Walking With Jesus

Hanging On to Your Best

“Be sure to give to the Lord the best portions of the gifts given to you.” (Numbers 18:29 NLT)

The story is told of a time in the late Queen Elizabeth’s life when she asked her chauffeur to take her for a ride in the country. Then she asked him to pull over so she could just take a little walk by herself. No crown, no gown – dressed down. So, for a few golden moments, the queen was just an ordinary lady, taking a walk in the country. She’d gone out about a mile down the road when this sudden rain shower opened up. The queen knocked on the door of a small hut that was nearby.

She asked the lady if she had an umbrella. The lady actually had two umbrellas – a tattered, battered old umbrella and a brand new one. She gave her the beat-up umbrella. This is the queen, but she doesn’t know that of course. The queen promised it would be returned the next day.

Well, you’ve got to imagine the scene as a uniformed chauffeur pulls up in the royal limousine, goes to the door of the hut the next day and announces, “I’m returning this for the queen.” Needless to say, the woman was in shock. All she could say was, “If I had known it was for the queen, I would have given her my best!”

How like us in the daily moments of our lives. Bumping into Jesus on the streets of our cities and country sides, mistaking Him for a common person. I’ve learned to look into people’s eyes. Eyes don’t lie. Most people, if they’re lying, won’t look you in the eyes.

At a very low point in my life, I went to a work-related event at a nice hotel. As I approached the entrance a man in a uniform walked toward me. I assumed he was a doorman and was going to offer assistance, but instead he began speaking to me in ways that seemed very strange. He said: “Now here comes a real leader.” I literally turned around to see who he was talking about, but then realized he was speaking to me.

He continued by saying affirming things about me, none of which I was feeling or believing about myself. I basically ignored him and walked into the building. But within 3-5 minutes, realizing I should apologize and thank him, I went back out the same door, but didn’t see him. I searched the lobby area and every other place where doormen were serving but couldn’t find him. Was he Jesus in disguise?

Can it be we miss opportunities to give our best because we don’t believe we have any “best” to give? We shun or ignore those who are seeking to speak life, health, and inspiration into us and by so doing, miss the voice of God. Too often we mistakenly believe the way we feel about ourselves is the way God sees us, never stopping to realize we’re perfect in God’s sight because He sees us through the sinless perfection of His Son.

We tend to treat Jesus as an honored guest in our life, but rarely if ever bother to introduce Him to others. In our mind there’s such a huge contrast between who Jesus is and who we are, it’s like we don’t want to stain His reputation by letting anyone else know He lives in us. We’ve got to get over ourselves and offer others the best that we have – Jesus!

Like me on the day “Jesus” spoke to me at the hotel entrance, there are people we see every day who need a fresh word from God spoken through our lips. It’s ironic, but I find when I speak kindness, love, joy, peace, and other manifestations of the fruit of the Spirit into someone else’s life, it lifts me and enables me to see Jesus more clearly.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Are You a Leader?

“And Samuel told him, ‘Although you may think little of yourself, are you not the leader of the tribes of Israel? The Lord has anointed you king of Israel.’” (1 Samuel 15:17 NLT)

Just because you have a following, doesn’t make you a leader! In today’s world we don’t have to look far to find empty shells in positions of leadership. There’s never been a time in history when there are so many examples of “the blind leading the blind,” but, unfortunately, the stakes have never been higher.

In 1 Samuel the Israelites have demanded a king and Saul has been chosen. In chapter 15 God sent him on a mission, but he didn’t follow the Lord’s directives. The Prophet Samuel confronts him, but in verse 20 Saul says: “But I did obey the Lord,” when in fact he did not. He ultimately pleaded for forgiveness, but his sin cost him the kingdom of Israel.

What “kingdom” is your sin costing you? What is your partial obedience to the Lord costing you in terms of the influence you have or had over those who look to you for guidance and leadership? You may be leading a family, a company, a team at work, a church or group at church, but are you compromising your principles and walking in disobedience to the Lord to be accepted and liked?

