Doing the Menial?

On Sunday’s, at the church I Pastor, all the adults meet for announcements and prayer request before the start of our Sunday School. Just before we pray for the requests the Sunday School Superintendent reads the devotional for the day from My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers.  This past Sunday he read it and this portion really has stuck in my head ever since.

If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet —John 13:14

Ministering in everyday opportunities that surround us does not mean that we select our own surroundings— it means being God’s very special choice to be available for use in any of the seemingly random surroundings which He has engineered for us. The very character we exhibit in our present surroundings is an indication of what we will be like in other surroundings.

The things Jesus did were the most menial of everyday tasks, and this is an indication that it takes all of God’s power in me to accomplish even the most common tasks in His way. Can I use a towel as He did? Towels, dishes, sandals, and all the other ordinary things in our lives reveal what we are made of more quickly than anything else. It takes God Almighty Incarnate in us to do the most menial duty as it ought to be done. – My Utmost for His Highest Sept. 11th 2011

Let me say that this spoke to me.  We so often think we have to have so much in order do minister to people.  I am guilty of this – you know what I am talking about – I have to have this or that to be effective for Christ.  When I heard this and then read it later it spoke to me that I do not need those things.  Just think that Jesus did a powerful act with a towel, a bowl, and water – ordinary things in life.  Jesus used the ordinary to do the extraordinary and we so often think we have to have the extraordinary to do the ordinary.  It is simply not the case.  We have so many ordinary things around us that we can do extraordinary things with if we just allowed God to lead us.

Let me ask you:  Does this speak to you at all?  If it does, what does it say to you?  Do you see something different from me?  Please share it.

His Grace and His Healing

Funny how God uses things that show you His grace bring about healing in your life.

I performed a funeral Wednesday Evening for a dear friend who passed away after a 9 year battle with cancer.  She was a beautiful lady on the the outside but even more beautiful on the inside.  Her friendship made a difference in my life and in the life of my whole family.  Her dying wishes were that I perform the funeral, my wife sing, and that it be at the previous church I worked at and all her wishes all happened.

The hardest part of all this was going back to the previous church.  It has been over two years since I left and things have been great for the most part (I still own a home that which is a real prayer request that all would be taken care of with it very soon).  The reason it was hard is that most people there did not know exactly how things happened and how hurt I was by some of the things that happened in those last six months.

Most people did not know I was doing the funeral so they were so happy to see me and my family.  It was really awesome catching up with so many good people who made a positive difference in my life.  I was able to connect with some people who had some struggles in their lives and it cause a rift in our relationship which was unresolved.  I was able to face going someplace that in many ways I dreaded and God gave extreme grace in dealing with the feeling I have struggled with.  I have forgiven but this helped me to see it in action and God showed me his healing power and grace.

Again isn’t it funny how God uses things that show you His grace bring about healing in your life?

What area of your life has you seen God’s grace or healing recently?

Going Back?

First thing – I am not too sure why I changed the look of the blog but it was just something I did on a whim.  Let me know what you think about the new look.

Secondly – I bought a new computer the other day. It is something I have saved Christmas money and money from weddings and funerals to buy it.  It is a laptop and I really like it a lot, but as much as I like the thing is this – it can be pretty frustrating.  Why you might ask, well the keyboard is just slightly different than my on my old laptop.  Some times when my fingers go to hit the delete key and they hit the End key.  Sometimes I go to hit the backspace key and I hit the numbers lock.  Things are placed just in a little bit different position and as I said it can be frustrating but I love it and would not want to go back to the old laptop.  To go with that, the old laptop is now being used by my wife.  It was/is frustrating her terribly because it was not the same as her old one which is a much older laptop.  At one point she wanted to just switch back.

This and some other things of recent have all got me thinking a lot about the idea of going back.  You see I have a friend who has essentially gone back.  He has made some really poor choices in life.  I read a message the other day which detailed what choices he has made and I read it through tears.  It is heartbreaking and there is devastation all through the situation.  For me, I remember how things used to be and now things have changed.  I embrace change generally but this is not one of those changes that I will embrace.  I am heartbroken about my friend choosing to go back.  I do not care how frustrating life might be at times I know I do not want to go back because I know that going back means giving up and giving in.  I know that going back means turning my back on the Savior.  I know that going back means I return to the vomit.

Proverbs 26:11 – As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.

Please pray that my friend returns to the Lord and begins to deal with the devastation he has created by his choices.  Do you have someone you know that I should pray for that has gone back?  What are your thoughts?  Have you ever wanted to go back?

Surprise!

Matthew 1:30-33  ³⁰ The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. ³¹ “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. ³² “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; ³³ and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”

The announcement of Jesus’ birth, which is formulated like Old Testament announcements stresses three things about Jesus: his position for it calls him Son of God, Son of the Most High, and calls him a ruler, his authority is seen in that he is seated on Israel’s throne forever; ruler of a kingdom that will never end and his divine ties which are seen in the Holy Spirit will come and overshadow you. In short, Jesus is the promised king of the Davidic line. Old Testament roots for this promise come from 2 Samuel 7:8-17 and Psalm 89 and 132. He is the promised One!

Imagine the surprise that Mary must have in thinking that she is going to be giving birth to the son of God.  Imagine what this would be like?  I would have to say that surprise would be an understatement.  I would say that surprised by the grace of God.

Have you ever been surprised by God’s grace?  Just think of how this just came out of now where for her?  Has you surprise ever been out of now where like that?

 

Faithfulness….

We have been discussing Mary and her character in the Christmas story and with that let us today consider her quality of faithfulness.  She is as we can see in the story of Christmas is a faithful woman.  She is faithful to God and she is faithful to Joseph even when it does not appear as though she was faithful to him.  Let me challenge you and your faithfulness this morning.

When things get tough in life, do you remain faithful?  Think about all the marriages that end in divorce.  I am too often stuck counseling one person of a marriage that is failing because when things got tough, one part of the couple decided that it was too tough and they decided to leave and not remain faithful and not even try to make it work.  They make that choice and then do not want any counsel as to how they can get back together.  It is a sad thing and my heart breaks for that those in a marriage who want to make things right and work but the other does not.

You do not only see it in marriages but you see it at times with God.  You see people that find themselves in tough spots and so they walk away from God.  They blame God for the choices that they have made and they get angry at God and become in a sense unfaithful to Him.  They walk  from Him and choose other things over Him.  So let me ask you, how faithful are you to God?  When things do not go as planned for you do you get angry and become unfaithful to him?  I challenge you today to begin to look to God even in those times when you do not understand why things are happening.  Remain faithful to Him and you will not be disappointed in the end.

It is amazing to think of the faithfulness of Mary and the desire of my heart is to remain faithful like her but I have to admit:  I have my days and times when I choose other things over God.

What about you?  What do you think about this?

Plan for Life?

Matthew 1:29- 33 -²⁹ But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was.³⁰ The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God.³¹ “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. ³² “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; ³³ and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”

Do you think that this was Mary’s plan for her life?  Think about that for a moment.  Do you think Mary’s plan for her life was to give birth to the Savior of the world?  Do you think it was Mary’s plan for her life to have a cloud of suspicion over her and Jesus for the rest of their lives?  Because that is what there would have been.  Just as we talked about last week with Joseph, Mary would always have a tarnished reputation not because of something she did but because of something God choose to do in her life that was really a blessing. I am sure at the time it do not look like or feel like a blessing.  Do you think that she understood that?  Do you this that this young lady who was favored by God understood the gravity of her faithfulness, thoughtfulness, and obedience to God?

We need to understand that Mary obediently submitted to God in spite of the potential hardship for her future.  It was no longer going to be the future she dreamed of but she trusted God and had faith in Him that it would all be the best.  By saying in verse 38, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” Mary opened herself up to many trials.  Her fiancé heard of her pregnancy and decided that he would have to divorce her quietly. Her friends would have shunned her and her family may have disowned her. She would have been publicly shamed and rejected in many ways for the rest of her life. But in spite of all the potential hardship, Mary obediently submitted to God’s will for her life.  As a result, she was greatly blessed with this unique role in all of history, to be the mother of the Savior of the world.  Imagine that pressure on a teenage girl but imagine the blessing also.

Often, submitting to God’s will is not the easiest way to go. It may involve giving up the desire for popularity or worldly success.  It may involve your future not being what you thought it was going to be.  That could mean that you could leave family or friends to go to the mission field. It could mean that some people could give up the potential for marriage and family in order to serve God with their whole lives. It could mean your dreams completely change.  It could mean your retirement years are spent serving God wholeheartedly somewhere other than sitting on a beach drinking drinks with little umbrella’s in them. But whatever hardship we endure in obedience to God, He will richly repay. Because Mary obeyed God, she was blessed among women.

Have you submitted to God’s will?  Share you thoughts today.

The Baby and Strange Gifts

In the gospel of Matthew we see that the first ones that Matthew has show up on the scene are the Magi.  What is the reaction of the first ones who are the Magi in the gospel of Matthew to come before Jesus?  It is worship.  It is all about worship.  We see that the Wise Men showed great wisdom in that they came to worship the new born King.

In their worship we see in verse 11 that they gave Him gifts–gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Let us read it: ¹¹After coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. These were some strange presents to be bringing a baby boy. The gold, of course, we all can understand because of its value, but the frankincense and myrrh are not normal gifts.

We can guess that these Wise Men had also been exposed by Daniel’s teachings for one thing.  One of the most fascinating aspects of the Biblical story of Daniel is that this young prophet who was able to interpret Nebuchadnezzar’s dream about future world empires in Daniel 2 and so then he was honored by Nebuchadnezzar by making him the chief of his “Wise Men” as you can read Daniel 2:48. From this position Daniel undoubtedly influenced many to believe in Jehovah and the Hebrew Scriptures. They were aware of the prophecies of a coming Messiah through whom all the world would be blessed.  I believe that the Magi might have been some of those who because of Daniel’s influence with the Wise Men who came before them have been influenced indirectly by him.

I am sure they were familiar with Isaiah’s prophecy in Isaiah 60:3 which says, “Arise, shine; for your light has come, And the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. And then Isaiah 60:6 which says, “A multitude of camels will cover you, The young camels of Midian and Ephah; All those from Sheba will come; They will bring gold and frankincense, And will bear good news of the praises of the LORD. Knowing this Scripture could explain the first two gifts and their worship, it certainly does not explain the myrrh.

In Biblical times myrrh was a perfume, like frankincense. But the strange thing and unlike frankincense, myrrh always seemed to used in regard to death and burial. It was the embalmers choice for preparing a corpse for burial. Jesus himself would be embalmed with this very perfume in John 19:39, which says, Nicodemus, who had first come to Him by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh  and aloes, about a hundred pounds weight. Stop here and think could the magi be thinking of Jesus’ death when they brought the myrrh?

I would say that it is possible that they were thinking of his death.  Over the centuries the truths of Daniel’s prophecy in 9:24-27 could have been read and passed down, and in that prophecy it says that the ‘Messiah will be cut off’ and this ‘will make atonement for iniquity’ and ultimately ‘bring in everlasting righteousness’. It is possible  and so this may be how God led those Wise Men to bring that third gift of Myrrh with them. Amazingly, even at Christ’s birth, the shadow of the cross is already falling over His life.  No wonder that they are seeking him to worship if they understand this truth – that this baby was born so he could die as savior of the world.  When we really understand this truth it should bring us to the point of worship.

How about you?  Have you made the point of Christmas to be worship of King and Savior?  What are your thoughts?

 

Wise Misunderstandings

Believe it or not we are less than a month away from Christmas, so with that we are going to start talking some about some Christmas time things.  Today I want to deal with some of the misunderstandings we have with the Wise Men or the Magi from Matthew 2:1-18.

There are several of the misunderstandings about the wise men and the first thing is that they were not kings as we often think and hear.  They were magi or wise men, which means they were men who specialized in astronomy, medicine, and natural science. These were Wise Men: Magi, not magicians; Astronomers, not astrologers; Scientists, not wizards. They were probably Religious Philosophers from Persia who had become familiar with Jewish prophecies through contact with the writings of Daniel, Jeremiah, Ezra and other Jews scattered throughout the east. They must have been familiar with Scripture. To go along with this, there were most likely not just three, there could have been a great company of people travelling or there could have been two – we really do not know. The reason we often think that there are only three is because they brought three gifts to Jesus.  No where does the Bible say there were three, it just says that there were Magi – there could have been two or five but three is just a guess.

Another misunderstanding is that they do not seem to come on the birth night, but many days or even more likely many months to even a year or more later.  The reason for this is seen in a couple of things.  One is that in verse 11 it says that the Wise Men entered “the house” – we know that Jesus was born in a manger so Joseph has now secured a house for the family. He was most likely able to get a house to stay in during the time of census which would take a long time in those days.  Something else that would give us a clue is that when Herod has all the male children killed, he had those 2 years and below kill.  Remember he asks the Magi when they saw the star in the sky – with that information he could have started figuring how old the child would be.  I believe that is because he wanted to make sure he was going to kill the Jesus so he went a little high but if Jesus were only a few days or a month old he would have only had to have the 1 year olds and below killed.  So I think that this gives us a pretty good idea that Jesus would have been a little older here when the Magi show up on the scene.

Think about this:  how do the wise men show up on the scene?  What are their clues as to where to go?  I truly believe that the Wise Men read the Scriptures and understood what it was saying, they saw the star, and so they sought after Jesus.  When it comes to this Christmas, be like the Wise Men who read the word of God and who sought after Jesus.  They just did not seek after Jesus but they were tenacious in their seeking him.  They were asking the question:  “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.” You can see in this the tenaciousness of their desire to find Him.

Why were they seeking Him?  Were they seeking Jesus to get something from Him?  Did they seek him so that they could get things from Jesus like he would tell them he would grant them three wishes?  No!  There reason for seeking Jesus was to worship Him.  Let me ask you – why do you come go to Church?  Do you come to worship Jesus?  If you are going for any other reason – it is not a good one – but I still encourage you to go.  Why is it that you celebrate Christmas?  Is it to get things and presents or to worship Jesus?  Do you worship Jesus at Christmas or has everything gotten in the way and now Christmas has become about something other than worshipping Him?  If we are to be wise we need to make it about Jesus as the Magi do.

What are your thoughts?

 

Fervent Prayers

We are still dealing with Elijah and prayer today.  Today we see something else here and that  is Elijah prayed fervent prayers.  We see that he prayed bowed down on the ground with his heads between his legs. Look at what 1 Kings 18:42 says, ⁴² So Ahab went up to eat and drink. But Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he crouched down on the earth and put his face between his knees.

That was an unusual position for prayer – but it was the position that Elijah used to pray this fervent prayer.  What does fervent mean?  That could be a problem if we are talking about praying fervent prayers and we do not understand what it is talking about.  So what is fervent?  It means to be passionate or have great intensity of feeling.  When you pray, would you say that God can sense your passion and you intensity for Him in prayer?   Let me put it to you this way – do you have a red hot prayer life?  That is I think what we see in Elijah and I believe that it something that we should have in us, a red hot prayer life.

The King James Bible in translating James 5:16 says this:  Confess [your] faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Much of our prayer is not effective simply because it is not fervent. It is offered with a lukewarm attitude that virtually asks God to care about something that we care little about. Effective prayer must be fervent, not because we must emotionally persuade a reluctant God, but because we must gain God’s heart by being fervent for the things He is fervent for.  Are you passionate for the things that God is?  When you pray does your heart break for the things that break God’s heart?  When you think about people dying without Christ, children dying of preventable diseases, racism, hatred, murder, divorce,  – you know the things that break God’s heart – do they break yours or is your heart cold an calloused?  Are you passionate about what God is?  Is your prayer life effective?  If not – maybe you have to begin to align your priorities with God’s.  Begin praying that God would break your heart with the things that break His – it will be life changing!

 

As we go into Thanksgiving tomorrow – I pray all have a great day and pray fervent prayers!  I am thankful for all of your friendship and prayers.  I will be back on Monday and will start with some Christmas posts….believe it or not!  Again, have a great Thanksgiving!

 

Confidence in Prayer?

Today I want you to see in the prayers of Elijah is that he was extremely confident when he prayed.  He was confident in that there would be a drought and confident when he told Ahab to get ready for the rain.  Think about his confidence as we look at 1 Kings 18:41 which says this:  ⁴¹ Now Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of the roar of a heavy shower.” He told that Ahab before a drop of rain fell or he had prayed for the rain!  Now that is confidence!

Another point of confidence in prayer is see when Elijah had 12 barrels of water—probably sea water or well water poured—three times, four pots each, on the wood and sacrifice before praying.  He was confident that God was going to answer the prayer.  He was so confident that he had water put on everything.  He was confident that God would come through for him and burn up the wet wood for sacrifice.

What happened in each instance – with the rain and with the wet wood and sacrifice?  God came through in an amazing and powerful way.  Elijah was confident that God would come through and He does!  Do you have confidence in prayer?

For me as I write this I am and my wife are being tested in our confidence in prayer.  We found out yesterday that the bank has not approved the short sale of our home which we have been praying for.  It really puts us in a tough position but it is one where we are praying specifically for wisdom in how to handle this and for the bank to reconsider. The possibility of foreclosure looms but regardless God is God and prayer is powerful and I have confidence in the God of prayer!  So today – please pray for us.

Do you have confidence in prayer?  What are your thoughts on confidence in prayer?