Tag Archives: God

The Choice to Suffer

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2 Corinthians 1:1-11

First let me make myself clear. I am not going to encourage anyone to adopt a victim mentality. In fact, what Paul says in these verses will blow that attitude out of the water. Paul is talking about sharing in Christ’s suffering, and Jesus was anything but a victim!

So how am I sharing in Christ’s suffering? I believe He suffered and died. I wear a cross around my neck and participate in Communion once a month. I identify with Him by calling myself a CHRISTian.

But I’m a wimp. I avoid suffering. I live a safe, predictable life in a nice home on a beautiful island. How am I supposed to share in Christ’s suffering?

I know there are people who will die today because of their faith in Jesus. There are people all over the world who live in fear every day, yet they stand boldly for the NAME.

Me? I’m afraid someone won’t like me if I actually share the Gospel will them. They might not want to be my friend, or they might even cut me out of their life completely. That would hurt my feelings.

I’m sitting here thinking about this whole idea of sharing in Christ’s suffering, and it dawned on me (or God did). To share in Christ’s suffering means to let go of my “self,” and do the will of the Father no matter the cost. Wasn’t that what Jesus did? He didn’t shy away from doing the hard thing, because the hard thing is what God wanted Him to do. He didn’t think “Me first.” In fact, He didn’t think “ME” at all:

Not my will, but Thine be done.

Paul wasn’t intimidated by the gossip about him in Corinth. He considered that insignificant compared to knowing Jesus and obeying His command to go and make disciples. Paul chose to put his life in God’s hand and, come what may, Paul trusted God even if it caused suffering.

So the question is, am I willing to share in Christ’s suffering? No one is going to nail me to a cross or beat me with leather straps. But standing up for the Truth might make someone mad. It might cause an argument. They might walk away and make fun of me to their friends.

If that’s the extent of my suffering for the sake of the Gospel, shame on me if I cower in fear. Don’t I realize that anything I may “suffer” can bring glory to God? Jesus’ suffering certainly did. And I have the privilege of sharing in that.

Do I choose to suffer for Jesus’ sake? We’ll see. I pray that I do.

Connections

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1 Corinthians 16

I hate texting. I do it often every day. But between auto-correct and my stiff fingers on those tiny buttons, I don’t always end up sending the message I meant to say. Plus, you can’t read inflection. What I think is funny might read as anger or insult to the receiver. I hate that. But what I think I hate most about texting is the personal connection it lacks, the sound of a friends’ voice, actual laughter instead of reading LOL.

Ok, so yesterday I said I felt like I had gotten a hug from God. I GOT ONE TODAY, TOO! As I was writing the first paragraph, my phone rang. On the other end was the beautiful voice of a dear friend I’ve loved for decades. We live about 800 miles apart now, but for the last 20 minutes I was back in her kitchen, just gabbing over coffee about this and that and the other thing. We laughed the familiar belly-laugh over silly things, and shared some struggles we wouldn’t necessarily share with many others. No text could have done what that call did. Thank you God, for prompting my friend to call.

Paul knew how important face-to-face connection was. He wrote letters out of necessity. He couldn’t pick up the phone and he couldn’t be everywhere at once. But in his letters you can hear his longing to be in the physical presence of those to whom he wrote. That connection was important to him.

And whether we realize it or not, it’s important for us, too,

Our society has become more and more an isolationist society. We are all so self-focused we can’t even take a minute to stop and have a conversation with a parent or a child or a friend or an annoying scam artist. (Don’t do that last one. Don’t answer the call of a phone number you don’t recognize. Don’t do it!)

God created us to be relational. He said right from the start that it wasn’t good for Adam to be alone. It’s not good for us to be, either. Some of you are alone living in a houseful of people. You are on your phones more than you are interacting with those people. Shame on you parents whose children see you with one eye on your phone when you are with them. You might as well live alone. I’m not sure you’d know the difference.

Our families are disconnected. Our churches are, too. Online worship? What’s that about? If the Church is the body of Christ, why does his elbow or his toes think it’s ok to disconnect? That’s not a healthy body! We need you. We need each other.

Friend, hold onto that connection in your family. You might have to grab on tightly and fight the pull. Do it anyway. You might have to put down your phone. Or turn it off. That wouldn’t kill you.

Hold onto that connection in your church. Reach out. Invite. Grab coffee or knock on a door of someone who is pulling away. Don’t wait for someone else to make the connection. You do it.

