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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Categories
Christian Living Jesus Relationships

Agreeing with God about Bad Behavior

Agreeing with God can be dangerous.

Doing so changes the trajectory of our lives. Including changing our relationships with others – even people we care deeply about.

a red flag and danger sign at the beach, tying to the idea that agreeing with God can be dangerous!As I am getting back to posting a weekly devotional thought, I want to return to an idea that I wrote about a couple of weeks ago. (Here’s the link to the previous post if you need a refresher.) In that post, I wrote about the priests being commanded to not mourn over the death of family members while on duty. That was from Leviticus 10.

I pointed out that this ties directly to some of Jesus’ words that we sometimes wonder about:

“He who does not love me more than father or mother or son or daughter is not worthy of me. And if anyone does not hate his father, mother, son, daughter and even his own life, he is not worthy of me.”

We know Jesus teaches us not to hate, but rather to love others, even our own enemies. So His words here aren’t commanding us to hate our family members, but rather that we are to love God above all our other loves. We are even to love God more than we love our own family. That is hard. But His point is that if we have to choose between God and our family, we are to choose Him. We are to be on His side. We are to find ourselves agreeing with God if His way is in opposition to our family’s way.

It can be hard to do with family and close friends.

And that is what this command in Leviticus is about. Throughout Scripture we find God telling us to agree with Him about those who are engaged in sin, including our own family members. He calls on us to know His Word and to hold our family members accountable for their knowledge of God’s Word. We are to agree with God, and if someone close to us confesses to be a follower of Jesus, we are to be the first ones to call out their ungodly behavior to try to win them back to the Lord.

Eli & Samuel both had evil sons who were placed into spiritual leadership positions. Neither of these dads seemed willing to call out their own children for ungodly behavior. Instead of removing their wayward sons from their leadership positions, they allowed their children to damage the spiritual conditions of others.

God asked Eli,“Why do you honor your sons above Me?”

Ouch! And the wickedness of Samuel’s sons was a key factor in the people asking for a king. This brings these questions to my mind:

  • Am I willing to call out family members and close friends regarding their sin?
  • Am I willing to engage in appropriate biblical consequences for their behavior?

Again, Ouch. These are tough questions for me.

We are to help each other walk like Jesus.

Let me say that if a family member does not claim to be a Christ-follower, then I can’t expect them to live for God. Too often we complain about the behavior of people who aren’t followers of Jesus. We want to hold them to a standard they have said they don’t agree with. So we want to avoid that. But if a person (including a family member) does consider himself or herself to be a Christian, then God calls me to action to try to win them back to God-honoring behavior.

If you are one of my family members or close friends who confess to be a Jesus-follower, please stay in step with the Lord (and I’ll strive to do the same!) so that we don’t have to test our obedience level in this area!

But these really are tough questions to struggle with. Are we willing to love God more than we love our own families? And are we willing to love our families enough to call out their ungodly behaviors so that they can be drawn back to God, since His will is what is best for them?

I pray that God will help me be faithful to hold my close family and friends accountable for godly behavior if they have declared allegiance to Jesus. And I also hope that I will be open to being held accountable by others when they see me engaging in ungodly behavior!

Let’s help each other live for Jesus!

Categories
God Ramblings

Surprise – I Made God Laugh. (Again!)

It’s been a L-O-O-O-NG time since I’ve posted a devotional thought on my website/blog, which I would then send out to your email inbox (that would actually happen automatically through some technology magic!). I thought I had a better plan than that, but it seems that my plan only made God laugh.

In fact, the last time I sent out a post to your email was WAY back in 2022. And so last week when I finally came back and created a new post, I had no idea if things would work regarding the email magic. I was totally (and pleasantly!) surprised when I discovered the post had been sent out and landed in my email inbox. Maybe it surprised you too.

Well, welcome back to my devotional thoughts delivered straight to your inbox. And thank you for patiently waiting!

Since I didn’t know if my post would be sent out automatically, I set up a test post to see what would happen. What I didn’t do was give you any kind of life-update as to why I have been missing for so long. But now that I know it’s working, you deserve an update!

So Where Have You Been?

Today will be a rehash of a couple of my recent Facebook posts to answer this question. So if you already read my stuff on FB, you might want to skip the rest of today’s post. But for those of you who don’t do FB, keep reading to learn a bit of our life update. (Going forward, the blog post won’t be a rehash of Facebook, but since I already gave an update there, I thought it would be good to post it again here to bring you up-to-speed!)

Have you heard the old quote: “If you want to make God laugh, then tell Him your plans!”A sign hanging on a tree that says We Plan, God Laughs

My friend David Kolf told me that a lot! He was pointing out that though you can make your own plans, God might have something different in mind. So make your own plans, but realize that God may be laughing at what you think is going to take place. And I’ve learned that God laughs a lot because of me! (Maybe your planning makes him smile too?!)

I was posting regularly when I was pastor at FBC Newton thru 2019, but since then I have worked for Lifeway, lost that job due to Covid in 2020, spent some time unemployed, was then called to pastor Poplar Springs Drive Baptist in Meridian thru early 2023, and then became the Mission Strategist for the Gulf Coast Baptist Association.

(Here’s something extra I didn’t post on Facebook: Along with getting the new job in 2023, we sold our house in Newton, had a close friend pass away who Paige was executor of estate for and sold her house in 2024 as part of those duties, had Paige’s mom move to the coast and sold her house in 2025, and then we bought a new place here on the coast that we moved into in early 2026. We are currently trying to sell our house in Waveland. Moving, cleaning, and selling four houses in 3 years is something that I don’t recommend to anyone!)

That was a lot of movement and transition and busyness in our lives, and thus my plans for continuing to post just didn’t work out the way I had intended.

I made my plans, and God laughed!

I share this to give you a brief peek into our lives these past few years, which have been a bit of a whirlwind. But now we’ve gotten fairly settled into our new place (we moved closer to my office), and that has provided me with some new freedom with my time and energy. Therefore, I decided to get back to posting some thoughts and ideas to encourage us all to walk closer with Jesus.

Today’s brief devotional thought

And as I think about what my failed plans might teach us, remember – your day may not go like you planned. But as you walk in step with Jesus, you don’t have to worry about yesterday or tomorrow. Jesus said:

“Don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself!”

Instead, remember to just walk faithfully with Him step-by-step today! He cares for you, and so even though the day doesn’t go the way you had planned, just keep following Him.

His plans are better than yours, anyway! As one Christian author said: “God is the only one big enough to control your life without destroying it.”

As I have walked with Him, even when life was tough, I have discovered that His plans were the best ones.

So no matter how the day goes – whatever step God points out for you to take next, do that. Because His plans for your life are way better than the ones you originally had in mind!

[I’m glad to be back! I’m currently planning to post one of these devotional thoughts each week, probably on Saturday. And my hope is to build up some additional content so I could post 2 a week. But that might just be another plan that makes God laugh! I look forward to interacting with you as we strive to walk more deeply with Jesus together!]