Good People
by Susan Lucas
I recently attended a Jack Johnson concert. It seemed like everyone in Raleigh was there. People were clamoring for seats and no one sat down the whole concert. I have to admit, he was really excellent. While there, I began to wonder why he is such a popular artist. His music is simple. As my son said, he’s basically a two note guy. So what’s the appeal? Then I began to really listen to his lyrics…
Wherd all the good people go
I’ve been changing channels
I dont see them on the tv shows
Wherd all the good people go
We got heaps and heaps of what we sow
They got this and that and
with a rattle a tat
testing one two
now whatcha gunna do?
got too much to lose
gimme some truth
now whos side are we on?
Whatever you say
turn on the boob tube
Im in the mood to obey
so lead me astray by the way, now
I found his words painfully truthful. I long for the days of a sincere handshake, a promise that you can count on and unselfish motives. We are inindated with images of reality shows where people are either selling themselves or hurting others to get ahead. There are no “good people”. As Christians, we seem to mostly accept it all and become part of that culture. That makes me sad. We watch those shows. We are reaping what we sow. We are in the mood to obey. LET’S NOT BE LED ASTRAY.
The Eternal Holy Revisited
by Linda Lail
Isaiah Chapter Six
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
The whole earth is full of His glory!”
And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. So I said:
“Woe is me, for I am undone!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King,
The Lord of hosts.”
THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE HOLY
A.W. Tozer
Chapter 21
The Holiness of God
“Until we have seen ourselves as God sees us, we are not likely to be much disturbed over conditions around us as long as they do not get so far out of hand as to threaten our comfortable way of life. We have learned to live with unholiness and have come to look upon it as the natural and expected thing. We are not disappointed that we do not find all truth in our teachers or faithfulness in our politicians or complete honesty in our merchants or full trustworthiness in our friends. That we may continue to exist we make such laws as are necessary to protect us from our fellow men and let it go at that.
“Holy is the way God is. To be holy He does not conform to a standard. He is that standard. He is absolutely holy with an infinite, incomprehensible fullness of purity that is incapable of being other than it is. Because He is holy, His attributes are holy; that is, whatever we think of as belonging to God must be thought of as holy.”
“We must hide our unholiness in the wounds of Christ as Moses hid himself in the cleft of the rock while the glory of God passed by. We must take refuge from God in God. Above all we must believe that God sees us perfect in His Son while He disciplines and chastens and purges us that we may be partakers of His holiness.”
Lord, God Most High, we are Your Bride. Give us a new vision of Your holiness and help us surrender to the cleansing power of Your blood that we may be a shining holiness in a world dark with unholiness. As Your Bride waiting for Your return we pray:
Even so, come Lord Jesus, come.
Time
by Tina Bruno
Time is indeed an interesting concept. As a child, I never gave it much thought; I was much too busy having fun. I wanted so desperately to get older, to become a young woman. Suddenly, there I was! Then, I was busy marrying my handsome husband, and having wonderful sons.
I still gave no thought to time. I raised my sons, worked hard, and time continued to go by. Suddenly, I am a half century old, and I realize that I have less time left in this world, in this time, than what I have already lived.
As we go through our life, the only one we have been afforded, our God, The Ancient of Days, remains unchanged. We change, we grow old, but we are trapped in time. Our Blessed Lord is not! I realize that this prison of time that we live in is no problem for our God. One day, we will no longer be “timed”. We will live on in an eternity that has no limitations. Our wise God has mercifully allowed our time in this world to be short compared to an eternity with Him.
Romans 8:18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” If life is difficult or time seems too short, remember this glorious promise!
Exchanging the Truth for a Lie
by Maria Simone
I’m not sure when I decided that the battle in my mind could not be won, but at some point in the last 6 months I did just that. I forgot how powerful my God is, and I gave in to the lies that said that I was worthless, weak and a failure. The result was depression and anxiety like I had not experienced before. Little things like being late for an appointment were making me anxious to the point where my thinking was distorted. I was having trouble sleeping, I was tired all the time, and having trouble relating to others. Sometimes I would cry for no reason and feel like the world was closing in on me. I thought I was losing my mind, and I felt a million miles away from the Lord.
After many prayers from friends and family, God began to deliver me from this darkness. He gave me a scripture that pierced straight to my heart, Romans 1: 21 and 25: “For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened…They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator — Who is forever praised. Amen.” I had exchanged God’s truth for a lie, bowing down to the lies in my mind and letting them control me. Because of this, my thinking became futile and my heart was darkened.
