daily java

Daily Java:

One day some parents brought their little children to Jesus so he could touch and bless them. But when the disciples saw this, they scolded the parents for bothering him. Then Jesus called for the children and said to the disciples, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” (Luke 18:15-17)

The parents brought their children to Jesus. They wanted him to bless them, or just to touch them, to heal them, to kiss them. There was something about him that kids liked. His lack of artificiality, his strength, his goodness – something. And he welcomed them. but the apostles saw them as hindrances, beneath his dignity to have little babies throw up on his robe. They tried to stop them from “bothering” Jesus. He had a fat lot more important things to do than sit around holding wet babies and dirty children.

But Jesus welcomed them. and, as usual, he turned them into an object lesson. Look at these kids, he said. They are what I want you to be like. “You grown men,” he said, “I want you to like these little kids.” And it probably baffled the apostles. You would think he wanted us to grow up, not regress into children. What Jesus wanted, however, was the attitude of a child.

There is an attitude in a little child that Jesus wanted in his disciples. It was an attitude of dependence and humility.

Little children know they are little children. They are under no illusions as to their independence. They know they need their parents. They know that they are not capable of doing a lot of things and need the help. They are aware of their need.

When we get to thinking that we are so great and can do anything, that is when we get in trouble.

In 2 Corinthians 3:4-5, the apostle Paul said: We are confident of all this because of our great trust in God through Christ. It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God. About the time we think we have it all together, we lose it all. About the time we think we have the strength to do whatever we want to do in life, we lose that strength. When we finally think we have the key, we lose it.

The point is that if we try to live our lives ourselves, without the grace of God, we will lose our lives. We will lose completely. We only win if God is with us.

The child knows that. He won’t eat dinner unless you cook it. He won’t get to school or have a snack or clean sheets or a warm and comfortable home unless you give it to him. He is dependent on you. He does what he can and he has responsibilities. But ultimately, he is dependent on you, the parent.

It is a hard thing for an adult to grasp, that dependence. It is difficult to be dependent on someone else – even God – when you have been taught to be independent all your life. But that is what the grace of God is. It is the strength God gives those who are able to accept their own failure and his strength.

We tried it ourselves and look where it landed us. Now we give ourselves to God and we are once again strong.

daily java

Daily Java:

And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. (Romans 8:28)

It is an absolute truth that bad things are going to happen to us. That is a given.

But there is also a choice we can make. We can become bitter and angry over them and let them rule us. Or we can allow God to use them to make us stronger.

The Bible says that the bad things do not come from God. God is a God of love and will not send things to harm us. But on the other hand, he will not always stop them from happening either.

It would be good if God had his hand over us in such a way that bad things didn’t happen. We would be protected.

But they do. they start early and go until we are dead. We can get angry at God and wonder why he doesn’t take better care of his people (the “why do bad things happen to good people” problem). It can make us bitter even.

Or we can accept the fact that things will happen and see what God has in store for us.

Now that sounds simplistic and Quite frankly Pollyanna-like. And sometimes even like that song from Annie: “The Sun will come out tomorrow.” We’re all singing and dancing thinking about all the good things that will happen to us.

And that is for the most part baloney. Nobody likes the bad things that happen and if they say they do, they are weird.

But God can use them to make us stronger. Just like exercise strengthens the body, so difficulty strengthens the faith we have. As Arnold and the other body builders would say, “No pain, no gain.” When bad things happen, we can allow God to use them. And like it or not, they make us stronger.

God does not send any bad thing to us. But he will use whatever happens to us that is bad to make us stronger. We may not enjoy it, but if we will let him, he will make us stronger.

daily java

Daily Java:

Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came over and spoke to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do us a favor.” “What is your request?” he asked. They replied, “When you sit on your glorious throne, we want to sit in places of honor next to you, one on your right and the other on your left.” But Jesus said to them, “You don’t know what you are asking! Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering I am about to drink? Are you able to be baptized with the baptism of suffering I must be baptized with?” “Oh yes,” they replied, “we are able!” Then Jesus told them, “You will indeed drink from my bitter cup and be baptized with my baptism of suffering. But I have no right to say who will sit on my right or my left. God has prepared those places for the ones he has chosen.” When the ten other disciples heard what James and John had asked, they were indignant. So Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:35-45)

James and John had probably gotten this all figured out a few days ago and were waiting for the chance to ask Jesus for this special favor. The other apostles were off a ways and they were alone with Jesus and they thought they would go ahead and cement their relationship with him and also get ahead of the others in the process.

