a chunk of stuff

Here's what stood out in 3 of the 4 chapters I read in this Bible this morning.

Some mornings there's not as much as there are this morning, & some times there's more.


One of my sons preached a sermon this past Sunday about knowing how & when God speaks to us.

I don't have a problem knowing how & when - haven't since January of 2003.

God speaks to me all the time - I read the Bible every day, w/o fail.


I'm not trying to be prideful or arrogant - I'm just stating a fact.

I don't have much of a problem getting God to speak to me - good grief! sometimes I almost want Him to shut up!!! ;-) LOL

And the same thing will happen to anyone else - yes, that means you!

If you read the Bible everyday, w/o fail, God will speak to you - no, God will mess with you!

And He will mess with you in the very areas of your life you don't want Him to mess with!


Anyway, here's a bunch of stuff that stood out today...



Psalm 37

1 Don't worry about the wicked

  or envy those who do wrong.

2 For like grass, they soon fade away.

  Like spring flowers, they soon wither.


3 Trust in the LORD and do good.

  Then you will live safely in the land and prosper.

4 Take delight in the LORD,

  and he will give you your heart's desires.


5 Commit everything you do to the LORD.

  Trust him, and he will help you.

6 He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn,

  and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun.


7a Be still in the presence of the LORD,

  and wait patiently for him to act.


8b Do not lose your temper—

  it only leads to harm.


12 The wicked plot against the godly;

  they snarl at them in defiance.

13 But the Lord just laughs,

  for he sees their day of judgment coming.


16 It is better to be godly and have little

  than to be evil and rich.


23 The LORD directs the steps of the godly.

  He delights in every detail of their lives.

24 Though they stumble, they will never fall,

  for the LORD holds them by the hand.

25a Once I was young, and now I am old.

  Yet I have never seen the godly abandoned
 

34a Don't be impatient for the Lord to act!

  Travel steadily along his path.

He will honor you by giving you the land.
 

35 I have seen wicked and ruthless people

  flourishing like a tree in its native soil.

36 But when I looked again, they were gone!

  Though I searched for them, I could not find them!


39 The LORD rescues the godly;

  he is their fortress in times of trouble.

40 The LORD helps them,

  rescuing them from the wicked.

He saves them,

  and they find shelter in him.


********

Luke 5

27 Later, as Jesus left the town, he saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at his tax collector's booth.

"Follow me and be my disciple," Jesus said to him.

28 So Levi got up, left everything, and followed him.

  29 Later, Levi held a banquet in his home with Jesus as the guest of honor.

Many of Levi's fellow tax collectors and other guests also ate with them.

30 But the Pharisees and their teachers of religious law complained bitterly to Jesus' disciples,

      "Why do you eat and drink with such scum?"

31 Jesus answered them,

     "Healthy people don't need a doctor - sick people do.
32 I have come to call not those who think they are righteous,

     but those who know they are sinners and need to repent."


(How many of us would be willing to hang with non-believers to the point our Christian friends wondered why we were hanging with  "such scum"?)


********

2 Corinthians 6

2b God is ready to help you right now.


3 We live in such a way that no one will stumble because of us,

     & no one will find fault with our ministry.

4 In everything we do, we show that we are true ministers of God.

We patiently endure troubles and hardships and calamities of every kind.
5 We have been beaten,

     been put in prison,

     faced angry mobs,

    worked to exhaustion,

     endured sleepless nights,

    and gone without food.
6 We prove ourselves by our purity,

     our understanding,

     our patience,

     our kindness,

     by the Holy Spirit within us,

     and by our sincere love.
7 We faithfully preach the truth.

God's power is working in us.

We use the weapons of righteousness in the right hand for attack and the left hand for defense.

8 We serve God whether people honor us or despise us,

     whether they slander us or praise us.

We are honest,

     but they call us impostors.

9 We are ignored,

     even though we are well known.

We live close to death,

     but we are still alive.

We have been beaten,

     but we have not been killed.
10 Our hearts ache,

     but we always have joy.

We are poor,

     but we give spiritual riches to others.

We own nothing,

     and yet we have everything.


