Poimen Chris

Good Dirt

And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.” – Matthew 13:3-9

I love to see my vegetable garden growing. Right now the plants are beginning to get stronger and taller as we get into the hotter days. It is always amazing to think about how the dirt was before I started the process of putting in the garden and where it is now. It always makes me think of this passage from Matthew.

The dirt in my garden boxes gets hard and compacted down by the weight of the winter snow and early spring rains. The soil must be broken-up and worked to loosen it up in order to allow the seeds to be able to push through and grow. If I just planted seeds on top of the hard soil, it would be like the path in the parable above. The seeds would just sit on top and not germinate properly and the birds would just come along and eat all of my seeds. There are times in my life that I have been like this soil, hard and compacted in spirit. The “birds” of this world come along and steel the seed and my joy. It takes God breaking my spirit and preparing me for the seed He wants to plant.

The content of the soil in my garden is very important. I do not use just any old dirt in my garden boxes. I use a combination of peat moss, compost, and vermiculite. What is vermiculite? It is actually one of the softest stones on Earth. It is a silicate that allows the water to easily flow through my soil. Too much vermiculite and my boxes won’t hold the water, too little vermiculite and my plants will drown. Our lives are like this. We all have rocky places in our lives. Too many, and the soil is not deep enough for the seed that God plants in us to take root and it will wither in the heat of of our lives. If we don’t have a little of rocky soil in our lives we will never learn to depend on God and we will do everything by our own power and ability. We need just the right level of rocks and soil depth so that the Gospel that God plants in us can take root and grow us toward harvest time.

The great thing about my garden boxes is that I do not have to get down on the ground to weed my garden. I can just walk around them and reach in and pull out anything that doesn’t belong. It amazes me that even though the garden boxes are four foot high and the soil is specially mixed that I still get grass and weeds that try to take over. In just a few days weeds that were no where to be seen are sprouting up and trying to take over. The “weeds” or thorns in our lives are just as sneaky and progressive. If we are not careful, things that seem innocent and innocuous will turn out to be the catalyst for our downfall. We need to guard our hearts:

Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. Put away perversity from your mouth; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you. Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm. Do not swerve to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil. -Proverbs 4:23-27

I have the best soil I can provide to help my plants grow, and part of that good soil is compost. What is compost? Cow patties mixed with other material. Yes, decayed cow manure. This nutrient rich material helps my plants to grow, but too much and it will destroy my garden. It will actually make my soil too acidic to grow anything. Our lives are that way sometimes. We all have our share of stinky “cow poop” in our lives. At a certain level, it helps us grow and become more like Christ. God works it into our lives and we grow. Think of Job. He had an abundance of compost dumped on him. He came out of that situation better than when he entered, and hopefully his friends and wife were changed for the better. We need a good mix of prayer, scripture, and worship, mixed in with the “compost”of this life on earth in order for the seed that God plants in us to grow.

There is one more element that must be added to help in making my plants grow. That element is water. Without water my plants would wither and die. It takes regular watering to make sure that my garden remains healthy and the harvest will be plentiful. I collect rain water and use it on my garden because I believe it is better for my garden than water out of the faucet. I have gotten to the point now that I can tell when my plants are thirsty for a drink of water. I can see the signs in the plants that they need water. Amazingly I can also sense those times in my life when I need to drink from the “living water.”

On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” John 7:37-38

The world offers us a faucet full of “water” that always seems to be turned all the way on. It seems a whole lot easier to just open the world’s faucet and drink from what pours out. To collect the rain water that God provides takes a lot of extra work and extra time. The water from the world’s faucet will never fully satisfy no matter how much we drink, but a small amount of living water that comes from God will always satisfy.

