Smiling with God...

Matthew 6:19-21 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Usually we just pass by this verse and say some cliché thing like, "Oh it's all about the heart." It's such a great thing to think, but often times that's all we really do. We just think about it. Do we mean what we say? Or do we just say it? Does it really mean that our hearts is connected to Jesus and the will of our Father that we use our treasures for His kingdom? Are we really okay with not splurging money on ourselves? I'm not saying we shouldn't take care of our needs, but seriously, do we really need so much stuff? Here God is saying, what is your treasure? What are you doing with the resources I have brought you? R

1 Corinthians 12:27 "Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it." We all have a part to play in this great body of Christ. We all have something to contribute. The Kingdom is so large that we all need to take part in it for the body to grow. We all also don't need to be ashamed of what we do. Though it may seem lesser to some, it is not a diminished job in the eyes of the Lord. In the Lord there are jobs that we may not find as not important. But to Him it is very importnant. In fact we all need to do our assignment from God. It is all so important. We will not be effective without each other. In Him playing our part is vital to everything. This is kind of encouraging to me. Though what I feel like I do right now is worthless in my eyes, and not what I really wanted to do in life, but this verse gives me the encouragement to keep going. To keep the fight and keep the faith which is not an easy thing. Especially when I feel like we are

Mark 14:10-11 Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So he watched for an opportunity to hand him over. Now prior to this verse we see Jesus being anointed with oil by a poor woman. Some people became indignant and were upset. Judas was the one who lead that. Not sure if he really started it, but he was the keeper of the money, and there are many references saying he was not being a faithful steward of his position. With that in mind, when he saw this act, he decided it was good idea to betray Jesus. He was so upset over the situation that he let his emotions take over and then bam, he is lead to betray Jesus. It seems that he let his emotions over the situation get the best of him and it lead him to some really bad decisions. I can say, hey no big deal, but really, emotions can get the best of you. The NY Mets just lost the MLB World Series. One commentator said

Job 17:11 My days have passed, my plans are shattered, and so are the desires of my heart. Yes, sometimes God breaks and shatters dreams. In this case Job has come to the realization that he has lost everything. Finances, family, friends, all of it gone. But what he doesn't know is that later in the book God blesses him with so much more. Job does not know the end yet. He is stuck in the middle. He knows only pain and suffering. But there is light at the end of the tunnel. However, it does not come for a long time. In fact he won't know for like another 20 chapters. The lesson here is that sometimes that in order for God to bring blessing, there needs to be a changing of things. Even when you lose everything, and you feel you are in the depths of despair, God is breaking your old dreams, to create new ones. And ones that are greater than what we could even imagine. It is not fun to be in this part of the narrative. It is a time of great uncertainty and great unrest.

Ezra 7:10 For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel. You know that studying the law of the Lord is such an awesome thing. We all need to study it and know it and have it in our hearts. But Ezra takes it to a place where, if we are serious, we should all go. Now, we know that we should all strive to know the Lord and His commands. But here in this verse is where the kicker is for most of us. It’s that little saying in the verse: “Ezra set his heart…” Ezra set his heart in the right direction. He set His heart. Meaning he willfully, knowingly, and purposefully turned his full attention to God and His laws. He set his heart on the right things. He set his heart on the Lord God. He set his heart to know His laws and by knowing His laws, Ezra gained understanding and knew God. I just read something about how this generation can barely hold 15-20 seconds of attention. The TV, the internet, the social media, h

Ezekiel 8:14-15 Then he brought me to the entrance to the north gate of the house of the Lord, and I saw women sitting there, mourning for Tammuz. He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? You will see things that are even more detestable than this.” Here the Lord is showing Ezekiel that there is something going wrong with Israel. Here a woman is mourning over a Sumerian god. The Lord is obviously grieved and saddened over this. It is not a normal thing to do for the people of Israel. They have stepped away from serving the true God. The nation of Israel has stepped away from their calling, they have rejected God, and the worst was yet to come. I believe that the Lord is truly saddened when Christians step away from their calling and retreat away from their God. Now whether or not you believe that “once a Christian always a Christian”, or in the theory of “were you ever saved at all” we can all agree that God is not happy when it happens. Especially in this case where they not

Jeremiah 10:23 I know, O Lord, that a man’s life is not his own, it is not for man to direct his steps Jeremiah knows who is really in charge. Unlike the rest of Israel, he recognizes that God is the one who is controlling the destiny of the people there. Jeremiah is fully aware that God is the one who can withhold punishment, bring peace, and administer judgement. In this statement, Jeremiah also submits. There is something submission does to people. It brings them to humbly come before God and ask what to do. It means that the individual must rely upon God for everything. And that is exactly what Jeremiah does. His reliance upon God is unprecedented. At this point there is nothing that Jeremiah can do but to whole submit his request and wait for God to execute His plan. Jeremiah’s only option is to sit and wait. His reliance is on God. You know, there are times in life where I have come to this point. There is nothing I can do but wait on God. Couple of years ago I had a

Jeremiah 7:22-23 For when I brought your forefathers out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices, but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways I command you, that it may go well with you. Nothing wrong with rituals. I at times enjoy having going through a church service that is very ritualistic. The Israelites seem to have got that part down also, but as time goes on, it seems that the Israelites tend to forget that following God is more than just doing the rituals and going through the motions. He desires here that the Israelites actually walk the walk. His true desire is that He wants is for them to obey. He wants them to walk in obedience to Him. Offerings and sacrifices are just part of the equation The rest of it is that very important command: "Obey Me". I have, in times, put God in a box. I separated "rituals and sacrifices" from

Romans 4:19 No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith and he gave glory to god, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. Here Paul talks about Abraham and his faith. He talks about how strong faith directs and guides your life. It gives you confidence and strength during times of trouble and doubt. Not only that, it gives assurance and security in life. Yet, faith is tough, it’s not easy to believe in something that is not seen and act as if it is real. Not knowing if it will happen sometimes known as suspense is what we don’t like. We like knowing. But like the popular quote says, “The opposite of faith is certainty”. We love certainty, we love knowing, we love having it written down on paper signed and sealed. Yet that is exactly what faith is not. Not knowing what will happen or if it will ever happen in your life time but trusting that it will happen. That is the nature of faith. It’s not easy. It is no

Matthew 15:15-16 Peter said, “Explain the parable to us?” “Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. Wow. Nothing like being called stupid by God. Peter by far is the most interesting disciple. Sometimes he’s the person you admire other times he’s the idiot. Here Jesus called him “dull” But in other translations it literally says stupid. Imagine Jesus saying to you, “Are you stupid?” Nothing like being embarrassed like that. Let’s take things into perspective and take a look at this. The parable they are asking about is the one where Jesus is explaining to the Pharisees what goes in to the the mouth does not make you unclean but what comes out of the mouth makes you unclean. Pretty basic right? And really we weren’t there so I’m thinking…. maybe Jesus did not understand the question. But he is Jesus. So that’s probably not the case. Now being called stupid requires you to either one, already know something that is being said, or two it is common knowledge. So I’m thinking the

Genesis 2:20-21 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. This is an interesting. Prior to these verses, God states that it's not good for man to be alone. Then he makes Adam name all the animals. Kind of weird, but if you ask me there is something up about that. So I had to go and look it up several commentaries and see what others though about this. Surely I was not the only one who wondered why in the world did God just not make someone for Adam, seems to make the most sense. Little did I know that after some digging, it was not that God there were some that were some crazy explanations, then one that just hit me like a ton of bricks. That was this, sometimes we don't recognize that we need something till we need it. In th