Signs of love
We all talk about signs of life. I even have a favorite album by that title. But do we discuss the signs of love? As I have been staying in our trailer during these fading months of warm weather, I have had the same picture to look at every morning. It’s a photo of the design a puffer fish makes when he is trying to attract a mate. The male fish will dig his body into the soft sand of the sea floor and score into it many intricate lines until he has made a picture he is proud of, then the female fish sees the picture done just for her and goes to him. It’s his sign of love.
God also leaves signs of love for us. Flowers. Butterflies. Seashells. Sunsets. Extras.
Sherlock Holmes once said: “Flowers show me that God is good. We need food and air and water to survive, but flowers are an extra.”
God shows His love for us in the extras that we take for granted each day. So many feel like God doesn’t love them, simply because they don’t know how to look for the signs of His love. In the big miracles yes, but also in the psithurism as the wind tickles the trees, also in the soft sand beneath your feet, also in the smile of a loved one, the twitch of a bunny’s nose, the wag of an old dog’s tail. Look for the extras. The signs that God loves you enough to do things to make you smile, things that you don’t even give Him credit for. Next time you smell a flower or gaze at a sunset remember, that’s an extra and it shows that God loves you.
Category: Devotional
Was that wrong?
Was that wrong?
Today I had an experience that dealt with somebody who did something that went against something I believe in. Not a Christian or Church something. Just a personal belief. I saw a person I know going to do something that I personally would say was unkind. Someone else I know saw this other person going to do this thing and brought it up to me, I simply said that I felt it wasn’t a nice thing to do. I was immediately told off because the person doing the unkind thing was connected to me. I had my defense up by that point and tried to joke my way out of their annoyance at my statement. Which made things worse and I was told ‘you can’t get rid of them if you want to.’ Which had nothing to do with what I had said, and by that point I was irritated and replied without thinking, ‘you can try!’
That was not the correct response on my part and having been angry for being called out was no excuse. But here is what I realized. I never once said anything against the person in question, that would be wrong. I responded to being questioned on the subject that I felt their action was unkind. Not the person. The action.
This is a growing problem in the world today. You can no longer speak out against an action you feel is wrong without people accusing you of speaking out against the person. People are so sensitive that if you mention a sin (as the Bible tells us to do) to a friend, that you notice creeping in, that friend will more often than not get angry that you are being judgmental. Now. Sometimes we are being judgmental. But hopefully more often than not you are worrying for the soul of a loved one. I know that I do it too. Someone says something about something I have done and criticizes the action and I take it as a personal assault and usually it isn’t.
This has always been a problem because we are people and we get hurt really easily. But we have always tried to follow the Biblical doctrine of hating sin and loving sinners. That includes the people in your Church and family because we are all sinners. But people now claim that if you don’t accept their sins you aren’t loving them and so the concern for the soul is thrown out for the sake of the feelings. You know why people say that? Because they want to keep sinning. And we all do this. If you chose to tell me that I was wrong in what I said at the end of my conversation with the person who got in my face, you would be right. You could probably be right by telling me that I shouldn’t have said anything at all, even though asked. However if you told me that an hour ago when I was still smarting from it I would have taken it personally and been upset. Because it always hurts to have your sins called out. Do we speak butterflies or hornets when we open our mouths? And do we take criticism of an action as criticism of our selves?
It’s always hard. But the bunny in Bambi said it right, “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” And if you feel you should say something even though it might not land well with the person you are speaking to, do it with love in your heart and the reminder in your mind that you make mistakes too. Then maybe your point will get across without tempers flaming.
Let all idols fall
When the ark of the Lord had been in Philistine territory seven months, the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us how we should send it back to its place.” They answered, “If you return the ark of the god of Israel, do not send it back to him without a gift; by all means send a guilt offering to him. Then you will be healed, and you will know why his hand has not been lifted from you.”
1 Samuel 6:1-3 NIV
I love this. It scares me too, we often forget just how powerful our God is. I love that God’s enemies thought they had won. They paraded around and celebrated defeating Isreal and taking the Arc of the Covenant. They mocked God by placing His Arc next to the false idol of their god, thinking it was greater than the God of Israel. Then came day 2. God struck them with plague after plague and set death and sickness on every city His Arc was brought to. He showed His enemies His power until they repented of their actions and sent His Arc back to His people, alone with a guilt offering, so basically an apology. God decimated those who mocked Him. I love this because it’s cool. I also love it because it reminds us that we don’t have to fight in our power against the enemies of God who are also our enemies. God will fight for us, through us and for Himself. He destroys evil with the flick of a hand. We simply need to wait and know He can do it. Somedays it feels like God will never slay Goliath, Somedays it feels like the lions will eat their fill and the furnace will burn us up. Somedays it feels like the light will never win. But He does win! He has won! The cross declared it. God is the Victor over the devil and all evil. The devil keeps fighting even though he knows he’s lost because he wants every soul he can get to break God’s heart. But God has defeated him. He has thrown down the devil’s idols before and will do it again. We simply need to trust and be patient in His timing.
