A Kingdom of Everlasting Hope

Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.' Matthew 2:13

I love hope, don't you? One of the times of year that we always think about with more hope than other times is Christmas and New Years.

It's like, no matter what happened during the year, we look at that time of year as the time when we can leave the old year behind and enjoy the hope of a new year being born, even as we remember Jesus being born into the world to give us hope for salvation.

But a lot of us maybe don't see the things we hoped for at the beginning of the year, do we? Or they don't happen quite the way we thought they would. And I just want to be real with you today and show you that this is exactly how it was for Mary, Joseph, and Jesus during that first Christmas.

See, after the rough start of having to deliver Jesus in the ancient equivalent of a dirty garage, things had perked up. Shepherds came with stories of angels, and then wise men came with regal gifts that would have certainly been a blessing and encouragement to that poor family.

But the very night that the wise men left, God changed whatever plans they might have had. Go to Egypt, He said, because Herod wants to kill your baby. Now that's some hopeful news, don't you think?

It gets even better. Joseph, Mary, and Jesus all escape, but Herod sends his army to Bethlehem and kills all boys age two and under. Merry Christmas, right?

Years go by and God speaks to Joseph in another dream, saying that it's safe to go back home. Awesome, except that when they get home, they find out that Herod's son is on the throne and that home-Judea-can't be home; they need to go to Galilee, to Nazareth. Good news. Welcome home-to a place you've never lived before.

See, this was no time to lose one's hope, no time to misplace it as if it got packed up in some box and put into storage. No, they needed it now more than ever. But the good news is this, they didn't misplace it. They didn't lose it.

My heart and prayer for you right now with all genuineness, in all that is going on in your life, I am praying you have not misplaced yours.

Prayer Lord God,

Thank You for this reminder to hold on to my hope! Thank You for lifting my eyes off of my circumstances enough to see how You have been faithful before. I put my hope in You, knowing that You will always be faithful to me!

Amen

Your Love Is King

But Ruth said: ...wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried.' Ruth 1:16-17

You can learn a lot about a person by understanding their name, especially in Scripture. Unfortunately, this doesn't hold true for the man our story begins with-Elimelech. His name means, My God is King, but you can see by the way he lived his life that God was not his King.

Elimelech lived in Israel during the time of the judges, but when famine came upon the land, he ran away instead of trusting in God. Not only that, but he ran to a God-forsaken country called Moab, which worshiped false gods and was founded by a man whose mother was impregnated by her father.

Now, you need to know this: God will get us through the storms in life when we trust Him. If Elimelech had made God the King over his life, then God would have taken care of him even during the famine. But he didn't make God his King, and in running away, he actually ran himself into a worse situation.

In fact, he died. He ran so he would be safe, but then he died. And not just him, but his two sons died as well, leaving behind just his wife, Naomi, and two daughter in-laws, Orpah and Ruth. So now we have three widows who are wondering, What are we going to do now?

Naomi decides to go back home to Bethlehem and tells Orpah and Ruth that they should do the same. Return to your families. Get new husbands. Go back and worship your country's gods.

Orpah does exactly as Naomi said, but Ruth refused, and this is the great conversion moment for her. She answers Naomi with our verses today, leaving her old life behind and stepping out to allow God to truly become King of her heart and life.

That's where we have to start. Has God, today, right now, because of this great love that He has for you, been allowed to truly be King of your heart? And if King of your heart, then is He King of your hands?

What does that mean? That means, is His Kingship being lived out in what you now do and live for? He can't just be King of your heart without then allowing your plans and your future and your dreams and your fears and all of it to fall in line with Him being King over all of it.

If God is not King over all, then He's not King at all. Is He King over your life today?

Prayer Lord God,

It's scary to think of letting You be King over my whole life, but I can see from Ruth's story that the real scary place is a life over which You're not King. Please come and be King over my whole life. Lead me and take care of me today and always!

Amen

The Miracle of Giving Up

For the administration of this service not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also is abounding through many thanksgivings to God...Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! 2 Corinthians 9:12,15

What's the best gift you've ever received? Yes, this is a trick question.

Because, obviously, if you've received Jesus as your Lord and Savior then He is by far the biggest and best gift you've ever received, right? Paul says this about God's gift to us-it's indescribable!

But Paul brings up the subject of God's great gift to us in the context of another subject-the gifts we give to God. And he says something very interesting about the gifts we give unto the Lord. He says that the result of our giving is thanksgiving. When we give and our gift meets someone's need, they thank God for sending our gift to them. God gets the credit, they get their need met, and we get the blessing of having sowed our seed money in a way that is worthy of God blessing.

