Broken Covenant

This morning my wife and I were at the orthopedic surgeon’s office. While in the waiting room I couldn’t help but overhear the conversation between a husband and wife. Apparently the husband was supposed to undergo an MRI and had taken an anti-anxiety medication in advance. The office assistant had advised the couple that they would have to wait a bit. After they learned that they would have to wait, the man’s wife was trying to reason with her husband about sharing information with the medical team about his having already taken his medicine. He became nasty toward his wife and ultimately said, “Why don’t you use your brain?” He said it loud enough for anyone around to hear. She got up and walked out. He muttered, “Guess I’ll have to find a ride home.” I sat and stared at this oaf wondering why she would tolerate his antics. He just kept looking down at his phone all the while texting and griping.

The marriage covenant is very simple. You both agree to, “love, honor and cherish as long as you both shall live.” When that or any other portion of the covenant is broken the covenant that the husband and wife made with God and one another is now broken. This man needs to repair the damage that he has done to his wife. His belligerent and condescending behavior toward his wife was a despicable act. I pray God’s healing on their relationship, his repentance and for his wife’s safety and assurance.

Temptation

Matthew 4:1-4, “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Satan is active in this world and life. He won’t stop until he is stopped by Jesus Christ at His Second Coming (or Parousia). As we can tell from reading from Matthew, Jesus was hungry after fasting for forty days and nights. Most of us would be hungry after a one day fast (me included). Satan used Jesus’ hunger as a moment of perceived ‘weakness’ to lure Jesus into his snare and engage Him for his purposes rather than to serve God as Redeemer and Restorer. Jesus put a very quick halt to Satan’s march and gives us in this lesson an understanding of what it takes to live into God’s expectation of us, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” We cannot survive merely with sustenance for the physical we are composed of a spiritual self or soul that requires spiritual food or sustenance that only comes from God through Jesus Christ.

Prayer: Loving God, You have made us in Your very image to be fed by Your very hand and desire. Feed us with Your holy will and by Your loving heart. Lead us into Your perfect Way, Jesus Christ, for it is in Jesus Name that we pray. AMEN.

Ohio golfer's scorecard confession earns accolade

“Ohio golfer's scorecard confession earns accolade
Published: 1/24/10, 4:25 PM EDT

MOUNT GILEAD, Ohio (AP) - A scorecard confession that cost an Ohio high school golfer the state championship five years ago has earned him a national sportsmanship of the decade award. Adam Van Houten (HOW'-ten) of Mount Gilead High School in north-central Ohio had finished the 2005 state high school golf championship with a seven-stroke lead when he noticed a mistake on his card. A playing partner had written down a 5 for the 10th hole instead of 6. Van Houten pointed out the mistake to officials and was disqualified because he'd already signed the card. Five years later, Van Houten's act has won him a spot on Sports Illustrated's sportsmanship of the decade list. Van Houten is now a sophomore on the golf team at George Mason University near Washington.”

Information from: News Journal, http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com//

Character is what you do when no one is watching. This young man is a credit to his family and his integrity adds a measure of respect for his athletic endeavor. Praise God for him and for Sports Illustrated for recognizing integrity.

Vengeance is Mine

Deuteronomy 32:35-36, “Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; because the day of their calamity is at hand, their doom comes swiftly. Indeed the LORD will vindicate his people, have compassion on his servants, when he sees that their power is gone, neither bond nor free remaining.”

One of the great challenges in life is to not take vengeance. In 1782, Pierre Ambroise Francios Choderios de Laclos wrote, “Revenge [vengeance] is a dish best served cold.” He didn’t attend to what God said that revenge [vengeance] belongs to God alone. Often we want to get even or even up the score or regain wholeness; and our method in doing so is exacting revenge [vengeance] on those who hurt us. If it is justice that we seek, then seek justice and let God serve the revenge [vengeance], else our souls will be in mortal danger.

