The Second Law of Spritual Thermodynamics

REFERENCE: Proverbs 18:9 A lazy person is as bad as someone who destroys things.

Observation: The utter practicality of Proverbs is a wonderful thing. Before scientists codified the rules of thermodynamics, Solomon figured out that if we are not active in keeping things up they will inevitably fall apart.

In the years since the Proverbs were written we learned that every ordered system tends towards disorder if not acted upon by an engine pressing it back towards order. In other words, if we are lazy and don’t keep fixing our car or our home, they will destroy themselves, they will fall apart. It is the way of this broken universe.

We can apply this verse to our spiritual life as well. If we are lazy and we don’t apply ourselves to God’s Word, to prayer, to fellowship or the other disciplines of the Christian life, the result will be entropy in our spiritual condition - its slow disintegration. We may not notice it at first, but eventually we will find ourselves cold towards God and far away from Him; our spiritual life destroyed by our laziness.

We may say that our relationship with God is the first priority in our lives. How we live our lives needs to reflect that.

Application/Confession: Since starting this blog, in January sometime, I have hardly missed a day reading God’s Word. It has been a wonderful experience that has changed me profoundly. I have also spent time in prayer nearly every day, but I need to do better in that regard. God is calling me to more time and more intimacy in my prayer life with Him and I want to answer that call.

PRAYER: Lord, help me to remember that if I don’t apply myself to my spiritual disciplines, my life with You will slowly erode and be destroyed. I want to stay close to You and pursue knowing You every day of my life.

Knowledge Is Not Wisdom

REFERENCE: Acts 21:10-12 Several days later a man named Agabus, who also had the gift of prophecy, arrived from Judea. 11 He came over, took Pauls belt, and bound his own feet and hands with it. Then he said, "The Holy Spirit declares, "˜So shall the owner of this belt be bound by the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem and turned over to the Gentiles." 12 When we heard this, we and the local believers all begged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.

Observation: It is interesting to note here that although Agabus had a real gift of prophecy (and subsequent events certainly bore that out) he did not have the right interpretation of that prophecy. He knew what was going to happen to Paul, he was wrong about what Paul needed to do about that. It is our tendency to believe that because someone has insight on the future that they will know how we ought to act in the context of that insight. The truth is that God has given some a gift of prophecy or word of knowledge; an understanding of future events. Others have a gift of wisdom or exhortation that may help us to know how to act in that future. Both of these gifts may not be, and often are not, possessed by the same person.

We should be careful, then, taking spiritual counsel from someone who legitimizes what they say by the fact that they have insight into our future. They may know what will happen but may not know what we ought to do about it.

If we have insight, we also need to have the humility to consider that God may use someone else to give an interpretation of how a person ought to use that insight.

Application/Confession: I am impressed when someone seems to have a true prophetic insight into my life. It would be easy for me to assume that whatever they have to say about what I ought to do must be right as well. I need to be careful to let God show me, perhaps through other, perhaps directly by the Spirit, what I need to do with what I have been shown.

PRAYER: Lord, thank you for prophetic insight. Teach me to accept it with the wisdom that Paul showed. May I never be dissuaded from doing what you call me to do, going where you call me to go, no matter how scary it seems.

Modern American Idol Worshippers

REFERENCE: II Kings 17:7 This disaster came upon the people of Israel because they worshiped other gods. They sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them safely out of Egypt and had rescued them from the power of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt.

Observation: "This disaster" that they suffered was the loss of the Promised Land that God had given them. They were exiled to another country. Why did this happen? Over and over again, in this chapter and elsewhere, it is stated so clearly that this disaster came on them because they turned from God and worshipped idols.

What is idol worship at its core? It is man’s prideful self-worship. We want to trust in that which we can control and so we create or obtain something and then pretend that it has the power to meet our deepest need.

The really scary part is that we live in a world that tempts us to idol worship all the time. We may not have figures in the corner of our living rooms that we bow down to, pray to or sacrifice to but we do have so many things that are given the supposed power to meet our needs. For example, our world teaches us that we should look to money and possessions for security. "Financial security" has become the goal for a lot of people. They trust in its hopes. They work to obtain its promises and they sacrifice time and family connections to try to lay a hold of it.

