The Best Policy

"You may be sure that your sin will find you out." - Numbers 32:23 (NIV). 


Coming home from work, a woman stopped at the corner deli to buy a chicken for supper. The butcher reached into a barrel grabbed the last chicken he had, flung it on the scales behind the counter, and told the woman its weight. She thought for a moment. "I really need a bit more chicken than that," she said. "Do you have any larger ones?"


Without a word, the butcher put the chicken back into the barrel, groped around as though finding another, pulled the same chicken out, and placed it on the scales. "This chicken weighs one pound more," he announced. The woman pondered her options and then said, "Okay. I'll take them both."2 Don't you just love it?


Honesty is still the best policy—and we can be sure of this, our sins/lies will find us out—even if it is eventually!

12 Names of our God:

The 12 Names of our God:

1)"ELOHIM" My Creator...

2)"JEHOVAH" My Lord God...

3)"EL-SHADDAI" My Supplier...

4)"ADONAI" My Master...

5)"JEHOVAH JIREH" My Provider...

6)"JEHOVAH ROPHE" My Healer..

7)"JEHOVAH NISSI" My Banner...

8)"JEHOVAH MIKKADESH"My Sanctifier...

9)"JEHOVAH TSIDKENU" My Righteousness..

10)"JEHOVAH SHALOM"My Peace...

11)"JEHOVAH ROHI" My Shepherd...

12)"JEHOVAH SHAMMAH" My Abiding Peace...

Obstacle Illusions

"He [Jesus] replied, '...I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.'" - Matthew 17:20 (NIV). 


Grant Frazier said, "Life is full of obstacle illusions." He's right.


Instead of seeing obstacles as opportunities to grow, negative people see them as obstacle illusions. They see them as mountains too high to climb and use them as excuses to hang on to if they don't want to act responsibly and grow up and therein become stronger, healthier persons.


It's all in their attitude of mind—their negative thinking—and they allow their problems to have a crippling effect in their life. They are faith-less!


On the other hand, positive people are faith-full. They see every obstacle, not only as a challenging mountain to climb and conquer, but as an opportunity to grow and become stronger, better, healthier persons. When faced with an obstacle (as another has suggested), they don't tell God how big their problems are. They tell their problems how big their God is!


Neither do they allow past failures to defeat or depress them. And when the devil comes to remind them of their failures, they remind him of his future! Thus ends their discussion with the devil!

God So Loved

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life." - John 3:16 (NASB).




In a tribe of Indians, or so the story goes, someone was stealing chickens. The Chief declared that, if caught, the offender would receive 10 lashes.


When the stealing continued, he raised it to 20 lashes. Still the chickens methodically disappeared. In anger the Chief raised the sentence to 100 lashes.


The thief was finally caught, but the Chief faced a terrible dilemma. The thief was his mother! When the day of penalty came, the whole tribe gathered. Would the Chief's love override his justice? The crowd gasped when he ordered his mother to be tied to the whipping post.


The Chief removed his shirt, revealing his powerful stature, and took the whip in hand. But instead of raising it to strike the first blow, he handed it to a strong, young brave standing at his side. Slowly the Chief walked over to his mother and wrapped his massive arms around her in an engulfing embrace. Then he ordered the brave to give him the 100 lashes.


That's what JESUS did for you and me when he came to earth clothed in an external garment of human flesh some 2000 years ago, which is commemorated as "Christmas." In love he became our substitute and died in our place to pay the penalty for all our sins. He overcame our inability to save ourselves by paying the price for our sins. His death bridged the gulf between God and man and made it possible for us to be reconciled to God and to be restored to fellowship with him through faith in Christ and in his atoning death for us. 

Criticize by Creating

When God called Moses to deliver the ancient Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, "Moses answered, 'What if they [the Israelites] do not believe me or listen to me and say, "The LORD did not appear to you"?' Then the LORD said to him, 'What is that in your hand?' 'A staff,' he replied. The LORD said, 'Throw it on the ground.' Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it."- Exodus 4:1-2 (NIV).

