The Job 31 Exam

If I was to mention to you a famous Chapter 31 in the Bible the first one to come to your mind would probably be Proverbs. We have all likely heard of the Proverbs 31 woman (I'm partial, I think my wife is pretty close). But my daily reading brought me to another amazing chapter 31 and it's also in the Old Testament. It's from the book of Job.

This chapter is all about Job reexaming his life in case there is anything that is causing all the grief and hardships that have fallen upon him. A better term would be an inventory of his life. In my business we have to take a personal count of our inventory to see what we really have. Maybe I'm overstocked in motors, but short in capacitors and contactors. Job was doing the same thing. He was checking to see if he had the right balance in his life.

The first thing he checked was his personal life. The first 12 verses Job is checking himself to see how he is doing in the arena of lust, lying and adultery. “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look with lust at a young woman." Job 31:1. “Have I lied to anyone or deceived anyone? Let God weigh me on the scales of justice, for he knows my integrity." Job 31:5-6.

Now the whole area of lusting is usually associated with men, but there are other areas we can examine ourselves to see if God is holding back a blessing in my life because I'm behaving in a way that is outside of His will for my life. We could add to the list how we handle money to coveting to sexual sin to the words we use.

The second item in Job's personal inventory was his public life. This is an area of our life that we want to line up with our personal side. “If I have been unfair to my male or female servants when they brought their complaints to me, how could I face God? What could I say when he questioned me? For God created both me and my servants. He created us both in the womb." Job 31:13-15.

I can substitute servant for employee and I can know that God is going to judge me on how well I treat my employees. I know in God's eyes we're all the same, I'm not any better. Job said check, but maybe we're a little off the mark.

The third inventory item for Job was looking at his spiritual life. He spent 16 verses looking at how he handled money, his worship, was he taking revenge on any enemies and the purity of his motives. “Have I tried to hide my sins like other people do, concealing my guilt in my heart? Have I feared the crowd or the contempt of the masses, so that I kept quiet and stayed indoors?" Job 31:33-34.

Am I trying to look good on the outside going to church raising my hands in worship and serving, but secretly harboring unforgiveness in my heart? Am I preaching Jesus on Sunday's, but cursing slow drivers on Monday's. This is the proverbial "I can talk the talk, but am I walking the walk?"

Job came through his personal inventory looking pretty good. He felt God wasn't punishing him for any weakness in these areas. Because we live unders God's grace through faith I don't believe that the bad things that happen to us are a punishment from God. But they can be a consequence for any bad choices or sin that might be lingering in our lives.

I know some stuff that went down last year at work was due to consequences from actions years ago, but it was God's timing for us to pay the piper now. My spiritual mentor has always encouraged a personal retreat. A time where we get away and get refreshed, a self-examination of our lives to see that we are absolutely right with God. She has always encouraged getting away from the home for a time of prayer and time in the Word, but I have to admit my schedule hasn't allowed me to do that yet.

Maybe a weekend isn't the cards, but how about some quiet time away at the park or wherever your favorite spot might be. I have a pastor friend who used to hang out in the lobby of the Marriott Desert Springs to get away. Grab you're Bible and look for an encounter with the Lord and ask Him to reveal anything that's in your life that might be holding you back. Maybe you're trying to carry too much load and the Lord is asking you to surrender it to Him.

Now we all know that women have to perform self-exams to maintain their physical health, but this could be the kind of spiritual self-exam that could save the life of men and women.

Blessings to you all and thank you for your encouragement. You are so loved and appreciated by me.

Divine Desgin

I have to admit. I watch HGTV with my wife and sometimes I watch it when she’s not home. Being a guy doesn’t mean I just watch ESPN and “Dirty Jobs or the “Deadliest Catch” on the Discovery Channel. Now of course I got started with HGTV because of Judy since she watches for all the ideas that she can incorporate into our home.

One of my favorite shows on HGTV is “Divine Design”. It’s a show with this very tall designer named Candace Olson and she comes in with her team and they completely transform the room into something fabulous. I generally love her taste and they never seem to have a budget so whatever room she does is always state-of-the-art. It’s kind of like “Extreme Makeover Home Edition” on a smaller scale.

If you know where I’m going with this our heavenly Father gives you and me divine appointments on a regular basis. He gave me one last week when I did a service call for a friend I hadn’t seen a while and she wasn’t supposed to be home when I did the call. She was going to leave a key under the mat for me. It turns out her daughter got sick that day and she had to be picked up from school and so we all arrived at the home at the same time.

