A Minute In It - Turn Your Eyes To Jesus

A minute in Gods' word will change your life.  Read through the Bible text. No matter what we are going through, stay focused on Jesus and soon you will be praising again!

1-3 A white-tailed deer drinks
    from the creek;
I want to drink God,
    deep draughts of God.
I’m thirsty for God-alive.
I wonder, “Will I ever make it—
    arrive and drink in God’s presence?”
I’m on a diet of tears—
    tears for breakfast, tears for supper.
All day long
    people knock at my door,
Pestering,
    “Where is this God of yours?”

4 These are the things I go over and over,
    emptying out the pockets of my life.
I was always at the head of the worshiping crowd,
    right out in front,
Leading them all,
    eager to arrive and worship,
Shouting praises, singing thanksgiving—
    celebrating, all of us, God’s feast!

5 Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul?
    Why are you crying the blues?
Fix my eyes on God—
    soon I’ll be praising again.
He puts a smile on my face.
    He’s my God.

6-8 When my soul is in the dumps, I rehearse
    everything I know of you,
From Jordan depths to Hermon heights,
    including Mount Mizar.
Chaos calls to chaos,
    to the tune of whitewater rapids.
Your breaking surf, your thundering breakers
    crash and crush me.
Then God promises to love me all day,
    sing songs all through the night!
    My life is God’s prayer.

9-10 Sometimes I ask God, my rock-solid God,
    “Why did you let me down?
Why am I walking around in tears,
    harassed by enemies?”
They’re out for the kill, these
    tormentors with their obscenities,
Taunting day after day,
    “Where is this God of yours?”

11 Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul?
    Why are you crying the blues?
Fix my eyes on God—
    soon I’ll be praising again.
He puts a smile on my face.
    He’s my God.

We Don't Have a Clue

And that every tongue should confess ...... Philippians 2:11 (KJV)

I keep thinking about this text. What is it every tongue should confess? Should every tongue confess that God is Love? Should every tongue confess that Jesus came, died and was resurrected so we would live forever? Should we confess that this applies to all of us, not just folks who look and act like us?

Should our tongues confess that no matter what Jesus loves you; that he died for you? No Matter What. And when should our tongues confess this?  Will it be only when he comes again? Shouldn't our tongues be confessing this NOW?

So often we see this text as something that will happen in the future but if it isn't happening now, it won't happen in the future. We are not likely to suddenly change our behavior and become more Christ-like just before Jesus comes. We have to know him now. We have to be able to confess who he is today. Today.

Can you? Do you know who he truly is? I don't. For the most part we don't have a clue who Jesus really is because he is too much for us to handle. There is no way I will ever fully understand Jesus but, it is my life's journey to find out.  How about you?

A Minute In It - Your Confessions

A minute in God's word will change your life. Take a minute to read the passage below. Then, ask yourself the questions at the bottom of the post. 

That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.   Philippians 2:10-11 (NKJV)

If someone were to ask you what you thought of Jesus, what would you say?
As you imagine seeing him, is your first inclination to bow?
Would you confess that he is Lord of your life? Is he in charge of everything?
What else would you confess about him? What do you know about him?
Are you in love with him?

Because I AM

Jesus fully realized all that was going to happen to him, so he stepped forward to meet them. “Who are you looking for?” he asked. “Jesus the Nazarene,” they replied. “I am he*,” Jesus said. (Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them.) As Jesus said “I am he,” they all drew back and fell to the ground! John 18:4-6 (NLT)
*Or “The ‘I am’ is here”; or “I am the Lord”; Greek reads I am; also in 18:6, 8. See Exod 3:14.

When Moses ran into God in the wilderness and God said "I am sending you to Egypt." Moses argued. Can't say I blame him. This was totally out of the ordinary. It didn't look like what he was used to. It was bigger than where his mind could take him. 

We might be tempted, like Moses, to say "God, this is too hard. I can't do that. I don't have what it takes. That's a different spiritual gift than I have." And my guess is all these things were popping around in Moses' head....well, except the spiritual gift thing....that's a new excuse for us but he basically said the same thing when he said "I am just a shepherd." What came out of his mouth though was "They will ask me your name. Who should I say sent me?" 

And what did God say? He said "I AM."

Many centuries pass and the same thing happens again. Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane and the mob is looking for him to arrest him. They ask "Which one of you is Jesus of Nazareth?." Except, unlike Moses, Jesus doesn't offer excuses. He knows who he is and he says "I AM"

Do you know Jesus is saying the same thing to us today.....every single time we cry out to him?

Lord, I can't walk through another day of pain. I AM
Lord, we need help with our finances. I AM
Jesus, I feel so lonely. I need more to my life. I AM
Please, please help my children. I AM
I don't know what to do next. I AM

In those words, Jesus offered the solution to everything we will ever need. He offered himself. He knew that no matter how big the task seemed, no matter how hopeless it looked, he was enough. He knew that because of those words we would be able to take another step. With just those two small syllables we could be brave. 

Jesus knew we could walk one more day with assurance that no matter what was happening, we would be OK because not only was he the great I AM, HE STILL IS. 

Revenge Is Not Mine

For God is pleased when, conscious of his will, you patiently endure unjust treatment. 1 Peter 2:19 (NLT)

Many years ago, our extended family was on a vacation together. During that vacation we found out that someone else in the family had done something really wrong to one of our parents. It caused a lot of chaos on that trip and needless to say, that was probably the worst vacation I've ever been on.

During the uproar one of the family members said, "I would like to get revenge on them. I would really like to hurt them." They looked at me as if to say "What do you think?" Now, I am not the calmest person in the world and Lord knows I often say things I probably shouldn't but for some reason that day these words came out "The Bible says revenge is the Lord's." The person looked at me and said "Yea, but that will take too long."

For some reason this has stuck in my head all these years. She was right. God's timing is often more elongated than ours. We want results now. And, I totally understand the revenge thing. It's not in our human nature to overlook something. We want to retaliate and retaliate quickly. But, we are not called to live according to our human nature. We are called to live according to Christ's nature. Once we accept him as Savior and Lord, our thinking needs to change. We need to be changed from the inside out.

Today's Bible verse reminded me of the vacation story and it reminded me as to why we as Christians should not seek revenge. Always, foremost in our thinking should be the question "What does God want?" If I retaliate against the person who hurt me, if I seek revenge, hold a grudge or say all the things that have popped into my head, how will I represent Jesus? Will I bring glory and honor and a true representation of Jesus if I behave as myself?

I think the key in 1 Peter 2:19 is the words "conscious of his will." Always, no matter what is going on in our lives, we always need to be conscious of his will.

Wednesday, Mar 22

There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved. Acts 4:12 (NLT)

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”    ― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity