Day Twenty Five

Revelation 3:14-20

14.) "And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: 'The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation.

15.) "'I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot!

16.) So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.

17.) For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

18.) I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.

19.) Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.

20.) Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with Me.

    If you are familiar with the Book of the Revelation you are aware of the letters to the seven churches. If you are of the Premillennial point of view, you see the seven churches as representing the seven church ages to come. If you are of the Postmillennial point of view, you see the seven churches as prophetic history that has been fulfilled. Whichever you hold to, these churches did exist and everyone who seriously believes the Scripture believes that the Laodicean church is a precursor to our church age. 

    So what would cause a church to be lukewarm? What would cause a church to be wishy-washy in the works they do? How can a church exist without passion?

    Well, what is the church? The church is the people. Apparently, the people of the Laodicean church were weak and ineffective, and apparently by choice. What would make them like that?

    The Greek word 'Laodicea' means 'justice for the people.' That is something we hear a lot of today. Justice for the people. Under that umbrella shelters the LGBTQIA community (and I did look that up since they add letters every once in a while), climate changers, Black Lives Matter and several other such groups. Justice so they have equality, so long as they are equal and all others are not equal. When you live in that attitude, you tend to go along to get along. 

    And this is where our churches are today. There is very little courage to stand for the right. I ran into a female minister I knew at a hospital once. She had a Doctorate in Theology from a liberal seminary. She was headed up to see a woman in her church who was dying of cancer. The patient was a lesbian. My minister friend was frantically leafing through her Bible in the waiting room. I saw her and walked over. We exchanged greetings and she told me that she was looking for a passage that supported homosexuality, but could not find such a passage. I told her that was because the Word does not support homosexuality. In fact, it speaks against it. She replied that was only Old Testament, the New Testament never mentioned it. I stared at her. A Doctor of Theology who didn't believe the Old Testament sin was still sin and who didn't know where the New Testament speaks against homosexuality. I showed her, in her own Bible. She read it three times, then snapped her Bible shut and said she didn't care. She headed up to the room.

    It doesn't matter how committed to social issues a church is, it will never make up for adherence to the Word of God. Verse eighteen from above, I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. It is interesting that the Lord uses the word 'buy.' When we buy something, we pay a price. If we stand for the Word of God, if we live the Word of God, if we honor the Word of God, we will pay a price. Now it is merely mockery, but the day will come when the price we pay will be serious. Will you stand firmly for the Lord?

    Today's prayer is that our churches will dust off their Bibles, turn their spirits to prayer and become the people who shaped this country. For this, we start with our selves. Hebrews 11:6, And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.

    The proof of your faith is that you believe in the power of God.                                             

 Day Twenty Four

Psalm 111:1-10

1.) Praise the LORD! I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation. 

2.) Great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them. 

3.) Full of splendor and majesty is His work, and His righteousness endures forever. 

4.) He has caused His wondrous works to be remembered; the LORD is gracious and merciful. 

5.) He provides food for those who fear Him; He remembers His covenant forever. 

6.) He has shown His people the power of His works, in giving them the inheritance of the nations. 

7.) The works of His hands are faithful and just; all His precepts are trustworthy; 

8.) they are established forever and ever, to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness. 

9.) He sent redemption to His people; He has commanded His covenant forever. Holy and awesome is His name! 

10.) The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!

         Interesting passage of Scripture. The Psalmist talks about things being forever. He refers to His people, meaning the people of the Lord-the Jews. The Psalmist talks about His faithfulness to His people. But what if the people are not faithful to Him? What if they fall away? What if they follow the lure and temptation of Satan? What is left for them?

         We see what happened in Scripture. Time and again the Lord brought punishment. He didn’t change. He was still faithful. He was still awesome in every way. Finally, God sent His Son, and He was rejected. A new covenant was instituted. Now the responsibility to spread His word falls to the believers.

         What are we doing with it?

