“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6 NIV

Every once in a while I get the opportunity to play the part of handyman. Asked by friends if I knew an electrician who could replace an electrical circuit breaker, ‘I said yes… me!’ Apparently the breaker had been tripping, cutting off the electrical supply to the water pump. The problem? They had no water! Grabbing my electrical tools, I set off as an electrician!

It’s not like I’m an EXPERT! But I’ve done plenty of electrical work in my life, being taught by some pretty smart people. The only difference between electrical work and any other kind of work is the penalty for making a mistake…or being careless. I had no plans for either.

When I got to the house, there was a mix up as to which breaker it was and a different brand of breaker than what we had, but after a trip to the store, the new breaker was installed, reset and CLICK!!! It TOO, tripped off! Which meant that it WASN’T the circuit breaker after all. Following the logic, I had to grab another handyman hat and became a combination electrician/plumber! Unfortunately…or fortunately, I have experience in THAT area too!

I grew up poor. When I got married, I STAYED poor. Subsequently I HAD to learn how to do things for a living AND to do things for myself. Problems, education and experience are great teachers that, over time, tend to make one wise. I knew there was a possibility that the breaker was fine and that something else might be causing the problem. It turns out that it was the water pump!

In my Christian walk I have experienced this same kind of problem MANY times. Times when I THOUGHT there was something wrong with 1 thing, only to discover that it was something else entirely. Starting out with Jesus, I OFTEN had the bad habit of blaming most problems on HIM for letting things break down in the first place! Not on ME! It was SO naturally human, and easier, to blame the electrical supplier (Jesus) and not the pump (me)!

In the words of Clint Eastwood, of Dirty Harry (a movie) fame, “a man’s GOT to know his limitations!” I know mine. And water pumps do not fall into my area of expertise. Pretending to know something that I don’t ALWAYS causes me bigger problems. The BIGGEST lesson I have learned, and proven, in my life is that God is ALWAYS good, loving and faultless in His supply to people who WANT to be fixed. Which after all… if you really KNOW Him, SHOULDN’T be so shocking!

Got power? 

“Glorify the LORD with me; let us exalt his name together.” Psalm 34:3

We were standing on ‘The Corner’ displaying Jesus signs to the cars passing by. I noticed one of the men NOT at his normal location. As with everything done repeatedly, humans are GREAT at habit and predictability. He was out of place and standing where ‘I’ usually stand. Visiting together, the reason for his new location came in the form of a deep question, starting with the tricky word…”WHY?”

I LOVE ‘WHY’ questions. As a rebellious preacher’s kid, I asked a LOT of them. NOT because I wanted to fight or rebel. But because I simply wanted to understand! My friend, who was standing beside me, asked his question for the very same reason! I started the discussion by asking HIM a series of questions. Questions that would set the tone and basis for a Godly answer.

I was a Boy Scout growing up. When my sons grew, I became a Scoutmaster. The whole experience of Boy Scouts was to slowly, and literally, turn boys into men. To do that, we often got down to basics by separating ourselves from the world of comfort, going off into the woods! There, living in tents, EVERYTHING was intended toward the purpose of building men.

As with anything, there are different ways of looking at things. If a boy was just out there just to have fun, it quickly became apparent. Duties, cleaning, teamwork and skill building would always be met with whines and groans. But when the underlying purpose of WHY we were there became the individual’s goal, learning and growing simply became an intense experience.

Maybe, because I asked the question of God so much, I can often hear HIM ask it of me. “WHY are you doing that… is there a reason for that thought or action. What are you trying to gain from the answer? Why DIDN’T you do THAT?” I have learned that if everything I do is intent on glorifying God, ‘The Master’ will ALWAYS be WITH ME. But my relationship with Him only grows with the right intent and intensity!

WHAT and WHY do you do, or NOT do, what you do or don’t do? Since God loves the WHY question, He wants you to be like a Boy Scout and live – In Tents!  

“Speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord.” Ephesians 5:19

It started off innocently enough. “Yea…we ought to get together and jam sometime!” Had it stayed there, it would have cost me nothing! My ‘Batcave’ has held my electric drum-set for years. They had been pushed back into the corner, where all they really did was take up space and collect dust. But then ‘I’ went 1 step further and scheduled a time! Which was going to be a problem!

