Christmas.

     The month of December is upon us once again, and with it comes the most well-known holiday of the year, and all the items and desserts and celebrations that accompany it.  Christmastime is here, and so is the fruitcake.

     Fruitcake has interesting qualities.  It's the only cake I find unappetizing, the only cake which doesn't often look like a cake, and the only cake that has the amazing ability to be passed on...from generation to generation.  There is a population of the world that likes fruitcakes.  I'm just not one of them.  One of my favorite terms for the fruitcake is the "gift that keeps on giving".  But the fruitcake's ability to be re-gifted over and over without becoming smaller reminds me of something far more pleasant than any fruitcake.

     Life can be a real challenge.  Governments make mistakes and famine and war continue to cause destruction around the globe, while human beings scramble to look for a fix, whether it be money, humanitarian aid, or political resolutions.  None of these however, seems to ever achieve complete success.  Meanwhile we work and live every day, attempting to meet deadlines, pay bills, make ends meet, and otherwise live our daily lives, all while interacting with other people.  Sometimes things seem hopeless.  So we try to cover a feeling of despair with anything we can.  We've all done it, regardless of the method (eating, shopping, playing, etc).  But after the temporary lift from the hum-drum is over, we find ourselves worse than before.  So we repeat the process.  It never seems to end.  All we really want is hope.  Hope that there's more to life and our humanity than everyday life and shallow pleasures.  We need to know that someone is in control and loves  us.  We usually look to our higher-ups for the control (authority figures, parents, politicians) and family or friends for the love.  But they all fail us inevitably, and then we find ourselves wondering what to do.  Then Christmas comes.  But is Christmas more than a series of parties and presents?

     The answer to this is yes.  Yes, there is more to life than what's right in front of us.  Yes, Someone is in control.  The problems we're all facing are due to our sin, defined as missing the mark of perfection that that Someone has placed.  We've all done it.  I'm certainly no exception.  No one can claim perfection, and those that do, lie to themselves.  But this is where the hope comes in.  The Someone (Who I will now call by His proper name of God) is the One Who sees the human condition.  He knows your pain, and the things that make you happy, and the fears and hopes that you keep to yourself.  He's also acutely aware of your sin, and that is what separates every man, woman, and child from Him.

     So what can we do?  The answer is twofold.  We can't actually do anything, but that's okay, because He already did it.  "How?" you might ask.  Let's take a look a passage in the Bible, a book which is entirely accurate in everything it ever says.

     "Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.  And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”  But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was.  Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.  And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus.  He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.  And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”  Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”  And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God."  (Luke 1:26-35 NKJV)

     God loves us enough to want to give us a way out of our sin.  The problem with our sin is not only that we feel the repercussions on earth, but we also become entirely separated from God, since He never sins.  His nature (which is holy, righteous, and utterly perfect) keeps us from being able to be in His presence.  To use an imperfect analogy, it would be like placing a dirty diaper in a vat of chocolate.  This is not to say that we can corrupt God.  It's because of our own corruptness that we cannot be near Him, just as you don't put impurities in chocolate.  Romans 3:23 is clear when it says "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,". (NKJV)  Here comes the good news.  The baby just talked about is God's way of getting us out of this mess.  You see, a few hundred years before the conversation just described, a prophet named Isaiah delivered a message from God, which was like many other messages, in that it promised that God would one day send Someone to deliver us from our sin and redeem our condition.

"For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  (Isaiah 9:6 NKJV, boldface added)

     Did you notice the part where Isaiah said the Child's name would be Mighty God?  In other words, God was promising to redeem us Himself, through His own Son.

     "And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.  This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria.  So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.  Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David,  to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child.  So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered.  And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn."  (Luke 2:1-7 NKJV)

     I think we can safely assume that for all the places that a baby can be born, a stable full of animals (and all the things they do) is not ideal.  How much less so when we consider just Who the baby was!  God allowed His Son to be born in the most humble of places, when He deserved the highest of honors.  Of course, it doesn't seem like much fanfare.  But His birth does not go unnoticed.

     "Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.  And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.  Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.  For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:

 “Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

     So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.”  And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger.  Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child.  And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds.  But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.  Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them. (Luke 2:8-20 NKJV, boldface added)

     The birth of the Greatest King was first broadcasted to some of the lowliest in rank and social standing in the nation.  Great joy to all people.  This means that regardless of who you are, what you've done, where you come from, what rank you have, or what people think of you or label you as, from governors to gangsters, from the most upstanding citizen on earth to the lowest sinner on earth, this joy is for you.  And it comes with love, life, freedom, and hope.

     But this wasn't all that happened in the days surrounding Jesus' birth. 

     

     "Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.”  When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.  And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.
 So they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet:

 ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
Are not the least among the rulers of Judah;
For out of you shall come a Ruler
Who will shepherd My people Israel.’”

 Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared.  And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the young Child, and when you have found Him, bring back word to me, that I may come and worship Him also.”  When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was.  When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.  And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Then, being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way. (Matthew 2:1-12 NKJV)

     What are these gifts?  Gold is fairly straightforward, as a gift for a king, it seems quite appropriate.  But what are frankincense and myrrh?  Well, frankincense is a type of aromatic resin, burned as incense that gives off a fragrance.  Myrrh was another fragrant resin often used for burial.  This is symbolic since Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice.  Here's what I mean.

