He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. (Isaiah 40:29) Here’s some encouragement before the weekend. If you feel drained from a very long week at work then memorize the verse above and believe it. Here’s why, it comes from the previous verse in the passage: “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable” (v28). If God wants to give you power He can. He doesn’t lose anything by give you more power than you have our know to ask for. Honestly that’s all you really need to know on any given day. Are you ready to get strength? We are praying that you receive more strength than you thought possible.

From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water. (James 3:10-12)

Here’s the tone that James, brother of Jesus is writing: there is a huge difference between what we believe and how we act, especially noticeable is the dichotomy between our speech or words and our actions.

The interesting thing is that James knows that it is impossible to live so flawlessly. In fact, we would be perfect if we could do that. But since the conclusion is that we’re imperfect people, we need to figure out how to curb that imperfection as much as we can, not that we’ll ever get there (perfection), but in the hopes that the grace of God would instill in us His power to speak and do good.

I don’t really think I need to elaborate on the Bible passage to explain what and how we should be speaking to people, but just in case you believe it’s up for interpretation, allow me to clear it up for you.

We can’t claim to embody love if we are beating up on people with our words. If we are harsh with our words, then we have to ask ourselves whether we even know what we’re embodying.

So you remember that thing you said to your friend of family yesterday? We know you didn’t mean it, but you were frustrated and they were starting to annoy you, was that right?

What about the whipping you put on your co-worker? The negative thing you said in passing to your child or spouse or significant other; would that be considered as an embodiment of Christ love?

Let’s consider the things we say, and use our words to build and not tear down.

Open your eyes, people around you are crying for help only you can give. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. (Hebrews 13:2 ESV) In a city like NY, it’s so easy to get lost and forget that the bodies moving in asynchronous motion around you are actually people whose stories and lives have a rippling effect in the society we dwell in. So, in our callousness and coldness, we ignore them and their needs because our own manic desires and cries. The writer of this letter to the Hebrews is acutely aware of that tendency. The writer is addressing the weariness of life that is starting to show in the faces and hearts of the Hebrew believers living in a persecuted period of time. The writer wants to tell them that the difficulties of life, as we/they know it, are not and will not be defining moments of failure, but rather iconic moves of faithful fortitude in the saving grace of Jesus Christ. Therefore, we all need to stop for a moment and open our eyes to look around at the people standing besides us. We need to stop showing signs of weariness and start showing signs of welcome-ness. Are you ready to open yourself up to provide people with the hospitality Jesus shows us daily?

“Now” may seem beneficial, but there are dangerous repercussions for not considering “later.” Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you. (Hosea 10:12 ESV) On NPR this morning, there was a conversation between the radio host and an “independent crop consultant” that was very informative. The gist of the conversation dealt mainly with strategies farmers can employ to combat the corn stalk worm. The most easiest way to combat the pest is to use pesticides. In using pesticides, farmers can produce large amounts of corn every single year and profit immensely from that crop. However, the most holistic method is to starve the worms by not planting corn and planting a different crop and sacrificing the huge profits for a year or two for the sake of saving the land from being eaten alive. Here’s why I share that story: we’re all like these corn farmers in terms of righteousness and sinfulness. We’ve become so lukewarm about God in our attempts to serve God that we find ourselves being eaten alive by spiritual disease of callousness and/or apathy. We lose sight of God’s righteousness and therefore out righteousness. We are so wrapped up in the controversies of society, fighting God’s fight, that we forget that God fights for us and all we need to do is cling to Him. The righteousness we need to sow in our lives probably is different than the righteousness we are currently sowing. The righteousness of God cannot be eaten by worms while our current righteousness is being eaten slowly at the root by worms in our lives. God’s righteousness is ready to rain on your life, are you ready to sow that into your life?

