Day 73

 

The Eyes Have It

 

And Elisha prayed, "O Lord, open his eyes so he may see." Then the Lord opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

 

2 Kings 6:7

 

A lady, who was not a church member, came to my office asking for financial help. The way churches in our community handled these requests was through  the Ministerial Alliance. The Ministerial Alliance had a set of rules we operated under, one of which was that each request needed to get the signatures of 3 different pastors in town before the request could be granted. There were several good reasons to do it that way but I won't get into that now. I started the lady in the process, got her form filled out, signed my name and sent her on her way with directions to where she might find other pastors.

She had not been out of my office 2 minutes when my son called. He had a lawn mowing business and was loading the riding mower on the trailer when a belt came off of the mower as he was loading it on the trailer.

So I left the church, drove to my house and went to my back yard where Ethan was working on the mower. I began to help him and had not been at it very long when the lady who had been asking for financial help showed up. She saw us in the yard and came back to where we were and said, "Brother Jess sent me over here with this form to be signed."

"No he didn't," I informed her.

"Yes he did. He said I could get it signed here."

"No he didn't tell you that. Brother Jess sent you to the Methodist or the Presbyterian Church to get the form signed."

"No, he told me to come to this house."

"I'm pretty sure Brother Jess didn't send you to this house because this is Brother Jess' house and I am Brother Jess."

Then, quiet to my astonishment she said, "No you're not."

I had to tell her, "Yes, I am. I spoke to you less than 10 minutes ago at the church. I am wearing the exact same clothes. I assure you I know who I am. I did not send you here because I never send anyone to my home, plus I have already signed your form."

She took some convincing but I finally persuaded her to move on. I don't know what her problem was (besides lying). Could she really not see that I was the exact same person she had talked to just minutes before?

You know a lot of people don't see things clearly. They see what they want to see and believe what they want to believe. Some people see things objectively and that is a vast improvement over seeing things subjectively. It is still not the way we need to see things though. We need to see things not only objectively but also with eyes of faith.

Elisha was a thorn in the Aramean's side. The king of Aram sent a sizable force of soldiers to deal with Elisha. A servant of Elisha woke up one morning to see that they were surrounded by Aramean troops. Objectively things looked bad for Elisha but Elisha had eyes of faith. He could see what his servant could not. He prayed that the servant's eyes would be opened to the army of angels that was protecting them. The end result was that the army that was sent to trap Elisha wound up being trapped itself.

We all need to see things clearly, objectively. We also need eyes of faith to see God at work and the wonders he can perform.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read 2 Kings 6:8-23

• Why was the king of Aram upset with Elisha?
• Who was it that was outnumbered?
• Of all the people in this story who was the only one could truly see what was happening?





Day 72

 

A Flock of Goats

 

How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful!

Your eyes behind your veil are doves. Your hair is like a flock of goats descending from Mount Gilead.

 

                                                Song of Songs 4:1

 

I have a confession to make. Though I have preached over a 1,000 different sermons in my life I have never preached one sermon from the Song of Songs (also known as The Song of Solomon). There is a reason for this. The reason is the same as why Bibles that are printed with illustrations never have a picture from the Song of Songs. If you have read it then you know; it is adult content.

The content makes some people uncomfortable and they try to explain it away. Some Bible experts try to tell us it is a allegory about how God loves the church. They must have been drinking Lord's Supper grape juice that had been left in the fridge too long when they came up with that one. It is the only book of the Bible that some people aren't comfortable taking literally.

Other than the amorous nature of the Song of Solomon there is another thing that strikes me about its content. Solomon must have majored in agriculture in college. He is always referring to his lover as pieces of fruit or some animal. She is compared to gazelles, doves apples and grapes. She has teeth like a flock of sheep, eyes like a dove and hair like a flock of goats.

So what are we to make of all of this? God wants us to understand that we are to love and be attracted to our spouse. In fact we are to be attracted to them either because their hair looks like a flock of goats or despite the fact that they have goat hair. Paul tells men in Ephesians 5 , "husbands love your wives." We are to love our own wife and not some other woman with sheep teeth and goat hair.

