Author: Rick (Page 10 of 37)

“Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving” Colossians 4:2

Two commands are given in this short directive from the apostle Paul: continue and watch. First, we are to continue in daily and fervent prayer to God.  In 1 Thessalonians Paul tells us to pray unceasingly and in every epistle he reminds us to devote ourselves to prayer.  Prayer was a key to Paul’s instructions to us.  Christ’s words and example were also  constant reminders of the importance of prayer.  But in this verse Paul reminds us that as we pray, we must be also be carefully “watching” for occasions of thanksgiving.

The word “watch” means to be vigilant, alert, attentive. We must be intentional in our watch.  It is not something that will come naturally.  It is hard to see good in difficult situations or peace in turmoil.  It seems Paul knew that we have a tendency to be forgetful of the Lord’s blessings in our lives. We tend to take even the greatest mercies and most undeserved gifts for granted. We forget to give thanks for God’s place in our lives.

As we pray, we should be watchful for opportunities to give thanks.  No matter what the situation, we should intentionally look for the ways that we have been blessed.  And how blessed we have been!!  There is an old saying that says, “I was complaining about not having shoes, until I saw a man who had no feet.”  Unless we “watch” for things to be thankful for, we will probably neglect to be thankful.  Our natural tendencies are to be selfish and ungrateful.  We need to ask ourselves, is there something in this request for which I could also be giving thanks? Is there a reason to be grateful, even in the midst of this trial?

For instance, as we pray for a loved one to be healed, couldn’t we be grateful for having the loved one in our lives to begin with? As we pray for revival in our country, in our church, and in our homes, couldn’t we thank God for the promise that he will be found by those who seek him?  This morning as I sit here and the sun is just coming up, I see in just a glance a hundred things to be grateful for.  The sky is beautiful, my deck is sturdy, my home is solid, and family is safe. The birds are all around me filling the air with song. But could I sit here and not see any of these things, not hear any of these things, not be thankful for any of these things if I did not take the time to look for them. There is no way my difficulties can outnumber my blessings, but I must be alert to those blessings or I will miss them.

A man had a habit of grumbling at the food his wife placed before him at family meals. Then he would ask the blessing. One day after his usual combination complaint-prayer, his little girl asked, “Daddy, does God hear us when we pray?”

“Why, of course,” he replied. “He hears us every time we pray.”

She paused on this a moment, and asked, “Does He hear everything we say the rest of the time?”

“Yes, dear, every word,” he replied, encouraged that he had inspired his daughter to be curious about spiritual matters. However, his pride was quickly turned to humility at his daughter’s next question.

“Then, which does God believe?”

Our thankfulness to God in prayer should match our thankfulness to God in our daily lives. We must be careful to pray every day, and as we pray, we must be careful to give thanks to God for his abundant provision and marvelous promises. Even in the needs, even in the sorrows, even in the trials there are always reasons to be grateful.  There was once a preacher who did a sermon on thankfulness and at the end he passed his hat.  When it was returned to him, there was nothing in it, but he knew he needed to give thanks. He said, “Thank you God I got my hat back from this group.”  It was hard, but he found something to be grateful for!!

Sometimes it is good during our difficulties to make a “thankful sandwich” when we pray.  Our need should be placed between two slices of thankfulness.  Be thankful for something God has done, then present our need, then finish it off with something more else to be thankful for.  If we are twice as thankful as we are needy, it will hold our prayers together.

“You have turned my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, To the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.”  Psalms 30:11-12

What a great promise we have here.  God can turn our mourning into dancing.  He takes our sadness and can clothe us in gladness.  He is the transformer of emotions and the producer of joy. This is a wonderful truth to keep in mind when we go through those tough times that will always come.

I have known many who have had to stop  a bad habit.  That habit could be anything from smoking to over eating to inappropriate language.  It seems that in every case the habit must be replaced by something positive to really effect a change in behavior.  If we quit something, there is a void left and if we don’t fill it with something, it will get filled on its own, sometimes with something just as bad.  For instance, today many people try to quit smoking by us vaping. Recent studies show that vaping might be bringing a host of new problems itself.  It is one problem replaced by another.

When my dad quit smoking after 30 years, I saw him do something I had never seen him do before- he chewed gum.  Before he quit it that was hard for him to do because chewing gum with a cigarette in your mouth is pretty difficult, if not dangerous.  Even though he told me that he never craved a cigarette from the day he made the decision to quit, the habits of using his hands to hold something, having something in his mouth, feeling relaxed, and others still had to be filled.  The main thing he did was pray.  The day he quit he made the drive from Portland to Grants Pass and he said he prayed the whole way and had never done that before.  He replaced the bad with something good.

