Month: July 2023

First day back to work after vacation and it was definitely a case of “the Monday’s”. Working to get back in the rhythm of normal daily life. Yesterday’s sermon on “Green Pastures” by Pastor Steve was exactly what we needed returning from a good vacation away but looking toward the busy couple of weeks ahead. Marianne’s photography business is doing very well and she is almost full up with work for this summer’s Senior Portraits run. On top of that we are coming up to seeing Bella off on a world wide missions trip for 6 months and the rest of the kiddos starting school…however, that also means its Football Season!

My reading today was Luke 10:13-20 where Jesus talks about unrepentant cities and the cost of rejecting His gospel when it comes by way His messengers. My focus though was drawn to these verses:

And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”

Luke 10:18-20 [NKJV]

As the 70 returned from their missions that Jesus sent them out on, they were talking about all that they were able to do in Jesus’ name; including the demons being ‘subject to them’. Jesus talks to them about this ability and power He has given them but then He is quick to remind them not to let this go to their heads…no, rejoice in that their reward and security are in heaven. Jesus wants their attention to be on the things that last rather than the earthly things. Even the people they prayed over and saw delivered from demons would still one day pass-away. Jesus wants His church’s perspective to always be centered on pointing people to the hope of being with Christ forever. There is work to be done and God gives us the calling and wisdom to execute the building of His Kingdom here on earth….but we should ever have our view in our windshield be the life in heaven that is awaiting us.

Yesterday when I was catching up on my reading, I noticed verse 26 of Luke 9.

For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels. Luke 9:26 [NKJV]

One of the things that has always impacted me regarding the ‘Fear of God’ has always been this fear that I would be in a state of sin the moment when Jesus returns. Think about this – for you it might be a road rage incident where you come unhinged on another driver. Maybe a moment where your frustration with your children has caused you to lose your temper (Eph 6:5).

In any circumstance where I lapse in my self control is a moment that Jesus might return and be ashamed. Now, I am not ashamed of Jesus or His words, but I can be flippant and not respecting of His commands on my life if I refer to myself as a “Follower of Christ” yet allow my sinful flesh to entertain the things the Lord tells me to flee; then I run this risk.

God give me the strength and perseverance to embrace everything it means to be sold out to your Son. Thank you for the grace You have extended me.

Hey everyone, I’ll bet you thought I fell off the face of the earth. Well, news about my demise has been greatly exaggerated. The truth of the matter is that for the last week I’ve been working pretty much 16 to 18 hour days and getting about 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 hours of sleep a night. I am so thankful for Marianne providing this time for me to execute this very very big test event at work that included the US government. It was extremely successful, but also very tiring. I got to see some old friends that I’ve been working with for the last 4 1/2 years that I hadn’t seen in probably 3 to 6 months, God has created a very unique situation for me to be a testimony and a witness in situations, where there can be heavily competing cultures…The US ARMY and Microsoft.

Although I will still have to stay fairly engaged at work. I will be doing that remotely from Newport Beach, California where my family and I go for some vacationing every summer to spend time with the in-laws. It’s a great reconnecting time for Marianne and I and her sister and brother-in-law, as well as our four kids and their three girls who don’t get to see each other except once per year during this time.

“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? Luke 9:23-25 [NKJV]

Some people read this passage and feel that it is negative in its connotation. For me, it’s one of the most freeing passages in the Bible.

The daily decision to take up the Cross and crucify my sin every day…really crucify myself every day; allows me to operate in this freedom of knowing I am in the right place and the right mindset in following Jesus. The next statement about what we pursue reinforces what Jesus had just finished saying… If your pursuit is to achieve the things of this world in money, career, happiness, and, success, then your reward will be exactly what you achieve. But if you instead pursue Jesus, then you essentially inherit everything that Jesus has coming to him at the end of the age. That, is a big deal and extremely freeing.

Remembering these truths in scripture is so important to my daily life in my desire to be a godly man. Lord Jesus, help me to see that what is to come, is what my focus should be… Once again, here I am, needing to remember that my focus has to be eternal.

