Seeking the Face of God

God's People Worship
The Prophet and Praise
Holy, Holy, Holy

Psalm 24

The Message

A David Psalm

24 ^1-2 God claims Earth and everything in it,
    God claims World and all who live on it.
He built it on Ocean foundations,
    laid it out on River girders.

^3-4 Who can climb Mount God?
    Who can scale the holy north-face?
Only the clean-handed,
    only the pure-hearted;
Men who won’t cheat,
    women who won’t seduce.

^5-6 God is at their side;
    with God’s help they make it.
This, Jacob, is what happens
    to God-seekers, God-questers.

⁷ Wake up, you sleepyhead city!
Wake up, you sleepyhead people!
    King-Glory is ready to enter.

⁸ Who is this King-Glory?
    God, armed
    and battle-ready.

⁹ Wake up, you sleepyhead city!
Wake up, you sleepyhead people!
    King-Glory is ready to enter.

¹⁰ Who is this King-Glory?
    God-of-the-Angel-Armies:
    he is King-Glory.

For Reflection

God of the angle armies wants you!  Sacrifice yourself for the ultimate source of justice and compassion.  Lay down your defensiveness and follow God. 

Pray

that you will give up on the worldly passions.  Pray that you will become engrossed in the nature of God and His will.  Pray that your will have the courage, hope and trust to follow Christ's lead.

Choosing to Serve a Holy God

God's People Worship
The Prophet and Praise
Holy, Holy, Holy

Joshua 24:14-24

The Message

¹⁴ “So now: Fear God. Worship him in total commitment. Get rid of the gods your ancestors worshiped on the far side of The River (the Euphrates) and in Egypt. You, worship God.
¹⁵ “If you decide that it’s a bad thing to worship God, then choose a god you’d rather serve—and do it today. Choose one of the gods your ancestors worshiped from the country beyond The River, or one of the gods of the Amorites, on whose land you’re now living. As for me and my family, we’ll worship God.”
¹⁶ The people answered, “We’d never forsake God! Never! We’d never leave God to worship other gods.
^17-18 “God is our God! He brought up our ancestors from Egypt and from slave conditions. He did all those great signs while we watched. He has kept his eye on us all along the roads we’ve traveled and among the nations we’ve passed through. Just for us he drove out all the nations, Amorites and all, who lived in the land.
“Count us in: We too are going to worship God. He’s our God.”

^19-20 Then Joshua told the people: “You can’t do it; you’re not able to worship God. He is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He won’t put up with your fooling around and sinning. When you leave God and take up the worship of foreign gods, he’ll turn right around and come down on you hard. He’ll put an end to you—and after all the good he has done for you!”

²¹ But the people told Joshua: “No! No! We worship God!”
²² And so Joshua addressed the people: “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen God for yourselves—to worship him.”
And they said, “We are witnesses.”
²³ Joshua said, “Now get rid of all the foreign gods you have with you. Say an unqualified Yes to God, the God of Israel.”
²⁴ The people answered Joshua, “We will worship God. What he says, we’ll do.”

For Reflection

What other gods do you need to get rid of?  What else except God's will for you controls your life?  Cast off all that seduces you away from righteousness. 

Pray

that you will live a righteous life.  Pray to avoid the traps in adhering to common culture.

People Dulled to God's Presence

God's People Worship
The Prophet and Praise
Holy, Holy, Holy

Isaiah 6:9-13

The Message

^9-10 He said, “Go and tell this people:

“‘Listen hard, but you aren’t going to get it;
    look hard, but you won’t catch on.’
Make these people blockheads,
    with fingers in their ears and blindfolds on their eyes,
So they won’t see a thing,
    won’t hear a word,
So they won’t have a clue about what’s going on
    and, yes, so they won’t turn around and be made whole.”