It turns out I got her a/c fixed and then we proceeded to have a talk that I know was a gift from God. I know it was exactly what I needed to hear and hopefully it was for her. As I mentioned in my last post, when you’re going through struggles in your life God always seems to put people in your life that you need for that moment. It’s his divine plan.

My favorite scripture reference to this comes from the Old Testament in the book of Esther. Esther was a Jewish queen who had just come into that position and she had an opportunity to save the Jews from persecution. Her cousin Mordecai told her so. “For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Esther 4:14 NKJV

My favorite part of the verse is “such a time as this.” If we are doing what God wants us to do at the time He wants us to do it then we need to be ready for divine appointments. God will put people in our lives for us to minister to and for us to be ministered by. When I’m praying with someone I often find myself saying over and over, “for such a time as this, for such a time as this.”

I have tried to take out of my vocabulary two words, lucky and coincidence. Like I mentioned earlier, if you’re tracking with the Lord then He wants to work on your behalf. I have exchange these words for something else. I call it a “God thing.” Since God uses people to carry out His will why would I think a blessing that comes into my life is just “a lucky break” or the fact I run into a friend at Starbucks just “a coincidence.” It’s because it’s not. But when you’re blessed by a divine intervention then consider it an opportunity to give praise to the Lord. Don’t forget to send up a quick “thank you Jesus”.

I have to go now. The front door is knocking and maybe it’s Candace. I could use a new kitchen.

Wouldn’t that be divine?

You Mean I Can't Go Around?

It seems everywhere I turn these days someone I know is going through a trial. These trials range from incoveniences to frustrations to major health issues. Judy and I are not immune from trials as we dealt heavily with work-related matters last summer that are still being resolved to this day. Most of it is out of our hands now and is in the place where we desire it most. With the Lord.

It seems in our fleshly state our first inclination is to say, "Lord, get me out of this mess and get me out yesterday. I don't have time to deal with this. Can't you see I've got my job, my family and my church life to deal with." And not only that the Bible says we are to go through our trials and to count it as all joy. Yea right.

The one thing that we can count on in our trials is that we don't have to go through them alone. God gave me this verse the other day listening to a radio station that often doesn't tune in well in my car. I wasn't surprised it came from the book of Isaiah, my favorite.

When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. Isaiah 43:2-3a NLT

The two words that catch my eye the most are "when" and "through". This verse is not saying if you go through deep waters and I will show you way around your problem. No, it's saying we are going to have issues and the way to face them is to go straight-ahead. Coming from someone like myself who is not always quick to address problems and issues (ask Judy) this is easier said than done. I have built up some lumpy rugs in our house over the years from the issues I've tried not to deal with.

But I can say in hindsight that when things are pushed through instead of trying to go around the back door the satisfaction of passing a trial is so much greater. I do know that if I don't pass my trial or test, God being the great God He is, will give me a do-over and it's the kind of make-up test I don't want. I only want to go through the school of hard-knocks once.

Once the test is passed our character is being refined and we continue to grow in the image of Christ. Look at any trials and tests that have come your way recently. How did you respond? Did you trust in the Lord and lean on Him to see you through it or did you curse Him and ask how he could do this to you.

Perhaps you're in a place where things are going okay for you and no big devlopments need addressed. Maybe it's time to look around you and see if there is someone you can minister to. Possbibly the Lord has taken you through a storm and He wants you to help someone else. A "pay it forward" kind of experience.

I can't speak strong enough to the pleasure it is to walk with someone through a trial they are going through. The Lord has given Judy a ministry of listening, praying, compassion and offering insight into the struggles and issues that many women are dealing with. Sometimes, we tackle things together if it's a couple that need counseling and I think we get greater pleasure walking along with someone than dealing with our own stuff. And I don't mean better their problems than ours.

It's just a humbling matter to be asked by God to be there for someone and help with there struggles. It definitely takes the focus off of me and puts it right on God and doing His will. So if you're going through stuff right now, you're not alone. God hasn't left you and He won't forsake you. We might not understand why, but we have to trust that He does and if we walk with Him through it, He will be glorified.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend!!

Be Sure To Celebrate

Today won't be my typical post. It's a special day for me so I'm going to indulge a little, but only because it's a day that only comes once a year. 21 years ago today, my beautiful bride showed up to the church on time and not only said "I do," but has stuck with me through the years despite all my needs and hang-ups.

The Lord has so blessed me with a wife that truly is my best friend. We have walked such a tight path together that it's almost scary. Although our personalities are very different (we tend to fill each other's gaps that way), we have done life together in very similar ways. We enjoy the same music, politics, a sarcastic sense of humor (it gets us in trouble at times), but most importantly we began our journey with the Lord at about the same time.