What about that little boy or girl who thinks you’re the king of their universe? What about that spouse who thinks you’re the real deal when you’re nothing but a fraud? What if those who look up to you, who “follow” you could see what you see on the screen of your mind? Do you not realize that nothing, absolutely nothing, escapes God’s view?

As a Jesus follower leadership is defined by our obedience first and foremost to the Lord. If we’re compromising what God has clearly instructed us to be and do, we’ve ceased to be qualified to lead. Does that mean we won’t ever sin or use bad judgment? Of course not, but it does mean we can’t consistently follow the dictates of our own conscience, walking in blatant sin, and expect God’s blessing.

Leaders for Jesus must first be followers of Jesus. When we begin to think more highly of ourselves than we should, it’s going to be reflected in how and who we lead. Partnership with Jesus is our goal. To be yoked with Him in submission to His authority in our life is critical before we’ll ever be qualified to lead. To think we can lead others without dependence upon the Lord is like trying to maneuver through a tsunami in a life raft, it’s only going to lead to our destruction.

Leadership isn’t simply a position to be filled, it’s an obligation for which we give an account. To believe we can lead for our glory and honor, whether in the church or in a secular position, is to miss the point of leadership. It’s not about us. It’s only and always about the glory of God being evidenced in and through the lives of those we’re seeking to lead.

To the extent our leadership gives fuller and clearer visibility to Jesus, to that extent the people we lead will be helped and God will be honored. Perhaps the greatest evidence of effective leadership is to see the will of God being carried out in those who look to us as their leader. We rise, not by keeping others down, but by getting out of their way as they grow in their giftedness and God’s favor.

As I understand it, effective leadership is working myself out of a job. It’s creating an environment where the lives of the people I lead will not be hindered by my absence but enhanced. When I finish my course, it should be as natural as the flow of a river for someone in whom I’ve poured myself to assume the reins of leadership without hindering the work God has given us. A leader should not only know when to take the reins, but when to pass them on.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

A Banquet on the Battlefield

“Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me. You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings.” (Psalm 23:4-5 NLT)

A field of battle seems hardly the place for a banquet, but as I consider that life as a believer is war, what better place for God to usher us into a feast of His holy presence. When would be a better time or place than when we’re in the midst of battle?

We don’t always tend to think of it in these terms, but when are we most vulnerable, most helpless, most in need of a touch from God? Not when we’re on the proverbial “mountain top.” Not when things are good, and God seems close, and faith comes easy. No! It’s when are heads are down, our defenses seem absent, when our spirit is dying for a drink of living water, in the midst of our darkest nights and most difficult battles.

Pastor Rick Warren wrote: “It takes a lot of faith and humility to trust God and rest when you’re under attack, when you’re misunderstood, and when rumors are spreading about you. When that happens, everything in you wants to rise up and do something about it. How do you handle people who attack you? You don’t. You let God handle them. Trust God to be your defender. Not only does God want to defend you, but he also wants to fellowship with you: ‘You’ll welcome us with open arms when we run for cover to you. Let the party last all night! Stand guard over our celebration’ (Psalm 5:11 The Message). Both Psalm 23 and Psalm 5 paint the picture of a banquet, or a party, at an unlikely time—not just when good times are happening but when you’re under attack.”

The Lord’s presence is most appreciated and welcomed when we’re most in need. When the odds against us are stacked in Satan’s favor, what a joyful sight when King Jesus bursts onto the scene. Discouragement is a near constant companion when trials are weighing us down. Our hunger for God is great, while in our hearts He can seem light years away.

How precious and welcomed when He comes at just the right time and spreads a banquet table before us with all the delicacies of His eternal presence. We may not be consciously aware, especially in seasons of loss or deep sadness, but the greatest gift God can ever give us is the gift of Himself.

