Showing posts with label actions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label actions. Show all posts

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Proof In The Pudding

Today's Daily Soap {Scripture | Observation | Application | Prayer}
FOR TODAY'S FULL READING, CLICK THE TITLE LINK ABOVE.
  • S"How can I account for the people of this generation? They're like spoiled children complaining to their parents, 'We wanted to skip rope and you were always too tired; we wanted to talk but you were always too busy.' John the Baptizer came fasting and you called him crazy. The Son of Man came feasting and you called him a lush. Opinion polls don't count for much, do they? The proof of the pudding is in the eating." Luke 7:31-35 [MSG]
  • O: Words are cheap, meaningless. It is action that speaks volumes.
  • A: The Bible is by no means a political manual. It is the divinely inspired Word of God. Inspired as it is, I find that I am frequently led to one passage or another with very timely importance. As we draw closer and closer to the day that Americans will select their next President, we will hear lots of talk. Through debates and campaign ads and the talking heads of the mainstream media. Lots of talk. Lots of worthless words. It is the actions of the candidates that we must weigh the most heavily. They can talk about change. They can talk about hope. They can talk about putting country first. It's when [if] they show us change, show us hope, show us how they put their country first that we must stand up and take notice. Talk is cheap. The proof of the pudding is in the eating.
  • P: Father, as we come down to the wire, help us to not be influenced by the political rhetoric. Help us to see through the politics and select the man that will best lead this country into the future.
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Sunday, August 24, 2008

Words -vs- Actions

Today's Daily Soap {Scripture | Observation | Application | Prayer}
This blog is not intended to be a political blog, but when I feel the Spirit of God moving me to discuss a specific topic -- whether of a political nature or not -- after reading a passage of Scripture, I must obey that calling.
  • S: Every person who believes that Jesus is, in fact, the Messiah, is God-begotten. If we love the One who conceives the child, we'll surely love the child who was conceived. The reality test on whether or not we love God's children is this: Do we love God? Do we keep His commands? The proof that we love God comes when we keep His commandments and they are not at all troublesome. 1 John 5:1-3 [MSG]
  • O: The evidence is in our actions.
  • A: We see it in the current political scene right now in the Presidential campaign. The candidates can say whatever they want about their faith. They can label themselves as Christians. Anyone can say he or she is a Christian -- a believer and follower of Jesus Christ. But it takes more than just the claim to make it so. To be a follower of Christ is to believe that Jesus came and died for our sins and that, as the Son of God, He arose and went to prepare a place for us with the Father. Actually believing it, not just claiming to believe it. And having that belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, our lives become changed -- renewed. We live a life that exemplifies our beliefs. We are a model of what Christ taught while He walked on Earth among us. We strive to obey God's commandments in all that we do. All of them, all of the time. God's principles are reflected in our own. No one is perfect -- just forgiven. It is the forgiven who understand the gift of forgiveness and want to live a life that pleases God -- not the voters. Don't fall for the rhetoric of the campaign ads, debates, and news reports. Talk is cheap, and anyone can say what is politically correct for the situation. We live by faith, and our actions display that faith in a tangible form. Hear their words, but believe their actions.
  • P: Father, open my eyes -- and the eyes of voters all across America -- so that we might see through the pretense and choose wisely when casting our ballots in November.
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Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Works

