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Posts Tagged ‘bible’

Psalm 73-75, Acts 28:1-16. Tunnel Vision.

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on July 28, 2025| Leave a Comment »

It is easy to lose sight of the big picture. Sometimes we never even consider the big picture. A common feature in the lament psalms is this seeming fixation on the wicked and those who oppose the psalmist – whether it is David, Asaph, or an anonymous writer. A “woe is me” and “why aren’t you doing something God” attitude is actually captured throughout these psalms. It used to bother me, but now I’m glad they did. They were real and they show the starting point for realization and return. When they realize they are focused on the wrong thing, the temporary thing, and they return their focus on God, the entire picture shifts.

Hidden in our hearts is this echo of Eden. God created a place for us to dwell with Him in perfection. Everything was good. Anything that was needed was provided. Intimacy with Love Himself was the center point of this idyllic existence. There was only one thing that was forbidden – the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Yet, with a little prompting from the serpent, Eve and Adam became enamored of the forbidden. Love for God and intimacy with Him fell to second place as desire for this forbidden thing became their primary desire.

The Psalmist, probably correctly, observes those who flaunt God and His commands, and He is incensed. But with this observation comes a desire not unlike Adam and Eve in the garden. The current prosperity of the wicked and the seeming lack of response from God stirs up envy that is every bit as damning as the arrogance of the wicked. Allowed to continue, this tunnel vision would have brought about the downfall of one called to be faithful in all circumstances.

Thanks be to God, He is near at hand. He allows the wicked to prosper for a little while that they might realize their need for Him and turn. He allows us to see this, not to tempt us, but to encourage us to turn our eyes, our hearts to Him in trust, to look at the bigger picture. God’s past faithfulness is just one piece of the big picture we can look to as reminders that God is good and He will make all things right. The Temple itself was a magnificent reminder of God’s promises fulfilled and His presence among His people.

Today I look at the big picture and I see God’s hand at work in every direction. For the child struggling mightily right now – Father draw her near and let her see the big picture. For the long career nearing an end – let the finish be strong and honoring to you. For the brother’s and sister’s I worship and pray and do life with – Lord continue to mold us and shape us. You are so good, so faithful, so present – help us to see with eyes of faith so that we grow deeper and stronger in You. Accomplish your good and perfect will in us and through us this day. Jesus, it is in your wonderful Name that we pray.

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Incredible

Posted in God, God Stories, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Prayer, Prayers, Spiritual Growth, The Father, Trials, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 1, 2023| Leave a Comment »

It is a day and a half since the surgery.  The nerve block they gave me has worked well, but it is finally wearing off and I am beginning to feel the fact that a portion of my ear is missing.  Not too much pain, but a reminder of something lost.  But this is nothing compared to what I have gained through this.  I can truly say this has been one of the most blessed experiences of my life.  The LORD’s presence has been so real and tangible that I have experienced a peace that has truly buoyed me and a joy that has stirred my soul.

The word that comes to mind as I ponder this is “Incredible”.  Something that is credible is believable.  With the prefix added in-credible means something that stretches belief.  I already had a strong belief in God and a vibrant relationship with the Lord through Jesus, but that belief has been strengthened and stretched in the most blessed of ways. 

One of the things I’ve found interesting is how I have been led to pray.  My prayers for myself have been that the Lord would be glorified.  I have not been led to pray to be healed.  The Holy Spirit told me to share my journey, hence you are reading this post.  From that I know others have been praying for me, many praying for my healing, but I have not. 

There was one night a week or so after we learned I was dealing with melanoma that Lisa and I watched a series where one of the lead characters had cystic fibrosis.  In the final episode she passed away.  Her passing as portrayed in the show played out over a 2-year period.  For both Lisa and I the reality that I could be on the front end of a similar journey really weighed on us as we went to bed.  In the middle of the night I awoke restless and I hesitantly prayed, “Lord Jesus, please heal me”.  Well, the Holy Spirit clearly spoke, “It is not yet the time”. 

I have not prayed specifically for my healing since.  I am fine with others praying for it and I do hope the Lord heals me, but that has not been my focus.  I simply want to walk faithfully through this knowing the LORD said, “Trust Me” at the outset. 

The returns on this approach have been amazing.  I have known a peace through this that has lifted me.  As I already mentioned, I can feel such love and affirmation, that I am truly thankful for this experience.  I have even walked in periods of great joy.  And to imagine this is amid losing part of my body and still not knowing if cancer has spread to other parts of my body.  (Since I am being transparent, not all of my body is still working like I would like for it to, but I attribute that to things done at an earlier age that are now catching up to me 😊)

Friends, I can see how the LORD was preparing me for this journey even as late as this summer.  A theme that played out over several weeks in my studies and meditation was that we are “eternal, spiritual beings living in a temporary, physical body”.  Our time on this earth is truly limited.  These bodies all have an expiration date.  But the part of us that lives on is what we should be nourishing and growing.  Our spirit is where we commune with our Creator.  It is the part of us that needs to know who we are and why we are here. 

