A Safe-House...

I have noticed something about myself, that if I have an answer to something I am not all that frustrated when challenges come my way. If I know how to fix something, it is not all that bothersome when it breaks. I get really irritated however, if something is broken and I have no way to repair it. Have you stopped to count up how many fixes our faith provides for us?
“God is a safe-house for the battered, a sanctuary during bad times. The moment you arrive, you relax; you’re never sorry you knocked.” ~Psalms 9:9-10
When things get bad, no problem, we have someplace we can run. When temptation presses against us, no problem, we have a Savior. When sickness visits us, no problem, we have a Healer. When finances become lean, no problem, we have a provider. This is the real stuff of faith, that we have real places to run. And it is a good thing, because life intersperses the sun with some rain and some irritations amidst the blessings. I don’t know about you, but I can deal with the challenges so long as I remember that God has provided a place for me to run if things get too hairy. I have A SAFE-HOUSE! So do you. ~Verlon

New Will...

Status quo is a powerful thing. Status quo is memorized patterns of life that shape our daily actions. What we set out to do each day is shaped by our understanding of what works for us…the status quo. This is usually helpful because it allows us to establish rhythms. However, there is one instance when the status quo becomes our enemy…when God wants to move us to a new chapter.
“Don’t continue doing things the way we’re doing them at present, each of us doing as we wish.” `Deut. 12:8
Through scripture we see numerous ‘new seasons’ where God called men and women to change what they were doing and step into a new plan. In this verse God was instructing the nation of Israel to stop what they were used doing and take on a new set of actions because they were now in route to their promise land. We too have new chapters show up in our lives. And true to form, God asks us to stop doing what we are used to doing and take on a new set of actions because we are now on a new road. It is interesting how difficult it is to give up our memorized ways of doing our lives. Status quo is good for maintaining momentum, but it is a terrible friend in times of change. It is precisely at these moments when our daily habits work against the new chapter God has for us. And it is precisely at this time when we need to loudly acknowledge that God has instituted a ‘NEW WILL’ for us to follow and boldly make changes in our daily schedules. ~Verlon

He Speaks Heart...

We naturally adjust the way we talk to others. When we are with someone who talks fast, we speed up. When with someone who is slow and methodical, we tone it down. Some people prefer direct conversation, so we become more direct with them. Others are poetic, still others are jokesters, and then there are the philosophers. All of us find ourselves drifting toward the ‘talk styles’ of others just a bit in order to communicate with them. But how do we talk with God?
“Keep your mouth shut and let your heart do the talking. Build your case before God and wait for his verdict.” ~Psalms 4:5
Here the psalmist give an insight he learned about prayer – God speaks to the heart and He wants us to speak back to him from the heart. Talking about passion, dreams, fears, emotions, and frustrations might not be the first thing on your talking list, but it is first on God’s. The more we grasp this the more we understand prayer. The more we do this the more we understand ourselves. And the more we know our own spirits the more we hear the Spirit of God. HE SPEAKS HEART! ~Verlon

Ruthlessly...

We live in a civilized time. On top of that we live in a politically correct part of the world. All of this is good and makes for neighbors to get along with each other. There is a down-side however. It’s possible for us to lose our ability to confront the things that are trying to destroy our lives…
“Ruthlessly demolish all the sacred shrines…” ~Deut. 12:2
The people of Israel served Jehovah, and yet they were surrounded by people who worshipped many false gods. Sometimes these false gods found their way into Israel’s world and they erected sacred shrines in the hills and small towns. God instructed His people to tear down these idol worship stations whenever they found them with great energy and determination. This is exactly what Gideon did right before he bravely led his army of 350 to attack an Midianite army of over 100,000. He won that battle by the way. But first he tore down an idol that his own father had erected in their family compound. Idols and false god’s weaken us. That’s why our God wants us to tear them down, He wants us strong. In this present day idols are less icon-like, so they’re harder to recognize. But anything that we depend on and give more desire to than God is an idol. Money, fame, power, sex, drunkenness, houses, hobbies, sports, etc., have all become weakening idols for otherwise good people. When these desires begin to outpace our desire for God and His plans, it’s time to muster our determination and tear them down…RUTHLESSLY! ~Verlon

Surrounded...

