For some odd reason, this has been a very reflective week for me. I have found myself thinking about choices I have made in my life. In Galatians 6 Paul reminds us that we reap what we sow. All throughout scripture God compels us to choose wisely. I just taught on “Choices and Consequences” on Wednesday night, March 25. You can listen to the teaching at http://www.gracefellowship.net/, but the point of this blog is that I look back on some decisions I made in my past and some of those decisions make me sad. Sometimes I wish we could go back in time, as people do in many science fiction programs, and fix the bad decisions I have made. Alas, there are no “do-overs” in life. Yes, we receive forgiveness and we often get second chances, but we have lost forever that moment in time.
Now that I am older and realize that I will not live forever. I realize, maybe too late, that every moment we live is precious and there have been way too many times in my past that I have been flippant about my decisions. I know this probably makes no sense to anyone today but me. I have been catching up with many friends from the past lately, which has been great, and I have a tendency to think of how much time I missed with good friends because I was so caught up with what I was doing in the moment and didn’t keep in touch with people I care about over the years. I’m remembering decisions I made which may have hurt other people and yet I cruised along in life oblivious to how it may have affected someone else and I’m sad that I did that. I’ve made other decisions that were good as well. Sometimes, I wish I could do it all over again and fix the problems but keep the good decisions. You know, this is exactly why the Lord compels us in scripture to make right decisions and He offers us His help. In younger days, I often blew off this help and only now do I realize some of the consequences.
Is there a light at the end of this blog? Well, of course there is…
I heard the wise philosopher, Gomer Pyle, say on many occasions, “Fool me once; shame on you. Fool me twice; shame on me.” :-) I believe that the lesson we can learn is that we don’t have forever and our decisions in this life do matter, even small ones. Let’s choose to live our lives more carefully than we did in years past and let’s live the rest of our lives to make sure that we have no regrets. Sound simple? Not necessarily, however, we do walk with one who knows the future that we will live. Scripture tells us that the God that I serve “knows the end from the beginning”. He told us in the book of James that if we lack wisdom, we can ask God and He will give it to us generously and without finding fault with us. Let’s do that. Let’s walk with God. He does know what our future holds and He knows what consequence each decision will bring. Let’s walk with Him and as my friend Bob Coy once said, “let’s finish well”. There are many in the Bible who start out well, but don’t finish well. Let us be the ones who may not have made all the best decisions in the past, but let’s choose this day to finish well and finally hear those words, “Well done good and faithful servant”.
Until Later,
Don
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Saturday, March 14, 2009
What is Really Important?
I just returned from a funeral for the father of one of the members of my congregation and my friend. Every time I am part of a funeral or go to one, the same thought hits me. "Am I living my life in such a way as to not have regrets when I step into eternity?" The Bible says that it is appointed unto every man once to die... Every one of us has an appointment with God. We will all step into eternity and, when that happens, will we look back on our lives and be proud or happy with what we see? Or will there be regrets?
So many of us call ourselves Christians, but do our lives reflect what we believe? Now, I know my friend's dad is in heaven and he lived a long and productive life, but I'm talking about how we live our lives now. Do we value what we should value or do we spend all of our time on things which will not even matter in the end.
I have had the privilege of sitting with many a believer shortly before they have gone to be with the Lord. None of them ever complained that they didn't get enough time at the office. None ever wished that they spent more time working on political change. None of them worried that they never got that new car, or that bigger house, or that new computer, or guitar, or whatever. No, but many of them wished, and I mean deep down cried out wishing, that they had just a little more time to spend with the ones they loved. Some spoke that they wished they had spent more time building the Kingdom of God. Many wished that they had walked with God for more years of their lives.
When faced with eternity, temporary things just seem meaningless. Why are those things so important to us now? When all is said and done, what will our lives amount to? Will we look back and see that we have poured all that we could into our family with our love and our attention and our time? Will we look back and see that we spent our time building the Kingdom of God by sharing His love with our friends and family and neighbors? Have we been consistently a part of a church fellowship where we have encouraged others in their faith and helped to grow a strong body of Christ and grow in the Lord ourselves? Have we helped those who were in need and thus, as Jesus said, given to Him through "the least of these"?
What does my life amount to? If we look and see that we will regret the way we are living now when it comes our turn to step out of these bodies and into our eternal ones, why don't we do something about it now? Jesus said that in order for a man to save his life, he must lose it for Christ's sake. Is there something that we might need to change in order that we not have regrets at the end? If so, let's no wait until later, when it's too late. Let's do it right now. Let's talk to our Lord right now and make the changes so that, along with Paul, at the end of our time on this planet we can say:
2 Tim 4:7-8
7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day-- and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. (NIV)
Until later,
Don
So many of us call ourselves Christians, but do our lives reflect what we believe? Now, I know my friend's dad is in heaven and he lived a long and productive life, but I'm talking about how we live our lives now. Do we value what we should value or do we spend all of our time on things which will not even matter in the end.
I have had the privilege of sitting with many a believer shortly before they have gone to be with the Lord. None of them ever complained that they didn't get enough time at the office. None ever wished that they spent more time working on political change. None of them worried that they never got that new car, or that bigger house, or that new computer, or guitar, or whatever. No, but many of them wished, and I mean deep down cried out wishing, that they had just a little more time to spend with the ones they loved. Some spoke that they wished they had spent more time building the Kingdom of God. Many wished that they had walked with God for more years of their lives.
When faced with eternity, temporary things just seem meaningless. Why are those things so important to us now? When all is said and done, what will our lives amount to? Will we look back and see that we have poured all that we could into our family with our love and our attention and our time? Will we look back and see that we spent our time building the Kingdom of God by sharing His love with our friends and family and neighbors? Have we been consistently a part of a church fellowship where we have encouraged others in their faith and helped to grow a strong body of Christ and grow in the Lord ourselves? Have we helped those who were in need and thus, as Jesus said, given to Him through "the least of these"?