The physics of space and time never factor in dirt and grime! Silly me! I thought moving my drums out of the corner was enough. Then I remembered that Steve cleans houses for a living! Looking at my ‘Cave’ with that lens of information, even ‘preparing’ for ‘jammin’ was going to take WORK!

I had played drums for years! In fact, it’s how I caught my wife, Katie! But after marrying her, the natural rule became, ‘no drumming in bars!’ Over the years, I had made good money and got to ‘jam’ with a lot of great musicians. The remembrance, though lost, had been resurrected! But before I could ‘rum-pa-pa-pum,’ I was going to have to clear and clean the room and the instrument!

Steve was kind! “I thought you said this place was a mess!” As a PRO he COULD have pointed out evidence of missed dust, but he didn’t. He started strumming, I caught his beat and off we went! WHERE we were going wasn’t really defined because…that’s what jammin’ is! It was the time spent together that mattered.

So no, it’s not official, and we’re not ‘hittin’ the road’ to ‘make it big!’ But, like me, Steve is a Jesus guy. And when these 2 Jesus guys got together, it didn’t take long before the inevitable question came out, “can we use this for Jesus?” Since Jesus is our mutual #1, it was only natural to want to tune and turn our attention to Him! Not having an exact answer simply means there’s probably going to be some stuff to clean, more people to include and our mutual ‘Agent’ to consult! Which is OK! Because moving things around, cleaning stuff up and working together is ALWAYS part of Jesus’ Jam!

Are YOU Jammin’ for Jesus?

My lovely wife had forwarded this to me before Church yesterday.  I even intended to close the sermon with it, but ran out of time.  It was a perfect summarization too.  But it is ALSO a PERFECT introduction to a new week.  Short…yet simple.  In what direction are YOU moving?  And with what kind of attitude?

Against the Flow – Christine Caine

“I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:14 NKJV

Current culture often stands at odds with everything Jesus is and what He stands for. The question is, in a world that can drown in discouragement, will we choose to rise with joy? In a world that’s hopeless, will we walk in hope? Will we let the Holy Spirit release self-control within us while the world feels like it’s out of control around us?

Even a dead fish can float downstream. But to go against the flow, we have to stay committed and choose a life of faith. To follow Jesus, we must look to Him as our goal, our champion, and our prize!

“But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31 KJV

I had preached about ‘The Corner’ happening at Church on Sunday. Where, as we stood out on the busy intersection on the Friday before, holding ‘Jesus Signs,’ suddenly 2 eagles appeared overhead. The 5 of us just stood there, with mouths wide open, at the implication of what was happening! We all knew the verse and yet, we wondered still!

It was Thursday, yesterday, and a lot had happened in a few days. I had gotten sick. BAD! So sick that I couldn’t even get out of bed to make it to the corner Wednesday morning or for our regular Bible Study on Wednesday night! I was feeling 75% better though, and having delivered some papers to a friend, I was on my way home when it happened…again!

The light at ‘The Corner’ turned yellow, which forced me to stop! Leaning my head against the window, something caught my eye. As I focused, I was shocked, but not! There it was AGAIN! An Eagle came from behind me and began encircling ‘The Corner’! And as if on a God like cue, ANOTHER one joined in. As I sensed and thanked God, we sat together and watched them fly!

Throughout my life God has blessed me with Eagles and Rainbows at some pretty difficult times in my life. Now some might think me nuts, and that’s OK. All I know is what I know. That DOESN’T mean that when YOU see one, it means the same for you! But in some of my darkest hours, my eyes have been drawn to the sky to SEE verification for my Faith. And that is even weird for me to say! It is unexplainable, yet needs no explanation! Because I’ve got it…I get it!

These days are filled with the ridiculous. As right is made wrong and wrong right, I am FORCED to make a decision as to WHAT and WHOM I will believe and rest my life upon. Having made that decision long ago, it isn’t that hard to keep doing what I’ve been doing all along. Even though the world may think me nuts!

I Love Jesus Christ! I don’t need signs and wonders to function. But neither do I turn them down, when they come! The Bible says things are going to get tougher, and that God’s Truth will be attacked, along with those who believe in Him. My responsibility is to remain in Him and keep looking up! HE will do the rest!

