40 Day Challenge

As most of you know, our church has been challenged by Pastor Danny to set aside 30 minutes a day, every day, for 40 days to read the Word aloud with our families, beginning and ending in prayer. Today I received the following in an email newsletter from author Ray Comfort at Living Waters. I must say that I know too well the “excuses” he mentions, as we have been fighting many of them in this challenge. I hope that his thoughts might encourage you and strengthen your resolve to have a “family altar” time, too.

If you want “godly offspring,” it is essential that you make the time to establish a family altar. Build it out of the unmovable rocks of resolution. You will need to be resolute about this because it will be a battle. Your flesh will fight it, and you can be sure there will be a continual spiritual battle within your mind. “Circumstances” will constantly crop up. Your kids will occasionally groan when you announce that it is time for devotions. Loved ones may subtly, subconsciously discourage you. However, your time of family devotions should be a priority for your whole family. Don’t be legalistic about it, but as much as possible, put all other things aside before you postpone or cancel family devotions.

It will be an altar of sacrifice, as you sacrifice your time, your energy, and sometimes your dignity. For years, our kids heard, “Six o’clock—reading time.” My wife and I dropped whatever we were doing, and the children learned to do the same, and we gathered as a family. Making it a priority for your family’s growth will speak volumes about its importance in their lives.

Again, you will find that there are many excuses for not having devotions. You may be pressed for time, feel tired, or think you are unable to teach the Bible. However, there is one very powerful reasonwhy you should have daily devotions: the eternal salvation of your children. (Adapted from How to Bring Your Children to Christ…& Keep Them There.)

Malachi 2:15 But did He not make them one, Having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit, And let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth.

In Tune

The other day my wife was mowing the lawn; she always does the mowing since I’m unable to do so. Our grandson, Connor, was in the yard playing while she was working. Every so often he would holler at her or say some thing to her. Every time he spoke to her she paused and replied. I found this a little odd since normally when she is mowing and I need to get her attention it takes a lot more than speaking to her: yelling, waving my arms, maybe even throwing some thing at her is required. Obviously she was much more attuned to Connor than she normally is anyone else while she was working.

The Bible teaches us that if we will draw closer to God, He will draw closer to us. The more open our spiritual eyes and ears are the more apt we are to clearly hear the Lord when He speaks to us. Spending quality time in the Word and prayer is the best way to become attuned to hear His every call and feel His sweet presence.

Where is Petey?

Late last summer we found a lost dog: he was a Shih Tzu pup, maybe four months or less old. To make a long story short, we ended up rescuing him and he’s now a part of the family.

Today Petey, the name we gave him partly because our grandson says is so cutely, escaped (again) from our fenced in yard. Overall he’s a great dog, other than this need to escape and roam. But I digress … Petey belongs to Connor; just ask him and he will tell you “Petey my dog”. Today’s escape came at a bad time: I was watching Connor alone and couldn’t go after the spunky, quick, and agile pup. And Connor worried his little self (he’s almost three) half to death over Petey being gone. He looked out the door, the window and yelled “Pete! Come here!” more times than I can count. His distress pushed his nap time back by about two hours, and I thought he was going to cry himself off to sleep over worrying over that dog! Thankfully Connor finally drifted off to sleep with minimal shedding of tears.

About five minutes after he fell asleep I hear Pete-dini at the front door; the UPS man across the street had inadvertently scared the little critter home. Connor and Petey are both still napping now but I look for a happy reunion in an hour or so.

This all got me thinking about the lost folks in our lives. What if we were so concerned over their relationship, or lack thereof, with Jesus that we could do nothing but fret and worry, shed tears and and cry out for them? I am made to believe we would see many would made restless by the Spirit and convicted of their sins. And that we would see lost sheep seeking desperately after the Savior.

God’s Word teaches we need to have child like faith. Maybe we need to seek after some child like zeal and angst for those we love and know are lost, too.

Re-Ground

I have this old knife that I use occasionally. It was originally, I believe, either a cobbler’s or harness maker’s knife. It is old but still in good condition and it’s blade is made of quality steel. What ever it was originally used for, the shape and angle of the blade are not suited well for what I use it for. So, I decided that if the blade were re-ground into the proper shape I could use it more effectively and more often.

I started with a very course stone, worked to a less course one, to a medium and finally a fine stone. After all this the blade was reshaped into a much more suitable one for the work I wanted to do with it. However, it still wasn’t quite to where I thought it needed to be for optimal use so I then polished the new edge carefully on two different strops with two different compounds. Finally, after much time and effort, the old knife was now converted from its original “job” into a tool that fit it’s new “job”.

