This is why we constantly thank God, because when you received the message about God that you heard from us, you welcomed it not as a human message, but as it truly is, the message of God, which also works effectively in you believers. (1 Thessalonians 2:13 HCSB) I know this sounds ridiculous, but maybe it’s not as ridiculous as I think it is: don’t we sometimes feel like people, when they speak over us in love, perceive it to be uneducated and unintelligible? For example: when your mom, in her love, advises you about the housing market, knowing full well that you’re a real estate broker, would be received by you as uneducated and unintelligible. Likewise, when somebody gives you advice in a subject or an area of your life where you know you’re the “expert”, all of that is just annoying noise in your ears (this is how you feel about most religious professionals, it’s why you hate going to church). It’s as ridiculous as a bandit instructing a cop how to chase him down in a foot race. On the other hand, there are situations, where you just get schooled by the brilliance of a child, aren’t there? Like when a child comes to you and speaks to you in a way that just humbles you. The child speaks to you without knowing the ramifications of his or her speech, nor do they understand the gravity or circumstances in which you find yourself embroiled. Yet, they speak with the authority of God into your life. You welcome that and you embrace it. You wish all moments of clarity come to you this way. Now here’s the problem. Some of us, for some reason, want to take the words and message of people who speak into our lives without any love as prophecy from God. You see, it’s one thing to brush people off who love you wholeheartedly as misaligned; but it’s totally another when we allow people who do not love us to have that much power over us. Case in point, just look at all the bad decisions you made in the past and you will find people who don’t really love you, as the culprits who convinced your silly past self into making those ridiculous decisions that you always regret. Now, what if we were to receive from people who love us like a “nursing mother taking care of her own children” advice, no matter how ridiculous as something to be considered as if from God, what would happen then? I’m not talking about heeding stock advice from a seamstress. Nor am I saying that you should take medical diagnoses about potential cancer cures from hiker. I am talking about allowing people, who love you to sew their life experience and wisdom into your own because the power of God will undoubtedly work through that in your life. The question then becomes: who have you been blowing off because you thought it impossible that God work through them? And vice versa, who have you been listening to despite lacking love in your life?

Jesus had pity on them and touched their eyes; at once they were able to see, and they followed him. (Matthew 20:34) Jesus had pity on the two blind people he encountered on the side of a road for two reasons: first, because of their handicap; second, because other people wanted to shut them out. I’m going to talk about them both. Jesus had pity for these men’s handicap. Most of us have pity for those who we perceive as handicap. Whether it is a physical, mental or emotional one, we look onto people with more forgiving eyes when we learn of their handicap. I use the word “handicap” as opposed to “disability” because a “handicap” places people at a disadvantage whereas a “disability” strikes people out as unable therefore disqualifying them. These blind people, in Jesus’ mind were put at a disadvantage to follow him, they were not ruled out from following him. But that disadvantage of following him because of their blindness was the reason Jesus had sympathy for them. The second of these two reasons was more pitiful to Jesus– people didn’t help the blind guys in following Jesus. They had ruled them out and disqualified them from receiving any attention from Jesus, who was and is the only one that can do anything for their situation. Jesus, because of this, wanted to go out of his way to level the playing field. They were healed and the two men followed Jesus. We are all handicap from following Jesus. That handicap ranges from disbelief and sin, to physical inabilities to read or hear the gospel message. At the same time, as we follow Christ, we must ask ourselves and our churches: are we shutting out the handicapped from following Jesus like the crowd in the story; or are touching them like Jesus touched them with sympathy and love to heal them in Christ’s name? Think about how you treated the blind. How will you touch their eyes now? Will you help them follow?

And David inquired of God, “Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you give them into my hand?” And the Lord said to him, “Go up, and I will give them into your hand.”…. And when David again inquired of God, God said to him, “You shall not go up after them; go around and come against them opposite the balsam trees. (1 Chronicles 14:10, 14 ESV) I don’t know HOW David inquired of God, but I do know that God answered in way David understood. When we look at this passage here in the Book of 1st Chronicles, we first see that David makes an inquiry to God because his situation allows him a choice. In this case, the choice is to fight or not fight. Then David listens for God’s instruction. Finally, this is the most important part: David follows that instruction. The result is written in verse 17 and basically says, “obeying God made David successful” (my paraphrase). The question then becomes: how do we implement this in our lives? First, the inquiring of God. It’s one thing to believe into existence of God, the Bible says even the demons believe in God’s existence. It’s a totally different thing to believe in God– that is His faithfulness and His being for us. For example, we all believe we have parents. There was a mother whose womb you came into existence by and a father whose genetic donation to your mother fertilized eggs, etc, etc. It is another thing entirely to believe your parents will come through for you. The same is true about believing God. You can believe in the existence of God; but unless you believe He will come through for you, you will never inquire of Him. Secondly, we may inquire, because throwing a prayer these days is as easy as taking a walk in the park, but what’s the point of asking if you don’t listen to the response? We need to stop a minute, take a step back and listen to what God says. Why are we rushing head first without any response from the questions we asked. If David had rushed into attack mode without God’s answer, he may have never won the battle. If you sit back and wait for God to answer, there will be a tangible answer. If you ask God whether you should order tuna or salmon for dinner, God may never answer you; however, ask Him something real and you’ll get an answer if you slow down enough to listen. I bet that answer will be loud and clear, too. Lastly, obedience. This is the most important. Why go through the first two steps if we’re just going to do whatever we want anyways? The thing that made David successful was that he approached his life God’s way. It didn’t matter what he did, he just needed to do it God’s way. Military strategy suggests not going around the natural defenses that are offered to be left defenseless, open on the wrong side of natural cover. Yet, in this case, God’s way was for David to do so and David did. What inquiries are we making of God these days? Do we believe in Him? Are we listening for God in our lives? Are we following His ways?

Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:4 ESV) Imagine with me for one moment, back to when you were a child. I don’t mean back to that obnoxious eight year old that you were; but further, when you were 4, 5 or 6 years old. Back then you knew no limits, and you weren’t jaded enough to hate everything around you yet. There were no insecurities, nor were there any fears, except for the sound of chattering dentures on the floor because your folks took you to see the first Batman movie in 1989 and that’s all you can remember. However, when you were a child you were “humble.” Humble in the sense that you were trusting, loving, and forgiving. Do you remember those days? Don’t you remember being joyful and happy, when you weren’t hungry or tired anyways. In fact, if it wasn’t for the fact that you were so needy and lowly therefore having to cling to your parents, except during playtime, you would wish to go back to those days where nothing would bum you out and trusting was easy, but so was forgiving and loving. Jesus tells us that if we live uninhibited like children, we would be the “greatest in heaven.” When you think about this, its an absurd statement. However, when you think about it some more, this is what we yearn for every single day of our lives– a child like simplicity in life. Relationships that aren’t so complicated; grudges and pains easily forgotten as our interest in them wanes; and just somebody to take care of you when you need it. Wow, talk about the amount of belief it takes to be a child. God doesn’t need us to have it all together and be grown up. Nor does He need us to be all that great or awesome on our own. What He really treasures is a mindset that can trust, love and forgive. That is a trust in God for your needs. A love overflowing with life to other people. And forgiveness that walks away without remembrance. Set your hearts to be humble like children and you won’t have to worry about what happens when you get to heaven.

Even though the fig trees have no fruit and no grapes grow on the vines, even though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no corn, even though the sheep all die and the cattle stalls are empty, I will still be joyful and glad, because the Lord God is my saviour. (Habakkuk 3:17,18 GNB) Habakkuk was written just around the time Babylon was coming to power and wars between Egypt and Israel and Assyria and Babylon were taking it’s toll on the nation of Judah. Israel (the northern kingdom) had already fallen. There was not much left in Judah to be honest. There was famine, there were vassal taxes that needed to be paid. The economy was wrecked because people started to flee because of the warring. Those that remained began to lose hope, theirs was a slow death that would crawl upon them ever slowly and quietly. We see Habakkuk writing in this situation of dire exhaustion and desolation. Now let’s look at our lives. Do we have anything left? The job has run dry, our family has left us empty, our relationships are bankrupt, and so on and so forth. If you look at your situation and see nothing left, I want you to look around you again; but, this time more closely. The reason I want you to do that is because there is one thing that remains after everything is gone: God’s love. If you considered this idea, and it sounds too far-fetched, then I challenge you to read Romans 12. I want you to understand that God loved you and me before we were lovable. He sacrificed His Son’s life for the sake of our own wretched ones. He compelled Himself to our lives: he intervenes and provides for us even though it looks like we’ve got nothing left. This is the hope we cling to in order to move on with our lives. If we would believe that God is our savior when there is nothing, we would have more than enough to keep going. If we would act like we have been saved, there would be more than enough power to fill our veins. People, countries and nature can wreak havoc on our lives, but that will not take away our joy and gladness because God is our savior!