After all, they were part of the inner circle. And they already had an in with him. And if they could just get their place as his main leaders, the other apostles would be under them.

They were cut out for this anyway. Their mother told them so and encouraged them. In fact, it had been her idea (Matthew 20). They were a little worried about what the others would have to say, but she told them it would be fine and she would be proud of them.

When they asked, Jesus answered, Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering I am about to drink? And, of course, they were. In fact all of the apostles were ready to do that. They just didn’t think of asking Jesus to let them be in charge.

They tried to look humble as they replied, Oh, yes, we are able. They were such humble little disciples. Leadership material, yes, even strong command material. But humble. Oh, yes.

Jesus response surprised them. He said, Oh, yes you are going to drink and suffer too. But then he told them that it was God who chose, not he.

It backfired on them. They didn’t get what they asked for, and the rest of the apostles got mad at them. They turned quickly from great leaders to goats. And the others told them about it, too.

But Jesus defused the situation. He said, Listen, guys. That is the way the world acts, not my followers. He told them, But among you it will be different. It is a different paradigm than before, a completely different thing. This new thing, this new kingdom is characterized by servanthood, not personal glory and honor.

It goes against all that people usually do. The leaders are the servants and the last is the first. Even Jesus himself is a servant. He came to die, so his followers have to die.

Needless to say, this didn’t sit well with the apostles. They just didn’t understand it. And it is hard to understand.

But it is part of what 1 Corinthians 1 calls the wisdom of God. To the world it looks like foolishness, but it is power to those who believe.

Hard stuff to understand, but power to our lives when we do. Strength through weakness and power through service.

hurricanes when i was growing up

He decided how hard the winds should blow and how much rain should fall. (Job 28:25)

I grew up in south Texas on the coast. We lived in a town called Freeport for much of the first years of my life. Freeport was well below Houston and right on the Gulf Coast.

Because of the proximity to the Gulf of Mexico, we had a lot of hurricanes. They would blow in and we would hunker down in the house to wait them out. My father worked for Houston Lighting and Power so he had to go out into the storms to repair electrical lines as they broke.

This was a bruising job in that he climbed 100 foot poles in hurricane force winds. I was told that the poles would sway quite a bit and occasionally someone would fall off.

But people want their electricity so out they would go and work sometimes for days before coming back home.

And when they came back home, sometimes they came back to homes that had been destroyed by the storms.

We only ran one time. That was Hurricane Carla in 1961. We went inland about fifty miles and stayed in a garage apartment during the storm. Carla was a particularly bad storm, a Category Five hurricane so a lot of damage was done.

In a storm like this, the power of raw nature is so apparent. Whole houses were gone, whole subdivisions wiped out, many families left homeless having lost all their possessions.

We never did. There were a couple of times we had mildew from the water lapping against the bottoms of the floors or meat ruined when the electricity went out and the freezer was off too long in the South Texas heat, but in general, we were blessed.

But it was funny. We never ran except from the Category Five Hurricane Carla. That was a bad one and it was good we did. Freeport was hurt badly in the storm. In general, we rode them out.

We would sit and do something, reading, or playing games. My mother would try her best to keep us from worrying while she herself was consumed with worry about my father working in the storm. When the lights went off, as they always did, we would light candles.

I really do not remember what all we did in the storms, while the hurricane raged outside our home, but I do remember the strength of my mother, keeping her family from harm. And I remember that I was never afraid.

When I hear people today gibbering in fear from the small storms that hit, I remember her and her strength. And I remember us sitting in the dark with candles lit, doing whatever it was we did, waiting.

daily java

Daily Java:

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. (Romans 5:3-4)

The main difference between a strong and hard Maine pine and a soft and easily broken Texas pine is the weather. Both have the same basic wood, but both are markedly different.

For all of its life, the Maine pine stands under extreme cold and wind. It lives on the coast of Maine where the brutal northeast winds come off the ocean. It grows slowly and fights for every inch. The wood it produces is hard and dense because of this.

The Texas pine, on the other hand, doesn’t go through this harsh a life. It lives in Texas where the temperatures are much more even. There is a little cold but there is also a lot of heat. It grows quickly. The wood it produces is soft and rots easily.

One goes through a lot of trials growing and the other doesn’t. both are good pines and useful for  building. But at the same time, both are different.

The same with our faith. A faith that is never tested is a weak faith. Those who have never gone through problems in their lives have weak faith. They may feel strong and they may believe in God and all that. But their faith has never been tested.