^11-13 Astonished, I said,
    “And Master, how long is this to go on?”
He said, “Until the cities are emptied out,
    not a soul left in the cities—
Houses empty of people,
    countryside empty of people.
Until I, God, get rid of everyone, sending them off,
    the land totally empty.
And even if some should survive, say a tenth,
    the devastation will start up again.
The country will look like pine and oak forest
    with every tree cut down—
Every tree a stump, a huge field of stumps.
    But there’s a holy seed in those stumps.”

For Reflection

Carl Sandburg writes in The Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind,

"It has happened before.
Strong men put up a city and got a nation together,
And paid singers to sing and women to warble:
We are the greatest city,
the greatest nation,nothing like us ever was.
And while the singers sang
and the strong men listened
and paid the singers well
and felt good about it all,
there were rats and lizards who listened…
and the only listeners left now
… are
… the rats
… and the lizards."

Sandburg, however, saw no seeds of hope! 

Pray

that you will find hope where there is despair. Pray for the hope found in God's promise.  Pray that you will not become discouraged when your expectations for justice is not met.  Pray for the patience to wait on God's time.

From Pride to Destruction

God's People Worship
The Prophet and Praise
Holy, Holy, Holy

2 Chronicles 26:16-21

The Message (MSG)

^16-18 But then the strength and success went to his head. Arrogant and proud, he fell. One day, contemptuous of God, he walked into The Temple of God like he owned it and took over, burning incense on the Incense Altar. The priest Azariah, backed up by eighty brave priests of God, tried to prevent him. They confronted Uzziah: “You must not, you cannot do this, Uzziah—only the Aaronite priests, especially consecrated for the work, are permitted to burn incense. Get out of God’s Temple; you are unfaithful and a disgrace!”
^19-21 But Uzziah, censer in hand, was already in the middle of doing it and angrily rebuffed the priests. He lost his temper; angry words were exchanged—and then, even as they quarreled, a skin disease appeared on his forehead. As soon as they saw it, the chief priest Azariah and the other priests got him out of there as fast as they could. He hurried out—he knew that God then and there had given him the disease. Uzziah had his skin disease for the rest of his life and had to live in quarantine; he was not permitted to set foot in The Temple of God. His son Jotham, who managed the royal palace, took over the government of the country.

For Reflection

That's the problem with riding high.  Uzziah lost humility.  He forgot that God placed him in a position to bring about a peace full of justice and compassion.  Uzziah had succumbed to the terrorism of success. Being top dog is being isolated from the truth.  Soon one becomes so isolated from the reality of his or her existence that he or she thinks that only they can effect righteousness. 

Pray

that when things are going well you remember that it is because of God not yourself that life is good.  Pray for humility.  Pray that you will never assign success to anyone but God.

Setting Yourself to Seek God

God's People Worship
The Prophet and Praise
Holy, Holy, Holy

 

2 Chronicles 26:1-5

The Message

King Uzziah

26 ^1-2 The people of Judah then took Uzziah, who was only sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah. The first thing he did after his father was dead and buried was to recover Elath for Judah and rebuild it.

^3-5 Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king and reigned for fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother was Jecoliah from Jerusalem. He behaved well in the eyes of God, following in the footsteps of his father Amaziah. He was a loyal seeker of God. He was well trained by his pastor and teacher Zechariah to live in reverent obedience before God, and for as long as Zechariah lived, Uzziah lived a godly life. And God prospered him.

For Reflection

Uzziah was riding high!  He was a man of God.  Uzziah was a seeker of God and trained in the faith.  Reverent and obedient, He was delivered wisdom and ruled well for 50 years.  Life was good. 

 

Pray

that you, like Uzziah, seek God as your confidant and guide.  Pray that you will have the wisdom to listen to God and be obedient to his will.  Thank God for his unconditional support and compassion.

I Am the Road

Beyond the Present Time
Resurrection Hope
Hope in the Day of the Lord

John 14:1-7

The Message

The Road

14 ^1-4 “Don’t let this throw you. You trust God, don’t you? Trust me. There is plenty of room for you in my Father’s home. If that weren’t so, would I have told you that I’m on my way to get a room ready for you? And if I’m on my way to get your room ready, I’ll come back and get you so you can live where I live. And you already know the road I’m taking.”

