How should we live

2 Peter 3:10-11 (NIV)

10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. 11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives.

There is a certainty that one day The Lord will come and perform as He has proclaimed. Therefore how should we be living if He were to come in the midst of our lives?

Researcher Carol Dweck did a series of studies on how people handle adversity, particularly when they face limitations, obstacles, failure, and change. In one study, she took a group of ten-year-olds and gave them increasingly difficult math problems to see how they would handle failure. Most students got discouraged and depressed, but a few had a totally different response. One kid—in the face of failure—rubbed his hands together, smacked his lips, and said, "I love a challenge!" Another kid, failing one math problem after another, said, "You know, I was hoping this would be informative."

"What's wrong with them?" she wondered. "I always thought you coped with failure or you didn't cope with failure. I never thought anyone loved failure. Were these alien children or were they on to something?"

She realized that not only were these kids not discouraged by failure, they didn't think they were failing. They thought they were learning. She came to the conclusion that human beings have two different, almost opposite mind-sets about life. One of them I'm going to call a "closed mind-set." Those with a closed mind-set believe that life is full of a fixed amount of gifts and talents, and their worth depends on how talented they are. Therefore, their job is to convince others that they've got "it," whatever "it" is.

Dweck said there's another way to go through life—the open mind-set. These people believe that growth is always possible. A commitment to growth means that they embrace challenge. … Therefore, failure is indispensable and something to learn from. [John Ortberg, All the Places You'll Go. Except When You Don't (Tyndale, 2015), pp. 22-23]

We can either live with failure or we can love failure and find that it teaches and shows us how to live. Which shall you choose to do?

Praise to God

Psalm 95:1-2  (NLT)

1 Come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. 2 Let us come to him with thanksgiving. Let us sing psalms of praise to him.

The psalmist here, as often elsewhere, stirs up himself and others to praise God; for it is a duty which ought to be performed with the most lively affections, and which we have great need to be excited to, being very often backward to it and cold in it

In a 2015 interview, the Hungarian composer György Kurtág made a remarkable confession about his struggle to reconcile his atheism with the beauty of Bach's music:

Consciously, I am certainly an atheist, but I do not say it out loud, because if I look at Bach, I cannot be an atheist. Then I have to accept the way he believed. His music never stops praying. And how can I get closer if I look at him from the outside? I do not believe in the Gospels in a literal fashion, but a Bach fugue has the Crucifixion in it—as the nails are being driven in. In music, I am always looking for the hammering of the nails … That is a dual vision. My brain rejects it all. But my brain isn't worth much. [Mark Meynell, A Wilderness of Mirrors (Zondervan, 2015), page 191]

The Creator created a magnificent and marvelous world. There are many thing of beauty and remarkable things to look upon. Even a proclaimed Atheist has a hard time denying God because of the presence of His creation. Let us give thanks and psalms of praise to God for the great things He placed in our lives.

Connections to teach truth

John 17:17 (NLT)

17 Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth.

We have been given the truth of The Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are to be ambassadors for Christ and share the truth we know with others. We are to teach them the truth we know and build them up.

Over the last 50 years, while society has been growing more and more prosperous and individualistic, our social connections have been dissolving. Emily Esfahni Smith from The Atlantic describes the price for our social disconnection:

We volunteer less. We entertain guests at our homes less often. We are getting married less. We are having fewer children. And we have fewer and fewer close friends with whom we'd share the intimate details of our lives. We are denying our social nature, and paying a price for it. Over the same period of time that social isolation has increased, our levels of happiness have gone down, while rates of suicide and depression have multiplied.

We need to build connections in life so we can befriend others and be able to share the truth about God. Without those connections there is no one to talk to. We isolate and even cause problems for ourselves. So build good relationships with people that turn into something special.

God's Lamp

Psalm 119:105 (NIV)

105 Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.

