I'll be Home for Christmas

Lynda, Levi, and I are leaving for Oklahoma and eventually, Texas this afternoon – please pray for us as we take Levi on his first extended road trip since he became mobile. Sleep, baby, sleep!

As we move toward Christmas and the New Year, I’ve been thinking about 2010. Specifically, what my devotional time will look like. Since Levi was born, my time with God has been sporadic at best. He wakes up so early that I can’t do a morning quiet time, and by the time the evening comes around, I’m too tired or have forgotten about it completely.

My most consistent quiet times come when I am on a set program. So I have decided on the program I will use next year – would anyone like to join me? It’s a read the bible in a year program that I have done a few times. Here’s a link to it:

http://www.navpress.com/uploadedFiles/BRP2.pdf

My favorite thing about this program is you get Sunday off every week. It’s a built in catch-up day and for me, really takes some of the pressure off. You read a few chapters and a psalm or proverb most every day – it is excellent!

So if you don’t have something lined out for next year, why not work through this program with me – it is challenging (which is a good thing), I think you will really enjoy it – and I know God will bless it! So jump on board on January 1, or begin now to get a head start. No need to let me know one way or the other, unless you would like some accountability.

Lynda and I are so thankful for the privilege of serving with you and are humbled to walk alongside you for a few months every year. Blessings on you and your family!

Have a very Merry Christmas!

1 Peter 2:12 - Do Right

“Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”

Do what is right…at all times…in every situation.

People are watching you.

If they know you are a Christian, they are judging Christ based upon your life.

I’m afraid Christians, you and I, don’t always represent Christ very well.

"I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ." - Gandhi

Saying you live one way, and then living differently, is called hypocrisy.

I Googled “Christian Hypocrisy” and discovered 1,090,000 sites (in .27 seconds); most asking the same question: “Why don’t Christians live like Jesus?”

Do you ever ask that question?

Does your life ever cause others to ask that question?

Our lives should be the positive response to, not the reason for, that question.

God expects us to do right. He has given us His very Spirit to empower us to do so.

But He will not do it for us; we must choose to please God instead of our human nature.

Who are you pleasing?

Are you doing things you know are less than God’s best: getting drunk, cheating, sleeping around, lying, disobeying your parents, gossiping, anything?

You are harming yourself and grieving the Holy Spirit who resides within you.

Your actions give unbelievers an easy excuse not to follow Christ.

They are responsible for their decisions, but we are responsible for our witness.

What type of witness are you providing?

This Christmas give yourself the best gift possible: a clear conscious before God.

Confess your sins, turn your back on them, and follow God.

He will forgive and restore.

Only then will you enjoy peace on earth, good will toward men.

Merry Christmas!

PS – There is much more to “doing good” than not “doing bad” – loving your neighbor, going the extra mile, caring for others…very important things…things that will cause nonbelievers to take note that we have been with Jesus – but I felt a need to focus on not “doing bad” today.

1 Peter 2:11 - Home

“Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.”

When I lived in Houston, I would occasionally go to estate sales. Not the most thrilling way to spend a Saturday morning I admit, but I had a brand new house with almost no furniture, and you can get good deals at estate sales. One Saturday I was wandering through a sale at a private residence. As I entered the kitchen, I discovered several collections: plates, figurines, and trinkets from around the world.

The previous owner of the house had obviously spent years, time, and tons of money collecting these treasures. But now they were piled on the kitchen table stamped with pitifully low prices on little round stickers. As I meandered through the rest of the house, I began thinking about the temporary nature of life. A couple of weeks prior, the lady of the house was walking the same path I was walking, but now she was gone forever and her prized possessions were picked over by strangers. It was a sad thought.

When the lady died, she left this temporary life and moved into her eternal home. That’s the way it is for humanity, we are aliens; we live in a land that is not our home. As Christians, our home is with God in heaven, not here on earth. (If you have not accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, your eternal home is elsewhere…) The house where you grew up, your hometown, your apartment, your dream house – they are not your home. They are temporary living quarters, every bit as transitory as a bus stop.

