Advent #1-Peace-Sermon afterthought

Peace, it is one of those words that is tossed around during the Christmas season. "We need to find our peace and discover it during this time of rapid activity", is what some would say. Others will state "that it is overrated and will never be had during this busy time". Some will shout "how can we have peace when there is war, famine, and world wide poverty that is killing millions each week". Peace, it is the controversial word that always comes up during the advent season. But for me I always go back and start first at what the Word of God says about something so lets take a look at a verse that talks about peace.

1 Timothy 2:1-2
"I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be made for everyone...that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness"

So Paul is urging us to live peaceful lives. So I would say then that a life full of peace should be found and chased after. We as lovers of Jesus know that this side of eternity true peace will not be found completely. There will always be wars, famine, poverty, and strife that stops peace because we live in a broken world full of sin, evil, and the work of Satan. But that should not stop us from living lives full of peace which is connected to godliness and holiness. OK so there is the ground work and starting point, we need to live lives of peace.

I will be the first person to tell you living a life of peace is a battle. Peace just like joy, love, and generosity are states of being that must be fought for and battled to keep in our lives. Peace does not come easy. Look at all the distractions, evils, and temptations that will keep us from experiencing true peace. But that is why we need to contend for peace and keeping it in our lives. The media, culture, world, others, and even ourselves will continually be telling us peace in our lives cannot be grasped. But the Bible says it differently. Peace can be attained and even kept in our lives but not without a fight. The battle for peace is a battle that takes place each day. It is a war that is fought hour by hour and even minute by minute but it is a fight that we need to contend as lovers of Jesus.

And look at this one verse from Timothy. Peace in our lives leads to godliness and holiness. These are 2 amazing things to have in our lives and descriptions to have of our character. Godliness and holiness are the most sought after and desired traits to have in one's life who truly loves Jesus. Peace in our lives will truly have amazing results. As I have been pondering the idea of peace I started to think of a few people I know that seem to keep winning the battle for peace. Peace in our lives will show to others. Others will know we keep winning the war for peace and then desire it in there lives also. Contend for peace, win the battle, keep it in life because it will have far reaching affects for the kingdom.

So winning the battle for peace is essential but again I will tell you, along with I think my wife, that I loose the battle for a peaceful spirit a,lot in my life. But here are a few things that I think will help in the contention for peace in our lives and Paul lays it right out for us in the verse above. First, a prayer life that's connected to God will grow and in effect bring peace in our lives. When we are continually taking what we are experiencing back to God and laying it at His feet to deal with, peace from that will come to replace some of the anxiety. A life of thanksgiving is the second step in the contention for peace. When we are thankful to God for what He gives us we will forget the current struggle and distraction in our lives. When we are thankful for the blessings God graciously gives in Jesus everything else pales. And I think a third step in battling for peace is, in saturate yourself in the Words of God. When we hear what God is telling us in His word, it will fill us with peace and draw us closer to His heart where true peace can be found.

A peaceful spirit and life of peace must be contended for and this time of year can and will magnify the desires for it but it will also hinder it and stop it more. We must contend, fight, battle, and even struggle for the life and spirit of peace because others will know and we will show what the true reason for the celebration is in Christmas. When we daily win the war for peace others will desire to be more in love with Jesus just like we are. I pray that you will experience some of the peace of God during this time so others will know about the baby and why He truly came.

Thanksgiving leftovers

Psalms 118:21 "I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation."

I pray everyone had a blessed thanksgiving and that we were all able to reflect and be thankful for the amazing God who loves us and lets us know He loves us. As I was pondering the holiday and then the fact Christmas is now weeks away I started to think about the correlation between thanksgiving and hope.

I shared a few days ago about what the focus of our thanksgiving should be. I believe that most Jesus lovers are very thankful people. Those of us who love Jesus truly are thankful for the ways He loves us. We are thankful for the blessings and gifts that God gives us, like our friends, family, material blessings, and spiritual blessings. We are truly a thankful people for how God showers acts of grace on us, His children. But has I pointed out in that post, we tend to miss a lot of the time that it is God that we should be thankful for. Yes, be thankful for the things He give us, but it should be focused primarily on who God is. Be thankful for the fact of God as the creator, sustainer, and Being we can have as a Father. To truly be thankful to God we must enjoy and bask in who God is and all that means. Be thankful for the blessings but more importantly be thankful for GOD and JESUS.

