Living happily as God's People - Created to Shine

Devotional Readings: Matthew 5:14 - 16 , Genesis 1:1-6, John 1:1-9, 8:12, 1John 1:1-7

"Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves."  James M Barrie -- Creator of Peter Pan.

Human Happiness -- sometimes these two worlds and words just do not fit. Being human and Being happy. Two completely separate states of being. Yes, we are all definitely human beings with the full array of human features - A head, Arms, Legs, Feet and so on. We have a heart that beats, a brain that does it's best to think and blood that courses through our arteries and veins to keep us alive. Yes, we are all 24/7 human beings. 

Happiness -- Psychologists say that people need three things to make them happy. First of all they need something to do. Secondly they need something to love. Finally they need something to look forward to. I think Scripture agrees with this. However, to be truly happy and satisfied we must make sure that we are doing the right thing, loving the right thing, and looking forward to the right thing. 

Everyone needs and wants something to do! There are a lot of things that we can do to make us happy, but if there is one thing we fail to do we will never be satisfied!
-I am happy when I go hunting or fishing
-I am happy when I go see a friend or loved one
-I am happy when I go to church and experience a good service
-I am happy when I have fun with my kids
-Fill in the blank for yourself:

"I am Happy when I _________________"

 
-Some people are happy while they are high on life or on drugs, Some are happy when they are feeling low.
-Some people are happy while they are skiing, or snowmobiling, Some are happy reading books or doing puzzles.
-Some people are happy while they are partying. Some people just prefer to be happy alone in their own homes.
-Some people are happy while they are camping. Some are content walking the streets or living under bridges.

-Some people are happiest in the light of day while others are more content walking during the day and at night in the darkness (In Barrow, Alaska the sun sets in mid-November and doesn’t rise above the horizon again until mid January.)

In the very beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, there was only a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep (Genesis 1:1-2). The very first thing God spoke into existence: "Let there be light". The light was declared 'good' and it was separated from the darkness. The light was called 'day' and the darkness 'night'. And this was the first day (Genesis 1:5). And so life was created in all it's forms -- created that they may all shine.

The Apostle John tells us that Jesus was there in the beginning too. That He was the true light coming into the world (John 1:9). He shone into our darkness, but our darkness did not comprehend Him. John takes Jesus' identity a step further. He tells His disciples - He tells us - that we are also lights in the world. The One who came to shine uses the lanterns which are our lives, that He himself kindled by His great love for us at His resurrection. The light of our redemption was light by His eternal spark. We have a bright and holy purpose: 

• ¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; ¹⁵ nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. ¹⁶ Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." Matthew 5:14-16

We often think we are called to shine as 'lights' because the world we struggle to live in is defined by the darkness of crime, war, terror, economic upheaval, rising foreclosures, rising unemployment, long term joblessness, and the list goes on. The longer we sit and meditate on today's newscasts and read local and global headlines in newspapers, receive 'breaking headlines' on IPhones and Twitter and other social media outlets; the more likely we are to believe it is always darkest before the dawn of a sunny day. We are inundated daily with horrific images of a growing and cancerous darkness. Presented with the occasional ray of sunshine and hope - we are painfully slow to believe it.

We are called to the awesome responsibility of being 'shining cities on a hill which cannot be hidden'. However, there is an even higher calling than that. We are to shine as lights because Jesus is the true Light. Our holy calling is to Reflect Him, to Display Him, and to worship Him by being the beacons, the lanterns by which He reveals Himself to others. Radiating Jesus is the highest honor we can give Him and the greatest source of life giving light that we can share with others who are defining their lives by their journey's through the darkness of a secular world. 

Jesus is the Light of the world (John 8:12). This is something that early on in my own faith journey, I found very hard to believe. Even as my sisters preached these words to me so long ago when God, Jesus Christ were the furthest things from my mind, these words held no relevance to me. I was content to walk in the darkness for many years because darkness defined much of my life's circumstances and I my eyes became too accustomed to it. I can now look back in 20/20 hindsight, that I could never have stood in the Light of life because I was too pained up by the darkness. And I had had enough experience with pain to know I did not want anymore when I looked into any kind of bright light. Light is a wonderful and beautiful thing to behold. It is a miraculous healer - once you are bold enough to accept not just it's brightness but also the pain of it when you look at it first thing in your morning. 

