Do you see a man who speaks too soon? There is more hope for a fool than for him. - Proverbs 29:20 It used to be that by the time news arrived to most people, it was barely news. I mean, it was news to them, but it would be very old news in reality. It wasn't always accurate because it had gone through several tellings. And people made assumptions or formed opinions on the news based on their experience, philosophy, and what they were hearing. They would sit around the city square, or the old store, or the house and talk about the news items, and then move on with their lives. Things are not much different today. But some elements are quite different. Today we get a lot of our news immediately... many times watching it live, on our phones... and we can comment into the news event as it unfolds. Whether the event is political, religious, sociological, disaster, or general in nature, nearly everyone seems to have an opinion of what is going on, why it is going on, what should happen to the people involved, what laws should be made to prevent the event in the future, etc. These opinions come hot and heavy. There is no time for reflection in most of these cases. There is no filter. Many people are just spewing ideas as they come to their head. It is basically a lot of reaction, and very little solid response. Only a very few of these ideas are valid. But in our day, every idea has the same opportunity to find a stage. In a real sense, if they were alive, you could end up with the greatest minds of all time online with the greatest fools of all time, and they both would have access to the same platform and the same audience. And unfortunately, it seems like the worst thoughts end up on the most sites. Apparently it is not a new thing as the proverb (wise saying) reveals. Thousands of years ago there were people who spoke too soon. It is interesting that this person is not called a fool. Rather, this person is seen as a notch lower than a fool. Wait... a person who speaks too soon is in a worse place than a fool? Well that's impressive. Now think about the fact that when a fool spoke 1,000 years before Christ was born their words basically hit the air and fell to the ground to die. But today, when a fool posts to Facebook or Twitter, or a live video news feed of some sort, it is basically out there forever. I can't control every fool out there. But I can control the fool tapping these keys right now. I can control the guy who sees a news story pop up and wants to immediately pop off. I can't always control the thoughts that come to my head, but I absolutely control the thoughts that come out of my head. If I want the hope that I can become wiser or better, I should take a little more time before adding to the verbal chaos. The public doesn't need my quick words or my unfiltered ideas. What the world needs... what I need... is a measured approach to life, with the Holy Spirit being my filter. Hope does not flow in my hype. I don't get any extra crowns in Heaven for having the quickest release of the tongue or the post. As I am conformed to the image of Christ, Who more often than not (as the Word) waited to speak until He was asked, I have a better chance of having a positive impact on others... and I have more hope than a fool. This website is an absolutely free resource. But it does take time and effort. If you would like to support this work, feel free to give via the above link.
Better an open reprimand than concealed love. The wounds of a friend are trustworthy, but the kisses of an enemy are excessive. Proverbs 27:5-6 We generally don't take correction well. Who wants to be told they are wrong? Not many. I don't. Neither do you if you are honest. But if we continue to be honest, we will also say that it is better to be told a hard truth than a soft lie. The fact is, most of us want to be better. We want to be better men, women, husbands, wives, workers, friends, etc. On a normal day, we just want to be us. On our best days we want to be the best we can be. And that means accountability. Most of us have a certain amount of pride inside. We want to be right, because 'being right' is the goal, right? I mean, no one aims for being wrong. Yet we all are wrong at times. When we fall short, we will often receive one or more of a few responses from those around us. There are basically three popular responses to our failings... Some will just quietly go on without saying anything. Perhaps they figure they aren't the policeman of the world, and it isn't their place to correct you. This is actually a fair response often times. Being wrong doesn't always rise to the level of accountability. If we corrected people every time they were wrong, we'd never get anything done. So, people overlooking our error is probably fine most of the time. But then there are others who, 'for the sake of the friendship' will actually support you in your wrongness. These are people who will massage your ego even when you did something dumb or harmful. Sometimes they even end up lying to you, telling you that you made a good choice, when in actuality you made a bad choice. They tell you someone is good for you even when they aren't. Then when the relationship goes south, they tell you that the person was dragging you down. They basically build their counsel according to what they think you want to hear. In the process they are tearing you down while supposedly building you up. This is dangerous because you feel good about the friendship even though it is poisonous. And then there are those friends who, 'for the sake of the friendship' will actually love you enough to be honest with you. They are encouragers. But they never encourage toward wrong. And they never excuse dangerous patterns or rebellious choices. They trust the friendship... and truth enough to let these two do their work. They will in a sense, slap you in the face in order to save your face. These friends hopefully know how to do this in love without crushing you. They aren't afraid of reality, and they care less about feelings and more about faithfulness. To them value is found not in making you feel more secure in yourself, but in helping you establish a healthy view of yourself and the habits that will make you a better person. It is strange, but sometimes losing face is the only way we can save face. I hope you have friends who will wound you. I hope you weed out the enemies who shower you with kisses. If you don't have such friends in your life, get one. I'd say you probably already have that person, but perhaps you have marginalized them because they don't tell you what you want to hear. Whatever the case, be a good friend, and bring good friends into your closest circle. This website is an absolutely free resource. But it does take time and effort. If you would like to support this work, feel free to give via the link below. 