Worth Repeating - February 28, 2017

I Samuel 18: 14 In everything he [David] did he had great success, because the Lord was with him.

Let the songs I sing bring joy to you. Let the words I say profess my love. Let the notes I choose be your favorite tune. Father let my heart be after you.*

Are you surprised to read that David had great success? Saul pursued his death relentlessly. He lived in caves. He had marital problems. He had rebellious children. His best friend died at the hands of the enemy. By whose standards could David’s life have been called a success?

By God’s standards, of course!

 

God called David “a man after my own heart.” The Bible doesn’t spare David in the telling of his story – we see him in all his sinful and flawed glory. God could see David’s outward imperfections as well, but David’s heart must have been full of his love for the Father. God looks at the heart of each of us and he knows our intentions. He knows what is important to us. He knows if we have repented or if we’re just sorry that we got caught.

 

God chose David for the job and David was successful because he turned to God for direction.* David did not march into battle alone. He did not rule a nation without God by his side. Without God, David would not have been successful by anyone’s standards.

We value what men do. God values what men are.*

Worth Repeating - February 27, 2017

Exodus 18: 17, 18 Moses’ father-in-law replied, “What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you, you cannot handle it alone.”

There may be over-doing even in well-doing.*

Doesn’t this seem to be a contradiction of one of our favorite New Testament verses: “I can do everything through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4: 13)? If we can do all things through him, why do we need other people?

God has his reasons for creating us with a need for each other. I don’t know his reasons, but there are some practical truths about delegating. When I first found myself with a staff to supervise, I was unprepared for letting go of all the things I had previously done by myself – even the things I didn’t like to do and/or was not very good at. (I recall one time looking up and realizing that all three of my staff members were looking at me expectantly. “What?” I asked. “What do you want us to do?” one of them asked on behalf of the group.) Pretty soon I learned that 1) other people like to do some of the things I hate to do; 2) other people perform some tasks better than I do; 3) I was the boss so they had to do what I told them to; 4) knowing that I didn’t have to do it all by myself allowed me to be more creative and proactive in my own job.

While it is true that we can do all things through him who gives us strength, we are limited by our physical bodies and the laws of nature. Very seldom will God intervene in a supernatural way to help us accomplish his work – especially when he wants us to work as a team. In the community of faith, delegating takes on a spiritual dimension. When you try to do it all yourself, you deprive a brother or sister of their opportunity to bless and be blessed.

Finally, the most important lesson I have learned about delegating is that part of learning to trust God often involves trusting other people. When I can’t do it myself; when I don’t know what else to do; I have to trust that God will accomplish his purpose without my help.

Great men should not only study to be useful themselves, but contrive to make others useful.*

Worth Repeating - February 26, 2017

Hebrews 10: 25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Often the road to forsaking the Lord begins with missing the assembly with believers on the Lord’s Day. Vince Lombardi said, “Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.”*

We like to use this verse as a command to attend church every Sunday and a condemnation of those who don’t follow the command. Faithful church attenders can feel smug about how much they are doing for the Lord because of their presence in the pew each week. With such a stance, we read too much and not enough into the meaning of these words. 

Too much: The writer of Hebrews does not mention Sunday or first day of the week.
Not enough: The people to whom he was writing probably met together a lot more than one hour a week.
Too much: It is not something we do for God.
Not enough: We should get together with our community of faith as often as we can for the sake of each other.

The frequency and format of our worship services are fairly recent developments. The Book of Acts gives us a peek into the life of the newborn church which has little resemblance to how we do it today. For them, meeting together as a body of believers was a bit of a challenge. People did not have weekends off from work; the closest thing to a church building was a synagogue which might be available for their use as a place to assemble – as long as it wasn’t the Sabbath. It wouldn’t be surprising if some found it more convenient to stay home and worship God from there.

Meeting together as a church, whatever day or hour it occurs, is not an activity we are commanded to do for God. Yes, our worship is for God but our meeting together is something we do for ourselves. We need each other. The encouragement we receive from our fellow believers fuels our ability to stay strong when we leave the shelter of the church.

There is another good reason to make the effort to attend church: your witness. Bob Russell says, “Church attendance slowly and quietly testifies to the world which side you’re on.”* When others see that church attendance is a priority for you, they will also suspect that God is important to you.

When believers encourage each other, it’s like lighting two matches and joining them together to start a fire that is greater than the sum of the two flames. The writer of Hebrews didn’t say it but I will: go to church. Every Sunday. Join a small group and attend every week. Participate in every opportunity for fellowship that you can. Then go out and set the world on fire.

