Finding the Amen

I hate to admit it, but there are times when reading the Bible is like taking a multi-vitamin. Not something that I want to do, but something that I try to do daily. In all honesty, the Bible should be something that we meditate on, and think on and let it sink into our hearts. It should be something that we think about and reflect on throughout our day.

We "...shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.  You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." Deuteronomy 6:7-9

Yesterday, I was talking with some guys about the book of Ephesians, and Chuck said the "amen" lept out at him in the middle of a phrase, so he had to go back and was in awe at what led up to that.

Amen is an "expression of agreement or confirmation used in worship by Jews, Christians, and Muslims. The word derives from a Semitic root meaning “fixed” or “sure.” The Greek Old Testament usually translates it as “so be it”; in the English Bible it is often translated as “verily” or “truly.” (The Concise Encyclopedia)

When was the last time you read the Bible and had your own Amen moment? This week, let us struggle to find the Amen moments when we read the Bible. Find that verse that speaks to your heart, and don't quickly move on leaving it as an ah-ha moment. Write it down. Carry it with you. Memorize it. Reflect on it.

Amen.

... then why do I fail?

If "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me", why do I fail? I have asked myself that question at more times than I care to recall. There have been times where I wanted to learn things, or lose weight, write a book, reach out to others... and I fail miserably.

If you fail like this too many times, eventually you start doubting your faith. Thoughts like, "maybe it's something wrong with me," and "maybe I'm just called to be in the background" start creeping into your mind.

The truth is, we usually fail for one of 2 major reasons. 1) We are trying to do it out of our own strength. 2) We are not doing what God is asking us to do at the time.

Let's look at both of these, quickly. First, what does it mean to do it out of our own strength? It basically means that we have decided to do something and we are going to accomplish it out of our own will and our own power. However, when you read the Bible, and you see all the great men and women of God - the things that they accomplished could only be done by God. Noah building the Ark, Abraham and Sarah having a son in his old age, David killing Goliath, the Hebrew children in the fiery furnace and Peter walking on the water are only a few examples of people doing things that no ordinary person could do. The Bible is God's story... and he says:

I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. Isaiah 42:8

 God has a plan for us. Many times, God's plan is not our plan at the moment. God, who lives in eternity knows what He wants to accomplish. When Jesus is talking to Nicodemus He says, "the wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." (John 3:8) God's desire is to have us move according to His plan and in His timing.

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Jeremiah 29:11

The thing that we forget about this verse is that it comes just after God tells His people that they are going to be in captivity for 70 years! The people wanted to go home, but God had a long term plan that they just couldn't see.

So, as we go into the weekend, let us struggle to put things into perspective, and understand that we are most successful when we let God be God, and we struggle to be obedient.

Sometimes 73 degrees doesn't feel like 73 degrees...

The thermostat in our house is set to change the temperature based upon our habits. When we leave to go to work during the winter, the temperature is automatically lowered. The temperature automatically rises before we get home.

There are times, however, when 73 degrees does not feel like 73 degrees. Sometimes, it feels cold. I check the thermostat and sure enough... it's 73 degrees. Other times, it feels warm... and what do you know, the temperature is 73 degrees.

Some could say that it's just me, but usually, my wife and I agree that it either feels too hot or too cold. The temperature is right, but our perception of the temperature is different.

Christianity is the same way. Sometimes, we feel really close to God, other times we don't feel close to Him at all. Even in society, if you look at American history, there were times when we as a nation embraced God's laws, and not, it seems like society doesn't feel like the laws of God apply.

The thing that we need to remember as Christians is that God doesn't change.

 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 9 Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. - Hebrews 13:8-9

Let us struggle to not be led away by how others "feel" about God at the moment. God doesn't change. Let us embrace the word of God in all its truth.

It's easy to take things for granted

About 2 weeks ago I was working on a project and in deep thought. I rested my arm on my desk and compressed my ulnar nerve. The ulnar nerve is the one we often call the funny bone - it's that annoying spot on the end of your elbow that makes your arm tingle when you hit it.

When you compress this nerve, it causes the outside of your palm from the tip of your pinky finger to your wrist to become numb as well as the tip of your ring finger. These are two parts of your hand that you really tend to take for granted and don't realize how much they get used until you have this constant numbness there reminding you every time you touch something, or move that something is wrong.

I took that part of my hand for granted.

Sometimes, we take God for granted. He's constant. He's true to his word. He loves us unconditionally. We think He will always be there, so sometimes we get to a point where we begin to take Him for granted and we begin to treat our relationship with him casually.