2 Corinthians 10: 3-5 states “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought into the obedience of Christ”. Beth Moore, in her Bible study “Breaking Free”, makes two very important points about this scripture. First, the Greek word for “stronghold” in this verse is ochuroma, which means “a fortification or fortress”. A stronghold is anything we hold on to that ends up holding on to us. Strongholds are ways of thinking that we create, whether or not we are aware, for protection and comfort. Inevitably, however, these fortresses become our prisons.
Second, the Greek word for “demolish” in this verse is kathairesis, meaning “demolition, destruction of a fortress”. Verse 4 says that our weapons have divine power to demolish strongholds. At peak strength, human effort is useless in demolishing strongholds. No amount of discipline or determination will do it. Please hear this: Satanic strongholds require divine demolition. I remember saying to myself in my depression “this is too hard, I just can’t do this anymore, I can’t fight this”. I was right about one thing, I can’t fight this, but God CAN. When I hold fast to Him, and use the sword of the Spirit, the Truth of His Word, to cut down the lies, He will provide the divine dynamite to bring down every stronghold. I thank God even for the darkness that I went through, because I now know Him in a way that I had not known Him before, and His presence is sweeter than ever. He has filled me with hope again and restored my joy. His mercy astounds me. My prayer is that God will give each of us wisdom to recognize the lies in our minds, and strength to exchange them for His Truth.
He Can Move Mountains!
by Sharon Boling
It says in Matthew 17:20 that “…if you have faith as small as a mustard seed you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” In Ephesians, Paul says a prayer that talks about faith and the power of Christ. He says, “God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, His Spirit deeply and gently within us. (3:20-21)
Did you notice how it says, “within us?” Sometimes when we think of God moving mountains, it is external. For example, we think about God changing circumstances we don’t particularly like or changing something physical that is beyond our control. Of course, God can certainly do those things. But maybe God is looking to move mountains in our hearts and souls. Is there a hurt from your past that seems to creep up when you least expect it? Are you still holding a grudge that has been there for years? Is there a fear that you keep on trying to overcome, but no matter what you do it won’t go away? Maybe you are angry about something that happened a few months ago and you are having a hard time letting it go. These are “mountains” that He can move if we have even the tiniest amount of faith! According to scripture, the Holy Spirit does it “not by pushing us around, but by working gently within us.” All we have to do is ask and believe.
Our God is kind, loving and good. He wants to move our mountains, no matter how hard we think the task might be. After all, He specializes in the impossible!
Laying Ourselves Aside
by Genel Webb
A few years ago, I read something where the premise was the following (and I agree, by the way). One way to get to know or learn another person is to refuse to focus on ourselves and really listen to them and hear what they’re saying. This statement is not a revelation, but if we examine whether we actually do this or not, the result may be a revelation.
When we’re meeting someone for the first time, some of us are preoccupied with making a great impression, so we’re thinking mainly about what we are going to say to them, while they are talking to us. We’re thinking about how we are being perceived.
When we can lay aside ourselves or put the concern of ourselves aside, we can truly hear what the other person is saying, and the feelings behind what they are saying. We hear their minds, their hearts and spirit.
I’ve come to the conclusion that when I’m going to be with others in a group or one on one, there is often a need for me to pray and ask the Lord to help me to keep my focus on others and never on myself. It never fails to make for an interesting encounter. Personally, I’m interested in all people, and I believe that everyone has an interesting story. People discern whether we are listening and have a real interest in them and whatever they are sharing. I encourage us to try to not present ourselves in these types of encounters — and let the preeminent focus be to listen and hear what others are saying. We’ll learn and get to know people much better.
Seeing the World Through God’s Eyes
by Beverly Mueffelmann
A critical component in raising children who will follow the Lord all the days of their lives is a biblical worldview. “Worldview” basically means the lens through which we interpret the information that comes to us on a daily basis. A biblical worldview, then, would be interpreting the information and circumstances that come to us through the lens of the Word of God. A biblical worldview needs to be at the foundation of our childrens’ thinking if we expect them to stay faithful to the truth and not be led astray into other streams of thought.
It is important to note that a biblical worldview differs from a western Christian worldview. While a western Christian worldview is culturally-bound and rooted in religious tradition, a biblical worldview is rooted in the truths of the Word of God that apply across culture and time. For example, a western Christian worldview of the church’s role is to save souls, live a blessed life, and enjoy heaven’s rewards. The Bible paints a much more active role for the church, that of reclaiming the territory stolen by the devil and of actively engaging the forces of evil in this world for God’s glory. In the words of a seasoned saint, the first worldview paints the picture of the church as a cruise ship and the other as that of a battleship. It’s also the difference between living with a peace-time mentality or with a war-time mentality. The choices we make reflect what we really believe about God and our role in His world.