Father, we praise you for you are the farmer who plants the seed in us and gives us the ability to help it grow. Break us when our soil gets too compacted and hard. Help us to go deep into your word so that our soil is deep enough to grow. Give us just enough rocky places go allow us to grow and not depend only on ourselves. Help us to weed out the thorns of this world that long to choke us and keep us from you. Make us good soil and water us with living water that fully satisfies. May you be blessed and praised. – Amen

Blessing, Not Cursing

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. – Romans 12:14

We have all had people in our lives that have caused us to want to curse them. Everyone from the person who cuts you off in traffic to a relative who gets under your skin every time you are with them. Our normal human response is to wish them ill will. I mean, how many times have you been cut off in traffic and wished that a police officer was around to catch the guy who just about slammed into your car? Even worse, have you ever actually wished that something bad would happen to them?

A curse according to scripture is more than just speaking evil about someone. It is desiring evil to come upon someone. If a person is under a curse, according to the Bible, evil has come upon them in some way. Sickness, tragedy, or bad circumstances are occurring in their lives. Now this does not mean that every problem we have in our lives are the result of a curse. There are times that God allows circumstances to stretch our faith. These times help us grow stronger and allow us to identify with Christ, who suffered greatly at the end of His life.

The Bible is full of curses. The first curse appears in Genesis 3:14:

“The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.”

Because the serpent tempted Eve, he was cursed by God. God goes on to curse woman and man for their actions. Hence, we live in the kind of world we live in today. We live with the results of the curse given to man and woman. There are also numerous curses that affect numerous generations because on the actions of one person. The common denominator in all these curses is that the curse was given by God and it was due to the action of an individual or a people.

Now, that being said, I do believe that Satan and his demons do have power in this world. But, they do not have power over those who are true believers in Jesus Christ. James 4:7 tells us to, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” If we fully submit ourselves to God then Satan has no power over us. He won’t just leave us alone, he will flee.

As a true believer in Jesus Christ I must be sure not to curse anyone. Cursing is God’s prerogative, not mine. We are not to return evil for evil, but we are to overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21). We should always forgive those who wrong us, even when they don’t ask for forgiveness, because it is very possible that they don’t even know what they did. Forgiveness is our responsibility, not the person who wronged us. We should always speak good and pray for others, even those who seek us harm.

The tongue of the wise commends knowledge.” (Proverbs 15:2a) “A gentle tongue is a tree of life.” (Proverbs 15:4a)e:

Father, please forgive me when I curse when I should bless. Help me to resist Satan so that he will flee from me. Lord, I pray for those who have cursed me. I pray that they will be blessed and that they will come to know you more and more. Father, you are all powerful and nothing on Earth, above the Earth, or under the Earth can overpower you. Help me to have a gentle tongue. May your praises always be on my lips, so that I may be a blessing to all those I encounter. I pray this in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ. – Amen.

Perseverance

My family recently took a much needed vacation to the mountains in Georgia. We stayed in a Bavarian town called Helen and we had an awesome time. Our condo was on the Chattahoochee river and all the red buds and dogwoods were in bloom. It was a very peaceful and restful place to be.

One day we decided to go and visit one of the many waterfalls that are in the immediate area. We thought we might get to hit at least two waterfalls before the kids gave out, so we got in the car and headed for our first waterfall. When we stopped and got out of the car we were all filled with excitement. It had rained pretty hard a few days earlier and there was sure to be a lot of water coming over the falls. We went down the first set of steps and were a little apprehensive because it told us that the observation deck was .1 miles ahead and foot of the falls was 1.1 miles ahead. Now my wife and I could easily make this trip without too much effort, but we had a 4 year old and a 2 year old with us. I also have a bad back and my wife had thrown her back out earlier in the week, so carrying the kids would be a difficult endeavor, but decided to push on and try to make the 1.1 mile trek to falls.

