and grace alone that we are saved, but the absolutely astonishing thing is this; every, and I mean every single Christian that has walked the face of this earth has had works to prove their faith.  There is not a single Christian that has passed away that is residing in heaven who lived a life of faith that had no fruit to show for it. 

Therefore, you may say you are a Christian and yet if you have no works, then you are not one. (ouch, that cuts deep…but bare with me for one more minute).

Read this passage from 2 Corinthians 13 very slowly and then re-read verse 8

⁵ Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test! ⁶ I hope you will find out that we have not failed the test. ⁷ But we pray to God that you may not do wrong—not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed. ⁸ For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth.

Paul says that we must examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith.  How do we examine our self?  We look for fruit because the fruit arises from the fact that when we are in the truth we will do things that are motivated by the truth.

Therefore, in the words of Rich Mullins, faith without works is as useless as a screen door on a submarine.  And if you don’t believe us, then go ahead, build a submarine and put a screen door on it, and watch what happens.  The sadness of watching your handmade submarine sink to the bottom of the ocean will not scratch the surface of the emptiness you will feel if your faith is dead.

Jesus' Persistent Love

I was feeding my daughter Cheerios the other day when I watched her drop one.  She was in her high chair, so there was very little she could do about the lost Cheerio, but I sat back, and watched as she aimed to do everything she could retrieve that Cheerio.

I was astonished at her persistence as she looked around for her MIA Cheerio.  If you watch my daughter eat, she literally, with both hands, will shovel the food into her mouth.  When this Cheerio tumbled into oblivion, the logical thing to me was for her to eat the other Cheerios and give up on that one.  But she had another plan.  Her lost Cheerio meant something to her, something that I will never understand.  She stopped everything she was doing, which was stuffing her mouth with as many Cheerios as it would hold, to find this one lost oat.

I, on the other hand, saw a whole plate full of Cheerios.  I thought to myself, “Why spend the effort in this one lost Cheerio especially now that it is somewhere that has made it all nasty and dirty?”

No matter how much I tried to rationalize that this Cheerio was not worth it to my 16 month old, she would not listen, she just kept saying, “Uh Oh.” and continued looking for it.

And, would you believe it, she found it tucked away in a sticky crevice in the high chair.  Her persistence paid off, and the reward; the joys of eating her lost Cheerio.

Now when she found it, she didn’t gloat or boast about it, she simply picked it up, looked at it, looked at me then stuck it into her mouth and went back to her other Cheerios.

Luke 15 shows us similar persistence from a God who searches for his lost sheep.  He wanders the hillsides, into the villages, into churches, until he finds his sheep that are astray.

The Pharisees and hypocrites on the other hand said that these sheep weren’t worth his time.  The ones that are really messed up on the outside seem too far gone, so why waste your time with them?  Why not go find people who look nice and neat and slap a Christian bumper sticker on their camel’s rear end and call it a day?

Well, Jesus’ mission wasn’t for those people, his mission was to find those who really needed him, and when he did, there was a celebration in heaven like no other.

Read the story for yourself, and put yourself in the shoes of the sinners and tax collectors, and get a fresh perspective of the persistent love of Christ that would stop at nothing until he calls you his own.

Luke 15:1-7

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. ² And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

³ So he told them this parable: ⁴ “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? ⁵ And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. ⁶ And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ ⁷ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

Abhor Evil, Hold Fast to What is Good

These are the two strongest emotions a person can feel, hatred and love. You may be tempted to say that anger tops hatred, but wouldn’t anger stem from hatred? 

If something abhors you then my guess is it will trigger anger inside of you.  And if that something is something that Jesus abhors, then that anger is a righteous anger and can be used for good.

Romans 12:11 says to use these two emotions and use them well.  Inside each of us is the ability to hate and love.  Hate is such a strong word that, at times, I am tempted to say that I shouldn’t hate anything.  But God has given me and you this feeling, this emotion of hatred for a reason.  Hatred gives me that umph to push away from the world, from evil, and to cling to Jesus.  Without hatred I would never be able to separate myself from a world that is constantly telling me it has something better to offer me than Jesus does.  Without hatred, I would never be able to grab a hold on to Jesus because my loyalties would be split between this world and Jesus.  Hatred gives me the needed force to remove myself from evil, resist the devil, and draw near to God.