Prayer: Father, thank You for today and for Jesus Christ who came to save us and to be our judge. Help us get into Your Way and desire for us. Let revenge and vengeance alone be Your province. In Jesus’ Name we pray. AMEN

Current Rage

The current rage in politics is Senator-elect Scott Brown of Massachusetts. Why? I believe the answer to why he is the current rage is the current rage of the American electorate. Americans are angry at elected officials who choose to ignore us and not do what we asked them to do. America is not Europe. While many of our ancestors came from Europe the reason many left Europe to begin with was to get away from Europe. Some of our ancestors are from Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East. Every one of our ancestors came here to get away from the status quo of Euro-imperialism and bigotry. The exceptions are those who came as indentured servants and slaves. America came to its being through a harsh struggle at times tearing itself apart to remake itself. But here we are in 2010 where a black man is the sitting president and the nation is angry not because the president is black but because he and the rest of the political elitists and statists have decided that we aren’t intelligent enough to know what is good for us so they are going to ram what’s good for us down our throats and we get to like it.

Guess what? The most liberal and Democrat state in the union, Massachusetts, just elected a conservative Republican as the new senator to fill the seat held by the most liberal senator on the floor. Scott Brown is every man, woman and child in this nation who seeks her or his own way through self-determination not governmental central planning in its nanniest of states. He made an interesting comment that he is the 41st vote but so is every other Senator who chooses liberty over tyranny. CINCO (comrade-in-chief-Obama) said that Scott Brown was swept into office for the same reason that he was. That’s a lie! CINCO has spent so much time believing all the god-terms associated with his candidacy and qualifications that he suddenly believes that every man, woman and child thinks as he does.

This is rage against your Chicago-style politics as usual CINCO. Get over your self-indulgent, self flattery and land the ship of state in reality. You have failed miserably in every endeavor that you and the Demokrat party have taken this Nation.

Congratulations Massachusetts for having the presence of mind and conscience to say no to this political recklessness and to show America that there is still a tree of Liberty in your hearts.

First Fruit

Leviticus 23:9-11, “The LORD spoke to Moses: Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you and you reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. He shall raise the sheaf before the LORD, that you may find acceptance; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall raise it.”

What is our first fruit? It is our salary, income, receipts for services, proceeds from the sale of an item or property and it represents the pre-tax amount or gross sale. The tithe is part of the first fruit and it is one-tenth. This long ago was given to Moses by God to remind us of the source of our abundance. Some in ministry abuse the giving practice and have at heart a monument building intent. These individuals are no different from those in Jerusalem whose intent was strengthening their coffers for the purposes of riches and power. God’s intent for the first fruit offering is a reminder of the source of mercy and an honor to God. Let us remember what God has done and let us honor God by keeping this ordinance.

Prayer: Father we thank You for all that we have received in Your mercy. Forgive us we pray when we fail to remember and help us to become better stewards and more faithful in our attention to Your ordinances. In Jesus’ Name we pray. AMEN.

Holy Days and Holy Ways

Leviticus 23:1-8, “The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: These are the appointed festivals of the LORD that you shall proclaim as holy convocations, my appointed festivals. Six days shall work be done; but the seventh day is a Sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation; you shall do no work: it is a Sabbath to the LORD throughout your settlements. These are the appointed festivals of the LORD, the holy convocations, which you shall celebrate at the time appointed for them. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, there shall be a Passover offering to the LORD, and on the fifteenth day of the same month is the festival of unleavened bread to the LORD; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not work at your occupations. For seven days you shall present the LORD’S offerings by fire; on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation: you shall not work at your occupations.”

After bringing the people of the House of Jacob (Israel) out of Egypt and into the wilderness God spoke to Moses to have the people set apart celebrations and remembrances of God’s acts in redemption of Israel. So holy were these times of remembrance that no work could be done. These celebrations and worship of God were held in the same regard as the Sabbath. Over time the House of Jacob would turn these days into such perfunctory performances that the worship of God was driven out replaced with ‘duty and obligation.’ What God did for Israel should have been held in the deepest of reverence and love yet the people of Israel had a way of corrupting the holiest of days into duty when what God wanted was worship and love and honor. How do we honor God today? Do we make others work so we won’t have to? Or do we set aside the Holy days of god for God worship?

Prayer: Eternal and loving God thank You for the day that wasn’t promised. Turn our thoughts, words and deeds back to you. Help us live Your expectation of us. In Jesus’ Name we pray. AMEN.