When I come back, I’m going to start by blogging through the journey God has had me on for the past six months or so.  It has been challenging to wrestle through this time with Him, but I am very, very, VERY excited to pursue what He has laid out to me.

Until then, may God richly bless you as you pursue His glory, His purposes, and His kingdom!  May He continue to transform your minds, lives and hearts each day!

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. – Romans 12:2

It starts with a reminder of God’s faithful love, and goes on to challenge the reader to tell other people about how He has redeemed them.

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.  Has the Lord redeemed you? Then speak out! Tell others he has redeemed you… Psalms 107:1-2

It then goes on to describe four kinds of people that God redeemed:

1. 107:4 – the downtrodden, wandering alone, lost and homeless in a cruel, uncaring world.
2. 107:10 – the passively sinful, sitting in darkness and gloom, imprisoned in chains of misery.
3. 107:17 – the aggressively sinful, suffering for their sins to the point of death.
4. 107:23 – the prodigal sons, scared to death out in the world they intended to conquer.

I think all of us can relate to one or more of these groups…I know I can.  God redeemed me from a passively sinful life.  I was not shaking my fist at Him, I just wasn’t paying any attention to Him.  I had everything I needed (supposedly), but I did not have Him.  My life was ‘full’, but my heart was full of darkness and gloom.  God redeemed me from that misery for a life that is truly ‘full’ in Him.  Thank you Father!

I love the ending of this Psalm.  Read it and take it to heart!

The godly will see these things and be glad, while the wicked are struck silent.  Those who are wise will take all this to heart; they will see in our history the faithful love of the Lord. Psalms 107:42-43

Has the Lord redeemed you?  Then speak out!

A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy?

I have absolutely no idea what that means.

You’ve also heard of Paul (from the New Testament)…he was also a pretty smart guy.  Check out what Paul said would make him truly happy:

Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose. Philippians 2:2

Paul listed three things that would make him truly happy:

1. Unity: agreeing wholeheartedly with each other.  The NIV calls this being “like-minded”.  This doesn’t mean uniform in thought, but uniform in attitude.  It means “being on the same page” with each other.
2. Love: loving one another.  This is, after all, what distinguishes us from the rest of the world.  Imagine if our love for one another was truly unique.  Imagine if we truly loved one another more than ourselves.  What would that say to the rest of the world?
3. Work: working together as one, with no pride, prejudice or pursuit of glory.  It means working to further His name and to help our co-workers.  Picture one huge workforce made of of many, many people…all working for the Kingdom.

Unity, love and work.  All for His glory and with His power.  Paul said it would make him truly happy to see the Philippians living like this.  This is still the kind of church God wants today.  It would make Him truly happy to see us living like this today.

What can we do today to make that happen?

We can’t really count on anything staying the same for too long.

Except God.

But you are always the same; you will live forever. Psalms 102:27 (NLT)

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Hebrews 13:8 (NLT)

Thank you Father that with You there is no change.  I can count on you, and you have never and will never let me down.  Your expectations of me do not change.  You have always been and will always be:

• alive
• love/loving
• strong
• the King
• grace-filled
• just
• kind
• my protector
• correct
• willing/able to save
• my Savior
• in charge
• willing to listen
• willing to speak

What about you?  What would you add to the list?

So here are two simple equations for you today:

Love God = Hate Evil and         Love Evil = Hate God

You who love the Lord, hate evil! He protects the lives of his godly people and rescues them from the power of the wicked. Psalms 97:10 (NLT)

Here is a definition of hate: to dislike intensely or passionately; feel extreme aversion for or extreme hostility toward; detest.

Do I hate evil?  Am I hostile towards it?  Do I detest it, loath it, reject it, run from it?

Or, do I date evil?  Do I tolerate it, relax with it, laugh at it, enjoy it…even embrace it?

I think the answer is “it depends”.  There is some evil on my Top-10 list of things that I hate.  But I think I also have a list of things that I date but God hates.  Gluttony is just plain fun.  Gossip often feels good in the moment.  Pride and arrogance help me to shift my focus to other people’s short-comings so that I can ignore mine.

Scripture says (in a bunch of places, by the way) that loving God naturally results in hating evil.  It also says that loving evil reveals a hatred for God.  We cannot have it both ways.  Luke-warm is not an option He gives us.

Let me offer this prayer up for you and I.  God, don’t allow us deceive ourselves any longer.  Reveal the areas in our life where we are dating evil, courting it, enjoying it.  Don’t let us rationalize it away, but convict us of our sin and cleanse us from loving the things that you hate.  Help us to hate sin with a Godly hatred.  Help us to love You God, and only you!