Satan loves to separate God’s sheep from the herd. That’s where we are the most vulnerable. Satan loves to separate children from their parents. That’s where they are the most vulnerable, too. If you don’t keep a connection with your kids, it’s easier for them to make poor choices. We need each other. We need to hold on.

So I guess my hope is that we will put down our phones, eliminate screen time, and look at each other. Talk to each other. Touch each other. Laugh with each other. Cry with each other. Listen. Share. It’s what it means to be human beings. Let’s get that back.

Make a real connection with someone today.

Religious Stuff

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1 Corinthians 15:35-58

Friend, if you don’t read your Bible every day asking God to speak to you, then expecting to hear His voice, you are missing out.

A few months ago I found a devotional book of short excerpts from AW Tozer sermons, compiled by Gerald B. Smith and published by Moody Publishers, 2008, called Mornings With Tozer. Today, August 20, there was a line that caught my attention and prepared my heart to hear from God as I turned to 1 Corinthians 15. In fact, I not only heard what God wanted me to know, I got a gentle hug from my Lord, too.

So Paul is talking about our resurrected bodies. It’s natural to wonder what we will look like in our new and improved bodies. I see me as a size 0 with long flowing blond hair and perfect skin. I digress.

Paul says the body I am wearing will die like a seed dies in the ground and comes forth as something totally different. This body won’t be the same when Jesus comes for the harvest. It will be changed into something incorruptible and immortal in the twinkling of an eye. (I get chills just thinking about that. Jesus is coming again!)

But, and this comes from the “therefore” in verse 58, until that eye-twinkle I am to be “steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”

I hear God say, “Don’t spend so much time trying to figure out things the details of which I didn’t think were important for you to know. Get to work.” My spiritual body will be what God intends my spiritual body to be and until I receive that spiritual body, it’s pointless to dwell on the possibilities. There are too many things to do before I get there.

I was prompted to take an inventory of my “labor in the Lord.” I am a Sunday School teacher, a ladies’ Bible Study teacher, the head of a children’s ministry, I sit on a long range planning committee at church, and am on a team that serves our Wednesday dinners. I attend church every Sunday, followed by Sunday School, I go to our Wednesday night prayer and Bible study. I spend many hours each week preparing for the various lessons I teach, and I start each day with a quiet time in God’s Word. I will tell you, sometimes I get weary.

So I read Paul’s charge to be “steadfast, immovable, excellent,” and my whole body aches. All the things I do are good things, I love doing them, and it’s my privilege to serve God this way. But none of that is the most important thing.

Here’s what Tozer said that got my attention: “Of things religious we may become tired, even prayer may weary us, but God never!”

I’ve come to realize it’s when I’m doing religious stuff, when I’m intent on the task at hand, wanting to do well, giving it my all, that’s when I become the weariest. But when my gaze is on Jesus, when I am in-tune to His voice and relying on His direction and strength, He makes me steadfast, immovable, and excellent.

I said I felt a hug from God this morning. I hear Him tell me to quit trying so hard. It’s not that any of what I do is wrong, or that the time I put in is futile, or that I shouldn’t want what I do to be excellent. But none of that can come in place of my relationship with Jesus. My first priority is to my Savior.

When we, God and I, work together the labor is not in vain. When my focus is on Jesus, the work gets done with excellence. I’m glad God has given me some religious stuff to do, but the stuff isn’t my religion.

Jesus is.

Should I Wear a Hat to Church?

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1 Corinthians 11:1-16

Are we wrong in the 21st Century Church to not adhere to Paul’s mandate about hats in worship? I hate to think there are 16 verses in God’s Word that have no meaning to us in 2025.

As I sat here and tried to make sense of it, and before I went to Amazon to look up “women’s hats” to buy, God seemed to draw my eyes to the word “tradition” in verse 2. I looked back at what Paul had written in chapter 10 and saw he’d just had a conversation about our freedom in Christ. Are these verses in chapter 11 a continuation of that theme? It seems so to me.

Eating food sacrificed to idols isn’t an issue for us in the modern church, but the wisdom in the lesson still applies: choose to do nothing that would trip up a weaker Christian, or give a non-believer a wrong idea about what it means to follow Christ.

The ancient tradition of head-covering has a lesson for us, too. If idolatrous men covered their heads while bowing to their false gods, Paul is calling Christian men to take off their hats when they worshiped God. If idolatrous women went to their false god bare-headed, Christian women should cover their’s. It wasn’t as much about the hat, as it was being totally separate from anything idolatrous, so as not to trip up a weaker Christian or give a non-believer the wrong idea about what it means to worship the one true God.

