"Storm Warning"

Back in 1964 seven people set off in a small boat. Shortly after their trip began a storm came up and they found themselves deserted on a remote island. They ended up stuck there for three years. You May remember the story it was all over the television. There names were Gilligan, Skipper, professor, Mary-Ann, Ginger, and Mr.& Mrs, Howell the third. What began as a three hour tour becomes a three year struggle for survival all because of a storm. Or in this case a three year struggle to be funny. Gilligan’s island was a comedy (to some). But when real storms come up in real life few people go through them laughing.
There May be someone reading this who is in the midst of one of these storms. Things started great but shortly after you made a certain decision to obey Jesus Christ everything began to fall apart. Tribulation, persecution, disappointment, discouragement, a wayward or sick child, spouse, job, marriage problems, physical problems, the causes of the storms in life are endless. You say I did not ask for this and begin to wonder what is going on.
IN the Gospel of Mark chapter 4 there is a story about Jesus and his Disciples. It picks up after a hard day of ministry where we see Jesus saying to his disciples, “lets go to the other side”. Sounds like a great idea. So these men, with Jesus in the boat, set sail on a nice calm peaceful day. It was a great day for a boat ride but suddenly out of nowhere a fierce storm comes up and they begin to be fearful and panic. That is our natural reaction to storms. All of a sudden the storm becomes the center of the story, the storm becomes the center of our life - the storm becomes our focus - everything in our lives begins to revolve around the storm.
When this happens everything gets out of focus. If you had asked the disciples as they were getting into the boat to begin their trip if Jesus cared for them, they would have said absolutely. If you had asked them do you think you are going to die on this trip to the other side of the lake they would have said, no way we are safe, Jesus is here with us. But here they are in the middle of the storm waking Jesus up and and accusing him of not caring for them and afraid they are going to drown. What happened? The disciples did what so many do today, they allowed the storm to shape their theology. They allowed the storm to shape their understanding of God.
May I suggest to you today these storms are inevitable. We will all go through them. If you are not in one of these storms then one is coming but here is what we need to remember as we go through it. Instead of allowing the storm to shape our understanding of God, we need to allow our theology to shape our understanding of the storm.
God’s purposes have not changed. God’s care for you has not ended. God has a purpose in this storm.
Put your trust in God’s word. We all marvel in this story at Jesus power to calm the storm just by his words “peace be still”. But his words “lets go to the other side” were just as powerful, and just as true, but we forget them because the storm seems to be contrary to that purpose. But that was not the case. If you read the next verse after this story you see a great phrase, “when they reached the other side”.
God’s purpose was not for them to drown in the middle of the lake. God’s purpose for them was to go to the other side and they got there. God’s purpose for us is that we be conformed into the image of his Son, and that is going to happen. The storms do not mean he has changed his purpose. They are all part of the process. The storms are meant to deepen our faith and to drive us to deeper intimacy and knowledge of God and make us more like Christ. Unfortunately there are far more books being written today about storms than there are about theology. But may I encourage you today to pick up your Bible and get to know your God, hide God’s word in your heart. He is a refuge and strength a very present help in times of trouble/storms.
He does not change. He is the same yesterday today and forever. Christ is a solid foundation in a world or a life of ever changing circumstances. So keep rowing, keep trusting. Remember, sometimes he calms the storm, sometimes he gives his people the strength to keep rowing through the storm. What ever he chooses it is for your good and for his glory. You will get to the other side!

"Be Careful Out There"

