Proverbs 6:8 – Summer Ends?!?

They labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter. Proverbs‬ ‭6‬:‭8‬ NLT

Image courtesy Slate

For the northern hemisphere, today is the last day of summer. We have to acknowledge the chill in the air, the shortening of the days, all the signs we’ve worked to ignore. (I wish it were like that and the pumpkin flavored everything would’ve waited until tomorrow!)

I thought I would take a look at when God references summer in the bible, and saw pretty much one theme: harvest. Plant life references the coming of the season. Harvest and the following winter, which ought to have been prepared for, follow.

I think there’s only one thing we need to take from biblical references to summer: this life is the summer. We are to spend this life preparing for the next, tending to the Father’s fields. We are to diligently look for signs from others of their openness to God’s truth and, when we see this openness, to work diligently in the Lord’s fields cultivating this potential new brother or sister.

It may be the last day of summer for half the planet, but it’s always summer in the our Father’s fields. Work diligently everyday to bring His salvation to those showing signs of thirsting for it.

Zephaniah 1:7 – Soon

Stand in silence in the presence of the Sovereign Lord, for the awesome day of the Lord ’s judgment is near. The Lord has prepared his people for a great slaughter and has chosen their executioners. Zephaniah 1:7 NLT

Perhaps you like a good meme. I know I do. (Also, to save you the mild embarrassment I suffered, it’s like “meem,” not “me-me.”) Most of them are just amusing ways to make fun of everyday awkward situations that humans encounter. One of them is a bit creepier, because you know, people are all creepy. This collection/expression of memes is simply dubbed “soon.” My favorite is this:

Image courtesy Know Your Meme

Creepy right? Why did I show you that. Weren’t you reading? It amuses me. But anyway. “Soon” seems very ambiguous in and of itself, right? How ambiguous? So much so that it is the one word God gave John to describe when He would return. After all, isn’t that the case-in-point for an ambiguous statement? God, when will you return to rescue us from this world? Soon. Yeah, uh, I can’t find that on a calendar. Can you help me out? Sure, soon. Did you say June? No, soon.

If your getting caught up in “when” I think your missing the bigger picture. And I know that your initial response was “that’s the point!” Yeah, no. If you knew God was coming in 10 days, would you work harder to convince the people you love of the worthiness of repentance than if you knew He was coming in 10,000 days? Don’t lie to me. Actually, this is a screen. Don’t lie to yourself! That’s the fact. The problem with that is no one is guaranteed a tomorrow. just because tomorrow looks like a given doesn’t mean it will ever come. And how many people have you ever proven God’s love to in 10 days? God gives you a set amount of time in which to do His work on the earth, to be His influence on the earth, and a specific set of skills from His Spirit with which to do the work.

If you’re blessed enough for God to give you 10,000 or more days in this world in His service, you should expect to account for each of them. I suspect one way God will measure your service on earth is in the number of His children you brought home. Stop acting like that’s a test you can cram for! Whether God has one 10,000-day project for you in the life of a family member or one hundred 100-day projects, He’s giving you this time to change, not just lives, but eternities. If that’s not enough, 1) maybe google some verse on humility and then 2) check this out:

When you pray today, thank God for the people who paved the road for you to Christ. Thank God for the grace He had no reason to give you but gave anyway. Ask God to help you use His tools and to show you to His work.

Don’t start your work soon. That’s when God will be here.

Psalm Sunday: 89:1 – With My Mouth

I WILL sing of the mercy and loving-kindness of the Lord forever; with my mouth will I make known Your faithfulness from generation to generation. Psalm 89:1 AMP

This verse, like last Sunday’s, was requested by my three year old nephew, Crews. At the bottom, you’ll see the message from this verse I would share explaining it to my three year old. I hope you find it useful as well.

Throughout the bible, God spends most of His time with us telling us only two things: 1) I love you, and 2) let others know I love them. If this doesn’t seem like a bit of a tragedy, which is an understatement, then perhaps you need to work on understanding the first part again.

