Desire Pure Milk

 

Friday, August 2, 2013

“Like newborn babes, long the pure milk of the word, so that by it  you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord

" (I Pet. 2:1-2). 

Hey Gang:  Did you know "…that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God"  (Matt. 4:4)  Does that mean that if I seek His word He will reveal it to me personally?  You beat your sweet bippy that is what it means. 

Peter put it this way, “As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious”.  Wow, that is pure milk to the soul.  Stop for minute, before the day begins to crowd in on you, and write these words down on a card or the palm of your hand: “Your Word, my Lord,  is like milk and honey to my soul.” Now, lean on it as you traverse this day.

Let me share a bit of wisdom that this almost eighty-year old has learned in his sojourn on this earth:  I can measure the peaks and valleys of my life by the times I let God take control of my life and, the times when I said, “Okay God, I can take it from here.   Isaiah nailed it when he wrote, “All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way”(53:6).

Now, turn your dome of intellect up a notch before reading the final phrase of this verse, “For the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him”.  Wow, dudes, can you beat that?  He carried every sin, every iniquity, every transgression to the cross - on his back. Every time we failed to witness for Him, etc. etc, etc. 

I have heard many say they wish they could wash away the mistakes they made in their past.  I have certainly said that, but think about it for a moment, "When we confess our sins and seek His forgiveness,  He is so wonderfully faithful  to forgive us of our sins!  But, He does not wash the memories of those sins from our minds.   There is a saying from the past that goes like this, 'If we forget the errors of our ways we are prone to repeat them.'

Years ago I had a very good friend who was a very effective Bible teacher.  He made the comment that he would never think of teaching a subject from the Bible without reading it forty times.  I am not sure what the significance of the forty is, but his teaching always included a depth that amazed me.  And then one day he came into contact with a very beautiful young lady that showed an interest in him and he took the hook. 

A divorce followed, a loss of his ministry, a second divorce when the sweet young lady grew tired of him and moved on to greener pasture.  He, eventually, ended up on skid row and then on to prison.  In prison he made friends with the prison chaplain and sought the forgiveness of the Lord.  After being released he returned to the teaching pulpit, but one day there was a sweet young lady that gave him what he craved - attention and the process was repeated. 

Peter described that process when he wrote, "A dog returns to its own vomit," and "A sow after washing returns to wallowing in the mire."  Notice the verse prior to this proverb "For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them" (2 Peter 21-22).  

Soooo, Ya know what?  I think you will run into a clinker in the road today, or tomorrow, or perhaps you will luck out and make it to next week – but know this!  Satan has his dart machine loaded and will watch your every step, and every thought, and fire when he knows you have left your Armor of God in the closet.  He cannot read your mind, but he certainly can read your actions and,  like Eve, he will give you the desires of your heart.  And you can be assured those desires will lead you down the wrong road!

Keep your eyes on Jesus!

Blessings,  

 Gramps

Careful, Someone Is Watching!

 

Monday, August 26, 2013

"So that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world" (Phil 2:15).

Hey Gang: Every time I hear or read of an aircraft accident it sends cold chills up my spine and I break out in a cold sweat.   I left the Air Traffic Control business in 1961, but the cold chills and sweat are as persistent today when I hear a ‘plane spun in,’ as they were the day I hung up my air traffic control spurs for the last time. There was a special bonding between the pilots of our squadron and the air traffic control teams that did all in our power to keep them safe.

But I would be remiss if I did not make one very important point.  When in flight in a jet fighter, if you did not have gauges to tell you if you were flying right-side up or up-side down, you would not have a clue.  This is referred to as the “attitude” of the aircraft.  You can be in a horizontal or vertical or descending or climbing attitude and without the gauges to keep you up to speed in your attitude, you would not have a clue. 

While working in a Rapcon in the Air Force, a pilot called with a fire indicator on board.  His wing man reported no indication of fire and the flight continued.  But, several minutes later he received a second indication that his aircraft was on fire.  He was in the downward attitude as he approached the landing. The aircraft, on the inbound route, was over a congested area that included a hospital. The pilot chose to pull the aircraft up and take it to a nearby lake and put down there, to assure no one would be injured. 

When he made that decision, he knew there was a chance that he would not survive the decision. To assure that the aircraft did, indeed, hit the water, he put it into a nose-down attitude before ejecting - which resulted in his death.  In other words, the attitude of the aircraft killed him.  If he would have been in a 45 degree or better attitude, his ejection would have given him sufficient altitude for the chute to open and save his life.  

Paul had a great deal to say about ‘attitude’ in his letter to the Philippians and, for that matter, all of his teaching and writings.  In Philippians 2:5 he wrote: “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped.”