Yet we all know that it is a fantasy. No one is really financially secure. It could be wiped out in a day. Yet Satan works overtime to get us to put our trust and hope and peace in mere money. Even if we don’t have much in our bank account, our anxiety over it belies the fact that we are trusting in it instead of God.

Many men (and women) are caught up in pornography. They look to it to provide them with peace in times of stress, a sense of acceptance and satisfaction. It becomes a way to escape the rigors of life. These are all things that we should look to the true God to supply for us. When we look elsewhere, we are committing the sin of idolatry.

The result of an idolatrous lifestyle is that we lose our promised land. Many of us wonder why we don’t have the blessings God has promised us. Perhaps we had them at one time but they have slipped away. Could it be that we are under the discipline of God because of the idols in our lives? Perhaps it is time to clean out the closet and get rid of anything (money, sex, position, fame, power, manipulation etc.) that we trust in when we should be trusting God. If we are going to receive His promises we need to have a heart fully devoted to Him.

Application/Confession: When I find myself getting anxious about finances either in our home or for the church, I realize that there is such a danger that I am falling into the worship of idols. My anxiety indicates that I am looking to mere money to meet my needs and that is simply not right. God has said that He is my source, my supply and I need to stand firm on that - never wavering.

PRAYER: Lord, forgive me for worshipping the idol of financial security. I need to, I want to trust you and you alone. Please help me.

Do YOu Value Action Over Faith?

REFERENCE: Psalms 147:10-11 He takes no pleasure in the strength of a horse or in human might. 11 No, the Lord’s delight is in those who fear him, those who put their hope in his unfailing love.

Observation: We have been trained to value action over being. We often feel like the more we do, the more valuable we will be to God, ourselves and others. We place our pleasure and our hope in our strength - our ability to get things done.

God’s way of looking at things is different. His loves it when we get to the end of what we can do and we are reduced to utter dependence on Him. For most of us, we hate that place! We want to feel strong and in charge. Yet, we can’t really learn to put our hope in Him as long as we are able to deal with life without His help.

God has a way of bringing us, regularly, to the end of ourselves, our own resources, and bringing us face to face with the question; "is your faith and trust going to be in me?" There is no chance to exercise faith and hope if there are not significant challenges in our lives. We need to welcome those times because they build our faith.

Remember that our hope is in His love. He really does care for us. That ought to make it easier to trust and believe.

Application/Confession: There are so many times when I am facing challenges that seem to be too big for me. I know that at those times God is pressing me towards faith. I know that He is faithful.

In my flesh, I don’t like to be there. In fact, I hate it. It makes me nervous. I want things to be smooth and predictable all the time. In my spirit I recognize that God is doing something great in me to work faith into my spirit. I will choose to cooperate with that process.

PRAYER: Dear Lord, I put my trust in your unfailing love. I know that You will provide for me and for the church I pastor because You are that kind of Father to me. Teach me to exercise faith and to live in it.

Full of Opinion, Void of Understanding

REFERENCE: Proverbs 18:2 Fools have no interest in understanding; they only want to air their own opinions.

Observation: Every morning on OPB (Oregon Public Broadcasting) there is a radio show from the BBC called "World Have Your Say". People from all over the world call in and give their opinion about the issues of the day. This show is typical of how our world operates. Everyone feels like they are not only entitled to an opinion, but entitled, as well, to share it with as many others as possible. They do not even stop to ask what the value of their opinion might be. Perhaps it is totally ill-informed. Perhaps it is not well considered. But we persist in sharing it anyway because it is our right!

The problem is that we forget that there is a great difference between our opinion and real understanding. Just because we believe something to be true does not make it necessarily so. If we are going to pursue the way of wisdom, we need to be more enamored of discovering what is true than in airing what we already believe.

Our world is trapped in foolishness because they accept that the opinion of the majority must be right. The truth is that the opinion of the majority is often wrong. Therefore, what we need to pursue is not another chance to express our opinion or to hear someone else’s, but to discover real truth, true understanding that come from God, no matter what others, or even we ourselves, think of it.

