Like a thief in the night

Like a Thief in the Night

Ever stop to wonder where that saying comes from?  When we are shocked and amazed at how quickly something can disappear, or how fast we find ourselves on the losing end of a deal, we can’t seem to come to grips with it.  It can seem like we were visited by some awesome power and allowed this thing to remove something near and dear to our hearts.  When I was spending time in God’s Word today, I came across this very statement, so I’m convinced it has biblical origins. 

“But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you.   For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.  For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.  But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief.  You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.” 1 Thessalonians 5:1-5(NKJV)

The point here is this, we need to be alert and on our guard, lest we are visited by the “thief in the night.”  No one knows when Jesus will make his triumphant return.  No person here on earth can predict with any reasonable accuracy, the return of Christ to this world.  But there is one thing that can be counted on.  He will return.  Yet we continue to live our lives as if there is no fear of anyone having to deal with “a thief in the night” scenario.  We all simply go about our daily lives feeling protected and secure because we feel that we have plenty of time left to prepare.  Should we consider this a false sense of security?  Should we be dealing with all the issues in our lives, getting things right with our God, because we have no clue when it’s game over? 

In today’s world, we are often confronted with choices and decisions that move us further away from the truth.  We try very hard to please the world, to get along in our daily lives without paying any attention to what God wants from us, or what God has in mind for our lives.  And we never think that Jesus will return, like that dreaded “thief in the night.” 

We may want to think more about how we can be ready for the “thief” and not so much about building our walls and fences in order to keep Him out.  That’s what we do when we pay no attention to how God sees things.  We are simply too busy trying to impress the world.

Are you making room for Jesus, or are you building up your walls with “peace and safety” in order to feel secure?   

“in the world, not of the world”

Running in the opposite direction

Running in the opposite direction

Do you ever feel like you are going against the flow of things, trying to swim upstream against a raging current?  Life can throw some nasty detours at us on a regular basis.  We often will give in and simply go with the flow, following all the others down the wide interstates and moving through the huge gates flung open so that many can fit through.  We do this so that we can be included or a part of a society that encourages us to follow their directions, or take their map for reference.  We do this because we want to be like everyone else.  God gives us the option of taking a detour, a different route that leads to eternal life.  Jesus offers this advice in the Book of Matthew.

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.  Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Matthew 7:13-14(NKJV)

I realize that it’s hard to go against the flow of things.  It can be very difficult because we are standing out in a crowd, running in the opposite direction in order to find our detour.  God encourages us to stay on His route, following His directions and mapping our way to our promise of eternal life.  The world wants us to simply give in, becoming mindless drones that are easily persuaded to take the wide road and the broad gate.  Life is much easier when we do this because the world is busy removing all of the obstacles, or so they would like us to think. 

God never promised an easy road.  In fact, several times throughout the bible God reminds us that His way may be more difficult and challenging.  But His destination is far better than anything the world can promise.  Our time here on earth may be seem like on big detour, but it’s what has to happen if we are going to move on to the next life.  The narrow gate and the one lane road may be much more difficult as far as navigation is concerned, but the destination can be reached if we remain faithful, and follow God’s directions. 

I think I will just keep runnin2Him.

“in the world, not of the world”

You gotta be kidding me

You gotta be kidding me.

If we want our God to answer our prayers, to take us seriously, then we need to change the way we pray, and the way we approach Him.  Christians today seem to want God to be the problem solver, the gift giving Father who showers His children with great riches.  We want our God to be our friend who sympathizes with us, holding our hand while we tiptoe through life avoiding all of the bad things.  Maybe we could make a change, altering the way we look at our God, changing the place in which we put our God and moving Him higher and higher in the way we praise our God. 

“We need to improve the quality of our Christianity, and we never will until we raise our concept of God back to that held by apostle, sage, prophet, saint and reformer. When we put God back where He belongs, we will instinctively and automatically move up again; the whole spiral of our religious direction will be upward.”  A.W. Tozer, The Attributes of God

In his last chapter of the Book of Psalms, King David sums it up this way.  “Praise the Lord!

Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty firmament!  Praise Him for His mighty acts; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness!  Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet;

Praise Him with the lute and harp!  Praise Him with the timbrel and dance; Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes! Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with clashing cymbals!  Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.  Praise the Lord!

I think one point made by the King in his psalms was that there is no one worthy of our praise other than our God.  He repeats this over and over, and the fact that his entire book of psalms included this message is a testament to just where are hearts and our praise need to be focused.  There is no doubt that he maintained this day in and day out.  Now, I know what you are thinking.  How could we ever get anything done when all our energy is focused on praising our God.  The Apostle Paul offers this advice.  “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31(NKJV).  This is how we give Him praise regardless of the time of day, regardless of the task at hand. 