The nature of the word of God, and the great intention of giving it to the world; it is a lamp and a light. It discovers to us, concerning God and ourselves, that which otherwise we could not have known; it shows us what is amiss, and will be dangerous; it directs us in our work and way, and a dark place indeed the world would be without it. It is a lamp which we may set up by us, and take into our hands for our own particular use, Prov. 6:23. The commandment is a lamp kept burning with the oil of the Spirit; it is like the lamps in the sanctuary, and the pillar of fire to Israel. [Matthew Henry Commentary]

I started writing these devotions to a friend many years ago and since then they have spread to others. Most days I allow another Bible webpage to pick out The Bible verses for me. Unless it’s something I really can’t relate to that day I may pick something out of Proverbs, but otherwise I use the verse I’m given.

I’ll always try to explain The Bible verse. Most often I will refer to the Matthew Henry Commentary because he tends to expound on the verse and give insight into it. Sometimes I know the verse well enough so I write my own explanation. I never know what I’ll be writing on a given day, but God does.

I’ll find a short story to illustrate the verse and sometimes I will even write from life experiences as I am doing today.  There are times I may even pick a short story and add to it as a commentary. It just all depends on how God is leading me that day. I know when the story is not right because I draw a total blank. It’s just not what God wants me to share that day.

Over the years of writing, people will sometimes comment back to me: “How did you know what I was going through?”; “Those words were what I needed to cheer me up.”; “I was looking for God’s guidance and I found it in the message.”; “or it may just be a simple thank you.”

Sometimes people have even written back almost identical messages to me about the devotion. Let me assure you, usually the stories I pick are not about you. They are a story that is just pleasant and meaningful to me. However, GOD USES THE POWER OF HIS WORD LIKE A LAMP UNTO YOUR SOUL to speak to you. His word finds something in your heart and opens the door to it.

I pray God will takes His word and shine a lamp brightly into your heart to help you see what God wants you to do. You may be struggling with a problem. You may have an illness. You may be looking for work. Just know God is walking right there with you, ready to speak to you and encourage you. God finds you precious and loves you very must. Let His word fill your hearts so you know what to do at the proper times.

Open Our Eyes

Psalm 119:18 (NIV)

18 Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.

That there are wondrous things in God's law, which we are all concerned, and should covet, to behold, not only strange things, which are very surprising and unexpected, but excellent things, which are to be highly esteemed and valued, and things which were long hidden from the wise and prudent, but are now revealed unto babes. If there were wonders in the law, much more in the gospel, where Christ is all in all, whose name is Wonderful. Well may we, who are so nearly interested, desire to behold these wondrous things, when the angels themselves reach to look into them, 1 Pt. 1:12. [Matthew Henry Commentary]

In her book Mystery on the Desert, Maria Reiche describes a series of strange lines made by the Nazea in the plains of Peru, some of them covering many square miles. For years people assumed these lines were the remnants of ancient irrigation ditches.

Then in 1939 Dr. Paul Kosok of Long Island University discovered their true meaning could only be seen from high in the air. When viewed from an airplane, these seemingly random lines form enormous drawings of birds, insects, and animals.

In a similar way, people often think of the Bible as a series of individual, unconnected stories. But if we survey the Scriptures as a whole, we discover that they form one great story of redemption—from the opening scenes of Genesis to the final chapter of Revelation. Weaving through all the diverse strands of the Bible is a divine storyline, the overarching story of what God has been up to in the rescue and restoration of fallen human beings, from the first nanosecond of creation through the final cry of victory at the end of time. [Timothy George, "Big Picture Faith," Christianity Today (10-23-00)]

Lord open our eyes that we may see the wonderful things you have in store for us!

Pray for understanding

Colossians 1:9 (NLT)

9 So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding.

Here we find the apostle stating his prayers for the Colossians that they may understand God’s will and the knowledge they have received.

In an interview shortly before his death, Dallas Willard, a philosophy professor who wrote widely on spiritual formation in the church, was asked about the challenges facing the church. Dr. Willard spent much of his life addressing the problem of why the church isn't raising up more people who look and act like Jesus. At the end of that two hour interview, Willard was asked this pointed question: "When you look at how off track the church is, do you ever just throw up your hands in despair?"

