Being Bold About Fear

February 2, 2012 Leave a Comment

In the wake of the infamous terrorist attacks of 9-11-01, our small county held a special service at the high-school. The service was for the benefit of the high-school students, many of whom were emotionally shaken by the attacks. They were asking, “How can we have any confidence in the future if this is the new state of the world?”

One of the service’s primary organizers was Mary Sue Ledford, who had been my English teacher my freshman year and my friend and supporter ever since. When she called to ask me if I would be one of the speakers, I was honored. But it was a particular quote from Mary Sue that stood out the most from that conversation. She said, “Russell, I will not live in a county of fear.” I had known her for years but had never heard her speak with that level of sincerity and passion. She meant what she said down to the core of her being.

Several years have now passed since that conversation, but I often find myself thinking back to Mary Sue’s quote. For obvious reasons, it comes to my mind when I am facing some daunting challenge or potentially perilous situation. When my first instinct is to shy away or pull back, her words remind me that fear is no way to live. That goes for not only living in a post 9-11 world but also many other seasons in life.

Of course, the Bible is certainly not silent on this issue, particularly when addressing the Christian. Consider the following verses:

-2 Timothy 1:7: For God has not given us (Christians) a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

-1 John 4:18: There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.

-Romans 8:14-15: For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”

-John 14:27: Peace, I leave with you. My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

It’s been said that courage is not the absence of fear; it is doing what you ought to do in spite of your fear. I like that. And it is with that thought in mind, as well as Mary Sue’s quote and these verses that I have listed, that I ask you, Christian, “Are you somehow letting fear dominate your life these days?” Perhaps you are scared about an upcoming event. Perhaps you are scared of what some problematic person is going to do. Perhaps you are scared about the state of the world. I don’t know your circumstance, but I do know that people can be scared of all kinds of things. All I’m saying is, whatever your big, bad thing is, face it head on with a courage befitting a bona-fide child of God. Never forget that you are not alone in the fight. God is your heavenly Father. Jesus has promised to never leave you nor forsake you. And the Holy Spirit dwells inside you. So really, Christian, with the triune God right there in the fray with you, what could you possibly have to be afraid of? There is absolutely nothing that He can’t help you handle.

Filed under Adversity, Attitude, Courage, fear, God's Omnipresence, The Holy Spirit, Trusting In God Tagged with , , ,

The Building With The Golden Windows

January 18, 2012 3 Comments

Contentment is one of those subjects that is easy to talk about but hard to live out. Let’s say that my neighbor buys himself a brand new Corvette. The car is “please notice me” red. The interior is “please don’t get me dirty” white. The engine is the factory option “you can’t unrun me” high performance. The wheels are “you can’t afford me” aluminum. And to top it all off he starts wearing a shirt that reads: “Real men drive Corvettes.” Well, how long do you think it will take me to become discontented with my “it’s all I’ve got” Subaru? Not very long.

I want you to take a personal survey. No one is paying attention except you and God. Ask yourself this question: Is there anything in my life right now with which I am not content? Perhaps it’s your car. Perhaps it’s your home. Maybe it’s your job. Maybe it’s your financial situation.

As I was growing up, my dad would say to me on numerous occasions, “Russell, you can’t be satisfied with anything.” I remember how I always chafed at that accusation because I honestly didn’t believe that it was true. I used to think to myself, “No, he’s wrong. I can be content. I just can’t be content with what I’ve got to work with right now.”

Unfortunately, as I’ve grown older I’ve been forced to learn that my father was right about my contentment level. If it was a thermostat it would be set very, very low. It doesn’t take much to get me to looking over the hills and thinking, “Oh, how much better my life would be if I was over there.” If God had let me move every time I had a whim to do so, my vehicle wouldn’t be a Subaru; it would be a U-HAUL. As for Tonya and the boys, I guess they would feel like a military family that moves from one base to another, never staying anywhere long enough to put down roots and build lasting relationships.