We are created to be God’s children and our purpose is to know and love Him even as we are fully known and loved.  While this is the answer, it is only the merest surface of the reality.  The depths of it are only realized when it goes from our head to our hearts and fills our spirit with His Holy Spirit.  We are given one lifetime for this to happen.  I guess my situation has simply given me, and those who have joined me for this journey, an opportunity to consider that my expiration date, and each of theirs, might be closer than we realize.  I believe the Lord’s response to each of us is the same as what He spoke to my heart shortly after I learned I had cancer… “Trust Me!”

Our next medical milestone is December 11 when we learn the results of the biopsy and the genetic testing to see if I am prone to more melanoma.

It has been my honor that you have joined me in this journey.  Hopefully the LORD has taken my posts and used them to encourage you in some way.  That is my desire and prayer. 

Be blessed my friend and be a blessing to someone today!

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Why “Trusting God” is NOT a Good Plan B

Posted in God, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Priorities, The Father, Vision, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 1, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Rather than taking a long time to get to the point let me state it up front.  Trusting God is not a good Plan B because if Trusting God is in position B then something else must be your Plan A.  There is nothing that rightfully supplants putting your hope first in God and His provision.  Now there are numerous situations where the Lord will work through others to accomplish His will in our life, but allowing God to be our source and then trusting Him to chose whatever means He determines to meet our need is always the right response.

God is fully equipped to be our confidant, our counselor, our healer, our deliverer, and our comforter.  In fact those are all specifically spelled out as roles God will fulfill in the believer’s life.  We also are given insight into what qualifies Him to fill those roles.  He is omniscient.  He is sovereign.  He is omnipresent.  He is all together good.  He is love.

So what does Trusting God as Plan A mean?  While I understand that many of you know God through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, I am prompted to cover the basics before we touch on deeper elements of Trusting God.

God is the Creator and Father of mankind.  Intimate fellowship with God was broken in the Garden when sin entered the world.  There is a price to be paid for sin.  God’s answer for sin which broke our intimacy with Him was to send His Son, Jesus into the world.  Jesus paid the debt for our sin so we could be reconciled to God.  So Trusting God begins with trusting Jesus as your Savior and Lord.  This is the way God has established for mankind to be put in right relationship with Him.  But making this decision is only the beginning of what it means to Trust God.

God has spent over a millennia creating a love story between mankind and himself.  This love story is captured in the bible or Word of God.  In this inspired book, God provides everything necessary for life.  Wisdom, guidance, encouragement, inspiration, comfort, challenge – all the essentials for living life in intimacy with God is in this book.  The bible makes the claim, backed up by the testimony of millions of us, that the truth contained in the bible is God-breathed and life changing.

Then there is the gift of the Holy Spirit that Jesus gives to His followers.  Every born again believer is sealed with the Holy Spirit who indwells us.  Jesus talked about the Holy Spirit being our comforter and counselor in His final extended discourse with the disciples.  (See John 14 and 15)  The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity.  He knows the plans of God and the heart of Jesus.  He will lead us in the right path, always, every time, without fail.  Our role is to train our hearts to listen, understand, and follow His leading.

I am pretty confident I know why we sometimes make Trusting God Plan B.  It gets back to the point of a few days ago.  We would rather be doing something than doing nothing.  And we often make the mistake of thinking that waiting upon the Lord is the same as doing nothing.  In the most minor of ways it may appear as if we are not actively doing, but to lay our cares upon the Lord and leave them there takes an exercise of faith that is one of the most important and challenging of spiritual exercises.  And like any exercise it takes practice over time to become proficient.

Let me wrap up for tonight.  Trusting in God as Plan A is altogether good.  Plan A is not sticking our head in the sand or ignoring the sound counsel of others, but it is trusting God to lead us in our decision-making.  In many cases we will use the natural gifts and talents of others around us.  When I broke my shoulder last year I was in a foreign country.  I had a few options.  But rather than simply lean on my own wisdom, I consulted others and I prayed.  God led me to fly back to the US to have the surgery to set my shoulder.  But within my Plan A was the possibility God could have said to have the procedure done there or something else.  I was totally seeking His guidance.  Flying home seemed like the right thing to do.  When I didn’t feel any check about it after praying, we flew home.  The miraculously minimal amount of pain I suffered over the  day of transatlantic travel and then waiting 5 days for my surgery was confirmation I was Trusting Him correctly.

‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.‘ Proverbs 3:5-6 NKJV

Make knowing and growing in intimacy with God your priority.  Make Trusting the Lord your Plan A.  Allow the fruit of the Holy Spirit to bloom and grow in your life.  Seek the gifts of the Holy Spirit to operate in your life.  And God’s peace will overflow in a life well-lived and the richest of praise.

Be blessed my friend and be a blessing!

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Life-long Learning

Posted in Church, God, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Prayer, Responsibility, The Father, tagged , , , , , , on April 6, 2015| Leave a Comment »

John, the beloved disciple, concludes his gospel with an interesting sentence.  John 21:25 says “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.”  While many of us have a few noteworthy accomplishments and amusing anecdotes from our life, Jesus’ life is the life above all lives to be studied.  Although He lived for a relatively brief period, He is the central figure of history.  The book that describes His life is the all time best-seller.  It is printed in more languages than any other book.  And despite repeated attempts to blot out His story and crush His people, the church continues to grow.  As believers in Jesus we have a responsibility to become followers of Him.  In Matthew 7:21 Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”  How do we do this?  In reality this is a simple, impossible task.  We simply read the book that tells us about Jesus and God’s work in the believers, the bible, and then we do what it says.  It is impossible for us to do this perfectly in our own strength.  That is why Jesus to sent the Holy Spirit to all who would follow Him.

As a young believer I heard someone explain the difference between being intelligence and wisdom.  Intelligence is the ability to grasp and understand large amounts of information.  Wisdom is the ability to apply the information one possesses in the right manner.  I witness this in my work with plant managers and leaders in manufacturing.  The truly special leader is one who possesses a good intelligence and exercises excellent wisdom.  Many are the leaders who are intelligent, but do not walk in the most wise fashion.  In Matthew 10 Jesus gave directions to His disciples as they were being sent out on a brief training mission.  In verse 16 we read  “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.”  Jesus does not want us ignorant of His work.  He admonishes us to become as knowledgeable as practically possible, yet walk in humble innocence. 

Our church is a good example of what God can do through a group of committed believers who seek to follow Jesus every way we can.  We are a bunch of imperfect people seeking to know and serve a perfect God.  One of our Pastor’s tag lines is a simple phrase, “Read the Word.  Do what it says.”  By doing that we see people come to faith by the dozens and even hundreds.  We do not have a final count, but as of 9 am on Sunday morning we had already seen over 200 people come to faith in Jesus.  And at the 9:15 service at our campus I saw dozens more come forward and make a profession of faith.  This is a wonderful thing to see.

This is the first vital step into the abundant life Jesus calls His followers into.  Being the first step carries the certainty that there are many steps to follow, too many and too varied to be addressed in a short post.  However the Holy Spirit, who seals every believer at conversion, is able to lead and guide each believer into the life God calls them to.  The Holy Spirit knows what is needed, what is not, where we must go, what we must do.  In short, the Holy Spirit is God living in us to guide us into all that we need to know and do.  The caveat here is that the Holy Spirit is still subject to the will of the believer.  Jesus desires to work in concert with us.  Our willful obedience, not our coerced obedience, is God’s desire.

Today, I encourage you to do a few things that may be new.  First, ask the Lord to instill a fresh desire in you to know Him better.  Second, ask the Lord to show you anything inside of you that is hindering your taking your next step in faith.  Third, read the Word and ask the Lord to help you do what it says.  Fourth, listen and respond to the leading of the Holy Spirit.  He will always lead you in accordance with the Word of God.  In fact the bible and the Holy Spirit are always perfectly in synch.

The Holy Spirit inspired the writers of the bible to put down the words we read.  It is the Holy Spirit indwelling the believer who gives us the ability to read, understand, and follow what it says.  If you feel lead to do something that is contrary to the bible, then stop and seek the Lord’s clarification.  I have had the Lord prompt me to do things that I thought were odd, things that definitely took me out of my comfort zone, things that I normally wouldn’t have thought to do, but I have never had the Holy Spirit prompt me to do something that is against the scripture.  Let this be a safeguard for you.

In the post-resurrection days, the Church literally exploded into life.  People recognized that God had done the most amazing thing the world would ever know.  It remains the pivotal point in all of history.  And people were moved to live in a radically new way, following the teaching of the One who had conquered death and called them to this new life.  We have the opportunity to follow in their footsteps.  Jesus calls us to Himself and then into the unique life He has equipped us for.  Immerse yourself into learning about and following the One who loved you so much He went to the cross on your behalf.

Be blessed today my friend.  And be a Spirit led blessing to others.

 

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