As you read the book of Proverbs it becomes increasingly clear that this father is under no lofty illusions when it comes to his children or the world his children are living in. Early on in chapter 1 vs 10 he says to his son, “if sinners entice you do not consent.” This reminds us of a very important principle. We cannot keep our children from temptation. What we are called to do as parents it to prepare our children to be able to deal with temptation when it comes. Our children are going to face temptations. We can home school them, send them to Christian schools, keep them from all the “bad things” which is all well and good, but the bottom line is we cannot isolate our children from temptation.
The prevalent philosophy today, in the world and sadly even in the church to some degree, seems to be “prepare the road for the child” in stead of “prepare the child for the road.” Parents run ahead and try to manipulate all the bad things out of the lives of their children. They never have to experience disappointments or the “mean teacher” or all the other harsh realities of life. Parents just smooth everything over for the child. The child never learns to face hard things, never has to face difficult choices, and eventually when he gets out on his own he is introduced to a world that is harsh, unjust , and filled with temptations and he hasn’t a clue how to deal with it. The task of parenting is to prepare our children for the world. Not by trying to change their circumstances to make it easier but by teaching them and preparing them in their hearts to deal with what the world is going to throw at them.
This is not going to happen in a vacuum. It means we must be teaching our children and spending time with them. We must train them spiritually to know the deceitfulness of their own hearts. We must show them the need of Christ to save them from their sin and then teach them the principles of walking in spiritual victory found in Scripture. Proverbs is written by a father preparing his son for the “real world” but not only that he is teaching his son about his need for a wisdom and a strength outside of himself. He is teaching his son about his need of Christ.
I fear today we are relying to heavily on trying to insulate our Children from temptation instead of preparing them to face it. Certainly we do not want to throw them to the wolves at a young age, but we must be preparing them as they grow up to face some hard things in life, one of which is temptation. “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it”. Part of that training is training in spiritual warfare, learning how to resist and be victorious over temptation.
When sinners entice our children may they meet a child who has been taught how to handle victoriously such deceitful talk and to turn and listen to the voice of his parents and the voice of his savior Jesus Christ. May our children be found walking in his ways because they know him and love him and want to follow him into the abundant life he has promised to those who obey his word.

"Just a Little More"

Proverbs 25:16 “If you have found honey, eat only enough for you, lest you have your fill of it and vomit it.

IF you have found honey, something sweet to the taste. What does that mean? Well I think it means if you have found something you like, something that works, something that was pleasurable and enjoyable - show some restraint. Have you found something like that? May, in fact, have been that favorite dessert that was soooooo good. Or it may have been a program that you put on that went really well, everyone enjoyed it and it was a blessing to all who came. Or it may be a special friend. It could be any number of things. What do we tend to do with a good thing? We want more of it. We tend to hoard them, over indulge them, eat to much of them. Consequently that which at one time was a great source of joy has become something we have tired of, or even worse something that is making us sick. That which was soooooo good and we ate so much of we can’t even look at it now without a sense of revulsion. Why? Because we over did it.
Some things are better in little doses. When you hear someone say, "I can't believe I ate the whole thing!" They are seldom smiling and if they happen to be smiling with some deluded grin, it won't be for long.
I know in churches sometimes if a particular activity goes very well, maybe it happens twice a year, often people will assume that if it goes well twice a year then we should do it every month and it will be even better. What ends up happening is it becomes to much, to familiar, and people lose interest. We kill it by overdoing it. Sometimes we need to learn that more is not always better.
It may be that special friend. If we could just spent more time with them, but sometimes more is not better. It is those special times, that may not be as often as you like, that keeps the friendship fresh and enjoyable. Many a friendship has ended because it was decided if we are this happy together once a week imagine how great it would be to share an apartment and be together all the time. It starts off great as you would expect, but soon they have their fill of each other and the friendship quickly deteriorates and they wind up on Judge Judy. That is not always the case obviously, but sometimes more is not always better.
If you have found honey, something special, be wise, control yourself. Eat only what is good for you. Sometimes the key to keeping things special is to do them less often not more often. Familiarity breeds contempt. It is better to leave people wanting more than to over do it and have them say “not this again”.
The wise person knows that sometimes more is not always better. We need to teach this to ourselves and to our children.

"Give Thanks"

We celebrate various holidays during the calendar year. These holidays appeal to a wide variety of personality types.

"New Years Day" is for optimists
"Valentines Day" is for lovers
"April Fools Day" is for out of work clowns to strut their stuff
"Christmas Day" is for giving or getting, depending where we are on the maturity meter.
"Thanksgiving Day" is for thinkers

Thanksgiving has rightly been called the thinking mans holiday.

"I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder." G.K. Chesterton

The Bible repeatedly calls us to "Give thanks with a grateful heart" a heart that thinks about

God's goodness to us
God's steadfast love that endures forever
God's undeserved blessing
God's faithfulness to all generation
God's mercies that are new every morning
God's forgiveness that sets the captive free
God's Son, Jesus Christ who lived and died and rose again that we might have everlasting life.
God's provisions - spouse, children, food, church family, fellowship, friendships,
God gives us freely all things to enjoy
God's peace
God's joy
God's love
God's precious promises
God's Spirit that indwells us and comforts and strengthens us every day and every hour.
God"s prepared place for his children
God's soon return to this world as the undisputed "King of Kings and Lord of Lords"

The Hymn writer tells us to count our blessings name them one by one. Not a bad idea. Think about all the blessings we have in Christ Jesus, blessed with EVERY spiritual blessing.

