Dirty Cups

Jesus loves me, this I know.
For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to Him belong.
They are weak, but He is strong.
Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me!
The Bible tells me so.

My favorite song of all time. So simply true, and yet so profound. Everything you need to know is in that song. Jesus loves me. Jesus loves you.

This morning I read Matthew 23. I encourage you to read it sometime today. In this chapter Jesus spends some time talking about the Pharisees. And it's hard to "feel the love" in His words about these people. He did love them, but He surely didn't love their behavior. He described them as:

... people who "say, and do not." (Matthew 23:3)
... people who do their works "to be seen of men." (Matthew 23:5)
... people who are "hypocrites" (Matthew 23:14)

He said over and over, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!" (vs. 14,15,16,23,27,29)

There are many today who could be described as Pharisees. Put simply, a Pharisee is somebody with an outward form of religion that is not a result of real inward change. They are professors, but not possessors.

Jesus gives some wonderful truth in this chapter about how to avoid being a Pharisee. "You are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy-full of greed and self-indulgence! Blind Pharisees! First wash the inside of the cup, and then the outside will become clean, too." (Matthew 23:25-26 NLT) Think about the last time you washed dishes by hand. You don't worry too much about the outside of a cup when washing it, do you? You concentrate on the inside, and as you wash that, the outside just takes care of itself - it's clean, and you didn't need to do much with it.

So with we human beings. If we concentrate on the inside - our relationship and walk with God, it will affect the outside. We'll be cleaned up both in and out.

Is the inside of the cup clean, my friend? Here is the first step in making sure it is.

Pray the Word

Is your spirit overwhelmed within you? David's was.
Are there times when it feels like the Lord is distant from you? David knew such times.
Do the cares of this life overwhelm your mind? David knew the feeling.

In Psalm 143, David gave us a model prayer for such times. He knew what it meant to feel all these things. He knew fear, he knew distress, he knew confusion, he knew oppression. David knew trouble. And David knew that the answer to trouble is prayer. Read Psalm 143 today. You'll see David asking that God would:

1. Answer him quickly (vs. 7) - the need was urgent. Do you need God to answer you quickly today? Ask Him.
   
2. Let him experience the mercy, the unfailing love of God again (vs. 8) - David needed to "feel" God's love in his life. Do you need that today? Ask God for it.
3. Show him the way he should go (vs. 8). Are you wandering? Need directions? God has the map - ask Him for direction.
4. Teach him to do God's will (vs. 10). Just what does God want from you? What is His will for your life? Ask Him.
   
5. Preserve his life, and bring him out of trouble. (vs. 11) We usually don't need encouragement to pray when we're in trouble - that's when it comes somewhat naturally. Even so - are you in such a state? Ask Him.
   

Now I don't know that Psalm 143 and Psalm 144 are in chronological order. However, they sound like it when you read them together. David is crying out in prayer in Psalm 143, and then in Psalm 144:1 he is shouting in triumph "Blessed be the Lord, my strength!"

I encourage you this morning to learn to pray the prayers of the Bible. David's prayer here is a wonderful example. And when we learn to pray the way the Bible teaches us to pray, we will, like David, experience the triumph of seeing those prayers answered. We will learn, as David did, that "happy is that people whose God is the Lord." (Psalm 144:15)

Rock or Sand?

Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash. (Matthew 7:24-27 NIV)

You probably remember that Bible passage from Sunday School, don't you? Or maybe you remember it from the little song:

The wise man built his house upon the rock,
The wise man built his house upon the rock,
The wise man built his house upon the rock,
And the rains came-a tumble-in down!

It's a familiar passage, but did you ever stop to meditate on what the Lord is saying here? There are two kinds of people - wise and foolish. There is something that is common about both the wise and the foolish - both HEAR the Word. The distinguishing factor is that the wise PUT IT INTO PRACTICE while the foolish do not.

What are you building your house upon? Rock or sand? Are you one of the many who listen to the Word of God on Sunday, and then live the rest of the week as if you hadn't heard it at all? Or are you one of the wise who hear it, and spend the week trying to put it into practice? Rock or sand? Wise or foolish?

May God help all of us today to listen to His Word. But even more importantly, may He help us to put it into practice.