⁵ Thomas said, “Master, we have no idea where you’re going. How do you expect us to know the road?”
^6-7 Jesus said, “I am the Road, also the Truth, also the Life. No one gets to the Father apart from me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him. You’ve even seen him!” 

For Reflection

Christ is the ultimate example of a righteous life.  It is He whom we try to mimic.  He is the ultimate high status friend, advocate in our behalf to God.  He is the only life coach that will lead to an authentic human experience living righteously in the hollow of God's hand. 

Pray

that you will place abiding trust in God.  Pray that you will be ready to hear the whispered advice for righteous living.  Pray that you will know God as He knows you.

Teaching the Ways of God

Beyond the Present Time
Resurrection Hope
Hope in the Day of the Lord

Micah 4:1-5

The Message

The Making of God’s People

4 ^1-4 But when all is said and done,
    God’s Temple on the mountain,
Firmly fixed, will dominate all mountains,
    towering above surrounding hills.
People will stream to it
    and many nations set out for it,
Saying, “Come, let’s climb God’s mountain.
    Let’s go to the Temple of Jacob’s God.
He will teach us how to live.
    We’ll know how to live God’s way.”
True teaching will issue from Zion,
    God’s revelation from Jerusalem.
He’ll establish justice in the rabble of nations
    and settle disputes in faraway places.
They’ll trade in their swords for shovels,
    their spears for rakes and hoes.
Nations will quit fighting each other,
    quit learning how to kill one another.
Each man will sit under his own shade tree,
    each woman in safety will tend her own garden.
God-of-the-Angel-Armies says so,
    and he means what he says.

⁵ Meanwhile, all the other people live however they wish,
    picking and choosing their gods.
But we live honoring God,
    and we’re loyal to our God forever and ever. 

For Reflection

In the 8th century BC, Mica, the prophet spoke of a new church, more prominent than any church, would call all people to God.  There the people of God (to Jerusalem) would find comfort, sanctuary, justice and compassion.  It would be the place of learning and peace. Others would go about their business, but believers would ignore them and remain loyal to God.

Matthew Henry comments, "...we sometimes see the corruptions of the church, especially of church-rulers, princes, priests, and prophets, seeking their own things and not the things of God, and when we soon after see the desolations of the church..."

Even in the midst of mortal corruption in the church, the church of God will survive. It has survived such calamities for over 2000 years and will continue to survive.  The church belongs to God and God's promise is forever. 

Pray

for the Church, the sanctuary for God's faithful.

Warnings for Rich Oppressors

Beyond the Present Time
Resurrection Hope
Hope in the Day of the Lord

James 5:1-6

The Message

Destroying Your Life from Within

5 ^1-3 And a final word to you arrogant rich: Take some lessons in lament. You’ll need buckets for the tears when the crash comes upon you. Your money is corrupt and your fine clothes stink. Your greedy luxuries are a cancer in your gut, destroying your life from within. You thought you were piling up wealth. What you’ve piled up is judgment.

^4-6 All the workers you’ve exploited and cheated cry out for judgment. The groans of the workers you used and abused are a roar in the ears of the Master Avenger. You’ve looted the earth and lived it up. But all you’ll have to show for it is a fatter than usual corpse. In fact, what you’ve done is condemn and murder perfectly good persons, who stand there and take it. 

For Reflection

We live in one of the wealthiest nations on earth. Most of our poorest citizens are wealthy in comparison to some in the third world.  What is the effect of affluence on our faith?

Ibn Khaldun, an Arab Muslim, one of the founding fathers of modern sociology and economics, living in the thirteenth century made some remarkable observations  He noted that when people are poor or less affluent, family ties are closer, people are more moral, and religious spiritual values are the glue that holds families and society together.  In affluent societies, like ours today, he also observed that the society suffers from "value relativity," that is the absence of absolute values.

