rain

All throughout the Bible, rain is viewed as a symbol of God’s blessing. Over and over again God promised Israel that if they strayed from the Lord and started following other gods, then He would close the heavens and no rain would come. If no rain came, then that meant that no crops would follow. If no crops were raised, then that meant suffering and hunger would ensue. But if God’s people would follow the Lord, He promised that He would send rain to quench the desire of a thirsty land.

Rain is also used in a symbolic sense. Rain was used to describe the way the Holy Spirit would shower down upon God’s people when they seek His face. The prophet Hosea said to “…break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you” (Hosea 10:12, ESV).

If your soul feels like the parched terrain of a desert, it’s time to break up your fallow ground of your soul and begin to seek His face. Stop chasing things that cannot satisfy your thirst. Let His rain fall on you today.

god's umbrella

There are some people in this world that believe that God lays down command after command just to spoil the fun of mankind. That’s a completely wrong understanding of the nature of God the Father. He wants us to enjoy this life, but He doesn’t want us to pursue things that bring short-term pleasure and long-term pain. As a result, He gives us commands, not to ruin our fun, but to protect us from the suffering associated with sin. For example, He says that sex is a gift to be enjoyed only by those who have permanently intertwined their lives through marriage. That’s not a ploy to ruin our fun. He gives that command because He knows that casual sex outside of marriage carries risks physically, it destroys trust, it steals something that should belong only your eventual spouse, and it makes something holy into something base.

Think of God’s commands as an umbrella. An umbrella is designed to protect, but it only offers protection when you stay underneath it. God’s commands are designed to protect us, but we only receive that protection when we stay underneath God’s umbrella. Stay under God’s umbrella and enjoy life the way it was meant to be lived.

goin' fishin'

Simon (also known as Peter) and his brother, Andrew, were fishermen by trade. One day, as they were out at the lake fishing, Jesus walked up said, “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately, the two brothers left their nets (their only way to provide for their families) and followed Jesus.

Have you ever thought about how brave that decision was? After all, what in the world is a fisher of men? They didn’t know what Jesus was asking them to do. They didn’t know how things would work out. They didn’t know how much it would pay. All they knew was that Jesus was telling them to leave everything behind and follow Him…so they did.

Jesus is still talking to us today and inviting us to follow Him and become fishers of men. He wants us to pursue “catching” people with the gospel instead of pursuing worldly wealth or pleasure. That’s His invitation for you today. The question you must answer is this: Are you willing to leave your own pursuits behind and follow Jesus wholeheartedly?

thank you, mom...

Today we give tribute to the wonderful women in our lives we know as “mom” and they are certainly worthy of our honor. Moms are changers of diapers. They are wipers of runny noses. They are chauffeurs par excellence. They are tutors for their children, even though that “new math” confuses them. Mothers wipe tears of pain and heartache from the eyes of their children. They kiss the scraped knees and rug-burned elbows and promise that the pain will get better. They encourage hearts that are downcast. Moms inspire their children to stretch toward all that they can be. They are molders of men and women. Moms are the warm, safe place that we can go to when the world seems harsh and cold. They love their children in spite of what they have done or where they have been. Moms help us see and understand God’s love in so many ways. Moms are givers of grace and help us understand the incredible love and mercy of God.

For all of that (and for much more than we can describe) we say, “Thank you, Mom. You are loved and cherished more than you will ever know.”

a safe distance

In Luke’s account of Jesus’ crucifixion, there is a single line that the Lord has used to convict me time and time again. This line describes Peter’s response in the moments after Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane and was being taken to a place where a sham trial would take place. It’s a single sentence that packs a punch. As Jesus was being led away, Luke reports this tidbit of information: “Peter followed at a distance” (Luke 22:54).

Why? Why follow at a distance? The answer is simple. It was safe. If he followed too closely he might be caught up in the fury of the evening’s events. If they were willing to arrest Jesus, they wouldn’t think twice about taking a lowly fisherman into custody. In fact, getting too close to the fray might even prove to be fatal. So, Peter followed at a distance in order to make sure he would remain safe.

The hard truth is that sometimes we follow Jesus at a distance, too. We play it safe. We want enough of Jesus to ensure that we aren’t going to hell when we die, but we don’t want to get too close. After all, Jesus says radical things that if make us terribly uncomfortable. He said things like, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26, NIV). Whoa! Did you hear that? He was saying that if we want to be His disciples we must love Jesus so much that the love we have for our family looks like hate in comparison. In fact, if we’re to be called followers of Christ we have to love Him even more than we love our own lives. He went on to say, “Whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:27, NIV). The cross was an instrument of death. Jesus was saying that if we want to follow Him we have to walk to the place of execution and die to ourselves in order to live solely for Him. That’s radical. That’s hard. That’s not safe.

The truth is that getting too close to Jesus is not “safe.” If we get close to Jesus it means that we have to drop all of our dreams, desires, and goals and pick up His mission, His passion, and His calling. It means that our lives become centered solely on Him instead of us.

Getting close to Jesus will always cost us. It will cost us our idols. An idol can be money, possessions, fame, comfort, success, or a person. When we say to God, “You can have anything you want, but you can’t touch this,” an idol has been born. It can be anything, but I can assure you that getting close to Jesus always results in the destruction of idols. Jesus simplified it all when He said, “Those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples (Luke 14:33, NIV). Everything? Did He really say “everything”? In the original Greek, the word translated “everything” means “everything.” There are no loopholes and there are no exceptions. Getting close to Jesus will cost us our self rule. That scares us, so we keep a safe distance between Jesus and us.

As a result, we end up becoming satisfied with things like church attendance, doing our best to adhere to a moral code, and trying to force other people to conform to that code. We end up wearing the cloak of a Pharisee. We end up admiring Jesus from a distance without ever actually obeying Him. We end up having the appearance of life on the outside while we’re dead on the inside. We end up giving our lives to things that are temporary. We end up wasting our lives.

All the while Jesus beckons us to enter into a full life with Him. Not a safe life, but a full life. Jesus never promised following Him would be safe. He never promised that it would be easy. However, He did promise that it would be worth it. In the world of poker, when a player goes “all in” it means that he or she is willing to risk everything they have on one hand. It’s time to go “all in” and risk everything we have and all that we are on following Jesus. It’s time to stop playing it safe.

are you insane?

So, how are your New Year’s resolutions going? We’ve all been there. We want to change something in our life, so we set a goal that usually falls by the wayside after only a few weeks. We end up wallowing in a measure of despair and wondering what happened.

I want to let you in on a little secret. No matter what your goal for the future may be, it will never happen if you are not willing to do something differently than you have done it in the past. I can’t lose weight while insisting on maintaining my eating habits. I can’t spend more time with my family unless I’m willing to stop spending time doing something else. I can’t get in better physical shape if I’m not willing to get off of my duff and do something. I can’t grow in my relationship with Jesus without changing the way I live.

Albert Einstein said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” What are you going to do differently this year in order to get the results you desire? Answer that question and you are well on your way to success.