Today's Daily Soap {Scripture | Observation | Application | Prayer}
  • S: If anyone loves me, he will carefully keep my word and my Father will love him—we'll move right into the neighborhood! Not loving me means not keeping my words. The message you are hearing isn't mine. It's the message of the Father who sent me. John 14:24 [MSG]
  • O: We show our love for Jesus by keeping his word and doing his works.
  • A: I've journaled before about the difference between belief and works, and how one gets us to Heaven and the other pays our rewards after getting to Heaven. While works don't make the grade, it is by doing God's works and obeying His words that we display our love for Him for all to see. It's like oxygen and carbon dioxide. If we breathe in oxygen, we must breathe out carbon dioxide. That's just the way out works. Similarly, if we take Jesus Christ into our hearts as our Lord and Savior, we must breathe out good works, and obey His words. It's not possible to do the first without the last. Not genuinely, that is, and not for long. If we say we love God and we don't show it, because we continue to wallow in sin, what kind of love is it really? If you say you love your spouse, yet you continually betray her, what kind of love is it? It is a deep and abiding love for Christ Jesus that first moves us to accept Him as our Savior, and second gives us the undeniable desire to obey His will. How can we love Him and not show it? How can we love Him and not want everyone to experience the power of His love? We cannot.
  • P: Father, Thank You for your love, and for Your plan of salvation. Thank You for sending Your Son to pay the price for my sins. For that which I am wholly unworthy, Thank You. Guide me now, Lord, as I try to obey Your will, to do Your works, and to share Your love with those I encounter on a daily basis. Use me as tool, Lord, to grow Your kingdom.
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Wednesday, August 6, 2008

God's Divine Plan

History
Today's Daily Soap {Scripture | Observation | Application | Prayer}
  • S: They said, "Where is this so-called Father of yours?" Jesus said, "You're looking right at me and you don't see me. How do you expect to see the Father? If you knew me, you would at the same time know the Father." He gave this speech in the Treasury while teaching in the Temple. No one arrested him because his time wasn't yet up. John 8:19-20 [MSG]
  • O: God has orchestrated and remains in control of events throughout history.
  • A: Many of us live our lives in fear of death. We live worried that one thing or another might or might not happen. Mostly we worry about bad things: being fired or passed over for promotion, car accidents or house fires, divorce and, as I've said, death. And we waste so much time and energy worrying that we miss out on so many of the wonderful blessings that God wants to bestow upon us. But God has everything in control. All of history is already written. We have but one responsibility in order to reap God's reward: to live well sharing the Message of God's plan with others. Just as the Pharisees could do no harm to Jesus until His time on earth was up, we have no need to fear or worry over the happenings of life, because what comes will come at the appointed time. Live happy, live healthy. Be a beacon unto God, and receive His blessings. When your time is up, then, you will receive the ultimate reward, and all of your meaningless worries along the way will be forgotten.
  • P: Father, I know that it is not my place to know or understand Your Divine Plan. It is my place only to do Your Will and to please You until my time is up. Help me to do that faithfully, Lord.
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Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Living Right

Today's Daily Soap {Scripture | Observation | Application | Prayer}
  • S: First off, you need to know that in the last days, mockers are going to have a heyday. Reducing everything to the level of their puny feelings, they'll mock, "So what's happened to the promise of his Coming? Our ancestors are dead and buried, and everything's going on just as it has from the first day of creation. Nothing's changed." They conveniently forget that long ago all the galaxies and this very planet were brought into existence out of watery chaos by God's word. Then God's word brought the chaos back in a flood that destroyed the world. The current galaxies and earth are fuel for the final fire. God is poised, ready to speak his word again, ready to give the signal for the judgment and destruction of the desecrating skeptics. Don't overlook the obvious here, friends. With God, one day is as good as a thousand years, a thousand years as a day. God isn't late with his promise as some measure lateness. He is restraining himself on account of you, holding back the End because he doesn't want anyone lost. He's giving everyone space and time to change. But when the Day of God's Judgment does come, it will be unannounced, like a thief. The sky will collapse with a thunderous bang, everything disintegrating in a huge conflagration, earth and all its works exposed to the scrutiny of Judgment. Since everything here today might well be gone tomorrow, do you see how essential it is to live a holy life? Daily expect the Day of God, eager for its arrival. 2 Peter 3:3-12 [MSG] They're busy, busy, busy at worship, and love studying all about me. To all appearances they're a nation of right-living people— law-abiding, God-honoring. They ask me, 'What's the right thing to do?' and love having me on their side. But they also complain, 'Why do we fast and you don't look our way? Why do we humble ourselves and you don't even notice?' "Well, here's why: "The bottom line on your 'fast days' is profit. You drive your employees much too hard. You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight. You fast, but you swing a mean fist. The kind of fasting you do won't get your prayers off the ground. Do you think this is the kind of fast day I'm after: a day to show off humility? To put on a pious long face and parade around solemnly in black? Do you call that fasting, a fast day that I, God, would like? "This is the kind of fast day I'm after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts. What I'm interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families. Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once. Isaiah 58:2-8 [MSG]
  • O: How critically important it is not just to appear to live right, but to actually do so.
  • A: Christ will return for his followers. Of that there can be no doubt. But how will those followers be identified? Will they be the openly "humble" who take public pride in their humility? The leaders of the mega-churches we see every Sunday on TV? Just how will God identify those whom He calls Home at the time of the Second Coming? It really isn't hard to appear to live a holy life. Anyone can play a role in public. But God sees our heart. He knows our thoughts -- even before we form them. To live right by God means to live right before God -- in our hearts and in our minds as well as in our actions. There is no fooling the Father.
  • P: Father, help me to resist the enemy and to live according to Your will, on the inside as well as the outside.
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Saturday, July 19, 2008

