i was blessed with a mother who loved

Who can find a virtuous and capable wife? She is more precious than rubies. Her husband can trust her, and she will greatly enrich his life. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life. … Her children stand and bless her. Her husband praises her: There are many virtuous and capable women in the world, but you surpass them all! Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised. Reward her for all she has done. Let her deeds publicly declare her praise. (Proverbs 31:10-12, 28-31 NLT)

I was blessed with a mother who loved my father, stayed at home to raise her children, was almost always there when we needed her. She was the classic mother.

Yes, she had her failings and her problems. But she also had a lot of love for us.
And she taught us the best way she could.

She took us to church, and many times was my Bible school teacher. She taught us about the love of God and about the Bible at home as much as she could. All of her activity, just about, was centered around the church.

She did what she could to bring us up in the knowledge of God and his grace.
I have known a lot of people over the years who came from dysfunctional families.

Maybe the mother was an alcoholic or abusive. Maybe she was an absent or uncaring mother. It could be that she was a mother who enabled her husband in the abuse of the children.

Since I have gotten older, it amazes me at the kinds of mothers there are in the world that are absolutely and positively not like mine.

As a child, I figured that I was the norm. And I think that for the most part, I was.

But how sad it is to see others who didn’t have what I had: a loving, caring mother who loved her husband and her family.

My wife had a mother like that, too. Even though our mothers were as different as night and day in a lot of ways, at the same time, they were the same quality of mother. Both loved their husbands and took care of their families full-time.

And I am so grateful. I am grateful that I had a mother who was like that. I am grateful that she had a mother who was like that, and that I have a wife who is a mother like that.

God blessed me. And he blessed my father when he gave him my mother. He knew that, too, all his life, and died secure in the knowledge that if anything was true, his wife loved him and loved her children.

Thank God for our mothers. Let us publicly praise them

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Daily Java:

When the servant of the man of God got up early the next morning and went outside, there were troops, horses, and chariots everywhere. “Oh, sir, what will we do now?” the young man cried to Elisha. “Don’t be afraid!” Elisha told him. “For there are more on our side than on theirs!” Then Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes and let him see!” The Lord opened the young man’s eyes, and when he looked up, he saw that the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire. As the Aramean army advanced toward him, Elisha prayed, “O Lord, please make them blind.” So the Lord struck them with blindness as Elisha had asked. Then Elisha went out and told them, “You have come the wrong way! This isn’t the right city! Follow me, and I will take you to the man you are looking for.” And he led them to the city of Samaria. As soon as they had entered Samaria, Elisha prayed, “O Lord, now open their eyes and let them see.” So the Lord opened their eyes, and they discovered that they were in the middle of Samaria. When the king of Israel saw them, he shouted to Elisha, “My father, should I kill them? Should I kill them?” “Of course not!” Elisha replied. “Do we kill prisoners of war? Give them food and drink and send them home again to their master.” So the king made a great feast for them and then sent them home to their master. After that, the Aramean raiders stayed away from the land of Israel. (2 Kings 6:15-23)

When it comes to relationships, you cannot fight fire with fire. If you do, you both will burned up.

I knew a little girl who was having problems in getting along with her school mates. They constantly fought. I asked her about it one day. Her reply: I treat them the way they treat me. When they change, I will change.

I told her about the difference between a thermometer and a thermostat. A thermometer measures the temperature in a room. That’s all. A thermostat changes the temperature in a room. We can be one or the other.

With the little girl, it made no difference. She was bound and determined to do what she wanted.

In the passage above, the Arameans, a scary bunch from a neighboring kingdom, were about to attack Israel. They were a superior force and Israel was afraid.

Elisha was the prophet who inherited the office of Elijah, the great prophet. He kept telling the king of Israel, by the power of God, where the Arameans were going to be so that the Arameans couldn’t attack them.

It made the Aramean king mad and he sent raiders to arrest Elisha. In his silly mind, he figured that if he arrested him, he couldn’t tell anybody anything. His reasoning was that he could stop the power of God by putting a guy in jail. Kind of like the Communist countries. Didn’t work then, doesn’t work now.

The messenger who came to Elisha was afraid. Elisha told him to look at the hills. Suddenly, the armies of the Lord were visible to the man. The hills were covered in the chariots and horses of the Lord’s army.

