Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Wisdom from Proverbs”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “So follow the way of good people, and keep to the paths of the righteous.” Proverbs 2:20 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “You become like those you associate with.”

 

In recent years a big part of my ministry has involved working with young men who have been caught-up in the drug culture and who have ended up in jail, or in one case a maximum security prison. As I visit with them and learn their stories several common themes always seem to emerge. Many of them were raised in homes where parents and siblings openly did drugs. So it comes as no surprise that these men also ended up being drug addicts.

 

Another common factor in all of their stories is that almost everyone they know and associate with on the outside is also involved in the drug culture. The old saying “Birds of a feather flock together” is very true. We’re most comfortable being with people who are just like us. Therefore those are the people we surround ourselves with.

 

Another old adage that also applies is “We become like those we associate with.” If you hang around with drug addicts it’s just a matter of time before you are doing drugs too. If your friends are all bank robbers then soon you will probably be robbing banks as well. The Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:33, “Do not be deceived, bad company corrupts good morals.”

 

But the opposite is also true. As Proverbs 2:20 suggests, if you surround yourself with good people they will have a positive influence on you. So if you associate with people who value education, you will probably end up an educated person yourself. If the people you spend your time with are health conscious, working-out every day and eating good food, you will probably do the same. If your friends are all church-going Christians, then you probably will be too. In Proverbs 13:20 Solomon writes, “The one who walks with the wise will become wise, but a companion of fools will suffer harm.”

 

One piece of advice I always give to the those young men in jail and prison, especially as they are preparing to be released and therefore will have to make smart decisions about what their new life on the outside is going to be like, is to identify people who already have the kind of life that they themselves would like to have, and spend time with those people. I tell them, “If you want to be a godly man who is a good husband and father, who has a good job, and who is respected in the community, then find men like that and spend your time with them.”

 

It’s just a basic fact of human nature that over time we become like those we associate with. So like your Momma always said, “Choose your friends carefully.”

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Wisdom from Proverbs”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “… if you seek it like silver and search for it like hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God.” Proverbs 2:4-6 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “Wisdom will be found by those who will seek it.”

 

When my children were young I sometimes sent them on a treasure hunt. I had a large jar in which I used to save my spare change. Once the jar was full I would hide it somewhere in the house. Then I would give my children pieces of paper with written clues on them which they would have to figure out and which would lead them to the next clue. Eventually their search would lead them to the jar of coins which they would then joyfully dump out on the floor, count, and divide among themselves. It was always fun to watch how eagerly they went about their search for the treasure and how hard they worked at it.

 

Many years later, when I was a team leader for mission teams in the Amazon Jungle, I saw how hard the gold miners worked at the mining sites along the river. They too were on a search to uncover hidden treasure and they worked long and very hard at it.
That’s the picture Solomon paints for us in Proverbs 2:4-6. Godly wisdom is like a valuable treasure which can be uncovered and claimed by us, but we do have to do the hard work of seeking after it. We have to patiently and diligently apply ourselves to the study of the Bible. Then, over time, God will allow us to uncover more and more spiritual nuggets of truth and wisdom.

 

In our quest for wisdom we must utilize the right tools. We need to bring a sincere heart and an open mind to the task, and of course, we need to have a good Bible in a translation we can easily understand. Bible study tools such as commentaries, dictionaries, and the notes found in the margins of study Bibles are all helpful; and often a guide or teacher is needed as well.

 

After that first treasure hunt, and the resulting bounty of coins in the jar, my children knew that on those special occasions when I organized a treasure hunt for them there would be a jar of coins waiting for them at the end. Your study of God’s Word will be no different. If you seek Godly wisdom you will find it. That’s a promise from God to you.

 

If you recognize the value of Godly wisdom then you will know it is more precious than the finest silver and of more value than hidden treasure. You will seek after it with diligence and perseverance and when you do, you will find it.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Wisdom from Proverbs”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “My son, if sinners entice you, don’t be persuaded.” Proverbs 1:10 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “Don’t be fooled.”

 

Sin is often enticing. That’s why people fall into it. The forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden looked pretty tasty to Eve. The cute and flirty young secretary is alluring to the middle-aged executive with a wife and three kids. The numbing effect of the alcohol is inviting and soothing to the lonely woman seeking to fill the emptiness in her life.