Today we will explore what our hopes are in prayer. Then we will use that understanding to find new expressions in our body language as a method to worship God. Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice! (Psalms 141:2 ESV) In this Psalm, there are three motions that the Psalmist hits: 1. God, pay attention to me; 2. God, keep me from doing/being evil; 3. God, keep me from being distracted. In those motions, the Psalmist realizes that he is without proper utensils (equipment) necessary to worship God properly (that is, described by the Book of Leviticus). Therefore, the Psalmist wants to improvise and substitute worship utensils for a heart of worship so that he can be received by God. In this reading of the Psalm, we understand that the hope in prayer is to be received by God and so that God can lead the person praying to holiness and therefore a communion with God. The incense in Israelite worship symbolizes a “smell pleasant to God.” What if our prayer life (the times we faithfully prayed, regardless of content) produced a smell pleasant to God, what would we smell like? Here’s what I mean: if incense is as pleasant to God as deodorant is as pleasant to a person standing way too close to other people in the AM commute; then we must smell like (you fill in the blank) as exemplified by our prayer lives. The Psalmist says that his hands lifted to the air are like “evening sacrifices” (thanksgiving). If we posture that idea with our body language, then we must beg the question: are our actions representative of acts of sacrifice (thanksgiving) before God?

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20 ESV) Let’s kill the ego for a minute. Let’s see ourselves in light of what we truly are: dead on arrival. It’s not as pessimistic as you’re thinking. When Jesus arrived into the scene we call “our lives” we were dead. There was nothing left for most of us. There was no inkling of hope, nor any ray of sunshine. Yet, from that circumstance, we were saved from death by the death of our Christ. And in a stunning series of events, what unfolded was the death of ourselves but the raising of one greater who lives in us. This happened at the instance of our belief. That is the amazing miracle of life in all our stories that we forget and neglect. We have been crucified in our faith with Christ on a cross. God, the Father, turns around and raises Christ up from the dead and so we live a life. The life we live is not one that will end in death, but will end in more life. The strange thing about all of that is that even after we receive Christ as our savior and after we have new life in Christ, we continue with our lives with the end game being death. That is because we have this strange thought that our lives were redeemed by God to be about us; but our lives are not about us. The lives we live in faith are lives filled with none other than the Christ that was raised to life after suffering our deaths. It’s not about us. If life is not about us, then we must ask ourselves: how does a life not our own play out daily? The Apostle Paul says that a life not our own is lived out in faith of Christ. Thus implying that we stop asking ourselves what would Jesus do, and actually do what Jesus would do. Very simply, we believe that what we do is not motivated in selfishness or in our own ego (which also means we test to make sure that our actions are not motivated in selfishness and ego) and do those things that Christ lived to do in his own life here on Earth– that is to say, live to serve other people in out-flowing love. Therefore, if I’m not being clear, our lives must be filled by “the blind receiving sight, the lame walking, those with leprosy cleansed, the deaf hearing, the dead are raising, and the good news proclaimed to the poor” (Luke 7:22). When our lives stop becoming about us, this is what happens! This too, is our calling in life as we give ourselves fully over into faith that Christ saves our wretched souls. There is never any assurance that what we are doing are truly from Christ, but we go in faith that when we live a life that is not about us and lived through the intentions of Christ, Jesus, that we do in His name, His very will. That is the amazing grace that awaits us and our lives. It’s time for us to live faithfully in it– to be a life that gives others life in Jesus name. Join me in this endeavor to die to ourselves and live with Christ alive in me.

But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?” (Galatians 2:14 ESV) This passage teaches us the importance of standing one’s ground in terms of belief. It’s one thing to flip-flop on a scheduled or planned activity, such as not going to social event even after confirming your invite; but it is totally a different animal when people’s faith are shaken because you can’t decide whether you want to be accepted by a dominate culture group or not. What was going on here was that Peter (known as Cephas in this passage) had no problem “mixing it” up with recent converts to the faith. Meaning that in the beginning Peter went to the BBQs that were serving ribs and bacon. But as soon as people from his previous life came, things started to catch up to him and he decided to do things that he didn’t do while at Antioch (a city in Galatia) but he did while at Jerusalem. In fact, so that he could be looked upon favorably by his former peoples, he withdrew from his current peoples, as if he was ashamed of his new found friends. Then, he took it one step further– he told the new friends, who were distinctly unlike his old friends, to be more like his old friends, although he himself was nothing like them. In plain English, we call this “hypocrisy.” We’re not talking about hypocrisy in its general sense because at the end of the day, we’re all hypocrites. There are no “ifs”, “ands”, or “buts” about it. What we are trying to address is the issue of having a double standard and/or placing unnecessary burdens upon others piety. For example, I know for a fact that most people are far from perfect in their relationships. Despite their outward austerity, the chinks in their facade tell us ever so subtly that things aren’t as perfect. Yet, these imperfect people have the nerve to tell you that your imperfect relationships with your imperfect people need to be more perfect in order to be accepted into the “perfect relationship crew.” Yes, as ridiculous as that sounds, this is us on a daily basis. If that’s too abstract for you, take for example the person that tells you that your health problems are related to your poor eating habits. And they tell this to you as they eat their second Big Mac and Strawberry Milkshake, while complaining about their back problems. Enough said. The Apostle Paul makes it a point to the people of these churches to do two things: first, to stand in line with the Spirit of the Gospel; and secondly, to only hold people accountable to what you hold yourself to. As for standing in line with the Spirit of the Gospel (notice the capitalized “S” in Spirit), what I mean by this is to allow people the same grace that God allowed for you in forgiving your shortcomings. I know it’s easier to condemn everybody else, but really, the Spirit of the Gospel says, “stop and breathe and then be patient.” Just because a person is not what you want or expect doesn’t mean that they will never become. Likewise, you’re still an imperfect being currently being perfected throughout life. Realize that the Spirit of Good News is working in them also. As for the second point, and this is where I ask where your backbone is, somebody who is spineless holds people to a standard unattainable to even themselves out of fear of being found out. You see, there is an undermining psychology within us that says we will not be found out by a dominant culture if we ridicule and abuse a non dominant one. That’s a lie! It shows us to be spineless and it goes against the Spirit of the Gospel that tells us to walk with those who are unworthy of being walked with. The question for all of us today, as we prepare for Sunday’s message on Galatians 3 is this: how are we living a spineless life without the Spirit of the Gospel within us? And how can we start taking a stand for the Gospel that saves us every single day?