The Bible teaches us a lot about how we are converted and
made into a new creature. This initial conversion, our spiritual rebirth, is the most important one we experience. But it shouldn’t be the only conversion experience in our life. As we go along the path in this life God will often re-grind us into a new tool, suited to a new “job”. Some times this process is one we embrace, others one we fight. No matter if we initially embrace or reject this “conversion” we know that God knows best where and how to use us, individually and corporately. Depending on where we are and what our “job” has been, some times we will only need fo be polished some. But other times people, and even organizations, are re-tooled so completely, into a brand new tool, that it needs be that we are re-ground from scratch, starting with a very course stone, all the way down to the final polish.

Change, which is essentially what conversion means, is some thing many of us are not comfortable with, even loath. But our Creator knows best how to use us all in order to serve His purposes. We just need to trust Him and be malleable; the result will be amazing if we will.

More Harm than Good

There’s very little on television I find worth watching any more. It seems that most programming today is void of, well, any thing close to any substance. I find the continuing trend toward “reality” shows almost unbearable with a very few exceptions. One reality show I some times watch is about some really gifted gunsmiths; they make some really neat weapons. However, I find it more and more difficult to watch them because of their actions: they use foul language with about every other breath and then show themselves in a circle of prayer!

In the Book of Romans Paul said that the Roman believers “blaspheme the name of God among the Gentiles” with their actions. I think that the folks in this program do the same thing; how much honor do they bring to the Lord with their profanity followed by prayer? None. If we act as the world and then proclaim the Name of Christ we are harming the cause of God, just as those addresses by Paul were doing.

I know that you have all read or heard that “the only Bible most folks see is your life” and it is true. When one claims Christ and then lives like the devil they are showing the world exactly what the world so desires to see: a hypocrite. And we wonder at times why lost people say if so-and-so is good enough to make it to Heaven so am I!

Think about it…

Accepting God’s Plan

Accepting God’s Plan
by Charles R. Swindoll

Read Job 24:1–25

David, in Psalm 139, makes the appropriate comment, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is too high, I cannot attain to it” (v. 6). If David lived today, he would write, “This blows my mind.” The vastness of God’s inscrutability has a way of doing that to us—and so it should.

If nothing else, the study of Job reveals that we don’t fully understand God’s ways. We cannot explain the inexplicable. We cannot fathom the unfathomable. So let’s not try to unscrew the inscrutable.

If only the men who considered themselves Job’s friends had acknowledged that. It would have been so much more comforting to Job, sitting in such enormous misery, longing for an arm around his shoulder and someone honest enough to say, “We’re here, but we don’t understand why this is happening any more than you do. God knows, but we’re here to be with you through it. God is doing something deep and mysterious, but it is so beyond us we cannot understand it either.”

May I go one step further? God doesn’t have a “wonderful plan” for everybody’s life. Not here on earth, for sure. For some lives His plan is Lou Gehrig’s disease. For some lives (like Job’s) His plan is a life of pain. For others, heartbreak and brokenness, blindness or paralysis, or congenital complications. For many, His plan is to answer no to their requests for healing. But we don’t like that. Some won’t accept it. In fact, they go so far as to say, “If you believe that, you lack faith.” On the contrary, I say if you believe that, you believe the Bible!

The Bible describes the lives of people who don’t get well, who don’t quickly get over their problems, who don’t easily overcome accidents or illnesses. God’s Word pictures its heroes, warts and all. They hurt. They fall. They fail, and on occasion, by His grace, they succeed.

How well do you accept the unfolding plan of God for your life?

Excerpted from Charles R. Swindoll, Great Days with the Great Lives(Nashville: W Publishing Group, 2005). Copyright © 2005 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Focused Thanksgiving

I’m nearing the end of a 365 day devotional, several of which I’ve shared with you the past eleven months. I started it a little late so today’s reading is off: it was meant for Thanksgiving Day. We should be thankful every day though so I’m going to share it- late.

“Focused Thanksgiving
It’s Thanksgiving, the day we set aside to express how thankful we are for the unique and unprecedented way America has been blessed. Granted, not everyone gives thanks to the same source for these blessings. There are those who recognize God’s providential hand on our land and those who don’t. But for those of us who know the truth of God’s Word, we know that all credit, thanks, and glory belongs to Him. And that’s a perfect segue into our theme for this month…worship. Something striking stands out when you count the number of times the words “give thanks” show up in scripture…you find the act of worship happening. Giving thanks and worship are inseparable. We see this in David’s declaration: Therefore I will give thanks to You, O LORD, among the Gentiles, and sing praises to Your name. (2 Samuel 22:50 NKJV) We see it in the priestly functions of the Levites: And Hezekiah appointed the divisions of the priests…to give thanks, and to praise in the gates of the camp of the LORD. (2 Chronicles 31:2 NKJV) And we even see this in the heavenly vision that the Apostle John has been given: Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever. (Revelation 4:9-10 NKJV) Over and over again, we see that giving thanks and worship happen in conjunction with each other. In fact, we could define worship as the act of focusing our thanks in God’s direction. And that makes today a day unlike any others when it comes to the potential for praise. So as you celebrate and give thanks, let your “thanks” turn into something so much more by focusing it on God and allowing it to become worship.
-Bob Coy Senior Pastor, Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale”

Keep It Real

I really enjoyed this piece and wanted to share it.

