Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation – Matthew 26:41a

Yet Jesus’ simple, balanced admonition is an effective weapon against every one of these temptations to sin: watch and pray.

Lest we expect God to do all our fighting for us, we are told to watch. It is our responsibility to keep our spiritual eyes open (which sometimes means keeping our physical eyes closed or averted) for any avenue by which sin might gain entrance into our soul. We are to guard our heart from disloyalty, and our testimony from indiscretion, by actively engaging ourselves in the relentless pursuit of purity and goodness.

On the other hand, we cannot possibly expect to overcome our ever-present inclination toward sin, or the age-old cunning of Satan, in our own strength. And so we must pray. We must rely on the sustaining grace and purifying power of the Holy Spirit‘s work within us.

Because our flesh is so weak, no matter how willing our spirit may be it is imperative that we be in a constant posture of watchfulness and prayer. In fact, there is a direct correlation, Jesus tells us, between our prayerful watchfulness and our ability to withstand or avoid temptation.

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When I look at a patch of dandelions, I see a bunch of weeds that are going to take over my yard.
Kids see flowers for Mom and blowing white fluff you can wish on.

When I look at an old drunk and he smiles at me, I see a smelly, dirty person who probably wants money and I look away.
Kids see someone smiling at them and they smile back.

When I hear music I love, I know I can’t carry a tune and don’t have much rhythm so I sit self-consciously and listen.
Kids feel the beat and move to it. They sing out the words. If they don’t know them, they make up their own.

When I feel wind on my face, I brace myself against it. I feel it messing up my hair and pulling me back when I walk.
Kids close their eyes, spread their arms and fly with it, until they fall to the ground laughing.

When I pray, I say thee and thou and grant me this, give me that.
Kids say, “Hi God! Thanks for my toys and my friends. Please keep the bad dreams away tonight. Sorry, I don’t want to go to Heaven yet. I would miss my Mommy and Daddy.”

When I see a mud puddle I step around it. I see muddy shoes and dirty carpets.
Kids sit in it. They see dams to build, rivers to cross, and worms to play with.

I wonder if we are given kids to teach or to learn from? No wonder God loves the little children!
Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.

I wish you Big Mud Puddles and Sunny Yellow Dandelions!!!

Beginning our journey of faith with God requires that we immerse ourselves in His Word (Titus 1:13-14). We must learn about His love, His justice, His mercy, and His plan. We must form a relationship with Him, so that we can know Him personally through His Son, Jesus Christ (John 17:3). We should ask Him to reveal Himself to us and change us. The Bible promises that if we seek God, we will find Him (Matthew 7:7). And if we allow Him to, He will transform us into new people who can know His will (Romans 12:2). We have to be willing to die to our old selves and let go of the pride and selfishness that kept us from Him for so long. As God changes us, we will learn to develop the fruit that comes from the Holy Spirit, who dwells in all Christians (Galatians 5:22-23; John 14:17). As we walk in the Spirit, allowing Him to control our lives, we will begin to trust in Him. “Let your roots grow down into him and draw up nourishment from him, so you will grow in faith, strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught. Let your lives overflow with thanksgiving for all he has done” (Colossians 2:7).

If our trust in God is going to grow, we have to learn to step out in faith, moving out of our comfort zone and taking chances. If we believe that God will sustain us for that day, we can be free to carry out His will, regardless of the consequences. Whenever we face temptations, God will always provide a way out so that we will not be overcome (1 Corinthians 10:13). We need to look for that way out, and praise God when we find it. First Peter 1:7 says He will use trials to test our faith and to make us stronger Christians; we will be given much honor if we can stand strong and not waver. “Yet faith comes from listening to this message of good news – the Good News about Christ” (Romans 10:17).

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God blesses us with intelligence and the ability to reason. So when should we move ahead in our own understanding, and when should we seek guidance and wisdom from above? This is an important bit of information to know.

Because you are sons, God sent the spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father” (Galatians 4:6).

Native Americans speak of the ulna–a hollow bone from the eagle’s wing, used to make whistles. This bone, they teach, waits to be formed and filled with breath that will produce music. We are like that bone, waiting to be filled with the breath of the Holy Spirit, ready to sing a song of joy and deliverance to a world of lonely, hurting people.

