STOP talking!

In Matthew 12:37, we are told, “For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

What a sentence to contemplate.  Only sixteen words, but two of them are the same and command our attention: “words.”  And what accompanies them, other than a few prepositions and conjunction, is an emotional “slap in the face,” a contrast so large it should wake you up!

Justified.

Condemned.

For a moment, flip to an oft-occurring scene in American households.  How many parents have heard their teenager plead excuses after putting a dent in the family car?  “It wasn’t my fault!”  “I couldn’t help it!”  “Dude, it wasn’t me who designed big cars and small parking spaces.”

The undeniable fact is, however, the dent is a dent is a dent and someone has to pay for the repair.  In such situations, the parent is always grateful that the only damage is to the automobile and not another person.

Isn’t it easy to use a teenager as an example of some behavior we dislike?  So what happens on the day we are standing before God explaining why we haven’t done more for Him during our life?  I can just hear myself:  “There wasn’t time to help many people–I hardly had time for myself.”  “I always thought about praying more.”  “You know how hard it is to be honest; times have changed.”  “Look at all the money I gave; doesn’t that make up for my lack of involvement in Christian activities?”

Just like the teen, I could keep on talking.  The damage would still be done.

My human tendency is to try to justify my actions on the outside even when I know deep down that I am in the wrong.  It seems old and young alike want to make up excuses for the way in which their lives are conducted.

What then is our way of escape from the web of words we seem to spin around ourselves?  We find ourselves crying out with Paul, “Oh wretched man that I am!  Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom. 7:24).

Well, it’s time to grab hold of another verse of Paul’s, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom. 7:25) and grasp the joy of knowing Christ.  And knowing I do not have to talk my way out of all the mistakes in my life.  My Heavenly Father has graciously taken care of all the accidents that happened and all the dents I made.  He paid the price to repair every single one of my damages.

Today I pray that God will help me think about my words–those I shouldn’t speak and those I should–so that I will glorify Him by my life.  Knowing He has taken care of everything for me, I can praise Him with a glad heart.

by Cindy Best

don’t be stubborn

Anyone who has children or has ever been a child is well acquainted with stubbornness.  Although stubbornness and determination could be considered two sides of one coin, stubbornness has a less-than-positive connotation.  We’re all familiar with the shouted “No!” accompanied by the stamp of a foot and the scowl on a small face.  We hope that as we mature, our stubbornness mellows into determination as we learn to choose our battles and dedicate ourselves to the causes that matter.  But stubbornness can rear its head when we feel powerless in a situation, when someone wants us to do one thing and we are inclined to do another (sometimes ANY other), and the only recourse we have is to grab onto our position with our teeth and refuse to let go.

But what do we do when that someone is God?  I would like to think that if I ever heard the actual voice of God telling me to do something, I would set down my pride and my stubbornness and be obedient.  But I know myself too well.  “How can I be certain that’s really you?” I would ask, and I would need some kind of a sign because heaven knows I wouldn’t want to deviate from my own wandering-in-the-wilderness path on unreliable information.  I like to think that I have a modicum of faith, surely a mustard seed’s worth, but really, in the times I’ve been tested I’ve usually felt as if I got moved by the mountain instead of the other way around.  So I have to wonder how hard I am listening for God’s voice if I am pretty sure I would ignore it even if I heard it.

If you hear God speak today, do not be stubborn. Hebrews 3:15

Like many of my friends, I stayed home to raise my child, intending to return to the outside working world “someday.”  Now that my daughter is nearly grown (I say nearly because she is a college student, and I think that puts her in that weird zone between childhood and true adulthood), I have been pondering what I am good for.  A 15-month stint in a data and call center convinced me that I don’t belong there, doing the same thing every minute of every day with two short breaks and a half hour for lunch.  After dedicating my life to the important work of raising another person from helpless infant to productive member of society (and, though I don’t take the credit, a wonderful, talented, intelligent young woman who wants to make her own mark on the world), I just can’t dig up much enthusiasm for helping some company make more money.  It’s hard to figure out how to transfer my gifts and talents from a relationship-based world to an output-based one, and I’m not sure I even want to try.  But there’s a nagging little voice inside my head that tells me I should be contributing to the household income, building our savings back up, getting ready for the next economic meltdown or the next layoff or the next whatever dramatic event nearly wipes us out.  So I start getting nervous.