     Back in those days, the way to have one's sins covered was to sacrifice a cow or sheep or other animal, according to the Law established by God through a man named Moses some couple thousand years ago.  But while these sacrifices covered sin, they could not obliterate it.  God knew this.  Since sinners cannot be in fellowship with a Holy God, the only place left for us is unfortunately, hell.  It's a real place, not a swear word.  And each of us has earned a place there.  God doesn't want us there though, and that's why Jesus was born that night.  When He grew up, He said "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16 NIV 1984)  He gave His life for us on a cross, shedding His blood after being the only Man Who lived His entire life without ever sinning, or missing the mark.  Then He did the unthinkable.  He rose from the dead on the third day, and while you're here reading this, He's watching you from heaven, not with vindictiveness nor dislike nor disdain, but with love.  That's why Christmas is so important.  It gives us hope.  The birth of Jesus Christ brings us the hope we need.  It stands established in spite of all world events, your actions, and anything else that can happen.  As the Apostle Paul says in Romans 8:38-39 "For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (NKJV)

     Christmas is the gift that keeps on giving.  Much like a fruitcake, it keeps getting passed on, without ever losing its size or power.  The power of the birth of Christ never falters.  Perhaps you've never received this gift.  Now's your chance.  Romans 10:9-13 says "that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.  For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”  For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him.  For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (NKJV)  You don't have to be hopeless.  God has made you in His image as a unique one-of-a-kind person, and He never intended for you to go to hell.  He wants you to live with Him, and serve Him, and let Him adopt you as one of His children.  When your life ends, it will only be the beginning of your everlasting life with Him.  If you want this, simply ask.  You don't have to pray exactly what I write.  It's just a template.  But talk to God, and ask Him for the gift He has given.  Ask Him for forgiveness from your sin, and ask Him to come into your heart.  He'll do it.  He loves you.

     Dear God, I know I'm a sinner, and I have fallen short of your glory.  I've done wrong, and I know my sin deserves punishment.  But I believe that You sent Your One and Only Son, Jesus, as the payment for my sins, so that I could have life.  Please come into my heart Lord God.  I confess my faith in Jesus Christ as my Lord and my Savior.  Thank you for giving yourself up for me.  I love You, Father.  In Jesus Name, Amen.

     If you just said this, congratulations!  You're free and forgiven, and you've been adopted into God's family!  Now you have hope, and just like a fruitcake, it should be passed on!  Tell others about what you've been shown by God.  You should also get a Bible.  A free online one can be found here.  Keep on talking to God, too.  You now have Him dwelling in you, and He will never leave or forsake you.

     Merry Christmas, and Happy Birthday.  When you receive Jesus, you receive new life as well.  So you can think of this as your first birthday.  As 2 Corinthians 5:17 says: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (NKJV)

(NKJV means New King James Version)

(NIV 1984 means New International Version 1984)

Joshua and the perplexing Ai.

     Of all the characters in the Bible, perhaps none are quite so well known (at least to myself) as Joshua son of Nun.  Besides having an oddly named dad, he was famous for the military victories Israel clinched under his leadership.  He led Israel into the promised land, an honor given not even to Moses.  What some people may not know, however, is that "Joshua" was not always his name.  He used to have the far less common name of Hoshea.  According to Numbers 13:16, "These are the names of the men Moses sent to explore the land. (Moses gave Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua.)" (NIV 1984, boldface added)  As it turns out, "Hoshea" means Salvation.  But when Moses changed Hoshea's name to Joshua, the meaning of his name became "The Lord is salvation".  Also, the name "Joshua" is actually the Hebrew equivalent to the Greek name "Jesus".  Obviously Joshua had a pretty great name.  Some of God's first words to Joshua as leader of Israel were,  “Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.  Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”  (Joshua 1:6-9 NIV 1984)  God repeatedly told Joshua not to be afraid, and promised to be with him wherever he went.

     Then we read about Jericho, and the amazing victory Israel had over that city because God gave it to them. (Joshua 6)  However, there was a slight catch to their defeat of Jericho about the way they were to handle the plunder.  They weren't to keep any of it.  God said, "And you, by all means abstain from the accursed things, lest you become accursed when you take of the accursed things, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it. But all the silver and gold, and vessels of bronze and iron, are consecrated to the Lord; they shall come into the treasury of the Lord.” (Joshua 6:18-19 NKJV)

     This sounds like a fairly simple command, right?  Yes, "But the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things, for Achan the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed things; so the anger of the Lord burned against the children of Israel." (Joshua 7:1 NKJV)

     This means things start to go downhill.  "Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth Aven, on the east side of Bethel, and spoke to them, saying, “Go up and spy out the country.” So the men went up and spied out Ai. And they returned to Joshua and said to him, “Do not let all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and attack Ai. Do not weary all the people there, for the people of Ai are few.” So about three thousand men went up there from the people, but they fled before the men of Ai. And the men of Ai struck down about thirty-six men, for they chased them from before the gate as far as Shebarim, and struck them down on the descent; therefore the hearts of the people melted and became like water. (Joshua 7:2-5 NKJV)

     It was a sad day, and Joshua couldn't understand it.  He'd just won the victory against a far more formidable city, and now this?  His response was as follows: "Then Joshua tore his clothes, and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord until evening, he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust on their heads. And Joshua said, “Alas, Lord God, why have You brought this people over the Jordan at all—to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? Oh, that we had been content, and dwelt on the other side of the Jordan! O Lord, what shall I say when Israel turns its back before its enemies? For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear it, and surround us, and cut off our name from the earth. Then what will You do for Your great name?” (Joshua 7:6-9 NKJV)  Joshua did what most of us would probably have done in his place.  He panicked.  And he took his panic to God, but not in a particularly trustful way.  Instead, he told God that he wished Israel had not done what God told them to do, and asked God why He brought Israel there at all, and asked God what He would do for Himself.  But what's interesting is God's response.  "So the Lord said to Joshua: “Get up! Why do you lie thus on your face?" (Joshua 7:10 NKJV)  This was probably not the response that Joshua or anyone would expect.  But God wasn't going to let Joshua sit there and be upset and despairing.  He said, "Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them. For they have even taken some of the accursed things, and have both stolen and deceived; and they have also put it among their own stuff. Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they have become doomed to destruction. Neither will I be with you anymore, unless you destroy the accursed from among you.  Get up, sanctify the people, and say, ‘Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, because thus says the Lord God of Israel: “There is an accursed thing in your midst, O Israel; you cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you.”  In the morning therefore you shall be brought according to your tribes. And it shall be that the tribe which the Lord takes shall come according to families; and the family which the Lord takes shall come by households; and the household which the Lord takes shall come man by man. Then it shall be that he who is taken with the accursed thing shall be burned with fire, he and all that he has, because he has transgressed the covenant of the Lord, and because he has done a disgraceful thing in Israel.’" (Joshua 7:11-15 NKJV)