We have taken these two raw emotions and have watered them down by applying them to words like broccoli, “I hate broccoli” or “I love broccoli”. (Although, the first example is more real in my world).  We lose the spiritual value of these emotions when we apply them to things that have no eternal value.

God says, abhor what is evil.  Abhor is not just a mere dislike, rather it means to resent, despise, have nothing to do with evil.  On the other hand, God says hold fast to what is good.  This means much more than liking what is good, rather it means to associate, hire, be a part of, what is good.

James 1:17 says every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights…

Anything that is good, anything that we are to hold fast to comes from the Father and has culminated in the Son.   Sometimes, in a word filled with lies, it is hard to know what to hold fast to, what is good, but one thing is for sure, if you hold fast to Jesus, then you are holding fast to good.  If you resist the evil one and draw near to Jesus, then Jesus will draw near to you.

Let me close 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22, “but test everything; hold fast what is good. ²² Abstain from every form of evil.”

Counting the Cost

How much are you willing to pay to see one soul enter into eternity?

I love the hymn, “Jesus Paid it All”.  I believe we will never understand the weight of a statement like that.  He paid it all?  What does all encompass?  His life?  His glory?  What else did he pay in order to save you from the punishment your sin justly deserves?

This week has been a crazy week as we hopped from doctor visit to the ER back to the doctor, back to the hospital for x-rays, trying to diagnose my daughter’s illness.

For a brief moment I contemplated on how we were driving across town, sometimes three times a day this week and how we were going to blow our gas budget because of my daughter being sick.  You know what I did after that thought? That’s right!  I kept driving to the next appointment and then the next appointment because the cost of gas doesn’t compare to the health of my daughter.  I will pay whatever it would take to make my daughter well.  

Then, in the midst of my thought about how good of a dad I was because I wasn’t putting my gas budget before the needs of my daughter, I had one of those “God” moments. “Greg”, God said in his oh so quiet convincing voice, “If that’s how much you are willing to pay to save the physical well being of another human, then how much are you willing to pay to save the souls of many more?”

Sheesh!  Why, God?  You really need to bring that up now.  Do you have to bring that point up in the moment of life where it is going to be most compelling!  Because the truth is, I am not willing to pay it all, and I am probably not willing to pay as much as I would on my daughter’s health to see people come to know Jesus Christ.

How much would you pay, how much would you invest to see one soul enter into the glory of God?  How far out of your comfort zone would you travel?  How much of your budget would you blow?  How deep would you travel into the realms of faith in order to see just one person come to know Christ and be saved from the grips of God’s eternal wrath?

I don’t know about you, but that’s one I have to sit on for awhile.  I don’t have an answer today.  I know what I would want my answer to be, and that is, I am willing to pay it all, but I know when push comes to shove, I’m not, but I want to be willing to.  Are you?

“Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe.  Sin has left a crimson stain; he washed it white as snow.”  Thank You Jesus!

Bros

It was 15 against 3.  Standing beside me were my two brothers, across from us, 12 girls and 3 boys, all of us in the elementary school, and we were about to brawl.  But before I get there let me take you to Romans.

Paul gives a simple reminder for the church in Romans 12:10; “Love one another with brotherly love.”

Just moments before he said, “Let your love be genuine.”  These are two very different types of love.

In the second reminder I gave, that love is at the core of who you are.  It is the type of love that defines you and was exhibited by Christ fully at the cross.

The first love, brotherly love is a love that bonds a family.  This love is necessary in the family of God, in the church.  For this is the type of love that overlooks faults and says, “I got your back brother, sister, no matter the circumstance.”

A church that goes through a split is a church that lacks brotherly love, because this love is designed to bond a family together even in the fiercest storms.

I grew up with four brothers, so I am well aware of what it means to have brotherly love.  We have had our punches at each other, we have had our moments of headlocks and noogies, but at the end of the day, we are still brothers and united, because we are bound by this brotherly love.