The first leg of our journey was pretty easy. There were short areas of path and then wooden steps and decking to walk on. We thought, “hey, this ain’t so bad. We can make it.” Then we came to the end of the steps. We could hear water rushing and and we became more excited as we knew that the falls were just around the next bend. We were happily walking along and enjoying the beauty and majesty of God’s creation when we came around the next bend and realized that the waterfall was a lot farther away than we thought. We decided to press on, we had come this far why quit now. After another 15 minutes of walking, the trail turned back on itself and continued to descend to the foot of the falls. Unfortunately, our kids were done. They were crying and complaining that they couldn’t do it. We decided to turn back and make our way back to the car. Understand that the whole way was uphill and the kids were unable to walk uphill all the way. My wife and I ended up carrying them most of the way on our back or shoulders with many stops along the way.

That night I was getting ready to read to the kids and opened my pad to the place in the Bible that I had been earlier in the day. I was in Colossians in The Message. I don’t normally read the Bible in The Message, but I thought I would try it just once. Here is what I read to my kids,

We pray that you’ll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us. -Colossians 1:11-12

I went on to explain to my children that just like today when we had to carry them back to the car because they could not do it on their own, and we kept telling them to be brave and that they could make it, God will carry us through the things that we feel we cannot endure. I also said that God has some amazing things to show us in our lives if we just press on and find our strength in Him. I am not sure if they understood it all, but I think that God was telling me and my wife this more than our kids.

God has plans for us. He promised Jeremiah in 29:11 that , “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” I believe that this holds true for us. God has plans that He will help us see through to the end. But we will not see those plans by our own “gritting your teeth” strength, but by the “glory-strength” that only comes from God.

Don’t grow weary in doing well
Don’t surrender in the fight
Keep on storming the gates of hell
Keep on doing what you know is right

For there will be seasons of testing
And there maybe weeping for a night
But soon we’ll be reaping the blessing
If we keep pressing on toward the prize

Keep on praying in the Spirit
Keep on walking in the Light
Don’t be fearful or discouraged
Keep on doing what you know is right

Taken from http://lyricstranslate.com/en/integrity-hosanna-don039t-grow-weary-lyrics.html#ixzz312XoQsLp

Father God, I love you and praise you. You are my Abba Father. Help me lord to find my strength in the “glory-strength” and not in my own truly weak strength. May you get all the glory an honor that is due your name. Help me to persevere and not give up when it seems hopeless and yet the goal you have set before me is in sight. Lord, I trust your judgement and your plans for my life. Help me to walk in them not stumble. Amen.

Prayer Breathing

And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” – John 20:22

Take a deep breath and hold it. How long can you hold it in? When was the last time you heard of someone dying because they were holding their breath? You haven’t heard of anyone because it is not possible to die from holding your breath. Why is that? Because your body will not allow it. Unless you have something covering your mouth and nose your body will automatically force you to take a breath.

I am finding that as I get older I am taking more shallow breaths. It gets so bad sometimes that my body will involuntarily take a huge breath in order to get enough oxygen into my lungs. It is a little disconcerting to all of a sudden have my body do something that I cannot control. It is even more disconcerting to my wife. I talked to my doctor about it and he said it was normal and that experts are finding that more people are not breathing as deep as they used to. I have found that I need to intentionally take deeper breaths in order to keep my body from forcing a deep gulp of air.

Sadly, I am finding that my prayer “breathing” is mirroring my physical breathing. While my prayer life is occuring and I pray throughout the day, I do not believe that it has the depth in order to give my spirit the “oxygen” that it needs. It is like I am ankle deep, but I need to go deep enough for the water to cover my head. I need to emerse myself in the presence of God. I need to go deeper. I have started to go deeper in my scripture reading. I have been devouring scripture like someone who hasn’t eaten anything in weeks. I can’t get enough of it. Even though I have read the Bible completely through at least a dozen times, I am finding that I have a new longing for listening to the words of God. I need to transfer this desire to my prayer time.

Now before you start giving me all the techniques and methods for going deeper in prayer I want to say that I probably know all of them. You see, methods and techniques will not get to the job done. I fear that today there is a tendency within Christianity to deal with symptoms instead of dealing with the root cause. As a side note, I am also seeing this within the medical field, but that is for another time. In Christianity we try to modifiy the behavior hoping that our actions will change. This is a very common way that most people deal with their addictions, especially pornography addiction. While modifying the behavior has a short-term success, over the long haul we automatically return to our old patterns. Proverbs 26:11 says, “Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.” If we don’t get to the root of our actions, our actions will never change and we continue to fall back into our “folly.” We truly are fools.

