Thursday, March 7

THURSDAY, MARCH 7, 2019

"'But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.  Be on guard!  Be alert!  You do not know when that time will come.  It's like a man going away:  He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch." (Mark 13:32-34)

Do you like reading about mysterious events or unsolved mysteries?  These topics invite speculation and make for exciting documentaries, with opinions coming from various experts—even better when those experts disagree and spark greater debate.

God has created us with a deep-seated curiosity, a passion for discovering truth.  We value the opportunity to delve into the unknown, seeking out truth and greater understanding.  Each of us carries at least some excitement towards detective work.  This desire of our hearts helps to draw us closer to God and to receive a greater portion of His revelation.  Just this week, I was amazed at a friend's hunger to read the Scriptures to know God better.  We give thanks because God does reveal Himself when we seek Him, and we understand that eternal life centers around knowing God (John 17:3).

As our brother Antonio shared on Sunday morning, however, Christ-followers have sometimes gotten off track with regard to Jesus's Second Coming.  They have become enamored with speculating on the unknown rather than concentrating on the known.  That is, writers and pastors have taken bold steps of predicting specific times, events, and circumstances surrounding Jesus's return.

While the Scriptures do indicate that troubled times will precede His return, Jesus Himself expands that we can't know the "day or hour."  We shouldn't spend our effort trying here!  In other words, please avoid being caught up in mystery.  Rather, we should focus on the known facts and live accordingly.

As Jesus highlights, we should consider this era of the Church as a time of watchfulness.  In the office setting, we may find ourselves reveling in our "freedom" when our supervisor takes some time away.  "When the cat's away, the mice will play."  In one setting, a very helpful assistant would give a heads-up on the boss's return:  "The Eagle has landed!"

In contrast to our natural tendencies, we are called to live purposefully and watchfully as we await Christ's return:  by seeking God, loving others, and making disciples.  Personally, it means keeping clear accounts:  forgiving others, confessing our sins to God and others, and avoiding unnecessary entrapments.  We also should take advantage of time and resources to deepen our relationship with God by reading His Word, talking with Him in prayer, worshiping Him, and serving Him and others in practical ways.  We stay active and ready because the day and hour are indeed unknown.

What are you anticipating today?  How could you embrace this spirit of watchfulness, to God's glory and the blessing of His people?

Lord God, thank You for revealing Jesus Christ to us and helping us to come into relationship with You.  Thank You also for giving us spirits of curiosity.  Give us the wisdom to incline our curiosity towards knowing You better.  Help us to maintain watchfulness in these days of waiting.  Give us opportunities to serve You and others today.  In Jesus's mighty Name, amen.

Blog post 6th March

March 6th 2019

EXODUS 23:14-25:40

Matthew 24:29-51

Psalm 30:1-12

Proverbs 7:24-27

Jesus again exposed the religious impure motives. The teachers of the Law received no pay so they depend on hospitality. Some of them used this custom to exploit people, cheating the poor out of everything they had and taking advantage of the rich. We can see this in todays world as the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

We see in Mark 12:38-13:13 that Jesus warned against trying to make a good impression. These teachers of the Law were religious hypocrites who had no love for God. True followers of Christ are not distinguished by showy spirituality, reading the Bible, praying in public, or following church rituals can be phony if the motive for doing them is to be noticed or honored. Let your actions be consistent with your beliefs live for Christ, even when no one is looking.  Jesus admires generous and sacrificial giving. As believers we should consider increasing our giving. Whether of money, time or talents to a point beyond convenience or calculation. Jesus gave prophetic pictures and warns his followers about the future so they could learn how to live in the present. Many predictions Jesus made in this passage have not yet been fulfilled but to help us remain spiritually alert and prepared at all times as we wait for his return. Jesus taught the kind of attitude we should have when we must take a stand for the gospel. We don't have to be fearful or defensive about our faith because the Holy spirit will be present to give us the right words to say.

To believe in Jesus and stand "firm to the end" will take perseverance because our faith will be challenged and opposed. Severe trials will sift true Christians from fair-weather believers. Enduring to the end does not earn salvation for us, but marks us already saved. The assurance of our salvation will keep us going through the times of persecution.

