The Voice

The Right Time

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“When the right time arrived, God sent His Son into this world (born of a woman, subject to the law) to free those who, just like Him, were subject to the law. Ultimately He wanted us all to be adopted as sons and daughters” (Galatians 4:4-5, The Voice).

More than any other time or season, the Advent season reminds me that God’s timing is perfect.

Jesus came into the world at just the right time, not to condemn the world but to save it and redeem it.

That’s the hope for all of us out there who are still waiting on God’s promises and holding on in faith to what we do not yet see. God’s timing is perfect.

“Strength of my heart, I need not fail,
Not mind to fear but to obey,
With such a Leader, who could quail?
Thou art as Thou wert yesterday.
Strength of my heart, I rest in Thee,
Fulfil Thy purposes through me” (Amy Carmichael).

I’m Still Here

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“You’re not a failure until you stop trying. If you have no other testimony you have this one: ‘I’m still here'” (Joyce Meyer).

Winston Churchill once said that success is never final and failure is never fatal, but it is the courage to continue that counts. Aside from some very impressive alliteration, there’s some good truth here.

So hooray for all of you who made it out of bed this morning when you felt an overwhelming desire to sleep in and give up on the day.

Hooray for all of you who adhere to the old motto that faith is believing when common sense tells you not to, or as the author of Hebrews puts it, it’s the “assurance of things you have hoped for, the absolute conviction that there are realities you’ve never seen (Hebrews 11:1, The Voice).

Hooray for those who doggedly adhere to that faith through trials and doubts and who have never given up on God because they know God has never given up on them.

Hooray for those who still dream after so many previous dreams have been dashed to pieces and who keep longing after their desires have been countlessly delayed and denied.

Hooray for those who persevere in the midst of pain and suffering while wearing a smile through it all.

Hooray for those whose only victory today might be the declaration “I’m still here.”

Not only will your endurance lead to a reward, you are leaving a legacy to those who follow to not give up.

After all, Advent is all about how waiting on God’s best is always always worth it.

 

At the Right Time

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“When the right time arrived, God sent His Son into this world (born of a woman, subject to the law) to free those who, just like Him, were subject to the law. Ultimately He wanted us all to be adopted as sons and daughters” (Galatians 4:4-5 VOICE).

For some reason, the image that immediately popped into my mind upon reading this verse was that line from The Lord of the Rings when Gandalf announces, “A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.”

I don’t by any means intend to suggest that God is Gandalf, but I do think that Gandalf is many ways is a picture of the Christ. More importantly, this speak a very important truth about God.

God is never early. God is never late. God’s timing is always perfect. Always.

Often in my own life, I’ve found that what seemed like delays weren’t because God wasn’t ready to give but because I wasn’t ready to receive. I had some growing up and maturing to do before I could fully appreciate what God had in store for me.

I do think that often when God doesn’t work according to my timetable, it isn’t because God is thwarting my plans but because God is seeing a much bigger picture and His vision for my life is so much grander than mine.

I heard a very good definition of anxiety as a state of feeling like everything has to happen immediately. The fear sets in when delays begin to seem like denials.

Fear, as I heard it put once, is False Evidence Appearing Real. In this case, faith calls me to trust the heart of God for me in the face of overwhelming yet ultimately false evidence that He will not work out all things together for my good.

Tonight I trust God’s heart as true and God’s timing as perfect. This season of Advent proves to me yet again that God always fulfills His promises to His people.

That’s good enough for me.

 

Only One Thing Matters

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“Jesus continued from there toward Jerusalem and came to another village. Martha, a resident of that village, welcomed Jesus into her home. Her sister, Mary, went and sat at Jesus’ feet, listening to Him teach. Meanwhile Martha was anxious about all the hospitality arrangements.

Martha (interrupting Jesus): Lord, why don’t You care that my sister is leaving me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to get over here and help me.

Jesus: Oh Martha, Martha, you are so anxious and concerned about a million details, but really, only one thing matters. Mary has chosen that one thing, and I won’t take it away from her” (Luke 10:38-42, The Voice).

