The Smack Down

But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned with the world.
1 Co 11:32 (NET)

A lot of us, when we hear the term "being disciplined by the Lord," instantly think that something horrible is going to happen. We think that when we doing something wrong, that we are going to get sick, or we are going to be in a car accident, or I'm going to lose my job, or whatever. I'm going to tell you the truth, if I believed like that about God, I wouldn't be serving Him. God is not a God that is sitting up there on His throne waiting for us to do something wrong, and when we do He is going to make something bad happen. God is a god of love! Wanting bad things to happen to us is the furthest thing from His mind. He wants the best for you. God doesn't cause you to get sick, He doesn't cause you to be in an accident, He doesn't make bad things happen to you because you did something wrong. Yes, He will discipline you when you do something wrong. But you know that word "discipline"...in the original Greek it means to teach, instruct, learn. God isn't going to smack you down when He disciplines you, He is going to speak to you, teach you and instruct you. Yes, you may feel bad about what He is saying, but He is saying or disciplining you because He loves you. So the next time God disciplines you, learn from what He is telling you, and use that as a sign that He still loves you!

Take Away...

God loves you and He will discipline you when you do something wrong, but His discipline is called teaching and instructing...and is done in love.

What ARE You Doing?

Everything is lawful,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is lawful,” but not everything builds others up
1 Co 10:23 (NET)

Todays world is really governed by "if it feels good, do it" and "as long as it doesn't bother anyone or me, its okay." It is very easy to fall into this mindset, but we, as Christians, must guard ourselves from falling into this mindset. While Paul said "everything is lawful" which means we can really do whatever we want, we MUST finish reading that sentence. A lot of people want to stop with "everything is lawful" but the last half of that sentence is VERY VERY important..."not everything is beneficial" and "not everything builds others up." A lot of us think that if it isn't bothering anyone, then its okay. But the truth of the matter is if what you are doing is causing your brother or sister in Christ to fall or stumble, or if what you are doing is causing someone NOT to believe in God or believe that Jesus is the Lord of lords, then you need to stop doing whatever it is you are doing. "Well how do I know if it is affecting someone, I can't question everyone around me, can I?" Well, no you can't. But there are things that you know that you shouldn't be doing but you do them anyways. The Word of God is also our guide for behavior, but we also have that little tiny still small voice, you know that voice in the back of your head, that we know we should've listened to, but didn't and now look at what happened. Y'all know the voice. That little voice is the voice of the Holy Spirit trying to give you guidance. Christianity is relational. Relational with God and relational with the people around us. We need to take note of what we are doing. We need to listen to the Holy Spirit and then decide if whatever it is we are going to do is something that we really need to be doing.

Take Away...

Be mindful of what you are doing. What you do affects others and their relationship with God and Christianity.

Awake and Angry

Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on the cause of your anger. Do not give the devil an opportunity
Ephesians 4:26–27 (NET)

I find it interesting that the emotion of anger is specifically addressed by the Apostle Paul. Why? Anger has many facets, and one of those facets is that anger, if not controlled, spreads like a heat rash in the south! Paul didn't say anger is wrong, what he did say is that we should address it IMMEDIATELY! Have you ever noticed that when you are angry with someone and you don't address it right away, you stay up all night, thinking of how that person wronged you...and as the night progresses, you are still awake and you start developing scenarios in which this person starts taking on characteristics that are totally unrealistic of that person, that they are out to get you and make you feel even worse! Next thing you know its time to wake up and go to work and you haven't had any sleep. Then while you are awake you start daydreaming the whole thing all over again! Anger will spread and start infecting areas of your life that seem totally unrelated. Anger will also affect you physically with upset stomach, irritability, unable to concentrate, insomnia, etc. However, if you address the anger right away and talk to that person that made you angry, you wont have to go through all of that, in fact, in most cases, whatever that person did to make you angry, they really didn't mean it at all. But, as Paul said, the devil will take any opportunity he can, and if there is anger to capitalize on, he will!

Take Away...if someone makes you angry, talk to them right away (in a calm way of course, not full of emotions), don't give the devil an opportunity!

Special Brownies

Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch of dough—you are, in fact, without yeast. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
1 Corinthians 5:7 (NET)

There is a story that went around several years ago about a mother, in an attempt to make a point, made "special" brownies for her daughters. She added a "special" ingredient but didn't tell her daughters until she was about to serve them. When they all sat down to eat, the girls were excited and couldn't wait to eat the special brownies. The mother said "I just need to tell you about the special ingredient. It isn't very much, in fact very little of this 'special' ingredient went into the batter. The 'special' ingredient is dog poop. I just put very little, you won't even be able to taste it." As you can image the daughters were disgusted and wouldn't eat it. The mother said "it is only a little, not much." The girls still wouldn't eat it. Why is it that we can't eat a brownie with a little dog poop in it, but we sure can justify doing something we know is wrong, even if we do it "just a little bit." Y'all know what I'm saying! We seem to justify anything, but the truth is we know what we should and shouldn't be doing. We need to just stop doing what we know we shouldn't do because if we keep doing what we shouldn't be doing, it is going to spread to other areas in our lives. We need to take a regular inventory of our lives and do what Paul says, clean out the "old yeast"...the things in our lives we shouldn't be doing. 

Take Away...stop eating the "dog poop," and take an inventory of your life on a regular basis and get rid of the "old yeast," the things in your life that you know you shouldn't be doing. Ask God to strengthen you and give you help.

Talk and Walk

So also faith, if it does not have works, is dead being by itself.
James 2:17 (NET)

Have you ever met someone who talked a lot of talk but had very little, if any, action that supported their talk? After being on stage when I was on the worship team and now being a pastor, I've come across many people who would talk the "Christian-ese" talk, you know, they know the right words to say, they would talk about all these wonderful things they were doing and they would throw in a "praise Jesus" every few words or so. The problem is their "walk" wasn't there. They would talk the talk, but their actions would be quite different. James said it perfectly, your walk, your actions, the way you behave will show if you have faith. If you really and genuinely have faith in God, faith in Jesus and call Him Lord of your life, your actions will follow what you say.  I challenge each of us, myself included, that we take a look at ourselves on a regular basis and see if what we are saying is being followed up by the same actions. If not, then a change is needed in your life.

Take Away...don't just talk the talk, follow your talk with actions that support your talk.