My prayer is that God would reveal to me what I am, what He made me to be at this stage of my life.  And, like a lot of people, I look for signs and try to listen for His voice, hoping that one day it will just hit me:  oh, right, THAT’s what I should be doing; why didn’t I see it before?  Maybe I’m just dense, but it’s not happening.  Am I being stubborn?  Is God trying to break through all the noise in my head to tell me what to do, where to go, but I’ve already decided that I couldn’t possibly do whatever that is or go wherever He’s pointing because, well, I’m just not capable?  There’s an old saying:  God doesn’t call the equipped; He equips the called.  But is He calling me?  And if He is, to what?  Maybe it’s to a season of regrouping, of immersing myself in His word and in prayer, getting back to the basics of a closer relationship.  Could it be that simple?  Why would I resist?  Because I am stubborn.  I don’t like the not knowing.  All I really want is to KNOW.  I want to know what the goal is and how I’m supposed to get there, step by step.  I want to know what obstacles to expect along the way so I can plan for them.  I want plan B and plan C and whatever other contingency plans I’ll need.  I want a straight path with no unpleasant surprises.  I want.  I want.  I WANT!  Boy, am I stubborn.

Does God not care what I want?  Sure, He does.  But when I’m honest, I know that it’s more important that He cares what is best for me.  That means that I should be able to be confident that whatever happens, if I allow Him to, God will use it for my benefit.  If only I can get past my stubbornness and my pride and my fear, maybe I can just take a step in any direction and it will be okay because I am not alone.  The God of the universe is with me.  Where might we go together?

Where, indeed.

pride: where will it get you?

What do the Costa Concordia and Titanic have in common?

Hah, “easy,” you say!  They both sank.

True.  But I think more than that, it appears they both had Captains steering them who had way too much pride.  And the book of Proverbs says, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (16:18).

The two ships were awesome vessels.  The Titanic was the epitome of cruise ships in its day.  It had winding staircases, chandeliers, orchestras, rich woven carpets…and rich people on board.  All of those people had utter confidence in the ship…it was “unsinkable” according to its builders.

photo from Dover Publications

Rev. Stuart Briscoe said, “My sin is not that I do things wrongly; my sin is that I deny God the right to be God in my life.”  And it is the one sin we all commit and the one we commit over and over without even realizing.  We want to be “Captains of our own souls.”

Pride overcomes us in many ways.  We don’t have to consciously think, “Wow, aren’t I great at this,” in order to be full of pride.  Often it creeps in on cat’s feet and takes captive our mind and blocks out God’s thoughts by substituting our own.

Basically, I would define pride as just that: letting our thoughts control us, believing we have the “right” to think as we please.

Constant vigilance would’ve helped the Captains of the two sunken ships avoid icebergs and coral reefs.  Constant vigilance is what we need to keep God in control of our thoughts and lives…not us.  Instead of telling God how to be God in our lives, we need to listen to His voice as He directs us where to go and where to turn in the course of our living.

The God of Creation has “built” us, and we are eternally unsinkable.  But HE is the “captain of our souls.”  When we deny God control of our lives, we lose control.  Running aground is inevitable.

Please, God, help us value Your ways.  Help our ears to be deaf to our own thoughts, and our eyes open to your vision for us.  And our wills to seek your control.  Keep the sin of pride from our lips and minds.

by Cindy Best

psalm 121

A Song of Ascents

¹ I will lift up my eyes to the hills—
From whence comes my help?
² My help comes from the LORD,
Who made heaven and earth.

³ He will not allow your foot to be moved;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
⁴ Behold, He who keeps Israel
Shall neither slumber nor sleep.