         Churches that are more interested with social gospel than God’s Gospel. ‘Christians’ who cannot be identified separately from the world. ‘Believers’ who mock true believers. In other words, we are failing the Lord as bad as the Jewish people did.

               10.) The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever! What held for the Jews holds for us. In this verse, the Hebrew word for ‘fear’ is ‘Yir’ah’. In regular usage it means to be in absolute awe of something. Crossing the sea with Moses would have been a Yir’ah moment. When used in reference to God, it means absolute reverence. The Hebrew word for ‘wisdom’ is ‘Chokman,’ and it means just what we think of when we think of wisdom. So, The absolute reverence of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever! And this is where we are failing the Lord. Same as the Jewish failure. We do not have absolute reverence for the Lord. To many things come between us and our service to the Lord. Do you go to church because you want to go to church, or because you feel you must? If you had absolute reverence, worship would be top of your list. We cannot expect to have wisdom in things until we have absolute reverence to the Lord. Not just in church attendance, but in all aspects.

         You are married. You love your spouse. But every Friday night you step out with another. You wine and dine and it usually ends in a sexual encounter. Does your spouse understand? Does your spouse let it go? Even if you give all your time and energy to your spouse the rest of the time, will your spouse overlook your weekly indiscretion? Of course not. Our indiscretions toward the Lord are more than weekly. Sometimes they are even daily. Does He understand? Is it OK? Being a person of God means absolute reverence.

         Our prayer today comes with some action, as well. First, pray that we would become those who have absolute reverence toward God. God is first, always. The action part is most of us, I think, know or have known someone who has absolute reference toward God. If they have passed away, give thanks that they were in your life. If they live, contact them. They may live thousands of miles away or they may be just down the street. But contact them. Thank them for being that example in your life. If I could, I would be calling LeRoy Benefield in Oklahoma, but he has passed. Someday, though, I will be able to give him a hug and thank him for being my human example.

        Blessings.

 Day Twenty Three

Ephesians 5:6-13

6.)  Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

7.)  Therefore do not become partners with them;

8.)  for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light

9.)  (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true),

10.) and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

11.) Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

12.) For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.

13.) But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible

         What do we condone? What do we let slip by?

         At the most recent Oscar ceremony, the presenter made a sad little joke about one of the women in the audience who has a shaven head. The reason for the shaven head is because she has a medical condition that causes her hair to fall out. The joke was tasteless and out of place. That kind of thing is why I don’t go to movies and support that kind of garbage. The woman’s husband stomped up on stage and slapped the presenter. (It was all over the news the next morning which was the only reason I knew about it. In fact, it was the only reason I knew about the Oscars.) All of this made for interesting television, I suppose. I know that the Oscars have had declining ratings for years, and I wonder if the slap was staged to drum up interest for next year.

         But the thing that got me was that the Academy of Silly People, that over sees the movies, came out and said that such actions of violence are not acceptable under any circumstances. The next day, the actor who did the slapping also said it was unacceptable under any circumstances. Immediately, my mind said ‘unacceptable under any circumstances except when we can stage horrific violence and make lots of money on it.’ Movies and TV are horrible these days. Violence and sexual content littler the scenes. Vulgarity in language assault the ears. If you make a public outcry you are trying to censor the artist’s work. You are accused of being a NAZI (accused by people who don’t even know what NAZIism is) or something worse. So, many people, many of them Christians, line up to buy the tickets to monuments to debauchery.

         And we sit by.

         We could, of course, picket theaters. We could buy radio spots. We could run ads in the paper. But all that is just free advertisement for the movie. So how do we bring pressure?

