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Bible Christian Living Relationships

Telling the Truth Isn’t Always Appreciated

We were taught by our parents to “always tell the truth.” But that can get us in trouble. It got Jeremiah in trouble.Two pieces of paper. One says falsity. One says truth. Fingers are shown choosing truth. Pointing out that we should tell the truth.

Jeremiah had a problem. Though he was faithfully telling people truths straight from God, the people did not appreciate what he had to say. How surprising!

We can find ourselves in a similar predicament. Someone we know is living in a way that doesn’t honor God. We feel a responsibility to urge them back toward God-honoring living. But what happens when you tell them with as much love and grace as possible that their actions aren’t pleasing to God? Very likely they don’t appreciate it. You might get a cry of disbelief: “Who do you think you are?”
Or maybe you get punched in the nose.
Or perhaps you lose a friend.

Even though you are being faithful to God to lovingly move someone back to a right relationship with Him, many people will not appreciate your attempt to urge them toward God. They will not appreciate you telling them the truth.

(Slight pause. When I say “telling people the truths of God,” I’m not encouraging us to just say mean things to people who don’t think like us. Christ-followers should not have attitudes full of venom nor should we carelessly use words that could hurt others. Let’s do our best to seek to use our words in a winsome way. Let’s use our words to winsomely draw people to Jesus.)
Pause over. Back to the main point…

Jeremiah was in trouble for telling people God’s truth. But like many people today, the people he was speaking to weren’t pleased with someone else telling them how to live.

This leads Jeremiah to say: I’m fed up. Speaking for God isn’t fun, as it has gotten me beaten and arrested and mocked. So I’m done sharing. (That didn’t last long, though, and he was quickly sharing again!)

While we aren’t afraid of being beaten or arrested, we are afraid of hurting someone’s feelings or causing conflict in one of our relationships. But who told us that living for God and speaking for Him was going to be easy? Not Jesus.

In fact, Jesus said “If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you.”

The Bible tells us that if you live and speak for Jesus in your home, in your school, in your workplace, and in your community, you’ll find the same truth – that it isn’t always a walk in the park. But know this, if you are walking in step with Jesus, then you’ve chosen to please the right One.

Our lives and our words are going to seem strange to the world, and maybe even to some of our own friends and family. But remain faithful to God and work to love people back to Him. It won’t be easy, but the eternal rewards are worth it!

Keep pressing on to please Him as you point others to Him by lovingly telling them the truth!

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Categories
Christian Living God Relationships

An Invitation to Be a Co-worker with God

“I hate my job.”
Have you ever said that before? Or something like it?
Or maybe “My job is just too hard.”a drawing of a man who obviously doesn't love his job, but is holding a mug saying "i love my job" - humorously tying to the idea that being a co-worker with God will bring us joy.

Sometimes we may think that work is a punishment to us. But as we read the Creation account of Genesis, we find something interesting…
Work isn’t a curse.

Work isn’t a bad thing. God created it for us!

God gave us work to do before “the Fall” ever occurred. Work is something God calls us to do. In providing us with work, He gives us an opportunity to use our abilities to cooperate with Him to make this world a better place; a place that points people back to Him.

Paul tells us that “we are God’s co-workers.” What an amazing thought! We all want to say that our job is “the best job ever!” And what could be better than to be invited onto the team as a co-laborer together with God.

We all have different abilities and opportunities. You are a unique creation. So am I. God wants us to take how He uniquely created us and work for the good of other people and for His glory. To do so, we must discover what God wants us to do with our lives in this world.

Which brings us to the question I hope you are willing to ask:
“God, what is Your dream for my life?”

Instead of chasing your own dreams, ask God what His dream is for you. His plan is going to be better than yours. And so we need to ask: “God what have you prepared for me to do? Help me to know so I can accomplish YOUR tasks as I work for You and with You.”

For many of us, God will tell you He wants you to stay right where you are. Stay in your current job and continue to be an ambassador of Christ to your co-workers. You are in the perfect place to show them who He is and how to live for Him.

But for some of us, God will begin prompting us to leave our own plan to follow Him on a different path than the one we are currently on. That’s what he said to fishermen who were with their nets and boats: “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” That’s what he said to Matthew at the tax collector’s table: “Follow Me!” And he got up and followed Him.” That’s what He said to many ministers and missionaries who previously had their own plans. And that may be what He says to you.

But don’t be scared to ask Him what His dream is for you.
Because whatever He asks you to do, it will be because He wants to provide you with even more abundant life.

Wherever you are going to be today, even at work, be a co-worker with God, pointing people to His goodness. You are one of His ambassadors. Enjoy being a co-worker with Him.

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Categories
Christian Living God

Being Careless about God’s Holiness

We’ve all been accused of being careless about something. But one thing I never want to be careless about is God’s holiness. Paige and I are big movie buffs. Do you remember the first Raiders of the Lost Ark? At the end of the film, the Nazis decide to take a peek in the ark, and their disrespect of God’s holiness does them in.A picture of the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark when the Nazis are killed for disrespecting God's holiness.

What is interesting is that we have a biblical account that also points out the extreme importance of God’s holiness. Uzzah died because he (and King David) were careless about God’s holiness. Here’s the situation. David determined to move the ark to Jerusalem. He has men place the ark on a cart to get it there as quickly as possible, and as they travel, the oxen stumble and Uzzah reaches out to keep the ark steady.

And God kills him.

Wow!
This is another instance where God’s actions seem really surprising. Did Uzzah really deserve to die just for trying to keep the ark from falling off the cart?

Here’s a quick side-note on two lessons we can learn from this:

  • God cares more about His Holiness than our physical lives. (Not because He’s selfish, but because the preserving of His Holiness is better for us than the preservation of our physical lives.)
  • He cares more about our spiritual lives than our physical lives. (Which is a good thing, because our physical lives don’t last near as long as our spiritual ones. 100 years vs eternity leaves a pretty big gap.)

That’s why Jesus died on the cross – because our spiritual lives were of more value to Him than His continued physical life on earth. He was willing to sacrifice His physical earthly life to purchase our salvation for eternity and to give glory to God in heaven.

Now back to the other story. Doesn’t Uzzah reaching out to keep the ark from falling off the cart mean he was being respectful of the ark? Not exactly. David’s motives were good (he wanted to bring the ark back to where it belonged). The problem was that he didn’t obey God’s clear commands about moving the ark, so God was righteous in providing the punishment.

David was a godly man, but even godly men who make plans without consulting God can get themselves (and those around them) in trouble. David’s failure to obey God in how to move the ark resulted in Uzzah’s death.

If we ask God a question and He calls us to do a task, we are called to obey Him. And that’s what David did on his second attempt. David realized it was because they didn’t carry it properly the first time that God killed Uzzah. He said, “We did not inquire of Him about how to do it in the prescribed way” on our first attempt, so now we are going to do it the right way: “No one but the Levites may carry the ark of God, because the Lord chose them to carry the ark of the Lord.”

David wanted to get the ark back to where it belonged as quickly as possible. Uzzah wanted to help. They seem to believe that having the right motives was enough. God points out that even if you have the right motives, you still need to obey Him and His Word. David realized that moving the ark was serious business, and that God was to be obeyed always because God’s holiness matters immensely. David then moved the ark properly using the Levites, and everything went smoothly.

May I realize and uphold the Holiness of God.
May I know His Word and always obey it.
And may I be willing to be undignified for His sake and His glory.
And may this be true for you, too.

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Categories
Christian Living

Impatience. Forcing My Will Instead of Trusting the Lord

Impatience. It is something that most of us struggle with.
What if God promised you something but didn’t tell you the timing of when you would receive it? Would you believe He had the power to make it happen in His timing, or would your impatience have you finding some way to help Him along?A meme picture of Yoda from Star Wars with the words "Impatient This One Is" to point to our impatience

Abraham and Sarah weren’t willing to wait. They were promised a son, but it seemed to be taking too long, and so they determined they’d help God out. And in doing so, they made a mess of things. (We see this occur a number of times in the Bible.)

Contrast the impatience that we see in them (and find in ourselves) with David patiently waiting for God’s timing to be king. I’m impatient waiting at the microwave. David waited for years for God’s promise to come true.

Samuel anointed David as king in 1 Samuel 16. But at this point in time, Saul is still king. And even though Samuel told Saul that God had rejected him and was giving the kingdom to another, Saul didn’t step down. Saul wasn’t ready to give up all the benefits that he had as king.

  1. So the promises are made –
    1) Saul, the kingdom is no longer yours but will be another’s.
    2) David, the kingdom is yours. You will be the king over my people.
    …but the promises hadn’t yet come to pass.

