Tag Archives: Bible study

What Was I Thinking?

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I can remember running down the soccer field with the ball in front of me.

“Left foot”…”right foot”…. “Control it! Don’t lose it Lillie,” I remember thinking to myself.

I noted the girl to my left, a team mate. I saw my friend, Jody, up ahead on the field.  I recognized the quarterback of the football team barreling down on me with the look of a wolf hunting its prey. Nothing in me registered alarm. No force of logic made me compare myself to him…quarterback vs flute player…avid sportsman vs reads comics for exercise. None of that crossed my mind until I ran into his massive bulk and found myself flying through the air like a rag doll. Up, up over his head I went and then proving Newton’s law of gravity I came down again.

When I came too, the gym teacher and my friends were standing over me. As I was helped to the side lines I remember Jody asking “What were you thinking?”

“WHAT WAS I THINKING?”

I wish I could say that was the only time in my life which I can look back on using those words;  Sadly there are too many “what was I thinking’s” in my life.I suppose that is true of most of us, though. Life hands us many opportunities to make decisions, In our fallen state, we humans often make choices which in hindsight are just plain dumb. These decisions break our bodies, hearts and spirits. Sometimes  even after the dust settles and we are helped to the sidelines by caring friends the result of the tumble-toss is not easily forgotten or recovered from.

The good news is that while we may not be able to help ourselves there is someone who can:

“The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” Psm 34:18

“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” Psm 147: 3

Jesus said of himself…“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,” Luke 4:18

Today whatever you are walking through, whether the mess is of your own making or somebody else’s, Jesus can heal and restore that which has become broken. Just go to Him in prayer and ask for the help you need. You will find Him ready and able to help.

Heaven Pt 151: Unseen Footprints

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I will consider all your works
    and meditate on all your mighty deeds.”

13 Your ways, God, are holy.
    What god is as great as our God?
14 You are the God who performs miracles;
    you display your power among the peoples.
15 With your mighty arm you redeemed your people,
    the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.

16 The waters saw you, God,
    the waters saw you and writhed;
    the very depths were convulsed.
17 The clouds poured down water,
    the heavens resounded with thunder;
    your arrows flashed back and forth.
18 Your thunder was heard in the whirlwind,
    your lightning lit up the world;
    the earth trembled and quaked.
19 Your path led through the sea,
    your way through the mighty waters,
    though your footprints were not seen.

20 You led your people like a flock
    by the hand of Moses and Aaron. Psalm 77:12-20 NIV

Sometimes I just don’t understand what God is trying to accomplish through His works in my life. Who am I kidding? Most times I don’t understand what God is trying to accomplish through His works in my life! It seems like our whole relationship is one long series of God working and my misunderstanding what He is doing, my complaining to Him about his unfairness and His patience in bringing me around to an Aha moment and an apology for my blindness.

In that I am in good company with the Psalmist here, the Psalm starts out as a lament, a complaint.

 He writes…    “Has his promise failed for all time?
9 Has God forgotten to be merciful?
    Has he in anger withheld his compassion?”Psalm 77:8b-9

But then he writes a few verses later… “I will consider all your works and meditate on all your mighty deeds.”

I use to think that the Psalmist was trying to make the point that in stormy times it is good for people of faith to meditate positively on the power of God and encourage themselves with a walk down memory lane to think about the good old days.

For a while I interpreted Psalm 77:12-20 as “Remember! God showed up then, He will show up now. Don’t worry.”

It is that, but the Psalmist is also trying to say something more. He does talk about dwelling on the miracles of the past, but he talks a lot more about the context those miracles came packaged in…The clouds poured down water,
    the heavens resounded with thunder;
    your arrows flashed back and forth.
18 Your thunder was heard in the whirlwind,
    your lightning lit up the world;
    the earth trembled and quaked.
19 Your path led through the sea,
    your way through the mighty waters,
    though your footprints were not seen.

