Entry for May 16, 2008

Today’s Verse: Proverbs 14:17 A quick-tempered man acts foolishly, and a man of evil devices is hated. NASB

I just hate it when a verse jumps off the page and says, “Tag you’re it!” Normally I do fairly well on this, but it has not always been true that I controlled my temper. It is also true that if I let myself get tired or stressed, that then who knows what might come out of my mouth. Given, I am fully aware that if the heart is pure, only pure things flow from it. OK, so I’ll admit that I am not “there” yet. It is all too often that I respond in kind to what I perceive to be a verbal attack by someone else. I get defensive all too quickly all too often. Unfortunately, what comes out if I let myself get mentally cornered or sense attack, is I respond before I have a chance to rethink my words. If you have ever struggled with this, you know that the consequences are not ever positive. I am always so impressed with someone who has a serenity about them that comes from God’s peace in their heart. My observation is that their initial response seems to be to listen and ask questions to understand before they respond. I am usually coming up with my response while they are still talking. Not a good listening skill. I tend to think of what I do as a minister is make my living speaking. My nightmare is laryngitis. It is certainly worthy of some prayer and thought that the real job is more about listening. Maybe my job as husband, father and friend should be cast in the same way. To pour gasoline on a fire does nothing more to quench the flames than a satirical response, even in-kind, in a conversation does to communication. Maybe my focus, if I truly wish to avoid foolishness, ought to be to keep my ears open and listen. Listen to God more so that my heart is filled with His goodness and love. Listen more to others that I might love and not hurt. Lord, I pray that You would help me to remove the chip from my heart’s shoulder that I might not be found quick-tempered, but rather, Christ tempered. Hardened only to sin and never people. Amen.

Entry for May 15, 2008

Today’s Verse: Ecclesiastes12:7 then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it. NASB

I often mused over just who looked the most like God. We ere told in Sunday School that God made us in His own image, yet everyone looked so different that as a kid it did not make much sense. Some would say, “Oh you look just like you father.” Other s would say, “Oh, you really favor your mother.” The part of us that was made in His image is the part that does not return to dust, but rather it is the part of us that is eternal like He is eternal. It is this breath of life that He gives that is life. This is why Jesus spent so much of His ministry talking about heart. It is not the outward man that is eternal. The outward person decays and returns to the elements from which it was formed. Outward conformance without inner transformation did nothing to ones actual self. It only made the outer self look good to others for its own aggrandizement and glory, not God’s. The inward self, the very core of our being, it is our heart. It is who we are, deep down. It is from our heart that our words, worship and will emanate from. When we look into a physical mirror, we see the outer person. When we pray and ask God to reflect back to us how we are doing at becoming more like Christ’s image, then we can see who we really are. How much do you look like your Father today? Ask Him, and He will gently help you to grow in His likeness in that part of us that will spend eternity in His glory and presence. Peer into His mirror today. Place yourself, your spirit, into His hands to mold and make as He wills.

Entry for May 14, 2008

Today’s Verse: Hebrews 5:12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers , you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. NASB

This was me not too very long ago. I had been in churches all my life, yet I was still on milk instead of solid spiritual food. Why is that? We go to church, listen to Bible class lessons, and even open our Bibles occasionally. Yet we couldn’t reason our way into or out of a a paper bag from the perspective of a Biblical discussion. Biblical literacy is a serious problem among even the faithful. I am convinced that is why most Christians are terrified of attempting to share their faith. They don’t have more than a Vacation Bible School understanding themselves. If someone were to ask you today to show them some key Bible passages they could read to help them understand what it means to be a Christian, would you be able to do it? Did I sense a cringe? If that is you, don’t just sit there and feel bad about it, do something positive about it. Get on a Bible reading plan every day. Get you hands on some tracts that have good Bible verses already laid out, or write me and I’ll send you some good studies any Christian could use with anyone. Ever wonder why some people produce more fruit? It is because at some point in their Christian walk they made a decision to dig in and grow. Trust me, it is never too late. God will richly bless your life in a new depth of understanding and relationship with Him. Pick up your Bible and read. Get up off the pew and get in the game.

Entry for May 13, 2008

Today’s Verse: Colossians 2:18 Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, NASB

You might be wondering, “Where in the world is he going to go with this one?” Obviously self-imposed religion and angel worship are condemned, but that’s not what I want you to see in this. There is an assurance that we all need to cling tightly to even in the face of daily trials and the world’s attempts to marginalize our beliefs as “quaint” or worse. Satan is happiest if you can be kept from a saving relationship with Jesus. Once foiled in that, the next tactic is to is to get you too distracted to be an effective follower of Christ. There are far too many Christians wandering the face of the globe today who are not living in the joy available in this life before eternity. Certainly we are not promised an easy ride, in fact the contrary is what Jesus foretold. We can expect to be made fun of, called fundamentalists or worse, for simply believing the Bible is God’s word and navigating our way with God at the rudder and His word as our compass. Too many are afraid to even speak of our loving Father in the marketplace, or wherever we find ourselves. It seems to me that one of the key elements that drives that timidity or lack of boldness is a disconnect with the truth of having already received what God has promised. That’s the truth that jumped off the pages of the scriptures this morning at me. There is in this verse a fundamental truth of our Christian walk, that if we indeed lose sight of it that evil wins the day. There is a promise that we need to cling to every hour of every day. For if we have truly internalized this simple yet profound truth the boldness with which we serve our risen Lord and Savior would take on new life and dimensions. That truth is in God’s assurance for you, His child, that the prize is already yours! Don’t let anyone talk you out of that. Go forth serving with a renewed gladness, with joy in your heart and spring in your step because you have already won the prize. Praise God for His Good News!