Does God care what we wear to church? The popular philosophy is, no. But I wonder if we should care. Does what I wear separate me from the world on a Sunday morning? If I go to church wearing my short shorts and tank top, am I going to hell? Of course not. (don’t worry. I don’t even own short shorts and tank tops anymore. Relax!) We have the freedom to wear just about anything.

But if my unsaved neighbor sees me getting into my car on a Sunday morning, will he automatically know I am going to worship God, or will he think I’m going to the beach or a ball game? If my approach to worship looks that casual, would a weaker Christian think it’s ok to take a casual approach to worship?

What is permissible is not always profitable.

I know when we talk about wearing our “Sunday best” to church, we are touted as old fashioned, out-dated, legalistic. Yes, there is no dress code for church. But shouldn’t I care about how I am perceived as a Christian woman? What do my clothes say about me and my worship of Holy God?

I will go so far to say that this lesson isn’t just for the Sunday morning worshippers. I hope we present ourselves every day as people separate from the world through our choice of what we wear to work, to play, or simply to walk through the neighborhood.

You might say, “I have a right to wear what I want.” Ummm, I question that. As Christians we are called to set aside our “rights” for the sake of the Gospel, for the sake of that weaker Christian, or for that unsaved person who is watching us.

I’m not advocating for the fashion police to guard the doors of our churches. But I think I’m advocating that we guard our hearts and our witness every day, and especially on Sunday when we have the privilege of gathering with our family of faith to worship our precious Savior, our Holy God.

What does your choice of clothing say about you? Do you blend in with the world? Could people mistake you for a non-believer? Or are you living a life that is separate from the world, and looking like it?

The Parable of the Virgins

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Matthew 25:1-13

It occurred to me today that all the virgins believed the bridegroom was coming. We’re not talking about believers and non-believers. The difference was between those who did something about their belief and those who didn’t.

A.W. Tozer said a preacher can preach the Truth, but if it doesn’t “alarm, arouse, challenge” the hearer, he might as well be teaching the multiplication table. Those are truth, too. (from Mornings with Tozer daily devotional readings; complied by Gerald B. Smith; Moody Publishers, 1991, 2008; see July 26)

This parable teaches belief is not enough. We know the demons believe and they shutter. (James 2:19)

The question isn’t, “do I believe?” but rather, “am I living as though I believe?” I have to ask myself if my choices, my words, my attitudes reflect the fact that I believe Jesus is the Son of God who loves me, died in my place and rose again so that my sins can be forgiven, AND that that same Jesus is coming again.

Am I ready? Are you? Because this parable is also a warning to people who believe but haven’t let that belief change them.

Paul says in Romans 10:9-10 that if we believe and confess, we are saved. To confess means to speak the words from our hearts. But throughout Scripture we are told that we also confess Jesus by our actions. James says our faith in Jesus is dead without a life that backs it up by what we do.

I’m going to ask again, are you ready? Jesus is coming again. Life on Earth is coming to a close. And once the Bridegroom (Jesus) comes it will be too late to get ready. The sad end for those virgins who believed but who must have felt they had plenty of time to do something about their belief, was a closed Door. Hearing the words: “I never new you” will be the most devastating four words anyone will ever hear.

Let’s get ready. Let’s confess with our mouths and our life choices that Jesus is the LORD of our lives. Let’s do the work so that when – not if – He returns, He will welcome us into our eternal home, where our belief will be sight!

The Parable of the Vineyard Workers

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Matthew 20:1-16

I was sitting here this morning thinking about this parable, and how it speaks to death-bed-confessions like the thief on the cross. What is their reward? According to Jesus, the generosity of God rewards them the same as He does a Billy Graham. The newly saved person meets the Savior in the same way we who are seasoned Christians meet Him, as sinners saved by grace. The Kingdom of God is like that.

Oh we, like the early workers in the parable, think the longer we serve God, the greater our reward ought to be. We’ll certainly have more stars in our crowns and live in mansions next to their bungalows. Right? I mean, we’ve put in the time. That ought to count for something.

But this parable tells us our rewards will be exactly the same. So if that’s the case, what good is it to live a lifetime of faith in Jesus? What good is it to be separate from a world that offers so much, if in the end I’ll receive exactly what a last minute confessor gets?