In the midst of all this, however, there is a war going on. First, you have a Trinity of blessing that surrounds your life right now-the blessing of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This Trinity of blessing is waiting right now with bated breath, poised in Heaven, on the edge of their throne, waiting for you to make a move they can honor. Make a move I can honor. Make a gift I can multiply. Step out in faith, so that I can bless your life!

But on the other side of this war, you have a trinity of false blessing that opposes what you would generously do for God, wanting to convince you that it's fine to hold on and hoard. This is like a three-headed dragon, and each head has a name. First, Me; second, Mine; third, More.

One trinity exists to provide you with the ability to honor God with the resources, life, treasures, and talents that you've been entrusted with. The other trinity exists to the contrary, for you to spend it all on yourself. The only way to slay this dragon is to give, to let go.

It's the miracle of giving up, of giving over your life to a greater cause than living for yourself. But let's bring this full circle now, because we need to understand that God isn't just demanding our money like a mugger on the street. What's going on is that God is a giver, ultimately demonstrated in the most generous of all gifts-His very own Son dying so that we could live.

All He wants now that we are His children is for us to follow His example.

Prayer Father God,

Thank You that You are a giving God! Because You gave, I am now Your child. And as Your child, please help me to be as generous of a giver as You are.

Amen

The Closet Connection

But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. Matthew 6:6

Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?

You understand what I'm asking here, right? I mean, think about the difference between your steering wheel and your spare tire. Without your steering wheel, you're not going anywhere. But most of the time when you go somewhere, you don't even think about the spare tire that's hitchhiking in your trunk.

You're intimate with your steering wheel. You know exactly where you put your hands. You know the bumps on the back side of it. And if you have them, you know the buttons for radio, cruise control, or whatever else your buttons can do. But with your spare tire, you might be lucky if you even know how to get it on your car when you need it.

Your steering wheel directs your car everywhere you go. It turns left and the car turns left. It doesn't even matter whether your car is full or empty, whether you're towing something or not, your steering wheel always works to powerfully direct the entire vehicle and everything in it. But your spare tire? Well, you hope you never need to see it. It's your insurance policy. You only use it in emergencies and, as soon as you can, you get rid of it.

A prayer life like this takes time and work. It takes laying down our own agenda so that we can pick up God's agenda. It requires us to wholeheartedly pursue God's will for our lives, to desire His presence above the presence of friends or fancy grown-up toys. It takes praying until your list is gone and you simply pray for the pure point of being with Jesus, hearing His heart on things, and then praying for His list instead of yours.

Here's the incredible thing-when you really make this kind of prayer a habit, it changes you. I don't know if you've ever been around people who pray a lot, but you can tell. They pray with confidence and familiarity. When they pray, you can sense that you're in the presence of the Lord. You know that they don't just know the Lord, but the Lord knows them, and that He loves hearing them pray.

It really is amazing, but this is the life that is waiting for all of us, if we will just make prayer our steering wheel instead of our spare tire.

Prayer Lord Jesus,

Thank You for giving me something as amazing as prayer. It just blows me away that I can talk to You! Please lead me, teach me how to pray so that it really changes me; teach me to make prayer my steering wheel.

Amen

24:Faithfulness

In the meantime...He began to say to His disciples first of all, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.' Luke 12:1

If I were to visit your workplace, what would your coworkers say about you? Or if I went to your neighborhood, what would people there say about you?

I ask these questions for a very important reason: Our reputation will come from whether or not we have been faithful. Faithfulness is the opposite of being hypocritical. It means being honest about who we are and whose we are.

We're here to be faithful to the Lord. That should be our reputation. We should be standing out in the community as ones who are living to be faithful unto the Lord. And this reputation that we gain for ourselves, hopefully for good, is so powerful that it will affect our children.

In fact, check out the story of when David kills Goliath. While King Saul and his whole army sit back saying, Oh, this is just too big for us to be able to do anything about it, David says, Who is this guy that defies the living God? Baloney. We can do something about this because our God is a faithful God! David goes out and doesn't even need Saul's armor. In fact, he tries it on. He can't even move. All he needs is a sling, some stones, and the faith that he's got in his Heavenly Father being faithful-he goes out and slays the giant.

That's the kind of reputation I think God wants us to have in town, one that boldly lives for Christ because we know that He's faithful. But here's what will happen when that reputation starts to grow. Do you know what Saul says after David kills Goliath? He looks at David, saying, Whose son is this?

There's quite a wonderful challenge for us as parents, don't you think? That we would have that same heart and desire the same reputation that people would be saying about our kids on the playground, at the mall, on the beach, Whose son is this? Whose daughter is this? Who's your daddy? That's what Saul wants to know.

