The Word of God

Why do we read the Word of God? 

Reading the Bible is not like reading any other book.  The words we read are life to our very souls.  It's like storing away a treasure for the time when we will need it the most.

Have you ever had a time when you have  been going through something and a Bible verse just "pops" into your head?

That is a direct result of the Holy Spirit using the word of God that is hidden in your heart.

In Psalm 119 we read, 

9 How can a young person stay on the path of purity?
    By living according to your word.
10 I seek you with all my heart;
    do not let me stray from your commands.
11 I have hidden your word in my heart
    that I might not sin against you.
12 Praise be to you, Lord;
    teach me your decrees.
13 With my lips I recount
    all the laws that come from your mouth.
14 I rejoice in following your statutes
    as one rejoices in great riches.
15 I meditate on your precepts
    and consider your ways.
16 I delight in your decrees;
    I will not neglect your word. -Psalm 119:9-16 (NLT)

Have you taken the time today to hide his word in your heart?  The more time we spend just reading the word, the more we store it in our hearts for when we really need it. 

When your week was not so good...

The weekend is here, what kind of week did you have?

If it was anything like mine, it was full of challenges and trials.  There were some where I won the battle, and some I'd just rather forget and move on.

Reading Psalm 43 today; I love the honesty in this.

Psalm 43
1 Vindicate me, my God,
    and plead my cause
    against an unfaithful nation.
Rescue me from those who are
    deceitful and wicked.
2 You are God my stronghold.
    Why have you rejected me?
Why must I go about mourning,
    oppressed by the enemy?

Have you ever felt like this?  Rejected by God and alone?  Let's read on...

3 Send me your light and your faithful care,
    let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy mountain,
    to the place where you dwell.
4 Then I will go to the altar of God,
    to God, my joy and my delight.
I will praise you with the lyre,
    O God, my God.

Here the Psalmist prays to the Lord.  Many of us can stay at this point, we pray and think, "Ok God, do your thing!

But he goes one more step, he actually speaks to himself! 

5 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
    Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
    for I will yet praise him,
    my Savior and my God.

Sometimes prayer is not enough, we need to encourage, even challenge ourselves to put our hope in God!  And then, actually do just that.

Psalm 100

There are times when I pray for something to share and a scripture comes to mind; a scripture that I simply feel I cannot add anything to. 

Today is one of those times.

Take a moment, pray, and ask the Lord to saturate you with the truth of this Psalm.

Psalm 100 (NIV)
A psalm. For giving grateful praise.

1 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
2  Worship the Lord with gladness;
    come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the Lord is God.
    It is he who made us, and we are his;
    we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
    and his courts with praise;
    give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
    his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Do you have a price?

In Refuel we are going through the book of Acts.  Last night we were discussing the stoning of Stephen.

"When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him.  But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 "Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."

At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.

While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."  Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he fell asleep." Acts 7:54-60 (NIV)

There was a question in our work book that I couldn't come up with an answer for this week. 

"How does Stephen's example encourage you?"

I left it blank, because I simply did not have an answer.

But last night a brother in our small group time answered the question; rather simply, he said, "He was a man without a price."

And that hit me pretty hard.  Do I have a price?  Do I have a point where too many stones are flying and I would say, "enough!"

Or could I let all the stones fly and keep my eyes on Jesus?

It's a sobering question, one to chew on for a while. 

Do you have a price?

What are you focusing on?

As many of you already know, one of the dangers in riding a motorcycle is something called, "object fixation."  What happens is you fix your eyes on something on the road, a branch, or a dead animal, and then your body leans causing the motorcycle to travel right to whatever you are looking at. 

This causes a lot of accidents. 

It's the same with our walk with the Lord.

It's easy to take our eyes off Jesus.  Maybe we are looking at our past sins, or perhaps we are looking at other peoples faults?  Then there are those times we are looking at things we know we shouldn't be looking at. 

The result is the same, we will eventually run right into whatever we are looking at.

The writer of Hebrews exhorts us, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,  fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith." Heb 12:1-2 (NIV)

So how do we focus on Jesus?  We focus on his word, we focus on what pleases him, we focus on what we know is true and right.

"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. " Phil 4:8 (NIV)

Can it be any clearer than that?

Allegiance

Who is calling out for your allegiance today? 

Reading 1 Peter...

"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." 1 Peter 2:9-10 (NIV)

There are many things out there that call out for our allegiance.  Everything from motorcycle brands, to sports teams to political parties; they all want us to wear their logos and pledge our allegiance to them. 

They are successful because they know we want to belong to a group that is bigger than ourselves.

Now, I'm not saying that any of these things are wrong in and of themselves, but they must always take second place to our calling in Jesus Christ.

Peter tells us here that we are "God's special possession,"  just as Paul tells us, "Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. " 1  Cor 6:19-20 (NIV)

Let us pray today that if there is anything that takes place before our calling and position in Christ, we have eyes to see it.

Our first and only true allegiance should be to the Lord.

Borrowed Grief

I didn't get much sleep Saturday night, and that had something to do with not being very good at math, combined with a tired mind.

Saturday night was supposed grant us something that  only happens once a year, an "extra hour" of sleep. 

But, to start with, I wasn't feeling that great, then I kept waking up with my brain wanting to do the day-light savings math!  You know, "the clock says it's three am, but that means my body thinks it's four am, so I can get more sleep because instead of  waking up at seven, I'm really waking up at... wait... six or eight?"

I stayed in that endless loop, off and on all night...  I didn't get much sleep.

It's crazy, some of the things our mind can get caught on.  And that is how worry can work as well.  We continue to stay in an endless loop of "borrowed grief," especially when we worry about things that haven't happened, or may not ever happen.

Jesus knew our tendency to worry, let's look at what he said on the subject.

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?  Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?  So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6:25-34 (NIV)

Words to live by.