As, I was pondering the Christmas season coming up I began to think about hope also I am finding out in my life and the life of other Jesus lovers, we can fall into the trap of hope and the focus of hope the same way as thanksgiving. What should we hope in? I find in my life sometimes I am hoping in what God can do for me. I am hoping in the fact God can provide me with a better financial state, or a position in the ministry, or even little things like a better car. But when I am hoping in what God can do or change for me I miss the point. Yes, when I pray I should hope in what I am praying for and hope in God doing something for me, but I should be hoping in God. When I hope in God I should hope in who God is with all His attributes and qualities. I should hope in God and His love for me, His power to help me grow, His provisions for me, His answers for me. I should be hoping in all that God is and let Him do for me and my prayers what He desires. I find if I hope in what God can do, what happens when He sees it differently and acts differently then my hope? Hope in God so that my hope will never change or be crushed.

I find a connection here between my thanksgiving and my hope. Yes, it is good to be thankful and hope in what God can do, BUT WE NEED TO TRULY JUST BE THANKFUL AND HOPEFUL IN WHO GOD IS FOR US. That is a lesson and reminder that I need to preach to myself daily because then in all that God allows this life to throw at me, I will always be thankful for everything and hopeful in all of life.

I pray as we approach Christmas, our hope in God and in the power of His Son will grow.

Quotable Friday

"Sin is unwillingness to trust that what God wants is our deepest happiness"~St. Ignatius

Thanksgiving Assesment

1. Do you find it easier to complain than to give thanks?
2. Are you easily irritated and quickly impatient?
3. Do mundane hassles get under your skin?
4. Would the people who live nearest to you characterize you as a thankful person or a complaining person?
5. Do you look at your world and find many reasons to complain because things aren’t going your way?
6. Do you look at your world and find yourself blown away at the many reasons you have every day to give thanks?
7. Do you view yourself as one who has been constantly short-changed and neglected?
8. Do you view yourself as one who has been showered with blessings?
9. How often do you grumble “If only I had _____” or “I wish that _____ was different”?
10. How often do you whisper thanks to God or communicate thanks to those around you?

Here are 10 questions I was asked this week and have been praying about as I think of my thankful heart.

Thanksgiving desert

Colossians 2:6-7 "So then, just as you received Jesus Christ as Lord, continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness".

So I have often wondered, in a somewhat sinful way, how can I recognize a thankful person? How do I know if someone is thankful for what they have or not? As I ponder these questions, I think the real question that I am asking is, what is the result of thanksgiving in a person's life?

I think there are many ways a thankful person can reveal himself or herself to others. But I would like to focus on 2 important ways that a lover of Jesus will show others they are thankful in their heart. I want to highlight 2 results of thankfulness.

The first result that thankfulness brings into the life of a person is joy. Someone who is truly thankful for blessings from God, whether it is people or stuff, is the person finding great joy in what they have. If I am truly a joyful person, even if I have very little, I am thankful for it and find joy in every circumstance or gift given. A thankful person realizes that God is the great giver of gifts, starting with His Son, and they will find joy in everything that their Heavenly Father and loving Lord does and gives. Joy in a thankful person will emulate everywhere if they are thankful.

The second result of a person being thankful is generosity flowing from them. A person who truly is thankful for what they do have wants to share those gifts and blessing with others. They want to share with others next to them that might not have as much blessing and gifts A thankful person is also always looking to pour into others around them and shower them with the great blessings and gifts they have been given and ultimately share the thankful spirit with them. The flow of a generous spirit is always started at the fountain of thankfulness.

Both of theses results are also a great way to check the thankfulness level in our hearts. If we are struggling in the joy factor and are not feeling generous to others maybe we should start to be more thankful deep from within and let that thankfulness flow out for others to see in our joy and generosity.