Somewhere years ago I read a silly little line that has always helped me. It goes like this: “If the grass is greener on the other side of the fence it’s because it’s growing over a septic tank.” That line has often come to my mind when God has turned down my latest urge to bolt and run and seek my fortune elsewhere. Have I got problems in my current location? Yes. Would I be problem free if I moved to that latest place that has caught my fancy? Nope. It would just be a new set of problems, perhaps even worse than my current ones.

You can learn some things by watching childrens’television. I can’t remember if I was babysitting Ryan or Royce, but one of them was watching a kids’show one day when a thought-provoking cartoon segment came on. It was about a little girl who lived in an apartment building in the big city. Every morning she would look out her window and stare longingly at the building with the golden windows that sat on the other side of the city. Oh how she wanted to live in that beautiful building! So one morning she made up her mind to go and see the building up close. She got herself dressed and headed out to find it. All day long she searched and searched, but she couldn’t find the building with the golden windows. Then, late in the afternoon, just as she was about to lose all hope, she turned around and there it was. But it was way over on the other side of town. So she ran and ran and ran and ran until she finally arrived at the building. Only then did she notice that it was the building in which lived. She thought, “How is this possible?” Suddenly the answer came to her: The sun which cast its light upon the one building in rising in the morning was casting its light upon her building in setting in the evening.

Now why am I telling you all this? I’m doing it to help you realize that where you are right now is a wonderful place if it is where God wants to be. Does He ever relocate people and lead them to make changes in their lives? Certainly, but that’s a whole other post for a whole other time. Right now I’m saying that if He has you living in a certain place, working a certain job, maintaining a certain financial level, and driving a certain car, you need to learn to see the golden windows in those things. They are there. You just have to recognize them.

I’ll leave you now with some words from the apostle Paul. They are words that I know very well because they have haunted me many a time. The haunting stems from the fact that I still can’t truthfully make the statement that Paul makes. In Philippians 4:11, he says:

…I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content.

I can’t speak for you, but I haven’t completely “learned” that yet. Without doubt, my classes are still in session. I’m hoping, though, that I can earn that degree one day. Until then I need to keep looking for those golden windows of where God has me.

Filed under Attitude, contentment, Desires, Disappointment, faithfulness, God's Will, Personal, Problems, Trusting In God Tagged with , , , , , , ,

My Post-Holiday Funk

January 12, 2012 3 Comments

Financially speaking, this month of January tends to be a more trying month for Tonya and myself than other months. You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to deduce the reason: Christmas hangover. It’s not that we go wild with Christmas shopping and cross the line into sin with it. It’s just that spending any amount of any month’s “extra” income on presents affects the next month’s checkbook. That’s simple math.

A preacher reminded a financially strapped church-member that 1st Thessalonians 5:18 says: “in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” The church-member said, “I don’t see what I have to be thankful for, preacher. I’m buried in debt. I can’t pay my bills. I can’t make my payments, and on top of it all I just lost my job.” The preacher thought for a moment and answered, “Well, be thankful that you aren’t one of your creditors!”

No, it’s not that bad with my family’s finances, but it’s not helping matters that I’m also suffering from some kind of post-holiday, winter malaise. For whatever reason, I’ve been having trouble getting energized this new year. During the holidays, with Tonya and the boys home from school, we all got off schedule by sitting up later and sleeping in later. When school started back up, they got back on track, but I’m still having trouble breaking out of that pattern. I’ve got to fix that. Also, I had been doing an excellent job of getting in thirty minutes of daily exercise leading up to Christmas. But I’m now on my third week or so of taking a break from that. I’ve got to fix that too and get back on that exercise machine.

I was listening to the radio a few days ago and actually heard a disc-jockey address what I’ve been experiencing. He said the post-holiday letdown is very normal and that it is brought on by eating too much, not getting enough exercise, and sleeping too much. I thought, “Wow, he must be following me around with a camcorder!” At least I was encouraged that my problem is fairly typical.

