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What do people call you? What do you call yourself?
Do you ever have one of those hot summer Florida days where you just feel sticky and dirty? Maybe you were outside working in the lawn and you feel like you just rolled in mud?!
Do you ever have one of those spiritually hot summer Florida days where you just feel sticky and dirty? Maybe you got into a big fight with your spouse or you fell back into some addictions?
Listen to the Word of the Lord: “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.” (Acts 10:15b)
The context of this passage was for Peter to realize that ALL of God’s people have access to the Kingdom of God. Jew or Greek, black and white, male or female, tall or short, fat or skinny. Everyone is given access, and better yet when you have asked God to make you clean through Jesus Christ, you are forever clean!
So how does this change our day? How does this apply? When you have one of those days where you feel like you are going backwards instead of forward don’t just give into who the world says you are. The world may say your are a good for nothing sinner, but God says you are my child, you are clean and good and holy because I am clean and good and holy. And it’s my son who is in there, no longer you and the person you use to be. So now start walking in your new life!!
God, I pray that there is not another day that I give into what others may say about me, but that I remember what you say about me!
Pink Floyd and The Bible
Today after today’s reading I thought of a Pink Floyd song called “Money.” It says this:
Money, get away
Get a good job with more pay
And your O.K.
Money, it’s a gas
Grab that cash with both hands
And make a stash
New car, caviar, four star daydream
Think I’ll buy me a football team
Money get back
I’m all right Jack
Keep your hands off my stack
Malachi 3 says 10“(V)Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the LORD of hosts, “if I will not (W)open for you the windows of heaven and (X)pour out for you a blessing until [c](Y)it overflows.
We also read from Acts 5
3But Peter said, “Ananias, why has (C)Satan filled your heart to lie (D)to the Holy Spirit and to (E)keep back some of the price of the land?
4“While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but (F)to God.”
5And as he heard these words, Ananias (G)fell down and breathed his last; and (H)great fear came over all who heard of it.
Money is a funny thing. We give it more credit that is due. I honestly think God never cared about money, but our heart and what money can do to our heart. Pink Floyd sings the song of this world. Malachi and Peter show us the purpose and consequence of the heart. I pray money never takes my life, but I give my life, and money, as God sees fit!
What do you do with what you hear?
Acts 2 37Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, (AX)what shall we do?”
Peter is delivering a message of repentance for the forgiveness of sin. As he was preaching those who heard this message essentially had two choices in how they would react to what they heard that day: 1. Hear it and forget it; 2. Hear it and do something with it. It says in vs 37 that those who heard it were pierced to the heart, meaning it had an effect on them, and asked how to change their ways.
If you ever attend church you may hear a preacher get up every week and explain to you many of the same concepts that Peter was explaining on that amazing day. When you hear the words what do you do with it? Does it get down to the heart, or does it stay on the surface and wash away by the time you get home or to The Cracker Barrel? When we hear and do nothing, we become calloused to what we hear. The more this happens its like scar tissue begins to build up on the heart and becomes increasingly difficult to let it get down in there. But when you hear and do something with it, the heart softens. The more this happens the more and more soft it gets.
I pray for a soft heart to hear and do.
Opportunities to lead comes from your character
Nehemiah 7 says, “I put in charge of Jerusalem my brother Hanani, along with [a] Hananiah the commander of the citadel, because he was a man of integrity and feared God more than most men do. 3 I said to them, “The gates of Jerusalem are not to be opened until the sun is hot. While the gatekeepers are still on duty, have them shut the doors and bar them. Also appoint residents of Jerusalem as guards, some at their posts and some near their own houses.”
I have always had a deep desire to lead. I think that God plants those desires in us. Nehemiah is probably one of the perfect Old Testament examples of effective leadership on the part of Nehemiah. He is tasked to rebuild the wall. Once this is completed he picks additional men to assist him in preparations for the celebration. Hananiah is chosen because of his godly character. His integrity and the fact that he feared God more than most mend do!
Many of us want to lead, myself included. But here we see a man who was willing to serve and because of something important he was chosen: He put God first and the rest was added to him.
Pastor Greg just spoke on humility and I see that this man was humble. How? Because it says he had integrity and feared God. Humility is based upon these principles. Once again I am reminded that fear of God is the beginning of wisdom and that integrity brings about opportunity. When we lack integrity the opportunities are taken away. Pastor Greg said ”
“Your giftedness will make a way for you. But your heart will make or break you.”
God, make in me greater integrity and let people say that I was a man who feared you more than most!
True Meaning of The Lost Son
8″The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
31” ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ ”
We read this powerful story many times. There are modern-day examples of this story in movies and TV shows all the time. But what does it really all mean for us? When we read this story we usually look at the son who left and tell ourselves that if and when we leave for a while, God will have open arms when we come back. But what about that other son?
Maybe the point of this story is to warn us from becoming the bitter do-good son who is jealous when God forgives the sinner. Maybe the true meaning of this story ( i know, it’s the Bible and it has many meanings) is to warn us not to have an attitude of arrogance or ENTITLEMENT!
God, break the attitude of my heart that would be jealous of a lost son coming home!
Ryan Frazier 