What does my life amount to? If we look and see that we will regret the way we are living now when it comes our turn to step out of these bodies and into our eternal ones, why don't we do something about it now? Jesus said that in order for a man to save his life, he must lose it for Christ's sake. Is there something that we might need to change in order that we not have regrets at the end? If so, let's no wait until later, when it's too late. Let's do it right now. Let's talk to our Lord right now and make the changes so that, along with Paul, at the end of our time on this planet we can say:
2 Tim 4:7-8
7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day-- and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. (NIV)
Until later,
Don
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
In Times Like These, What Do We Do?
The stock market is crashing. The housing market has had the bottom fall out. Unemployment is on the rise. What is the government doing? They are printing Monopoly money and taking over banks and corporations. Which party has the answer? Who do we follow? What do we do?
Now, I have to say, I'm a consevative and a Christian. I'm a card carrying (literally) Republican who has served the Republican party since Ronald Reagan ran for his first term as one of the greatest Presidents this nation has ever had. I have friends pointing out that the Republicans have abandoned Reaganesque policies. Bush in his last two years governed like a liberal not a conservative. Many are telling me, "turn to the libertarian party". Many look to the inexperience of Obama as the answer to all of our problems simply because he espouses hope and "yes we can", but in actuality has no plan at all and the hope he has is simply, "I hope I don't screw it up worse than it already is."
No my friends, conservative that I am, no politcal party; no politician; no form of government will get us out of the impending disaster that appears to be coming. No, the answer my friends is for God's people to repent of their complacency and humble themselves and seek God for His mercy. Look at the history of the children of Israel. When their leaders abandoned God and godly principles, their nation suffered great calamity. What was the solution? Good political policies? Good charismatic leaders? No. It was the repentence of God's people and the turning of a nation towards God's face.
2 Chronicles 7:13-1413 "When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. NIV
It is the same today. Our nation is falling apart. The treasury is printing Monopoly money. We are mortgaged up to the hilt and things don't look better, they just continue to look worse and worse. Our leaders don't seem to know what they are doing. They are supporting ungodly, immoral solutions to many problems in our nation. They paint godliness as bigotry and hatred. They support wrong and resist what is right. What do we do? Yes, we can get involved in the political process, but more importantly, we, God's people need to humble ourselves and pray, seek His face and turn from our own wicked ways. Then He will hear from heaven, forgive our sins (the sins of those called by His name) and heal our land.
Friends, the church of Jesus Christ has failed this nation by going along with all of the ungodliness that overwhelms this society. We have abandoned the love, grace and compassion of God and have lost our good testimony in the world around us. We have blended in so much that you cannot tell the difference between a believer and a non-believer. We need to hit our knees in repentance and call upon our God to forgive our sins and heal our land. And then we need to put feet to our repentance. Maybe He will have compassion upon us no matter which political party is in charge. Politics does not matter at this point. What matters is God's people humbling ourselves and praying much as Daniel did at the end of the captivity. He prayed, "WE have sinned and not followed your laws" when Daniel was one who had not abandoned his God, but he counted himself with his nation.
We God's people must humble ourselve and pray and seek His face and turn from our own wicked ways. We must do it and do it now.
Until Later,
Don
Now, I have to say, I'm a consevative and a Christian. I'm a card carrying (literally) Republican who has served the Republican party since Ronald Reagan ran for his first term as one of the greatest Presidents this nation has ever had. I have friends pointing out that the Republicans have abandoned Reaganesque policies. Bush in his last two years governed like a liberal not a conservative. Many are telling me, "turn to the libertarian party". Many look to the inexperience of Obama as the answer to all of our problems simply because he espouses hope and "yes we can", but in actuality has no plan at all and the hope he has is simply, "I hope I don't screw it up worse than it already is."
No my friends, conservative that I am, no politcal party; no politician; no form of government will get us out of the impending disaster that appears to be coming. No, the answer my friends is for God's people to repent of their complacency and humble themselves and seek God for His mercy. Look at the history of the children of Israel. When their leaders abandoned God and godly principles, their nation suffered great calamity. What was the solution? Good political policies? Good charismatic leaders? No. It was the repentence of God's people and the turning of a nation towards God's face.
2 Chronicles 7:13-1413 "When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. NIV
It is the same today. Our nation is falling apart. The treasury is printing Monopoly money. We are mortgaged up to the hilt and things don't look better, they just continue to look worse and worse. Our leaders don't seem to know what they are doing. They are supporting ungodly, immoral solutions to many problems in our nation. They paint godliness as bigotry and hatred. They support wrong and resist what is right. What do we do? Yes, we can get involved in the political process, but more importantly, we, God's people need to humble ourselves and pray, seek His face and turn from our own wicked ways. Then He will hear from heaven, forgive our sins (the sins of those called by His name) and heal our land.
Friends, the church of Jesus Christ has failed this nation by going along with all of the ungodliness that overwhelms this society. We have abandoned the love, grace and compassion of God and have lost our good testimony in the world around us. We have blended in so much that you cannot tell the difference between a believer and a non-believer. We need to hit our knees in repentance and call upon our God to forgive our sins and heal our land. And then we need to put feet to our repentance. Maybe He will have compassion upon us no matter which political party is in charge. Politics does not matter at this point. What matters is God's people humbling ourselves and praying much as Daniel did at the end of the captivity. He prayed, "WE have sinned and not followed your laws" when Daniel was one who had not abandoned his God, but he counted himself with his nation.
We God's people must humble ourselve and pray and seek His face and turn from our own wicked ways. We must do it and do it now.
Until Later,
Don
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