24 November 2009 Devotion for Today "Words" Proverbs 15:1-4

A gentle answer turns away wrath,

but a harsh word stirs up anger.

2 The tongue of the wise commends knowledge,

but the mouth of the fool gushes folly.

3 The eyes of the LORD are everywhere,

keeping watch on the wicked and the good.

4 The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life,

but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit.

Proverbs 15:1-4

British author Rudyard Kipling was once interviewed by a group of reporters and was asked about the secret of his success. Kipling said that the secret of a good writer is to get each word to sell, for every word has value. The more valuable the word, the more richer the author. One reporter commented, "Mr. Kipling, it is estimated that many of your words per page are worth more than $100 each. If so, would you be willing to give us one of your $100 words?" Kipling asked first for a one hundred dollar bill, which the reporter handed over to him. Without saying anything else, Kipling took the one hundred dollar bill, folded it and put it in his pocket while the reporters stood in rapt attention. Kipling smiled and said, "Thanks!"

Thanks is certainly one of those valuable, one hundred dollar words- and certainly appropriate as we enter into the season of Thanksgiving. But all of our words have some value. One writer said that words are "among the most necessary, brilliant creation on the planet, and at the same time, some of the most destructive things one will ever find." The words themselves are not so inherently valuable as in how they are used.

Solomon certainly understood not only the power of words, but the way in which they are used. As king, Solomon was constantly in highly stressful situations where the atmosphere was extremely tense and volatile. One false step, one small nuance out of place, one tiny moment of insincerity, one bit of anger just below the surface could cause the entire situation to go up in flames. In those moments, Solomon understood the value of a gentle word and a soft answer. Many times skillful persons will, during intense conversations or negotiations, will employ humor to relieve the tension and diffuse the anger. Then as his listeners are more at ease, he can more easily, yet gently, drive his point home.

Unfortunately, not everyone is so skillful. Indeed there are some who will intentionally drop words like they were atomic bombs. Its bad enough when we unintentionally say the wrong thing. Yet these people go out of their way, spoiling for a fight. They will look for the means to twist your words around and impugn your motives, leaving everyone angry and frustrated. Solomon tells us it is wise to mark these people well and to stay away from them.

A deceitful tongue indeed crushes the spirit. Have you ever known anyone who never gave praise but was always full of criticism? Perhaps you work for or live with someone like this. No matter what you do, no matter how well you do it, the one with the deceitful tongue will always find a way to find fault with it. Solomon knew these people well. However, he seldom spent much time worrying about them. But he employed the same kind of wisdom against them. Instead of reacting with the expected hostility, Solomon would speak more slowly and softly, smiling as he spoke. He knew how to put them into situations where they would have to eat their words. Those who gush folly usually don't take long to let everyone know that they do not know what they are talking about, but a wise man knows the difference between a person who knows his stuff and the one who doesn't.

How much we need discernment and wisdom from God as we listen to people today. Perhaps we might want to incorporate Niebuhr's Serenity prayer as we listen and observe those who around us:

Prayer:

God grant me the serenity

To accept the things I cannot change;

Courage to change the things I can;

And wisdom to know the difference.

Help me also Lord to know the power of my

Words, as well as how to say them.

Have a blessed day!

18 November 2009 Devotion for Today “I Have Called You By Name” Isa 43:1-3

18 November 2009 Devotion for Today "I Have Called You By Name" Isa 43:1-3

 ¹ But now, this is what the LORD says— he who created you, O Jacob,
       he who formed you, O Israel:
       "Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
       I have summoned you by name; you are mine.

 ² When you pass through the waters,
       I will be with you;
       and when you pass through the rivers,
       they will not sweep over you.
       When you walk through the fire,
       you will not be burned;
       the flames will not set you ablaze.

