You Need To Praise Him

Are you making Jesus more than an American Idol? There are those who know of Him but do not intimately know the greatness of who He is. In the account in Joshua 9 we learn an important lesson on how to introduce others to the greatness of our God.

Note in Joshua 9:1, 3, 9 that the surrounding nations and the Gibeonites knew of God’s great works and responded. Someone was telling others about the great acts of God. Note in Joshua 9:24 that the Gibeonites clearly knew of the command God gave to Moses & His people. Someone was telling others about the Word of God. You see, we are the ones responsible to spread the fame of God to those who do not know Him. This can be as simple as telling praise testimonies of God’s present actions in our daily lives. Attach the Word of God to those testimonies or to reasons for your outlook on life and God’s fame (Joshua 9:9), which is really the word for name in the Hebrew and denotes knowing a person, becomes real to others.

So get over your shyness about praising God before unbelievers. Your praise and testimonies may eventually move them from seeing Jesus as just another American idol to seeing Him as the true and living Savior they need to intimately know.

A New App.

Here’s a great application from our focus on Joshua 9 that was presented in an email to me yesterday:

“I went back and read Joshua 9 and saw the Gibeonites as ‘taking the shortcut.’  Thats a term we use in our house with our kids because that seems to be their choice when they just don’t want to do the right thing.  They come up with a ‘short-cut’ and it’s usually because they will lose something or miss out or in the case of the Gibeonites, there is just pure fear,  if they do the right thing.  The short-cut usually leads to more disaster as my kids always find out in the end and that’s what happened in the case of the Gibeonites.  They didn’t “trust” in this “god” they heard about.  They took a shortcut.”
It is great when the Body tailor’s the application of God’s Word to meet its needs.

Our Vision/Destination:
A Church Family where the Triangle will see, hear, & touch the diversity of God’s grace.

Enter This Way

I have a confession to make. Until studying the Joshua 9 text in order to preach it, I had always viewed the actions of the Gibeonites favorably. To tell you the truth, I thought they were quite wise and shrewd in their approach to dealing with the Israelites. I guess that reveals how much I still need to renew my mind from my fleshly ways.

I hope you saw yesterday that the actions of the Gibeonites ended in slavery and bondage because of sin. God is consistent, deception is counter to His character and those who seek a relationship with Him must approach Him in line with who He is.

Our Vision/Destination:
A Church Family where the Triangle will see, hear, & touch the diversity of God’s grace.

You’ve Got The Power

In Matthew 18:21—35 we noted that the power to forgive for a Christian is based on the realization that we can forgive others because God’s forgiveness of us has been so great and so complete. Paul notes this in such passages as Ephesians 4:32 “Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you;” and Colossians 3:13-14 “Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.”

I cannot tell you how important it is for true biblical forgiveness to be practiced in relationships for them to be what God & we desire for them to be. There are relationships of friends, spouses, family members that are ebbing away or have already died because this type of forgiveness is not practiced.

I pray that today will be the first day of your letting go of past hurts or resolving to live in an attitude of forgiveness so that you will never let an offense take control of your life.

Our Vision/Destination:
A Church Family where the Triangle will see, hear, & touch the diversity of God’s grace.

Don’t be Fooled

The Bible can be so Politically Incorrect, can’t it? Imagine calling a person who stubbornly refuses to listen to God’s instructions and abide by them a ‘fool.’ Here are a few examples:

  The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good.—Psalm 14:1

  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.—Proverbs 1:7

Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, —Romans 1:21—22
In our present society this way of referring to a person is seen as haughty, abusive, and derogatory. We would never hold this up as an example to be copied. Yet God had a purpose in selecting such a strong term that has continued to catch people’s attention from the day in which it was originally written till today. The term cannot be overlooked as it challenges our sinful and self reliant hearts to realize how great our need is for God’s guidance. Imagine that an all knowing God wants us to clearly understand how horrible a life disconnected from His instructions will end up.

Father, constantly remind us through this day how great our need is for your guidance, then give us the strength to live it out in our lives today. Amen

Our Vision/Destination:
A Church Family where the Triangle will see, hear, & touch the diversity of God’s grace.