Sadly, our own knowledge and ideas sometime get in the way. We fill our minds with myriad opinions and beliefs, too busy to line them up with the Word of God. Then our tune gets mixed up with God’s.

In 2 Samuel 7, King David was disturbed about living in a palace when the ark of God remained in a tent. The prophet Nathan answered, “Whatever you have in mind, go ahead and do it, for the Lord is with you.” But Nathan spoke presumptuously out of his own wisdom. God rebuked him that night and told him that He did not want David to build the temple but his son Solomon. Like Nathan we need to take our own ideas to God for His approval.

Abide in me, Heavenly Father, and teach me each day to better recognize and understand Your voice. In the name of Your Son, my Savior, I pray. Amen.

“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them I will liken him to a wise man who builds his house on the rock….” – Matthew 7:24.

Most of us have heard of the bonfire tragedy at Texas A & M University. 12 students were killed and 27 others were injured some seriously. We wonder how such a thing could happen. The failure appears to have been an inside job. An investigating panel at the University  concluded their investigation into the causes of the tragedy. The commission determined: “…the lowest stack, however, had inadequate wiring to hold it together. Steel cables used in recent years were not used in 1999.” In other words the bonfire stack had a poor foundation. What is true of bonfire stacks is also true of the human life. Without a good foundation we are doomed to failure.

What is the right foundation for life? “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid which is Jesus Christ”
(I Corinthians 3:11).

Once we have the right foundation we must then build with the right materials and in the right way. “But let each one take heed how he builds on it” (I Corinthians 3:10b). Even after a good foundation of a building is laid there can still be problems. You can build a house with shoddy materials and poor workmanship and a strong wind will blow it down. You can build a life with shoddy materials and the storms of life will destroy it. Without God’s building materials, without His resources (Philippians 4:19) being used in our lives, we are doomed to failure before we start.

If your life was a building and the Lord was a building inspector would you pass the inspection?

Cover of Wait on the Lord

The reason that we many times do not see or feel the Lord is that we are not waiting on the Lord. We are still on our own timetable and we are still running madly ahead of God and hoping He will catch up to our plans. But that is not how God works. He doesn’t change just because we are fickle and He does not hurry just because we are impatient.

Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord – Psalm 27:14

I do not doubt that your trial is real, that your burden is heavy, or that your discouragement is deep. But put your eyes upon this promise, wrap your mind around this word: when we wait courageously on the Lord, He will strengthen our hearts. God is never late and He is never insufficient.

What will the future bring? Wait on the Lord. When will this sorrow end? Wait on the Lord. How can I survive this ordeal? Wait on the Lord. How should I handle this decision? Wait on the Lord. The answer echoes through the tunnel of time and from the soundboard of millions of satisfied saints. Wait, I say, on the Lord.

The trial may not go away tomorrow, but neither will the strength that God has promised to give you. The pain may not diminish, but neither will His grace.

Throughout the Old Testament, God promised again and again that His salvation would be for all nations, for everyone who would accept it, no matter what race or nationality.  In Genesis 12:3 and 18:18, He said to Abram, “… all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”  In Psalm 22:27, He said, “All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will bow down before Him.” Throughout Isaiah (42:4; 49:6; 56:3-7; 60:1-3), Jeremiah (16:19-21), and Zechariah (2:11), He continues this promise.  In Malachi 1:11, He says, “My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun.  In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to My Name, because My Name will be great among the nations.”

And yet, even though God made this statement clearly over and over again, and even though in the Great Commission, Jesus Himself had told the disciples to make disciples of ALL nations, the Jewish Christians thought that they were the only ones who would make it to heaven!  They had remembered only those parts of scripture that made them feel good.

Over the years, I’ve heard people pluck one excuse after another out of the air and use it to “prove” that the Bible isn’t what it says it is… using anything they can find to place doubts in the minds of others about the reliability of the Bible… From “that’s not for today” to “it’s not translated correctly”, men and women are speaking out, not realizing that they’ve bought into the first lie the devil ever told.  Genesis 3:1-4 tells us:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
  The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,  but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ”
  “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman.

“You will not surely die…”  In other words, the devil was saying, “Eve… Eve!  Wake up!  God lied to you!   You can’t believe everything he says!  You cannot rely on God’s word!”