Willard smiled and said, "Never."

"But how can you not?" the interviewer asked.

"Because," he said, "I know Christ is the head of his church and he knows what he's doing. [Skye Jethani, "Vampire Christianity," PreachingToday.com]

Such is the case for prayer. We don’t always understand or have complete knowledge of what we are to do, but we can be certain Christ knows. Therefore pray for one another and for your own concerns that Christ may give you and others understanding.

Our love should be for Christ, not the World

1 John 2:15-16 (NLT)

15 Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. 16 For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.

Be crucified to the world, be mortified to the things, to the affairs and enticements, of it.' The several degrees of Christians should unite in this, in being dead to the world. Were they thus united, they would soon unite upon other accounts: their love should be reserved for God; throw it not away upon the world. [Matthew Henry Commentary]

Sgt. Dennis Weichel, (pronounced WY-KLE) 29, died in Afghanistan last week as he lifted an Afghan girl who was in the path of a large military vehicle barreling down a road. Weichel, a Rhode Island National Guardsman, was riding along in a convoy in eastern Afghanistan when some children were spotted on the road ahead.

The children were picking up shell casings lying on the road. The casings are recycled for money in Afghanistan. Weichel and other soldiers got out of their vehicles to get them out of the way of the heavy trucks in the convoy. The children were moved out of the way, but an Afghan girl darted back onto the road to pick up some more casings right in the path of a speeding 16 ton armored truck.

Weichel spotted the girl and quickly moved toward her to get her out of the way. He succeeded, but not before he was run over by the heavily armored truck. The girl was safe, but Weichel died of his injuries. Dennis was 29 years old and had arrived in Afghanistan only a few weeks before.

Staff Sgt. Ronald Corbett, who deployed with Weichel to Iraq in 2005, said, "He would have done it for anybody," adding, "That was the way he was. He would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it. He was that type of guy." [Luis Martinz, "Hero U.S Soldier Gives Life to Save Afghan Girl," ABC News (3-29-12)]

1 Corinthians 15:3 (NLT) says. “I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said.”

Satan and Temptation

1 Peter 5:8 (NIV)

8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

Here the apostle does three things:-

He shows them their danger from an enemy more cruel and restless than even the worst of men, whom he describes, 1. By his characters and names. (1.) He is an adversary: "That adversary of yours; not a common adversary, but an enemy that impleads you, and litigates against you in your grand depending cause, and aims at your very souls.' (2.) The devil, the grand accuser of all the brethren; this title is derived from a word which signifies to strike through, or to stab. He would strike malignity into our natures and poison into our souls. If he could have struck these people with passion and murmuring in their sufferings, perhaps he might have drawn them to apostasy and ruin. (3.) He is a roaring lion, hungry, fierce, strong, and cruel, the fierce and greedy pursuer of souls. 2. By his business: He walks about, seeking whom he may devour; his whole design is to devour and destroy souls. To this end he is unwearied and restless in his malicious endeavours; for he always, night and day, goes about studying and contriving whom he may ensnare to their eternal ruin.

Rich Mullins, a Christian musician and songwriter who died in 1997 at the age of 41, once confessed in a concert that he struggled with watching pornography while traveling alone. One of his spiritual mentors told him, "It's not that you're so bad, it's just that you're not supposed to go out by yourself." So Mullins took a friend along with him on a trip to Amsterdam near its famous red-light district. Mullins said he was hoping his friend would fall fast asleep and start snoring so, as Mullins put it, "I thought, 'Maybe it would be fun to just take a walk and be tempted.'" He waited until 5:00 in the morning for his friend to start snoring, but he never did. Meanwhile, in the midst of his temptation, Mullins picked up a notebook and wrote the words to one of his more popular songs, 'Hold Me, Jesus'":

And I wake up in the night and feel the dark

 It's so hot inside my soul

 I swear there must be blisters on my heart

 So hold me Jesus, 'cause I'm shaking like a leaf

 You have been King of my glory

 Won't You be my Prince of Peace"

With this back story, some people call this Mullins' "Prayer for Porn Addicts" song, but it could also be a called a "Prayer for Anyone Who Is Tempted" Song.