 ³ For I am the LORD, your God,
       the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;

    How is it that God, God's son, God's angels can so confidently tell God's people to "Fear not?" Don't they see what's happening? Don't they care about the harm we're about to experience? Are they living in some kind of divine state of denial? The answer follows those two words in vs. 1. "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine." God knows us (I have summoned you by name). We belong to God (you are mine.)
    God can say, "Fear not," because God knows that he's going to be with us no matter what. That's what vs. 2 is about. "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned." God never tells us there won't high waters, raging rivers or blazing fires in our lives. He just says, "When you are in the middle of those worst case scenarios, fear not. I am with you."
    Each football season the Texas Longhorns play the Oklahoma Sooners in the Red River Shoot Out. It is played in the neutral city of Dallas. Thousands of fans from each team invade the city to witness the clash between these archrivals. Sometimes the clash extends beyond the playing field. One year a scuffle broke out in the stands and a handful of men were arrested and taken down town. To avoid jail they had to pay a $ 250.00 fine. One fan didn't have the money. All he had besides his drivers' license was his Neiman Marcus credit card. He showed the card to the judge, who said, "You can't pay your fine with that. You're spending the weekend in jail."
    When the man got to make his phone call, he didn't call his wife. He called the Neiman Marcus store and told them his story. The story made it's way up the company ladder until a Neiman Marcus vice-president said, "This guy is one of our customers, we'll help him out." The paid his fine and charged his card.
    Now, if Neiman Marcus could be loyal to a customer, do you think maybe your Father in heaven could be loyal to one of his children? And God won't charge your card. *
    Remember the young man who was arrested a few years ago in Singapore for some small infraction of their very strict laws? He was found guilty and sentenced to caning. It's not real important whether or not he was guilty or if the punishment fit the crime. The point is that his story made front page news here in the states. And the president appealed to Singapore for leniency -- for one reason; that kid was an American citizen. He belongs to us and we went to bat for him.
    That's why God can say, "Fear not." We belong to him. No matter what happens, no matter what we do, God is going to be with us in the flood, with us in the fire, with us when the worst happens.

Prayer: Dear God, I am in over my head right now, and it looks like the worst is happening to me. The flood waters are rising, and the flames are licking around my heels. Help me to trust in You, and not to fear. Let me know that hope lies beyond the flood, and on the other side of the flames. In Jesus Name, Amen.

*Jeremy Houck- "When the Worst Happens," Sermoncentral.com

17 November 2009 Devotion for Today “Extend the Margins” John 10:10, Isa 26:3

17 November 2009 Devotion for Today "Extend the Margins" John 10:10, Isa 26:3

 

This morning I am going to start off by doing something just a little bit different- kind of an exercise or object lesson to get you a little bit involved. First, find a book that is at least 100 pages long and turn to page 37. It doesn't matter what book it is- the fact that you are able to read it at all is because these words set are defined not by the printed matter that you see in front of you, but by the white space to the top, bottom, left and right sides that you normally do not notice. This white space, serving as a border and demarcating the printed matter is gives order and meaning to everything to the inside of the page. This white space is called the margin. This margin is not incidental- for in fact if we didn't have margin on the page, the book you are looking at, would be very difficult if not impossible to read. In fact, the words on the page, without the margin, would be almost incomprehensible. If you are reading a book with no margin on the left side where the book is bound, you would not be able to see the words on that side. It would be so difficult to read that you would just set down that book with no margin and find something else to read.

 