We both committed our lives to Christ about 10 years into our marriage and life has not been the same since. We went from a me-focused marriage into living a purpose-filled marriage with our focus being on God and what He wants us to do with the resources and talents He has given us. Now the talents He gave my wife are very obvious and she has definitely used them for the kingdom. Judy makes personalized cards that put Hallmark to shame and they have such an impact on those that receive them since it's obvious how much love she put into it.

Judy has dedicated her life to raising Taylor and Shelby in a godly way and she endeavors to shower Christ's love on each of them everyday. I'm so blessed that she answered the call of full-time motherhood when I know she could have been very successful in the business world. In recent years she has invested time in mentoring women who benefit from her wisdom and experience and other God given gifts.

We had the pleasure of doing a couples ministry for 11 years. The Lord let us witness a lot of life's experiences from the couples we met and we have tried to learn and grow from everyone we have met. I have especially tried to get off my high horse (the Lord usually helped), if ever I was feeling superior and pride-filled. As we moved into leadership we both became very aware of the spiritual warfare that was going on in our marriage. We knew Satan wanted to take us down and consequently, 2007 was probably (okay it was) our toughest year in our marriage.

Strangely, it began about the time of our 20 year anniversary and the cruise of a lifetime to Alaska. Judy has always been a little more in step with Satan's attacks so I was a little slow bringing up the rear. Once we got on the same page and the Lord convicted me about our prayer life together, I started to walk side-by-side with her again. I'm happy to say that 2007 ended strong and we have carried things into 2008 as the Lord has given Judy and I new minstries to replace Wed 4 Life.

I know that we're not better than anyone else or that our marriage isn't perfect, but we are overjoyed that the Lord has recently given us the gift of compassion as we try to minister to couples on a more personal level. I can also say that we are so grateful for God's goodness, His grace, His mercy and His faithfulness that we are fully committed to making our marriage one that lasts until "death do us part."

Which brings me finally to the title of this post. Judy and I love anniversaries. We love other people's, but we especially love our's because we know the Enemy is not pleased. We have plunged another dagger into him as he failed to destroy our marriage last year. Consequently, Judy and I love to celebrate. Our celebration is usually a fine steak dinner or we step it up on the biggies like our 10 and 20 year with a cruise.

I find it's not by accident that my Old Testament reading in recent days has shown me that God loved it when His people celebrated big events. And the Israelites new how to party. After Esther had saved the Jews from anihilation, her cousin Mordecai instituted a two-day celebration called Purim that was to be observed every year. "He told them to celebrate these days with feasting and gladness and by giving gifts of food to each other and presents to the poor. This would commemorate a time when the Jews gained relief from their enemies, when their sorrow was turned into gladness and their mourning into joy. Esther 9:22

My intent of this post is not to boast, but to offer my encouragement that with Jesus and the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit, a marriage can do more than endure. It can thrive and the best days can be ahead. To those that would read this, we want to encourage you to find couples that will challenge you, hold you accountable and that will pray for you on a regular basis. Possibly you've reached that stage where you can be the one's giving back and I would encourage you to do so.

It's the most rewarding thing that Judy and I have done and what could be better than doing ministry with your best friend. "Let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you. Rejoice in the wife of your youth." Proverbs 5:18. Amen and men I'll let you look up verse 19 and then I'm sure I'll hear a double amen.

Pray for us as we're off as a family to San Jose to visit a former pastor and his wife. It's not our typical anniversary celebration, but nonetheless we'll be with good friends and no doubt sharing a good meal and most of all. Celebrating.

So long.

The Glory of God

The summer heat is approaching so for me that means crunch time. Its long days, little sleep, lots of stress and short-tempered customers. But who am I to complain. It’s my business and it’s what God has me planted in the desert for.

For the last few years I have tried to put to memory a verse that will carry me through the season. I ask the Lord to give me something that gives me purpose to why I’m doing what I’m doing when it’s 110 degrees outside or I’m climbing through an attic at 10 o’clock on a Sunday night. It has really helped take the focus off of me and the woe is me attitude just because I’m working a little hard.

Perhaps you all have stressful times that are more seasonal than others. Maybe everyday is a stressful time. Maybe the summer is your slow time and you get to relax a little because school is out and the winter is your stressful time with all the snowbirds in town. For my office staff that reads this, they share in my struggles since they are the first line to those customers that are grumpy, hot, and sweaty and dying (at least that’s what they tell them).