The Aramean armies were stuck blind and Elisha had them led into the city. When they got their sight back, they were surrounded. But instead of being killed, they were given dinner and sent on their way. Needless to say, the Arameans were afraid. It took the wind right out of their sails.

Nothing takes the starch out of your plans for revenge as when the other person is nice and kind to you.

In Romans 12:20, we read: Instead, “If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads.”

Does that mean that when you are nice to someone who hates you, they will suffer? Yes.

People expect retaliation in kind. When they get kindness and love, it baffles them. And they may kill you anyway, or do whatever they were going to do anyway. But remember that Jesus, when he was dying, forgave his killers.

How can we do any less?

The Aramean raiders were baffled and scared by the reaction of the Israelites. They had been blind and when their sight came back they were surrounded by a bunch of people with food.

It worked for them. It has always worked for me. There is enough anger and bitterness in the world without adding more of your own.

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Daily Java:

Then the two from Emmaus told their story of how Jesus had appeared to them as they were walking along the road, and how they had recognized him as he was breaking the bread. (Luke 24:35 NLT)

I have always loved communion. I came from a denomination that observed communion once a week, every week, and I liked that. It is something that I have really missed.

It is funny how a church is during the services before and after the communion. It is, in many ways, like you feel with friends after you have eaten a good meal.

It is not the elements. They are entirely too simple to really be that important. In fact, I think we make too much of them. I believe that Jesus was making a point. You want to  remember me with some special observance? Just use what is nearby.

He picked up the most common things he could get. He picked up bread and drink and said use these. No fancy clothes, no fancy dishes, no fancy anything, in fact. Just ordinary common food and drink.

He happened to use unleavened bread and wine, but it doesn’t matter. We make too much out of the stuff in the Lord’s Supper and not enough of the supper itself.

Two men met Jesus on the road to Emmaus after he had risen. They didn’t recognize him because, quite frankly, they didn’t expect him to be out there.

They talked about what all had happened and then invited Jesus to supper. As their visitor, Jesus was the one who had the honor of braking the bread and praying for it.

As soon as he broke the bread, they recognized him. The Bible doesn’t say where they knew him from, but I would imagine that they had been with him a lot. They may even have been with him in the upper room when he celebrated his last Passover. They must have seen him enough, though, that when he stood there with the bread, they knew him.

That is the purpose of the Lord’s Supper. It is designed to bring us closer to him and to each other.  It is not a sacred feast in which we dim the lights and scrunch our faces up to be holy. It also brings us closer to each other.

We eat together, just like having dinner together. The food is different, but the purpose is the same.

And it is only through that communion that we really recognize Jesus. We, as he said himself, remember him until he comes again (Luke 22:19). And in the doing, we also recognize him and each other as our brothers and sisters.

They only recognized Jesus when he broke bread with them. We really only recognize him when we do.

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Daily Java:

Two others, both criminals, were led out to be executed with him. When they came to a place called The Skull, they nailed him to the cross. And the criminals were also crucified—one on his right and one on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice.  (Luke 23:32-24 NLT)

They tried their best to make him look bad. They even crucified him between two thieves, hoping that all who saw him would associate him with the thieves. They had beaten him, publicly humiliated him, falsely arrested him, put him on trial in a kangaroo court – in short, had done everything they could to make him pay for having made them look foolish.

That was what much of it boiled down to anyway. Jesus had come along and made them look like what they were: hypocrites. And that made them mad.

All of the other stuff was just window dressing as far as they were concerned. Jesus had the audacity to come and claim that he spoke from God. And when he did, he didn’t say what they wanted God to say. So that made him the enemy.

But in the midst of it all, as the broken and bloody Jesus hung from the cross, he did something that is so surprising. He forgave them.

He forgave them even though they had not asked for it and, chances were, never would. And what is more, it didn’t matter to Jesus whether they asked for it or not. He still forgave them.

The old song says, “He could have called ten thousand angels, to destroy the world and set him free. He could have called ten thousand angels, but he died alone, for you and me.”

Jesus could have done a lot of things, but what he did was to forgive those who were killing him. I have always wondered how that affected those listening.

It was said that people who were dying on a cross often hurled imprecations at those who were killing them, cursing and screaming all the way to the point of death. Those in charge were used to this. They were used to the cries of agony, the moans, the cursing – all these things were common.

