One-a-Day Thursday 4/10/14

Posted on by April 10, 2014
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number 1When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom (Proverbs 11:2).

The world’s wisdom says that the opposite of love is hate, but that isn’t so.

The opposite of love is pride.

Love puts the other person, the beloved, first.  Pride puts self first.  God wants your love, and he knows that you are incapable of giving it when you are wrapped up in pride.  So, because he loves you, he will break your pride.

This is usually a very painful process.

It’s kind of the classic, “This is for your own good,” scenario.  When you are humble, you are open to God’s love, his teaching, his wisdom.  You can grow when you are humble.  When you are walking in pride you are closed off to really experiencing God, because your world begins and ends with you.

You have a couple of options, Beloved.

Option One:  “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time”(1 Peter 5:6).  Trust your reputation, your ego, your self-worth to God.  Let him build his character into you.  Make every effort to subordinate your will to his, and let him work through you.

Option Bad:  Continue walking in pride until God chooses to humble you.  Because he will.  And the longer it takes, the messier it will be.

Let me know which option you choose.  I may want to clear out of the way.

Or get a front row seat.

Choose wisely, Beloved.

One-a-Day Wednesday 4/9/14

Posted on by April 8, 2014
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number 1When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise (Proverbs 10:19).

I talk too much.  That revelation comes as no surprise to those of you who know me.  I find that this Scripture could easily be my life verse, and probably many of yours as well.  We have all experienced that moment of wishing we could “unsay” that ill-timed, unkind, ungodly word.

But we can’t.

So I’m going to take God’s advice today, and hold my tongue.  Obviously, that will make it difficult to type without getting the keys all wet, so I’ll make my typed words few, as well.

See, now there’s an image you didn’t need.  I just proved my own point.

Enjoy the quiet today, Beloved.

One-a-Day Tuesday 4/8/14

Posted on by April 7, 2014
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number 1Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs (Proverbs 10:12).

It’s amazing what a little attitude adjustment can do for you.  I can’t say that I walk around seething with hatred, but I do have my share of negative attitude toward people.  Because, well, people bug me.

There, I said it.

People bug me, and sometimes they bug you, too.  Admit it.  Frankly, people can be idiots at times, and it gets to a person.

So, what do you do with that?

You can carry that negative feeling into your interactions with the people who bug you.  I guarantee the result will not be blissful, harmonious fellowship.  You might score a zinger point or two, but in the long run your relationship will be hurt and God will not be glorified.

Or

You could try entering the interaction zone wrapped in love.

I know you don’t feel like loving them—why should you?  They bug.  So don’t try bringing your love.  You’d be pretending and everyone would be able to tell.

Bring His love.

You know God loves them—for crying out loud, he loves us, and all we deserve is a slap in the belly with a wet fish.  So try seeing them as God sees them, and perhaps loving them as God loves them.  It’s gonna take prayer, but you can do that.

You might be surprised at how powerful God’s love is to cover over those things that annoy us about other people.  Sometimes that love gives us insight into why they are the way they are.  Sometimes that love simply grants us extra grace to deal with their issues.

As I write this, I wonder how many of you will take my advice and apply it toward me today.  Because, frankly, I bug sometimes.  Hmmm…

Walk in his love today, Beloved.

One-a-Day Monday 4/7/14

Posted on by April 7, 2014
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number 1Above all else guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life (Proverbs 4:23).

The wellspring

The source

If you live in the desert, a clean, pure water source is something to treasure and protect.  If it dries up, you are lost.  If something gets in that pollutes it, you are equally doomed.  Actually, one great way to defeat an enemy in days of yore was to poison his water source, often by throwing dead things into it.

Lovely image, hmm?

God has given each of us a new heart, and it is a spring of his living water, nourishing and refreshing us.

We’ve gotta guard that wellspring, Beloved.  If we fall out of fellowship with the Father, he cannot replenish the spring, and it dries up.  Do you know what happens to life in a desert with no water?  Yes, you do.

If we let the world into our hearts, the wellspring gets polluted, fouled, undrinkable.  If we let our Enemy poison it with his lies, it produces death rather than sustaining life.

Guard your heart today, my friend.  Be oh so careful what, and who, you let in.  Keep in close contact with the One who refreshes and replenishes.

Drink deeply, Beloved.

The Gospel According to Popeye

Posted on by April 11, 2014
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As a child, I used to skip church to watch Popeye cartoons.Spinach

Go ahead and judge.

In all fairness to my 10-year-old self, it wasn’t just Popeye.  It was the whole Popeye and Friends show, featuring George of the Jungle and Super Chicken.  This was, as far as I know, the only place to see Super Chicken and his sidekick Fred, and they were well worth seeing.  And the show was hosted by Tom Hatten, who took little squiggles that kids mailed in and turned them into cool cartoons.

Up against all that, church didn’t stand much of a chance.  Let’s just say that my walk with Christ lacked a certain intensity in those days. Continue reading →

One-a-Day Friday 4/4/14

Posted on by April 2, 2014
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number 1Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil (Proverbs 3:7).

I’m not nearly as wise as I think I am.

Neither are you.  Trust me.

Our wisdom is far too polluted by the ideas of this dark world.  It gets skewed by sin and perverted by pride.  Our wisdom is, of itself, utterly unreliable.

