Excuses?

We have an amazing ability to rationalize our choices often shifting responsibility away from ourselves by making excuses! Well, some people do, but maybe not you. “I cannot do that because I am too (old, young, tired, busy)” is a way to dodge the direct statement - “I will not do that because I do not want to!”   Fear is a real motivation for excuses, too.  Who wants to say “I did not try because I was afraid.”?  We let ourselves out of accountability by focusing on ‘reasons’ for our choices that are merely excuses and often transparent to those who hear us offer them. A half-century ago a Sunday School teacher who urged us to live out our Christian commitment was fond of quoting an old revivalist named Billy Sunday who said - “An excuse is a skin of a reason stuffed with lies.”  She was right. 

In the story of the birth of the nation of Israel, told in Exodus, early on we meet a man called by God to be the deliverer and leader of the children of Abraham. Moses had been raised a prince in Egypt but in a fit of rage killed a man and became a fugitive. For 40 years he worked in obscurity, far from the courts of Egypt, tending a flock of sheep. One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he went deep into the wilderness near Sinai, the mountain of God. Suddenly, the angel of the Lord appeared to him as a blazing fire in a bush. Moses was amazed because the bush was engulfed in flames, but it didn’t burn up.  “Amazing!” Moses said to himself. “Why isn’t that bush burning up? I must go over to see this.”  When the Lord saw that he had caught Moses’ attention, God called to him from the bush, “Moses! Moses!” “Here I am!” Moses replied. Exodus 3:1-4 (NLT)  So far, so good, right?

Then God tells him about the mission He has planned. "The cries of the people of Israel have reached me, and I have seen how the Egyptians have oppressed them with heavy tasks. Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You will lead my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” (Exodus 3:9-10, NLT)  Moses cannot bring himself to say “No, I don’t want to do this.” Instead he offers a list of excuses why he cannot do what God wants him to do.

1. Who am I? Who would listen to me?  
2. Who should I tell them has given me this authority?
3. The people won’t believe me even if I tell them God told me.
4. I am not eloquent. I get tongue-tied.
   

In the text, God answers each of Moses’ excuses by focusing the man back on Himself.  He tells him, “I will be with you!” again and again. Moses is not going in his own strength, cleverness, or authority. He is commissioned by God to do holy work which will be accomplished through him by the power of God Himself.

That sounds so good when we say it, but truth be told, it takes a lot of courage to live in God’s way - to forgive, to serve without reward, to set aside our desires to do His will, to trust that our richest rewards will come in eternity, to risk rejection by friends and family when we choose to live counterculturally, for God’s sake. We are tempted, (well, I am, I’ll admit) to retreat into excuses.

What does God desire of you, my friend? 
What do you know you should be doing that you are avoiding? 
Are you fearful of failure and thus not making a radical commitment to Christ?

Rather than make excuses, get alone with God and tell Him the truth about yourself. He will love you, lead you, and remind you that your real strength comes from HIM!

The word from the Word encourages us to step up. Paul was called to the ‘impossible’ task of taking the good news of Jesus and the Kingdom to the Roman Empire’s far reaches. May his inspired words help you to say a ready ‘yes’ to God today.

"But thanks be to God, who made us his captives and leads us along in Christ’s triumphal procession. Now wherever we go he uses us to tell others about the Lord and to spread the Good News like a sweet perfume. Our lives are a fragrance presented by Christ to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those being saved and by those perishing. To those who are perishing we are a fearful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved we are a life-giving perfume. And who is adequate for such a task as this? … We preach God’s message with sincerity and with Christ’s authority. And we know that the God who sent us is watching us." (2 Corinthians 2:14-17, NLT)

(Video of this blog at this link)

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The Lord's Prayer (It's Yours)

Father let your kingdom come

Father let your will be done

On Earth as in Heaven

Right here in my heart

 

Give us this day our daily bread

Forgive us forgive us

As we forgive the ones who sinned

Against us forgive them

And lead us not into temptation

But deliver us from the evil one

Let your kingdom come

 

It's yours it's yours

All yours all yours

The kingdom the power

The glory are yours

It's yours it's yours

All yours all yours

Forever and ever

The kingdom is yours

 

On Earth as in Heaven

Right here in my heart

Bryan Fowler | Jacob Sooter | Matt Maher

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Beloved YOU

Holding our smartphone at arm’s length, we can take self-portraits.  Do you take ‘selfies?’  Most of us do, at one time or another, and with varying degrees of happiness with with the image we capture. I am notorious for using my phone’s camera to take pictures and because those in the pictures are not prepped and posing, the result is not always a portrayal liked by others! Then, again, many see themselves only with critical eyes. “That pictures make me look ___________ (you can fill in whatever adjective works best for you).  Seldom does anyone say, “that’s a great picture of me!”

