You are currently browsing the monthly archive for May 2010.
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. Psalm 46:4
It’s only three feet deep and about 20 feet across, yet 2,348 miles later the mighty Mississippi River enters the gulf of Mexico. Along its way hundreds of streams and rivers join the Mississippi, making it one of the largest rivers in the world.
The Psalmist talks about a river that makes the city of God glad. The city of God is a symbolic term for the Church, the body of Christ, those who have chosen to be Christ-followers. The river reminds us of the many blessings that God has bestowed on His people.
Rivers have always been as source of prosperity and security to people. Even in the driest of times rivers provide water, food and protection. When the psalmist wrote this verse he could very well have been thinking about how important rivers were to the safety of a city. Many were built along or on either side of a river. Walls surrounded the city for protection. Many a city fell when invading armies would stop the flow of water to the city, thus eventually rendering it defenseless.
God’s blessings to His church never run dry. No enemy can divert the flow of His grace to His people. His blessings aren’t like the Mississippi at its beginning, small and insignificant. His blessings to us are endless because of His great love for us.
As followers of Jesus we have the promise of forgiveness even when we sin time and again. We are always forgiven. We have the promise of the Holy Spirit of God living within us to guide us, and give us wisdom. We have the Word of God, the Holy Bible to teach us about God and to show us how to live for Him.
Because of these blessings and many more we, as Christ-followers must use the blessings we’ve received to bless those around us.
PRAYER: Father, as I think of all the blessings you have given me, I am in awe that you even consider me. I’m stubborn, selfish and easily prone to sin and worry. Yet your blessings keep coming! You protect me and provide for me physically and spiritually if I will follow you. I praise you today that nothing can keep me from experiencing your blessing. I ask that you would empower me to bless others as I have been blessed by you. Amen.
We live by faith, not by sight. 2 Corinthians 5:7
Faith is believing in something even though we can’t see it. Some say they have no faith but we all have faith so some extent.
In the physical life:
- We believe in wind because we see the leaves moving for no apparent reason. But we know about wind. We can’t see it. We can feel it on our faces and see its results. Therefore, I have faith that wind exists.
- We believe in ‘chair-ability’. We see a chair. We’ve experienced chairs before. We know by faith from our previous experience that when we sit we will be upheld.
- We believe in wet. We can’t see wet. But we know when we touch water that wetness happens.
To say we have no faith implies we have had no experiences because faith is often learned by experiences.
The same is true in the spiritual realm. We can’t see God. We have His word to show us His actions through history. Actions that can be verified by historians, scientists and other scholars. We see his actions in creation and when we look into the skies. Living by faith is a decision to accept what we know to be true and applying it to life even when we can’t see it.
I live by faith, not sight when finances are tight and God says He’ll provide. I take the necessary actions to make wise choices. I live to the level of my ability and realize that money and possessions aren’t what life is about.
I live by faith, not sight when the doctor’s report isn’t good. I believe that my God is Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals. I know that my health is in His hands and that He knows what is best for me. No matter what the doctor says, I know my spiritual health is more important than my physical health. I trust Him to take care of me.
I live by faith, not sight when the relationship I thought would last for my entire life ends. I know that in God’s eyes it’s not so important why it failed or how it failed. What’s really important is that I come to Him for healing, knowing I’m forgiven and that He can still use me no matter what.
I live by faith, not sight when the political scene contradicts God’s law. I know that my sovereign God is ultimately in control of all things. Because He is in control, when the political scene grows worrisome I will stand in the face of adversity and walk all the more closely to Him for protection, guidance and wisdom.
I live by faith, not sight when the justice system fails me. I know that the unfair things of life are here only to make me stronger. I will work within the system for change and accept, as God’s will, when things don’t go my way.
I live by faith, not sight when God says I’m forgiven. It doesn’t matter what others say. It doesn’t matter how others treat me. It doesn’t matter how many times others bring up the mistakes of my past. I know my Redeemer lives. I know that He has forgiven me and there is nothing anyone can do to change my relationship with Him.
PRAYER: Father, it’s so easy to think about faith and so hard to live it. There are so many things in my life that scare me right now. So many doubts; so many feelings of inadequacy; so many questions about what is right and what is wrong. Life is so confusing. I ask that today you would help me to grow in my faith as I experience Your presence in my life. Amen.
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Romans 14:17
The Kingdom of Heaven is described for us in many ways. Sometimes we are told what the future Kingdom will be like once we’ve died and got to live with Jesus. Other times ‘Kingdom Talk’ is about how God’s Kingdom is among us now. If we allow God to control our thoughts and our actions, then a part of His Kingdom exists among us here on earth.
When Jesus was on earth His ‘Kingdom Talk’ revolved around the idea of servanthood, of the least being the greatest, of widows being clothed and orphans fed. His Kingdom was one of giving, acceptance and physical as well as emotional healing.
Paul continues that theme in Romans. He tells us that the kingdom of God here on earth is marked by righteousness, peace and joy. When we live lives marked by right living, peaceful attitudes and joy built on knowing who we are and being content with that, then God’s Spirit is evident in our lives.
One of the things that will steal our joy is when we allow people to make a list of rules about how we should live and how we should act. We allow them to decide for us what we should like or dislike, how we should worship, what music we should listen to or social activities we should engage in. They have a list of clothes we should wear and how we should wear them.
Paul tells us that kingdom living has nothing like that. Some people like meat, others like vegetables. Some like slow, quiet music, for others the louder the better. For some long hair is where it’s at. For others, the ears must be seen to be proper. Too many times we get too bent out of shape over what a person wears or what he eats. I’m not a fan of tattoos, but some of the nicest people I’ve met have lots of tattoos! That doesn’t make them any less of a creation of God than I am.
God’s grace gives us freedom to eat what we want, listen to music we enjoy, and do the things we enjoy doing. Our only rule is to allow the Spirit of God to guide us in those likes/dislikes and activities. We learn that as we grow in relationship to him.
Don’t let the ‘joy snatchers’ steal the joy you can have by living free in Jesus.
PRAYER: Father God, there are so many people around me telling me I can’t do this or I have to do that to be spiritual and to live for you. Sometimes their messages are confusing and critical. Help me to rely on you for the wisdom and guidance to live ‘kingdom life’ the way you intended me to live it. I claim the freedom I have in Jesus to guide me as I grow along life’s journey. Amen.
I have chosen the way of truth; I have set my heart on your laws. Psalm 119:30
A friend of mine told me of the first time he visited his girlfriend’s (now wife’s) family in rural Minnesota. My friend was born and raised in the city. His only experience with tractors and farm machinery was the area called ‘machinery hill’ at the State Fair. But my friend was always willing to try new things. There were few challenges he wasn’t ready to take.
His girlfriend, however, was born and raised on a farm miles from the nearest large city. ‘She’d learned how to drive tractor almost before she knew how to walk!” He chuckled as he told the story.
On his first visit to the farm he was eager to learn about the farm and equally eager to impress this new family. He willingly helped with chores and laughed at himself when he made some goofy, ‘green-hand’ mistake. He readily accepted the offer from one of the brothers to drive the tractor and was quite impressed with how quickly he learned the ropes.
On the third day on the farm he overheard talk at the dinner table about an 80 acre field that still needed to be plowed before the predicted rain came later that day. After the meal he offered his ‘dad-in-law-to-be’ his services to plow the field. After some discussion the father finally agreed and the two climbed on board the tractor for the trip to the field.
Dad made the first two trips across the field explaining how the plow and tractor worked together and giving some instruction. My friend now admits that he wasn’t really listening. The excitement of the new challenge occupied his mind completely. The father soon left him on his own for the new adventure and walked back to the farm. My friend was on his own.
