Week 20 Day 5

The Daily Take 10

The Gospel of John

Week 20 Day 5

Introduction…From our childhood or from hearing about Santa Claus, it is common thinking that if you are ‘naughty’ you get punished. We often bring that thinking into our own parenting practices. Some of us project that way of thinking onto God, assuming He deals with people favorably or unfavorably based upon behavior. We’ve heard it said after someone says or does something terrible, “Stand back or I wouldn’t be surprised if God strikes him with a lightening bolt!” But is that the way God operates?

Read John 9:1-5 “As Jesus was passing by, he saw a man who was blind from the day of his birth. ‘Rabbi, his disciples said to him, who was it who sinned that he was born blind, this man, or his parents?’ ‘It was neither he nor his parents who sinned,’ Jesus answered, ‘but it happened that in him there might be a demonstration of what God can do. We must do the works of him who sent me while day lasts, the night is coming when no man is able to work. So long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

Bible Study

• Jesus makes it clear that people that are blind or have some other handicap or misfortune are not that way because God has punished their sin.
  • That kind of thinking is pagan in it roots
  • That was a common belief in Jesus’ day, but inaccurate thinking
  • Luke 13:1-5 tells us a similar situation where a tower fell killing 18 people and Jesus says it was not judgment that caused this, but tells us we must repent or we too will perish…eternally.
  • God is not about judging us…now. Hebrews 9:27 teaches us, “it is appointed unto us once to die and then the judgment.”
• Miracles are a sign of the glory and power of God.
  • Mark 1:41 and 6:34 both indicate that Jesus did miracles out of being moved with compassion. The glory of God lies in His compassion for us.
  • Miracles also show us God’s great power to do the impossible. “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
• Our suffering surfaces opportunities for God’s intervention and show His grace.
  • Psalms 50:15 says, “call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you and you will glorify me.”
  • God brings beauty out of ashes. See Isaiah 61:3
  • Hebrews 4:14-16 tells us that Jesus is acquainted with our grief and sorrow. That He sat where we sit.
• God is not about judgment now, He is about forgiveness and mercy.
  • God’s judgment is not slack…it will happen, but today is the day for salvation. See 2 Peter 3:9
  • God so loved the world that He gave….Jesus…that whoever believes will have everlasting life. But God did not come into the world to condemn the world but that the world through Him might have life. See John 3:16-17
  • God deals with us according to his mercy not according to our iniquity. See Psalms 103:9-11
• It is wrong and stinking thinking to envision God as someone who mercilessly zaps people with disease or defects due to sin. If that were the case we all would face a God sent calamity.
• The Bible teaches us the fact God knows and that is we all sinned, but God still loves us and gave himself for us. “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”…but while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.”

Application

• Now is the time to work in making people to know that Jesus is the Light. Why because, statistically children accept Christ as Savior from 7 years old and it increases to 16 years of age, but declines steeply after 20 and after 30 is rare.

Tags: Take 10

January 25, 2010 – Restart, Part 4

John Maxwell, the leadership guru, who has written over 50 books and sold over 13 million copies of those books says:  Why do we miss out on using our “todays” –  We over exaggerate yesterday - We overestimate tomorrow - We underestimate today.  That is what this series and Lam. 3:22 is all about – that we get a fresh start everyday.  In this final installment I want to emphasize today!

Ps. 90:12 Teach me Oh Lord to number my days, That I may gain a heart of wisdom.  David is saying there is wisdom in understanding the value of today.  God has our days numbered and ordered we need to place the same value on them as he does.  Everyday is a gift from him – live it to its fullest and learn to value it like He does.  To keep the correct perspective and for you to live each day as a gift here are some thoughts.

Know that there will be unpredictability (Prov. 27:1).  Sometimes our days have heaven surprises and sometime our days have hell invasions but each one has been given to you for a purpose.

Each day given is equal to all. We all feel that there are not enough hours in a day but the laziest person on the planet and the most productive person all get the same exact resource of 24 hours.  There is wisdom in numbering your days or knowing the value that each one is a gift

Don’t waste the day on what doesn’t matter.  Too many people live in yesterday, too many people live in someday but the only day that you have a hold onto is today so don’t waste it.  Ps. 118:24 This is the day the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it.

Anticipate the value of each day to increase.  Ps. 84:10 One day in the house of the Lord is better than a thousand days in the world.  A single day, 1 day, in God house (or in God’s kingdom) is better than 3 years in your old lifestyle or where you are coming from.  Are you living each day with the thought of increasing that one day?  Are you living each day with the anticipation that God will increase your impact, your reach, your influence in your life for tomorrow?  Are you living each day with the thought of increasing the productivity of getting 1,000 more things done tomorrow?  Are you putting in the time in your studies, in building your businesses, in making those relational connections, in making the sacrifices, in planting that seed that one day the value of your today will be greater in the days to come?  Lifting the value of your day – that the same person, the same hours in the day, the same talent, the same resource but you are increasing your impact for tomorrow.  What a great thought to live by in valuing the gift of today.

You cant add value to each day when you hold onto the failures of yesterday.  You can add value to your today by letting the fear of tomorrow rule the hours you have today.  You cannot increase your tomorrow by wasting time in areas that are not fruitful put them to bed tonight and don’t wake up with them tomorrow.  Live each day as though they are numbered gifts from God.  Live each day with the passion to increase your day to 1000.  This is the day that the Lord has made rejoice in it!!

Cease the day,

Jonathan

Tags: Jonathan Spuler

January 18, 2010 – Restart, Part 3

Just like holding onto our yesterday, or failing to move beyond the good intentions of today – the fear of tomorrow can rob us of the fresh start we get today.  Fear in general can be debilitating – fear is a powerful thing…phobias can keep us from all that God wants us to be.  Carrying fear into tomorrow can keep us from embracing the fresh start we have with God.

But the Bible is not silent on the subject of fear (II Tim 1:7).  God knew as humans we would face fear and that is why the Bible says “fear not” over 189 times.  But God’s spirit does not produce fear – it produces love, power and a sound mind or another version says a disciplined mind.  Keeping your mind disciplined by not allowing it to run through the “what if” scenario game.  Here are 2 thoughts that can help keep your mind disciplined.

One – don’t go retro.  Don’t look back, borrowing from your past bringing fear about what you do today or how you act in your future.  Examples:

• Looking back and saying, “oh, I remember that comment someone made” – and it alters our esteem today
• The scar of a poor decision made – not wanting the pain of another mistake so not taking the risk but settling for the status quo
• The memory of how one handled a relationship and it ending poorly – never opening up and being vulnerable again
• Cant stop thinking about that moral turnover – never being able to forgive yourself

It produces a feeling in you that God can’t use you today or that you are damaged goods for making impacts for the Kingdom in the future.  All false thinking so don’t go retro bringing up fear of future robbing you from the restart we get today.

Second suggestion is don’t deify fear.  FDR said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” and that is so very true.  We don’t need to ever bow down to our fears making them bigger than they are.  Ps 46:10 Be still and know that I am God.  Stop and think about the God you serve and the bigger He gets in your windshield the smaller your fears will become in comparison of Him.

Ps. 27:1 The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

What are you afraid of in this new year…what is keeping you from having peace today, and the boldness for tomorrow.  Hit the restart button and lets face the freedom we have of a new beginning.

No fear,

Jonathan

Tags: Jonathan Spuler

January 11, 2010 – Restart, Part 2

Embracing the new beginning we have in Christ starts by accepting what He has done for us on the cross.  The completed work and not adding anything to it like our shame, or guilt, or self punishment when we let Him down.  His mercies are new every morning because of His love for us.  Leave the past in the past.  Moving from there we have good intentions to take on the future and make it all that it can be.  But to fully take advantage of the Restart opportunity we have to move beyond good intentions into reality.  Eccl. 5:3 says that it is through much effort that a dream happens and a fool’s voice is know by his words.  In other words talk is cheap!

Here are 3 planks for us to cross the bridge between good intentions and intentionality:

1. Set up guardrails and respect them (Jer. 31:21) – your mind, your thoughts, your actions need discipline to stay on track and move from good intentions to intentionality.  In nature a river has it banks and because of them it flows directed and powerful without them it would just be a swamp or a flood.  The same is true with our good intentions.  True freedom is not what you get to do…it is what you don’t have to do anymore – now that is freedom.  When you submit to guardrails for the way that you speak, and in the way you treat others, in your actions, your thought life in an effort to grow into the image of God – you will find a huge freedom.  Freedom not defined by what I want to do when I want to do it but what I don’t have to do anymore.

2. Write them down (Hab. 2:2) – write down the guardrails and the goals that you want to accomplish.  To move past just good intentions you have to be reminded of where you are going.  Keep it in front of you – have it in multiple places – have reminders all over the place of what God is speaking to you so that throughout the year you can go beyond good intentions.

3. Practice it (Heb. 5:13,14) – sometimes it starts by just doing it.  Whether it is perfect or not just start.  The Bible says be doers of the Word not just hearers of it.  Practice is important in any arena.  It prepares, it sharpens skills, it builds ability for when the real tests come.  Sometimes practice is just an act of faith but do it anyway and your faith will become stronger.  Your faith will follow the practice of your confession.

Lets get beyond good intentions in 2010,

Jonathan

Tags: Jonathan Spuler

January 4, 2010 – Restart, Part 1

There is something so wonderful about the start of a new year.  You just have got to love a fresh start, a clean slate.  What was last year is so 2009 hello 2010!

Many of us take the time at the beginning of a new year to take account of what changes we want to make in a new year by setting some goals, making some changes, maybe even making some resolutions for the upcoming new year.

The opportunity January 1 brings to just start over is so liberating.  Do you know that we can get that same kind of feeling with what we have in Jesus Christ everyday, every moment?  Lamentations 3:22, 23 says that because of His love for us His mercies never end – they come every morning, great is His faithfulness.  Every morning and because every moment in time has a morning every moment – all the time.

Fresh starts are what a relationship with Jesus Christ is all about.  He is the God of second chances and second chances on those second chances.  Holding onto guilt and shame or trying to make up for our mistakes by self punishment/penance is us saying to God, “The cross may be good enough for you but it is not good enough for me.”    Lets stop trying to add to the completed work of the cross and embrace the posture that God has shown toward us.

Do not carry the mistakes, the failures, the shortcomings of 2009 into the new year.  Don’t bring the baggage of yesterday into today.  Embrace the fresh start that we receive with Jesus.

Remember His mercy is new every morning,

Jonathan

Tags: Jonathan Spuler