(How many of us prissy & precious "American Dream" Christians would live a life like Paul? Not many, I would guess.)

(Paul wrote 2 Corinthians to the Christ followers in Corinth. He didn't live a Club Med existence as a Christ follower or as a minister...

     ...neither did he ask people he'd been instrumental in converting to provide him with a $65 million jet plane! ;-) LOL)


18 I will be your Father,

     & you will be my sons & daughters,

     says the Lord Almighty

(Paul was quoting in the verse from 2 Samuel 7:14 - yes, he'd read the Old Testament! ;-) LOL)

a chunk of stuff

There's just so much in this chapter.

Paul is writing his second letter to the Christ followers in Corinth.

There's 2 sections - read them both slowly.

I don't use a whole chapter very often.

I just felt like there were people who might need just the 1st section,

     others who might need only the 2nd,

     while maybe others who might need to read both.



2 Corinthians 5

1 For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down

        (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body),

     we will have a house in heaven,

     an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands.

2 We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing.

3 For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies.

4 While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh,

     but it's not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us.

Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life.

5 God himself has prepared us for this,

     and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.


6 So we are always confident,

     even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord.

7 For we live by believing and not by seeing.

8 Yes, we are fully confident,

     and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies,

     for then we will be at home with the Lord.

9 So whether we are here in this body or away from this body,

     our goal is to please him.

10 For we must all stand before Christ to be judged.

We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body.



11 Because we understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord,

        we work hard to persuade others.

God knows we are sincere, and I hope you know this, too.

12 Are we commending ourselves to you again?

No, we are giving you a reason to be proud of us,

     so you can answer those who brag about having a spectacular ministry rather than having a sincere heart.

13 If it seems we are crazy,

        it is to bring glory to God.

And if we are in our right minds,

     it is for your benefit.

14 Either way, Christ's love controls us.

Since we believe that Christ died for all,

     we also believe that we have all died to our old life.

15 He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves.

Instead, they will live for Christ,

     who died and was raised for them.


16 So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view.

At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view.

How differently we know him now!

17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.

The old life is gone;

a new life has begun!


18 And all of this is a gift from God,

      who brought us back to himself through Christ.

And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him.

19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them.

And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.

20 So we are Christ's ambassadors;

God is making his appeal through us.

We speak for Christ when we plead,

     "Come back to God!"

21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin,

        so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

encouragement

These are some verses that stood out this morning in 1 Corinthians 4.

The apostle, Paul, did not live a Club Med existence,

     as a follower of Jesus, he did not live the "American Dream".

But he wrote these encouraging words to the young church in Corinth


Maybe you're like me this morning - need some encouragement?



2 Corinthians 4

6 For God, who said, "Let there be light in the darkness," has made this light shine in our hearts

     so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.


7 We now have this light shining in our hearts,

     but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure.

This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.


8 We are pressed on every side by troubles,

     but we are not crushed.

We are perplexed,

     but not driven to despair.

9 We are hunted down,

     but never abandoned by God.

We get knocked down,

     but we are not destroyed.

10 Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus

        so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.


16 That is why we never give up.

Though our bodies are dying,

     our spirits are being renewed every day.

17 For our present troubles are small and won't last very long.

        Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!

18 So we don't look at the troubles we can see now;

      rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen.


For the things we see now will soon be gone,

   but the things we cannot see will last forever.

take heart...

This is for anyone who is discouraged...

    or feels alone...

    or feels hedged in &/or put on the shelf...

    or worries about having enough...

    or just plain worries about everything...

    or feels overwhelmed...

    or is clueless...

    or finds their life so confusing & inconsistent with what they thought life was gonna be...

    or all of the above, or none of the about...



Psalm 34
2b ...let all who are helpless take heart.


4 I prayed to the LORD, and he answered me.

  He freed me from all my fears.

5 Those who look to him for help will be radiant with joy;

  no shadow of shame will darken their faces.

6 In my desperation I prayed, and the LORD listened;

  he saved me from all my troubles.


8 Taste and see that the LORD is good.

  Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!

9 Fear the LORD, you his godly people,

  for those who fear him will have all they need.

