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