Because I’m subject to depression and have physical issues that can manifest in the most unwelcome moments, I never know how I’ll feel from day to day, even moment to moment. My head can begin to spin without warning, leaving me in bed, unable to care for myself. The Lord is teaching me that those can actually be precious times when He comes to “prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies.”

It’s not a literal feast of food, because when I’m in those difficult times food is furthest from my mind. It’s the life sustaining, spirit lifting, soul stirring privilege of His living presence that lifts me to the banquet hall of closeness to Him that I can’t experience in any other way. I’m learning in this season of my life that nothing is as satisfying as intimacy with Jesus.

There’s nothing this world has to offer that compares with knowing my sins are forgiven and realizing that when I close my eyes in death, I will have never been more alive.

Hallelujah! What a Savior! You are welcome to His banquet table any place, any time!

Blessings, Ed 😊

What Are You Trying to Hide?

“Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before His eyes, and He is the one to whom we are accountable.” (Hebrews 4:13 NLT)

Every person, even every believer, has something in their present and/or past of which we’re ashamed and hope no one ever finds out. Why are we so afraid? There’s One who knows every detail of our life, better than we know ourselves, yet, upon confession of that sin it’s cast into the sea of forgetfulness, never to be remembered against us again. And the reality is, His opinion of us is the only one that should matter.

Holding on to the guilt and shame of past, forgiven sin is a waste of time and effort. Here’s the deal, every person in our lives has done or thought something as bad or worse than we have. Satan’s goal is to “steal, kill, and destroy” our hope and joy in Jesus, but Jesus’ goal is to give us an abundant and joy-filled life. Who are you going to believe? Jesus or the devil?

When my wife and I began attending a couple’s group in a church we’d only been attending a short while, we didn’t know anyone in the group on more than a very casual basis. We were doing a study that asked each participant to share their story, including how they came to know the Lord.

When it came my turn I believed the Lord was prompting me to share something that caused me great pain and of which I was very ashamed, but I wanted to obey the Lord so I shared. It took a while, but through my tears I poured out my story, having no idea how these “strangers” would respond. Their loving acceptance and affirmation blew me away.

For the first time in many years, I felt relief and at peace with my past. So, when I read these words by Ron Hutchcraft my heart rejoiced. Ron wrote: “And there’s great freedom when you know there’s nothing you’re hiding in the dark.” What are you still trying to hide?

What is it that you’re so afraid if someone was to ever find out they’d turn away from you or reject you. And please here me, you have to be VERY CAREFUL with whom you choose to share your past. Not everyone will accept you and understand when you share the sins of your past. And the other piece of it is, make sure it is in your past.

If it’s something with which you still struggle, there’s a place and time to share that as well, but again, choose your audience very carefully. The first person with whom you need to share your sin is Jesus. Confession literally means “to agree with God’s estimation of something.” That just means that if God says something is wrong, it’s wrong, period!

If you’re still making excuses for your sin, you won’t find forgiveness. You’ve got to come to grips with your inability to free yourself from what holds you captive, confess it to the Lord, then follow His guidance as you find another person, persons, or an organization to help you create a plan to put that with which you struggle behind you.

Some sins with which we wrestle may call for intervention from others, knowing that if we don’t have help, we literally won’t be able to turn from it. I think of things like drugs, alcohol, abuse of yourself or others, porn, lust and other sexual sins, and anything that’s unlawful. There are many emotional and relational issues that may be troublesome, but not necessarily sinful. Seek God’s guidance and the help of others for those things as well.

The bottom line here is that as a Jesus follower you were never made to walk with God alone. Let someone else know where you struggle and allow them to help you find the strength you need to turn from it.

Blessings, Ed 😊

The Value of Relationship

“They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity – all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:46-47 NLT)

In a recent Breakpoint article John Stonestreet shared: “…in a recent article published in The Wall Street Journal, director Dr. Robert Waldinger and associate director Dr. Marc Schulz pointed to the most significant contributing factor for physical health, mental health, and longevity. Close personal connections are significant enough that if we had to take all 85 years of the Harvard Study and boil it down to a single principle for living, one life investment that is supported by similar findings across a variety of other studies, it would be this: Good relationships keep us healthier and happier. Period. If you want to make one decision to ensure your own health and happiness, it should be to cultivate warm relationships of all kinds.”

