Tag Archives: worry

Are there any Christians out there? (Luke 12:31-34) November 17, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Ecclesiastes 7-8

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Luke 12:31-34
Jesus: Since you don’t need to worry—about security and safety, about food and clothing—then pursue God’s kingdom first and foremost, and these other things will come to you as well.
My little flock, don’t be afraid. God is your Father, and your Father’s great joy is to give you His kingdom.
That means you can sell your possessions and give generously to the poor. You can have a different kind of savings plan: one that never depreciates, one that never defaults, one that can’t be plundered by crooks or destroyed by natural calamities. Your treasure will be stored in the heavens, and since your treasure is there, your heart will be lodged there as well.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Where is your heart? We want to immediately say, “My heart is in heaven. My treasure is there. I’m completely devoted to God. There is no question about it.” But I’d like you to stop and think hard today about that question. Where is your heart, really?

This election cycle has given me an opportunity to watch the behavior of a lot of people who proclaimed heaven as their home. Yet as I’ve read some of their Facebook dialogue and listened to their speech when it comes to one party or another in this crazy campaign, I’ve got to tell you, I’m not sure they are on their way there. I’m not sure the Father would be very happy with the words they say about their neighbors or the actions they take against those they have proclaimed as enemies in this political battle.

Quite frankly, neither candidate has character worth emulating. President-elect Trump has several lawsuits still active against him because of some fairly shady business deals in his past. His treatment of women earlier in his life leave much to be desired. He is pretty flamboyant and certainly isn’t Christlike in his actions in dealing with others from what we see on the surface.

Secretary Clinton is no better. She clearly lied to Congress in her testimony about her emails and her private server as evidenced by the deluge of information that has come out through both conservative and liberal press and her own staff. Her staff releases information about her abusive tongue and as with Mr. Trump, she is far from displaying any kind of Christian behavior unless it is for a photo op.

Is that judgmental? Okay. It is. Evidenced by public behavior on both their parts. Wake up America! Neither candidate would be convicted in court of being a Christian according to God’s word. They just don’t stack up to the changed life Jesus talks about when He talks about the transformation He make in a person’s life when we give ourselves fully to Him. So there it is. We did not have Christians to choose from and we did not elect a Christian leader. We are not a Christian nation and have not been for decades.

But that’s okay. Jesus didn’t live in a Christian nation either. He lived in Judea under the rule of Rome. I’m not sure there has ever really been a Christian nation because as Jesus told Pilot, His kingdom was not of this world. We don’t belong here. When we give ourselves to Him, we gain citizenship to a different world, His kingdom. We become foreigners to this place. So why do we let the affairs of this world distract us so much when we don’t belong here?

Should we vote? Yes. Should we support a candidate? Yes. Should we pray and get involved in things that will make a difference in the welfare of others as we continue on this earthly journey? Yes. We are to be good citizens as long as we are here. But we should not get so bent out of shape when things don’t go the way we think they should. God gives promotion, not men Proverbs tells us. God allows elections to go the way they go. But we are citizens of heaven. We know the final outcome and need not worry about the things of this world.
God is still on the throne and none of the actions and activities that happened in the last week caused even a tremble in His throne room.

As Christians, we have an opportunity to bring unity to our world. We can show the world that all the craziness that is happening around our nation and our world is just that – craziness. This rampant fear and mourning and protest and pandering and maneuvering going on is just insane. God is still in charge despite what anyone else might think. As Christians we have an opportunity to get that message out and bring peace to those who are wallowing in this insanity. God is still in charge. Not Trump, Not Clinton, Not Obama, Not Congress. No one but God.

The question is whether we put our trust and treasure in Him so we have something that will last or will we be like the crazies in the street and just let everything go up in smoke. It’s time we show what it means to have our hearts in heaven and let the rest of the nation see what peace looks and feels like. So, are there still any Christians out there that can show the rest of the nation God’s way of peace and joy at the end of the day?