All Bark, No Bite

Today's Daily Soap {Scripture | Observation | Application | Prayer}
  • S: You can't pick and choose in these things, specializing in keeping one or two things in God's law and ignoring others. The same God who said, "Don't commit adultery," also said, "Don't murder." If you don't commit adultery but go ahead and murder, do you think your non-adultery will cancel out your murder? No, you're a murderer, period. ... Dear friends, do you think you'll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, "Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!" and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn't it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense? I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, "Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I'll handle the works department." Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove. Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That's just great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them? Use your heads! Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands? Wasn't our ancestor Abraham "made right with God by works" when he placed his son Isaac on the sacrificial altar? Isn't it obvious that faith and works are yoked partners, that faith expresses itself in works? That the works are "works of faith"? The full meaning of "believe" in the Scripture sentence, "Abraham believed God and was set right with God," includes his action. It's that mesh of believing and acting that got Abraham named "God's friend." Is it not evident that a person is made right with God not by a barren faith but by faith fruitful in works? The same with Rahab, the Jericho harlot. Wasn't her action in hiding God's spies and helping them escape—that seamless unity of believing and doing—what counted with God? The very moment you separate body and spirit, you end up with a corpse. Separate faith and works and you get the same thing: a corpse. James 2:10-11, 14-26 [MSG]
  • O: Faith without works is dead.
  • A: Good deeds don't earn us a place in Heaven. We are saved by faith. But what is faith? Defined as "belief in something without proof," faith requires us to accept as fact that which we cannot provide evidence of. But what of good deeds then? If good deeds don't earn us a place in Heaven, why bother? If it's just enough to believe, what does it matter what we do? ANSWER: Real faith changes you. How can you have faith in God -- believe in God -- and not believe in His Word, or not want to follow the example He set through His Son Jesus Christ? If you just don't care what God says, what kind of faith do you have? By the same token, if you do have the kind of all-encompassing faith that makes you want to please your Creator by following His examples and obeying His direction, how then can deeds not matter? If I truly love my wife and am devoted and committed to her, it stands to reason that I would want to please her. And if I want to please her, then, would I not please her by doing things that make her feel good and happy and loved? Does my love for her alone please her? No! To just say that I love her isn't enough. I have to show her my love by doing something. My deeds are the acts that validate my love for her. It is just so with God. Although he knows my heart, and doesn't need to see proof of my faith, others are not omniscient. It is my faith and love for God that make me want to share Him with others. If I share only His Word but don't live an example of it through my actions, what is my faith worth? It is by setting an example through living the kind of life that God would be pleased with -- by these acts or deeds -- that others can see His Glory. Without those deeds, it's just words. Words without action are meaningless.
  • P: Father, I want to please You in all that I do. Use me as a tool however You see fit so that I might reflect Your Glory upon others.
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Saturday, March 8, 2008