We are greatly affected by our expectations. If we expect people to be selfish with us, we will find it. However if we expect people to be kind to us, we will find that too. The greater impacts however, come from what we expect from God. If we expect Him to be aloof, then every time we feel alone we blame it on God being distant. But if we expect Him to be attentive to us, then we find extended moments every week where we feel His presence pursuing us. Here’s an ‘expectation’ verse…
“Real help comes from God. Your blessing clothes your people!” ~Psalms 3:8
Here the Psalmist revealed his expectation of God. He perceived the blessing of God to be so prevalent that it actually wrapped around him like clothes. Could we ever have such an expectation? It is a wonderful thing to expect the blessings and favor of God. It is even more wonderful when we expect those blessings to actually wrap around us on all sides. But that is how God’s blessings work. Gods favor actually SURROUNDS US! The only question is, can we learn to expect that? ~Verlon

Worth The Obsession...

Everything that is important to us can lose its luster if we don’t nurture it. Even the love we feel for those close to us will grow cold if we do not stir up that love consistently. The same can be true for something as wonderful as the gospel…
“Place these words on your hearts. Get them deep inside you. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder. Teach them to your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning until you fall into bed at night.” ~Deut. 11:18-19
In this verse God gave ‘stir-up’ instructions to the people of Israel so they wouldn’t lose their closeness to Him. It is clear that He wanted them to obsess on the divine relationship…talk about it…remember it…restate it…over and over…all day long. Why? Because that is what humanity needs to maintain their focus on the ‘God-World’. Otherwise we’ll just drift back to the world we can see with our eyes and explain with our minds. And the spiritual wonders will drift away from our attention and expectations. We need to take this lesson to heart in this day too. The gospel of Christ is an amazing and wonderful thing that enriches everyone it touches in unspeakable ways. But if we don’t keep talking about it and restating it and stirring it up in our souls, we will soon start to take it for granted, it will drift away, and its great power to strengthen us will wane. Trust me when I say, it’s WORTH THE OBSESSION! ~Verlon

His Inheritance...

It is an impossible task to even imagine what God’s life must be like. But every once in a while scripture gives us the open door to try. In His desire for relationship with us He reveals some of His world so we can walk with Him.
“They are your people still, your inheritance whom you powerfully and sovereignly rescued.” ~Deut. 9:29
This verse gives us an interesting glance at God’s future hopes. Look at the word ‘inheritance’. Moses stated this to God in a prayer and called us, the people of earth, God’s inheritance. When you think of it, God made all and owns all, so what could be left for Him to inherit? Only us. The idea of God inheriting man was clearer in the culture of bible days. In the centuries that followed Christ’s life, if a slave wanted to be free he had the right to work hard and save up money to buy his freedom. When he had enough money he would go to the temple with his slave owner and pay the owner in the presence of the priest. The owner would then sign over the slave to God, making the slave property of God and God only from then on. This was called ‘sacral manumission’. The slave was then free to live his life as he believed God would want. In this way the understanding of man being God’s inheritance was reinforced daily. We need to embrace this understanding again in our day. Something wonderful happens to the person who becomes God’s inheritance! They become treasured and valued and cared for. We are HIS INHERITANCE! ~Verlon

Pleasing Themselves...

Much of our life is spent in intersections. It is here that life paths are selected that will affect us for a long time. It is here that one actually determines their future of happiness or frustration.
“You’re one happy man when you do what is right. They only cared about pleasing themselves in that desert. He gave them exactly what they asked for – but along with it they got an empty heart.” ~Psalms 106: 3,14,15
This scripture well defines the age-old intersections of the soul. This intersection looked the same for the people in God heading toward the promised land as it does for us today. Looking one way is the direction of ‘right’! When we consider that option we somehow ‘know it’ in the depths of our soul. Looking the other way is the option of ‘want’. This direction is so self-serving that it makes our heart lunge for it. One of the great lessons of humanity is studying all those before us who grabbed for the option of ‘want’. This verse not only reveal the intersection between ‘right’ and ‘want’, but it also reveals the emotional results that follow. The one who chooses ‘right’ ends up with a happy heart, while the one who chooses ‘want’ ends up with an empty heart. It’s an interesting side-effect. You’d think if we got what we wanted we’d be happy. Not so. I wonder how many people are holding an empty heart at night and don’t realize it is because they spent their days only PLEASING THEMSELVES? ~Verlon