"I WILL be exalted!" - God

I think most everyone is pretty familiar with the verse in Psalm 46:10 that says, "Be still and know that I am God".

It's a great verse and I've seen it on many decorations and motivational products. In fact one of the students in our youth ministry painted a beautiful picture with that verse on it for my wife as a gift! (It's one of our favorite gifts and gets complimented on a lot).

As famous as this verse is, there is something about it that I think gets overlooked by the majority of the public - it goes on.

The rest of the verse reads...

..."I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” (NIV)

If I may, I would like to point out something that jumped out at me by simply adding emphasis in two key locations...

..."I WILL be exalted among the nations, I WILL be exalted in the earth."

DANG!!

I believe God is talking to both Christians and non-believers in the same verse here.

At the beginning it's like he is reassuring his faithful. While at the end of the verse it's like he is reminding non-believers that in the end EVERYONE will exalt Him!

The question then becomes - which side of that verse are you on??

The reassuring side?

or

The reminding side?

I believe your comfort level very well could be altered by simply looking at which side of the verse you find yourself!

Isn't our God amazing? :)

What Would She Tell Me If She Could?

One of the things I wonder about a lot is what goes through Emily's mind. I would give anything to know what she's thinking when I'm holding her and looking in her eyes. No amount of money would stop me if I could pay to listen to her thoughts.

Sometimes I imagine what Emily would tell me if she could...

"Don't worry daddy, I'm okay. It might look yucky to you but I'm really okay."

"I love you daddy. You and mommy are the bestest parents in the whole world!"

"Daddy, what's a touchdown?"

"Do we really have to go back to the hospital again daddy?"

"Daddy, I dreamed about playing with you and mommy at the park last night. Can we go there and play today!?"

"My best friend Ava told me that we will be friends forever daddy!"

"That medicine makes me feel funny daddy, do I have to take it?"

"Will you read me a bedtime story daddy?"

"Daddy, will you tell me some more about Jesus?"

"Can we go and visit gwandma and gwandpa soon daddy?"

"When I have my seizures, I don't want you to be scared. Will you be brave like me daddy?"

"I think I need my diaper changed daddy! he he he"

"What are you getting ready to feed me daddy?"

"Daddy, that's NOT how mommy does it."

"You're my hero daddy, I love you!"

Emily,

I know you can't tell me what you're thinking but believe me, you've already said so much without saying a single word!

I love you baby.

Love,
Daddy

Our Unselfish Temples

Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself. - 1 Corinthians 6:19 (NLT)

I've heard this scripture numerous times before. I've heard it quoted from people who have decided to stop smoking, drinking, doing drugs and those who have wanted to start eating healthier and start exercising. It fits all those motivations rather nicely wouldn't you say?

Even if you don't have a bad habit or you are already eating healthy and exercising this scripture STILL speaks to you. How?

Because EVERYONE is still selfish.

That's not easy to hear is it? I know for me, I immediately want to defend that claim and show example after example of how I'm NOT selfish. But just like those bad habits I mentioned above, all of us share a habit of being selfish. We have this same thing in common even though it might look different from me to you.

Some people are selfish because they want to smoke.

Some people are selfish because they want to drink.

Some people are selfish because they, like me, want to eat whatever they want.

Our habits look different but the commonality that we share is that we are full of our selves. And I didn't really get this scripture until I read the paraphrased version of it from The Message...

Or didn't you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don't you see that you can't live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body! (emphasis mine)

WOW!!

Let people see GOD in and through your body!

When I read that I had a crazy thought.

What if one day I had to give blood for some kind of testing and the lab technician was looking at my blood cells through a microscope and actually seen that God was coursing through my bloodstream!!!

I know that is a pretty far-fetched idea but what if we actually were meant to be that dedicated to God and unselfish?

What if one day you you had to get an x-ray and all of a sudden you heard a commotion in the back of the building because the x-ray technician was able to see that God and His word was buried deep in your bones!!!

Though these examples aren't likely to happen, I still can't help but think that this is how we are supposed to look at this scripture. This is how dedicated and unselfish we are to be to God through our physical bodies.

Imagine what it would be like to be that unselfish!

Circumstanial Revelation

"Circumstances do not make a man, they reveal him."

- James Lane Allen

I read this quote just a few minutes ago as I'm sitting in the hospital with my beautiful daughter Emily. Our hospital visits are usually seizure related but this time we are here because she has pneumonia. We hate being in the hospital, who wouldn't? But we are thankful that we have almost gone a year (11 months) since our last visit. Not only that, but we are here because of something other than seizures!

That being said, I found it very appropriate that I should just happen across the quote at the top of this post. Most of the time we hear about how someone learned a lot because of a specific circumstance or a sequence of circumstances they were in. But never had I thought about it in this particular way. I never considered that circumstances actually reveal who we are.

Ever heard the old saying, "I wouldn't want to go through that again, but now that it's over with, I'm glad I did because I'm a stronger person because of it"? I know for me, I've said it a bunch of times. I've been through a lot of circumstances that have truly grown my faith and made me a stronger person. Circumstances that not only helped me but helped me help others too.

While it's true that circumstances will always have the potential to help us grow stronger it is also true our circumstances can be the best tool to actually show us WHO we are. Next time your circumstances aren't so pleasant and you find yourself becoming frustrated, take a minute to think about this opportunity for revelation. Let your circumstances reveal who you are!

Out Of The Same Mouth...

I was reading my Bible devotion the other day and for that day I was prompted to read 1 Samuel 20:30-34.

I really didn't think much of it as I was flipping back to the Old Testament and trying to find where 1 Samuel was among all the other O.T. books. When I found my place I started reading...

³⁰ Saul’s anger flared up at Jonathan and he said to him, “You son of a perverse and rebellious woman!...

OK, hold on a minute. TIME OUT!

What did that just say???

Now maybe I'm at fault for being the type of person who would have "those kind of thoughts" or maybe I'm not but I could have sworn when I first started reading that it was going to say "You son of a (word that rhymes with witch)."

Am I at fault for thinking this? Maybe so.

But maybe not either. I honestly couldn't help but think that maybe in that day and time to say "You son of a perverse and rebellious woman" would be just as insulting as the same expression we would think of today.

The more I thought about it the more I wondered...

I just couldn't shake it that THAT expression, (one that sounds very similar to a kind of expression we hear a lot today) was in the Old Testament!

I guess I just thought that because I was turning to the O.T. I wouldn't find too much that was relevant to what I was going through today. Boy was I wrong!

I learned that for a very long time man has struggled with watching what is said in frustration. It seems the more frustrated a person gets the harder it becomes to contain the tongue and that even in the O.T. we can see a very real and life applicable example of this in 1 Samuel.

For that to be true then and now, it must also mean that watching what we say is a bigger battle than we probably realize!

In fact James says it like this...

James 3:9-10

⁹ With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. ¹⁰ Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be!

James (in the New Testament) is addressing believers for something we just seen in the Old Testament, a battle with controlling the tongue.

I realized while reading 1 Samuel that I've been ignoring something very important. Taming the tongue is a good indication of how much progress we've made in our spiritual walk. Because Matthew 15:18 says...

the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart

If this is true, then it is a great indication of what kind of "heart condition" we are in. Next time you find yourself saying something that sounds like what Saul said to Jonathan use that as an opportunity to examine your "heart condition".

Like James says, "out of the same mouth come praise and cursing" and my brothers and sisters, this should not be!