And you and I together as dads, as moms, as parents, we desire that, don't we? We desire that the faithfulness of God would become the reputation of both our lives and our families' lives, even being passed on to our kids and to their kids. Whose Grandpa is this? Oh, yes. How great that would be? But it will only happen through faithfulness.

Guard your reputation from hypocrisy. Instead, look to the future and choose to be faithful.

Prayer Lord God,

Thank You that You are faithful! I know that I have no chance of being faithful myself unless You help me with Your faithfulness. I trust in You today to help me be faithful as You are faithful, so that Your name will become great wherever I go!

Amen

Fitly Living, Clearly Seeing

Whoever falsely boasts of giving is like clouds and wind without rain. Proverbs 25:14

We're going to spend a little time in someone else's shoes today, though they might feel very familiar depending on your circumstances.

I want you to imagine that you're in need, and I mean really in need. I don't mean that there are things you want that you can't afford right now, or that you need to budget for them so you can buy them in the future, or that they're luxury items that would be nice and beautiful to have but you don't need.

I mean, imagine that if you don't have some sort of financial miracle, you won't be able to buy food this week. Your house is getting foreclosed on. Your kids don't have clothes that fit them and you can't buy them new ones. You are in need.

Now imagine that someone promises to help you. They boast that they are going to wipe out your credit card debt, make your house payments current, or give you a job that will more than cover your bills. But after all their promises, nothing happens. They never deliver. They disappear.

Obviously, this isn't good. In fact, our verse today compares this kind of person to clouds that promise to drop needed rain on the ground-rain that's needed for crops that feed animals and families and provide a living to an agricultural society-but blow away without giving anything.

This horrible, destructive deception is so important to the Lord that He gives us a New Testament illustration of it in the lives of Ananias and Sapphira. This husband and wife pair conspired together to deceive by boasting of a gift they didn't really give.

They sold some land (no one made them), and they promised to give the Church everything they made from the sale (though no one told them they had to give it all). The problem was that they only gave part of what they earned from the sale. Of course, this wouldn't have been a problem if they hadn't promised to give everything. They could have said they were only giving part, and then giving part would have been fine. But when they gave less than they promised, lying about their gift, they both fell down dead.

Listen, the problem isn't in not giving, though giving is good. The bigger problem is in being deceitful. Examine yourself today to make sure that there is honesty and integrity before the Lord, that you have character that is the same on the outside as it is on the inside.

Prayer Father God,

Thank You that You made good on Your promise to send us a Savior! Help me to guard my words so that I only promise things that I will actually deliver; then please help me to be generous in what I give.

Amen

Weighing What We Say

Nevertheless God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not only by his coming, but also by the consolation with which he was comforted in you, when he told us of your earnest desire, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced even more. 2 Corinthians 7:6-7

God meets us where we are. Can I just say how much I love that? I love it!

In our verses today, Paul tells us of a time when he needed God to meet him where he was. He was surrounded by trouble, filled with fear, and so much so that he could find no rest. This is where our verses pick up, saying, Nevertheless God, who comforts the downcast...

Paul is saying that his circumstances were so bad they were enough to leave him depressed. That's what that word downcast means-depressed. He was depressed. He was burdened. He was upset about some words that had been said about him, vile language that was trying to destroy his reputation in the community.

But in that place, God met him and comforted him through a man named Titus. Paul tells us it wasn't just Titus' presence that comforted him, but also the report that he gave. Titus came from Paul's beloved church in Corinth and told him that things couldn't be better there.

Look at those words, When he told us. When did Paul receive comfort in his depression? He received it when Titus spoke.

Okay, stop right there. Tell me, did you do that for anybody this week? You say, Do what? Did you comfort them and encourage them and actually pick some choice words that lifted the burden off their downcast life?

Did you do that for anybody? Because, you need to know, that is why we're here. It's a part of the program as to why we're still on Earth and not in Heaven, so that God could use us and the words that come out of our mouth to encourage someone just as Titus encouraged Paul.

Look, this needs to be very practical for us, because it's very simple. Please don't tell me that you meant to do this, or you thought about doing it, because if you didn't actually do it then it didn't get done. That person in the cubicle next to yours is still depressed. Your wife still doesn't know that you think she's beautiful, that you really appreciate her hard work and love her cooking. And even if you've told them once, maybe they forgot and could stand to hear it again.

Your words are powerful. They really are! Choose today to begin to use them like Titusas God's tool of comfort to those who need it.

Prayer Father God,

Thank You that You are a God who comforts those who are downcast! It's amazing that You would use me to do that in someone's life, so please use me to comfort those around me who need it!

Amen