Think about it. Our news media reports that the discontent with our governance and economic systems grow larger each year.  Haven't we heard repeated lamentations about the erosion of the "Protestant Ethic?"  Are we not  discussing in many venues the lack of commitment among our church goers?  Does the apparent deterioration of spirituality reduce the effectiveness of a spiritually driven culture which binds one to another?  

Pray

Pray for the just and compassionate distribution of the world's wealth.  Pray for the wealthy asking that they understand that it is in their interest and the interests of all others to reduce the gulf between the wealthy and the poor.  Pray for families so that they may improve those things which bind them to each other.  Pray for the churches so that they may comfort believers and work for justice and compassion for all.

Warning for False Prophets

Beyond the Present Time
Resurrection Hope
Hope in the Day of the Lord

Jeremiah 23:23-32

The Message

^23-24 “Am I not a God near at hand”—God’s Decree—
    “and not a God far off?
Can anyone hide out in a corner
    where I can’t see him?”
        God’s Decree.
“Am I not present everywhere,
    whether seen or unseen?”
        God’s Decree.

^25-27 “I know what they’re saying, all these prophets who preach lies using me as their text, saying ‘I had this dream! I had this dream!’ How long do I have to put up with this? Do these prophets give two cents about me as they preach their lies and spew out their grandiose delusions? They swap dreams with one another, feed on each other’s delusive dreams, trying to distract my people from me just as their ancestors were distracted by the no-god Baal.

^28-29 “You prophets who do nothing but dream—
    go ahead and tell your silly dreams.
But you prophets who have a message from me—
    tell it truly and faithfully.
What does straw have in common with wheat?
    Nothing else is like God’s Decree.
Isn’t my Message like fire?” God’s Decree.
    “Isn’t it like a sledgehammer busting a rock?

^30-31 “I’ve had it with the ‘prophets’ who get all their sermons secondhand from each other. Yes, I’ve had it with them. They make up stuff and then pretend it’s a real sermon.

³² “Oh yes, I’ve had it with the prophets who preach the lies they dream up, spreading them all over the country, ruining the lives of my people with their cheap and reckless lies.

“I never sent these prophets, never authorized a single one of them. They do nothing for this people—nothing! God’s Decree.

For Reflection

How does one discern the difference between false and true preachers of the word?  It is a hard question to answer.  There are many pretenders to the divine commission to spread the good news. Some are so transparent that pretense is easily discoverable.  Some are beguilingly subtle invoking acceptable cultural standards and skillfully mixing truth with falsehood; the sham difficult to unveil.

What standards can one apply to tell the true from the false?  Perhaps one can ask, "Is the the speech or act consistent with the God that is revealed to us in Scripture?  Is it consistent with the God revealed in Jesus Christ?  Does the leader ask people to follow the way of justice and compassion.  Does he or she uplift or condemn? Or perhaps the ultimate test, does he or she act in love and hospitality?"

What if these questions cannot help ferret out the authentic from the pretentious, what then?

Trust in God.  He knows and He will make things right.  Have faith and do not concern yourself with the unfathomable.  Play your part in the Kingdom well.  God will take care of the rest. 

Pray

that you will follow God's call for compassion and justice.  Pray that you will be obedient to your calling as a child of God   Pray that you will see with God's eyes, hear with God's ears and act in response to the God which resides in you.

Difficult Times Ahead

Beyond the Present Time
Resurrection Hope
Hope in the Day of the Lord

2 Timothy 3:1-9

The Message

Difficult Times Ahead

3 ^1-5 Don’t be naive. There are difficult times ahead. As the end approaches, people are going to be self-absorbed, money-hungry, self-promoting, stuck-up, profane, contemptuous of parents, crude, coarse, dog-eat-dog, unbending, slanderers, impulsively wild, savage, cynical, treacherous, ruthless, bloated windbags, addicted to lust, and allergic to God. They’ll make a show of religion, but behind the scenes they’re animals. Stay clear of these people.