But to have someone forgive them. Did it give them a moment of pause? Did it even affect them? Were they so far gone in their bitterness and anger at his not asking their permission to do what he did that they just overlooked it?

The Roman soldier at the foot of the cross for sure heard it. And he was amazed. In Luke 23:37-38, it says: When the Roman officer overseeing the execution saw what had happened, he worshiped God and said, “Surely this man was innocent.” And when all the crowd that came to see the crucifixion saw what had happened, they went home in deep sorrow.

They knew that something about this guy was different. He was different. He didn’t act like all the rest.

And he forgave when everybody else was screaming.

Things have happened to my family in my life as a pastor that were truly damaging. My son has removed himself from church today as a result of some of it. His comment once was “Dad, they knew what they were doing.” My answer: “No they didn’t. What they thought they were doing was church as usual. They really didn’t understand.”

What those who did these things thought was that it was the normal way to deal with people who didn’t do what you wanted. They really and truly thought it was normal, even though it was against God's will. Those who crucified Jesus thought they were doing things in a normal way.

And I guess they were. They had killed all the prophets who came before Jesus, so why not him too. They were bound and determined to get what they wanted.

But he forgave them.

I would like to say I forgave those who hurt my family, and I tried. I probably did a lot better job forgiving them than they did asking for forgiveness from me or my family.

But Jesus could do that. And did.

I want to be like him. Praise his name.

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Daily Java:

When Ahab got home, he told Jezebel everything Elijah had done, including the way he had killed all the prophets of Baal. So Jezebel sent this message to Elijah: “May the gods strike me and even kill me if by this time tomorrow I have not killed you just as you killed them.” Elijah was afraid and fled for his life. He went to Beersheba, a town in Judah, and he left his servant there. Then he went on alone into the wilderness, traveling all day. He sat down under a solitary broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors who have already died.” (1 Kings 19:1-4)

Sometimes life gets to you. Sometimes things do not go as you expect, and even though you have a lot of trust in God and in his power, you just get depressed.

There was no greater prophet than Elijah. He did things that were amazing by his faith in God.

He was fresh from a victory for the Lord in which he had a contest with 850 priests of an idol over who was the real God. These men prayed all day and nothing happened. Elijah prayed a simple prayer and fire consumed his sacrifice.

The people of Israel knew, through the agency of Elijah, that God was real.

Yet, Queen Jezebel, admittedly a horrendous woman, threatens his life and he runs away.

Why would a great man of God be threatened by some woman and run away? Especially one who was as powerful as Elijah. Why would a man of God who was as full of the Spirit of God as Elijah was become so depressed by what seemed like such a small thing?

The reason is simple. He was human. Life in Jesus and in the power of God is not a single high. It also has a lot of lows. Things happen beyond our control that take our minds off Jesus and we begin thinking about other stuff.

If nothing else, our own powerlessness come to the front and we realize that, in the long run, there may be nothing we can really do to stop the forces of evil.

I think even Jesus had moments like that. As he stood before the tomb of Lazarus in John 11, it says Jesus wept. He knew that he was about to raise Lazarus from the dead, but still, his friend was dead. God never made people to die. He made them to live in his presence.

But die they do, even if they are friends with Jesus himself. And it made him cry.

Elijah was a man with a problem with depression. No matter who much he did, he couldn’t seem to shake this feeling of his own powerlessness. And he was right. Only God can do that.

And he will. Philippians 4:6-7 says:

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

If we let him reign in our lives, we will have peace, God’s peace, that transcends all that we can imagine. It doesn’t mean we don’t get down, or feel depressed, it means we will know he is there.

And he loves us.

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Daily Java:

But even as Jesus said this, a crowd approached, led by Judas, one of the twelve disciples. Judas walked over to Jesus to greet him with a kiss. But Jesus said, “Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?” (Luke 22:47-49)

What an exquisite pain, to be betrayed by a gesture of affection.

To give a kiss on the beard was a sign of respect and affection given by a man to his mentor. It was really no big thing, just kind of like a quick hug or a handshake.

But it became a sign of betrayal. When we think of betrayal in the Bible, we usually think of Judas. When we think of gestures of betrayal, we think of the kiss he gave Jesus.

Judas’ legacy was betrayal and to ruin, at least in our minds, the kiss one gave as respect. When I think of the kiss, I always see pain and death following.