In Psalm 137 the People of Israel were in a similar situation. They were in captivity because they took God for granted and drifted away from Him. In a strange land, away from home, they could no longer sing their songs of joy. The psalmist basically proclaims that he would rather have his right hand forget how to work than to not be in the place where God wants them to be.

Let us struggle to not take our relationship with God for granted. Let's find that enthusiasm we had when we first obtained this great salvation and keep pressing forward!

By the waters of Babylon,
    there we sat down and wept,
    when we remembered Zion.
² On the willows there
    we hung up our lyres.
³ For there our captors
    required of us songs,
and our tormentors, mirth, saying,
    “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

⁴ How shall we sing the Lord's song
    in a foreign land?
⁵ If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
    let my right hand forget its skill!
⁶ Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth,
    if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem
    above my highest joy! (Psalm 137 1-6)

What could you do in 15 minutes?

I know a lot of people who are looking for their 15 minutes of fame. They would be so happy if they had a video that went viral, or if they had 50,000 twitter followers, or 1000 friends on Facebook. This made me think about how Jesus would spend 15 minutes if he had the opportunity.

When you look in the Bible, you read about Jesus making a massive impact on someone in a short conversation. In John 3, we see Jesus talking with Nicodemus. Jesus doesn't waste any time, he immediately starts talking about the Kingdom of God and the importance of being born again.

In John 4, Jesus asks the woman at the well for a drink of water and immediately starts talking about living water.

In John 8, we see a woman condemned to death for adultery. Jesus says "let the person without sin cast the first stone." As the people walk away Jesus tells the woman to go and sin no more.

It doesn't take a lot of time to make an impact on someones life.

Let us struggle this weekend to take 15 minutes out of our day and share the good news of the gospel with someone.

Just because you can do something, doesn't mean that you should...

Asa was a great king in Israel, until he forgot that God granted him peace. I'm not going to spend a lot of time discussing this... I'm going to let the text speak for itself. Let's look at 2 passages of scripture, one from the beginning of Asa's life, and one from the end.

The Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded, and he went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: The LORD is with you while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you. For a long time Israel was without the true God, and without a teaching priest and without law, but when in their distress they turned to the LORD, the God of Israel, and sought him, he was found by them. In those times there was no peace to him who went out or to him who came in, for great disturbances afflicted all the inhabitants of the lands. They were broken in pieces. Nation was crushed by nation and city by city, for God troubled them with every sort of distress. But you, take courage! Do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded.”
As soon as Asa heard these words, the prophecy of Azariah the son of Oded, he took courage and put away the detestable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities that he had taken in the hill country of Ephraim, and he repaired the altar of the LORD that was in front of the vestibule of the house of the LORD. And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and those from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who were residing with them, for great numbers had deserted to him from Israel when they saw that the LORD his God was with him. (2 Chronicles 15:1-9 ESV)

At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him, “Because you relied on the king of Syria, and did not rely on the LORD your God, the army of the king of Syria has escaped you. Were not the Ethiopians and the Libyans a huge army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet because you relied on the LORD, he gave them into your hand. For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him. You have done foolishly in this, for from now on you will have wars.” Then Asa was angry with the seer and put him in the stocks in prison, for he was in a rage with him because of this. And Asa inflicted cruelties upon some of the people at the same time.
The acts of Asa, from first to last, are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was diseased in his feet, and his disease became severe. Yet even in his disease he did not seek the LORD, but sought help from physicians. And Asa slept with his fathers, dying in the forty-first year of his reign. They buried him in the tomb that he had cut for himself in the city of David. They laid him on a bier that had been filled with various kinds of spices prepared by the perfumer's art, and they made a very great fire in his honor. (2 Chronicles 16:7-14 ESV)

Asa went from fearing God and doing his will to ignoring God, which ultimately cost him his life. It is so easy to get set in your ways and to think that we can solve things by taking them into our own hands. Let us struggle to not be like Asa, but to always keep God's will as the key driver for our lives.

Don't let your comfort cost you your life...

We have all heard the scripture "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and ear with him and he with me." We use this all the time when we are talking to people that don't know Jesus.

The truth is... this was written to a church - to a body of believers!

They had become lukewarm. They thought they were prosperous. Their life was comfortable.

Christianity is the same way. It's very easy to become complacent because  we've been Christians for so long. Somehow, we stop being grateful and we stop being diligent. In their comfortability and routine they started missing out on the real relationship with God!

Going into 2013, let us not become complacent. Let us struggle to keep God in the forefront of our lives. Let us not forget the discipline of

• prayer,  and not just a wish list
• Bible study, not just reading devotions and calling it a day
• sharing the gospel with the lost, not assuming it's someone elses job.

“‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’” (Revelation 3:15-22 ESV)