Food For Thought Fridays

Last Saturday afternoon, we decided to play a little baseball in the backyard. Caleb and Isaiah were taking turns swinging at pitches until it was too dark to see.

Caleb was up to bat and Amanda tossed a nice underhand pitch right across the plate. Caleb took a huge Babe Ruth cut at the ball and made contact. The ball went up high in the air and Caleb's eyes followed the ball until it landed.

Right BEHIND him.

He turned around and instead of being disappointed, he shouted, "HOME RUN! HOME RUN!"

In the eyes of a lesser baseball enthusiast, his home run would have been called a foul ball.

Romans 8: 35-39 says, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Sometimes we let life, the trouble, the hardship, the persecution, the bills, our health, our job, our family, our kids, . . . basically we allow all of the foul balls in our lives to interfere with our trust and dependence on Jesus.

We have to remember that no foul ball will keep us from shouting that we have the HOME RUN love of Jesus Christ and we are more than conquerors because His love hit a HOME RUN for us.

Keep swinging.

Food For Thought Fridays

I have been pondering this question:

Do I have enough faith to fail?

In this life, people are evaluated on their ability to accomplish great things. Some fail and some succeed, but even those that have great accomplishments are not satisfied for long. There is always a thirst for even more.

Our desire to fulfill the purpose of our lives IS a gift from God, but sin has twisted us so dramatically that we put ourselves on the pedestal and our desire for purpose is really a self centered lust for a trophy in our honor.

But when we come to Christ, all of that should change. We should embrace a spiritual philosophy that sits counter to the ways of the world. Contrary to the prosperity gospel, success for the believer, should be opposite of that of the world.

Luke 9:24 says, "For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it."

When Jesus died, it seemed He was a discredited, rejected failure while the wealthy and successful ordered Him to the cross. It took three days to show them that the magnificent Creator was the victorious one and the governor had utterly failed.

Have we still not learned any lessons? Does the "church" measure success according to man or God?

It has been said that no man is worthy to succeed until he is willing to fail.

Our exceeding joy is to be found in being just like Jesus was and is.

One day Jesus will show all who won and who lost.

Food For Thought Fridays

Yesterday was a busy day for Amanda and the Langley family. Caleb and Isaiah had appointments with the allergist in Fayetteville. They are allergic to a ton of stuff. Amanda had to go to the store and by casings for the mattresses and pillows. All of the linens had to be washed in HOT water. The casings had to be put on the beds. The floors had to be vacuumed and mopped. And last but not least, Caleb and Isaiah needed to go to Vacation Bible School.

Amanda had to do all this on her own because I was working 9 to 6.

When I got home around 6:30, the boys were still there. Amanda had given them a choice to go to VBS or spend some time with Daddy.

The boys chose Daddy time over friends, food, fun (even though I am quite the life of the party).

In Luke 6:12 it reads, "One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God."

Jesus' life was pretty chaotic and hectic. Pharisees, healing the sick, raising the dead, bringing the Kingdom of God. A little more complicated than filling prescriptions and mopping floors.

But in all the chaos, He never forgot to choose Daddy time.

He desired it, He needed, He lived for it, He depended on it.

Can we say the same?

Blessings

Food For Thought Fridays

WARNING: This may be a bit heavy.

Just thinking about this.

Romans 1:24-25 says, "Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen."

In these verses, whether they like it or not, everybody is worshiping.

We will worship something or someone because you and I are worshipers. It is what we do. We can't help it. We can't stop it.

Every day, there is a battle for our worship.

Money, entertainment, food, alcohol, sports, sex, popularity, the list goes on and on. . .

We call them addictions, but really it is a worship problem. We have chosen to run to these other things to meet our needs and desires rather than the Creator who is blessed forever and ever.

We may not be able to stop worshiping, but we can choose to make our worship count for today and for eternity.

Shalom.

Food For Thought Fridays

Ephesians 6: 12-17 says, "For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Wherefore take up the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; withal taking up the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."

This is a very familiar passage. Unfortunately, many Believers don't practice the directive.

We take way too lightly our enemy and worse, our God. If we didn't, we would value His Word more.

If you look at the armor, it is not just the sword that deals with the Word.