Of course, if nothing bad ever happens, it is easy to be strong. But real strength comes from trial. Faith is a muscle and has to be exercised to be strong.

To get strong muscles, you have to stress those muscles. The only way to get strength is by picking up heavy objects. In other weightlifting. You cannot be strong unless you do.

But the more you pick up, the more you can pick up. The harder you go, the stronger you get.

Strength is only gained through exercise. Faith is only gained through exercise.

The exercising of your faith is never fun. That’s because it takes the from of trial, of problems in your life. The devil works on you and it is no fun. But the apostle Paul in the passage above says that the end result is worth it.

With the problems comes  endurance, the ability to keep on. With the endurance comes strength of character. You do what is right and you and God and those around you know it. And with that character comes the knowledge that you are a child of God.

It would be great to go through life with no problems, no difficulties, no hassles. But if we did, we wouldn’t have much faith. And what little we had would be weak and small.

he is our strength

My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

As a young man, I was always very strong. So I got used to doing things for myself. I would move that couch if I needed to and not wait for anyone else, I would lift this or that no matter the consequences.

And there were, of course, consequences of being stronger than you are intelligent. Today (in facet his very minute) I suffer them.

We just got through moving from Lincoln back to Fayette to stay with my daughter and her husband until we get an apartment (which hopefully will not be long as I hate living with people).

This move was one of the worst we have ever done. Ella is getting weaker as her MS rages, so she has fallen a few times. We did most of  the packing a lot of the moving by ourselves and she has fallen a few times. She also has trouble walking on her best days so she has had a lot of trouble standing for the length of time needed to pack.

But I noticed that I had a lot of trouble. And it all stems from one source: me. I have gotten to the age where I cannot deadlift a refrigerator any more. And my abilities are diminishing, little by little, day by day. This move has really shown me that.

I hate it. But it is a fact of life that everybody gets old.

I remember seeing a picture of Johnny Weismuller (you remember, the guy who played Tarzan back in the 1930’s or 40’s) when he was old. And it was startling at the toll age had taken on him.

You can see the same thing by looking at Arnold Schwartzenegger at the beach today. He does not look as good as he did and he never will again. He is a year older than me. Geezer.

Again, sooner or later, you have to acknowledge the fact that you cannot do what you did. You are too old to do what you used to do. To try to keep on doing it is foolish.

In Christianity, it is the reverse to a degree. As young Christians, you rely more on God; as an older one, you have more spiritual strength (1 John 2:12-14). But, even so, God is your strength, not your own ability.

And your ability to do what you do is because of him, and it shows his strength in your life. What we do as Christians is because of him, not in place of him. We are strong because he is strong. Without him and under our own power, we are lost.

Give him your life and he will make you strong.

daily java

Daily Java:

I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.

(Romans 7:21-25)The Christian life is hard, no two ways about it. But it is especially hard when you try to do it by yourself.

In 1969 when I was in the army, the first time I did 100 pushups, I got to 99 and the more I pushed on the 100th, the closer to the ground I seemed to get. I was exhausted and had trouble doing it.

That is how it is when we try to do everything in our lives by ourselves. The more we push, the harder it is to do.

When I would talk to people in jail, they would say, “Well, when I get out of jail and get my life together, then I will come back to church.” My answer: you have had control of your life for a long time now and where are you? In jail, standing in your underwear. Have you ever thought of the fact that things have not worked out with you in charge?

If we could get our ducks in a row, our stuff all together, and our lives presentable before we came to God, we would not need him nor his grace.

But the problem is, the harder we try, the more we fail. After a while, our life is littered with the detritus of failure. It is not that we have not tried, but the world is just too strong for us.

After a while, we cry out, why can I not seem to do the right things? I try and try, but still I fail.

The answer? God and his grace. He is the one who empowers, he is the one who gives strength, he is the one that enables us to live the way we want.

When we come to him and accept his grace, he gives us his power. That power gives us the strength we can get no where else.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that we float along through life perfectly capable of sinless action, like little Precious Moments angels.

But it does mean that when we fall, he will pick us up and we will try again. It means he cancels out the falling and doesn’t hold it to our account.

Our natures are just too weak. But he is strong and he will accomplish that strength in us.

daily java

Daily Java:

But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31)

A few years ago, we were in Washington State, to which we had just moved. It was winter and we drove around a lot to get acquainted with our new home.

We noticed forests of what we found out were Tamarack pines, pines that lost their needles in the winter like regular trees. That surprised us. We thought there had been a rather large forest fire because of all the bare trees. But it was normal winter-time behavior.

