Thought for Friday, August 2nd

August 2, 2013                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

There is a Season

 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.  In him was life; and the life was the light of men.  And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

John  1:3-5

“The sun was warm but the wind was chill.

You know how it is with an April day

When the sun is out and the wind is still,

You’re one month on in the middle of May.

But if you so much as dare to speak,

A cloud comes over the sunlit arch,

A wind comes off a frozen peak,

And you’re two months back in the middle of March.”

-          Robert Frost

Seasons come and go: the weather changes: the sun comes up: the stars shine at night and everything around us is in a perpetual state of change.

This seems to be how it is with our lives.  Regardless of where we are today: the passing of time will invariably bring with it changes.   We are all growing perpetually older: children grow and have children who grow: challenges come and go: sickness arrives and leaves: and nothing stays the same: except God.

But even in the eternal order of His consistency God has ordered the cycles of change that affect our lives.  His Word tells us so.

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace. What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth? I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-11

Our job is to be at peace, to remain content and to enjoy whatever season we are in and trust God to take us through whatever season He may lead us to.

Prayer:

Father, help me to trust you with my whole heart and not to try to rely on what I think I understand: but to know that you are in full control of all the seasons of my life.

Thought for Saturday, August 3rd

August 3, 2013                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

Words - Like - Wind

Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.

James  3:5-10

“I lay it down as fact that if all men knew what others say of them, there would not be four friends in the world.”

-          Blaise Pascal

Words like wind can travel far, go quickly and sometimes do a great deal of damage.

I often wonder if we ever, for a day, could hear everything that those around us think or say about us; we would ever speak to each other again.  But you know God can and does and every time we think or speak something evil or of an untruth about someone else we are speaking about an individual that God created and loves dearly.  Just like; every time we do a good deed for someone, it is the same as doing it for the Lord: every time we gossip or speak evil of some one, it is the same as gossiping about or speaking evil of the Lord.  Wow, that certainly put’s it in a different perspective doesn’t it?  Who among us would willfully or knowingly speak evil of the Lord?  Probably not one!

Bertrand Russell once wrote: “No one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.”  And how true this is of us: we seldom spend vast amounts of time talking to others about all the good qualities and admirable virtues that our pastor’s or brothers and sisters in the faith posses: but boy do we have a good time feasting on a smorgasbord of their faults and failings: usually over Sunday lunch.   Just remember when we talk about one of God’s children it is the same as if we are talking about Him.

I wonder if the old idea of not saying anything, unless we can find something good to say might not be a bad approach, unless we are willing to say whatever it is we feel must be said, directly to the face of the person we are saying it about.

It might be easier to have a better witness and more effective ministry in our life if we would learn to communicate better to each other not at or about each other.  I’m just sayin’!

Words don’t have to be damaging: they can also be like the wind in the aspect that just like a soft gentle breeze, they can be refreshing and bring comfort.

The affect that our words have on others is mostly up to us.  What affect do your words have on those around you?

Prayer:

Father, may I chose my words with care and may I never say anything about anyone that I would not say to them.

Thought for Friday, July 19th

July 19, 2013                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

Lend a Hand – Where You Can

 Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.  For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.  But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.  For every man shall bear his own burden.  Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things.  Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.  For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

Galatians  6:2-10

“By helping yourself, you are helping mankind.  By helping mankind, you are helping yourself.  That’s the law of all spiritual progress.”

-          Christopher Isherwood

We, as Christians need to guard against becoming so involved in our own affairs that we neglect to be touched and affected, thus moved to action by the needs of others: while simultaneously not becoming so heavenly minded that we become no earthly good when it comes to meeting the needs of our own family and ourselves.

In this process we need to also be mindful that we become facilitators; not enablers.  Thomas Roosevelt put it into perspective thusly: “The spirit of brotherhood recognizes of necessity both the need of self-help and also the need of helping others in the only way which ever ultimately dos great good, that is, of helping them to help themselves.”

In ministering to the needs of ourselves and those we encounter, it is so easy to become an extremist, in that we become isolationist in that we only care for ourselves and our hand select few: or that we try to do everything for everyone making it unnecessary for them to do anything for themselves.  There may be certain things that a person cannot do for themselves, such as a baby cannot dress or feed themselves; but you would not continue to dress and feed them until they are eighteen: you would teach them how to do these things for themselves.

We need to do the same things spiritually speaking.  When a person is a babe in Christ they need more specific help; but with this help must come the equipping and instructing so that they can grow and gradually become more spiritually capable of not only doing for themselves but helping others learn, just as they have.

There is an old adage that states:  ‘If you give a man a fish, he eats for the day: if you teach a man to fish, he can feed himself for a lifetime.’

We need to care for each other and help each other whenever we can: and sometimes that help requires that we enable and equip that other person to learn to care for their selves.

True loving caring and helping (the acts of ministry) are multifaceted and many fold: we need to do all that we can, whenever we can: while making sure we don’t enable someone to not become all that God wants them to be in the process.

Prayer:

Father, help me to help others by doing for them what they may can’t do: but also by helping them learn to do those things they can.

Thought for Thursday, July 18th

July 18, 2013                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

It's More a Matter of Perspective

We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;…

…For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

2 Corinthians  4:8-9 & 16-18

“Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.”

-          Arthur Schopenhauer

If ‘seeing is believing’ then by faith believing what is not seen is in affect seeing more, is it not?

What is before us, in the field of our physical, emotional and mental perspective tends to limit or comprehension and definition of what is real, possible and believable: yet God asks us to see beyond what appears to be and believe in what He has promised will be.  William Blake said, “The eye altering, alters all.”

Simply put we need to change our perspective from a literal one to a faith based anticipatory one.

