Author: Rick (Page 16 of 18)

“If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done.” – Ecclesiastes 11:4

I have long wanted to write a novel. I started my first one when I was in college and am on chapter thirteen of my current one (been on chapter 13 for a long time now). I kid Elaine because she has started quite a few crocheting projects. Most of them remain the size of doilies. (maybe they are doilies, but I don’t think so). Sometimes people make bucket lists to try to do certain things they wish they had done earlier in their lives and often times they are things that they have always put off until tomorrow.

The dictionary defines procrastination as, “to delay or put off something until a later date, especially intentionally or habitually.” Many people make jokes about procrastination and I have made my share as well, but scripture tells us that it really isn’t any laughing matter. The above verse warns us that if we wait for “perfect conditions” to perform our tasks, we’ll never accomplish anything. There is a saying, “Hard work is often the easy work you do not do at the proper time” and that is so often true. Very few jobs that we put off get smaller, easier, or better. I often put off cleaning up the garage and I can tell you that no matter how long I wait, it is never better that I waited!

When we put things off, we put additional stress on ourselves about that task. Soon it seems as though the task is controlling us. It can reach the point of bondage and can even paralyze us. It is never far enough from our thoughts to truly escape it. We would think putting something off would put it behind us, but it is actually in front of us and we see it everywhere we go. Procrastination never simplifies our lives, but instead replaces our joy and peace with dread. Putting something off until tomorrow is like putting a piece of tape over the oil light on our dashboard- it doesn’t take away the problem, it just makes things worse in the long run.

A farm boy accidentally overturned his wagonload of corn in the road. The former who lived nearby came to investigate. “Hey, Willis,” he called out, “forget your troubles for a spell and come on in and have dinner with us. Then I’ll help you get the wagon up.”

“That’s mighty nice of you,” Willis answered, “But I don’t think Pa would like me to.”

“Aw, come on, son!” the farmer insisted.

“Well, okay,” the boy finally agreed. “But Pa won’t like it.”

After a hearty dinner, Willis thanked his host. “I feel a lot better now, but I just know Pa is going to be real upset.”

“Don’t be foolish!” exclaimed the neighbor.

“By the way, where is he?”

“Under the wagon.”

Richard L. Evans once said, “The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it” and as quickly as life passes, starting tasks at the end might not leave enough time to do them.

The best way to face a task we dread is to focus on the end result. How many times have we finally done something and said, “This is great. Why didn’t I do this sooner?” Probably almost every time we finally do a task! A good way to get started is to enlist God’s help. Second Timothy 1:7 reads “For God has not given us a spirit of fearfulness but of power, love, and self-discipline.” God wants us to do things as they need to be done. We like to think that our procrastination affects only us, but that is far from true. Seldom does our inaction affect just us and even a minutes thought will remind us of that. Hardly anything that affects us, affects only us.

God will reward our diligence in not setting aside things, especially spiritual things. Proverbs 13:4 says, “The desires of the diligent are fully satisfied.” In Proverbs (3:27-28) we are told, “Do not withhold good from those who deserve it, when it is in your power to act. Do not say to your neighbor, ‘Come back later; I’ll give it tomorrow’ – when you now have it with you.” That is a pretty clear statement about procrastination. God doesn’t want us putting off doing good to others. When it comes to mind to call someone, send them a card, or visit them, we need to be quick to respond. Our timely response can make a world of difference in someone else’s life. When we do the things we should do, when we should do them, we will feel the satisfaction we should feel, when we should feel it. What a shame to have to regret putting something off that we should have done earlier and because of that delay, delay the good feelings of getting it done. Accomplishing a task is a blessing in itself, so procrastinating is putting off our blessings to a later time, and why would we ever do that?

George Burns often told the story about how he wanted to insure his singing voice and he took a tape of his best song into the insurance company. The insurance agent listened to the tape, looked at him and said, “Mr. Burns, you should have come to us before you had the accident.” Some people kid that we should never do today what we can put off until tomorrow, but unfortunately that never quite works out for our benefit. I think this little poem illustrates most of our feelings.

Procrastination is my sin, it brings me naught but sorrow.
I know that I should stop it, in fact, I will…tomorrow.

