A great word from Pastor Beth @ Valley Family Church yesterday!

 

Pastor Beth shared a great message yesterday. (https://www.valleyfamilychurch.org/)  One thing in particular caught my eye.  The reason it caught my eye was that it gave direction on a question that I often ask myself. 

I have been writing this blog for 9 1/2 years now.  There are times when I read something in Scripture and although it is good stuff I think to myself "I've blogged about that before" and I am hesitant to blog on it again because I don't want to "just recycle old material" as it were.  So unless I get a new insight into something I have blogged about before I move on.   

 

So here is the verse that Pastor Beth shared that caught my eye.

 

2 Peter 1:12-13(NKJV)

For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth. 

Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you, 

 

This is Peter talking.  Pastor Beth used this Scripture and then made the transition to a sports analogy.  In sports there are certain fundamentals that you focus on and practice over and over.  Even when you go to an advanced sports camp, where do they start?  The fundamentals!  Tell me I'm wrong.  :)

 

So the way I see it, there should be no hesitation in blogging about something even if I have covered it before if I think it is something fundamental.  Does that make sense?  I will try to remember that in the future.  Thanks Pastor Beth!!!

Pastor Beth made another great point yesterday that I will save for another time.  If you would like to get a head start and discover the other point then head on over to Valley Family Church and check it out for yourself!  https://www.valleyfamilychurch.org/

People are always looking for other proofs.

Many times people say things like "if I just saw "X", then I would believe.  That "X" being some sort of additional evidence or proof than what they already have to go on.

 

So what does Jesus say about that approach?

 

Luke 16:24-31(NKJV)

“Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’ 

But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. 

And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’

“Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, 

for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’ 

Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ 

And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 

But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’”

 

This is Jesus telling the story of what Abraham would say.  The guy in hell asks that a warning be sent to his 5 brothers.  Abraham says a warning has already been sent through the prophets and Scripture.  Then the guy in hell says 'yeah but if you raise someone from the dead to warn my brothers, they will listen."

And you can see Abrahams response.  Notice the subtle prophecy in his response.  "If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.". 

Was that really Jesus predicting that even though He was about to be crucified and raised from the dead, Jesus knew that even that would not persuade everyone.  Hmm. 

 

Once again I love the approach Jesus takes here.

I find it interesting how many people have this vision in their head of Kumbaya Jesus.  That He is all loving, accepting of everything, holding hands while we sing around the campfire Jesus. 

And yet we find examples like this.  Not only did Jesus get right in their face, he was on offense.  He wasn't responding to some trap question that the scholars had asked.  Jesus hit them with the question first.  He put them on the spot!

 

Luke 14:1-6(NKJV)

Now it happened, as He went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath, that they watched Him closely. 

And behold, there was a certain man before Him who had dropsy. 

And Jesus, answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”

But they kept silent. And He took him and healed him, and let him go. 

Then He answered them, saying, “Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?” 

And they could not answer Him regarding these things.

 

I like that!

“Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning;…"

 

Luke 12:35(NKJV)

“Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; 

 

I get the your lamps burning part.  I wasn't sure what "let your waist be girded" meant.

 

I'm generally not a big fan of alternate translations of the Bible but here is a case where it helped.  One of the alternate translations has it as "be dressed for service and keep your lamps burning.".  That makes sense to me.

 

How come we take God for granted so often?

God is so cool!!!!!

How many times have I started a post with that phrase?  :)  I can't help it.  God does some incredibly cool things in our lives. 

Unfortunately, we often take those cool things for granted.  We don't thank God for them and even worse, we don't even notice!

 

I caught myself doing that over the last couple of days.  It's nothing intentional.  We just get busy with life and sometimes miss the significance of the little things.  It was only through reflection this morning that I put two and two together. 

