VIDEO No Safe Places

Should such a man as I flee? Nehemiah 6:11

In the United States, Michigan and Minnesota are the states least likely to face natural disasters, such as hurricanes, tornados, and earthquakes. But they’re also two of the coldest states in America, and, of course, there are no truly safe places on this earth. We never know when a disaster will strike our community. Sometimes we know immediately that a crisis is happening—we feel the earth shake or see the lightning strike. Other times we hear sirens, receive a phone call or text, or turn on the news and see a tragic event occurred.

Our first reaction is shock, but God’s children must quickly move into action mode. For two thousand years, Christians have been the ones running toward the need, toward the hurt, and toward the danger. When Nehemiah was threatened by his critics, he refused to flee. He stood his ground and continued the work that had to be done in the moment.

When times of crisis come to our neighborhoods, let’s look for ways to reach out and help others. God will provide us with the strength and ability to minister to those around us in ways large and small.

God has given us two hands, one to receive with and the other to give with. Billy Graham

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Boasting in Nothing Except the Cross | Galatians 6

Truth Seekers

[Having] carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you. Luke 1:3

A woman once told me about a disagreement that was tearing her church apart. “What’s the disagreement about?” I asked. “Whether the earth is flat,” she said. A few months later, news broke of a Christian man who’d burst into a restaurant, armed, to rescue children supposedly being abused in its back room. There was no back room, and the man was arrested. In both cases, the people involved were acting on conspiracy theories they’d read on the internet.

Believers in Jesus are called to be good citizens (Romans 13:1–7), and good citizens don’t spread misinformation. In Luke’s day, numerous stories circulated about Jesus (Luke 1:1), some of them were inaccurate. Instead of passing on everything he heard, Luke essentially became an investigative journalist, talking to eyewitnesses (v. 2), researching “everything from the beginning” (v. 3), and writing his findings into a gospel that contains names, quotes, and historical facts based on people with firsthand knowledge, not unverified claims.

We can do the same. Since false information can split churches and put lives at risk, checking facts is an act of loving our neighbor (10:27). When a sensational story comes our way, we can verify its claims with qualified, accountable experts, being truth seekers—not error spreaders. Such an act brings credibility to the gospel. After all, we worship the One who’s full of truth (John 1:14).

By:  Sheridan Voysey

Reflect & Pray

Why do you think conspiracy theories spread so quickly? How can you be a truth seeker?

Father, help me discern truth from error as Your Spirit guides me.

The Desires of Your Heart

Those who know God intimately discover that He provides everything they truly need Psalm 37:1-5

We love the promise in verse 4 of today’s passage: God “will give you the desires of your heart.” Unfortunately, when we focus only on receiving gifts, we miss the psalm’s context—namely, that our cooperation is needed. 

The first requirement for receiving the desires of our heart is that we delight in God (v. 4). His highest priority is our relationship with Him—He wants to give us Himself more than anything else. We are to take pleasure in communing with the Lord and serving Him, and over time we’ll begin to appropriate His ways of thinking. 

The second requirement of this promise is that we commit to His plan (v. 5). Following God’s path restructures our heart’s desires until they look like His. Now, sometimes what God provides appears different from what we requested. But He always answers our appeals based on His infinite knowledge and great love. He bestows the perfect answer to our prayer, whether it’s what we asked for or not. 

Remember, God wants to grant our requests, but His greatest joy is a relationship with us. Seeing our heart’s wishes fulfilled is simply a byproduct of delighting in God and committing to His way. The real reward is a relationship with the God who offers to share Himself with humanity. 

Things Not Seen

“By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.” (Hebrews 11:7)

The little phrase “things not seen” is used three times in the New Testament, and interestingly enough, these refer to the past, present, and future works of God with respect to the things that are seen.

At the beginning of the “faith chapter” of Hebrews occur these remarkable words: “Now faith is…the evidence of things not seen….Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” (Hebrews 11:1, 3). That is, the material things of this present world were not made of pre-existing materials; they were supernaturally created by the word of the Creator! These things that are now seen provide evidence (or better, the “conviction”) of the things not seen—that is, of God’s creative work completed in the past.

The “processes” that are now seen (as distinct from the “materials”) date especially from the time of the great Flood. The “things not seen as yet” by Noah—that is, the present atmospheric circulation, the present hydrological cycle, the present seasonal changes, and many other key phenomena of the present order—all were instituted in the days of Noah when “the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished” (2 Peter 3:6).