⁵ The LORD is your keeper;
The LORD is your shade at your right hand.
⁶ The sun shall not strike you by day,
Nor the moon by night.

⁷ The LORD shall preserve you from all evil;
He shall preserve your soul.
⁸ The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in
From this time forth, and even forevermore.

New King James Version (NKJV)

your heart’s focus

I was reading a devotion today, and it centered around King
David–my favorite Old Testament character. The author
wrote that David had a heart that was in sync with God, but
even his heart was fickle and turned aside by temptation.

After some thought, I came to my own personal conclusion
that I don’t think David had a “fickle” heart. To me, fickle
means jumping from one passion to another, or one activity
to another, with no real solid connection to anything.

That was not David’s heart. Maybe I should call it the
“heart of hearts” part of David, and each one of us actually.

David’s life definitely had had ups and downs, from hiding
in a cave surrounded by enemies to being King of Judah!
From a shepherd boy alone in the fields to the unlikely
conqueror of the terrorizing Goliath. From living off the
land to beginning to gather the richest supplies on earth for
a temple in which the Living God would abide! Good
grief, how much can one person do in a lifetime?

His emotions also had been up and down. A man he’d
sworn allegiance to, and was his King–Saul–had set out to
kill him; he had to run from him and hide. He led wars
against God’s enemies, killed people himself, had others
killed. Then danced naked in the streets after he’d
recovered God’s holy Ark of Mercy and Covenant with His
people Israel. And, of course, he had an affair with
Bathsheba. He’d lost a beloved son (Absalom) along the
road of his life, too. And fathered Solomon (the wisest
man ever to live…even to this day!).

A reading of a dozen or so Psalms will give you a great
grasp on how David’s emotions sent him from being in a pit
of despair to praising God with all that was within him (and
all the instruments he could gather). And from knowing
God’s unfathomable mercy to praying God’s vengeance
upon his enemies (the Imprecatory Psalms).

All those circumstances comprised just parts of David’s
life. Just parts of his “heart,” or emotions.

But as I said, I don’t believe David’s “heart of hearts” was
fickle at all. I don’t believe he jumped from position to
position, or team to team as some athletes of today want to
do when they don’t get their way. And I don’t believe he
wanted all the glory for himself…even though he was King
of a great people. His writings declare the “Glory of God”
over and over; he wanted God’s ways to be honored, not
his own. His heart’s love never wavered.

He was committed to God alone. David ‘s heart never gave
up on God. He didn’t understand God and was honest
about that; he didn’t always “feel” God and was honest
about that, too. But his heart always loved God, and most
importantly yearned for God and God’s ways.

And I thank God that David was given to us an example.
I’m thankful to know that a man with as many ups and
downs in life could be said to “have God’s heart,” and have
God yearn for him in return.

There is hope! I don’t have to be perfect, or even “pretend”
to be holy. I can be honest, doubtful, sad, even depressed.
And I can know that my heart is still steady with love for
God. My Rock and my Redeemer. The One who calls me
“friend.”

by Cindy Best

epiphany

Epiphany is a word that isn’t used much these days. To have an epiphany is to have the proverbial light bulb go off in one’s head. The lights are “switched on” when understanding comes. The English word epiphany comes from a Greek word meaning “manifestation or appearance.” An epiphany thus reorients, reorders, or transforms our view from one way of looking at the world to another.

As we enter the winter season in earnest, our views of daily life change. Upon going outside, we have to think of what clothes we will wear for protection from the elements. In putting on these coverings, we should be aware of not hiding our true selves under these. We should always be open to the teaching of Jesus.

During Epiphany, Christians are asked to pay special attention to the teaching and healing ministry of Jesus for the ways in which he is revealed to be the Messiah. All who seek the truth are asked to reconsider Jesus during this season, to have eyes opened and paradigms shifted. The author Hebrews invites all who would look at Jesus to see in him the very epiphany of God. “[I]n these last days God has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the world” (Hebrews 1:1-3). Everyone who looks at His life has the opportunity to experience epiphany, and to have vision altered as time is spent looking at His life and listening to Jesus through His teachings.

The season of Epiphany presents a challenging occasion for a paradigm modification. The Christian story tells us that it is in the humble acknowledgement of unpreparedness that we see anything with clarity. Ironically Epiphany does not come in assuming that we have all the answers. It comes in acknowledging our weaknesses and leaning on the strength of the One who is all in all. Trying to have all of our “ducks in a row” does not denote maturity or clarity, but leaning on the Perfecter and Author of our faith does.

by Jennifer Dalenburg

doubts of faith

In this New Year, have you made resolutions?  Or maybe just “thought about” things you’d like to do differently?  Do you doubt you can or will accomplish these?

Come on, now, be honest!  DO you doubt yourself?

Well, guess what?  DOUBT is human!  It means you are part of the Human Race.  So rejoice!  If you thought you were superhuman–or are supposed to be in order to please God–have I got good news for YOU!

Growing up, I always had doubts that I was good enough, had done enough, would do enough, think enough, pray enough…yada, yada….to please God so He would always love me.

Finally, I came to truly understand Ephesians 2:8-9.   “For by grace you’re saved, through faith, and that’s not even from you; it’s a free gift from God, not of your works, or any man could boast about himself.”

Many of us have so many daily struggles with the stresses and temptations of the world we live and work in that we get to the point where we wonder if we really are a part of God’s family.  Even if we claim the name of Jesus Christ.  It’s at this point, when we’re holding onto that fraying knot, we need to grab and cling to God’s promises through His Word.

A pastor once said, “Noah may have fallen while IN the ark, but he never fell OUT of the ark; nor did God tell him to put pegs on the outside and hang on!”

AMEN!  Think of Noah and the ark as a good anchor for our thoughts at times of doubt.  God provided the instructions to build the ark, then provided the rain–and the floods came.  BUT GOD kept His promise of safety.  (By the way, sometime do a word study with your Bible and a concordance–available to you free on the Internet–on the word coupling “but God” and see what God does!)

God has given us instructions for OUR safety through life’s storms.  By trusting our life and eternal soul to Jesus Christ, we are saved eternally!  God keeps us safe throughout all time and brings us safely to shore in heaven through His promised Son.

THOUGHT FOR THIS DAY:  We can slip and fall, but God will always pick us up.

by Cindy Best

all things new

Now that the holidays are over and the new year is underway (and the Iowa caucuses are done), things seem to be settling back down to the normal winter routine, although yesterday the weather was trying to persuade me that it is April, not January, with warm temperatures, clear blue skies, and soft breezes.  After seven cold and snowy winters, some extremely so, I thoroughly enjoyed this strange, gentle touch of spring.  I know winter will return (and it will still be dark by five o’clock), but I am reminded that spring isn’t really that far away, and new life will emerge as the days lengthen and the warm breezes return.

To me, January 1 has never felt like the beginning of a new year.  It’s sort of a let-down after Christmas.  The music has waned, the decorations and lights must come down and be packed away for another year, and, for many people, it’s back to the old diet after a season of indulging.  Instead, the back-to-school days feel more like the beginning of a new year, perhaps because nearly all my life I’ve been a student, a teacher, or a parent.  With a mixture of excitement and sadness, I’ve transitioned from the more carefree days of summer to the back-to-work mornings of autumn, which will soon roll into the cold, dark season of winter.  But a new school year seems full of possibilities, with things to learn, old friends to reconnect with and new friends to meet, and the busyness of classes, books, and extracurricular activities.