Tomorrow I will have 10 questions for us to ponder on the Holiday! Enjoy and God bless this thanksgiving season.

Thanksgiving side dishes

Hebrews 12:28 " Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, "

When we truly stop and think for just a few moments we have a ton of things to be thankful for.

We can be thankful for our health; whether we have come through a trial this year, have not had any health problems this year, or are feeling good right now even as a health struggle is going on.

We can be thankful for the relationships in our lives; like a great friend that encourages and strengthens us, or a child that might bring us great joy, or even a spouse that loves us even in our worst moments.

We can be thankful for the material stuff in our lives; like a warm dry house, or a car that can take us places, or even a refrigerator that keeps the milk cold and the ice cream frozen.

We could be thankful for the job that drives us nuts sometimes.

We could be thankful for the church family the showers blessings on us.

We could be thankful for our freedom and the privilege it is to live in this time and place.

We can even be thankful for the small things in life; like I am thankful for the A I just received on the past essay test I took.

We have a lot to be thankful for and it might only take a few moments of thinking to come up with a dozen or more.

But what should be the true focus of our thanksgiving? God and God alone.

Who gave me the A on that test, or gave me the great friends, wife and kids? Who provided the job and gave me the house and car? Who's money is it that bought the tv or food I just ate? Who ultimately is providing the turkey and deep fryer to cook it in for Thanksgiving? God and God alone. Every blessing I have is given by God and He is the source for all I have. Yes, be thankful for people and things but God should be where the thanksgiving starts, stops, and always be.

So this Thursday as we are thankful for a ton of thinks and people, remember that God should be the focus of all the thanks we give because without Him and more importantly Jesus death, we have no reason to be thankful for anything.

Thanksgiving Turkey

Colossians 3:15 "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

Being thankful is a command in the Bible so over the next few days leading up to Thursday I want to reflect on a few things about thanksgiving and the spirit of being thankful. Tonight I want to focus on the purpose of thanksgiving and why the reason behind it is so important.

There are many reasons behind the idea of thanksgiving. There are many factors that can contribute to it and a lot of reasons we are commanded to be thankful. Being thankful will create a joyful people, it will stir in our hearts a love for God and others around us. But one of the biggest reasons for the command to be thankful is the perspective it brings.

When we are thankful for life, others, blessings, and the many great things we have, it will keep us in the right perspective. When I am thankful for the blessings from God it keeps me humble to realize what He does for me and what I could never do for myself. When I am thankful for friends and the joy I find in them, it keeps me in the right frame of mind where I cherish them and do not feel arrogant towards them. When I am thankful for family (especially my beautiful beloved) it keeps my mind focused on their needs and my perspective is set on them and not on my own life. When I am thankful for my health and the amazing life I have in this country, it keeps me in awe of the greatness of others in medicine or those who gave me my freedom.

What I believe is the correct perspective for thanksgiving is humility. To truly be thankful first we must be humble, it is a prerequisite. I find this to be true in my life. When I am arrogant, prideful, and focused on my own stuff, I am never thankful. But when I am stripped down and humbled, then and only then am I truly thankful for everything. When I am humbled to the point where I ask, "Why me", I find I can be truly thankful for the blessings that I do have. The less I have the more I seem thankful for what I do have. I have truly discovered that humility leads to truly being thankful.

So the purpose and command for being thankful is to drive us to our knees and be humble. Next time we find it hard to be thankful, first check the level of humility in our lives.

Worship

The gathering together of the church for worship is an act of reversal; it is an act of reversing our loves.
Perhaps you’ve heard the saying, “We don’t go to church to worship, we come to church already worshiping.” Our days are not marked with worshipless moments. We are always giving our hearts in worship towards some end — like running water that must move and wind around and fill up, worship is ever flowing out of us. When sin entered the garden, Adam’s and Eve’s worship wasn’t diminished, it was simply redirected.

Augustine defined sin as disordered love. Sin has everything to do with love. God created us to worship him as an end in himself, and he designed us to love people and this planet in a way that would magnify his goodness and greatness. Such a disposition would create the deepest happiness in our souls. But sin entered our hearts, and those loves became reversed. We now love the world and ourselves as an end, and we view God as a means to that end.