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Don’t worry about trifles (Luke 12:8-12) November 14, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Deuteronomy 13-15

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Luke 12:8-12
Jesus: That’s why I keep telling you not to be intimidated. If you identify unashamedly with Me before others, I, the Son of Man, will affirm you before God and all the heavenly messengers. But if you deny Me before others, you will be denied before God and all the heavenly messengers. People can speak a word against Me, the Son of Man, and the sin is forgivable. But they can go too far, slandering the testimony of the Holy Spirit by rejecting His message about Me, and they won’t be forgiven for that.
So you can anticipate that you will be put on trial before the synagogues and religious officials. Don’t worry how you’ll respond, and don’t worry what you should say. The Holy Spirit will give you the words to say at the moment when you need them.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

If you haven’t noticed, the freedom we had as Christians in this country has changed significantly over the last twenty years. Where we had complete freedom to express our faith openly in public twenty years ago, we can no longer do that today. We might offend our non-believing neighbors if we put a nativity in the public square or pray at a ball game or mention the name of Jesus during the holiday for which Christmas was named. It’s incredible how much we have fallen in such a short time.

But as Jesus says, we should not be intimidated. We have not yet been executed in public arenas as the early Christians were. We have not yet been blocked from buying food in the market place as the early Christians were. We have not yet had our children ripped out of our homes as the early Christians did. Our freedoms have been degraded here, but they have not fallen as far as they were in early Christendom or as they are in many other parts of the world today. So don’t be intimidated.

Besides, as we talked yesterday, even facing death, those here can only kill the body. Fear the One who can send you to an eternal hell. Fear God.

With the direction the country and the world is going, though, I think we can anticipate Jesus prophecy to His disciples, not just to the first century church, but throughout the ages until His return. Every generation has experienced ever increasing violence against the church. We brought some of it on ourselves when we did stupid things like launch the Crusades in the name of Christ, but the church has always been persecuted. Satan just doesn’t like the church to gain ground against his control over people.

Satan wants to be like old-time radio hero, the Shadow and cloud the minds of men so they cannot see him or the truth. Except he doesn’t want to be the good guy. He wants to keep us from God. He wants to keep us trapped in our selfish desires instead of going after the things of God and His will for us and this planet. He even hides behind the appearance of good things to keep us from doing the things God wants. It might sound a little crazy, but it’s true. We can be totally lost doing good things. Because it’s not good things that get us to heaven. It’s believing in His Son and doing His will. We may sacrifice the best by doing the good.

So we can expect the world, at least as long as Satan is loose in it, to do what it can to disrupt the church. To stand in its way of evangelism. To persecute it and try to persuade believers that God’s way is not the way to find peace and joy. We can expect Satan to continue his lies to extend to us in as many ways as he can to try to get us away from God and win us over to his side. He does not want the church to triumph.

But we know the church will triumph because Jesus has already won the war. His death on the cross and resurrection from the grave demonstrated once and for all His victory over Satan and evil. Satan just doesn’t realize it yet. Satan thinks he still has a chance. He doesn’t. The battle’s been won. Jesus is the victor.

Until Satan figures it out at the end, though, expect to be called into court, ridiculed, persecuted, even executed. We can expect to feel the brunt of Satan’s schemes because he just doesn’t like Jesus’ followers. With the power of God’s spirit in us, we stand against him and he can’t stand it. Despite his best efforts, he can’t win and he hates to lose. So he does his best to try and try and try again. But God will give us the words to say in court. He will give us the grace sufficient to withstand the suffering of persecution. He will help us through the valley of the shadow of death. God will be with us through the end of this life and usher us into eternity with Him when we side with Him.

