Until Then......

and My people who are called by My name humble themselves, pray and seek My face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.  
2 Chronicles 7:14 (HCSB)

I was listening to a song today by Casting Crowns called Prayer For A Friend. Here are some of the lyrics.

Lord, I lift my friend to You, I've done all that I know to do
I lift my friend to You
Complicated circumstances have clouded his view
Lord, I lift my friend up to You

I fear that I won't have the words that he needs to hear
I pray for Your wisdom, oh God, and a heart that's sincere
Lord, I lift my friend up to You

Lord, I lift my friend to You
My best friend in the world, I know he means much more to You
I want so much to help him, but this is something he has to do
And Lord, I lift my friend up to You

I love that song because it gets to the heart of what we should be doing for each other. I often sing it and fill in people's names in the place of "my friend." It's like praying to music. It brings me comfort. We should be praying for each other. We should be praying for our country and for the world. We should be praying that the hate and nastiness that abounds in the world will be gone.

Unfortunately, we know that will not happen until Jesus comes again. Until then, we need to pray.  "Even so, Come Lord Jesus." Revelation 22:20

Who Is Better?

Don't do anything from selfish ambition or from a cheap desire to boast, but be humble toward one another, always considering others better than yourselves. And look out for one another's interests, not just for your own. Philippians 2:3-4 (GNT)

We read these verses and we think "Yes! we should always think of others better than ourselves." But, we rarely do. If we were going to be real and honest about it, we may think of others as equal to ourselves but rarely do we think better.

What does someone have to do for you to think of them as better? Usually, they need to be more educated, an expert in something, have done some heroic act, served in some way, have more money. Our lists are long.

But not Jesus. He was always reaching out to people others rejected. He was always caring for those that were outcast. He chose to mingle and dine and live among those in society that were deemed not worthy to live life with. But probably one of the most poignant acts of his life was at the end. It clearly demonstrated what Jesus thought of 'the pecking order.'

Jesus was the Teacher. He was the Master. In his group of disciples, he was at the top of the chain. The disciples were next and then after them would come any servants of the household. When they were eating their last meal together, there were no servants. When they walked into the house there was no one there to wash their feet and remove the dirt before they placed them next to the table. Tradition said that only the servants did that. They were not servants so they did not do it. 

But Jesus did. He took off his outer clothing, took the basin and the towel and began to fulfill the task of the servant. He placed them in a position that was better than himself - even though he was/is the King of the World.

As I reflect on this, I know I have a very long way to go before I am modeling Jesus in this way. My heart and mind do not always reflect the attitude of a servant and I am not accustomed to thinking of everyone as better than myself.

Father God, please. Help me in this. Make me more like Jesus. Amen

A Minute In It - Living In Today's World

A minute in God's word will change your life. Take a minute to read the passage below. Then, reflect on this passage and ask God how it should impact the life you are living and how it changes how you live in today's world..

1 So then, my friends, because of God's great mercy to us I appeal to you: Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is the true worship that you should offer. 2 Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God—what is good and is pleasing to him and is perfect.

3 And because of God's gracious gift to me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you should. Instead, be modest in your thinking, and judge yourself according to the amount of faith that God has given you. 4 We have many parts in the one body, and all these parts have different functions. 5 In the same way, though we are many, we are one body in union with Christ, and we are all joined to each other as different parts of one body. 6 So we are to use our different gifts in accordance with the grace that God has given us. If our gift is to speak God's message, we should do it according to the faith that we have; 7 if it is to serve, we should serve; if it is to teach, we should teach; 8 if it is to encourage others, we should do so. Whoever shares with others should do it generously; whoever has authority should work hard; whoever shows kindness to others should do it cheerfully.

9 Love must be completely sincere. Hate what is evil, hold on to what is good. 10 Love one another warmly as Christians, and be eager to show respect for one another. 11 Work hard and do not be lazy. Serve the Lord with a heart full of devotion. 12 Let your hope keep you joyful, be patient in your troubles, and pray at all times. 13 Share your belongings with your needy fellow Christians, and open your homes to strangers.

14 Ask God to bless those who persecute you—yes, ask him to bless, not to curse. 15 Be happy with those who are happy, weep with those who weep. 16 Have the same concern for everyone. Do not be proud, but accept humble duties.[a] Do not think of yourselves as wise.

17 If someone has done you wrong, do not repay him with a wrong. Try to do what everyone considers to be good. 18 Do everything possible on your part to live in peace with everybody. 19 Never take revenge, my friends, but instead let God's anger do it. For the scripture says, “I will take revenge, I will pay back, says the Lord.” 20 Instead, as the scripture says: “If your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them a drink; for by doing this you will make them burn with shame.” 21 Do not let evil defeat you; instead, conquer evil with good.
Romans 12 (GNT)

Love In Spite Of.....

Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.  Ephesians 4:31-32 (NLT)

I don't normally comment on world events in this post. I don't ever want it to be about politics or news events. I want this always to be about God. When you look at the hatred in the world these days, it is very disturbing. And I've been thinking and praying about it the last few days.

I wanted to post about the text Galatians 3:28 that says "There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus." or some other text that says we are all God's children but that is not where God led me when I prayed and asked him "What can I do?"

He led me to the text above. As Christians, we have to be very real and honest about our own behavior and our own circumstances. I do something every single day that is offensive to Christ. I cannot come near to the behavior God desires of me. But I am forgiven every single day. And every single day, I am drawn into a relationship that I do not deserve.

Am I saying we should accept hatred and bigotry and violence as acceptable? No. Not by a long shot. What I am saying though, is that Jesus never fought hatred with hatred. He never used the same means his enemies did to fix what was wrong with his world. And while I do think we are also called to defend the innocent, I think how we do it is really important.