Oh, and another thing that isn’t helping my mood or energy level these days is the weather we’ve been getting here in the mountains of western North Carolina. Like a lot of other folks across the country, we’re mired in one of those winters that doesn’t know it’s a winter. Since the beginning of December we’ve had unseasonably warm weather and a lot of rain. Such weather just kind of wears on you when you’ve grown up in these mountains and are used to subfreezing temperatures and snow. As I recall, we’ve only had two snowfalls so far this winter. One was a barely measurable trace that got the grass white for a little while, and the other was a couple of inches that didn’t exactly get everyone buzzing either. The forecast does call for the possibility on an inch or so tonight, but, again, that’s not enough to really get our juices flowing around here.

Anyway, I just thought that I’d share some of this info with you guys, my readers, today. Maybe someone else out there is experiencing some of the same post-holiday funk that I’m experiencing. If you are, I invite you to join me in slipping back into gear and getting back up to speed. 2012 is a big new adventure that is just lying there waiting for us. If you believe certain doomsday interpretations of the ancient Mayan calendar, it’s even our last year. (I don’t believe those interpretations, by the way.) What I do believe, though, is that God wants to do great things in us, for us, and through us this year. So let’s stop sulking around, overeating, oversleeping, and worrying about our finances and start living with the faith, energy, zest, zeal, and confident expectation with which He would have us. And, yes, I’m preaching to myself on that.

Filed under Attitude, Christmas, dieting, Gluttony, Money, New Year, Personal, Thankfulness, weather Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

The Peace That Jesus Brings

December 23, 2011 1 Comment

In my last post I explained that even though Christ’s birth didn’t actually usher in a time of “peace on earth,” prophecy teaches that one day He will bring in such a time, one thousand years worth of it to be exact. Now, with this post, I want to explain that Christ’s birth did usher in a time when the individual who believes in Him as Savior can come to know a personal peace.

First, this personal peace involves the believer being at peace with God, his Maker. The classic verse on this is Romans 5:1:

Therefore, having been justified by faith (referring to faith in Christ), we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

I’m reminded of that story about the preacher who asked the man, “Have you made peace with God?” The man answered, “I didn’t know that we were fighting.” Well, the fact is that every member of the human race is born fighting with God. Romans 3:10-12 says:

There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.

Yes, the sinner is at war with holy God. That’s the bad news. But the good news is that Jesus, through His shed blood (Colossians 1:19-20), has laid a peace treaty on the table for any individual who will sign it. Isaiah 53:5 describes it so beautifully:

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for out iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

Second, this personal peace involves the believer being at peace with himself. Christ’s words from John 14:27 refer to this kind of inner peace. He says to His disciples:

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

In a recent series of devotions, my friend Malcolm Woody has been dissecting Philippians chapter 4, specifically as the verses relate to the inner peace of the believer. The devotions have driven home to me afresh and anew the fact that inner peace is there for the taking if the believer desires it. But even as I read those devotions each day it didn’t dawn on me that there was one particular area of my life concerning which I didn’t have an inner peace. It wasn’t until my brother Richie pointedly said to me the other day, “You just don’t a peace about you right now,” that I came to grips with the truth of that statement. I feel like the Lord worked through Malcolm’s devotions to set me on a tee and then He worked through Richie to whack me out of the park. Since my conversation with Richie, I’ve really been working hard at accessing the inner peace that I am afforded in Jesus as it relates to that one troublesome area of my life.

Christian, I gave you that bit of personal testimony to let you know that I speak from personal experience when I ask you if your heart is troubled about something right now. Is there some circumstance, some situation, some problem in your life for which you have no inner peace? If there is, you are, as I was, living beneath your privilege because you aren’t abiding in the peace that Jesus has given you. You need to repent of your worrying. You need to give up on trying to control things you can’t control. Most of all, you need to put your complete trust in your sovereign Savior and let His peace well up from inside you and begin to dominate your life as it should. A troubled heart and the peace that Jesus has given you just can’t coexist. We, as Christians, should obey the command of Colossians 3:15 and “let the peace of God rule in our hearts.”