Our hearts have a God-designed relentless propensity to cleave and unite to God himself. But because of sin and its distortion of our loves, we glue these transient things to ourselves and perpetually tear our souls apart. However, when the Spirit of God awakens us to see our Father’s faithful love in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, he enables us to see Jesus as our glorious Savior. This divine gift of grace begins the reversal process in our souls, and everything we do from that point on is a progression of love and enjoyment and delight in God as the end for which we were created.

Gathering together as the church is one way we fight for ordered love in our hearts. When we come together, we prompt each other, “Look up! Behold our God!”

Spiritual Discipline

Most people already live according to an informal rule of Spiritual growth, especially those who desire and want to grow more in love with Jesus. But most people do this informally and do not have an intentional thought process in the growth of becoming more like Jesus and less like the world. Many years of my Christian walk with Jesus were spent like this, growing or desiring to grow but without any intentional thought to it. This resulted in not much growth or transformation into the image of Jesus. Thanks to three mentors and an accountability partner, now I have begun to understand what it means to grow more like Jesus and do it intentionally. If we are to grow more like Jesus we are to act like Him and speak like Him.  Jesus did everything intentionally. The intentional disciplines and rules in my life include the following; accountability partner, community, confession, prayer, devotional reading, Communion, mentoring, prayer partner, Sabbath, unity, family, silence and solitude, stewardship, and finally worship.

Gospel at the Center

This is a longer video but I loved it so much. I love the passion and stand of these 3 brothers. Very encouraging, uplifting and enlightening.

Sola=Alone

I hold doctrinally and Spiritually to the 5 Solas of the Protestant Reformation. The 5 points are a theologically summary of what separates my beliefs differently from many other who hold to church doctrine. These doctrines define not only what I believe but ultimately what I am about and where I turn in my life. They say everything about who I am as a person and how I view my Savior and God. These doctrine are the core of my life.

It is good once in awhile to remind ourselves what we believe so I want to remind us today of the 5 Solas. here they are:

Sola Scriptura
The Bible Alone is the rule and book for Life. The Bible is the only written divine revelation and alone can show us what to believe and how to know God.

Sola Fide
Faith alone is the only way to salvation. We are justified by faith alone and faith is the only way we are acceptable to God.

Sola Christus
Christ alone is the only mediator through whose work we are redeemed. Christ is the only salvation and the only human to ever live a perfect life for even one day.

Sola Gratia
Grace alone is the only way for salvation to happen. Our salvation rests solely on the work of God's grace for us.

Sola Deo Gloria
God alone be the glory. We exist, have life, salvation, a future, and Jesus becasue and alone for the glory of God. Everything that takes place exist for God glory and that is why we do what we do and for simply no other reason.

Do I worry?

We tend to worry about things in life because we are ignorant of who God is and the promises He has given us of His love and complete control over out lives. We need to respond to worry by studying the Bible.

When we worry it is a control issue. We want to be able to fix what is going on in our lives and control the circumstances that are happening to and around us. This is a selfish and a form of Idolatry in our lives. Instead we need to worship God by giving Him back the thrown of our lives and living in faith of Him, which will then result in us loving others first and desiring to serve those around us facing bad circumstances.

Worry is another form of being anxious and instead of it we need to be at peace with what God is doing.

We tend to worry sometimes because of our guilt about something, so instead of worrying we need to repent and turn it over to God.

We worry sometimes because of immoderation. We love this world to much and the things in it, which in turn can kill our joy if we are in bondage to this life and the worry it can bring.  So we should be generous with everything realizing that everything we have is God's and the only place to find joy is in the Lord. We should also kill our affections for this world and only focus them on God.

Worry can also happen when we worry about future blessings and passions for God. We instead of worrying about God's gifts we need to shout, I Trust God!

Worry can lead to confusion and deception in our lives, it can be a distraction to our mission. Worry leaves us vulnerable to other sins we could commit and ultimately worry makes us cowardice. So in response to worry we need to set our minds on and commit our lives to God. We need to be prepared and know God never said this life would be easy and with courage we need to keep remembering God's provisions in the past for us.

