The only way to stand

I don't know how this keeps happening, but again this morning another verse showed up in my Bible that wasn't there last time I read this passage. I realize that I'm often blind to certain passages until the time I need them and then, suddenly, they appear as if for the first time. Here is one of them,

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Isaiah 7:9b ".....If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all."

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Now, how is it that I missed this? But as I read it this morning I caught myself...."What did that just say?" Again I read it. Clearly, God is telling him people there is only one way to stand. Unless we "stand firm in our faith" we will not stand at all. Amazing statement, isn't it? What is this phrase talking about? It's clearly not a statement elevating faith. It's an invitation to put your full weight and faith in God. Unless you trust God in these days you will not be able to stand and withstand the winds and storms of the days we are living in. I know some would put the focus on faith here, but that's not the author's intent. He intends that God be the focus. He's clearly warning them that if they don't firmly trust God through the days they live in there is no other place you can stand, no other one you can depend on. It's God or nothing. Stand trusting him or fall completely. It is, according to God, the only way to stand. It's the only place that anyone can stand. I wonder if we can apply this to our lives today? ...

Wouldn't it be great...

Wouldn't it be great if we started every day this way? We should...God tells us,

Psalm 118:24 This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Providing provisions

Romans 13:14 (NASB)

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But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.

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I read this verse last week and have been thinking about just one word in this short verse. It's the word provision. I'll come back to that in a moment.

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One of the things I like about Paul's writings is the way he clearly gives us direction- Do this, but don't do that. It's a clarity that a simple mind like mine needs. I need someone to help me with the do's and don'ts of the Christian life. This short verse is potentially life changing if we would really act on it. He begins with this strange wording, "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ." It's as if you were dressing for the day. Put on this person...become them....dress up to be Jesus walking around in the real world. I know Paul wouldn't tell us to do something that isn't possible, so the believer can put on Christ, allow him to lead, be Lord and rule as I start my day, and that decision of dress will impact other decisions....especially the next one in this passage.

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"And make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts." The "do" is put on Christ. The "don't" is don't provision the lusts of the flesh. If you have ever gone on a camping trip this word provision is clearly understood. You go to the store and buy all the provisions you will need to survive your week in the woods. You provision yourself for the trip. It's the stuff that keeps us alive. What Paul is saying is this- Don't buy food to feed your lusts. Don't provision your lusts.

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DO put on Christ, DON'T feed your lusts. Now, if you don't feed them there will be some hunger pangs that will make themselves known. You will clearly hear the hunger rumbles of your lusts as you deny them food, but one thing I can tell you from my life and from talking to others, is that if you starve your lusts long enough they will die. It's part of our Christian growth that must be done intentionally. We have to decide what we will wear- our old flesh or Christ. And, we have to decide what we will feed- our new man (Romans 12:1-2) or our lusts. What you provision will thrive and take over. What you starve will wither and die. This is Paul's invitation to living intentionally. It's got me thinking about what I feed and nurture. What part of your life are you buying provisions for?

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Monday's cartoon

Quote of the day

Those who are often most obsessed with God are the very ones who say he doesn't exist. It's funny, but no matter how much we protest his existence we cannot get away from the God who is.

Saturday's cartoon

The big lie

I watched the beginning of a video a few weeks ago that is haunting. I couldn't watch it all. I didn't want to see the end. It was the video of a young lady committing suicide. Someone had filmed it. The beginning of the video was heartbreaking as she just stood there...on the edge of this tall building looking down. I stopped the video before she moved a muscle. The title told me all I needed to know. I can't imagine the thoughts of someone as they make this kind of life ending decision. It's a tragic event in the life of someone God has made. It's a horrible end of the life of someone dear to God. I just couldn't watch the point of decision...the point where she leans forward and moves beyond her ability to make any other decision. The rest is inevitable.