The other thing I get from this book of the Bible is: Thank God I live in a day and time where we have discovered just what conditioner can do for your hair.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read Ephesians 5:21- 6:4

• Who is supposed to submit? (Eph. 5:21)
• What is the wife's role in mutual submission? (Eph. 5:24)
• What is the husband's role in mutual submission? (Eph. 5:25)
• What is the child's role in mutual submission? (Eph. 6:1)
• What is the parent's role in mutual submission? (Eph. 6:4)



Day 71

 

Don't Scrimp on the Shrimp

 

"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." 

 

Matthew 6:33

 

You may have heard about the lady at the Fort Worth area restaurant that called 911. Was there someone choking at the restaurant? No. Was there a robbery at the restaurant? No. So, what was the emergency? She ordered shrimp fried rice and she didn't think there was enough shrimp in it.

I like shrimp almost as much as Bubba in Forest Gump and I would be disappointed if a restaurant scrimped on the shrimp. I can't see calling 911 and complaining though. You see, you can get in trouble for making a frivolous call to the 911 operator. 

Some people think of prayer like it is calling 911. They don't want to bother God with the little stuff; they just call on him when a loved one is having surgery or had a car wreck. God can certainly help us in times of need but he is not just a cosmic emergency response team. God doesn't get over worked or swamped with too many requests. You can call on God for the small stuff too.

Now just because God wants to hear all our requests, big or small, doesn't mean we should be praying, "Lord, I need more shrimp here." To have a conversation with God only when you need something is missing out on what prayer is supposed to be. God does encourage us to ask for what we need but that in no means makes him our supernatural waiter making more shrimp magically appear in our rice. God wants to have a conversation with us, a relationship with us.

My son asks for stuff he needs all the time but he also wants to me to listen to some new music he has recorded or talk to me about school. I give him what he needs and sometimes what he wants that is beyond his needs because he is my son and I love him and have a good relationship with him. God has  adopted us into his family and prayer is a family chat.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read Matthew 6:25-34

• Does God know what we need?
• Not trusting God for what we need is a lack of what?
• Are we promised trouble free days?

 



 



Day 70

 

Indoor Hunting Season

 

Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 

 

1 Peter 5:8

 

I got the phone call. An elderly man my son worked for, mowing his lawn, had a squirrel in his house and wanted someone with a BB gun to dispatch the squirrel. The man had plenty of guns in his home but didn't feel like blowing a hole in his floor with a shot gun so a BB gun was needed.

He wasn't interested in catch and release because multiple squirrels had been in his attic keeping him awake at night. As anyone who has ever had a squirrel problem knows, squirrels are just rats with a bushy tail and good PR. My son and I had been over at his house before, at his request, to try and chase squirrels out of his attic. He wanted to arm us both with shot guns and get the squirrels caught in a cross fire as they exited the attic. I may have been raised in the city and relatively inexperienced at country living but getting squirrels in a cross fire seemed more dangerous to humans than to squirrels. So the plan was altered to my son waiting outside at the squirrels exit point with a shot gun while I chased the squirrels out of the attic. I was smart enough to nix the cross fire idea but must have used up my quota of clear thinking when I willingly participated in the man's idea to chase the squirrels out of the attic. To get the squirrels out of the attic I was to crawl up in the attic and set off some firecrackers. The end result of that was that I had a ringing in my ears for 2 days and no squirrels left the attic.

But now there was a squirrel in the man's bedroom, so Ethan and I loaded up the BB gun to do a little indoor squirrel hunting. I was hoping indoor squirrel hunting season was year round. We arrived to find the squirrel cornered in a corner (where else?) behind a trash can.

My son placed the BB gun as close to the squirrel as possible, perhaps an inch away, and pulled the trigger. It was then we discovered this was no ordinary squirrel but a rare Transylvanian vampire squirrel. One shot at close range just enraged the squirrel. We needed a silver BB or holy water to combat this fiend.

