Month: August 2024

God is the God of the miraculous, the wonderful, and the extraordinary. BUT He is also the God of the mundane, the simple, and the ordinary. And if you think about it, that’s most of the time… because our lives are usually made up of the common everyday grind. Thus, we need to realize that Yes, God is not only part of those mountainous & remarkable times…but He’s also just as caring, concerned, and committed to us in the practical workaday details of each day.

This is one of the hardest things to do in the life of a Christian. We desperately want only the best for someone…and we think we have the power & persuasion to change them. But the sad reality is, we can’t change people, only God can. Yet we persist. And this can very easily morph into enabling that person. What starts out as making excuses in order to support this person, changes over time into allowing & justifying problematic and self-destructive behaviors under the guise that we’re helping them. A very wise Pastor once told me, “You can be responsible to someone, but not for them.” And as difficult as it may seem, there’ll come times when we’ll have to lay that person at the foot of the Cross and allow God to work.

Praising ourselves is the height of pride and godlessness…but giving glory to God brings great confidence. Psalm 62:5 shows this when it says, “Find rest, O my soul in God alone; my hope comes from Him.” The Psalmist David “commanded” his soul to praise the Lord. (Psalm 103:1) That’s because if we wait until we feel like it, it’ll only happen when we deem & desire to do so. In Psalm 103, David is not only encouraging himself to praise God, but others by his example. Believers bless or glorify God because He has already blessed them. We are to praise Him because He has empowered us to live an abundant life in His Presence. Praising God has nothing to do with our feelings or emotions…but everything to do with who God is.

The Holy Spirit works to illuminate the Scriptures for our benefit. Psalm 119:105 tells us that God’s Word is a “lamp to my feet and a light to my path”, and the Holy Spirit’s job is to shed even more light on this original light. He enables us to hear, receive, and properly understand the true message of God’s Word. But in order to receive this illumination of the Scriptures we have to be in the Scriptures…whether it be mediating on verses we’ve already memorized, reading the Bible, or listening to a sermon that we may know God better.

Jesus is the light shining brightly in the darkness of the world. Here He is warning that soon He will depart, and they will have to make their own choices. To either walk in His light or walk in the darkness of sin & spiritual blindness. Isaiah 9:2 tells us that the Lord’s light is blessing and judgment…it also stands for His Presence and revelation. But sadly, as Jesus told the people, it’s when we exchange His light for the darkness of our corrupt minds, we will experience His judgment and live in the darkness of separation from God.

The Lord is a jealous and avenging God. But here the Hebrew word for jealous is not the basic human emotion we think of but rather God’s passionate reaction and desire for righteousness. It’s similar to the anger we see in Jesus as He cleared the Temple in John 2:13-17. It was an intense jealously against any infringement on God’s holiness or any attempt to share in His glory. But within these Scriptures we also see the perfect balance between vengeance and mercy…for verse three tells us that God is slow to anger and very patient with sinners, not wanting any to perish. And while God may prolong the time of His judgment on earth, it will most certainly happen. For on that Judgment Day, all wrongs will be righted by Him…for God is the Judge of all with the power to accomplish His Will. And true to His nature, the Universal Judge leaves no sin unpunished – avenging with the inescapable and appropriate retribution.

It’s true, God gives us the freedom to choose, but we are not free from the consequences of our choices. So consequently, during our lifetime we will make some really stupid decisions. And as Proverbs 19:3 tells us, it’s our own folly that ruins our life and brings on our own misfortune… (even though we want to blame God for it.) We make unwise choices out of selfish pride and the desire for immediate gratification…blind to sound reason and judgment…wanting what we want, when we want it. But when the results are not what we expected, or the outcome is full of heartache not happiness…we tend to blame God rather than our own foolishness. All our choices have consequences attached to them…some good, and some bad.

Ephesians 2:8 makes it plain…It is by the grace of God, through faith, we have been saved. And that faith itself is also a gift from God and not a human achievement. So, the only part we can play in this life-changing event called Salvation is to obey. For our obedience is the necessary fruit of faith…with faith implying a conscious act of our will in obedient submission to God.

Unlike the world’s view of power and authority, we must follow Jesus’ example as a lowly servant. When we are part of a gathering of the rich and famous, we revel in their limelight and delight in rubbing shoulders with VIPs. But this feel-good moment only puffs us up and does nothing to further God’s Kingdom. But when we choose to walk along side of the broken, the heartsick, the despondent, this speaks volumes of our character and desire to be more Christ-like. Hanging out with important people makes us feel good about ourselves…while trudging alongside the broken, builds up and comforts them in ways we can’t imagine. (II Corinthians 13:10-11)

Every human being is spiritually destitute and helpless in God’s sight. But it’s only those who realize their own spiritual poverty and mourn over their sinfulness – that will inherit the kingdom of heaven. Today we tend to point out a person’s strengths, beauty, and accomplishments, rather than their spiritual deficiencies. The poor are commonplace among us…but it says that I am truly blessed in my poverty. So think about this, I in myself have nothing that would allow me to enter God’s kingdom. I cannot enter by virtue of my goodness, strengths, or accomplishments – I can only enter as an absolute beggar with nothing to offer but my faith.