Have you heard what’s going on?

"But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken."

Matthew 12:36

 

I was in Kroger yesterday and as I came to the checkout I noticed the headlines on magazines that this one actor is gay, this other person is cheating, this person is battling with weight problems, and a host of other things. People get intrigued by these things, and they put it at the checkout so you can read it while you're waiting, and we do read it. What is it about our sinful nature that draws us to discussing other people's issues and problems? In the past year I have witnessed how gossip spreads like wildfire on the news about stars lives, from Tiger Woods to Sandra Bullock, we are fascinated with other people's problems and we love to talk about them. We are in a culture and time that feeds and pays for gossip. But the problem is that does not line up with the Christian life.

Oh yes, we Christians gossip. We talk about people just as much as the non Christians but have tried to disguise our sin with the veil of "I am just telling you so we can pray" or they just plain gossip and live in denial of it. You see when you talk about people's problems with others, without a true heart to labor in prayer for the situation with caring and willingness to edify and help you are gossiping. If you speak about someone behind their back without them knowing or say something you wouldn't say to them it is gossip. More often then not I see people talking about others it is often just for the shear fact that they want to feel important.. "Have You Heard What's Going On with……?" is usually what begins the conversation. I have watched more teens and families in the past year get harmed by gossip then I have ever seen before, this should not be. Jesus tells us in Matthew's Gospel account that "all men will have to give an account on the Day of Judgment for every careless word they have spoken" that means every gossip, every word spoken about others you are going to have to explain to Jesus. The veil of "I was just telling them to get people to pray" will not hold up with Jesus, because He hears your heart and your prayers. Think of just this week.. how many times have you spoken about others just to talk about them, not for prayer and behind their back. It's a scary thought…We are called to be set apart and separate from the world, yet in the area of gossip most Christians look the same as or worse then the world, and this should not be. If you hear gossip again this week I challenge you to stop it before it begins, say hey let's just pray as God leads us to pray and pray for the person you were going to talk about. How about when the conversation begins about your friend that's not uplifting and edifying you take the courage to stop the conversation and call it for what it is gossip. You see we all have to make a choice here, do we walk as the world in this area or do we walk as followers of Christ. Which path will you choose to follow today?

Let’s go for a run!

"Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs—he wants to please his commanding officer. Similarly, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor's crown unless he competes according to the rules. The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops. Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this."

2 Timothy 2:3-7 (NIV)

Today I went running, well sort of running, jogging and walking for the first time since my leg was injured by the infection and it was tough. It was kind of discouraging at first, because my body due to laying a bed for a month had weakened all over. I felt my heart beating very hard, my breath was short, my back was in pain, and my legs felt weak and weary. But I knew I had to go forward, and keep trying. It was hard, really hard and I wanted to quit. I slowed down a bit..and coughed, choked, and wanted to throw up but kept going. I even looked back toward my home and said, I can always just go back, it would be easier. But I drove on with the run, as hard it was physically and mentally I kept going. There was a shortcut that looked enticing across the grass but I wanted to stay on the path, to finish what I started without trying to cheat. I was hurting when I got back, my lungs burned; I was dizzy, and weak. But I did it! Although hard today I know from all my days of running that if I am patient and keep going at it daily it will get easier and it will become a joy once again.

Sometimes in our walk as Christians after we fall from our own sinful choices, get attacked by the enemy, or just grow weary on the path we are on we want to quit or stop walking in the direction the Lord has given us. We feel like I did when I was on my run and wanted to quit. While I was running I remembered my days as a soldier and knew I could endure this. Soldiers keep going despite what seemingly impossible odds may be surrounding them; they go on despite pain or the surroundings toward their objective. Paul tells us to "Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs—he wants to please his commanding officer." We are to stay focused on Him, the goal, the upward call of Christ Jesus, not get entangled in the affairs of this world, despite the pain and the hardship around us. It's not easy at times but we have to choose Him in the hard times as well. Are we enduring and focusing on Him in the hard times or getting entangled in worldly things to deal with the problems we have?

But that's not all, you can have the ability to endure hardship and not follow after Christ. I have met many a person in my lifetime as a soldier who has had far more endurance to hardship and suffering then I can ever imagine most people having. Yet, they played by their own rules. They lived for themselves and their own pleasures. When we take this journey with Christ we must learn to submit ourselves to His rule in our lives. That takes self discipline which is at the heart of any good athlete. That is why Paul gives us that picture of the athlete when he says, "Similarly, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor's crown unless he competes according to the rules." Every track athlete knows, they have to stay on the track provided and they know if they leave they are disqualified. They have this track for two reasons, one to keep order but also to keep the athletes on a safe surface. We must endure, but we also must have the self-discipline and trust to let God rule in our lives. God gives us a track to run on and it is His Word. We can try come off the path if we want, but our lives wind up in disorder and we wind up getting hurt or hurting others. Are you staying on the path God has given you today, or are you getting tempted, like I was this morning during my run, at taking a shortcut off the path?