^6-9 These are the kind of people who smooth-talk themselves into the homes of unstable and needy women and take advantage of them; women who, depressed by their sinfulness, take up with every new religious fad that calls itself “truth.” They get exploited every time and never really learn. These men are like those old Egyptian frauds Jannes and Jambres, who challenged Moses. They were rejects from the faith, twisted in their thinking, defying truth itself. But nothing will come of these latest impostors. Everyone will see through them, just as people saw through that Egyptian hoax. 

For Reflection

Are the times now so very different?  Well the end has not yet arrived.  However, the end of self-absorbed profane and vulgar life styles has arrived.  All one has to do is decide that he or she will live a God centered rather than culture centered life.  That's it!  No magic potions. No mumbo jumbo!  No need for preservation of one's former life.  All one needs is found in the life of Christ. 

Pray

for the courage to participate in God's counter culture.  Pray for the wisdom to listen to the Holy Spirit as He directs you into a life transformed in Christ.

The Power of Small

Beyond the Present Time
Resurrection Hope
Hope through Stewardship

Luke 16:10-13

The Message

God Sees Behind Appearances

^10-13 Jesus went on to make these comments:

If you’re honest in small things,
    you’ll be honest in big things;
If you’re a crook in small things,
    you’ll be a crook in big things.
If you’re not honest in small jobs,
    who will put you in charge of the store?
No worker can serve two bosses:
    He’ll either hate the first and love the second
Or adore the first and despise the second.
    You can’t serve both God and the Bank. 

For Reflection

Every body wants Flash and Dash - the easy fix.  As the Queen song goes, "I want it all and I want it now!"  Cut to the big stuff.
Pay attention to the little things in life and the big things will be fixed.  Choose to wait on the Lord.  Choose God's time over "right now."  Ignore the common place stresses and choose God's path. 

Pray

that you will find comfort and peace in God's counter-culture.  Pray that you will seek God's path to peace, and justice as a guide to human affairs.

The Perfect Gift from Above

Beyond the Present Time
Resurrection Hope
Hope through Stewardship

James 1:12-18

The Message

¹² Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life.
^13-15 Don’t let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, “God is trying to trip me up.” God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one’s way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer.
^16-18 So, my very dear friends, don’t get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. He brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all his creatures. 

For Reflection

If you define sin as separation from God then you realize that the distance between you and God is filled with seductive self-interest and the ethics and morality of the common culture.  Christ calls us to be separate from the common place ethics and morality of this world and respond, rather, to compassion and justice cloaked in love for God and each other. 

Pray

for the strength to respond to God's call.  Pray for the wisdom to follow God's counter-culture path toward a just and compassionate society.

The God of Second Chances

Beyond the Present Time
Resurrection Hope
Hope through Stewardship

Luke 12:41-48

The Message

⁴¹ Peter said, “Master, are you telling this story just for us? Or is it for everybody?”
^42-46 The Master said, “Let me ask you: Who is the dependable manager, full of common sense, that the master puts in charge of his staff to feed them well and on time? He is a blessed man if when the master shows up he’s doing his job. But if he says to himself, ‘The master is certainly taking his time,’ begins maltreating the servants and maids, throws parties for his friends, and gets drunk, the master will walk in when he least expects it, give him the thrashing of his life, and put him back in the kitchen peeling potatoes.
^47-48 “The servant who knows what his master wants and ignores it, or insolently does whatever he pleases, will be thoroughly thrashed. But if he does a poor job through ignorance, he’ll get off with a slap on the hand. Great gifts mean great responsibilities; greater gifts, greater responsibilities! 

For Reflection

I guess that answers it, "What about people whom have never heard of Christ?"  God does not hold those with out knowledge of God's attempt at reconciliation to the same standard as those who have the knowledge and are not moved to act accordingly. But our God is a compassionate God.  Our God is the God of unlimited second chances.  Be comforted in the knowledge that God is not the "Holy Gotcha," waiting for you to make a mistake.  He is the Holy Encourager having as His first interest your best interest. 