     Now let's pause for a moment.  Have you ever taken on a task and had it fail on you miserably?  Well, how did you respond?  Joshua responded with panic and a lack of trust in God, even though (1) his name meant "The Lord is Salvation", (2) he had just won against Jericho, and (3) he had been told (repeatedly) not to be afraid.  We have all the promises in the Bible, and yet as Christians we often feel as Joshua did, especially after a massive failure.  Do we respond in the same way?  Consider what happened next.

     "So Joshua rose early in the morning and brought Israel by their tribes, and the tribe of Judah was taken. He brought the clan of Judah, and he took the family of the Zarhites; and he brought the family of the Zarhites man by man, and Zabdi was taken.  Then he brought his household man by man, and Achan the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was taken.  Now Joshua said to Achan, “My son, I beg you, give glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession to Him, and tell me now what you have done; do not hide it from me.”  And Achan answered Joshua and said, “Indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and this is what I have done: When I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. And there they are, hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent, with the silver under it.”  So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent; and there it was, hidden in his tent, with the silver under it. And they took them from the midst of the tent, brought them to Joshua and to all the children of Israel, and laid them out before the Lord.  Then Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, the silver, the garment, the wedge of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and all that he had, and they brought them to the Valley of Achor. And Joshua said, “Why have you troubled us? The Lord will trouble you this day.” So all Israel stoned him with stones; and they burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones.  Then they raised over him a great heap of stones, still there to this day. So the Lord turned from the fierceness of His anger. Therefore the name of that place has been called the Valley of Achor to this day." (Joshua 7:16-26 NKJV)

     After this happened, you can guess what followed.  Israel went to battle against Ai again, and was victorious

     So what's the lesson to be learned?  Simply that we must trust God regardless of what happens, and not let failure motivate fear.  If something (even something we undertake for God) goes wrong, we can ask God why, but we must remember that He knows everything that goes on, and is aware of things we may not be.  Whether it's "sin in the camp" that we must repent of, or simply the fact that we made a mistake, or something that only He knows about, yet we must remember not to fear.  God is always there, and He keeps a better eye on us than we know of.  He will not leave or forsake us.  When things go wrong, remember that He is still God, and He still loves you.  That is something you can permanently rely on.  Don't let your fear squelch your faith, but rather let your faith conquer your fear.  Above all things, when things go sour, even then "be strong and courageous".



(NIV 1984 Means New International Version 1984)
(NKJV means New King James Version)

You Get what He Paid for.

"You get what you pay for".  "You have to spend money to make money".  We've probably all heard and believe these well-known market proverbs.  We expect a certain quality according to what we spend.  When something costs more that's usually because it's higher grade, right?  Oftentimes this saying rings true.  We go to the Olive Garden and not the McDonald's when we want higher quality, even though it will cost us more.  However, we seem to think sometimes that the concepts apply outside of the shopping we do.  But there are places they don't belong, especially in relationships.  But we do sometimes put them there.  We apply them to our relationships so that we think "If I invest this into the relationship, they'll invest that."  We may even find ourselves not expecting something from someone because we didn't give them something.  This is not the best way to handle our friends and family.  But there's an even worse place for us to have this mentality than with other people, and that is in our relationship with God.  How often do we find ourselves doubting God's goodness because we couldn't give Him anything, or because we did something we thought made us disqualified for His grace?  I do it.  I think almost everyone doubts God in this way sometimes.  Do we ever find ourselves thinking there must be a catch to God's grace?  I've been guilty of thinking it.  "Oh dear, because I did x or y I'm just not sure if I'm still saved".  We limit God's grace to what we can do, forgetting that He is God.   Today we're going to look at someone who simply believed God,  named Abram (later Abraham), and see what the Apostle Paul had to say about him.

     Abram was getting to be an old man.  In fact, he was a old man.  You see, he had been told by God to leave his home and go to some new place.  He had been given an interesting promise as well.  We read it in Genesis 12:1-4:

"Now the Lord had said to Abram:

“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”" (NKJV)

     Note the phrase "I will make you a great nation" (v.2).  Abram was well past the age for having kids, but God did not mean to make him a military nation.  No, He meant to make Abram a great nation through his descendants.  Now this seems exceedingly unlikely.  You don't hear of many elderly men like him having more kids, and this was exactly what God was promising Abram.  So what did he do?

"So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.  Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan." (Genesis 12:4-5 NKJV)

     Only three chapters later, we see an actual conversation between God and Abram.  It has a statement that I would like to bring special attention to.  In Genesis 15:1-6 we read:

"After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”  But Abram said, “Lord God, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”  Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!”  And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.”  Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”

And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness. (NKJV, emphasis added)

     Righteousness?  God accounted Abram's belief to him for righteousness?  That's great, but what does it have to do with us?  Well let me zoom a little farther in the Bible into a book called Romans, where the Apostle Paul looks at this story and explains how it affects us.  We pick up what he has to say to us in chapter 4.