Having endurance, and discipline are keys in our walk with the Lord but the final key here is to have patience and faith. Paul speaks of farmers and there is one thing I have noticed about farmers living here in Morrow County is that they have patience and a whole lot of faith. They plant these tiny little seeds in the ground with the faith that in many months from now, rain will come and crops hundreds of times bigger than the seed planted will grow. That takes faith! Last year, it did not rain for a long time, and it looked bad but these farmers knew and had faith and waited. The rain eventually came and there was an abundance of crops yielded. Although it looked bad, they endured, had discipline, patience and faith and it yielded much. Sometimes in our journey with the Lord we may feel that we are not seeing anything growing just yet, or perhaps your feeling you're in a drought spiritually, or your going through difficult circumstance it is then we must draw on our endurance to keep going, to stay this path and have faith and patience that Lord is completing the work He has laid out for us in our lives. Like on my run this morning, it's easy to look back at where we were and want to go back and give up. However, if we do this daily, endure the tough parts of the day like a soldier, stay the path God has laid with the discipline of an athlete, and most of all have the faith and patience of a farmer knowing that God is control, the struggles will get easier and your joy and peace will grow as the seed planted by the Lord in you begins to bring forth its fruit.

Feeling Weak and Defeated?

"Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, Be strong, do not fear;

your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you."

Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped."

Isaiah 35:3-5 (NIV)

Have you ever just felt defeated? Beaten up by life's situations that just catch you off guard? That bad news you just got? The girlfriend or boyfriend who just broke up with you? Did you not perform the way you hoped in the track meet? Is it that nagging pain in your body that just doesn't go away? Have you been feeling weak and weary about trying to do the right thing all the time? For the past two months as I battled a horrible infection in my body and had to deal with the everyday situations of life that sometimes catch me off guard I must confess I grew feeble handed and felt weak knees. As the days went on I actually felt beaten up. My body tired from battling this leg infection, my spirit tired from battling spiritual attacks of the enemy, and my mind tired from everyday struggles in life. In the midst of this infection and pressure of life I began to grow weary, tired, and defeated. I began to feel hopeless because I had focused so much on my situation, on ME and not the Word. Sound familiar to you?

You may be just tired of a situation you're going through physically, or worn down by the emotions of a problem at school, or maybe you're depleted spiritually from fighting in battle and pouring out to others. I think all of you can relate to one or more of those areas in your own life, or see someone going through this. It is while were in these valleys at the bottom looking up at the top, where it seems getting there is just too difficult and we don't think we have the strength to go on, God says to us:

"Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, Be strong, do not fear your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you."

God will give us the strength when we are tired, even when we feel we cannot even make one more step forward in the situation we are in. He will be there to encourage us, pick us up, and do battle for us. But we have to make the choice to strengthen our feeble hands and knees that give way in times of trial.To yield to His Spirit and not our own. Our spirit is willing but our flesh is really weak. We have to maintain our hope in the Lord, not in our situation or its outcome. The enemy and our own fleshly desires gets us ensnared in a web of sin, but our God is bigger than those problems. He will come with a vengeance against the enemy of our souls and fight this battle in the Spirit and bring us out of that valley. He is promising us this here in the scriptures.

The question today is do you really believe that? Or do you think what you're going through is too big for God to handle? God wants to do this,He wants to deliver you from the darkness because He is an amazing father. As a dad, there is nothing more amazing to me then to be able to help my son Markie when he cries out to me in the middle of the night, when the darkness is all around him, and he is scared because of a bad dream.. to pick him up into my arms and tell Him it's going to be ok, Daddy's here. Maybe that's what God wants to say to you today, it's going to be OK…Daddy's here. There is nothing more encouraging to people then to see God do something that seems impossible for man to do. To see the sick healed, relationships made whole, bondage of sin in lives broken. It's the stuff we pay to see in the movies, makes us cry in real life, and brings chills when you read about it. When we decide to walk in faith, even when the world comes crashing down around us, and KNOW that God is in control. It is then God is glorified the most because we have put our HOPE in Him and He does those very things we long to see.

Are you weary today? Are you feeling like you're going to quit? Don't quit! Don't give up hope! Don't fall down and grow weary!… listen to God's Word… HIS PROMISE. He will come to save you, and in doing so many blind eyes shall be opened and the deaf shall hear and your faith and hope shall be a testimony to those who are also weary, lost and dying inside.