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It made me think about something that I have been dwelling on for a long time. It's what I call the big lie. It's a lie that started many centuries ago, but continues to be believed even today. Here's the lie- I can find happiness disobeying God. It's a lie that we have believed to our own fall for centuries. At first, you have a sense that all is well. You might find pleasure for a moment, a little excitement, maybe a thrill; but there will be a moment when you move past your ability to make any further choices and you begin to fall. The outcome is unavoidable. It will happen every time and yet I hear over and over again, as people tell me they want to make a choice that is clearly sin in scripture, "I just want to be happy..." My response is the same each time. It's a response I have repeated to those on "the edge of their building" over and over again...."You will never find happiness disobeying God." But what I know is that most people don't believe me and so they go on that horrible quest that starts with the decision to jump and always ends in death.

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Here's how the book of James describes it,

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James 1:15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

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Look at the way James describes this- conception, birth, full growth and then death. From conception to birth there is a time of growth. The baby is growing in the mother's womb. For a few months it looks like there were no results from the intimate act that had in fact conceived a new baby, but soon the action begins to show....soon there's a birth, then growth and finally death. This is the perfect description of disobedience to God. For a moment there is pleasure, no one disputes that, but there will be a birth coming. There will be results from sin, it will come to light, it will grow up and ultimately there will be a death because of the choice. Sin has a price and it's high!

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I've seen this so many times in my role as a pastor I could almost predict the outcome when a person decides that it is "ok" to disobey God because...."don't you know....I just want to be happy." There are a hundred stories I could tell. They all end the same. The big lie has not changed in centuries, nor have the results. Don't believe the culture when they tell you that it's ok, because God would surely want you happy. I must tell you that God is more interested in your obedience than he is in your happiness. If you do things God's way happiness will be one of the results. If you do things your way happiness will always elude you because...you will never find happiness disobeying God.

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Today

Life happens so quickly. Before we realize it years have passed, opportunities have been missed and our lives come to a quick finale. I'm thinking about this because of a verse I'll share with you in a moment, but let me talk about today for a bit. Today is what we call these moments of consciousness that we live through. Between our today's we sleep a bit and then another today dawns. We only get today. You can't use tomorrow. Someday is only a dream. All we have is today. Life is made up of thousands of today's. How are you using today? Here's a passage from Psalms that has made me think,

Psalm 95

1 Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD;

let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving

and extol him with music and song.
3 For the LORD is the great God,

the great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth,

and the mountain peaks belong to him.
5 The sea is his, for he made it,

and his hands formed the dry land.
6 Come, let us bow down in worship,

let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;
7 for he is our God

and we are the people of his pasture,

the flock under his care.

Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,

as you did that day at Massah in the desert,
9 where your fathers tested and tried me,

though they had seen what I did.

And in Hebrews,

Hebrews 3:13

But encourage one another daily,

as long as it is called Today,

so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.

Today, it's an opportunity to listen to and respond to God. It's an opportunity to walk with him. Today is the only day you have to focus on. In this day, today, worship God, listen to him, don't let sin harden you to him. How you respond to God today affects your tomorrows.

Monday's cartoon

The battle for relationship

I just started reading the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi. It's a challenging little book because it addresses our constant struggle- the struggle to keep a relationship with God from becoming a religion about God.

It's strange, but when I have a relationship with God I do what he asks out of love for him and fellowship with him, but when my relationship dims I continue to do the same things I did before, but now they are out of guilt and obligation. The progression from relationship to religion is subtle and happens far too easily. We have to constantly work on our relationship with God to keep our fellowship with him vital and our obedience to him based on love for him.

The problem that developed in Malachi's day was that the nation of Israel had moved from relationship to religion and didn't even know it had happened. They were still doing the same things, but now their motive and motivation had changed. Their relationship had become religion....sterile, cold, impersonal religion. They lost their love for God, their passion to please him and the reason they served him. Now it was just a cold empty shell of what God wanted it to be and Malachi comes to reprimand and remind them.....don't you remember what we had? What you are doing now is not what I want from you. I want a relationship, but you have made it a religion.