Third, this personal peace involves the believer being at peace with others. Ephesians 2:14 plays off the fact that in the Jewish temple there was a wall that separated the Court of the Gentiles from the areas that were exclusively for the Jews. The verse says of Jesus:

For He Himself is our peace, who made both (the Jew and the Gentile) one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation.

In Bible times, it would have been impossible to imagine too more different people than the Jew and the Gentile. They were completely different races. They came from radically different backgrounds. They had strikingly different customs. And yet, through Jesus, the Jew and the Gentile could now be at peace with each other. This proves that, through Jesus, the Christian can peaceably get along with others. Jesus Himself says in Mark 9:50, “…have peace with one another.” Hebrews 12:14 chimes right in with that by saying, “…Pursue peace with all people.” And in 1 Thessalonians 5:13, Paul says to the Christians of Thessalonica, “Be at peace among yourselves.”

On the heels of such verses, you know what I’m going to ask you. Are you fighting with someone right now? Is there a person with which you currently are not at peace? If there is, let me encourage you to do all that you can to make peace with them, whoever they are. Remember that in His Sermon on the Mount Jesus taught that His followers (whom He called sons of God) should be “peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9). That means you, Christian. I’ll also quote Paul again here too. In Romans 12:18, he says:

If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.

These words certainly ring true for any time of the year, but surely they ring all the more true for this season of Christmas. How can a Christian properly celebrate the birth of his Savior, the Peace-Giver, if he is at war with a fellow human being? I know, I know, Paul said “If it is possible…”, and maybe you are saying, “It’s just not possible with that person.” Well, maybe it isn’t, and maybe you and that person will never want to climb into a car and take a road-trip together, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t at least do your part to make peace. At the very least, you can stop throwing gasoline onto the fire and making the relationship worse. Ask Jesus to help you to know exactly what to do and what not to do, and trust that He will. Take heart in the fact that peace between yourself and others is one of the kinds of peace that He died to bring you.

Filed under Adversity, Attitude, Christ's birth, Christmas, Doing Good, Extending Forgiveness, Inner Peace, Personal, Personal Holiness, salvation, The Sermon On The Mount, Trusting In God, Worry Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

What Two Boys Can Teach Us About Christmas

December 19, 2011 1 Comment

One of my favorite Christmas illustrations is a true story that took place many years ago in Paines Hollow, New York. There was a thirteen-year-old boy who attended Mohawk Central School in that city. One year, at Christmastime, he heard an appeal for contributions to Santa Claus Anonymous, a group that provided gifts for poor children who would otherwise not receive any Christmas presents. The boy truly felt for the underprivileged children and desperately wanted to contribute some money to the cause. So he scrimped and saved wherever he could and managed to come up with fifteen cents to contribute. He figured that it wasn’t much but at least it was something.

But on the last day before school dismissed for Christmas vacation a blizzard buried the area in snow. The buses couldn’t run, which meant that the boy couldn’t get to school to put in his fifteen cents. Undeterred, he made the long walk through the deep snow to personally deliver the money to the school principal. As the principal graciously accepted the meager offering, he could barely hold back the tears in his eyes. You see, that boy was one of the impoverished children on the list to receive a Christmas present from Santa Claus Anonymous.

Last Thursday night our oldest son Ryan had a j.v. basketball game. Tonya and I went to the game, but we left our ten-year-old, Royce, with Tonya’s parents. When we got back, I went and picked up Royce. It wasn’t long before I learned that he had surprises for me, Tonya, and Ryan. He wouldn’t tell me what the surprises were. All I knew was that he had them hidden in a bag. I would have to wait until we got home for the big revealing.

Once we were home, Royce excitedly got us all gathered into the bedroom and began handing out the surprises. They were Christmas ornaments that he had gotten Tonya’s parents to buy when they had taken him to a store that night. Ryan got the ornament that looked like a fish because he loves fishing. Tonya got the one that said “World’s Greatest Mom.” I got the one that had the Bible on it because I am a preacher.

