Walking With Jesus

Good Friends

“There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13 NLT)

Having had many good, close friends over the years, it’s never occurred to me to ask any of them to lay down their life for me, but in retrospect, I now know that some of them did. Not literally giving their life for mine but making significant sacrifices to make knowing Jesus a reality in my life. My sense is, that’s what the Lord is calling us to do for each other, but how?

True, godly friendship is a rare commodity in many people’s lives. Few have anyone they really trust with personal information, but why? What’s the key to building long-term, Christian friendships? The first step in building a meaningful relationship with another person is to build intimacy with the Lord Jesus. Jesus is the basis of true fellowship and friendship with anyone.

What might that look like? It begins in prayer. Ask the Lord to help you identify 2-5 people – men if you’re a man, and women if you’re a woman, with whom you can begin to build closeness in your friendship. It will likely be someone you already know and with whom you feel comfortable. They need to be a growing believer or at least open to growing in their walk with the Lord, but they also need to be personable, someone you enjoy being around. They must pass the D.I.L. test – Do. I. Like! It’s hard to build anything with someone you don’t like.

Do they have a similar sense of humor (i.e. do they laugh at your jokes and you at theirs? 😊). Humor, laughing together is healthy and can be a means of bonding, as long as the humor is wholesome and not crude or dishonoring to the Lord. It’s also important to be able to cry together. Loss can come in many ways and having someone willing to sit with you and cry with you can be a very comforting and bonding experience. Sometimes the most powerful response to a friend’s need is silence.

J. C. Ryle expands on this idea when he writes: “Good friends are among our greatest blessings – they may keep us back from much evil, quicken us in our course, speak a word in season, draw us upward, and draw us on.” Good friends also help to keep us on course in our faith. They’re not afraid to call us out when we’re slipping in our devotions – reading Scripture, praying, serving, etc. But how will they know? Good friends know because they ask questions: “How’s your prayer time going? What’s the Lord teaching you these days from His Word? With whom have you been sharing your faith recently? How are you and your spouse doing? Are you keeping things pure between you and your girlfriend/boyfriend?

Good friends need to give one another permission to ask those kinds of questions because, presumably, we have nothing to hide, but if we do, we need someone to help us get back on track who won’t judge us, just love us back to Jesus. We’re not looking for perfection, but progress. Regardless of how long we’ve walked with the Lord, we all struggle to keep our purity of heart, mind, soul, and body. Admittedly, it gets easier the longer we walk with the Lord, but we can never think we’ve arrived and let our guard down.

Gratefully, the Lord has put men of God in my life I can trust with my life, and yes, even with my secrets. But the greatest joy that grows out of the bonding of Christian men is seeing others come to Christ. Recently a young man visited our group for the first time. Before I left, we exchanged information and have gotten together, but after I left some of the guys began to ask him directly if he’d opened his heart to Jesus, which he hadn’t, but joyfully did before he left that night. That’s the greatest, most exciting aspect of good friendships, they’re contagious and are always pointing others to Jesus.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

The Future of the Church

“One day some parents brought their children to Jesus so He could touch and bless them. But the disciples scolded the parents for bothering Him. When Jesus saw what was happening, He was angry with His disciples. He said to them, ‘Let the children come to Me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.’ Then He took the children in His arms and placed His hands on their heads and blessed them.” (Mark 10:13-16 NLT)

There are parents today, even some who profess faith in Christ, who refuse to bring their children to church or even allow them any Christian influence in their lives. Why would this be? Perhaps because they don’t want them to feel pressured to make a lifelong decision to follow Jesus until they’re old enough to understand what it means. Newsflash! I’m 78 and still don’t know what it all means.

To knowingly deprive a child access to knowledge of Jesus isn’t only wrong, it’s sin. It’s disobedient to the clear instruction of the Lord. The first time I heard the Gospel I was only five. My parents would take us to church at Easter and Christmas. But even at five I remember to this day hearing the Pastor inviting anyone who’s heart was drawing them to the Lord to come forward.