What the Psalmist is trying to say to us here is “Look folks every time God started a miracle it was in a time of confusion and turmoil. It was during a time when God’s people were absolutely sure they had lost Him…a time when they couldn’t find His footprints to follow. Every time God chose to show up the Heavens were brass, lightning flashed, and rain poured down on the people of God.”

The word of encouragement here is about the context. If your world is falling apart. If you feel like you are under God’s judgment. If you feel like God has forgotten you, take heart because you are ripe for an appearance of God. Just don’t stop looking for Him to show up!  He will show you His unseen footprints and lead you out!

Heaven Pt. 150: The Earth Will Cease Its Trembling

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From heaven you pronounced judgment, and the land feared and was quiet—Psm 76:8

It has been a while since I have been able to write a devotional article here at Lillie-Put. My world has been anything but quiet. And during busy seasons (which seems my lot in life just now) it is a lot easier to post a quick pic than it is  to set aside a slab of time to read and consider a response to a verse of Scripture. But a slab has thankfully presented itself and so here I am!

 Our verse about Heaven today includes within it the subject of judgment. My personal meditation on Psalm 76:8 almost immediately took me to Romans 8:18-23.

18 Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later.19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. 20 Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, 21 the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. 22 For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children,[a]including the new bodies he has promised us.

I seldom think of the world as a quiet place. A broken place, a groaning place, a hectic place,a busy place sure all these things fit… but a quiet place? Not hardly, unless of course I was to rise at 2 A.M. every morning and frankly who has the energy for that?

Now not all hustle and bustle is a bad thing. God has called us to be productive and to work at what our hands find to do to further his kingdom; But the world has forgotten the Reason for its hustle and the Purpose for its bustle and has bypassed God in the name of self-progress. And so it is that world groans just waiting…just waiting for God to reveal Himself and His children. When God does reveal Himself all those who have forgotten Him will remember and will mourn. His revelation will come in the form of judgment and then the hustle and the bustle will stop and all the land will be quiet with a holy fear.

The Scripture says of that time,

Then everyone—the kings of the earth, the rulers, the generals, the wealthy, the powerful, and every slave and free person—all hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. 16 And they cried to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. 17 For the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to survive?”Rev. 6:15-17

It’s an interesting question. The answer of course is that the Lamb (Jesus) , whose wrath is to come, is the One who can save us from it.
Psalm 85 explains it this way,

You forgave the guilt of your people—     yes, you covered all their sins. Interlude 3 You held back your fury.     You kept back your blazing anger.

4 Now restore us again, O God of our salvation.     Put aside your anger against us once more. 5 Will you be angry with us always?     Will you prolong your wrath to all generations? 6 Won’t you revive us again,     so your people can rejoice in you? 7 Show us your unfailing love, O Lord,     and grant us your salvation.

8 I listen carefully to what God the Lord is saying,     for he speaks peace to his faithful people.     But let them not return to their foolish ways. 9 Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him,     so our land will be filled with his glory.

Yes God is coming to judge the world. Yes He is going to bring to silence all the world’s futile activity but His  real desire is to save people out of judgment by forgiveness. What we must do is turn from our forgetting about God and turn to a remembrance of Him. If you wish to do that please pray with me using the prayer written below!

Prayer: Lord Jesus today I remember that You are God and I am not. Forgive me for all the ways I forget about You daily. rescue me from my rushing and help me to find rest in Your presence today. Help me to follow You and you alone throughout this day. In Jesus name…Amen!

Correct Or Right

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6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

7 All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. 11 Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12 My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water. James 3:6-12 NIV

15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. Ephesians 4:15 NIV

I consider myself a student of life. Lately God has been asking me about the roots of my desire to learn and know things. Honestly there is a part of me that studies things because I like to be right about things…rather, I should say, I like to be correct about things. As God has shown me  it is possible to be correct and not be right.

