The Be-Ready Attitudes

...Be at peace among yourselves. 1 Thessalonians 5:13

It is amazing how the word peace has become a divisive word. It's almost like it has been said too much; we have heard it so often that we do not hear it anymore.

But here Paul gives us no choice. We have to listen because he commands us to be at peace among ourselves.

This is not a passive objective in our mission. If it is a command, then it has to be an ac-

tive pursuit. We must pursue peace. Wherever we find a vacuum of peace, our job is to create it.

An amazing thing happens when we do this. God's name is, Jehovah Shalom-I AM your Peace. He is also called the Prince of Peace and the God of all peace. This means that when we cause peace to enter a situation, we bring God into it. Or perhaps I should say it this way-when we bring God into a situation, He brings His peace with Him.

Is there strife, division, broken relationships, anxiety, or fear in your life? Can you think of anyone right now with whom you know you should reconcile?

Paul's command is to make peace. No matter whom we need to reconcile with, we need to do it. I challenge you-give the broken relationship to God and ask Him to help you make peace, then watch what He will do!

Prayer Father God,

Thank You for the promise of peace! Empower me to be a peacemaker in my relationships.

Amen

Hijacking the Lo-Jacker

Now the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; for he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys. He also had seven sons and three daughters...After this Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children and grandchildren for four generations. So Job died, old and full of days. Job 42:1213,16-17

I wonder what Job would say if he knew that his name was synonymous with suffering and loss.

Would he agree with us that his life was defined by the things he lost? Or would he argue that his life was better depicted in his faithfulness through the trial and the blessings he received in his latter days?

I think we can know the answer very easily, because Job's response to his loss tells me where he found his identity. We can learn a lot from him, so let's look at his journey.

Job's story picks up when he is already the richest man in the East. He is blessed beyond blessing beyond proportion beyond measure. He was the man with the Midas touch in his day. And not only that, but he had a great family, too.

He lost all of that in literally one day. Everything came crashing down and he was left with four servants who had nothing to do and a bitter wife who wanted him to die. Then, next thing he knew, he began suffering from excruciating boils so that his suffering was great both internally and externally in every way.

Yet through it all, he never turned from God. He remained patient and faithful. And in the end, God gave him double what he had lost, even giving him another seven sons and three daughters.

What sustained him through it all are the things the devil could never take away from him-his faith, his identity, and his will to honor God in his words and his attitude.

Because his life was defined by God and not by his possessions-even his children-then he was not destroyed when he lost those things, even though it was painful. He was able to remain steadfast and wait for the faithfulness of God to redeem him.

Are you grounded in a God-centered identity? If you are, then you can be like Job as he would want to be remembered-unshakable regardless the storm or pain, faithful to the end, and rewarded of God.

Prayer Lord God,

You are my God and my faith is in You alone! I will not put my faith in the things I own, because You are my provider. No matter what, I choose to stay in You, and trust that You will redeem and restore my life no matter what I may face.

Amen

Jonah-Jacked

Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.' But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. Jonah 1:1-3

Our country is falling to pieces, isn't it? It is going to Hell in a hand basket.

Hollywood produces nothing but filth. The music industry is filled with indecency and R-rated lyrics, and the music videos are even worse. On top of all that, the economy is tanking, Wall Street is corrupt, and Washington's dragging the country the wrong way while collapsing in upon itself.

I guess it's just time to hole-up and wait for Heaven, right?

Wrong. God wants to hijack our country. He wants to transform Hollywood, Nashville, Broadway, Wall Street, and Washington. In fact, He wants to save them, just like He wanted to save Nineveh. But when He wanted to save Nineveh, what did He do?

He sent Jonah.

But Jonah didn't want to go. He wanted Nineveh to be destroyed, so he ran from God's presence and tried to hide. He wanted the Jews to have God's salvation, but he wanted Nineveh to die.

And why not? After all, Nineveh was a huge city full of wicked people. When Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, went to war, they would even cut open pregnant women with their swords and throw the babies from city walls. I mean, this was a wicked people!

But God loved them. He was not willing to just let them perish, but desired that they should come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9). Therefore, He sent Jonah, because how could Nineveh have heard about God's mercy unless someone went to tell them?

Romans 10:14 asks, How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? The answer, of course, is that they can't.

If we don't go, then we doom the world to hell. If we don't speak, then no one will be saved. And if we abandon our country in all of its sinful parts, thinking we can just hang on to our private salvation, then we should not be surprised when depravity grows around us.

God is calling us today. It is our job to go.

Prayer Father God,

Thank You for having mercy on me! I realize that You want to give mercy to the rest of the world, but that You've chosen me to tell them about You. Please give me courage and wisdom to speak however I can so that this country may be saved.

Amen

Return of the King

And the LORD shall be King over all the earth. Zechariah 14:9

Are you tired of politics and international drama? Then just wait, because God's promise is that He is coming to be King over all the earth.

When Jesus came the first time, He made it clear that His Kingdom was not of this earth. All the people around Him, even His disciples, waited and waited for Him to call them to action and overthrow the oppressive Roman government. They said, Come be our King!

It wasn't that all the Jews were wrong; they just had the wrong timing. The purpose of Jesus' first coming was to restore the relationship mankind had with God before Adam sinned. We are now in a season of grace during which everyone on earth has the option to bend their knee willingly to King Jesus. This season, however, will not last forever.

A day is coming when Jesus will return, and on that day all decisions will be final. Those who bowed willingly will rule with the King. Those who hardened their hearts against Him will be destroyed. And Jesus, the LORD, shall be King over all the earth.