Entry for May 12, 2008

Today’s Verse: 3 John 11 Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God. NASB

It would be very helpful if everything which is evil was clearly marked. That would be some helpful truth in advertising for sure. Some days I feel like I am being assaulted. You open the newspaper and there are the underwear ads. You turn on the TV and…well, you name it. You go to the grocery store to pick up some milk and there are all these magazines and tabloid papers with any number of bizarre things on the covers. Wouldn’t it be helpful to have some sort of warning buzzer that goes off in our head when we are about to see things we don’t want to see? It would help me a lot if I could preview what I am about to say before letting it come out of my mouth, kind of like a spell checker, except it would be an evil or insensitive checker. Because I have my relationship with Christ Jesus, I don’t worry about my salvation, but rather worry a bit about the salvation of others that might be hampered by my behavior. What is that which is evil anyway? It is that which is not of God. If that is the case, then I may have more to worry over than I thought. There are many days when I may be well into the day before asking God what He would have me to do, or not. Chances are high that if I am not working hard at serving God, that my flesh nature is ruling and that is not good. I joke around sometimes about the “evil Bryan” and how I killed him off a few years ago. It is not too far from the truth. Except that he is not really dead. I have to consciously and constantly keep focus on God’s ways in my life or the old nature gleefully eeks back in. Oh, not too obvious at first, but the slippery slope is steep and you can be way down it before you realize it. By keeping up good habits of daily Bible reading and time with God in prayer, we can inoculate ourselves. We tend to have a better sense of what is of Him and what we need to avoid if we are closer to Him throughout our day. Let’s decide to be imitators of Christ today and keep our focus on God and serving Him in righteousness.

Entry for May 9, 2008

Today’s Verse: Ephesians 5:17 So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. NASB

For most, that is certainly the $64,000 question, isn’t it? “What is the Lord’s will for my life?” God is not hiding the answer to that question. In fact, He has long ago finished its revelation for us. His will for all mankind and more specifically for us is spelled out in great detail in His word. Maybe the struggle is that we want Him to be even more specific. Do we really want Him dictating our every movement or decision? His love for us and His willingness to give us the freedom to choose His way or not every moment makes it difficult for those of us who want more concrete answers. We are called first to redemption in Christ Jesus. Following that, we are to become more like Him every day. The only way we can know what that means in practical terms is to open His word and read. We read and then we apply His truths to our lives. God would not accuse us of being “foolish” for not understanding if the truth of His will was hidden. It is so simple, anyone can pick it up and understand the basics. Yet one can also spend a lifetime of study and application attempting to plumb the depths of His will. Like learning to do anything, it requires first steps, then next steps and so on as we grow more like Him with every faith step and willful decision to follow His way. These are most often not spectacular decisions or great heights of faith at first, yet the journey must begin and end with faithful footsteps. We learn by carefully placing our feet in His foot prints, first the right and then the left. A lifetime of choices lived for Him will yield much good fruit.

Entry for May 8, 2008

Today’s Verse: 2 Corinthians 5:9 Therefore, we also have as our ambition whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. NASB

Do you often think of your self as being alien to this place? One of my first jobs after college was selling Seiko watches in Southern Louisiana. I had an apartment in Baton Rouge, but mostly I lived in hotels. Being a Texan, I enjoyed their wonderful food, sense of humor, music and their culture at its surface. However, it was always clear to me that I was not really one of them. My home was not there, it was elsewhere. Like a fish a bit out of water, I could enjoy being there and working there, but was always without a sense of belonging there. We are to be the same in the world as Christians. Sayings like, “Be in the world, but not of it.” says it well. We are to walk alongside this world even though we are truly aliens here. The apostle Paul is expressing in his third letter to the Corinthian church that location is not to matter to us. We are not here with any different purpose than we would be if we were at home in heaven with our Father. You don’t have to search a lifetime of going from guru to guru or movement to movement, for we are always to be about one singular thing. That is to “be pleasing to Him.” If you are then moved to ask, “What pleases Him?”, you are asking the right question. There is only one source for that knowledge and that is not on some Himalayan mountaintop or in a sweat tent or in an image on a tortilla. We find what our heavenly Father desires of us, that which is pleasing to Him, in His word, the Holy Bible. It is very OK not to feel comfortable in the ways of this world. Too many are too comfortable even now. We need to make it our business, our singular focus to desire above anything else to seek God’s will and desire in His word…and then do it. Looking for a good starting place? Try the Sermon on the Mount by Jesus. It is found in Matthew chapters 5-7. God has not hidden His will or His desire from us. Read and let Him reveal His good pleasure to you. “We’re just a passin’ through”, but we also got some stuff to do.