The truth is there’s no way to exaggerate the value of positive, godly relationships. Life was never intended to be lived alone, but in the Body of Christ we can find such rich and rewarding fellowship that not only impacts us spiritually, but physically, emotionally, and in virtually every other area of our lives.

One significant beauty of walking with Jesus is meeting others whose lives are devoted to Him, so much so that together each of our lives is enhanced and enriched, not only to our benefit, but to the glory of God.

Stonestreet further shared: “In his masterful essay “The Weight of Glory,” C.S. Lewis argued that this relational aspect of our humanity had eternal implications: It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbor. The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.

All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.

As it turns out, staying married, raising kids, investing in church, and maintaining lifelong friendships could be the most significant thing we do for ourselves and for others, for today and for eternity.”

In today’s culture we never know who is in front of us in the Starbuck’s line or in Walmart. Might they be the next C.S. Lewis or the next “Son of Sam?” While these thoughts can startle and disturb us, the thought that causes me to pray for my neighbors everyday is the reality that each one’s eternal destiny weighs in the balance, and my prayer for them might literally be the difference between life and death for them.

Relationships not only tie us to one another, but to eternity.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Life’s Strongest Enemy!

“Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 7:24-25a NLT)

If you’ve been following Jesus any length of time, you know who quickly becomes you’re worst enemy – the proverbial “man in the mirror!” Because of our sinful nature, our bent to sin, our selfish desire to have everything our way, we become, hands down, our own worst enemy.

Common sense will tell you that you can’t serve yourself and Jesus at the same time. Jesus explained this in His Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:24: “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

The word translated “money” isn’t speaking of literal dollars and cents, rather the things that money can buy; the things that become our treasure; that which becomes bigger and more important than God in our life. Our pursuits, whether in education, business, hobbies, activities, even our kids can become to us the treasure into which we pour, not only our money, but our hearts and lives.

Photo by Safa Baku0131rcu0131 on Pexels.com

Our focus of choice becomes our reason for living, our purpose, the avenue of our energy and resources. Jesus can come along for the ride, but He mustn’t get in the way of what we want, when we want it. “After all,” we reason, “________ owns my heart!” And the irony is, we often give God the credit for giving us that which has now taken His place.

The tragedy is, all outward appearances point to our nobility for being so “faithful” to whatever it is we’re pursuing that’s robbing us of our relationship with the Lord. “They’re so devoted to _________.” “They’re such a ‘witness’ in the way they – care for their children, property, business, etc.” “How can God not be pleased with them when they’re so committed?”

One of the reasons Satan is so effective in blinding us is because he gives us what we want, then paints it to look like devotion to God. Even church work can rob us of our devotion to Christ. We get so enmeshed and entangled in the work of the Lord, we forget the Lord of the work. We forget why we’re going to so many meetings, volunteering for so many activities, going to bed exhausted and drained every night, so much so the Bible and prayer are a distant memory.

And the irony is, we’re robots going through the motions. We’re emotionless, bordering on lifeless, a “shell” being driven by our “need” to feel needed, yet without being able to see ourselves for who we’ve become. It’s in that context we need to hear Paul’s powerful words: “Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?”

It’s so insidious because we think we’re doing what God wants, when in fact, He’s not even a part of the equation. How can you be delivered from something you don’t even realize has you in bondage? Only a clear picture of the risen Christ can enable us to see ourselves as we must in order to find deliverance, peace, hope, and rest.

John Newton said it well: “Wonderful are the effects when a crucified, glorious Savior is presented to the eye of Faith. This sight destroys the love of sin.” When we understand that sin is anything that gratifies us, even in a sick, religious way, and fails to exalt Jesus, then we can seek forgiveness and wholeness.

