(Friday - May 8, 2009)

Seeing God in the Present - Part 5

Before you get into today's devotional - make sure you participate in Pastor Ron's survey at the bottom of this days blog. It's in the Church News section.

Jeremiah 29:11-13 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (12) Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. (13) You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

God’s promise to us is to prosper us and not to harm us. It’s a plan to give us hope and a future.
After the promise – then he says call upon me and come and pray to me. After Abraham received the promise he waited patiently. He waited upon the Lord. He prayed for the promise but it did not come immediately. It’s when we seek God with all our heart that we find him. Waiting patiently is the key here.

Hebrews 6:17-18 Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath.

This is the key verse in this whole teaching. God wants to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to us – the heirs of his promise. What’s at stake here is the nature of God’s purpose. We think our present situation is what God needs to address when actually, God wants us to learn His purpose for the situation. When word came to Jesus that Lazarus was sick, Jesus stated that this incident would end up bringing glory to God.

The nature of God’s purpose is what we need to understand. We focus so much on our situation that we fail to see God in it. Now let’s go back to John chapter eleven. Before Jesus raises Lazarus from the grave he asks where he was laid.

John 11:34-35 "Where have you laid him?" he asked. "Come and see, Lord," they replied.

So Jesus goes to the tomb and tells them to remove the stone, but Martha says, “Lord by now he has been dead so long that he stinks.” She still could not see God in her present situation.

v. 35 Jesus wept.

Jesus wept. This is the shortest verse in the bible. Jesus wept. What did He weep over? Surely it was not over Lazarus – he knew he was about to raise him from the grave. He wept over their lack of spiritual understanding.

How many miracles did he already perform in their presence and yet they could not believe. They failed to understand the unchanging nature of His purpose. God’s purpose is to get us to believe. His purpose is to get us to a place of faith. That purpose will never change because without faith it is impossible to please God. END

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Medication: A Merry Heart

You Know You Are in a Large Family When...

Someone asks where are the boys and you answer, which ones?

You say eight different names before you get the right one.

When you have six people in one bedroom.

Everywhere you go people ask, "Are these all yours?"

You take up two pews in church.

You have to double any recipe.

You remember when something happened by what baby was born that year.

You have three bathrooms and they are always full.

Everything you buy at the store is in bulk.

You go through a McDonald's drive-thru and order burgers,and they ask you to repeat your order four times.

You do eight large loads of laundry every day and you are still not done.

You use up two boxes of cereal for breakfast.

You live at the Alderks or the Johns.

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Prayer House Church News

We are looking for help with yard work at the church today, Friday. By 9:15 we will have a large load of bark which needs to be spread around our bushes and trees. Geri Sorenson would really appreciate some help with this. If you can come and help there will certainly be work for you. Bring work gloves - a shovel - and a wheel barrow if you have one.

Last night at RPM we introduced a very exciting tool for praying for people. I will be talking more about it soon.

If you would like to be baptized or you know someone who wants to be - please be aware of a baptismal service we are having on May 31st in the morning service. You will receive more info this weekend at church.

Pastor Ron's Survey: Let me know what you think about doing the devotional in this blog format instead of through email. You can click on one of the three reaction boxes below.

(Thursday - May 7, 2009)

Seeing God in the Present Part 4

John 11:40 Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"

We know that Jesus then raises Lazarus from the dead. But the greater point is the idea of believing. If you believe, you will see the glory of God. Not in the past, not in the future but in the present. If you believe, you will see God in your present situation, and once you see God, and what He is trying to do – your situation will change. Lazarus was no longer dead! The situation completely changed once they saw Jesus. Finally Martha understood what Jesus was getting at. I image she said something to this effect. “Is this what you meant by saying, if we believe we will see the glory of God?”

Just think folks, God is so great that even after it’s too late He can come through, if we believe. Lazarus was dead – it was too late – the situation was over – and yet God comes through. Believing God is a powerful thing. But you must believe.