 

First off, this morning as I asking my self "what part of my workout should I start?", almost instantaneously the thought popped into my brain, do your Bible study first.  I usually do it after workouts so I almost blew that thought off and continued with my routine when my brain sort of screeched "hold on there cowboy!!!".  (I know screeched doesn't sound very masculine but it was the first word that popped into my head)    :)

Let's look at that again.  I asked a question, seemingly to myself.  God instantaneously sends a thought into my brain suggesting a different option.  Why do I believe it was God?  Because the option that popped into my brain wasn't one that was even remotely on my radar and under consideration at the moment.  Remember, doing Bible study before workout wasn't my normal routine.  That is why I believe it was God directly intervening and giving me an opportunity to listen to Him if I chose to.

 

Fortunately for me, my brain was quick enough to recognize what was going on and let me know, "hey dude, when God sends you a direct answer to a question you just asked in your mind, don't be an idiot and ignore it!".   :)

 

So I did it God's way this morning and went to Scripture first, recognizing and thanking God for intervening.  That is when it got even cooler. 

 

It was like God said "you think that was cool?  Watch this!  Remember yesterday…….".  He went on to point out two or three little things that happened yesterday and how they all inter-related to answer something that I had been pondering.  Things that were so small that I took them for granted.

 

All because I listened and went to Scripture first today.  I did it God's way instead of my way.  What a concept! 

Would you like to have a direct relationship with God like that?  You can if you want to.  It starts with asking Jesus into your life.  Just have a conversation with Jesus.  Share with Him what is on your heart.  "Dear Jesus…."

 

Yeah, I'm back!

 I'm not sure what happened but I couldn't get into my account for a while.  It's fixed now!

Being locked out of my account has helped me realize the importance of typing out what I learned each day.  It really helps me zero in and crystalize what I believe God's message was to me that day. 

When I couldn't post I would still read the Bible but I wouldn't bother typing anything up because I couldn't post it.  Looking back I can see that there is a lack of clarity of what I learned on the days that I don't type a anything up.

If you aren't keeping a written Bible journal you might want to start.  I try to read 1 chapter a day out of the Old Testament and 1 chapter a day out of the New Testament.  Then I write out what I believe God was trying to communicate to me through His word that day.  It's very enlightening and I encourage you all to give it a try.

Anyway, great to be back!

Pray with expectation!

For some reason, the last two days God has prompted me to go back and read some of the very first stuff I wrote in 2006 when I first started keeping a Bible Reading Journal.  The first day I resisted because I wanted to make sure it was God really prompting me.  Today when it happened a second time I complied. 

 

It is interesting to go back and read stuff that I wrote 14+ years ago.  One of the things I noticed is that back when I was writing privately, I would put in funny and sometimes sarcastic comments that I don't put in the stuff that I write for the blog.  Maybe I'll start adding more of that.  We'll see.

 

In my readings today this phrase really popped out at me.  "Pray with expectation!"  It came from reading my notes on Samuel 1.  While this phrase caught my eye, my complete note on the chapter goes a little deeper.

 

"Continue to be faithful to the Lord.  Pray with expectation.  God answers prayer in his time."

Notice the order.  Faithful, pray, God will answer in His time.  Now to be honest I don't know if that was the order that Samuel 1 used or if I just happened to put them in that order. 

What I find interesting about the pattern is that it is the same pattern found elsewhere in Scripture.  We first have to have faith.  Then our actions are an outward manifestation of that inner faith. 

Prayer is an action based on our faith.  Praying demonstrates our faith…or does it?

 

If we don't pray with expectation, are we really demonstrating any faith at all? 

 

The message I took from this was to examine my own prayer life.  Am I always praying with expectation?  Or am I just going through the motions? 

 

I'm sure it isn't just me.  Sometimes we get busy with life and we rush through things.  Life happens.  It is up to us to be on guard and try to minimize those times.  It is hard to do that though when you don't know exactly what it was you are guarding against.

 

That was the case here.  I had felt for awhile that something was missing from my prayer life but I just couldn't put my finger on it.  I had been praying about it for awhile but kind of half heartedly. 

In God's time.  Isn't it interesting that "in God's time", God prompted me to go back and read the notes I made over 14 tears ago to find the answer! 

When I saw the phrase "pray with expectation" I knew instantly that was it!  God is so cool! 

 

Can I get an Amen?