Even to this day, when I hear that one of my brothers gets into a fight, my heart instantly prods me and says, “you should have been there to help.” (not that I would have been much of a help)  Regardless of if my brother is right or wrong, I have a gut urge to back my brothers up.  It doesn’t matter if we have spoken in two years or two days, when there is danger involved, I want to help because they are my brothers.

I will always remember one of my first fights (what an understatement).  I was in third grade.  Things were heating up between my two oldest brothers and a couple of other boys at school. It culminated after school one day when one of my brothers said that Trevor and his boys would be waiting for us at the stop sign.  I would ride my bike home every day with my two older brothers, and today I was pumped as we were to rendezvous at a certain stop sign on the way home in order to settle this score. 

I saw them in the distance, and pedaled up to them and did a little skid maneuver with my back wheel to show them who was boss.  My oldest brother pulled up next to me, and the words starting flying.  Before long, one of them grabbed his back pack and tossed it into the middle of the road.  With as much force as my pre pubertal voice could muster I commanded them to go pick up his back pack.  They didn’t (no surprise).

Soon after the words were exchanged, a van pulled up and the door opened and out ran about a dozen girls who surrounded us. 

Now being out number 5 to 1, we were determined to not lose.  That lasted about 5 seconds, as every girl literally jumped on top of me and my view instantly became a sea of skin as I laid on the sidewalk wondering what just happened.  I can still remember how I laughed as I was being scratched and gouged.  For some reason I thought it was fun.

Then, through the bodies of girls, I saw my oldest brother literally ripping them off of me; he was determined to set me free.  It was only the three of us, but we gave it our best shot. We most definitely walked away the losers, but it didn’t matter, we had each other.

That is brotherly love.  To this day, I have no idea what we fought about, I just knew my brothers were being hassled and I was ready to get their back, and in return, they had mine.

Now, imagine the strength of the church to withstand persecution if we were to love each other like that.  Imagine the force in which we could stand the blows of the enemy if we were ready to back each other up.

Let me encourage you, if you have a beef with a brother or sister in Christ,  resolve it so it doesn’t affect the love you are to have for them.  Forgive them or seek forgiveness by them, but let us not turn against each other, rather let us protect each other.  There will be punches thrown in the church, but at the end of the day, I pray that you and I don’t get hung up on those punches, but we move on from them in forgiveness and reconciliation.

Humbly but Boldly

Queen Esther had some guts.  There she was, in the outer courts, trembling as she bowed before the king, hoping and praying that he would reach out his golden scepter, accepting her in his presence.  If he didn’t accept her, she would die.

Not all women were as fortunate as Esther.  Some boldly approached the King, and in doing so, received death.  Esther 4:11 shows us the risk Esther faced if she was to come into the King’s presence, “there is but one law—to be put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter so that he may live.”  If the King did not accept the person who walked boldly into his courts by extending his golden scepter, they would die.

Esther knew this all too well as she walked into the outer courts.  But she had to.  Her nation, the Jews, were facing extinction, and the only way to save them was for her to put her life on the line and pray that she could plead her case before the King.

She had not seen the King in 30 days.  As a woman, she was probably facing insecurities, doubt, fear, and anxiety.  But, none the less, she still chose to boldly approach the King.

My guess is she approached with as much humility and reverence she could find, knowing her King deserved her respect and honor.  She was well aware that this was the right attitude to have as she approached the presence of the King, if she wanted to save her life.

As she walked in, she probably bowed on the ground, not in worship but in respect, showing the King that he deserved her approbation.  She revealed, through her actions that she was subject to the King, and she would take death if that is what the King decided to do. 

The King responded favorably, as he knew she truly respected him. 

Now imagine you have a case to plead in front of the President of the United States.  Let’s say you are able to meet him in the Oval Office and re given one chance to state your case.  How would you shake his hand?  What would you say?  How would you show him respect?  Now imagine if the President didn’t like what you had to say and he had the legal authority to kill you simply because you agitated him.  How would you respond then?

