Character

I've been reading a lot recently, everything from my Bible, to true stories, to fiction to Internet blogs and posts. I just read Into the Deep- a true story about a man whose wife and 4 children were swept away in a flood waters. I marvelled at the grace and strength he showed during that time but yet I know that his strength came from God not from Himself. Over and over God gave him the words to say and the grace and strength to represent Him.

What a shining example of what real Christian faith is! I cannot begin to imagine all the things he went through but I can see and understand how God's grace sustained him over and over.

I've also been reading in Mark and saw how the Pharisees sought to destroy Jesus, yet they did it in subtle ways, both moving behind his back or trying to cause those around him question and doubt him.

What a vast difference in character! Yet every day we see the same things. Today it has become to common to be 'nameless and faceless' when you say something, there is no accountability. Without accountability, the lines between right and wrong quickly blur! It is easy to justify things we do while condemning things others do that may or may not be more wrong that what we are doing.

But we are accountable, even when in this life we don't see the accountability standard, it is there. God has said He will judge and we know that His judgment is fair, just, and without fault. When He says something is wrong, it is. Truth is not relative even though you may hear that often. Truth is TRUTH! Anything that is not TRUTH is from satan. We can color it up or try to justify it but Jesus is Truth and satan is falsehood and deception.

If you have to wonder about something you are doing put it to the ultimate test- place it against Jesus' standard. If it meets the standard, you are on track but if it doesn't, then you must seek forgiveness, guidance and direction.

We can find any number of excuses for the way we act or the things we say but in reality- it is either Truth or it is not. If today was your last day and this was the last thing you would do, how do your actions measure up on this scale?

Homecoming

Last night I flipped between 2 programs- the Pittsburg Steelers vs the AZ Cardinals and the Gatlin Gaither special. As I watched the Gaither special I was struck by how many of the folks I loved to hear sing were no longer with us. Then they did a shot of George Younce and my thoughts went a different direction.

I remember George Younce singing with the Blue Ridge Quartet and remember seeing his young family several times then. I remember a number of times over the years that Clara, the girls and/or George Lane would be at concerts I attended and what wonderful people they all were.

I remember in the early 70s attending local concerts where a group called the Oakland Qt performed, I got to be good friends with several members of the group and remember a young man who wanted to be a part of gospel music so much he cleaned the bus for the group so they would let him go and play the drums.

I remember that young man later joining the Nelons as drummer and when he met George Younce's daughter Dana. Robbie and Dana were such a special couple, both of them were loving, happy, friendly and always ready to help others.

When I was living in Atlanta, Robbie and Dana who had then married, were managing the Joyful Noise Supper Club and I was a regular, some nights as a guest and some nights as a volunteer. I was several years older than them but they never made you feel older or out of place, they were welcoming and loving.

Over the years I saw Robbie and Dana a many times and he always had that big smile when he'd hug me and say 'wow, it's good to see you!'. Dana would always make me feel like I was just who she was hoping to see even though I know in most cases we had no idea we would run into each other.

When I got an email Monday saying Dana had passed away I had to read it 3 times to understand who they were talking about. Not because it was confusing but because I couldn't believe it is who it said it was. It couldn't be sweet, loving Dana, she was so young, so happy, so beautiful and so in love! But it was.

When I heard that Robbie was on the road my heart broke, this news would be hard enough at home but to be away, not knowing the details and wondering what had happened, I wanted to reach out and wrap my arms around him. I couldn't though because he was up north and I was in South Carolina. But I know One whose peace and comfort was above all we could ever imagine and I prayed for that peace and comfort to wrap around him in a special way. I thought of Clara, it's hard to lose a spouse I'm sure but losing a child, no parent is ever prepared for that!

All this week I have grieved for the family, knowing they must miss her so much. Then last night I saw Dana's dad and so many of her friends on this special and my thoughts turned away from the grief and to the rejoicing going on in heaven.

I know that Dana and her dad were so excited to see each other. I can imagine them rejoicing and praising God together. And there were so many friends that were there to welcome her as well. But most importantly, I know Dana was thrilled to meet her Savior face to face and to be able to worship him with no human failings to hold back the praise!

So today as Robbie, Clara, Tara, Gina, Lisa and George Lane have greeted friends and shared their sorrow one with another, it is so exciting to know that on the other side, Dana is sharing her joy with those she loves as well. I wanted so much to go to the visitation and funeral but had obligations that kept me from going. But I'm thankful that my prayers from where I sit today can be felt just as those given by the people in attendance.

I'm sure that Dana's home going service will have joy and tears, wonderful memories and precious thoughts of her life mixed with sorrow that missing her will bring. I am just as sure that her homecoming in heaven has had joy and tears, wonderful memories and precious moments shared along with the glorious anticipation of seeing those left here again one day.

Please pray for Robbie (Willis) and all the Younce family as well as extended family and friends. They need God's comfort and strength during this time. And take a moment to hug those you love and let them know how much they mean to you! Doing that is NEVER something you will regret!

