Dirty Dishes

“There is really only one thing worth being concerned about.
Mary has discovered it—and I won’t take it away from her.”

Luke 10:42

The story is about two sisters who had very different priorities: all Mary could think about was getting to spend time with Jesus while Martha was consumed with all the preparations that were needed. As the story goes on, Martha’s frustration boiled over and she went to Jesus expecting to find a sympathetic ear to her plight of doing all the work by herself while her sister just sat around. Instead, she was given a lesson on perspective that we all could use a refresher course on.

Perspective is defined in the dictionary as this: a way of regarding situations, facts, etc, and judging their relative importance; the proper or accurate point of view or the ability to see life objectively.

Jesus response to Mary could be summed up this way: Mary, you’re worried and troubled, you’ve gotten yourself all worked up and all because you’ve lost your perspective on what is most important. The germ for thinking on perspective was planted Saturday here in Manila as I looked out over a packed sanctuary of people who had come for a seven hour seminar to hear a pastor from Chesterfield Michigan speak on the Lord’s Prayer. Tack on an hour before and after battling Manila traffic and they were investing nine hours of their Saturday to hopefully learn something that would help them in their walk with the Lord and in their desire to be fruitful in their families, local churches and communities.

People who had dirty dishes waiting for them in the sink at home, laundry that needed to be done and meals to be prepared had a perspective on the relative importance of how they spent their time that caused them to choose spending the day learning more about prayer. Here’s the lesson: perspective determines priorities, how we spend our time, finances and energy, and our perspective can be wrong. Let’s make sure that our perspective focuses on what is really important in life!

God Bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

Taking Up Running

In an effort to encourage you to take up running as an everyday practice, I have no delusions of grandeur. I realize that it’s going to take some pretty powerful imagery to get us off the couch and into the habit of running. So let’s get started:

The most recent International House of Pancakes commercial is for their endless stack of pancakes, all you can eat pancakes. The camera zooms in on 4 pancakes stacked high, fluffy and golden brown, the vestiges of melting butter clearly visible with the maple syrup glistening as it covers the pancakes. The stack is cut into quarters, with one missing piece on the top, having been consumed by the lucky patron of your nearest IHOP Restaurant. Is it any wonder I’ve had a craving for pancakes for two weeks now?

The second picture is from the World Series of Poker and is of the lucky player sitting behind stack after stack after stack of poker chips, chips of every color and value that are out there. Those chips tell the story of someone who is beyond lucky, drawing three-of-a-kind, straights, flushes and full houses hand after hand. And for every euchre player out there who complains of far too many Farmer’s Hands, those stacks seem too good to be true.

The third example is found in Eugene Peterson’s rendering of Psalm 31:19 in The Message Bible:

“What a stack of blessings you have piled up
for those who worship you,
Ready and waiting for all who run to you
to escape an unkind world.”

So maybe it’s not the kind of running you envisioned as you decided whether this devotion just might be better placed in the junk mail bin of your email account. But it is the kind of running that lays hold of God’s strength for today, it’s the kind of running that finds comfort and encouragement in the daily struggles of life, and it’s the kind of running that gets you through the roughest of times. Running to God doesn’t always come naturally; we all too often turn to other people or to other outlets first to ease our pain and frustration. But that pales in comparison to the stack of blessings that God has ready and waiting for those who run to him for strength, support and help in their times of need. This turn to God first kind of running is a habit that has to be developed, one that takes a certain kind of spiritual discipline to master, but it’s the kind of running guaranteed to leave you in the best shape of your life!

God Bless
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church
 

No Drinking

“Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it,
but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.”

Deuteronomy 4:2

 

The warning label for the latest antibiotic I’ve been prescribed comes with the all-caps caution, ‘DO NOT DRINK ALCOHOL WHILE YOU ARE TAKING THIS PRODUCT’ followed by a long list of woes that might be caused if the patient chooses to ignore the warning. Despite assuring the doctor that I don’t drink alcohol as he wrote out the prescription, he proceeded to caution me twice again, the last time as I was opening the examination room door to leave, of the dangers of mixing alcohol with this particular medicine.

To be honest, I never once thought that the doctor was out to spoil my fun, that he was taking away my freedom of choice, or that he was worried about the appearance of what it would look like if one of his patients was found drinking alcohol. No, I left there convinced that he was clearly educated on the effects of combining this particular drug with alcohol in any form and that he was looking out for me in giving me the repeated warnings. In fact, it would be pretty sad to have a doctor that didn’t warn you about something that could seriously hurt you, that didn’t look out for your best interests and have your back on something as profound as this. And it would be equally sad if, in our own pride, we ignored the warnings and followed what we thought best or what we felt like doing.

The Bible contains God’s warning labels, His cautions and admonitions, but so often He doesn’t get the respect or obedience that we so willingly follow in the natural realm. God’s cautions on every area of life can be counted on to be for our good. Now, I’ve never studied the effects of combining the 13 letter long antibiotic with anything but I’m going with the professionals on this one. And the same holds true with God only infinitely more so. His commands are flawless, His law is perfect, His statutes are trustworthy and His precepts are right. No need to add to them, or subtract from them; if God’s Word calls us to do something, or to not do something, it’s a guarantee, it’s a sure thing! Be encouraged that you will never go wrong by following God’s commands and walking in obedience to the divine prescriptions found in His Word!

God Bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church