Application/Confession: I love to give my opinion. I love to hear others give their’s - when it confirms my own. I need to be more enamored with learning to have understanding that goes beneath the surface and know the truth that only God’s point of view can reveal.

PRAYER: Dear God, teach me the truth. Teach me to have an open heart and mind to you and more of a closed mouth. I only want to open it when you tell me to.

Today's One Day Bible Daily Reading

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2 Kings 10:32-12:21; Acts 18:1-22; Psalm 145:1-21; Proverbs 18:1

How Not To Lose The Next Generation

Reference: Psalms 145:4 Let each generation tell its children of your mighty acts; let them proclaim your power.

Observation: Maybe we are just too busy complaining to remember to tell our kids about all God has done for us. Satan knows something that we sometimes seem to forget; if one generation does not evangelize the next, Christianity will die out in less than 100 years. Our most important mission field is our own family and there is no better way to be a witness to our family than to tell of the good things that God has done.

It seems that, so often, it is more natural to complain about everything that we are not getting in our lives than it is to brag on what God is doing. Our kids need to hear from us what we are thankful for. Much of what God does is inside of us and they will never know unless we tell them. We may worry that it will seem like preaching or, somehow it will seem weird to talk about our relationship with God, but we need to overcome that. It needs to become a natural part of conversation in our families. God can use it to keep our kids close to Him.

Application/Confession: Even though I preach about God and tell others about what is happening between Him and me, I find it a challenge to share at home sometimes. I don’t want to come across as "super-spiritual".

I need to not give into this tendency. My children must see that God is doing great things in my life all the time. They can clearly see the sacrifices that a Pastor’s life entails, the things we do without. They can become bitter towards God if they don’t also hear the positive side--and I have to be the one to share it.

PRAYER: Lord, help me to be a witness to my family of your great and wonderful acts. I am so thankful for all you do, help me to make that clear to my family. May they always stay close to you and believe You to bless them.

Illicit Sex as idol worship

REFERENCE: 1 Kings 11:1 Now King Solomon loved many foreign  women. Besides Pharaohs daughter, he married women from Moab, Ammon, Edom, Sidon and from among the Hittites. 2 The Lord had clearly instructed the people of Israel, "˜You must not marry them, because they will turn your hearts to their gods. Yet Solomon insisted on loving them anyway. 3 He had 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines. And in fact, they did turn his heart away from the Lord. 4 In Solomons old age, they turned his heart to worship other gods instead of being completely faithful to the as Lord David, his father had been.

Observation: As Christian men we need to know that Satan uses our sexuality to destroy us.

Here is a man who knew better. He was warned that foreign wives would be his downfall and yet he went after them and married then none the less. Who needs 100 wives and concubines? Solomon was obviously sexually addicted. Look at his family line. His father killed a man to cover up the seduction of his wife. His brother raped his sister. Sexual dysfunction was all through his family.

What can we learn from this? That sexual sin will turn our hearts away from God. It is not just the illicit sexuality that is a problem, but the way it takes our eyes off of God and causes our relationship with Him to grow cold.

Further we learn that giving in to this sin will cause us to worship another god. We don't realize it but when we look at pornography or get involved with extra-marital sex, what we are really doing is giving ourselves over idol worship. Worship is nothing more, or less, that giving value and worth to someone or something. When we enter into this kind of sin we are saying that sex or masturbation will meet our needs. We begin to make it an idol; something, besides the true God, that we look to meet our needs.

Finally, we learn that the family we come from can have great effect on our temptation level in this area. If we come from a family where sexual sin in normal and rampant, be aware that this is a possible weakness that Satan can exploit. We need to pray that God will close the door to the effects of the sins of our ancestors on our lives.

Application/Confession: I wish I could say that I am never tempted by lust. I wish that were true. Reality is that, like most men, this is something I must stay vigilant about every day. My heart wants to stray and I need to remember that giving into lustful desires is a form of idol worship. I do not want that in my life.