At the top of one of them was the first eagle I had ever seen in real life. He sat atop one of the Tamarack pines like he owned it.

I had a camera and wanted to take a picture of him taking off. I waved my hat and jumped up and down to get him to move. Finally he did. It was majestic. He dropped off the tree top, spread his wings and flew away.

It was so beautiful I forgot to take his picture until it was almost too late and he was just a dot in the sky.

I always thought the picture in Psalm 55 was funny. It is the picture of one who is flying away in fear.

My heart pounds in my chest.
      The terror of death assaults me.
Fear and trembling overwhelm me,
      and I can’t stop shaking.
Oh, that I had wings like a dove;
      then I would fly away and rest!
I would fly far away
      to the quiet of the wilderness. (Psalm 55:4-7)

When we run away in fear, we scurry like a dove. When we fly in faith, we soar like an eagle.

In Jesus, we have strength and power. Like a champion weight lifter, mighty eagle majestically soaring through the air, like a marathon runner in peak condition, like a well-equipped and experienced mountain climber – such is the strength of those who trust in God.

And that strength comes from him, not our own reserves. If left up to us, we flit away like a dove.

He gives us strength.

daily java

Daily Java:

The Sovereign Lord is my strength! He makes me as surefooted as a deer, able to tread upon the heights. (Habakkuk 3:1).

Life is a treacherous journey, full of obstacles and chuckholes and hurdles. By yourself, you fall down constantly and are never able to make it very far.

However, with God on your side, you are able to navigate that which before looked impossible. He is your GPS, your mountain guide, your strength. He is your infrared goggles for night vision, your overview, your steadying hand.

You’ll still fall on occasion. You are human and humans make mistakes and missteps. But he will be there to help you up, to make you stand, your strong right hand and staff to give you stability.

With him you can run and not grow weary, walk and not faint (Isaiah 41). In him is strength for the weary and power for the faint.

Someone once said that God never promised us a calm sea, but he did promise and good boat. The same is with our journey in him. He never promised an easy way. But he did say that he would always be there with us to help us on the way.

He is our power and our strength. With him the journey becomes a joyful one.

Without him, we are full of bruises and broken bones and never make it to our destination.

He is our strength.

daily java

Daily Java:

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8)

You cannot seem to live right. You have all the wrong things in your mind and cannot seem to get any of the right things to stick. You are having a lot of trouble. Why?

You look at what you do all day. You surf the net (a term you don’t hear as much anymore), you listen to music, you read stuff. Is any of it Godly stuff? Does any of the stuff you do glorify God?

If it doesn’t, there is no wonder you can’t keep your mind straight.

I mentioned before recently the old computer expression, GIGO. Garbage In, Garbage Out. That means simply that if you program a computer badly, it will run badly.

In other terms, if you eat nothing but Twinkies and Little Debbie stuff, you will be soft and badly nourished. If you read nothing but porn, you will have problems. All of the work of God is undone by that.

It isn’t that he doesn’t want to help, it is that you have put so much in front of him that is not compatible with him that he cannot get through. He wants to, but there is this great big block of trash in front of him.

So what do you do? I knew a guy a few years ago that said he read nothing but the Bible. He never read newspapers or anything else. He didn’t care about current events or anything. He was an evangelist and he felt this made him more open to the word of God.

It may have, I don’t know. He didn’t seem any more open than anyone else, but at the same time, he may have recognized a failing in himself. He may have been afraid of how he would be if he allowed all the other into his mind.

In Romans 14, the apostle Paul talked about people who were afraid to do certain things.

Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. (14:1-4)

He says to not argue about it among yourselves. Some can’t do certain things, some can. He says just shut up about it. We stand or fall according to the Lord’s power, anyway.

Some people have a lot of trouble with things and they turn strongly away. Non-smokers have trouble even being in a room with a smoker. They remember the bondage and are afraid of it. Alcoholics that have reformed are afraid to even be around alcohol of any kind. Overeaters feel the same about buffets. Everybody needs to know their weaknesses. It is an admirable person who will realize his or her problem.

Jesus said that sometimes it takes major surgery to get rid of something. In Mark 9, he says:

If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell. (9:44-47)

Strong medicine, stronger than I could handle, I think.

