What If

Philippians 4:8-9

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.  Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

This morning I read something that stuck with me.  It was from Girlfriends in God, a daily devo.  It said, “If any thought begins with “what if,” it is not truth.  It is worrying about something that has not happened.  It is not reality.”  It went on to encourage you to pay attention to your thoughts and words and to sift them through the filter of the truth.

I have historically been one to worry about things.  This is something that I have tried to work on and improve.  To think about “what if” as not being the truth, makes me really stop and think about what I’m worrying about in a different manner.  If it’s not truth, then I shouldn’t be entertaining that thought.  I would like to have my thoughts be noble, right, pure, lovely and admirable. 

Today I want to encourage you to focus on the things that are excellent and praiseworthy, rather than the “what if” thoughts that can bring us down. 

Thurs Devo: No More Delay!

I’ve been on several delayed flights recently. The worst one caused me to miss a connecting flight. The most frustrating part was that I received notification that my connecting flight was also delayed, but it ended up leaving on time (and without the 5 of us from my first flight)! I also received over a dozen notifications about changes to the departure time of the first flight. I understand weather delays can’t be avoided, but clear and accurate communication would be helpful. It’s stressful waiting, especially when the information given to us isn’t reliable.

God won’t keep changing times on us. He will accomplish His purposes and plans fully and we can trust Him to follow through.

Revelation 10:5-7     ⁵ Then the angel I had seen standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven. ⁶ And he swore by him who lives for ever and ever, who created the heavens and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, and the sea and all that is in it, and said, “There will be no more delay! ⁷ But in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be accomplished, just as he announced to his servants the prophets.”

God’s given us the Bible which is full of His plans. We don’t have to be in the dark about the future. We can know the “mystery” of God as we read and study His Word. He’s given us exactly what He knows we need to be adequately prepared.

Do you and I truly believe God created everything, cares for everything, and has a master plan? If so, how are we taking advantage of the resources He’s given to us to know His plans for the future? The better we know His truths, the more we will experience peace while we wait. 

Alice

I'm So Sorry

As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.

“Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”

They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.

When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman.  Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”

“No, Lord,” she said.

And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”  John 8:3-11

The other morning, my wife and I are rushing out of the house to get her to work.  I, being absentminded, forget something off of my bed that I was planning to use later in the day.  Since I was going to be out for most of the day, I became frustrated, and my wife sees this.  She humbly says, “I’m sorry.”  Now, I am thinking to myself, “Why is she apologizing for my own personal mishandling of the situation?”  Then it occurs to me what she is getting at.  She understands that by showing me grace that is not necessarily warranted, I may begin to give grace to myself.  Her humility toward me has the effect of softening my entire demeanor, and it brings me back to where I should be.

This reminds me of discussions where people have feelings of bitterness and hatred toward the church.  They have called it at times hypocritical or unloving.  Others have mentioned a church that has tainted their view of God as a whole.  As a loving Christian, we had no wrongdoing in their situation, but yet, here we are dealing with their pain, suffering, anger, and disbelief.  What do we say to that?

Being unapologetically Christian does not mean you do not have to be apologetic.  The famous story of Jesus and woman caught in adultery is one of the great stories because it reminds of us not just of our treatment of others who have lived in sin but also our own sin as well.  When we take the stance of ‘none of us are blameless,’ we gain greater understanding of where others are.  The person who professes to hate God is no longer a hater.  They are someone wounded needing God’s love instead.  The one who cries of hypocrisy becomes one who we listen to for understanding, and the nonbeliever becomes the one who we can witness to.  We can be forgiving and apologetic for others teachings because God forgave us much like the adulterous woman.  As such, we can also be a representative for Jesus loving instead of condemning them, and guiding them toward God instead of leaving them in an unrighteous state.

We want the world to see what Christ can do in their lives.  This will at times mean that we will have to step in and pick up the slack for someone who has done damage or harm to another.  Tell them with God’s love in your heart, “I do not know how you got here, but I am so sorry.”  Then, share with them the true love Jesus has for them, and help them write a new chapter in their life; one where they come to know the true living God.  Who do you know that is suffering and needs to hear God’s Good News?  How can you be more loving of those who may not love God?  My prayer is that when necessary, we lay down our pride and with both vulnerability and transparency share with a hurting world the simple words, “I’m so sorry.”  Amen.

Tues Devo: Mutually beneficial

Romans 1:11-12 “For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established; that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine. ” (NASB)

Hello,

We call it the ‘win-win’. That scenario that we see how mutual benefit could be had through efforts made on both sides. The funny part of this is that we often don’t think of the win-win first. We typically start by just looking for how we benefit – and it is only when that struggles to be clear that we step back to the win-win. But what if we start with win-win in mind what does that say about our perspective? To me as soon as we ignore the benefit to the other party (or don’t start with it) we are going down a selfish and unloving track.

Paul was excited about getting to the church in Rome – he was looking forward to mutual encouragement. I think this is a challenge to us. Here was Paul – the big man – who shows great humility and selflessness as he strove for mutual encouragement. He was not just looking for what would benefit himself, but really for that mutual benefit with those who were going after the same goal he was.

How is your initial mindset? Are you looking for self, or for others to also benefit?

Will Hill

RLD Week 3 - Spiritual Growth

12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Hebrews 3

I've often heard the term of being a spiritual infant, but this book gives further descriptions to identify where you are in your spiritual journey.

• Spiritually dead - Those who deny or are unaware of Christ
• Spiritual infants - Those who are aware of Christ, but ignorant about following Christ.  Think of someone who goes to church and believes, but still is gripped by the sin in their life and is not aware their behavior is a sin.
• Spiritual children - Those who are aware their behavior is a sin, but still are not ready to give it up.  They're still focused on themselves and why they should be allowed to continue that behavior.
• Spiritual adolescents - Those who are embracing the life called of them and are giving of themselves to further Christ's church.  They recognize their sin and are opposed to it, but still stumble.
• Spiritual parents - Those who are leading others to become disciples.  They recognize their own sin, but they also will mentor others to help them see their own sin and help others in their spiritual battle.

I was floored when I saw the depth in each of these areas.  I only scratched the surface, but each one had a full three pages written to describe the behaviors and traits of someone at that spiritual "age."  I had only heard of two of those terms before; being spiritually dead and being a spiritual infant.  The thought never occurred to me that those infants would need to grow up!

Now, don't panic if you don't think you're in the parent stage.  Some people never get there, and that's fine.   Each person has their own place, and moves through those stages at their own pace.  You may take many years in one stage before moving on to another stage that may go quickly for you.

The part of this that was fascinating to me, was that I could tell you exactly when I moved on to the each stage.  Something profound happened in my life that happened to move me from being dead to being an infant - that is my born again experience.  I can tell you exactly when I became a child, when I knew I was doing things unpleasing to God, but I was still focused on me and my desires.  I can tell you when I became an adolescent and began to actively work to change my life so that it would be more Christ-like and I would turn away from those sins.

I am in the spot now where I'm thinking that I want to make a transition to be a spiritual parent, but I'm not sure.  The next few weeks will go into detail on each of these spiritual ages, but not in terms of what you should do in those stages, but how to identify those around you in those stages and help to encourage them along their journey.  Think about where you are, and if you have those moments that stand out to you relating to when you changed stages.