Thanksgiving means we think about who God is and about who we are and about what we deserve and all we have in spite of what we deserve - all because of God's Amazing Grace.
Only thinking humble people can truly give thanks and mean it.

"From a heart overflowing with gratitude, we will want to honor and glorify God by gratefully offering back to Him the many good gifts He has bestowed on us. We will not go to church to be entertained, to see "what we can get out of it" for our own private gratification, but rather to praise and worship the triune God of grace and glory"

So this Thanksgiving let us thoughtfully, prayerfully and humbly give thanks with a grateful heart.

"Are You Ready for Some Football?"

We’ve all heard the question “Is nothing Sacred?” Well apparently there is something sacred. I was watching football last Sunday Afternoon and was pleased to discover that the advertiser for a popular “beverage” says Sunday is sacred. But as we would expect, it is sacred not because it is the Lord’s day or a day of worship. Sunday is sacred because it is the day set aside for “football.” That is a rather sad commentary on our society and a very accurate commentary on those who like to drink this particular “beverage”.

Proverbs 28:14 says "Happy is the man who is always reverent.” Happy is the man who remembers that Sunday is for football. Is this what the writer of Proverbs had in mind? I don’t think so.

This verse is interesting because reverent and happy are two words that most people would tell you could never appear in the same sentence. You can be happy or you can be reverent, but you can’t be both at the same time.

Reverence means stained glass windows, pipe organs, uncomfortable wooden pews.
Reverence means elaborate robes, men speaking with solemn,mumbling voices.
Reverence means people with long, pious, sad, unhappy faces.
Reverence means “quakers meeting has begun no more laughing no more fun.”

So, who wants to go to church? Hmmm I’ll get back to you after the football game.

First we need to understand that none of the things I just mentioned about reverence are indicators of the truly reverent person.

Proverbs tells us that reverence does not kill joy, it leads to joy. Reverence is about taking serious the things of God. It is refusing to trivialize or render common that which is holy and to be set apart.

God, Jesus Christ, the Church, The Lord’s table, the Bible, Marriage, Sex, the Family, the Cross, Life itself are all things that are to be treated reverently because they are sacred. God and the things of God. They are to be set aside and treated with respect, dignity and reverence.

The problem in our society we have changed the trivial things into sacred things and rendered the sacred as trivial. For someone to run onto the playing field of a professional baseball game, to hear the announcers describe it, you would think they just desecrated a holy shrine. But people can use the Lord’s name in vain, joke about the family, trash a church and its no big deal.

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, reverence and happiness. The hard hearted person who thinks it is good sport to desecrate sacred things, Proverbs says they will fall into calamity. God is not mocked.

We are to treat with reverence God and those things that God says are Holy. Reverence is not a place, or something we wear, it is an attitude. This attitude does not slam shut the door of happiness, it opens the door for true Joy and happiness to manifest itself. May God help us to discern the difference between the sacred and the trivial.

Therefore "Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say Rejoice" Phil 4:4

"Hiding in Me"

We have all tried at times to think of ways of improving our lives. Add something here or there or maybe get rid of some things that just clutter up the place. Get back in shape, or at least try to change our shape into something more appealing. So we join health clubs for a while, or go on diets, we buy things, sell things, consider a career change etc. But I would dare say that no one has ever thought, I am going to turn my house into a prison. I have finally figured out what my life has been missing, some good old fashioned jail time.

There are many different kinds of prisons we can build for ourselves, but the one I am thinking about right now is the prison of concealment, covering up wrong doing.

Proverbs 18:1 He who isolates himself...

No one deliberately goes out trying to put themselves in prison. There is a law that pertains to all sin called the law of unintended consequences and bondage (jail time) is always one of them. As soon as that choice is made to do something that we know is wrong , something we cannot tell our spouse or our parents or friends and certainly not God, we hear those large prisons doors clanging shut. We have just put ourselves in prison. We get uncomfortable around people and we try to avoid them. Conversation that was once free and flowing is now calculated and tense. Times we used to enjoy with them are now strained and awkward. The freedom we once enjoyed just being ourselves around others is now lost. To us they have now become like prison guards and we don't like them. We think they are the one's keeping us locked up and miserable but they aren't. They are just being themselves, we are the ones who have changed. We are the ones who sentenced ourselves to "hard time". We fear that hard question, or can't take those penetrating eyes. This is a prison we have erected all by ourselves. The guilty conscience makes life a prison. We now have shackles on our feet and hands our tongue. We are constantly looking over our shoulders for guilty people are paranoid people.

