Enough One-a-Day Tuesday 3/8/16

A life worthy

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ (Ephesians 1:3).

Think you aren’t strong enough?

Think you aren’t smart enough?

Think you aren’t rich enough?

Think you aren’t…enough?

You have been blessed with every spiritual blessing.  Not some…not even most.

Every

All

I can’t even imagine what all that means, but I’m guessing it means this much: everything you need to live the life God has called you to, He has already given you.

So…what are you waiting for?

Go get ‘em, Beloved.

Grace Comes First One-a-Day Monday 3/7/16  

A life worthy

Time for a little hopscotch through Ephesians…

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:2).

Grace comes first.

Have you ever considered the causative relationship between the words grace and peace? The second depends upon the first.  It is only through God’s grace that we can have peace.

Think about it—apart from God’s grace, why should you have peace?  You are a hopeless, pathetic lump, destined for destruction—me too, for that matter.

Ahh, but you are not apart from God’s grace.  

Hear that–you are not apart from God’s grace.

If you belong to Him, you have his grace, sufficient to all your needs.  Your pathetic lumpiness has been forgiven, atoned for.

Embrace his grace, Beloved of the Father.  

Know his peace.

Happy Monday, Beloved.

Breath of Praise   One-a-Day Friday 3/4/16

A life worthy

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord  (Psalm 150:6).

Imagine that.

Seriously

Take a moment, before you embark on Friday, to imagine every living thing declaring its praise to God.

Every man

woman

child

animal

bird

fish

insect

Everything that draws breath will use that breath to exalt the One who created

sustained

loved

redeemed.

That’s some Hallelujah right there.

Happy Friday, Beloved.

Painful Praise One-a-Day Thursday 3/3/16

A life worthy

…praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals (Psalm 150:5).

I’ve never found the clash of symbols to be particularly worshipful, but what do I know?

OK, oddest worship memory…

Many moons ago, I was part of a church that was rather…demonstrative in its worship.  It was commonplace to see people raising hands, dancing, calling out in various versions of prayer languages.  No snake handling, but up to that pretty much anything went.  I was a little, shall we say, conservative in my personal worship style, but I appreciated the freedom of my brothers and sisters and had no problems with their praise.

Until Flag Lady showed up.

You heard me.  

Flag

Lady

She had these pennants…shiny gold pennants.  They may have been silk, but I don’t know for sure.

I just know that they hurt.

You see, each of her two pennants was about three feet long and was attached to a twelve-inch stick.  Each tapered to a point, as pennants are wont to do.  She would dance up and down the aisle of the church, spinning and twirling and leaping and smacking folks in the head with these flags.

You think I’m joking

but I have scars.

Have you ever seen an expert lion tamer in action?  Maybe an old Indiana Jones film?

Well then.

Beloved, praise him loud and long and with everything you’ve got.

Just, you know, try not to leave a welt.

Happy Thursday, Beloved

Song of Praise One-a-Day Wednesday 3/2/16

A life worthy

Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute… (Psalm 150:3-4)

God is a music lover.

Now there’s all kinds of music, and all kinds of worship.  Some of you go for the traditional, hymn-based-pipe-organ-eighteen-verse-four-part-harmony-gimme-my-choir-robe variety of worship.

Sweet

Some of you need a little head-banging-base-thumping-electric-guitar-screeching-shout-to-the-Lord-and-give-me-an-Advil-for-my-migraine kind of worship.

Cool

Some of you go for the nose flute and hand ocarina.

Probably not many, though.

Guess what?  God likes it all.  If it’s done with all your heart, and it’s done for his glory, it’s worship.  It may not be my style, but it’s his.

So grab your nose flute and let ‘er rip.

Happy Wednesday, Beloved.

Power Praise One-a-Day Tuesday 3/1/16

A life worthy

Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness  (Psalm 150:2).

Yesterday’s verse told us where to praise God–basically everywhere.  This verse tells us why to praise God.  

He’s big.

Really big

And he does big stuff.

I apologize for getting all high-brow and exegetical on you, but we need to get the theology straight here.

God is greater than anything or anyone else you can think of.

Yes, even that.

And definitely them

That makes him worthy of your praise

my praise

all praise.