Small tasks that we put off might not be too injurious, but spiritual ones can be. Let’s not put off those things we should do for God, thinking the task will get easier. If we want to read through the Bible, have a better prayer life, start witnessing more, today is a better day to start because tomorrow never comes until it is today. For me, I want to do more things for God and also get past chapter thirteen today. That would be a novel idea.

“… give me neither poverty nor riches! Give me just enough to satisfy my needs.  For if I grow rich, I may deny you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God’s holy name.”    Proverbs 30:7-8

Years ago after the sad and tragic death of Robin Williams I remember reflecting on the number of celebrities and millionaires who have taken their own lives or lost their lives to drugs or alcohol.  It is ironic to me that a society that elevates riches and fame to such an extraordinary level loses so many of its “success stories” to bouts of depression or self-destruction

In the verses above the writer asks  God to save him from his own dissatisfaction.  He basically says he cannot handle poverty or riches and asks God to keep him from them because of his weaknesses.  But the key to life is not to change our circumstances to fit our strength but to be strengthened to fit our circumstances.  When I first started coaching a long-time head coach told me to always win around 75% of the games each season.  He said that that was enough to keep people satisfied and not too much for them to have expectations. That would give me longevity in coaching.  What a terrible philosophy!  I see a similar philosophy in the verses above.  The attitude of “Don’t give me too little or too much because I can’t handle it” is an effort to be successful without stress.  Striving for mediocrity is not striving at all.  The apostle Paul had the exact opposite approach.

“I know both how to have a little, and I know how to have a lot.  In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being content–whether well fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need.”  Philippians 4:12

Paul was able to handle both poverty and riches, both want and plenty, both rejection and acceptance.  That is a much better thing to be able to do because we cannot control our circumstances and it is a shame to let them control us.  How was Paul able to live in satisfaction in every condition?  He tells us in the next verse.

“I am able to do all things through Him who strengthens me.”   Philippians 4:13

Circumstances change, Christ never does.  If we are going to lean on something, it should be something solid.  Jesus is the Rock, the Cornerstone, the Solid Place because He is foundational and nothing else in this world is.  There is an old hymn that says, “My Hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame but holy lean on Jesus name. On Christ the solid Rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.  All other ground is sinking sand.”  Too many build their lives on the sinking sand of riches, fame, and power.  But none of those can bring contentment.  Robin Williams lived to bring happiness to the world, but the world could not bring enough happiness to Robin to make him want to live.  Only one person can do that.

“I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”    John 10:9-10

To stay strong in this world we must realize that happiness and contentment are not necessarily the same thing although we use the terms causally and interchangeably.  Contentment is the ability to accept our life regardless of where we find ourselves.  It is seeing a fulness in life where others may not see it.  In Christ we can determine to be content without “having it all.”  Happiness is often based on the high points on the roller coaster of life that will be followed, inevitably, by low points.  Paul recognized that.  I am sure that he was not happy about being starved, beaten, and shipwrecked, but within himself could still find contentment in Christ.  He knew that Jesus came to give us abundant life, not by changing the conditions of world to fit our desires, but by changing us to be able to handle the conditions of the world.  As Paul told Timothy…

“Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.”   I Timothy 6:6-7

But no matter how much we try, we will never achieve contentment on our own.  We just aren’t wired that way.

“Rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full. Then the water returns again to the rivers and flows out again to the sea. Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content.”  Ecclesiastes 1:7-8

“This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: Look at what’s happening to you! You have planted much but harvest little. You eat but are not satisfied. You drink but are still thirsty. You put on clothes but cannot keep warm. Your wages disappear as though you were putting them in pockets filled with holes!”  Haggai 1:5-7

No truer words depict the condition of the world in which we live. People are never satisfied. No matter what, we can never achieve contentment outside of God.  We will always want more, we will always want different.   We may be rich, but we want to be richer.  One of the richest men in the world was once asked how much is enough and he responded, “It’s never enough.”  That is what the world says but the Word tells us that “Christ is enough.”  Live in abundance; live in Him.

“Oh how love I Thy law! It is my meditation all the day.” Psalm 119:97

I was out on my porch at about 11:45 last night and it was very quiet. I wasn’t even hearing traffic on the highway and that was unusual. It was really easy to think (well, as easy as it is for me to ever think).  It reminded me of a Saturday a while back when Chris, Noah, and I met at Dorena Lake.  We stopped at two campgrounds and a few other places on our trip around the lake, and at a couple of our stops it was just so quiet that Chris made a comment about it. I guess we get so used to noise that when we can’t hear anything, it almost strikes us as odd.