This was to confirm to Moses that God was the miracle worker and Moses was only God's agent.


On one occasion, I believe it was to the evangelist Dwight Moody, a woman said, "Mr. Moody, I don't like the way you do your evangelism." 


To which Moody replied, "I don't particularly like the way I do it either. How do you do it?"


The lady replied, "I don't do it."


"Well I like the way I'm doing it better than the way you're not doing it," Moody answered.


Moody's answer may have been somewhat blunt but he made a good point. In more youthful days I was invited to a planning session for the college-age youth group in the church I was attending at the time. They asked for my opinion about what I felt was not working and how their program could be improved. I said, "I don't feel I have a right to criticize if I am not willing to do something about it." So guess what? I was made the new program director!


It's very easy for all of us (including myself) to sit back and criticize our group, church, politicians, leaders, etc., etc., and not do anything about it. 


The great Artist Michelangelo had a great answer. He said, Criticize by Creating." True, most of us will never be a Michelangelo and none of us can do everything—but every one of us can do something no matter how small to help the world we live in become a better place in which to live.


And none of us will ever be called to do what God called Moses to do. But in essence God says to every one of us: "What is that in your hand?" That is, "What ability do you have?" Whatever it is, God wants and expects us to use it to serve him—and we serve him by serving others.

The Inner Eye

"The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: "God, I thank you that I am not like other men -- robbers, evildoers, adulterers -- or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get." - Luke 18:11-12 (NIV).

As Christians in today's society, we must develop a strong sensitivity to the creed of a Pharisee. Do we exhibit those traits in our lifestyle? Most of us, at some time or other, have viewed the world around us from the perspective that what is wrong is usually someone else's fault.

The very act of shifting responsibility to others gives us a subjective means of affirming ourselves as better than others. It is difficult to avoid taking comfort in finding someone who is "worse" than we are. How often have we followed the reasoning that we seek mercy for ourselves and justice for others?

Our eyes are trained to look outward, but they do not look inward. In the practice of looking outward we can easily develop the habit of seeing what is wrong. We always seem to find something to focus on. Because we are sinners, our inner eyes are weak and rarely exercised. It is our outlook that dominates our thinking. Jesus' words in Mark 7:9 point out that we, like the Pharisees, can develop "a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe our own traditions" (ways). We tend to interpret, reinterpret, or reduce the Bible's wisdom to a list of do's and don'ts, that some can do and others don't care about.

Each of us must become humble enough to ask God to teach us to look into our own hearts. It is not something that comes naturally. Inner sight requires the exercise of the daily spiritual discipline of confession,  humility, and prayer. Unless we seek guidance and direction from God regularly and faithfully, we will be our own blind guides.

Mountaintop Experiences

"Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, across from Jericho. There the LORD showed him the whole land [the Promised Land]...." - Deuteronomy 34:1, (NIV). 


On April 3, 1968, on the eve of his assassination, Martin Luther King delivered his last sermon at Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee. His closing remarks were: "Well, I don't know what will happen now; we've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life—longevity has its place.


But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. So I'm happy tonight; I'm not worried about anything; I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."


Dr. King certainly had a mountaintop experience. Many years before, Moses also had a mountaintop experience. God showed him the land he was promising to the nation of Israel and commissioned Joshua to "arise, go, and possess" this Promised Land. Was it easy to do this? No, not at all. Following Martin Luther King's mountaintop experience it was left to his followers to "arise, go, and possess" the promised land that Dr. King saw. Has it been easy for them? No, not at all.


Jesus had a mountaintop experience too. It was at Calvary where he, seeing the whole world lost in sin, gave his life as a sacrifice for all. After his resurrection, he gave his followers a vision/dream too— actually a commission. It was, "Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone, everywhere." - Mark 16:15, (NLT). Now it's up to us to "arise, go, and possess" the vision God has for the world ... reaching people with the gospel message—one person at a time! Will it be easy? No, not at all. However, knowing this is God's vision and his will, with his help there will always be a way to fulfill it.