Now let’s get back to Hebrews 6:10-12 “God is not unjust; he will not forget your work.” 11 We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. 12 We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.

Basically he is saying, even though you may be in a drought, even though your brother has died – continue to show the same diligence to the very end. In other words, just because you are in a drought – don’t stop believing – don’t stop rejoicing in the goodness of God – don’t get depressed. Keep going. Don’t become spiritually lazy. Imitate those who through faith and patience gained the things they were promised.

Then he gives us some great hope in verses 13- 15.

Hebrews 6:13-15 When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, (14) saying, "I will surely bless you and give you many descendants." (15) And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.

God’s promise to you can be believed. God swore by himself – because there was no one greater to swear by. Can you just see God making his promise to Abraham – Abraham I promise to do this in fact I swear by (looking around) – I swear by me.

GOD gave Abraham his word. GOD has also given us His word. continued tomorrow

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Medication: A Merry Heart

Out of Business

My mother began getting calls from people who misdialed the similar number of a new computer repair business. Mom, who had had her number for years, asked the owner of the company to have the number changed. He refused. The calls kept coming day and night. Finally, Mom began telling the people who called that the company had gone out of business. Within a week, the computer repair company voluntarily changed its number.

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Seeing God In The Present part 3

I can now see Him in the past but seeing him in the present is much more difficult. It’s also easy to see God in the future. How many times have you counseled a Christian who is having a difficult time and in the midst of your counseling they themselves say – “I know that one day it will all be better?”

It’s easy to have faith for the future. It’s easy to see God in the past – but Paul said, nothing is going to separate me from the love of God – not even things present, not even the current situation I’m facing. Sometimes we will fight God to a standstill because we do not understand what He is doing in our current situation. Some of us have heels mark every inch of the way because we don’t see God in the present. Our thought is that we should never struggle – as though we have learned all there is to learn about life.

We try to escape our current situation rather than allowing God to use it to shape us. We escape to the past or the future but rarely the present. If we can see God in the present we will see the glory of God.

John 11:1-6 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (2) This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. (3) So the sisters sent word to Jesus, "Lord, the one you love is sick." (4) When he heard this, Jesus said, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it." (5) Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. (6) Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.

This is a drought situation. The sisters brother is sick. They come to Jesus looking for help and he basically tells them to not worry but he doesn’t do anything immediately. In fact he purposely waits for two days knowing that Lazarus will die.

John 11:11-15 After he had said this, he went on to tell them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up." 12 His disciples replied, "Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better." 13 Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. 14 So then he told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead, 15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him."

Isn’t that an interesting verse? Jesus actually said, “I am glad I was not there.” We think Jesus needs to come at our beck and call. There are times when God does not show up just to teach us to believe.

John 11:21-24 "Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died. (Martha had faith for the past. It’s easy to believe what we think God might have done. If only he would have shown up.) (23) Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." (24) Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."

Martha also had faith for the future. It’s easy for us to believe that one day everything will be alright. But what good is that for today? Martha calls for her sister Mary. Mary goes out to where Jesus is and basically says the same thing Martha said.

John 11:32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."

That is such a devastating theology. Lord if only you had been here things would be different. Think about that. If we really think that our situations would be different if only we could get God to do something we are on very shaky ground spiritually.

What if that remained as Mary’s theology? And then one day she found out that Jesus purposely waited for Lazarus to die. If she is thinking – if only God had been here – and then found out that God waited – she would start blaming God for her present situation. We do this all the time. People are always saying, “Why won’t God do this?” “What is God waiting for?”

Our purpose is not to get God to do things. Our purpose is to do things for God.

continued tomorrow

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Medication: A Merry Heart

The Blondes and the Blind Man

An old blind cowboy wanders into a blonde bikers resturant by mistake.

He finds his way to a stool at the counter and orders some coffee.

After sitting there for a while, he yells to the waitress, "Hey you wanna hear a blonde joke?"