Were these ornaments expensive? No way. We’re not talking Hallmark collectibles here. Had Royce used his own money to pay for them? Not a chance. Grandpa and Grandma wouldn’t hear of him paying for anything! But were those ornaments wonderful? Absolutely. The fact that they came from our little boy’s giving heart made them priceless. I was so proud of him for somehow instinctively understanding something that most of us forget: It is better to give than to receive. By the way, if that sounds familiar, it’s a quote from Jesus. Go read Acts 20:35 for your Christmas homework and let its words keep you in the right spirit this holiday season.

Filed under Attitude, Children, Christmas, giving Tagged with , , , ,

The Clinched Fist Of Joseph Stalin

December 15, 2011 Leave a Comment

Ravi Zacharias tells a story that he heard personally from Malcolm Muggeridge, the legendary English journalist, author, and media personality. Muggeridge had spent some time with Svetlana Stalin, the daughter of Joseph Stalin, while they were working together on a BBC production on the life of her father. Joseph Stalin was, of course, the communist leader who once ruled Russia with an iron fist and an incomprehensible coldness. During his reign, untold millions of people were put to death by his command. The numbers are so high that experts can only give broad estimates as to the actual total.

According to the story that Svetlana told Muggeridge, and Muggeridge in turn told Zacharias, Stalin was plagued by terrifying hallucinations as he lay dying on his bed. Then suddenly he sat halfway up in bed, clenched his fist toward the heavens, fell back upon his pillow, and was dead. It was if his last gesture in life was literally a clenched fist toward God.

It would be easy to assume that a man such as Stalin had lived his entire life in open rebellion and opposition to the idea of any kind of God. That would be a wrong assumption, however. The fact is that when Stalin was sixteen he received a scholarship to a Georgian Orthodox seminary. He even did well in his classes until he missed his final exams and was expelled. Not long afterward he began reading the writings of Vladimir Lenin and became a Marxist revolutionary.

Looking back over Stalin’s life it isn’t hard to deduce that he had an excellent opportunity to not only receive Christ as Savior but also spend his life in service to Him. After all, that is what seminary students usually do. But somewhere along the way Stalin came to a spiritual crossroad and chose to reject Jesus. Then, like Pharaoh in the Old Testament story of Israel’s exodus from Egypt, once the hardening of his heart began there was no stopping it.

We should all take Stalin’s example and learn from it. For one thing, it is a dangerous thing to reject Jesus when He comes to you offering salvation. For another, even if you are a Christian, it is a dangerous thing when He comes to you offering guidance, direction, and commands for your life. To reject light is to embrace darkness. To rebel against a word from the Lord is to choose to walk in your own foolishness. To shun blessing is to invite judgment.

So, has the Lord been telling you to do something? Perhaps He has been convicting you of your need of the salvation found only in Jesus. Or, if you have experienced that salvation, perhaps He has been giving you some specific command or word of wisdom concerning a situation. Well, all I can say is that whatever He has been sharing with you, you need to grab hold of it incorporate it fully into your life. I’m not saying that you will ever end up like Joseph Stalin, but I am saying that there is always a great danger in clenching your fist toward the Lord and saying, “No.” With that in mind, I’ll leave you with the words of Proverbs 29:1:

He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck, will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.

Filed under Attitude, Choices, Disobedience, God's Will, obedience, Rebellion, salvation Tagged with , , , , , ,

Ministering To Difficult People

December 6, 2011 Leave a Comment

New Yorker Stephen Merritt was an interesting man. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, he served Christ as both a minister and an undertaker. (He was the undertaker for the funeral of Ulysses S. Grant.) In addition to these two roles, he also worked tirelessly with overseas missions as well as his ministry to New York’s impoverished destitute. His ministry to the destitute was especially notable because he himself was a wealthy man who lived in a fashionable section of the city.

