Smiling with God...

Mark 1:38 And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.” Now there was much to do here in this town. Jesus was preaching and healing, so people were coming all over to see him here in this town. But all of a sudden, after a quiet time in the desert, Jesus tells his disciples, “Let’s go.” I’m sure the disciples were thinking what we are all thinking, “WHY?” But what see is the right thing to do is not necessarily the thing to do. Jesus knew what His mission was: to please the Father and do what He called him to do. Obedience, to the call and to pleasing the Father, that is what Jesus modeled. He knew his mission on earth was to call the sinners to repentance, be the sacrifice for all, and therefore it will bring glory to God. It seems that he does this at every level here. From the get go he was obedient to God and stayed true to the calling that God had on his life. Jesus knew what to do, when to do it, and how ...

Haggai 1:3-4 Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of host: Consider your ways. You know when God says something along the lines above, you forgot to do something. Here it seems that the Israelites were taking care of themselves going on in life, but it seems they forgot that God called them back for a purpose. To set up His temple. So what does God do, he summons Haggai to call them to order, making them step it up. Stepping it up consist of becoming who God called you to be or to do what He called you to do. Now I don’t blame the Israelites, they are building their city back. They are building their houses, their farms, their lives. It’s not a small nor easy task. So therefore God understandably gives grace, however, when the time has past that after the set up is done and they are beginning to try and make money or become profitable, that’s when He calls. He calls them back to not fo...

Ezekiel 16:30 ‘How weak-willed you are, declares the Sovereign Lord, when you do all these things, acting like a brazen prostitute.’ Being weak willed is not exactly a compliment. Especially since when God is in your corner. Being weak willed according to the dictionary means to be easily swayed, to be easily distracted. I can’t help but to think of the Doug the Dog from Pixar’s movie Up. Smart intelligent, but has the really funny moments where he is distracted by a what he thinks is a squirrel. It became termed as “squirrel!” moments. Truly funny to watch in this movie, but in real life, not so much. What God is communicating here is that the Israelites are like that, focused then all of a sudden “squirrel!” off to another thing . Maybe they might come back maybe they won’t. What is certain here is that God did not want his children to be weak willed. To be swayed by other things. He wants His children to be focused in upon loving Him and Him alone. To follow Him and Him al...

Jeremiah 48:10 A curse on him is is lax in doing the Lord’s work. A curse on him how keeps his sword from bloodshed. This is what we to need recognize, that doing God’s work is not only a necessary thing to do but we should not be lax in doing it. The Moabites should have been focusing on doing God’s work. It’s pretty obvious here that they were not walking closely with God. Therefore this warning takes place. The word here though is not disobedience it is lax. Lax according to the dictionary means not careful enough, not strict enough, not firm, vague. It’s not disobedience, they just let things slide. It’s like they did not clean up their mess after they cooked dinner, they just left it. They got lazy, they got content, whatever you call it, they just let it go. But now the Lord is calling out on them. But I’m sure this did not do that overnight, it must have been  a slow decline, a slow fade. It’s like becoming out of shape, you don’t notice it till you have hike a h...

Matthew 25:14-15 “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability.” This passage has been such a difficult thing to figure out. It has been something that I have been dealing with and something that I have been longing to understand. Many people see that as that God gives you talents and you got to take your talents and live for God. But what are talents. It has been explained talent to be either your real talents, or money, or something God gives you. However, there is a distinction between talent and ability here. After reading this commentary ( http://www.raystedman.org/new-testament/matthew/living-dangerously) it seems that things make more sense here. Talent, the way we know talent, according to this passage is ability, and talent as referred to in this setting is opportunity. The property owne...

Psalms 106:1 Praise the Lord! Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! This is a crazy kind of love. It is the kind of love that does not let go. No matter how unfaithful or how terrible it is, God will not let go of Israel. I read a commentary saying this is what the Hebrew word “chesed” which refers when God talks about his people Israel. It is a covenant word, between God and His people. Which is sort of crazy. If you think about it, it is crazy that He even loves us. It is His nature to love us, but it is also in his nature to be holy and just. We are not allowed in His presence due to our sin, but because of His love for us, He provided a way. This is very amazing and at the same time, just unbelievable. It just doesn’t make sense. The more I ponder this, I just find it unbelievable. I mean we are all crazy people. We ignore God, we betray Him, we do our own thing, we never get it right, but for some odd reason, He sent His son w...

Deuteronomy 4:9 Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. Big command from Moses. Do not forget what God has done for you. We know what he is saying, but guess what, we are human and as humans tend to forget. I like the word Moses uses here, he says to not “let then slip”. The thing about slipping is that it’s so unexpected. This past winter has been pretty crazy. Though the snow is nice, what I don’t like all that on is that the ice on the road and on the walk ways. It makes walking pretty dangerous Most of the time you can’t see it, you walk and the next thing you know is that you are on your butt. You have to be careful you have to be always aware that you can slip anytime and that it could be dangerous. When I read this verse here from Moses, I think of that. Slipping. Something that can be easil...