My verses last year came from Colossians 4:5-6 and it was about dealing with my customers. Live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone. Whenever I felt the urge to get defensive with a customer, the Holy Spirit brought to mind this verse that says maybe this customer has never met Jesus as an a/c repairman before and the right response is for me not to be a jerk. It stopped me right there in my tracks.

This year He has given me something much easier to memorize, but just as powerful and important to me. It comes from the Apostle Paul as he tells the church in Corinth that if done for the right reason everything they eat can be done guilt free. As long as it’s done with a spirit of thankfulness, it’s all good.

The verse goes like this. “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” 1 Corinthians 10:31. As you can see this verse doesn’t just pertain to where I choose to have my lunch during the day. The key component to me is “the whatever” part. If I’m fixing an a/c, talking with a customer, if I’m getting a call late in the day from my office girls when I would rather call it a day, Paul says I am to do all this to the glory of God.

What does giving God glory mean? The Greek word from the New Testament is doxa and it means an opinion resulting in praise, splendor, majesty and a most exalted state. God deserves our best at all times and if we can do our jobs well whether it’s in the workplace or at home, we need to give Him the glory and the honor.

When you do anything that you don’t want to do or something that doesn’t seem exciting, the task takes on a different meaning or purpose when you do it with the outlook that you’re doing it to give the praise to God. This goes from cooking dinner to housework or going to the grocery store. Did you know that you could give God glory doing these everyday things?

I encourage you to find a verse that will be there when you need it to carry you through the tough times and then tell someone about it. I have all told you mine so I expect I’ll hear from you if I get out of line or cranky this summer. It doesn’t mean we won’t fall off track, but the stay will be a lot shorter.

Now let’s go out and glorify the King.

Amen

Is Success Really That Simple?

When we set out and go about our day, do we not want to be successful in what we do? I don't think we wake up in the morning and say," Lord, I want to fail at every thing I do. I want to do my work lousy, I want to blow it in my relationships, I want to spend all my money like there's no tomorrow." No, we would rather achieve victory. It's our will and the Lord's as well.

My Old Testament readings has me passing thru the book of Ezra into Nehemiah. They were both great men of God who were given great responsibilities by God. The thing that has stood out to me about both of them is they loved God's word and they were great men of prayer. Nehemiah took charge of the rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem and whenever an issue came his way he always went to the Lord first. I have a terrible habit of acting first and then praying for God to bless it. It doesn't work like that.

I love Nehemiah's prayer in the first chapter. Nehemiah was the cup bearer for the King of Persia and he wanted to be sent to Jerusalem to supervise the reconstruction. His prayer ended this way. "O Lord, please hear my prayer! Listen to the prayers of those of us who delight in honoring you. Please grant me success today by making the king favorable to me. Put it into his heart to be kind to me.” Nehemiah 1:11

Nehemiah didn't just pray "Well God I hope I do a good job with the men and we try our best to finish. If it's your will it'll get done." No, instead he prayed for success. He wanted to achieve victory. Nehemiah wanted God's blessings for the project so he went in prayer to Him first. Nehemiah also told other where his success would come from. "Then I told them about how the gracious hand of God had been on me, and about my conversation with the king. They replied at once, “Yes, let’s rebuild the wall!” So they began the good work." Nehemiah 2:16

The Lord had been with Nehemiah before so he had no doubt that God would be with him again. He proceeded to supervise the wall being built in 52 days. It was all God. It was such a miracle that the people knew it came from the Lord.

Ezra was also a man of success. He was a man of God and he also supervised a project. His assignment was the rebuilding of the temple that was destroyed by the Babylonians. Now the book of Ezra has never been one that has verses that are on the tip of my tongue, but one morning there was one that jumped off the page at me. It spelled the reason for Ezra's success.

"For Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the LORD, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel." Ezra 7:10 It's seems too simple. In this one short verse you can see what Ezra did. He studied God's law, that would be the Bible for you and me. Number two and very importantly he obeyed what was in it and number three he taught others about God and His ways. To make things work, we must do it in this exact order; read, obey and teach.

My encouragement to you today is don't look at people in the Bible and think that God only blesses those that come from super-spiritual backgrounds and that he only cares about people who have their life together. He wants to bless all of us, but we have to make the first move. Pray and ask Him to meet with you everyday. Read and study His word and obey what it says. And finally, tell others about God. Don't keep the Good News to yourself.

Now that was simple, wasn't it?

The Power of the Cross

I can’t believe it, but it’s week four in our study of the Power of God. I want to finish today with where I see the energy behind our faith. Without this source we would be left to just sit back and wait on God to do everything and be everything in our lives. This source I’m talking about. The Cross.