Perhaps we’ve forgotten? Perhaps, when presented with God’s redemptive power, we chose the blue pill, woke up in bed and thought whatever we wanted to think. No, the tragedy is bigger. We’ve taken the red pill. We’ve seen the far side of the rabbit hole. We know the feeling, the weightlessness, of freedom because we remember the weight of the chains. Why, when God’s amazing grace has peeled our eyes and shown us the depth of both mercy and grace, do we have to be told to tell others?

Are you scared? We know there is nothing to fear.

Are you waiting? We know tomorrows are not guaranteed.

Pray today for mercy, that God will direct you to someone in bondage to sin and His mercy will overwhelm you with compassion for them. Pray for a softened heart, so that you may speak peace and love into their life. Pray for power, that God will use only your vocal chords and His Spirit will do the rest. Pray “Here I am, Lord, send me!”

Crews’ devotional (how I would explain this to a three year old):

You know mommy and daddy love you, right? Do you love mommy and daddy? Show me, with your hands, how much you love mommy and daddy. Oh, thank you. Hang on, keep your hands like that. Let me show you how much mommy and daddy love you. (Stretch your arms as wide as you can.) This much, as far as we can reach.

Know who else loves you? God loves you. Know how much? (Point outside to clouds or moon/stars.) That’s a lot isn’t it? It’s important for us to know that God loves us. That’s why mommy and daddy make sure you know. Not everyone knows that God loves them. God asks us to make sure everyone knows by having us tell others. Do you have someone, one of your friends, you want to tell them that God loves them? Oh, yes, OK let’s practice how you can tell them…

(Finish up by saying a prayer with your child for their friend.)

2 Timothy 1:7 – The War of Love

For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7 NLT

It’s Friday! Why is that important? It’s pop-quiz time: who have you invited to church this weekend? To a church event so far this year? Last year maybe?

“‘One in five Americans claim they don’t know a Christian.’ That’s not right. They know a Christian. They just don’t know that they know, but they do know.” – Kyle Idleman

The five feelings presented in this verse are not an accident. The Spirit gives us power to replace timidity. We are to be meek rather than proud in our assessment of others, but we are to be bold with our love of Christ and others that it will overcome our fear. And we are given self-discipline that we may choose to put others needs ahead of our own.

We must discipline ourselves so that we remember, everyday, that we are fighting a war. The war was fought by someone ahead of us that we could know the truth and be set free by it. But our freedom is not only that we may live life fully, but also that we may give life to others.

OMNIA VINCIT AMOUR

Love is power. As Paul notes in his argument to the Athenian audience in Acts 17:28, man has often bumped into God without realizing that it was God. But we know it is God they’re bumping into. This is why we have love. It’s not a weakness. It is the strength you need. It is the force that compels you to make your faith known, to offer your story as proof of God’s story, to even be able to care about anyone else beyond what they can do for you. That’s from God, because God is love. Love does not care because it has to; love cares because otherwise it would not be love.

The other stat Kyle offered from the same study: 3 out of 4 Americans would attend church if a friend invited them. This is a war. The cost of not fighting for the people you love is greater than a mountain of flesh. Leave your fear and timidity at home. Carry your love into battle.

Pray now, asking God to give you an opening today. To fill you with love and to give you a target. To make your fear captive of His love and your timidity crushed by His power.

Who will you fight for today?

Proverbs 9:8 | John 15:18 – Haters Gonna Hate

Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you; rebuke the wise and they will love you. Proverbs 9:8 NIV

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. John 15:18 NIV

Religion is all about two things: rules and ladders. Religion tell you that you start out on level 0 and that following the rules will let you move up the ladder. Religion is weird. Seriously, in some religions, you can bribe the god(s) with sacrifices to harm your enemies. Seriously. Religion leaves you guessing whether the deity has more tally marks in your “Pros” list than your “Cons” list. Religion lets you choose whether you are plaything of the god(s) or your service is necessary to the god(s).