"What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh?  For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.  For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”  Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.  But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,  just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works:

“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
And whose sins are covered;
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin.”  (Romans 4:1-8 NKJV)

     Do you see what Paul is saying?  Those who work get paid for their work, but Abraham (by they way, if you noticed the name change, it came from God,) was not like that.  The righteousness Abraham acquired was through belief.  He didn't invest money or strike a deal with God.   In fact, God struck the deal with him and made the deal to rely specifically on God.  As a result, Abraham was  given something that we all need today.  God did not impute sin to Abraham. 

     So what does this have to do with us?  The answer is fairly simplistic.  God followed through on His promises to Abraham, and He will do the same for us.  We need to stop thinking about our investment in our relationship with God.  He cares about our actions, but they do not dictate His.  He will save us.  In fact, let me make your life a little easier.  Every bad thing you do God already saw coming before the creation of the world.  You can't surprise or shock Him.  Paul has more to say a little later in the chapter.

"For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.  For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect,  because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression." (Romans 4:13-15 NKJV)

     Do you see what's happening here?  We don't live under an if-then system of our action starts God's reaction.  He remains the same, fickle as we are, and will never change His promises towards us.  We are not under the law of condemnation, but instead the law of grace.

     So what do we do with this?  Simply this:  when we mess up (as we will, daily,) we repent, ask for forgiveness from our Father, and we move on.  He doesn't remember our sins, why should we?

     So God is not treating us like a businessman who expects an investment of a certain perfectness from us.  He does want our hearts, and for us to love Him with all we have.  But He knows we're imperfect.  That's why He died for us!  He loves you too much to be fickle towards you.  He's God, and He doesn't work on the same plane of operation that we do.  In essence, we get what He paid for.  That's how much He loves you.

(NKJV Means New King James Version)

Serving and/or Growing?

     If you're like me, you have to make an extra effort to multitask.  It's not easy for me to read a book and listen to someone at the same time.  Actually, I have a tendency to slow down whatever I'm doing by just talking at the same time.  I find that for me, it's best to simply focus on one thing at a time, most of the time.  There are exceptions, but I should never be so busy with one thing that I fail to take care of something equally or even more important.  Have you ever neglected something important because you were busy?  I have, and I think I can safely say (though I have no statistics to back it) that everyone else has too.  If we look at the Bible, we can see an example of someone who did exactly what we do.  Her name is Martha, and perhaps you've heard of her.  After all, her story has been often told.  But that doesn't make it any less reliable or true.  The fact of the matter is, that Martha was busy, and it took a gentle reminder from Jesus Himself to tell her something that we all need to hear today.

     We pick up her story in the (very detailed) gospel of Luke, where Jesus is staying at the house of some friends.  Martha and her sister Mary are hosting Jesus, but they seem to have very different priorities.  Looking at Luke 10:38-40 we see what Martha was "putting up with".

     "Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house.  And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word.  But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.”"  (Luke 10:38-40 NKJV)

     Martha has a legitimate complaint, wouldn't you agree?  When I have someone at my house, I can stand it when my co-host is taking it easy, leaving me to do the work, especially when they're with someone we're both friends with.  Oftentimes I imagine this, and the fact is they're working as hard as I am.  But the Bible makes it clear that Mary wasn't giving her sister any assistance, but was instead hanging out with Jesus, which rather exasperated Martha.  Her train of thought could have been "Here I am working to make Jesus comfortable, and give Him a pleasant experience, and my sister's not even trying to help!"  So she (naturally) complains to Jesus.  But His response is a bit surprising.  Look at what He says:

      "And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things.  But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”" (Luke 10:41-42 NKJV)

     What is to be taken from this response?  How should we respond?  Jesus made a pretty surprising and perhaps confusing statement.  But it's only confusing because it sound abnormal according to our standards.  Let's look at some key words in the passage, and see what we can deduce from it.

     In Luke 10:40 we read this: "But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.” (NKJV, boldface added)  It doesn't say "Martha was trying to make Jesus some nice sandwiches" or "Martha was attempting to be a good hostess."  It says she was "distracted with much serving".  She was sidetracked.  She couldn't focus on enjoying Jesus' company and teaching because she was distracted, and not by something unworthy.  She wasn't distracted by trying to make sure her hair looked nice, or that her arrangement of the table settings earned her compliments, or anything like that.  She was distracted by serving.  She was so busy serving that she didn't have time to simply be with Jesus.  How often do we follow her example?  We have that church buffet to organize, that Bible study to lead, that church campus to purchase, and we forget to spend some time growing in the Spirit, reading the Bible, and enjoying our Father's company.  Yet we aren't trying to be sinful.  It's not like the things of this world are keeping us from God.  But what does it matter?  If we spend so much time serving that we have no time to grow, the amount of service we can offer will be diminished, and so will our enthusiasm for doing it, for it is God who motivates us to serve.  If we spend time away from God supposedly serving in the kingdom of God, we do ourselves (and God) a disservice.  Thankfully, the remedy is simple. Turn off your cell phone for a day and dedicate some time to God.  Or ask your friend to lead the Bible study this week.  Whatever it takes, loosen up your schedule to make time for God.  It's not bad to do so.  If you serve a little less so you can grow a little more, you'll be a better Christian and (incidentally) a better servant.

     There's something else we can see from the passage.  In Luke 10:41 when we read Jesus response, we see what Jesus says to Martha.  "And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things." (NKJV, boldface added)  This simply corresponds to what we looked at earlier.  Are we letting the cares of this life choke out God's Word in our lives?  Do we get so concerned about so many things that we don't give God any of our time?  Simplify, and take Jesus advice from Matthew 6:31 where He tells us how and when to worry.  Trust me, this verse opens up whole new worlds.  Are you ready?  Okay.  "So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’" (Matthew 6:31 NIV 1984)  It doesn't get much clearer than that, does it?  We should never allow worry into our lives, and we should never ever allow it to keep us from spending time with God.  

