“But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened itself on his hand. When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they began saying to one another, ‘Undoubtedly this man is a murderer, and though he has been saved from the sea, justice has not allowed him to live.’ However he shook the creature off into the fire and suffered no harm. But they were expecting that he was about to swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But after they had waited a long time and had seen nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and began to say that he was a god.” Acts 28:3-6
My wife and I were recently on vacation and decided to stop for dessert after while walking back to our hotel from a craft fair. The dinner rush had passed, but there were still a few stragglers entering the restaurant for a meal. After being seated, we waited an unusually long time without being acknowledged by a server…long enough that the couple in the next booth who had been seated after us had already received their drinks. Slightly irritated at the lack of service, I suggested that if we weren’t acknowledged in the next five minutes, we should just go back to the hotel. Our waitress finally showed up just before we were ready to leave and seemed less than enthusiastic about serving us. However, she apologized and explained that a tourist had come out of the ladies’ room and hit our server’s nose with her elbow causing intense pain. What we had assumed to be poor service was in actuality something entirely different. Having heard the explanation, our demeanor quickly changed from frustration to concern. That’s the problem with assumptions, just because we have a little information, doesn’t mean that we know the truth of the matter.
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True faith means holding nothing back. It means putting every hope in God’s fidelity to His Promises.
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. (Hebrews 10:23)
Hope is an integral part of our faith, but what is it really? The world tells us that hope is a feeling or a desire. That connotation hardly works in this passage. How can one hold fast to a feeling or a desire? Just because we have a feeling something will happen or we desire it does not make it a certainty. The word that Paul uses in this passage is really defined as “favorable and confident expectation”.
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Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth; break forth and sing for joy and sing praises. Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody. With trumpets and the sound of the horn shout joyfully before the King, the Lord. Psalm 98:4-6
Praise when things are going well, when we are blessed by a great time of Christian fellowship and learning, or amid a large body of believers is usually fairly easy, but what about the dark days…the days of pain and suffering? As I’ve mentioned many times, music is important to me. I love to listen to it, I love to sing it, and I love to dance to it. What I love most is singing to praise God. As much as I love it, there have been two periods in my life that required a bit of effort to sing praise. The first was a longer period (several years) from the time it was determined that I was chronically ill until God began to instruct me regarding the value of trials and pain with respect to my soul. During that time, songs like “Blessed Be” and “Untitled Hymn” became very important as I struggled understand and to come to peace with God’s plan for me. The second period was the years from 2012 to 2015 in which we dealt in varying degrees with the various health issues of our fathers and their deaths. While I had previously learned about God goodness even in trials, the struggle was still difficult and there were many times that I had to will the praise out of my mouth. Rather than succumbing to the urge to be silent, I knew that praise to God is especially critical in difficult times. What makes it so critical is the message that it sends.
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We would worry less if we praised more. Thanksgiving is the enemy of discontent and dissatisfaction.
Harry Ironside
/www.christianquotes.info/top-quotes/20-glorious-quotes-about-praise
Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us. For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. Philippians 3:17-19
I love music and listen to it quite a bit. Sometimes I use it to calm me or rearrange my thoughts, sometimes I listen to get motivated and at other times it’s for the pure enjoyment of it. My collection is quite varied in both genres and eras as it ranges from the 1930s to the present. Recently, I was at the gym and the song “Lady Godiva” by Peter and Gordon started playing. While some may not appreciate the song, I listen to it occasionally as a reminder to not get caught up in “lesser things”. In case you’re not familiar or haven’t heard the song in the last five decades, the lyrics tell the story of a young and beautiful woman pursues fame and fortune. In the process, she compromises and forfeits all of the things that made her beautiful, but never achieves the fame that she desires and becomes so poor that she can’t afford her clothes. God offers us so much, but too often people get off course with respect to godliness and forfeit their faith for lesser things that are useless and meaningless in light of eternity. Time and time again we are reminded in scripture to pursue God and His truth in various ways and the reasons are clearly explained to us. However, some reject the concept, some ignore it, while others struggle with it. Three reasons why it may be difficult are: hope, pride, and fear.
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Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:14-15
The small group that my wife and I participate in is currently studying the statements of faith that our church affirms. As I began preparing for a study on the statement related to Christ, I thought it would be appropriate to walk through it here since the Christian world will be celebrating Easter in a few days. It’s a brief but great reminder of what we are celebrating and is as follows: “We believe in Jesus Christ, His virgin birth, sinless life, vicarious death, burial, bodily resurrection, His ascensions to the right hand of the Father and His personal future return in power and glory.”
Why Christ?
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Jesus did not die on the cross just so we could live comfortable, well adjusted lives. His purpose is far deeper: He wants to make us like himself before he takes us to heaven. This is our greatest privilege, our immediate responsibility, and our ultimate destiny.
Your Father knows your gifts, your hindrances, and the condition you’re in at every moment. And He also knows something you can’t possibly know–every single person who’s in desperate need of receiving His touch through you.
And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19
I was recently included in an invitation to participate in an activity. For various reasons I declined; any one of them had sufficient merit to opt out, but together, the choice was self-directing. A few days after the initial invitation, a second was received. It came on a rather busy day and not wanting to forget to respond, I sent a brief message indicating my choice. Rather quickly, I received a reply questioning my decision which was followed by a volley of emails that indicated offense for both my choice and my means of communicating it. The end result was yet another hurt and a broken relationship that increased my desire to withdraw from most people and especially pull away from the Christian community.
One of the difficulties for those dealing with life’s trials and/or the ongoing challenges of chronic illness is the focus. We all face various circumstances that disappoint and frustrate us giving rise to the need of confidantes to whom we share our thoughts and occasionally vent. However, when our thoughts become self-absorbed, we lose our perspective and cause damage in our vital relationships.
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