Pray

that you will be moved to act in ways consistent with the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ.  Pray that you will be humble in your imperfection and seek the out the God who comforts you and always offers a second chance.

Be Alert and Ready

Beyond the Present Time
Resurrection Hope
Hope through Stewardship

Luke 12:35-40

The Message

When the Master Shows Up

^35-38 “Keep your shirts on; keep the lights on! Be like house servants waiting for their master to come back from his honeymoon, awake and ready to open the door when he arrives and knocks. Lucky the servants whom the master finds on watch! He’ll put on an apron, sit them at the table, and serve them a meal, sharing his wedding feast with them. It doesn’t matter what time of the night he arrives; they’re awake—and so blessed!

^39-40 “You know that if the house owner had known what night the burglar was coming, he wouldn’t have stayed out late and left the place unlocked. So don’t you be slovenly and careless. Just when you don’t expect him, the Son of Man will show up.” 

For Reflection

How alert are you to the call of God?  How alert are you the hand of God in your life and in the lives others? Are you prepared to follow God's next opportunity? 

Pray

that you will prepare to respond to God's call.  Pray that you will be up to any task.  Pray that you will be both willing and able perform in grace.

In the Knowledge of God There is no Cause to Worry

Beyond the Present Time
Resurrection Hope
Hope through Stewardship

Luke 12:29 - 32

The Message

^29-32 “What I’m trying to do here is get you to relax, not be so preoccupied with getting so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep yourself in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Don’t be afraid of missing out. You’re my dearest friends! The Father wants to give you the very kingdom itself.

For Reflection

"Be happy, don't worry!"  Ah, the island life.  Why are you so upset? Why do you worry?  What good is done by agitation and worry?  Very little.  As a matter of fact, medical researchers tell us that a lot of physical ills may be traced to stress and worry.  You not only carry the knowledge of God but you also carry Him inside you.  So as Luke advises, " Steep yourself in God-reality." 

Pray

that you remember the knowledge of God that guides your every perception.  Pray that you will take life as God intended you to, quietly, in unreasonable confidence in the good resolution of all things.

Suffer for Good

Beyond the Present Time
Resurrection Hope
Equipped with Hope

1 Peter 3:8-12

The Message

Suffering for Doing Good

^8-12 Summing up: Be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble. That goes for all of you, no exceptions. No retaliation. No sharp-tongued sarcasm. Instead, bless—that’s your job, to bless. You’ll be a blessing and also get a blessing.

Whoever wants to embrace life
    and see the day fill up with good,
Here’s what you do:
    Say nothing evil or hurtful;
Snub evil and cultivate good;
    run after peace for all you’re worth.
God looks on all this with approval,
    listening and responding well to what he’s asked;
But he turns his back
    on those who do evil things. 

For Reflection

Read the passages again and again.  Make them your mantra. 

Pray

that you will be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, and be humble.  Pray that what you say and do is not hurtful.  Pray that you will be a peace-maker.  Pray that you will snub conventional wisdom and embrace God-centered wisdom.

Enduring to the End

Beyond the Present Time
Resurrection Hope
Equipped with Hope

Matthew 24:9-14

The Message

^9-10 “They are going to throw you to the wolves and kill you, everyone hating you because you carry my name. And then, going from bad to worse, it will be dog-eat-dog, everyone at each other’s throat, everyone hating each other.
^11-12 “In the confusion, lying preachers will come forward and deceive a lot of people. For many others, the overwhelming spread of evil will do them in—nothing left of their love but a mound of ashes.
^13-14 “Staying with it—that’s what God requires. Stay with it to the end. You won’t be sorry, and you’ll be saved. All during this time, the good news—the Message of the kingdom—will be preached all over the world, a witness staked out in every country. And then the end will come. 

For Reflection

What does it take for you to stick with it in spite of criticism, challenges, and apparent failure?  A hope beyond reason carries you through to the victorious end.  Considered a foolish hope by some but for you, in Christ, a foolish hope is wisdom. 