 There is no way for a person to buy eternal life with God. Only God can redeem a soul. Don't count on wealth and physical comforts to keep you happy because you will never have enough wealth to keep from dying. The rich and poor have one similarity when they die, they leave all they own here on earth. At the moment of death both rich and poor are naked and empty. In Psalm 30 we see security had made David feel invincible, although he knew that his riches and power had come from God, they had gone to his head, making him proud. Wealth, power, and fame can be intoxicating, making us feel self-reliant, self-secure, and independent of God. But this false security can easily be shattered, let us not be trapped by the false security of prosperity. Let us depend on God for our security and we wont be shaken when our worldly possessions occur.

Let Us Love 💕

March 5, 2019

Numbers 4-5:31, Mark 12:18-37, Psalm 48:1-14, Proverbs 10:26

Going through the first few books of the Old Testament we have heard a lot of commandments. The Ten Commandments are of course the famous, but there are commands and laws all over these books. In the Jewish culture, the Torah and these commands are impressed on children at a young age and everyone knows these commands...The Law. To have a "teacher of the law" ask and challenge Jesus with the question, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" Was a test the Sadducees were placing on Jesus. 

""The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." Mark 12:29-31 NIV. This command was first heard in Deuteronomy 6, after the Ten Commandments were presented. This is The Greatest Commandment, and it's twofold. 

1. God is first and must be loved by all parts of us: heart, soul, mind, and strength. It's the emotional, spiritual, intellectual, and physical parts that make us us! When I think of it, it's almost impossible to wrap my mind around what all of me means. But it means ALL. 
2. We must love our neighbors- strangers, country men, coworkers, family, etc. as ourselves! Easier said than done, right!?! 

So how are we showing love? Are we living Biblical pictures of love? Do we live I Corinthians 13's description of love: "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NIV. 

Are we loving the way Christ loved? "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends."

John 15:12-13 NIV

Are we loving our neighbors the way John challenged us? Because if we say we love God, and desire to obey the first and greatest commandment, we must love others. 

"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us."

1 John 4:7-12 NIV

I am challenged and I challenge you to love a little more, a little deeper, and a little more intentionally today and tomorrow. "They will know we are Christians by our love," they (the world) will know God through our love. 

Bible blog post Monday March 4th

Can We Give A Round Of Applause Please???  (Psalm 47:1-9)

Today's psalm is all about praise.  Specifically lifting up our praise to the awesome God we serve.  I looked up the word praise in my good old fashioned dictionary and here is a list of definitions I found:  express warm approval, admire, compliment, celebrate, glorify, honor, exalt, adore, and my favorite one: APPLAUD!!!

How fitting that this praise encouraging Psalm 47 starts with this line, "Clap your hands, all you nations...".  It is literally saying to applaud.  It beings this psalm, this call to praise, with a call for applause.  But why does one applaud?  What causes us to give applause?

I love to go into the city to see Broadway shows.  I go with family and friends as often as I can.  There is one consistent thing the audience does for every show and that is to applaud the actors when they have performed well.  Some shows have had me standing on my feet with everyone else for countless minutes as we raised up our applause for a performance that wowed, delighted, touched, surprised, awed, and sometimes inspired me.  It can then lead to shouts and whistles and cheers of delight to let the actors know how great the performance was.  It doesn't end there though.  When I leave the theater my excitement and joy continues.  I can't help but chat with my theater friends at how good the show was.  I point out all the parts that I just loved and we talk and talk reminiscing about what we saw and experienced.  We are recounting the joy of the performance over and over and over again.  I even come home and tell my family how great it was and how I know they would enjoy experiencing what I experienced.  It is a great experience to be had.

How often do you applaud the Lord?  How often do you stand wowed, delighted, touched, surprised, awed, or inspired by the God we serve?  How often do you take the time to sit and ponder who God is and let it amaze you?  How often do you take your eyes off of your earthly circumstances and look at God and just marvel at all He has created and delight in all that He is?   How often do you reflect on His power, nature, kingship, majesty, achievements, incomparable character, justice, truth, wisdom, sovereignty, creativity.... I could go on and on here!!!  All creation, life, is a stage where we have the opportunity to see and experience the beauty, authority, power, wonder...of our God.  We have the opportunity to stand in applause and let the Lord know just how glorious He is. 

Truth be told we don't spend nearly enough time pondering and delighting in who our God is.  We spend a lot of time talking about what our God can do and has done for us (not saying that is a bad thing just an often "us" focused thing).  We can tend to focus more on what we gain from our God then just the pure delight of sitting in His presence and being moved to our feet in applause.  Our applause should move us into shouts, whistles and cheers of praise for just how amazing He is and how blessed we are for being able to experience all God is.  We should be left so elated, so moved, that we can't help but talk and talk with others about our awesome God.  We should be so excited that we want to tell our families and friends all about our experience with our God and desire for them to share in it and have their own applause worthy experiences too.

I read a short article on praise where the author said, "Praise comes from someone who is thoroughly thankful."  Gratitude plays an important role in Praise but all too often our focus changes from praise that is solely on God to a focus on ourselves and what God has done in our lives.  It goes from praise (which is giving attention to God's Glory) to giving thanks for what he has done for us.  I want to challenge us all today, and everyday, to spend time in pure "applause", in such great admiration of God that you can not help but lift up hands, shouts, songs.... that you lift up praises to the King of kings!  Try to not use the words "Thank you" during this time of praise (save it for after or start off with it) but in your reflection and awe lift up your applause for who you have discovered him to be. Praise also comes from spending time and experiencing God. The more time we spend the greater our applause will be because the greater the experience will be. 

I would like everyone who reads this to respond to me and share an "applause", a praise with me.  It can be a verse that speaks to Who God is or to His power or authority. It can be a revelation you've had. It can be a song that speaks to his character. It can be anything but let it be something that stirs you with wonder or awe today.  Psalm 22:22 (which was quoted by Christ in Hebrews 2:12) says "I will declare your name to my people; in the assembly I will praise you."  Our praise is not just meant to be in the quiet by ourselves.  We are called to stand in applause as an assembly of believers and shout it out for all to hear.  Won't you stand and join me now in a round of applause of praise for our God and King?

March 2: Of Hindsight

Leviticus 25:47-27:13

Mark 10:32-52

Psalm 45:1-17

Proverbs 10:22

There are many times in their lives my kids have doubted I love them.  Often it was when I imposed a consequence, a punishment, in an attempt to correct them.  They never liked it when I did.  I get it - I was a really disobedient child, and I never liked it when my parents corrected me.  I wanted to do what I wanted to do, and when they did, or expected me to behave, I thought they were being unreasonable, maybe even just mean.  I certainly didn't think they loved me.  I didn't understand. 

I think many who read today's OT passage could choose to feel the same way about God.  One could go through these verses and see a God whose love was conditional, even questionable, premised on our behavior.  One could see an unreasonable kill joy.  

The thing is, today I am a parent, and I now understand what I didn't back then, why my parents had to do to me and for me the way they did.  They knew that ultimately my life was going to be determined by the choices I made, and so they tried to make clear early on that choices had consequences - good choices good ones, bad choices bad ones.  And today I understand, and I no longer question their love.  

God loved us so much He gave us free will, because He knew that our greatest joy, our perfect completion would come in choosing to exercise that free will by loving Him right back.  But the free will meant He couldn't force us to love Him, and so we would run the risk of bad choices and painful consequences, consequences He would rather we spare ourselves.  And so early on, in the life of the nation Israel, He makes it clear that their choices will have consequences - good choices good ones, bad choices bad ones.  

One thing, though: I will never be a Father like Him, and so will probably never understand His correction and consequence.  I pray that, unlike my relationship with my parents, I not need to understand to learn to trust and obey.  

Father, may we learn to see Your guidance and correction through the lens of the knowledge of Your love.  In doing so, may we never need to understand to obey.  

March 1

March 1, 2019

Mark 10

A Life of Surrender

Mark 10:28-39   Peter said to him, "We have left everything to follow you!" "I tell you the truth," Jesus replied, "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields--and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life."

In 1897 Samuel Zwemer, his wife and two daughters sailed to the Persian Gulf to work among the Muslims of Bahrain. Their evangelism was largely fruitless. Estimates are that in 40 years of service less than a dozen Muslims came to know Christ. In July 1904 both the daughters, ages four and seven, died within eight days of each other. Nevertheless, 50 years later Zwemer would look back over his ministry and write, "The sheer joy of it all comes back. Gladly would I do it all over again."

Following Jesus does not exclude us from experiencing trials and tribulation. In fact, Jesus calls each of his disciples to intentionally walk a pathway where we are carrying our crosses. This life of total abandonment is not easy, but Jesus does promise a great reward for our faithfulness. That reward is experienced both now and in eternity.

On January 8, 1956, the Auca Indians of Ecuador killed Jim Elliot and his four missionary companions as they were trying to serve the Aucas by bringing them the gospel. Four young wives lost husbands and nine children lost fathers. Elisabeth Elliot wrote that the world called it a "nightmare of tragedy." But she pointed to the second part of Jim Elliot's motto,  "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." We will never lose one sacrifice we have made for God's kingdom.

If you find yourself saying, "there has to be more to life than this," if you are tired of the meaninglessness of a life focused on consuming, then this is your moment to serve God with all your heart. If you take the courageous step of surrendering all for His kingdom, you will discover the sheer joy God's approval and His reward.

--

"Multiplying leaders to change the world"

Thursday, February 28

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2019

 

“They came to Capernaum.  When he [Jesus] was in the house, he asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the road?’  But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.

 

“Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, ‘Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.’” (Mark 9:33-35)

 

 

“Sin is not ended by multiplying words,

    but the prudent hold their tongues.” (Proverbs 10:19)

 

 

Do you enjoy poignant memes and t-shirts?  Their short phrases’ ability to capture deep truth can amuse us or pique our anger.  Some t-shirts contain messaging that reveals the inner heart of the person wearing them.  Recently, we have been chuckling in our home about a t-shirt that reads:  “I’m not arguing.  I’m just explaining why I’m right.”  How true!

 

As we head into arguments, we often resemble the disciples in their argument about which among them had achieved the greatest position.  In fact, our posture and attitude in these discussions echoes their pride and desire to come out on top.  We rarely enter arguments seeking truth or mutual edification.  We typically wish to influence, cajole, or even shut down the other parties.

 

In Mark 8:34-38, Jesus gave His call to discipleship:  “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” (8:34)  The Way of the Cross -- the path Jesus set before us and lived Himself -- requires self-denial.  Here, we read that living up to our calling involves a servant’s heart and an attitude of humility.  These two approaches are clearly interrelated:  by denying the self, we may embrace the glory of God and the blessing of others as our objectives.  Otherwise, we remain trapped in our own selfishness and agenda.

 

Yet, we know that arguments will come.  We have several action steps that may allow us to maximize these moments for God’s Kingdom:

 

(1)  Avoid pointless arguments.  Oftentimes, pettiness draws us into conversations that all parties will later regret.

 

(2)  Listen well.  As the Proverb explains, multiplying our words is likely not the answer.  In fact, our words may further embroil us.

 

(3)  Ask thought-provoking questions.  “How did that make you feel?”  “What do you see as a potential resolution?”  “From your perspective, what am I missing?”

 

(4)  Shorten the argument.  Dwelling and rehashing the same points -- or even points from previous arguments -- rarely leads to fresh and successful outcomes.

 

(5)  Be willing to step back.  There may be times where considering one another’s points of view may be more effective than further argument.

 

(6)  Remember the greater purpose of family and community.  Paul’s counsel in Colossians 3:12-14 covers this best:  “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”

 

(7)  Focus on the glory of God and the blessing of others.  How could your flexibility in this situation serve the Kingdom?  What does “success” mean in light of God’s glory and others’ flourishing?

 

(8)  Stand firm in the Truth.  Despite the forgoing, please be careful to remain faithful to God’s Word.  Affirm His character and goodness, and acknowledge Him as your King.

 

 

May we honor God and serve others in times of disagreement!

 

 

Lord Jesus, thank You for your clear teaching on living humbly and honoring others through a servant’s attitude.  Change our hearts from the inside out, and prepare us to love others even in the midst of arguments.  Prepare our hearts to receive Your presence today, and guide and direct us by Your Spirit so that we might be a blessing.  We love You and honor You today.  In Your mighty Name, amen.

 

________________________________________________________________________

596 Glenbrook Road, Unit 13 | "Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection

Stamford, CT  06906-1423    |  and the life.  He who believes in me will

(C) 203.820.1741            |     live, even though he dies; and whoever

(H) 203.355.9374            |   lives and believes in me will never die.

(E) swe@edwa.info           | Do you believe this?'"    -- John 11:25,26