Kings and Chronicles & Newsboys

In my daily Bible reading I am plodding along through Kings and Chronicles. I just finished 2nd Kings and I am about to start 1st Chronicles, which is basically a recap of Kings.

I really shouldn't say plodding, it makes it sound like these books are boring. They are not boring at all. In fact several of my favorite Bible stories come from these books.

The story of Naaman the leaper general of Syria.; the chariots of fire taking Elisha to Heaven; the 2 bears killing the 42 kids because they called the Prophet of God a "bald head"; The Angel of Lord killing thousands of Sennacharib's soldiers during the night; Josiah finding the Word of the Lord while restoring the temple and rededicating his life to the God of Israel.

All these stories are great stories; however, I get very sad when I read about the kings of Israel and Judah turn, time and again, away from the Lord their God.

It is much like going to "church" every Sunday. We celebrate the victories God works in people's lives and we mourn or get angry when we hear of those who have turned away from our Lord, Jesus. Imagine that!





Tonight, my family and I are going to watch The Newsboys in concert! I can't wait!

Nick at Night

Matthew Chapter 3 tells of a influential member of the Jewish ruling council, Nicodemus, who came to Jesus at night (Nick at Night, get it!) to ask Jesus questions regarding the radical teachings Jesus had been teaching.

Why did Nicodemus come to Jesus at night...well, it could have been it was a time when not as many disciples of Jesus were around. It could could have been it was the only time he had available to speak to Jesus one-on-one; but probably it was because he did not want to be seen by the other religious leaders of the day, because of the persecution he might receive.

How many of us go to Jesus in secret to address Him with our questions, share with Him our concerns or just to worship Him. We won't pray with others while eating at a local restaurant because we are afraid of the stares we might get. We won't speak to God at work because we will be laughed at or scorned. We won't be Jesus followers at school because we will loose friends or social status. Teachers, scientist, politicians and other professionals are afraid to speak to Jesus during the light of day, because they might loose their jobs; much like Nicodemus probably would have if he had been caught speaking to Jesus in front of his peers.

Instead we come to Jesus at night or in private. How sad we are, when we do that. Are we that ashamed to be Christians? I am guilty of being "Nick at Night" on occasion, and I am embarrassed when I catch myself doing it.

One cool thing about Nicodemus's visit with Jesus that night; It was at that time that Jesus told him, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, so that whoever believes in Him shall have eternal life." God loves us no matter when we come to him, day or night; I just think He shakes His head for us, when we are to embarrassed to share Him with others.

Learning the Voice of God

When God first called the great Prophet Samuel, Samuel did not immediately recognize the voice of God! Samuel had to get advice from his mentor, the priest Eli, on what do when he heard God's voice calling to him. Only after the third calling from God did Samuel answer. Why didn't Samuel recognize God's voice? Maybe it was because he was not actively searching for God and listening for His voice? Once Samuel did learn the voice of God, Samuel followed God the rest of his life.

Even the best of us Christians who are seeking God probably could not recognize the voice of God if He did speak to us. Why? It it because the noise of the world drowns out the quite still voice of God? It is because we don't have a relationship with God and therefore treat His voice as if it were the voice of a stranger?

Sheep have to learn the voice of their specific shepherd over all the other voices in the fields. Once they do, they will only respond to THEIR Shepherd, and them alone. Maybe as Christians we should do a better job of learning the voice of our Shepherd, Jesus the Christ? There are many voices in our world who claim to be shepherds or just voices who want to distract us from hearing the voice of God. We need to learn the voice of God, because His is the only voice that will lead us to safety, among a world full of wolves!

Missing God

During the past few days, I have been trying my best to prioritize a few things. I have made time to fill out job applications. I have made time to focus on my health/physical fitness. I have even made more time to spend with my family; however, I have failed to make time to spend with my Father. You would think I would make time to spend with my Creator, the God of all the Universe, but I have not.

Before I took my current job, I read my Bible, spent time in prayer, and in devotion with God. Now, I barely read what I need to help teach my daughter's Sunday School class. I miss my God. I miss spending time trying to stay in touch with the Holy Spirit and conversing with Jesus. I do pray every morning, but I have yet to make a specific time to read His Words. I am a little lost without my Guiding Light.

I know God is there, even if I don't see Him. I just want to spend about three days refocusing myself to do His will and seek His direction for me in my life. When is the next holiday break?

Where Will You Choose to Meet God?

