Serpents & Doves…

In Matthew 10:5-15, Jesus is found equipping and briefing the apostles to serve Him by going to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel” (V6). I wonder if the “lost sheep” would have agreed to that title?

But then (in V16) Jesus scares His disciples by portraying a caricature of them, not sheep amongst other lost sheep, but rather sheep in the midst of wolves. No warm-fuzzies there…

Jesus prescribes the way to live in the second part of the verse…”be wise as serpents and innocent [gentle] as doves“. Here lies the crux: to operate in a life that has great value, calling, and glory – but it is not always easy…like a sheep in a pack of wolves. To operate knowing the Enemy, but utilizing the great & costly grace of the Lord at the end of the day. We should live our lives with the grace and mercy of Jesus, so that we can go to sleep easy at night. Be tactical in wisdom-filled thought, because we have asked God in faith for it (James 1:5-6); but at the same time dealing and talking with people with such measures of grace, wisdom, and gentleness knowing that vengeance (reckoning) ultimately belongs to God.

I like how Hebrews 12:14 puts it “Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord”. Live deliberately, yet live in the innocence of gentleness…even if “sheep” are acting like wolves. Let’s face it, the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God (James 1:20)!

ScottC

Be Kind

Ephesians 4:32, Be kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

This should seem so obvious but it is something that we often fail to do. On our youth trip this past week I found myself often pulling kids aside and sharing this verse with them because we can sometimes be just downright rotten for no good reason. Or maybe it is to get a laugh at someone’s expense, or to elevate oneself, but it is just foolish. Let us be kind toward one another, not using our words to beat each other up, but to encourage each other in the Lord. And if you have been wronged or hurt – forgive. Why? Because Christ forgave you. Odds are you are going to be hurt or wronged by someone at some point, and God has called us to forgive. If you are holding onto something that someone has done, forgive them. Give it over to the Lord, pray that bitterness would not creep in, and seek out that person and let them know that you have forgiven them.

ADOPTION!

Yesterday, I was sitting at a local park with my wife and kids as my son (Josiah) was in baseball practice. Something very amazing caught my attention from the corner of my eye. I noticed a boy around the age of 3 interacting with a family that was clearly not of the same nationality. They were riding their bikes, playing games, and laughing. It was breath taking to see how these folks loved each other, cared for each other, and engaged with each other. I began to say to myself “I wonder where the mom and/or dad is to that handsome boy?”

Not long afterwards, the boy called out to the Lady by saying “Mom”. Come to find out he was adopted into the family!!!

Galatians 4:4-6 says “God sent forth his Son…to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

Just as the boy claimed his familial relationship by calling the lady “Mom” so to, and in a greater way we exercise beings sons (children) of God by crying out to God as “Abba – Father!” God can and does this by sending His Holy Spirit to dwell within our hearts of believers. (Romans 8:15-16).

As you have received and trusted in Christ, enjoy being in the Family of God! What a birthright!

ScottC

Prayer

As we have been going through Luke Wednesday nights I am constantly brought back to the point of the importance of prayer. Time and time again we read Jesus breaking away to pray. If Jesus saw the importance of prayer why do we often neglect it? We are good at the tangibles, doing things that we can see progress such as daily Bible reading, tracking through a devotional book, or listening to a sermon series. But to get down on our knees and pray, to do something that there might not be an immediate result that is so against our nature. Yet there very thing we need to do most we often fail to do. The one thing we are told by Paul to do without ceasing (1st Thessalonians 5:17), it is often an after thought or something we do running out the door. Prayer is not to be a chore that we loathe to do. Prayer is not to be like an annoying friend that we dread meeting up with. Rather praying is something that we are called to. Prayer is something that we get to join in on and be a part of what God is doing! Like Acts 12 when Peter is imprisoned and many gathered together at the house of Mary (John-Marks mom), for prayer for Peter and he was freed. As John Wesley puts it, “Bear up the hands that hang down, by faith and prayer; support the tottering knees. Have you any days of fasting and prayer? Storm the throne of grace and persevere therein, and mercy will come down.”

TFAB we are called to prayer, not just today, not just this week, or a month of prayer but a lifetime of prayer. My hope is that our knees would be red from the carpet and our carpets worn down in our closets from so much time spent quietly before God in earnest prayer.

Brett

Quality

When did busyness become the gold star that it now is today? The mantra of today’s socio-economic world seems to be “If you aren’t busy, you’re dead.” Yet why is that so?
How “busy” we are has become the sole criterion by which we assess the quality of our lives. But I believe that if we are honest with ourselves, the majority of us desire a time of quality rather than a quantity of time. Yet we have substituted the quality of our time for its quantity. We never have enough time. We stay up late and wake up early that we might have more time. When stress accumulates because we are so busy we need more time to be busy rather than a good time of rest. The quality of our time is ultimately judged by its quantity. The day is deemed good in quality according to the number of errands done, projects finished, people served, books read, miles ran. Time is given quality by the quantity of things which it allows us to do.

If ever there was a man who lived a quality life of quantity, it was Solomon. Solomon oversaw the nation of Israel at its peak of prosperity. Some of Solomon’s accomplishments include building the temple, housing 40,000 stalls of horses, speaking 3,000 proverbs, writing 1,000 songs, marrying 700 women, planting national forests. A life of quantity that no man has yet to repeat, however Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 4:6 – “Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind.”

At the end of his life Solomon looks back and tells us to live two handedly. Live in one hand working hard, getting the most quantity out of your time. Be as the ant in Proverbs 6 who prepares her bread in the summer. But hold in the other hand times of quietness, times of rest for your soul, times that aren’t weighed in quality by their quantity. Solomon goes on in chapter 4 verse 18-20 to say: “Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil–this is the gift of God. For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.”

Through the person and work of Jesus Christ we are reconciled to God and given fullness of joy in right relationship with Him that we might walk in joy recognizing such things as gifts from a loving father.

As the recent weather suggests, summer appears to have arrived, may we be like the ant that stores up bread, works hard, does all things with our might according to the will of God and may we enjoy the toils of life given to us by God. May we breathe deeply in those times of rest and quietness. Instead of driving fast while talking on the Bluetooth, telling the kids to be quiet, rolling the windows up so you can hear and eating your fast food that shortens your life: Drive slowly, roll the windows down, turn the music up loud, tell the kids to sing at the top of their lungs, sit down and take more than five minutes to eat food that will nourish instead of kill you because as Solomon says in Ecclesiastes, these things are gifts from God. Augustine spoke well in saying “If these be the beauties afforded to sinful man, how much more for those who love Him?”

Skylar