Political Alarmists

The truth is more effective when left in its ‘truthful” state and not exaggerated. This sort of puts the alarmists in perspective.

 

Weekly Link-Up

Here are some of my favorite links from this week.

9 Areas Every Church Should Measure

Top 4 Reasons for Technology in Churches

Interactive Visual Worship

Does Joel Osteen Not Know, or Does He Not Care?

 

God Uses Whom He Pleases

When you hear someone mention Samson your first thought may go back to childhood Sunday School lessons about the great strength he had all because he never cut his hair.  But as an adult an examination of Samson’s life proves quite interesting from a spiritual perspective.  Based on what we know from Judges 14-16, Samson was rarely obedient to God and had an overall tragic life.  He reminds me in a way of Solomon without the riches. 

Yet God used him to lead Israel for twenty years and invoke judgement on the Philistines.  The awesomeness of God’s power literally taking control of him through the explosion of great strength astounded even Samson.  Why else did he not tell his parents about killing the lion?  Perhaps, even though he knew his strength came from God, he was shocked and a little freightened at what he had done “in the Spirit.”

Still Samson’s actions appear to be mostly motivated by his own selfish desires.  He didn’t even realize when God’s power left him (Judges 16:20).

 

Giving til it Hurts

What does give til it hurts mean? Aren’t we supposed to be cheerful givers? Is it possible to hurt and be cheerful at the same time?

Lots of questions to consider. There’s no doubt we should be sacrificial in our giving, but sacrificial and hurting don’t have to be synonymous. Sacrificial means we are sacrificing the purchase of something else in order to give to God. That sacrifice should make us happy, fulfilled, and cheerful.

How do you feel when you give?

 

You Need to be Skilled and Filled

Why do you think God gave Moses all those specific instructions throughout the book of Exodus for building the tent of meeting, the ark, the mercy seat, and all the furnishings and then told him he had gifted specific people to perform the work? All the design and engineering work had been done by God.

This was part of the worship arts of the time. Skill was necessary to carry out God’s instructions, but being filled with the Spirit of God for the task was also necessary. What difference does that make? Are the “artisans” in your church filled as well as skilled?

 

Giving it to God

Just some thoughts that have been going through my mind lately. Does giving something to God sometimes mean you just stop praying about it? Is continuing to pray fervently about a matter or a person sometimes an indication of fear and worry; not really trusting God to take care of things?

I’ve realized for me that the more I pray about something, the more it is on my mind and thus, the more the situation stresses me. So to really turn loose and “give it to God,” I have to take a break from the fervent prayers. What do you think?

 

Pharaoh Won’t Listen

In Exodus Chapter 7, God gives Moses his instructions for approaching Pharaoh to let the Hebrew people go. Then God says, “but he won’t listen.” And to top it off, Pharaoh doesn’t listen because God hardens his heart so he won’t grant Moses request.

At first glance, I understand God did that so he would get ultimately get the credit and glory, and so I think that’s a nice warning Moses gets. But is it? How would feel if God gave you specific instructions about something, in this case something really major, and then told you it would be to no avail? Would you be encouraged to carry on?

 

Blood

Revelation 19:13 – It might be a little difficult picturing goodness in this verse and others like it. Why would Jesus want to wear a robe dipped in blood? We view blood in a negative light. To us it tends to represent death, or at least that someone has been injured. Horror movies and television have given us an evil image of blood. But to God blood is a positive thing. It represents life. Maybe someone who has had to have a blood transfusion to live can understand better. Without blood there is no life. Without blood there is no forgiveness and eternal life.

 

The Perfect Conference Experience

For years I have listened to conference/camp goers comment on their experience upon return. “Man, the speaker was great. He (She) just really laid it out there.” “I loved the worship. So and so lead us to the Throne.”

You hear raves about how the conference leaders put the focus on God and made it all about Him. But is that really what happens? The thought occurred to me that if that is the case, wouldn’t we come back from a conference raving about God instead of the one trying to teach us about Him? I began to envision the perfect conference experience as coming back home and not being able to stop talking about how great God is. How much we love Him. How wonderful that special time with Him was. And how we want more of it.

I’m just a guilty as the next person. I’ve heard great speakers and been lead in worship by the one and only Darlene Zschech. Our worship can be genuine. Our lives can be changed. But somewhere in all that we end up basically giving glory to the ones who helped us get there.

So I wonder if we as humans are capable of seeing past the person on stage and focusing only on the one we’re there to worship? Do we allow those in the “spotlight” to be transparent?

 

The Safest Place

Several verses in the Bible tell us to make our heart’s desires known to God, “ask and you shall receive.” I believe and practice this within its context. This morning as I was praying and sharing my heart with God, I ended by saying, “but whatever your will is ’cause I know that’s the safest place to be.” No matter what we want or what we think is right or best, being where He wants us is always the safest place to be even if it appears bleak and hopeless to us.