Fess Up

Imagine two fighter jets about to go into a dogfight. They are the only two friendly planes, the rest are enemies. Now, imagine if one of the jets had defective guns on the right side, and for whatever reason the pilot could not see to his right, and all of the instrumentation was failing on the same side. Is this a problem? Of course it is. The second plane would have to be sure to cover that side of his ally when the enemy approaches. But with the two of them working together, it's still possible for them to win the battle.

Now, what if the pilot of the first jet never told the second that he had plane trouble? What then are the chance of them winning the battle? The second pilot would not know to help out on the weak side, and the first jet would be in serious trouble.

Ephesians 4:25 Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.

You know, in the spiritual warfare that we fight, we have allies in the battle. The gates of hell will not prevail against the church - the assemblyl of believers - not necessarily a believer by himself. Working together, the body of Christ will prevail even against the very gates of hell. However, I think we probably could find some examples of pilots in that warfare that are severely handicapped in one way or another, and they are not willing to be honest about it and let others know.

Christians are to bear one another's burdens (fulfilling the law of Christ). However, if a burden is hidden, the brother becomes weak. If I lie to you, then I am not helping out the body of Christ, but hurting it. I may keep up my good reputation, but it would not be for the mutual benefit of everyone.

Just a thought...

Hard to Catch Up

Last week my family and I took a vacation down to Atlanta, GA to visit my brothers and our parents before they headed back to Guatemala. It was fantastic trip and time of fellowship. However, the sad part about it was that I had to come back!

Have you ever been away from your work for a week, and when you return there is twice as much stuff as normal waiting for you, and you spend most of your time trying to catch up and never get anywhere? It seems to me that life would be easier if we just worked through the vacation so that it isn't overwhelming when we come back? It seems impossible for me right now to catch up!

Well, as I was thinking of a thought (huh?!), I thought about those times in our lives where we, regretfully, take a spiritual vacation. You know what I'm talking about, those times when we Christians act as though we were the owner of our lives. I find that it is a lot harder to catch up to where I was spiritually before going on "vacation." It seems to me that the Christian life would just be easier if we were to stay faithful, rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, and then having to catch up again... and again... and again...

Just a thought...

What's He Doing?

Philippians 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Let me ask you a question. (It's my blog, I can do that.) Do you ever shy away from the question, "What is God doing in your life?" That is, if someone were to come up to you right now and ask you that, would you get uncomfortable all of a sudden? Ideally, we should have a list of things on the tip of our tongues ready to answer that question. If you're like me though, too often, I would have to stop and think about it for a few minutes before I could make up something spiritual.

What is God doing in your life?

(here is where you pause and answer that question to yourself)

I mean, it is God working in you to do His good pleasure, if you're a Christian, right? So, what's He working on? Nothing? Maybe you think that God is not doing anything with you today, or this week. Maybe He's just letting you take a break... C'mon, let's be serious. The God that notices when the sparrow falls in the field, don't you think He has something for you, today?!

It's safe to say that if you shy away from the question, it's not that God isn't doing anything in you, but rather, you're not giving Him the due attention to see what it is. Or, God forbid, maybe you're ignoring Him altogether and pretending like your life is your own.

This thought came from Rick Grape's charge at Men's Prayer Meeting last night when he read from Psalm 28:5 which say, "Because they regard not the works of the LORD, nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them up." It was a very insightful message last night - one that I needed very much.

So... hopefully at least by reading this post, you'll consider the answer to the question:

What is God doing in your life?

Just a thought....

Comfort from His judgments

I was looking through my favorites, and I came across this particular link - Lunch-Time Thoughts it was called. Then I remembered... I have a blog! Sorry for the lag in posting, although I'm sure most of you hadn't noticed anyway. Well, let's just pick up anywhere.

Psalm 119:52 I remembered thy judgments of old, O LORD; and have comforted myself.

In this verse David makes the statements that by remembering the Lord's "judgments of old" that he comforted himself. In this Psalm, the word of God is referred to by a variety of terms, including "judgments." So, we could say that David is saying that by thinking on God's word, it brought comfort to him (Romans 15:4 - through patience and comfort of the Scripture).

However, if we take "judgments" as the more direct meaning of the word, we find that David comforted himself when he thought of how God dealt with people, and the decisions that He made towards them. When he thought of God's judging Sodom and Gomorrah too wicked to spare - it brought comfort. When he thought of God's flooding the world in the days of Noah, it brought comfort. When he thought of God kicking Adam and Eve out of the garden, it brought comfort. The only reason David could be, and we could be comforted by such things is when we recognize God's hatred for sin as a good thing - oh, and when we are in the right too!

At the same time, God judged people to be worthy recipients of His grace. What? you say. Worth of God's grace - impossible! Actually, no, all of us are worthy of His grace and mercy. Those that are whole have no need for a Physician. We are worthy in that we are so miserably helpless! So, God's judgment of Noah to receive grace. God choosing to bless Abraham, not because of anything he did, but simply because he believed God. These things also bring comfort.

So, let's be comforted knowing that the Judge of all the earth will do right.

Just a thought...