 

Our culture is a powerful magnet of sinful enticement too. Whether we’re talking about sexual promiscuity, conspicuous consumption, or politically correct ideology, people of all ages can feel great cultural pressure to just go along so they can get along.

 

One of the greatest challenges to the people of God in our day is that the understanding of good and evil, righteousness and unrighteousness has been stood on its head. What used to be universally accepted as wrong and sinful is now promoted as normal, natural, and good. And standards of morality and integrity that used to be widely acknowledged as righteous and good are now portrayed as narrow-minded and intolerant.

 

This is evidence of Satan doing his best to confuse and deceive people. He takes what is evil and dresses it up to appear good, and he takes what is good and tries to make it look bad. 2 Corinthians 11:14-15 says, “For Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no great thing if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.”

 

As the people of God who are wise in the ways of God, we must be able to recognize Satan’s deceitful lies and then stand against them. The way we do that is we compare everything to what the Bible says. God’s standards of right and wrong, righteousness and evil are clearly outlined for us in Scripture. The Bible is the plumb-line against which everything else is compared and measured.

 

Federal agents who specialize in spotting counterfeit money never study counterfeit money. They only study the real thing. But they know the real money so well that they can immediately spot the counterfeit bills when they are placed before them. That needs to be true of us with respect to Biblical standards. We must know them so well that Satan’s lies, even when dressed up in seemingly righteous clothes, are immediately exposed for the sinful and evil things they are.

 

In Proverbs 1:10 Solomon warns us to be wise to the point that we cannot be fooled or led astray. We must make up our minds that we will not allow ourselves to be enticed or persuaded by evil people or evil ideas. Our study of the wisdom from Proverbs will help us to be wise in the ways of God so that we cannot be fooled by Satan.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Wisdom from Proverbs”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “For learning what wisdom and discipline are; for understanding insightful sayings; for receiving wise instruction in righteousness, justice, and integrity; Proverbs 1:2-3 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “Seek wisdom.”

 

There’s a lot of confusion about what true wisdom is. Many people associate the concept of wisdom with advanced learning in complex subjects. Therefore someone with multiple college degrees must surely be wise. Other people believe wisdom is in the hands of only certain special individuals who have managed to attain a higher level of consciousness. To those folks there’s almost a mystical Yoda-like quality to wisdom, as if the wise person has tapped into some profound mysteries of the universe. But real wisdom isn’t like that.

 

Wisdom is different from knowledge. Knowledge is the accumulation of facts. Wisdom is the ability to apply what we know in a smart and meaningful way that makes life better for us and for those around us. There are plenty of people who have accumulated lots of knowledge but who don’t have enough sense to come in out of the rain. But there are many others who, while maybe not having much formal education, are nonetheless very wise in the ways that matter.

 

The Old Testament book of Proverbs is one of the “wisdom” books of the Bible. Along with Psalms, the Song of Solomon, and Ecclesiastes, Proverbs is said to “provide heavenly wisdom for your earthly walk.” It gives us sound guidance for making practical decisions about the issues and choices involved in everyday life.

 

It’s customary when dining in a Chinese restaurant to end the meal by opening your fortune cookie. Inside the cookie is a slip of paper with some brief quip about people or life. Often it claims to predict the future of the reader. The object of the statement is not to explain everything about a subject but to get at the essence of it in a memorable way.

 

The Proverbs of the Bible are like that too, but God’s Proverbs are much better than fortune cookies. The Proverbs is a collection of Biblical nuggets of divine wisdom which are intended to give us common sense guidance on the everyday issues of life. They’re designed to make us stop and think, and then to redirect our lives if necessary. If we do what the Proverbs teach, we will end up being “wise” in the ways of God, and that is true wisdom.

 

Decisions have consequences. Therefore it’s essential that our decisions be good ones. When we learn and practice the wisdom of the Proverbs our decisions will be Biblically wise and we will be living well.

 

Each day over the course of the coming month we will walk through the Proverbs, pulling out and examining those nuggets of wisdom, and hopefully we will all end up the wiser for having done so. I look forward to exploring the Proverbs with you.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “A Fresh Encounter”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “Just one thing: Live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” Philippians 1:27 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “A fresh encounter empowers us to live in a way that honors God.”