Pray

for the strength in hope to finish in spite of difficulty.  Pray that you will never bend to ungodly ways. Pray that you will reject the foolish ways of common wisdom and embrace Gods role for you.

Credibility in Christ

Beyond the Present Time
Resurrection Hope
Equipped with Hope

Titus 1:5-9

The Message

A Good Grip on the Message

^5-9 I left you in charge in Crete so you could complete what I left half-done. Appoint leaders in every town according to my instructions. As you select them, ask, “Is this man well-thought-of? Is he committed to his wife? Are his children believers? Do they respect him and stay out of trouble?” It’s important that a church leader, responsible for the affairs in God’s house, be looked up to—not pushy, not short-tempered, not a drunk, not a bully, not money-hungry. He must welcome people, be helpful, wise, fair, reverent, have a good grip on himself, and have a good grip on the Message, knowing how to use the truth to either spur people on in knowledge or stop them in their tracks if they oppose it.

For Reflection

Aristotle defined a credible speaker as a "good man."  What defines a good man in his day is no different from what defines a good man today.  If one is competent (He knows what he is talking about.), fair ( perhaps just) and trustworthy he is thought of as credible.  Whom do you know that fits that category?  If a man or woman fits the criteria listed in Titus, then he or she is probable God centered.  To what extent is your credibility based upon a God centered life? 

Pray

that you will seek knowledge and wisdom.  Pray that you will be fair and just in all of your interactions.  Pray that you will act in ways that will warrant the trust others place in you.  Pray that when you speak of your faith others will find you credible.

The Beginning of Knowledge

Beyond the Present Time
Resurrection Hope
Equipped with Hope

Proverbs 1:2-7

The Message

Wise Sayings of Solomon

A Manual for Living

1 ^1-6 These are the wise sayings of Solomon,
    David’s son, Israel’s king—
Written down so we’ll know how to live well and right,
    to understand what life means and where it’s going;
A manual for living,
    for learning what’s right and just and fair;
To teach the inexperienced the ropes
    and give our young people a grasp on reality.
There’s something here also for seasoned men and women,
    still a thing or two for the experienced to learn—
Fresh wisdom to probe and penetrate,
    the rhymes and reasons of wise men and women.

Start with God

⁷ Start with God—the first step in learning is bowing down to God;
    only fools thumb their noses at such wisdom and learning.

For Reflection

So many people, so well schooled and so uneducated!  It seems that our educational systems fail to produce wiser people.  Compassion and justice do not seem to out weigh efficiency and maximizing profit at the expense of people.  Selflessness gives way to self-centeredness and vulnerability to corruption justified by the common place wisdom of our societies.

Paul tells us the wisdom that comes from God is interpreted by the common culture as foolishness.  The common wisdom of the world is opposed to God's wisdom. Those who are wise start with God.

Pray

Pray for the wisdom that comes only from God.  Pray for the Spirit to enter all of your decisions.  Hope for the wisdom of compassion and justice.

Full of Goodness and Knowledge

Beyond the Present Time
Resurrection Hope
Equipped with Hope

Romans 15:14-21

The Message

^14-16 Personally, I’ve been completely satisfied with who you are and what you are doing. You seem to me to be well-motivated and well-instructed, quite capable of guiding and advising one another. So, my dear friends, don’t take my rather bold and blunt language as criticism. It’s not criticism. I’m simply underlining how very much I need your help in carrying out this highly focused assignment God gave me, this priestly and gospel work of serving the spiritual needs of the non-Jewish outsiders so they can be presented as an acceptable offering to God, made whole and holy by God’s Holy Spirit.

^17-21 Looking back over what has been accomplished and what I have observed, I must say I am most pleased—in the context of Jesus, I’d even say proud, but only in that context. I have no interest in giving you a chatty account of my adventures, only the wondrously powerful and transformingly present words and deeds of Christ in me that triggered a believing response among the outsiders. In such ways I have trailblazed a preaching of the Message of Jesus all the way from Jerusalem far into northwestern Greece. This has all been pioneer work, bringing the Message only into those places where Jesus was not yet known and worshiped. My text has been,

Those who were never told of him—
    they’ll see him!
Those who’ve never heard of him—
    they’ll get the message!

 For Reflection

What accounted for the success of Paul's mission?  Pure and simply, Paul passed on knowledge of the Christ event and the value of a new way of establishing a new transforming relationship with God.  How about you?  Is this offer of a right relationship to God as compelling to you as it was to those whom Paul addresses. 

Pray

that all who have heard will listen.  Pray that all who have seen will understand.  Pray that the new information about the transforming power of the Holy Spirit will be embraced by all.

Hope in Gods Faithfulness

Beyond the Present Time
Resurrection Hope
A Living Hope

Lamentations 3:19-24

The Message

It’s a Good Thing to Hope for Help from God

^19-21 I’ll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness,
    the taste of ashes, the poison I’ve swallowed.
I remember it all—oh, how well I remember—
    the feeling of hitting the bottom.
But there’s one other thing I remember,
    and remembering, I keep a grip on hope:

^22-24 God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out,
    his merciful love couldn’t have dried up.
They’re created new every morning.
    How great your faithfulness!
I’m sticking with God (I say it over and over).
    He’s all I’ve got left. 

For Reflection

Hope is the powerful counter measure against fear.  Hope motivates supportive action.  Fear motivates defensiveness.  Fear results in a downward uncontrollable spiral of declining trust and confidence.  Gloom and doom surrounds you as a dark cloud out of which you cannot see.  Hope lifts the cloud of doom and restores trust and confidence.  Hope in the Lord.  You will never be disappointed.

Pray

in your darkest hours for God to lift the cloud of fear that surrounds you.  Pray for the hope that defies all reason.  Pray to find God extending His hand of grace.

The Lord Preserves the Faithful

Beyond the Present Time
Resurrection Hope
A Living Hope

Psalm 31:19-24

The Message

^19-22 What a stack of blessings you have piled up
    for those who worship you,
Ready and waiting for all who run to you
    to escape an unkind world.
You hide them safely away
    from the opposition.
As you slam the door on those oily, mocking faces,
    you silence the poisonous gossip.
Blessed God!
    His love is the wonder of the world.
Trapped by a siege, I panicked.
    “Out of sight, out of mind,” I said.
But you heard me say it,
    you heard and listened.

²³ Love God, all you saints;
    God takes care of all who stay close to him,on
But he pays back in full
    those arrogant enough to go it alone.

²⁴ Be brave. Be strong. Don’t give up.
    Expect God to get here soon. 

For Reflection

Have you ever wanted to scream, "Stop the world, I want to get off!"  When frustration reaches that level is precisely when God shelters you, comforts you, and brings you peace.  Wait on the Lord.  Be obedient to His will.  He will pay you back in full for your suffering allegiance to Him.

Pray

that you will face life bravely in the confidence in tomorrow that only God can provide.  Pray that you don't give up.  Pray deeply and often so that you expect God soon!

My Times Are in Your Hands

Beyond the Present Time
Resurrection Hope
A Living Hope

Psalm 31:14-18

The Message

^14-18 Desperate, I throw myself on you:
    you are my God!
Hour by hour I place my days in your hand,
    safe from the hands out to get me.
Warm me, your servant, with a smile;
    save me because you love me.
Don’t embarrass me by not showing up;
    I’ve given you plenty of notice.
Embarrass the wicked, stand them up,
    leave them stupidly shaking their heads
    as they drift down to hell.
Gag those loudmouthed liars
    who heckle me, your follower,
    with jeers and catcalls. 

For Reflection

Do you presume to tell God what to do?  This psalmist seems to presume so.  It strikes me that his talk with God is authentically human, filled with emotion and passion.  He approaches God in a relationship filled with trust, hope, and a deep conviction that God will listen and answer.

Pray

authentically.  Let your humanness show.  Assume a healthy family relationship with your God.  Listen for his answer and pray for an active hope that His will be done.