     Martha is perhaps a perfect embodiment of an everyday situation.  The nice thing is that, as with so many other cases, we have a Bible to tell us how to handle these things.  By looking at Martha, we see how our service should never crowd out our room for growth.  It's okay to take a break and spend time with God.  You should never work yourself into the ground in the name of "serving God".  He doesn't want that from you.  Remember, it's the condition of your heart He cares about, and not every little thing that you do, although that is important to Him as well.  Also, never allow the cares of everyday life to crowd out time for your Father.  That does you no good, but instead deprives you from the One Person Who can solve those worries.  But if you make time for Jesus, and put Him and His Word before your opportunities to serve, you'll be better than you could if you did nothing but serve.

(NKJV Means New King James Version)

(NIV 1984 Means New International Version 1984)

Shielded.

     Have you ever been depressed by the news?  Take just one look at the newspaper, and we can see the world is not a perfect place.  But it seems to keep getting worse.  Peoples riot, nations war, and in the midst of it all it seems as if the church is getting battered around, and sometimes we as Christians can't help but wonder what to do.  So we worry, and fume over earthly circumstances, complain about outrageous happenings, and feel inclined to brood over any number of things.  We can very quickly become inclined to despair.  There's nothing wrong with being upset over sin in the world.  We should never passively accept it as in the natural order of things.  But what we must be reminded of is simple.  God is, has always been, and always will be, in control, and He will not abandon His people.  He has the ultimate victory over the power of the enemy, and He has proven Himself faithful over the years.  He will always do so.  To show you what I mean, let's take the example of the Israelites.

     If anyone has had to put up with trouble and persecution over time, it's the Children of Israel.  I'm not just talking about the modern nation either.  In times past, the nation of Israel had extremely hostile neighbors determined to destroy it.  Eventually, it was destroyed, not because God failed to protect the Israelites, but because they failed to serve Him.  For years they had rebelled against His authority and His law by choosing other idols, and so He disciplined them by letting their nation be defeated by the pagan nations.  First the northern kingdom called Israel fell to the nation of Assyria.  We read about it in 2 Kings 17:6-18.

"In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria, and he carried the Israelites away to Assyria and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.  And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods and walked in the customs of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel, and in the customs that the kings of Israel had practiced.  And the people of Israel did secretly against the Lord their God things that were not right. They built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city.  They set up for themselves pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree, and there they made offerings on all the high places, as the nations did whom the Lord carried away before them. And they did wicked things, provoking the Lord to anger, and they served idols, of which the Lord had said to them, “You shall not do this.” Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the Law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets.” But they would not listen, but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the Lord their God.  They despised his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave them. They went after false idols and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the Lord had commanded them that they should not do like them.  And they abandoned all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made for themselves metal images of two calves; and they made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal.  And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings and used divination and omens and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.  Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight. None was left but the tribe of Judah only." (ESV)

     Then the southern kingdom called Judah fell to Babylon in 2 Kings 25 and 2 Chronicles 36.  God pronounced His judgment with the due severity, for His covenant people had turned their backs on Him, and so was fulfilled His warning of Deuteronomy 30:17-18, which says "But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess." (ESV)

     The utter humiliation of being destroyed and subjected under a foreign nation must have been unspeakably painful.  And it was their own fault.  But God did not leave them that way.  Even through the prophets He told them that they had a future and a hope.  Look at His words to the captives from Judah who were in Babylon.

"For thus says the Lord: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place.  For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.  And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.  I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive."  (NKJV)

     Now remember, these were the same people who turned their backs on God and are now paying the price for their sin.  But sure enough, the people of Judah were able to return to their land, and in 1948 Israel became an independent nation again.  Granted, they still have trouble, but they continue to exist as a nation, for God has promised He will never leave them.  They are His chosen people.  The promises He has made to them will never expire.

"Happy are you, O Israel!
Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord,
The shield of your help
And the sword of your majesty!
Your enemies shall submit to you,
And you shall tread down their high places.”  (Deuteronomy 33:29 NKJV)

     God is faithful to His people.  As Christians, we can rely on the same protection He gives Israel.  For we are His covenant people as well, though not of necessarily of the Children of Israel, yet we are in a covenant with Him, and He has promised to be with us.  His Son Jesus reassures us, saying "And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.  For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.  All these are the beginning of sorrows.
 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.  And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.  Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.  But he who endures to the end shall be saved.  And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come." (NKJV)  We live in a turbulent world, and we may face persecution, both blatant and subtle.  We will make mistakes, just as Israel and Judah did.  But the God Who is our strength has sovereignty over the universe, and He will be our protection.  We must fix our eyes on Him, study His Word, and trust in His grace and His might.  We can rely on the promise in Proverbs 30:5.  "Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him." (NKJV)  Again, we look at Hebrews 13:5-6, where it says: "Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”  So we may boldly say:
“The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear.
What can man do to me?”

     So don't despair.  Even though it seems like the world is falling apart and trying to take the church down with it, God will not let the church be lost.  True, the world must end, but when it does, we will be saved. "Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." (Hebrews 12:1-2 NKJV)  Truer words could not be written.  We do have hope.  His name is Jesus, and we need to make His light known throughout the world, and never allow the world to make us despair, because "You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world" (1 John 4:4 NKJV).  That's how we can have Childlike Faith in an Adult's World, through the power of Jesus.  After all, He's the one Who called us to have it in the first place!

(ESV is English Standard Version)

(NKJV is New King James Version)

Kitty-like persistence.