The squirrel raced around the room like it's tail was on fire. It ran between my legs with Ethan shooting BB after BB at it and me dancing like I was in a cartoon western with BBs pinging around my feet. Finally the squirrel ran into the master closet, went up some coats and hid behind a suitcase on a shelf that was about eye level with me. I armed myself with a broom and instructed my son to shoot the squirrel as I moved the suitcase out of the way so he could get a clear shot.

I moved the suit case out of the way with the broom handle and suddenly the little vampire launched himself right at my face. His viscous little claws were outstretched ready to latch on to my face and his little razor sharp vampire teeth poised to sink into my flesh.

My heart stopped beating in fear. A quick move of my head and he flew right past my ear, right over my shoulder and chased my son out of that walk in closet. Once my heart started beating again it was at a highly accelerated rate.

I have never been attacked by a wild (or tame) lion before and I hope that I never will be. A crazed vampire squirrel was enough to scare the patoobies  out of me. Peter says the devil is roaming around like a lion waiting for someone to devour. I, for one, am going to follow Peter's advice and be alert. I'm not sure my heart could take a lion attack.

For the squeamish who may be reading this I will spare you the details of the squirrel's demise. No squirrel was going to make a monkey out of me. We killed him 3 times. With vampire squirrels you err on the side of caution.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read 1 Peter 5:8-11

• Peter warns us to be self-controlled. Does losing self-control make you more susceptible to Stan's attacks?
• How are we to resist the devil?
• What happens to us before we are made stronger?

Day 69

 

Reliability

 

Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work.

 

Acts 15:37-38

 

I read about a lady in London, England that had a cleaning business. She put an ad in the paper looking for workers and asked that only "hardworking" and reliable people apply. A government agency made her change the ad. The agency said the ad discriminated against those who were unreliable.

When Paul and Barnabas were getting ready for their second missionary journey they had a disagreement over the personnel to go on the trip. Barnabas wanted John Mark to go with them but Paul thought he was unreliable. He thought that because John Mark had quit and gone home during their first missionary trip. The missionary trips were hard and often times dangerous and Paul wanted someone he could count on. So Paul took Silas with him and then added Timothy early on in the trip. Then, right before entering Europe, Paul added another worker as Luke joined them. Silas, Timothy and Luke proved themselves to be very reliable and useful.

Barnabas did take John Mark with him and they went on their own missionary journey to the island of Cyprus. Twelve years after Paul had dismissed John Mark as being unreliable he was once again in Paul's good graces and helping Paul while he was imprisoned in Rome (Colossians 4:10). Five years after that Paul is in Rome, in prison again and writes Timothy, "Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry." (2 Timothy 4:11) Somewhere along the way Mark had figured out how to be reliable.

What about you? Have you figured out how to be reliable and useful for ministry? Can God depend on you?

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read Acts 13:13

• Is any indication given of a good reason for John Mark to leave Paul and Barnabas?

Read Philemon 24

• What does Paul call John Mark?

 



 

 

Day 68

 

Prayer and Change

 

Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me. "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

 

2 Corinthians 12:9

 

 

Ethan bought his first guitar with his own money. He was a freshman in High School and played the trumpet and piano and he wanted to try the guitar.

He had never had a lesson but it became apparent over a short period of time that he was going to be good at it. We had to encourage him to practice the piano or trumpet but we never had to encourage him to play the guitar. We did have to tell him to stop playing sometimes because it was time to go to bed. So, he quickly outgrew his beginner guitar.

He talked to some older, experienced guitar players who told him he needed to buy a Taylor guitar. He found one on e-bay, a pretty nice one that brand new would have cost about $2,000.00, but being used was about half that. He made a lot more money mowing lawns than the $2.50 per lawn that I had made when I was his age but it was still a lot of money for him to come up with. So I told him I would go halves with him. If he wanted a guitar so badly he would have to mow a lot of grass for some folks, save his money and not spend it on other things, and then I would help. And that is what happened.