In addition, our children’s worldview also needs to be a true “world – view”. While the United States is a wonderful place to live, there’s a much larger world beyond our borders that the Bible calls us to engage in prayer and other mission effort. Our children need to understand this larger calling on their lives in order not to become bored with a cruise ship existence and seek excitement elsewhere. Living for God’s purposes can be incredibly exciting if we seek to live out God’s call to defeat our spiritual enemy and plunder his spoils!
So, how do we teach this biblical worldview to our children? We must first understand it ourselves. What is our own view of the world around us, our concept of God, and our role in His story? Our own worldview needs to be aligned with that of scripture before we can teach it to our children. Secondly, we can make our children more aware of the world around us - its people and its needs. Window on the World, the children’s version of Operation World, is a great place to start. You can also request Kids of Courage or visit their website to inspire your children to live for something larger than themselves. Finally, pray that your children would see the world through God’s eyes and that He would use your children for His purposes in their generation. It’s a prayer that God desires to hear and that He will answer!
Play It Forward
by Nora Neal-Daggett
What impressed me most about Pat was that she was genuine, warm, honest, and open — the qualities that draw you in and pave the way for more conversation. I was hoping to snag a few days more at the beach. Todd, Marzetta and the girls were coming down to pick me up and drive me to meet Tim and Rachael. I thought it would be so nice if we could spend a few days together at the beach…make a new memory.
She seemed interested and sympathetic as I explained that my husband had died less than a year ago. She asked how…you seem so young. I explained…and we unbeknown to us began a “ heart-to-heart” relationship.
While leafing through a very large ledger as she listened, she would make eye contact. (They were not computerized at this rental agency. In my opinion, technology has taken away the “human touch”. People are so into the screen that there is no eye contact!) So, this just added to the southern charm and sealed a place in my heart for her.
We chatted as she perused the cottages that were available. She told me she had been a school teacher, now retired and that her family had owned the business for over 30 years. She and her husband preferred to carry on the office in the “traditional way”. “It worked for my parents, and it works for us,” she said. She told me that her husband was very involved in local governmental affairs. Her husband worked with others to maintain Holden Beach as a family oriented vacation spot while she and her staff ran the office.
We found the perfect place “Martian’s Roost” for the kids and I to spend a few days. As we completed the rental agreement, I decided that Holden Beach Properties would have my business from now on.
Fast-forward three years. It is mid week of my vacation with my girlfriend of 30 years. It is time to reserve our cottage for next year. I’m excited to see Pat and the girls at the rental office. I run up the wooden stairs, open the door, hear the warm familiar ring of the bell announcing my presence and Pat walked out with the same genuine warm smile and greeted me by saying; “Well, if it isn’t my friend Nora Daggett!”
I begin by telling her how wonderful our cottage by he sea is and how marvelously awesome God is to allow me one more year at Holden. I give the pot-a-note version of the past year, my book, and my new relationship. I notice her eyes were kind, as always. But, there was also a hint of sadness, I thought to myself. She listened to me and then said, “So there is joy on the other side, I lost David this year.”
I stopped in mid-sentence. Time stood still as I wrapped my mind around her words. I moved towards her and asked her if I could hug her and before she could answer my arms were pulling her toward me and I began to pray. “Lord, God, hold her tender fragmented heart in your hands and heal it. Hold her close Lord and give her peace. You promise in your word, Lord, that you will carry us through sorrow and over the bumpy roads of mourning and we claim that right now, In the name of Jesus!”
I held her for a few more seconds…heart touching heart…strength touching weakness.
I knew in that moment that God’s promise in Isaiah 61:4 was true. I was “a mighty oak of righteousness, planted for the Lords glory!” I held this verse close to my heart as I walked the road from mourning to joy. Now I was playing it forward.
Scripture: Isaiah 61: 3-4. He will comfort all who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness: They will be called mighty oaks of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He maybe glorified.
Prayer: Thank you Lord, for using me to demonstrate that there is joy after deep sorrow. I have traveled the roads of sorrow simply by leaning, trusting and depending on you. I reached out to someone whose pain I could see and feel. Praise God, that YOU used me to touch and impart the promise that joy does come…later. God, you are awesome and your word is true. THANK YOU FOR ALLOWING ME TO BE A LIVING TESTIMONY! In JESUS NAME, Amen.