Satan leads us to worry because it can cause us crippling fear. So instead of worrying pray to Jesus.

Worry in the base form is an act of unbelief. So believe that Jesus loves us and does everything for our good.

Worry is finally a sin. So instead of sinning, do like Jesus commanded in Matthew 6:33-34 and Seek first the kingdom of God. 

Said the Raven to the Sparrow,
“I should really like to know
Why these anxious human beings
Rush about and worry so.”

Said the Sparrow to the Raven,
“Friend, I think that it must be
They have no Heavenly Father,
Such as cares for you and me."

Pray #1

I have been thinking a lot about prayer and the fact when we do pray we are tapping into the great power that exist, God. A great preacher once stated, "We can do more than pray, after we have prayed, but not until". What does that say about the importance of prayer?

That says that we must pray first. How can we do something or say something without having first tapped into God. Why do we try and live our lives without first going to God on our knees? Prayer is where life must begin and be at continually. When life gets hard go to prayer and ask God for strength. When life is easy pray and praise God for the blessing. When life is frustrating go to God and ask for patience. When life is challenging go to God and ask for peace. When someone hurts us go to prayer and ask for love. When the day is young go to prayer and ask for guidance. When the day is done pray and be thankful we made it through. When our body hurts go to prayer and ask for healing. When someone we love hurts pray and ask for their comfort. When someone's soul is on the brink of hell pray and ask for courage.

Pray is the power cord into the outlet of Jesus. Pray first, pray last, pray continually, pray boldly, pray fearlessly, pray pray pray. We cannot do anything without pray.

Envy

Envy is the craving to posses what another owns in order to fill our desperate emptiness. When we envy what someone has or is, we are trying to fill a hole in our heart that God should be filling. We want their contract, prestige, thin thighs, beautiful hair, or new Mercedes. And it is usually not enough to have something similar or slightly less than what they own, it has to be be something bigger, better, or more expensive. When a person looks deeper into the dark hole of envy in their lives, it is far worse than just the desire to better themselves. The deepest envy turns the person into an enemy and gets worse to the point that not only do we want something better or have more, we want to glow in their humiliation. The person becomes a rival with what we want and drives us to compete to eliminate them over what we want.

Envy is an act of sinful unbelief that God is far better than any person or possession. We eliminate envy by desiring more of God and enjoy Him more. We eliminate envy by loving the person rather than what they have. We can beat the temptation of envy by delighting and rejoicing with that person and showing them the affection of God. And ultimately we can defeat envy by delighting and being satisfied in God and what gifts and blessings He has given us.

Quotable friday

"Virtual (phone, social media, pc) community is no substitute for the intimacy of actual (face-to-face) community". ~ Matt Chandler

My Birthday Prayer

Holy Loving King
Thank you for who you are
Thank you for loving me and sitting on the throne of my life
Thank you for the ways over this past year you have shown me you are in control

As you know it has been another year of life for me
And you have given me many blessings this year
Thank you for 4 healthy and enjoyable children
Thank you for my better half that loves me to death and defends me with a passion
Thank you for my church family and my closets friends that have given me strength and encouragement
Thank you for the many blessings that I have even forgot that happened to me this past year

You know the challenges that have come into my life this year
I know that you have allowed them into my life for a reason
I pray as I look into the next year that the challenges from this past year will grow me more

I pray that this coming year Father, that you will give me strength to follow where you lead
Please give me the strength to be the husband who loves your gift with all patience
Help me Father to be a better father this coming year as I raise and guide your blessings to me
And Father, grow in me a desire to love you more this year

LORD I pray now that this coming year will be full of blessings but also challenges
because you know I seem to grow the most in adversity
So i pray as I look into this coming year of life that the coming storms will draw me closer to you
And I pray that those same storms will draw me closer to my wife and children as I follow your lead
Thank you for the ways you love me even now reminding  me as I talking with you

I pray that this next year I will honor and praise you as I chase after you
I pray that others will see my love for you over the next year even more
And I thank you for allowing me to love and talk with you about this past year
In Jesus powerful and loving name Amen

