Let It Be According To Your Word

Luke 1:38 And Mary said, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your

word." And the angel departed from her.

This is the time of year which draws us out to go shopping for Christmas gifts for family and friends.  We do our shopping after a good deal of checking where to get the best bargain for our hard earned dollar.  But, there comes a point where we have to end the research, thinking, etc. and just move forward and buy something.  Failure to actually buy is the result of analysis paralysis where nothing ever gets done.  But there is never a point where we stop praying.

How do you live your life?  Do you do things on impulse?  Do you only act after lots of thought and analysis?  Is there a delicate balance of impulse and analysis?  Regardless of how you live your life there is an important aspect we need to go over.  The words of Mary from Luke 1:38 are something we need to ponder deeply.  We need to stop what we are doing and give this some serious consideration, and prayer.  Can you and I honestly say we live our lives according to His Word?  I was listening to K-LOVE the other morning and there was this amazing statistic about what were the most searched things on the Yahoo search engine website.  The number two thing searched for is “Free”.  People are going out there looking for free stuff.  I don’t remember what was number one, it was at 5:00 AM and did not click.  But right after the announcers told the listeners what was number two a caller shared something that really stuck with me. The caller said she likes free stuff, especially her salvation that is freely given by God our Father because Jesus paid for it with His blood on the cross. There I was sitting in my car listening to a radio program and, right out of the blue comes this simple, yet elegant explanation of our salvation.  There it was in simple terms, GRACE.  By the GRACE of God we are saved, lest anyone try to boast. It is free, no charge, and there’s no tax on the gift.  Jesus has already paid for it.  And we can spread the good news of this free gift. It’s not like those slick TV advertisements that say “This offer is limited to the first 100 callers.”  It is not like we have to be saved by doing a bunch of rituals and things. This is too simple to be true for some who are cynical in their nature. Regardless of what doubters say, it is free.  And our salvation is according to His Word.  We can live our lives just as His Word tells us to by loving God with our heart, minds and souls.  We can love one another as we love ourselves.  We can share the good news of GRACE.  That is what His Word tells us to do. Is it too simple?  My question to you is why complicate it when there is no need to?  Nothing is gained by piling things on top of the simple principle of GRACE.  I have one closing thought for you that comes from His word in Romans 16:20 “The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.”

PRAYER: Lord God Almighty, we thank You for our lives. We thank You for Your grace that saves all who come to the cross of salvation. We thank You for the Words You have given us to educate, strengthen, and comfort us.  We ask in our lives that it be according to Your Word. We ask this in the name of Jesus who with the Father and the Holy Spirit reign supreme. One God, now and for ever.  Amen 

I Am The Servant Of The Lord

Luke 1:38 And Mary said, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your

word." And the angel departed from her.

There are many parts of being a parent that are to say the least, a bit difficult. Chief among those has to be letting your children make their own mistakes and allowing them to recover from those mistakes on their own.  By that I mean we offer advice, counsel, a listening ear before during and afterwards. But at some point we have to help them grow and build character by not stepping in.

Where were we? Oh yes, Andy had recently arrived at the jail in Fort Lewis. Well, I have to tell you that we have had some interesting conversations.  I cherish those conversations. We can for a brief period talk openly about what he is going through, what he is feeling, and how he is coping. A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to visit with Andy face to face. There was not a dry eye in the room.  But this is the thing for Andy and I to accept and to cherish. He is right where God needs him to be to reach him.  He is going through some very tough times. He is in the refiners’ fire being forged and shaped for something that is to follow. See the words of the Italian prophet (thank you Pastor Dinger for that one) Malachi 3: 2-4.  We all are being refined throughout our own lives and experiences.  I can without hesitation tell you that I would not have chosen the path Andy is on as the path to bring his faith to fruition.  But God is in charge of this and I am not. God knows what it takes to reach Andy and He knows what it takes to reach each of us.  Some of us may need to hear a booming voice from the sky, or see a burning bush. Still others need something small or seemingly insignificant like hearing a quiet voice calling out “here I am.”  Regardless of what it takes, we can all reach the point in our lives that Mary reached in speaking with the Angel.  We all can say “I am the servant of the Lord; let it be according to your word.”  It comes from what is called faith.  And our faith comes from the same God we need to have faith in.  Jesus on the cross told his Father (see Luke 23:46) “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”  He trusted his Father. We too must trust God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit because the Triune God knows far better than we can ever know what is best for us.  What this boils down taking that leap of faith we must take. We must all come to the same realization as Mary.  We are the servants of God.  In that capacity the possibilities are limitless and the impossibilities are vanquished.