Clinging to the Savior, seeking to honor and please Him, praying and desiring to have our lives be lived as vessels of His glory and not allowing anything else but His will to satisfy our heart will enable us to prioritize everything else and put it in its proper place under Christ’s Lordship.

Only salvation in Christ alone by faith alone can give us victory over ourselves.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

The Wickedness of Riches

“Jesus said, ‘There was a certain rich man who was splendidly clothed in purple and fine linen and who lived each day in luxury.’” (Luke 16:19 NLT)

It’s not a sin to have wealth. It IS a sin when your wealth has you! There’s no indication that the rich man in Jesus’ parable was grossly sinful, in the sense of his lifestyle, yet he obviously had no compassion for those in need. Lazarus was covered with sores and lay at the rich man’s gate “each day,” yet there’s no indication that he ever took notice of Lazarus or offered him help in any way.

His wealth created in him an air of superiority that caused him to look condescendingly upon those who weren’t like him. Even after he died and was in hell, he still wanted Lazarus to serve him be giving him water to cool his tongue. Finally, his thoughts shifted to his lost brothers, but his attitude was still condescending, asking Abraham to allow Lazarus to return to life long enough to warn his brothers.

It takes an exceptional person to have wealth yet remain humble and pliable in the Lord’s hands. Sin is no respecter of persons and will violate the heart of any person whose desire is to use others to please themselves, whether they have money or not.

One of the saddest lines in Scripture is found in Matthew 12:14 written to describe the Pharisee’s response to Jesus healing a man with a deformed hand. Matthew wrote: “Then the Pharisees called a meeting to plot how to kill Jesus.” All He did was heal someone, but they hated Him for it, so much so they wanted Him dead! The height of wickedness.

There is no limit to the distortion sin causes in the heart and mind of a person who sees evil as good and good as evil. Why do you think drugs, alcohol, prostitution, sex trafficking of tender age children, and other violations of people’s rights and needs is so prevalent in our society today? It takes money to run these wrongful enterprises, yet the effort is made because the profits are plentiful because the demand is so high.

The rich make demands to meet their needs despite the pain, heartache, and personal tragedies of those who are violated to meet their demands. Do you think God is standing by, quietly wringing His hands wondering what He’s going to do? The fires of hell are burning brightly in anticipation of those who think they’re special or are somehow exempt from punishment.

One day they will see the error of their ways, but, unfortunately for most of them, it won’t be in this lifetime. The wickedness of riches lies largely in the blinding effect of its earthly benefits. Treating oneself to the best of everything the world offers has a numbing effect on the heart, preventing the person from realizing there is nothing this world offers that’s worth more than their soul.

As I look over what I’ve written I notice a constant reference to “them.” It’s so easy for me to see the proverbial “speck” in the eyes of the rich, when I’d better be very careful to first remove the “log” in my own eye. Though I’ve never made very much money, in world terms, I’m a very rich man.

May I caution those of us who may not have multi-millions, yet live better than 95% of the world’s population? May we use the wealth God has given us to forward His eternal purposes, not simply to invest in the things of this world? Wickedness is not necessarily and only gross outward manifestations of sin, but to look upon a woman with lust, or to covet another’s possessions, or to ignore the obvious needs of those who beg at the gates of our spheres of influence.

Pride, greed, lust, and covetousness are beggars that camp at our doorways for more often than we care to admit. May the Lord enable us to guard our hearts and minds from the wickedness of riches in whatever form it may present itself.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

More Blessed to Give?

“And I have been a constant example of how you can help those in need by working hard. You should remember the words of the Lord Jesus: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” (Acts 20:35 NLT)

What if we sincerely and genuinely believed generosity was good for us? Could part of the problem be most of us immediately see $$ signs flashing in our head when we think of generosity? Think of how much money the Lord Jesus had while on earth, yet no one in history has given more than He did!