Merritt once extended an open invitation for all the homeless and outcast to attend a supper in his mission. Afterward, when he went to leave the supper, he found that some of the invitees had cruelly filled his hat with bacon rinds and other unsavory items. The act infuriated him, and he climbed atop a chair and passionately scolded the crowd for their ingratitude. He even threatened to call the police.

But before Merritt could finish his rebuke, the Holy Spirit brought the words of 1 Corinthians chapter 13 to his mind:

Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself; is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7, K.J.V.)

Convicted by the Spirit in this way, Merritt quickly stopped his tirade and right then and there apologized to the crowd, admitting to them that He had grieved His Lord. Then he invited them all to another dinner the following night. When he was finished, the practical jokers confessed their prank. That next night forty men accepted Christ as Savior.

Filed under Adversity, Attitude, Doing Good, Extending Forgiveness, Ministry, Missions Tagged with , ,

Getting Ready For Thanksgiving

November 22, 2011 Leave a Comment

Charles Spurgeon, the most famous preacher from the Victorian England era, said, “God’s people are prone to engrave their trials in marble and write their blessings in the sand.” Truer words were never spoken. I myself do far too much marble engraving.

Yesterday at our local pastors’conference, the moderator asked each of us to name at least one thing for which we are thankful. The next twenty minutes or so turned out to be the highlight of the conference. Even though the singing was nice and the weekly sermon was interesting, hearing each pastor talk about the great things that God had done for him was spellbinding. Many of them cried as they spoke. All of them spoke in utter humility. One man told of how Jesus had saved him out of a family of bootleggers. Another talked about how wild he used to be before Christ’s transforming power radically changed his life. Another praised the Lord for meeting every need he had ever had. Another described how God had raised up his alcoholic daddy from a seemingly terminal illness to mercifully give that father more days to accept Christ as Savior and have, for the first time, a true relationship with his son. On and on it went like that around the room, story after story. The next time that you get to thinking that all preachers are fakes, hypocrites, or money hungry manipulators, come with me to a certain pastors’conference that meets on Monday mornings. I know some men of God who are real.

And what word of thankfulness did I offer up when my turn came? Well, I thanked the Lord for how He broke me when I was in my early twenties. That experience changed me from a backslidden Christian into a sold out disciple and set me on the path to becoming a preacher. I also thanked Him for my wife and two boys. And yes, I was one of those who teared up as he spoke. Needless to say, I could have gone on for an hour naming things for which I am thankful (as each of us could have), but we had to restrain ourselves a bit if the scheduled speaker was going to be left any time to preach.

Everybody knows that Thanksgiving is this Thursday. But why wait until then to go to the Lord in prayer and express your gratitude? Have you got 30 minutes today? Then spend it just going down the list of all the things for which you are thankful. Don’t make any new requests. Don’t mention any of your problems. And put down that marble engraver for a while. Just have a time of saying, “Thank you” to the Lord. If you will make the effort to do this, I promise you that it will get your heart and mind prepared to genuinely celebrate Thanksgiving this coming Thursday.

Filed under Attitude, Backsliding, Change, God's Love, God's Provision, prayer, preaching, Thanksgiving Tagged with , , , , ,

You’ve Got All You Can Handle Today

November 16, 2011 1 Comment

Scotland’s George MacDonald was a Christian author and minister. He said:

No man ever sank under the burden of the day. It is when tomorrow’s burden is added to the burden of today that the weight is more than a man can bear. Never load yourself so. If you find yourself so loaded, at least remember this: it is your own doing, not God’s. He begs you to leave the future to Him and mind the present.

Of course, MacDonald’s words merely echo the words of Christ from Matthew 6:34:

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Yesterday I made a quick trip to the bank, picked Ryan up from school, and wolfed down a bite of lunch. Other than those three breaks, I spent the rest of the daylight working in my yard. I trimmed back bushes, disposed of the trimmings, raked leaves, blew leaves, and toted leaves. I worked until dark and still didn’t get everything done that I had planned to do. Needless to say, I had let the place go a little too much and really needed to have such a work day.