God's grace is sufficient

God's grace is sufficient for every circumstance. I had the privilege, blessings, and challenge of sitting in my first 8 hour class today for my new Master's program. I was not sure what to expect. I love learning and good theological discussion but like most people I have my limits. Thank you all for your prayers. It was an amazing day that was spent interacting with many others in different walks of their faith. We learned and talking about how we connect with God differently, what those connections mean for our faith, and how we can lead others in their different connections with God. We followed that up with a breakdown in the different stages of the walk of faith and journey. It was amazing to be able to interact with many others that have different background, traditions, and churches than I do. It was also a great blessing to learn from more mature and older followers of Jesus (I was the youngest in the class). Even though I know not everyone could handle and benefit from 8 hours in a classroom, it was invigorating and energizing to be able to do that for myself. I look forward and anticipate another 8 hours tomorrow and would covet all the prayers. These kind of days, I have come to learn, give me a taste for the day in the future when I will be able to ask and think deeply with God and my Savior Jesus, face to face. Oh what a glorious day that will be.

Teaching our Children

Being a dad now for close to 9 years has been exciting, brought me great joy, and has many challenges. I know I am not the world's best father, which drives me to always grow and improve, but I also know by the grace of God, I am not the world's worst father. As my beloved and I have been praying and talking homeschool with our children and I have been reminded many times over the last few weeks, I must teach and train my children. I must teach my children about God, Salvation, the church, the world, freindship, love, and the list can go on. As I have been praying and [plead with God to make me a better teacher to my children He has pointed out 3 important areas I need to improve in and I think many parents need to improve in. To teach our children is to love them and loving them requires 3 important things.

1-Time
Yes the quality of time matters and the argument that the quality is more important that time could be in fact true. But what if the quality was always good and just the time amount needed to improve. We can give our children time by always having them with us when we can or also by setting aside certain time each week to focus just on them. Either way our kids want to know that we know they are their and that they matter. Remember that God, as our Father, will always give us time and even when we were His enemies, He gave us the most important time of His life, His death. 


2-Genuinness
Our kids know when we are fake. Our kids know when we are distracted. My children always love it when I am honest and they love it even more when I say I am sorry. Being the big all perfect never making a mistake father does not work. We are sinful humans that need more of God's grace every day. What better way for our children to learn about God's grace that by seeing it in our need and through our eyes. We need to be genuine with our children no matter what. 


3-The heart
Finally, we need to love our children and teach them in their hearts. We need to nurture, grow, protect, and train our children's hearts for loving God and others. We can fill our kids head with knowledge but only through the heart will they be saved and learn to love others like Jesus.

Bible Knowledge

Biblical maturity is never just about what you know, it's always about how much grace is employed in what you have come to know that has transformed the way you live. Knowledge is an accurate understanding of the truth. Wisdom though, is understanding and living in light of how that truth applies to the situations and relationships of our daily life. We can have big theological brains, have entire books of the Bible memorized, yet have a major heart disease. Bad things happen when maturity is more defined by knowing than it is by being. We need to tell God to help us understand how to live in light of what He is continually teaching us. If our lives become more knowledge and less grace filled living I find 7 dangers to us.

1-Spiritual blindness
We are blinded to our own lives and we forget that the word of God is a mirror into our soul. We try to fix people and forget about ourselves and our own journeys and lives with God.

2-Self-Righteous
We begin to judge others and look at their lives compared to our knowledge. We forget to shine the light of the Word on our own soul and become prideful in what we know and what we see in others.

3-Lack a Devotional heart
Our hearts start to become hard and we forget what grace is. We become so hard and dysfunctional that we have forgotten the greatest commandment, which is to love God and love others. We have forget what love is.

4-Forgotten Gospel neediness
We then forget why Jesus even died. We know it all yet never tell ourselves the Gospel anymore and have forgot then cross completely. We begin to make Jesus our God after our image.

5-Impatient with others
We have come to judge others and when others do not fit into our knowldge and our understanding we push them away and want nothing to do with them. We begin to hold others to a standard of living that we want and start to hold others sins and mistakes against them.