That being said, what is the root cause of my shallow prayer life? I believe that it is my lack of love for Christ. That is a very hard thing to admit. It breaks my heart to say that I don’t love Christ enough. I can try to justify where I am, but when I do that the arguments all come up empty. I have to ask myself, “Is Jesus Lord of my life?” If he is, then my prayer life would be deep. Am I putting Christ first? If I am then my spirit would have plenty of “oxygen.” As it is I have a long way to go, but I am going in the right direction. Will you come along with me? How is your prayer life? Are you having to take deep “breaths” in order for your spirit to have enough “oxygen?” Are you ankle deep when you should be completely covered? The place that I am starting is right here:

“Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” – Psalm 139:23-24

Father, I praise you for searching my heart. You know me better than I know myself. Search me deep Father! Cleanse me from any grievioius way that is in me. Help me to breathe you in so that my spirit is full. Give me a desire not just for your Word, but for your presence in prayer. Give me a hunger that can only be fulfilled by time spent talking to You. You are my hope and salvation. I praise your name. Thank you for loving me beyond understanding, even when I don’t seem to love you enough. Amen.

Stormy

“Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.” – Proverbs 14:4

Life is messy. Even when we think we have everything in its place and our life seems to be smooth sailing, a tempest is usually brewing waiting to explode. Now as I write this it sounds extremely pessimistic. But, I am not pessimistic about my life. I am very optimistic about where my life is and where it is going. I am also not saying this because I feel “oh, poor me, my life is tough.” Life is difficult for everyone. There are people we know that seem to never have trouble in their lives. Their lives seemed to be blessed and our lives seem to be cursed. The reality is that even those who seem to be living a blessed life, still have troubles and concerns. They are still human and subject to all the difficulties, fears, and worries that the rest of us deal with. No one is immune.

Jesus tells us in John 16:33, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble.” Jesus was warning His disciples that they would be scattered. This had to be a terrifying proposition. The had lived with each other for three years and their master had taught them and loved them in amazing ways. Now they would experience a tempest, but Jesus told them not to be afraid but to have peace. How is this possible? How do we have peace in the middle of the tempests of life? Do we just ignore the fact that we are being bombarded by a storm and pretend that it isn’t happening? Do we say, “Poor me” and try to get pitty from those around us? No, we don’t do any of these thngs. Why? Because Christ finishes His thought in John 16:33 with, “But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Christ has overcome all the darkness and all evil things in this world. It may not seem like it while we are in the midst of a storm, but we have Christ at our side to carry us through the storm. He doesn’t keep the storm from us or move us out of the storm. He gives us the strength and endurace to weather the storms of life. The problem is that too many times we try to weather them by our own abilities. We try to buck-it-up and just endure, when in reality Jesus wants us to turn to Him and persevere by His power. This takes being in a relationship with Christ to do this. Jesus is not Superman who swoops in to save us when we are in trouble. He is that ever present friend who wants to be in a relationship with us during the good and bad times. Jesus wants to be our constant companion. The only way to maintain this relationship with Christ is with a steady diet of prayer, scripture reading, and practicing spiritual disciplines. In future posts I will explore each of the spiritual disciplines.

We would all love to have a clean manger, but sometimes we have to let the oxen into the manger in order to have an abundant harvest. Sometimes messy is good.