So… what do YOU see… and KNOW FOR SURE?

Being under the radar…I send thee this.  Why do you do what you do?

A Fading Glory – A daily devotion from your friends at RayStedman.org

“Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious?” 2 Corinthians 3:7-8  

There is a kind of glory and attractiveness about the old covenant symbolized here by the brightness of Moses’ face when he came down from the mountaintop with the tablets of the Law. God caused his face to shine, not anything Moses did himself. But God also made it fade, because He wanted to teach something by that. It was a fading glory, a symbol of something that every one of us has experienced at one time or another. It is the attractiveness to us of a chance to show how much we can do with what we have. Did you ever feel that? In so many arenas of life, someone is thinking, I’ve been trained for that. I have the skills. I have the gifts. Let me show what I can do. We make a great impression, but to whose credit? Ours. We are the ones being glorified.

Paul talks here now about the feeling of elation that accompanies an opportunity to show off our abilities. But the record of history shows that everybody trying to live on that basis ends up a day late and a dollar short. It is just not going to work. After a while it becomes dull and boring and routine, and death sets in. He calls that the ministry of death, a fading glory; it does not last. But when you discover a new principle, the principle of God-dependence, you realize that in using your native skills, abilities, and training, God will be at work. In depending on that, there is an excitement and a glory that is greater than the one you feel when you want to show off what you can do. Thus it will not be you, but God, who will accomplish things.

All those who try to live a life that is pleasing to God by self-effort always discover that they never quite make it, because they never know when they have done enough. A lady once said to me, When I go to bed at night I often wonder if I had tried just a little harder if maybe I could have done something that would have made God happy. But she never made it. Every night there was that feeling of, I didn’t quite measure up today. That is the ministry of condemnation. It is the result of trying to do it with your own resources, by your own efforts.

But Paul says, If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness(2 Corinthians 3:9). Righteousness means being fully accepted, having a sense of being approved by God, of being honored and cherished by Him. The nearest word I know to describe this is the word worth. God gives you a standing of worth. You don’t have to earn it; you start with it. God tells you already in the new covenant, I have loved you, I have forgiven you, I have cleansed you. I intend to use you; your life is significant. There is nothing more you can add to that.

Lord, l confess that I often have been like Moses, hiding behind a mask, covering up the fading glory of my own efforts. Grant me the grace to simply receive from You the gift of worth.

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” Colossians 3:16 NKJV

The long weekend provided us opportunity for several different kinds of adventures. Being free meant we could do what ever we wanted. Or not! So when the question, “what do you want to do now,” came up, we had lots of options. Since we hadn’t gone kayaking in a while, we chose to hit the water! It turned out to be quite an adventure.

We’ve kayaked the same water for years and it’s always a beautiful trip. This time, we saw an opening in the mangroves we hadn’t noticed before. A dark hidden spot that the sun hit just right, reveled water beyond the dark entryway. Thinking, “what’s this?” I forced my way under the branches and came out in a large area with a long canal ahead. Katie was right behind me!

We rowed, and sometimes paddled, to get through. Some spots were so overgrown that I had to break branches off to fit through. At one point a few spiders fell into my lap. But they were small. I was glad I was in front to get them because Katie would have screamed! I coached her through and she was right behind me. At one point, it was so tough, I thought she’d stay and wait as I went ahead. A couple minutes later, I heard her come up behind me. I smiled and thought, “tough woman!” But I should have known that!

There’s a difference, in my mind, between rowing and paddling. It doesn’t take a lot of work to row. But when I get into a tough spot, it can take a LOT of PADDLING to get me through. Though I don’t think it the OFFICIAL definition between the terms, it works for me! I’ve been though some tough stuff in life. Times where paddling was really the only way through!

The Word is Jesus. And He has a place He wants me to get to. But getting there takes HIS wisdom, instruction, and sometimes, admonition! That can means hard learning the hard way! You know…like a paddle! But I can tell you, going through under HIS direction ALWAYS leads me safely out… singing.

Where does the Master have YOU gROWing?

“Love not the world, neither the things in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” I John 2:15

This morning we awoke to an unintentional silence. If you didn’t live here everyday, you would never have noticed. But we do! And the absence of a particular sound that we have grown fond of, was disconcerting to say the least. One that needed immediate correction!