Consider your present and consider your future. We will be shining His light and reflecting His glory long after we are done with darkness of this world. It wont be because someone will need convincing; it will simply be because of who He is. Our shining is more for the sake of His eternal glory as it seeks to bring understanding to the present darkness. It shines the light of heaven into a dark and dismal night. It's warmth makes our lanterns burn brighter. 

Do you reflect light or darkness into the world you live in? Do you reflect Jesus? Have you ever been able to put your darkness aside - even for a small period of time - simply to be like Him? There is no greater task. Our primary responsibility to those who walk in darkness in this world, as His servants and His children, is to show His kind of light to others. The Light of His grace. The Light of His love for all, the Light of His mercy and forgiveness, the Light of His salvation. To put on illuminate His kind of works, pray His kind of prayers, tell His kind of stories, and seek His kind of justice. All these things are to permeate everything we do on behalf of the children of His kingdom. 

WHY? Because He is light, and we were created to shine. 1John 1:1-7


Gob Bless

Expressions of Love

"I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach." Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Devotional Reading: Song of Solomon 4:8 - 5:1a, Matthew 22:34:40

I must admit to you that I do not often get a chance to read this passage of Old Testament Scripture. My wife has often encouraged me to spend more time with this Book. However, much to my need to confess one too many "maybe later's,"  I am finally getting around to it. Because for the past couple of weeks at church we have been inspired to consider expressions of our love for each other and our love for God and amazing God's love for us. Our spirits have been lifted through a simple and timeless expression called a hug - our hugging each other and God hugging us. I really love to hug and I 'm sure God loves to hug too.

You know, sometimes people just need a hug. They need that warm feeling of affirmation that says, "yes, you matter! That says "yes, you are loved!" they need to feel "hugged by God" in the sight of their family, friends, coworkers and acquaintances. From my experience, a small hug makes a big difference. When you have no other gift to give - hugging is the ideal gift. Great for any occasion, fun to give and receive, shows you care, comes with its own wrapping and, of course, is fully returnable.  Hugging is practically perfect. Sometimes it feels so much better to express our love for each other as hugs rather than to put it into words. Sometimes it maybe better for us to experience God's love for us as universe sized hugging.

We imagine that we understand what love really means, and we are right; it is the best we have to offer of us. Yet, when I really meditate about it, from passages such as Song of Solomon, the Gospels and the New Testament, I come away with only the faintest of ideas what love really means to God who IS love.

Sometimes when we catch a glimpse of this cosmos-compelling love, we are often stunned by how small our own expressions of love can be, for ourselves, for each other and for God. Nevertheless, love is the chief "family resemblance" that we have with God (if one would dare to to put it like that!); the one who sincerely, unselfishly loves himself as he loves his neighbor is very near to the kingdom of God.

The Song of Solomon is a wonderful collection of graphic songs or poems affirming the goodness of physical, romantic love. The church has traditionally understood this unusual book as an allegory of the relationship between God and Israel or between Jesus and His Bride the church. For me, this book affirms that our relationship with each other and with God is characterized and nurtured by faithfulness and reciprocal love. And for me, their are few expressions of love that demonstrate these qualities than the simple 'hug'. A hug overcomes all boundaries. It speaks words within the mind that cannot be spoken. Helen Keller said "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart."  Love one another as God loves you, hug one another as God is most certainly hugging you right now and you will be happy; it is as simple and as difficult as that.

Love is the main thing. All that God has done from the creation of the world until this day has been to demonstrate the love that God has for each of us. Is love your main thing? What have you done to demonstrate your love for God? What have you done to demonstrate your love for your neighbor? 