When I see my son, I usually hug him and give him a kiss on his neck while I am doing it. When you pick up your child or grandchild, you usually kiss them, maybe on the cheek. When you are with your wife, you usually kiss her.

But to use it as a mark of identification of one who is to die. To kiss your wife to show someone who she was so they could hurt her. To kiss your children to show the police who they are.

And Jesus’ comment, with a kiss? I think Jesus was surprised that it was this way. he knew Judas was coming back, but to betray him with a kiss, the very thing he had used when they were friends, the mark of respect he had given Jesus?

How it hurts when someone uses something that is familiar with which to turn on you.

I knew a man who came over to talk a lot. One day he said he wanted to come over and talk to me. He had done it a lot of times.

But this time, he came in all smiles, shook my hand, I gave him a cup of coffee. And then he launched into a diatribe about something that someone had told me and began to attack my whole character.

I was stunned. I could understand his concern – although it was based on someone else’s fantasy – but to use the same expressions to get me to come down to the church, and to drink my coffee while he was doing it, was truly shocking.

It wasn’t the last time something like that happened. And for someone to use an expression that was familiar to the both of you, and to accept your hospitality while planning it, that is disgusting.

Before Judas came, he sat with Jesus and had supper. He probably laughed (as well as he could) with the other guys at a joke, maybe participated in a toast, bowed his head at the prayer – all that. And all the while he was planning for the time when he could leave and get the money to betray Jesus.

One of the times that I cried was over a friend who betrayed me, stole from me, lied to me. He was one that I considered one of my best friends.

And it happens. It happened to Jesus and it happened to me and it happens to a lot of people.

It will continue to happen, too, until we all go to be with God in glory.

And any time you accept anyone’s hospitality, drink someone’s coffee and eat someone’s food while you are planning to do wrong to them, you are put in the same shoes as Judas. You are pretty sorry.

Jesus suffered for it and came through it. Judas suffered for it and died.

I would rather be like Jesus.

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Daily Java: 

Abijam began to rule over Judah in the eighteenth year of Jeroboam’s reign in Israel. He reigned in Jerusalem three years. His mother was Maacah, the daughter of Absalom. He committed the same sins as his father before him, and he was not faithful to the Lord his God, as his ancestor David had been. But for David’s sake, the Lord his God allowed his descendants to continue ruling, shining like a lamp, and he gave Abijam a son to rule after him in Jerusalem. For David had done what was pleasing in the Lord’s sight and had obeyed the Lord’s commands throughout his life, except in the affair concerning Uriah the Hittite. (1 Kings 15:1-5)

You love your daughter. But she has given herself to a life of prostitution, drug addiction, debauchery. And it has come down to where she is shadow of her former self.

She was so beautiful. But that beauty is almost unrecognizable except in memory. But you still love her.

For the love of David, God held on to Judah for hundreds of years. David had loved God and God had returned the affection strongly.

But the problem was, just like it was with a lot of people in the Bible and in real life, David’s kids weren’t worth shooting.

A lot of that had been brought on by David himself. He was a great warrior and musician, but a lousy father. More than one of his kids tried to take over the kingdom. The one he gave it to, Solomon, turned out to be such a disappointment.

God had lavished wealth and wisdom on Solomon but Solomon had married a lot of women from cultures totally alien to the will of God. And his faith suffered for it. His wives pulled him away from God into idolatry.

Because of this, God took his kingdom away. After Solomon died, Israel was fractured and the small group of Judah became the kingdom of David’s heirs. The vast majority of Israel was ruled by someone else.

With the exception of three or four, every king was evil. Every king did almost exactly the same thing: they turned from God and began worshiping idols. It was an unholy fascination almost like the fascination some kids have for the occult and dark magic. They could not leave it alone.

Their descent into ugliness continued until finally they went too far.

But God stayed with them because of David.

It must have been sad to see them degenerate into a morass of idol worshiping fools, sacrificing their children to a fire god, giving their daughters as “holy prostitutes,” spending all their gold and silver on statues that were eventually stolen by conquering kings.

It took 350 years before they were finally conquered. And when they were, they had degenerated into a little country, ruled by others, exploited by foreign powers, enslaved and impoverished.

When David died, they were great. Three and a half centuries later, they were extinct.