It may have been my first time in church, so, I was reluctant to respond, but I remember to this day sensing something I’d never felt before. The Holy Spirit speaks to children, and they know what it means. I remember my wife coming to me when my daughter was maybe six or seven years old telling me she’d prayed with our daughter to receive the Lord. My daughter had said to my wife: “I want to invite Jesus to live in my heart.”

If you’re a parent or teacher of young children, please don’t miss opportunities to read to them, sing with them, pray with them, and instruct them in how to know Jesus. But most importantly, live Jesus before them. One of the most meaningful and profound messages of the Bible is: “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” Jonathan Pokluda helps us see this more clearly when he writes: “If you’re not reaching the future of your church, your church has no future.”

I’m a great proponent, not only of excellent Christ-centered children’s and youth ministries at churches, but Christian Schools that are truly “Christian,” not only in their curriculum, but evidenced in the quality of their staff and teachers. My sense is even an infant can sense the love of Christ when being held by a godly person. Remember Simeon, who “took the child in His arms and praised God!” and Anna who prophesied over Jesus in the Temple when He was only an infant.

We bear a grave responsibility to bring our children up with a knowledge and understanding of the Lord and His Holy Word. As Proverbs 9:10 reminds us: “Fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgment.” “Fear” here can certainly mean “terror and exceeding dread,” as many will have on judgment day, but it also has reference to respect and reverence, an attitude of love of and appreciation for God.

We must maintain a healthy reverence for the Lord’s ability to snuff us out like a gnat, balanced, of course, by a strong, healthy love for His compassion and great love for us. Our children, and even those we instruct, will be as influenced by our attitude and demeanor as we interact with them as the words we use to communicate with them. Let’s inspire, encourage, and lead them to seek Jesus from an early age, after all, they are the future of the Church.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

How Do You Read the Bible?

“For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. 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 4:12-13 NLT)

If we blow through the pages of Scripture to check a box we’re going to miss the message, and to miss the message is to miss the Author’s intent. What is the Author’s intent? To allow us to stand before the “x-ray machine” of God and view what’s really in us; what we’re really made of in the eyes of the God who knows us better than we know ourselves.

Why is that important for us to know? If you have an interview for a new job or new position within your company, don’t you think it would be important to know what they’re going to expect of you? What qualifications you bring to the table? How you’re going to make the most contribution to the good of the company? Otherwise, why would they want you? Why would they waste their time interviewing you?

Scripture enables us to see ourselves as spent, worthless, valueless to the Kingdom of God unless and until we see ourselves from a proper perspective. When we’re full of ourselves, thinking we’re “all that,” when from the perspective of the Kingdom of God we’re of no eternal value, something has to change if we ever hope to make it to heaven.

Ron Hutchcraft gives us insight when he shares: “There are three ways to read the Bible. You can read it for information, you can read it for inspiration, and you can read it for transformation. And that last one is what God has in mind. When you pick up the Bible, are you asking every time you read it, ‘What connection does this make to something I’m going to face today?’ Start a spiritual diary, and in it you write two things: What did I read today; what is God saying here and put it in your own words… not Bible words. And then, ‘what am I going to do differently today because of what God said?’ The Bible isn’t just to be mastered. It’s to be obeyed.”

How are YOU reading the Bible? One day we’re all going to stand before the living God to give an account of our lives; for the decisions we made and why we made them. But most importantly, what we did with Jesus. Did we yield our lives and allegiance to Him by faith and follow Him closely, love Him dearly, and serve Him with passion? Or did we ignore His sacrifice and pretend it didn’t matter?

The tragedy to me is that many will stand before the Lord completely ignorant of these things, believing they’re going to be okay with God and given entrance into His perfect heaven, but why? Because the Bible never became their trusted companion; they never took the time to read and understand it. They believed saying a prayer and going to church was all it took.