Lesson learned from Timothy
Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”
(Point: Sometimes God let’s us go through hardships to show us His power. Lazarus would have been qaiting for his friend, Jesus to come and heal him. The sisters were waiting for Jesus to renew the body of their brother. Each was suffering in his or her own way. One physical, one emotional, both serious and in meed of Jesus to come, Right NOW! But that wasn’t God’s plan. That is so hard to deal with and happens often in our lives. God let Saul hunt David for so long because it was part of God’s purpose and plan. God permitted the three Hebrew slaves to be thrown into the fire to prove His power. Even Jesus being born the way He was was a struggle that happened due to God saying years before that He would prove Himself by sending His son in this way. Just because you are struggling does not mean you are outside of God’s plan, sometimes the struggle is God’s plan. Before anyone says something about a good father not permitting struggle and pain to His kids, let us take a moment and recall Gethsemane and Golgatha. He is good, but hard times will still come. But the blessing is that He will be with us during those times and won’t let us fall farther than we can bear.)
Continuing the Scripture:
Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.” “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.” After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.” His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
(They still didnt get it. They were physically with Jesus everyday and still couldn’t understand that He knew all and had everything in His hands. This is why He was glad He had not been there to save His friend from death, because now the deciples were going to see an even bigger miracle, one that would guide them to have even more faith, faith that was about to be kicked down and stepped on in the death of Jesus. They needed Faith that Jesus really COULD bring people back from the dead. Sometimes when we dont get it Jesus will permit us to go through a trial that proves He is still God and He knows what He’s doing. It hurts and shakes us, but in the end we will see and understand exactly who we serve.)
Next passage of the verse:
Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
Let us go that we may die with Him.
I’m a Thomas fan. Mostly because I relate to him. He was a realist. He wanted things he could see and touch and make sense of. Which can be hard when following Jesus. Thomas gets a lot of criticism for his upper room moment, no one criticizes the other deciples for doubting the women when they came and told them that Jesus had risen, yet Thomas gets everyone’s scorn. No one recalls that earlier in history Thomas had been the only one to encourage the others to go back with Jesus to Judea where they had literally! Just escaped from. Some have suggested that the upper room shows that Thomas was being sarcastic here. Or a nay sayer by suggesting they would die. I don’t see that. What I see is a man saying to Jesus. ‘I know I will die, but I’m coming with you anyway.’
Whatever his statements tone really was back then doesn’t matter. He knew the risk and still wanted to go back with Jesus.
Do not forsake
not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
Hebrews 10:25 KJV
7am on a Sunday. Other people are still in bed and look to a day of doing nothing. But you are up and getting the coffee on. Walk the dog. Get dressed for the day and grab your stuff for the Sunday service. Are you a greeter? Part of the worship team? The person who sweeps snow off the sidewalk before Church? Maybe you are the pastor. Give it another couple of hours and the congregation will be there. They too got up on a day when PJs and hot chocolate would have been so much more pleasant. In come the body of Christ and you all sit down and chat. Then the worship starts and you praise God. Then the pastor comes and you hear God’s word. Then you go home.
It sounds so simple. This ‘Church’ thing. But it is one of the most important things you will do in your week. Too many have come into the habit of streaming Church from their living room and making the effort to become part of a Church family. Don’t get me wrong, the fact that we can stream Church is great! And there are days when you can’t get to Church physically and need to live stream. The fact that that is possible is a blessing. But it shouldn’t be all you do. Church is so much more than a sermon from the pulpit. It’s a place where you can serve God. You get to physically be part of a Church family and to have that happen it takes commitment and effort on your part. You have to keep attending and start volunteering, doing little things that connect you to the people and the pastor. God does not want us to stop gathering with other believers. That might not look like Church as we know it in up coming days. It may look like a home Church or a small group. It may be simply someone reading the Bible as you gather together and then discuss God’s words. For many people Church is a secret and dangerous affair. These people could spend time with God on their own each week and not risk getting caught by gathering with other Christians. Yet they gather anyway. Why? Because they understand the power and importance of being with other Christians. They get that we need to encourage and be encouraged. We need prayer circles and a safe place to go where Jesus is the center. Though the body is in peril or discomfort their souls know they are safe there with others like them.
If they can gather together, why can’t we? Why would we even consider stopping? Our greatest worry is whether or not we feel like crawling out our warm beds. And yet we consider staying home and simply streaming. We must gather in the upper rooms we have been gifted. Whether that’s a Church building or someone’s home, or perhaps a hidden chamber in the basement of some forgotten building where our enemies cannot find us. No matter what it looks like we must continue to gather.
Who have you been whispering to?