But God held on with them, trying his best to show them a better way, until finally he washed his hands of them as a nation. He was through,

Yes, he kept them in their altered from, like keeping someone you love who has a terminal disease and caring for them as they died. But he kept them long enough that Jesus, his Son and our Savior came through them, as the son of David.

It would be like watching a beautiful daughter ruin herself with drugs and self-disfigurement, until she was a shadow of what she had been. But you love her and you care for her until finally she just leaves you and renounces her relationship to you. Yes, you would take her back in a minute, but she has to want to come back.

When Israel finally came back, after being slaves and reduced to almost nothing, they had finally broken their fascination with idols. But at what cost? They had lost their entire nation and were nothing more than a servant state in a greater country.

What a sad ending to such a great nation.

when we lose sight of that which is holy

Jeroboam then built up the city of Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and it became his capital. Later he went and built up the town of Peniel. Jeroboam thought to himself, “Unless I am careful, the kingdom will return to the dynasty of David. When these people go to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices at the Temple of the Lord, they will again give their allegiance to King Rehoboam of Judah. They will kill me and make him their king instead.” So on the advice of his counselors, the king made two gold calves. He said to the people, “It is too much trouble for you to worship in Jerusalem. Look, Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of Egypt!” He placed these calf idols in Bethel and in Dan—at either end of his kingdom. But this became a great sin, for the people worshiped the idols, traveling as far north as Dan to worship the one there. (1 Kings 12:25-30 NLT)

David was dead, Solomon was dead and Solomon’s son Rehoboam was king of Israel. But unlike his fathers, he was stupid. His people came to him and said, lighten our load tax-wise. Solomon had taxed the people to death with all of his building projects and they needed relief.

Rehoboam held a council, both of wise older men and young men. The older men said to do it. Ease their taxes and they will love you.

The younger men said no. Bear down on the people. Make them fear you.

Rehoboam chose the younger men’s advice and he lost his people. They crowned Jeroboam  king. He was a guy that Solomon had tried to kill once for being too popular.

Because he was stupid, and listened to the wrong people Rehoboam lost his kingdom. It was whittled down to just two tribes from the original twelve tribes.

This was all God’s doing, and he was the one who took the kingdom away from Rehoboam because of his father Solomon’s sins in worshiping idols.

But the problem was, the worship of idols, the desire to worship these idols, was so ingrained in the Israelites that they couldn’t seem to escape it. The first thing Jeroboam, anointed of God to be the king of Israel, the ten northern tribes, did was to set up two golden calves, one at the top of the country and one at the bottom.

His rationale was that he didn’t want the people in his kingdom to be tied to Jerusalem anymore.

They weren’t. But they also were not tied to God anymore either.

Someone once wrote that those who ignore history and its lessons are doomed to repeat it. Jeroboam could see plainly that all of Israel’s problems could be traced to one thing: idolatry. And he ignored the lesson.

The children of Israel couldn’t leave them alone. They had worshiped them all the way back in time in one way or another. It was almost a fixation to them, an unholy attraction.

So what happened? Israel fell, about 200 years later. Then Judah, the two tribes left to David’s throne, fell about 150 years after that. And when they fell, it more of a whimper than a bang. They had used themselves up and there was nothing left for God.

The lesson in this? Sometimes the smartest and most blessed people of God can do the stupidest things and cause, from them, the most horrible results. By the time these people were finally conquered, they were starving. The God with a cattle on a thousand hills had turned his back on them.

Jeremiah 29:11 says “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” God knows what he has planned for you. And nothing can stop it except for you and your attitude.

Solomon had the largest empire on earth at the time, but he couldn’t leave idols and women alone. So he lost it all.

Rehoboam had the chance to be good and a good king, but he decided to be tough and show everybody what a hardcase he was. And he lost it.

God gave it to Jeroboam who couldn’t make new idols fast enough.

It seemed everywhere God turned, no matter how much he blessed them, they turned from him.

When we lose sight of that which is holy – as it seems we have in this country today – we lose God and his blessings.

What stupidity.

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Daily Java:

The Festival of Unleavened Bread, which is also called Passover, was approaching. The leading priests and teachers of religious law were plotting how to kill Jesus, but they were afraid of the people’s reaction. Then Satan entered into Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve disciples, and he went to the leading priests and captains of the Temple guard to discuss the best way to betray Jesus to them. They were delighted, and they promised to give him money. So he agreed and began looking for an opportunity to betray Jesus so they could arrest him when the crowds weren’t around. (Luke 22:1-6)

Why did Judas decide to betray Jesus? That’s a question people have asked for 2000 years.

