Live Well, Live Wisely

Do you want to be counted wise, to build a reputation for wisdom? Here’s what you do: Live well, live wisely, live humbly. It’s the way you live, not the way you talk, that counts. Mean-spirited ambition isn’t wisdom. Boasting that you are wise isn’t wisdom. Twisting the truth to make yourselves sound wise isn’t wisdom. It’s the furthest thing from wisdom—it’s animal cunning, devilish conniving. Whenever you’re trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the others’ throats.

Real wisdom, God’s wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor. 

James 3:13-18 MSG

 

How Great Thou Art, part 2

When does life begin? Is it before the sperm and egg come together? Is it at conception?  Is it hours after conception, or days, or weeks, or some time during the first trimester? So what did God mean when He said to Jeremiah that He knew him before He formed him in the womb (see Jeremiah 1:5)? To what was the writer referring in Psalm 139:15-16a?  "My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body."  

So, when does life begin? The questions came to mind again as I recently stood before an incubator in a hospital's neonatal intensive care unit.  The little girl was taken from her mother's womb at a mere 25 weeks (6 months).  This was my first time to see a preemie at this young age.  My naked eye saw very clearly a baby ... just very tiny, weighed in at just over one pound ... hair on her head ... fully formed arms, hands, fingers w/nails ... fully formed legs, feet, toes w/nails ... very active arms and hands, legs and feet ... used hands to take hold of connectors to her body ... stretched out her legs, sometimes moved them from side to side, sometimes up and down.

Not knowing what to expect, I stood there in awe and amazement. And I could only think, my God, how great Thou art.  How amazing are you, God.  How could anyone ever believe that man is a product of evolution? The process of birth, how miraculous?  Our minds are incapable of understanding how this development unfolds.  So we merely just take this development for granted.  We assume that life just happens. And it doesn't, it can't.  Who then is this Master Creator? Master Designer? Life Giver? Sustainer of Life? And my thought remained the same, O Lord my God, how great Thou art!!!

How Great Thou Art

As part of my family's 40th year reunion in Phoenix, we traveled to the Grand Canyon, one of the seven wonders of the world.  On this my first visit, I stood and looked in awe at the handiwork of Almighty God.  The formations, the colors, the depth, I viewed all with my mouth open, bottom lip hanging, saying "Wow," and thinking how great is our God.  I can only imagine its immense size -- 277 river miles long, up to 18 miles wide, and a mile deep.  I could literally feel the words of the songwriter . . . O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder, Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made, I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy power throughout the universe displayed. Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee, how great Thou art!

What a Mighty God we serve.  My thoughts wandered as I considered the Creator of this universe, His sovereignty, His awesomeness, His might and power, His majesty, His glory and honor.  I thought, who is man, what is man that Almighty God is mindful of him?  Of me? Of us? 

On the return trip as I was jolted back into the present, my thoughts turned to the foolishness of man.  Who do we think we are?  How little do we actually know or understand? Yet, how much do we think we know?  How much in control do we think ourselves to be?  What power do we imagine ourselves to have?  We lie, steal, and cheat.  We take into our own hands the lives of others.  We ignore Almighty God, our Creator. 

Forgive me Father for my thoughtlessness.  You are great, and greatly to be praised. How great Thou art!

Mission Impossible, part 3

"For nothing is impossible with God." 

Luke 1:37

Sometimes, a woman wants nothing more than to conceive and give birth to a healthy child.  She and her husband try and try and try again.  They pray and pray and pray all the more.  Nothing happens.  Sometimes, the heartfelt desire is not just to give birth, but to give birth to a son who will carry on the family name.  Years pass and the woman finds herself beyond her child bearing years.  Too late, it won't happen, it can't happen. Maybe, just maybe, this wasn't God's plan, you think. 

Consider Sarah, the wife of Abraham.  When Abraham was 75 and Sarah was 65, God promised that he'd be the father of many nations. This followed with a more specific promise of a son born to them (see Genesis 17).    As they grew older and older, no child was conceived.  Only when they reached the ages of 100 and 90 respectively, when conceiving and giving birth was an absolute impossibility, did Sarah conceive and give birth to the son of promise, Isaac.  What was impossible for man was possible with God. 

Ask Elizabeth, Zechariah's wife and the mother of John the Baptist about God's possibility (see Luke 1).  Ask Samson's mother, the wife of Manoah, how long she had been sterile and childless before he was born (see Judges 13).  Ask Hannah, Samuel's mother, how much time she spent in prayer before she was able to conceive (see 1 Samuel 1).  Ask the virgin Mary about the impossibility of becoming pregnant even though she had never had a sexual encounter (see Luke 1).