In God’s eyes, at least, right and correct are not necessarily mutually inclusive. For instance I may see clearly and correctly a person’s character as deficient but if I treat that person with scorn or impatience because of it I am not right. I may correctly discern my child needs a rebuke but if I rebuke my child without love, out of a spirit of irritation, I am not right. I may receive a revelation from God’s Word  for my church that is doctrinally accurate and therefore  correct but if I deliver it without considering who it will effect and how, if I just prepare it as a neat bit of knowledge without a desire to exhort the people to greater grace, well then I am  not right no matter how accurate or correct I might be.

We Christians have to accept that we live in a kingdom where how we say things (our attitude) is just as important as what we say. This isn’t about being all nicey-nice but it is about being cognizant of the emotions behind what we say. It is about making sure that those emotions are as in line with our God as our knowledge is. Being correct just isn’t enough anymore. I want to be right before God!

Heaven Pt. 149: It Doesn’t Matter

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Truly God is good to Israel,
    to those whose hearts are pure.
2 But as for me, I almost lost my footing.
    My feet were slipping, and I was almost gone.
3 For I envied the proud
    when I saw them prosper despite their wickedness.
4 They seem to live such painless lives;
    their bodies are so healthy and strong.
5 They don’t have troubles like other people;
    they’re not plagued with problems like everyone else….

Did I keep my heart pure for nothing?
    Did I keep myself innocent for no reason?
14 I get nothing but trouble all day long;
    every morning brings me pain….

I realized that my heart was bitter,
    and I was all torn up inside.
22 I was so foolish and ignorant—
    I must have seemed like a senseless animal to you.
23 Yet I still belong to you;
    you hold my right hand.
24 You guide me with your counsel,
    leading me to a glorious destiny.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
    I desire you more than anything on earth.
26 My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak,
    but God remains the strength of my heart;
    he is mine forever. Psam 73:1-5, 13,14,21-26

I remember a time in my life when things were not going according to plan (at least not mine). Ministry had dried up. I was looking at being out of work. I was spiritually tired and it seemed everything I had worked so hard for was surely nothing more than a pipe dream. Every step I took seemed to be met with another closed-door.

I remember shaking my fist at Heaven one day and crying out, “You call this a plan? I can do better than this.”

For a number of weeks I tried. I stopped praying. I went my own way. I laid my own plans and doors seemed to open at least a little; But as I considered each I recognized that while these doors might be open they led nowhere. I came to the conclusion David came to thousands of years before me:

 “I was so foolish and ignorant—
    I must have seemed like a senseless animal to you.
23 Yet I still belong to you;
    you hold my right hand.
24 You guide me with your counsel,
    leading me to a glorious destiny.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
    I desire you more than anything on earth.”

I discovered  without God nothing else matters, because  without Him everything is  empty and void. Not all the treasure in the world can satisfy or fill that emptiness. BUT…

With God nothing else matters, because my heart is filled and as long as I have Him I can be content.

It comes to this,  in life nothing else matters but God. My circumstances are going to change good to bad..bad to good. That is true whether I have God in My life or not. It doesn’t matter. But it doesn’t matter for different reasons. Without God all the good in the world doesn’t matter because it cannot make or keep me truly happy. With God all the bad in the world doesn’t matter because as long as I am focused on Him I am made and kept truly happy.

Isaiah 26:3 says, You will keep in perfect peace
    all who trust in you,
    all whose thoughts are fixed on you!

What matters is our focus. If we focus on what’s going on around us rather than God our feet are going to slip. If we focus in on God we will stand firm as though we were wearing the best set of cleats the world or Heaven have to offer. Our health may fail. Our fortunes may wither away. Our friends may become enemies but if we can somehow keep our eyes on the Great I Am He will be our strength. We will stand firm!

Remember the Help

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I was offered the opportunity to preach the Memorial Day sermon at Cornerstone last weekend. Here is the sermon in its entirety taken from 1 Samuel 7 http://cornerstoneag.net/2014/05/25/rememberthehelp/

7 So the men of Kiriath-jearim came to get the Ark of the Lord. They took it to the hillside home of Abinadab and ordained Eleazar, his son, to be in charge of it. 2 The Ark remained in Kiriath-jearim for a long time—twenty years in all. During that time all Israel mourned because it seemed the Lord had abandoned them.