And this God, this infinitely powerful, surpassingly awesome One,

knows you

loves you

calls you his own.

Yet another reason to praise, ya?

Happy Tuesday, Beloved.

Here…There…Everywhere One-a-Day Monday 2/29/16  

A life worthy

I’m taking a little break from 1 Corinthians…feelin’ kinda Psalmy…

Praise the Lord.

Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens  (Psalm 150:1).

Some rather random musings on this verse…

I praised God in church yesterday, so I was in his sanctuary.

But aren’t we the temple of the Holy Spirit?  So, anywhere I praise him is his sanctuary, because I am his sanctuary.  The Old Testament saints could only imagine what you and I take for granted.

How about we stop taking it for granted? Hmm?

I can’t claim to have been to the heavens, but God is there, so if I praise him then I am praising him in his mighty heavens, yes?  Besides, I will someday praise him from heaven, and God is not bound by time, so he already exists there, so he is experiencing me praising him in his mighty heavens.

I’m just not there yet.

Boy, you can say that about a lot of things.

Praise the Lord today, Beloved.

Like, you know, right now.

Happy Monday.

Do Your Job    One-a-Day Friday 2/26/16

A life worthy

What, after all, is Apollos?  And what is Paul?  Only servants, through whom you came to believe–as the Lord assigned each to his task.  I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.  So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who makes things grow.  The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor  (1 Corinthians 3:5-8).

When Paul says he’s nothing, what does that make me?

Ya, you betcha.

Here’s a thing: I know that Paul is reminding the folks in Corinth not to focus on a man, but to focus on God.  We’ve seen him do this before, and it’s an important message.  

But there’s more here.  

Paul is also telling us that we are not responsible for the results of our work.  You may plant or water or whatever, but you can’t make it grow.

Because you’re not supposed to.

It’s not your gig.

It’s his.

Frankly, when you worry and stress and obsess and try to control every outcome, you are playing God…and I love you, but you know you’re not very good at that.

Are you?

Beloved, do the job God has placed before you, and do it to the best of your ability.

Then rest.

It’s OK.

I don’t know about you, but I find that freeing.

So be free, Beloved.

Happy Friday

Mere Men One-a-Day Thursday 2/25/16

A life worthy

You are still worldly.  For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? (1 Corinthians 3:3)

Mere men?

That sounds like an insult.

Because…yeah, it is.

But I thought being a man was awesome!  I mean…we’re men!

MEN!!

Isn’t that what we were supposed to be shooting for?  Not boyhood, not adolescence, but full-scale manliosity?  What could be higher than Man?

OK, ladies…I hear you…

Beloved, we are called to be more than men.  Or women, for that matter.  We are called to be sons and daughters of the living God.

It’s a high calling.  It requires putting our human desires and pride and self interest and competitive natures aside and working for something bigger, something more glorious.

Something God.

Whaddaya say, Beloved?  Are you ready to step up, step out, step beyond yourself?

Well then…let’s go.

Happy Thursday, Beloved.

Infants One-a-Day Wednesday 2/24/16

A life worthy

Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual, but as worldly–mere infants in Christ.  I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it.  Indeed, you are still not ready (1 Corinthians 3:1-2).

Ouch.

I would hate to get a message like that from Paul the Apostle.

But you know, that’s probably the exact message I would get.  I read this passage, and I get the twinge in my gut that says, “This is for you, Bub.”

I rarely call myself “Bub,” but when I do I mean business.

Some days I feel like I have made so little progress in my walk with Christ.  I still struggle with the same doubts, the same fears, the same sins that I struggled with years ago.  I’m still slurping when I ought to be chewing.

So I figure that God must be angry with me, because I’m angry with me.

And yet (don’t you just love the “And yet”?)

And yet, Paul doesn’t seem angry here.  

He seems honest, maybe exasperated.  He sounds a little like I do when I explain to my students, for the 1500th time, that the words there, they’re, and their are not interchangeable.

Above all, he is patient.

As is the God he serves.

Beloved, I encourage you to grow up.  Steak tastes better than milk, and God has called you to run your race, not drag your feet.

And yet…there is grace.

He is patient.

Your Father is not beating you up over your failures.

So why are you?

Happy Wednesday, Beloved.