Listening In A Noisy World

“Bats fly by echolocation. They rapidly emit from their mouths high-pitched and high-frequency sounds. Bats tell how close they are flying to objects by the rapidity with which the sounds fly back. Experimenters have tried to confuse bats by making other sounds louder than the sounds the bats produce. No one yet knows how it is done, but a bat continues to pick out his own echoes. Even when the man-made sounds are 2000 times louder than those a bat makes, the flying mammal recognizes the right ones and stays on course. Could Christianity profit by the example of the bat? With all the loud voices clamoring for attention in our world today…don’t we need this sensitivity to line up with the right sounds on God’s course? Even the bats aren’t batty enough to get off course by trying to listen to all the sounds of all their traveling companions on the evening flights. If we want to keep ourselves on course in life, we need to let our hearts and minds feel the echoes from God” (Gary Bagley, Bayshore World).

Jesus addressed the need for not being distracted by competing sounds in this way: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers” (John 10:1–5).

Lord, help me to recognize the voice of the Good Shepherd in the midst of a noisy world.  Help me train my ears to listen to Him instead of strangers.

God loves you!

Mike

Big Boy Pants

“Righteous are You, O LORD, that I would plead my case with You; indeed I would discuss matters of justice with You: Why has the way of the wicked prospered? Why are all those who deal in treachery at ease? You have planted them, they have also taken root; they grow, they have even produced fruit. You are near to their lips but far from their mind” (Jeremiah 12:1–2).

Jeremiah lived in difficult times.  Many of his fellow Israelites had become desperately wicked and this frustrated the prophet.  His job was to call them to repentance but no one seemed to be listening.  In fact, it seemed as if they were being blessed in their rebellion.  O sure, they paid lip service to God but He was really the last thing in their minds and hearts.  The NET Bible puts it this way: “They always talk about you but they really care nothing about you.”

So Jeremiah vents his frustration to God and calls upon Him to pour out His wrath.  “Drag them off like sheep for the slaughter and set them apart for a day of carnage!” (Jeremiah 12:3b).  Have you ever felt that way when it seems like the wicked have it made?  “Let ‘em have it, Lord!  They don’t deserve to be blessed!”

I’m intrigued by God’s answer to Jeremiah.  He doesn’t console him with promises to take care of it eventually.  Not even a pat on the back for his own faithfulness.  Here is what He says: “If you have run with footmen and they have tired you out, then how can you compete with horses? If you fall down in a land of peace, how will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?” (Jeremiah 12:5).

In modern parlance, it’s “Suck it up, buttercup!  Put on your big boy pants.”  Things were going to get worse and Jeremiah needed to focus on what he was called to do instead of complaining about the state of things.  Perhaps there’s a lesson in there for us.

God loves you!

Mike

Complaining

“Maya Angelou is a famed American poet and author. From the age of three to seven she was raised by her grandmother, a period of calm and stability in what would be a very traumatic childhood. Grandma ran a general store and one thing that riled her was people complaining. They’d complain about the heat, the cold and a myriad of other issues Maya’s grandmother thought trivial.  Whenever that occurred Maya’s grandmother would wait til the complainer left the store, call Maya over to her and say,  “Sister, did you hear what Brother So-and-So or Sister Much-to-Do complained about? Sister, there are people who went to sleep all over the world last night, poor and rich and white and black, but they will never wake again. And those dead folks would give anything, anything at all for just five minutes of this weather that person was grumbling about. So you watch yourself about complaining, Sister. What you’re supposed to do when you don’t like a thing is change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it. Don’t complain.”*

But it’s so easy to complain, isn’t it? The New Testament doesn’t talk about it much, but when it does, it has some important reminders.

First, complaining doesn’t escape the notice of God. “Do not complain, brethren, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing right at the door” (James 5:9).

Second, complaining can reveal a lack of patience and forgiveness toward fellow believers. We should be “...bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you” (Colossians 3:13).

Third, complaining shows our love is growing cold. “Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaint” (1 Peter 4:8–9).

Dale Carnegie sums it up pretty well: “Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain - and most fools do.”

God loves you!

Mike

*https://storiesforpreaching.com.au/category/sermonillustrations/attitude/

A Clear Conscience

“But I confess this to you, that I worship the God of our ancestors according to the Way (which they call a sect), believing everything that is according to the law and that is written in the prophets. I have a hope in God (a hope that these men themselves accept too) that there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous. This is the reason I do my best to always have a clear conscience toward God and toward people” (Acts 24:14–16 NET).

Ever since the incident at the temple in Acts 21, Paul had been defending himself against false charges made by the Jewish leadership. After hearing of an assassination plot on Paul’s life, the Roman commander in Jerusalem delivers the apostle to governor Felix in Caesarea. Once again, Paul has to answer the same old accusations. How frustrating it must have been!

