Pastor Jesse's Blog
 
Every week, Pastor Jesse will be posting a new blog, so come back weekly and see what he has to say!
 
Integrity
Monday, November 26, 2007
 
In reading Daniel this morning I came across the famous story of Daniel and the Lion’s den. For those of us who have been in the church since childhood this is a story that most of us could recite without even reading the passage out of Daniel 6. That actually can be a great determinate to us because when we come to passages like this one we can read them so fast because we are so familiar with the story that we miss some of the great challenges of the story.

Here is the story in case you are not familiar with it. Darius, basically the new king of the world, set up his kingdom with 120 governors to rule throughout the kingdom and 3 administrators (Daniel was appointed as an administrator) to rule over those 120 governors. Everything Daniel touched or did resulted in great success. Because of this Darius decided to set Daniel in charge of the whole kingdom. At this, many of the other governors and administrators were filled with jealousy so they plotted to bring Daniel down. These verses are the ones we can sometimes overlook:

At this, the administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so. They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. Finally these men said, “We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God.” Daniel 6:4-5
The question for us is what if someone dug as deep as they could into our lives to bring us down? Could they find a deficiency in how we handle everyday affairs at work, home, school, etc.? This is the part that amazes me about Daniel. Not only did he live life with incredible integrity in all of his affairs but his enemies decided that the only way to bring him down was to create a law that went against the law of the God he followed. Think about that. He was so faithful and consistent to God that they knew if they outlawed even a small part of being faithful to God Daniel would not compromise. This was the only way they could bring him down. That is the challenge for you and for me. The question isn't just are we living above reproach in everyday affairs but are we so consistent in our obedience of God that if someone wanted to bring us down that would be the only way an enemy could do it? I don't know about you, but that is an incredible challenge.
 
posted by jesse at 10:10 AM  
 
Let's Move
Monday, November 19, 2007
 
Yes, there are times in which God is just telling us to wait. Wait on me. We desperately want to move forward, in any direction, but God is just telling us to be patient and wait. I find this very difficult but there have been many times in my life in which I have ignored his voice and wished I would have just waited. With that said, though, there are many times in a person’s life in which God just wants us to move. Some of us are built in such a way that we need to have all the information and all the angles calculated before we take action. The problem with this is God so often tells us to trust in him and with that statement usually does not come a blueprint of future events. And so, we wait. We do nothing even though we feel God nudging us to move forward but because we don’t have knowledge of exactly what to do or how it will all exactly turn out, we do nothing.

Ecclesiates 11:4 speaks to this, “If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done.”

To be honest there were some times when I was working with college age students that I was very frustrated with some of them because they were waiting for God to give them the exact college to go to, the exact career to pursue, the perfect job opportunity, the exact girl or guy to marry, and that list could go on but because they didn’t have the exact answer from God they would do nothing. The problem with that kind of pursuit of God is that it isn’t how he usually works with us. He has laid out Godly living for us in scripture, he has given us a mind to discern and he often allows us to make our decision within his boundaries. This, for some, is very difficult because they want to know exactly what God wants them to do. So the wisdom of Solomon speaks to us today, “If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done,” and “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight (Proverbs 3:4-5).” God doesn’t always give us exactly what we are supposed to do but within his scriptural boundaries he is often nudging us to move forward. So, if that is you today, I would encourage you to look at your circumstances, to pray, to read scripture, to get advice from Godly men and women, and then move forward. It may be scary but I promise that God is in control.
 
posted by jesse at 11:08 AM  
 
Pleasant Words
Monday, November 12, 2007
 
When I read through Proverbs I often get frustrated because although every verse is full of such incredible life changing wisdom I can’t remember them all! So, as I have said before, I try to mark just a few in every chapter that I want to keep at the front of my mind for that day. Proverbs 12:4 was one verse that I marked during this specific journey through Proverbs to meditate on:

A worthy wife is her husband's joy and crown...
It would be easy for all of us to read a verse like this and just keep on reading. I will be honest I was tempted to do the same because chapter 12 had so many other proverbs that were so applicable to life but I decided to camp on this verse for a moment or two. I re-read it a few times and then spent some time thanking God for my incredible wife. Now it would have been easy to leave it there but I decided to e-mail my wife this verse and let her know what a joy and blessing she is to me. You know how long it took me to write that note, about 3 minutes! Probably the best 3 minutes I spent all day.

If you are married I encourage you to take some time today to write a short e-mail or note sharing with your spouse how blessed your are to be married to them. Even if you are going through a difficult time in your marriage find something that is good about that person and let them know how thankful you are for that something. If you aren’t married I would encourage you to take a moment today and pick a person who has been a great encouragement to you of late and let them know it. If you have kids I would encourage you to do the same with them. Receiving a note of love for no other reason other than to communicate their worth is an incredible blessing to people. Those 3 minutes will probably make more impact on the people's lives around you than any other minute you spend today.

Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. Proverbs 16:24
 
posted by jesse at 10:57 AM  
 
Coin Collector Christian
Monday, November 5, 2007
 
I have really enjoyed the Daily Walk Bible that I am reading through this year. I have enjoyed it because it is the New Living Translation and the way that it is written puts passages that I have read many times into a new perspective for me, it allows me to read through the Bible Genesis to Revelation instead of giving me a little Old Testament, a little New Testament, and a Psalm and proverb for each day (just a personal preference) and it has a devotional on the passage that I am reading that day for instant life application. This last week the devotional before Jeremiah 40-45 really challenged me and instead of recreating a blog this week I thought it would be good to just share with you what I read. Maybe, just maybe, you will be challenged as well:

Are you a “coin-collector Christian”? It is common practice today for a coin and stamp collectors to buy merchandise on “approval.” That is, the company will send samples of coins or stamps through the mail. The buyer looks them over, keeps the ones he or she wants to buy, and returns the rest. If the buyer doesn’t like what is sent, he or she just sends it all back. Some Christians view God’s will that way! They pray, “Lord, show me what you want me to do.” And when he does, they decide whether they want to do all of it, part of it, or none of it! After the fall of Jerusalem, the survivors came to Jeremiah and asked him to pray for them. They wanted to know God’s will “on approval.” They were looking for God to rubber-stamp what they had already decided to do: flee to Egypt! And when the answer came back no! They went anyway, with disastrous results. Take a moment to examine a decision you’re wrestling with in prayer. Are you seeking God’s will “on approval,” or are you willing to go wherever he guides?
I was deeply impacted by this short devotional. Then I read Jeremiah 42 and was even further challenged as I say the people of Israel cry out for God’s will, “Whether we like it or not, we will obey the Lord our God to whom we send you with our plea. For if we obey him everything will turn out well for us.” Yet when Jeremiah gave them God’s word they didn’t like it so they didn’t obey. My prayer for you and for me is that when we cry out for the Lord’s will and he reveals it, that we would obey it all! Amen.
 
posted by jesse at 10:18 AM  
 
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