David, before he was the king of Israel, was a fugitive on the run from his king, Saul of Israel. David was already anointed to be the next king of Israel by God and yet he was the one being persecuted. He had no reason to worship the God who seemingly said one thing and did nothing. In fact, at this point in his life, David could have lamented God and said that the promises of God are all lies and moved on with his life. But David didn’t; rather, he “magnifies” God and asks others to “magnify” God with him. Oh, magnify the Lord with me, And let us exalt His name together. (Psalm 34:3) I was reading today’s Scripture passage and thought of this song below from the 80s. Here’s what we have to remember about WHY David magnifies God: he knew his place in the world without God. When people understand, like David did, that you are only here by the grace of God, suffering persecution is not a bad deal. What I mean is that David realized he was just a shepherd boy until God intervened on his life. Yeah, it’s not all that sweet living in caves and marauding for food like refugees in a neighboring kingdom, but overall, it was a bearable life and it was exciting to be in a place of growth. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about read 1 Samuel 21-31). Moreover, David was comforted to know that since God had chosen him, that he was being heard and listened to by God. That fact humbled him. So he magnifies God because he was able to suffer persecution for the sake of learning to TRUST God. That TRUST in God allowed God to work in David’s life. This is why David says, “Oh magnify the LORD.” He is thankful for God’s delivery in-spite of what everything looks like. Some of us really need to stop magnifying ourselves. Some of us really need to magnify God so that we can see Him over our stumpy little selves. The act of magnifying God puts things into perspective. Like David magnified God in the midst of his darkest moments; we too must magnify God even more so, especially since our so called lives have been redeemed by God. Its time to see less of me and more of God. Magnify God and see how you are delivered.

THEN JESUS was led (guided) by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness (desert) to be tempted (tested and tried) by the devil. (Matthew 4:1 AMP) Sometimes God leads us into the desert by His Spirit! No question about that. The desert, just so we’re clear we’re not talking about the literal desert, although we can literally be led to go into the desert like the Mohave or Sahara, is the dry, empty and lonely place in our lives. Also, with those markers I just mentioned, a desert is a place or period in your life that is difficult and extremely hard to endure. What I am saying is that sometimes we find ourselves in those circumstances through no fault of our own. That is to say that God brought us there. The question most of us ask is “why?” Why did God lead me here to this barren, life sucking place where there is nobody and no help? The question most of should be asking is, “what’s on the other side?” What is on the other side of the desert? Let’s forget for a second that we over dramatize our lives in belief that we are the main characters of our own narratives; but really, once we get over the initial shock of being in the desert, we shouldn’t be wallowing for being there, but looking for how we can grow out of it. Jesus went to the desert and was tempted. The translation puts synonyms of temptation are “testing” and “trying,” implying that Jesus was led there to overcome something and/or to be purified. However, Jesus was already sinless, He was the spotless lamb. The only thing/being that could tempt Jesus was the devil himself. That is to say that the only impurities from Jesus’ heart would only be exposed if the devil worked to expose them. We know from this story that there was no impurity because the devil failed in tempting Jesus. At the end of the day, Jesus walked away and lived a fruitful life. Perhaps we are led into the desert because there are impurities in us that need to be exposed in us. Maybe the devil doesn’t need to tempt us because we tempt ourselves. And the only place to recognize that is in a desert. If this is the case, then what should we really be doing when finding ourselves exhausted and alone in the wilderness? What should we be getting ready to do when we reach the other side of the desert? What is holding us back from getting to the other side? We are led into the desert for a reason. Sometimes we’re led into a desert by God so that we can grow for the next THING in our lives. What questions do you NEED to answer while you’re here?