The resturant immediately falls silent.

In a very deep husky voice, the woman next to him says, "Before you tell that joke, Cowboy, I think it's only fair, given that you are blind, that you should know five things.

1. The waitress is a blonde girls with a baseball bat.

2. The chef is a blonde who weighs 250 pounds.

3. I'm a six foot tall, 175 pound blonde woman with a black belt in karate.

4. The woman sitting next to me is a blonde who is a professional wrestler.

5. The lady to your right is a blonde professional weight lifter.

Now, think about it seriously, MISTER, do you still wanna tell that joke?

The blind cowboy thinks about it for a minute, shakes his head and says,
No,,,not if I'm gonna have to explain it five times!!!

Seeing God In The Present continued from yesterday

Spiritual disciplines are how we spend the blessings of God. Prayer is a discipline that creates a need for more of God. Studying the Word of God is a discipline that opens a person up to God’s blessings, but studying drains you so that you need more blessings. Fasting, steps of faith, serving others, all relate to the kinds of things that we can do which create a need in our lives for more of God. If we don’t have that output, we can only take in so much. The output allows us to continue to take in so that we don’t “overflow,” and no longer appreciate what God is doing for us. People who are abundantly blessed of God are in just as precarious of a situation as those who feel they are in a drought.
However, the writer of Hebrews seems to be more focused on those who are experiencing a drought than anything else.

Hebrews 6:9-10 Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are confident of better things in your case-things that accompany salvation. (10) God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.

We are confident of better things in your case – things that accompany salvation.

The writer here is trying to encourage them by telling them that the things which accompany salvation will begin to manifest in their lives, things which are suitable to salvation, things that are the fruit of salvation.

Then he says God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people. The reason the writer needs to remind them of God’s justice is because they obviously were experiencing some kind of drought. He is saying, “Hang in there because God is not unjust. God will remember what you have done.” That can be a blessing or a curse. If God is going to reward us according to what we have done for Him – what kind of reward will we receive?

My brother Barry was once in the home of one of his parishioners when the man asked him to pray for his lost daughter. The daughter grew up with her father but when she was old enough to be on her own she left and was not serving God at all. So as Barry began to pray for the daughter he prayed, “God, we are standing in faith for this girl, remind her of the godly things her Father showed her when she was young.” As he prayed that, the man stopped Barry and said, “Don’t pray that. I failed to show her how to live. Just pray for God to bless her.” Barry was in essence saying, “God reward him according to what he has done for you,” and the man did not want to live on that playing field.

Actually the writer of Hebrews is being quite positive when he says God is not unjust. He is trying to give them hope that God will come through for them and that He will not forget the things they have done for him. The problem they were facing was the ability to see God in their present situation.

Romans 8:35-39 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? (36) As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." (37) No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (38) For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, (39) neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

If we are going to come out of any kind of confusion or spiritual drought we are going to have to see God in our present set of circumstances. It’s a lot easier to see God in the past than the present. When Lou and I were in bible college, newly married, and broke. We ate a lot of liver, just liver, we couldn’t afford the onions – because it was about the cheapest thing we could find. I can look back at that and realize that God was teaching us about finances, about thriftiness, about stewardship, and probably many other things. But I couldn’t really see it in the present. All I could see was that I was God’s servant and I thought he should put some food on our table. Now I can see it. It’s easy to have faith for the past. I can now see Him in the past but seeing him in the present is much more difficult. continued tomorrow

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Medication: A Merry Heart

Working for the Family

My daughter Marina worked in my law office while she attended graduate school.

One morning a call came in for her.

I said she wasn't in yet and offered to take a message.

The caller said she'd phone back later. At 11:00 a.m., the caller tried again, and I reported that Marina had gone to lunch.

The last call came in at 3:30 p.m. "I'm sorry," I said,"she's left for the day.

May I take a message?" "Yes," the caller replied. "How can I get a job with you?"