That is why it is important to get away from it all and spend some time with Lord on a consistent basis, eliminating all distractions and just giving Him and Him alone some of our alone time. Christianity is not a legal relationship, it is a love relationship. We should not have to be forced to spend time with Him by threat, but by our own desire. We are called to more like Christ, but we cannot do that on our own, we need to spend time with Him.

Of course, the key to all of this is determining a need, and thus a desire, to spend time with the Lord, so we need to start there. So let’s just say we see the value of spending at least a few minutes with God each day and we want to take some steps to make it happen. The very first step is to pray about it. We are not naturally inclined to do the right things. I sometimes console myself after a bad golf game by reminding myself that I am trying to get a little ball into a little hole that has the whole world around it. Well, when we want to put ourselves in a special spot with the lord, we are surrounded by the whole world that opposes us. So we must enlist the only one who can help us, the maker of the whole world. Once we decide to create a quiet time and pray for God’s guidance, it is time to begin the process.

One of my favorite Pastors, Adrian Rodgers, lists five things to keep in mind when trying to develop a good quiet time with the Lord. The proper period, preparation, place, provision, and preparation are all essential to creating a special time with God.  Of course, like I said, this all follows prayer, so what we have here are the six p’s of creating a peaceful time with God. Wait a minute, peaceful, that’s now seven p’s!

First we must find a proper period of time. We should strive for at least half an hour, but some time is better than no time, so if we can’t start at thirty minutes, we should begin with ten. It should be a time when we are alert. We all know when our alert times are. Morning is good if it is possible. Psalm 5:3 says, “… in the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee, and will look up.” But whenever is the best time, it is best if it is the same time, all the time. It’s funny because many spend countless hours in endeavors that will help their physical bodies, but struggle to give ten minutes to their spiritual ones.

It is important that we properly prepare for this time by clearing our heads of distractions. If we have something in our hearts that needs to be taken care of, we need to take care of it. We need think upon the Lord, not on our shortcomings. Like readying ourselves for any other endeavor, we must separate ourselves from anything that will steal our focus.

Once we have decided on a time and have prepared ourselves mentally, we must find a proper place where we can focus. Jesus said enter into your closet and pray (see Matthew 6:6) but that simply means to find a place of isolation where we can shut the door on the world and open the windows to heaven. Jesus sought out places where He could be alone, and so should we.

In getting ready for the camping trip this weekend, I am making a list of provisions. If I don’t make a list, I will be without what is necessary, when it is necessary. Nothing worse than trying to clean a fish with a spoon. There are several proper provisions that can be helpful to us in our quiet time. A good Bible (readable, accurate, and familiar) is essential and a prayer journal and/or notepad for writing is advisable. There are all kinds of other things that can be added later, but for starters, this is really all we need.

So what would be the proper procedures for an effective quiet time? First of all, we need to quiet our spirits. The Bible says in Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God.” After we quiet ourselves, it is good to read the Word. We like to jump right in and talk to God, but He already knows us pretty well. It might be best to get to know Him better. We tend to focus on self, but we want to focus on God, instead. When reading, how much we read is not nearly as important as how we read. Reading goals (reading through the Bible in a year) and devotionals should probably remain separate from our quiet time. A quiet time should just be us and God.  We can read other authors at other times.

After we have read and maybe looked at how the passages apply to us and maybe even jotted down a few notes, we are ready to pray. Our prayer time should be honest and open. I like praying aloud (when I am not in a public place!) for two reasons. One, I think it focuses us better. It is harder for our minds to wander when we are hearing what we are saying. Secondly, the dark principalities and powers of this world can’t read our thoughts, but they can hear our words and nothing clears them out of an area faster than prayer!

Each day we should take what we learn during our quiet time and apply it to our day. I have heard it said that our spiritual train runs on two rails, knowledge and obedience. If either rail stops, so does the train. Remember, pray that God will help us to begin. When it comes to good things we should do, it’s always best to start at the beginning. Any time is better than no time and more time is better than little time. Developing a good quiet time can be a little like my golf game.  It might take a while to get there, lagging our way up to the green, and we may get off in the woods at times, but we need to just keep shooting for the goal and eventually we will get there!  We just can’t stop trying!

“Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”  1 Corinthians 15:58

There are over 30 different references in the Bible to words like “stand fast” and “steadfast.”  In a day when wishy-washy seems the norm, the Bible sets forth a better way.  In our country we are blessed that our steadfastness does not necessitate facing death, torture, or even physical abuse.  We do not face what Christians have faced in history or even what many face now around much of the world.  In most cases, our endurance can be illustrated with fairly painless firmness- walking away from sinful situations, standing up for Christ when He is put down, not compromising on an issue of rightness and other daily stands that reflect the righteousness found in God’s Word.

Just a cursory look at the world around us gives a vivid picture of the schisms that exist in our world due to flimsy stands.  Even the body of Christ is fractured because people don’t plant themselves but choose to hop from one church to another looking for just the “right” one.  We live in an age where nothing moves us more quickly than discomfort.  If we don’t like our church, we leave; our wife, we leave; our job, we leave; our faith, we leave.  What constitutes “not liking?”  Discomfort.

It would be different if we were moving because we stand for great causes; but unfortunately, we usually move because we can’t stand small and meaningless issues. A congregation might split on the color of pews, but stay silent when a pastor says the Bible is a flawed document. We just don’t know when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em. Think of how different our world would be if more of us were “steadfast” on the right things and flexible on the small.  There would be more unity, cohesion, togetherness, and power in the body of Christ.

To be steadfast and unmovable we must be spiritually grounded. A steadfast person knows what he believes and cannot be “tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching,”  (Ephesians 4:14)  An steadfast person can hear false teaching, engage doubters, and defend truth without it shaking his own faith.

Being steadfast is keeping our promises, staying true to our families, being faithful to our employers, standing for God and His Word and host of other right behaviors. Steadfastness is an anchor that keeps us in place. It keeps us from drifting from where we should be.  We are called to stand fast in faith, rejoicing in the liberty we find in Christ, united by one spirit, strong in the Lord, relying on the teachings of the Bible.  When we are steadfast in these things, the Bible tells us we will not be afraid and God will establish us. “He will not be afraid of evil tidings; (if) His heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD.”  Psalm 112:7  When we choose to be tossed around instead of being steadfast, we will not be faithful to God.  Look at what the Bible says in Psalm 78:37, “For their heart was not steadfast with Him, Nor were they faithful in His covenant.”

Having faith helps us stand strong in times of trial as the following story illustrates. One night a house caught fire and a young boy was forced to flee to the roof. The father stood on the ground below with outstretched arms, calling to his son, “Jump! I’ll catch you.” He knew the boy had to jump to save his life. All the boy could see, however, was flame, smoke, and blackness. As can be imagined, he was afraid to leave the roof. His father kept yelling: “Jump! I will catch you.” But the boy protested, “Daddy, I can’t see you.” The father replied, “But I can see you and that’s all that matters.”

 How about our relationships?  Are we steadfast in our promises?  We can choose to be anchored to the rock – to Christ the anchor of our souls. We need to jump into the arms of Christ and stay there.  If the distractions of the world grow so great that we cannot see Him clearly, stay strong, hear his Word,  trust in Him, rely on His strength, because He can see us and that’s all that matters.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” Matthew 23:27-28

I recently came across this interesting photo of a tree that was hollow on the inside and looked relatively healthy on the outside. This tree was cut down because a professional arborist thought it looked stressed and said it was probably not healthy. Not healthy! If you could look at the stump closely, you will see that 80% of its insides are missing completely. Incredibly, to the untrained eye, the outside of the tree looked just fine, and it took an expert to spot the problem. Had it not been cut down, it would have inevitably blown down sometime in the future.  The scary part was the tree was only 10’ from a house!

In today’s verse Jesus is speaking to the most outwardly righteous people in Israel. The Pharisees and Sadducees strode about striving to look righteous in all they did, but much of the sermon on the mount (found in Matthew and Luke) addressed the hypocrisy of these men. God is concerned with the health of our insides, not the looks of the outside.  Time and time again His Word reveals stories of people who looked “wrong” on the outside, but were “strong” on the inside. Stories like the poor widow, the repentant tax-collector, and the kind Samaritan, were contrasted with the “righteous” men of the temple who looked good but weren’t good.

