Motives Matter

Recently I saw the question, would you live differently if you knew there was no resurrection. There are many different ways to answer that question, even to interpret it. My immediate reaction to it though was what is my motive for living right. Our motive for living for the Lord has to be more than hope for a reward or fear of punishment if we don't. I have preached my share of sermons on hell, and when the Lord leads, I will continue to do so. However, I fear that often-times our motives for right living are wrong. Yes, there is a reward for Christians and yes, there is a punishment for those that reject Christ; however, our motivation to live for the Lord should come from a sense of gratitude for what He has done for us. Sometimes we need to look back and remember were He brought us from. Paul said there but for the grace of God, go I. Another time, after listing a group of people that won't make it to heaven, he said, but such were some of you. So we need to decide to live for Him because of where He has brought us from. I will live for Him because He died for me.

Your Steps

I think that often times as Christians we lose sight of exactly how concerned the Lord is with our daily lives. We seem to forget that His word tells us even the hair on our head is numbered. It is easy to believe that our path or road is set up by God, but it is much harder for us to believe what His word really says. He told us, 'the steps of a good man are ordered.' God is not just concerned with the big picture; He is concerned with our journey to get there too. Most of us can quote this verse from the 37th Psalm, but we forget what it really means. It doesn't say our destination or even our journey is ordered, but each and every step that we take. Our Father is intimately concerned with everything that affects us. In the sermon on the mount Jesus tells us that a sparrow cannot fall to the earth and die with out the Lord taking note of it. If He is that concerned with a soul-less bird, how much more is our Father concerned with the things that happen to us? Be encouraged today, fellow Christians, the Lord Himself is directing your every step. The question is, will we follow Him?

Don't shoot the wounded

A recent FaceBook conversation I had has me thinking about how seldom Christian encourage one another. My pastor used to say the Lord's army is the only army that shoots their wounded. We might not all be guilty of shooting the wounded or putting down the discouraged, but i daresay that we all have been guilty of not encouraging one another as we should. We can't all sing; we can't all teach or preach. But we can all encourage each other. I can't help but think of the battle of Amalek in Exodus 17. The Bible tells us that as long as Moses' hands were in the air Israel would prevail and win the battle. But Moses was human and his hands got tired. Aaron and Hur stood behind him and held his hands up for him. When we encourage people we might not get any credit or any glory; we might be behind somebody who can be seen up on the mountain from the valley, but the Lord sees us. This week take the time to encourage someone. I would like to ask everyone to specifically encourage your pastor this week; let him/her know that you are praying for them. Let their spouse know that too. You'll be amazed at how much better they preach when they someone is holding their hands up.

God's Prozac

1 Samuel 30:6 tells us that David encouraged himself in the Lord. It seems to me that the biggest difference between Saul and David was that David did this one thing, he encouraged himself in the Lord. How many of the Psalms were written by David? David literally spent his whole life encouraging himself in the Lord. He didn't rely on parents, friends, teachers, or anyone else. It seems thats a good thing, as his own father didn't think he had the potential to be king. Saul and David both sinned; they both had shortcomings, but only one was considered a man after God's own heart. I believe the Lord is looking for people to raise up and be like David and learn to encourage themselves in Him, rather than look to a pastor, teacher, mentor, or leader to do it. We need to be Davids and not Sauls. Once we do this I believe the Lord will take care of our possessions, our position, our place, and our people. All of David's possessions that were taken by the enemy were returned, his position changed from that of a shepherd to a king, his place from the pasture to the palace, and his people from those in distress, discouraged, and in debt to might men. All this because David encouraged himself in the Lord.

Holy Impatience

Abraham and King Saul both got in a hurry and did not wait on the Lord. Saul basically lost his kingdom over this and Abraham gave us a whole new nation/race that still troubles the world today. So, it is definitely important to learn to wait on the Lord. However, i also believe that there are certain things that the Lord puts inside of us that He wants us to do. Jeremiah spoke of a fire being shut up in his bones. So, while we are to wait on the Lord, I do not believe he expects us to sit idly by while He does all of the work for us.
That begs the question, where is the line between holy impatience and sin. I think that there are two different things that can cause us to cross the line. These two things are lack of faith and motive. Abraham demonstrates lack of faith. His motive was pure; he just doubted whether Jehova could do what He said. Saul on the other hand wanted to look good in front of the people. That's why he asked Samuel to stand with him in front of the people one more time, even after he was told he had lost his kingdom. So, if we believe that the Lord is able to do what He said he would do, and we have pure motives, we can and should WORK for the Lord.