And it happened, as He was alone praying, that His disciples joined Him, and He asked them, saying, “Who do the crowds say that I am?”
  So they answered and said, “John the Baptist, but some say Elijah; and others say that one of the old prophets has risen again.”
  He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
  Peter answered and said, “The Christ of God.” Luke 9:18-20 [NKJV]

As I was reading this passage today it just made me think about how our world constantly tries to come up with someone Jesus is other than the Messiah. Even here ‘The Messiah” was not one of the ‘persons’ the disciples rattled off as who people said He was. It is just too hard to come to terms with Who Jesus is as the Messiah…because what it would mean is that people would have to admit that He is the answer, that He should be the person that they should worship, that He is exactly Who He says He is. The day will come when every knee will bow and worship Jesus for Who He truly is.

God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name, which is above every name, ​so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

Philippians 2:9-10

Application:

QUESTION: Am I already acknowledging Jesus and bowing to His name even now…before He returns in person? I am convicted by the fact that there are actions/times in my life that relegate Jesus to being ‘resurrected prophet’, ‘John the Baptist’, or ‘Elijah’. That He does not own the throne of my life…because in those places I have a different name on that throne. Between the sermon this morning by Pastor Koby and now this time in God’s Word, I need to not live for every day but to live for “Well done good and faithful servant”. This means living and making the most of every 5 minutes, an eternally focused 5 minutes.

For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written:
“‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,
‘every knee will bow before me;
every tongue will acknowledge God.’”
So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.

Romans 14:10-12

Today was a mixed bag. It started out with me needing to go into work for a bit. We had a late breaking software change that was going to be a good win if it worked but we needed to have the confidence we didn’t break something else before Monday. In order to keep from my team having to come in before a super busy week, I chose to go instead. It paid off and the Dev Team was able to fix a pretty nasty bug in the experience. Picture below is me in the empty building at work this morning.

But then I came home and released Marianne to get started on a bunch of work that had been piling up on her and I took the Littles. Bella is still not feeling well so she was in bed and Sophie was spending the whole day with a neighborhood friend. What we decided to do was both good for me and for the Littles. They came with me for a little ‘Twighlight Golfing’. We had a wonderful time and the girls really enjoyed the cart and looking for golf balls. The pace of play was pretty bad so we joined up with Mr. Steve who was really nice.

For there were about five thousand men.
 Then He said to His disciples, “Make them sit down in groups of fifty.”  And they did so, and made them all sit down.
 Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude.  So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them. Luke 9:14-17 [NKJV]

The miracle of the feeding of 5000 is a little crazy. First, the Bible says that it was about 5000 men, but we are pretty confident that there were women and children with them…but let’s just stick with 5000 for a minute. Jesus tells the disciples to have all of the people to sit down in groups of 50…this is 100 groups! Just picture this in your mind’s eye, on a hillside with 100 groups of 50 people. Just the orchestration of making this group separation happen is pretty crazy.

The other thing that stood out to me was that Jesus looked up into Heaven. I used to kind of get on myself for looking up into heaven during worship or even when I pray sometimes. The reason for getting on myself is because God is right in my heart with me; the Holy Spirit dwells within me. I don’t need to look up to Heaven because He is right here. But seeing Jesus do this helps me to see that prayer and worship can also be focused on the Trinity. The Holy Spirit lives within me here on earth, but we together can petition, serve, and address God the Father and Jesus the Son in Heaven. There is something quite powerful about this if you keep it within that context.

Application:

First off, the feeding of the five thousand is a continuation of yesterday’s points about Jesus’ caring heart and tenderness He shows us. Second, Praying and Worshiping while looking up to Heaven is a powerful acknowledgement of the situation of our earthly state with the Holy Spirit; and the Father and Son being in Heaven. The Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf and the Son represents our needs/situation to the Father. Then through the Holy Spirit, God sends us comfort, peace, wisdom, knowledge, and strength. So, gazing up into Heaven during worship and prayer is 100% appropriate in my book.