If Jesus Christ had not gone to the cross for you and me we would all be here powerless to accomplish anything. It would all have to come from our will, our mind and our strength and we know how far that would take us. Thankfully, Jesus not only died on the cross, but was also raised three days later. His resurrection power accomplished many things. I’ll give you a few of them. I will supplement them all with references to God’s word.

The first thing the power of the cross did was to forgive us of our sins. It now made it possible for us to approach God. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. Colossians 2:13-14.

We need to remember our sins of yesterday, today and tomorrow were nailed with Jesus to that cross on Calvary. Praise Jesus for that. His obedient act also gives us the power to come out of the darkness into the light. Without Jesus, we’re left to stumble around and find our way in life. The Apostle Paul recounted these words of Jesus to him on the road to Damascus.

I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. Acts 26:17-18

Jesus’ words in this verse also spell another power of the cross. It’s victory over death. Satan no longer has control over us because he has been defeated. Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. Hebrews 2:14-15

While we have to deal with Satan in our lives we can be confident that we know the end of the story. Jesus wins and so do we. Satan’s power in our lives in limited to how much we surrender to his lies and crafty ways.

The power of the resurrection is what allows us to tap into God’s power. It gives us the ability to do things we never could have imagined. It’s almost like God saying “You know, I have so much power that I’m going to let you have a little of it to start out.” Paul wrote about it in his prayer in Ephesisans. I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms. Ephesians 1:19-20

As we grow in Christ, God gives us more and more power. I guess that makes us like the Energizer bunny. We can keep going and going. But, if we don’t do anything with what God gives us He will give it to the person who is working to advance the Kingdom. I could go on forever about God’s power and strength in our lives, but instead I will leave you with a verse from the Message about Paul’s goals for God. It should be yours and mine as well.

I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself. If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it. Philippians 3:10-11

May you feel and act strengthened by the Lord today. God bless you all.

The Youth of Today

Yesterday was May 1st and it was more than just the first day of a new month. In recent years it has become the day we watch on the news all the immigration protests throughout the country. What doesn't make the news, however, was the fact it was the National Day of Prayer.

Every year since 1952 the first Thursday in May has been set aside where we as a nation come together and pray that every person would come to a point of repentance and that we would offer intercessory prayers for those in leadership. It seems crazy that we're only praying for this once a year, but I'm grateful that we have a recognized day every year where the focus leaves us and our woes and it is turned to those that are influencing the culture.

I had the privilege of praying at church last night with a group of prayer warriors. Our topics included praying for the churches in America, our government, our education system, the military, businesses, the youth of today, the media and the family. Each person at our table seemed to be led by the Holy Spriti in such a passionate way about one of the eight topics above.

As a parent, the topics of the media and our youth speak right to my heart. The Lord has given me a new passion for young people. Maybe since I moved out of the category of young into middle-aged (lol) I lost sight of what was behind me. But behind me are the young people that are my children, my nieces and nephews, my co-workers and neighbors. Many of them love Jesus just as much as I do.

I know I need to be praying for our youth a lot more than once a year. As someone prayed at our table, it is often the youth of today that lead the parents to Christ. Kids today only seem to have the reputation as ones that wear baggy clothes, listen to the worst music ever and tatoo everything that has skin. But they do so much more. I know so many examples of parents who want more for theirs kids so they take them to church to learn about Jesus and end up witnessing to Mom and Dad. It wasn't how God intended, but whatever works I'm for it.

My generation has put kids in situations that God never intended. They have seen way too much, seen it way too early and have been told how they're just kids and they will adjust. They are fed lies from so many sides. They get it from the media, from friends, and sadly even from schools as it's all cloaked as truth. What does God think of young people? Does the Bible point to examples of anyone that doesn't have a gray beard? This is the call that the prophet Jeremiah got from God.

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. Ah, Sovereign LORD," I said, "I do not know how to speak; I am only a child. But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a child.' You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the LORD. Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, "Now, I have put my words in your mouth." Jeremiah 1:5-9

God cares about young people. My readers fall into the category of young and those that care for the young. We need to praying for boldness for our youth. That the closet they are coming out of is one that says "I love Jesus and He is the Way, the Truth and The Life. I'm not going to believe the lies of this world, but instead I'm going to take a stand for what is right." Pray that our youth can influence the culture and not the other way around.

And finally pray that if the parents can't or won't do the job for our youth, then God would put mentors in their lives to guide them and partner with them to teach them God's truth. If you feel that you have Godly wisdom to impart on someone, then pass it on. You might not get thanked today, but you'll reap the benefits later.