There Are No Accidents

 After being without the internet for a week, I am glad to have it back and be able to make a new entry on this blog!

Acts 18:2 And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome.

Aquila and Priscilla had been through a lot of turmoil when the Apostle Paul met them.  

They had been uprooted from their home and their livelihood in Rome for no reason except that they were Jews.

They had to travel to find a new safe place to live, which ended up being in Corinth.  

 It had to have been a traumatic and emotionally challenging experience for Aquila and Priscilla.

But it was no accident that Claudius commanded all the Jews to leave Rome at this very time in history.

It was no accident that Aquila and Priscilla chose to settle in Corinth when forced to leave Italy. 

It was no accident that Paul’s travels brought him to Corinth after Aquila and Priscilla had settled there. 

It was no accident that they and Paul had the same trade so that Paul could not only stay with them but also work with them to support himself while he shared the gospel with the people of Corinth.

It was no accident that the Apostle Paul was able to establish a church there in Corinth that met, where else, but in the house of Aquila.  

There are no accidents with God.

Even the Emperor of Rome himself, a hater of the Jews, was part of God's "no accident" plans for Paul, Aquila and Priscilla, and the newly formed church in Corinth. 

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good ..." (Romans 8:28). 

Paul knew this from his personal experience, and we can trust that word for ourselves as well, because there are no accidents with God. He plans and uses even what seems bad to turn our situations into good outcomes if we are loving Him and living for Him.

I don't know about you, but I need that reminder regularly.

There are no accidents with God in control of my life.

The Capital-Letter-L Life

Acts 5:20 Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life.

I really like the way my Bible has this verse that tells what the angel told the apostles when he miraculously released them from the jail cell that eventful night.  They had been arrested because of their activities in ministering to people.

The angel said to tell the people all the words of this Life (with a capital “L”).   

That capital-letter-L-life is a good enough life to be capitalized. 

It is not just a plain, ordinary life.   

We don’t know exactly what the apostles said about “this Life,” but as I think about what I know and have experienced for myself as a follower of Jesus, several things come to mind.

"In Him [Jesus Christ} was life..."  (John 1:4). 

The life of Christ becomes light for others. "... and  the life was the light of men." (John 1:4). 

In faith in Jesus Christ, I find eternal Life. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life"  (John 3:16).  

Jesus came to give me abundant Life. "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." (John 10:10).  

I can only have capital-letter-L Life by having the Son of God in me. "Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life." (1 John 5:12).

The bottom line is that the capital-letter-L Life carries a lot of meaning and is to be desired over all other little-letter-l life.

Is Jesus in Your Boat?

 

John 6:19 When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were frightened.

Matthew, Mark, and John all wrote about their experience of Jesus walking on the water. You remember that account of the disciples all in the boat during a bad storm and seeing Jesus walking toward them on the water.

Although they all told about the same experience, what stood out in that experience was different for each person.

For example, only Matthew talks about Peter joining Jesus on the water. That has always been the emphasis in the story when I have heard it taught or preached about.

Neither Mark nor John saw that as the most important part of the story. Neither one mentions Peter getting out of the boat, walking on the water toward Jesus, then looking at the waves and starting to sink!

What is the same in all the accounts is that they were all afraid.

They were all glad to have the presence of Jesus in their boat when He got there. His presence gave them comfort. It took away their fear.

All three men recount that Jesus calmed the storm as soon as He entered their boat.

And this is a key truth we can learn from Matthew's, Mark's, and John's accounts of their experience in that boat.

The most important thing in any experience we have is not what miraculous things happen or what we can do (even with God’s help). 

No, what is important is whether we have invited Jesus into our boat. 

That is when He will bring calm in us no matter what storm we are going through.

Is Jesus in your boat?

Being Like My Teacher

 Luke 6:40 The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher.

There is no doubt about the effect a good teacher has on his students.  

As I look back over my own experiences with teachers, I can see how much influence some of them had on me, either in how I understand a fact or in how I respond to an issue. 

⦿ Olive was my 7th grade English teacher. She instilled the love of grammar in me. She is the main reason I pursue correct grammar in writing and speaking.  

⦿ Shirley, my librarian mentor, is the one who showed me how to use my interest in organization of information as a tool to serve the Lord.  

⦿ Doris, my mentor when I joined the Auxiliary of the Gideons International, inspired me with confidence to be a leader through my Auxiliary ministry opportunities.  

⦿ Last, but certainly not least, my parents are the ones who showed me how to be willing to do, to TRY, anything as a way to honor God, even if I wasn’t the best at a particular activity.  

All of these teachers or mentors influenced me in some way to strive to be better, to do better. I see a bit of each of them in me now, all these years later.

Which reminds me that as I allow Christ to teach me, I will emulate more and more of Him as well, and that should be my main goal. 