If we are not healthy on the inside, pressures from the outside will take us down. It isn’t always the weakest-looking trees that blow down during a storm but the weakest trees. Some look good on the outside, but like our tree in today’s photo, might be dead on the inside. Remember that I said the expert arborist saw the tree and then cut down the tree to protect others. God is the expert that knows our health on the inside. Throughout the Bible there are examples of God removing those that were dangerous to those around them. If we lose our usefulness to the Kingdom of God and have, in fact, become detrimental to the kingdom, we may be cut down.

Famous actor Robert Redford was walking one day through a hotel lobby. A woman saw him and followed him to the elevator. “Are you the real Robert Redford?” she asked him with great excitement. As the doors of the elevator closed, he replied, “Only when I am alone!”  Isn’t Redford’s answer often our own.

I think the Word is clear that we are eternally secure once we have received the Holy Spirit. I also think the Bible clearly teaches that sin in our lives can lead to physical death. When Ananias and Sapphira tried to deceive the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts, they lost their lives, but there is no indication that they lost their salvation. We are not “punished” for our sin in the sense of losing salvation or being eternally separated from God, yet we are disciplined, sometimes even unto death.  “The Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.” (Hebrews 12:6).

First John 5:16 says there comes a point when God can no longer allow a believer to continue in unrepentant sin, that there is sin that leads unto death. When that point is reached, God may allow the stubbornly sinful believer to taste that death. If we look like the tree above and we are spiritually dead on the inside, we should be prepared.  If the strong winds of this world don’t take us down, the axe of the great Arborist just might.  Regardless, how we look to others is inconsequential.  It’s what’s inside that counts.

“That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”  Ephesians 3:16-19

Paul had wonderful apostolic prayers that he prayed for others that are also for us.  Paul understood that not only people around him needed prayer, but he needed prayers himself. The above verses from Ephesians help us to petition for our own needs and the needs of others.

There are some wonderful “whats” in this prayer followed by an even more wonderful “how.”  That is typical of God’s Word.  When He reveals a wonderful treasure to us, He doesn’t leave us hanging, but tells us where to find it and how to use it. In the verses above Paul prays that we will be strengthened 1) by the spirit 2) by being filled with the fulness of God 3) by being grounded in the overwhelming love of Christ.

If we want to experience the fulness of Christian living, we need to experience the fulness of Christ’s love.  In the same stroke of the pen, Paul says that we can comprehend the incomprehensible.  How is that possible?  He tells us that the love of Christ passes all understanding but that if we are filled with Christ, we will have the knowledge of this love. This is an example of faith in God’s grace.  We can’t understand Christ’s love but to understand it, we must receive it and then we will understand it.

In one of his sermons, D.L. Moody held up a glass and asked, “How can I get the air out of this glass?” One man shouted, “Suck it out with a pump!” Moody replied, “That would create a vacuum and shatter the glass.” After numerous other suggestions Moody smiled, took out a pitcher of water, and filled the glass. “There,” he said, “all the air is now removed.”

We cannot get the sin out of our lives by sucking it out of our own accord.  That would break us.  The only way to remove the sin from our lives is to be filled with Christ.  We can only empty ourselves by being filled.  We must allow the filling of the spirit to push the pride, conceit, false ambition, selfishness and other things that are contrary to God’s law out of our lives.

I think some try to empty themselves on their own to make room for the spirit of God.  But we cannot do that.  We must take in the Holy Spirit and allow Him to push those things out of our lives. When we are filled with Him there is no room left for those things of the flesh. Two different things cannot occupy the same space.  If we are filled with the Spirit, there is no room left for our evil desires.  The thing is, we have all the Holy Spirit, but sometimes He does not have all of us. We have all we need to push the evil from our life, but sometimes we use more energy to hang onto the old things than we use to receive the new.

Charles Spurgeon put it well, “Without the Spirit of God, we can do nothing. We are as ships without the wind, branches without sap, and like coals without fire, we are useless.”  God has recreated us through the Son and His spirit.  We need not be useless any longer but useful.

A park ranger at Yellowstone National Park was leading a group of hikers to a fire lookout. The ranger was was so focused on the hike, he turned off his radio so there would not be any distractions. After a few hours the group was met by a nearly breathless lookout, who asked why he hadn’t responded to the messages on his radio. A grizzly bear had been seen stalking the group, and the authorities were trying to warn them of the danger.