I remember in grade school reading short stories and one that I never forgot was "The Tell-Tale Heart". Do you remember reading that? My memory is a bit fuzzy but the story centers around a murder and the murderer puts the body in the floor of their house, and unsuspecting people come over to visit and the beat of the dead man's heart hidden under the floor boards gets louder and louder and louder and louder and louder.

That is how the guilty conscience works. We yell, "Be Quiet" but it won't listen. That is a prison many people live in. Running away is not the answer. If you are in prison there is only one way out. Confession and repentance. Face what put you there to begin with.

1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins He (Christ) is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

One of my teachers in college used to say "Keep short accounts with God". May I add to that, keep short accounts with others as well. Guard your heart, beware of the need to isolate yourself from others. Let me close with this quote.

"Keep clear of concealment -- keep clear of the need of concealment. It is an awful hour when the first necessity of hiding something comes. When there are questions to be feared and eyes to be avoided and subjects which must not be touched, the bloom of life is gone. " ... Phillips Brooks

What is hidden in your floor? Have you built a prison for yourself your living in right now? What are you hiding from others that is destroying that relationship? Sin ALWAYS enslaves. Jesus said "the Truth will ALWAYS set you free." So confess, repent and walk out of the doors of your man made prison into the light of a new day filled with renewed relationships, trust, openness, a clear conscience before God and fellowship with Christ and with others. For further reading Psalm 32:1-5

"Let's Make a Deal"

Proverbs 8:10 - 11 "Take my instruction instead of silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold, for wisdom is better than jewels, and all that you may desire cannot compare with her."

I remember growing up watching this show called "Lets Make a Deal". Some of you may remember this show. Contestants dressed up in kooky costumes and Monty Hall would walk up and down the isle choosing contestants to make a deal. Eventually it would come down to the end of the show where two winners were given one last opportunity to make the ultimate deal. " Do you want to take that new toaster oven you just won and trade it for a chance to win the grand prize?" Almost always they would say yes (who wouldn't) and then they had to choose door # 1, # 2 or # 3. The tension would be unbearable. Sometimes it worked out and sometimes it didn't. As in all good television, even before we could see what was behind the curtains, the camera would be zoomed in on the faces of the contestants to catch that moment of elation or sadness. Some people would win a car while others went home with a brand new pair of donkeys. The expressions on the faces of the new donkey owners were always "priceless".

I think the verses you just read ask us a similar question. What will you give for wisdom? How much do you value wisdom? Do you value it more than what you are holding in your hand right now? More than your own understanding. More than silver or gold, more than all you hearts desire. If you had all that at your disposal and were asked do you want to give it up for something greater but this time there is only one curtain and behind it was not fame, or more gold and silver, or success but instead WISDOM was behind the curtain. Would you keep what you've got or would you make the trade?

Solomon says that wisdom is better than gold and silver or anything that I may desire. Do I believe that...
Wisdom will help me have a better marriage
Wisdom will help me to raise my children in the way they should go
Wisdom will help me not to stumble into sin
Wisdom will help me avoid the heartache of broken relationships
Wisdom will help me walk with integrity
Wisdom will help me glorify God in my life
Wisdom will protect me
Wisdom will guide me
Wisdom will instruct me

Every time we open up our Bible we read God's word to us. We read how we are to live and we should jump for joy. We have been told this is the way walk ye in it and when we do we have found something far more valuable than gold or anything our hearts could desire. We have found wisdom. There are people with gobs of money who would give it all away just to have a meaningful relationship with their spouse or their child, or just to have one real friend. But they have no clue because they are blind to God's word. Our eyes have been opened through the precious blood of Jesus Christ and the gift of His Spirit living within us. We are in Him and in Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Colossians 2. We have the answer in God's word. So read it. Obey It. Cherish it. It is more precious than silver or gold.

"The quality of our lives has everything to do with the quality of our relationships." Wisdom says. "lets make a deal." Everything you have in your hand and in your heart for everything I am. Wisdom's invitation is to trade all your understanding, all your gold, silver and desires for the wisdom and riches found in Jesus Christ and His Word. It is a win win deal, so let go and make the trade.