We have had a fountain beside our house for years! Several in fact. Over the years, the sight and sound of a fountain has grown on us. So much so that Katie sits opposite it every morning as she spends time with God. She can see and hear it through the sliding glass door as the sound soothes her spirit. That is, until this morning!

There are 3 spouts to our fountain, which makes the sound even more pronounced. Over time, they need to be ‘greased up’ so that the water will be repelled and easily flow through them. I use petroleum jelly. An oily grease that allows the water to slip right through and flow into the pot below. Thus…making the sound.

It may sound strange, but water and painted cement kinda-sorta mix. Eventually, the channels in the spouts get funky, moldy and collect stuff that impedes the water’s flow. As it does this, water spews in different directions and basically dumps out on the ground, emptying the fountain of water. It takes the oil to ‘slick it up’ again and keep the water doing what it is supposed to be doing.

In the Bible, oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. I know God Personally, because I know His Son Jesus Christ. That means I ALSO know the Holy Spirit. When I apply God’s Word to my life, the Holy Spirit uses it to ‘slippery up’ my life so that the worldly water has a harder time sticking to me. Biblically, oil and joy are words that are also synonymous.

I like the sound my life makes, on the inside, when I am oily for Him. When I don’t notice the absent sound of God’s action in my life, or when I lose my joy, it is easy to get caught up in worldly things that only clog up my spirit and make me useless to Him and His purpose. Since we have been together for a very long time, it is easier to notice when things aren’t working as they should, and reach for the Oil!

So.. how worldly repellent are YOU? 

“He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” Colossians 1:17

One of the Ministries at our Church is what we call “The Corner.” Every Wednesday and Friday, from 9 to 10am, a group of us gather together at the corner of U.S. 41 and Laurel Road to hold up ‘Jesus Signs.’ Having been led to proclaim ‘The Gospel’ to our world, the signs are Bible verses and sayings that spread the Good News of Christ’s love to passers-by. Along the way, we have found some VERY interesting things. Literally!

In our little area, there is no place more busy. As people go about their day, ‘The Corner’ usually catches MOST of them along the way. And wherever there are people, there is stuff! Walking along the roadway, with eyes focused, turns up lots of it. We’ve seen garbage, tools, car parts and even a set of silverware! But the other day, what I found had me scratching my head!

I’ve found plenty of bolts, nuts, screws and nails on the street. But finding a ‘lock washer’ on the ground sparked a spiritual thought I just couldn’t shake. When that happens, I get the hint that God is trying to tell me something. So I try to pay attention.

‘Lock washers are designed to be tightened to a required torque beneath an ordinary fastener. They exert a spring tension that keeps the fastener from vibrating loose. They are often attached to the nut side of the fastener.’ That is the OFFICIAL definition anyway. To simplify it in my head, they simply lock and hold nuts and bolts together. Which begs the question…what was this particular lock washer doing… lying there all by itself? It’s entire purpose had been thwarted!

The Bible clearly says that ‘The Church’ is ‘The Body of Christ.’ This verse today gets more specific as to what Christ’s job and position really is. He not only CREATED all things, He HOLDS ALL THINGS TOGETHER! Which leaves me, eerily, scratching my head with questions. If that is the Son of God’s job, what’s He seemingly doing ‘over there’ all by Himself?

It is no secret that ‘The Church’ has been under attack, from the evil one, since its inception. Jesus even warned that CHURCH is where the battlefield would exist! As times quickly change and we see churches folding in record numbers, it seems that the attacks are now becoming personal! No longer THE CHURCH in general…but now THAT CHURCH in particular! Maybe this is where the lesson of the lock washer needs to be applied.

‘THE’ isolated lock washer that is supposed to hold all of us nuts together, must be APPLIED before HE can be effective! Just lying on the ground as people pass by does NOT absolve people from THEIR responsibility of discovering, applying and locking down the very thing that Christ promised us only HE could provide. Grace, unity, strength, wisdom, love, peace, mission… and a WHOLE bunch of other blessings many of us, sadly, don’t even understand!

Are YOU an isolated nut in need of a lock-down? Get Jesus!