God often speaks to us through the witness of the church.*

Worth Repeating - February 25, 2017

John 1: 40–42 Andrew . . . was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah.” . . . And he brought him to Jesus. (NIV)

God allows people to step into our territory so we can plant seeds that He can then water and cause to grow.*

My twins sons are both married now, but they are still best friends. I can picture either of them in Andrew’s position; if one of them had wonderful news, he wouldn’t be able to wait until he could share it with his brother. (In fact, when they have news, they call each other before they call me or even, sometimes, their wives!) That’s the attitude of love we should have toward anyone who hasn’t met Jesus.

Peter may have been the charismatic, impulsive and well-known evangelist but he would not have met Jesus if his brother, Andrew, had not shared the good news of the Messiah with him. Andrew, the quiet servant who led the leader to Jesus, is mentioned two more times in John; both times he was bringing someone to Jesus.

Perhaps, unlike Andrew, we will never know what fruit is produced from the seeds we have sown, but we still have our assigned tasks: to plant the seed or to water it (I Corinthians 3: 5 and 6), and wait for God to make our garden grow.

Discipleship is about the transformation, not the final product. It’s about the journey, not the destination.*

Worth Repeating - February 24, 2017

I Peter 3: 15 Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. (NIV)

Most people are not looking for someone with all the answers. They just want to hear from a fellow pilgrim a couple of steps in front of them on the journey. When all is said and done, evangelism is as simple as that.*

When I took the CPR certification class, it was clear to me that I would never be able to perform the life-saving procedure under the pressure of an emergency. I worriedly asked the instructor, “What if you do it wrong?” He said, “If you don’t do anything, they’re going to die anyway. Don’t worry about doing it wrong.”

Rather than fearing that we aren’t properly prepared to give an answer for the hope that we have, we should remind ourselves that people are going to hell if we say nothing; so worry less about saying the wrong thing. I say this, not to release you from the responsibility of preparing, but to defuse some of the anxiety of speaking to the lost about Jesus. Yes, do be prepared to share your testimony. No, don’t worry about saying the wrong thing. Yes, be concerned about how you say what you say.

Peter’s caution about speaking with gentleness and respect is a reminder that you don’t have to be “on the defensive” to defend your faith. Very few of us enjoy being on the losing side of an argument so we get shrill and testy when we feel cornered. Stop thinking about it as a contest. If you think there must be a winner and a loser in your exchange with a lost soul, then you both lose.

Our behavior should be consistent with that of our Savior. No one ever walked away from Jesus feeling brutalized or disrespected.

Jesus was never mean to lost people. He was truthful but not mean.*

Worth Repeating - February 23, 2017

Psalm 141: 2 May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice. (NIV)

Heart worship and spiritual joy render praise more glorious than vestments, incense, and music could do.*

What’s your favorite smell? Some of my favorites are vanilla, cinnamon, and evergreen (not something that supposedly smells like an evergreen forest but the real thing). And then there are the smells that bring back memories: freshly mowed grass reminds me of summer afternoons when I was growing up; the smell of popcorn puts me in a dark theater, anticipating the start of a good (hopefully!) movie. And let’s not even get started on the smell of bacon frying!

In this passage, David’s prayer about prayer refers to the burning of incense, which was an important component of worship in the Old Testament. God is spirit so he probably doesn’t actually have a sense of smell (who knows?), but the “fragrant fumes” of the incense represented the prayers of his people.*

What is God’s favorite aroma? Your prayers. Do you delight God with your sweet-scented prayers? Or do your prayers present a foul odor that causes him to wrinkle his nose in disgust? Perhaps God is sniffing around in hopes of catching a whiff of one of your infrequent prayers. When you pray, picture your praise and petitions going up as if in the scent-laden smoke of God’s favorite incense recipe. Imagine God’s smile of pleasure as he inhales. Who wouldn’t want to bring such joy to our heavenly Father?

When our prayers glorify Christ Jesus and seek the will of the Father, they are fragrant incense to the Lord.*

Worth Repeating - February 22, 2017

John 8: 11 “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”(NIV)

Mercy stands higher than the law as the guiding principle of God's relationship with men.*

Jesus was all about change. The status quo was persona non grata. From calling his disciples to leave their lives behind; to his new way of looking at the law; to the Sermon on the Mount where he introduced a radical new worldview, Jesus changed the world. In this instance, the woman caught in adultery – a pawn in the Pharisees’ attempt to trick Jesus – was told to leave her life of sin. 

The world is not just quick to condemn Christians for being judgmental – they seem to take joy in finding us being intolerant. Well, good for them. I am intolerant of sin because Jesus is. Judgmental? It’s one of those overused, misused and abused words. The woman was caught in the act of adultery (assuming her accusers aren’t being caught in the act of lying) – what’s to judge? Maybe you think there’s nothing wrong with adultery. Isn’t that a judgment? 