Let us pray;

I love you, Lord. Teach me how to love you more today than I did yesterday. Show me which neighbors I need to learn to love more than I did yesterday. I want to honor You. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen

Great and Precious Promises

"There is a living God .... He means what He says and will do all He has promised." -- James Hudson Taylor (Founder of Overseas Mission Fellowship www.omf.org)

Devotional Readings - John 5:1-9, 2Peter 1:1-4 (message)


Imagine for a moment you are the lame man trying so desperately hard to reach the healing waters of the pool. For the past thirty eight years you have tried to reach the ever so near promise of healing, but have come up short. It seems every one else passes you by. No one tries to help you help yourself. What an enormous feeling of discouragement he must have felt. Time after time, year after year, he keeps coming back and time after time he encounters failure. My thought when I read this passage is Why? For what purpose, beyond the obvious desire to get well, does he keep coming back -- only to fail? Why not just camp out at the edge of the pool waiting to stick his finger or toe in? Or just plain give up. I mean -- the very definition of insanity is repeating the same action again and again expecting different results. 

Is the guy crazy for doing what he repeatedly fails at? Or is there another angle to this story that we should take some time to consider. That angle is the angle Jesus is taking as He carefully looks at this man from a distance. What is Jesus meditating on as He considers the scene before him? Perhaps He is wondering if the lame man really wants to get better. Perhaps he is also considering the actions of those who keep moving beyond the lame man without the slightest offer of assistance? What lesson does He want the lame man to learn.  What does he know about the lame mans heart that He can use to teach others of God?

He strides up to him and the next thing we see is the miraculous -- He speaks of healing and the lame man walks home. 

Now imagine how you would feel if Jesus walked up to you and said, "I am sending you on a mission to live a godly life and to represent Me to your world? This won't be an easy mission, but I will give you everything you need to succeed. I will be there with you the whole time, but you won't be able to see Me. Never the less, will walk with you everywhere you go, and whenever you need anything for this mission - anything at all - I will give it to you. It is My promise to you." 

Would you accept this mission? It is not a hypothetical question. You have already been chosen for this mission, and, if you are reading this, you have already probably accepted it and this devotion has served as an affirmation of a plan God has set into motion for your life. You have probably been searching for some sort of affirmation or promise from God that, if you followed through with what's been placed before you, His Presence will go with you (Isaiah 43:1-7; 55:10-13).  

The promises of God Himself - very great and precious promises, we are assured that no matter what we run into, that no matter what we encounter after we take the first step - God WILL be there for us. Everything you need for life and godliness after the journey begins is available to you. The only catch -- And there always seems to be one of those things nearby too -- You have to know the promises, and you have to ask Him in faith to experience them to their fullest. Other than that, there are no other overriding restrictions. 

Do you believe that? Do you realize that everything for life and godliness has been promised to you? Do you understand that every time we say we could not help ourselves, that we did not have the necessary resources or capabilities for the mission, or we always chose like the people who passed by the lame man, to keep walking on by for our own selfish reasons refusing to offer assistance, that we are deceiving ourselves and contradicting the conditions of His promises? The great and precious promises which are rock solid guarantees says that everything we need is already waiting for us? Pray on that for a while.

God's great and precious promises are like a forgotten storehouse containing priceless treasures waiting to be discovered over and over again. The treasures within it are mind boggling. The ignorance about them is likewise just as mind boggling too. There is a gap between the fact of the promises and our willingness to believe them. The promises are everywhere - and God invites you to count on them completely.

God Bless         

 

Managing a God created in our own image

When we invent our own ideas of God, we simply create Him in our own image. Kenneth FW Prior

Devotional Reading: Exodus 32:1-8

While Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the law - which by the way began with “You shall have no other gods before Me. “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth (Exodus 20:3-4)." - the recently redeemed people of the covenant were at the bottom of the mountain making a false god. Despite an overwhelming body of evidence that the transcendent God of the universe had powerfully delivered them from Egypt and promised them a land of their very own. With a promise like that in my hip pocket, I might just be a little slow in my effort to mess things up. However, the people decided that after a few days with an absent leader, the promise was just so much hot air and bluster. So faith and belief fell right off the cliff into a bottomless chasm. The God who had redeemed them with a mighty hand and an out stretched arm just up and disappeared; could not be found anywhere. So they did what we all sometimes do when God seems to leave us behind at the worst possible time to fend for ourselves - We create a new one in our own image.


