Sticks and Stones

Sticks and stones. You know how the rest of it goes, “they may break our bones, but words will never hurt us!”  I remember that was our parent’s advice they gave us when bullies use to pick on us. They lied!  Words do hurt and most of the time they hurt worse than physical scars.

Proverbs 18:21 says that “death and life are in the power of the tongue”.  What a true statement that is ( everything in the Bible is a true statement). The words that come out of our mouth have such power on the people that we are speaking them to. They have the power to build up or they have the power to destroy.

How do we speak to those around us: our spouses, our kids, our friends and our co-workers?  Do we think about what we say and how it is going to effect them before we let the words come out of our mouths?  Are we always sarcastic in our responses and is the other person taking it as sarcasm or are we killing them with our words?

Or words are the most powerful things we have. We speak about 5000 of them a day. Are they being used to edify others?  James wrote “but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.  With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.  From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.” - James 3:8-10.

Have a great day and God bless.

Groundhog Day

Happy Groundhog Day 2019!  Well it was just reported that spring is on its way because Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow this morning. It always made me wonder because the first day of spring is a set day on the calendar and it is coming no matter what he says. I know, he predicts the weather until spring!

This day always reminds me of the movie Groundhog Day with Bill Murray. It’s such a funny movie. I’m sure most of you have seen it but if you haven’t here’s what it’s about. A weatherman travels to cover the event and ends up waking up everyday on Groundhog’s Day to relive that day over and over again. Each day he tries to improve on the day before.

He spends each day trying to better himself in order to win over the female reporter that is with him because he falls in love with her. Finally, at the end....... well, I won’t ruin it for you if you haven’t seen the movie. If you have seen it, you know how it ends anyway.

Life doesn’t work out that way for us. We don’t get to live the same day over and over until we get it right or get what we want. We only get one chance at this thing called life. It will come to an end for each of us one day and then the Bible says it is followed by the judgement.

The Book of Proverbs gives us a lot of wisdom about how we are to live this life. Here are just a few:

“Hear, my son, and accept my words, that the years of your life may be many.” - Proverbs 4:10

“For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the LORD,” - Proverbs 8:35

“Whoever pursues righteousness and kindness will find life, righteousness, and honor.” - Proverbs 21:21

Jesus also speaks a lot about life in the four Gospels. He speaks of how we have to make a decision to follow Him in this life because it will be too late after we die. Have you made that decision?  We don’t get a “do-over” in this life like Bill Murray did in the movie Groundhog Day.

Have a great day and God bless.

Money Where Your Mouth Is.

Put your money where your mouth is!  We always want proof, don’t we?  The Apostle Thomas wanted proof that Jesus had risen from the dead as the other apostles had told him. We wanted to see it with his own eyes. He wanted to touch and handle Him. There is nothing wrong with wanting proof of some things. The world wants proof that we are what we say we are. They want us to put our money where our mouth is.

We have been looking at Romans 12 and the first two verses showed us “what” God wanted from Christians (total submission), “how” to do it (transformation by the renewing of our minds), and “why” we should do it (receive perfect will of God). Verses nine through thirteen gives us the marks of an “all in” Christian.

The Apostle Paul gives us the following list of what our lives should look like if we have totally surrendered to Christ:
• we will be authentic. Authenticity happens when the real you, meets real needs, for the right reasons, in the right way.
•we show a sincere love.
•abhor what is evil.
•hold fast to what is true.
•be devoted to one another.
•honor one another.
•not be slothful in zeal (laziness).
•fervent in spirit.
•serving the Lord.
•rejoicing in hope.
•patient in troubles.
•constant in prayer.
•contribute to the needs of others.
•be hospitable

Now there is no way we can be perfect in all of these things. We are all at different places along our journey for each one of these and we will never perfect any of them. But our goal should be to keep striving after the mark of being like Jesus in each of these and the result will be that people will know that we are followers of Christ. Even the Apostle Paul said, “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own”. - Philippians 3:12

Have a great day and God bless.

Why?

I think the favorite word of a soon-to-be three year old is “why?”  It doesn’t matter what the answer may be to the question he asks, it’s going to get the response of “why?”  It’s enough to about drive you crazy. I think that’s why God makes little kids so cute; it helps keep them alive!

So we found out “what” God wants from us as Christians in the first verse of Romans chapter 12: total, all-in surrender. Verse two gives us the “how” and the “why”.  We saw yesterday that we, as Christians, are commanded to surrender our bodies as a living sacrifice to God as our act of worship because of what He has done for us through Jesus Christ.

That’s great, but “how” do we go about doing that so that we can worship God with our sacrifice?  Paul says we surrender our bodies to God by no longer conforming to this world. The word “conform” means to be poured into a mold of something and take on its outward appearance. We have to stop acting like the rest of the world and start acting like Jesus. Whatever we put into our hearts and minds will be what we live out in our lives. If we put in the things of this world, we live out the things of this world. If we put in God’s Word, we live out God’s Word.

Not conforming to this world system is a battle, one that changes over time as we mature. There will be failures, but God’s desire for us is to continue rejecting this world. Reject it in the way it tells us our marriage and family should be, reject it in how it says we should work, and reject the world and how it tells us we should do church.

