I deserve a pay check! Luke 17-18

Have you ever received a pay check from an employer or client that you KNOWINGLY did not deserve?  It would be assumed that most people think they not only "deserve" their income, but deserve more.  That is just part of our human nature.   We like to be noticed for what we do and we want to "earn" those "rewards" - typically believing we deserve more.    However, Jesus had some different thoughts on our "work" for Him; the fruit we produce to demonstrate our love toward Him.   Note the following

Luke 17:10- So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done.'

When God commands us to do things for Him and in HIs name we might be lead to follow the world's philosophy and mind-set ... to believe we are owed something from God.  There are plenty of believers who think if they obey they will in turn be worthy to receive God's blessings and even deserve those blessings.   How many believers have ever uttered or thought, "God, I have been doing what you asked, why did you allow this to happen?"   That is the attitude of "payment for work" that we have preached and practiced in our society.   What Jesus says in Luke 17:10 is that if we obey God we should not look at it as though we are "owed" something but rather that we are "unworthy slaves and we have done what we ought to have done."   It is tough for us to change our mindset since the world's philosophy is so permeating in our day-to-day norms.   Let's realize that, by faith, we are to obey God.   We are to show our love for Him for HIs saving us as acts of obedience.   We don't "deserve" anything.   We are unworthy of what we have.   The next time you get a check from you employer approach it as though you "don't deserve" it but that you are getting something you don't deserve.  That is the mindset that Jesus is talking about in relationship to Him.   

Have you ever loathed "yourself?" Ezekiel 19-24

How do you feel after you commit a sin against a holy God?  I immediately jump to Romans 8:1 that states there is "no condemnation" to those in Christ.  That means "no one" can condemn me.  I then jump to 1 John 1:9 that says if we confess our sins, "He (God) is faithful and just to forgive us" in regard to our sins.   Those are two great passages of scripture to jump to.    I doubt if any of us jump to Ezekiel 20:43 - "There you will remember your ways and all your deeds with which you have defiled yourselves; and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for all the evil things that you have done."  In this single verse God tells the nation of Israel that He is going to discipline them and when he does the discipline will cause them to "loathe" themselves.   God says the same thing in Ezekiel 36:31.   Other prophets echo these words.   The point of God's discipline is to get us to see our sin for what it is in the light of God.  In life we tend to get familiar with sin.  We get comfortable with it.  God, through Ezekiel's message was going to put them in a spot where they loathed sin like God loathes sin.   When we get to that spot we will know two things:  1) What holiness is  2) What grace is ... that God doesn't completely destroy us for our sinful acts. His grace is so amazing.   

What do you hate? Proverbs 8:13

Proverbs 8:13 - “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverted mouth, I hate.

What do you do if you hate something?   Do you embrace it?  Do you fellowship with it?  Do you hang with it?  Do you have secret rendezvous with it?   I am beginning to realize that in my battle with sin (pride, arrogance,  the evil way and the perverted mouth) I am less incline to treat sin as a hated thing.  Growing up I hated carrots.  You couldn't force me to eat a cooked carrot.   I would get physically sick at the smell of them.  I would often use the statement, "I hate carrots."   I would even take being sent to my room to avoid eating them.  My mom was an English teacher and she would tell me to either eat the cooked carrots or diagram a sentence she gave me.   I would choose to diagram a sentence.   That is what you do when you hate something.    So, too, we should feel about pride and arrogance.  However, in my walk in life I find I embrace my accomplishments as my own.   I tend to hide and embrace the evil way in the darkness of my heart.    If we really, really "fear the Lord," we will find that we avoid and hate sin.  So, where do you stand with it all?

What are the qualifications for a great leader? Psalm 78-80

What are the qualities of a good leader?   That is a question I have been asked so many, many times.   As an executive leadership coach and someone who works with organizations in regard to leadership, it would be good for me to have an answer to the question rather than a blank stare.   Today, in our reading I think I found a very good answer to the question - one that actually fits appropriately in today's world, even though it was written years and  years ago.  In Psalm 78 the writer is outlining for us the salvation and then the fall of Israel.   The writer let's us know that God did not abandon them. In fact, God sent them the best leader He could find and here is what God states were that leader's (David) qualifications:

Psalms 78:72 -So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, And guided them with his skillful hands.