I do not know the rest of the Andy and Forest story because that is still being written. The author for that story is one I trust for a good ending.  One thing we all can be sure of is we are not alone because God is right there by our side.  And friends of the risen Savior that is all that matters.  “Jesus rebuked the wind and said to the sea Peace! Be still! and the wind ceased and there was a great calm.” (Mark 4:39)  Jesus is who we need to trust and turn to when the seas of our life are raging around us.

PRAYER: Lord and giver of life, You comfort us in times of struggle. You have been and will always be there for us. On this day and every day we give thanks for the directions You give us in our lives. And when the road before us is dark and rocky, you are there to lighten our burden and guide us with Your light. We thank You for Your Son, the Light of our world. It is in His name that we pray. Amen

With God All Things Are Possible

Luke 1:37 “For nothing will be impossible with God.”

For the past several years I have been praying for something. It seemed like an important thing to begin praying for at the time.  The way that events unfold in our lives at times leave little to doubt that they are a “God Thing.” We know that without the intervention of God some things just will not happen. What I prayed for has come to be. And for that I thank God through whom all things are possible. Amen.

This is going to be a story of faith about Andy (my son) and Forest (me). Andy was a slightly rebellious child. His mother and I called him Bear because he could be stubborn, obstinate, and just plain bull-headed at times. I am not sure where he gets that from ;-) Nonetheless he is my son and I love him. He sometimes had a difficult time with life as the child of divorced parents. He joined the US Army the day he turned 18, much to our disappointment. His mother and I tried to talk him into many other things and any other branch of the armed service. But Andy did things his own way. He was, and always will be in my prayers.  I have prayed for his faith to return to what it was when he was a young child.  I have prayed for his safety while he was in boot camp and jump school. I just do not understand why someone would want to jump out of a perfectly good airplane.  And then he was deployed to Afghanistan. There were more prayers for his safety and for his faith to not be shaken by what he could and would experience while at war. We would chat of Facebook, and I tried to point him to prayer and study of the Word with every opportunity. He would always tell me that he was praying. I can honestly say I was not convinced it was happening.  I knew he was a young man standing in harms way and many things could happen to destroy his faith.  One day I received a phone call from his brother Matthew asking me if I had heard what had happened to Andy. This is never the way for a good conversation to start.  Matthew told me that Andy stood accused by the Army of murdering an innocent unarmed Afghani man.  My life came to a screeching halt. Time stopped for me for a while. How could this be?  Why was this going on?  These and a million other questions popped into my brain along with prayers, and more prayers.  It was several weeks before I was able to talk to Andy.  He told me he was innocent of what he was accused of. We talked about his faith and prayer life.  I was not left with the impression that it was much different than before.  He finally was transferred to a military jail in Fort Lewis Washington and several weeks after arriving in Fort Lewis he was able to give me a call.  And the most amazing thing happened.  He told me that “maybe his life had to come to a screeching halt for God to get through to him.”  I am glad I was sitting down for that one.  He told me he was spending lots of time reading his bible and asked where I thought he should start to focus his reading.  A thought popped into my head, ROMANS! So I told Andy to look closely at Romans. The apostle Paul wrote it while in prison, maybe it would click with Andy. A few weeks later he told me it had clicked.  Praise God through whom all blessings flow!  I can without out hesitation tell you that I would not have chosen this as a path to faith for Andy. But I am not God, only God is God and he knows best what to do for Andy I just have to have faith because with God all things are possible.

More on this story to come in the next devotional.

PRAYER:  Thank You Father for Your miracles, great and small. Thank You for Your gift of Faith regardless of how it is delivered. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen