Monday's Thought of the Day !!

But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. – John 1:9 (NLT)

Forgiveness.  It might not be something we think about on a daily basis, but is something we need so badly.  If a friend or family member holds a legitimate grudge over us for something we've done or said, it will affect us more than we can know.  This is because it affects us deeply in the heart.  We might try to outwardly hide it or inwardly wish it away, but it continues to hurt us.  It's painful because we know what we did was wrong.  We know that we would love to take it back, but can't go back in time.  And we know that we can't control the person that we've harmed to make them forgive us.  We can apologize.  We can try to make amends.  But we cannot control the situation.

We've all sinned according to Paul in Romans.  None of us has been the perfect child to God.  We've been selfish and prideful.  We've struggled to obey His commands. We've placed something in our lives before Christ.  We might be guided by His love and seek to love others, but there will simply be times when we will fail.  And when we are in love with our Savior, our Father in Heaven, the Spirit that resides in us, we pain ourselves when we have let Him down.  

That's where forgiveness comes in.  No matter what we've done or how far we've gone, God's love goes farther and reaches deeper.  We cannot out-sin God's forgiveness.  He says if you love me you will obey me.  He also points out that when we fail to obey, we can repent (or change).  Part of what makes this repentance genuine is confession.  Confession shows that we know we are wrong as well as being the beginning of our own healing.  When we confess, God forgives.  He begins the healing process.  He brings us back under his wings and tells us that what we've confessed is no more.  

In the love of Christ,

greg

Thursday's Thought of the Day !!

He who guards his lips guards his life, but he who speaks rashly will come to ruin. – Proverbs 13:3 (NIV) 

What comes out of our mouths cannot be put back in.  What we say can heal or increase goodness.  But it can also ruin relationships.  Be careful of what you say and how you say it, for you never know the lasting effects.  

The same goes with notes or letters that are written.  The same goes with texts and emails.  Let us not forget that every word written or typed, once the send button is hit has gone out just as if came straight from our mouths.  For words, spoken or written, show the love in our hearts or the hollowness of them.  Which will your words show today?

In the love of Christ,

greg

Wednesday's Thought of the Day !!

Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. – Hebrews 12:1 (NIV)

Sometimes it can feel very difficult to persevere.  The day got a rotten start.  Bad news came at some point in the day.  Drowsiness comes to us after a carb-filled lunch.  The workday ends with us having to run errands and finally get home to a messy house.  I don't know what all your day might be like at times.  But I know that things happen during a normal week that can bring us down and exhaust us.  So I can understand how it can feel difficult to persevere.

Two things come to mind.  One is that we're not alone.  The saints have gone before us and persevered the same (and even worse).  If they can do it, we can too.  They weren't super-human.  They were people just like you and me.  The second thing that comes to my mind is how they did it.  They did it by seeking solace in reading God's Word, by speaking to Him and allowing Jesus (through the power of the Holy Spirit) to comfort their hearts.  

With Christ comes a perseverance that is unexplainable because of the peace that he gives that passes all understanding.  Take Christ with you today, and bring the Scriptures with you as well.  When all seems lost, dive into them both and find your peace and your perseverance.  

In the love of Christ,

greg   

Tuesday's Thought of the Day !!

At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” – John 8:2-11 (NIV) 

The biblical word for cheating on one's wife or husband is adultery.  And it's frowned on heavily by God.  As a matter of fact, the prohibition of it made it into the Ten Commandments (number 7).  The reason God abhors it so much is that it ruins the relationship between a man and a woman.  And God's greatest desire is for us to have relationships…relationships with each other and with Him.   

In our Scripture reading the Pharisees bring a woman who has been caught in the act of adultery to Jesus and ask him point blank…what do you say that we should do with her?  On one hand, the Law of Moses says to stone her.  On the other hand, Roman law prevented this kind of punishment.   

And then there's the fact that if he said, "Let her go", the Pharisees could say that he didn't adhere to Jewish Law.  Of course if he said to stone her, he would go against everything he taught. 

