Category: Life

Ordinary Moments with God: Making the Most of Time and Opportunities

This year I’m focusing on finding God in the ordinary stuff of life. Each day I will take a picture of something common and consider the spiritual implications.

Here we go…

IMG_20160104_103215

 

 

I get an email on Monday morning telling me the battery on my Fit Bit Charge is low.

I like that it comes on Monday. I’m in the office and it’s not hard to plug my Charge in while I’m sitting and working at my desk.

So while it charges, I sit at my desk. I commit to an hour of sitting still. Not because I’m being spiritual, or even attempting to be productive in other ways.

I just don’t want to take any steps that aren’t going to be counted.

There. I said it. I own my superficiality. I need the external verification. I’m working hard at this weight loss, get healthy thing and I want everything I do to count, to matter.

At one point this morning, I was about to leave my office and I sat back down and checked how much time was left in the charging process. Not much longer.

What would I do with that time?

Time? Make the most of time.

“Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.” Colossians 5:4

“Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.” Ephesians 5:16

How interesting that my Fit Bit can help me decrease physically and increase spiritually.

PRAYER: God as you help me develop habits to improve my health, make me aware of developing my spiritual muscles as well. Help me make the most of time and opportunities. I don’t want to sit around wasting time. Keep filling my ordinary life with your presence. Amen.

 

Protecting Baby Jesus

WP protecting baby Jesus

I found this on my Facebook news feed. It seems a little boy was concerned when he heard the pastor describe Herod’s rage and plan to kill all the baby boys born around the same time as Jesus.

This was his solution. Baby Jesus needs protecting.

And maybe that’s not such a bad idea. Have you heard? Thieves are stealing Baby Jesus from nativities everywhere.

Watch this

Companies are offering insurance. People are putting GPS tracking devices in statues so they can find Jesus.

Have you been trying to protect Baby Jesus?

The question sounds ridiculous until we think about how we also try to protect God. How in the world would we do that, you ask.

Have you ever decided not to take your needs to God because they’re too small to matter or too big for Him to handle?

Have you pulled a “Sarah” and provided God with your plan to help Him out–and get what you want when you want it rather than waiting on His timing?

Do you ever protect God’s reputation from ridicule or scrutiny by leaving him out of your conversations and choices?

Perhaps rather than “protecting” Him, we would be better off knowing Him better. If we had a clearer perspective on who He is and how he sees us:

O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!
    Your glory is higher than the heavens.
You have taught children and infants
    to tell of your strength,
silencing your enemies
    and all who oppose you.

When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—
    the moon and the stars you set in place—
what are mere mortals that you should think about them,
    human beings that you should care for them?
Yet you made them only a little lower than God
    and crowned them[e] with glory and honor.
You gave them charge of everything you made,
    putting all things under their authority—
the flocks and the herds
    and all the wild animals,
the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea,
    and everything that swims the ocean currents.

O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth! (Psalm 8, NLT)

That God doesn’t need me to protect Him. But, I definitely need him!

How about you?

 

 

 

Rebuilding With Nehemiah, Chapter 8 Day 5

Friday:

Text: 9 Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and teacher of the Law, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, “This day is holy to the LORD your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law.

Neh 8-5 weeping b4 God

Teach: The people heard the Word, the Law specifically. The job of the Law is to convict, and by convicting to bring confession and repentance. Too often, however, when the Holy Spirit brings conviction and people feel remorse and regret, they get stuck and never move on. Ezra, Nehemiah, and the other leaders realized this and encouraged the people to move beyond regret to celebration.

Neh 8-5 confess

Take: One of the enemy’s most cunning deceptions is to move in at the moment of conviction and attempt to deceive the penitent person into believing that whatever their sin is, it is far too great to be forgiven. As a result, there is much sadness. The Word is very clear on this: If we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong (1 John 1:9, NLT).

Task: Does the enemy seek to steel your joy? Does he cause you to dwell in regret? David understood that and asked God to restore the joy of his salvation (see Psalm 51). I had a pastor who often told the congregation, “God has sent your sin into the sea of forgetfulness and posted a no fishing sign.” God wants you to move on into joy.

Neh 8-5 restore joy

Nehemiah Devotions Chapter 2, Day 3

The king asked, “Well, how can I help you?” (Nehemiah 2:4, NLT)

WP Neh Devo time passing

Six months. One hundred eighty days, give or take a few, Nehemiah opened his eyes and wondered if today would be the day.

He trusted God each to be laying the ground work. And each day he prayed to be ready.

And the time had arrived.