One after another, people today are buying into the same deception to which Eve fell prey… believing the lie that God’s word isn’t reliable and opening themselves up to every other deception of the devil in the process.

The Bible is not a salad bar.  It is 66 books brought together as one book.  Every word in it is the “God breathed” Word of God… and there is massive evidence to support the fact that it is God’s one and only Word… final, infallible and eternal.  It’s the longest love letter in the world.  You and I are not at liberty to pick and choose only those parts that are comfortable for us.  We must accept every word that God has to say to us, and accept it as absolute and infallible truth.

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”  2 Timothy 3:16-17

Joseph came in unto them in the morning, and looked upon them, and, behold, they were sad – Genesis 40:6

The surest way out of a personal pit of discouragement is to think of and serve others. The surest way to deepen your dark times is to draw into, and think more about, yourself. Joseph is perhaps the best example in the Old Testament of a selfless, servant-spirited saint and it is no coincidence that, in every situation in which he found himself, he continually rose above his trial and glorified God. When you looked at Joseph, you got a snapshot of a man who looked beyond his own problems and focused on God by helping others.

Are you going through difficult times? Have others wronged you? What has been your response? Do you think of others and how to help them, or only about yourself and your own problems? Look around you: there is a world of opportunities to help, and they are all open doors that lead out of your darkness. Today is National random act of Kindness day, take a step out of your despair today and help someone out of theirs.

If I could just turn back the time
And start my life anew,
I’d plant some roses near the paths
That I have led you through:
There’d be no thorns to pierce your heart,
No tears to dim your eyes,
I’d leave no stones to bruise your feet,
there’d be no sad goodbyes.

But Father Time will not turn back
The hours that passed away.
I can’t remove the thorns and rocks
From all those past gone days;
I cannot live my life again
But dragons I would slay,
If I could be your shining prince
For only one more day.

Train (Photo credit: MichelKuik)

There was once a bridge which spanned a large river. During most of the day the bridge sat with its length running up and down the river paralleled with the banks, allowing ships to pass thru freely on both sides of the bridge. But at certain times each day, a train would come along and the bridge would be turned sideways across the river, allowing a train to cross it.

A switchman sat in a small shack on one side of the river where he operated the controls to turn the bridge and lock it into place as the train crossed. One evening as the switchman was waiting for the last train of the day to come, he looked off into the distance thru the dimming twilight and caught sight of the trainlights. He stepped to the control and waited until the train was within a prescribed distance when he was to turn the bridge. He turned the bridge into position, but, to his horror, he found the locking control did not work. If the bridge was not securely in position it would wobble back and forth at the ends when the train came onto it, causing the train to jump the track and go crashing into the river. This would be a passenger train with many people aboard. He left the bridge turned across the river, and hurried across the bridge to the other side of the river where there was a lever switch he could hold to operate the lock manually. He would have to hold the lever back firmly as the train crossed. He could hear the rumble of the train now, and he took hold of the lever and leaned backward to apply his weight to it, locking the bridge. He kept applying the pressure to keep the mechanism locked. Many lives depended on this man’s strength.

Then, coming across the bridge from the direction of his control shack, he heard a sound that made his blood run cold. “Daddy, where are you?” His four-year-old son was crossing the bridge to look for him. His first impulse was to cry out to the child, “Run! Run!” But the train was too close; the tiny legs would never make it across the bridge in time. The man almost left his lever to run and snatch up his son and carry him to safety. But he realized that he could not get back to the lever. Either the people on the train or his little son must die. He took a moment to make his decision.

The train sped safely and swiftly on its way, and no one aboard was even aware of the tiny broken body thrown mercilessly into the river by the onrushing train. Nor were they aware of the pitiful figure of the sobbing man, still clinging tightly to the locking lever long after the train had passed. They did not see him walking home more slowly than he had ever walked: to tell his wife how their son had brutally died.

Now if you comprehend the emotions which went this man’s heart, you can begin to understand the feelings of our Father in Heaven when He sacrificed His Son to bridge the gap between us and eternal life. Can there be any wonder that He caused the earth to tremble and the skies to darken when His Son died? How does He feel when we speed along thru life without giving a thought to what was done for us thru Jesus Christ?