Any time we tune out the Holy Spirit or ignore the warnings of the Bible we put ourselves and those around us in danger.

The key again, is as Paul says: “Be rooted in love” by “knowing Christ’s love” so we will be “filled with the fulness of God” and there will not be any room for anything else but Him.  Be both emptied and filled today.  Emptied of us and filled with Him.  Only then will our lives be all they can be on this earth.

Have a wonderful Wednesday.  

“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?

Recently, 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 Hometown 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 good Wednesday. 

“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,[a] 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 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 it 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 their 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 formidable this time of year 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 this time 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.

Yesterday Mom 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 yesterday. 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 yesterday? 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.

Ephesians 6

10 Last of all I want to remind you that your strength must come from the Lord’s mighty power within you.

11 Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand safe against all strategies and wiles of Satan.

13 So use every piece of God’s armor to resist the enemy whenever he attacks, and when it is all over, you will still be standing up.

18 Pray all the time. Ask God for anything in line with the Holy Spirit’s wishes. Plead with him, reminding him of your needs, and keep praying earnestly for all Christians everywhere.

In these verses Paul gives us two critical ingredients to battle against the wiles of the devil.  While the wiles of the devil include many things, the thing he seems to be most wiley about is prayer.  Why is prayer so difficult for Christians? I have yet met one (including me) who wishes his or her prayer life was better, and that includes some pretty positive pray-ers.  One of the keys to a more powerful prayer life might be found in these verses.

First of all, there is a strong and powerful relationship between putting on the armor of God and praying. They are dependent on each other and if we lack either, we will be lacking.  Putting on the armor is an active step in our thought life. It is what we do before the battle, not after. It is difficult to armor up during the battle and it is, of course, fruitless to armor up after the battle is over.

So often I have heard (and have even said myself) that the best way to improve our prayer life is to use the Nike motto, “Just do it.”  There is some truth to that because we cannot get better at anything without “doing it.” But if the act of praying automatically improves our prayer life, why do so many (even those who pray frequently) feel their prayer life is inadequate?  Some of us try so hard and use lists and apps and programs and methods but still feel our private prayer time is woefully feeble.

The apostle does not say pray then put on the armor of God. Prayer follows armoring up.  It should be a natural outgrowth of “gearing up.”  In verses 14-17 of the same chapter of Ephesians, Paul tells us what frame of mind we must get ourselves into before stepping onto the battlefield of prayer. We should think about the things of God everyday because Satan is battling us right now.  He does not want us to even step onto the battlefield, but if we do, he wants us to be as naked as possible, leaving all of God’s protection in the locker room.  I saw a cartoon once that showed a bunch of medieval soldiers and one of them is saying to the other, “What?  We have to be skins again?”  That is how we often step into battle against satan.  He tells us we are skins and we believe him.

Paul tells us we need to have His truth, His righteousness, His preparedness to share the gospel, His faithfulness, His salvation, His Spirit, and His Word already with us before we challenge satan on the battlefield he hates the most- the prayer field.  Satan knows we stand the tallest when we are on our knees and he hates that stance.  But if he can get us on our knees superficially, just going through the motions because we feel we have to or because we hope to get something out of it or because it fulfills our duty of the day, he will have kept us weak and wanting.

What, then, is needed? We should thoughtfully commit our hearts to God before we pray.  We should look at each part of the armor and ask ourselves if we really think the armor of God is important.  We must ask, are we missing something important that will hurt us in our prayer battle. Have we received His salvation, are we filled with the Spirit, do we carry His Word with us?  Each of these things (and more) are necessary to have with us before we can have a powerful prayer life. These add depth, meaning, and significance to our prayers. Suddenly our prayers become pointed and purposeful rather than meaningless and mechanical.

Prayer is conversation with God and putting on the armor of God lets us examine the full implications of our faith and we can then talk to God about it. We then know how to prayer because we are better equipped to understand God, ourselves, and the world around us. “Just doing it” is not very effective if we are just going through the motions. If we armor up before prayer we won’t have to be “skins again” and satan will have his hands full with an army of prayer warriors prepared and ready to go!

Have a great Thursday.