PRAYER: Lord help me. Keep me clean. Help me to resist the temptations that come my way. Help me to put a watch over my eyes so that I do not allow into them anything that will stir up my lower nature. I want to be wholly devoted to you.

Passing the Test

REFERENCE: Proverbs 17:3 Fire tests the purity of silver and gold, but the Lord tests the heart.

Observation: How does God test our hearts? The same way that silver and gold is made pure, by fire. God allows fire, difficult times, setbacks and disappointments, to come into our live to test and see how we will react. The purpose is not to destroy us but to make us more pure, more like our Father in heaven.

We may think that we react poorly under pressure simply because of the pressure; that we are acting out of character, somehow different that we actually are. Many wise people have noted that hard times do not create poor character; they only reveal what is already there.

Because of that, we should welcome the test. It reveals something of who we really are to God and to us. It enables us to know how we need to change and grow and what help we need to ask God for.

Testing, as hard as it is, is a good and beneficial thing for each of us.

Application/Confession: My greatest test is trusting God with financial pressures and feelings of personal rejection. When people leave the church I pastor or when offerings are down even a little, I find myself worrying. I know that my value is in Him, not in how many people come to the church, but I still struggle. I know that God has promised to meet every one of my needs, but I still worry. I need to learn to live in peace and pass the test by not letting those things stop me from trusting God and depending wholly on Him.

PRAYER: Lord help me. Convince my heart of your eternal, unending love and teach me how to full get my value from you, not from what I do or who supports me. Teach me to trust you, to truly believe that you will provide everything the church or my family needs. You are Lord of the church and Lord of my family, help my heart to remember that You will never leave us or forsake us or not provide for us.

When We Lack Even The Desire To Obey

REFERENCE: I Kings 8:58 May he give us the desire to do his will in everything and to obey all the commands, decrees, and regulations that he gave our ancestors.

Observation: Sometimes the best we can do is to ask God for even the desire to do His will. The truth is that nothing good resides within us. Anytime we have a desire to do the right thing it is something that God has produced, not us.

Earlier in the chapter Solomon prayed: "You keep your covenant and show unfailing love to all who walk before you in wholehearted devotion." There is a great reward for doing His will and obeying Him. We ought to be asking, with Solomon, for God’s help to do exactly that.

Application/Confession: There are times when that is exactly what I am missing--the will to do right. I really want to be faithful and walk in total devotion. I certainly need God’s help.

PRAYER: Lord, I pray with Solomon, please give me the desire to do your will, every day, in every way. I need your help to even want it as much as I should.

Happy With Less

REFERENCE: Proverbs 17:1 Better a dry crust eaten in peace than a house filled with feasting--and conflict.

Observation: In the materialistic world we live in, it is easy, too easy, to think that having every thing we desire is better than having a healthy peaceful family. It is not by any means! Sometimes in pursuit of that last dollar, just a little more to "bless our family", we actually introduce conflict because of stress, tiredness and frayed nerves. It might be better to work less, be happy with less, and have more peace.

The Wide-Ranging Blessings of Fearing God

REFERENCE: Psalms 128:3 Your wife will be like a fruitful grapevine, flourishing within your home. Your children will be like vigorous young olive trees as they sit around your table. 4 That is the Lord’s blessing for those who fear him.

Observation: It costs something to fear God and live by His precepts. It violates our sense of living life for ourselves and making decisions by our own dictates. It is hard, at times, to deny ourselves and say no to sinful activities that seem so attractive at the moment. It is easy to let the flesh take over and erupt in anger or withdraw into our own selfish concerns.

Yet, we need to look at the other side. What is the result of making the decision to follow Christ and do what God tells us to? Our spouses will flourish and our kids will grow up healthy and well. That is a reward worth seeking.

Being a parent is an awesome responsibility. We all want our kids to turn out well. One thing that will work mightily against that hope is being a poor example ourselves. As the old saying goes; "a child learns what they live." If we live by our base desires, those very impulses may weaken and destroy our family. If we, instead, are an example of fearing and following God, so will they and they will be strong and their lives blessed.