What if we became nearly obsessed with the urge to shower our spouse with kindness, compliments, praise, and genuine affection? What if rather than constantly seeking those things for ourselves, we found someone at work, in our neighborhood, in a grocery store, or in a thousand other settings to be thoughtful, kind, appreciative?

Giving entails far more than money, but it, of course, can include money as well. Why do we rebel at giving money we think we need? Have we so quickly forgotten the poor widow? What if rather than hoarding what we think we might need for a “rainy day,” we gave it away to someone who may actually need it?

How would our lives and the lives of those around us change for the better if we truly believed that generosity was good for us, and that greed was choking the life out of us? A quote by J. I. Packer staggers my imagination as I ponder its implications. He wrote: “There is tremendous relief in knowing that His love to me is based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me.”

Jesus knows how greedy we tend to be, but what if our generosity began to reflect not our heart, but His? What if our first thought when meeting someone for the first time wasn’t “sizing them up,” making decisions about how they’re dressed, what kind of car they drive, where they live, etc., and we shifted our attention to finding ways to be generous with our kindness, acceptance, love regardless of any of those outward criteria we use to “judge” them?

When we’re honest we must conclude God didn’t get such a great deal when He got us. Anything positive and good about us is only and always because of Him. What if we gave those in our spheres of influence greater opportunity to see Him than us? Realizing that EVERYTHING we have is a gift from God, what if we gave freely and generously with every resource we have at our disposal?

As I think of all the Lord is pouring into my heart right now, may I take this opportunity to thank each of you who read this blog. You need to know that I pray for you often, giving thanks to God for the time you take and the effort you make to read the words He gives me. I pray that He will bless you with a greater appreciation of who He is, how much He loves you, and how generously He wants to pour Himself into you, allowing His Holy Spirit to flow through you to those in your families and others to His honor and fame.

Personally, I’m taking inventory of how I treat others, beginning with my wife, kids, friends, and neighbors. The thought that compels me is to ponder what I can do to more effectively point them to Jesus. I pray, for me and you, that we can, from this moment forward, be so sensitive to the Lord’s directives that others will become a greater and greater focus. That our generosity will in ever greater measure reflect the love and generosity of our heavenly Father who holds nothing back in loving us.

May His example give us everything we need to become everything He desires us to be for Him.

Blessings, Ed 😊

How Do You View Others?

“The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep.” (John 10:10-11 NLT)

How we view others, whether individually or collectively, is a reflection of what’s in our heart. In my city it’s not unusual to drive by “tent cities” of homeless people, or to see several homeless people huddled together in their sleeping bags and/or cardboard boxes under a bridge. Often at a traffic light people with signs will approach your car asking for money.

The last church I served was in a transitioning community with many homeless and needy people. It wasn’t unusual to have up to a dozen people knocking on our church door every day (and they wondered why I had no time to study ☹).

Initially I tried to help as many as I could, but the needs were so overwhelming I finally ran out of resources, which was a good thing, because it forced me to listen more carefully to their stories and, by God’s grace, gain discernment as to who needed help and who was a shyster. The danger, of course, is to look at every person asking for help as a fake or swindler, which isn’t true.

We love to categorize or label people, it makes life so much easier, but we miss Jesus when we do that. Rick Warren wrote: “What’s in our hearts often determines what we feel when we look at people. When we see a crowd, we can easily get irritated or impatient. But when Jesus saw a crowd, ‘he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd’ (Matthew 9:36 ESV). That’s the same way God looks at you: with compassion. He doesn’t put you down. He lifts you up! No matter how angry, hurt, or betrayed you feel, Jesus will always respond with compassion. He knows how helpless we are without him, ‘like sheep without a shepherd.’”

It’s interesting how many times the Bible speaks of Jesus-followers as “sheep.” Sheep aren’t the sharpest pencils in the box. They don’t get lost because they run away, they lose their way because they just wander aimlessly until they finally look up and discover they’re lost, and they don’t have a clue how to find their way home. If the shepherd didn’t find them, they’d become prey to the first predator.