9-11... another defining moment in a long line of tragedies that should have caused us to turn to God. But here we are 15 years later, more entrenched in our sin than ever before. Was 9-11 God's judgment on our nation? Perhaps. I do know it was part of judgment. We abort more children every single day in America than died on 9-11. Yes... we kill more of our own in the womb every day than the Muslim terrorists killed on that disastrous day. Since 9-11-2001, Americans have legally slaughtered over 15,000,000 (15 million) American babies in the womb. So if 9-11 was judgment, it was a terribly light judgment... a slap on the wrist, if you will. God tries to get our attention, and we keep turning away. It is not sustainable. Scripture tells us that God made the statement, “My Spirit will not remain (or strive) with mankind forever, because they are corrupt." Genesis 6:3 God doesn't wipe out the whole world today as He did at the flood. He pushes judgment back. This is mercy. It is grace. But it is also dangerous for us. We can easily think that there is no judgment because God is not dishing it out as deserved. God's patience should not be interpreted as permissiveness. Instead we should see His purpose in His practice. Paul exhorts us with these words, "Do you despise the riches of His kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?" Romans 2:4 He goes onto point out that mercy is seasonal... "But because of your hardness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed. He will repay each one according to his works: eternal life to those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality; but wrath and indignation to those who are self-seeking and disobey the truth but are obeying unrighteousness; affliction and distress for every human being who does evil, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek; but glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does what is good, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. There is no favoritism with God." Romans 2:5-11 God is good when we are obedient. God is good when we rebel. God sustains us through His goodness. He sends us wake-up calls to bring us back to Himself. Today He is drawing us. Let us turn back to our God while He is still calling, and live lives of true repentance. There is never a bad time to turn to God, but there during which we must turn to Him. The prophet Isaiah says, "Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked on abandon his way and the sinful one his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, so that He may have compassion on him and to our God, for He will freely forgive." Isaiah 55:6-7 This website is an absolutely free resource. But it does take time and effort. If you would like to support this work, feel free to give via the link below.
"Carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone considers himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But each person should examine his own work, and then he will have a reason for boasting in himself alone, and not in respect to someone else. For each person will have to carry his own load." the apostle Paul (Galatians 6:2-5) Did you ever get on Facebook or Instagram to see what someone else is doing and find yourself kind of jealous, or maybe feel a bit inferior in some way? This is not uncommon. It is a pitfall of a larger sociological pattern called 'social comparison.' The same thing can happen at parties or other social events. Many people fall into the same trap at family gatherings or class reunions. This is a dangerous situations for a couple of reasons. First, we get a skewed look at the lives of others when we judge them by selfies and posts about their personal lives. By and large we try to make ourselves out to be better than we are, and we post the highlights of life. People have gender reveals about their baby. Nobody posts a big ramp up to the morning sickness. Some people are discouraged to find themselves watching The Price Is Right all alone while their college roommate posts a cute video of the revelation party where she tells she is pregnant with twins... a boy and a girl. And of course, it is so cute, the video goes viral. But the same person doesn't feel the same measure of joy when they are enjoying a wonderful breakfast at Cracker Barrel while that pregnant friend is hanging over a toilet puking her guts out. So, we end up comparing ourselves only to the good stuff. That's not fair to us or the other person. But we also need to understand our design. God did not design us to compare ourselves to the greatness of others. That is an unfair burden that we simply cannot successfully bear. We were each given different talents and gifts. God blesses each one in a different way. He does not expect us all to make the same amount of money or have the same number of children. Success is meted out by God at varying degrees according to His master plan. When I judge my success by another's it is unfair to both parties. But... While I am not to bear the weight and pressure of my best friend's