Dear friend, if the Bible is not a daily companion with whom you spend time and make the effort to understand it’s truths, you’re missing a key ingredient in having joy in Jesus. You’re missing the truths you could learn, the promises that are yours, the intimacy with the Father you can have in no other way. Please don’t allow the enemy of your soul to rob you of vital time spent reading, studying, learning, memorizing, and sharing God’s Holy Words.

Don’t read out of obligation, but out of joy in your love for its Author.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed😊

How to Be Fully Alive

“Each of us will give a personal account to God.” (Romans 14:12 NLT)

*Please read this important article by Rick Warren, but then pass it on to others in your spheres of influence who will profit from its insights. Let it help you in your prayers and witness for the Lord. Blessings, Ed 😊

At the end of your life on earth, you’ll stand before God and he’ll evaluate how well you served others. The Bible says, “Each of us will give a personal account to God” (Romans 14:12 NLT).

Think about the implications of that. One day God will compare how much time and energy you spent on yourself compared with what you invested in serving others.

At that point, all your excuses for self-centeredness will sound hollow: “I was too busy,” or “I had my own goals,” or “I was preoccupied with working, having fun, and preparing for retirement.”

To all excuses, God will respond with something like, “I created, saved, and called you. Then I commanded you to live a life of service. What part did you not understand?”

The Bible warns unbelievers, “He will pour out his anger and wrath on those who live for themselves” (Romans 2:8 NLT). And Christians who live for themselves will lose eternal rewards.

The Bible says that you’re only fully alive when you’re helping others. Jesus said it like this: “If you insist on saving your life, you will lose it. Only those who throw away their lives for my sake and for the sake of the Good News will ever know what it means to really live” (Mark 8:35 TLB).

Then he repeats a similar truth twice in the book of Matthew and twice in Luke:

“If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give it up for me, you will save it” (Matthew 10:39 TLB).
“For anyone who keeps his life for himself shall lose it; and anyone who loses his life for me shall find it again” (Matthew 16:25 TLB).
“Whoever loses his life for my sake will save it, but whoever insists on keeping his life will lose it” (Luke 9:24 TLB).
“Whoever clings to his life shall lose it, and whoever loses his life shall save it” (Luke 17:33 TLB).

Did you catch that? This truth is so important that it is repeated five times in the Gospels. If you are not serving, you are just existing—because life is meant for ministry.

What does God expect from you? He wants you to learn to love and serve others unselfishly.

Talk It Over

• When you’ve served others, how has that service impacted you?

• Why do you think God wants you to learn to love and serve others? What does that say about him?

• What service has God called you to that you’ve been putting off? How can you start serving in that way?

The Way to Heaven

“Jesus told them, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through Me.’” (John 14:6 NLT)

In response to the disciples’ inquiry as to the “way” to where Jesus was going, He quickly responded that He WAS the way. And just to be clear, Jesus was returning to His Father in heaven, our eternal home, the place we go when we die. If anyone, Jew or Gentile, is to EVER get to heaven, to the Father’s House, it will be by the blood of Jesus who secured our redemption on the Cross.

For someone to believe they will get to heaven by their own effort, their strong belief, their good works, their religion, or in any other way than faith in the completed work of the Jesus of the Bible, they will be sorely disappointed. There is no other way, period, end of story!

Having said that, there still remains the practical logistics of making our way up the sometimes-treacherous pathway of salvation in Christ alone by faith alone. What do I mean? If you’re a Jesus follower, you’ve likely not found your journey to be easy. That’s not a term I would use to describe my walk with the Lord. In some ways it’s like saying marriage is easy. There are lots of ways to describe it, but it’s not easy.

Walking with Jesus is deeply satisfying, enriching, challenging, invigorating, rewarding, and in many other ways completely fulfilling, but rarely, if ever, easy. And, my sense is, that’s exactly how it should be. Perhaps we misunderstand Jesus’ invitation in Matthew 11:28-30 where He said: “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you. Let Me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” Soul rest and easy are not one and the same.