Are you seeing yourself yet? That’s why it’s such good news that the Lord is the good Shepherd. If you’re a believer in Jesus today, regardless of what you may think, it’s not because you searched for Him and finally found Him, it’s because you were hopelessly lost, and He found you.

Until that becomes crystal clear, we’ll look down from our ivory towers of perfection at those poor, lost, and lonely peons who wander aimlessly, failing to see that they were you and me before the Savior found us. By God’s grace we can learn to see ourselves in the faces of a lot of the aimless, frightened, and lonely people in our world. And when we do, that’s when the Holy Spirit can use us to show compassion and empathy, like He showed us when we were lost and unworthy.

It’s only by God’s grace and mercy that we can get out of our cocoons of self-centeredness and our false sense of superiority to finally see ourselves as the sheep we are and begin to see others as the lost sheep they are, in desperate need of the Shepherd to whom we now owe our allegiance.

Remember these piercing words in John 15:5: “For apart from Me you can do nothing.” The thief’s purpose is to blind us to the needs of others, but our good Shepherd’s purpose is to open our eyes to those who need “a rich and satisfying life” like we now have and like they can have if only someone like us would introduce them to the good Shepherd.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Home!

“Surely Your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.” (Psalm 23:6 NLT)

What comes to the forefront of your mind when you think about heaven? Yes, it somewhat depends on your frame of reference. If you’ve known and served Jesus for many years, He’s very likely at the top of your list in terms of heaven’s main attractions. But for those of you who haven’t walked with Him very long, you may still find this life very appealing. And for those who haven’t yet met the Lord Jesus, heaven may be completely incomprehensible.

When you consider heaven as your eternal home, what thoughts crowd your mind? Do you think of home as the yellow brick house you grew up in as a child? A small rat-infested apartment you couldn’t wait to get out of? Perhaps a luxurious and expansive house that sat in the middle of many acres of lush and beautiful land?

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Whatever picture your memory paints for you, heaven will be better than you can possibly imagine. Why do I say that? Because “home” encompasses far more than walls, furniture, windows, and doors. Home is, ideally, a place of safety and security; a place of kindness, laughter, sharing life, and love. A haven of rest without threat of harm of any kind.

And of course, I realize that may not have been the environment in which you grew up – it wasn’t for me. But, if you’ve yielded your life and allegiance to Jesus, He’s preparing a place for you that will be beyond anything your mind is capable of imagining. Think of the Garden of Eden before the fall, on steroids.

David Roper wrote: “It’s not that heaven is somewhat like home. It is home. Our earthly homes are mere signs or reflections—primitive symbols of warmth, love, togetherness, and familiarity. The ultimate reality is our Father’s house—where there is a father who never dies, who makes a home for the lonely, who treats us like family, where real love awaits us.”

Where I live now every house in the neighborhood has a security system that includes cameras, lights, and sirens that blare if someone breaks a window or forces open a locked door. Fear is rampant and it’s not uncommon for people to see hooded strangers scoping out their property in the middle of the night. Guns are no longer an “extravagant measure,” but more and more housewives and mothers are training how to use one.

Unfortunately, that’s life in America’s cities and suburbs today. And guess what? It’s not going to get any better, only worse! But thankfully, God has a better plan. Roper continues: “Everything goes wrong here; nothing will go wrong there. Nothing will be lost; nothing will be missing; nothing will fall apart or go down the drain. Heaven is God’s answer to Murphy’s Law.”

Though we have people we love and whose closeness we cherish, unfortunately, our loved ones move away or die. Death, by God’s grace, has been defeated, so in heaven there will no longer be death and the agony of separation.

David Jeremiah shared these powerful words in a recent Turning Point devotional: “The final two chapters of the Bible give us a vivid flyover of our heavenly home. In Revelation 21 and 22, we read about a new planet and a vast city. Those who know Christ as their Shepherd have a future beyond belief. Make sure you’re among that number. Be certain the Lord alone is your Shepherd!”

When you miss heaven, you miss HOME!

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