Bend down, O Lord, and hear my prayer; answer me, for I need your help. Protect me, for I am devoted to you. Save me, for I serve you and trust you. You are my God. Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am calling on you constantly. Give me happiness, O Lord, for I give myself to you. Psalms 86:1-4 (NLT)

Here is my challenge for you today:

1. Look down the 1st list and find one thing to thank God for!  For me, it is the great happiness & joy that He has given me!
2. Look down the 2nd list and find one thing You need His help with.  For me, it is to serve and trust in Him alone.

We serve a great and glorious God that is worthy of our praise!  Let’s thank Him for who He is and ask Him to change us into true worshippers of Him!

Every single one of us has been in that place before.  We have all stood at the edge of our own personal Red Sea.  We feel like there is no way out of our current circumstance.  We feel trapped, alone, hopeless and abandoned.  We feel foolish for having walked this far, incapable of going back, and sure that no one cares.

If you are in that spot now, please read Psalm 77.  It is a great reminder of God’s limitless love and grace, but even more importantly of His limitless power.  He not only wants to help, but He has the power to do what is seemingly impossible.

Your road led through the sea, your pathway through the mighty waters— a pathway no one knew was there! You led your people along that road like a flock of sheep, with Moses and Aaron as their shepherds. Psalms 77:19-20 (NLT)

God will make a way where there seems to be no way.  God will part the waters when they threaten to overwhelm us.  We may need to repent of some sin, believe with our whole heart or push forward in faith.  We may need to seek Godly counsel to determine the path He wants us on.  But if we seek Him and trust in Him, He will make a way.

Sometimes life is just plain hard.  In fact, the Bible promises that our lives will be hard.  But why is it so hard?  We live a society where it is always someone else’s fault.  It is the government’s fault, the teacher’s fault, our supervisor’s fault, our kid’s fault, the bank’s fault, God’s fault, our neighbor’s fault, the cop’s fault, etc, etc.  It is rarely, if ever, our fault.

There are several reasons our lives are hard:

• The world: sometimes our lives are hard because we live in a fallen world.
• Other people: sometimes our lives are hard because of other people’s sins.
• Our need: sometimes our lives are hard because God needs to mold our character to better reflect His character.
• Our sin: sometimes our lives are hard because of our sin.

Sometimes it is the world and sometimes it is other people.  But sometimes life is hard because we need for it to be and/or we deserve for it to be.  That was the case for the Israelites.

The Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight and served the images of Baal. They abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They went after other gods, worshiping the gods of the people around them. And they angered the Lord. They abandoned the Lord to serve Baal and the images of Ashtoreth. This made the Lord burn with anger against Israel, so he handed them over to raiders who stole their possessions. He turned them over to their enemies all around, and they were no longer able to resist them. Every time Israel went out to battle, the Lord fought against them, causing them to be defeated, just as he had warned. And the people were in great distress. – Judges 2:11-15 (NLT)

He warned them, they disobeyed Him…and He fought against them.  Can you imagine having God consistently fighting against you?  Life was hard.  That is so true of our lives sometimes.  He warns us, we disobey Him…and we are surprised at how hard our lives are!  Some of the hardship in our lives is out of our control, but some of it is for our good and because of our sin!

Here is my suggestion for us today…let’s ask God to reveal to us why life is so hard right now.  Let’s ask Him why He seems so distant, why nothing seems to be going right.  It is the world?  It is other people?  Or is it that He is making us more like Him through trial or discipline?

Consider that our lives are meant to be a perpetual “show and tell” for the next generation.  Through our actions and our words, the next generation will see and hear what God has done for his people over the centuries and for us today.  Not only is this a great privilege, it is also a great responsibility.  Knowledge of the wonder and power of Christianity is always one generation away from extinction.

After that generation died, another generation grew up who did not acknowledge the Lord or remember the mighty things he had done for Israel. – Judges 2:10 (NLT)

The generation spoken of here is the generation right after Joshua, one of the great men of the Old Testament.  How could it be that this generation had no memory of what God had done for their parents?  Because they did not see it or hear about it.  The older generation was silent.

So everyone, not only can we do this perpetual “show and tell” with our families and friends, we must!  We must let the next generation see God working in our lives.  We must tell them about the great things God has done for us (and for them)!  We must tell them of His great love, His great power, His great action throughout history!  This isn’t an optional activity…we must do it!

O my people, listen to my instructions. Open your ears to what I am saying, for I will speak to you in a parable. I will teach you hidden lessons from our past— stories we have heard and known, stories our ancestors handed down to us. We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his power and his mighty wonders. – Psalms 78:1-4 (NLT)

So, what do you say?  Want to have a “show and tell” today?