10 Even strong young lions sometimes go hungry,

  but those who trust in the LORD will lack no good thing.


15 The eyes of the LORD watch over those who do right;

  his ears are open to their cries for help.


17 The LORD hears his people when they call to him for help.

  He rescues them from all their troubles.

18 The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;

  he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.


19 The righteous person faces many troubles,

  but the LORD comes to the rescue each time.


22 But the LORD will redeem those who serve him.

  No one who takes refuge in him will be condemned.

we stink!

1 Corinthians 2

15 Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God.

But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing.

16 To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom.

But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume.



These 2 verses have helped me understand why people react the way they sometimes do.

I doubt they would say it quite like Paul - that we stink ;-)

But what I think we need to understand is that Christ followers in many ways are repugnant to non-believers just by being believers.

It isn't something that we intentionally do.

It just that we have the Holy Spirit inside of us.

As a result, non-believers find being around someone with the Holy Spirit inside them to be a very repugnant thing.

Because in many ways, the Holy Spirit is repugnant to them.

Like I said, a non-believer would never express it that way.

They simply react negatively to something they sense about us that is different from them, & it makes them uncomfortable.

Remember it is the Holy Spirit's job to convict - & He does a pretty good job of it, even when, or especially when, people come upon Him in the heart & life of a Christ follower.


Now this doesn't let us off the hook for bad, ill mannered, judgemental, or obnoxious behavior.

What it does explain is that some people will react negatively towards us simply because we have the Holy Spirit inside us.


So what must we do?

Ask God to channel His love through us, & understand it is what it is sometimes with people.


I hope all this makes sense. It's softly raining outside & is lulling me a bit. So if this missive is a bit fuzzy it's because I'm a bit fuzzy-headed myself this morning ;-)

go

Mark 16:15 And then he told them, "Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone."


This is Jesus talking to his disciples right before He went back to heaven.

He told the disciples to "go".

Go tell people about the new life they can now have because of His death & His coming back to life.

And they did - and the world has never been the same.


I continue to believe that Jesus says the same thing to us...

"Go..."

For some reason, in our present paradigm here in America, there is this thinking that once we become Christ followers...

     we're supposed to start living the "American dream", have success (as the world would interpret success) in whatever we do,

     & that we should insulate ourselves from the world by surrounding ourselves with Christian friends,

     trade with Christian businesses,

     go to safe churches,

     vote a certain way,

     & stay away from non-christians so as to not be polluted by their sinful behavior.


I don't think that's what Jesus had in mind.

Right off the bat, we should see the fallacy in that thinking because if the people who influenced us to become Christ followers had adhered to that thinking, we'd both be still on the slippery slope to hell!

Jesus said go.

Go to world that is going slam to hell.

And before you say, "iow, go to 'deepest, darkest Africa' as missionaries?!"

(Interestingly enough, since Lynn WAS a missionary in Africa for almost 9 years, & she's taken me there, we'd both get on the next plane for Africa if that's what we thought God wanted us to do!)

What I believe Jesus was talking about was go to people wherever He leads us to be.

That can be right where we are now, in our homes, workplaces, where we trade, where we eat, where we work out or hang out - essentially, everywhere we go.

But it is also quite possible that God might have us move somewhere to be salt & light, pointing people to Him. (I'm living that - for the last 4 1/2 years!)

That could be to the next town over, somewhere else in the state or nation, or overseas.

God is very creative - He will place us & use us wherever that may be - if we're willing to go.

stuff

These are four things that stood out today.

"Be strong & courageous" is phrase that seems to be standing out in the past few days.

I'm not sure exactly what they may mean for me.

I guess time will tell.

Or as a friend of mine in Macon, Ga would say, "I guess we're fixin' to find out!"



Be strong & take courage, all you who put your hope in the Lord. Psalm 31:24


You have done so much for those who come to you for protection, blessing them before the watching world. Psalm 31:19b


For there is a wide-open door for a great work here, & many are responding. But there are many who oppose me. 1 Corinthians 16:9


Be on guard.

Stand true to what you believe.

Be courageous.

Be strong.

And everything you do must be done with love.

1 Corinthians 16:13, 14