[Luke Gilkerson, "'Hold Me Jesus': A Prayer for Porn Addiction," Covenant Eyes, June 17, 2010.]

Satan tempts us with things our nature desires and then accuses us in front of God of our failures.

Self Correcting

Isaiah 1:18 (NIV)

18 “Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.

Religion has reason on its side; there is all the reason in the world why we should do as God would have us do. The God of heaven condescends to reason the case with those that contradict him and find fault with his proceedings; for he will be justified when he speaks. [Matthew Henry]

Back in the days when everyone used typewriters there was a little thing called Wite-Out. Wite-Out dates to 1966 when an insurance-company clerk named George Kloosterhouse teamed with a guy who waterproofed basements to develop their own correction fluid. They originally called it "Wite-Out WO-1 Erasing Liquid."

You can still buy the product. Wite-Out isn't perfect. If you made a mistake on the typewriter, you'd have to take the paper out or get it raised up a little bit and then dab it with the Wite-Out, paint over the mistake, and then blow on it and let it dry. Then you could type right over it as if the mistake had never been made.

When electric typewriters came along, some genius invented something even better than Wite-Out—the self-correcting typewriter. Now wouldn't it be great if someday down the road somebody invented self-correcting people? Wouldn't it be cool if there could be a self-correcting husband or wife who would say the wrong thing and then just back up and say it over again right? "You know, you're just like your mother. Oops! Let's just erase that and start over." Wouldn't it be great if every spouse or friend or parent or child came with self-correcting technology?

But the human race isn't self-correcting. In fact, we're self-destructing. But in his grace God gave us one of his most amazing inventions—the gift of forgiveness. In a way, it is more powerful than Wite-Out. At the cross Jesus not only covered sin, he also absolves it, pays the penalty for it, and removes it as far from the east is to the west. [John Ortbreg, "Unchanging God in a Changing World," Menlo Park Presbyterian Church]

Instead of starting over or self-correcting, let us see if we can catch our problems before we commit them. Let us stop and reason with ourselves to see if our words will be right. But even if we can’t, we can learn to correct our mistakes through apologies, acceptance, forgiveness and whatever else it takes to make things right.

GRACE!

Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV)

8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

Grace is unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification. The Bible tells us it is by God’s grace we are saved through faith in The Gospel of Jesus Christ and not from our own works. It is a true gift so that we cannot boast about anything we have done.

Enjoy the lyrics from Matthew West’s Song – Grace Wins

In my weakest moment I see you

Shaking your head in disgrace

I can read the disapointment

Written all over your face

Here comes those whispers in my ear

Saying who do you think you are

Looks like you're on your own from here

Cause grace could never reach that far

But, in the shadow of that shame

Beat down by all the blame

I hear you call my name sayin it's not over

And my heart starts to beat

So loud now, drowning out the doubt

I'm down but I'm not out

There's a war between guilt and grace

And they're fighting for a sacred space

But I'm living proof

Grace wins every time

No more lying down in death's defeat

Now I'm rising up in victory

Singing hallelujah

Grace wins every time

Words can't describe the way it feels

When mercy floods a thirsty soul

A broken side begins to heal

And grace returns what guilt has stole

And, in the shadow of that shame

Beat down by all the blame

I hear you call my name sayin it's not over

And my heart starts to beat

So loud now, drowning out the doubt

I'm down but I'm not out

There's a war between guilt and grace

And they're fighting for a sacred space

But I'm living proof

Grace wins every time

No more lying down in death's defeat

Now I'm rising up in victory

Singing hallelujah

Grace wins every time

For the prodigal son, grace wins

For the woman at the well, grace wins

For the blind man and the beggar, grace wins

For always and forever, grace wins

For the lost out on the street, grace wins

For the worst part of you and me, grace wins

For the theif on the cross, grace wins

For a world that it lost

There's a war between guilt and grace

And they're fighting for a sacred space

But I'm living proof

Grace wins every time

No more lying down in death's defeat

Now I'm rising up in victory

Singing hallelujah

Grace wins every time

Every time

I'm living proof grace wins every time

GOD’S GRACE IS GREATER THAN ALL OUR SIN!

Everlasting Life

2 Corinthians 3:6 (NIV)

6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

As able ministers of the New Testament, they were ministers not merely of the letter, to read the written word, or to preach the letter of the gospel only, but they were ministers of the Spirit also; the Spirit of God did accompany their ministrations. The letter killeth; this the letter of the law does, for that is the ministration of death; and if we rest only in the letter of the gospel we shall be never the better for so doing, for even that will be a savour of death unto death; but the Spirit of the gospel, going along with the ministry of the gospel, giveth life spiritual and life eternal. [Matthew Henry Commentary]

Everything about baseball is predicated on precision and predictability. A .260 hitter might have a good or bad year, but eventually he will revert to his norm. He will hit .260. It's the same with pitching. Conventional hurlers deliberately try to spin the ball in a certain way. Depending on that spin, the ball will sink or curve, break left or right.

But there's one notable exception to baseball's predictability—the knuckleball. A good knuckleball hardly spins at all. Because a knuckler doesn't spin, it's entirely unpredictable. Charlie Hough, one of the greatest knuckleball pitchers of all time once said, "The wind currents make the ball bob around like a Whiffle ball and it might break two or three different times on the way to the plate." As a result, the pitcher and the catcher—let alone the hitter—have no idea where the ball is going.

The knuckleball throws a hitter's hitting instincts off-kilter, especially for big sluggers with big swings who have less time to react. Yankee outfielder Bobby Murcer once said the challenge of hitting a knuckleball was like "trying to eat Jell-O with chopsticks." Another Yankee, Mickey Mantle, said bluntly: "Knuckleballers. I hate 'em all." And as for catching a knuckleball pitcher? Good luck. Joe Torre once said, "[Catchers need to] use a big glove and a pair of rosary beads." [Adapted from Steven V. Roberts, "The history of the knuckleball, baseball's most difficult pitch," The Washington Post (4-3-15)]

Sometimes trying to determine God’s will is like trying to hit a knuckle ball; we just don’t know which direction things will go. Fortunately we have God who has given us His word to lead and remind us. In the verse above we know we are preachers of The Gospel. We are not to destroy one another, but instead give hope to a peaceful and everlasting life.

Governing Authorities

Romans 13:1 (NIV)

1 Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.

There is no power but of God. God as the ruler and governor of the world hath appointed the ordinance of magistracy, so that all civil power is derived from him as from its original, and he hath by his providence put the administration into those hands, whatever they are that have it. [Matthew Henry Commentary]

The latest Gallup poll (2015) shows that Americans' trust in our top judges has fallen to an all-time low. Trust in the judicial branch of government dropped eight points just in the last year, which saw major decisions that many Americans deemed controversial or just plain wrong.

Gallup calls this a "significant" loss of trust, with only 53 percent of Americans responding that they have "a great deal" or even just "a fair amount" of trust in the third branch of government. Trust in the Executive (45 percent) and Legislative (32 percent) branches are also quite low, but both were slightly up from last year.

In 2009, Americans' trust in the Judiciary was 76 percent. In just the six years since then, mistrust has risen in nearly a third of Americans.

It could be said Americans have lost confidence in the ultimate judge – God. Other polls show that Protestant Christianity has dropped in American. If we are pushing God out of our lives and out of our country then we should think God will lift His hands from the government He has given us.

Look at what is happening with the police around our nation. The people do not give the police the respect they deserve so even the police are withdrawing from problems they might normally attend to.