Application/Confession: I read this verse last year and it struck me so hard because the whole family had very recently been "around the table" celebrating my birthday. I am so proud of each member of my family. I know that I have been far from a perfect dad and certainly far from a perfect follower of Christ, but I have lived my life in the fear of God and I can see the results.

I have three adult children who are so faithful and successful. I have two smaller ones who bring so much happiness into our lives. I know that their lives are a blessing from God for fearing Him. It was often hard to make the right choices, but now I can see the results and they are good.

PRAYER: Help me to remember, Lord, that my kids will reap the fruit of my decisions. If I sow to the flesh they, as well as I, will reap the negative results. If I sow to the spirit, they, and I will be blessed. Please remind me of that when I face temptation.

the Most Important Thing To Be In Control Of

REFERENCE: Proverbs 16:32 Better to be patient than powerful; better to have self-control than to conquer a city.

Observation: The wisest man in the world wants us to realize that that what we are inside is more important than anything that we can accomplish. He is encouraging us to have an inside-out view of life. If we want to change the circumstances around us, begin by changing ourselves. Patience will lead to power. We can get great things done if we have the patience to work at it little by little. A person who lacks self-control but possesses a city, will lose what is most valuable--themselves. Being able to possess ourselves, our reactions, our impulses, the ways we communicate, is more important that anything else we can own.

We are better when we able to control ourselves than to control anyone or anything else.

Application/Confession: The greatest sadness in my life has come from my failure to control myself. I get angry with someone I love and hurt them, which hurts me. I spend money that I do not have and regret it for a long time. I make a sinful choice and pay the consequences. Truly, it is how I deal with my own internal life, not the power I have over others and things, that really determines my happiness and direction in life.

Stop Stressing!

REFERENCE: Psalms 127:2 It is useless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, anxiously working for food to eat; for God gives rest to his loved ones.

Observation: What is this verse telling us; that we shouldn’t work hard? Proverbs certainly suggests just the opposite. It encourages hard work and warns strongly against laziness.

What the Psalmist is encouraging is a heart attitude of peaceful rest, free from anxiety. What God wants us to do is to simply live in obedience to Him--to let Him set the pace for our life. As we do that then we will find a life that can be lived productively and in restful peace.

Application/Confession: Jesus said that He only could do what He saw the Father doing. I am convinced that I would be much more at peace and stress free if I could only learn to live this way. God does give rest to His loved ones. I really want to live in that rest.

PRAYER: Lord, free me from the need to "make it all work out". My life, my family, my ministry are all in your hands. Teach me to leave them there and live in the rest that your grace promises.

The Devaluation of children In Our Culture

REFERENCE: Psalms 127:3 Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.

Observation: This is just the opposite of what our world seems to believe about children. There are more than one million babies destroyed by abortions in the US every single year. More and more people are deciding that having children is just not worth the trouble. Women are putting off childbearing until later and later in life, placing the value of a career over having a child. Some discovering that they have waited too long and are now no longer fertile.

All of this stems from a devaluing of children; a class of people that God tells us is a gift from Him. They are not an inconvenience. They are not a Hollywood fashion accessory. They are not simply an expensive, and sometimes too expensive, indulgence. They are eternal souls that God entrusts us with that we get to enjoy for a few short years.

We need to be careful, while encouraging people to be thoughtful about bringing a child into their family, they certainly need to be ready, that in our caution we are not communicating that kids are a hassle to be avoided, a problem at best. We need to value them as God does.

Application/Confession: I have five kids. I certainly feel like they are a gift from God--most of the time. Sometimes, in my frustration, I can begin to be resentful. I can feel like crying out, "God why did you bless me so thoroughly." I need to remember, even in the hard times, my kids are a gift from Him and a sign of His love.

PRAYER: Dear God, as a country we have sinned. We have devalued your gift of life as represented in a precious child. We have aborted them, abused them and decided that Your gift was not worth the trouble. Forgive us and change our hearts to see these incredibly valuable souls as you do.

Watch Your Mouth, Keep YOur Friends

REFERENCE: Proverbs 16:28 A troublemaker plants seeds of strife; gossip separates the best of friends.

Observation: