God’s Word Daily

Everything I’m wearing today…

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Everything I’m wearing today was made somewhere else.

Last night all the food on my table, was grown somewhere else.

I’m not a king, but I’m living like one.

Someone else laboured.

Somebody’s mother, father, son, or daughter

planted seeds, ran a machine, and bent their back

against the weight of their own need to produce.

I thank God for them.  That’s not a ruse–

My kids look up from the table every time I say,

“Thank you Lord for the men and women who grew this food.”

But I am concerned too.  I don’t feel all that Joe Fresh.

A collapsed factory building in Bangladesh

has crashed into my conscience.

I grieve with hundreds of affected families today.

Work is not the problem.

Calloused negligence and care-less-ness ignored reality.

This was not just an accident.

No integrity.

Henry Cloud has called integrity the courage to meet the demands of reality.

Every leader and company creates a wake.  God sees.  We see.

6Many will say they are loyal friends, but who can find one who is truly reliable?

7The godly walk with integrity; blessed are their children who follow them.

8When a king sits in judgment, he weighs all the evidence, distinguishing the bad from the good.

9Who can say, “I have cleansed my heart; I am pure and free from sin”?

10False weights and unequal measures—the Lord detests double standards of every kind.  Proverbs 20:6-10

Talk with the Lord about this:  In your circle of influence:

What kind of wake am I leaving behind?

What cracks am I ignoring?

Whose life am I treating as less than?

 

Mud on your face!… Momma is not going to like this!

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Jesus spit on the ground.

Made mud.

Put the mud on a blind man’s eyes.

And then told the man to go take a bath.

Of course! That’s how to do it!

The change was so profound the man’s friends

who had known him since birth didn’t recognize him.

He said, “I once was blind but now I see.”

The religious folk got mad because…

Jesus made mud…

on the Sabbath.

Neat and tidy

that’s how we want to package God.

He refuses.  Those who live (like this formerly blind man)

graced by the mud Jesus stirs up,

may get kicked out of neat and tidy places.

Take care at this point.  Our pride creates spiritual blindness.

God sees us: we are blind and guilty because we claim to see.

35When Jesus heard what had happened, he found the man and asked, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”36The man answered, “Who is he, sir? I want to believe in him.”37“You have seen him,” Jesus said, “and he is speaking to you!”38“Yes, Lord, I believe!” the man said. And he worshiped Jesus.39Then Jesus told him, “I entered this world to render judgment—to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind.”40Some Pharisees who were standing nearby heard him and asked, “Are you saying we’re blind?”41“If you were blind, you wouldn’t be guilty,” Jesus replied. “But you remain guilty because you claim you can see.  John 9:35-41

You Are So Gifted!

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Wrapped or in a bag?

In the box or out of the box?

The size of the bag or box.

The beauty of the paper.

They don’t tell us the value of what’s in there.

My mentor Dr. Fray would say

he could look out across his congregation

and see a lot of unwrapped gifts.

Dear follower of Jesus,

You’ve been graced by Him.

He has graced you for His mission.

4For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.  Romans 12:4-7

“Having gifts… let us use them.”

What’s holding you back?

Church, Hockey, and Getting in Trouble…

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The other day Kevin Lowe, President of the Edmonton Oilers, unleashed a maelstrom of protest when he suggested that he really likes paying fans a bit more than the ones who cheer from home.

Truth is, everyone pays for hockey somehow when cities make way and pay the bills for arenas to be built.  But, as noted, we don’t seem to mind when our team is winning.

What about church?

Church: Its about every follower of Jesus being a participating part of the the body of Christ.

Hockey:  Well for most of us, it really does come down to being one of two kinds of fans:  the kind that watches from home or the kind that pays the bills by showing up at the arena.  And here’s the thing:  both are just watching.

Church isn’t a spectator event.

Its a life together; people assembled as the Body of Christ.  People connected to each other.  People with a new perspective of ownership with the others.

4Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, 5so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.  Romans 12:4-5 (NLT)

Sometimes I feel like a Canuck.

Sometimes I think like a member of Jesus’ church.

I see the others I’m gathered with and I think,

“We’ve been gathered by Jesus.  We belong to each other and what we are doing together matters.”

Note to church leaders:  We’ve got to help our churches out here by helping them see and celebrate the win!

The Gospel is not the end of critical thinking.

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Every once in awhile one of my kids will do something

spectacular and triumphantly announce,

“Wahooo, Pro-Skillage!”

Thinking skills.  We need them.

The Gospel encourages us to become pro-skillage thinkers.

Nobody observes your thinking but they do observe the affect.

Notice how Paul connects the Gospel to critical thinking about the self.

3For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.   Romans 12:3

Pro-skillage Gospel thinking means that we think about ourselves with faith.

Sober judgment: a plain, critical view of ourselves — weaknesses and strengths.

And then throw in a measure of faith from God.

Thinking with faith causes us to grapple with:

  • The foundation of the self; we are created in the image of God.
  • The grace and mercy of God in the Gospel; we are forgiven and deeply loved.
  • The call of God; we are called to share in His mission and the communion of His people.
  • And the depth of our conviction that God is able to do more with us than we could do on our own.