6-The "I" focus
All of a sudden when we have knowledge without grace, out faith become about us and I and me. If others
including God do not fit into what I see we move on.

7-No more communal living
Our knowledge drives us away from others and then ultimately from God. We have begun a disconnect and it results in a disconnect from others in the faith and finally from Jesus and our relationship to Him. We have become scholars of our won religion.

So, do we amass head knowledge without letting it saturate, infiltrate, change, and mold us? We can know Scripture, but it must change us and allow us to love God deeper, love others more graciously, and drive us to our knees. That is the reason God gave us His word, to mold us into the image of His Son, not make us smarter.

My Perfect Sabbath

So what would my Sabbath day of delight and joy look like? I would begin my day by waking up early and watch the sunrise. I would then enjoy a rich cup of coffee while I study and delight in reading the Word of God. I would most likely have a good book on the topic, doctrine, or commentary on the passage of Scripture I would be feasting on as I enjoy my coffee and God life giving word. After enjoying and delighting in God word and enjoying my relationship with Him through my intellectual temperament, I would seek to enjoy God through His church. I am a Pastor so my Sabbath would include time spent learning, worshiping, fellowshipping, and enjoying God with my faith family. Gathering with my faith family is a huge delight for me and as I am much fresher and more patient in the mornings, being with them then and delighting in my relationships with my church family as we together enjoy God, our Father. After a great morning of worship as part of my Sabbath, I would look to enjoy great food with a smaller group of friends. I would spend time with a group of friends, a family from my church or another couple in my life. We would enjoy great food that my wife would make since she loves to cook and is amazing at, and I would enjoy this food as I enjoy beautiful company in a great relationship.

In my Sabbath of joy, after a great lunch meal with friends, I would look to spend more time talking, fellowshipping, sharing what God is doing with these great relationships over another cup of coffee. Later on in the day as the evening would draw closer I would look to spend some intimate time just talking and enjoying my wife and family. I love my children and they bring me so much joy as gifts from God. So being able to spend time with them around a meal, like macaroni and cheese, brings me great delight and would be a perfect way to spend the last meal of my Sabbath of joy. After the children go to bed I would end my twenty-four hours of joy and delight with my beloved, or wife. We would talk of the delights of the day, discuss what God is doing in our lives, what we learned that day from Him, and enjoy spending some quiet intimate time reading a good book or God’s word over the last great cup of coffee. I would fall asleep that night feelings full satisfied in my great day spent enjoying God, and His eternal gifts that would give me a foretaste of the eternal Sabbath to come.

My Deepest Joy

What would I do for a twenty-four hour period of time if the only criteria was to pursue my deepest joy? This is a question posed to me in the book Sabbath by Dan Allender. This is a question that ever believer in Jesus should answer at certain points in their lives. Allender posses this question, about joy, in relation to the topic of the Sabbath. He states that the Sabbath must be a 24 hour period that is a delight in God, which is lead by the fact in that what we enjoy the most should be God and a delight in Him. John Piper states this idea of delighting in God with the fact that God is most glorified in His children when they are most satisfied in Him. We as humans are most satisfied when we are the happiest and filled with joy. The Apostle Paul makes it clearest when in his letter to the church at Philippi he commands them to rejoice in the Lord.

So what would I do for my Sabbath rest, fullest joy, and satisfaction in God? For me, I find my greatest joy in the blessings and gifts of God that are eternal. Yes, I find joy in many blessings from God that are not eternal but I find that a fuller joy and something that I would choose would come in the gifts from God that last, for eternity. When I mean blessings and gifts from God, I mean virtually anything. Anything that we, God’s children have, is a gift from God. Our jobs, cars, houses, retirements, health, sports teams, and many other material things, are gift from God but they are gifts that fade and do not last. These gifts and blessings are nice and have brought me much joy and happiness, like when my son was born the day before the Steeler's won the Super Bowl. But these are not the blessings that I find the most satisfaction and joy in God with. It is the eternal that I find true joy and delight in God.