I must keep learning how to be more like Jesus. 

I will keep learning how to show the people around me what Jesus is like.

I want to be like my teachers.

Do Not Be Ordinary and Old-Fashioned

Matthew chapters 5-7 contain the Sermon on the Mount. This teaching of Jesus is so familiar to me that I sometimes struggle to gain new insight when I read it even though I know I have yet to gain complete understanding of what Jesus was teaching.   

Matthew 7:28 says that "when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching." I can see why the crowds were so amazed.  After all, they had never heard any of these concepts before.  

Today, when I read what Jesus said in this sermon, I began putting together a basic outline of this familiar sermon that gave me a new perspective on what Jesus was preaching that day, what He was telling the people about how God wanted them to live out the Mosaic Law that they were trying to follow.

Do not be ORDINARY (Matthew 5:1-20). 

         Don't just follow the religious laws, take them a step further. Don't just do what the really religious Jews (the scribes and the Pharisees) do. Jesus said, "Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:20)

Do not be OLD-FASHIONED (Matthew 5:21-48). 

        In these twenty-seven verses, Jesus tells the crowd "you have heard that..." "but I say to you that ..."  The old ways have a new and better approach. The new approach is dramatically different. The new application of what is good, right, and God-pleasing is a step closer to the perfection we are aiming for. As Jesus put it in Matthew 5:48, "You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

Do not be HYPOCRITICAL (Matthew 6:1-18). What we do that is good and right should be done for God's glory, none of our own.

Do not be ANXIOUS (Matthew 6:19-34). God takes care of His children.

Do not be JUDGMENTAL (Matthew 7:1-6). As Jesus summed it up in His own words in Matthew 7:20, "You will recognize them by their fruits."

Do not be SELFISH (Matthew 7:7-20). Put others first.

It all focuses on being God-centered rather than people (self or others)-centered.

Consider Your Ways

Haggai 1:6 Consider your ways ...

The Jews in Jerusalem had been sent back from Babylon for the express purpose of rebuilding the temple almost 20 years before these events in Haggai.  They had started well, but the work on the temple rebuild had lapsed for several years.

That is why God sent the prophet Haggai to the people with a special message: 

                   Consider your ways.

The people were telling one another, "The time has not come to rebuild" (Haggai 1:2). How was it that they would say that if the main reason for their return to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon had been to rebuild?

There were some good reasons why they might say this, and why the work of rebuilding the temple had been delayed. Those reasons are all listed in Haggai 1:6:
           1. They were tired; the work was hard.

           2. They needed food and water.

           3. They needed clothing.

           4. They needed to make money.

Sounds like pretty good reasons to me. After all, we all need shelter, clothing, food, money.

But the problem in Haggai was not that they did not need food and shelter; it was that they had let those needs and efforts take precedence over the temple to the extent that they ignored the main reason for their return in the first place.  

Their priorities were off balance. 

The temple was the sign of God’s presence and preeminence in their lives, so not working on that structure was an indication that they had gotten off-track spiritually.

So God sent them several reminders. The message of Haggai 1:6 was to remind them: You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.

“Consider your ways,”  God says through the prophet Haggai. 

Haggai was saying to them: “STOP, LOOK AND LISTEN.”
           1. STOP what you are doing
           2. LOOK at what is happening
           3. LISTEN to what God is saying

Ask yourself these questions:

*What are you working for? Haggai 1:4 says, “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? "

*Why are you working?  Haggai 1:8: "Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord."

*What are your expectations in life? Haggai says in 1:9, "You looked for much, and behold, it came to little". 

I must keep my priorities straight if I want God's blessing on what I do. God's message to the Jews in Haggai's time is His message to me in 2023:

"Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts." ~ Haggai 2:4

            

Am I a Hoarder?

Ezekiel 44:28 This shall be their inheritance: I am their inheritance; and you shall give them no possession in Israel; I am their possession..

 I have watched a couple of episodes of the TV program about hoarders, people who cannot dispose of anything.  What they owned, even their trash, is so valuable to them that it ruins their lives, including their relationships with people.

Hoarding is the extreme example of loving things too much, but I think we all have to be careful about this. 

It is easy to love things more than I love God.

The priests were God’s representatives to the children of Israel as well as the people’s representatives to God so theirs was a very important task.  They needed to be able to be fully attentive to their responsibilities.

For this reason, God wanted them unfettered, unhampered, by things that could distract them.   

Possessions have a way of doing that to us.  Possessions and inheritances have a way of taking us over if we are not careful.   

As a follower of Jesus, I am a member of the "holy priesthood." 1 Peter 2:5 says: "You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."

This is my reminder that God wants to be my number one “possession” with everything else taking second place.  It is only then that I can honor and serve the Lord in my own life.

I cannot allow myself to be a hoarder in any sense of the word if I want to continue to love God above all else.