It bothers me today to see some Christians (including myself) approach the throne of God without the reverence, honor, and fear he deserves.  If we had the chance, some of us would talk to the President with more respect and honor than we do with God.  We jump in and out of prayer with no regard to the King we are attempting to commune with.  We go to church to stimulate our desire to be entertained with good music and a funny message, without ever preparing our hearts to worship our King.  We take his grace, and we run with it, without a care in the world.  Often times our prayers are filled with no admiration but rather our to-do list for God and how he can meet our latest needs for comfort.

I wonder if we had the view of God that Moses had up on Mount Sinai, would we pray differently?  Would we tremble at the sight of God?  I bet you we would. 

I can hear some people saying right now, “Greg, Hebrews 4 says, Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”  Excellent point.  We are to draw near to the throne of grace just as Esther drew near the King’s throne confidently to ask for help.  But notice that word the author uses, “confidence”.  Why do we have to approach with confidence?” 

That word in Greek is parresia and literally means to have boldness in public.  Why would we need boldness when coming to God?  For starters, two verses before, Jesus is called the Great High Priest.  We have boldness because we understand who we are approaching, someone much greater than us.  Also, we approach with boldness because we know Jesus can do something about our situation because he s the King of Kings.

My question to you is do you humbly approach the throne of God in prayer with boldness? Does your prayer life even require boldness, or do you walk in and out of the presence of God as a drunken family friend who walks in and out of your house in his stupor, with no respect to you?  Approach the Lord with your needs, by all means, but do it humbly, in prayer, as you recognize that you are talking to the King of Kings.

The Courier

I remember the courier job I once had in Mississippi. I was not your typical courier.  I delivered proofs and products for a printing press.  I started off doing it on my motorcycle in order to save gas.  That lasted a couple of months before I upgraded to my Acura Vigor. 

This car was cool at first, but then turned into a courier’s worst nightmare.  It started when I was at one of my deliveries and my door wouldn’t open.  No matter what I did, I could not open my door to get out of my car.  So I went to plan B, I climbed over into my passenger seat and got out.  As a college student, I did not have the money to repair my door, so I used my passenger door to get in and out of my car for these deliveries.  It definitely wasn’t professional, but it got the job done.   Well at least a lot better than what happened next.

As I was driving through the parking lot on my way to a delivery, I was side swiped by another car on my passenger side.  The damage wasn’t bad, so we parted ways and took care of the insurance stuff later.

I got to my delivery, and would you believe it, my passenger door now wouldn’t open!  So, I opened my sun roof and began using that for deliveries.  All that mattered was that it got the job done.  I know it was not professional, seeing your delivery boy climb onto the hood of his car, and shimmy in to it through the roof, kicking and flailing his legs as he tried to maneuver his way into the driver seat, but I got them their package.

My job was to deliver packages, and I could do it however I needed to, but it needed to get done.  The customers did not care about the look of the car or how I got into it, they cared about the product I was delivering.

This incident reminds me of Mark 16:15, “And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.”  We have a message to carry to the world.  The thing is, Jesus is not concerned about how it gets there, rather he concerned that it gets done. 

Perhaps you are not a good orator, maybe you stutter when you speak, or you don’t necessarily have all the facts straight about the Bible.  Maybe you are scared to death to say anything because of what someone might say back to you.  Those are all valid concerns. But Jesus Christ lives in you and will enable you to say what you need to say, do what you need to do, and ultimately equip you for the gospel message that you are to carry in your world. 

Maybe you look like a fool climbing in and out of your car delivering the gospel message, who cares!  I don’t and Jesus doesn’t, but he is pleased with the faith that you have that enables you to overcome your fears in order to get the job done.

When God Calls

How do you know if God is talking to you?  How do you distinguish between the voice of God and the rumblings of the refried beans you ate the night before?  Seriously, with all of the advice we get day after day, how do you pick out God’s voice from worldly counsel?

It reminds me of a phone call I got recently.  I wrote a letter to Jim Cymbala, Pastor and founder of the Brooklyn Tabernacle in Brooklyn New York.  After I read his book Fresh Wind Fresh Fire I realized much of my story is like his.  So I wrote him a letter in a moment of discouragement hoping for a response, but not expecting one (he has a church of 20,000 people).