Nehemiah opened his mouth and shared his heart with the king and queen. He laid it out. He said needed. He had prayed for favor and kindness.

And that’s exactly what he got.

I can’t begin to what had been going on in the heart and mind of the king. Was he just having a day of benevolence? In the six months that Nehemiah waited had something happened to endear Nehemiah to the king making the favor expressed as natural as the sun coming up in the morning?

I don’t know. I am just convinced that Nehemiah was seeing God’s greatness unfold before his eyes. If God could do that then there’s nothing he can’t be trusted with.

Nehemiah knew that. Do we?

WP Neh Dev 2-3 Prov 3 5-6

Nehemiah Devotions: Chapter 2, Day 1

WP Neh Devo time passing
Monday
Text: Early the following spring, in the month of Nisan, during the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes’ reign, I was serving the king his wine. (Nehemiah 2:1, NLT)

We start our thoughts this week with Nehemiah roughly six months later. Did you catch that? Chapter one begins in late autumn and chapter picks back up in early spring.

What’s up with that? The need was great. Nehemiah’s response had been intense. I would have expected God to move immediately. Wouldn’t you?

But the success Nehemiah prayed for, the favor of the king, needed time to unfold.

God works that way. God doesn’t always answer the way we want or expect. We need to trust that God is working even when we can’t, don’t, or won’t see it. God is never late.

Have you experienced a time when God answered your prayer with an instant “yes”? How about a definite “no”? Can you trust him to be working when there is not instant answer?

SP Neh 2 waiting with clock

Second only to suffering, waiting may be the greatest teacher and trainer in godliness, maturity, and genuine spirituality that most of us ever encounter. ~Richard Hendrix

Getting Ready for Reunion

WP HS 40 yrs

August 8 is rapidly approaching.

My 40th High School Reunion.

How can it be that?

Did I blink?

Did I slip into some kind of Brigadoon?

Am I really staring at turning 60 in two short years?

So many questions. So little time.

Some days I feel like I’ve lived five different lives, and then it’s like I haven’t lived at all.

One of the ways I sort through thoughts and feelings is to put the words out in front of me. I do my best thinking out loud.

Today’s Reunion Thought: Angst Revisited

WP HS no more angst

Definition: noun
1. a feeling of dread, anxiety, or anguish.

I will never forget walking up the sidewalk by what was then the practice field. It was wide and long…very long, and I was having trouble breathing.

I was sure I would never forgive my father for uprooting me from the place where I felt like I was finally starting to connect.

I didn’t know anyone here. I was sure no one would ever want to know me.

Mustn’t cry. But I wanted to cry and to run. Life was over. I was sure of it.

WP HS crowded halls

And so began the awkward angst-filled dance called High School. All the struggles with wanting to fit in, wanting to be liked and loved. The only moments when I didn’t feel alone were the moments when I happened to sit with a girlfriend in the bathroom weeping over the latest break-up. “What’s wrong with us?” we would cry.

Oh the battles with the monster “Enough.” Never smart enough. Never thin enough. Never enough.

WP HS coffee

It wasn’t until many years later when I got together with two friends from the ‘Burg and listened to them that I realized how un-unique my feelings were.

I’ve been doing some online reading about the experiences of others as they struggled with the whole reunion battle. Should I go? Why bother?

It seems the older we get the greater the need to look back. Who would have thought that what lies ahead would hold scarier moments than first loves won and lost, first jobs, and first wings of freedom.

Someone likened going to a reunion to getting a ‘do over.’ I can live with that. I’ve been living my do over for several years. And some of that process and growth has actually been helped by unexpected connections I’ve made on Facebook.

Here’s what I’ve decided: Life has been good. I have had my share of challenges, and enough disappointments, failures, and shame for three people–not that I was trying to hoard it. But my focus here on out is where it needs to be. I’m counting my blessings and thanking my God, especially that my dad yanked me away from where I was comfortable and planted me somewhere I could flourish.

So to the class of 1975, let’s enjoy this occasion.

WP HS 40 acronymn

Sermon Seed: Investing a Treasure

SP talents words

Imagine, you have been given a fortune. More money than you could make in twenty lifetimes.

Actually, you haven’t been “given” it as much as it has been entrusted to you by another–your boss.

What would you do?

In Jesus’ parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30 ), he tells a story about a master who does that with three of his servants.

SP talents playing it safe

The first two double what was entrusted to them, but the third is some combination of fearful and lazy so he buries his.

The investors are rewarded and invited to celebrate, while the non-risk taker is cast out.

There are mountains of theories and interpretations for this story.

For me it boils down to this:

SP talents used it all