         First, you don’t go to objectionable movies. Not that your $20 will make a big difference, but it is a start. And if you really want to do something that will cripple these people, PRAY! So much of what we do is empty without prayer. Quite a few years ago I was asked if our church would help support busloads of people going to Washington DC to march on Washington to draw attention to efforts to abolish abortion. Three day trip. One day to get there, one day to protest and pose for the cameras and one back. They were going to show the nation how Ohioans felt. I didn’t even hesitate. I just said ‘no.’ The lady looked like I had slapped her. She called me a baby killer. I told her that we would open the church for three days for their anti-abortion soldiers to come in and pray. For three days we would feed them, house them and pray with them. But no, that wasn’t a public protest. The following Sunday there were a half dozen Right to Lifers protesting in front of our church with signs that said we supported abortion. But I ask you, what would have been more effective? A march on DC that the news media would ridicule or three days of intense prayer?

         In the above passage, Paul says this, 11.) Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

12.) For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.

         When it comes up in conversation, explain why you do not support the evil in the world. Don’t go into detail, just make your statement. And, most important, pray about the thing the Lord has laid on your heart.

         Today’s prayer is to cause Christians to see the evil and then take prayerful steps to combat it.    

 Day Twenty two

John 14:1-7

1.) "Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me. 

2.) In My Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 

3.) And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also. 

4.) And you know the way to where I am going." 

5.) Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going. How can we know the way?" 

6.) Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. 

7.) If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him." 

         The older man lay in his bed, his life slowly slipping away. He looked around at his children surrounding his bed and saw that all had tears in their eyes.

         “Hey, hey, hey!” He said weakly. “Its OK. We’ll see each other again. You know that. And here in a little bit I’ll be with your Mom again and I’ll feel good and I’ll need that because she will have a list of things for me to do!” As his children giggled at that, the older man smiled and settled back. Soon…….

         If you haven’t lived through a similar scene yet, you probably will some day. It could be you dying, but you will want to ease the pain for your loved ones. It could be your loved one dying. They may be the one trying to comfort you. I have stood in the background of this scene a number of times. It has always been, to me, the highest honor to be there when a Christian crosses over.

         But what if you didn’t know your loved one was dying but they did know they would soon be gone? You wouldn’t understand what they meant with their words until they were gone.

         Jesus had not held back information from His disciples, but they were so conditioned by what they had always been told and the Jewish way of belief that they never really understood. Even now, when Jesus was as plain as He could be, they were confused, wondering what He meant. So, at this point, He gives them comfort. Comfort that will only kick in later when the confusion begins to lift and they see things clearer after He dies and is resurrected.

         And His words to his closest followers are still true today. We are beset on all sides. The world hates us, at least until they feel the need for God. The struggle today is great. Our nation is falling further and further away from the Savior. When the pandemic was in full swing the churches were closed while the rioters, in close quarters and without masks, were praised. We are mocked and in disrespected worse than any time in the history of this country. Our hearts are breaking for our nation and for each other.

         You are in a candlelit room, you and Jesus, and He says this;

"Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me. Your heart begins to ease as the words take hold. 

In My Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? At these words, you remember that this is not you final resting place. You are still to go to the Father. You spirit calms.

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also. Oh, blessed day! To be with the Lord! 

And you know the way to where I am going." Yes, I do know!

Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going. How can we know the way?" There are a few others there with you and Jesus. One of them, old Tom, always had a question like that. It could be irritating. But Jesus smiles at Thomas.

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. 

If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him." Could it be? Thomas looks like he might be getting it. Or not. But you get it.

         Today we pray that the words of Jesus stay with us, even in the darkest times. Let not your hearts be troubled. 

 Day Twenty One.2

Luke 20:20-26

20.) So they watched Him and sent spies, who pretended to be sincere, that they might catch Him in something He said, so as to deliver Him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor.

21.) So they asked Him, "Teacher, we know that You speak and teach rightly, and show no partiality, but truly teach the way of God.

22.) Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?"

23.) But He perceived their craftiness, and said to them,

24.) "Show Me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have?" They said, "Caesar's."

25.) He said to them, "Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."

26.) And they were not able in the presence of the people to catch Him in what He said, but marveling at His answer they became silent.