Believe what God says

This morning I read from Beth Moore's 'Believing God' as part of my devotion. Man, did it hit me straight on!!! " The time has come for us to renounce the words others have spoken over us that don't line up with the truth of God's word. And while we're at it, let's give others the same privilege we want for ourselves. They get to be who God says they are, too."

How many times have we been discouraged, hurt or angry because of something someone has said? How many times do we react in anger and retaliate? Or we make decisions based on the anger we feel at that moment. God is calling us to first, let go of what they have said - in other words at the very least ignore it but at the best, hear it, know it isn't true and forgive them even if they don't ask for forgiveness.

The crowd at the foot of the cross and the soldiers that nailed Jesus to the cross did not ask for forgiveness, yet He gave it to them anyway. Bitterness and unforgiveness doesn't hurt the other person half as much as it hurts you. It can cause you to have stumbling blocks to getting where God wants you to be. It can cause a break in fellowship with the Lord. That hurts you, not them.

You must decide, is this person's reaction more important to you than your relationship with God? If it is, then you have a problem to start with and you need to repair your relationship with God before you can do anything else.

And you have to let go to the point that you aren't bringing this up because you must give that person the same respect and consideration that you want to be given you. Now at times that is very hard, down right nearly impossible. But God tells us that with Him all things are possible.

We have to commit it to God in faith, believing that He will give us the victory we need. He is able and He is willing. The question is, are we?

Logic, Faith & Wisdom

Have you ever been in a situation that every ounce of logic within you said 'don't get involved', 'you will regret doing this' or 'it's not your problem'? Conventional logic says this is a MISTAKE! But in your heart a still small voice whispered and said, "here is a chance to help someone', or even 'this is a way to know what is the true and what isn't, it's a test'. You pray for wisdom and you read God's Word looking for that one thing that will point you the right direction. You may or may not find what you are looking for there because sometimes God wants us to act on faith.

Many people believe that relying on logic is where wisdom will take you and many times it does. But at times wisdom takes you to faith and says 'follow'. Everyone around you may think it is a bad idea. Your own logic says it is a bad idea. Yet that voice is whispering.

I've been there recently and I can tell you that nothing is harder to work through than the battle against logic. You want to make sure the 'small voice' is the Lord, not satan setting a trap for you. You want to protect those you love and do what is right for them.

This morning as I knew I had the ability to do what was being asked and my logic was saying 'no, don't do this' I continued to pray. The only time I had any peace was when I thought of committing. When I wavered I had no peace.

Now it is too early in the game to tell if logic was right but the one thing I do know is that I trusted God because He gave me peace so even if the worse case happens, I know He has a purpose and I know I followed His direction.

The problem with faith is you do not always see immediate results, sometimes things work great and you do see results but at others you are still left in the same place with no results. Because we usually equate results with success, if there is no results immediately we may doubt the success.

In truth success comes the moment we follow His leading even when the path isn't clear the obstacles are many. Even when we are being viewed as stupid or a failure by others if we are following God we are never a failure. Today in Bible reading in Mark 2 I read where Jesus was questioned for saying 'your sins be forgiven you'. He was also condemned for eating with the publicans and sinners. Now just for the record, I don't believe that Jesus was involved in any of the sins these people were involved in but I do believe He was showing them that a Holy God could love them.

Jesus gave so much to so many who rejected Him. So we are going to face times that we give and it is rejected or taken advantage of. That part is God's responsibility, not ours. We are to follow Him, give the situation and those involved to Him and allow Him to do His work. Too many times we get in the way.

Lord, today let us recognize and use the logical reasoning powers You gave us but let us never let that override our Faith in You to give us wisdom and direct our paths.

I'm not Worthy

In todays world where everything is about 'me'- how great I can be, how much I can make, how much influcence I can have - it is hard to understand the concept of being unworthy. The world believes you can make yourself worthy. Yet the Bible clearly teaches that only by His blood and righteousness can we be worthy.

So who are you listening to these days, the world or the Bible? Most Christians will say 'The Bible of course' but lets look at the way we are living our lives and see if that bears this out as truth.

Are you more concerned with your 'rights' or what is best for others? Are you worried about how economics will affect you or is your trust in Jesus? Do you look each day for ways to be a servant or are you looking for someone to serve you?

The mindset of the day is so subtle that you often don't even see it creaping in. It does it slowly. That is why it is so important to guard our minds and hearts against things that are not of God. Now I'm not suggesting that we cannot ever take part in anything that is not 100% Christian based. But I am saying you need to know the pitfalls and avoid them.

I enjoy country music but I can tell a difference in my thoughts when I spend a day listening to any country that might come on the radio vs listening to Christian music. I'm not condemning country but I am saying that if I want my thoughts pure before the Lord, I have to put pure thoughts in my head. And if a song has something I really don't agree with that is the one that will get stuck in my head and 'play' over and over every time.

I can't make myself righteous enough to remove those thoughts, I can think on other songs or other things and help get it out of my mind but it's not going very easily. If I could make myself righteous, I could avoid those thoughts getting stuck there.

Only one is Holy- He is the One that loves us, keeps us, is there for us. He is the One that gave His life for us. He is the One who rose again that we might live! We are not our own gods, we have nothing to be worshiped in us.