The Bible talks a lot about the new.  According to one source I checked, the word new appears 183 times in the New International Version.  From the beginning (Genesis), when He made a whole world from nothing, to the end (Revelation), when He declares, “I am making everything new!” God is always doing new things.  It’s sort of His trademark, isn’t it?  A creator can’t help making something new: it’s in the job description.  And for us, the most important new thing is our new life, God’s gift through His sacrifice on the cross.  The book of Lamentations tells us:  “Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (chapter 3, verses 22-23).  We do not need to fear being overwhelmed by sin because God loves us too much to allow that.  His compassion and grace are fresh and new every day, ready to rescue us when we fall short of the perfection that He desires for us.  All of creation will be made new in the last days, but we can be remade whenever we confess our wrongdoing and ask for forgiveness:  God might tire of our sin, but He doesn’t tire of washing us clean and giving us yet another fresh start.

We are writing our life’s story as we move, moment by moment, through time.  Without God’s grace, our lives would be empty and our stories meaningless.  Thanks to a loving and compassionate God, we can be assured that each of us has a purpose, and when we reach the end of our story we can be confident that even in our imperfection, we matter to God.  But we are also characters in the great story that God Himself is writing.  We might be the narrator or protagonist in our own tale, but we don’t know our role in God’s greater story until the final page is turned.  Whatever our purpose is in this story of stories, we can be sure that we will be equipped and prepared to accomplish it because scripture tells us so:  “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).  We do not need to feel threatened by the new challenges the future presents because we are the children of a loving God, whose blessings are abundant and reliable and whose love is always and eternally new.

energy shortage (part 3)

What better way to enter the New Year of 2012 than thinking about how to have more ENERGY in our lives!   So many ways shout to us to make this happen: new diets, new exercise routines, new education, new job opportunities!  We all need to know what to choose for our new focus and how to enjoy our new priorities.

Energy for Christian living, however, doesn’t come from resolutions for more Bible Study, more prayer, better attitudes, more trust, less worry.  Surprised?

The energy needed for any and all Christian living comes from the power of the Holy Spirit.  And the Spirit of God is resident inside us…so we don’t  have to go far.  If you want a secret to a more victorious and less tiring day-to-day Christian life, just plug yourself into the resident power plant glowing inside YOU!  It’s guaranteed to never fail, never run out of resources, never short-circuit and never move to another location.

When we celebrated Christmas, we thought about the birth of Jesus as a baby.  Did you also celebrate the event as the coming of GOD to earth to live among people?  That’s what really happened on that night so very long ago.  More than a baby, we got to see our God live and breathe.  And this LIFE he lived was lived through the HOLY SPIRIT…the same, exact Spirit of God Who now lives in each person who has been willing to look at the Cross and believe in God’s plan for the salvation of His creation.

Paul tells us in Romans 5, we’ve already been declared righteous because of God’s decision to love us through our faith in Christ.  And we get so many gifts besides eternal life that we can be full of joy now!  We have rivers of living water flowing to us continuously (John 7:37-38).  This flowing of Holy Spirit water keeps us new and fresh, and our internal energy will not wear out.

Another gift we have now is “the mind of Christ” and we hold “the thoughts of His heart” (I Corin. 2:16).  Could you really ask for anything more?

From this point on, then, forget about empowering yourself.  God promises the work which He has begun in our lives, HE will finish.  Simply rely on God’s Spirit to do all that needs to be done in you.  God’s power has always been and will always be.  The energy that created the universe, and YOU, will never wear out, cease or go away.

God is trustworthy and true.  When He says we can do “all things through Christ,” that is exactly what He means.  Our “doing” is to be accomplished “through Christ,” not through anything we do.  So relax in 2012, rejuvenate your spirit, and get re-wired through FAITH.

One other thing, don’t get all hung up about wondering if you have ENOUGH faith.  Jesus tells us we only need faith the size of a mustard seed.  And since God GAVE us our faith (it’s not from works, lest we boast Eph. 2:8-9) then I’m really absolutely SURE we have enough faith to do whatever God asks.  He has supplied everything we need to power on in 2012 with confidence, because the Holy Spirit “Who is from God was given to us that we might realize the gifts given to us by God” (I Corin 2:12).  No more energy crisis for us!

by Cindy Best