We also have to be “transformed” in the things we put in our minds. This transformation happens from the inside out. A metamorphosis has to take place. That word “transformed” is the same word used to describe the change that happened to Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration.

Now that we know “what” God wants us to do and “how” He wants us to do it, the second part of verse two tells us the “why”: so we can “discern the good, acceptable and perfect will of God”.

Imagine what the Christian life would be like if we break free from the performance-oriented life based upon “doing” things. We are saved by grace, but then we change it to works after salvation. What if we just kept living this Christian life under God’s grace?

Have a great day and God bless.

A Living Sacrifice

What is it that God wants from us as Christians?  Romans 12:1 answers that question pretty clearly.  The Apostle Paul commands us to present our bodies (ourselves) as a living sacrifice. But why?  Because of the mercy that God has shown us in sacrificing His own Son and removing our sins.

He asks for total commitment, not a half-hearted try. Webster’s dictionary defines total commitment as “the alignment of one’s motives, resources, priorities and goals to fulfill a specific mission, accomplish a specific task or follow a specific purpose.”

Total commitment to something is usually viewed in a negative light centering around what you lose, the rules you need to follow or the fun you miss out on. Total commitment isn’t done on a whim; it’s done with wisdom, logic and shrewd evaluation.

We live as though a total commitment to God would be a crushing blow to our personal dreams and future happiness when in reality He has so much more for us than we can ever dream of.  Paul asked the Romans in chapter 8 verse 32 - “He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?”

Verse 1 of chapter 12 of Romans gives us a command, a motivation and a reason. The command is to offer your body. The motivation is the mercy of God. And the reason is that it’s the worship God desires. We are to present our physical bodies as an act of true, inner, Spirit-directed service to God.

Have a great day and God bless.

All In

“All in!!!”  Remember back about seven or eight years ago and Texas Hold’em was all the rage?  It seemed to be on ESPN almost every night. People were playing it on computers and signing up trying to get into tournaments. The best part was when they were down to the final table and someone would push all their chips to the center of the table and declare they were “all in”. It meant they were risking everything on winning that hand.

Can you say that you are “all in” on this Christian life or are you just in it for the chance to go to heaven?  There is a Biblical difference between salvation and Lordship. Most Christians have no problem accepting Christ for their salvation but very few sacrifice their life over to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Very few say, “God, I am all in!  Do with my life as you please”. That’s Lordship.

Remember when Thomas met Jesus for the first time after the Resurrection?  He was having a hard time believing that Jesus had risen from the dead, but when he saw Jesus for the first time and Jesus instructed Him to put his fingers in the holes in His wrists and to put his hand in His side. Thomas’s reaction was to cry out, “My Lord and my God”.  He was saying that Jesus Christ was God and he was giving over Lordship of his life to Him.

There are really two types of Christians in the world: the saved and the available. The saved thank God for saving them from the debt of their sins, but the available thank God for their salvation and then say use me as You will. That’s what being an “all in” Christian means; being available for whatever it is God wants from you. It’s not easy. It means giving up control of your own life and giving it all to God.

The Apostle Paul gives us an outline of what an “all in” Christian looks like in Romans 12:1-2. He tells us that we are to present ourselves a “living sacrifice” to God. We’ll look into what that means tomorrow as we go through those two verses this week.

Have a great day and God bless.

God of Molech

There is nothing new under the sun!  We treat things going on in today’s society as if it’s the worst it has ever been in the history of mankind. I agree that the things we do as a society today are getting worse and worse by the hour it seems, but it’s nothing new.

Let’s take the wickedness of killing our children for example. We find these things going on all through the Bible. Do you remember when Israel was in captivity in Egypt?  They were getting too numerous and caused a potential threat to the power of the pharaoh. He ordered all the male Jewish babies, that were born in Egypt, to be thrown into the Nile River and drowned. Luckily Moses was saved and rescued Israel from captivity.

It didn’t get any better in the days of Jesus. Remember when He was born King Herod ordered all of the male children around Bethlehem to be killed because Jesus posed a threat to his throne?  Luckily Jesus and His family received word from an angel and were able to escape to Egypt (ironic) and survive. Jesus went on to die on the cross at Calvary to save the world from their sins.

These two examples, one from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament, showed the lengths in which those who ruled were willing to go to keep their power. But what about individuals killing their own children, is that found anywhere in the Bible?  It sure is!!!!

In 2 Kings, chapter 23, we find the sacrifices of children to the Ammonite god Molech. Molech is mentioned in a handful of places in the Old Testament and once in Acts in the New Testament. The Israelites fell into the trap of sacrificing their own children to this pagan god as well, trying to be like the people around them. The section in 2 Kings said that people were sacrificing their sons and daughters to Molech by burning them alive. They felt that the sacrifice of their children would be more acceptable that the sacrifice animals to God of Israel.

The Bible speaks quite often of the blessing that children are: “Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth.
Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!” - Psalm 127:4-5. Jesus ordered His disciples not to keep the children from Him. We are instructed to come to faith in Christ as a child. We should be protecting the lives of our children as God wants us too, not sacrificing them to the modern day god of Molech.

Have a great day and God bless the children!