         We were told when we were kids to never talk to people about religion or politics. Someone would get angry. When I was growing up that was not a problem to me. I didn’t care for religion or politics. I cared about sports. I cared about girls. I cared about…well, that was just about it. Then, I accepted Christ as Savior and my perceptions completely changed. I had a desire to tell others about Jesus. Politics still didn’t resonate with me, but I did decide that a candidate’s Spiritual life would mean more to me than her or his politics.

         Actually, politics and religion have always been intertwined. Ancient Israel was a Theocracy. The scribes and Sadducees and Pharisees of Jesus’ time were basically politicians. The hated each other but they came together to combat Jesus. Not because He was Messiah, but because He threatened to disrupt their fragile political house. When they did capture Him and hold His mock trial, they could not pronounce death on Him. They had to take it to the supreme politician in Israel, Pontius Pilate. Since the close of the New Testament, religion and politics has been mixed together to produce the greatest bloodletting in history. The combining of religion and politics has not been comfortable or Godly, but there it is. I believe the admonition to not talk of religion or politics has done way more harm than good. As Christians, we are to share the Gospel. As Americans we are to be at least politically aware.

         In the above passage, the religious authority (scribes, Sadducees, Pharisees) wanted Jesus out of the way. The easiest way to do this was to get Him to say something that would turn people away. If that failed, they would manufacture charges to have Him killed. Either way, Jesus would be gone.

         So the trouble makers were sent in. They acted like people who were seeking truth, but they were just attempting to get Jesus to say something wrong. Verse twenty two says, Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not? No Jew wanted to pay the tax. If Jesus said, pay the tax, the people would have been angered and would have left. If Jesus had said, don’t pay the tax, they could have called the Roman authority and had Him arrested and probably killed for stirring up trouble. Any way that He would answer would have cost Him.

         In verses twenty three, twenty four and twenty five, Jesus responded in the perfect way. But He perceived their craftiness, and said to them, "Show Me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have?" They said, "Caesar's."  He said to them, "Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."

         This sounds like He is saying to pay the tax. However, not all money exchanged was Roman money with the image of Caesar on it. Because the Jews had a commandment to have no graven images, they only used Roman money for official transactions that in some way involved the Romans. But they had their own money that they used. It was this money that was to be used as tithe and offering at the Temple. Your tax to Rome was on the Roman money you had. The tax to the Temple was on the Jewish money you had. The less Roman you had, the less tax. But you had to have Roman money to buy or sell property or any number of other things. So, most Jews carried both. Interestingly, Jesus Himself carried no Roman money. He had to ask for the coin. Jesus saying give to Caesar what was his and to God what was His referred to these two taxes. The answer satisfied the people. You could live without Roman money if you lived simply, which many did. The ‘religious leaders’ could not accuse Him of sedition. The attempt to use government against Christianity failed.

         In our society, even being a good citizen, as Jesus was, will only take you so far. Your faith will be used against you to diminish the Lord’s power. But still, we must be the best of citizens for as long as we can, as well as being the best Christian we can be.

         Our prayer today is to stand firm for Jesus while using His wisdom against the world. At the same time, being the very best Christians we can be. We need to ask the Lord to equip us and then we need to receive that equipment, even when it is not what we want.

 Day Twenty

Deuteronomy 31:1-8

1.) So Moses continued to speak these words to all Israel.

2.) And he said to them, "I am 120 years old today. I am no longer able to go out and come in. The LORD has said to me, 'You shall not go over this Jordan.'

3.) The LORD your God Himself will go over before you. He will destroy these nations before you, so that you shall dispossess them, and Joshua will go over at your head, as the LORD has spoken.

4.) And the LORD will do to them as He did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when He destroyed them.

5.) And the LORD will give them over to you, and you shall do to them according to the whole commandment that I have commanded you.

6.) Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you."