If I’m struggling to carry a 100 lb. bag of concrete mix by myself, it may not be for you, but for me, that would be a heavy burden, so, if someone offered to help me carry that load, while it would certainly be easier, at least for me, it would still not be easy. Being yoked with Jesus certainly makes the journey much easier, but it is still far from easy.

Jonathan Edwards helps us when he wrote: “The way to Heaven is ascending; we must be content to travel uphill, though it be hard and tiresome, and contrary to the natural bias of our flesh.” Following Jesus can be very costly, just ask any of the original followers of Jesus or those who live in lands who violently oppose those who bear His holy Name.

Even those of us in America and other “free” lands, are daily challenged to compromise our convictions for fear we will offend someone in our efforts to stay true to our Savior. What’s my point? The pathway to heaven, while open to all who will acknowledge their sin and need of a Savior, is splattered with the blood of the martyrs who have walked before us. My sense is, unless and until we come to terms with the reality that our blood may also be spilled for our faithfulness, we won’t realize just how hard it is to make that journey.

Is it worth it? To me and millions like me it is, but that’s not the question. The question is: Is it worth it to YOU! Are you willing to trade the risks of some discomfort, hardships, suffering, and possibly the loss of your life on this earth, for an eternity of torment in hell?

Think carefully. Eternity is a long, long time to be wrong.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Giving

“He looked at them and said, ‘Go show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went, they were cleansed of their leprosy. One of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus, shouting, ‘Praise God!’ He fell to the ground at Jesus’ feet, thanking Him for what He had done. This man was a Samaritan.” (Luke 17:14-16 NLT)

Why do think Jesus healed those lepers? Did they deserve to be healed? Were they better than all the other lepers? My sense is, He healed them because they asked. Why did they ask? Because they were in desperate need? Was it because of their great love for Jesus? No, though they likely didn’t realize it, it was because of His great love for them! His presence invites us.

Everything God does flows from love. Whenever He gives anything to anyone it’s because it emanates from His loving heart. What does that have to do with us? EVERYTHING! If we profess love for and devotion to the Lord Jesus, everything we do, say, or think should be bathed in love. Obviously, we’re works in progress, so that doesn’t always happen, but when the Lord prompts us to give, whether a kind word or an extravagant gift, if it doesn’t originate from our love for the Lord and for the one to whom we’re offering the gift, it will be given in vain.

Amy Carmichael understood this as she wrote: “You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.” It’s obvious from the results of the other nine lepers’ behavior that you can receive without loving, but you can’t love without giving. What did the Samaritan leper give? He gave himself in worship of the One who gave healing to him.

Isn’t that, at its core, what salvation is all about? When we run back to the Savior to be saved, aren’t we giving ourselves to the One who first gave Himself on our behalf on the Cross? Responding with love for the One who first loved us? As believers in and followers of the Lord Jesus anything we give is evidence of our love for and devotion to Him, thus, should not be given with any expectation of anything in return.

The Lord knew the nine Jewish lepers wouldn’t appreciate His efforts on their behalf. But He healed them anyway. Like many of us, they felt deserving, probably angry with God for allowing them to get leprosy in the first place. Why should they be grateful for something they deserved from the beginning? Why do you think those ungrateful Jews would spend any time with a leper? Because He was a fellow leper. Do you think they gave him the time of day after they were all healed?

Obviously, not! Noone missed him when he returned to Jesus. What’s the lesson for us? The two most striking truths that I see are first, to always attribute every gift we receive as a gift from God who deserves our eternal worship. Regardless of its size or origin, give God thanks and honor for it. But, secondly, always give to glorify and honor the Lord with no expectation of credit or recognition.