The church will prevail. God promised and His promises are true. So don’t worry about the trifle things the world may throw your way. God is still in charge.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

How will you fill the empty spot? (Matthew 6:25-30) January 26, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

Subscribe in: iTunes|Download

Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Joshua 16-20

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 6:25-30
Jesus: Here is the bottom line: do not worry about your life. Don’t worry about what you will eat or what you will drink. Don’t worry about how you clothe your body. Living is about more than merely eating, and the body is about more than dressing up. Look at the birds in the sky. They do not store food for winter. They don’t plant gardens. They do not sow or reap—and yet, they are always fed because your heavenly Father feeds them. And you are even more precious to Him than a beautiful bird. If He looks after them, of course He will look after you. Worrying does not do any good; who here can claim to add even an hour to his life by worrying?
Nor should you worry about clothes. Consider the lilies of the field and how they grow. They do not work or weave or sew, and yet their garments are stunning. Even King Solomon, dressed in his most regal garb, was not as lovely as these lilies. And think about grassy fields—the grasses are here now, but they will be dead by winter. And yet God adorns them so radiantly. How much more will He clothe you, you of little faith, you who have no trust?

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Here are some eight-year old statistics for you, the latest comprehensive statistics I could find quickly:
* In 2007, about 27 million adults, or 11.8 percent of adults ages 18 and older reported receiving treatment for anxiety and mood disorders.
* Medical spending to treat anxiety and mood disorders totaled $36.8 billion in 2007.
* Half of these expenditures ($18.4 billion) were in the form of prescription medications used to treat anxiety and mood disorders in adults.
* Annual expenditures on anxiety and mood disorders for those with an expense related to these disorders averaged $1,374 per adult.

Some reports I’ve seen since then show as many as 67% of Americans will seek treatment for mood disorders in their lifetime. 27% of Americans are in current active treatment for mood disorders of some kind. What does that tell you about how much we worry about tomorrow? About what we eat? Or what we wear? How much do we let things get to us today instead of trusting God to get us through life with Him? How much do we worry about things that just don’t really matter in the long run?

I mentioned my 95% Rule on the 21st of January if you want to go back and listen to the end of that podcast. In essence, it says 95% of everything that happens to us everyday just doesn’t matter. No one will remember tomorrow or the next day. Think about it. Can you recall the events of December 14th without looking back at a journal or diary? No one cares about what happened except as it pertained to your relationship with God and other people.

Can you understand what Jesus is trying to tell us? Don’t worry about the things the world tells you are so important because they’re not. Just like He tells us to lay up treasures that don’t rust and corrode, treasures that theives can’t break in and steal, He tells us to focus on the things that really matter, heavenly things, things of God. Throughout His sermon, Jesus bends our attention away from the material things of life and tells us to look inward. Look at our attitudes. How do we feel about others? How do we use the material things we have to help those in need? Do we hold those things as if they belong to us? Or do we realize they are God’s to use as He directs?

Will we hold the things of this life loosely so God can use us the way He wants? That the real message Jesus has for us. Don’t worry about the things you put on. Fashion changes to fast to keep up, anyway. And have you seen the stuff models wear? Who wants to go out in public with what comes down the fashion runway? Sometimes I think the designers have contests to see who can come up with the most comic, outrageous outfits. I’ve never seen any of those things on the streets of any city anywhere. Some of it looks like Sci-fi, fifty-first century trash.

And what should we eat? We get so caught up in the latest fad diets, butter is bad, not it’s good for you, no the report says maybe. Greens stop cancer, but wait, they might cause cancer, but only if there grown in Peoria under a blue moon. We get so tied up in what’s right and what’s wrong. The truth is, if we stick to a moderate diet of what God created, real vegetables, real meat, real fish and foul. We’d stay pretty healthy. It’s just hard to find stuff that is real now days. Everything is processed and fortified for our “health.”

Maybe God got it right in the first place. After all, He tells us not to worry about what to eat, doesn’t He? I think He probably knows what’s best if we would eat what He creates instead of what we recreate. Just a thought. What God really wants us to spend our time thinking about, meditating on is not what we will put in our mouths, or put on our bodies, but how will we fill that empty place in our soul? How will we satisfy that God sized empty spot in your soul? Will we try to satisfy it with the things of this world or with Him? That’s the question. Only you know your answer. What will it be? 

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.