7.) Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, "Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land that the LORD has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall put them in possession of it.

8.) It is the LORD who goes before you. He will be with you; He will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed."

         The time of Moses is ending. There was still much to do, but Moses was done. He had led these people faithfully for forty years. He could go no further. However, he was still worried about the people. The Lord had promised to go before them, but there would be times when it would look hopeless. Would they stay faithful to God, or would they break and scatter? Facing war situations are always intense, and then there were women and children involved. Millions of women and children.

         And then there was Joshua. Joshua who had left Egypt when Moses led the people out. Only Joshua and Caleb were still alive of that original adult group. Joshua had been faithful all along the way, standing with Moses in any and all situations. But you never really knew about someone until it came to be show time.

         But Joshua did fine. He made some mistakes, but so had Moses. It was a struggle. The people did mostly fine, at least as long as Joshua lived. They had followed the Lord. They marched around Jericho and the walls came down. They took the land. They settled it. It wasn’t perfect, but they achieved.

         However, as time passed, they fell away from the Lord. The Lord brought correction and they came back, but then they would stray again. This continued until the Babylonian captivity when they were ruthlessly crushed. The darkest days of their entire history. It always happened when they strayed. They saw time and time again that walking with the Lord was always for the best, but still they strayed. Much as Christianity has strayed.

         Verse six is the heart of the message. Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you."

         He will not leave us nor forsake us. We might leave Him and forsake Him, but He will be there when we come back.

         Think about what makes you afraid. COVID? War? Government? Disease? Inflation? Your financial future? The future of your church? Being left alone? Are you a child of God? Do you not think your Father doesn’t know of these things? None of these things are bigger than He is. The key is being faithful.

         A family walking along on a path in a park that overlooked the sea far below. A little boy was walking with his uncle whom he rarely saw but who was quite fun. The little boy talked incessantly to his uncle. But when they all stepped into an overlook area and the sea opened before them, the little guy was shocked. He turned and ran to his daddy, for he was sure his daddy would keep him safe.

         Our prayer today is to claim the promise that He will never leave us or forsake us and then pray that the Lord keeps us on that path.

 Day Nineteen

Jeremiah 29:10-15

10.) "For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you My promise and bring you back to this place.

11.) For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

12.) Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will hear you.

13.) You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek Me with all your heart.

14.) I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

15.) "Because you have said, 'The LORD has raised up prophets for us in Babylon,'

         People love to take verse eleven completely out of context and apply it to something in their own lives. The Bible was written to people of old and it also speaks to us today, but verse eleven was written to the Jews in the darkest time of their history. We are not there yet. However, we seem to be heading in that direction. Verse thirteen is more apropos to our current situation.

         This was the time of the Babylonian captivity. The best and the brightest of the Jews had been taken to Babylon and were now, in some capacity or another, working for the Babylonians. Even though some had important jobs, they were still slaves. All that was left behind in Israel were the aged and the infirm and those not mentally sufficient to be of any use to the captures. Jeremiah was one of these, an old man referred to historically as the ‘weeping prophet’ because of the anguish he felt for his people. If they had returned to the Lord rather than going their own sinful ways, they would have been fine. Jeremiah had tried to warn them, but they would not listen. Now, Israel was defenseless against their neighbors and their cities were continually ransacked. The old men were systematically killed, the women were trampled in the dust and any youth were taken away. Before it got too bad, Jeremiah wrote a letter to those taken into Babylonian captivity. This passage is from that letter. It was hand delivered by a courier.

         While those left in Israel slowly died off, those in Babylon died a different death. A Spiritual death. No longer were they allowed to worship their Lord. No longer could they govern their own lives. It was here that Daniel was thrown into the lions’ den for not worshipping the king and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were thrown into the fiery furnace. So long as they were useful, they could live. Otherwise, their deaths tended toward the gruesome.

