Worth Repeating - September 14, 2017

Leviticus 18: 1-3 The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them, ‘I am the Lord your God. You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices.’” (NIV)

If your Christianity doesn’t make you look different, what makes you think your neighbors will notice?* 

I have a Filipino friend who told me of an event she attended and how uncomfortable she felt there. She had to clarify for me that she felt conspicuous because of her obvious ethnicity amid a crowd of “white” people. It shocked me to realize how oblivious I was to how it feels to be different. Racially and culturally, I have very seldom found myself to be a minority in the crowd; as a Christian, however, I should be familiar with what it feels like to stand out from the herd.

In these verses in Leviticus, and in many other passages, God reminds his people that they are not to blend in with the people around them. God’s people then and now are to contrast vividly with the rest of the world’s population. Here, he tells them not to do as the Egyptians did in the land they had come from nor as the Canaanites did in the land he had brought them to. We should note that not everything these people did was evil - there was more to them than just their religion - but their societies were permeated with customs and behaviors that no child of God should tolerate. And yet, exposure leads to tolerance and compromise.

In the King James Version, Deuteronomy 14: 2 and 26: 18, Titus 2: 14, and I Peter 2: 9, speak of God’s people as “peculiar.” Newer translations describe us as “belonging to God.” I don’t know if the newer versions are more accurate or if we just don’t like being thought of us peculiar, but I’m thinking we would make a stronger statement in today’s culture if we were a little more comfortable with being looked at as peculiar. Maybe we are true to our faith in the worship service but do we stand out from the world when we’re out in it? Is there anything that distinguishes us from the natives in the land of Canaan?

If the Enemy cannot destroy the believers through open conflict, he will dilute them through subtle compromise.*

Worth Repeating - September 13, 2017

Revelation 3: 17, 18 “You say, ‘I am rich . . . and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold . . . so you can become rich; and white clothes . . . so you can cover your nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.” (NIV)

Self-sufficiency is the fatal danger of a lukewarm state.*

Remember the fable of the Emperor’s New Clothes? Some con men convinced everyone in the kingdom that they could fashion a new wardrobe for the emperor that only the wisest people could see. No one wanted to be thought stupid, so everyone pretended to admire the emperor’s outfit as he paraded around town, until some child, too young to be concerned about what others thought, calls out, “But he’s not wearing any clothes!”

Satan, the world’s greatest con man, had convinced the church members at Laodicea that they were rich and didn’t need a thing. “They had evidently mistaken ‘the good life’ for the righteous life.”* God says to them, through his revelation to John: Not only are you not rich, you are pathetic, blind and naked. They professed to be Christians but in their rampant materialism they failed to notice that they were “out of communion with Christ.”*

The Laodiceans are not the only ones who ever fell for Satan’s scams. Theirs is the condition of all who are trusting in something other than Jesus Christ. But just as “self-sufficient Laodicea”* is called to repentance (verse 19), God also offers us the chance to cover our nakedness, become rich, and to see again. Learn to value the things that God values – such as faith refined by fire; purity; and spiritual discernment.

The appearance of affluence and self-sufficiency can often blind us to deeper spiritual needs.*

Worth Repeating - September 12, 2017

II Thessalonians 3: 3 But the Lord is faithful. (NIV)

A trustworthy God is more than a match for untrustworthy men.*

We may have faith but we are often lacking in faithfulness. Unreliability is part of our human-ness!  People let us down; we let other people down. Most of us have good intentions but at times we misunderstand what is expected of us. Maybe the other person didn’t make his expectations clear. Sometimes people think we are capable of accomplishing more than we actually can.

Paul reminds us of whom we should – and can – trust. God keeps his promises – he can’t not keep his promises! He never abandons us when things aren’t going well. He will never belittle us or remind us of all the times we have let him down. Best of all, we will never have to live in the fear that we might do something to make him stop loving us. He has too much invested in us to forsake us.

Confidence in prayer comes from knowing the faithfulness of God.*

Worth Repeating - September 11, 2017

Matthew 5: 6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (NIV)

A passionate pursuit of godliness is the natural result of true conversion.*

I do not hunger for bananas and I do not thirst for coffee so I will not be ingesting them and therefore will never be filled by them. I do hunger for a good Cuban sandwich and I thirst for Welch’s grape juice so I will do what I must to be filled with them. Jesus wasn’t telling his listeners that they would mysteriously be filled with righteousness; he told them that if they hungered and thirsted for it, they would make the effort to seek it out and consume it. As with food, one does not become filled with righteousness by thinking about it. Imagining that we are satisfied is not . . . satisfying.

