Smiling with God...

“Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out, in the gateways of the city she makes her speech.” Proverbs 1:20-21 Everyone wants wisdom. Everyone wants to have the “secret” to life that will bring happiness, success, and fulfillment. However, the calling of wisdom is tricky. Here the wisest man of all time allows us to see the characteristics of where wisdom calls. He gives three distinct places. Wisdom calls us out in the street. She calls us in areas of public, in areas we are familiar with, in an area that is all around us. She calls us out at beginning of the street, in fact she cries out. She also cries out at the gateways of the city. The place where people come in and out. Three distinct places, three distinct situations. Now those places could be anywhere. But from what I gather, I think these places could be three distinct places in our lives. The street is our everyday life, our ...

“Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, ”May you never bear fruit again!“ Immediately the tree withered. Matthew 21:19 This story always baffeled me. Why in the world would Jesus destroy a tree because it did not bear fruit. Then all of sudden I got it. The fig’s whole purpose was to bear fruit. If the fig did not bear fruit then what is the point of having a tree like that. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who taught that. A lot of preachers before me said the same thing. But they were on to something. Apparently It would be pointless to have a tree there ready in season and it looks like it is going to bear much fruit, but in reality it is empty. I wonder what God thinks of me. I wonder if He is thinking great things . Today’s lesson really pushes me to excel for the kingdom. Don’t slack. Grow the fruit. And why not God is asking us to help out in his wonderful kingdom. I pray that God show me how th...

“But so that we may not offend them, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.” -Jesus (Matt 17:27) Here is an interesting verse. Jesus and Peter is approached by these regulators on paying a temple tax to the people there. Jesus knew it was wrong. He knew it wasn’t necessary but instead of just walking away, he instructed Peter to just go ahead and pay the tax. Don’t offend them. Jesus here picks his battles wisely. He did not give the temple tax people reason to find fault with Him or Peter. Jesus made sure that people mentioned here were not offended by He and His followers. He stopped the talk before it began. He made a decision put a small battle aside for the sake of keeping the ministry going. I needed to hear that. I needed to hear that not all battles are equal. Know when to hold and know when to fold, is a good strategy for poker ...

“But the four principal gatekeepers, who were Levites, were entrusted with the responsibilities for the rooms and treasuries in the house of God.” 1 Chron. 9:26 Assignments are important. Here there was an upmost importance that the Levites had in making sure that the temple was kept pure and was kept right. That was a good thing. Here they had an assignment and they knew exactly what to do. The key word here is entrusted. They were given the responsibility to take care of the temple not by man but by God. They realized that God owns everything and they were given the charge of taking care of what was His. So, how does this apply to me? Sometimes I forget that everything belongs to God. I truly don’t own anything. It seems that sometimes I need to be reminded that I am really just a steward of what God gives me. He provides the money, He provides the way, He brings the resources. I am just responsible to steward all he has given me in the correct fashion. However to do that ...

Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented. Matthew 3:15 John must have been pretty surprised here. I’m pretty sure he wasn’t expecting to baptized Jesus. To him this must have been somewhat crazy. I mean Jesus was God, John knew that. So why he have to baptized Him. John was right, it should have been the other way around. But what is interesting here is that Jesus said this must be done. It must be complete. He did it to fulfill everything that it would be proper. This marked the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. This was the start. The intro to the next three years that rocked the world. So it was only fitting that it begin this way. Now for me there are several lessons that you can learn from this. One is that like Jesus, I must complete all things. Even if it sounds or looks ridiculous, or if it is embarassing, or if it weird. To complete everything is necessary to end one season and begin the nex...

“Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.” 2 Corinthians 7:1 Here Paul says to purify yourself form everything that contaminates the body and spirit and reach for holiness. Interesting, at least what you can draw here. Last night I was watching this special on the History channel and what it talked about was the seven deadly sins in Christendom, with a special emphasis on lust. Besides the awesome interesting history it talked about, towards the end of the program they were discussing how scientific it was to lust. What they found that when people are exposed to lustful images certain chemicals begin to dominate their brain and it begins to dominate their thinking pattern at that time. Then what happens is the part of the brain that dominates cognitive thinking is reduced. Thus the phrase “thinking with the wrong head” is actually correct. But what the prog...

His father and mother replied, "Isn't there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among all our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife?" But Samson said to his father, "Get her for me. She's the right one for me." (His parents did not know that this was from the LORD, who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines; for at that time they were ruling over Israel.) Judges 14:3-4 This is really an interesting passage. Here it states that though Samson did not do things the traditional way, nor did he listen to the advice of his parents. But what is crazy is that it was the Lord that was behind it all. It was God who orchestrated this and it was God who allowed this to happen. It was an opportunity for God to develop Samson to engage with the Philistines. Unknown to everyone God knows what he was doing. So what does that mean for me? It means that there are some things that happen that are out of my control but it...