I’m sure that David wondered, “God, when am I going to become king?” But instead of helping God out and killing Saul to take the kingdom by force, David protected the king and spared Saul’s life two different times.

David has two opportunities to take Saul’s life (while Saul was attempting to take David’s), and this is what David says about it the first time: “Someone advised me to kill you, but I took pity on you and said: I won’t lift my hand against my lord, since he is the Lord’s anointed.” (1 Sam 24:10)

And in the second instance, when his men again wanted him to kill Saul, David said, “As the Lord lives, the Lord will certainly strike him down: either his day will come and he will die, or he will go into battle and perish. However, as the Lord, is my witness, I will never lift my hand against the Lord’s anointed.” (1 Sam 26:10-11).

David patiently waits on God. He knows that God doesn’t need his help to remove Saul as king. What amazing trust! And patience!

In 2 Samuel 2, David finally becomes king. Years after being promised the kingdom, David is finally anointed king. But… he is only anointed king of one tribe: Judah. This was also not the complete fulfillment of God’s promise.

And yet, David continued to take the long view and be patient for God’s timing. He remained king of just the one tribe for 7½ years before Saul died and all of Israel accepted him as their king. Amazing.

I pray that I can be more patient for God’s timing, instead of trying to push things to occur in the timing that I desire. And I also pray that I can be more trusting that God is in such control and therefore I don’t have to be impatient to strive to “make things happen” in my timing.

How about you? Are you patiently waiting for God’s timing? Do you trust Him to bring about His plans for your life? Or are you impatiently trying to push your own agenda?

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Categories
Christian Living Relationships

Too Much Change in Too Little Time

Change is stressful. And sometimes we feel that God is asking for us to engage in too much change in too short a time – causing us even greater stress than normal. yellow warning sign saying "change ahead" to point out too much change too fast is scary

While it is true that new beginnings are exciting, sometimes it feels as if God is giving us too many new beginnings; that He is bringing change faster than we can adapt. We’ve all had that experience. Paige and I definitely felt this was our story since leaving FBC Newton in 2019. Here’s more of our story from these past few years that maybe you can relate to when you think about how God has asked you to adapt faster than was comfortable.

After serving our first two churches for 12 years (FBC Bay St. Louis) and 10.5 years (FBC Newton), we then had a new beginning with Lifeway in a Church Consulting role in late 2019. Unfortunately, due to COVID, that role was cut short after only six months. Then I faced the new beginning of being unemployed! (Something I’ll write more about in the future.) But in God’s timing, he opened up our next new beginning at Poplar Springs Drive Baptist Church in Meridian, where I was blessed to become their pastor in late 2020.

Though I had hoped and believed we would be at PSDBC much longer, in early 2023 God called us to another new beginning – serving as the Associational Mission Strategist for Mississippi’s Gulf Coast Baptist Association. So quick recap – I worked for FBC Newton in 2019, for Lifeway in 2020, unemployed in 2020, for PSDBC in 2020-22, and for GCBA in early 2023 – that ends up being 4 different jobs within the span of 4 years. Too much change way too fast. We felt pulled in so many different directions, and it was a real struggle to find our equilibrium.

I’m sure there have been seasons in your life where it felt God was asking you to deal with too much change too fast, and you struggled to find a sense of peace and balance.

But now we have been doing the work in Gulfport for 3.5 years. And looking back, I wouldn’t trade any of it – even the crazy four years. Without our experiences in each new place, we would have missed out on new friendships and life-lessons. FBC Newton, Lifeway, and PSDBC were all huge blessings in my life, and we found great friends within each that we love so much. Now we are back on the Coast where we already had great friends that we love, so we have enjoyed reconnecting with them, and we are also establishing new friendships through my new ministry role.

I tell you all this about where we’ve been just to point out this important truth:

God has a plan!

His plan isn’t always clear when you are in the midst of the changes. But just keep holding onto Him. He’ll bring you through. He’s promised to be a good Father to you. He’s promised to be with you through it all. I love the opening lines of the poem …
“God Knows” by Minnie Haskins. (I like the whole poem, but especially these opening lines)…

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:
“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”
And he replied:
“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”

If you ever struggle with God placing you in a season where things are changing so fast that it is hard to adapt, if the path forward seems dark and scary, remember – put your hand into the Hand of God. Doing so is better than being on a brightly-lit path without Him.

Jesus said, “Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

And Romans tells us, “…in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Amen. God has a plan. Trust Him as He walks with you through it.

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