Soooo, my young chicks, as you walk out the door into the mission field this morning, do an attitude check. Keep in mind someone is watching you and your attitude might be the key in their deciding- if they want to accept and serve your God.  You may be the only Bible they will read this day, week or ever.

Blessings,

Gramps

Struggling to Pray: How Do You Pray When all Hope is Lost?

 

Today’s blog is from my Guideposts Daily Devotional - July 20 by Patty Kirk.  As I read this, the Lord seem to say we all needed to hear this story.  Probably most of us have encountered similar situations.  We know that PRAYER is the answer to problems for those in Christ - but sometimes we don’t see the answers as fast as we want - or ever in our lifetime, and we become discouraged. Father God says we are to pray - the answer is in His timing.

 “For when two or three gather in my Name, there am I with them.” Matthew 18:20 (NIV)

 An old friend was diagnosed with terminal cancer.  When I went to see her, I learned that somehow, though a professing Christian and life-long churchgoer until the past decade, she’d forgotten, or never understood, or perhaps never accepted the most fundamental Christian teaching. As we talked, it became clear she considered herself such a bad person that God couldn’t possibly want her with Him in heaven. When anyone around her mentioned salvation - or, really anything about God, she got mad and changed the subject.

 If I wanted to help her, I decided I could not evangelize. But I could pray. And I tried to. But how do you pray for someone whose situation seems hopeless.

 I couldn’t pray for healing. That clearly wasn’t going to happen.  She was getting sicker before our eyes as the cancer moved from organ to organ.  I wanted to pray for peace, but I couldn’t imagine any peace for her besides what she was rejecting.

  My worst impediment to prayer was the conviction that I should be doing something, not “just praying,” -as I thought of it.  I should be convincing her, comforting her with the only message that could help her.

 In the end, all I could muster was the weak, unprayable grunt of faith: that God still loved her and waited close by, eager to wrench her from the cave of misery she’d backed herself into to accept His embrace.

 AND that’s what he did!  In a final moment of prayer. consciousness, barely able to speak, much less resist those around her, my friend suddenly joined us in the Lord’s Prayer.  Not reflexively or reluctantly, but fervently. I could tell from her face she meant every word.

 Thank You, God, for staying with us and hearing even unprayed prayers. 

 Blessings,

Gma J

PS Gramps would say, “Don’t give up praying.”  I wish I could share with you his last notebook  - pages of those he was praying for  - family, friends, blog readers, prayer needs of our church, our Country unsaved, all those in uniform, our Country, Israel and the Middle East - just to name a few.

Renewing Your Mind – An On Going Project

 

Friday, August 31, 2012

 Hey Gang: One day as I was traveling to make a speech, I asked God to give me something new, vibrant, and alive that I could share with the group.  Soon, I stopped at a Burger King  and noticed a movie promo advertising Star Wars. It had the following saying on the bottom:“Your choices, determine your destiny”. 

 That hit my hot button.  Continuing my travel, I sensed God saying to me, “There is a prerequisite to that statement that is the driving and determining force, “Your VALUES determine your choices and your choices determine your destiny”.   

 What you think determines what you do?   The mind is a terrible thing to waste.  No kidding!  But mere knowledge isn’t going to remedy the situation.  A lot of brilliant people have done some pretty stupid stuff.  Our minds don’t need more information to get it right.  The Word says, “Our minds need transformation” “Be nor conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.”  (Romans 12:2). The only One who can enter our hearts and transform our minds is God.

 I have been struggling with a problem recently and finally threw in the towel and said, “Okay, God, I give up.  I know I cannot get this thing straight in my head.”  I believe God’s response was, “Wow”, “I can’t believe it – you are finally getting smart.  Why don’t you just relax and do it Paul’s way, as found in Colossian 3: "Die to self, put off those things that are offensive to God, fill your heart with the gifts of the Spirit and then relax and let me handle the problem."

When dealing with the alligator-up-to-the-arm-pit problems that come into our lives far too often, do we seek solutions to those problems in our human strength?  Unfortunately, all to often, we find our solutions with a 'sorry Charlie', attached to them. 

 Jesus was very clear when he warned, “If you do not fill the vacuum in your chest cavity that is just the size of God -with the God -head Trinity, Satan will tromp in with his hob-nailed boots.  Self-help books or gurus are not going to help; hard work is just what is says – hard work.  There is only one way out of the closet of pain and agony – Jesus Christ in Father God! 

 Soooo, good buddies, God must change our minds in every detail (don’t expect it to happen over night – it takes a life- time). You aren’t a passive part of the mind- renewal process.  First, you must invite Him to do His work.  Then, once you have “learned the truth that is in Jesus… there must be a spiritual renewal of your thoughts and attitudes” (Eph. 4:21/23).   Paul made it very clear in Romans 12:2, “But let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.”

 Blessings,

Gramps