Father, I pray that you will remind me that you are with me even when the dark storms are brewing in my life. Help me to maintain my relationship with you no matter what the circumstances. It is by your power that I can be content as Paul when he said “I have learned to be content no matter what the circumstance.” – Amen

Learning to Walk

“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.” – Galatians 5:16-17

Have you ever thought about how amazing it is that we can walk and how it all works? As a baby we are not born with the ability to walk. Our legs are not strong enough to support our body and we have not yet developed our sense of balance. As we grow and interact with the world around us, we begin to move around and ultimately begin to crawl around to explore our world. What drives a baby to want to crawl? I do not believe that a baby decides one day to just start moving around and crawling, but once the process is begun it continues to develop and sooner or later the child is pulling themselves up against things and starting to take a precarious step at a time. Each step and each fall leads to more steps and falls and ultimately the child can stand on their own and take a few steps without falling. From here it seems to snowball. Those few initial steps lead to walking, running, and jumping.

WALKING IN THE SPIRIT
In Galatians, Paul tells us to “walk in the Spirit.” Walking in the Spirit is to consciously choose by faith to rely on the Holy Spirit to guide our thoughts, words, and deeds. You see, when you are physically walking you do not have to think about right, left, right, left. Your mind and body automatically work together to create motion. You have to choose to walk initially, but your body knows what to do after that. When you have reached your destination, you decide to stop walking. It is very similar to walking in the Spirit. When you walk in the Spirit, you have to initially decide to begin to walk and you consciously choose to continue to walk. When you are no longer walking in the Spirit, you have chosen not to continue.

“So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” – Romans 6:11-14

RESULTS OF NOT WALKING IN THE SPIRIT
The Apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians 4 that we need to be found worthy of our calling. So what is our calling. First of all we are called to make disciples, so if we are not walking in the Spirit it is not very likely that we will be making true disciples of Christ. Second, we should be exhibiting the fruit of the spirit.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” – Galatians 5:22-23

If these fruit of the Spirit are not showing in our lives, we need to really examine if we are truly walking in the Spirit. We cannot look at this list of fruit without also looking at the opposite works of the flesh.

“Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.” – Galatians 5:19-21

As we work through these two lists and examine our lives we need to be honest about where we need to surrender more of our lives to Christ. What reigns in our lives?

THE POWER TO CHANGE
If we examine the lists and find where we are allowing the flesh to rule, there are steps we must take in order to walk in the Spirit. We must first acknowledge our sin or sins specifically to God. We next acknowledge that our sins have been forgiven through Jesus Christ’s death on the cross. Next, we must repent. This means to change our attitude toward sin, to turn away and not turn back. It is only through the power fo the Holy Spirit that we will be able to change our attitude and our actions. By the power of the Holy Spirit we will stop doing what our flesh wants to do and do what God wants us to do.

This does not mean that our live will be just peachy as we walk in the fullness of the Spirit. The loss of those we love, financial troubles, poor health and other issues are common to all of us. But, many troubles are self-imposed because of our selfish, worldly, fleshly actions. If we walk fully in the Spirit, we will be spared many of the self-imposed hardships. But as problesm do come, we can face them with a confident calmness because we know that we have God’s resouces available to us to deal with any adversity.

CONCLUSION
Walking in the Spirit is a conscious action. It is a choice we make. By doing so, we put to death the desires of the flesh. They have no power over us. We must put to death the desires of the flesh. We must treat them as if they are dead, and by the power of the Holy Spirit they are dead. By walking in the Spirit, we will live up to the calling that Jesus has placed on our lives and we will inherit the Kingdom of God.

Father, I confess my sins to you. I am sorry that I listen more to my flesh and allow my sinful desires to rule in my life. I know that you have sent your Son and His death on the cross covers all of my sins. I am so thankful for your salvation. Help me by the power of the Holy Spirit to turn from my worldly desires and walk daily in the Spirit. Guide my words, thoughts, and deeds for your glory. Keep me from the temptation to stop walking in the Spirit so that I may be worthy of the calling that you have for me. Give me strength for today. -Amen

The Voice of God

O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? – Habakkuk 2:1

Have you ever been at a concert and tried to say something to the person next to you. No matter how hard you yell, it is difficult for that person to hear you. What is interesting is that if they turn and look at you, chances are they will be able to understand what you are saying. That is sometimes how it is with God, but we are the ones who must turn. Let me explain.