Samuel Leads Israel to Victory

3 Then Samuel said to all the people of Israel, “If you are really serious about wanting to return to the Lord, get rid of your foreign gods and your images of Ashtoreth. Determine to obey only the Lord; then he will rescue you from the Philistines.” 4 So the Israelites got rid of their images of Baal and Ashtoreth and worshiped only the Lord.

5 Then Samuel told them, “Gather all of Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray to the Lord for you.” 6 So they gathered at Mizpah and, in a great ceremony, drew water from a well and poured it out before the Lord. They also went without food all day and confessed that they had sinned against the Lord. (It was at Mizpah that Samuel became Israel’s judge.) 7 When the Philistine rulers heard that Israel had gathered at Mizpah, they mobilized their army and advanced. The Israelites were badly frightened when they learned that the Philistines were approaching. 8 “Don’t stop pleading with the Lord our God to save us from the Philistines!” they begged Samuel. 9 So Samuel took a young lamb and offered it to the Lord as a whole burnt offering. He pleaded with the Lord to help Israel, and the Lord answered him. 10 Just as Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines arrived to attack Israel. But the Lord spoke with a mighty voice of thunder from heaven that day, and the Philistines were thrown into such confusion that the Israelites defeated them. 11 The men of Israel chased them from Mizpah to a place below Beth-car, slaughtering them all along the way. 12 Samuel then took a large stone and placed it between the towns of Mizpah and Jeshanah.[a] He named it Ebenezer (which means “the stone of help”), for he said, “Up to this point the Lord has helped us!” 13 So the Philistines were subdued and didn’t invade Israel again for some time. And throughout Samuel’s lifetime, theLord’s powerful hand was raised against the Philistines. 14 The Israelite villages near Ekron and Gath that the Philistines had captured were restored to Israel, along with the rest of the territory that the Philistines had taken. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites in those days. 15 Samuel continued as Israel’s judge for the rest of his life. 16 Each year he traveled around, setting up his court first at Bethel, then at Gilgal, and then at Mizpah. He judged the people of Israel at each of these places. 17 Then he would return to his home at Ramah, and he would hear cases there, too. And Samuel built an altar to the Lord at Ramah.” 1 Samuel 7:1-17 NLT

We Are Not Done Yet!

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To all those weary souls out there who think they have no fight left in them Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Ma 11:28-30

Rest can only be found in the arms of Jesus, nowhere else. It’s time to take Jesus up on His invitation. Come away from the world through quiet prayer and solitude and you will be healed.

 

 

 

Heaven Pt. 148: We Win!

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The poor will see and be glad—

you who seek God, may your hearts live!

33The Lord hears the needy

and does not despise his captive people.

34Let heaven and earth praise him,

the seas and all that move in them,

35for God will save Zion

and rebuild the cities of Judah.

Then people will settle there and possess it;

36the children of his servants will inherit it,

and those who love his name will dwell there. Psm 69:32-36

When I set out to do a biblical word study concerning  Heaven (The Heaven Posts)  I really didn’t know how many places the word itself would take me. But we certainly have been round about all sorts of spiritual topics haven’t we?

Today for instance we are talking about disabled ability.

Over the course of thirty something years of Christianity I have come to know myself as a weak man. I know my faults, failures and limitations better than anyone. I count myself among the poor, the needy and the helpless …more now than I did when I first accepted Christ, but I also count myself among the provided for, the able and the helped as well.

In myself I can do nothing. At least so Jesus tells me in John 15. But in Him, with Him, by Him Oh now that’s a different story!

You see “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!” Phil. 4 .

I am ” made more than a conqueror through Christ!” Rom. 8 .

And so “forgetting what is behind I press onward toward the high calling of Christ!” Phil 3

Christian you are probably standing in a position right now that looks entirely impossible. Truth be told it probably is or it would be if you had to deal with the situation in your own power or strength; BUT YOU DON’T!!! We believers never go anywhere alone. Christ comes with us; So begin acting on that truth and involve Him in your situation. God will save you like He will save Zion! Praise His name because in the end we win!

 

 

Heaven Pt. 147: In the Lion’s Den

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I cry out to God Most High
    to God who will fulfill his purpose for me.
3 He will send help from heaven to rescue me,
    disgracing those who hound me. 
My God will send forth his unfailing love and faithfulness.

4 I am surrounded by fierce lions
    who greedily devour human prey—
whose teeth pierce like spears and arrows,
    and whose tongues cut like swords. Psm 57:2-4

    Let’s just face it. This world is a lion’s den. Oh not everyone out there is a lion but there are enough to go around,  sho’ nuff. If you make it through to your full seventy years chances are you are going to run into at least one ravening lion. I’m not talking about a skunk or a badger or even a nasty dog of a person. The lions are those who not only annoy your steps but who threaten your very existence. They have the power to steal your dreams and reduce your hopes to rubble. They are the people who stand like shadows on the edge of your nightmares waiting to pounce and take everything that seems good and gracious in life.  In the Bible they are the Serpents, the Cains, the Pharaohs, the Sauls and the Judas’.

   So what’s a person to do when facing a lion? Do what the psalmist did. Do what Daniel did. Cry out to God and let Him be the one to shut the mouth of the lion. We serve a God who doesn’t expect us to fight our own battles. He expects us to give the battle over to Him. If He needs our help He will be sure to tell us. More often than not He will probably tell us…

You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you.’ 2 Chron. 20:17

Preparing For Peace

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Oude Kerk, Delft

Oude Kerk, Delft

 

And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Eph. 6:15

      Last night I began a new series on I Corinthians 13 with our Wednesday night crowd. It’s called Ferocious. I began my final preparations for the class yesterday morning. After an hour of prayer I set up the “classroom in the sanctuary: I set up the dividers and broke out the portable white board ; I created my teaching space and printed out the hand outs and the big classroom sign I had created for the event; Then I set about creating the Spotify music list I wanted playing as people arrived . But preparation for the class actually began a long time ago before I was even asked to teach : There was the actual writing of the blogs from which the class is derived, the life lessons I had to go through so that I could grasp some of the material, and over the last months the organizing of all that material into a cohesive unit that would draw people for seven weeks of classes.

     I got thinking of all this preparation in light of Ephesians 6:15. Paul admonishes “let your feet be  shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Eph. 6:15″. 

    Now there was a time I thought peace was the important part in that verse and it probably still is; But today I am focused on the fact that I’ve been missing that little word “preparation” . The Greek word is “hetoimasia”, which is,”the act of preparing or the condition of a person or thing so far forth as prepared” Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance

    I have been begging for just a little peace for a while now which means I have been asking God to quiet things down in my life and those lives around me. But like my class I am realizing that peace isn’t something that just happens. In fact Jesus said that life in this world would never offer peace outright“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33.

    The world can only ever offer trouble. Peace doesn’t come from circumstances it comes from Jesus and I am coming to it that accessing the peace of Jesus involves intentional planning just like my class does. If I am to have peace I must prepare a peaceful heart for myself in the midst of a world that is never going to be overly peaceful. So how am I going to prepare my heart for peace? God has shown me three things I am to do.

1. I am going to pray focused on God rather than on problems:Isaiah 26:3 reads “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!”

The longer I live as a Christian the more I learn that effective prayer is about praying in the positive and not about praying out the negative.

2. I am going to intentionally schedule quiet time. I had a coaching session yesterday in which I realized I need an intentionally scheduled quiet time away from people AND electronics if I am going to maintain a peaceful attitude throughout the week. I need to schedule some time alone in a garden or by a lake.

3. I am going to begin to schedule with the word “no” in mind.  If I am to prepare for peace I have to start living within the boundaries of God’s expectations for me and I have to stop being guided by the expectations of others.

These are three things I feel I need to do to prepare for peace. What are some of the things you do to create peace around yourself?