But what you need to do is to think about things that are good. The more you fill your mind with trash, the more trashy your mind will be.

daily java

Daily Java (late):

He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” (Matthew 15:13-14)

There were times when Jesus just got tired of the people who were always coming against him. The religious leaders were constantly challenging Jesus at everything he did. It didn’t matter what he said, they had some objection. And for the most part, their objections were that he did not keep traditions. And, also, they were the ones setting the traditions. So Jesus was not obeying them.

When John the Baptizer saw Jesus and recognized who he was, he did something that was so unselfish and great-spirited: he sent his apostles, those men who were following him, away and told them to transfer their allegiance to Jesus.

John the Baptizer was an acetic, a man who believed in simple, plain living. It was said of him that he wore camel hair garments and ate locusts and wild honey. He did not believe in fancy things.

Jesus took John’s apostles, men who had followed an acetic for several months and took them immediately to a party where he made a lot of wine (John 2). Then he went straight from the party to the temple where he used a whip to drive out the men who were selling sacrifices and such.

On the one hand, he loved being with people and having a good time. On the other hand, he did not put up with trash.

And everywhere he went, those people, the ones who felt it their God-given right to tell everybody else how they were supposed to act, fought him. They picked apart his words, they analyzed his actions, they guessed his motives and they challenged him.

After a while, Jesus just got tired of it. In Matthew 15, he says leave them alone. They are blind and are trying to lead others around. They have not the slightest idea where they are going and what they are doing. People who follow them, he says, will both end up in a ditch.

Sometimes you just get tired of people constantly confronting you. Everything you do is injurious to them or their feelings. That modern word “hurtful”, one of the most wimpy words I have ever heard, is used. And it is used to make you feel bad.

The man of God does not feel bad when confronting foolishness or sin. He does it boldly, as Jesus did. If we really do what Jesus did (WWJD), we too will be bold in our proclamation no matter what others may think.

And we will not let others dictate how we do it.

Jesus surely didn’t. That is why they killed him. He just made them mad.
 

a governor proclaims his christianity

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)

I was reading an article in which the governor of Alabama is taken to task for saying that he was a brother only to Christians. And that he wanted people to become his brother and sister.

I first read of this in an article written by a Jewish woman who felt she had to comfort all of her neighbors (she lives in Turkey, a predominately Moslem country) and let them know that all Americans didn’t feel this way. She felt he had done wrong by stating his beliefs so openly in public.

I read it then in another couple of places. The upshot of the complaint was how dare he say what he thinks about religion.

In other words, shut up speaking the truth. You might hurt someone’s feelings.

Of course, if you believe the Bible, and if you believe that God is real and that he sent his Son Jesus to die for our sins – if you believe all this, he is right. If you don’t, then what is the point of claiming any kind of Christianity? Just go ahead and sell your soul to the Moslems or the Buddhists or someone else.

Jesus said, He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters (Matthew 12:30). You are either with him and believe what you are doing is right, or you are not.

That is a hard line approach that many do not feel comfortable with. It is a shame that they do not, but it is no less the truth. The apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2:16: To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task?

To those outside the kingdom, death is seen. The fact that there are limits to our lives, or that the limits are not those we want, or that they are different from others, especially those we fear – that all drives the desire to shut those who believe what they are saying up. They see death in what should be seen as life.

To us, those who believe, it is the fragrance of life. We have life in Jesus. In fact, he says we have abundant life. Jesus said: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly (John 10:10).

He came to make us live. The devil doesn’t want that. It is no wonder that his name is satan (the opposer, the adversary).

He does everything in his power to stop it, including making a world that is so “diverse” that Christianity has a tough time existing. The only people in this “culturally diverse” world who cannot say what they believe are the Christians.

That is because of the simple fact that they are the only ones who really have the truth. As long as the devil can keep everyone worrying about other religions’ feelings, he feels he can water down the truth and by so doing, stamp it out. Under that plan, it will become nothing more than one of many ways to God.

But it isn’t. it is the true way, the only way to God. All the rest are smoke and mirrors.

You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free (John 8:32).

It took a lot of courage for Governor Bentley in Alabama to say that. I hope he doesn’t waffle on it. And, quite frankly, and I do not intend to be mean here, but it does not matter what a Jewish columnist in Turkey thinks about it.

It is still true.

daily java

Daily Java: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.  (Philippians 3:13-14)

Some people think they have it all together. You may know one of these. They look great. Then one day, their lives come apart. And they themselves fall apart. They have been perfect for so long, they don’t know how to function in hard times.

Their problems is the lack of hardships. Hardships toughen us. Just like exercise makes our muscles stronger, hardships make our faith and our ability to function stronger, if we let them.