God's word is before each of you, all of us.  It is the truth.  For nothing is impossible with God.  What does God mean when He says "nothing"?  Your heartfelt desire, your greatest need, the desires of your heart are all included in God's "nothing."

Mission Impossible, part 2

"For nothing is impossible with God."

Luke 1:37

Consider a woman who suffered bleeding for 12 years which made her ceremonially unclean according to Jewish law (see Mark 5:25-34).  She had seen all the doctors and specialists, and had tried every possible remedy.  Nothing worked.  Instead of getting better, she only got worse. In addition to being sick, weak, and in consistent pain, her husband had divorced her, family had quietly backed away from her, she had no friends, couldn't even go to church.  Unable to work, she had finally spent all she had on doctors and medicine. Where to turn?  What to do? Life had become for her a mission impossible.

One day, she became sick and tired of being sick and tired. She had heard of a man called Jesus.  He was to be in her town the next day.  She had overheard snatches of conversation about how He went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil.  Could He be her one last hope for deliverance?  Would He talk to her?  If she touched Him, He'd be made unclean. Was it possible for her to be healed?  Would He charge her anything?  What would people say?

The more she thought about the man Jesus, the more a plan unfolded in the recesses of her mind.  Jesus, a Jewish Rabbi, would be wearing a prayer shawl. A blue thread would be hanging from each of its four corners.   If she could get through the crowd of people unnoticed, and touch any one of those blue tassels, she'd be healed. On her knees, she slowly but surely made her way through the crowd.  Fully persuaded, absolutely determined, persistently diligent, the blue tassel on his prayer shawl was but an arm's length away. And then, as she touched it, she knew that she knew that she knew that her impossible mission had been accomplished.

Will God do the same for you?  Yes!  "For nothing is impossible with God."

 

 

Mission Impossible

"For nothing is impossible with God."

Luke 1:37

Start a business.  Go to law school.  Move three children and a dog across country, away from all family, friends, and familiar places.  Quit your job.  Lose 100 pounds.  Go back to school.  Seek healing from a stage 4 cancer diagnosis. 

Before you is what seems to be an impossible mission or situation. You are facing insurmountable odds.  Others have been at this place and failed.  Others have had the same diagnosis and died. What makes you different from all the others before you? 

The Word of God often reminds us of impossible situations that with Him are made possible.  And that is why we are told by the gospel writer that nothing is impossible with God.  Even our unchanging God may change his mind as He did with King Hezekiah (see 2 Kings 20:1-6) when he was at the point of death.  The prophet Isaiah was sent to tell him that he would not recover and was going to die.  Hezekiah immediately went  in prayer to the life giving Source, his Creator, the Great Physician and reminded Him of his faithful and devoted walk.  God changed His mind, healed the king, and added 15 years to his life.

Will God, who is no respecter of persons, remove impossibility from your situation?  Yes, of course He will.  Can you pray and believe God for the impossible to be made possible? Will you speak to the mountain of impossibility facing you?  Can you believe that with God, nothing is impossible?

Speak those words.  Boldly declare them.  Act on them.  See God change the impossible to possible.

Love Self ... Deny Self: Which is God's Way?

Love self ... deny self: which is God's way?  Are we not commanded to do both? We know and understand that the first and greatest command is to love God, but is not the second to love your neighbor as you love yourself (see Matthew 22:37-39)? Isn't this a command to love your neighbor and to love yourself? Try reading the passage again. To love yourself would make a third command, right?  The Word says the second, not a third.  The command is to love your neighbor AS you love yourself.  We are neither commanded here nor any other place in Scripture to love ourselves. I believe God knows that we love ourselves, so there is no reason to command us to do so. After loving Him first, the second command is to love your neighbor. How?  AS you love yourself. 

So therefore, the greatest love cannot be learning to love yourself, as the world teaches.  God's way is not to love yourself but to deny yourself.  Really, you may be thinking.  Your next thought might be, I don't believe that.  And your thoughts may continue -- if I don't love and highly esteem myself, how can I be okay?  How can I be successful? How can I be victorious?  If my focus is on loving myself, how can I obey the command to deny myself?  What a dilemma? What really is God's way?

How do I receive God's great and precious promises?  He says that I can do all things ... I am the head not the tail ... I'm above not beneath ... the lender not the borrower ... will eat the best of the land ... nothing is impossible ... successful in everything I put my hand to ... and so much more.  Why do I not have these things?  Why is this not my experience?  What am I missing? What do I have to do differently?  Glad you asked.  If you believe that everything that you need for life and godliness is found in Christ Jesus, then consider this instruction from Luke 9:23-24.  Then he said to them all: ‎“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.  For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it."

Deny himself … deny myself.  Now what does that mean?