Worth Repeating - February 18, 2017

Nehemiah 2: 4, 5 The king said to me, “What is it you want?” Then I prayed to the God of heaven and I answered the king, “If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my fathers are buried so that I can rebuild it.”

There is no way to learn to pray except by praying.*

I used to have a job in which every telephone call was a potential land-mine. Every time my phone rang, as I placed my hand on the receiver, I would say, “Please help me, God,” before I answered. I have heard this kind of prayer referred to as an “arrow prayer.” You “shoot an arrow” to God, silently asking for help in a critical situation. We don’t always have time to present God with an itemized list of our needs before we must make an important decision.

Like soldiers who drill and drill until the maneuver is as natural as breathing, Nehemiah had been praying and preparing for this meeting with the king, even though he didn’t know that the king was going to ask him what he wanted - and he certainly wasn’t expecting the king to grant his request. We don’t know the exact words of his prayer, but like Nehemiah, we should have that arrow ready to go.

Nehemiah also sets an example of praying audaciously. Would he have had the nerve to make such a bold request of the king if he hadn’t already appealed to the higher power? How daring is your prayer life? Have you practiced praying until it is your automatic response? Do you approach the throne boldly and dare to ask for really big favors?   

To the spirit of prayer every place is a praying place.*

Worth Repeating - February 17, 2017

Mark 9: 24 “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

. . .that strange mix of vulnerability, courage and hope the Bible calls faith.*

We can relate to the anguished cry of this father whose son is possessed by an evil spirit. He wants to believe that Jesus can deliver the boy from his affliction but what hope is there? Even if he could believe that Jesus was able to help him, why should he expect him to? Whose faith is as strong as it ought to be? We all have doubts and weaknesses. Jesus told the man that everything is possible for him who believes. Do we really believe that? 

Maybe we should ask ourselves what we don’t believe. First, let’s eliminate the silly and frivolous – Jesus is not a genie in a lamp to grant our wishes for riches, and nothing in his life or words indicates that we should expect him to be – so of course we don’t believe in a fairytale version of Jesus. So what are some real-life expectations that we think Jesus might not live up to? 

· Physical healing for ourselves or a loved one. 

· Forgiveness of some heinous sin in our past. 

· Finding our soulmate. 

· Delivering a loved one from a destructive lifestyle. 

· Peace on earth. 

As we look at this list again, let’s ask ourselves: Do we really believe that Jesus can’t do these things – or that he won’t? When I cry out to God to help me overcome my unbelief, I am not asking him to prove what he is able to do; I am asking for the strength to be obedient and remain faithful even when he denies my requests. While that is not the comforting thought we might be hoping for, the comfort comes when we have learned to walk in faith and obedience even when our wishes don’t come true.

Life has many unanswered questions, but God’s ability to save needn’t be one of them. Be settled about God’s faithfulness.*

Worth Repeating - February 16, 2017

Genesis 12: 13 “Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.”

So I decide that the rightness of my position justifies the wrongness of my action . . .*

Today’s journalists could learn a lot about their craft from the writers of the Bible. The reporter who filed this story about Abram (Abraham) and Sarai (Sarah) conveyed just the facts. He didn’t condemn, speculate or make excuses. Abram lied to save his life, he reports, and we are left to make our own judgments. 

Is it ever right to lie? Is a half-truth okay? Sarai really was his half-sister, but if Abram thought that leaving out the information about her being his wife would save his own neck, what did he suppose were the possible consequences for Sarai? (Read the entire story if you aren’t familiar with it or need to refresh your memory.) 

We can’t hop into our tricked-out DeLorean and travel back in time to see what would have happened if Abram had been completely honest. (In the Back to the Future movies, tinkering with the “time/space continuum” could have dire consequences!) We can’t know how (or if) Abram’s telling the truth would have changed history any more than we can be certain of how our own decisions about truth and lies could alter the course of our lives, but we can be sure that: 

· Lying is never not a sin, not even to save a life. 

· God does not need us to lie in order to accomplish his purpose. 

· God uses imperfect people – even liars – because that’s all he has to work with, not because he approves of sinful methods. 

I hope that none of us is ever forced to make a choice such as Abram thought he faced: lie or die. If you were faced with such a dilemma, would you think it was up to you to save yourself or would you trust God to deliver you?

Man must not stop to ask himself which is best, right or wrong; he must do right.*

Worth Repeating - February 15, 2017

I Samuel 17: 32, 40, 48, 50 David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.” . . . Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine. . . . As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. . . . So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone.

Great acts of faith are seldom born out of calm calculation.*

Here is David, a shepherd boy sent on an errand to the front lines of battle - and he’s trying to cheer everyone up. “Come on, guys. Don’t be so glum. I’ll take care of this for you.” Can’t you just see the budding Psalmist in this scene? David is an encourager as well as a very brave young man.