Jesus wasn’t a big fan of religion. He came to cure religion. True, God established a ladder with the Ten Commandments, but the purpose of God’s ladder was clear. The first rung, the one you has to climb to get to level 1…

“You shall have no other gods before me.” Exodus 20:3 NIV

…was to let you know you would never be able to climb the ladder. No matter how many people you didn’t (literally) kill and how many people you didn’t (literally) sleep with, it didn’t matter, because you couldn’t get past level 0. And that wasn’t enough, so Jesus had to come explain to us that all that legalism was missing the point. Remember when you were staring daggers at the back of your boss’ head fantasizing about him not making it to work tomorrow? Jesus said you might as well have since it’s all the same sin to Him.

We do have some measuring sticks that let us know if we’re following Jesus lead, chief among them the message in these verses. Those wise to Jesus message will love you when you love them, even with tough love. But no matter how gently loving you are to others, they will hate you. They have soaked up to much of the world.

When you pray today, think of someone who has hated you. Pray that God will soften their heart. Pray that God will put one of His followers in their path and they will boldly share the Good News.

Don’t leave your bold love at home this weekend. God wants to put someone with a softened heart in front of you.

Proverbs 4:23 – It’s a Verb

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Proverbs 4:23 NIV

You read some scriptures when you’re younger, and ask, “uh, yeah, what???” Maybe you get the feeling that it’s important, but you don’t get why. But there are a lot of those, so you keep moving without letting it impact you.

And then life comes. Then more. And a bit more. And then you come back to a scripture you didn’t get before, and…

BOOM!

You get it this time, because it gets you. It reflects real life. To one degree or another, this verse has that impact for everyone. Why? You can’t learn to guard your heart, at least adequately, until you’ve felt the necessary degree of pain to establish a need to guard it.

What is as important about this proverb, though, is what Solomon didn’t say as what we did. Solomon said to guard your heart. He verbed it, he didn’t noun it (sidebar: I just verbed the noun “noun”…you’re welcome). What’s the difference? See for yourself:

The last bullet of each provides the best comparison, the most stark contrast, the most light between what Solomon could have meant (i.e. “Lock it down, warden.”) and what he actually meant (i.e. “Take the necessary precautions.”).

Jesus gave us a clear mission, to go into all nations and make disciples, and a game plan, love one another as I have loved you, that’s undefeated going on two millennia. You can’t bring people to the God who is love without being able to open your heart to show His love.

As you pray today, pray for healing. Pray for strong stitches over the wounds that taught you to guard your heart. And pray for strength to test those stitches as you open your heart to share God with the people God puts in front of you today.

P.S. ICYMI this verse is how I opened my story in Mastering Your Story, part 2. Check it out here.

Exodus 13:8 – Your story, God’s story

On that day tell your son, ‘I do this because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ Exodus 13:8 NIV

I drive past a sign once or twice a day, and the marquee hasn’t been changed for months:

When you fail to tell your story, you fail to give God glory.
Exodus 13:8,9

I don’t mind because this is one of the most important tasks we can overlook in preparing to engage the world for God. You can engage people to discuss God in one of two ways: with the bible or with your story.

If you’re trying to engage people with the bible only, that can be a tough sell. Andy Stanley has already done a better job explaining the reasoning for this, ” ‘The bible says’ is not an adequate starting or returning point for adults.” (For the full message, which is definitely worth your time, visit StartingPointSeries.com and start with the first message “Something Happened.

No matter how armed you are with the bible verses, we all respond to good storytelling – because God is the ultimate storyteller. So, to connect people effectively to God, take time to master your story.

Pray today that God will make your story clear to you in a way that will connect your friends to Jesus. Pray that God will bring you people who are open to hearing. Pray that you will have His strength to tell your story.

P.S. I have a series of follow-up posts that will publish at 5 PM ET the next few Fridays to give you some tools to help you develop your storytelling skills. Hopefully, you can make some time this weekend to dig deeper into how to glorify God with your story.