Tag: God

God’s Word

“Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear” (2 Timothy 4:2-3).

Those of us who grew up in church circles will be familiar with the first of these verses – Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction. However, we may not be as familiar with the second verse.

There are two things:

  1. We are called to preach the word. Not our opinions, not our thoughts, not what we think is right. We are called to preach God’s word. God’s word dictates what is true and what is wrong, what is good and what is sin.
  2. There will be a time when people will reject God’s word and surround themselves with “teachers” who will say just what people want to hear.

Paul wrote these words two thousand years ago. Yet, these words are absolutely relevant today.

Our society has a hard time accepting the truth because the lies being uttered from some pulpits is exactly what they want to hear.

Friends, the word of God comforts and strengthens. AND if the word of God does not correct, rebuke, it’s probably not the word of God. If the word of God never corrects and rebukes, it would mean we are perfect just the way we are. And we all know that ain’t right.

The word of God absolutely comforts and strengths. AND it corrects and rebukes. And that’s a good thing.

Why Sleep?

Screenshot 2019-04-01 at 5.14.50 PMAll creatures sleep. Why? Why must we sleep?

Don’t get me wrong. I love good sleep.

Last night, my 13 year old son convinced me to join him in sleeping in the family room. Did I mention that the family room is not carpeted. It’s a wooden floor. Have you slept on a wooden floor before? I don’t recommend it. My son abandoned the sleeping on the cold wooden floor sometime in the middle of the night and went to his room to sleep on his warm comfy bed and left me on the cold wooden floor!

Needless to say, I did not sleep well. And to top it off, I am sore all over the place.

So I spent the good chunk of Monday napping…in my bed!

The sleep was so good.

Before the sleep, I was achy and my head was hazy. I was tired and irritable.

A good nap changed all that. It’s almost as if the sleep set the reset button. After the good sleep my body and mind was like, “Bring it on. Let’s do this thing!”

Why is that? Why do we need to sleep? Just think about all the stuff we could get done if we didn’t need to sleep.

Sleep was designed into all creatures from creation. God created us so with a rhythm. We rest, we work, we play. And we start again. And every seven days, we are to take a day of rest. It’s called the Sabbath.

God created the world with this rhythm.

Why, did God create us this way?

I think it’s a built in way to remind us that we are creatures. When we’re asleep, we are most vulnerable. There is nothing we can do to protect ourselves when we are asleep. We are completely vulnerable.

Sleep reminds us that we are creatures in need of a loving God.

Besides, I really like a good sleep.

Need Shalom? Go to the Source

Screenshot 2019-03-25 at 2.09.56 PM

Mondays are Starbucks days. I read. I write. I pray. I journal.

A woman a couple of seats down was sipping on her coffee and charging her phone. Or she thought she was charging her phone. Except the outlet didn’t work where she sat. In fact, I came to learn, the outlets along this side of the Starbucks do not work at all. After a few minutes of sitting and sipping on her coffee, she checked her phone to discover that her phone wasn’t charging.

She tried multiple outlets along the wall. And when that didn’t work, she tried multiple chargers. She had two chargers with her! I was impressed. She was traveling with two chargers! Finally, one of the baristas noticed her struggling with the outlets to inform her that none of the outlets along this particular wall worked.

It wasn’t her chargers. It wasn’t the outlets. It was that there was no power along this wall. The outlets looked like outlets. They looked promising. But there was no power. No matter how hard she tried, no matter how many outlets or chargers she went through, she wasn’t ever going to get her phone charged along this wall.

Many things in this world promise life, joy, purpose, peace – shalom. They look like good sources of shalom. Only one problem: they don’t have power. They are all counterfeit. So when a new girl/boyfriend doesn’t work, we try a different outlet to find shalom. We try careers/getting wealthy. And when that doesn’t work, we trying a different outlet – vacations, friendships, children, etc.

There is nothing necessarily evil or bad in these things. It’s just that they don’t have power. They were not created to provide shalom. Only God can do that.

Need shalom? Go to the source. Plug into his power.