Every Good and Perfect Gift

 

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." James 1:17 CSB  

James says that "every good and perfect gift" comes from God. I've discovered that a lot of times God's gifts don't initially seem all that good or perfect. 

Three years ago I was experiencing severe A-Fib and was diagnosed with HOCM (look it up, too hard to spell it out 😊), and I was facing open-heart surgery. None of that seemed very good or perfect. But that surgery turned out to be life-changing for me. I've lost over 40 lbs, my heart function is better than it has been in many years and I have more energy now than any time I've had as an adult. What seemed scary to me, turned out to be a good thing for me. I didn't see it at the time, but all of it has been a gift from God. 

We say it a lot at church, but "God is (really) good ... All the time. " 

I pray you enjoy His good and perfect presence (and presents) in your life this week. 

Because I Am Yours

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!  1 John 3:1

Last week, while preparing for a sermon Romans 1:5, "The Purpose of the Gospel," I came a across this beautiful story of the amazing grace of God. I found the story on a blog written by Jerry Bouma, which you can find here. But the story itself is from a book called "PROOF: Finding Freedom through the Intoxicating Joy of Irresistible Grace" by Daniel Montgomery and Timothy Paul Jones. The book is available at Amazon. 

In the book, Timothy Paul Jones writes about how a trip to Disney with his adopted daughter taught him an incredible lesson on the gospel and God's amazing grace. Here is the story: 

“Because I’m Yours” 

I never dreamed that taking a child to Disney World could be so difficult — or that such a trip could teach me so much about God’s outrageous grace. 

Our middle daughter had been previously adopted by another family. I [Timothy] am sure this couple had the best of intentions, but they never quite integrated the adopted child into their family of biological children. After a couple of rough years, they dissolved the adoption, and we ended up welcoming an eight-year-old girl into our home. 

For one reason or another, whenever our daughter’s previous family vacationed at Disney World, they took their biological children with them, but they left their adopted daughter with a family friend. Usually — at least in the child’s mind — this happened because she did something wrong that precluded her presence on the trip. 

And so, by the time we adopted our daughter, she had seen many pictures of Disney World and she had heard about the rides and the characters and the parades. But when it came to passing through the gates of the Magic Kingdom, she had always been the one left on the outside. Once I found out about this history, I made plans to take her to Disney World the next time a speaking engagement took our family to the southeastern United States. 

I thought I had mastered the Disney World drill. I knew from previous experiences that the prospect of seeing cast members in freakishly oversized mouse and duck costumes somehow turns children into squirming bundles of emotional instability. What I didn’t expect was that the prospect of visiting this dreamworld would produce a stream of downright devilish behavior in our newest daughter. In the month leading up to our trip to the Magic Kingdom, she stole food when a simple request would have gained her a snack. She lied when it would have been easier to tell the truth. She whispered insults that were carefully crafted to hurt her older sister as deeply as possible — and, as the days on the calendar moved closer to the trip, her mutinies multiplied. 

A couple of days before our family headed to Florida, I pulled our daughter into my lap to talk through her latest escapade. “I know what you’re going to do,” she stated flatly. “You’re not going to take me to Disney World, are you?” The thought hadn’t actually crossed my mind, but her downward spiral suddenly started to make some sense. She knew she couldn’t earn her way into the Magic Kingdom — she had tried and failed that test several times before — so she was living in a way that placed her as far as possible from the most magical place on earth. 

In retrospect, I’m embarrassed to admit that, in that moment, I was tempted to turn her fear to my own advantage. The easiest response would have been, “If you don’t start behaving better, you’re right, we won’t take you” — but, by God’s grace, I didn’t. Instead, I asked her, “Is this trip something we’re doing as a family?” 

She nodded, brown eyes wide and tear-rimmed.
“Are you part of this family?”
She nodded again.
“Then you’re going with us. Sure, there may be some consequences to help you remember what’s right and what’s wrong — but you’re part of our family, and we’re not leaving you behind.” 