This question was asked during the lesson our minister gave last Sunday at our church. The lesson focused on the lives of the three young men in Daniel who choose to go to the firery furnace rather than bow down to the golden statue. (For a similar blog click here)

Our minister put the question to us to see if we fully trusted in our God as being a God who is in control at all times, not just the good times. Many Christians want to and choose to meet God. The problem is we choose to meet God in a place of our choosing. We want to meet God in a place where we don't have to suffer, or a place that makes us feel uncomfortable, or a place in which we don't have to sacrifice anything to get there. In effect we want God to come to us!

Our problem lies in the fact that God chooses where we are suppossed to meet Him. For Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, God wanted them to meet Him in the furnace. God could have rescued them from the furnace but He did not. He wanted them to meet Him in the furnace itself. These three young men, chose to have faith in their God and they choose to go into the furnace to meet their God. As a result God blessed their decision and he saved from the furnace after all.

God has the ability to save us from pain, suffering, death, disaster, disease, poverty, divorce, addictions, etc...but sometimes He chooses not to. Is it because He is mean and cruel? No, sometimes it is because of these painful times in our lives, that we learn the most valuable lessons of all. God sometimes uses the firery furnace to mold and shape us into what He wants us to be. He wants us to choose to meet Him in the fire. Only there will we then open to His power and will for us.

Many of the most powerful and faithful men and women in the Bible suffered because of circumstances allowed to happen to them by God. Moses learned of his true purpose while in exile in the desert. Joseph learned of his true purpose while as a prisoner in Egypt, after being sold by his own brothers. Abraham learned of his true purpose after being asked to move to a foreign land. Paul begged God to remove his "thorn in the flesh" but was told by God, "No" because only by suffering with his "thorn" could Paul truely appreciate his need for God in his life. Jesus himself begged God not to be crucified but instead He fullfilled His purpose by suffering and dying.

To be perfectly honest I have not yet chosen to meet God in the fire. I have "suffered" some because of choosing to follow God, but not to the point of putting it ALL on the line. As God continues to call me to meet with Him, where will I choose to meet Him? Will I again ask God to come to me, or will I become one of the "Furnace People" and choose to meet God in the furnace?

Are You A Dummy? (A Lesson Learned From Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)

By now I am sure everyone has seen the latest version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory staring Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka. My family and I watch this movie again on television last night and something in the movie just hit me very hard. It made me do a lot of thinking.

The premise of the show, is that Willy Wonka has hidden 5 Golden Tickets among his millions of Wonka Bars around the world. 5 "Lucky" children who find these tickets get prizes, including one prize "beyond their wildest dreams." The first four children who find these tickets are not the best examples of children (or parents for that matter) as far as their character is concerned. The last ticket is found by a young boy named Charlie Bucket.

This young man has character beyond his years. After he finds the ticket he is torn between selling the ticket to people who have offered him money or keeping the ticket and visting the Chocolate Factory of Mr. Wonka. "Our family needs the money for than chocolate," he explains to his family. At this point one of his grandfathers calls Charlie over to his bedside. This grandfather gives Charlie some very wise and sound advice.

He says, "There's plenty of money out there, they print more every day. But this ticket; there are only 5 of them in the whole world. That's all there is ever going to be. Only a dummy would give that up for something as common as money. Are you a dummy?"

God offers us something much more valuable than a Golden Ticket. He offers us Salvation. The Bible tells us there is only ONE way to reach the Father. This is found only through Jesus Christ. The Bible also tells us there is ONE God, Body, ONE Faith, ONE Spirit, ONE true word of God and we have only ONE Soul. Many of us sell this precious and rare gift for worldly things every day. We trade in our eternal life for such common things as money, fame or other things. We must be "Dummies."

Willy Wonka has 5 Golden Tickets, GOD offers us a ONE time gift of LOVE and GRACE, He offered up his ONE Son, JESUS, in order to offer this gift to us. We really would be fools to trade in a chance at eternal life with our FATHER, for something as common as what Satan offers in return.

Trying to Stay in the WORD

Once again I am facing the age old dilemma of how to stay active in my personal Bible study and reading. I am having trouble finding interrupted time in the mornings, reading seriously at work is almost impossible, afternoons after work would work on some days but not consistently, and nights...well, I'm really tired.

I used to get up about 15 minutes earlier in the mornings to spend a little prayer time and scripture reading, but I have slacked off on that. I should do that again. My days started better and I felt more connected to God, at least until lunch time. I have tried at night, but my selfishness tells me to catch up on the news/sports and the few television shows I choose to watch.