     If you own a cat, you know they can be pretty persistent in requesting what they want.  Once they decide on something, they're pretty clear in communicating their wishes.  But they don't always use sound, do they?  Sometimes they use body language.  I have a cat who is rather skittish.  She's afraid of almost everything that moves.  But she loves attention.  She came up to me recently and put her paws on my leg, and rubbed her head in my hand, and made it clear that she wanted to be petted.  When I had to do other things, she stayed with me, and did not leave for quite a while, even though I left her alone and stopped petting her.  She kept on asking for attention.  I think we can all learn something from my cat.  Here's what I mean.

     We all have a lot going on in our lives.  No one seems to have tons of extra time anymore.  So we all look for convenience.  When we order a pizza, we expect it to be ready when we want it ready, and get irked at waiting times longer than ten minutes (at least I do).  We need that YouTube video to load so we can move on to our next email.  Even our social lives get hurried.  Thus Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks supposedly grant us convenience in our friendships.  There's nothing wrong with added convenience.  But what if convenience becomes such a way of life that we can't wait, and we give up or take matters into our own hands if we have to wait too long?  Pizza Hut takes too long, so we go to Little Caesar's.  YouTube won't load, so we delete the email.

     In each of these cases, we receive and lose something.  We receive convenience, but we get an icky pizza.  We get to the next email, but we lose that cute video of our cousins.  All because we want it now.

     The biggest trouble occurs when we apply the convenience craze to God.  We expect something to arrive from God as soon as we ask for it.  If it doesn't we may wonder what's wrong, or try to find our own way to get what we want or need.  If we're not careful, we can end up substituting our own solutions because we didn't want to wait for God.  So we ask God to get us a nice new car, and when we have to wait more than a month, we go buy an affordable, but not very nice car.  We ask God to speak to us, but after nothing but silence for five minutes, we decide to move on to something else.    In each of these cases, we can end up losing out on what God has for us because we just can't wait.

     What we're forgetting is that God is smarter than we are, and always has a reason for the response He gives, or the supposed delays in those responses.  Someone could ask, "But why doesn't God get on it right away?  Am I not a high enough priority?"  The answer to the last question is of course not.  You are a very high priority to God, regardless of what condition you're in.  Sometimes we don't understand why God acts the way He does.  That's when we need to wait for Him, and trust Him to do what is best for us.  In a verse I've quoted before, we learn that God has different ways from ours.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
"For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9 NKJV)

  As Romans 8:28 says, "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." (NKJV)  Take a look at Psalm 37.  This chapter tells us to wait on God a number of times.  Here are some examples:

"Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him;
Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,
Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass." (v.7)

"For evildoers shall be cut off;
But those who wait on the Lord,
They shall inherit the earth." (v.9)

"Wait on the Lord,
And keep His way,
And He shall exalt you to inherit the land;
When the wicked are cut off, you shall see it." (v.34)  (NKJV, emphasis added.)

     We need to wait on God.  Take the example of the Psalmist:

"I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
And in His word I do hope."  (Psalm 130:5 NKJV)

     When we hit crisis, it's even more tempting to take things into our own hands.  But we just need to be patient and pray.  Each of us has to wait on God at one time or another.  And when we do, He will make it work out for good.  So don't try to rush God, because He knows what He's doing.  Just keep praying.  Don't give up.  Remember what Jesus said in Luke 11:9-10. “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened." (NKJV)  Did you notice that He doesn't add a qualifying term of time?  He did not say, "he who seeks, finds in a week" or "everyone who asks, receives that instant".  God has perfect timing, so we can trust Him.  So keep asking, and you'll get an answer.  It may be no, but you will be answered.  Take the extra time to trust Him.  It's always worth it.

     So that's what my cat can teach us.  Even if you don't seem to be getting a response, keep communicating with God.  Stay in His presence and pray.  He's listening, and loves you more than anyone else can.






(NKJV Means New King James Version)

Obadiah.

    Have you ever read an entire book of the Bible in one day?  I have, today actually.  But the book is only 21 verses.  Today I would like to introduce you to the book of Obadiah.  You may have read it before.  If not, now's your chance.  It's right here:

Obadiah 1  (The only chapter).

¹ The vision of Obadiah.

Thus says the Lord God concerning Edom
(We have heard a report from the Lord,
And a messenger has been sent among the nations, saying,
“Arise, and let us rise up against her for battle”):

² “Behold, I will make you small among the nations;
You shall be greatly despised.
³ The pride of your heart has deceived you,
You who dwell in the clefts of the rock,
Whose habitation is high;
You who say in your heart, ‘Who will bring me down to the ground?’
⁴ Though you ascend as high as the eagle,
And though you set your nest among the stars,
From there I will bring you down,” says the Lord.

⁵ “If thieves had come to you,
If robbers by night—
Oh, how you will be cut off!—
Would they not have stolen till they had enough?
If grape-gatherers had come to you,
Would they not have left some gleanings?

⁶ “Oh, how Esau shall be searched out!
How his hidden treasures shall be sought after!
⁷ All the men in your confederacy
Shall force you to the border;
The men at peace with you
Shall deceive you and prevail against you.
Those who eat your bread shall lay a trap for you.
No one is aware of it.

⁸ “Will I not in that day,” says the Lord,
“Even destroy the wise men from Edom,
And understanding from the mountains of Esau?
⁹ Then your mighty men, O Teman, shall be dismayed,
To the end that everyone from the mountains of Esau
May be cut off by slaughter.

¹⁰ “For violence against your brother Jacob,
Shame shall cover you,
And you shall be cut off forever.
¹¹ In the day that you stood on the other side—
In the day that strangers carried captive his forces,
When foreigners entered his gates
And cast lots for Jerusalem—
Even you were as one of them.
¹² “But you should not have gazed on the day of your brother
In the day of his captivity;
Nor should you have rejoiced over the children of Judah
In the day of their destruction;
Nor should you have spoken proudly
In the day of distress.
¹³ You should not have entered the gate of My people
In the day of their calamity.
Indeed, you should not have gazed on their affliction
In the day of their calamity,
Nor laid hands on their substance
In the day of their calamity.
¹⁴ You should not have stood at the crossroads
To cut off those among them who escaped;
Nor should you have delivered up those among them who remained
In the day of distress.