We love because He first loved us and we give sacrificially to others because He first gave sacrificially to us. Do they always deserve it? Did we? The other piece of this that we’re not given clear evidence in Scripture, but my sense is that that Samaritan leper returned to his still leprous buddies to tell them about the Healer who set him free. Maybe that should be our attitude as well, as we return to our “leprous,” lost friends and loved ones to give to them what the Lord so freely gave to us when He saved and healed us.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Purifying Prayer

“But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.” (Matthew 6:6 NLT)

Why do you pray? As I ponder the reasons we pray there are essentially three reasons: desperation, duty, or heartfelt desire. Purifying prayer won’t happen unless we expect it and long for it. Why not? Because purity in the Biblical sense is sinlessness; it’s a desire so strong to please God we refuse to please ourselves by giving into our lustful desires, in whatever form they may rear their ugly head.

If we desire God plus anything else, we’re almost wasting our time praying. Why would I say that? Because only when we’re consumed with desire to please and honor the Lord are we going to hear from heaven. How do I know that? Because our heavenly Father declared at Jesus’ Baptism: “You are My dearly loved Son, and you bring Me great joy.” Another translation says: “with Whom I am well pleased!” Can anyone doubt that God the Father heard His Son EVERY TIME HE PRAYED – AND ANSWERED!

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Jesus’ obedience didn’t flow from obligation, but from love, the same as ours should when He’s our highest focus and ambition. Purifying prayer only comes to those whose hearts, minds, and spirits long for the purity of Jesus and are willing to pay the price in prayer to receive it. Purity, like any other Spiritual gift, isn’t given because we earn or deserve it, but because the Lord sees our heart is open to receive it.

When we long for a new car or anything material, a new relationship, job, prestige, honor, esteem or anything else to bolster our egos more than we long for intimacy with Jesus, we’ll not understand the value of purifying prayer.

Intimacy with the Lord grows out of trust, believing when we pray, He will answer, not necessarily by giving us exactly that for which we prayed, but that which is in line with His perfect will. Tim Keller understood this, reflected in his words: “God will either give us what we ask for in prayer or give us what we would have asked for if we knew everything God knows.”

Patience is a God-given fruit of the Spirit that manifests itself most powerfully as we wait expectantly for God to respond to our believing prayers. Every morning, I lift to the Lord dozens of loved ones, friends, neighbors and others by name who are lost and in need of a new life in Jesus. Have they all opened their hearts and lives to the Lord? Not yet! But they will! With my eye of faith, I “see” them kneeling in the Master’s presence, opening their heart and life to Him.

How can I be so certain they will? Because My Savior who doesn’t lie, said in Matthew 7:7: “Keep on asking, and you WILL RECEIVE (emphasis mine) what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks the door will be opened.”

The more time we spend in prayer the purer our heart becomes and the purer our heart becomes the easier it is to take God at His word. Please persevere in prayer, allowing Him to build your trust in Him, and to purify your heart to see His answers even before you ask.

Isn’t He wonderful!

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Winners and Losers

“Those who obey him (the king) will not be punished. Those who are wise will find a time and a way to do what is right, for there is a time and way for everything, even when a person is in trouble.” (Ecclesiastes 8:5-6 NLT)

Do you struggle with managing your time well? Does it seem there are never enough hours in the day or enough energy to fill those hours? How do you prioritize the use of your time? Who or what gets top priority, your best time, when you’re freshest and most alert?

If you’re still employed, most often our employer/employees or those we serve as an employee get us at our best. We want to look our best, act our best, smell our best, be our best for those whose opinions matter to us, but, unfortunately, too often we seem to throw those desires in the trunk of our car when we come home from work.

Pastor Corky Calhoun addresses this when he writes: “When it comes to our time, there are always winners and losers. Sadly, way too often the losers are our family and God.” While most of us will look at that with sadness, realizing it’s truer than we’d like to admit, guilt and shame are of the enemy, not the Lord, so, what constructive decisions can we make to right what we see as an obvious wrong?