That is the tendency of the human heart. We want a God who is always accessible, a God that we can see and reach out to and touch and even taste - kinda like Mom's best homemade Apple pie. And when the true God offers us Himself, "accessible" turns into "intrusive." We want our slice of the pie Mom made so lovingly - but we don't want Mom around to cut any of the slices for us or when we eat it. What we really wanted was a God who we could control and manage. God was okay as long as all He did was bake the pie. When you think about this, it is more comfortable this way. We don't really want God to lead us into the kitchen on His terms; we want a God who will bake the best Apple Pie and then leave it on the table for us to enjoy at our own convenience. We create an illusion of contentment, create an illusion of faith. It is a small price to pay for our autonomy, a small price we are willing to pay just to get our bellies full of Apple Pie.

But it always turns out to be a huge price, much more devastating than we first allowed ourselves to believe. We don't always factor in the incredible belly aches from too much sugar etc. We don't always take the time to remember the bland taste of Maalox or Pepto Bismal to settle our stomachs down and so on. No matter where we choose to put our faith - in our cast iron stomachs or God - no matter who we credit with knowing it all, it turns out in the end, that there is only one who does, only one who can deliver us from ourselves - and, truth be told - that is God. Truth is not a personal choice. Truth is true, whether we follow it or not. 

We live in an age of relativism. Truth is relative. If the true God is too absent  - or too present - for us, we will just make one that is most convenient to our circumstance. That way, our God can command us only what we want Him to command us. And we can follow Him only when it makes the most sense for us to do so. The people of the covenant made for themselves a golden calf and said "This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.”  What shape would your own idol be: 

Fill in the Blank: "This is my god, ________ O family of mine, who brought me up from the land of Egypt.

God Bless

   

The Potter's Hands

God is the Potter and we are the clay .......

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ²‘Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.’ ³So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. ⁴The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him.
5 Then the word of the Lord came to me: ⁶Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the Lord. Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. ⁷At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, ⁸but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it. ⁹And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, ¹⁰but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it.   JEREMIAH 18:1-10 NRSV

Scottish Minister George MacDonald said that God's fingers can touch nothing but to mold it into loveliness.

Do you remember when you took art class in Elementary School? The teacher would come around to where you were seated and just plop this wet glop of clay in front of you and tell you to make something? You would just kind of stare at it for a while and wonder "Okay, now what do I do this thing?" And you would just sit there and ponder for several minutes before you got started.

I never really got beyond the "ash tray" stage because I just did not have the talent or the imagination to create anything more abstract. Other kids in my class were going to town creating vases, jars, bowls and so on. They just 'dug in' and created something quite sophisticated and beautiful. I just created 'blah' and remained satisfied that I created something i could take home and give to my Mom and DAD.

For the more creative children, they were given the choice of creating more advanced items that allowed them to use spinning wheels and so on. They could create an art project that would eventually be placed on display at the end of the year at the school art festival. There were some really beautiful pieces made.

Today, we are involved in a lifelong art project called - life. We want our lives to turn out the best way possible for us, so we are consumed with crafting circumstances, people, work, and dreams to our own advantage. We plan for the best education, the best job, the best family, the best neighborhood, the best of everything we can think of, constantly trying to shape ourselves into the right form. Whether consciously or not, we are all very diligent craftsmen.

There is a Craftsman who is more skilled than us, though, and if we were to trust Him to shape us into something more beautiful, He would. After all, clay cannot really do much on its own. We try to make art ourselves, and we end up with only a slightly re-shaped blob of clay - not much to look at and certainly not destined for any gallery for display. However, when the Master Artist makes art for us, His work can be positively breathtaking. He has a gender vision of beauty than we do.

We are reluctant to relax in the hands of the Potter for one main reason: we forget why we exist. We assume that clay exists for the sake of it's own feelings or dreams. We focus on "clay esteem," "clay actualization," "clay fulfillment," oblivious to the infinitely larger purpose of our formation.

Clay really exists for the Potter alone. When the Artist is allowed to do His work, the clay displays the creativity of His heart and mind.

Are you allowing the Potter to do His work? Never resist it, even though  there is no guarantee that it will be a comfortable process. In fact, it almost certainly will not be; if clay could feel, the bending, and twisting would likely be excruciating. The trials of your life are like the tools of the Potter. They gouge you for the sake of beauty. But the finished product is glorious. It has to be; it comes from the heart of the Potter.

