Month: November 2019

And So I Thank The Lord

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1 Thessalonians 5:16-19 Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

I’m a singer.  I hear something throughout the day that reminds me of a song, and I sing it.  I’m not a great singer and I don’t usually know the whole song, but what I do know gets sung with gusto and joy.  This morning I woke up and started singing “Oh, the Lord is good to me and so I thank the Lord for giving me the things I need, the sun and the rain and the apple seed, the Lord is good to me.  Amen… Amen… Amen, Amen, Amen.”  I’m not even sure where I learned that one.  Probably from VBS when I was a kid, but it put me a thankful frame of mind.

The Lord has always been so good to me.  He has walked with me throughout my life even when I wasn’t walking with him.  There were times when I was ashamed of what I was doing, so I didn’t walk with the Lord.  There were times when I thought I could do it all by myself, so I didn’t walk with the Lord.  There were times when I thought I was too cool, so I didn’t walk with the Lord.  But he was ALWAYS with me.  That is the wonderful thing about God.  He loves us with all his heart.  He is not going to force me to love him or to walk with him but as soon as I turn to him, he is there.  My life is sooooo much better with God than without. 

But that doesn’t mean God gives me everything that I want.  Even the song says, “things I need”.  In the song, the Lord gives the sun, the rain and an apple seed, not an apple.  Those are all the things we need to grow an apple.  It is our choice to plant the seed and nurture it while it grows into a tree and begins to produce fruit.  Think about it.  God is not going to give you a house or a car, but he will give you the skills you need to get a job, the willpower you need to save money and the wisdom you need to purchase the house or car that is right for you.  It is your choice to use and nurture the skills, willpower and wisdom God has given you until the fruit begins to grow.

So now I choose to walk with the Lord and thank him daily for what he has given me.  My health, my children, my family, my friends, my career, my home, my bed, my . . . . the list goes on and on.  We really have so much more to be thankful for than most of us realize.  So, as we approach Thanksgiving, I encourage you to be thankful.  Be grateful.  Have an attitude of gratitude because the Lord IS good to you.  Start each day with a prayer of thanksgiving. 

Lord, thank you for walking with me every day of my life.  Thank you for giving me the things that I need. To you be all the glory. Amen.

Love One Another

Mark 12:31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.

Way back before Jesus was born, God helped the Israelites (also called the Jews) escape Egypt where they were slaves.  God led them to a special place he called the Promised Land. When they finally arrived, God told them not to marry or mingle with the people in that land because they did not believe in the one true God.  Now fast forward to Jesus’s time.  Jesus preached about love, grace and forgiveness.  He said the most important commandment was to love God and in Mark 12:31 it says, “The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”  Many Jews did not believe that Jesus was God’s son and did not want to love one another.  They only wanted to love other Jews. 

Since many Jewish people rejected Jesus and didn’t want to believe that he was God’s son, Jesus’s friends began to tell other races about Jesus so that everyone could have an opportunity to believe and be saved.  They were very successful and lots of people believed and were saved!  So, one day, Peter, one of Jesus’s friends, was asked to go to Cornelius’s house.  Cornelius was the captain of the Italian Guard and not a Jew.

When Peter got to Cornelius’s house, the Bible says in Acts 10:27-29 (MSG) “Talking things over, they went on into the house, where Cornelius introduced Peter to everyone who had come. Peter addressed them, “You know, I’m sure that this is highly irregular. Jews just don’t do this – visit and relax with people of another race. But God has just shown me that no race is better than any other. So, the minute I was sent for, I came, no questions asked. But now I’d like to know why you sent for me.”

So, there you have it.  No race is better than any other.  That is what God says in the Bible.  Another race may look strange to you, but you look strange to them too.  You may listen to different music, have different ways of talking to friends or wear different clothes.  But different isn’t bad, it is just different.  Take a minute to get to know people for who they are not what they look like and you will be pleasantly surprised about how much you actually have in common.