How is it that someone can walk and talk with Jesus for three years and ultimately turn against him? how is it that someone can hear Jesus speak of the love and mercy of God for three years and then take money to betray him?

People always say, If I could just have a few minutes with Jesus, just to talk to him and hear him say something good, I would be so much more spiritual. This man spent three years with Jesus and became a lying, traitorous and greedy thief.

How is that/? How is it possible for the words and actions of Jesus to have absolutely no impact on your life, that you end up taking money to betray the one who loves you.

I don’t know. And no one else knows either what it was that Judas was thinking. You watch movies and read books on the life of Jesus and his death and the writers interpret what they think. But we still do not know what it was that drove Judas Iscariot to do what he did.

Maybe he wanted to push Jesus into proclaiming his kingship and setting up the great new Israelite kingdom. Maybe he was mad at Jesus for something. Maybe he was just stupid.

Whatever it was, it resulted in the authorities being led to the Garden of Gethsamene and the betrayal of our Lord into their hands. After all, there were no pictures on wanted posters or anything like that.

Isaiah says that Jesus was pretty ordinary as far as appearance went.  

There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him. (Isaiah 53:2). 

That meant that Jesus pretty much looked like everybody else and they needed somebody to point him out. They had probably always seen him at a distance and it was dark when they came.

They had to have a traitor and Judas was it.

He realized the enormity of his action afterward, but it was too late. He tried to give the money back but they wouldn’t take it. He couldn’t live with what he did, so he hanged himself.

A pathetic, useless end to a pathetic, useless life. His life legacy was the use of his name to denote a traitor. That’s all. Nothing good came out of his life for us to remember.

He had been one of the Twelve, inner circle to the Messiah. He had access to the literal Word of God, the wisdom of the ages in human form, and threw it away.

And we don’t even know why. But satan entered his heart and when he did, Judas was gone. The process had probably been going on for a while and satan’s entrance into his heart was the final action to kill off any good that might have been.

I have known people who have thrown away their lives for something stupid, and I wondered why. What would cause them to leave something so good for something so dumb.

Of course, God will take them back. God would have taken Judas back in a New York minute. But instead, Judas hanged himself because he figured all was lost.

What a waste of someone so potentially great. Jesus would not have chosen a guy just to be the goat. When he chose Judas, he thought Judas would do well. But he turned. The money in the treasury was the galvanizing agent to turn him and as John said, he was a thief.

But still. What a waste. And how sad an end.

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Daily Java:

And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. (Hebrews 11:6 NLT).

Faith is the reason we do what we do. if you don’t really believe in what you are doing, you are wasting your time.

You can go to church, you can give, you can teach and lead, you can sacrifice. But if you really don’t believe what you are doing, it is all worthless.

God wants us to believe in him and trust him. That is all that really matters.

Sometimes we do things by rote, we do them because we have always done them. The element of believing what we are doing is gone from our lives.

When that happens, all we do, no matter how great, becomes meaningless. It is not the stuff that God is pleased with. It is the heart, the mind, the belief.

It is like marriage. You can buy your wife flowers, you can get her jewelry, you can buy her expensive perfume; but unless you love her, they are no good.

A woman would rather have an impromptu bouquet picked from beside the sidewalk from a man who loves her and believes in their marriage than expensive one from a man who doesn’t care and is doing things from habit.

Anyone who wants to come to God has to come in belief, in faith.

There is nothing you can do to earn God’s love and grace. Nothing. And there is nothing you can do to really please God, if it is not done by faith.

Without faith, all actions, all sacrifices, all everything is no good. It has no base. It is just stuff.

And stuff just doesn’t matter, at least not in the long run. It is faith that matters.

God would rather have someone who messes up a lot in life, but who truly believes in him than one who is flawless and eloquent who doesn’t really believe.

That is what Psalm 53:1 means when it says The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. The psalmist was not talking about atheists. He was talking about people who do a lot of stuff, but, when it comes down to it, do not really believe.

Down in their hearts, there is no real faith. What a sad life, to devote yourself to a God, a cause, that you do not really believe in.

Faith is all that matters in the long run.

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself in love. (James 5:6)