I think prayer works that way some times. We pray and pray and ask God for things and he is waiting for us to do our part. He wants to do things for us but it might require some change on our part. We may be asking for some help in a relationship or with our kids and God is ready to work on the other person for us but is waiting for us to make the changes we need to make.

Paul had a "thorn in the flesh" that he wanted to be done with. We don't know what it was for certain but that detail is not really important. What is important is that God wanted to do something for Paul that wasn't exactly what Paul wanted. Paul had to come to understand what was required for him to receive what God had planned to give was for him to change his request and accept the limitation of having the thorn. When Paul made his adjustment he was then able to receive the grace and power God had planned to give.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

• Who was the author of Paul's thorn in the flesh?
• What was God using the thorn in the flesh for in Paul's life?
• How did Paul become comfortable with having this weakness?

Day 67

 

Is There Someone Else Who Could Help?

 

The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, " Didn't I tell you that he never prophesies anything good about me, but only bad?"

 

1 Kings 22:18

 

 

"There is a guy down here that wants to talk to the pastor," I was told. So, I hung up the phone, got in my car and went to the Tru-Value hardware store. A guy on a bicycle had showed up there with a flat tire that needed fixed and had requested a pastor. The guys at the hardware store were fixing his bicycle when I got there.

The man with the bike was insisting that they were putting his tire on backwards. He was wrong. I started talking to him and he told me that he had ridden his bike all the way from Montana to Arkansas and was headed for Florida. The guys at the hardware store were fine Christian folks and they were fixing his bicycle for free but the man looked like he could use some help of a different kind. He had a bad cold and I could see a prescription bottle and some medical papers in his jacket pocket. I also suspected that mentally he wasn't operating at full speed.

"You look like you are sick," I told him. "Do you need to see a doctor or need some medication?"

"I ain't crazy," he informed me.

I was thinking, "I know your crazy, I just want to know if you need some medicine for that cold."

He didn't want to see a doctor or get any medicine, what he wanted was for me to get him a motel room. "I can't get you a motel room but the church has a fully furnished mobile home I can put you up in."

"I want a motel room," he insisted.

"Like I told you, we have a nice mobile home. It has everything in it but a phone. We have missionaries that stay in it from time to time so we keep it nice. You are plenty welcome to stay there."

"I don't want a mobile home, I want a motel room!"

"I can't spend money on a motel room when I have a perfectly nice place for you to stay that will not cost the church anything."

While he was distracted talking to me they had finished fixing his bike. He grabbed his bike and pedaled off down the highway.

That was Saturday morning. On Sunday morning a deacon who owned a local restaurant came in laughing and told me, "This guy came in to the restaurant yesterday riding a bicycle and asked me if I would call a pastor in town for him. He wanted any preacher but the Baptist preacher."

The deacon though that was hilarious and so did I. I had to tell him why the guy with the bicycle was looking for any pastor but the Baptist one. I found out he had got in touch with the Presbyterian pastor and got his motel room.

Some people will look for any help they can get except the help that they need. They will try the most idiotic desperate things before they will come to God and admit they are sinners in need of help.

In 1 Kings 22 King Ahab of Israel was looking for some spiritual advice at the request of King Jehoshaphat of Judah. There were false prophets headed up by a guy named Zedekiah that would tell Ahab anything he wanted to hear. There was a real prophet, Micaiah, who would tell him the truth. Who does he listen to? Zedekiah, the false prophet. What happened when he followed the wrong advice? A random arrow hit Ahab right between the plates in his armor and Ahab died.

Sometimes it is painful to be confronted with the truth. Our pride can get in the way of our doing the smart thing and following the counsel of God. In the long run you will find taking the false help the world has to offer will prove disastrous.  

 

Upon Further Review 

 

Read 1 Kings 22:1-37

• Whose idea was it to seek the "counsel of the Lord?"
• What did the 400 prophets say?
• What kind of prophet was Jehoshaphat looking for? (As opposed to the 400 -see v.7)
• Why did Ahab hate Micaiah?
• What did Micaiah finally get around to prophesying?
• What happened to Micaiah when he told the truth?
• Despite his trying to avoid it what happened to Ahab?