Who have you been whispering to?
When you see someone sinning do not talk about them to others- talk about them to God. We tend to see sin in those we care about, or in simply the people around us, and we do the exact opposite of what we are supposed to do. We talk about them. But what we should be doing is praying for them. Only the Holy Spirit can fix sin. If he or she is someone you know well are comfortable with, perhaps you could find a gentle way of pointing the sin out. But in the end that person has to choose to not sin anymore. If your close friend is talking about suddenly enjoying alcohol and you know that the temptation to become a drunk is there (this is a sin by the way. There are those who claim drunkenness is not, but it is.) It would be wrong to not try and dissuade him or her from the temptation. If your friends are watching bad movies and you act like that’s okay, then you are encouraging their sin. I am thinking of myself here. I was watching a show last year that had a nude scene. You didn’t really see anything but it was obvious what was happening. I kept watching because I figured it was fine as long as you didn’t see anything. My dad happened to be over at the time and he pointed out that the show was bad. Suddenly I realized my error and sin and was able to shut it off. No song on the radio or movie on Netflix is worth losing your relationship with God over. But the other day I had a person I know well mention something they were doing that I knew right away was a sin. This person is a professing Christian. Yet there it was. I mentioned that it wasn’t really something a Christian should do and got shot down. So I went and discussed the whole thing with my close friend. I was greatly troubled. But in the end all we could do was talk about the person and speak badly about this person, because once you mention one thing a person is doing wrong to someone else a thousand other things you’ve seen him or her do come to mind. That was no solution. I then felt God say. ‘You shouldn’t talk to others about people. You should talk to me and let me help them.’
It’s true. Only God can help these people. He knows their hearts and what is going on, and He is never there just to criticize. God is there to guide and help. In the end He will judge us. But for now He is doing His best to help us, if only we would stop trying to be Him and start letting Him be in control.
So. Next time. I personally will pray when worried about someone and will work hard to not simply talk behind their backs, which is a sin I need to work on. And I am sure many of the rest of you who are shaking your heads at me in disgust are guilty of this too. We all are. And we all need to try and do better.
Why do we worship?
Why do we worship before the sermon?
Have you ever wondered why we worship before the pastor starts speaking? Of course most would say ‘it’s to praise God.’ Some might say, ‘it’s to give time for late comers to find their seats.’ Both are accurate. Yet it’s more than just praise to God. Worship is about getting into the right head space and heart space. We enter church with the world’s problems following behind us.
“My TV broke and I don’t have money for a new one. Do I really need a new one? Is it important? But I like watching the Christian stations. But the other stations can have such terrible things on them.” “My cat keeps scratching the couch. What can I do? Do I need a cover?”
So on and so on, our minds go.
These things distract from the word of God and the time spent with Him. The worship is a physical act and takes a physical action. We sing and our mind moves to the music. Soon our hearts are taken by the words and eventually we feel the Holy Spirit raise our hands and we praise. Then the sermon comes and we are ready. Even before prayer we can get into a better headspace by spending some time in worship and focusing on God. Sometimes I personally find lighting a candle helps. Little Things that Aid your mind in their thoughts and focus. Sometimes pacing and walking helps you focus on God. But these are things you can’t do at church when the pastor is about to speak. What we can do is worship and get our minds and our hearts out of our day-to-day problems and on to God, and soon we will see that God has answers for all of these problems. Perhaps God won’t tell you if you should or should not buy a couch cover to keep your cat from scratching it. But He will guide you in your need for financing or your health problems or even the fight you had with your neighbors. If you are open to Him God will show you what to do in all your life. But first you need to focus and that’s where worship helps.
Is the old Testament necessary today?
Is the old Testament necessary today?
We all hear it said. We have even said. “That’s old Testament stuff.” We say it as though the old Testament is no longer relevant. We say it as though it is something we have progressed past.
Old Testament is a term that came from the Biblical referral to the old covenant which required animal sacrifice, and the new covenant which is Jesus’s sacrifice. Calling the books that went from Genesis to Malachi old Testament and the books that went from Matt. To Revelation New Testament, began in 130 AD by a Bishop who was separating the books this way for clarity in a letter he was writing. Shows as easily things catch on.
We see old as a bad word. A subversive content that we need to avoid. I actually heard a girl the other day, (she was probably 14yrs old,) say, after looking at a designation plaque that honored an old lady who had passed away after being a patriarch of the area we were in, “why would they give that to her?” (Tone is everything in the illustration so try and hear the degrading whine in the voice) her mom explained the memorial. She then said, “so what? They just give these to old people. I don’t want her to have it.”
Welcome to 2023. Anyway. This is how old is seen. Not relevant or valuable. So the term ‘old’ being used for the pre-Jesus covenant marks the book unfairly.