successes, I am to bear their burdens. This is interesting. God did not design us the ability to successfully compare ourselves with others, but He did give us the ability to successfully show compassion to others. Think about it... comparing yourself to others you admire never results in a greater sense of significance, security, or self-worth. It nearly always takes you to a place of insignificance, insecurity, and self-loathing. Again, there are several things going on that we don't take into account when we compare ourselves, especially on social media. But comparison rarely works out well for us. Comparison nearly always leads to depression. But compassion nearly always leads to deliverance. On the other hand, when we exhibit compassion by bearing one another's burdens, we fulfill the law of Christ which is love. Jesus didn't compare Himself to others. Instead, He found those who were struggling and He sacrificed for them. It was ultimately through His sacrifice that He achieved the glory we now see. The Father exalted Jesus because He humbled Himself, not because He tried to exalt Himself, or because He played a game of comparison with those around Him. We as believers are born again in the image of Christ. We bear His mark. That in itself is our success. We don't need to compare ourselves with the best or worst among us. We need to bear one another's burdens. And in doing so we will find that significance, security, and self-worth that eludes us when we play the comparison game. Compare yourself to yourself. Enjoy whatever success Christ brings to your life. Rejoice in what you accomplish through Him. Give Him glory. Rejoice in the success of others. Trust Him with your struggles today. Cast all of your concerns upon Him because He is concerned about you. Crush the spirit of comparison and look for opportunities to exercise the compassion God gave you. If you do this you will enjoy your relationships and interactions much more. [This website if absolutely free resource. But it does take time and effort. If you would like to support this work, feel free to give via the link below.] "I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of Him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them filth, so that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ the righteousness from God based on faith. My goal is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead." - The apostle Paul (Philippians 3:8-11) Last night I was talking with my friends about the faith of Abraham, and how he was able to trust God enough to sacrifice his one and only son whom he loved. We were amazed at the level of relationship it took for him to know that it was God telling him to do such a dramatic thing. It is even more impressive when you consider that he had no Bible, church, pastor, small group, devotional books, Christian music, or online resources to help him distinguish the voice of God from all of the other spiritual and personal input that we all deal with. Yet, he seemed to hear from God, got up in the morning, and went to do the most difficult thing ever. Now to take it a step further, He didn't have the fulness of the Holy Spirit in the same way He is with us today. So think about this for a moment... Imagine if today you didn't have access to the Bible, church, pastor, small group, devotional books, Christian music, online resources, or the Holy Spirit to help you distinguish the voice of God from all of the other spiritual and personal input that we all deal with. How good would you relationship with God be? How well would you be able to follow God? I find it incredibly scary that one of the things we regularly hear from Christians is, "How do you know God's will?" or "How do you know if what you are hearing is from God?" We have tons more resources than Abraham, yet our ability to distinguish, trust, and obey God's voice is nearly non-existent. How can someone know God's voice without all of the 'helps'? Well, Abraham knew God's voice because He knew God. How did he know God? He spent time with Him. That's how he knew God's voice. Abraham's faith was built on relationship, not resources. Ours seems to be built more on assumption and presumption, with a contingency plan of looking up what we need to know about God using these resources rather than actually knowing God by spending time with Him. If we are dependent on outside resources, we will only know about them. And we will continue to need those resources in lieu of a relationship. But if we truly know someone, we will not need the outside resources, and if we have them, they will be more of a blessing than a curse. But in no situation can we depend on outside resources to replace or create relationship. Facts can be gained from resources, but faith only grows out of relationship. Do you want to have a Christian life that reflects factual knowledge about God, but doesn't build faith in and obedience to God? Or do you want to live a Christian life where you obey God because you recognize His voice, and you recognize His voice because you have spent time with Him? The more I love my wife, the more I will want to spend time with her... not just with her Facebook, or her diary, or only when we go out to eat. Love is the seed, relationship is the plant, trust is the fruit, obedience is the harvest. I'm not suggesting you get rid of the great Christian resources available. This devotional is a resource. Hopefully it is helpful. But do not let it replace your spending time with God. Do not let any bad thing or good thing get in the way of your knowing God. Read again the apostle Paul's words found at the beginning of this devotional. [This resource is absolutely free. But it takes time and effort. If you would like to support this work, feel free to give via the link below.] |
AuthorMy name is David, and I want to know God more, and help other people find Him. Archives
March 2019
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