INFECTED BY A VIRUS

Recently the people of the world braced themselves for another computer virus which threatened to spread, contaminating operating systems as it spread from one computer to another.

Doesn’t this remind you of sin and how it spreads? Just think, sin is such a powerful ‘virus’ that it started with two people (Adam and Eve) and has spread from person to person, from generation to generation. That’s a powerful infection!

Jesus came into the world to stop sin's spread. He gave His own life to stop it. If we so choose, we can live in terms of the cure given but the only way to inoculate ourselves against further infection and spread of the ‘virus’ is to live in love and obedience to the King who died for us.

Actually, God gave us two things which we can do which makes the cure ‘ours’:
1. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

2. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Matthew 22:37-38

Certainly we can do those two things (by God’s enabling grace) so that He may give us Life every day into eternity, beginning now. The disease will be gone and we will be safe.

Heavenly Father, I do not want to be infected by sin which runs rampant through the human race. I am sorry that I have lived an infected life and now receive the cure from Your hand and promise to walk a life that is worthy of Your calling and death for me. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

We are free - we are healthy - we have long life ahead of us (eternity in fact) as we stay within the boundaries of the cure provided.

CHEWING

Recently two people I know used the words “chewing on” to make the point that they were going to ponder, mull over, think deeply about, meditate on what it was they were searching out to find clarity of thought.

In our world today, there is an abundance of things which can fill up our brain space but most of which we don’t give a second thought to. Something happens or we hear something and it seems to barely touch us, bouncing right off again. We don’t seem, in our busy lives, to stop and ‘chew’ - ponder, mediate on, think about deeply. We are too busy and just go to the next thing…and then the next thing.

Maybe it’s time to learn to ‘chew’. Babies gulp down their milk but no chewing is involved. Even early toddlerhood means little or no chewing. But as we mature (in our spiritual lives), aren’t we expected to chew so that we can be nourished?

Let’s practice some chewing!

I remember the days of old, I meditate on all that Thou has done, I muse on what Thy hands have wrought. Psalm 143:5

I will meditate on Thy precepts, and fix my eyes on Thy ways. Psalm 119:15

But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their facilities trained by practice to distinguish between good from evil. Hebrews 5:12

Heavenly Father, please slow me down so that I CHEW on the things in my life I need to think about so I can learn more of You. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

LOSING HIM IN A CROWD

Do you remember when you were little and your parents would take you into a store to go shopping? Do you remember that when there was a crush of people, you held on to their hand, stayed close and cried out if you and your parent became separated?

For most of us, our lives are a crush of busy-ness and people. We need to be very careful not to lose God in the crowd.

Sure, the things we do are important as are the people in our lives. But we must be careful not to lose sight of God…nor to let go of God.

If we sense something or someone has come between us and God, cry out to Him. He will hear. He will answer.

In my distress I called upon the Lord
To my God I cried for help.
From His temple He heard my voice
And my cry to Him reached His ears.

He reached from on high, He took me,
He delivered me from my strong enemy,
And from those who hated me;
For they were too mighty for me.
They came upon me in the day of my calamity;
But the Lord was my stay.
He brought me forth into a broad place,
He delivered me, because He delighted in me.
Psalm 18:6, 16-19

Thank You, Heavenly Father, for drawing near every time I cry out to you. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

WINNING SEASON

If you have a favorite football, basketball, soccer, hockey or baseball team, you rejoice when training begins. The fans have such hope of the team’s success for the season. Right from the first game, cheers go up for ‘your’ team to be a winner. As the season progresses, the competition heats up until the very final game. Then the season is over, win or lose. The season is over.

Did you ever think about this - the kingdom of heaven, made up of a ‘team’ of people who love God, just keeps going on. The season never ends. Yes, we are never finished. We never put our helmets on the shelf. Our protective gear must always be in place. Our special shoes are in use the entire season while we are on earth. We are to continue trusting God. We are to continue doing good. There is no ‘off’ season to doing either. We are to keep on because scripture admonishes us:

Do not grow weary in well doing for in due season you shall reap, if we do not lose heart.
Galatians 6:9

Keep throwing those passes, sinking those hoops, hitting that ball, running the bases. The season isn’t over. Let’s never act as if it is…retiring to our rocking chairs to rock away our days. We are a team member, never to let up, never to let our team members down because we dropped the ball, fumbled or got tripped up. Focus. Do your best. Play your hardest. Be a part of the team. Trust in God to enable you to finish this skirmish well.

Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews 12:28

When the end does finally come, we do win, you know!

Heavenly Father, thank You that You have put everything in place for us to win - because you love us dearly. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Obey and Teach

But anyone who obeys God's laws and teaches them will be called great in the Kiingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:19

DO YOU HAVE GREEN HANDS?

A friend of mine spends her days quietly doing good. Whether it’s singing to the glory of God, counseling with someone to encourage them or taking children under her wing, she quietly goes about doing good. The only way you would ever know what good fills her life and overflows to others is if you are the recipient of one of her loving deeds.

The other day I saw her at the grocery store. We stopped to chat a minute. She apologized for her hands being green - she’d been helping some kids with an art project. All I could think of, with a smile, was a scripture I had read that morning:

The seeds of good deeds become a tree of life. Proverbs 11:30

All I could picture was her, kneeling down, planting those seeds of good deeds and, in the process, she herself was becoming part of the life-giving process. Sure, eventually the green will fade from her hands but the good deeds she is doing are eternally recorded.

Heavenly Father, please make clear to me the deeds you want done through me. Please let me be the hands and feet of Jesus in this hurting world. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Look to Him

Look to Him and be radiant.

Psalm 34:5