What does God require of you as a Christian? Is it protests, political involvement or some type of violence?  No, here it is in a nutshell.

1 Corinthians 4:2

Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.

Micah 6:8

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

In Micah’s day, religion was corrupt and the nation was on the precipice of judgment. If the church of our age would apply the principles set forth in Micah, this world of ours could be turned around. Stay away from radicals and walk with the Lord.

Give it some thought.

Gary

It was a picture taken in the late 20s or early thirties of a one-room schoolhouse in my hometown where multiple grades attended school. Someone had the students line up, facing the camera, with the schoolhouse in the background. The most amazing thing about the photograph was the fact that none of the students were wearing shoes. They were in their bare feet.

I had someone research who these children were and was pleased that I knew them as “the greatest generation.” One served in the Navy in WW2, while his brother was in the second wave at Normandy. I preached his funeral when he passed in his eighties.  They are all gone now and only pictures and memories remain.

That will be us someday- just pictures and memories.

Psalm 90:10 

The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.

1 Chronicles 29:15 

For we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding.

Look at the camera and smile because someday someone will be looking at you, wondering who you are.

Give it some thought.

Gary

In Exodus, we see the hand of God moving on behalf of His people to free them from slavery and oppression.  He intervenes for them against the most powerful nation at the time. This happens on His timeline, not theirs or Moses’.  Today, believers can count on His presence and intervention in their lives also.

Exodus 33:14-15

And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

Then he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.

God’s hand is also reaching out to every believer He has purchased with the blood of His Son. Are you willing to go with Him and face challenges and battles that lie ahead?

Give it some thought.

Gary

Fame is a vapor,
Popularity an accident.
Riches take wings.
Only one thing endures,
Character.

–       Horace Greely. 

 Joseph, the son of Jacob, had character:

Genesis 39:9

How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?

Ruth had character when she left Moab:

Ruth 1:16-17

But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”

Character consists of the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual. If you don’t have it, God can supply it.

Give it some thought.

Gary

A mother was singing a lullaby to her three-year-old and he told her he hated it. “That’s a shame,” she said, “I used to sing it to you before you were born- when you were still in my tummy.”

 “I hated it then too,” he replied.

I don’t know how much we know in the womb. My memory doesn’t go that far back. However, I do know Someone who knows us intimately in the womb.

Psalm 139:14-15

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

We don’t surprise Him at all. He knew all about us when we were kicking around in that confining space.

Give it some thought.

Gary

Our dog loves to roll in anything that stinks.  She seems to think she smells good after such a thing. However, the fact is, it’s quite the opposite. Sadly, she can’t associate the miserable bath with her previous activity. Consequences don’t seem to be a hindrance to the next event.

The interesting thing is that people are like that. How many times did the nation of Israel find itself in a mess? God gave them a bath and they went out and did the same thing again. Then along comes the church, and “whoa” she can give off an odor that reminds you of the town dump.

The Bible warns of this type of behavior.

Galatians 6:7-8 

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

Isaiah 1:4 

Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged.

Don’t get into that smelly stuff, and if you do, confess it and don’t do it again.

Think about it.

Gary

Seventeen years old in the summer of ’69, I was working with my dad in the woods. I never forgot that summer because I had Moon Day off, even though it was without pay. In any case, the lag fell off the little bulldozer I was operating. Considering the author, you’ve probably figured out why. In putting the lag back on, we had to replace a pin we had removed. Dad said, “Hold this pin and I’m going to hit it (the pin) with a sledgehammer. He missed and both my hands sent a message to my brain that I should have thought this through before. I was running for the brook to put my hands in cold water, and my father was chasing me, not knowing if it could have been a head injury he’d inflicted.

Though I still loved my dad, I was much more careful around him. If he wanted help with something mechanical, I was more focused and entered into negotiations with him. The lesson: When someone gives you a command, it can lead to injury.

I didn’t know anything about prayer then. If I had, these verses would have come to mind.

Philippians 4:6 

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

 Proverbs 17:22 

A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

Be careful; even loved ones can be dangerous.

Give it some thought.

Gary