 

Just how brave is he? First, let’s examine his preparations for battle. Why did he take five stones? If the first one missed, did he think he would get another try? There is speculation that he took five stones because he knew that Goliath had four brothers. What! He wasn’t just bravely going into battle against one giant? He thought he was going to have to deal with five of them? Did I say that David was brave?

So what did David do after he armed himself? He “ran quickly . . . to meet him.” He didn’t just wait for the giant to come to him – he was proactive. As I was reading this story, I couldn’t help but think of the scene in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” where Indiana Jones meets up with an assassin in an alley. The guy is armed to the teeth with sabers and knives. He is all flash and dash and intimidation as he swishes his blades in the air. Instead of being alarmed, Indy just rolls his eyes, pulls out his gun and shoots. As delusional as that assassin, the Philistines thought their armor and weapons, giants and taunting, were going to save them from a young man who knew who his Deliverer was.

If we, like David, know and trust our Deliverer, we can be brave and ready for battle, too.

The hero pedestal is a precarious place on which to stand. . . [but] God has used heroic men and women throughout history to lead his people and serve his purposes.*

Worth Repeating - February 14, 2017

Song of Solomon 8: 7 Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away.

Romance was so complicated that it must take a genius to figure it out.*

Anyone who has ever been through a divorce knows that this verse isn’t universally true. Love, especially romantic love, is sometimes wishy-washy and unreliable. My love for my children is a better example of unquenchable love because there is nothing that could make me stop loving them.

The Song of Solomon is a somewhat confusing love song. And love songs are not the most reliable source of information about true love outside of the realm of romance. We generally refer to chapter 13 of I Corinthians as the final authority on what love is. But I think we still don’t get it. In the words of Max Lucado: “When it comes to love, feelings rule the day. Emotions guide the ship. Goose bumps call the shots. But should they? Can feelings be trusted? Can a relationship feel right but be wrong?”* 

   

So, even though we are reading the words about how love is patient and kind, we are expecting that we will feel patient and kind if we love someone. The fact is, if we love someone, we will be patient and kind, no matter how we feel. There would be a lot less feelings of guilt in the world if we understood that true love cannot be quenched – it just sometimes feels that way!

The world regards love as an involuntary emotion – something we fall into (like we fall into a ditch) or out of (like falling out of a tree).*

Worth Repeating - February 13, 2017

Mark 10: 51 “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.”

Some Christians are burdened by an unexpressed fear that it may be wrong to want anything.*

For most of my life, I have been asking God for the wrong things. I’m not whining about seldom getting what I asked for because God’s will is always superior to mine. I find myself, however, reluctant to express my true desires to God because . . . well, I know that he’s going to give me what’s best so it must not matter what I want. . . I’m thinking that might be the wrong attitude!

Jesus asked the blind man what he wanted Jesus to do for him. I believe Jesus wanted the man to be specific. Would Jesus have granted his request if he had asked for anything other than healing? Who knows. But what if the man had been cautious – even timid – in his request? Perhaps asked for a new cane, a service dog, money . . . How silly would that have been when Jesus had the power to make him able to see!

I say, if you want something, ask for it. Ask for it according to God’s will. Wait expectantly for God to give you what you asked for - or something better. I say, if you are thankful for what you get, you won’t regret what you didn’t get. I say, as your faith matures, your asking will, too. I look forward to the day when I want what God wants, and when he asks, “What do you want me to do for you,” I won’t hesitate to tell him.

The more we thank, the more we see to be thankful for.*

Worth Repeating - February 12, 2017

Acts 4: 20 “For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

Speaking what one has seen and heard is the essence of witnessing.*

One night, in my role as a camp counselor, I was having trouble getting the little girls in my cabin to settle down and go to sleep. Finally, one little girl piped up, “There’s a room full of girls here and I just have to talk!”

Perhaps Peter and John could relate to that little girl. They were filled with the Spirit and bubbling over with good news to share. They literally were not able not to speak! Such exuberance was a new development for them. Remember when they were not so bold? Yet, here they were in court where one is supposed to tell the truth about what you have seen and heard and they are being commanded not to speak! Instead of quaking in fear, they are “willing to pay the price of this defiance with their lives.”*

As someone has pointed out, “A leader’s execution is not a usual recipe for heartening his followers,”* so what accounts for the difference in their demeanor? They were pumped because of what they had seen and heard. Have you ever witnessed something astonishing? I saw the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger; I saw (on TV) the airplane flying into the second tower of the World Trade Center; I saw a boy and his bicycle thrown across an intersection after colliding with a pick-up truck. When we see something like that, isn’t it our natural reaction to want to tell someone? Imagine being an eye-witness to the events that Peter and John had seen. What a story they had to tell!

Can you give a first-hand account of what you have seen Jesus do in your life?  How anxious are you to share your story with anyone and everyone – regardless of the consequences?

Actively sharing your faith solidifies your personal convictions.*