God knows that if we are in mourning, that mourning cannot be just taken away- it must be replaced with something.  The verses in Psalms tell us that God doesn’t simply remove our mourning and make it go away, He replaces it with something better. We won’t just stop mourning, but we will eventually start dancing.  That means that we will move beyond the pain and actually feel whole again.

I have a friend who lost his daughter to a sixteen year battle with cancer.  He is still grieves her loss a year later.  Understandably, because there may be no harder hurt than losing a child. How can such a tragedy be replaced with peace?  I think a story that FB Meyer’s tells might hold they key. One day he met a miserable-looking woman who shared that she had recently lost her crippled daughter who she had cared for for years. She was the joy of her life.  The mother was now alone and  home was not “home” anymore. Meyer gave her wise counsel. “When you get home and put the key in the door,” he said, “say aloud, ‘Jesus, I know You are here!’ and be ready to greet Him directly when you open the door. And as you light the fire tell Him what has happened during the day; if anybody has been kind, tell Him; if anybody has been unkind, tell Him, just as you would have told your daughter. At night stretch out your hand in the darkness and say, ‘Jesus, I know You are here!'” Months later, Meyer was back in that neighborhood and met the woman again, but he did not recognize her. Her face radiated joy instead of announcing misery. “I did as you told me,” she said, “and it has made all the difference in my life, and now I feel I know Him.”  This woman had replaced the loss of a daughter with the love of the Father.

We will experience times of sadness- we are surrounded by it, but God can remove that and replace it with something good. Probably not immediately, but it will happen. He might do that through His Word, an encouraging song from the radio, or even a phone call from a friend.  He knows our hurt and knows how much we can take.  He is watching and waiting for our call and is poised to have a replacement handy.

I had a friend once who had a real potty mouth.  After he was saved, he lost about 50% of his vocabulary.  He had to make some real changes, but it was hard because his old habit was right on the tip of his tongue.  He came up with a safe alternative to swearing.  Every time he felt a profanity raising its ugly head, he would clear his throat. This gave him time to think about what he was doing.  It was the equivalent of counting to ten before doing something.  Admittedly, at the beginning everyone thought he had a chronic cough.  But as he got more control of his tongue, the less he had to clear his throat.  He substituted something good (or at least neutral) for something bad. Pretty soon he had cleared out the inclination to swear and could stop clearing out his throat.

We need to think about what these verses mean to us. Our sorrows, disappointments, tragedies and failures are very real — but they are also “raw material” for a transformation that God will accomplish in us if we allow Him to.  And we WILL dance! God will do it. He has picked out the steps already.  When we dance, we will sing to Him and the circle of healing will be complete. Our part is simply to wait…believe…and cling tightly to this wonderful promise!

“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” II Timothy 3:14-17

What if we were to be approached by God today and He were to ask us, “Well, how do you like my book,” what would we say?  Would we respond the same way we would about anything else that gives us enjoyment?  Would it be on par with golf, as big a hit as baseball, or as alluring as fishing? Would we be excited, would we go into tears, would we start talking about favorite verses, or would we just remain silent?  What do we think about the Word of God?  Do we know the Word of God?

A few summers ago, Elaine and I stopped by a Christian book store in Eugene. As is my custom, I ask the very nice manager of the store how business was and she said it was very good.  As we talked she mentioned that Bibles are still what keeps their business afloat. They make up 40% of their sales.  For some reason it got me teary-eyed to know that people are, in these changing times, still buying Bibles.  As I browsed the Bible area I realized how much things have changed from when I was young and there were just a handful of Bibles to choose from (no, we are not not talking the Guttenberg press edition).  Now they have Bibles for every interest, every theological slant, and every possible translation a person could want.  But the key still remains- having access to the Bible is not the same as reading the Bible.  As a friend said once, “It is better to have one worn Bible, than to have a hundred untouched.”

Verse 17 above reminds us that the Bible equips us for our daily lives. But even more than that, it equips us for the battles we face in life.  And our battles are many.  Paul tells us in Ephesians 6:17 that we should “Take the…sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”  Paul is telling us that the Word of God is a weapon.  He knew that we would need it no matter how far in the future someone read his words.  The battle will continue until Christ comes again and we need to be prepared by being “equipped for every good work.”

We cannot use the Word of God if we do not know the Word of God.  Too often we rely on the teaching of others to expose us to God’s Word, but we need to study it ourselves to really become familiar with it- to be able wield it in times of need.  Can you imagine using a weapon in battle that we have seldom touched and our only knowledge about it comes from having heard someone else talk about it?  We would sorely lack the skills needed to fend off the enemy.   I love our Pastor, but he does not want us to take his word for everything.  He wants us to read the Word ourselves. There is no way he can give us enough sustenance in one day to last an entire week.  Even if I went to Sizzler’s Buffet every Sunday, I could not eat enough to last me until Saturday (I have tried).