The first step is taking an objective evaluation of our priorities. For each day list what we deem “must do” for that day. These are non-negotiables, things like work, meals, commitments we’ve made to meet with people, etc. Then there are things like housework, house, lawn and car maintenance, doctor’s appointments, school and church activities, and social events. The list can be very long of things we want and need to get done.

Did you notice I didn’t include the two MOST VITAL, ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF OUR SCHEDULES? Spending time in God’s Word and prayer, including, but not limited to praying with our spouse/kids. It’s not uncommon to not even let these things enter our mind when thinking about our schedule. Why not? Because we’re too busy! That’s the excuse we use, but the truth is, we don’t give those things the priority they deserve because we don’t understand how not doing them is crippling us spiritually.

“Yeh, but I read a few verses on my break at work!” or “We pray before we go to sleep at night!” Which are good, but they’re not best. Too often we settle for giving God our “leftovers,” not our best. James MacDonald reminds us: “Prayer is purifying – as you pray, you learn to want not just right things, but right things for right reasons.”

Whatever time you usually get up, if you’re not reading and regularly praying in the morning, get up 20 minutes early, then over time, stretch it to 30-60 minutes or more. To start, read one chapter of Scripture and pray for the remainder of the time. If you’re not reading Scripture regularly now, start in the Gospel of John, read through John, then go back to Matthew and read straight through the New Testament. When you’re finished, start in Matthew again. Do that at least three times before you begin reading in the Old Testament devotionally.

As for prayer, make a written list of people and requests that you deem critical. That can include family, co-workers, classmates, neighbors, friends, your church and friends at church, but it also must include time asking the Lord to rid your heart and mind of the junk that collects during the course of any day. I hold my hands out in front of me and say some version of: “Father, this is my life, please remove anything that is unlike you, that’s holding me back from being everything You desire me to be. And give me whatever I need to enable me to become more like You.” Then throughout the day breathe prayers of help or affirmation. Things like: “Father, help me to represent you well at work/school/wherever you are.” Or “Lord, accept my praise and honor as I love you well in whatever circumstance I find myself today!”

Please allow Jesus and your family to be the winners in how you invest (don’t just spend) your time!

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Expectation

“Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory He will reveal to us later. For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who His children really are.” (Romans 8:18-19 NLT)

At first glance we may look at the verses above and think: “Finally, I’ll know I’ve been right all along about ‘them’! I know they’re not living like they should!” But that’s not Paul’s heart as he writes the words above. My sense is we’ll be so focused on the joy of seeing Jesus we’ll not be at all concerned about who else has or hasn’t made it in that moment.

What Paul is referring to here is our expectation of what we will become in Christ in eternity. In light of all we face here – the heartache, pain, suffering, physical, mental, emotional, financial, relational, and other problems with which we have to deal in this mortal body – won’t it be great to put all of that behind us and enjoy a perfect, painless, fully functioning body that will not be the source of any issues for all eternity!

Photo by Karolina Grabowska http://www.kaboompics.com on Pexels.com

Dr. David Jeremiah had it right when he wrote: “Our journey through life is like children who anticipate Christmas morning. They know something exciting awaits them, but they don’t know what it is until they unwrap it. Likewise, God has put in the human heart a longing, anticipation, and expectation that eternal joy is coming, yet for now we can’t know the totality of God’s plans and purposes until they are revealed. So, we live in a state of expectation and trust in the present: expectation based on God’s promises and trust based on His faithfulness.”

Which begs the question, are YOU filled with joyful expectation as you face your future? In your heart and mind, what lies just beyond the horizon for you? Are you dreading another eviction notice, negative medical report, being fired from your job, your spouse walking out, or getting mugged in the grocery store parking lot?

Is your cup always half empty or less because you’re so filled with dread it’s hard to get out of bed and face the prospects of yet another frustrating and painful day? Even today, as I write, I’m weak, tired, and feel like going to bed and pulling the covers over my head, but the joy of Jesus motivates me to do what I don’t physically feel like doing.