How do you see yourself, my friend? Do you only see that temper? Do you see only that part of your personality that you think is your greatest flaw? Here is something I know… God is a Father who thinks you are beautiful. As I love to say, the One who knows you best, loves you most.  That part of your life that you hate, that one thing in you that you constantly ask Him to change, heal, or take away- may serve a good purpose when we put it into His hands. I am not suggesting that we rejoice in our sins or make peace with unholy habits.  It is right to ask the Spirit to empower and transform us, but there are times when He will not take what we think to be a curse from us because it keeps us faithful to Him.

It is often at the point of our greatest 'weakness' that God finds the opportunity to do His greatest work.  Paul was extraordinarily used of God and because of his gifts, he was subject to pride, which could have destroyed him. God gave him another ‘gift,’ that made him God-aware and Spirit-reliant.  I love his authenticity in this passage:  "I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away.

Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong." (2 Corinthians 12:7-10, NLT)  We cannot know what he wanted God to take away and can only speculate over Paul's 'thorn in the flesh' (NIV) but whatever it was, he disliked it enough to pray long and hard for healing. God said, "No! That thing is my gift to you to keep you leaning hard on my grace, not yourself.” 

I love the lesson about becoming aware of our true self and God’s will that is found in the story of that night when Jacob wrestled with a heavenly messenger at the Ford of Jabbok. He was anxious about his coming meeting with his older brother, Esau, a man he had defrauded years before. I am sure he felt some shame, too. But God met him and gave him a new identity. The encounter left him a changed man. "Then the man (messenger) said, “Let me go, for it is dawn.” But Jacob panted, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” “What is your name?” the man asked. He replied, “Jacob.” “Your name will no longer be Jacob,” the man told him. “It is now Israel, because you have struggled with both God and men and have won.” (Genesis 32:26-28, NLT)  There was another result, less pleasant. Jacob’s hip was wrenched and he walked with a limp from that day.  Yes, that was a daily reminder of his life-changing encounter with the Lord’s messenger! 

Christian, sees you as you are and loves you wholly!  He sees the personality, the gifts, the flaws, the failures, the sins, the strengths that make the wonder of you!  I encourage you to take a second look at that part of your life that makes you feel ‘ugly,’ and make it the thing that drives you to your knees.  Prayerfully consider, with the help and insight of the Spirit, whether God is giving you a 'gift'  to keep you close to Him. Thank Him that He is greater than your weakness and present Him with your 'problem,' inviting Him to remove it or use it -- in keeping with His eternal purposes.  Make the statement of faith with Paul - “For when I am weak, then I am strong.”   When we, by faith, come to accept that Jesus is ‘enough’  we will be filled with His grace, His joy will fill our heart and mind.

Here is a word from the Word. Let’s not read it as a threat, but as a promise of His sufficient grace for our weakness. "For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." (Hebrews 4:12-16, NIV) Let God love you to life!

(Video of this blog at this link)

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I Speak Jesus

I just want to speak the Name of Jesus

Over ev'ry heart and ev'ry mind

'Cause I know there is peace within Your presence

I speak Jesus

 

I just want to speak the Name of Jesus

'Til ev'ry dark addiction starts to break

Declaring there is hope and there is freedom

I speak Jesus

 

('Cause) Your Name is power

Your Name is healing

Your Name is life

Break ev'ry stronghold

Shine through the shadows

Burn like a fire

 

I just want to speak the Name of Jesus

Over fear and all anxiety

To ev'ry soul held captive by depression

I speak Jesus

 

Shout Jesus from the mountains

Jesus in the streets

Jesus in the darkness over ev'ry enemy

Jesus for my fam'ly

I speak the holy Name Jesus

 

Abby Benton | Carlene Prince | Dustin Smith | Jesse Reeves | Kristen Dutton | Raina Pratt

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