1440!

 

 

How do you regard the passing of time?  Some ‘kill time.’ Others waste it. Some invest it, some spend it. Recently I read this thought. Imagine someone agreed to deposit $1440 in your account every day with only condition being that you were required to use each dollar within that day. If any of it were leftover, that balance would be subtracted from the next day’s deposit.  I think most of us would find ways to use each dollar, even giving some away to keep the maximum income flowing our way. 

Now think of this - God gives each one of us 1440 minutes every day. They can be used, invested, spent, or given.  They cannot be hoarded nor kept for the future.

When Friday evening rolls around, will you have a sense of fulfillment, able to say, “Lord, thank you for the work, the worship, the way my days were used?” Or will you feel some sense of regret because you still have a list of undone tasks hanging over your head because you just fumbled and stumbled through each day? 

Monday morning decisions lay the ground work for fulfilled Fridays!

It’s called planning. Though now retired, with lesser responsibilities, I still think about the tasks of the week- organizing them as must do’s, should do’s, and could do’s.  Covey (7 Habits author) called it “beginning with the end in mind.” He said that we “begin each day, task, or project with a clear vision of your desired direction and destination, and then continue by flexing your proactive muscles to make things happen.”

Christians must keep in mind that each of will give an account for the way we used those 1440 minutes of the day to the Creator of time. Does that thought stress you out?  It need not because we have the Spirit living in us. Here’s the invitation - "Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit." (Galatians 5:25, NIV)  He has a plan, promises to empower, and gives us opportunities. We listen to His voice.    

Like Paul, if we have lived in humble obedience we will come to the end of this earthly journey full of hope, able to say - "The prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing." (2 Timothy 4:7-8, NLT)  

We live best when we are aware of time’s passing. 
Moses prayed "Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom." (Psalm 90:12, NLT) 
Paul urges us to "Live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity." (Colossians 4:5, NLT) 

Before you decide to selfishly ‘kill time’ today or waste a day in self-indulgence, consider these words of Jesus. "Then the King will say to those on the right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’ 

“Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison, and visit you?’ And the King will tell them, ‘I assure you, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’" (Matthew 25:34-40, NLT)  Could anything be better than the commendation of our Savior and Lord?

A word from the Word reminds us of the JOY of the faithful. Hear it, learn it, live it. “The master was full of praise. ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’" (Matthew 25:21, NLT)

(Video of this blog at this link)

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Build My Life

(Let this worship song speak to you today)

Worthy of ev’ry song we could ever sing

Worthy of all the praise we could ever bring

Worthy of ev’ry breath we could ever breathe

We live for You

 

Jesus the name above ev’ry other name

Jesus the only one who could ever save

Worthy of ev’ry breath we could ever breathe

We live for You

We live for You

 

Holy there is no one like You

There is none besides You

Open up my eyes in wonder and show me who You are

And fill me with Your heart

And lead me in Your love to those around me

 

I will build my life upon Your love

It is a firm foundation

I will put my trust in You alone

And I will not be shaken

 

Brett Younker | Karl Martin | Kirby Elizabeth Kaple | Matt Redman | Pat Barrett

© 2016 Martin, Karl Andrew (Admin. by Arkyard Music Services Limited)

Kaple Music (Admin. by Bethel Music Publishing)

Bethel Music Publishing

CCLI License # 810055

More than a good feeling

 

Emotions make my life so much richer.  The ability to feel joy and sorrow, love and hate, peace and turmoil give life color.  A shared moment of real laughter is renewing. An embrace releases a flood of happiness.  In the Pentecostal traditions that are my roots emotions are part of our worship gatherings. Tears are as much a part of our worship as prayer. Joyous songs are accompanied by hearty expressions of agreement and sometimes clapping along (offbeat in my case.) Some of us are more prone to display our emotions than others, but emotions are present in every man, woman, and child. God gave us those feelings.  However, if our feelings are put in charge of life, we are at great risk.