         The Jews were a beaten people. But the Lord, through Jeremiah’s letter, offers them hope. He sets a time limit on their captivity of seventy years. During that time they were to marry and have children and work hard and prepare for the return to Israel. Although it is not mentioned in the Bible, Jewish history tells that it was here in Babylon that their system of synagogue worship was born. Jews gathering together in secret to worship their Lord. They have held onto the synagogue method of worship ever since, even when the Temple worship was reinstituted. The captivity made them stronger, but the cost was brutal.

         As Christians, we are facing the same thing on a national level and a personal level. Christians make the best citizens, but we are mocked. We have seen the stirrings of violence toward Christians. It is because we have moved away from the Lord. The time is coming when we will suffer greatly.

         And then, these verses will mean even more to us. Jeremiah 29: 11.) For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

12.) Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will hear you.

13.) You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek Me with all your heart.

         Our prayer today is to start seeking Him with all our heart now. Not when disaster starts, but now. Are you willing to do the things you need to do to strengthen your own spirit and your church’s spirit and your country’s spirit? It starts with seeking Him with all your heart.

 Day Eighteen

Proverbs 3:1-10

1.) My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, 

2.) for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. 

3.) Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. 

4.) So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man. 

5.) Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 

6.) In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths. 

7.) Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil. 

8.) It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. 

9.) Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; 

10.) then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine. 

         Paul was a year ahead of me in college. We got to know each other a little, but we were in different years and he was in Education and I was in Theology, so we just weren’t together enough to be friends. Paul’s Dad was a big time pastor somewhere in Ohio and Paul was going to create a Christian elementary and junior high school at the church after he graduated. He was a nice guy and I was a nice guy, but we were headed in two different directions.

         I hadn’t seen Paul in ten years when I took the pastorate of a church in Warren, Ohio. We lived in Howland, Ohio, the next town over. In that town was a very large church with a Christian school. Our son was second grade and Marsha and I decided to see about enrolling him in the Christian school. We made the appointment to meet the administrator and, at the appointed time, we strolled in. Low and behold, it was Paul. The church was where his Dad pastored. In a situation like that, even though you weren’t close before, you feel like you have found a long lost friend. Over the next few years, Paul and I hung out some. We had prayer together. I got to speak at a graduation at that school and Paul got me scheduled at Kent State University to speak for five days in a row. It was all good.

         I also got to know his father. This was not the atypical pastor of a large church. This man was humble, loving and honest. He was a dynamic man. And, he was a man who believed in education. He had been an educator for ten years before being called into the ministry. He felt that education was the first step to serving the Lord fully. In time, though, he felt it was time to step down as pastor and let a younger man have his pulpit. He retired. He went fishing. It didn’t take him long to be miserable. He told me that he knew the Lord had something for him to do and he wanted the Lord to reveal it really soon.

         The Soviet Union was breaking up at the time. One day Paul called and asked me if I would meet him at the wing place for lunch. (Honestly, this place served wings so hot that when you smelled them your nose hairs curled. Paul and I ate there fairly often.) Paul had something to tell me.

         Once we ordered and were waiting for those delicious plates of fire, Paul told me that one of his father’s old teaching buddies had called him and told him that some of the nations that had been in the Soviet block were now looking for English language teachers. Paul’s Dad wound up dealing with a man in Ukraine and the deal was set. The retired pastor was told to bring his own textbooks. So, he was going to take around a thousand Bibles to use as textbook. Isn’t that amazing?

         This passage brought this back to my mind. It is as though this was written with that retired pastor in mind. A couple of days ago we saw in Romans the good, the acceptable and the perfect will of God. I have seen many in the good will of God, some in the acceptable will of God but only a few who were closing in on the perfect will of God. However, that was this pastor. Nothing came between the Lord and him. In the end, the Lord went far beyond his wildest dreams. He was the first man to bring Bibles legally into the Ukraine since before World War II.