Here's the strange thing about all of this- no one likes religion, but everyone likes relationship. God made us for relationship. God wants intimacy with us. But so easily, so subtly we make relationship with God into an obligation and become cold, sterile and dead. God's whole purpose through Malachi was to woo back his love and remind them of the relationship they had. He's doing that today as well. God wants relationship. We settle for religion. And neither we nor God are happy with the outcome.

Relationship with God....it demands time, attention, talking and listening to each other, spending time with him, hanging out in his presence. It demands time in his word to hear him and know him. It demands time in prayer to share your heart and kindle love and intimacy. That's why we settle for religion....religion takes no time at all. It's easy to do, but it's artificial, dead and empty.

Malachi is reminding me again how easy it is for me to slip back into religion and miss the joys and blessings of relationship with the living God. Religion is easy, but relationship with God? That takes time....time to be with him, but it's so worth the investment.

Saturday's cartoon

If God is good

If God is good. It's an important issue to discuss in light of suffering in the world. It's an important issue because suffering seems to conflict with the idea of a good God. Each of us must resolve this issue in our lives and in our faith.

I've just started Randy's book and am looking forward to how he resolves these issues. It is a book I think every believer should read. I'll give you updates as I work my way through this book and these issues.

The love of God

This morning, as I'm reading, I came to these words at the end of Romans 8, "the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6-8 are three of the most amazing chapters in the bible. I think I could spend the rest of my life in these 3 chapters and still not plumb the depth of what they contain. If my old brain worked as well as it did when I was a youth I would memorize these 3 chapters....they are that important. But this morning I read those last 11 words and caught myself reading them again, then once more. The love of God is in Christ Jesus our Lord! If you don't know Jesus as savior then you don't understand or know what the love of God is all about. It's revealed and experienced in relationship with one person- Jesus Christ.

Some want a relationship with God, but want nothing to do with Jesus and miss entirely the love of God. These people will tend to be legalists living by law, trying to please God and find his approval by what they do.

Some will want to claim Jesus as their friend, but not have time for God. Jesus' purpose was to show us the love of God. If you want Jesus, but not God, you will like him for the way he lived with and cared for those around him, but you will miss his purpose- to show us God's love, to bring us into a living and loving relationship with the God who made us.

These last 11 words of Romans 8 tie Jesus to God in an intimate relationship with the plan to show the human race how God feels about us- HE LOVES US! That love is revealed in Jesus, but the revelation had a purpose. God wanted to show us how he feels about us so that we will hunger to know him and have a relationship with him. In Hebrews the appeal to us is simple and clear, "let us draw near." God wants us to know him. He loves us and desires to save us, forgive us, give us new life and spend time with us. It is so important to him that he sent his Son to show us what he is like and how much he cares for us. "The love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" is available to anyone who will come to him. Those who know this love are the very ones who will show the world the love they have experienced. It's that amazing love, revealed in Christ, experienced by us and shared with others that will change the world around us.

What to say about difficult days

Sometimes there simply aren't words to say about what is happening around us.

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Sometimes we try to answer the questions that come when we see tragedy, but simply have no answers.

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Sometimes difficult days should leave us speechless.

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Sometimes the only thing that's appropriate is to pray for those who are in the midst of difficult days.

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This is one of those times.

What to do about Haiti?

The news media worldwide is focused on the horrible tragedy that has happened in Haiti. The number of those dead is estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands. There is no place I have ever been that is less able to handle this tragedy than Haiti. The country was broken before this tragedy, but now it's completely destroyed. So what can we do? First, pray for the people of Haiti. I can't imagine how desperate they feel as they see their country completely destroyed. Second, help them. Look for a good charity that is heading for Haiti and help them care for the people of Haiti. The governments of the world will be sending help, but each of us can do something and I encourage you to look for a way to help in your own way. There are some wonderful people in Haiti. Many of the people I have met there are dear friends. The people of Haiti have very little and yet find joy in their lives. Pray for them and help them if you can.