I need to once again, re-commit specific times to spend alone with my GOD. I need to make a priority. My Mission Statement tells what I really want to do with my life, but it's hard for a selfish person like me to "Just Do It, and Stick To It!"

A new men's Bible class is starting next Wednesday, maybe that will help me stay more focused!

My apologies to God for all of this...You really are the most important factor in my life. I just wish my true will would show more in my actions. Please help me, Father, to commit more time to your Words. Your son, a recovering sinner, ME

Dying to One's Self Is Not Easy

It seems the past few weeks or so I have been reading or hearing things that point to the need for Christians to "Die to their former selves and be reborn into their new life with Christ!" At first I was dismissing these "cues" as if to say, "I was baptized and I have repented of my sins. God loves me now and that is that!" I think God wanted me to hear more.

In my Sunday morning class at my church...we have been talking about how you must undergo a severe humbling process in order to turn your life fully over the the will of God. You must give up your own will, not only in mind, but in body, to the will of the Father. Even if the desires to continue in our sinful ways pull hard on our hearts, it's what the body does that shows the true desires of our hearts. We may confess all day long that we want to give up our sins, addictions, and selfish behaviors, but when we continue to choose to wallow in our hopelessness and choose not to act on our faith in God, we are showing that we are still giving in to the desire of our hearts to do what We want to do not what God wants us to do.

I have also been reading a book called "When Heaven Weeps" by Ted Dekker. In it the main character keeps referring to how Christians as a whole refuse to join Christ in His cruel and terrible death in order to show His love to others. He states we are perfectly fine to confess the love of Jesus, but we refuse to get our hands dirty to work to show that love. We say we love others, but if it means pain and suffering for ourselves, we will choose Self over Others every time.

God calls us to die our old self and join Christ in death. It is absolutely necessary to do this in order to fully understand, accept and act upon His Grace. There is a quote from the book that stands out..."Is the death of the will any less painful than the death of the body? Call it figurative if it makes you comfortable, but in reality the death of the will is far more traumatic than the death of the body." " In the death of the body the nerve endings soon stop feeling. In the death of the will the heart doesn't stop its bleeding so quickly."

Giving up our selfish will is hard to do. It's something I myself need to come face to face with. I am scared to death to do it. I have been a Christian for some time, but It's hard to show any tangible evidence of my faith as far as actively loving others is concerned. Recent events in my life have caused me to be much less judgemental when it comes to looking at the sins and actions of others, but I still have a hard time actively loving them.

My New Year's Resolution is to pray that God allows me to die to old self and be reborn a person who is fully capable of loving others the same way that He loves me. I am terrified of how God may choose to do this, but I know it will be the best thing for me. I am ready, I think. Pray for Me!

Who is a God like You?

I have been a Christian for the majority of my natural life. In all the years I have been a Christian I have to honestly say that I have read the Bible from cover to cover only twice (maybe three) time ever. I am just about to finish it for the third (maybe fourth) time. The hardest part of reading the Bible, to me, is reading through the major and minor prophets at the end of the Old Testament. The prophetic language is sometimes hard to understand and it seems very repetitive.

In my most recent attempt at reading through these books, I have tried to look at them with open eyes and with an open mind. What I discovered made me very sad, then angry and then extremely happy. The sad part was reading about the punishment that God was going to inflict on his people if they did not repent from their sinful ways and return to a life of righteousness and relationship with God. The angry part was that despite God's many warnings of what this punishment was, the Israelites and Judeans kept on sinning. I mean God warned them over and over again, that if they would just repent, He would save them. He wanted to show them mercy, but they ignored Him right on up to the point where they were carried away into captivity by their enemies. The happy part was knowing that God loved them enough to delay their punishment until everyone had heard the warnings and had a chance to repent. He loved them enough, that even when the punishment was carried out, He took care of the few who were faithful and blessed them anyway. Wow!

What a God! I think the prophet Micah sums it up best in his book. Micah 7:18-20 says, "Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our iniquities into the depth of the sea. You will be true to Jacob, and show mercy to Abraham, as you pledged on oath to our fathers in days long ago."

God does not want to punish us! He does not want to send any of His children to captivity in Hell! God wanted to show His love for us so much, that He died for us in the form of His Son, Jesus, the Christ. He wants to show us His mercy and grace. He wants us to listen to the warnings. He wants those who have received Him to share the warnings and the good news of Grace to others. I pray that those who deny Jesus and continue to ignore the warnings wake up and accept His offers of mercy before it's to late.