God says 'trust in Him completely. There is nothing more beautiful than His artwork on display for all to see.   

Promise and Paradise

Jeremiah 29:13-14

The Message (MSG)

^13-14"When you come looking for me, you'll find me. "Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I'll make sure you won't be disappointed." God's Decree. "I'll turn things around for you. I'll bring you back from all the countries into which I drove you"—God's Decree—"bring you home to the place from which I sent you off into exile. You can count on it.

Listen to this promise from the Lord: The Jews in exile would be restored back to what they had lost - The Land of Promise.

That is always the way of God for those who earnestly seek Him.

Job, after all his troubles, was given double what he'd lost because he clung to God and never let go.
Joseph was made doubly fruitful in the land of his affliction because he never lost sight of the God who was always with him, even in an Egyptian prison.

When God's people lose what they were promised - whether through their own  sin or someone else's - and continue to seek Him where He may be found, the result is always better than the first. God's abundance never decreases the second time around.

So it has been from the beginning. Adam and Eve fell and were exiled from the Garden,and it is a long, long exile. However, God makes a promise to all those in this world who seek Him with all their heart: They WILL find Him, and in finding Him they will be restored to what was lost. And from what we know about God's restoration, the next paradise will be much better than the first. The Garden of Eden was only the beginning. The best is yet to come.

That is how we are to live in this world: as citizens of what is yet to come. Their is no grief, no sin, no problem, no frustration, no captivity, no abuse that cannot be redeemed, and the redemption will be more than worthwhile.

The Apostle Paul assured us that the glory to be revealed will far outweigh anything in our present circumstances; that (1Corinthians 2:9) "no eye has seen or ear heard what God has in store for those who love Him. We should work hard to live like it is our second nature to know that.

If we live like we know what is coming - with a smile of anticipation we can hardly suppress - people will ask us to explain the hope we have within us (1Peter 3:13-16). We can tell them of the restoration God promises and how to get in on the plan. We can introduce them to the God who wants to be found. We can end the captivity of many.    

Happy Hearts

Happy Hearts ........

²¹ Do not fear, O soil;
   be glad and rejoice,
   for the Lord has done great things!
²² Do not fear, you animals of the field,
   for the pastures of the wilderness are green;
the tree bears its fruit,
   the fig tree and vine give their full yield.

²³ O children of Zion, be glad
   and rejoice in the Lord your God;
for he has given the early rain for your vindication,
   he has poured down for you abundant rain,
   the early and the later rain, as before.   Joel 2:21-23 NRSV


There are a lot of of hard commands in the Bible. This is not be one of them. Well, it shouldn't be one of them. The instruction to be glad and rejoice should be the most enjoyable command of all. If we ever need permission to be happy people, this is it. God's own Word tells us to.

Why, then, don't we rejoice? Perhaps we do not know why we, forgetting that God would not tell us to be glad unless we had a really good reason to do so. Or maybe we obsess about what we do not yet have, focusing on the half-empty part of our glass - or the 99% full, as it most likely is. Or perhaps we worry  
about the future, not realizing that negativity is nowhere mentioned as a characteristic of Godliness.

Regardless of the reason, the command to rejoice - reiterated many times over in the Bible - seems unrealistic. But it is only unrealistic to those who ignore who God is, and what He has promised. When we refuse to rejoice, to acknowledge His Deliverance, His provision, His favor, His power, His presence, and everything else He tells us is ours by faith. In a sense, it is slander. We impugn His character by focusing our attention on the negatives of the world rather than on the positives of His Kingdom. We tend to forget that the negatives are temporary and the positives are eternal. When it comes to our moods, we have grossly misplaced our priorities.

Psalm 103:2 tells us not to forget any of God's benefits (a gentle rebuke, by the way, to those who do not think we should focus any attention on what God does for us.)  Remembering His benefits not only encourages us. The fact that the Bible is very persistent in its instruction for us "to be glad".
No where in Scripture is negatively rewarded. Only those who look to God in hope and faith are honored.

Spend some time today listing God's benefits. Let yourself be glad.