This Advent season may find you stretched too thin. You might feel like you’re being pulled in a hundred different directions toward a hundred different destinations, each one seemingly as important as the rest.

I believe the word from God for this season is this: the best place to be is at the feet of Jesus. Only one thing matters as we approach Christmas– creating margins and spaces in your life and heart to be able to hear the voice of your Good Shepherd.

Only one thing matters– seeing the Christ in Christmas an adoring the infant King, wrapped snugly and laying in a manger. As the worship song says, everything else can wait. Some of those to-do list tasks can even be left undone.

If you achieve all your holiday goals and purchase every last present and miss Jesus, you’ve missed Advent.

The best witness you can give this Advent season is to say no to the excess spending and the tyranny of the urgent while being still before the presence of God, wherever you are and whatever you’re doing.

You don’t have to be idle to be still. You can go about your daily life with a sense of urgent expectancy and waiting with hope. You can adore the Christ by your Christlike attitude in the midst of all the hustle and bustle, by your kindness and patience toward others, remembering that the one thing that matters most is not in your wallet or in your shopping bags or in your day planner but rather in the middle of your Nativity scene, laying in that manger.

The Love of God: December Edition

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“Love is the effort and desire to make someone else everything they were created to be (Timothy Keller).

Advent is all about love made visible. Specifically, it centers around how God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son to be born in a feeding trough in the back room of a home where the animals usually were kept.

He gave His one and only Son to pitch His tent and live among us and walk beside us and go through all our experiences and temptations, and to emerge unscathed and sinless.

He gave His one and only Son to choose Calvary and to be the ultimate sacrifice, dying the death of a common criminal, for us who had willfully rebelled against the God of the Universe.

He gave His one and only Son to be the first and only one in history to make His tomb a temporary residence and to rise from the grave after three days, forever defeating death and hell and sin.

He gave His one and only Son so that no one should ever have to perish, to go through this life alone, to live in failure and shame, or to spend eternity apart from God.

God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son for you.

“For God expressed His love for the world in this way: He gave His only Son so that whoever believes in Him will not face everlasting destruction, but will have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Who Will You Serve?

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“If you decide that you’re not willing to serve Him, then today is the day for you to choose whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors bowed to in the land beyond the great River, or the gods of the Amorites whose country you possess. But as for me and my family, we will serve the Eternal” (Joshua 24:15, The Voice).

In case you’ve been living under a rock for the last year, there’s a Presidential election happening as we speak.

Some of you are in an increasingly festive mood. Some are growing more and more despondent as the numbers continue to roll in. Just about all of you are ready for this whole mess to be over and done with, regardless of the outcome.

But as I mentioned in my last post, no matter how this election plays out, Jesus will be the Sovereign King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That will not change. Not now, not in four years, not in eight, not ever.

The question that will arise in the morning (and every morning after that) is this: Who will you serve? Will it be the gods of political parties and platforms? Will it be the gods of success and power? Will it be the gods of relationships?

Even good things like marriage, family, and children can become idols if they become the “be all, end all” reason for your existence.

Bob Dylan got it right when he said, “You’re gonna have to serve somebody.” Who will it be?

The beautiful part about God is that He will not force you or anyone else to serve Him. He will not coerce you to bow down before Him in this lifetime.

Today, I choose to serve Yahweh. I don’t profess perfect service in the past. I don’t promise to hold fast in the future. I know myself too well for that. But for today, I choose to serve the Maker of heaven and earth.

Tomorrow, whether I did well or failed miserably, I get to choose again. So will all of you.

So again I ask, who will you serve?

 

You Still Matter

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“For it’s by God’s grace that you have been saved. You receive it through faith. It was not our plan or our effort. It is God’s gift, pure and simple. You didn’t earn it, not one of us did, so don’t go around bragging that you must have done something amazing” (Ephesians 2:8-9, The Voice).

You didn’t earn it or deserve it. Neither did I. None of us did.

That also means that if it wasn’t yours to earn, it’s not yours to lose.

The same God who started this very great work in you will be the the one to complete it.

Maybe you feel like you’ve stalled out in the middle of your life and suddenly don’t have a purpose or a plan. God still does.

You may sometimes feel like a mistake or a nobody. Don’t ever let your feelings trump what God has told you (and what He still tells you). While your feelings can and will lie to you (often), God never does.

You still matter to God.

That’s all. I just wanted to remind you of that in case you were feeling like giving up.

Go back to your regularly scheduled lives now.

 

Give Blood

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I did my civic duty today and donated blood. I know that you’re always supposed to give 100% at whatever you do, but I thought in this case to hold back a little. Just a tad.

Sure, there’s a time inconvenience. Plus, there’s that super humongous needle they stick in your arm (or at least it seems that way when you’re staring at it up close and personal).

But the payoff is worth way more than whatever costs are involved.

Who knows but one day you may be the one in the emergency room needing a pint of blood? Or it might be your son or your daughter on that operating table.

I don’t normally write blog posts telling you to do stuff, but I really believe that this is one case where your contribution actually makes a tangible difference.

Whenever I give blood, I’m reminded that my own life was saved by blood. The Apostle Peter reminds us of the true cost of our salvation: “You know that a price was paid to redeem you from following the empty ways handed on to you by your ancestors; it was not paid with things that perish (like silver and gold), but with the precious blood of the Anointed, who was like a perfect and unblemished sacrificial lamb (1 Peter 2:18-19).

Blood is life and Jesus, unlike me, did opt to give 100%. He didn’t spare a drop. He looked at you and me and said, “They may not amount to much in the eyes of most people, but in My eyes, they are completely worth the sacrifice.”

Ultimately, we give because He gave. We love because He first loved us. That’s the key to everything.

So give blood. It’s an easy way to pay it forward and live out the gratitude for what others (and God) have done for you over the years.

Who knows? The life you save could very well be your own.

 

Words to Live By

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“As a prisoner of the Lord, I urge you: Live a life that is worthy of the calling He has graciously extended to you. Be humble. Be gentle. Be patient. Tolerate one another in an atmosphere thick with love. Make every effort to preserve the unity the Spirit has already created, with peace binding you together. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were all called to pursue one hope. There is one Lord Jesus, one living faith, one ceremonial washing through baptism, and one God—the Father over all who is above all, through all, and in all” (Ephesians 4:1-6, The Voice)

Note: In regard to preserving the unity, it doesn’t say, “make an effort if you feel like it” or “try it if the mood strikes you.” It says “make every effort.”

That means “do everything with in your power so far as it depends on you to preserve the unity the Spirit has already created.

It seems lately, American believers (I can’t speak for any other believers) have done a poor job of fighting for unity rather than fighting with each other and tarnishing the name of Jesus in the process.

Regardless of who wins the election, our allegiance will still be first and foremost to Jesus. It will do us no good if we win the political arguments and lose the relationships with those who desperately need to hear the good news of the gospel.

It gets harder and harder to remember that our real battle isn’t against flesh and blood but against the evil spiritual forces behind the scenes. Maybe what you need to do instead of bashing the politician is pray for them.

Don’t lose friendships over differing political views. That degrades democracy and free thinking (and yes, I completely stole that one from a post I saw on Facebook).

Remember most of all that you gain far more by loving someone well than by winning an argument. Jesus showed the best way of all when He laid down His life for His friends (and for His enemies as well). I’d like to see more of that this election season.

 

Take Great Joy

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“Take great joy in the Eternal! His gifts are coming, and they are all your heart desires!” (Psalm 37:4, VOICE)

That says it all. What ever the deepest longing of your heart is, it will be found in God.

It isn’t money or fame or power, but what we hope they will give that ultimately fulfills that deep desire of the soul.

What we really crave is security, acceptance, validation, unconditional love . . . I could go on and on and I’m sure you could add a few of your own.

All of these originate from and find their ultimate place in the Eternal.

So take great joy. Let your heart rest tonight knowing that you are in the best of hands.

Your Abba won’t cease watching over and caring for you.

Let that thought carry you off to sleep.