 

Throughout this month we’ve considered what it means to have a fresh encounter with God and how such fresh encounters typically happen. We’ve also addressed the truth that the primary reason we should desire and seek fresh encounters with God is simply so we can enjoy Him and He can enjoy us. God created us to have a love relationship with us.

 

But another important reason we need frequent fresh encounters is so that the practice of our faith with remain fresh and vibrant, and so we will honor the Lord by the way we live. When our relationship with the Lord becomes stale and routine it frequently results in the individual becoming spiritually lukewarm and lazy. That then will often lead to unbiblical behavior.

 

As was noted earlier in our study, when God finds it necessary to bring discipline into the life of one of His children He does so out of His deep love for us. He does it in order to bring us back into right relationship with Himself and it is always in our own best interest. But it’s also in God’s interest. If we claim the name of Jesus Christ, but are then behaving badly out in the world, that brings dishonor upon the Lord and it impedes His kingdom-building work. Unbelievers seeing a Christian behaving badly will often be put off and turned away from the faith as a result.

 

As a child of the King we have a responsibility to conduct ourselves in such a way that we bring honor to Him. That’s what Paul was writing about in Philippians 1:27. For one thing, if our faith is lukewarm, and if the practice of our faith is lackluster and just a matter of routine, what does that say about our Lord? Is that as much enthusiasm as He is able to elicit from His followers? Rock stars, actors, and sports figures get a better response from their fans than that.

 

And what if a person professes to be a Christian but then curses like a drunken sailor, is mean to co-workers and family members, is dishonest, or gets involved in other unbiblical behavior? What kind of a witness is that to the unbelieving world?

 

As followers of Christ we have to live in such a way that to even to the casual observer it will be obvious that “That person is a Christian. I can tell by how they conduct themselves.”

 

Frequent fresh encounters with God will keep us in a dynamic and fruitful relationship with Him – one that pleases Him, is a good testimony to others, and brings blessings to us as well.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “A Fresh Encounter”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “How she sits alone, the city once crowded with people! She who was great among the nations has become like a widow. The princess among the provinces has been put to forced labor.” Lamentations 1:1 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “Don’t give-up. The story’s not over and God isn’t done yet.”

 

Our Bible verse for today is the opening paragraph to the book of Lamentations in the Old Testament. Lamentations was written by the prophet Jeremiah and it’s the story of how the city of Jerusalem was devastated by an invading army. As Jeremiah was writing this he was looking at a city that was in ruins and the population had been taken off into slavery.

 

Sometimes that scene can seem like a picture out of our own lives. Unemployment, sickness, the death of a loved one, being betrayed by someone we trusted, those are examples of the kinds of things that can cause us to feel as if our world has come crashing down around us.

 

In this case the people were entirely at fault and God had allowed this tragedy into their lives as a form of punishment. Sometimes that’s true for us too. Sometimes we bring it on ourselves and God allows us to experience the consequences of our own bad choices – but usually not. More often what we’re experiencing is simply something that happens because we live in a broken and bleeding and sin-filled world.

 

But either way, whether we brought it on ourselves, or it happened as a result of someone else’s bad behavior, or it’s simply life happening, the devastation we’re experiencing at that time is almost never the end of the story. It wasn’t the end of the story for the Jews. The day would come when their suffering would end; they would have a fresh encounter with God and He would deliver them from their suffering. That’s true for you too.

 

Lamentations is one of the saddest books in the Bible. But even in the middle of such a sad, sad story there are words of hope and promise. In Lamentations 3:22-26 we read:

 

“Because of the Lord’s faithful love we do not perish, for His mercies never end. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness! I say: The Lord is my portion, therefore I will put my hope in Him. The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him. It is good to wait quietly for deliverance from the Lord.”

 

Yes, “It is good to wait quietly for deliverance from the Lord.” No matter how bad it might seem right now, your time of deliverance will come. So don’t give-up. The story isn’t over and God’s not done yet.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

 

 

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “A Fresh Encounter”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “Therefore, I remind you to keep ablaze the gift of God that is in you through the laying on of hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fearfulness, but one of power, love, and sound judgment.” 2 Timothy 1:6-7 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “Fresh Encounters keep us strong and fearless.”