There have been times in my life that I feel that God is not listening to me. He seems distant and even though I am praying to him he doesn’t seem to respond, at least not in the way that I think he should. I can understand Habbakkuk’s frustration. I am in that place right now. I know the path that God has set out for me, but he seems to be silent and inactive. Why does this happen? There are many reasons why we may feel that God is ignoring us, and they all have to do with my position with God.

Is There Sin In My Life?
The Psalmist tells us in 66:18 – “If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.” It is not that I just committed a sin. We all sin every day and need to repent for each and every time we sin. The Psalmist is talking about “cherishing” the sin in our heart. If we are not careful we will find that we get comfortable with the sins that we are committing. It doesn’t matter what the sin is. It may be great or small, it is still possible to become accustomed to sinning. Oh, we make all kinds of excuses for it, but the reality is that we have allowed our sin nature to reign. We must overcome our sin nature. How do we do this? By surrendering our lives completely to Christ. Paul says in Romans 7:24, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?” In his next breath, Paul answers his own question, “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:25a) We cannot do this on our own. Whenever we try to overcome our sin nature, we fail miserably. We try and try to do what is right, but we always end up doing what we shouldn’t do.

Jesus tells us in John 10:27, “My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me.” This verse always gives me a lot of hope. First of all it guarantees that I will be able to hear Jesus’ voice. It doesn’t say I will always hear it, but it promises that I will be able to. It promises that Jesus knows me. He knows what I am going through and will provide a way out of our temptation. “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13) If I am able to hear His voice, He knows me, and I will follow Him.We must overcome the flesh by surrending to Christ moment by moment, then we will hear His voice and follow Him.

The Roaring Lion
We are told in 1 Peter 5:8 that Satan is a roaring lion, looking for those who he can devour. Notice that Satan is not a hunting lion quietly stalking his prey. He is roaring. If you have ever heard a lion roar, you will know that it is loud. Satan uses the world to drown out the voice of God. This world is full of distractions and they are very loud. When we are in the flesh we are like a bunch of people with ADD looking for the next best thing. The trapings in this world distract us and lead us down paths that we never should be on. They never satisfy us, in fact they are so short term that we are constantly looking for the next worldly fix. Whether it is video games, TV, pornography, money, or any one of the other millions of distractions, they will never satisfy like Christ.

So how do we defeat this lion? James 4:7 gives us the answer. “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” The first step is to submit to God. This goes against our human nature and our western idea of who we are. We are very self-reliant and don’t like to admit that we need help, just ask any wife who has been traveling lost with her husband. We must submit to God. Again we are back to not being able to do it on our own and only being able to do it by the power of Christ. But James takes it even one step further. We don’t just submit and allow God to take care of it. We must resist. This takes effort on our part, but we must do it by the power of God and not in our own strength. If we try to resist without first submitting, we will fail.

In order to hear the voice of God we must submit ourselves to God. Galatians 5:16-17 says it all, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.” I will talk about walking in the Spirit in my next post.

Father, help me to submit to you every moment of my life. I want to hear your voice and follow you. I know that I cannot do this on my own and by my own strength. It is only by walking in the Spirit that I will be able to overcome the flesh and resist the devil. Your grace and power are my only hope. Give me strength for today. – Amen

A Tale of Two Kings

Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father David had done, but he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel. He even made metal images for the Baals, and he made offerings in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom and burned his sons as an offering, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. And he sacrificed and made offerings on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree. – 2 Chronicles 28:1-4

If you were to spend any time reading the book of Kings and Chronicles in the Old Testament you would feel that you were at a tennis match watching the ball go back and forth across the net. One king would do what was right in the eyes of God and then the next king would worship the baals. What is astonishing is that the kings were all related. A father would put things right, and the son would return to doing evil. Even the kings who did do right in God’s eyes had their moments of transgressions against God. Two kings caught my attention while reading 2 Chronicles. The first one was Ahaz.