But we do, we put so many thing ahead of God, our jobs, our families, our hobbies, our relationships, we don't listen and then claim He has not spoken. But He has, He has spoken to us clearly from His word and He wants us to listen and obey.

I'm not worthy and I never can be on my own but by His blood, His grace and His forgiveness I can stand righteous in His presence.

Teaching them all things that I have commanded you

Jesus gave use commands and direction on how to live our lives. Most Christians agree that many of his commandments are very clear but some folks seem to have trouble with. The really amazing thing is many seem to have problems with the two commandments that Jesus said were the most important. That we love the God with all our hearts and we love our brother/sister as ourselves.

Look around you today, there is not a lot of 'loving each other as we do ourselves going on'! We had rather gossip, hurt, sow discord, manipulate than love. Why is that? It is because we have a sin nature and that nature wants to dominate.

Ask yourself this question, how often do we tell something to someone just to see how upset it will make them with someone else, because we are upset with that someone. You see it happen every day. I'm mad at 'Susie' so I tell 'Linda' how mean 'Susie' has been to me. Now 'Linda' is mad at 'Susie' because of the way she treated me. Now 'Linda' didn't see it happen, she didn't hear what was said but she is relying on my account to be truth.

'Susie' may have been mean to me in reality but also in reality, 'Susie' could be replying to something I did to her or she may have said something that I took to mean something totally different that what she meant or worse I could have taken a little comment and made a mountain out of a mole hill and destroyed 'Susie's' relationship with 'Linda' for my own purposes. None of those are Christ like characteristics and none of them are pleasing to God.

When someone tells us something about another Christian, in truth, we shouldn't listen but if we do, we should then ask the person telling, "are you willing to go with me to this person to see if we can straighten this out'. If they are telling the truth and truly concerned about the person they are talking about, they will. But if they know they haven't been totally honest, many times they will say 'no, it's better you talk to them' or 'I don't want to make things worse' or 'I think that would just stir this up worse'. Worse than what? Get real- the Bible clearly gives us direction for dealing with a believer who is not doing what he should.

First you approach and talk with them. If that doesn't work, then you take two or three other believers with you. If that still doesn't work, then you have a real problem but the Bible still tells us how to address it, through the church body.

But it is easier to allow hurt and anger to fester and cause hurt than to confront the things that are growing all around you. But that's not God's way!

God does not want us to sweep things under the rug. No, He wants them handled decently and in order. He wants them handled in love but the main point is He wants them handled. Over and over in the New Testament the church and/or members of the church are addressed directly over their actions.

The same God that dealt directly with problems back then is the same God we serve today and He wants us to stand up for what is right even when it hurts and to not sweep things under the rug. We are called to walk in His light, not to bury our issues.

Let's do the things He has commanded us today!

Leaving them there!

Jesus said to cast your cares on Me for My yoke is easy and my burden is light. As Christians that is a directive not a suggestion, yet how many Christian walk around so burdened they can hardly lift their heads?

It is easy to lay a burden, a worry, a doubt at the foot of the cross but the real task is to walk away and leave it there. We wonder about the 'what ifs' and we ponder the 'if onlys'. How things could have been/should have been different.

But God has a plan and we often are so busy with what we thinks should happen we stand in the way of what He wants to happen. We see it in the church, we believe a certain program should operate a certain way and if anything happens we tend to go straight in to 'malfunction' and panic mode!

We see it in families- we all have plans and dreams for our children and so often theirs are vastly different from ours. We know they are making a mistake and we do everything we can to prevent that from happening. But what if God's plan was our child's dream, not ours?

And doubts are probably the worst things- we have doubts about everything. Whether it be money, the future, the past, anything in the world we can think of we can have doubts about it. We are so full of doubts we cannot make any headway on today.

Jeremiah tells us to 'know the plans I have made for you', it doesn't say know the plans you have made for yourself or know the plans your parents have made for you or know the plans others have made for you. It says to know the plans God has made for you.

You can only know His plans if you are living in His presence and studying His Word. When someone tells you they know what God has planned for them yet they don't study their Bible or pray, they are lying to you and probably to themselves too.

God's direction comes by seeking His face and listening to His Word. God doesn't give direction based on emotion, He directs based on His principles. Those principles are found in His Word. Outside of that we are flying with no navigation tools.

I admit that right now, laying my cares down and leaving them is hard because some of the things that burden me are hurts to others as well as myself. I want to fix it, I want it to be all better. But only God can do that, not me. I find myself looking at actions and being reminded of the past- that is definitely the devil's work shop, he knows the hurts and angers of the past and if he can make me see others in that light, he's won a battle and can hurt my heart, my relationship with others and my relationship with God.

The devil loves to play with your past, he wants you to cling to the hurts, he wants you to make yourself miseriable reliving those times that you were depressioned or without hope. He knows exactly where your buttons are and how to push them.

God wants us to leave the past in the past and Jesus died to take those hurts for us. How it must pain Him to watch us pick them up again, knowing the sacrifice He has made. It is as if we shrug our shoulders and say 'thanks but no thanks, I'll just carry this myself'.

As the old song says, we need to take our burdens to the Lord and leave them THERE!