About a week later, I started receiving phone calls from a number I didn’t recognize.  I will often times get sales calls on my cell phone, so I don’t typically answer these calls.  After the third phone call in three days I started to get perturbed at this person’s persistence, so I answered it, but disguised my voice in my best Mexican accent I could muster (why do I do these things?).  It was Jim Cymbala.

I felt like a fool.  Here is a man who has tried to call me several times in order to physically respond to my letter.  Being taken back at the voice I was hearing on the other end, I told Jim I was busy at the moment and asked him if I could call him back (I was busy with a church that was .035% of his church.)

How do we know when God is calling us?  How do we learn to recognize God’s voice when He is speaking?

Unfortunately I do not have a scientific method to enable you to know the divine voice from other voices.  But I can at least point you in the right direction.

First, we do know that the Bible is God’s voice.  Start there.  Do not search the web, or turn on the radio when you are looking for God to speak to you.  Open the Bible and begin reading it.  The more you hide the Scriptures in your heart, the easier it will be for you to recognize God’s voice and guidance when it comes.  Because, if the guidance you are receiving contradicts the Word of God, then it isn’t from God.

Second, learning to hear from God takes some practice.  When God called Samuel for the first time in 1 Samuel 3, it took Samuel three tries to recognize it was God.  He had to receive some guidance from an elderly friend who was close to God for him to learn to recognize God’s voice.  But eventually he got it. 

Because we are in this fallen world, we can easily mistaken God’s voice for another voice or miss it when God does call.  Get wise counsel from mature believers.  Ask them if what you are thinking is of God or not.  Then once you have been given the counsel, act on it.  Samuel had to act on Eli’s counsel, and respond back to God. 

The bottom line is found in John 10:3, “…The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.”

We do have a God who leads his children.  His voice is not always audible, but it is known by his children.  In return, we need to know our shepherd.  We need to learn to recognize his voice among the many voices of today’s post modern world.  And we need the strength of his son, Jesus Christ, to act upon what we hear.

Last point, when you do answer him, or speak to him, go ahead and talk like a Mexican, or a northerner, or any other accent you want to use, because he is not offended with you being in your raw form. In fact, he invites it.

A Reflection of Christ

Take a deep breath.  Ok, now take another one.  One more.  Now you are ready to read this section of Scripture.  Romans 12:9-21

 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. ¹⁰ Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. ¹¹ Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. ¹² Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. ¹³ Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. ¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. ¹⁶ Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. ¹⁷ Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. ¹⁸ If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. ¹⁹ Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” ²⁰ To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” ²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Breathe again.  That was thirty imperatives in twelve sentences.  That is a lot!  How in the world does a child of God read something like that and still live by and grow by grace?

Well, there are a couple of ways.  First, in Romans 15, Paul tells us that he spoke to us in several areas as a way of reminder.  These exhortations are not commands but a reminder from a guy who is also learning what it means to be a Christian.  He is not commanding us, he is reminding us who we are in Christ. 

Secondly, and maybe more importantly is this; there is no way I can perfectly do all of these reminders.  But there is someone who can and who has, Jesus.

When I read this, I see Jesus Christ manifested in the page.  I see a well rounded perspective of who Jesus was and what he was like.  I see Jesus as he related to his disciples, how to he treated evil, how he glorified his Father.  

Let me take a few of these reminders as an example:

Let love be genuine; There was not a morsel of fake love in Jesus. 

Outdo one another in showing honor; He gave his life for us, placing us as more important than himself, need I say more?  I will.  He stripped to his under garments to wash his disciples’ feet to show them what it means to serve and show honor.

Be patient in tribulation; Patience is what kept him on that cross.

Bless those that persecute you; Offering those who are crucifying you eternal life if they repent of their ways seems like a wonderful blessing.

How do we live by the grace that we were saved by and grow by day by day?  Well, we have to see Jesus’ 

immeasurable love for us first by seeing that he has perfectly upheld all of these exhortations.  Then we realize that it is Jesus who lives in us and through us (Galatians 2:20), which enables us to do any of these things.