I met a fellow who told me he wanted to help troubled marriages. That’s noble. When I found out he was not married I asked what he thought he had to offer couples who were going through marital problems.
“Oh,” he said, “I understand pretty much everything there is to know about marriage problems. I’ve been divorced five times.”
He is a renowned expert in the medical field but he is viewing the world like I used to as a kid. With two empty toilet paper rolls I had a pair of binoculars. And, they really did make things look bigger! At least I thought so.
Maybe they didn’t work but by blocking out everything else it sure made whatever I was looking at seem bigger. When we narrow our focus and only see one thing it looks like that is the whole world, the complete picture. And that’s what our medical friend was doing when he said that after this COVID pandemic masks should become like seatbelts – we all wear them whenever we are in public and even shame inconsiderate people who don’t. He is an expert so he must be right. Or is he? Here is the crazy part about his suggestion. Continue reading
I send you out as lambs among wolves.*Lambs among wolves? Really Jesus? That’s crazy! We’re gonna get creamed! The kingdom of God is upside-down (at least from the world’s point of view.)
It’s “crazy” to think:
In this time of world chaos it’s easy to respond like the world: anxiety, insecurity, complaining and hoarding because we don’t know what’s coming. That’s a natural response but …
God has called us to live supernaturally (above the natural). That means more than “I don’t smoke and I don’t chew and I don’t go with girls that do.”
If our attitudes and actions are just like the world we can expect to reap the same harvest the world reaps – anxiety, worry and hopelessness. But how can we live counter-culturally, counter-intuitively, upside-down from the world’s perspective? Continue reading
I recently ran across the most amazing book. And, let me just say up front, this post is NOT selling a book. In fact, I only have one copy of the book and there is no way you are getting mine from me. But, I can tell you where you can get a copy and it’s not expensive – but it will change your life.
If you want to develop a more positive outlook on life and just be overall happier every day, you must get this book. I guarantee … did you hear that … guarantee this book will change your life in just 30 days – or less. And, it’s not a big book, an expensive book nor hard to read. And, it is NOT the Bible, though I highly recommend that one for a changed life, too. Continue reading
This little story really rattles my cage. What do you think??
“Azariah son of Amaziah king of Judah began to reign. … He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father Amaziah had done. … The Lord afflicted Azariah with leprosy until the day he died, and he lived in a separate house.” (2 Kings 15:1-5 NIV)
What?! This man obeyed God, was a good king and yet it specifically says the Lord gave him leprosy – the most dreaded disease of that day. That stinks.
Where is the justice in that? How can God do such a thing to a man who is walking in obedience? It would be one thing if it said God “allowed” it but it clearly says God caused it. Can we even trust God to be just when He does stuff like this to a good king who is faithfully serving Him? Continue reading
In Exodus 3 God referred to Himself as I AM. Grammatically that leaves a blank that I want to fill in. I am … what? And the words that we could use to fill that blank are nearly endless.
He is love. He is joy. He is peace. He is patient. He is kind. He is holy. He is faithful. He is …
In worship this morning I was thinking of all that He is and realizing that if He is the Great I AM, then I am the great I am not.
He is Holy. I am not. He is always kind. I am not. He is always faithful. I am not. He never fails. I do. He does not judge by outward appearance. I do. He always thinks the best. I don’t. In every area where He is the I AM, I am the I-am-not. Continue reading
Everything that can go wrong will go wrong – and at the worst possible time.
We call that Murphy’s Law and all of us have experienced it. In fact, I’ll bet there have been times things were so rotten that you thought Murphy was an optimist.
So what do you do at times like that? In 1 Samuel 4:3 the army of Israel got their tail kicked in battle. “When the soldiers returned to camp, the elders of Israel asked, “Why did the Lord bring defeat on us today before the Philistines?”
When things fell apart for them, they blamed God for their problem – “the Lord brought the defeat”.
But instead of asking God what was wrong they devised their own plan.
“Let us bring the ark of the Lord ’s covenant from Shiloh, so that he may go with us and save us from the hand of our enemies.” (1 Samuel 4:3)
Instead of going to God with the problem they discuss it among themselves, they plan, they scheme, they come up with a great idea. Send the ark of the covenant into battle ahead of the troops. Surely God won’t let us be defeated if we have the ark with us. He wouldn’t let the enemy steal His box. This plan can’t fail. Continue reading
Babe Ruth was one of the greatest hitters and perhaps one of the greatest baseball players of all time. I recently read a story about this great hitter striking out. He let the pitch pass and the umpire screamed, “Strike three. You’re out.” Babe turned to him and said, “There are 40,000 fans in this stadium that all think that was a ball.” The ump calmly responded, “That might be true but my opinion is the only one that counts.”
The 40,000 voices from the stands today make some pretty bold declarations about what is moral and what is immoral, about what is right and what is wrong, about what we should tolerate and what we should not tolerate. The majority of the experts proclaim God’s Word to be outdated, out of touch and irrelevant. As a believer it may seem like you are swimming upstream against Niagara Falls.
But, there is only One whose opinion counts. Disagree with Him and “You’re out!”
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Proverbs 21:30
There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD.
Psalm 2:2, 4
The kings of the earth prepare for battle; the rulers plot together against the LORD and against his anointed one. … But the one who rules in heaven laughs. The Lord scoffs at them.
Something about the book of Job always troubled me. God allowed all Job’s children to be killed. At the end of the book it says the Lord gave him 7 sons and 3 daughters – like that would make it all right.
“Lord,” I thought, “I can’t believe that fixed everything. If You gave me 10 more kids that wouldn’t make up for the loss of even one of mine.”
In my heart I heard the Lord say, “I never said it made it right. I just told you what I did for Job so he did not grow old alone. Do you think he has any complaints about how I treated Him?”
Duh! I felt pretty foolish. Of course Job has no complaints about God’s treatment of him. For thousands of years he has been happily reunited with his whole family – those children before and after his trial. He wouldn’t complain about a few years of pain compared to the indescribable joy he has experienced for these thousands of years – and will continue to experience throughout eternity.
Life can be brutal. Why do some sink while others soar? I thought of a fellow who whined to me for two hours about how he was tossing out his faith in God because of a relatively minor problem he was having. Then I thought of a heroic friend who daily battles pain due to lupus but declares the goodness of God in the midst of it and even ministers to others every day she is physically able to.
Why are some of us like straw men that any tiny puff of adversity scatters to the wind and others like eagles that the storms lift to new heights of glory?
Proverbs 18:17
Any story sounds true until someone tells the other side and sets the record straight.
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I’ve been fooled. I listened to one side of a story and because I trusted and respected the person, I believed what they told me was accurate. “They wouldn’t lie to me”, I reasoned. However, experience has taught me even mature Christians often present a side which “sounds true until someone tells the other side and sets the record straight.”
With an arrogant attitude she informed me, “My Dad refused to sign the disciplinary notice and he said he doesn’t care what you do about it.” I was principal of a Christian school and the high school girl had been brought to my office. I felt a twinge of anger rising up at Dad’s refusal to cooperate. We were bending over backwards to help get his daughter on the right path and he was refusing to cooperate. I called him but … I had been coached to always go into these conversation like a cat, gently. You can always turn into a bear later if you have to but start quietly, calmly. (Proverbs 15:1, 25:15) Continue reading