Thank You

Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy

Philippians 1:3-4 

 

We all have those people in our lives who make us smile just by thinking of them.  They remind us of the caring we have for each other and the laughter we share and the weird things we say and do that make us smile.  God brought these people into our lives because He knew we needed them.  God brought these people into our lives be He knew they needed us.  God's good like that.

 

Did you know that God also brings people into our lives that inspire us to be better people?  One of the best compliments anyone can ever receive is to hear these words spoken of them: "Because God brought us together, I am a better person!"  Know anyone who could say that about you?  Know anyone you would say that about?

 

My prayer is that we become the people others will thank God for bringing into their lives.

Be Thankful For Difficult People?

Don’t repay evil for evil. Don’t retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do, and he will grant you his blessing.

1 Peter 3:9 

 

Ever have to deal with someone you really wish you could just make disappear?  Perhaps they are loud.  Perhaps they are vengeful.  Perhaps they are just irritating.  Maybe they want to engage you in gossip.  Or even expect you to do their work as well as your own.  Fact is, we ALL have to deal with difficult people, even Jesus (remember the guy who asked what tasks he needed to perform to get into heaven?  What about the Pharisees and Scribes?  Then how about the Disciples themselves asking who was going to sit in the places of honor in Heaven?)

 

In seminary, I read a book called "Thank You For Being Such A Pain" and I'll admit, I was skeptical about reading it, mainly because I thought I would be identified BY NAME in its description of such people.  However, the book contained insights that I have found helpful (and I need to re-read the book again).  When we deal with difficult people, we should be THANKFUL.  You heard me: THANKFUL!  

 

No I do not have mush between the ears.  We should be grateful for difficult people because they help us grow and mature and they provide us with ministry opportunities to share the LOVE of Christ!  Re-read today's Scripture...we are to return evil with good.  We are to pray for difficult people (which is difficult because difficult people tend to....well....tick us off, which is quite distracting when one is trying to pray.)  We must learn that WE are the ones who are to love God with all our heart, soul, strength, and might SO THAT we can love others as ourselves...and that includes difficult people.  Be Thankful for the chance they offer us to grow.

We Have A Choice!

Jesus knew what the Pharisees were thinking, so he said to them, “Every kingdom that is divided against itself will be destroyed. And any city or family that is divided against itself will not continue."

Matthew 12:25 

Abraham Lincoln said "A house divided against itself will not stand" which comes from Mark 3:25.  As we approach the Inauguration of the 45th President of the United States, let me ask you...Are we truly living in the "United States"?  Are we United?

I hear and read many comments, diatribes, opinion columns, and other communications, that would indicate that we are not, and have no intention of ever being united as a nation.  Have we wandered so far from God that we forget that HE is ultimately in control and sometimes He reminds us of that by allowing those we do not necessarily agree with to be in power over us.

For those who are wishing to boycott the Inauguration because you disagree with the person becoming our President, no worries, your presence will not be missed as much as you may think.  For those who wish to disrupt the Inauguration, I have to wonder if you disagreed with your parents did you disrupt their lives to try to get your way?

The point I am hoping you will see is this: We are a nation divided.  We have been for a long time.   And instead of becoming a people who prays for those who have been placed in leadership over us, we want to become even more divisive.  Let me urge each person who truly believes in prayer to offer thanks that we live in a country where we are still permitted to pray and also pray that God will change our nation's hearts to one of unity instead of divisiveness.

The best place to begin is with the face in the mirror and then extend that out to those you see every day and then extend that out to those who see occasionally.  We don't have to agree on everything to be united.  We start by agreeing to become united as people!  

It Only Took A Breath...

Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. 

He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, 

and the man became a living person.

Genesis 2:7

 

My Bride and I have a dog, Woody Bear, who loves to dig in our back yard and has running trails all around our back yard. Woody Bear is of undetermined lineage as he looks rather like a Chocolate Lab, with the head of a Pit Bull, and the blue tongue and strong curled tail of a Husky.  So he's pretty much a "Near Miss" of anything on the grid.

 

One of the times I was out with him in the back yard, I noticed that our yard is made of different kinds of dirt. Some sections are dark while others are light. And that cranked up the thought generator....when God gave Adam the breath of life, what color was Adam (having been formed from the dust of the Earth)?

 

And you know what?  The Bible doesn't tell us that, because the skin pigmentation is irrelevant!  The only thing that matters is that God's Breath of Life was breathed not only into Adam, but into everyone of us who draw breath.  God breathed into us the ability to love and the desire to be loved.  God breathed into us the ability to think.  God breathed into us the ability to be compassionate.  God breathed into us the ability to help each other.  God breathed Himself into us!

 

So with that within us, why do we focus on what is outside us?

I Have Lots of "Friends".....

A man of many companions may come to ruin,
    but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Proverbs 18:24

 

I am often astounded by the number of "friends" people have on Facebook.  I am even more astounded by the people we so willingly call friends.  One person contacted me on Facebook to ask me a question, when I looked at their profile I saw they had over 500 "friends."  

 

Way back when I was growing up, with the baby dinosaurs, I was taught that there are only three kinds of people in life: 

*     Strangers (people we have not met), 

*     Acquaintances (people with whom we have met and will greet in passing) and 

*     Friends (those who would not only stick with you through anything and everything, but probably were the ones who got you into trouble in the first place). 

 

The photo for today is of my buddy.  His name is Woody Bear.  When I come home from work, or the store, or from the mailbox, or from taking the trash out, Woody Bear greets me like I have been gone forever.  When it is time for morning coffee and Quiet Time, Woody Bear is right there with me wanting to be close and wanting to remind me that he loves me.  I can tell him ANYTHING and he'll not change his opinion of me.

 

Be careful of who you allow to get close to you.  Remember Julius Caesar?  He allowed Brutus to get close to him and Brutus ended up helping kill Caesar.  

 

Don't like drama? Go through your group of friends and drop the ones who create drama.  Don't like sushi?  Go through your group of friends and drop the ones who insist you have to eat sushi.

 

WE select our friends.  Make sure you are a Friend worth having.  Benjamin Franklin once wrote: "If you would have a friend, first BE a friend!" 

 

 

Life Ain't About YOU!

Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.

Philippians 2:3-4

We all know people who like to try to impress others with:
     *  who they know
     *  what they have
     *  what they can do 
     *  how much they are "suffering"
  
You name it and someone is trying to impress others with it.  But we tend to forget something, we were not put on this Earth to impress anyone!  God certainly is not impressed by anything we have, can, or will do.  Because without Him, we can do absolutely nothing...not even breathe.

Imagine how different our lives would be if you turned our attention to others instead of focusing on us.  Let's face it, God created people LAST!

I scroll through my Facebook feed every so often, and after about the fifth or sixth "I'm awesome because..." or "Feel sorry for me but I won't talk about it" post, I just stop.  

Permit me, if you will, to be blunt...we all have a brief time on this earth.  A date of birth and a date of death.  Life is determined by how we use the time between the dates!

God created each of us with unique talents and gifts that we are expected to use to help others!  When do we stop trying to be a big deal and start making a big deal out of using out gifts and talents to help others.  AND those who want to only soak up the gifts and talents of others need a real change of heart!

Okay...time for more coffee.

Ya'll Watch This!

I honestly expect and hope that I will never do anything to be ashamed of. Whether I live or die, I always want to be as brave as I am now and bring honor to Christ.

Philippians 1:20

If you've ever wondered whether or not God has a sense of humor, look at the actions of some of humanity.  Humans aren't exactly noted for being the brightest or the sharpest.  We may have conquered travel to the Moon, but I've seen these same brilliant people bang their face while pushing the door clearly marked "Pull."

I had a professor in college who would fill eager minds with knowledge and when each class ended he would always remind us, "You reflect what you've learned here...don't embarrass me!"  

The Apostle Paul was a very proud man.  And, by all intents and purposes, had every right to be proud.  He was a Roman Citizen. He was born into the Tribe of Benjamin which was a HUGE deal.  He was a "Hebrew among Hebrews" which meant he and his family were pretty big muckety-mucks in their society.  Paul was also circumcised on the eighth day (as prescribed by Jewish Law), notice it wasn't the 7th day or the 9th day but Paul emphasizes the 8th day!  Paul had studied the Law of Moses and because of his strict adherence to the Law, he was made a Pharisee.  All these great things, yet he wanted to make trouble for the church so off he went to destroy the church of Christ.  God had to put a stop to this less than brilliant strategy.

Now look at the Apostle Peter.  Peter was a proud man.  He had the base education required of all Jewish boys.  Peter was a fisherman by trade.  He was wise in that it takes much wisdom to know where to throw your nets in order to catch the fish you need to survive.  But Peter was also among the "Ya'll Watch This" group.  Peter fell all over himself trying to impress Jesus or trying to avoid punishment.  Read about the exploits of Peter and if you don't chuckle a few times, you're not reading it right.

We don't like being an embarrassment to those we care about.  We don't want to bring shame on our family or group of friends.  But do we bring shame to the family of Christ by our words or actions or thoughts or intentions?  Worth a think?

 

Are YOU Humble?

He has a name written on his clothing and on his thigh:

 “King of kings and Lord of lords.”

~Revelation 19:16

 

George had it made! After all, he was the ruler of the greatest kingdom on Earth.  With a raising of an eyebrow, he could make or break your fortune.  With the simple gesture of a finger, he could erase your family line from history.  What George wanted, George got!  Simple! 

 

That same mentality has carried over from George's day into ours.  And on so many smaller scales.  

 

But something happened to George that I have not witnessed in my years on this earth.  George the Second, King of England and all her Empires, humbled himself!  Of his OWN accord, he humbled himself, recognizing that there was a King mightier than himself.  You see, on March 23, 1743, George II sat in the Royal Box at the theatre to hear "The Messiah" which had been written by George Frideric Handel.  Throughout the performance, George the Second was intrigued and listened intently.

 

And when the Hallelujah Chorus reached the words: "The kingdom of this world..." King George II of England and her Empire did something NO OTHER monarch had done before...He stood with head bowed throughout the remainder of the song, acknowledging that God's Kingdom was MUCH mightier than any he could control!  In humble recognition this monarch stood in submission to God!

 

How many people of power do you think would do that now?  Look around!  We hear lip service to God quite frequently when it suits.  But how many leaders will actually humble themselves before God?  How many are truly grateful to God for the position they hold?  How many PEOPLE are willing to humble themselves before God and acknowledge that without Him, they would not exist?  

 

Sadly, very few and they are growing more and more scarce every single day!  What about YOU?  Is God your King of Kings and Lord of Lords?  Or do you put your trust in someone else?

 

LISTEN 

Take Time To Live!

Teach us to realize the brevity of life,
    so that we may grow in wisdom.

Psalm 90:12

Have you ever had someone you love die?  Do you miss them?  Do you ever think about things you should have said....should have done?  Ever wish for another chance to spend time with them?

When my Grampa died, I would have given anything to spend one more day with him listening to his stories, smelling his pipe as he smoked Carter Hall tobacco, learning him, seeing life through his eyes.  Just one more time.

I think I speak for all of us when I say we tend to take life for granted!  We put things off until "tomorrow."  We don't say the things that are important because we just KNOW we'll have that chance "tomorrow."  We care too lightly.  We take ourselves far too seriously.  We let the people who drag us down stay in our lives far too long!  We waste far too much life focused on the negative aspects of everything.

A wise person once told me, "Life is far too brief to waste on inconsequentials! If someone is dragging you down and sucking the life out of you, CUT THEM OFF!  Stay close to those who truly love you! Laugh! And for goodness' sake, LIVE!"

You see, we are not guaranteed tomorrow!  Scripture tells us to plan for it but don't count on it (Matthew 6:34)!

I challenge each of you to LIVE LIFE ON PURPOSE!

     *  Remove those who drain you!

     *  Build up those who love you!

     *  Carry only the burdens worth carrying!

     *  Laugh a LOT (especially at yourself)!

     *  Love passionately!

     *  Live on purpose every moment of every day!

Every single moment of every single day is God's gift to you!  It is YOURS!  Invest it wisely!