Don’t Believe The Lie

I hope that you have not fallen for the teaching that God wants every Christian to be financially wealthy/rich. This comes in many forms but the bottom line is that God never promised that every Christian, or even most, would be rich. In contrast He promises that He will provide all our needs (Matthew 6:31—33), that it is hard for a rich person to enter into the Kingdom of God (Mark 10:23, 25), that we will suffer for His name (Philippians 1:29), that He will never leave us nor forsake us (Matthew 28:20), but there is no promise or measure of our spiritual growth being tied to the growth of our wealth.

An important truth that we must never forget is that the greatest need in any person’s life is not more money but a thankful perspective on what they already have (“contentment”—Hebrews 13:5) and a healthy ambition to achieve and progress in life (Proverbs 22:29). As we’ve noted, the danger of wealth and possessions is that they can deceive us into believing that our sense of significance and security comes from these things and not from God—“ Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said,

‘ I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU,’ so that we confidently say, ‘ THE LORD IS MY HELPER, I WILL NOT BE AFRAID. WHAT WILL MAN DO TO ME?’  (Hebrews 13:5—6).

Our Vision/Destination:
A Church Family where the Triangle will see, hear, & touch the diversity of God’s grace.

Beyond The Easy

Traditions, even good ones, run the risk of taking the place of God’s directions in our lives. This is made very plain in the account we looked at on Sunday in Mark 7:1—13. Here Jesus notes 4 times that the clear instruction of God is put aside so that human tradition might be practiced (in vain do they worship Me—v. 7; neglecting God’s commandment…hold to tradition—v. 8; nicely set aside God’s commandment…to keep your tradition—v. 9; invalidating the word of God by your tradition—v. 13).

As we look at the landscape of giving in American Christianity today we see the same pattern continuing as Americans only give 3% of their income to support the work of God through their local churches! This is a far cry from the minimum of 10%, or tithe, that is established in the Old Testament, and the New Testament’s teaching that everything we have is God’s and is to be used for His glory.

May we go beyond our traditional way of thinking (‘God doesn’t need our money,’ ‘God helps those who help themselves,’ ‘God doesn’t want me to give when things are tight,’ etc.) to hold to His instruction—“But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:20—21.

Our Vision/Destination:
A Church Family where the Triangle will see, hear, & touch the diversity of God’s grace.

Give Like God

On Sunday we focused on ‘Giving Like God’ does as we looked at Malachi 3:6—12. As we look at God’s emphasis on how His people should give we noted these 4 characteristics:

Giving is expected—God continually gives to us, therefore we are to continually give all to Him (Malachi 3:8—9; Galatians 2:20).

Giving is purposeful—Our giving at least a tenth of our earnings to our local church allows our church to fulfill its calling (Malachi 3:10a; Nehemiah 13:10ff.; Matthew 28:20).

Giving is consequential—There is a curse-blessing emphasis our loving Father places on our Him with our finances (Malachi 3:10b—11; Luke 12:47—48).

Giving is a witness—God uses our financial trust of Him to accomplish His desire on earth and thereby uses our obedience to call others to Himself (Malachi 3:12; Matthew 5:16; 1 Timothy 6:18).

My prayer is that we will all give like God so that we might be blessed by Him. So, are you giving like the Father?

Grace, a great giving opportunity will take place this Saturday with TLC. Help us show the Triangle our great church family and our even greater Heavenly Father.

More Than Deserved

One of the surprising aspects of reading Malachi 3 is to note that the people of Israel complained about God not holding up His end of the covenant, because of the difficulties they were experiencing, but God points out that their difficulties were a result of their covenant unfaithfulness! Yet, God’s grace and faithfulness kept Him annihilating them, as the covenant stipulated. Note the beautiful words of Malachi 3:6—7:

“‘For I, the LORD, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed. From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,’ says the LORD of hosts.’”

Have you thanked the Lord for His grace & faithfulness towards you today?  Remember, even in the midst of experiencing God’s correction we are blessed more than we deserve.

Thank You Lord

How appreciative are you? How appreciative are you of your salvation? Yesterday we noted that we will never fully appreciate our salvation if we don’t realize how greatly it changed our lives. The writer in Hebrews 2:3 describes God’s work on our behalf as “so great a salvation.”

Here are 5 reasons we have to be appreciative for our great salvation and our new life in Jesus:

Our great need—                Ephesians 2:1—3.
Our great ignorance—          Ephesians 4:18.
God’s great sacrifice—          John 3:16.
God’s great guarantee— John 10:27—30.
God’s great reward—            John 14:1—3.