There is a lot of difference between a Texas pine and a Maine pine. Both are basically the same kind of pine trees. But the Texas pine is soft. It grows up in a warm climate with only occasional cold spells. A Maine pine is hard. It grows up under brutal conditions with hard winters and heavy winds off the Atlantic.

Both are pines, but they endure different climates. And it is the climates that make them soft or hard.

There was a story of a woman who had a beautiful voice, but no one wanted to hire her as a singer. It just seemed there was something missing. So she quit and got married and had children. Her husband and children were killed in tragic ways, one not long after the other.

After her period of grieving, she decided to try singing again. This time people wanted to hear her. The reason? Her voice showed the hardships she had undergone and it added a dimension to her voice that was lacking before;. What was merely good became beautiful because of the problems she had.

Even though we have problems, we still press on. There is something far greater in front of us than anything we have here. And we will participate in that if we just allow God to work in us through our problems.

daily java

Daily Java: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. – Romans 15:13.

Bob Dylan wrote a song that said, You’ve got to serve somebody. It may be the devil, it may be the Lord, but you’re gonna serve somebody.

It always struck me as really strange that Bob Dylan would write something that was so incisive. After all, he is not the go-to guy for theology.

But it is true. You are going to serve somebody in your life. The point is to make it God.

In the same way, you are going to be filled with something. It may be despair, it may be lust, it may be greed, it may be joy. There is something that will be important to you in your life. And it will fill you because it is important.

If God is important, he will fill you. And his filling will be with joy and peace.

Are your filled with fear? It isn’t from God if you are. Because 2 Timothy 1:7 says that isn’t from God.

Power, love, self-discipline – those are from God. Lust? It is hard to even walk around the mall today without running against things that 50 years ago would have been pornography. The Spirit of God gives you the ability to replace that with peace.

Being filled with the Spirit isn’t magic, it is surrender.

You give yourself over to him and he fills you with what he wants you to be filled with. Leave him, and something will fill you. After all, nature abhors a vacuum and something is going to come in.

You are going to be filled with something. Your choice is what it will be.

You can be filled with God or you can be filled with evil.

Your choice.

daily java

Daily Java: We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.  (Romans 8:28)

Our lives were never intended to be lived just barely. It’s easy to just kind of get along, especially when you are having troubles. You just get along, pay what bills you can, go to church, stuff.

But the apostle Paul said that God works for good to those who love him and are called.

Bad things happen to everybody, no matter who they are.

And it is easy to let the bad things get us down. Somebody up there doesn’t like us. A feeling of inevitablity sets in. You are going to have problems forever. Life is bad and then you die.

If the Bible is true, and I believe it is, and if the Bible tells us things that are true, and I believe it does, God does not send bad things on us. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

If the Bible is true, God doesn’t send bad things. Everything, in other words, is not for a reason. Sometimes things just happen.

The book of Job was written to tell us that sometimes we are the victims of an unfair war between good and evil. We are standing there minding our own business, and – WHAP! – we get hit upside the head with something bad.

God did not send the bad, but he can use the bad for something else that is better. Job lost a lot of stuff (read the book sometime. It is both enlightening and depressing), but God gave him back more in the end.

And (this is big) we see his faith. Yes, he griped his head off, but he remained faithful to God the entire time.

God never complained because of the griping. He just told Job, Deal with it.

Good things came out of it for Job and us. Good things come out of bad thing for us. In sickenss there is strength. In poverty, there is reliance. In sadness comes joy. All because God works all things together for good to those who love him and are called according to his promise.

daily java

Daily Java: “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”- Joshua 1:9.

Our mandate from God is to do something that really cannot be done on our own power. Be perfect as he is perfect, go into all the world and preach the gospel. All those things. On our own power, it cannot be done.
I mean, we might do a lot of good things, but without him and his power, there is nothing that is lasting. That is why some people can make a great church, but have it fall apart when they have problems. It is built on their own strength and not on the power of God.

Our strength is not from ourselves and our own ability. If we could do it ourselves, it would not be from God. He can take what we have and make it powerful and his.

And he will. If we just trust him and let him work in us.

The spirit within us is one of courage. As the apostle Paul said, For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit  of power, of love and of self-discipline (2 Timothy 1:7). If we are afraid we cannot do it, that is true. If we let that spirit govern us, that is not God. After all, we know we can’t do it from the beginning, yet God wants us to.

And his power and will be shown in us. As Paul also said, his strength will be shown in our weakness.