What About Bob

Count it ALL as Joy

Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials…    James 1:2,

Just trust God.  It seems to be our last resort.  But this scripture reminds me that trusting God should be my first and only resort.  Isn't this where he wants us?  This comes in times of helplessness when we realize that a situation is completely out of our hands and there is nothing left to do BUT trust God.

God asks us to walk some difficult roads; I don't know why. But I do know that His desire is that we grow in grace and knowledge. I know that His desire is that we count it all joy. I am not always sure exactly what He is trying to teach me. I do know that He is my Refuge and Strength. I do know that He is my Fortress and my Deliverer. As we walk through the fiery trials of life, may we all come through it and shine like pure gold.

The Lord is my strength
and my shield;
my heart
trusted in him and I am helped:
therefore
my heart
greatly rejoiceth;
and with my song
will I
praise him (Psalm 27:8.) 

Willing Vessels

Creative Arts Newsletter article for April 2008
You are a masterpiece of God!  There is no doubt that we are works of His hands, lovingly made for a plan. You were placed in the world for a noble purpose that can only be realized once you deny sin and self and embrace the purifying grace of God’s love.  It can only be realized through the Holy Spirit, who, as the Spirit of Christ, unites us with the work of Christ.

God doesn’t call people who are qualified.  He calls people who are willing, and then He qualifies them.  I can’t help but think of the 12 Disciples.  Among them you had a tax collector, a Roman sympathizer who reportedly persecuted Christians, a zealot or patriot, a doubter, a traitor, and four fishermen.   The point is that they had willing hearts.  When we make ourselves a willing vessel this motivates our Heavenly Father to move in our lives!  I am convinced that you will be eternally grateful for the opportunity to exercise faith and respond in obedience to the moving of Christ through the Holy Spirit.  Let us all be willing vessels right now while we all work together at this moment in time.  Don’t miss the blessing!  Don’t miss the moving of the Spirit.  There is nothing more exciting in life.

Make Way

It’s Palm Sunday. Make way today. Make way every day… for the Jesus who is nothing less than King and Lord, and the one who has the power to define himself his way, for His glory and, for what I believe, our complete rescue, healing, and joy.

Purify

As I prepare for worship today, I came across this article by Henry Blackaby

“He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, And purge them as gold and silver, That they may offer to the Lord
An offering in righteousness.”
MALACHI 3:3

“The quality of our worship is not based on our activities but on our character. Churches can mistakenly assume that the better the music, the more impressive the building, and the more eloquent the preaching, the more worshipful the experience will be. Genuine worship, however, originates from within our hearts. If our relationship with God is not healthy, all these things are nothing more than religious pageantry.

The Levites were the worship leaders of their day. Their task was to offer sacrifices on behalf of the people. God declared that before they could worship Him in righteousness, He would first refine them with His refiner’s fire, purging them of any impurities. Merely being members of the religious profession, having official responsibilities in the temple, and going through the rituals of worship, did not guarantee that their religious activities would be acceptable to holy God.

Today, we tend to look to external things to enhance our worship. The true quality of our worship, however, rests within us. If we have not allowed God to purify us first, our worship will be void of His presence. If we do not have a pure heart, we may give offerings, but they will be unacceptable to God. Attending a religious service will not automatically ensure an encounter with God.

If you are not satisfied with the quality of your worship, don’t be too quick to blame your environment. Look first to your own heart. Allow God to refine your heart until it is pleasing to Him, and you will be free to worship God as He intends.”

T-Shirt Christianity

In Vince Antonucci's, All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt, he tells the story of Little Emily...

Little Emily looks cute in her souvenir shirt that proclaims, “My parents went to Florida and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.” But there’s something sad about it too. She missed the journey. She didn’t get to take part in the adventure. While others broke out of their dull routine, Emily missed the excitement of doing something different. She didn’t get to play in the waves or hug Mickey. She didn’t get to experience the joy. Even the horrifying incident when the tire blew out and Stan, the self-proclaimed “Good Samaritan Redneck,” rescued the family in his Sanford and Son pickup truck has quickly become a fond memory for everybody. Everyone except Emily. She missed the journey.

As I’ve gone to church and met Christians and lived as one myself, I’ve realized something.

We are Emily.
We wander around with lifeless shark eyes.
The more honest among us find ourselves asking questions like: Is this all there is? Is this really what Jesus meant when He said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full”? Is this the life Jesus died for me to have? Didn’t Jesus pay too high a price to buy me this life? Am I just supposed to be miserable until I get to heaven?

The Christian life is something like that humidifier. I admit it’s a simple analogy, but it helps convey the give-and-take there is in following Jesus. Repeatedly I need to be filled up with Jesus (which happens as I live life with Jesus), and then I need to continuously release Jesus (which happens as I live the Jesus life). I release Jesus because my purpose is to serve others, to touch them with God’s love. But I can only do that if I’m filled with Jesus. Otherwise I can run hard, but I won’t accomplish anything.