Some of us hate religion because the people who are invested in it hold its mythology over the heads of people who are converting to it. Having grown up heavily instituted in the religion of Christianity, I’ve seen hundreds, if not thousands of people either: a) been turned off by Christianity because of the unreasonable mythologies; or b) been the antagonizer holding this mythology in more importance than the life, death and resurrection of our Jesus. I’m sure, if you’re reading this now, you’ve sat in one side of that boat, or both, and made that same realization. To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work. (Titus 1:15-16) These two verses sum up the entirety of this chapter, yet at the same time, only giving you a glance about what Paul is writing about. He’s not talking about skeptics or people who are perverted (because EVERYBODY is skeptical and perverted). He is talking about people who have a lot of knowledge of the faith– that is, they know what to say and when to say it, but they don’t necessarily do what they say, when they say it; and he is talking about people who just don’t know what to say or do. As Christians, we fall into both categories simultaneously and concurrently. If we don’t know about our faith, then it would be best that we get to know more about our faith by seeking to know God by way of doing the work to knowing God through Jesus Christ. Yes, by reading the Bible and through prayer and by going to church and listening to podcasts and reading commentary. Then, we put those things that we read, heard and saw, into live practice in our lives by seeking God through our prayers and quiet times. This is being pure– to seek God in our faith through our actions. If we do know about our faith, then let’s stop living as if it is nothing. I know we like to pick and choose what parts of the Bible and the gospel applies to us, but really, that’s the same as believing in a myth. You have to believe it all, or you don’t really believe at all. More than that, we can’t allow ourselves, because of our knowledge and experience within the faith, to get wrapped up in religio-speak and talk the gospel without ever walking in the gospel. This is what it means to be defiled. Let’s break the mold of living within the framework of a mythological religion. Let’s be real with religion, like Jesus lived, died and resurrected for. That is the gospel of religion. This is the hope we have in our good work to seek God as defiled creatures being sanctified by Him because of our faith.

We can speak up boldly about God and His work in the face of difficult situations. So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. (Acts 9:28 NIV) Allow me to set the stage: the time Saul was living was probably not a lot different than the one we’re living in now. I’m not talking about socio-culuturally. I’m referring to the religio-political context. Saul was living in Jerusalem in a time where speaking out and speaking for something other than the accepted religion was reason and cause for an assassination conspiracy. I know you history buffs are saying that in Saul’s time there was relative peace in the Roman Empire and that they fostered diversity through assimilation into the Roman way of doing things, etc, etc. Yet that argument sounds so strangely odd. In fact, it sounds a little like the United States of America! You see, in our age and day, we find ourselves in a context where if we speak up and for our Christian beliefs, we are ostracized and/or persecuted for having a different opinion on morality than our countrymen who believe in the religion of tolerance and relativism. I’ll be the first to tell you that Christians, historically, have been the worst offenders of humanity and morality when in the majority; but I will also tell you that the religion of today’s society is utterly more dangerous in that it attempts to nullify the essence of religion in the name of political correctness. If only these pundits and psuedo-intellectual speaking heads would recognize their blindness as the horrific two headed dragon they condemn Christ followers to be, then maybe there can be a conversation and dialogue. However, I’m not here to talk about things we cannot control in our society. Likewise, I’m not talking about even having conversations that are controversial. I’m simply talking about speaking boldly about what you believe and in whom you believe in the face of people telling you what you should or shouldn’t believe and educating people (not contemptuously) about why you believe in Jesus. I want to point out something we can all do to speak up for what we believe. When we read the passage today, we find Saul being able to boldly speak up to his conversion and about Jesus. What we see is that he is able to do so because God and His power gives Saul the ability to speak through his past experiences. Moreover, Saul found a community by which he rely on in the face of difficult situations and conversations. The question is whether we have a community and a faith that Saul displays in this situation? The answer is probably no. The answer is “no” because we don’t want the community, most often times; and because we’d rather not talk about our experiences with God. Right now is a time where there are plenty of opportunities to speak boldly about and for God. I want you to decide how you will speak up in just one situation. Then we’ll work from there. Move freely and speak boldly about Jesus. People want to hear you speak, so dare to speak up. Part 2 of our VBS quiet time devotionals.