Entry for May 7, 2008

Today’s Verse: Leviticus 17:22 “The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.” NASB

Did you ever wonder things like, “Where did the idea of a scapegoat come from?” Well, here you go. On Yom Kippur, The Day of Atonement, the High Priest would go into the Holy of Holies. He was the only one to enter and then only one day a year. Individual sinners and worshippers would offer animals, grain and so on for offerings to God throughout the year, but this event was only once. There were actually two goats. One would be offered up as a burnt offering. The other would be the focus of this part of the ceremony. The High Priest would place his hands on the goat’s head. One hand for the priests and one for the nation and ceremonially put the group sins of each on the head of the “scapegoat”. Then the goat bearing the sins would be taken out into the wilderness, far outside the city gates, and released. Where is PETA when you need them, right? The real focus of our devotional today is simply the need to cast sin out of our lives. We are not commanded to do such ceremonial cleansing today, for if we are in Christ we are forgiven. However, we do need to consider all the sin and temptation that creeps into our homes and lives a little at a time. Maybe we don’t even notice it at first. Then, we may notice it but do nothing about it. It does not take long to become the elephant in the living room possibly. Maybe it is time to clean our homes of all inequity. Sort of a spring cleaning of our hearts and homes. Drive the sin out of our lives, homes, cities and into the wilderness. Ask God to help you identify the sin that is lurking in your life and the fortitude to drive it outside your city gates. You don’t need a scapegoat, you just need to grasp a spiritual broom and get with it. Sometimes we just need a nudge. …Nudge, nudge.

Entry for May 6, 2008

Today’s Verse: Philippians 1:12 Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, NASB

Since I am a rather “full figure” guy, people often ask me if I played football. The answer is yes, however it was a brief stint in Jr. High School. My answer is consistent and pretty close to the truth, a handy place to approximate for a gospel preacher. I always say, “No, I played the tuba because I have a very low threshold for pain.” No one in their right mind wants to have to endure trials and difficult times in their lives. The rain, however, does indeed fall on the righteous and the unrighteous. We all find ourselves at times having to walk willingly or not through disaster, death, illness, loss and struggle against temptation. I saw a poster at the Marine recruiting office a few days ago that said, “Pain is weakness leaving the body.” I am playing with a sermon with that title. Another saying along the same line is, “That which does not kill us makes use stronger.” I am not so sure that one is so hot. During the struggle, in the valley of pain and despair, it is difficult to refocus on possible positive outcomes. Here, Paul says even though he had been beaten, jailed and stoned for the cause of Christ, “circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel.” He never lost his focus on the most important purpose for his life as a disciple of Christ. We can, if we will, turn our personal struggles into ministries if we will let God work in us and through us. How often can you remember someone you know showing heart encouraging faith and strength in the very depths of a painful illness? I have seen some of the most incredible ministry by the sick for their family and friends. They are focused on helping others deal with the pain of loss even though it is them who is facing the next life with immediacy and assurance of faith that ranks up there with anyone in Hebrews 11. God can use our struggles to help us to grow. He can use our victory in His strength to minister to others in like circumstances. Whether you find yourself in the valley or on the mountain top today, let us, like Paul, declare that we know that indeed God can and will use us and our temporary circumstances to His glory. Share words of hope and comfort to all those around you today. He will use you in mighty ways.

Entry for May 5, 2008

Today’s Verse: 1 Corinthians 15:1 Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which you stand, NASB

“Standing of the Promises” has always been a favorite hymn of many. Relax, I am not going to try to change that. Quite the contrary, I want you to take a look at the foundational concept from that sacred song today. What does it mean to stand on His promises anyway? Does anyone stand for anything much anymore? In a world gone mad with political correctness and post-modernist beliefs that all values are equal, it seems all so very pushy of us to stand on promises, does it not? Many might disagree with this assertion in words, but in action might be the very epitome of this problem. Standing requires the expenditure of energy. I am the first to kid around about a song leader that has everyone stand up every other song. I call it “Christian aerobics”. So, it is not that kind of standing up we are talking about, is it? The kind of standing up Paul is speaking to the church about is the kind that requires us to stand for something, or as it were, someone. We are to stand for Jesus and His teachings in a world that will consider us to be weak, stupid or just plain doormats. Doormats do not stand, but then many Christians don’t either. If we don’t stand up for God’s word and teachings when people use His name in vain, we are no better than doormats. When we don’t stand up against leaders in our cities who look to the moral weakness of the citizens for tax revenues, we are doormats. When we tolerate sin in our homes either on TV or the computer, we are not standing. Standing on the promises has something to do with everyday life, not just the end. When we overlook the anti-God and sinful stances of political candidates and don’t demand better, we are not standing. Commit to God that you will in word and deed stand on and for His promises. Stand up to intolerance of Christian beliefs as the only politically correct group it seems ok to bash. Risk intolerance and stand on the gospel you have been preached. It is Satan that promotes tolerance of sin, not Jesus. Stand up.