¹⁵ “For the day of the Lord upon all the nations is near;
As you have done, it shall be done to you;
Your reprisal shall return upon your own head.
¹⁶ For as you drank on My holy mountain,
So shall all the nations drink continually;
Yes, they shall drink, and swallow,
And they shall be as though they had never been.

¹⁷ “But on Mount Zion there shall be deliverance,
And there shall be holiness;
The house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.
¹⁸ The house of Jacob shall be a fire,
And the house of Joseph a flame;
But the house of Esau shall be stubble;
They shall kindle them and devour them,
And no survivor shall remain of the house of Esau,”
For the Lord has spoken.

¹⁹ The South shall possess the mountains of Esau,
And the Lowland shall possess Philistia.
They shall possess the fields of Ephraim
And the fields of Samaria.
Benjamin shall possess Gilead.
²⁰ And the captives of this host of the children of Israel
Shall possess the land of the Canaanites
As far as Zarephath.
The captives of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad
Shall possess the cities of the South.
²¹

 Then saviors shall come to Mount Zion
To judge the mountains of Esau,
And the kingdom shall be the Lord’s.

(NKJV)

Obadiah is an interesting, and to some, rather confusing book.  Why is God so angry with the nation of Edom?  What is so important about them?  Well, to figure that out we need a little historical backdrop.  You see, the year Obadiah was written was shortly after 586 B.C.  The nation of Judah had just been taken over by the Babylonian empire.  The reason?  Well, Judah had had a number of kings over the years, and many of them were not good ones.  The longest reigning one, King Manasseh, was one of the worst.  In fact, 2 Kings 21:10-15  shows how God responded to his works.

"And the Lord spoke by His servants the prophets, saying, “Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations (he has acted more wickedly than all the Amorites who were before him, and has also made Judah sin with his idols), therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Behold, I am bringing such calamity upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab; I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. So I will forsake the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become victims of plunder to all their enemies, because they have done evil in My sight, and have provoked Me to anger since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day.’” (NKJV)

God had had it with Judah's behavior, and it was time they received their judgment.  God had spent plenty of time trying to get the nation to repent, but they blew Him off.  So He finally had to judge them.  We see the results just a few chapters later, in 2 Kings 25.  If you read it, you find that the Babylonians burned some of the most important structures (including God's temple), took Jerusalem's treasures, killed many men, and exiled most of the nation.  The king (named Zedekiah) tried to escape with his army, but failed and had his sons killed before his eyes.  Then he was blinded and shipped off to Babylon.  Judah lost it's sovereignty as a nation, and the people lost what was important to them.  So what does all this have to do with Obadiah, and the nation of Edom?

The answer lies in this.  Edom was a nation born out of the family of Esau.  Israel (and therefore Judah) was a nation born out the family of Jacob.  Jacob and Esau were brothers, and they didn't get along too well.  Neither did their descendants.  In fact when Judah was going into exile, Edom made it worse.  Instead of mourning for their relatives, they literally gloated.  It gets worse.  They shared in the looting of Judah's territory.  They even set up roadblocks so that those trying to escape the exile were captured.  If Judah wasn't already suffering enough, this certainly didn't help. And of course it was only an amplified disgrace when we consider the fact that these people were related.  This is what God tells Obadiah to prophesy about.  He pronounces His indictment and His judgment in one book.  So what can we learn from Obadiah?

Two lessons stand out to me.  The first one we learn from Edom.  When disaster strikes, don't gloat.  Do you ever feel inclined to gloat when someone you don't like or who even hurt you meets up with rough times?  The temptation is natural, you shouldn't feel guilty for that.  The problem lies in whether you give in to it.  If you do, you aren't acting very mature, and you don't please God either.  Look at Proverbs 24:17-18. "Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, And do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles; Lest the Lord see it, and it displease Him, And He turn away His wrath from him." (NKJV)  It's easy to gloat, but it's not godly.  Obadiah makes that pretty clear.  Now does this mean you can't be happy if an evil plan is foiled?  Of course not.  It means that if your abrasive and rude neighbor nearly falls down his porch stairs you shouldn't be laughing to yourself and thinking how it serves him right.  We've all done it.  But if you find yourself doing it, you need to be quick to repent, not because of the punishment you might receive, but because that person is precious to God too, and he/she doesn't need the extra trouble.

The other thing we can learn is this.  God does not stop looking out for His people.  God was angry at Judah, sure enough, but He did not bail out on them.  He disciplined them, but had every intention of bringing them back home, which He did, by the way.  So even though their world fell apart, God still had a future for them.  That didn't change.  They just had to take a detour so He could put them back on the right track.  Verses 17-21 tell us that Judah will bounce back, but Edom will not.  Now keep in mind that Judah is basically a dump at the time that this book is written.  And yet, God was faithful, and seventy years later the exile ended, and in the last century, the nation has become a country again.  True, it still has problems and will continue to, but God will never leave His people.  And He shows the same degree of faithfulness to us as Christians.  Hebrews 13:5-6 puts a clear light on what reliance we may place on God.

 "Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”  So we may boldly say:

“The Lord is my helper;

I will not fear.

What can man do to me?” (NKJV)

No matter what happens, God does not abandon His people.  2 Timothy 2:13 puts it another way. "If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself." (NKJV)

So Obadiah does have a message for us, just as every book of the Bible does.  God is truly amazing in what He tells us through seemingly confusing scriptures.  His faithfulness does not change, He will always be with us.  And that's because He loves us.  God is good, and that will always be the case.  Period.