Our hearts need to be where God wants them to be or we will not be able to make the difference we so very much desire. Hating those who are offensive is exactly the opposite of what God calls us to do (Matthew 5:44).

Is it hard to do this? Oh yeah. Does it come naturally to us? Heck no. Does it seem right and fair? No, but if God treated us the way we deserve and gave us what was fair, we'd all be dead. I only know of one way to do this. Focus on Jesus. When I am angry and bitter, give it to God and ask him to take it away. (This will have to happen multiple times.) Show love even when I don't want to and pray, pray, pray about how God wants to use me for his glory.

God tells us his way of love is the best way. Question is, are we willing to try it?

Why You Have What You Have

Clearly, God’s love for Israel is behind this, making you king to keep a just order and nurture a God-pleasing people. 1 Kings 10:9 (MSG)

The Queen of Sheba had gone to visit Solomon. She was blown away by the extravagance of his kingdom. His palace, the food served, the servants, the organization of his kingdom, the sacrifices to God, the wealth...everywhere. She was also taken by his wisdom and knowledge.

She said to the king, “It’s all true! Your reputation for accomplishment and wisdom that reached all the way to my country is confirmed. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it for myself; they didn’t exaggerate! Such wisdom and elegance—far more than I could ever have imagined. Lucky the men and women who work for you, getting to be around you every day and hear your wise words firsthand! And blessed be God, your God, who took such a liking to you and made you king." 1 Kings 10:6-9a (MSG)

But that is not what I love about this story. I love the next line. It says "Clearly, God’s love for Israel is behind this, making you king to keep a just order and nurture a God-pleasing people." (10:9b) I love that because God blesses us with so much. We are given talents and material possessions. We are given successes and achievements. We are given family and co-workers and friends. Sometimes we get tripped up into thinking we get these things because we've done something good. We pat ourselves on the back and congratulate ourselves for this life we have.

In reality, we are given these things for God's glory. 1 Kings 10:9 could be paraphrased to read "Clearly, God's love for all his people is behind this." God wants his children to be a God-pleasing people. All we have, all we are given is so we can become more like him and represent him well.

A Minute In It - Anything You Want

A little time in the Word every day changes you. Take a few minutes, read these verses and ponder the questions at the bottom of the post.

That night the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream, and God said, “What do you want? Ask, and I will give it to you!”

Solomon replied, “You showed great and faithful love to your servant my father, David, because he was honest and true and faithful to you. And you have continued to show this great and faithful love to him today by giving him a son to sit on his throne.

“Now, O Lord my God, you have made me king instead of my father, David, but I am like a little child who doesn’t know his way around. And here I am in the midst of your own chosen people, a nation so great and numerous they cannot be counted! Give me an understanding heart so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong. For who by himself is able to govern this great people of yours?”
1 Kings 3:5-9 (NLT)

If God came to you and asked you "What do you want?", what would you say? Take a minute to think it over. Seriously.

First From His Hands

Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he kept giving the bread and fish to the disciples so they could distribute it to the people. Luke 9:16 (NLT)

This verse is from the story where Jesus fed the 5,000 (that number didn't count the families with them). The crowd had been following him around all day. The disciples were ready to send them home to fend for themselves but Jesus had another idea. He pushed the disciples to come up with a plan to feed them. He asked them for suggestions but they were stumped. It looked like an impossible situation. And from a human perspective, it was.

Queue the Jesus factor. We don't queue this a lot. We look at our situations and say "Nope, impossible. Let's all go home." But Jesus always has another idea and another plan. What I love about this story is Jesus' personal involvement. The disciples brought him the fish, he thanked God for them and then with his own hands he broke the loaves and fish into the portions needed for the people and gave them to the disciples to hand out.

Could Jesus have just said "divide into multiple pieces enough for everyone" and then looked at the disciples and said, "There you go, pass them out." Yes. But he didn't. He handled each piece of food and gave the food to the disciples to distribute.

I think Jesus is still working this way. We look at our situation. We call it impossible. Jesus says "How about this?" and gives us our portion to digest and be filled. Then he says, take what I've given you and pass it on. Share it so others can be filled also.

This salvation thing is never meant to be isolated between us and God. It is always meant to be re-given, over and over again. As many times as Jesus hands you food, that is how many times you are to share it with others.

When I Am Weak, Who Is Strong?

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV)

Ever think about what this text means? We don't like to be weak. I can even make it more personal. I don't like to be weak. I am super independent and stubborn (and all my family said 'Amen'!) I've always had this mentality that I can do whatever I want. And I try. But the problem with that is life gets in the way of our "I can handle it" attitude and eventually, we are faced with things we can't handle.

When I was talking to God about this text, I made a list of things I cannot do. Let me be really honest here, right now there is a lot of things on that list. I worded it like this:

I don't have what it takes to _____________________.

I would encourage you to do this. Some things on your list might be:

I don't have what it takes to fix my health.
I don't have what it takes to get my finances in line.
I don't have what it takes to save my children.
I don't have what it takes to answer Your call.

Take some time, make your list. I know at first it may seem depressing but here is what I found. At the end of my list I realized I don't have what it takes to do anything that is really important to me. And then I realized I was empty. Empty of the feeling that I could work hard enough to fix this. Empty of the feeling that I alone had to try to make it work. Empty of the feeling that I was a failure because I couldn't make everything come together the way I wanted it to. And then, I let it go.

I gave the "Don't have what it takes" list to God and I told him I couldn't but I knew he could. And I was OK with being weak because I wasn't weak alone. My weakness allowed me to get out of the way so my True Strength could step in.

How about you?  Make your list and then let it go. Embrace weakness for then you will find your Strength.