Beloved evangelist Gipsy Smith once told a story of man who said he had received no inspiration from the Bible although he had “gone through it several times.”

“Let it go through you once,” replied Smith, “Then you will tell a different story!”  The Bible is not only changeless, it will change us. The Bible is not a book to just peruse, it a book to use.  The Bible is not for light reading, it is a book for life reading.  The Bible is not just a great book to read, it is the greatest book ever written.

One of my favorite groups of people in the New Testament are the Bereans.  When Paul went to Thessalonica to preach the word, he was not well received, but when he went to Berea, and they accepted him eagerly.  What was the difference?  Paul’s words were the same. The difference was the Bereans themselves. We are told that they examined the Scriptures daily to see if what Paul said was so. They made the Word their own. They checked out Paul, one of the greatest preachers of all time, to make sure he was teaching the truth. The Bereans were called “more noble” because they searched the scriptures on their own and became acquainted with the Word with their own eyes.

Can you imagine charging into battle and not even knowing how to get your sword it out of the scabbard?  We may have the best weapon on the battlefield, but it is useless if we are not familiar with it.  Paul said, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”  (II Tim. 2:15)  There is only one way to get to know something and that is through study.

A circuit riding preacher entered one church building with his young son, and dropped a coin into the offering box in the back. Not many came to church that Sunday, and those who did didn’t seem too excited about what the young preacher said. After the service, the preacher and son walked to the back, and he emptied the box. Out fell one coin. The young boy said, “Dad, if you’d have put more in, you’d have gotten more out!”   We can’t expect to get more out of something than what we put in.  God’s Word is the greatest book ever written, but words on a page only become real to us once we have made them our own.

“I had a bottle on my shelf, I saw it everyday.

The pills inside miraculously could take my aches away.

But when pain stayed in my bones, into the trash I threw

the bottle of those crummy pills, unopened and brand new.”

It is hard to complain that the Bible doesn’t work, if…. it’s “unopened and brand new.”

Have a blessed week. 

“So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,[b] being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”      Philippians 2:1-11

Years and years ago (Sandi and Chris’ senior year) I told a story about Kevin Tommasini at the football banquet.  I said that Kevin was a pretty spiritual guy and before one game I went  by his locker and he was praying.  I heard him say, “Lord make me humble.”  Unfortunately, I said, God thought he said, “Lord, make me fumble,” and Kevin did, three times, and it made him humble. So God answered his prayer, but not in the way Kevin envisioned!

God has a way of bringing humility to our lives if we start to think a little too highly of ourselves.  Max Lucado says that it is hard to be filled with Christ if we are too full of ourselves and that is so very true.  Today’s verses give to us the greatest illustration of humility that the earth has ever known and explains to us how we can tap into the power of humility, as well.

I say the power of humility because it is power.  Many see humility as a weakness and that is their first mistake.  These verses show us that the most powerful man who has ever lived, lived in humility.  He could have destroyed those who hurt Him with just a wave of His hand, but instead He humbled Himself and died for those same people.  Had Christ not had humility, we would not have eternal life. If Christ would not have put us above Him, we would never rise above with Him.

In verses 3 and 4 Paul reminds us that we need to esteem others more significant than ourselves.  Many take this to mean that we need to think little of ourselves, but this cannot be.  We were formed in God’s own image; we are important, God said so in His Word.  What God really means is that we are to see ourselves as significant, but even in seeing that, treat others as more important. Christ did not have a self-image problem and because of that went to the cross. No, Christ knew He was the creator of the universe, but He chose to place man’s need over His own.  He knew the pain that was ahead of Him and yet went through with it for our sake- that is humility.

One way to keep ourselves in prospective is to remember that all we are and all we do are by the grace of God.  It is He who has made us and He who should get the credit.  We like to credit ourselves with our accomplishments, but that would be like the donkey taking credit for the raucous reception of adoration when he carried Christ into Jerusalem.  The palms and alleluias were not for the donkey any more than others praise of us is really for us.  When we reach that understanding, we will be able to put others in a  proper place.

George Washington Carver, the scientist who developed hundreds of useful products from the peanut once said, “When I was young, I said to God, ‘God, tell me the mystery of the universe.’ But God answered, ‘That knowledge is reserved for me alone.’ So I said, ‘God, tell me the mystery of the peanut.’ Then God said, ‘Well, George, that’s more nearly your size.’ And he told me.”    Anytime we begin to think too much of ourselves we should look a the universe around and look at a peanut and see what really matches who we are.

