Examining Our Excuses

Prov 22:13 The slothful man saith, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets!

Our command from the Lord is to preach the gospel (Mark 16:15). Often we neglect to actively share our faith though. And when looking for excuses it's not to share, it becomes really easy to put it off till another day. So stop "lion" (LOL get it lion like"Lying") to yourself and get going. What are our reasons? Here are eight I think everyone has used at least once!!

O-live This Promise!

Psa 128:1-6 Blessed is every one that feareth the LORD; that walketh in his ways. For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table. Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the LORD.
The LORD shall bless thee out of Zion: and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life. Yea, thou shalt see thy children's children, and peace upon Israel.

I have just been reminded lately of the simplicity of God's design for the family. Last night Kristal and I got a phone call from a family in great distress. There are so many issues that from the outside the situation seems overwhelming. To sort through each individual hurt is a task that would be too burdensome for anyone to do. The question is not so much,"How did we get to where we are?", but,"Now that we are here what do we do now?" I believe countless hours of counseling are wasted in trying to sort through things that have already taken place and yet we have no ability to go back in time and undo those things. If you and I will begin from this moment to live like Paul and "forget those things that are behind", then we can start from right now to experience the joys of victory.

So, where do we start? According to Psalm 128:1 we start at the fear of the Lord. Why? because you will eat from the crop that you plant. You will either sow to the flesh and reap corruption or sow to the Spirit and reap life. If you live a life satisfied in the Lord and have the genuine joy of the Lord coming from that life of abiding in Him, God guarantees that you will see the effects in your marriage and children. Nothing is "hotter" to a husband or wife than a satisfied and genuinely joyful soul. Nothing inspires kids to want to be with their parents like having a house filled with joy. Wives clinging to their husbands like vines to a house and kids solid and kids growing and bearing fruit. This is God's design for the family. The easiest way to have the family God wants for us to have is to spend time at His feet. If He is lifted up in our lives He will draw all husbands and wives, and kids unto Him. I wonder if all the issues of marriage can be traced back to this as the root issue? The healing begins with coming to Jesus! That's the way it was in the gospels and nothing has changed in the 2000 plus years since. What do you think?

The comfort of His Jealousy

This morning I read a devotional by Spurgeon in the "morning and evening devotional". How strange it is to think of the vehement passion of God to guard our heart from everything that would leave us less satisfied than Him. He is a jealous God but not for His own needs. He is jealous for ours! Selfless jealousy? Seems like a contradiction, but doesn't love require that you want the very best for the object of your love? What do you think?

"God is jealous." —Nahum 1:2

Your Lord is very jealous of your love, O believer. Did He choose you? He cannot bear that you should choose another. Did He buy you with His own blood? He cannot endure that you should think that you are your own, or that you belong to this world. He loved you with such a love that He would not stop in heaven without you; He would sooner die than you should perish, and He cannot endure that anything should stand between your heart's love and Himself. He is very jealous of your trust. He will not permit you to trust in an arm of flesh. He cannot bear that you should hew out broken cisterns, when the overflowing fountain is always free to you. When we lean upon Him, He is glad, but when we transfer our dependence to another, when we rely upon our own wisdom, or the wisdom of a friend—worst of all, when we trust in any works of our own, He is displeased, and will chasten us that He may bring us to Himself. He is also very jealous of our company. There should be no one with whom we converse so much as with Jesus. To abide in Him only, this is true love; but to commune with the world, to find sufficient solace in our carnal comforts, to prefer even the society of our fellow Christians to secret intercourse with Him, this is grievous to our jealous Lord. He would fain have us abide in Him, and enjoy constant fellowship with Himself; and many of the trials which He sends us are for the purpose of weaning our hearts from the creature, and fixing them more closely upon Himself. Let this jealousy which would keep us near to Christ be also a comfort to us, for if He loves us so much as to care thus about our love we may be sure that He will suffer nothing to harm us, and will protect us from all our enemies. Oh that we may have grace this day to keep our hearts in sacred chastity for our Beloved alone, with sacred jealousy shutting our eyes to all the fascinations of the world!