God tells us that David had two things that made him the appropriate and qualified leader for Israel, His chosen people:  Integrity on the inside and skill-sets on the outside.  That may sound to general for some but think about the implications of what God is telling us.  Great leadership begins on the inside and then develops the necessary skills on the outside.   God uses our circumstances in life and our early development to develop those skill sets.  God is not looking for degreed people.  He is looking for obedient people.   In the preceding verses we read that God took David from the sheepherding union (v. 71).   We are so caught up in the formal education people have to have to be a qualification of great leadership.   God shows that He can train someone to have the skill sets from any walk of life (see Amos' story).   But, when we have integrity in our hearts we can do anything with our minds and our bodies.   God had David's heart.  That is the only piece He needed.   He gave David all the leadership training he needed with those "few" sheep.   If you are not yet a great leader realize that God is making you one with the sheep He gives you to tend.   He only needs your heart to make you a great leader.  

102 Soldiers die because of pride - 2 Kings 1-5

God respects humility and the Fear of the Lord.  In the story in 2 Kings 1: 10-15 we see that the king sent down a Captain of Fifty and his fifty soldiers with him to "retrieve" the prophet Elijah.  Because of the Kings presumption and the Captains arrogance God destroyed them with fire.   So, the King sent down a second Captain of Fifty.  But, that Captain didn't learn anything from the first, approach the prophet with equal strength and pride and met the same fate.   It wasn't until the third Captain of Fifty came that we see what humility and the Fear of the Lord can do for you.   Not only was this Captain of Fifty spared, he was also able to complete his task.  When we approach life with this attitude God promises many good things.   The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and when we have wisdom we make great choices to honor God in our lives.   Like the third captain of fifty we ought to learn from others when they approach God in arrogance and in their own strength.  This is a lesson for all of us as we maneuver through life.    God rewards humility and destroys arrogance.  God hates pride and the evil way.   

Should I use a question mark or an exclamation point?! Levitiicus 10-12

Questions seek to clarify, while statements seem to condemn.   In this story (Leviticus) of misunderstanding between Moses and his brother Aaron we have a great example of how to avoid further conflict in a conflicting moment.   The principle we should follow in a problem is to never let how we handle a problem, become a new problem and more predominant problem.  When Moses "thought" his brother Aaron should have offered a sacrifice in a different manner he could have immediately "condemned" Aaron.  After all we just read the story of Aaron's two sons offering an improper offering and both of the were immediately consumed by fire (see last years devotional).   So, everyone was rather sensitive about "doing the sacrifice" in the proper manner.   If Moses would have made a condemning statement, not only would the situation escalate, he would have been wrong.   But, instead of "confronting" Moses sought to "clarify."   Instead of using an "!", Moses used a "?" at the end of his sentence.  That difference between a straight line and a bent line can make the difference between a bent conversations and a straight solution.    Once Moses asked a question and Aaron answer it, the thing "seemed" right to Moses.   We do so much poor work in the conflict world when we used periods and exclamation points behind our sentences rather than question marks.   In the next conflict you have make sure you seek to clarify with questions rather than condemn with statements ... hard statements!

BPGINFWM! Philippians 1-2

If you ever want a prayer to pray over your children or over your loved ones or over yourself, Paul gives it to us in Philippians 1:6

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

The doctrine of God's completing HIs work in us is not just a tremendous doctrine to acknowledge, learn and know, it is one of the most reassuring doctrines in Theology.    What God started He will finish.   You and I may struggle with that thought because of our life experiences (which tends to trump doctrine in the struggle in our mind).   In life we see so, so many people who don't finish what they started.  It has become vogue in our society to start big and finish little, if not at all.  We see sports contracts based upon a reputation and the "beginning of life" and don't see them finish in the same manner.   We see it, at times in ourselves.   But, in God there is not that tendency to start and fail to finish.  In this one verse He introduces a doctrine we can rest our souls upon.   God will finish the salvation He started in us.  It may not look like He will when other see how we "perform" in front of them.   But, God is still working on us.   Long before the Live Strong bracelets became vogue there was a movement in Christian circles for this phrase:  BPGINFWM!    It didn't take on as a popular movement but the letters stood for: Be Patient, God Is Not Finish With Me!   Realize and rest in the doctrine of God sustaining work.   He is NOT finished with you and me, as of yet.  You can pray that prayer over you children today.  They may not look like they are moving in the direction "you" want them, but if God began something in them, He will finish.  He will finish it in a wayward spouse; He will finish it in a wayward church; He will finish it in a wayward teen.  God is not finished so don't count Him out.