Obedience to God is coming to terms with “how” and accepting that it is His way. It sounds more unholy and more ill begotten than it really is; but, sometimes following God’s call on your life means being sustained by scavengers. And the word of the Lord came to him: “Depart from here and turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. You shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.” So he went and did according to the word of the Lord. He went and lived by the brook Cherith that is east of the Jordan. And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. And after a while the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land. (1 Kings 17:2-7 ESV) The first thing I wonder about this passage is: how did the word of God come to Elijah? I mean, Elijah just told the king of Israel that it would no longer rain. Then suddenly, we find that the “Word of the Lord” coming to him. More important than “how did the word come,” is how did Elijah know it was God who was speaking? Most of us who grew up in church will walk away saying that Elijah knew because he was Elijah. I’m going to table that discussion for now and allow you to imagine how God speaks to you in your life. The take away is that Elijah “went and did according to the word of the Lord.” This means that regardless of how he knew, he trusted God to provide. I know there are some skeptics out there or some fanatics that will take this word out of context, so let me lay it out there. For you skeptics, if you think this is not a true story, then take it as allegory for: if you do what you believe, things will work out. If you need a concrete example, just think about the last time you saw a homeless person or an artist or musician on the street get his or her needs taken care of by passer-bys. They were just doing what they found in their heart being called to do. Now for the fanatics: this does not mean you give up the ways and means God has given you to take care of yourself, like that job of yours, to pursue a life of “ministry” as you slowly default on your credits because of unpaid bills, that will not end well with you or anybody else. You see, in that situation God’s provision was that job that you have which is done alongside your ministry. Notice the directions God gave Elijah: “Depart from here and turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. You shall drink from the brook…” There was nothing more that he had to do– just go there. He didn’t have to worry about food or shelter. We spend so much time asking God for answers and when He answers, we spend even more time asking God for “how” and “why.” God gives us answers, it just seems as if we don’t want those answers or don’t want to believe in them. In fact, we should just be going and doing what God instructs, so long as we know it is from God, and trust that God provides. If Elijah was fed by ravens, then you should expect to provide for you (probably in an unlikely way) when you go and do what He says. Try it today.

No, I’m not talking about zen. Nor am I talking about yoga or some type of new age meditation technique. What I’m talking about is is a transcending peace that displaces the center of your life that flows into all aspects of life around you. I know, I know, how in the world does a person get to a place where worry is displaced by peace in a world that’s constantly checking facebook statuses, twitter feeds and instagram pictures? I mean, is it even possible to live a life where the center of it is not focused on the utterly banal existence you call your life? Philosophers would argue, “no.” The Apostle Paul writes in his letter to the Philippians, “Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.” (Philippians 4:6-7) To begin, let me tell you why “worries” are at the center of your life: It’s because when we start prioritizing our lives, and shifting things, we become consumed by things or ideas of things and therefore, we spend much of our time, centering on those things or ideas and our lives become an existence that seeks those things and ideas that we worry so much about. For example, if you worry a lot about money, its probably because you’re spending much of your day focused and honed on issues of money or making money or spending money. Likewise, some of us “worry” about our clothes and we spend every aspect of our lives analyzing, critiquing and improving our clothing sense. Best example, some of us “worry” about our kids. I’m not talking about parental worries, but I’m talking about helicopter/tiger mom type of worrying where you are consumed, as a parent, about every little decision your kid makes or doesn’t make and the repercussions of those made or unmade decisions. If we just stop “worrying” because we know for a fact that by being consumed by something or an idea of something really doesn’t do anything except give us blinders, we would find ourselves doing everything we can so that we won’t worry. Paul tells the church to allow the knowledge of God in your life transform those worries into prayers that displace the unimportant things that you have been centered on with the most important thing of relying on God for your everything. In other words, when we start considering whether we are thanking God, gratefully and faithfully, our worries become displaced from our center. Instead we will find God, in whom we rely on for everything, to be at the center of our lives providing for anything we may need to worry about. Displace your worrisome center with thanks to Christ.