Read the whole passage concerning this poor woman’s mock trial, in verses 3-11. Listen to what Jesus did and didn’t say. 

· He didn’t say that what she did was not sin. 

· He didn’t say what an awful person she was. 

· He did say, in the absence of accusers, that he didn’t condemn her either. 

· He did say to leave her life of sin. 

If we would look at sinners the way Jesus does, the world will still criticize and accuse. But when Jesus says, “I don’t condemn you; leave your life of sin,” he’s talking to me, too. And I’m okay with that. Go ahead and call me judgmental.

You want to shine light in their life, but you don’t want to stick a flashlight in their eyes. I don’t see that Jesus forced himself on people. He just gave them truth.*

Worth Repeating - February 21, 2017

Romans 8: 1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

His grace is greater than our disgrace.*

You may be one of those people who did something shameful in your past and not only do you regret it, you can’t get over it. You carry a load of guilt; you can’t forgive yourself. I can relate – to a point. I did something stupid and sinful that I wish I hadn’t. I confess that I am more ashamed of the stupidity than of the sinfulness. See, I know God has forgiven me and that I am free of the penalty and the guilt. I’m just still mad at myself for behavior that is so out of character for me.

The good news in this verse doesn’t just apply to those landmark sins in our past. The “law of sin and death” says that the soul that sins must die and that refers to our daily, comfortable sins as well. I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t possibly list all my sins at the end of each day so unaware am I of what I have done. I confess my sinfulness to God, beg his forgiveness, and start over again with a clean slate – because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life has exempted me from the punishment I deserve under the law of sin and death.

If you are burdened by the sins of the past, I ask you, “If God doesn’t condemn you, why should you condemn yourself?”* If you insist on carrying your guilt and shame, you might as well wear a sign saying, “Jesus’ blood isn’t enough to wash away my sins.” If you are in Christ Jesus, the freedom from condemnation is yours. You need to start living like it!

When I hold on to what God has already let go of, I’m throwing away his grace as if it were the daily trash.*

Worth Repeating - February 20, 2017

I Chronicles 12: 23, 32  These are the numbers of the men armed for battle who came to David at Hebron to turn Saul’s kingdom over to him, as the Lord had said: . . . men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do – 200 chiefs, with all their relatives under their command.

The leaders God appoints are not necessarily those seeking power.*

The twelfth chapter of I Chronicles lists the number of men from each tribe who were prepared to fight with David against Saul. There is editorial comment about most of them: “carrying shield and spear,” “brave warriors,” “ready for battle.” Good stuff. But I would like to have been counted among the tribe of Issachar – “men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do.”

The men of Issachar’s understanding of current events and the essence of their nation helped them to know that it was time to change allegiances from Saul to David. It is worthy of note that these savvy tribesmen were the fewest in number. People with this kind of wisdom are rare.

God needs leaders in the political arena - men and women who can maintain their integrity in a world that seldom values integrity; people whose gifts and abilities lie in understanding government and world affairs. When these people rise to leadership positions, they are part of God’s army, armed for battle with their understanding of the times.

In I Timothy 2: 1 and 2, Paul urges that we pray for “kings and all those in authority.” We should also pray for God to raise up men and women like the tribe of Issachar who understand the times and who are willing to take a righteous stand in positions of government and leadership.

A leader must stand among the people with a transcendent perspective.*

Worth Repeating - February 19, 2017

Psalm 63: 6 On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night.

We should develop . . . a spiritual instinct, causing us to immediately turn to God when a concern keeps us awake at night.*

Sometimes sleeplessness is just the result of something physical: overeating; too much caffeine; illness; a crying baby. Trying really, really hard to fall asleep seldom ever works. I read some good advice for the sleep-deprived: “If insomnia visits you, don’t just waste it – invest it.”* In this verse in Psalms, David reveals the best way to invest your sleeplessness. Instead of lying in bed counting sheep (does that ever work?), take advantage of the quietness of the night and spend some time with God.

I read a Facebook post that said, “When you can’t sleep at night, have you ever thought maybe it’s God saying, ‘We need to talk and you now have time.’” Don’t know what to talk about? Try journaling. Start by writing, “God, I don’t know what to talk about but here I am.” Or start by listing the things you are thankful for or the things you worry about. Or, begin with the words, “Be still,” and then do it - be still for a few moments, allowing God to make his presence known. Then write, “You are God,” followed by a list of God’s attributes or whatever thoughts God reveals to you. You will find that thinking of God through the “watches of the night” is as refreshing as a good night’s sleep.

To be kept in . . . perfect peace, our mind must be stayed on the LORD.*