He will physically dwell on the earth and all peoples and nations will be under His rule. It will be the ultimate fulfillment of the Lord's Prayer, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

That day will come to the whole earth one day soon, but it can come in your life right now. Is the LORD King over your life?

Prayer King Jesus,

Thank You that You are King! Come fully be the King of my life!

Amen

Can You Believe This?

For when one says, I am of Paul,' and another, I am of Apollos,' are you not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? 1 Corinthians 3:4-5

Everyone likes a good debate, right? We especially love it right now with all the political candidates hammering out their various issues for all of us to see. The crazy thing is that all these candidates divide up one party into separate camps, hoping that they can somehow call them back together again when they're done arguing.

Maybe this works in that arena, but let me tell you one place where this doesn't fly: The church.

In the world you can say, I follow this person, or, I follow that person, or, This one is my favorite. We have our Twitter accounts and we all follow all these different people. But in the church, we only follow one person. We follow Christ.

This is a problem Paul had to address with the Corinthian church, calling them on the carpet for allowing divisions to split their body into sects that aligned themselves with a specific teacher. So Paul wrote to them to say, Listen, these aren't guys in whom you believe, but through whom you believed. The point is still about Christ Jesus and always will be.

Paul wanted them to know that it is good for different teachers to be involved in our lives. Each one plays a different role that we need, but that doesn't make one more important than the other, and it shouldn't draw us into divisions based on whom we think is best.

It doesn't come down to the teachers in our lives, but the message those teachers bring. It comes down to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Do they proclaim Christ crucified? Do they preach the power of the cross and the resurrection? Do they teach that our hope is in Jesus Christ alone, that we can be saved by no other name but His?

The gospel is what matters. Don't get distracted by the person who preaches the name of Jesus. Instead, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus Himself.

Prayer Lord Jesus,

Thank You that You are the truth by which I live my life! You are the focus and goal of my life! I look to You alone and ask for Your help to follow You more no matter which teacher speaks into my life.

Amen

The Sucking Sound of Greed

But this I say: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 2 Corinthians 9:6

What do you talk about the most? Chances are good that it's something very important to you.

Well, quite interestingly, what Jesus talked about more than anything else was money. Money! The reason Jesus talked so much about money is because it's a good measurement of how fully our hearts are given to Him.

Our attitude toward money and giving is a lot like baseball-there's a blessing that we can win, a scoring of points for the glory of God, but we've got to get all the way around the bases. So, to do this, we need to know what the bases are.

First base is a willing heart. This means more than the minimum. Just doing the minimum looks like giving based on the need instead of on God's Word. Listen, Bill Gates' tithe could pay the entire budget for a whole bunch of churches, but that's not the point. If giving goes beyond budget, praise God! We don't give based on need, grudgingly or out of obligation, but generously out of whatever we have.

You can't score from first base, so we go to second base, which is a readiness. What you need to know is that there is no age limit to readiness. It's not like, Well, I'm still in high school, so I'm don't tithe yet, or, Well, I'm in college, so I have debt, so I don't tithe. Whether you have an allowance, debt, or high-paying executive job, God's Word still applies to you. Readiness means that you understand this and give generously no matter where you are in life.

Third base is an eagerness to give. Eagerness goes beyond readiness. Readiness means you're ready to give, but eagerness means that you want to. Why would you want to? Aside from simply pleasing God, you'd want to because you know God's promise to bless you and give back to you when you do.

Finally, home base is earnestness in your giving. This means you don't quit or give up. You don't let distraction come in and get you off your game, forgetting to give or losing your discipline in generosity.

When we put all four of these together, it brings home the blessings of God and glorifies Him in our hearts.

Prayer Lord Jesus,

Thank You for caring so much about my heart! Thank You also for showing me how I can demonstrate the all my heart belongs to You-by giving as Your Word says to give!

Amen

Look For Him

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.' Luke 2:8-10

As the great theologian Linus declared to my generation in A Charlie Brown Christmas, The shepherds were watching over their flock by night.

Have you ever wondered about that night? What was so special about those shepherds? Was that just some ordinary flock of sheep? As you can imagine, there was much more to the story than Linus, Lucy, and Charlie Brown were able to convey. You see, this flock of sheep had been hand-chosen.

The Bible tells us that these particular sheep just outside of Jerusalem, just down the road from the Temple, would have been found to be worthy for sacrifice and without blemish. As a result, they were special sheep that were about to be put up for sale. These were the sheep that were to be sacrificed, offered on behalf of the sin of the person and the person's family bringing the sheep.

It makes sense that the announcement of the arrival of the Presence of God would first appear to this particular occupation, because this occupation represents all of us who have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

All of us need forgiveness-an atoning forgiveness that the sheep represented, but only temporarily. God's plan all along was to provide something permanent, not temporary. God's plan was to provide a lasting Gift that would remove from us our sin, as far as the East is from the West, by the precious blood of the Lamb of God.

That's what Christmas is all about: the gift of His priceless Presence in the form of a baby. With the assistance of the angels, the song of His arrival rang out. For these particular shepherds, what a sight it must have been. Those shepherds, who all day every day watched over lambs for God, now beheld the Lamb of God.

We, too, can behold the Lamb of God this Christmas, if we will just look for Him.

Prayer Lord Jesus,

I don't want to be too caught up in the traditions and religion of Christmas that I forget to really see You. Please open my eyes and my heart to know Your Presence this Christmas season!

Amen