When emotions rule the person, he is unstable and unproductive. We expect a toddler to plummet from giddy heights of laughter to stormy tumult of tears within 5 minutes. That same emotional roller coaster in an adult is cause for concern! At the opposite extreme, the person who represses emotions, who refuses to experience them, robs himself of a rich part of his humanity.

Here is my core thought for this day.  Our faith must be anchored to more than good feelings! Here is what the Word says-  "I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." (Ephesians 3:16-19, NIV)

That is my favorite prayer in the Bible!  God wants us to have deep roots, a solid foundation laid on His love for us.  He desires that we truly comprehend through revelation, by faith, that which is incomprehensible to the natural mind.  Then, we will become all that God desires us to be in Christ Jesus.

If we only seek some emotional state, some good feelings when we pray, when we go to worship, we create a flimsy structure that will not withstand the inevitable storms of life. Everyone of us will face seasons of hardship or loss, experiences that defy explanations, days when God seems to have forsaken us. 

The song of the Psalm lets us see the heart of a person in such a season. "I thirst for God, the living God. When can I come and stand before him? Day and night, I have only tears for food, while my enemies continually taunt me, saying, “Where is this God of yours?” My heart is breaking as I remember how it used to be: I walked among the crowds of worshipers, leading a great procession to the house of God, singing for joy and giving thanks— it was the sound of a great celebration!" (Psalm 42:2-4, NLT) "“O God my rock,” I cry, “Why have you forsaken me? Why must I wander in darkness, oppressed by my enemies?” Their taunts pierce me like a fatal wound. They scoff, “Where is this God of yours?”" (Psalm 42:9-10, NLT)   The singer concludes with an affirmation of God’s faithfulness, an anchor in his season of sorrow.

Love, my friend, is more than an emotion. It is a daily choice. Ask any married person about that! Some days there are feelings of great passion and then there are days when the heart is cold. Love is a choice made through every season.  When we love God, it must be more than the stuff of the heart’s feelings. 

Jesus taught us to love God more deeply. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’" (Mark 12:30, NIV) Our walk with the Lord is a combination of emotion and truth, of passion and discipline, of feeling and fact.

Today I encourage you to mature in faith, to appreciate the emotions, the good feelings, but to choose to ‘put your hope in God!’  God does not only love us when we feel all warm and fuzzy inside when they sing our favorite worship song in church! He is not just present when tears spill over in a particularly touching time of prayer. He is equally God on the bad days as He is in the good ones. He is still Lord when exhaustion steals our passion. He is Lord when anxiety about the future produces a temporary soul paralysis.

Choose to love the Truth! If we build our salvation on a special state of mind, on emotional well-being, we are resting on a foundation of sand. Yes, we will find ourselves then chasing a feeling, looking for a religious high, running here and there wanting somebody to renew the excitement.

The word from the Word encourages a grounded faith, one that anchors in the promise of God. "The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17, NIV) "Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness." (Lamentations 3:22-23, NIV)  Steady on, trusting, hoping, until that great Day when our faith becomes sight, our hopes fully realized in the Kingdom come. Amen.

(Video of this blog at this link)

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O The Deep Deep Love Of Jesus

O the deep deep love of Jesus

Vast unmeasured boundless free

Rolling as a mighty ocean

In its fullness over me

Underneath me all around me

Is the current of Thy love

Leading onward leading homeward

To my glorious rest above

 

O the deep deep love of Jesus

Spread His praise from shore to shore

How He loveth ever loveth

Changeth never nevermore

How He watches o'er His loved ones

Died to call them all His own

How for them He intercedeth

Watches over them from the throne

 

O the deep deep love of Jesus

Love of every love the best

'Tis an ocean vast of blessing

'Tis a haven sweet of rest

O the deep deep love of Jesus

'Tis a heaven of heavens to me

And it lifts me up to glory

For it lifts me up to Thee

 

© Words: Public Domain

 

A Bigger Pie?