And the fact is that during my morning prayer time, when I first got up yesterday, I got a clear leading from the Lord to devote the day to getting the yard back in shape. But, you know, before I could even finish breakfast and get out the door, some doubts started creeping into my mind. I started thinking, “Maybe I need to work on my Sunday morning sermon for a while before I head outside.”

You see, that was a case of me borrowing from a future day’s trouble. Like I said, I had so much yard work to do that I worked all day and still didn’t get finished. Obviously, I didn’t have an extra hour or two to devote to sermon preparation. But what was I worrying about anyway? I’ve still got today, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to get that sermon in order. In God’s will and plan, my main job yesterday was yard work, not sermon work.

So what’s the application of all this for you today? It’s simple: All you have to get done today is what God has scheduled for you today. One of my life verses is Ephesians 2:10, which says:

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

I take this verse to mean that God has certain good works that He has prepared beforehand for me to do in my lifetime. If that’s true, then it only makes sense that these good works are laid out on a day-by-day basis. That’s why I get up each morning and literally say something like this, “Lord, thank you for the rest that I was able to get last night, and thank you for this day. Help me to do my list for today, whatever that is.” Then I do my best to let the Lord lead me step by step through my day. Some days play out pretty much as I could have guessed. Other days are filled with all kinds of wrinkles and “plan Bs.” At any rate, the point is that we need to think of each day as being a life of its own. That includes this current day. So tell me, are you focused on this 24-hour period? Or are you worrying about some future day? Be honest in how you answer and change any thinking that you need to change.

Filed under Attitude, Doing Good, faithfulness, God's Timing, God's Work, obedience, Personal, prayer, Prayer Requests, Priorities, Service, Work, Worry Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

A Cautionary Tale About Rebellion

October 5, 2011 Leave a Comment

Sixty year old Jan Davis was a professional parachutist. She was also involved in the dangerous sport of “BASE jumping.” “BASE jumping” is leaping off fixed places, plummeting toward the earth for a few seconds, and then pulling your parachute chord. The letters B-A-S-E represent the fixed places from which one can jump: B (buildings), A (antennas), S (spans, bridges), and E (earth, cliffs).

On October 22, 1999, Jan and four other jumpers were in California’s Yosemite National Park to jump off the 3,200 foot granite cliff known as El Capitan. They were jumping to protest the fact that the Park had made BASE jumping illegal in the wake of the six deaths and numerous injuries that jumpers had incurred in the Park. The jump would prove the safety of the sport. Jan’s husband had come along to film the event, and several reporters were also on hand.

Jan was the fourth of the five jumpers. She launched off the cliff, fell for twenty seconds, and then fatally crashed into the rocks. Her chute had failed to open properly. Her husband and the reporters stood there stunned, having just watched Jan plunge to her death. The husband even had it on film.

I’m really not trying to be insensitive to the Davis family, but I think we can glean a spiritual lesson from Jan’s needless death. Over and over again the Bible warns against the sin of rebellion (such as rebelling against a logical law that has been enacted). Consider the following passages:

1. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry… (1 Samuel 15:23)

2. A evil man seeks only rebellion; therefore a cruel messenger will be sent against him. (Proverbs 17:11)

3. There are those who rebel against the light; they do not know its ways nor abide in its paths. (Job 24:13)

4. “Come now, and let us reason together,” says the Lord, “though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword”; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. (Isaiah 1:18-20)

5. God sets the solitary in families; He brings out those who are bound in prosperity; but the rebellious dwell in a dry land. (Psalm 68:6)

And so it is with these verses firmly in mind that I ask you this question: Are you, in some way, playing the rebel these days? Well, if you are, what are you rebelling against? Is it something reasonable? Is it something understandable? To use the proverbial saying, you aren’t making a mountain out of a mole hill, are you? Think hard now and be honest. It just might be that you have taken the matter way too far.

Filed under Attitude, Choices, Disobedience, Rebellion, submission Tagged with , , , , , , ,

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