What HAS to be done?

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns." ~ Exodus 20:8‭-‬10 NIV

In Exodus 20, God set up the Sabbath for His children for a reason. He knew that things like rest, margin, and dependence on Him would ultimately lead to better, more thriving lives for believers.

As author and pastor Pete Scazzero often says, our greatest and highest calling is to commune and be in fellowship with God. All the other things on our to-do list are extra, nice-to-do’s. But we should be clear, they are NOT have-to-do’s.

It doesn’t matter what it is, it doesn’t matter what culture you live in or work in, nothing HAS to be done today. There are preferences, traditions, and man-made deadlines imposed on our lives, but they are just that – man-made preferences, traditions, and deadlines.

What does God call us to do? The answer is found in Matthew 22:36-40. We are to love God and love others. Point blank period.

If you find yourself stressed out today, ask yourself: am I doing the things that God is calling me to do? Or is my schedule filled up with nice things that ultimately could be put off for simply communing with Him?

God bless,

J.W.

The Choice Is Clear

Romans 1:20 tells us that God's attributes are CLEAR. So why is it that so many people don't believe in God?

Might I posit that it takes more faith to believe that there isn't a God than to believe that there is. 

Faith, like love and almost everything else in the world, is a choice. God won't force it down our throats. He'll lay out His evidence and then it's up to each of us to believe it or not. We can look at the world and choose to only see the chaos and destruction. Or we can look at the world and see the order and intelligent design behind it.

We can choose to believe that life is random. Or we can choose to see the times where divine intervention stepped in and blessed us.

The choice is always ours. But the choice is also always clear.

God bless,

J.W.

Seek Unity, Not Division

"To the woman he said, 'I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.'" ~ Genesis 3:16

Not to wade into controversy, but many people misinterpret this scripture or simply don't even try to interpret it for lack of understanding.

When Eve sinned, God says that her desire will be for her husband. This doesn't really like a punishment, does it? Most people in marriage would say that spouses desiring each other would be a good thing, right?

But if you look at other translations, the conflict becomes clearer. For example, the NLT interprets this scripture to read "And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you.'" Similarly, the English Standard Version says "Your desire shall be contrary to husband."

Here, we see why God's statement is such a bad thing. God says that there will be conflict within marriages because spouses will seek to control each other.

Regardless of what you think about the gender dynamics, or lack thereof, that play out because of this scripture, the point is that we see this type of division, not just in marriages, but in other parts of society as well. Families, nations, occupations, races, socioeconomic classes, and many other divisions exists because we are trying to control each other.

But God offers a different path through His Son. There are over 100 scriptures in the Bible imploring us as Christians to live and walk in unity. Here are just a few:

1 Corinthians 1:10 ESV - I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.

1 Peter 3:8 ESV - Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.

Be clear - the enemy will try to cause division among mankind. It's up to us to seek unity where it can exist.

Seek unity today fam!

God bless,

J.W.

Training Season

"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." ~ 2 Timothy 3:16‭-‬17 NIV

Today, we want to focus on the word "training" in today's scripture. 

While we typically think of training in terms of an athlete training for the Olympics or someone training for a marathon - that is, developing a particular skill or type of behavior through practice and instruction over a period of time - there is another definition of training.

Oxford's dictionary defines "to train" as "to point or aim something, typically a gun or camera, at."

What would happen if we thought of scripture in this way? That is, what if we used it to equip as to pierce like a gun? Or to give us more focus like a camera?

How much more powerful would the church be?

How are you using/seeing scripture today?

God bless,

J.W.

Thanksgiving All Year

"...speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." ~ Ephesians 5:19‭-‬20 NIV

Thanksgiving just passed. But Ephesians 5:19-20 tells us not to wait for a holiday to express thanks to God for literally everything.

In other words, we ought to live in a posture of gratitude each and every day. It's one of the keys to living the type of life God wants us to lead.

God bless,

J.W.

Read It In Context

"The generous soul will be made rich, And he who waters will also be watered himself." ~ Proverbs 11:25 NKJV

It's important we don't take scriptures out of context - either out of the context of the scriptures around it or the context of the entire Bible.

Generosity is one key to God's blessings over our life. But it's just one key. It's also important to be obedient, to be diligent, to be temperate, and to be a good steward. That's why it's important for us to read the whole Bible and not just pieces. 

One could read today's scripture and think that the being generous is to key to becoming rich. But you can give all of your money away and violate the principle of being a good steward. Just like you could focus on saving and miss the generosity principle found in today's scripture. 

The Bible is designed to put up guardrails on our life. One scripture might reveal one principle that God wants you to follow. But there's a wealth of other wisdom found in the Bible that will ultimately give you a full picture of what God wants for your life.

Let's read the whole Bible in context today fam.

God bless,

J.W.

 

God is a G

"But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord ." ~ Joshua 24:15 NIV

God is such a G (as in gentleman), in that while He knows what's best for us and can see the mistakes we make coming from a mile away, He never forces us to do anything and always gives us a choice.

Can you imagine the amount of complaining we'd do if we were forced to obey Him? We'd be talking about how unfair it is and how harsh God is.

But He loves us so much that He's willing to give us guidance, help, and direction, but never forces us to choose His way.

That doesn't mean we won't have to suffer the consequences of our poor decisions. But it does mean we have a God who is big enough to love us in spite of ourselves.

So glad we have a God who is like Himself and not like us.

God bless,

J.W.