What was the point of that whole illustration? To demonstrate to you that you take margin out of a book or a page and you may not be able to read it, or make much sense- but unfortunately that is what we have done to life. We have literally snatched, chopped, sliced, and otherwise pulled out the margin . But you take the margin out of life, and what you have done is to overload your life so much that its only a matter of time before emotional, financial, spiritual, moral, and physical breakdown is going to occur. An example of this is when you have no margin you end up being 30 minutes late to the doctors office because you were 20 minutes late getting out of the bank because you were 10 minutes late dropping the kids off at school because the car ran out of gas two blocks from the gas station- and you forgot your wallet! Margin, on the other hand, is having breath left at the top of the staircase, money left at the end of the month, and sanity left at the end of of your kids' adolescence. Marginless is the baby crying and the phone ringing at the same time. Margin is grandma taking the baby for the afternoon. Marginless is being asked to carry a load give pounds heavier than you can lift; margin is a frind to carry half the burden. Marginless is not having time to finish the book you're reading on how to manage stress; margin is having the time to read it twice. Marginless is fatique; margin is energy. Marginless is red ink, margin is black ink. Marginless is hurry, margin is calm. Marginless is anxiety, margin is security; marginless is the disease of our new millennium- but margin is its cure. Have you ever wondered why it is that we have comforts and conveniences that other times in history could only dream about, yet somehow, inspite of the fact that we have them, we are not flourishing under the gifts of modernity as as one would expect. We live in an age of unprecedented breakthroughs in technology, in medicine, in science, and invention. Its an amazing age of progress, and for that we should be thankful.

 

Yet as visible as these achievements have been, our faults demand a glaring prominence of their own: I recently financed a car for roughly the same amount of what I mortgaged my first house for 20 years ago. We have divorce, teenage pregnancy, illicit drug abuse, crime, incarceration rates, one fourth of our population is functionally manic-depressive. Add these to corporate malfeasance, AIDS, litigation rates, unaffordable health care, educational breakdown and functional illiteracy---if our progress is so wonderful, why do we drink and drug to forget our problems? Why are we divorcing and suing at such unprecedented rates? Why is it that we are hearing and seeing so many things like what happened at Columbine and Virginia Tech? Why are people killing themselves-and others, in such numbers? Because our progress has come a price. For all the progress we have in modern life, the rat race that this progress has generated in many was far outweighs the benefits we derive from them.

 

    I do not believe that God ever meant for life to be this hard.    You look at the life of Jesus as you see someone who was never in a hurry, yet He only had three years But when Jesus said, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly- He was not only talking about eternity. He was also talking about time. Time right here on earth, and how to experience that abundant life of margin that God desires us to have. I don't believe, for example, that God ever meant for us to be so tired and frazzled all the time! Have you ever stopped to wonder why it is that people are so anxious and depressed? Do you think that God meant for one-fourth to one third of population to have to live on the medication we are taking just to cope with one more day? Something is wrong- desperately wrong! And its not just enough to call it sin. to accomplish what God put Him on this earth to do. You never see Jesus stressed-out. Sure you saw Him angry, like the encounter He had with the money changers at the temple, or disappointed- perhaps expressing a little frustration with His disciples because they just couldn't seemd to get what their Master was teaching them. But not even having the basic necessities or comforts of life seemed to bother Him. "Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has no where to lay His head." Here was one who had thousands of people clamoring to make Him a king, to do miracles, healings, preaching sermons on the mount and yet not once did He miss that time to be with His heavenly Father.

    

    Jesus said, I am come that you may have life, and that you may have it more abundantly! (John 10:10) The abundance of life is found not in how much you may squeeze in a page, but in the margins- the space and time in which God has defined life to take place. Knowing that we have everlasting life is the framework for restoring the margin back into our lives which sin has robbed us of- and to live the kind of life that God wants us to live. When I think of the Psalmists, for example- God speaks through them saying that when God leads us, He leads us beside the still waters. He tells us to be still and know that I am God. Isaiah 26:3
You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.

 

    As you approach the holiday season, remember this, the extent to which you enjoy this next month or so ahead of you will be enjoyed in the same proportion as to the margins you have in your life. Before you make any plans and crowd the season with activities, focus on the margins and extend them first. You will enjoy the holidays so much better.

 

    Have a blessed day!

03 November 2009 Devotion for Today "Gospel Plan of Salvation Using M&Ms" I John 1:7

03 November 2009 Devotion for Today "Gospel Plan of Salvation Using M&Ms" I John 1:7

I needed a quick and easy way to hold children's attention so that I could share the plan of salvation with them during our fall festival party the other night. I've used the Wordless Book before, but that didn't hold children's attention for long. After I grabbed a bag of snacked sized M&M's to give out at the Trunk or Treat Party at Church, I thought, what better way than to use these for the Gospel presentation session before they get hyped up on candy that night.

