One of my nephews felt he couldn’t go on with the hardships of life this morning and decided the best medication for it was a lead tablet. It was effective. It ended his pain and misery in a millisecond, but then that pain and misery spread from him to an unknown number of others like a rampant virus.

It spread first to his mother and aunt the moment they found his body. Then it spread by phone to his other aunts and uncles, cousins, nephews, brothers and even his son. The malady crossed state lines and international borders like a cold breeze. Nothing could stop it or prevent it from spreading. In less than a day his entire family had been left in shambles, struck numb by the news.

Suicide is a cold hearted, selfish bastard that takes everything you have and much of that which those close to you have. It cannot be healed or put into remission, and it can’t be undone. It’s the most brutal way to die and it’s the most brutal way to damage those that love you because, although they may get better, they will never, ever fully recover.

If you love anyone, anyone at all, don’t pass your own pain and misery on to them. Let them go through it with you. Let them be there for you. Let them love you and it will get better. It can’t get any worse, unless you decide to end your life. Then your pain is spread to others.
Like a rampant virus…

We make our plans, we plan our course, we determine our actions, and He is there. He is there, knowing before hand what our minds have conceived, what our hearts hold, what our mistakes will render. And He still chose us. He still extends His hand, He still sends His Spirit, He still sent His Son to cover for the inane, foolish, fruitless and selfish decisions He knew we would make in our pitiful little lives. And He is there. Still.

And so, we can say, “Here am I Lord”. Not in the voice of one who is waiting for Him and willing to do His will like Samuel, but in the voice of one like Peter, who warming himself at the enemy’s fires must have thought in his heart, “What am I doing here? Here of all places! Here in this place that you told me not to venture, but that You knew I’d end up! Here in this place where You would not even enter. Here am I Lord.”

I find myself in that place many times, even today, and I say to Him, “Here am I, Lord. Please forgive me and deliver me from this place!”

Today is the day that Jesus rose from the dead. Today is the day that He overcame all the sin that plagues our lives and prevents us from going forward with Him. Today is the day that we can leave it all behind and say with Samuel instead of Peter, ” Here am I Lord.”

Say it with me, “Here am I, Lord”.

It’s interesting how people gravitate toward the bad instead of giving you the benefit of doubt when they don’t know. It’s one reason I’ve decided to keep to myself. There’s an old proverb that says, “It’s best to keep your mouth shut and let people think you’re a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.” I’ll bend that a little and say, “It’s better to avoid people and let them think what they want, because they’ll do it anyway. Regardless of the facts.”

So often it’s as though no-one really cares about what the truth is, they simply want to believe the worst about you because it makes them feel better.

Motes and beams, gnats and camels. They exist and we each have them in our lives. I’ll avoid your gnats and motes and work on my own camels and beams, and pray for grace.

As I grew older other choices came to me that weren’t quite as clear as to the correct choice of action. Questions like, “what church should I go to?”, “should I take this job?, “should I move to this town?”, or “should I marry this person?” were more difficult to determine as to whether or not they were the will of God concerning me. Questions such as this required time spent seeking God’s will, His specific will in that particular circumstance.

Many times I struggled to find the answer, seeking the Lord, studying the word, fasting and seeking counsel from friends. Many times the answer to those questions was never as clear cut and obvious as the answers to the more simple ones. Many times, I received no answer at all and I just walked through an open door based on whether or not I had peace about the decision. Many times I discovered that the Lord allowed me to proceed because that was where He was leading. But a few times, I proceeded expecting, and receiving His blessing, only to find that in the end things didn’t turn out like I thought they should, or would.

I’ve come to understand that in some cases, the Lord has a very distinct plan and process for me to follow and it’s revealed to me with an undeniable certainty through scripture, a teaching at church or a word from someone. but many times, there is no answer, no glimpse of the future, no revelation of His plan for me and I am simply to go forward and follow the leading of His Spirit.

When those times come, I have a choice. I can either stay in one place and wait for Him to reveal His will, or I can move forward with what is on my heart. Each choice has good points and bad.

