Archive for April 2012
Watch Your Mouth!
Posted on: 7-15-112012
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It’s no secret that one of the most difficult things to control is our mouths! Words seem to roll off of our tongue with little to no effort on our part. If we are angry or upset, words pop out of our mouth with such force that they may possibly destroy anyone and everyone in their path. Sometimes the words are flying so quickly that there is no possible way the brain is even registering what we are saying…maybe that’s why we often don’t even remember what we’ve said in an argument or fight. The problem with these careless words is that they are like toothpaste…once they come out, you can never put them back in! We have to learn to think before speaking! We must remember that the world is watching our every step and listening to every word!
“If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.” James 1:26
Wait on the Lord
Posted on: 7-15-112012
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I must confess that I have a very hard time waiting when I want something. Patience has never been a trait I would attribute to myself…in fact, impatient is a much more suitable word to describe me. I’m the person that may pray for patience in this way, “Lord, give me patience and give it to me NOW!!” I guess when I’m really honest, that’s the way all of my prayers are. Whenever I ask God for something, I want Him to give it to me immediately. The more desperate my prayer, the more immediate I want the reply. When I have to wait, I grow impatient. I start to wonder if God will ever answer me. Then I start to fret over what will happen if He doesn’t answer me or what if the answer I want is not the one I get. I can tell myself all day long that God always answers our prayers, but not always in our time or in the way we expected. I can tell myself that God may be delaying the answer to work in my life or the life of someone else. I can tell myself that God’s timing is always perfect. And I do believe all of those things, but sometimes believing those things does not keep me from being impatient. I still want what I want when I want it! This is something I am working on, but I’m a long way from where I need to be. God’s Word is full of promises for those who wait on God and the following verse is one of my favorites:
“But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31
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Last night I wrote about a skit that I saw a while back and that skit reminded me of another skit that I want to talk about tonight. This skit had three characters…a young woman, Satan, and God. At the beginning of the skit, God places a piece of tape along the floor to separate His standards and the standards of the world/Satan. The young woman places a rope along God’a line, representing her decision to follow Him. At first, she stays on God’s side, as far away from the dividing line as possible. Satan stands as close to the line as he can and calls to the young woman. He tells her to come a little closer and just take a peek on the other side. He reminds her that she doesn’t have to cross the line in order to see the other side, so what can it hurt. He’s very convincing, so she approaches the line with caution. When she sees that nothing happens, she inches closer and closer to the line. In a little bit, she looks down and discovers that she is standing right at the line. She is still on God’s side, but she’s as close as she can get to the line without going over. Satan continues to entice her to just step on the line and tells her nothing can happen on the line. The young woman looks back at God and He shakes His head as if to say “No.” The girl turns back around and puts one foot on the line and then the other one. Nothing happens and she sighs in relief. She turns around and God is still there, so she thinks it’s okay. At this point, Satan has backed away from the line. Being as sly as he is, he doesn’t ask her to cross the line, but only to move it a little bit toward him. The girl slowly uses her foot to push the rope she put down on the floor toward Satan. Again, nothing bad happens, so she relaxes her guard. God is still there so everything must be okay. Satan continues to woo her farther and farther away from the line that God put on the floor and closer to him. Because her guard is down and nothing bad seems to be happening, the girl is easily swayed. Before long, the girl has taken her rope quite a distance from where it started and that’s when Satan starts laughing at her and mocking her. He tells her that she believed his lies. She turns around and discovers that her rope is far away from God’s line and she realizes that while she can still see God on the other side, He is very far away from her. Satan taunts her and tells her she will never be able to get back…that she belongs to him now. He tells her that even if she could get back, God wouldn’t want her now. She looks at God who is again shaking His head “No.” God calls to her and tells her to come back. But Satan dances all around her, telling her she can never go back. The girl is frozen in her tracks. She doesn’t know what to do. God keeps calling, assuring her that she only has to take a step back toward Him. Finally, the girl takes a step towards God. As soon as she does, Satan’s mocking grows quieter. God walks toward her. She takes another step toward Him and Satan’s voice gets even softer. God reaches His hand over the line and grabs hold of the girl. He pulls her back on His side of the line and Satan falls to the ground in defeat.
It doesn’t matter how far away from God you are or how long you’ve been there, all you have to do is take a step toward Him. You will find Him waiting for you! You will even discover that He has been calling for you all along! He doesn’t care where you’ve been or what you’ve done…all He cares about is that you get back on His side where you are safe from the lies of Satan.
Allowing God to Drive
Posted on: 7-15-112012
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I was reminded today of a skit I saw awhile back. In the skit, there were two characters…a young man and God. Both the young man and God were on stage and sitting in two chairs placed side by side. The chairs represented a car, with one chair being the driver’s seat and the other one being the passenger’s seat. Whoever was sitting in the driver’s seat got to hold the steering wheel and was in control of the ride. At the beginning of the skit, the person is in the driver’s seat. He decides that he wants to live his life for Christ and wants to allow God to be in control. He relinquishes his driver’s seat and the steering wheel to God. God gladly takes it, knowing that this what would be best for the young man. They go along for just a short time when the road suddenly gets a little bit bumpy. The young man grabs the steering wheel and forces God out of the driver’s seat. He tells God, “I’m going to take it back just for a little while…just until things settle down a bit.” God is gracious and allows the young man to take over, but there is no denying the hurt in His face. When things calm down, the young man apologizes to God and tells Him that he wants to give control back to Him. So, they trade places once again. This same scenario plays out a few times, each time the hurt becoming more evident on the face of God. Finally, the young man takes the driver’s seat and the steering wheel and does not give it back, ultimately pushing God all of the way out of the car. He drives off alone, leaving God behind entirely. As I thought about this skit, I realize that this young man represents a lot of us…myself being at the top of the list. How often do we tell God we surrender all to Him only to jerk it right back out of His hands before He’s even gotten a grip on it? It’s easy to allow Him to be in control when everything is going along smoothly, but when difficulties strike, we tend to want to be in control of the situation. How foolish of us to think that we know better how to handle anything than the One who created the heavens and the earth…the One who created us and knows us better than we know ourselves is certainly more capable to take care of us than we are.
“Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him and He shall bring it to pass.” Psalm 37:5
More Area Covered
Posted on: 7-15-112012
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Cell phone companies often brag that they have the best service available. AT&T says that is has the most area covered with service. I hate to break it to AT&T, but while they may have the most area covered of any cell phone company, there is One who covers more area than they do…the God of heaven and earth covers every single inch of the universe and beyond. And guess what? With Him, you never have to worry about losing service, dropped calls, or towers that may go down. He is always available to us and nothing can ever cause Him to be anything else! He is always just a whisper away! All we have to do is call out to Him! He is there in the good times, as well as the bad. He is there when we are searching for Him and He is there when we are trying to flee from His presence because of our sin. We cannot escape Him! There is nothing you have ever done or will ever do that will cause Him to leave you in this life. When you feel alone, He is there! You may not feel His presence, but you can trust His Word when it says He is there.
“Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me.” Psalm 139:7 – 10
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“If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will not forgive your trespasses.” Matthew 6:14 – 15
As Christians, we’ve been instructed by God to forgive others just as He forgives us! Easier said than done, isn’t it? Surely, He doesn’t mean I have to forgive people who are mean to me, who hurt me, who lie to me, who betray me, who reject me, who are unfaithful to me, who abandon me, who ruin my reputation, who hurt my loved ones, who steal from me, etc…the list can go on and on! He must mean to only forgive people who do “small” things and immediately apologize, right? He must mean to forgive people who are heartbroken over their actions and beg my forgiveness, right? He must mean to forgive people who repent and never hurt me again, right? We try to make God’s standards for forgiving others fit into our standards for forgiveness. We like to have offenses that are forgivable and offenses that are not! We like to make certain criteria apply to whether or not we are going to forgive someone. However, Jesus did not say anything about the stipulations for forgiveness… He didn’t say it was okay not to forgive if the other person really hurt us…He didn’t say it was okay not to forgive if the other person wasn’t sorry for their actions…He didn’t say it was okay not to forgive if the other person didn’t ask for forgiveness. He simply said to forgive! What we have to grasp in our human minds is that forgiveness is not about the other person…it’s all about us! Jesus knows that when we don’t forgive, we hold onto bitterness, anger, resentment, distrust, hatred, hurt, and pain, and He knows that none of those things is good for us! He knows that all of those things rob us of the joy He died for us to have! He knows not forgiving people will diminish our relationship with Him because we will focus so much on the other person that we take our eyes off of Him! He knows the key to freedom is found in the act of forgiveness! This is a quote I came across the other day from one of my favorite authors, Max Lucado:
“Forgiveness is unlocking the door to set someone free and realizing you were the prisoner.”
If you’re holding back from forgiving someone who has hurt you, isn’t it time to unlock the door and set yourself free?
Practice As Well As Profess
Posted on: 7-15-112012
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“The devil is content with us professing Christianity as long as we do not practice it.”
I read this statement in my devotional this morning and it’s been running through my mind all day. I think there is a lot of truth in that statement because a lot of people say they’re Christians, but don’t really live a life that reflects that. As long as we are just saying it and not living like it, we’re really no threat to
Satan or his plans. When we actively live out our faith, however, he becomes nervous. He knows that it is our actions that speak much more loudly than our words. He knows it is our actions that speak volumes about our faith. He knows it is our actions that can influence others to follow Christ. And he does not want that to happen! Jesus addressed the people whose words honor Him but whose actions do not. He called them hypocrites and He says He despises it. Jesus does not desire lip service…He desires actions! You cannot fool God! You can profess your love for Him all you want, but unless your actions match your words, you’re just speaking lies.
“These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.” Matthew 15:8
East to West
Posted on: 7-15-112012
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“As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” Psalm 103:12
Once we confess our sins to God and ask for His forgiveness, they are gone! He immediately forgives and forgets. And when He forgets, He does not just store it in the back of His mind for another day like we tend to do…He literally forgets it forever! We may bring our past sins up again, but God puts them away forever! His forgiveness is 100% complete! He doesn’t need any do-overs…He always gets it right the first time! When a sin you’ve already confessed and repented of pops into your mind, instead of dwelling on it, just thank God that He has removed your sins as far as the east is from the west!
“East To West” by Casting Crowns
Jesus, can You show me just how far the east is from the west
I know You’ve washed me white, turned my darkness into light
Jesus, You know just how far the east is from the west
In the Blink of An Eye
Posted on: 7-15-112012
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If you knew that you were going to come face to face with God tomorrow, either by your own death or His return, how would you live differently tonight? What would your priorities be over the next few hours? Who would you want to spend your last day with? Do you have things that you would like to resolve? Are there people you need to forgive or ask forgiveness from? Are there things that you have left unsaid that you would want to say? Would you be filled with regrets over things you wish you had done or not done? Would you anxiously await being able to see the One who gave everything for you so you could tell Him “thank you” or would you be afraid to look Him in the eye because you haven’t ever really pursued a relationship with Him? The truth of the matter is that none of us are even promised the next minute, much less tomorrow. We could be standing face to face with God in the blink of an eye. The question is, “Are you ready?” and if you’re not, the time to get ready is now!
“Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless.” 2 Peter 3:14
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