Often when we see dismal and gloomy – God sees breakthrough and blessings.

When we perceive hopelessness and despair – God sees miraculous and life changing.

When we observe pain and persecution – God sees growth and enrichment for our hearts and souls.

When we see nothing but failure – God sees nothing but success.

It is all a matter of perspective; when you get down to the bottom line and for us; we need to decide do we want ours or God’s.

Somehow I think His is always better.

Prayer:

Father, enable me to stop seeing things through my eyes and help me to start seeing things through Yours.

Thought for Wedensday, July 17th

July 17, 2013                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

You Gotta Know When to Hold ‘em & Know When to Let It Go

 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Philippians  3:13-14

“Holding on to the baggage of the past will disable you for your journey with God.”

-          Henry Cloud

Many people tend to find themselves living in the present by virtue of clinging to their past.  Whether it is a moment of great success or an instance of intense hurt: often those things overshadow the potentials and possibilities of what might be right in front of us at the current moment.

There is much to be said and great wisdom to be gained from the experiences we have in life: however, we cannot allow those moments and events to become a deterrent or obstacle to the potential of what is available for us and to us in the here and now.

This propensity for not letting something go is not only prevalent in our natural day to day lives: but it also tends to find a way to sneak into our spiritual lives as well.  And in this respect we can sometimes allow, what is perceived to be the spiritual experiences of others, to influence, affect and sometimes overshadow what God wants to do in us right here and right now.  We are all challenged to work out our own salvation and to have a personal relationship with God that is ours: so we need to be careful not to try to live or to refuse to live what God wants for us because of what has happened or is happening in the life of someone else.

The key to success in our own spiritual journey is to always remember yesterday is gone, tomorrow may not get here (in the literal sense – not the spiritual) and today is what we have as a gift and blessing from God – so we need to let go of what was; be open to what is and always remember to ‘Let Go and Let God’ do those things that will make us the best we can be for Him based on the unique and special person God created us to be.

While we can always take from our past to enhance and improve our future we can not allow those things which were to be, or overshadow or even prevent those things which could be, by God’s grace, mercy, leadership and love.

Prayer:

Father, help me to retain the value of lessons learned, while letting go of yesterday’s success or last weeks hurt or failure; and keep me open to the potential of your miraculous here and now.

Thought for Wednesday, July 24th

July 24, 2013                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

The Wind is Blowing

But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

James 2:20 & 26

“God provides the wind but man must raise the sails.”

-          St. Augustine

The book of Acts records the history of the birth of the New Testament Church and the arrival of the ‘Rushing Mighty Wind’ of God’s Spirit as He came to indwell and dwell within the hearts and bodies of the believers.

Today, this same Wind is blowing in our heats and lives, but are we by faith, raising our sails and acting in obedience and allowing the force of this wind to drive the direction and activities of our lives?  Or are we like a sail boat with out its sails raised, just drifting along in the current of life waiting to see where we might by chance end up?

God’s provision and power (wind if you will) is here to direct, to move and to optimize our efforts and the path on which we journey through the seas of life.  His Spirit will keep us from crashing into the rocks or becoming bogged down in the sand bars of life: but if we do not take the steps; make the efforts; expend the energy; or do the work necessary to avail ourselves of His provision then we have somewhat limited His ability to effectively order our steps or guide our path.

We must pray, study the word, share our faith, surrender our will, submit our spirits and take up our cross and follow if we want to see God’s power; His Wind; His Spirit optimize the course on which we sail in life.

To allow God’s work to be fully accomplished in us does not allow us to sit idly by with our hands folded and our bottoms firmly planted in a seat or pew: rather it requires us to put our hand to the plow; to reap; to sow; to go; to teach; to proclaim and to seek and serve.

The power of God is just as mighty and great and the wind of His Spirit is blowing just as forcefully today as it did on the Day of Pentecost, but are we doing those things we need to do to be in obedience so that the full power and effect of His power and force can be maximized and fully effective in us?

Prayer:

Father, may I be obedient in raising the sails of my heart, my surrender and my service to You, so that your Spirit can move and direct the path of my endeavors to maximize your will and optimize your glory.

Thought for Tuesday, July 2nd

July 2, 2013                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

The Power of The Names

 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians  2:10-11

“What signifies knowing the Name, if you know not the Natures of Things.”

-          Benjamin Franklin

Much can be said about the many names the Bible chronicles to identify the Lord.  And each name has significance; and is indicative of a facet or aspect of His person, or His power.

We could know all the names but if we don’t know the real person behind those names our knowledge is superficial and inconsequential.

And by knowing I am not referring to a knowledge or awareness of who He is: but rather I am indicating an experiential relationship by which you are connected to and a part of Him and you know Him in a way like unto the way you can only know yourself.  Just like many may know who you are but very few know more than the whom and not many comprehend or can understand the what, and why you are.  We need to have that same understanding and relationship with Him if we truly want to have a full and complete grasp of the significance of His many names.

We need to know Him as Savior, Healer, Provider, Deliverer, Glory and Lifter, Ever Present Help, Strength, Power and the list could go on and on.

I have no doubt that most of us know of Him and even about Him in many ways, but have we yet achieved the total comprehension of all that is embodied in that name that is above every name: the name that causes demons to quake and tremble and the name by which even Satan, himself will be defeated, conquered and vanquished?

They say you can tell a lot about a person by the names by which they are called and the manner in which they are called them.  How much do we tell others not just by the names we call Him: but also the manner in which and the passion with which we speak His many names?

His names are above and beyond all names: how well do you know them: and how well do you know the person and the power behind them?

Prayer:

Father, help me to become more intimate with each of your names and when I speak them may they hold the power, passion and the praise that uttering your names deserves.