What was he to do?  He simply wrote in the dirt (maybe the question – where's the man).  And when pressed, he gave an answer that's like one of those great lines from an old movie.  One that will last forever in people's memories…kind of like Frankly my dear Scarlet…or I don't think we're in Kansas anymore Toto…or of all the gin joints in all the….  He said, "He that is without sin cast the first stone."  And that line has been repeated over and over through the centuries. 

Wow!  What could they do?  Uhhhh Ummm!  Can you imagine them looking at each other.  "You do it.  No, you do it."  Then one by one, beginning with the oldest (probably because they were the wisest) they dropped their deadly weapons and slunk away.  Even they weren't hypocritical enough to claim that any of them were without sin.   

When all the Pharisees were gone, Jesus asked the woman, "Where are your accusers?  Didn't even one of them condemn you?"  "No", she replied.  And then we hear those wonderful words of grace, "Neither do I.  Go and sin no more." 

The original Greek means that Jesus deferred judgment.  He didn't say to her, "Forget it.  It's no big deal."  What he meant was: "I am not going to pass judgment on you now.  Go out and live a different life and do what you can to become a different person." 

In a round about way, isn't that what he's told you before?  I know I've heard those words before.  He says to us, I don't condemn you.  Instead, I forgive you.  Now, I want you to change and try to become the person you're meant to be.  At that point...it's up to us.  

In the love of Christ,

greg

Monday's Thought of the Day !!

The one thing I ask of the Lord—

    the thing I seek most—

is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,

    delighting in the Lord’s perfections

    and meditating in his Temple.

                                  Psalm 27:4 (NLT)

We can ask a great many things of God.  We might ask for forgiveness, for help in time of trouble or for joy.  But here we see that David asks for the one thing that really matters. And that is to be near to God.  In the letter of James he writes that if we draw near to God, then God will draw near to us.  There is nothing in this life or the next that is any better than this.

            

When other things come before this, we miss out on so much.  We see this played out in dramatic fashion when Jesus visits Lazarus and his two sisters, Martha and Mary.  Martha is busy preparing everything for Jesus and his disciples. She wants to make sure everything is just right for her guests.  Not a bad thing in and of itself.  But when she tells Jesus that her sister Mary needs to get off her bottom where she’s sitting at his feet and help her, Jesus tells her that “there is only one thing worth being concerned about.”  Mary had chosen the best part of life.  It wasn’t eating, drinking, entertaining or being showered with gifts.  It was being near God.

            

David knows that the main thing that makes everything else worthwhile is God.  God is his greatest desire.  We see again in Psalm 63 where he writes, “Oh God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you.  My soul thirsts for you….” Can you hear the desire in his words?

            

So just how much do you desire God today?  Is he the most important thing in your life, or someone you seek when you’re in trouble and need help?  Is Jesus the first thing you think about in the morning and the last thing on your mind at night, or do you think about Him mainly on Sunday mornings at church?

            

He really is the main thing that makes everything else in this world worthwhile.  Maybe it’s because He’s the one who created everything.

In the love of Christ,

greg

Thursday's Thought of the Day !!

God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. – John 3:17 (NLT)

In the Gospel of John, Jesus tells us that he didn't come into this world to condemn it, but instead to save it.  He wasn't a finger-pointing, judgmental kind of person.  He didn't come to strictly enforce the Law.  But instead, according to Scripture, he came to fulfill it.   

In John 1:17 we see that "The law was given through Moses, but God's unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ."  Through this love and faithfulness comes forgiveness.  And Jesus was not one to judge, but one to forgive.  He was not one to speak harmful words to us sinners, but one to speak words of love.  He was not one to point fingers (except to those authorities that were misrepresenting his Father's law), but one to embrace those who were unembraceable to others.  His example when he came to this world was the one for us to follow.

Much too often in today's world, we Christians forget these facts about Jesus.  And forget that we're supposed to be like Jesus in these areas.   

Let us each have a day of love and forgiveness instead of one of grudges and finger pointing. 

In the love of Christ,

greg