If you haven’t so far, take a moment to thank the Lord for what He’s done for you in delivering you.

Pray for the Lord to impress on your mind 1—2 individuals to invite or to give the gospel to.

Who’s afraid of sharing?

I know that for many of us we can’t grasp the Bible’s perspective of what it means to share our faith with others. We see this as something artificial to who we are, a responsibility accompanied by great fear and trembling. But the Bible presents a different picture as it describes that which flows out of us as we go through our daily lives. It is the joy of taking Jesus with us as we interact with people and allow Him to invite them into a relationship.

It is only then that we see how joyous sharing our faith can be. If you don’t believe me note the criticism that was continually made of Jesus as He enjoyed life and shared His invitation to relationship with those He met—“The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!” (Luke 7:34).

So, my prayer is that you will fully enjoy your day, share that joy with others, and allow Jesus to give them an invitation to experience life as it was meant to be.

INVEST (time, prayers, resources, etc.) in someone, then INVITE that person to church.

Only One Counts

So you want to be a missionary, day 2. Here is another way to place your life where God can use it to transform the lives of those around you who do not know Jesus.

1. Live out your love for Jesus no matter who’s watching or who’s listening.
o The woman is criticized by everyone but Jesus. She knew where her focus needed to be, and for that reason she achieved her goal.

o She is presented & remembered as the epitome of extravagant devotion—“And you can be sure that wherever in the whole world the Message is preached, what she just did is going to be talked about admiringly” Mark 14:9 (The Message)

Father, help us to have a constant desire to please your eyes only.

INVEST (time, prayers, resources, etc.) in someone, then INVITE that person to church.

Going Missional

On Sunday we discussed the fact that we are all called to be missionaries or to be ‘missional’ (a contemporary rephrasing of this kind of approach to life). So, how can we have such an outlook & approach to life? Over the next few days we will look at 5 ways to have a missionary outlook to our everyday lives.
We must hold the glorification of Jesus above our own reputations.
• In Mark 14:3-9 we discover that the woman’s name is not even mentioned in this account although it encourages us to remember and emulate her actions.

• In a world that teaches “image is everything” a missionary mindset says “only what’s done for Christ will last.”

Have your values prioritized.
• You must esteem the value of serving Jesus above all else.
• “Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.” Matthew 6:33 (The Message).

Father, bless we your children this day as we seek to be in a place where you can use our lives to glorify yourself.

INVEST (time, prayers, resources, etc.) in someone, then INVITE that person to church.

Walk This Way

As you examine the story of the anointing of Jesus in Mark 14:1—9 it is very important to note that only one person knew the significance of the woman’s act—Jesus. Even the woman did not know the significance of her act to His life. Yet, what separated her from the others in this account was that she had a totally surrendered devotion to Jesus that allowed the Holy Spirit to use her act of love, to provide a wonderful gift to the soon to die Savior. Her anointing prepared Jesus’ body for proper Jewish burial days before He was going to die. 

Realize that today you will make decisions and perform acts that the Holy Spirit wants to use to further the will of God on earth. You may never know, though, the impact your choices will have. That is why it is so important for each of us to take the example of this woman to heart. As you go through your day slow down long enough to let your devotion to Jesus guide your walk. We do this by praying for God’s guidance and seeking His direction throughout the course of our day.

Our Vision/Destination:
A Church Family where the Triangle will see, hear, & touch the diversity of God’s grace.

Dressing God

Are you making God look good today? The apostle Paul believed that our actions can dress up the teaching of our God to make Him look good and appealing to those around us. That is why Paul wanted us to live in such a way that we “may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect” (Titus 2:10).

So, how do we accomplish this? Again the words of Paul give us guidance. Paul in instructing his young disciple Titus on how to get God’s people to have a great effect on the community they are in tells Titus at the end of his letter to him—“And let our people also learn to engage in good deeds to meet pressing needs, that they may not be unfruitful” (Titus 3:14).

Here are a few suggestions:
• Provide a meal or a need item to a single mother this week through the WOW Event.
• Take an unbelieving workmate to lunch.
• Take some time to go speak with a neighbor and offer to assist them with a need.
• Contact a person you know has a need and let him/her know that you’ll be praying for that need.
• Ask the Lord to show you ways to beautifully adorn Him as you go through your day.

INVEST (time, prayers, resources, etc.) in someone, then INVITE that person to church.