He soon found out that the task wasn’t as easy as he had expected to be. Whereas the father had plowed nice strait furrow in the earth, my friend found it nearly impossible to stay on track. His furrows were crooked and overlapped. He constantly had to cut back to pick up places he’d missed completely. After a couple hours of frustration he turned the tractor around once more only to see a gaping spot he’d missed in the field and a familiar shape standing near the fence line.
As he guided the tractor across the field one more time he looked back and noticed that in his nervousness he had once again left a gaping hole, missing an entire segment of earth. The father climbed on board the tractor and asked him how it was going. My friend admitted that it was much tougher than he’d expected and was more impressed than ever with the father’s ability to plow such straight furrows time after time. He asked what the secret was.
The father smiled and pointed across the field. “You see that fence post at the other end? Let’s take one more pass here. I want you to place all your attention on that post. Don’t look to the side, don’t look back. Only drive to the post.”
My friend put the tractor in gear and looked ahead at the post. He resisted every temptation to check the plow, the sides or anything else. When he got to the end of the field he looked back and saw a perfectly straight furrow! The trick was to keep his focus on what lay ahead.
What a perfect lesson to learn for each of us. The Psalmist tells us to ‘set our hearts on the Laws of God’. In order to make straight paths on the journey of life we must set our attention completely on what God wants for us. Don’t look at where we’ve been. Don’t look at what is going on around us. Set our eyes squarely on Jesus and we won’t waver.
PRAYER: Holy God. I confess to you that I am constantly tempted to look at my past and what others around me are doing. When I do that I lose my vision of who you are, of who I am and what you want for me. I ask that you would empower me to only pay attention to what you want for me. Keep me from being distracted by my past. Help me to ignore those things that would keep me from following you. I ask this in the name of your Son Jesus. Amen.
But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. Psalm 1:2
Normally we think of the word ‘law’ and our mind conjures up pictures of bondage and restrictions that make living a life of freedom difficult at best and impossible in some situations. No one likes rules. Rules limit our creativity, destroy our freedom and take the fun out of life.
Of course that isn’t true. In reality, if we think about it a life without rules of some sort is a life of chaos and danger. Rules, in and of themselves, are good. They give us guidance, protection and prepare us for what lies ahead.
In reality, it isn’t the rules that bring us down, it’s the rule giver. If we have faith in the one making the rules and know that those rules are given in love and in our best interest it makes following them easier. If we are in love with the rule giver then we hardly notice the rules because relationship trumps rules every time.
God’s law is sometimes looked on with contempt for two reasons. One reason is that the people who see God’s laws as restrictive and out of touch don’t know God. They may know Him on an intellectual basis or as the topic of some religious system, but they don’t know Him in the realm of relationship.
When we are in relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ, we see those rules as guidelines that will enable us to live in a way that allows us to use the natural gifts and abilities he has given us for His glory and our benefit.
If we are not in relationship with God we see His rules as harsh and out of touch with reality. The Bible says that the wisdom of God is foolishness to mankind because we are, in our human nature, unable to understand Him. Only when we are in relationship with Him and His Spirit is indwelling us, can we fully understand His ways.
A second reason we may think God’s laws are restrictive is because we don’t know what His word says. This is even true among those who are Christ-followers. Stagnant relationships die for lack of understanding and companionship. This is true in the spiritual realm as well as in the physical realm.
If we are not in His word daily and are not on a regular basis interacting with fellow believers we will lose sight of the meaning of His Word. The more we are in His word, the more we interact with Him through prayer, Bible Study and fellowship, the more we will grasp the beauty and reality of His ‘rules.’
The more we love God and commune with Jesus, the less God’s laws become burdensome. Take time each day to meditate on some part of the Bible. Talk to Jesus often and realize that no matter how often you fail Him, He will never let you down.
PRAYER: Dear Jesus. I ask that you would help me to grow in my relationship with you. Show me the wisdom of your rules so that I may live a free and profitable life in you. Bring people and words into my life that will empower me to live for you. Amen.
Mike Fisk & Built with Grace 