I’d like to say that her behaviors grew better after that moment. They didn’t. Her choices pretty much spiraled out of control at every hotel and rest stop all the way to Lake Buena Vista. Still, we headed to Disney World on the day we had promised, and it was a typical Disney day. Overpriced tickets, overpriced meals, and lots of lines, mingled with just enough manufactured magic to consider maybe going again someday. 

In our hotel room that evening, a very different child emerged. She was exhausted, pensive, and a little weepy at times, but her month-long facade of rebellion had faded. When bedtime rolled around, I prayed with her, held her, and asked, “So how was your first day at Disney World?” 

She closed her eyes and snuggled down into her stuffed unicorn. After a few moments, she opened her eyes ever so slightly. “Daddy,” she said, “I finally got to go to Disney World. But it wasn’t because I was good; it’s because I’m yours.” 

It wasn’t because I was good; it’s because I’m yours. 

That’s the message of outrageous grace. 

Outrageous grace isn’t a favor you can achieve by being good; it’s the gift you receive by being God’s. Outrageous grace is God’s goodness that comes looking for you when you have nothing but a middle finger flipped in the face of God to offer in return. It’s a farmer paying a full day’s wages to a crew of deadbeat day laborers with only a single hour punched on their time cards (Matthew 20:1 – 16). It’s a man marrying an abandoned woman and then refusing to forsake his covenant with her when she turns out to be a whore (Ezekiel 16:8 – 63; Hosea 1:1 — 3:5). It’s the insanity of a shepherd who puts ninety-nine sheep at risk to rescue the single lamb that’s too stupid to stay with the flock (Luke 15:1 – 7). It’s the love of a father who hands over his finest rings and robes to a young man who has squandered his inheritance on drunken binges with his fair-weather friends (Luke 15:11 – 32)…It’s one-way love that calls you into the kingdom not because you’ve been good but because God has chosen you and made you his own. And now he is chasing you to the ends of the earth to keep you as his child, and nothing in heaven or hell can ever stop him…

Beautiful, huh? Now go wipe your eyes, blow your nose and praise the Lord who loves you not because of what you do for Him, but for who you are to Him; and enjoy the rest of this blessed day!

Praying With Confidence

"This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us." 1 John 5:14 (NAS)

Today I met with the Director of Missions for our church's association and a group of leaders from a local Hispanic church. David, our Director of Missions, asked me to meet with them to discuss the possibility of sharing our church facilities with their church. I thought I was just going to be meeting with their pastor and his daughter who translates for him, but there were actually six other leaders from their church, only one of which spoke a little English.

The Hispanic church is nine years old and they had been renting a little storefront building for the last few years. They shared that they had been having problems in the building because the air conditioning had gone out and the owner didn't want to pay the $2,000 fix it unless he raised their rent. They also shared that when it rained, water would come into their children's area and the church has been growing and they needed more space, but they didn't have resources to rent a larger space.  Over the past two to three months they had been praying earnestly for God to provide a place for them that would meet their needs and something they could afford.

We had a great discussion and I will be talking with our church about opening our doors to our brothers and sisters in the coming days, but what really touched me during our time together was their passion for prayer. They spoke of how they had been praying with confidence that God was hearing their prayers and that He would answer in His time. They were confident that He would provide a place that would meet all their needs they believed God had brought us together in answer to their prayers. I was also struck by their gratitude - each person individually expressed their gratitude that we would even be willing to consider allowing them to use our building (I told them that it is not "our" building, but it was God's building and He wanted it used for His work and His glory, whoever was using it).

When it came time to depart, David asked their pastor if he would pray for us. We stood, held hands in a circle, and I expected him to pray in Spanish and his daughter translate for me and David. What I heard though, was a chorus of Spanish voices praying passionately to our Heavenly Father with gratitude and confidence that He was not only hearing but answering their prayers. All of them were praying out loud at the same time, and it was beautiful. I didn't understand the language, but I felt the Spirit and the confidence they had in the reality of God hearing and answering their prayers was unmistakable. We have a ways to go before having an agreement to use our building, but if today was an indicator of how things are going to go, God will bring things together for us soon.