Ten Minutes Per Day

Here is an alarming statistic I heard recently - 65% of "Bible believing Christians" have never read the New Testament completely through. This is disturbing because it is simply not possible for a believer to grow in their faith without the Word of God. Consider what Paul said in Romans 10:17, "faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God." And Peter said it, too, in 1 Peter 2:2, "as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby."

You can read through the New Testament in a year if you will just read one chapter every day. Actually, there are only 260 chapters in the New Testament, so you'll make it through in less than a year if you remain faithful. Of course, even if you are a member of the 35% who have read it through, you should continue to do so. Don't stop with just one time through, keep right on reading!

For most readers, one chapter per day will take ten minutes or less. Is your growth in faith and spiritual health important enough to invest ten minutes every day? Getting started is the hard part. Just open your Bible with your morning coffee - start today. And keep doing it until it becomes a habit.

And if you don't have a Bible to read, we will provide you one! Let's ensure that unfortunate statistic is not true of Randolph Christian Church!

Jogging While Working

The morning commute is a wonderful time to spend with God. I've been trying really hard lately to turn off the radio and just spend that time talking with the Lord. Try it sometime. You'll quickly learn that you can pray quite effectively while you're driving. (Just don't close your eyes while praying!) And prayer is not the only thing that you can do... just spend some time observing things around you as you drive. Ask the Lord to teach you things, even on your morning drive.

She was jogging.

I turned right at the light and there she was in the distance, jogging toward me. But something didn't seem quite right about her. As the gap between us narrowed, I realized that she was not alone. She was pushing a stroller in front of her as she ran. I could not help but appreciate her dedication - both to her responsibilities as a mom, and to her physical health. She had found a way to balance both.

So many of us today struggle with balance in our lives. It's summer time, and many Christians struggle to balance recreation and rest (both wonderful things, and needful) with our responsibility to worship God faithfully on the Lord's Day. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10:25 NIV) And any time of the year, we all struggle to balance our work lives, our family lives, and our responsibilities to worship God by regular and personal Bible reading and prayer. I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word. (Psalm 119:16 NIV)

First of all, let me say that if we are too busy to read our Bibles, then we are too busy and need to stop doing some things. God never gives us a responsibility and then makes it impossible for us to fulfill it. If you simply don't have time to read, then you are simply doing something God doesn't want you to do. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins. (James 4:17 NIV) But sometimes, it's not more time we need... it's more efficient use of the time we have.

We need to learn to jog while we work.

Listen to the word of God in your car while you drive. There are CD versions and cassette versions, and even MP3 versions that you can obtain - many for free. Listen to it while you jog, or however you choose to work out. While setting aside some time that is dedicated to God and His Word is important, it's also important to make everything we do "word centered."

We need to learn to jog while we work.

My Ebenezer

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.

That's the first verse of one of my favorite hymns. "Come Thou Fount" dates to 1758 and is an example of a truly great hymn that is brimming with truth about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

But it's the second verse I'm thinking about this morning.

Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,
Till released from flesh and sin,
Yet from what I do inherit,
Here Thy praises I’ll begin;
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.

I'm thinking about it because I read 1 Samuel 7:12 this morning in my devotions: "Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the LORD helped us."

Everytime I sing this favorite hymn, my thoughts are arrested by that phrase "here I raise my Ebenezer." What does that mean? But when we study the scripture we see the answer. Ebenezer means "stone of help." Samuel raised a monument and named it Ebenezer to remind the children of Israel that God had helped them and always would.

Do you need a reminder today of God's amazing grace, love, mercy and help in your life? Think back on all He's done. Raise your Ebenezer and remember how good our God is.

Our Dwelling Place

"Look at all that water!" I came running into the kitchen to see what all the fuss was about. And sure enough, there was water... lots of it... covering the entire kitchen floor. Apparently, our aged dishwasher just couldn't hold it in any longer, and let go all over the floor.

When we are children, we can't wait to become adults so we can buy what we want and be what we want and furnish our lives in our own way.

When we become adults we long for the days when we were children, for we soon learn that the things we buy only break, and we never seem to find satisfaction in those things we thought would define us. Most of us have had the heart breaking experience of finding that first ding or that first rust spot in our precious first car. Things simply don't last.

But think about this encouraging truth in the Bible - Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. (Psalm 90:1 NIV).

Are things falling apart around you today? Remember that He is our real home. And He never falls apart. The real riches He provides will last forever. Take some time this morning and thank the Lord that He is our dwelling place. He is our home.