The whole armor is based on the Word and the Word become flesh.

You learn truth through the Word.
You build righteousness through the Word.
You grow faith through the Word.
You understand the gospel through the Word.
You experience salvation through the Word.

Luther said, "Satan hates goose quills!"

I believe it because the Word has definitely done much damage to his kingdom.

But, if you don't know the Word, Satan will do much damage to you.

Stand.

Food For Thought Fridays

When you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins. Mark 11:25

If you are reluctant to forgive others, you are out of sync with God's character. And if you are out of sync with God's character your prayers are not going to be consistent with God's purposes for your life and this world.

Here is where my focus gets a little foggy.

When I am in a tough relationship with someone, sometimes I think Satan's warfare against me focuses on my relationship with the person.

But that really is a secondary problem. If he can cause bitterness or resentment in our hearts (no matter who is right), Satan hinders our relationship with God. This is what he is after.

Satan's desire is to destroy our relationship with God, regardless of the collateral damage.

Don't let Satan win, live a life of forgiveness.

Food For Thought Fridays

Sometimes believers let what has been perverted by culture or other religions keep us from examining important and insightful things in the Bible.

For example, we don't talk about the Virgin Mary very much (except Christmas) because Catholicism has placed so much emphasis on her life. Even though she was a great example of faith.

We don't talk a lot about works because we don't want people to get the idea that we are saved by works thanks to many other religions. Even though our works show our faith.

And we don't talk about the law of God because we don't want to be involved with legalism.

I ran across a curious passage in Proverbs.

Proverbs 22: 28 says, "Do not move an ancient boundary stone set up by your forefathers."

We shouldn't shy away from anything in scripture, but, especially the law of God.

The law of God is a mirror for us to see our sin. It is a restrainer to help guide us. It is a schoolmaster leading us to salvation.

The law of God is an ancient boundary stone that we would like to move sometimes, but nothing can humble us like looking into the holy character of God through the law.

Remember, Proverbs 19:7 says, "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul."

Nothing will bring us to our knees before God like seeing who we are before a HOLY HOLY HOLY God.

Don't move the stones.

Food For Thought Fridays (On Sunday)

Jamaican Sunset, originally uploaded by DocUNC.

We just got back from vacation and I did not have access to a computer on Friday, so here is a little snack to munch on.

As he looked at the beauty of God's creation, St. Augustine once said, "If these are the pleasures afforded to sinful men, what does God have in store for those whose hearts are His?"

How much do you get caught up in the worries and hurries of life and walk right by the blessings God lays in front of you today?

And if God does bless us now in some way, how great will it be when He comes and we see Him?

What does He have in store for us?

Shalom.

Food For Thought Fridays

I read a statistic the other day that is pretty scary.

50% of Christian men read the word one time or LESS (A BIG FAT ZERO) during the week. These aren't just men who say they are Christians. These are men considered to be the pillars of the congregation.

That is a sad statement. No wonder the church is viewed as wishy washy.

We are a bunch of starving people. We are so malnourished we can't stand up to fight.

John Calvin once said we should reverence the scriptures as we revere God.

I understand what Calvin is saying, but I think we say the Bible is Holy and inspired by God, then put it on the top shelf and never open the Word.

We revere it, we just don't read it.

Thats why we sway with every windy fad and smooth talk that comes by.

2 Timothy 3: 16-17 says, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."

If you want to be equipped, trained, repaired and taught; read the Word.

Shalom

Food For Thought Fridays

Psalm 91:1-2 says, "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of Jehovah, He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in whom I trust."

The word "dwells" is not a vacation spot or a weekend visit. As much as I would like a vacation (and need one), "dwells" denotes a place of PERMANENT residence.

Many people desire security, happiness, comfort, and peace. I mean, who wouldn't?

In the truest form, these "benefits" are inseperable from God. If you want to know real security, real happiness, real comfort, real peace, God has to be your treasure.

But here is the problem, people want these "benefits" that come FROM God, they just don't want to be hassled WITH God.

It is much easier to do it on your own and visit Him on weekends. That way we have someone to blame when things don't go the way we want.

We need to learn to DWELL with God and stop using Him as a 911 operator.

Shalom.