 

Although I’ve never actually counted them myself, I’ve often heard it said that in the Bible there are three hundred and sixty-five variations of the command from God to “Fear not!” If so then that would be one “Fear not!” for every day of the year.

 

In 2 Timothy 1:6-7 the Apostle Paul writes one of those “Fear not!” statements. In this case it’s to his young protégé Timothy (and to us). Timothy was a young man who Paul mentored and then trained for the ministry. It seems as if Timothy served primarily as a “church fixer”. In other words, Paul kept sending the young man into situations where a church was having serious problems and Timothy’s job was to sort it out and get them back on track.

 

In my own years as a pastor God has sent me into three such situations and so I can tell you from experience that it’s a tough way to make a living! But at least in my case those assignments came to me after I had completed a twenty-one year career in the military. So I was able to bring a little military officer attitude to bear on the situations as well. Poor Timothy was in his twenties and still wet behind the ears. It must have been a rough ride for him.

 

So in 2 Timothy 1:6-7 Paul reminded Timothy of two very important truths that he needed to remain conscious of. First, Timothy needed to keep ablaze the passion that he had when he first started out in ministry. That blazing passion within him would be absolutely essential to keep him motivated and persistent as he faced what surely would seem like never-ending problems. But keeping that passion ablaze would require regular fresh encounters with God. Without those fresh encounters on a regular basis Timothy would quickly get weary, discouraged, and off track.

 

Secondly Timothy needed to remember that the Holy Spirit within him wasn’t afraid of anyone or anything. Therefore the Spirit (big “S”) provided Timothy’s spirit (little “s”) with a sense of fearlessness in the face of adversity. Instead of being fearful Timothy was to have a sense of power, and love, and sound judgment. In the NIV it reads “power, love, and self-discipline.” But the best translation comes from the Amplified Bible:

 

“For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, or craven and cringing and fawning fear), but (He has given us a spirit) of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control.”

 

By now I’m sure you get the picture. The same Spirit that was within Timothy doing all of that for him is also in you and giving you the same fearlessness.

 

I encourage you to keep the passion within you ablaze with continuous fresh encounters with God. Then go forward into life with a sense of power, and love, and calmness, and discipline, and self-control. In other words, “Fear not!”

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “A Fresh Encounter”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “Rather, train yourself in godliness, for the training of the body has a limited benefit, but godliness is beneficial in every way, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” 1 Timothy 4:7-8 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “Train yourself for godliness.”

 

I read an interesting statement this morning that caused me to appreciate all over again the importance of spiritual maturity and God-given wisdom. The statement reads, “Not every problem has only one solution. Wisdom is required: God’s Spirit must do the leading.”

 

The fact is that life is complicated, and often it’s not easy to discern the best course of action in any given situation. Many times there is more than one right answer and it can be tough to decide what choice to make and which action to take.

 

This is why spiritual maturity is so important. It’s crucial for us to be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives. This is one of the reasons we cannot afford to be lazy and lukewarm in our faith, because when we are, we drift from God’s standards and become increasingly insensitive to the Spirit’s leading.

 

In 1 Timothy 4:7-8 Paul urges young Timothy (and us) to train ourselves in godliness. Just as an athlete intentionally and vigorously trains his or her body so they will be at their best for the physical challenge of athletic competition, so too we must train ourselves spiritually so we will remain in tip-top spiritual shape.

 

Training ourselves in godliness infers that we have a system or routine in place. That then requires intentional actions and the discipline to stick with it. And just as an athlete will monitor their progress and development and periodically make adjustments as needed, so too must we in our spiritual training.

 

Training ourselves in godliness leads to spiritual maturity and the Spirit-led ability to make wise decisions in the face of multiple choices. One of my personal life verses is Proverbs 3:5-6. In the NIV it reads:

 

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

 

That passage teaches that once we have this Spirit-led maturity and sensitivity which comes grows out of spiritual training, we can depend on the Spirit to lead us as we make wise choices. We may not have specific step-by-step instructions from the Lord but because we have a heart that is fully surrendered to Him, and because we are familiar enough with His ways and therefore are sensitive to His quiet voice and gentle guidance, we can count on Him to lead us in the way He wants us to go.