Ahaz was the son of Jotham. During Jotham’s reign he did what was right, but the people still “followed corrupted practices.” Ahaz would have been around 4 years old when his father became king, so he grew up knowing what his father had done and seen how upright and God fearing his father was during his reign. But Ahaz did not seem to remember any of this once he became king. Ahaz went so far as to sacrifice his own sons to the baals and to make metal idols for the baals and would burn “sacrifices under every tree.” This is significant because he closed-up the doors of the temple, the only place where sacrifices were to be made. Because of Ahaz’s evil actions, Judah suffered.

When Ahaz died, his son Hezekiah became King. Just as his father had done, Hezekiah grew up with his father being king. But there was a big difference between Ahaz and Hezekia. Hezekiah was a righteous king.

“In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them.” – 2 Chronicles 29:3

Hezekiah’s first order of business was to open and repair the temple. Before he did anything else, he began the process of returning Judah back to the God of their fathers. After the temple was opened and repaired, the priest were reassembled and consecrated. Temple worship began again and for the first time in many years the Passover was celebrated. Because of Hezekiah’s righteousness, Judah prospered and Hezekiah prospered along with it. When Sennacherib king of Assyria came to defeat Judah and Jerusalem, God sent an angel to defeat Sennacherib’s army. I am sure that if Hezekiah had not retuned Judah to the worship of the True and Living God Sennacherib would have destroyed Jerusalem at that time. Even though Hezekiah was a good and righteous king he still suffered from pride and had to repent for his pride.

As 2014 begins to move forward, I have to wonder if there are idols in our life that we need to eliminate. You see, many of the problems we have in our lives, the addictions, hangups, and attitudes are actually problems of worship. We worship ourselves and the things, both physical and non-physical, in our life above God. We have shut the doors of the temple and we worship under every tree just as Ahaz did. We need to be like Hezekiah and throw open the temple doors and repair our relationship with God. In our pride, we need to be humble and repent. It is time to clean our house out and put our priorities straight.

The Road to Bethlehem

18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel”

(which means, God with us). 24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus. – Matthew 1:18-25

What was it like to be Joseph. It had to be hard to see your life change from what you thought it would be. In my sermon this week, I shared from Joseph’s perspective. Check it out.

Integrity

Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. 1 John 4:4-6

My four year old son has learned how to lie. Now, being four he is not a very good liar. Many times when we ask him if he has washed his hands after being in the bathroom he will tell us that he did, but we can feel his hands and tell that he did not do what he should have done. My wife and I have determined the patterns for when he is lying and when he is telling the truth. Now, while this is not a very big lie we are still adamant that he not get away with lying to us. I try not to be too hard on him since he is only four, but I am still trying to get him to understand the importance of always telling the truth.

As believers we are to be people of integrity. We are to be genuine and not deceitful. When we say we are going to do something, we need to do it. There is nothing more hurtful or damaging than when someone lies to you and you find out that they were being deceitful. Even a little lie can destroy a relationship and it will take a lot of effort and time to heal from the hurt done by a lie. This is why James tell us to let our yes be yes and our no be no. We need to have the integrity of Christ. Christ always did what the Father told him to do. All the promises that Christ gave to us through the Gospels will be fulfilled, just as all the promises God gave throughout the Old Testament will be fulfilled. You can trust God. People should also be able to trust us.

Back to my son. If he continues to lie, and get caught in those lies, his integrity will suffer greatly and we will no longer be able to trust him. Because we cannot trust him we will not be able to rely on him and give him more responsibility. God, being our Father, will do the same to us. If we are not people of integrity, then God will not trust us with greater and more amazing responsibility. In fact, our lives will become very tragic if we are not people of integrity.

Father you are a God of integrity. Your promises are never empty and your faithfulness always sure. This is my wish for me, Lord, that my integrity will shine before man. Not for my glory, but for yours. Help my yes’ to be yes and my no’s to be no. Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting – Amen