So many who are confronted by the Old Testament want to do away with it. They do the, “Jesus made it irrelevant. Paul said it’s the law of death.” Thing. Yet Jesus Himself said:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
Matt. 5:17 NIV
And Paul was addressing learned Jewish men as well as gentiles when he was speaking. These statements were for these men who were using the law to empower themselves and contorting it to fit their own agendas. The law they commanded was the law of death Paul meant. I would even go so far as to say that what is being preached in certain Churches today, that has been contrived from scripture and then mutilated to fit certain non offensive agendas, has become a law of death too. It’s no longer the Truth that guides you to Heaven, it’s just nice platitudes that fills seats and not souls. Working the Bible to your own life and choices is what the Pharisees and Sadducees did that caused many problems and eventually led Paul to make his bold statement. The Pharisees and Sadducees started out as great people. Dedicated to God and on the right path, until they slid off that path and started using their positions to further themselves instead of God. Sounds like many preachers today, doesn’t it?
However we are now off track. Jesus quoted the Old Testament when battling the devil. Paul himself often quoted the Old Testament. Matt. Mark. Luke and John quoted the Old Testament. If the guys who established the New Testament found the Old relevant enough to refer to it and quote it, then what makes us think that we have moved to a place of spiritual enlightenment that we can throw it away? It’s because a lot of the hard truths are in the Old Testament, truths we want to hide from so we ignore them. Yet most of those truths, rules and warnings were reestablished by either Jesus Himself or one of the New Testament writers. And Don’t forget. If you throw out the Old Testament you also lose all the Psalms. How many of us rely on those Psalms to get us through a tough week?
Jesus made it clear with His own words that the Old Testament is still relevant and valuable and necessary, who are we to argue with Him?
Are you waiting for answers?
Are you waiting for answers?
The promise of God does not always come fast. So don’t start doubting even if you have waited 10 or 20 years. He has His time.
Why do we become downcast and fearful when we have a God who loves us? When we have Faith in God and know He is God and He can and will deliver, why do we doubt?
James says that the doubters should expect to receive nothing from God.
But Jesus said ‘if you have faith the size of a mustard seed.’ So where is the cut off?
At what point does faith only the size of a mustard seed turn to doubt?
In the moment where you used to say ‘I know God can do this.’
And now you say, ‘God probably won’t do this.’
You aren’t doubting that God is real or that He is there, but you are doubting that He will answer you. I say this more to myself than anyone else because I have had too many of those moments.
(I have also had moments of complete doubt that God would answer and He did, probably because He knew that I needed to see Him do something because I was slipping. He is still good to us.)
His Word warns us that if we doubt who He is and what He will do that He won’t answer us. That’s not having only a little Faith when we pray. That’s having no Faith at all. We must believe or how else can we expect to see answers.
Now. There are times when we have Faith and still don’t see an answer. There were times like that all through the Bible. But our Faith cannot depend on what we see God doing, it has to depend on who God is. Our Faith is in God not in the works of God. We have to trust Him.
Everyone welcome?
Everyone welcome?
I have noticed that certain groups who claim the title ‘church’ have decided to plant an ‘Everyone welcome’ slogan under their banners. We all know what they are gesturing at. But it made me feel like something should be said.
All Churches. All! Welcome Everyone to come and join. But the true Church refuses to dumb down or corrupt the Bible’s teaching just to make certain people happy. Guess what? There are parts of the Bible that are offensive to everyone. The lady who has just started attending after being involved in a messy legal custody battle may be offended by the verse that says to love your enemies, or the verses that tell about divorce being a sin. The man who has attended Church his whole life may suddenly notice 1 Thes. 5:12 and 13 says to respect and listen to those in the Church who give you spiritual guidance, but all that does is bring to his mind a mentor he once had who he didn’t like so he feels angry and offended. Do we change the words of God to suit these two people? No. God’s word is meant to be hard to handle at times and sometimes it even hurts or makes us angry. It’s supposed to help us change and guide us into being more like Christ. If the Bible says your lifestyle is a sin, it’s a call to look at yourself and to decide, do I want to live this way? Or do I want to change and become a new person through Christ? If you’re a mess and the Bible points it out that doesn’t mean it’s closing the doors on you, and neither is the Church that continues to preach the Truth, it means that the Bible and the Church are trying to help you and to guide you out of your mess and sin and into the fullness of living for Jesus. News flash. We all came through the front door of the Church with a set of sins. But that’s why we’re at Church. To sit down and listen to God and hear what He has to say. And when it’s uncomfortable and feels offensive, we choose to look at ourselves and see what God is calling us to change. If you want the Church to change what it says so you feel comfortable there, than you have missed the point of Church. It’s not here to make us feel good and then we go home, it’s here to prepare is to go forward as true followers of Christ. Everyone is welcome. But come expecting to be changed. That’s why we go. Because we want to be more like Him and less like the mess we were when we walked in.
Carried in the cross 