Second Chance Cards

A few years after watching an episode of VeggieTales my family decided to start using "Second Chance Cards". They were laminated index cards with the words "Second Chance Card" written on them along with whatever decorations my children, my wife and I wanted to put on them. Originally designed for the kids, they were also adopted by me and my wife. They were created so that if our children got in trouble and were getting grounded or about to receive other punishment, they could go and get their cards and bring them to us and ask for forgiveness and a second chance. This would immediately negate all punishment as a result of whatever it was they did wrong. A condition that went with the cards, however, was that they could only use them once during a calendar month. This was big hit with the kids and for my wife and me. I liked them because it kept my children from suffering undue punishment for little things and I got to practice apologizing when I got angry and may have said some things I shouldn't have. The cards also gave the family the chance to remember that God also has given us a "Second Chance Card".

Many people, even devout Christians, often feel that they have have committed a sin, or sins, that are so great that even God cannot forgive them. They fear that they will be eternally punished and never get to spend a blessed eternal life with their Father God. They could never be so wrong. God through His Son, Jesus the Christ, has given us the ultimate Second Chance Card. This card only has one condition attached to it. We can use this special "card" anytime we choose, as long as we have a sincere heart! This "card" is called Grace!! And what a wonderful gift it is, to all of God's children. Grace negates all punishments that we deserve; "The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will He harbor his anger forever; He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him." (Psalm 103: 8-13). Imagine a life where someone loves us, no matter what we have done and what ever punishment we deserve for it will be forgiven and forgotten forever. Wow!

The Bible is full of people, just like you and me, who have been given second chances by God. Moses (murder), David (adultery, bad parent, murder), Jacob (theft of birthright, liar), Lot (lived wickedly in Sodom), Jonah (fled from God's assigned task, hated others), Peter and the Apostles (selfish and always misunderstood what Jesus what trying to teach them) and Saul (murder) were all given second chances by God and they went on to become some of the greatest leaders and spokesmen for God and for Jesus. They only thing God asks of us in return is a sincere desire to follow Him and a heart that is willing to repent.
God does not ask for perfection from us. He gave us Grace, our "Second Chance Card", while we are still sinners; "But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5: 8). How awesome is that? "Give thanks to the LORD, call on His name; make known among the nations what He has done. Sing to Him, sing praise to Him; tell of all his wonderful acts. Glory in His holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice. Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always." (Psalm 105: 1-4)

Thank you God for giving me a Second Chance, and a Third Chance, and etc... I know I don't deserve it. Thank you for your never ending love for me and your bountiful grace. In Jesus holy name, Amen.

Shouting All The More

Have you ever been in a situation where have called out for help? Did others around you listen to you, did they ignore you, or did they just tell you to "Shut up"? Bartimaeus was a man like this.

Bartimaeus was a blind man, who was a beggar on the roadside outside the city of Jericho. He was helpless and an outcast of society. He was reduced by his blindness to begging for a living. He needed help and needed it desperately. When help finally arrived Bartimaeus seized the moment and cried out for help from the only one who could help.

Bartimaeus heard that Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah was walking by the very roadside he was at. Knowing who Jesus was, Bartimaeus called out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" Bartimaeus was calling out for help.

Many people traveling with Jesus rebuked Bartimaeus and told him to be quiet. In other words they told him to "Shut up!" They were hoping he would just go away. They didn't care about him or want to hear about his problem.

But Bartimaeus would not be silenced...He cried out all the more "Son of David, have mercy on me!" He refused to ignored. He refused to let his only chance at help be taken away from him. And it worked! Jesus stopped said, "Call Him."

The determination of Bartimaeus was rewarded...Jesus not only stopped and called him, Jesus asked Bartimaeus, "What do you want me to do for you?" Wow! To have Jesus, God on Earth, personally grant your request is just incredible. Bartimaeus asked for his sight back and Jesus healed him immediately. As a result Bartimaeus became a follower of Jesus with not only cured vision, but a cured soul as well.

Many of us in the world today, need help. We need help with finding jobs, fighting addictions, help in marriages, help with parenting, or any number of problems. We call out for help every day to anyone who will listen. Unfortunately every day we get rejected, or rebuked by the very world we attempt to live in. They will try to silence our cries. DO NOT LET THEM! If the world tries to drown you out, then yell even louder. There is someone who will not only listen to our unselfish cries for help, but they will personally assist in granting our request. Call out to GOD/JESUS. He will listen and He will help!

The story of Bartimaeus can be found in the Bible in the book of Mark 10:46-52.