Something changed in me today - just being in the presence of the Spirit and of God's people praying with passion and confidence. I can't really explain the change, I just know I am different. Something about praying with my Hispanic brothers (and sister) has stirred something within me to pray with more boldness and passion, having confidence that God is hearing and answering my prayers. I can't wait to see what He is going to do next. I'm praying God spreads this change to those around me as well.

Spiritual Warfare: What You Really Need to Know!

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Ephesians 6:10 (NIV)

 We've been studying spiritual warfare for a few months now in our Wednesday night Bible study at church and for the past few weeks we've been studying the Armor of God. Before that we spent several weeks talking about our enemy - his nature, purposes and strategies. In a previous blog I wrote about the purpose of the enemy being to "steal, kill and destroy" (John 10:10) and what that looked like in my own experiences. For me, the enemy seeks to steal my joy, so he can kill my peace, and ultimately destroy my confidence and contentment in the Lord. He wants to move me from being unhappy, to unsettled, to uncertain. He's good at what he does because he's been doing it a long time.

But God has not left us defenseless against the attacks against the enemy. Ephesians 6 10-20 is the pinnacle passage on spiritual warfare (though not the only one). Lately our study has focused on the various pieces on the Armor of God, but the foundation to standing against the attacks of enemy is found in v.10 of that passage - "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power." The word translated "be strong" is written in passive form, meaning that it is something that happens TO you, not BY you. It literally means to be empowered by the Lord, or to be strengthened by Him. In other words, He doesn't just tell you to be strong in Him, He also does the strengthening. To be clear - this isn't about OUR strength and mighty power, it is about HIS strength and mighty power being manifest in us.

But how does He strengthen us? Does He just magically make us strong and powerful? That's not been my experience - in my life God has worked through the Holy Spirit to strengthen me through my obedience to His word. In other words, He tells me what I need to do and as I do it, His Spirit empowers me to be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. It is a cooperative effort; He's doing the work as I am obeying the word. 

So how does He empower us to be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power? Again, this is my experience and not an exhaustive study on spiritual warfare and how to defeat the devil, but this is how God has worked in my life when I'm facing the foe. This is how He has made me to be strong in the Lord. I'm strong in the Lord when ...

1. I rejoice in Him - As I said in the previous post, the enemy wants to steal my joy, because the joy of the Lord is my strength (Nehemiah 8:10). If he can rob me of my joy, he can weaken my confidence in God. Joy is a powerful weapon in the war against the enemy. That's why the Bible repeatedly tells us to "rejoice in the Lord." In fact, that exact phrase is used at least 12 times in Scripture (Psalm 32:11, 35:9, 64:10, 97:12, 104:34; Isaiah 29:10, 41:16; Joel 2:23; Habakkuk 3:18; Zechariah 10:7; Philippians 3:1, 4:4). When the Bible repeats something that many times, it is important!

My "life passage" is Habakkuk 3:18-19 - (Paraphrased) "Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation, for the Lord God is my strength and He makes my feet like the feet of a deer, and makes me walk upon my (spiritually) high places." God gave me that passage more than 30 years ago, and when I've practiced it (rejoicing in the Lord), He has strengthened me and empowered me with His mighty power, and He will do it for you as well.

BTW - rejoicing in the Lord isn't a suggestion ("try this and see if it works"), it is a command from God. And it isn't something we do on our own, but something He does within us. When I choose to rejoice - choose to be joyful instead of fearful, frustrated, anxious, worried, discouraged, etc. God grows my joy and I am strengthened in the Lord. When we face attacks from the enemy, we may not FEEL like rejoicing, but OUR FEELINGS ARE NOT GOD - God is God and He is greater than our feelings and His commands are greater than our feelings. So do what God commands us to do - rejoice in Him because the joy of the Lord is our strength. (Jim Johnston has written an excellent article on "Why Are So Many Christians Unhappy?" on the Desiring God website; it's a great encouragement on this subject).