Keep it Real

For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8 KJV)

“I remember years ago the popular song “Come Just as You Are” was played during altar calls every Sunday at my church. Every time I heard that song, a sense of relief would wash over me. I always wished this song was performed early in the service. For years I felt as though I had to “dress up” for church. I don’t simply mean my clothing, (the minimum requirement for my church was a three-piece suit-and when you’re fourteen years old that’s kind of tough!) but also my spiritual life. I had made mistakes throughout the week. I couldn’t let God see that, especially not in His house. So I would sit there, squirming uncomfortably, trying to put on a pure and holy face so I could look super spiritual for all the good Christians in their long dresses and suits and ties. Thinking back, I realize there were so many times during worship that I missed God-not because He wasn’t there, but because I wasn’t being real. I struggled for the longest time with the idea that Christ would want me. I didn’t understand the full measure of the sacrifice He made for me at the Cross. I thought that if I was honest with Him about my shortcomings, He would be disappointed or upset with me. The sad thing is that all He really wanted was my confession and repentance-not my pleated pants or my smug holy face. This week, don’t play church. Don’t hide, and don’t fake it. Be honest and confess your sins to Him. The Bible says that while we were still sinners, Christ loved us and died for us. When confronted with that reality, no matter where we find ourselves, we cannot help but worship!

-Andrew Strickland Worship Leader, Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale”

Thanksgiving

The dinner is done, as are the dishes, and the kids have left for the evening. More or less, the holiday is officially wrapped up at our house and has been for a couple of hours. As I sat down to relax and reflect a little I began to think about what I am most thankful for; I have much that I am filled with thanks for and my list could be very long. But there are two items that stand out above and beyond every thing else.

I am most thankful for my Savior Jesus Christ. Without His love, sacrifice and mercy I would be most miserable and hopelessly lost. I am most thankful for my Jesus.

Secondly I am thankful that I am no longer the man I used to be because I have been born again. I’m thankful that the old man is dead and gone and the new has hope and a promise. I’m thankful for the new birth for without it I would be hopelessly lost and most miserable. And with being born again I received the Holy Spirit to guide and direct, teach and grow me so I’m so very thankful for Him and His presence in my life.

I am sure that God approves of our special holiday that we set aside for thanksgiving. But I’m equally certain that He would rather that we live out our thanks every day of the year, not just on Sunday or holidays. I pray that you and I do a better job of that very thing this coming year and every year we have left in our lives. For He is worthy.

Wait and Watch

Wait and Watch
by Charles R. Swindoll

Read Job 2:10

Job’s response to his wife’s suggestion that he curse God and die is magnificent. “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks” (Job 2:10). Hats off to the old patriarch! In his weakened condition, sitting there in the misery of all those sores, not knowing if any of that would ever change, he stood firm—he even reproved her. He said, in effect, “I need to correct the course of this conversation. We’re not going there.”

He went further than stating a reproof; he asked an excellent question. “Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” (v. 10). His insight was rare, not only back then, but today. What magnificent theology! How seldom such a statement emerges from our secular system.

Job is thinking these thoughts: Doesn’t He have the right? Isn’t He the Potter? Aren’t we the clay? Isn’t He the Shepherd and we the sheep? Isn’t He the Master and we the servant? Isn’t that the way it works?

Somehow he already knew that the clay does not ask the potter, “What are you making?” And so he says, in effect, “No, no, no, sweetheart. Let’s not do that. We serve a God who has the right to do whatever He does and is never obligated to explain it or ask permission. Stop and consider—should we think that good things are all we receive? Is that the kind of God we serve? He’s no heavenly servant of ours who waits for the snap of our fingers, is He? He is our Lord and our Master! We need to remember that the God we serve has a game plan that is beyond our comprehension, including hard times like this.”

And I love this last line, “In all this Job did not sin with his lips” (v. 10). There’s absolute trust there. And faith. “Sweetheart, we can’t explain any of this, so let’s wait and watch God work. We would never have expected what happened. Both our hearts are broken over the loss. We’ve lost everything. Well—not everything. We’ve still got each other. Our God has a plan that is unfolding, even though we cannot understand it right now. Let’s wait and watch to see what He will do next.”

Excerpted from Charles R. Swindoll, Great Days with the Great Lives (Nashville: W Publishing Group, 2005). Copyright © 2005 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.