Likewise, the things that are important on this earth should not be terribly important to Christians. You and I were made for eternity and EVERYTHING of the world – power, popularity, possessions – is temporary. Either they will go away, or we will pass away and leave them behind. Until we can turn our back on worldly desires, we will be double-minded and of little use in God’s Kingdom. Matthew 6:24 comes to mind, “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other…you cannot serve both God and Money”.

We must abstain from sinful, or fleshly, desires because they war against our soul. The soul is the residence of our spirit which is also the residence of the Holy Spirit. When we give in to sinful desires (Check out Galatians 5:16-21 to see what kind of sinful desires are on the table), we hurt our spirit and we hinder the Spirit of God from working in our lives and through our lives.

This is a hard teaching, but if obeyed, it will open the door to unbelievable peace and freedom. A couple of things to consider: are you spending time, money, and energy collecting earthly trinkets at the expense of eternal matters? Do you care what the world says more than you care what God says? Is the track of your life based on worldly expectations or God’s expectations? These are important questions…

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” – Matthew 6:20

1 Peter 2:10 - Thanksgiving Part II

“Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

As we discussed last week, discontent is a major challenge in today’s world. I believe thankfulness is the cure for discontent. If you are grateful for the things you have, you won’t spend so much time looking at the things you don’t have and are more likely to be happy and at peace with your life. Now that we’re all caught up, on with the topic at hand:

“Contentment is not attained, it is accepted.”

God gave me that quote many years ago. I was working on a bible study and it simply popped into my mind – my initial thought was, “Wow – that’s good! I need to write that down.” I have quoted and taught that sentence many times, but I don’t know if I have ever internalized it for my life. (A side note, teaching the Word of God without internalizing it yourself is a constant challenge as a teacher. When you gain a new understanding of a passage – the tendency is to think, “I cannot wait to share this with my group!” instead of meditating on it for yourself. Just a friendly word of caution…)

“Contentment is not attained, it is accepted.” Contentment doesn’t come when you graduate, or get that perfect job (no job is perfect), or when you reach a certain salary (you always need/want a little bit more), or find that perfect someone (relationships do not erase personal struggles, they highlight them). Contentment will not be found by striving or attaining a certain standard (there is always another standard to reach); it will only come through acceptance: acceptance of who God is, who you are in relation to God, and acceptance of the circumstances God has placed you in.

In His strength we are able to take any situation in our lives – no matter how difficult, painful, or challenging – and say, “This is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.” Anything that happens in this life is temporary, God is eternal – by focusing on the eternal instead of the temporary – we are able to rise above our circumstances. (That is what is Peter is trying to teach his readers through this whole book – focus on God, not the persecution.)

Honestly, I’m not there yet, but I long for the day when I get there. To be joyful in midst of hard times…to be peaceful amidst persecution…to smile when the day brings bad news – I would love to live like that. Relationship with God doesn’t remove difficulties; it gives us the strength to overcome difficulties and hope that the difficulties won’t last forever.

And I believe the first step down that road is to take your eyes off the things you don’t have and be thankful for all the things you do have. When you do that, you will begin to be in content in the all-sufficient Christ and you won’t care so much about your circumstances. (Check out 2 Corinthians 4:7-18 to see what that look like.)

So what does this lengthy discussion on thankfulness and contentment have to do with this verse? In case you have forgotten, the verse is: “Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

We should be eternally thankful that we are the people of God and that we have received mercy. If those were the only two gifts that God gave us, we would have reason to be thankful every moment of our lives. Those are the only two things that matter – and they have been given to us!

Our eternal destination and our present relationship with the Creator of the Universe have been secured by Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the cross. Don’t take that for granted, thank God for His amazing gift of grace every day!

“We ought to give thanks for all fortune: if it is “good”, because it is good, if “bad” because it works in us patience, humility and the contempt of this world and the hope of our eternal country.” – CS Lewis