I know that both of you who read this blog may be hesitant to compete for space, but since there are only two of you, you need not worry.

Below each post - on the right-hand side - is a hyperlink for comments. If the link reads “No Comments”, then you will be the first to add a comment. Any fear of competing for space is assuaged! Even if the link reads “1 Comment”, (the other person commented before you), you can still respond to the post, or even respond to the other person’s repsonse. Oh what fun!

“After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them. So passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” – Acts 16:7-9

Sometimes, we “get serious” in life, and set out on a plan of action that we think will be the best. That plan of action may even be something that we are going to do “for God”. All too often, though, I think that we grow weary in doing good, or we are taken aback by obstacles in the course that we have envisioned for ourselves. We take a break to inwardly sulk before deciding what we might want to think about doing instead.

Paul and his companions set out to preach the Gospel to the Mediterranean world, with a fairly detailed itinerary. When they could not go into Bithynia, they continued on to Troas. When they arrived there, a vision directed them to essentially drop their immediate plans and head for Macedonia.

They still were able to preach the Gospel to the Mediterranean world, just not in the order that they had anticipated. Although the course was changed, the purpose was not affected. It makes me wonder if I am too often concerned with a particular plan of action rather than a particular purpose.

In Proverbs 16:9 we read “A man’s heart plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps.” Notice that it doesn’t say that if a man plans his steps, the Lord will direct his way, helping him move along the course that the man has determined for himself. This passage tells me two things:

1. We may start out in one direction, but God may redirect us, and we must be open and flexible to such leading.
2. Sitting and waiting for direction will get you nowhere. You must be moving (stepping) in order to receive the Lord’s direction.

May I be more committed to God’s purposes than to my plans.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes. - 1 Cor. 11:26

Yesterday I was contemplating this significant aspect of the Lord’s Supper. If the purpose of the Communion was only to proclaim the death of Christ, it would be somber observance. As the Apostle Paul also observed, “And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.” (1 Cor 15:17-19). That is, if Jesus (Y’shua) simply died, then He died for an ideal. His claim to forgive sins is simply a platitude, and His promise of resurrection utter silliness. Both the saint and the sinner die and decay.

If the Bread and the Cup were to proclaim only His coming, then that would be a fearful prospect. We would be facing a day of judgment, on which each of us would stand or fall on the merits of our own righteousness. Since “There is none righteous, no, not one,” (Rom. 3:10) the outlook would be quite grim.

How marvelous that when eat the Bread and drink the Cup, we remeber both Christ’s death for our sins and His coming again!

“No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing.” – From 2 Samuel 24:24

This morning, I began my prayer with my usual plea: “God me merciful to me a sinner.” Although I am a faithful church-going, jail-preaching, Bible-distributing, upstanding, law-abiding citizen, I am also a sinner. Before I met Christ, my sins were mostly those of commission - bad things that I should not have been doing; nowadays, my sins are mostly those of omission – good things that I ought to be doing. Even during prayer, I often find myself thinking more about composing music, my business, or my long to-do lists rather than setting my mind on “things above”.

It got me to thinking: How often do we give God our leftovers; the time that we can spare, or our unexpected free time? Do we write the tithe check first, or simply try to make sure that we have enough money left in the account to give on Sunday? I believe that it was the famed preacher G. Campbell Morgan, in his book “Wherein Have We Robbed God?” who astutely observed that sacrilege is often defined as taking something that belongs to God and using it profanely, and yet there is a bigger sacrilege that we commit all the time: that is offering to God that which is of no value to us.

When I think of the recognition made in 2 Corinthians 5:14 and 15, those sins of omission become glaring. Indeed, may God be merciful to me, a gross sinner. Further reflection upon the aforementioned passage demonstrates that God has been merciful. Christ died for me, a sinner. May that fact inspire me to give a little more of myself.

Yesterday, I was listening to a teaching by Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, on the first chapter of Genesis.

So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. (Genesis 1 :27)

He pointed out that one of the ways that man was created in God’s image is that humans are self-determinate; that is, we can choose our conduct. Not only do we have the ability to choose, we are given choices, and those choices are respected by (not necessarily approved by) God. This is really quite profound.

Suppose that you go into a restaurant and ask for lemonade, but then told that only water is available. You don’t have a choice. You may have a preference, but you don’t have a choice. Now, suppose, instead, that the waitperson asks you, “Do you want water or lemonade?” You state that your preference is lemonade, but then you are told, “Lemonade isn’t good for you. I’m going to give you water.” You may have thought that you made a choice, but since your choice wasn’t respected, you still don’t have a choice.

I am reminded of the words of Archibald MacLeish (I had these words on the light switch plate in my bedroom as a boy):

Freedom is the right to choose: the right to create for oneself the alternatives of choice. Without the possibility of choice a man is not a man but a member, an instrument, a thing.

Now, I don’t want to get into the whole predestination/freewill debate here. I only wish to point out that we are endowed by our Creator with the ability to choose; However, without alternatives to choose from, or the implementation of our choices, the notion of freewill is a sham, or pure hyperbole. This is probably why thousands have risked life and limb to escape communist dictatorships.

When the Scripture declares “choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:15), a genuine choice is presented. Our current culture would have us blame our behaviors on genetic, societal, and environmental predispositions. Predispositions are not predestinations. Choose wisely.