I can’t begrudge a last minute convert’s eternal reward. In fact, I kind of feel bad for him. A person saved on his death-bed doesn’t know what he’s missed. He doesn’t know the joy of fellowship with the Creator in this lifetime. He doesn’t know the wonder of answered prayer, or the privilege of introducing a lost soul to his Savior. He never experiences the hand of God to guide, protect, comfort, and hold. The death-bed confessor doesn’t know what that’s like. But I do.

And I wouldn’t trade one minute of this walk with Jesus for anything. This precious time He has given me to experience Him, to serve Him, to get to know Him and love Him is a gift I cherish. May I be a willing and joyful worker in His vineyard no matter how long I have to serve Him in this lifetime.

The Rich Man and Lazarus

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Luke 16:19-31, 19:1-27

The Pharisees were “lovers of money.” (16:1) So, since Jesus knew their hearts He told them another parable that addressed that. Their money would not buy them a place in heaven. They were living their best life in this life. Eternity would be a different story.

I can’t help but think of Joel Osteen and other prosperity gospel liars who equate healthy bank accounts with God’s blessings. But was that Jesus’ message – ever?

Lazarus, whose health and finances were both bankrupt, went to heaven while the rich man found himself in hell. Neither man had their bank accounts with them. The rich man had his rewards during his short life on earth. Lazarus, whose short life had been hard, was just beginning to receive his rewards.

We – I – put so much thought and effort into what we have, what we invest, what we drive and where we live. We ought to be thinking about what comes next.

Now, here’s a question: is Jesus describing an “intermediate state,” an existence somewhere between earth and heaven where dead people wait for Christ’s return? Is that what He wants us to get out of this parable, this interaction between Abraham and the rich man? O’Donnell seems to think so. (The Parables of Jesus; Crossway Publishers; 2023; p 50)

Jesus told the repentant thief on the cross, “Today you’ll be with Me in paradise.” Was Jesus talking about a waiting room? Scripture tells us when Christ returns the dead in Christ will rise first. Are we to believe they will be raised from that waiting room?

We who are bound by time have to believe our loved ones are somewhere. Where has Mom been since 1996?

The answer is, she is outside of time.

A former pastor of mine said it may be we will all get to heaven at exactly the same moment. The “today” Jesus spoke to the thief will be the “today” I join Jesus in heaven.

There is no 2,000 years in heaven. There is no such thing as a second in heaven. It’s hard to wrap our finite minds around that. So don’t try. Satan loves nothing more than we follow rabbit trails rather than consider the real lessons God wants us to learn.

I’ve already thought about this intermediate state way too much this morning, when the thing Jesus wanted me to consider is my priorities. Am I focused on the now, or am I looking forward, eyes on Him and eternity where I will receive the riches of His glory… eternity in His presence!

And, when we see Him face to face, it will be exactly the right “time.”

The Rich Fool

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Luke 12:13-21

I find it sadly relatable that the man seems to have been present when Jesus was speaking to the crowd about the hypocrisy of false teachers, about the necessity of fearing God, and bowing to Him. Yet, he blew it off because he had an agenda:

I WANT…

The thing is, by Law, if his brother had received the inheritance, his brother was the first-born and doesn’t owe this man anything. The man wasn’t asking Jesus to help him get what he deserved. He was asking Jesus to force his brother to give him what he did not deserve.

Who doesn’t want something for nothing? Who doesn’t look at what someone has, and want it or better for themselves? The problem of envy is a monster in all of us.

Unless we have a change of heart. Unless we move our priorities from self to God. We can have the healthiest bank accounts, the nicest homes, the newest cars, and the most expensive clothes and be the poorest of the poor if our souls are bankrupt by sin.

Thank God, through Jesus we all can receive what we don’t deserve – the forgiveness of our sins, and all the spiritual wealth of being adopted into the family of God.

That being said, I think there might be a chance this parable can suggest a works salvation. O’Donnell, The Parables of Jesus (Crossway Publishers; 2023) says Christians “must use their God-given financial means to be generous to others and thus store up treasure for the life to come. (p 24, emphasis mine). He cites 1 Timothy 6:10 and Matthew 6:20.

I guess my question is – what constitutes treasures in heaven? If our good works are compared to filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6), do we present those to God in exchange for treasure in heaven? Do we give to the poor to get a star in our crown? Is that what Jesus is teaching here?

Or do we combine this with what Jesus says in Luke 17:9-10, and give simply because it’s our duty and NOT expect even a thanks from our Master. We are servants who obey, nothing more, nothing less.