To Do or To Be

Today's Daily Soap {Scripture | Observation | Application | Prayer}
  • S: Galatians 5:16-26
  • O: Those who live by the sinful ways of the world and refuse to accept Christ will not enter the kingdom of God,
  • A: It's a pretty basic premise, really: what we do is nothing compared to what we are. There have been many people of great accomplishments in the world. Do you remember who invented the microwave? Or the person who developed the first cell phone? Or who came up with the first electronic calculator? These are all things that most of us couldn't make it through the day without, yet most of us couldn't name the inventors if our life depended on it. But if I asked you to tell me about the lives of Billy Graham, Bill Gates, George Washington, or Martin Luther King, Jr., you could probably tell me some very wonderful things about their personalities, not just their accomplishments. Because in addition to doing great things, they were all great people. They were all men who realized that what matters in life is not just what you do with it, but what you become with it. Those same questions will be asked of us at the time of Judgement. It won't matter if we had a great job, made lots of money, and achieved great fame. All that will matter is what we became. And we can only become what it takes to get into Heaven because of what Christ is: the Son of God who takes away the sins of the world. What will you answer when the Judgement Day comes? Did you do great things? Or were you a great person in the eyes of God (aka, a Christian). If you don't know the answer, then it's the wrong answer.
  • P: Lord, Thank You for teaching me to become the most important thing I can be, a part of the family of God. I know that you still have plans for me and things you want me to do here in this life. Help me to make myself open to your bidding, and to not allow myself to get so caught up in what I'm doing to jeopardize what I'm being.
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Saturday, February 23, 2008

Fruit

Today's Daily Soap {Scripture | Observation | Application | Prayer}
  • S: Matthew 12:33-34
  • O: We are judged by what we produce.
  • A: It has been said that you can't judge a book by its cover. Often, this is true. How many times have you been in a book store and picked up the latest from a bestselling author because of it's exciting cover design, only to spend a few minutes reading about the book and learning that it's just not what you were looking for? It is similar with people. You cannot assume because a man or woman is living in an alley, homeless, dressed in tattered rags, that they are a bad person, or a failure in life. Likewise you cannot assume that the businessman dressed in his three-piece suit is all good and helpful. Looks can be quite deceiving. But one thing that rarely deceives people is the fruit that we yield. Just as a tree which yields apples is an apple tree, and a tree which yields oranges is an orange tree, a person who yields the fruit of God will be judged by his or her fruit. What kind of Christian is it that does not do the work of God, sharing the word of God and bringing lost souls to the fold? God wants his people to go to all the world sharing the Good News. In the final days, when God rewards His people for doing His work, it is the fruit that we yield by which we will be judged. Are there any apples falling from your branches?
  • P: Lord, help me to live a life for you, to remember and act upon the Great Commission, sharing with others my knowledge of the Good News of Salvation.
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Thursday, February 21, 2008