(NKJV means New King James Version)

(Historical backdrop on Obadiah, (including date of writing) information The New Spirit Filled Life Bible, Edited by Jack W. Hayford et al.  Copyright 2002 by Thomas Nelson)

Pilot or Co-Pilot?

     Bumper stickers are interesting.  Some are good, others make you wonder why they are even allowed in public places, and a few don't make any sense.  They can also be misleading.  I've seen a bumper sticker before that says "God is my co-pilot".  At first glance, that seems pretty cool.  We may even say  "Wow.  God is your co-pilot?  Good for you!"  But think for a second about what a co-pilot does.  They're not the primary drivers.  They get to be in control sometimes, but not all the time.  That's not their job.  They're second in command.  So the sticker means that the person has decided to let God be second-in-command in their lives.  It's really not that great to have God as our co-pilot.

      But whether we realize it or not, we all like to be in control.  There's something about the feeling of control that makes us feel good about ourselves.  Even those of us who are laid back still like to have some degree of control.  Have you ever met a control freak?  They insist on having charge of things, because they feel more comfortable that way.  If something unexpected happens, it seems to drive some folks crazy.  I've seen this in my own life, and it was over something silly too.  When a heat wave hit my area, I realized all of a sudden that I would be too hot no matter where I went, and this really bugged me.  You're thinking, "Haven't you heard of air conditioning?"  Yes I have.  But the problem for me was that I could not make the temperature more comfortable, and it made me realize that I was powerless to change this circumstance.  It was beyond my control, and that bothered me.

     The problem with us being in control is that we actually aren't.  We're just trying to be.  When it comes right down to it, we aren't ever in charge.  Nothing is in our control, and this includes whether your computer will work, whether birds will start oinking, and whether or not the temperature will drop to 20 below in the next 30 seconds.  These may seem like extreme examples, but the principle is the same.  We can't guarantee what life will bring, and as a result we can never be in control.  So we live in an illusion of control that must be broken.

     In James 4:13-14 it says "Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away." (NKJV)  Now this verse may seem a bit scary.  It doesn't seem nice for James to compare us to vapor.  But bear with me, because the truth is we must surrender control to God.  We have to let him be the pilot.  How?  By simply giving up control and asking Him to take charge, and then letting Him actually do it, by obeying His voice and His Word.


     The advantages of letting God be in control are numerous.  Here are a few. 


1. Less unnecessary responsibility. When we realize we're not in charge and surrender the driver's seat to God, we also give up the unneeded pressure of making everything work out.  When we give up control of our lives to God, and really learn to trust Him, He takes the responsibility (that we should never have tried to usurp in the first place) of making life work.  Have you ever felt the pressure of leading a group, organizing an event, or planning a party?  You know that if something goes wrong, it might be your fault, and you'll be blamed regardless.  It's the same with our lives.  We feel pressured to make them work "as they should be", and then blame ourselves when they don't work out as we hope.  We claim responsibility for everything that goes wrong, including things that could never have been our fault (for example, blaming yourself for Joe's stomachache because you took him to an all-you-can-eat buffet and he ate sixteen plates).  That's erased when we give the responsibility to Jesus.


2. A guarantee that it will work out. In Romans 8:28 the Bible says: "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." (NKJV)  When Jesus is in control, we can breathe easy knowing that no matter what's happening, He will work it out in the end.  By the way, I want to clarify something.  Just because we need to let God control our lives doesn't mean we can't ask Him why He's doing what He's doing.  There's nothing wrong with that.  We just need to make sure we don't take the steering wheel and try to take control again when things don't go our way.

3.  Someone much smarter in charge.  None of us is as smart as God.  Period.  End of story.  Genesis 1:1 says: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." (NKJV)  I don't understand how the world works, let alone how to build one just like it.  If that's not proof enough, look at Job 36:22-23.

“Behold, God is exalted by His power;
Who teaches like Him?
Who has assigned Him His way,
Or who has said, ‘You have done wrong’? (NKJV)

God is smarter, and it seems reasonable that the smartest Person in the universe should be allowed to be in control of your life, don't you think?

4.  Better guidance.  Ever steered someone else wrong?  How about yourself?  It doesn't feel so good afterwards, does it?  But Jesus never steers us wrong.  Check out Isaiah 48:17:


"This is what the Lord says—
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
“I am the Lord your God,
who teaches you what is best for you,
who directs you in the way you should go." (NIV 1984)

5.  Saved from making all the tough decisions on our own.  When we ask God what He wants us to do in a given situation, He'll generally have a response ready for us.  It's easier for us to make the right choices when God points them out.

     The advantages to letting the God Who died for us be in charge far outweigh the disadvantages of trying to be in charge ourselves.  We can't control what happens, whether we try or not, but when we trust God with our lives and allow Him to be in control, our lives are improved and so is our relationship with Him.  Try surrendering control to God in every aspect of your life.  It's not always easy, but it's always worth it.  Just ask Him to take the driver's seat, and then determine that you'll follow what He tells you.  The result will be far beyond what you expect.

(NKJV means New King James Version)

(NIV 1984 means New International Version 1984)

Dollar Store

     Hi there.  I thought you might enjoy this video clip based on a song by comedian Tim Hawkins, about the Dollar Store, everyone's favorite store for cheap junk.  I hope you get a laugh out of it.  The Bible says in Proverbs 17:21 that "A merry heart does good, like medicine, But a broken spirit dries the bones." So I hope this brightens your day a bit and lifts your spirit. God bless you. Enjoy!

(By the way, if you've ever seen Dodger and Lilly, the Pac-Man at the end probably looks familiar.  If not, I encourage you to check it out.