Lord, thank you for making so many amazing and wonderful people.  Help me to remember that you want me to love my neighbor as much as I love myself. Amen

Campfire Songs

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1 John 4:7-8       Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.  Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

When I was in the 8th grade, my class spent 3 days at a Christian camp in LaGrange, Texas called Camp Lone Star.  We did all the fun things you normally do at camp plus we had Bible studies and opportunities to learn more about Jesus.  One night we learned a campfire song based on 1 John 4:7-8.  In fact, the lyrics of the song are exactly the words of this Bible verse.  The song and tune stuck with me and I can still sing it to this day.  

Occasionally, with no warning at all, the song comes to mind and I’ll start singing it.  That happened to me tonight during a class I’ve been taking at church.  The speaker said 1 John 4 and immediately the song came to my mind and I started singing it in my head.  I wrote the verse down and when I got home, I looked it up and started to study it. 

1 John was actually a letter written by the John who was one of Jesus’ 12 disciples.  John did not write the letter to a specific person or church.  In fact, he sent it to several Gentile (non-Jewish) churches, so I’d like to imagine he was sending it to me too.  When John wrote the letter, he was one of, if not the only person left on earth that had personally known Jesus.  He had eaten with Jesus, walked and talked with Jesus, and watched Jesus heal the sick and perform miracles.  He saw Jesus die on the cross and he saw Jesus after he had risen from the dead.  John learned all about love from Jesus and he had the absolute best teacher in the world.

The message he wanted us to retain is simple.  Love one another because God is love.  That means love your neighbors, even the ones who play their music too loud.  Love your little brother who steals your phone chord without asking.  Love your co-worker who only has negative things to say about everyone.  Love the homeless man on the corner who is always looking for a handout.  Love them.  Love them all.  Loving the people you already like is easy.  But loving the people that drive you nuts, that is what Jesus really wants us to do.  You might be the only Jesus they see today so make sure they see Jesus’s love.

Lord, thank you for showing us what love is. Help us to share your love with everyone around us. Amen.

One and Done

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Leviticus 1:1-2 The Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting.  He said, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When any of you brings an offering to the Lord, bring as your offering an animal from either the herd or the flock.’”

I’ve been reading the book of Leviticus and I struggled through the first 7 chapters because they were about all the sacrifices/offerings that the Israelites were instructed to give to God.  The verses weren’t gruesome or anything like that, but they were very detailed.  There were verses about burnt offerings, grain offerings, fellowship offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings. There were instructions about which animals to use and what parts of the animals to use. Some parts of the animals were to be burned, some parts eaten by the priest and some parts eaten by the person giving the sacrifice.  All in all, there are 171 verses with very specific details on how all the different offerings are to be made. 

Honestly, as I was reading these verses, I thought to myself, “Wow, I’m super glad I didn’t live 1400 years before Jesus.  There is no way I would be able to remember all this.”  I mean, it’s not like they could whip out a pen and paper to take notes.  They didn’t have cell phones to record the sacrifices so they could remember how to do them again the next time.  If I lived back then, I think I would have been terrified that I would forget something.

In the Old Testament, an animal life was given to save the life of a person in the form of a sacrifice. But this was only a temporary fix because people would sin again and again.  Luckily, we were born after the most important sacrifice was made. That sacrifice was Jesus dying on the cross.  Have you heard people call Jesus the Lamb of God?  That’s because Jesus was sent to us from God to be the ultimate sacrifice so that we no longer had to sacrifice animals or grain to be forgiven.  Jesus died for us so that we could be made right before God forever and spend eternal life with Him in heaven.  One and done. 

Jesus, thank you for giving your life as a sacrifice for mine. You are the most incredible example of love.  You fill me up with joy and happiness.  Please open my eyes to see others that need to hear the good news of about your love and sacrifice for them.  Help me to be a reflection of you.  Amen.