First, I separated out all the varioius colors, Blue, Brown, Yellow, Green and Orange and put one of each color in snack sized plastic bags.

Ask the children to each take a plastic bag and be seated on the floor.

Have them start with the blue color M&Ms.

BLUE Say: First take the blue M&M out but don't eat it yet. Ask if I would use the color blue to describe a feeling, what feeling would that be? Many of them said "sad, depressed, lonely, etc." Say: That's right, blue is the color we are because we're sad, lonely, depressed, and especially if we have never heard that God loves us and has a plan for our lives. He does not want us to be sad. He wants us to have joy and peace. Jesus said, "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." John 15:11
But why do people not experience that God's plan for joy in their lives? Go ahead and eat this blue M&M.

BROWN- now take out the brown M&M and hold it in your hand. We don't experience that joy because of sin. Let's say brown is the color of dirt- the color our hearts are now because of sin. I explained what sin is and how it separates us from God and how God must punish sin. "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23), The Bible also says, "The wages of sin is death" (Rom 6:23). There's only one way to cleanse our sins so that we can draw close to God. (go ahead and eat the brown M&M)

RED- take out the red M&M and hold it in your hand. Ask to desribe the color red, Ask: "What does the color Red remind you of?" Many will shout out, "Blood!" That's right, and we're talking about the blood of Jesus? What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus! The Bible tells us in I John 1:7 that "the blood of Jesus Christ (God's Son) cleanses us from all sin." Go ahead now and eat the red M&M as you think of Jesus and the sacrifice that he made for you on the cross when He died for your sins, and take out the yellow M&M

YELLOW- Yellow is bright, it is shiny, its the color of the sun, it also reminds me of GOLD, the color of heaven and its streets. Since we don't have a gold M&M, we'll use the yellow one to remind us of the place that God has set aside for us who have asked Jesus into our hearts, and where we will spend all eternity when we die. In the book of Revelation 21:21 it says, "And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass." Talk about heaven being a wonderful place, and even though we don't know everything about it yet, its the place where we want to be one day- not in hell, where we will be if we allow sin to remain in us without following Jesus. Now go ahead and eat the yellow M&M.

GREEN- take out the green M&M and hold it in your hands. What does green remind any of you of? Green is the color of plants, trees, flowers, and many other living things. Green is also the color of "Go" on a traffic light. It means we can move ahead. Once we move ahead knowing Jesus as our Savior and Lord, Jesus wants us to grow, and He also wants us to go. We can grow to be more like Jesus because He wants us to be His Disciples, learners. We do this by going to church, reading our Bibles, praying and talking to God, obeying and doing His will, etc. Quote Matthew 28:18-20 or another verse describing what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Now eat the Green M&M and take out the last one, Orange.

ORANGE- Why would I have an Orange M&M? What do you think Orange would mean? (Ask for some to describe it). Orange is one of my favorite colors, as well as favorite flavors! But most of all, "ORANGE ya" glad you came tonight to Trunk or Treat to hear about Jesus? Orange-ya glad Jesus Christ died for you and rose again from the dead to give you eternal life? Orange-ya glad you don't have to go to hell, but can go to heaven? Orange-ya going to tell somebody else about what Jesus has done for us?

Lead in a prayer of salvation and ask for hands to go up for those who want to know more about what Jesus has done for them.

After the prayer, hand out the remaining M&M packets and a gospel tract or even an index card with each of the colored M&Ms taped on it explaining the plan of salvation on it. Dismiss the children with the candy. Time elasped, fifteen minutes.

Hope you can use this plan of salvation in a special event where you have children around. You can adapt it as needed, and expound more on it for adults. May God help you use it to tell others about Jesus.

Have a blessed day!