I ran into a troublesome word this morning. That word is, “reasonableness.” The reason it is so troublesome is because of its subjectivity. Being reasonable is subjective to the individual and to a situation. Therefore, one can only conclude that everybody’s unreasonableness is the extent of their reason-ability. Simply put– nobody is as reasonable as you or I, in whatever crazed, irrational, unreasonable mood we are found in. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand… (Philippians 4:5) The great difficulty in this verse is that Christ followers are being called to living a lifestyle of reasonableness in light of the fact that human nature is precisely unreasonable from the perspective of everybody living on the outside of your mind. I say this because I am postulating: if to be “reasonable” means that a person has the capabilities and aptitudes for sound judgment, and for being fair and sensible; then in fact, we are in trouble. The question then becomes, given that the task at hand is an impossibility, how in the world do you give the impression to every unreasonable person out there, that you, are in fact, reasonable? After much thought, I must conclude and I’m sure you’ll conclude as well, that in a world of unreasonable behavior, the best that any of us can do is give some crazy body reasonable doubt. However, in order to do that, we must understand reasonableness under the pretense of being unselfish. You see, when we are unselfish, we are more “reasonable” toward unreasonable people and thereby they become more reasonable. Let’s forget about other people for a second, and how crazy or unreasonable they may be. Let’s talk about how despite their unreasonableness, we are called to let the unreasonable people know that WE are reasonable. We do this by being considerate of their subjectively unreasonable lifestyles and decisions; and likewise, in great patience and endurance. Just to clarify, I don’t want any of you to give up an inch within your convictions and/or beliefs because we need to be patient and understanding and unselfish– stick to your convictions and beliefs, absolutely. In letting our reasonableness be known, we are effectually accepting all the unreasonable people into our lives without selfishly weeding out people who we know are unreasonable. It’s inviting them into communion with ourselves. It’s exactly what Jesus did when he died on a cross for us– he invited unreasonable creatures who traded paradise for a piece of fruit. Be reasonable, and let everybody know it.

My dad used to say, “The past has passed. Your present is God’s present.” We need to look to the opportunities we’ve been given and stop harping on things we cannot change. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14) The Apostle Paul writes to the church in Philippi about an enormous opportunity many of the believers were missing out on because they failed to see what God was doing right now. They loved the fact that God had done things in the past. In fact, they loved the fact they achieved things on their own. They would tell stories of their glory, of how things used to be. Then they would beat up on people who did not achieve that way. They would demean those who had no legs to stand on because they weren’t afforded those opportunities. Yes, they played the role of accuser– not willing to accept people into their camp unless they came perfect. They forget and don’t realize that they were never perfect themselves. They have been blinded by their own stomachs, because they yearned for the taste of glory. Lets reflect within ourselves now. I’m pretty sure none of you demean people by way of belittling other people’s struggles in light of your own glory. But I am pretty sure, because we’re all faithful Christians, that we demean people and belittle our brothers and sisters with the cunning use of “humble bragging.” Yes, I know it. We take pride in our humility and hold to it as something we earned, like a badge of honor. However, this is exactly what Paul was talking about. No, not the humility, but the humble brag, and the joy of being righteous rule followers. We need to forget about the past (I’m not saying that we shouldn’t celebrate victories, or learn from our mistakes). In effect, we cannot live and die with what we did and how we did it. That does not work anymore. We don’t live in that time period right now. At the same time, we are being called to become more and more like Jesus. He is giving us a fantastic prize, but we have to strive towards it right now. That is the gift we work towards. The reason my dad used to say, “The past has passed. Your present is God’s present,” was precisely because he used to beat himself up for his mistakes and excessively celebrate his victories; all of which left him unable to perform his duties before God right now, when it matters. We can’t get stuck in the past, it has passed. Take God’s present of the present and push forward into God’s power and glory.