Tozer puts it this way, when describing some of the approaches taken by the church.  He points out all of the “prosperity preachers” we have today, telling us that we can have better things if we make a change.  “If you want to pray strategically, in a way which would please God, pray that God might raise up men who would see the beauty of the Lord our God and would begin to preach it and hold it out to people, instead of offering peace of mind, deliverance from cigarettes, a better job and nicer cottage....” A.W. Tozer, The Attributes of God

We must remember to “pray strategically, in a way which would please God.”  We must remember  that God is worthy of all this and more.  Our God gives us the breath we breathe, the food we eat and the rest we need to make it another day.  What more do we need? 

The last answer you want to hear from God is “you gotta be kidding me.” 

Praise Him!!!

“in the world, not of the world”

Dusting Off our Bibles

Dusting off our Bibles

It’s Sunday morning, time to go to church, and we need to find our Bible.  Where did we leave that book?  This is not a good thing, that we are not keeping our Bibles well read, worn out around the bindings with pages fraying.  It may be time to dust off our Bibles, and our brains so that we can read and believe what God intends for this life of ours.  It’s actually not fiction, not romance, not sci-fi or some other genre of book.  It’s God’s own instructions on how to live a life that will never end. 

His story begins with a heavenly place where we commune regularly with our God.  He rewards us with this thing called “free will” so that it can be our decision to worship and follow Him.  This seems easy enough until we are tempted to have just as much knowledge that He has, so we eat the apple.  Sin comes to the world and the rest is history, or His Story.  He begins to show us His grace and mercy through the use of some of the least expected individuals, the prophets chosen to deliver His Word, and His people from slavery.  These individuals were not the kings and rulers, not the prominent citizens, not even the most believable of the clan, but He used them to get our attention.  But we still wanted things our way.  We still wanted to take what was rightfully ours, to use up what was rightfully ours, and to rule in a way that guaranteed our success.  And so we wandered around for 40 years or so. 

If we pay close attention to the story, we can see that what we are doing now, where we are headed and what the future may hold, was not what God intended.  We see a very dry place, a very sandy, windy, hot and dusty land ahead of us.  This is not a good thing, and in order to make the change, we need to dust off our Bibles.  We need to start taking the Word of God as the Word of God, and not the work of fiction or sci-fi we like to make it at times.  We should be reading God’s instruction manual for our lives and applying it daily, not just on Sunday, and not just when we feel we have the time. 

Around 2000 years ago, God sent His Son to us, to save us and to tell us that we were heading in the wrong direction.  We questioned, we argued and we debated His truth, His identity and His directions, even when He told us who He was and why we should believe Him.  “And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.” John 12:47(NKJV)  Jesus Christ, the Son of God, walked this earth for a brief time in history.  He knew just why He was sent here.  He understood the reason for His existence and He tried desperately to get us to see things God’s way, and not our way. 

But just like Adam and Eve in the garden, we ignore the warnings and we do things our way.  We just go about our business, never noticing that we may be headed to that very hot, dry place, and that we may be there for a very long time.  It’s time to dust off the Bible.  It’s time to allow God’s teachings to become who we are, and not just some work of fiction to be enjoyed on a lazy summer afternoon. 

“in the world, not of the world”

Crawling out of the Cave

Crawling out of the Cave

Do you ever stop to think about just why God placed you here on this earth?  I have tried several times, making changes and doing new things, trying to get closer to what God wants from me, and possibly what He wants from us all.  There is one thing that I think we can all agree on.  We were all made to Worship Him.  We all have this innate desire to pay homage, to worship our God, thanking Him continuously for all that He does for us during our meager attempts to please Him.  One of my favorite Christian authors had this to say on the subject of giving God our praise. 

“Man alone sulks in his cave. Man alone, with all of his brilliant intelligence, with all of his amazing, indescribable and wonderful equipment, still sulks in his cave. He is either silent, or if he opens his mouth at all, it is to boast and threaten and curse; or it's nervous ill-considered laughter, or it's humor become big business, or it's songs without joy.”  A.W. Tozer, Worship: The Missing Jewel.

Even after all of the wonderful things our God has blessed us with, we want to simply withdraw from Him.  We want to take all of the credit for our achievements, our inventions, our knowledge and wisdom, giving no credit to the One who is responsible for our next breath.  I think it’s time we get back to the basics of living and breathing, and thanking our God for those simple truths.  “The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men, To see if there are any who understand, who seek God. They have all turned aside, They have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No, not one.” Psalm 14:2-3(NKJV)  It may be time to change our ways, to stop being so “corrupt” and pay attention to the One who deserves it. We need to come out of our cave.

When we offer up our lives to our God, giving Him all of the praise and glory for giving us our  next breath, we are getting back to the basics.  I can give many a testimony to the fact that we are not in charge.  I can vouch for a God that is in control of every aspect of my life, granting me the ability to live and breathe when I was not able to do this on my own. 

God, our loving and caring Holy Father, grants us the ability to make our own decisions, based on the gift of free will.  Yet we choose to “sulk in a cave,” focused on our own miserable existence, as opposed to keeping our eyes on Him.  We will often go the route of the cave man, being silent, or worse yet, bragging about our accomplishments and our abilities without giving God any credit at all. 

This is not the life God wants for us, after all, He has provided us with a world outside of the cave. 

“in the world, not of the world”