Examples For Children

Today's Daily Soap {Scripture | Observation | Application | Prayer}
  • S: Proverbs 24:33-34; Proverbs 4
  • O: We must diligently live the example that we want our children to emulate.
  • A: Put away perversity from your mouth; keep corrupt talk from your lips. Let our eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you. Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm. Do not swerve to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil. It can be too easy at times to stray off course. While getting back on course can be done -- and sometimes easily -- when you're engaged in the process of raising children, permanent damage can be done when you allow yourself to stray. We must remember that our children are watching -- all the time. They see everything we do, all the time. They hear everything we say. And they repeat our actions. Like a little monkey-see-monkey-do, my 22-month-old daughter mimics everything she sees. Her older brother is her biggest example, and everything he does, she does. By the same token, my son has picked up all that he knows from those around him -- mostly his mother and myself. So we must at all times remember to watch our tongues, be careful what we do and say. Not that my wife and I have a problem with fowl language, but sometimes simple things like talking about a person's weight, or our opinion of something someone else may have done, can become public knowledge when our little echoes run around repeating our very words to the very people we were referring to. In addition, we must set an example in all that we do. My wife is very much frustrated with the obvious lack of modesty most people have today -- especially women. You cannot turn on the television set without exposing yourself -- and your children -- to more flesh than anyone should be subjected to outside the bedroom. But it isn't just on television. Any casual stroll through the mall, or Wal-Mart, or any other public place, puts us in a position to see more than we care to see, and much more than we want our children to see at their age. As a father and devoted husband, I must constantly be averting my attention from whatever the next indecent exposure will be. And I must virtually predict what's coming up and where, so I can avert my attention in advance. I want to model the right behavior for my children, and to openly display for all to see that my wife is the only woman that I have any desire for. Not only must my son see that it's not right to exploit women, my daughter must also see that there is nothing attractive in that type of behavior so that she won't feel compelled to model it herself some day. And teaching those things to them must begin at a very early age. All it takes to throw these young impressionable minds off course is for me to falter in my step for just a moment.
  • P: Lord, help me to lead by example in all that I do and say. Help me to keep my feet on the right path and to show my children -- through words and actions -- what is right and what is wrong. Guide me down the path, Lord, that I may guide my children well.
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Tuesday, February 19, 2008

The Great Commission

Today's Daily Soap {Scripture | Observation | Application | Prayer}
  • Somedays, there just doesn't seem to be much to say. I've read through several online devotionals today, looking for the one that just struck the right cord with me; one that would make me feel like I had something to add to the conversation, so I could share it here. I guess it just doesn't always happen that way. It seems that almost everything I read this morning was about sharing your beliefs and your faith with others. Well, we should all be doing that all of the time anyway, shouldn't we? I shouldn't need a daily devotional to tell me that. The Bible tells me that. That is, after all, what The Great Commission is all about. To spread the teachings of Christ throughout the world. And we must each do our part in that, no matter how large or small that part might be. I long for a devotional of sorts that hits home in a different sort of way. Something that speaks to me on a daily basis about life, and work, and going about things each day. Parenting. Leadership. You know, day to day stuff. I have a couple of resources I'm going to look at and may be using here a little more than the online devotionals that, though they are good, all seem to share the same thoughts. The Good Lord willing, this won't become just another rehash of all the online devotional sites already on the web.
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Sunday, February 17, 2008

Lead By Example

Today's Daily Soap {Scripture | Observation | Application | Prayer}
  • S: Matthew 23:1-12
  • O: Jesus told his followers that the religious leaders of their day were more show than go, and that although they must follow their direction, they were not to follow their poor example.
  • A: Basic leadership principles dictate that one should never ask those who follow him to do something that he will not, cannot, or has not done himself. It is imperative to lead by example. As I stated yesterday, our actions are critical, because what we do speaks louder than what we say. Do we rebuke our employees for being late to work, but never show up on time ourselves? Do we drive them as a taskmaster while never doing any tasks ourselves? Have you, as a leader, ever cleaned the restroom? Small things, sure, but they speak big words. In your walk with God, do you go to church on Sunday, sit in the sanctuary, sing and Amen along with the service, then go to work on Monday and use foul language, tell suggestive jokes, and drink to excess during lunch? Do you try to tell people that Jesus saves while all the while living your life like you could use a little salvation yourself? Words are just that, words. We can all use whatever words we like. But they can be very shallow things if your actions don't have a little meat to them. You must live the example that you would want others to follow. Your words only take on importance after your actions have set the tone for what you say. Your words should reinforce your actions rather than contradict them. Are you all bark? Or do your actions have a little bite?
  • P: Lord, help me to lead by example, at home, at work, and in public. Help me to examine my actions before others can to make sure that my actions and words are in agreement and present the best possible example for others.
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