 

Do you know any really generous people?  Most likely your immediate thought was about money. Generosity includes dollars, but it is a larger issue of the heart, a way of life that enriches the giver.  Stephen Covey, author of 7 Habits of Highly Successful People, borrowed a Biblical concept and coined that phrase, “abundance mentality.”  He teaches that IF we believe there is a limited amount of resources – financial or otherwise – we will protect our stores and scramble to increase our wealth. If we believe that resources can be multiplied, we will give more readily.   

Put in plainer terms, if we think the size of the pie is fixed, we will grab for our piece first but if we believe that more pies can be baked, we will find joy in creating opportunities for everyone.

Jesus says it this way.  "If you give, you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full measure, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, and running over. Whatever measure you use in giving—large or small—it will be used to measure what is given back to you.” (Luke 6:38, NLT)  It is the law of harvest.  Your harvest will be in proportion to your planting. Plant much, reap much.  The principle goes far beyond dollars and church offering plates. Generosity includes understanding of others, patience, forgiveness, and encouragement.  

People who hold grudges, who insist that others meet their expectations, are soon complaining that no one cares for them, feeling like the world is against them, often lonely and isolated. They become cynics, unable to see or hope for the goodness of life.  Who built the walls behind which they live? They did!  I know others who readily forgive, who refuse offense, who offer encouragement and they find themselves encouraged.  Even when those great-hearted people are misunderstood or maligned, their magnanimous heart absorbs the blow and returns a blessing!  A person simply cannot be cynical and critical as well as generous.

Christian, we need look no further for an example than our Lord. "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich." (2 Corinthians 8:9, NIV)  John explains the root of a generous heart- "We love because he first loved us." (1 John 4:19, NIV)  God’s grace, shown to us in Jesus, secures us so that we are able to set aside selfishness. Meditate on that! Pray for a revelation of the love of God, the grace of Christ Jesus, and let those truths make you new, inside out.

Paul speaks an inspired word to us. "Just as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us—see that you also excel in this grace of giving. …" (2 Corinthians 8:7, NIV) That word, ‘grace,’ comes from the NT Greek word, ‘charis,’ which describes any act or quality that brings pleasure, joy, benefit, or delight. Our generosity is a grace, a gift designed to bring joy to our family, our friends, and our world. We counter the ‘dog eat dog’ attitude that is so common in our human experience with generosity.

The word from the Word speaks eloquently to us. Meditate on these words of Jesus and pray to that person who is known as ‘generous.’  “Stop judging others, and you will not be judged. Stop criticizing others, or it will all come back on you. If you forgive others, you will be forgiven. If you give, you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full measure, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, and running over. Whatever measure you use in giving—large or small—it will be used to measure what is given back to you.” (Luke 6:37-38, NLT)

May we find many ways to grace our world today, leaving a trail of people touched by joy, blessed by our generous spirit, to the glory of the One who first loved us! Amen.

(Video of this blog at this link)

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10,000 Reasons (Bless The Lord)

Bless the Lord, O my soul,

O my soul!

Worship His holy name!

Sing like never before

O my soul.

I'll worship Your holy name.

 

The sun comes up, it's a new day dawning.

It's time to sing Your song again!

Whatever may pass and whatever lies before me,

Let me be singing when the evening comes.

 

You're rich in love and You're slow to anger.

Your name is great and Your heart is kind.

For all Your goodness I will keep on singing,

Ten thousand reasons for my heart to find.

 

Bless the Lord, O my soul,

O my soul!

Worship His holy name!

Sing like never before

O my soul.

I'll worship Your holy name.

 

And on that day when my strength is failing,

The end draws near and my time has come.

Still my soul will sing Your praise unending,

Ten thousand years and then forevermore.

 

Worship Your holy name

Worship Your holy name

 

Jonas Myrin | Matt Redman

© 2011 Said And Done Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)

SHOUT! Music Publishing (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)