But Paul graciously and patiently defends himself again. In the text above, we learn there is something which the apostle is eager to confess. To the accusation that he is a worshiper of God as a follower of Christ, Paul would say, “Guilty as charged!” It was his hope in God and his commitment to Christ that enabled the apostle to continue to witness in such difficult situations.

Paul’s goal was to have a clear conscience in every area of life. That meant he treated his accusers in a firm but godly way. It also meant he maintained his allegiance to God even when it was hard to do so. Paul is exemplifying what his fellow apostle Peter taught in 1 Peter 3:15-16: “...but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence; and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame” (1 Peter 3:15–16 NAS95).

God loves you!

Mike

The Gift Of Time

“Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away” (James 4:13–14).

“Scientific researchers recently estimated that: A lightning bolt lasts 45-55 microseconds. An average running shoe lasts 350-500 miles. A hard pencil can write up to 30,000 words. A ball point pen can draw a line 7,500 ft. long. A 100 watt incandescent bulb lasts 750 hours. A 25 watt bulb lasts 25,000 hours. A one dollar bill lasts 18 months in circulation.

“Yet, James says that our life is but a puff of smoke from a fire; steam that rises from a cup of coffee; or, one’s breath briefly visible on a cold morning. The days of our life, while precious, are also passing like a vapor. I recently read a most interesting article entitled, “If You Are 35, You Have 500 Days to Live.” The article went on to contend that when you subtract the time you spend sleeping, working, tending to personal matters, eating, traveling, doing chores, attending to personal hygiene, and you add in the miscellaneous time stealers, in the next 36 years you will have only 500 days to spend as you wish. It then poses the question, “When all of the necessary things are done, how much time will you have left?””*

Sobering thoughts, right? Time truly is fleeting for all of us. Who knows how much we have left? For the believer, this doesn’t have to be discouraging but perhaps it can be a reminder to use our time well. The start of a new year is a great time to pause and take stock of our lives. How am I using the precious gift of time that God has given me? 

God loves you!

Mike

*Steve Wagers, pastorlife.com

The Greatest News Of All

“Take the year 1809. The international scene was tumultuous. Napoleon was sweeping through Austria; blood was flowing freely. Nobody then cared about babies. But the world was overlooking some terribly significant births. 

“For example, William Gladstone was born that year. He was destined to become one of England's finest statesman. That same year, Alfred Tennyson was born to an obscure minister and his wife. The child would one day greatly affect the literary world in a marked manner. On the American continent, Oliver Wendell Holmes was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. And not far away in Boston, Edgar Allan Poe began his eventful, albeit tragic, life. It was also in that same year that a physician named Darwin and his wife named their child Charles Robert. And that same year produced the cries of a newborn infant in a rugged log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky. The baby's name? Abraham Lincoln.

“If there had been news broadcasts at that time, I'm certain these words would have been heard: "The destiny of the world is being shaped on an Austrian battlefield today." But history was actually being shaped in the cradles of England and America. Similarly, everyone thought taxation was the big news when Jesus was born. But a young Jewish woman cradled the biggest news of all: the birth of the Savior.”*    

“In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:8–11).

This is truly the greatest news of all. One was born Who would deliver us from our sins.  Praise God for a Savior!

God loves you!

Mike

*Adapted from Charles Swindoll; sermonillustrations.com

Patience Isn't Indifference

“We often confuse God’s timing with ours. A country newspaper had been running a series of articles on the value of church attendance. One day, a letter to the editor was received in the newspaper office. It read, “Print this if you dare. I have been trying an experiment. I have a field of corn which I plowed on Sunday. I planted it on Sunday. I did all the cultivating on Sunday. I gathered the harvest on Sunday and hauled it to my barn on Sunday. I find that my harvest this October is just as great as any of my neighbors’ who went to church on Sunday. So where was God all this time?” The editor printed the letter, but added his reply at the bottom. “Your mistake was in thinking that God always settles his accounts in October.”

“That’s often our mistake as well, isn’t it — thinking that God should act when and how we want him to act, according to our timetable rather than his. The fact that our vision is limited, finite, unable to see the end from the beginning, somehow escapes our mind. So we complain; we get frustrated; we accuse God of being indifferent to us; we do not live by faith” (Larry R. Kalajainen, Extraordinary Faith for Ordinary Time; via Sermons.com newsletter).*

Some believe that if God doesn't immediately punish disobedience and indifference, He never will.  But there could be a reason for His withholding of judgment.  There were mockers in Peter’s day who castigated Jesus for not coming in their generation as He promised (2 Peter 3:3-4; Matthew 16:27-28; 24.34).  After all, it had been 35 years or so and He hadn’t returned yet.  The reason for the delay according to Peter was to provide an opportunity for repentance (2 Peter 3:9).  But don’t doubt God’s resolve just because He is patient.  Jesus did come again in judgment through the agency of the Roman army and judged Jerusalem and the temple, all within the window of that generation just as he promised.

God loves you!

Mike

*Michael Duduit, preaching.com