So what is this righteousness that Jesus tells us to crave? According to about.com, righteousness is the state of moral perfection required by God to enter heaven. While we can never achieve righteousness through our own efforts, it must be an attainable goal or Jesus wouldn’t have promised that we could have it. According to Romans 3: 22, this guaranteed righteousness comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. It is a promise he can keep because it is fulfilled in him.

Are you starving for some righteousness?

We are not saved by faith in faith; we are saved by faith in Christ as revealed in His Word.*

Worth Repeating - September 10, 2017

Proverbs 26: 13 The sluggard says, “There is a lion in the road, a fierce lion roaming the streets!” (NIV)

Fear can haunt us and paralyze us. Or fear can trigger us to flee to the one whose “perfect love drives out all fear.”*

About the time that my boys were preparing to go on a mission trip to Honduras, I read a newspaper article about some violent incident that had occurred somewhere in that country. I was already a little uneasy about letting my teen-agers go off to a foreign country, but then the thought came to me: the parent of a Honduran youth might not want her child to come to the US if she read about some of the things that happen here.

Life is dangerous everywhere. We might scoff at the lazy bums of the world whose imaginations have conjured up an excuse to avoid industrious or constructive activity, but the fact is, there really are lions roaming the streets. It is not just the sluggard’s convenient delusion.

The Bible has a lot to say about facing fear – the Book of Job and the Psalms in the Old Testament offer comforting words; and I John 4: 18 is the New Testament go-to verse for the fearful: “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear . . .” But God’s word has much more to say about fearing God than about any other type of fear. Read Leviticus and Deuteronomy and the Book of Acts. In Luke 12: 5, Jesus delivers the ultimate warning: Fear him who has the power to throw you into hell. Doesn’t that put your other fears into proper perspective?

Hell . . . is God’s idea.  It is God, not the devil, who holds the power to cast body and soul into Hell.  It is at the juxtaposition of these two facets, both the love and wrath of God the Almighty, that we find the cross of Christ.*

Worth Repeating - September 9, 2017

Luke 6: 38 “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (NIV)

Christian liberality originates in the grace of God.*

I don’t do much baking (or any type of kitchen activity for that matter!) but I remember that some recipes call for an ingredient to be “firmly packed” when measuring it. Failure to follow the directions would no doubt result in an inferior finished product. Being frugal in the kitchen is not a cost-saving endeavor if everything ends up in the garbage. 

In this verse, Jesus presents us with a recipe for blessings. If we follow his directions for measuring, not only will we be blessed but we increase our ability to bless others. What can you do to develop a generous lifestyle? Perhaps you could volunteer another hour of your time. Do you faithfully give to the Lord 10% of your income – to the penny? Try rounding it up to the next dollar. Start supporting a missionary. Sometimes our stinginess is in our attitude more than in our actions; be intentional in improving your outlook. 

Someone has said that Jesus’ words allow us “to decide how much we are going to freely give from what He has given us to manage.”* You could continue to give by the cupful and receive in the same measure. Or you could shake it down and press it down until it overflows for delicious results!

He doesn’t look at just what we give. He also looks at what we keep.*

Worth Repeating - September 8, 2017

Psalm 105: 4 Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.

Like a gracious father, our God can hardly wait for His children to request what is good.*

There’s a song about “looking for love in all the wrong places,” but we could also sing about looking for hope in all the wrong places. We have been brain-washed into believing that the strength we need to face crisis and heartbreak can be found within ourselves. That belief is only viable if the Holy Spirit dwells within us. Without his presence, our personal resources range from inadequate to useless.

The psalmist in this passage advises us to look to the Lord as our source of strength. He says to seek the Lord’s face always – to which we might add a reminder to do it first. I don’t know why we think we have to figure it all out for ourselves first. Do we not want to bother God with our problems? Are we afraid we will take him away from something important if we ask for his help? Do we think he doesn’t care? Perhaps we’re just too impatient to wait for him to come to our rescue.

My greatest spiritual growth spurts have occurred while I was waiting for God. I still have a lot to learn about waiting patiently but nothing compares to the comfort of his Spirit throughout the process and the joy of seeking his face and finding it.

God’s true presence requires that we stop working in our strength and rely on His.*