       Secondly, I'm strong in the Lord when ...
2. I obey His commands - This kind of piggy backs on the previous point, but it is important. When God elevated Joshua to the leadership of the Israelites after the death of Moses, He gives him clear instructions about what Joshua is to do to lead the people into the Promised Land. Twice in two verses (6&7) He tells Joshua to "be strong and courageous." Then, to drive home the point in v.9 God says, "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid, nor be discouraged..." In other words, "Joshua, do what I am telling you to do! Be strong and be courageous!"

Honestly, for most of my life when I read or heard the word "commands" from the Bible, I thought of the Ten Commandments, and I generally thought of them as a list of "don'ts" - don't steal, don't kill, don't commit adultery, don't lie, etc. To me, obeying God's commands was about not doing bad things. But as I read the Bible and grew in my relationship with the Lord, I realized there were a lot more "DO's" in the commands of God, than there were "DON'Ts". Contemporary writer Eric Metaxas says, “Being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God's will.” When I actively obey God's commands, I grow strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.

     Finally, I'm strong in the Lord when ... 
3. I rest in the promise of His presence - A tactic of the enemy is to isolate his prey and cause him/her to feel like they are alone, perhaps even that God has abandoned them. When we are experiencing trials, going through life storms, or if we have sinned against God, he (the devil) whispers things like "God has given up on you. If God really cared about you, you wouldn't be having such a hard time. He's abandoned you because you've failed Him again. If He loved you, you wouldn't have so many problems." His goal is to cause you to doubt God's presence and power in your life.

But multiple times in His word God says, "I will never leave you, or forsake you" (Deuteronomy 31:6,8; Joshua 1:5; 1 Chronicles 28:20; Matthew 28:20; Hebrews 13:5 just to name a few). In Joshua 1, God gave Joshua his marching orders, commanded him to be strong and courageous, and then assured Joshua that He would be with him wherever he would go (Joshua 1:9). God's response to our every need and in every circumstance is "I am with you," and if God is with us, we can be strong in the Lord.

I've never served in the military, but I have a lot of friends and family who have and I am thankful for their willingness to serve our nation. One of the things I've picked up over the years is that being a good soldier is more of a mindset than almost anything else. As a soldier, you can have the strongest armor, the latest and most effective weapons, but if you don't have confidence in your commander, faith in your mission, and courage in your heart, you're probably not going to be very effective on the battlefield. You will make decisions based on fear instead of faith which will probably lead to your defeat.

I think there is a correlation to spiritual warfare - you can appreciate all the promises in the Bible, understand all the strategies of the enemy, and know all the pieces of the armor of God, but if you aren't first "strong in the Lord and in His mighty power" you're not going to be very successful in the battle. You will make decisions based on fear instead of faith, which will probably lead to your defeat.

The really GOOD NEWS is that the ultimate battle has been won by Christ, and if you are in Christ you ultimately win over the enemy. But if we "win in the end" shouldn't we also be winning the daily battles against the attacks of the enemy? Does God want us to live defeated, discouraged and disappointed lives until we die and go to heaven? I don't think so, or else why would He teach us so much about spiritual warfare in His word? Make no mistake about it, we won't live our "best life now" in this world - it is fallen and broken and is governed by the enemy (John 12:31-33, 14:13, 16:11; Ephesians 2:1-3, 6:12-13), but we also don't have to live our "worst life now." God has won the ultimate victory for us, and we can live in victory now as well! BE STRONG IN THE LORD AND IN HIS MIGHTY POWER!

God's Perfect Timing

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19 ESV

Over the years I've seen the Lord's perfect timing several times; saw it again yesterday and today. Our church has a food pantry and clothes closet to help people in need. Our director Rachel told me yesterday that we had some baby food in the pantry that was going to expire at the end of the month so she was going to post on a community site to see if anyone needed it. Also yesterday one of our church members came by to drop off some baby clothes for boys that a relative had given to her. Some of them were brand new with the tags still on them.

This morning a lady contacted Rachel about the baby food and made an appointment to come by and pick it up. When she came in, she began to open up to Rachel about what was going on in her life. About four months ago she had moved to the area with her husband and six kids, age range from 16yrs to 3 months old (born here). Unfortunately her husband is an alcoholic and a few days ago he abandoned her and the kids with no money. She had run out of formula and had just started giving the infant baby food, but had run out of that too. Thankfully, we were not only able to give her baby food, but we had formula to give her as well. Rachel asked if she needed diapers, but she said she had plenty of diapers but could use some wipes, which we happened to have in our pantry.

As they were talking, Rachel asked her if they needed any clothes. The lady was hesitant and at first said she didn't want to take more than what had already been given to her, but she finally told Rachel that before he left them, her husband, in a drunken stupor had taken all of the babies clothes and burned them in a barrel behind their house. The only clothes the baby had were the ones he was wearing.

Of course we had received a large donation of baby boy clothes just the day before! (God's perfect timing). She was able to take a box of clothes for the baby and also food for the family. She and the kids are moving back to Illinois this weekend to live with her mom, but the food we provided would get them through the next couple of days. The woman was overwhelmed - she had come just expecting to get some baby food for her baby, but thanks to your generosity and God's perfect timing, she was able to leave not only with food and clothes, but with hope in a God that would supply all of her and her children's needs.

Thank you church for your generosity and for helping those in need. God is good ... all the time...

What Kind of Fruit Grows on Your Tree?

8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. John 15:8 (ESV)

Jesus said that a tree is known by its fruit - a good tree bears good fruit and a bad tree bears bad fruit. (see Matt. 12:33) He also said in John 15, that His Father is glorified when we bear much fruit. Basil of Caesarea, a 4th Century church leader taught, "A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds." Since life has been figuratively illustrated as a tree, the question is, what kind of fruit grows on your tree? 

I don't know a lot about trees; I always had trouble identifying trees even by their leaves in middle school science class. When we moved from Knoxville to Jefferson City we had a number of fruit trees in our yard. My dad knew they were fruit trees, but we just didn't know what kind of fruit they would bear ... until spring when the apple trees bloomed and produced apples. Then, late summer we discovered that we also had peach trees. We knew what type of trees they were, simply by the fruit they bore. 

This is also true of our lives. Those around us know what kind of people we are because of the fruit that we bear in our daily living. What kind of fruit grows on the tree of your life? Most people are more interested in picking fruit than in producing fruit, ("it's easier to be a consumer than a contributor" John Maxwell), but Jesus calls us to bear fruit, so what kind of fruit grows on the tree of your life? 

Galatians 5:22 tells us that the follower of Christ will bear the FRUIT of the Holy Spirit, and then it gives nine qualities to that fruit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (is the song stuck in your head now?). We've been studying these nine qualities on Sunday mornings at Grace Point and this week we are looking at "goodness" - what is it? Where does it come from? and How is it seen in our lives? You can join us live (9am), join us on Facebook live, or listen to the messages at our website. 

But I want to talk briefly about bearing the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. I think John 15 gives us three principles for bearing healthy fruit of the Spirit. God's Spirit bears His fruit in our lives when we ... 

1. ... Remain connected to the source of fruit
Jesus says in John 14:4-5, "Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing." Christ is the source of power that produces fruit in our lives; when we are connected to Him, He produces His fruit in our lives - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, etc. If those things are missing from our lives, the place to start is in checking our connection to Him. Some questions to think about - Have I ever been connected to Him? (Have you ever been saved by Christ?) Am I staying connected to Him through prayer, study of His word, fellowship with His followers, regular worship, obedience, etc.? When we are connected to the right source of Christ, He will produce good fruit in our lives. If those things that are listed in Galatians 5:22 are missing from our lives, we need to check our connection to the source of fruit. 

2. ... Are pruned and disciplined
Jesus says in v.2, "He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more." Fruit bearing is God's greatest desire for His children. Just like every parent wants their children to grow up to be mature, productive adults who contribute more than they consume, God wants His children to grow up to bear fruit that pleases Him. So to produce the most fruit in our lives, He sometimes cuts things away that hinder us from bearing the most fruit - we call this "being disciplined" by God. Sometimes things He removes from our lives aren't bad things, they're just not the best things for producing His fruit. You will be fruitful only as you become disciplined by God; pruning is the price for producing. Pruning can be a painful process, but when we remember that God's goal is to get the best fruit from our lives, we can endure and cooperate with His process. Finally ...