We’ve been invited to live life with Jesus and to live the Jesus life. To do that, we need to understand what it means and overcome what holds us back. Then we can lose the T-shirt and experience the adventure.

Imagine a Contented Life

Philip Parham tells the story of a rich industrialist who was disturbed to find a fisherman sitting lazily beside his boat. "Why aren't you out there fishing?" he asked. "Because I've caught enough fish for today," said the fisherman. "Why don't you catch more fish than you need?' the rich man asked. "What would I do with them?" "You could earn more money," came the impatient reply, "and buy a better boat so you could go deeper and catch more fish. You could purchase nylon nets, catch even more fish, and make more money. Soon you'd have a fleet of boats and be rich like me." The fisherman asked, "Then what would I do?" "You could sit down and enjoy life," said the industrialist. "What do you think I'm doing now?" the fisherman replied as he looked placidly out to sea.
(Our Daily Bread, May 18, 1994)  Art by

Tupperware Party

The other week, my five year old Eli noticed that Mom was gone.  I answered his question: "Mommy is at a Tupperware party."  This explanation satisfied him for only a moment. Puzzled, he asked, "What's a Tupperware party, Dad?"  Well, I thought for a second then told him   "Well, son, at a Tupperware party, a bunch of ladies sit around and sell plastic bowls to each other."

He nodded, indicating that he understood this curious  pastime.

Then he burst into laughter. "Come on, Dad," he said.  "What is it really?"

Did you know that the Bible states that God saves your prayers in bowls?  He cares about you and your prayers.  Don't get discouraged in waiting for His answer. We don't always understand why God answers some prayers and is silent on others.  His ways are always higher than ours.  Just as it is with my child, I can't always give him everything he asks for.  That doesn't mean that I love him any less. 

One day when I get to be in the presence of God, I will see clearly what is now dim.  I'll find out how He was there all along.   I hope we can have a Tupperware party... check out those bowls. 

Valleys

It's easy to be on board when everything is going your way.  But it's the valleys of life that test your faith. 
God is blessing me and my family in this season and we continue to be grateful for His blessings.  But we've been down the valley road before and will be again soon.

In Chapter 3 of Daniel, we read about King Nebuchadnezzar and the fiery furnace episode with 3 guys who refused to bow to Nebo's idol gods.  These 3 guys, Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego, are men worth emulating.  Their faith stood tall as they made the following statement:

17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."

Notice verse 18:  But even if He does not, let it be known that we are not going to worship your gods.  Wow... that is powerful.  God may or may not answer our prayers the way we want them answered.  Our faith should stand regardless of the situation. *

Norman Vincent Peale is quoted to have said, "If everything is going your way, maybe you should ask God to trust you with some trials and tribulations."  How do we handle the valleys.  It's really in the fire that God refines us and molds us. *

One of Garth Brooks' many number 1 songs includes the 1990 hit, "Unanswered Prayers."  Some of God's greatest gifts are all too often an unanswered prayer.   Maybe the valley we're going through is a season of refinement which will turn into a season of blessing.  It those seasons are a Godly recipe, it would  read:

Season of the Trial
Season of the Blessing
Repeat until finished
Meet the Head Chef

*Thanks to Scotty Sanders who shared from this passage and prompted this devotion.

What is Prayer

My friend David Peyton posted a Jim Cymbala article from CBN.  Here is an excerpt.

SCOTT ROSS: Jim, this is a basic question. I don't want    to be simplistic, but define prayer.

JIM CYMBALA: Prayer is the opening of the heart so we can receive all these good things that God has for us every day. It's like sitting down at a table that God has prepared for us. He says, 'I have everything you need today - all the grace, all the wisdom, all the provision that you need - but sit down at the table and eat. Don't be so rushed and so busy and try to live without My supply.'

JIM CYMBALA: One of the things you have to do is pray for insight and discernment and spiritual understanding about what's happening while you're praying. Now, one of the things you have to remember is that when you pray, you don't automatically get that answer in the time frame you want. The hardest part of the prayer of faith is waiting. As my friend Dave Wilkerson and I were once saying - I think he's the one who told me - the hardest part of faith is the last half hour. In other words, you're praying and you're waiting and God says, 'Now, wait on.' That's why David says in the Psalms, 'Wait, my soul, upon the Lord.' Don't get discouraged. Don't give up because it hasn't come in your time, because many times in my life God has answered later than I wanted, but when He answered, I saw the wisdom in what He was accomplishing by waiting. God does all things well.

Read the rest HERE.

Walk in the Light

 

I've been hanging out at the local Starbucks.  This week I was there when it closed one night and was there for the opening the next day. 

Have you ever noticed that the later it gets at night, the weirder the people seem to be?  The people that hang out in SB in the evening are very different from those who come in the morning.

How much better it is to walk in the light. The Bible tells us, “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).