So, am I saying that we should all get lobotomized and drool our way into the Kingdom of God?

No, although that is an interesting image, don’t you think?

God gave you a brain, and he expects you to use it.  He offers wisdom to those who will take it and use it for his glory.  But it has to be his wisdom, from his Spirit and through his Word.  Anything else is foolishness at best.

And blasphemy at worst.

Praise God, he keeps it pretty simple for us.  He gives us two prime examples of his wisdom here in this verse.

  1. Fear the Lord—Well, we talked about this on Monday, didn’t we?
  2. Shun evil—Stay away from it.  Don’t embrace it, don’t flirt with it, don’t compromise with it.  Shun it.

See, wisdom doesn’t have to be complicated…of course, that doesn’t make it easy.

Happy weekend, Beloved.

One-a-Day Thursday 4/3/14

Posted on by April 2, 2014
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number 1Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight (Proverbs 3:5-6).

But I like my own understanding.  It makes sense, sorta…to me, anyway.  God’s ways, as he has pointed out, are not mine.  He doesn’t think the same way I do, and that frightens me.

I once did one of those challenge courses at a camp.  The counselor people put me into a safety harness, and then I had to shimmy up a 30 ft. pole, balance on the 12-inch platform on top, and…leap.  The harness and rope would lower me gently to the ground, or so I was told.  I just had to trust the harness.

With all my heart…and skull…and various internal organs.

My own understanding told me that I was going to die.  In great, unrelenting pain.  My own understanding made perfect sense…and was completely wrong.  I climbed, I balanced, I trusted, I leapt, and the harness held me.

God is ever so much stronger than a nylon harness.  So why do I have so much trouble trusting him?

He has a straight path for us to walk.  The problem is that it doesn’t always look straight when seen in the funhouse mirrors we like to call reality.  Which is why we have to trust him, to believe that he has us on his mind, in his heart, and under his protection.  Essentially, you have to believe that the God of the Universe, who created time itself and loved you enough to die for you, knows what’s best and wants what’s best.

So…do you?

One-a-Day Wednesday 4/2/14

Posted on by April 1, 2014
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number 1My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God (Proverbs 2:1-5).

That there’s a lot of if’s.

If you accept my words and store up my commands—You have to make the choice.  You have to decide to believe God and follow his ways.  Have you made that decision, Beloved?

If you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding—You have to want it, and want it bad.  How much do you want it, Beloved?

If you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure—You have to be willing to dig.  I know I told you yesterday that wisdom is not hidden, that it is there for the taking, but you still have to take it.  You have to be willing to dig deep into the Word of God to uncover the riches that it contains.  Are you willing to dig, Beloved?

Because if you are…

Then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

Ask and it will be given to you.

Seek and you will find.

Knock and the door will be opened.

Are you ready, Beloved?

Go.

One-a-Day Tuesday 4/1/14

Posted on by March 31, 2014
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number 1Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares; at the head of the noisy streets she calls out, in the gateway of the city she makes her speech (Proverbs 1:20-21).

Wisdom isn’t hiding from you.  It’s not stashed away in a cave on a mountain peak, or buried beneath the ocean floor.  It is there for the taking.

So take, already.

My problem is, I don’t always want wisdom, because wisdom doesn’t always fit with my desires.  There are some things that I want that are not good for me, and wisdom points this out, and that annoys me.  Since I know that it is not good to be annoyed by the things of God, I sometimes choose to avoid wisdom, pretending that it is some hidden mystery that I just can’t puzzle out rather than simple truth waiting to be embraced.

I’m so glad that you have outgrown such petty struggles, Beloved.

James tells us that if we ask, God will give us wisdom.  Simple as that.  Of course he goes on to point out that we are responsible for using the wisdom God gives. (That’s in James 1:5-7, if you’re wondering.)   Apparently we can’t use it only when the mood takes us, when we’re feeling mature.

Wisdom is a tool, not a toy.  It is a grown-up type responsibility, for grown-up type believers.

And Wisdom is calling us…

Dare we answer?

One-a-Day Monday 3/31/14

Posted on by March 31, 2014
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number 1The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and correction (Proverbs 1:7).

Fear can be a good thing.

In our culture, we act like fear is something to be avoided at all costs.  Maybe it’s our rebellious, pioneer, Westward Ho! roots.

Perhaps we just don’t understand the healthy side of fear.

Fear is an acknowledgment that something is beyond our scope, beyond our ability to command.  It doesn’t have to be blind, cowering terror; it’s more a healthy respect for power.  I fear lethal doses of nuclear radiation.  I fear rabid dogs.  I fear really bad haircuts—as a middle-school teacher, this is by far the most dangerous of the three.

I fear God.

But I’m not afraid of God.

Of course, nonbelievers have every reason to be afraid; indeed they’re foolish not to, when considering the consequences of an eternity without Christ.

But I believe.  My name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

I fear God’s power, because I know that he could erase me with a thought.

I am not afraid, because I know he won’t.

He has given us many promises that we who are his are his forever.  Still, that power is there, and he has no qualms about using it to keep me in line should I stray.

Which makes me want to stay very close to him.

And that, Beloved, is the beginning of knowing him.

Fear him today.

But do not be afraid.