3. ... Realize the glory it brings God when we bear much fruit. 
Jesus says in v.8, "When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father." When our lives are abounding in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control God is pleased, He is glorified. When we bear the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, it is evidence that we are Jesus' disciples, God is our Father and He is praised, exalted and glorified. When the tree of our life bears His fruit, we are healthy and God is pleased. 

So what kind of fruit grows on the tree of your life? Is it the fruit of God's Spirit? Is it good fruit? Because a good tree brings forth good fruit. Are you connected to the Vine? If not, get in touch with me, I'd love to help you make that connection...

Don't Miss the Miracle

For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalm 139:13-14 (NIV)

Most people say they have never experienced a miracle, but the truth is, not a day goes by that we don't experience a miracle. For example, take this planet we live on - scientist tell us that Earth is spinning on its axis at a rate of 1,000 miles per hour while suspended in space. On top of that, this third rock from the sun is orbiting at a rate of about 67,000 miles per hour; that's about 87 times faster than the speed of sound, or 366 times faster than a race car at Talladega. And we did it all without noticing. On a Monday when it seems like you didn't accomplish much, remember that you traveled about 1.6 million miles through space

Not a big enough miracle for you? Then just look in the mirror. Every moment of every day your body is performing thousands upon thousands of functions you don't even notice. Every moment you are inhaling oxygen, metabolizing energy, digesting food, purifying toxins from your blood, directing muscles, processing data through multiple streams of information and much, much more. Your body is an incredibly complicated masterpiece of machinery. That 7lbs of brain in your head that runs everything in your body is making about ten quadrillion calculations every second. 

Ever feel like your brain is so full of information you have no room for more? That feeling is false! According to Northwestern University psychologist Paul Reber, the brain’s memory storage capacity is around 2.5 petabytes [1 petabyte ≈ 1,000 terabytes]. For comparison, if your brain worked like a digital video recorder in a television, 2.5 petabytes would be enough to hold three million hours of TV shows. You would have to leave the TV running continuously for more than 300 years to use up all that storage.

One more bit of "miracle" information - every individual person has a unique personal genome sequence that describes who you are. If your personal genome sequence were written out long-hand, it would be a three-billion-word book. By comparison, the King James Version of the Bible contains 783,137 words, so your genetic code is the equivalent of nearly 4,000 Bibles. No wonder the Psalmist wrote, "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made."

Everyday you not only experience a miracle, you are a miracle. There never has been and there never will be another you. You are fearfully and wonderfully made - that's not a testament to you, that is a testament to the one who knit you together in your mother's womb. He is a God of miracles, just look in the mirror. And every day there are miracles happening all around you, so don't miss the miracles. As Albert Einstein once said, “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” Live the miracle that is you and that is your life!

Wednesday Words

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths." Proverbs 3:5-6

For the past few Wednesday nights at Grace Point Talbott, we have been studying this one passage of Scripture under the title, "What to do when you don't know what to do." All of us experience seasons in life when it feels like the rug has been pulled out from under us, or as a friend recently described an experience in their family - an earthquake has happened. The "ground" moved and shook up our lives.

What do you do when those experiences happen? You wonder what God is doing in/through your circumstances, or if He is even involved in the circumstances; is He even paying attention to what is going on in your life. And if He is, why isn't He doing something about the situation? And what does He want me to do about the situation - do I try to fix it, do I ride it out, or do I bail out and go in a different direction myself? I realize these are pretty vague and broad statements, but I trust you get the picture, there are seasons in life when it is hard to 'feel" God's presence, or see how He is working, or know what He wants us to do. So what do you do when you don't know what to do?

The above passage gives us three important statements:
1. Trust in the Lord with all your heart - when you don't know what to do, trust that God is doing something both in you and in your circumstances. As the preacher C.H. Spurgeon said, "God is too good to be unkind and He is too wise to be mistaken. And when we cannot trace His hand, we must trust His heart." 