 

I encourage you to continue training yourself in godliness.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “A Fresh Encounter”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “My son, do not take the Lord’s discipline lightly or faint when you are reproved by Him, for the Lord disciplines the one He loves and punishes every son He receives.” Hebrews 12:5-6 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “God disciplines you because He loves you.”

 

Yesterday’s devotional message was a little hard to write and it was probably a little hard to read. Nobody likes to consider God’s discipline and punishment. We want to focus instead on His blessings and mercies. But as we learned yesterday, God has many ways of dealing with His people, and the way He deals with us at any given moment depends on what is most appropriate to the situation based upon our behavior.

 

Yesterday we read of two times in the history of the Jews when they were so far away from God, that He had to withdraw His hand of protection and blessing from them and let them experience life fully exposed and totally unprotected from their enemies. And we also learned that sometimes individual Christians force God’s hand in a similar manner with our own behavior.

 

Now the question before us today is “why” would God deal with His people in that manner? Why would He let them (and us) suffer like that? And the answer is, “Because He loves us.” God loves us too much to leave us in our sins. He loves us too much to simply look the other way as we engage in conduct that is going to hurt us and those around us. So He will bring increasing levels of discipline into our lives as necessary to get our attention and bring us back into obedience.

 

Any good human parent would do the same for their children, so we should expect nothing less when God in dealing with us. His discipline is an act of love designed to bring us back to the behavior and conduct that He knows is in our own best interest, and which will honor Him.

 

In the Bible study “Fresh Encounter” Henry and Richard Blackaby explain it like this:

 

“Though difficult to endure, undergoing God’s discipline is a sure sign that we are in a relationship with Him. When we are corrected by God, it is a sure sign that he is watching our lives and desires to direct our steps.”

 

When we recognize and respond to God’s correction in our lives that is a fresh encounter with Him and it does bring us back into a full and healthy relationship with Him. It also places us back within the boundaries whereby He can and will protect and bless us.

 

God loves you too much to just leave you in your sinful behavior without at least trying to correct you. God disciplines us because He loves us.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “A Fresh Encounter”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “For the days will come on you when your enemies will build an embankment against you, surround you, and hem you in on every side. They will crush you and your children within you to the ground, and they will not leave one stone on another in you, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.” Luke 19:43-44 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “God will withdraw His protection and blessings if He needs to.”

 

In Luke 19:43-44 Jesus was telling the nation of Israel what was going to happen to them in the near future. As individuals and as a nation they had drifted far from God. Although God had been calling out to them through the prophets, and He even sent them His Son to them, they were hard hearted and would not listen. So God was about to withdraw His protection and blessings and as a result, they would be overrun by their enemies.

 

This was not an isolated instance in the life of Israel. In Isaiah 5:5-6 God compared Israel to a vineyard that was supposed to have produced good fruit for Him but did not. Therefore God would remove His hand of protection from them: “Now I will tell you what I am about to do to My vineyard: I will remove its hedge, and it will be consumed; I will tear down its wall, and it will be trampled.”

 

In the Bible study “Fresh Encounter” Henry and Richard Blackaby teach that one of the reasons we need a fresh encounter with God is to open our eyes to how far we have drifted from Him. They make the sobering observation that this is for our own good because if we continue to drift further and further away from Him, eventually we will place ourselves outside of the conditions within which He will protect and bless us. Like the nation of Israel, at some point God will withdraw His protection and blessings and then we are at the mercy of the world.

 

Many Christians experience this and don’t even realize it. In the Bible God has given us the boundaries within which He expects us to live our lives. But sometimes individual Christians, churches, and even nations make decisions to conduct themselves outside of Biblical standards. That then places them in a condition that God cannot and will not bless. When you are living in that condition you have essentially forced God to remove His hedge of protection, and to withhold His blessings. You are then exposed and at the mercy of the world.

 

A fresh encounter with God opens our eyes to how far we have drifted and it calls us back to obedience, fellowship, protection, and blessing. If you are living outside of Biblical boundaries I encourage you to correct that situation immediately. You are vulnerable and at great risk because you are in a situation God cannot and will not bless.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim