Tag: Bible Study and Inspirational Thoughts

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Hunting for Treasure

treasure-map

I’ve been hunting for treasure lately. It’s amazing how much I’ve already found, its only been small amounts here or there, but the amazing thing is…the more smaller ‘pots of gold’ that I find the  the hungrier I get to find the big treasure chest!

This is where I have been lately…

My child, listen to what I say,  and treasure my commands.  2 Tune your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding.  3 Cry out for insight, and ask for understanding.  4 Search for them as you would for silver; seek them like hidden treasures. 5 Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord, and you will gain knowledge of God.  6 For the Lord grants wisdom! From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.  7 He grants a treasure of common sense to the honest. He is a shield to those who walk with integrity.  8 He guards the paths of the just and protects those who are faithful to him.  9 Then you will understand what is right, just, and fair,  and you will find the right way to go.  10 For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will fill you with joy.  11 Wise choices will watch over you. Understanding will keep you safe. 12 Wisdom will save you from evil people, from those those words are twisted… 16 Wisdom will save you from the immoral woman, from the seductive words of the promiscuous woman. Proverbs 2:1-11 (NLT)

I love this scripture, it challenges me everytime I read it…”Search for Wisdom, understanding, and insight like I would for silver or for hidden treasure.” I don’t do that…I have been lately, but I don’t want it to be a lately thing, I need it to be an everyday thing! The older I am getting (and yes it is happening…I found 3 grey hairs Saturday) the more I am realizing I need God’s wisdom, his understanding, and his insight. As a husband, a father, a Christ Follower, an employee, a church member, a citizen…you name it and I need wisdom to accomplish it or to lead in it. So I am on a treasure hunt for what I believe Solomon thought was the most valuable possession, Wisdom!

I love what scripture promises if we search for wisdom, my thought is, what if we searched for it like it was hidden treasure? I mean passionately, whole heartedly, recklessly sought after wisdom? That’s what I need to do!

[Wisdom] “I love all who love me.  Those who search will surely find me…For whoever finds me finds life and receives favor from the Lord.” Proverbs 8:17, 35 (NLT)

Join the Conversation: If you’ve learned one nugget of wisdom in your life that would benefit someone else, what would it be?

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Perseverance, Character, and Hope

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” Romans 5:1-5 (NIV)

I was reading in Romans 5 this morning, and this portion of Chapter 3 stood out to me…”we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” – Over the last three to four years it seems that I have faced more individual sufferings, trials, and tests than I ever have in my life. The question that popped into my head as I read this was, “Have those issues I have dealt with produced perserverance, character, and hope?” – “Four years and now on the other side of some of these things, have I increased in these areas?”

In my eyes I may say no! Because I live with my imperfections everyday, but my hope is that in the eyes of Christ I have and in the eyes of others, they will see that the Lord has grown me, stretched me, and matured me in perserverance, character, and hope!

Join the Conversation: Are you seeing perserverance, character, and hope being formed in your life? Care to share how God is doing that?

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Did It Just Randomly Happen?

“…that I may know Him…”
(Philippians 3:10)

A saint is not to take the initiative towards self-realization, but toward knowing Jesus Christ. A spiritually vigorous saint never believes that his circumstances simply happen at random, nor does he ever think of his life as being divided into the secular and the sacred. He sees every situation in which he finds himself as the means to obtaining a greater knowledge of Jesus Christ, and he has an attitude of unrestrained abandon and total surrender about him.

– Oswald Chambers

How many times has something gone crazy in our lives and we immediately start taking a self-inventory of the things we may have done wrong; the sins we may have committed to bring such pain, torment, and suffering upon ourselves? How much time do we spend sitting around thinking about what it is that ‘we’ can do to overcome the circumstances and the situations our lives are in? Each process is simply a step towards self-realization and a step away from a vigorous life of abandon to the cause of Christ.

So did that situation or that issue just happen at random in your life? Is that how we look at our present state of affairs? If you are like me, you start questioning the steps you took to get to where you currently are: ‘If I only would have ignored that email.’ ‘If I only would have turned right instead of left.’ ‘If I only would have…” Issue by issue we act as if it all happens by random chance. I am not speaking as if God brings every situation in our path. I truly believe that we do lead ourselves in many of the directions that our lives take. My thoughts are focusing on when we face these issues and circumstances whether God delivered or self caused is how do we view our journey while in the midst and what is our viewpoint on the backside when we have come through it.

Oswald Chambers proposes that a spiritually vigorous Christ Follower looks at the issues in his life not as a random occurrence, but as an opportunity to grow in our knowledge of the One we say we follow, Jesus Christ. This is a step away from self-realization and a step towards total reliance on Christ. This is not easy, in fact it is very difficult. However, any situation (whether self caused or God led) can serve as an opportunity to know Christ more.

“Lord, I was just lied to, betrayed, stabbed in the back, and wounded…reveal yourself to me!”
“Lord, my parents are going through a messy divorce…reveal yourself to me!”
“Lord, I lost my job and cannot pay my bills…reveal yourself to me!”
“Lord, my child has has abandoned you for the world…reveal yourself to me!”

Oh, how this is easier said than done. If it were up to us, we would remove every circumstance and issue that required faith on our part, we would settle for everything we could handle on our own and only for the things that we could provide an answer for. Christianity is a faith life and that faith leads us to rely on someone who is greater than we are when life is not the way we like it. This faith life is not for the prideful; surrender requires humility to understand that we are weak when standing on our own, but through the life of Christ that indwells us, we can make it to the other side. In the end, do we strive to make it on the other side to say ‘I beat an illness?’ Or to say ‘my marriage was restored?’ Or is our motive to say ‘Now I know Jesus a little more.’

I have recently experienced some things in my life that are rather confusing and I am asking Jesus, ‘how can I know you more through this?’ But also, with a new baby on the way and uncertainty in my ministry and career path, I want to get to the other side and be able to say, ‘I know my Jesus a little more now!’

Join the Conversation: What are you facing right now, that in the end will lead you to know Jesus even more?