My love for Jesus and His love for me sustains and strengthens my spirit, body, soul, and mind, enabling me to do what I might otherwise choose not to do. While I can’t completely wrap my mind around what my resurrected body will be like, I imagine having capabilities I literally can’t even imagine yet. I smile just thinking about setting this body of clay aside and assuming ownership of my brand-new eternal body. Aren’t you glad your love for Jesus is far more than just the days of this life? I sure am.

But to you who are suffering and every day is a struggle, please “look up, for your salvation is near!” As a believer in Jesus what we see is not all there is. Yes, of course, in the midst of pain, heartache, and suffering it seems all encompassing, but here’s the truth – it’s not! There’s something the next breath might bring that is better than anything we’ve ever imagined. Let your dread become expectation as you invite Jesus to control your heart, mind and thoughts, as He prepares you for best journey you’ve ever taken.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Vows

“If you present a gift as a burnt offering to the Lord, whether it is to fulfill a vow or is voluntary offering, you will be accepted only if your offering is a male animal with no defects. It may be a bull, a ram, or a male goat. Do not present an animal with defects, because the Lord will not accept it on your behalf.” (Leviticus 22:18b-20 NLT)

The Lord has expectations and criteria when we make a vow to Him and to others.

Early in my life, even before I came to know the Lord, when I got in a jam I would “pray” “Oh Lord, I’ll do anything you ask, just get me out of this.”

One of those times was when we were tent camping as a family. We brought our 17’ ski boat with us, so we’d gone out on the lake when suddenly a driving rainstorm seemed to come out of nowhere. I was about 14 and wanted to be helpful, so I got the top and side covers installed to try to keep my parents as dry as possible, but in the process I got very wet.

Since I was already soaked to the bone, I volunteered to go back to the tent and get some dry clothes, thinking I would walk back, but as the rain seemed to get harder, I got the bright idea of taking the family car instead. This was the early 60’s when people left their keys in their cars, so I jumped in our car and headed to the tent.

With my rapid breathing, the heavy rain, and the cold car, the windows began to fog quickly making it almost impossible to see where I was going. I didn’t remember how to activate the defroster, so I just kept wiping the window with my hand, accomplishing almost nothing. As I prepared to turn down the lane where our tent was, I saw someone walking across in front of me, so, I cut the corner short to the lane on which I was turning and, in the process, heard a “clunk” on the passenger door. I’d failed to take into account the posts that lined the road.

This was the scenario that caused my first “Vow” to God: “Lord, if You’ll get me out of this I will NEVER DRIVE AGAIN!” I know, silly, right? But that’s how we are when we get in a jam. Unfortunately, that’s not the only time. Think of what we say when we get married. The promise to “love, honor and obey, ‘til death do us part!” Then we want out!

We might blame it on the “fact” we’ve fallen out of “love,” but God hears our vows differently. Fortunately, the Lord knew what I meant more than I did early in my life and has allowed me to drive for many years now, but He views our marriage vows and our vows to each other in different contexts very seriously. Tim Keller wrote: “Wedding Vows are not a declaration of present love but a mutually binding promise of future love.”

Yes, of course, we make promises/vows to one another for many reasons, but what should be the clear implication? Our present love for the Lord binds us to keep our word because of our growing love for Him! What kind of witness is it of our love for the Lord if we promise someone something and don’t follow through? Or worse, we make a commitment to the Lord, but don’t follow through.

“Oh, He knows how I am. He’ll forgive me!” Yes, of course He will, but a part of us dies in the process. One sin makes the next sin easier, but one strict, deliberate, and intentional act of obedience makes the next obedience easier as well. When we commit our character’s formation to the Spirit, He will empower and enable us to live truth and speak believable words our hearers, especially the Lord, will come to expect us to keep. When we make a vow as a Jesus follower, we’ll keep it, especially to the Lord and to our spouse 😃.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