DL Moody was once approached by a man who said he had ceased to sin and had not sinned for ten years.  Moody said, “Really, you must be pretty proud of that.”

The man replied, “Yes, I am.”

Moody smiled and said, “That, apparently, is your first sin in ten years.”   He knew that as soon as we start to be proud of humility, humility is dissolved.  At the end of the day if we are not humble, we will stumble. That is a fact.  Pride led to satan’s fall and he wants to take us with him the same way.  Don’t be like the preacher who once said, “I am very humble and I am proud of that.”  Be like Christ who did not state humility but lived humility.  If every Christian did just that one thing, our world would be a different place.

“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.” Psalm 91:1

The traffic in Lincoln City, Newport, and Depoe Bay is often formidable  and the crosswalks are challenging because a person could grow old waiting for the flashing walk sign or not grow old at all trying to cross without one! Combine that with the influx thousands of drivers of various skills, it is a challenge to walk and drive on the coast on weekends at certain times of year. As a sidelight, I heard that the reason the baseball teams were named what they were in LA was because the pedestrians there were either dodgers or angels. The analogy is theologically weak, but you get the point. It is not much different on the Oregon coast.

A few years back Elaine and I decided to cross the road and get a bite to eat in a restaurant. We pushed the walk button to cross the main road (45 mile an hour speed limit) and waited and waited. We had go through two crosswalks to get to the restaurant that was catty-corner to us anyway, so hunger drove us to cross the less busy road in spite of the flashing wait sign. There was no danger because… well, it is too hard to explain, but believe me, there was no danger. So we got to the other side and waited to cross the busy road once more. Finally we got the okay from a friendly flashing light and crossed. All of a sudden we heard a huge noise and I looked over and a large truck had lost its load of metal pipes at the intersection. When he stopped, all the pipes (and there was a bunch of them) shot off his rack, over the hood, through the crosswalk and into the intersection. They were big, heavy, and sharp. If anyone would have been in the crosswalk, they would have been surely injured and maybe worse. An army of men piled out of the truck and started gathering up pipes. It dawned on me that had we waited we would have been in that crosswalk when everything took place.

We were okay and it did not spoil our appetites, but it really made us think. What part does God play in our daily lives when it comes to protecting us. When we are safe is He protecting us and when we are hurt, He is not? Why does one person die in an accident and another survives? Why is one prayer seemingly answered and another seems to sit dormant for years. What’s going on here? Do we live on God’s roulette wheel of happenings and once in while we just get the black ball in the right or wrong slot?

We live in an unstable world populated by unstable people governed by an unstable, rebellious angel. There is a popular cliché that says “The safest place is in the center of God’s will.” However, does that mean when something bad happens we are outside of God’s will or if we seem to be protected we are obviously in God’s will. The Word (and experience) seems to say otherwise. Was Paul not in the center of God’s will when he was stoned, beaten, and imprisoned? Do missionaries suffer and Christian martyrs around the world shed their blood because they are out of God’s will? Or what about the reprobate who seems to enjoy God’s protection for a time- is that person in God’s will? What, then, is the need to be in God’s will if suffering and protection seem to be so random.

Well, because it is not random from God’s viewpoint and that is the viewpoint that counts. One my favorite passages on this subject is found in Daniel 3:16-18: “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and he will deliver us out of thy hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.”

Basically, these three men of God said, “God can deliver us and if that is part of His plan, okay. But if he does not deliver us, it doesn’t change anything. He is still God.” I believe there are things that will happen because they must happen and there are things that can change because they can change. I believe there are things that may go one way if we neglect our prayer and another way if we do pray. I believe that God has possible scenarios that will play out depending on our prayer life, people involved, His sovereign will, and our free will. Do I believe that, as the above Psalms verse states, we were sheltered by God. Yes, but the incident and its outcome did not determine the sheltering. If we remain close to Him He will protect us regardless of what happens to us. His protection is beyond what we can see. We are limited to seeing today, seeing our own lives, and cannot see the entire scope of humanity like God can. Is God God because He did not allow a pipe to hurt us? No, God is God because He is God regardless of our situations.

God’s umbrella of protection is over us if we are in Him, but sometimes we have to share it with others and sometimes we may even have to give it to someone else because they need it more. I may have to step out in the weather so someone else can be brought to where he or she needs to be. God knows and I don’t. I just need to trust that He will do what I would do if I had the mind of God. Remember, when we step into eternity and have so much more knowledge, we will never look at God and say, “I don’t think I would have done it that way.” I think we will probably say something like, “Well done, good and faithful Master,” and shake our heads in amazement at His wisdom.