Does our treasure in heaven consist of things? Or will it be the eternal souls we have touched with the Gospel? I believe this parable and the consistent teaching of Jesus teach that the only thing that matters are the souls. He Himself became a servant, emptying Himself of all the riches of heaven, and became obedient unto death on the cross. Why? It wasn’t for a nice mansion.

And Jesus is our example to follow.

Self-Control

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Titus 2

The last aspect of the Fruit of the Spirit described by Paul in Galatians 5 is self-control. Those of you who know me know self-control flies out the window when I’m holding a bag of potato chips. I almost never have an open bag in my pantry because once I start, I can’t stop eating until the last chip is gone. I’m out of control. Or at least that’s what I tell myself.

Boy, am I under conviction today. Studying these facets of the Fruit of the Spirit these past few weeks has made me aware that because the Spirit lives in me, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness live in me. I’m ok with that. In fact, I welcome that and pray those aspects of Christ in me can be clearly seen by others.

But then Paul ends with self-control. (as the ladies in my Sunday School class would say: Now he’s meddling!)

Ugh! After today I can never again say I have no self-control when it comes to chips. Self-control lives in me.

Jonathan Landry Cruse, in his book entitled The Character of Christ; the Fruit of the Spirit in the Life of our Savior (Versa Press; 2014) says that self-control is the ability to be controlled, not by self, but by the Holy Spirit. (p 143). In other words I have the control to turn over the control to the Spirit.

Paul, in his letter to Titus, has a lot to say about the Spirit-fueled self-control. He doesn’t let any of us off the hook. In verse 11 he assures us that it is the grace of God that brings salvation, then shows us how to live sensibly and godly.

Jesus demonstrated self-control when He was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, when He didn’t call down fire from heaven at the suggestion of his disciples when some people rejected Him, when He stood quietly before Pilate and heard the lies told about Him, and when he didn’t turn the soldiers who beat Him and nailed Him to the cross into toads.

That same self-control lives in me. I can never again claim I have no self-control. I use my chip weakness as an example of any sin I allow to over-power me. If I give into a sin, I quench the Holy Spirit in me. I demonstrate I have SELF-control. And that’s a sin.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence Paul ended his description of the Fruit of the Spirit with self-control. Without choosing to relinquish my will, and the control over my life to the Spirit I cannot produce the Fruit of the Spirit in me. It’s not me producing anything by my own effort. It’s being firmly attached to the Vine, growing in grace and knowledge of Jesus, reflecting more of Him today than was evident yesterday, and allowing Him to fill me, and use me for His glory.

The Fruit of the Spirit. May it have fertile soil in my heart from which to grow, mature, and produce the harvest God intends. I pray the same for you.

Gentleness

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Matthew 11:25-30

Gentleness is not the same as weakness Actually, the aspect of gentleness in the Fruit of the Spirit is the power of God “properly used, not to crush or destroy or dismay, but to protect and build up.” (The Charter of Christ; The Fruit of the Spirit in the Life of our Savior; Jonathan Landry Cruse; Versa Press; East Peoria, IL 2014; p 126)

Jesus lays his heart wide open here in Matthew 11 and assures us He is gentle and humble (or lowly) and, instead of beating us up because of our sin, He invites us to come to Him and receive the rest we need from our battle with sin and its consequences.

Jesus is as gentle as a daddy pulling his crying child to himself to kiss away a boo-boo, or a wife who wraps her arms around her husband who’s had a hard day, or the embrace of a friend who understands we are hurting.

I wonder if this aspect of the Fruit of the Spirit is a bit under-used these days. We are busy people. We want to do something, fix something and move on. What if we allowed the gentleness of Jesus to reach out to others in the same way He’s reached out to us. What if we offered our arms to gently embrace someone whose soul needs rest.

If you are a child of God through the blood of Jesus, the Holy Spirit actually lives in you. I am challenged today to pay attention to the fruit of His presence and reach out to someone who is hurting, someone who is battling, someone whose soul needs rest and allow the gentleness of Jesus to flow through me.

As I was thinking about this fruit today, an old Gaither song came to mind. I’m going to leave it with you today, praying it with you, and challenging you to reveal the Gentle Shepherd to someone today.

Gentle Shepherd, come and lead us, for we need you to help us find our way.
Gentle Shepherd, come and feed us, for we need your strength from day to day.
There’s no other we can turn to who can help us face another day.
Gentle Shepherd, come and lead us, for we need you to help us find our way.