Finally, “we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for…the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18). Just as surely as the materials and processes of the present world once were unseen but now are easily seen, so the future eternal world will soon be clearly seen when Christ returns. HMM

Are You Engaged Or Entangled?

“No one engaged in warfare ENTANGLES HIMSELF with the affairs of this life, that he may please Him who enlisted him as a soldier.“(2 Timothy 2:4)

You and I have a challenge before us: “How to be ENGAGED in fulfilling our earthly responsibilities and yet remain UN-ENTANGLED in the affairs of life in order to fight Christ’s battles.”

What is the difference between being ENGAGED and ENTANGLED?:

• The trolley cars in San Francisco are ENGAGED in the cable beneath the surface of the street.
• The bird is ENTANGLED when it cannot get its foot out of the trap.

How do we know when we are ENTANGLED?

• When we are irritated or consumed over our situation.
• When we fail to see God in control of our circumstances.

Strategically, we become ENTANGLED when we make the pursuit of the secular our primary focus, and then try to fit the spiritual around it. Remember the aspiring disciples of Christ in Luke 9:57-61 who expressed interest in following Him? “But first” they had to attend to their private affairs and interests.

When the “but firsts” dominate our lives, we are entangled. Jesus allows us no such privilege:

“No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.“(Luke 9:62)

Let me ask you:

• When you open your Bible to spend time with God, is your mind easily distracted?
• Would you be free (within a reasonable period of time) to uproot and move to another part of the world to minister, if God were to call you?
• When spending time with your spouse or children, are you there 100% or are you just putting in an appearance?

Whether we are ENGAGED or ENTANGLED is a question of focus, values and priorities. It is a question of whether we WANT to invest in the eternal, or simply expend our lives on the temporal.

“We are more than Conquerors.”

Deuteronomy 2:26-37

About this time happened the defeat of Sihon and Og. Moses thus narrated the matter to the people in his discourse.

Deuteronomy 2:26-29

Nothing could be more fair or friendly than this request, and Sihon had good evidence that Israel would act in good faith, for though some of the Edomites and Moabites had refused the nation a passage, yet others had granted it, and had suffered no injury, therefore Sihon might have rested sure that Israel would do him no harm.

Deuteronomy 2:30

When men are mad with sin they only need leaving to themselves, and they are hardened at once, and being hardened they become their own executioners.

Deuteronomy 2:35

God thus swept away guilty nations, whose sins he could no longer endure. How gracious is he to our sinful isle!

Deuteronomy 2:36, 37

If we advance only where God bids us, and forbear where he gives us no leave, our course will be full of prosperity.

Deuteronomy 3:1-5

Deuteronomy 3:1

One battle over, another begins. Blessed be God, the power which overthrew Sihon, is quite able to cope with Og also.

Deuteronomy 3:2

Former mercies are types of coming favours. He who helped us yesterday is the same to-day and for ever.

Deuteronomy 3:5

Thus shall God’s chosen go from victory to victory. Sin, death, and hell, shall fly before us. None shall be able to resist the divine power which girds us for the battle. Where the Lord leads the van, the enemy’s rout is certain and complete.

Jesu’s tremendous name

Puts all our foes to flight:

Jesus, the meek, the angry Lamb,

A Lion is in fight.

By all hell’s host withstood;

We all hell’s host o’erthrow;

And conquering them, through Jesu’s blood

We still to conquer go.

Most Important: Your Names Written in Heaven

…Be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. 1 Corinthians 15:58

Those who are active in Christian service must beware of two opposite pitfalls: the elation that comes with success on the one hand, or the discouragement that comes with failure, on the other.

These may be considered by some as trivial, but the history of the Christian ministry will not support this conclusion. They are critically dangerous and should be guarded against with great care.

The disciples returned to Christ with brimming enthusiasm, saying, “Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name,” and He quickly reminded them of another being who had allowed success to go to his head.

“I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven,” He said. “In this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.”

The second of these twin dangers need not be labored. Every minister of the gospel knows how hard it is to stay spiritual when his work appears to be fruitless. Yet he is required to rejoice in God as certainly when he is having a bad year as when he is seeing great success, and to lean heavily upon Paul’s assurance that “your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”