Think about your fondest dreams. How important is the Lord in those dreams? Is your life centered on the Lord, or is He somewhere out in the orbit of your life?

Consider verses five, six and seven from the above passage;

5.) Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 

6.) In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths. 

7.) Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil. 

         For today, our prayer needs to be that we have the Spiritual strength to trust Him with all our heart, to see things with His understanding, to acknowledge Him as our Lord and let Him lead us, to set aside our wisdom for His and finally, turn away from evil. None of that is easy, but it is necessary if we are to walk with the Lord.   

 Day Seventeen 

Hebrews 12:1-8

12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 

² looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

³ Consider Him who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 

⁴ In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 

⁵ And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
    nor be weary when reproved by Him.
⁶ For the Lord disciplines the one He loves,
    and chastises every son whom He receives.”

⁷ It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 

⁸ If you are left without discipline, in which all have  participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

         The writer of Hebrews was facing a very difficult job in the writing of this book. He is writing to Jews who have become believers, and this was a hard thing. Christianity had come from the Jewish faith. These Jews had become believers and were struggling to make their old faith compatible to their new faith. The two faiths are quite different. The Old Testament is the foundation for the New Testament. The first thing that you do when building a house is you dig a big hole and put in a foundation. After a period of time the house is done and in no way resembles the original foundation. It has changed. However, the foundation is still there. These Jewish believers wanted to hold onto the old way and blend in the new way, but that wasn't to be. Throughout Paul’s writings to the various churches, we see a division between the Jewish believers and Christian believers. The Jews assumed that since they had always been the chosen people of God, then they were superior to the Gentile believers. This, of course, was not true, but it was hard to bring the Jews to a different way of thinking.

         (Christianity can be like this, as well. Everything changes in life, from the cars we drive to the clothes that we wear to the way we communicate. Everything changes. Except our churches. Drive through the country and you will see churches that have either died on the vine or are dying. The excuse is always, “Well, you see this everywhere"…..Only that isn’t true. Other churches are doing very well. The folks in the dying churches have just refused to change their way of thinking. We might even use the word, ‘stubborn.’)

         In chapter twelve here we have talk of discipline. The writer starts out in verses one and two by pointing out that we live our lives in front of people. In verse one we are told, Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 

         This is a sports metaphor. Sports were as huge a thing then as they are now. Olympic type sports. In this illustration he makes mention of the weights. Runners wore weights on their legs during training so that when they actually ran, they would remove the weights and their legs would feel lighter. We do away with the weights and the sin and we run the Spiritual race.

         Verse two starts out by saying, looking to Jesus. If a runner will focus on one thing, they will run faster. If we look away, we will falter.

         And then the writer starts talking about discipline and how we are disciplined for doing wrong. It is common among both Christians and non-Christians alike to say that God doesn’t punish. Yet the Bible says that He does. ⁵ And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
    nor be weary when reproved by Him.
⁶ For the Lord disciplines the one He loves,
    and chastises every son whom He receives.”

         The Lord disciplines His own, those He loves.

         So someone asks how we know we are being punished. If we are going through a rough patch and we are feeling guilty for something, assume it is correction, just like we would correct our own child. Of course, not everything is punishment. We age and we go through the process of aging, we might be in an accident, might fall and break something. But if we know we are doing something wrong in God’s eyes and things are a struggle, remember that we are His child and He does punish His children.

         Our prayer for today is to name those sins we have allowed into our lives and shed them before we continue to run. Maybe those weights are too tight to remove. Ask the Lord for help.

For a number of years I worked on the side as a church consultant. Almost every problem came down to one thing. Stubbornness to see things as God sees them. We have to have it our way because we are right. A person will not change their way of thinking because they are convinced that they haven’t done anything wrong and, by golly, no one can tell them different. A church dies because the people have never done it that way so you can’t take a chance and there is no need to change anything.  

We cannot let our personal lives or our church life suffer because we are not ready to run the race.