Questions

There was a time in my life when I felt completely clueless about computers and other forms of technology. I remember sitting in college classes thinking there was no way I would be able to use a computer to its fullest. Slowly I asked enough questions to the right people and I started to learn what button to select, how to copy and paste (thought this was a life savior), how to email, how to search on the internet, and more each day. I learned that the computer could help me accomplish certain task and what not much benefit with others. Eventually technology sparked my interest enough that I completely change my degree plan (don’t act like you have never done that) and go after a degree in network engineering. I was the one in the class that everyone could expect a Q&A session from at the end of each theory class. Although it’s not my comfort zone to speak in front of a large group of people I put that aside in order to learn all I could so that one day I would be marketable in the work place. Lesson learned ask questions in order to succeed.

The same goes for Christianity. So many times we don’t want to ask the questions we have out of fear that someone will look down on us, or maybe we don’t want the answer because of what changes we might have to make in our lives. Seems there was a rich man in the bible that asks what he must do in order to be saved and didn’t like the answer he got.

There was another character in the bible named David knows as the man after God’s own heart. He constantly went straight to God with his difficulties and got his answers.

Did you also know that one of the most famous verses in the Bible came about as the result of someone asking a question? Check it out:

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him." In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." "How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!" Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." "How can this be?" Nicodemus asked. "You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things? I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven--the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:1-16)

I might be completely wrong about this but I am sure you have some questions about God and his word. Here is something I recommend you try with all your questions:

1. Go to God – Trust me there is not a question that you have that he hasn’t heard. More importantly there is not a question you have that he won’t have the answer to.

2. Ask a minister, elder, deacon, or teacher at church. Let them minister to your spiritual needs.

3. Know that there are some questions that we all have that will remain a mystery until we meet our maker.

In Him,

Joe

New Routine

STORY

There’s a true story of a man I have worked with who has spent his entire life believing that his ears were not symmetrical and therefore sunglasses always looked crooked on his face. He came to accept this over time, until he came in touch with mindfulness practice.

One day as he was standing in front of the mirror in the bathroom he chose to take a moment to come down from his busy mind, become present, and really look at himself. What he noticed was astonishing.

He suddenly realized that he had not been standing straight and that one shoulder was slightly lower than the other. In that moment, he chose to stand up straight and low and behold his eyeglasses were no longer crooked on his face. All this time he thought his face was lopsided in some way when in effect, it was his posture.

This story is just a metaphor for the rest of us in our lives. Over time, what do we just get used to and learn to accept that keeps us limited in how we see things? What in our lives has become routine to a point that we have lost our sense of wonder in this world?

LESSON

Do you ever get that feeling that you’re tired of the same old routine? Your tired of getting up going to work or school accomplishing the task that are placed in front of you only to go home and do the same thing you did the night before. Maybe you go home and watch TV until you fall asleep, or play games, or maybe you clean house or do chores. Whatever you do most of us have some type of routine that we fall into.

We stop and pause from time to time and have a urge to just get away from it all. See something or do something new for a change, but most of us don’t we stick to the routine. It’s that so wrong? It’s not like it’s going to upset the balance of the earth if for a change you just drive home a different way from work, or walk a different path on the way to class. Maybe instead of watching TV when you get home you will go outside and take a walk.

Jesus lived a life that I would say was far from routine. Maybe the only one and true routine that he might have would be to seek and save the lost, but each day there seemed to be a different path in which he would go. Why do you think that is? His goal was to meet as many people as possible and to save them. To share his story with them and let them decided to follow him.

How is it that if we are charged with the same instruction as Jesus (to seek and save the lost) we are not meeting more people? Why do we not go out of our way to meet someone new each day? When is the last time you meet someone new? It’s really hard to meet new people when we are stuck in our routines.

The world tells us that our time is our time and everyone else can wait. That understanding is the complete opposite of Christ. He tells us that we are here to serve others and by doing so we are to give them our time.

If we rely on human reasoning to get through life, we'll eventually be led astray. Sometimes a choice or an option appeals to us or seems right, but it really isn't. We need spiritual discernment from God to help us understand what's truly good and what isn't.

Proverbs 14:12 (New International Version, ©2010)

¹² There is a way that appears to be right,
but in the end it leads to death.

The Umbrella of Faith

“A rural church in the middle of farming country, much like the one many of us attend, had a special service to pray for rain. The drought had hit the area hard and the farmers and community were suffering financially and spiritually. Many people came to the service to pray and as the pastor looked out over the crowd he was encouraged. However, the thing that inspired him most was a little girl sitting in the front pew, holding a bright red umbrella. Everyone had come to pray for rain, but only the little girl believed enough to bring an umbrella.”

I love this story and I was reminded of it while discussing prayer in our small group. One person in our group told us how a lot of the times we go to God in prayer asking for something only to give God an out. We ask for someone to be healed and then say God if that’s your will. Maybe we ask for rain and then say God only if you see fit. Yes God will do what he wants to do. His will is his plan but it’fs not up to us to determine what that plan is exactly. He told us to ask for the things we needs to seek and we shall find to knock and the door shall be open.

Next time you pray say the prayer like you mean it. Pray only for the things that you have faith in. As another once told me “there is really no need in praying for something if you don’t have enough faith to believe in it”. How true that statement is.

God knew what he was talking about when he said that we should come to him as little children. Children do not doubt their father. They know his purpose is to take care of them the best way possible.

In Him,

Joe