2. Lean not on your own understanding. Our human nature is such that if we don't see God doing something about our situation, He must want us to figure it out ourselves. More often than not, this is a mistake. Our "understanding" is limited and finite, and when we try to fix it ourselves we end up making things worse (think Abraham, Sarah, Hagar and Ishmael, Genesis 16-17). We are going to lean on something, but let us lean on the Lord and His promises rather than our own limited mental and physical abilities.

3. Tonight we are going to look at the last statement in that passage: "In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths." We are going to unpack this verse and look at our "ways", what it means to "acknowledge Him" and what "direct your paths" really looks like.

Join us tonight at 7pm at Grace Point Talbott, or watch my Facebook page around 7:15 and we will be going live.

See you tonight.

You Are His...

See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!

1 John 3:1 (NLT)

Imagine this scene; you have just been born and are taking your first breathe from outside of your mother's womb. The doctors and nurses are smiling, looking lovingly at your little body. But you notice your parents are strangely quiet. They are looking at you and conferring with one another in hushed voices. 

     Then your father says, "Doctor, could you hold him up in the light so we could get a better look at him? We just want to check everything out and make sure this child is right for us. We were looking at the other children in the nursery earlier, and another baby there seemed to have, well, a little more promise. This one is a little chubby and has dark colored eyes and brown hair. We wanted one with blue eyes, and, you know... a little less baby fat." 

    They whisper into each other's ears as the doctor holds you up in the light. Your mother says, "Doctor, I'm sure we would eventually learn to love this baby, but we really have our hearts set on that blond little baby in the nursery. We think he would fit our family much better. Do you think we could make arrangements to exchange our baby of the one in the nursery? We will be glad to pay for all the expenses." 

     This scenario is obviously absurd. When you were born, your parents didn't negotiate for a better child, they accepted you into their family without qualifications. Their love for you was not based on the color of your hair, the size of your body, or your performance as a baby. They loved you simply because you were their child. Their love may have been imperfect at times, because they are human like you and me, but they loved you because you were theirs. 

    God also loves you, but His love is a perfect love. He loves you not because of who you are, what you do or don't do, or what you accomplish in your life. He loves you because you are His. His love is unconditional and nothing you have done or will ever do can cause Him not to love you. As He said through the prophet Jeremiah,  “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself." Jeremiah 31:3 (NLT) 

    When you realize that you are loved with an "everlasting" love; loved not because of what you do, or who you are, but loved because of who God is and what He has done for you, it will change your life. God loves you because He created you, and He has proven His love for you through His Son Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross (Romans 5:8). He loves you and calls you into His family as His own child. See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! 1 John 3:1 (NLT)

    Live today in the reality of His everlasting love for you. 

WEDNESDAY WORDS

Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: "Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You." John 17:1

Jesus, in His earthly ministry never sought glory for Himself, but always sought glory for His Father. He never attempted to draw attention to Himself. In fact, several places throughout Scripture, Jesus commands people to tell no one who He really was. He sometimes hid Himself from people and often sought to get away from the crowds. He did not seek attention for Himself.

But He always sought the attention of His Father and attention for His Father. In the opening lines of His great intercessory prayer Jesus says to His Father, "Glorify your Son, that Your Son may glorify You." Jesus isn't seeking glory for Himself, but for the Father. Yet, He realizes that the ultimate way that the Father will be glorified, is if the attention of the world is upon Him at the Cross.

The Crucifixion of Christ didn't occur in secrecy under the cover of darkness in a small deserted town. No, it took place during a religious festival, in the light of day, in a city that was overflowing with people from all over the civilized world. Christ was "glorified" or lifted up, that the world could see and take note. But it wasn't about Him, it was about His Father. Jesus endured the public humiliation and torture on the Cross, so that others (including us) could see how much "God so loved the world." In His death on the Cross, Jesus glorifies the Father, and draws our attention to Him that we might know Him and glorify Him in our own lives. To God be the Glory!