So what blessings would I chose to experience for the twenty four hour Sabbath delight in God? I find my greatest joy in the blessings from God that are eternal, blessings like relationships, worship, acts of compassion, generosity, and exposing the beautiful words of God. It might wound weird and not like an American Sabbath but I would spend my twenty-four hour period of full joy enjoying others as we delight in God and His work in our lives. My wife and I have very close friends that we love to spend time with and when we are together, as our children play together, we sit around, eat amazing food, enjoy good conversation, and love each other as we delight in one another and God in our lives. As much as my wife and I are introverts and feel exhausted by large groups of people, including our faith family, I find that some of the most satisfying times are spent with them, as I celebrate God in worship, teach them what God continues to teach me in His word, and serve the hurt broken world, or even care for each other. These are some of the greatest times of joy in my life and I believe some of the deepest times of satisfaction and joy in God, the One who created these relationships and blesses me with the chance to love others and Him.

2 more little foxes

Song of Solomon 2:14-15
"My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places on the mountainside, show me your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely. Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom."

These 2 simple verses can teach us a lot of Biblical truths and important aspects of a Godly honoring and caring man. The first thing I have to ask is, do you compliment your wife on everything amazing about her that God has created? This women you made a covenant with is a beautiful unique creation and masterpiece of God. Do you realize that? God has designed her with amazing care and creativity. God crafted her after His inner peace and holiness and then after He designed her, He gave her to you as His daughter and gift to care for and protect. These verses remind us men that we need to compliment and admire the beauty that God has created in her. Does your beloved have a sweet voice? Does she have rich deep full eyes of compassion? Is she an amazing cook? Does she raise and guide your children worthy and honoring of God? Does she listen, respect and follow you? How has God created an amazing gift for you in your wife? I guarantee that God has created a masterpiece in your wife, so you need to let her know what you admire and love about her. Compliment her, tell her, show her, remind her, make sure that your beloved knows the aspects about her that are truly awesome and compliment her all the time.

#1- Our jobs. Point blank what comes first in our lives says a lot about who we are as men of God. God had better come first in your life but after Him, it had better be your wife not your job. She had better know that she is first and her love is the most important physical thing in this life. Your job is a big hungry fox that will destroy your love and covenant in a single bite.

#2- Kids. What comes first, the kids or the covenant? The Bible says the covenant with our beloved comes first followed by the multiplying of children. So your covenant with her has to be first and stay first. Children can consume so much of our time and energy but they will grow up and move out and then what happens? The kids are a deep love of our lives and will always hold a special place but they should never be before the covenant we made with our better half.

Here are 2 visible external foxes that can eat away at the covenant love in our marriages. You might have know them but maybe you never thought about them that way.

The Sabbath

Dan Allender in his great book on the Sabbath states, "Sabbath is not about time off or a break in routine. It is not a mini-vacation to give us a respite so we are better prepared to go back to work. The Sabbath is far more than a diversion; it is mean to be an encounter with God's delight". I agree with this statement wholeheartedly. As a father, husband, and Pastor my Sabbath has been challenged very well by Allender. For years I viewed the Sabbath as merely another day to set aside in the week to get rest. If my Sabbath did not include a nap, laying around watch tv, and getting away from the stress of the busy week with kids, I felt it was wasted.

I have discovered now that the Sabbath is about God and delighting in God. When we find our joy and delight in God, a natural rest, relaxation, and overflow of the true Sabbath happens. Allender in the book also explains that the Sabbath is mean to look back on creation and look forward to the new creation. Sabbath is about God, His beauty, majesty, and delighting in our relationship with God. I discovered that I was making my Sabbath about me and me alone, rather than God. Allender has challenged that the Sabbath is about God and God alone and He created the Sabbath for us to enjoy Him more and deeper. God took a Sabbath to rest not becasue He was exhausted but becasue He wanted to enjoy and delight in His creation. God then commands us to observe the Sabbath to, so we also can enjoy and delight in Him, each other, and creation.

Simply put, Allender hits the nail on the head, the Sabbath is about God. The Sabbath was given to us by God for us to enjoy Him. The Sabbath is a gift from the Creator so we have more time and a set purposeful day to enjoy the Giver of the Sabbath gift.