If I choose to wait until He reveals his plan, I may prevent myself from making mistakes that would cause me great delays in seeing His will accomplished in my life. But, if I wait too long, I may delay what He is trying to accomplish and miss that opportunity.

If I move ahead without seeing His plan, but trusting that He will lead me to each step, then my journey has begun and I am in the process of discovering what His will is for me. But, if I move ahead without a revelation of His will, I may find myself in the wrong place at the wrong time.

What is the answer?

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Let’s take a minute to look at this text.

Trust =  hebrew:batach – Go in haste for refuge to trust, be confident or sure: – be bold.

Heart = hebrew: labe - The feelings, the will and even the intellect.

Lean = hebrew: shaan - The act of supporting yourself on or relying on something.

Understanding = hebrew: biynah - Wisdom or knowledge.

Ways = hebrew: derek - A course of life or mode of action.

Acknowledge = hebrew:yada - To seek and recognize.

Direct = hebrew: yashar – To make straight, smooth and seem good.

Paths = hebrew: orach -  A well troden path, a highway.

With this understanding of the text we could translate it to say;

“Be quick to be confident in the Lord with all that you are feeling in your heart, and do not rely on your own wisdom. In the actions you choose, seek and recognize Him and He will make the path recognizable as the right one for you.”

So, I believe that the Lord puts the desires in my heart when I make myself pliable to Him (Psalm 37:4). Therefore I will act on those desires if they in fact meet the  basic requirements that I already recognize in my heart as being the will of God.

St. Augustine is credited with having said, “Love God with all your heart, soul and mind, and then do what you want.” I don’t believe this to b an admonition to live a licentious lifestyle because, if we love God as described this way by Jesus, then what we want, will be the will of the Father.

Love the Lord with all your heart, soul and mind and do what He has placed on your heart. Don’t wait, move ahead and if you have truly given your heart to Him, He will direct you.

My past is behind me and my future is yet to be revealed, and I’m glad of it. I look forward to what happens next with expectancy and hope. Everything is about to change because I’m giving it up. I quit. I will quit whining about things that don’t go the way I want them to, and instead I’ll do something about it. I’ll quit grumbling about the things that bother me and look for ways to make them better. I’ll quit lamenting over the past and just forget it, move on and go somewhere else, do something new start my life over again and put it all in God’s hands.

I’m going to quit making plans and just let things happen, trusting God to guide and provide. I’m going to quit expecting something from others and begin to let them expect something from me. I’m going to quit expecting people to do what’s right and just do it my self. I’ll quit letting people hurt me and start blessing them anyway.

If you don’t understand what I’m trying to say, it’s simple. I quit. I’m done. I’m outta here. You can have it all, take what you want say what you want but I’m through with the bad and am heading toward the good.

I quit.

Case in point: I was online (comcast.net) the other day and clicked on an ad for their new superdooper, warpspeed, internet connection out of curiosity. What came up was so funny, I couldn’t stop laughing for about 5 minutes. I actually watched it about 4 or 5 times in a row. It was so cool that I e-mailed some of my friends saying, “ho ho ho ha ha ha this is so funny, you’ve got to watch it.” A little later, one of my friends writes back to me and says, “This has been on TV for a while… it’s Comast’s latest commercial.” I’m so thankful she sent that to me when she did because I was literally about 2 seconds from hitting “send” on an e-mail to about 30 people telling them, “ho ho ho ha ha ha this is so funny, you’ve got to watch it.”

At first I felt like a third grader hearing the joke about the chicken crossing the road to get to the other side. Then I realized that it was pretty cool that I haven’t seen it yet. There’s blessings in being naive about some things I guess. Anyway, please bear with me and watch this video. Ho ho ho ha ha ha it’s so funny, you’ve got to watch it. Again.

David

http://www.comcast.com/fastestfast/

This is the night we celebrate the coming of Messiah to take away the sins of the entire world. We exchange gifts to show our affection for each other. Some eat and drink and some celebrate in ways that are not honoring Him at all. But so few of us really show our appreciation for the One who gave us the greatest gift of all, forgivness.

I think most people don’t understand that by the very act of celebrating Christmas, they’re celebrating their own condemnation. Ask them what Christmas is. You’ll hear them say, it’s celebrating the birth of Jesus. Ask them who Jesus was and you’ll no doubt hear that they know the story of His dying for our sins. To celebrate this, and yet deny it’s significance and reject the gift is rejecting the Savior.

Anyone who celebrates Christmas and refuses to accept His forgiveness is without excuse. They will not be able to stand before God and say, “I never knew that He died for my sins”. “Oh really”, God might say, “why did you rejoice and celebrate His arrival every December 25th then?”

If you’re not going to accept Him as Lord, don’t celebrate His coming to the earth. If you DO accept Him, then celebrate with all your heart! Rejoice! Salvation has been made available to all that believe.

Believe the Christmas story. Jesus came and died for our sin. Rejoice and accept that gift from Him. It’s free, no strings attached, just live for Him and He’ll live through you.

Amen.

Merry Christmas!

As a young boy who had been dedicated to the service of God by his mother, Samuel the prophet is sleeping in his room in the home of Eli the Priest. 1 Samuel chapter 3 tells us that God called to Samuel and he thought it was Eli. Three times God called to him and the third time Samuel responded, “Speak to me, I’m your servant and I’m listening.”

I believe that if you’re awakened in the middle of the night, it’s the Lord calling you to prayer. It doesn’t matter if you just suddenly find yourself awake, or the chili you had earlier that evening is talking to you, or you hear a strange noise, or the dog wants to eat, all those things are, to me, the Lord tapping you on the shoulder and saying, “Get up, we need to talk.” You may think that’s crazy, but that’s the way it happened to Samuel. I want God’s will in my life so I’ll seek Him in the nighttime when He calls. I don’t want to miss out on what He’s trying to say to me.

How about you?

I’ve been reading James McDonald’s book, “Lord Change My Attitude Before It’s too late”. It’s interesting, and challenging. I’ve probably never read a book that I’ve worked so much at actually applying the principals to my own life (except for the bible). That doesn’t mean it’s easy. Changing your attitude is a difficult thing to do.

I know people that have read this book, and their lives haven’t changed. They’re still complaining about someone else or some thing as if God doesn’t really hear what they say, or see what they do. I don’t see how someone can read a book like this and not apply it to their life. What’s the point of reading a book of this nature if you’re not going to try to change your attitude? Why do people read this book and others like it then go on their way as if the words just bounced around in their skulls for a while and then exited their ears?

Jesus said “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks”. That’s true. Another proverb (although the principal is in the bible, it’s not written there) which follows closely on this is “Actions speak louder than words”. If the things we read in these books and the bible don’t show themselves in our lives, did we really receive the word that was planted in us? Or are we deceiving our own selves, being hearers and not doers?

Ask yourself that and write back with your thoughts, your successes, your failures. There should be a window at the bottom of this page, if not, click on the page title at the top, the page will regen and then there will be one at the bottom. Take a few minutes and tell me what you think.

My buddy Ian came over last night and we watched the movie “Elf”. Will Farrell is funny. After the movie we sat and talked about the Lord and what He’s doing in our lives. It’s always good to spend time talking about what God has done because it makes you thankful. Giving thanks is praising God. The giving of thanks to God can come through the blessings in my life, but I’m finding out that thanksgiving comes more through the trials than the blessings.

I carry a stone in my pocket from a trip to Mt. Pisgah this past summer. It represents the Ebenezer stone which Samuel set up as a monument of testimony to the Lord when He defeated the Philistines for them in battle. Samuel set up the stone and said “The Lord has brought us thus far.” (1 Samuel 7:12)

In reference to my current trials, My friend Scott told me that there is no escape around, over or under this, the only escape is through it. How true. At any and every point in my life I can reach into my pocket and feel that Ebenezer stone and know that the Lord has brought me thus far, and He’ll take me all the way through.

Blessings,
David