We are all familiar with Jesus’ story about the man who had two sons, one of whom took early possession of his inheritance and blew through it all in a short time. He had to return home, hat in hand, asking His dad for a job. The other son showed his wayward heart by his selfish and jealous reactions to his father’s gracious acceptance of his younger brother.

But Jesus told another story about another man with two sons. I like to call it The Parable of the Other Two Sons. You can read this parable in Matthew 21:28-32.

The man asked one son to go work in the field, but the son initially refused. Feeling remorse soon after that son then went into the field and did what his father asked him to do. In the meantime, the father asked the second son to go work in the field and the son readily agreed to do. The second son, even though he said he would, never actually made it out into the field.

Jesus then asked his hearers a simple question: which one of the sons did what the father wanted him to do? The answer obviously was the first son. The first son’s initial reaction was disrespectful and disobedience, but in the end his actions were obedient. The second son may have initially responded positively but for whatever reason never back up his words with his actions. He talked a good talk but he didn’t DO anything, and Jesus question was which one DID what his father wanted.

What about us? How often do we set out with good intentions, or make grand promises to God only to never follow up on them? Sometimes, procrastination may get the best of us or at other times we may have promised something knowing all the while we had no intention of carry it out. Make no mistake: obedience delayed is still disobedience.

Is there something you have promised God you would do that you have not yet done?

Is there something God has asked you to STOP doing that you are still doing?

It is never too late to start doing what is right. It is never too late to STOP doing what God has asked you to surrender.

When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow. It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. – Ecclesiastes 5:4-5

The mission of Bellevue Baptist Church is to MAKE DISCIPLES.

We accomplish this mission when we

REACH those who do not yet believe with the good news of Jesus,
TEACH followers of Jesus to love, know, and experience God,
SERVE the church and the community through our Spiritual Gifts, and
SEND our members throughout the community and the world in Jesus’ name.

Here are some things I read and saw this week that were meaningful to me and I think they will bless you as well:

Articles and Blogs

10 Simple Steps to Deal with Temptation by Chuck Lawless

The Scandal of Biblical Illiteracy by Al Mohler

Six Steps to a Worshiping Church by David Murray at ChurchPastor.com

Become an Iceberg Pastor by Andrew Haslam at TheGospelCoalition.com

Quotes

“No one is more influential in your life than you are, because no one talks to you more than you do.” – Paul David Tripp in Dangerous Calling

“Any hope built on anything but Jesus, is no hope at all.” Kristal Weatherholt @Kristalzzv

“You can’t launch into new horizons—or even see them—until you get your eyes off of the old and start looking ahead.” @relevant

Humor (but seriously, really)

In his book, Church Awakening, Charles Swindoll recounts his boyhood summertime visits to his grandfather’s South Texas cottage, which sat about 100 yards back on a hill overlooking Carancahua Bay, a small bay which led out to the Gulf of Mexico.

One year, Charles and his grandfather measured a spot from the edge of the cliff to a few yards back and drove a stake in the ground. Each year, Charles and his grandfather would measure and note the eroding distance between the stake and edge of the cliff. Through that experience, Charles learned the principle of erosion.¹

Geological erosion is not the most serious erosion we could experience; more dangerous is spiritual erosion in our lives personally. The old word we once used was “back-sliding.” I prefer to refer to it as drifting.

What seems a harmless neglect of a spiritual discipline, an unnoticeable absence from church attendance, or even a slight compromise of what we know to be true and right eventually snowballs and we find ourselves far from where we used to be, want to be, and know we should be. It all happens so subtly, so slowly that we do not realize we have drifted.

The book of Hebrews warns us:

Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. – Hebrews 2:1

So I challenge you today to take stock of your life. I opened Tuesday’s blog with Socrates’ quote: the unexamined life is not worth living. Are you brave enough to take an honest look at where you are spiritually? One simple question will help you determine if you’ve drifted: has there ever been a time in your life when you were closer to God than you are today? If the answer is “yes,” then you have drifted.

The remedy is to return to what the Hebrews writer calls “what we have heard.” We find that content in God’s Word – back to the Bible. Recovery from spiritual drift is only possible when we return to the Bible as our source of teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

Allow me to suggest some steps to recover from the drift.

1. Establish a time and place where you will regularly read God’s Word. Find the time when you are most alert and the place where you will be uninterrupted.

2. Employ a specific plan for reading. You might try reading the same book of the Bible everyday for one month. After reading that Bible book 30 times, you will know the content. You may choose a reading plan that will help you read a certain portion of the Bible over a specified period of time. I supplied links to two or three ideas for those in Tuesday’s blog.

3. Ask questions of what you read and seek answers. Think about what the text is saying and how it applies to your life. Ask a pastor or Bible teacher about the meaning of a passage that you may not immediately understand. Foster a thirst to KNOW and DO God’s Word.

4. Memorize scripture. Choose a verse a week to learn. Bible memory exercise our mind on the treadmill of Biblical truth and provides godly mental backup for idle minds.

Feel free to share in the comment section below other ways you will/can restore the drift by getting back to the Bible.

¹Swindoll, Charles R. (2010-09-08). The Church Awakening: An Urgent Call for Renewal (pgs. 2-3). FaithWords. Kindle Edition.

I’ve heard it said that life is a rat race, so even if you win, you are still a rat.  Watch this short video challenge and take some time today to assess your priorities and values.

Be blessed… AND STAY WARM.

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise… – Ephesians 5:15

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” – Socrates

I’m no carpenter, but I’ve watched enough of these skilled artisans to know the importance of checking measurements and making sure lines are square and plumb. When building a wall, being off by 1/32 of an inch may not be noticeable at the start, but when the wall is complete and the carpenter tries to join it to other walls, the difference becomes quite noticeable.

So goes life. We tend to want to take short cuts or get away with what we would call small “indiscretions.” We fudge on this, procrastinate that, exaggerate here, and rationalize there; then, at some point in the future we can no longer mask the fact that we our life has gone seriously awry. Failing to examine our lives honestly and to make necessary corrections leaves us vulnerable to spiritual disaster.

God’s Word stands as the standard of measurement, a spiritual carpenter’s square, against which we should assess our lives and examine our obedience to Him. Yet, so many of us have grown unashamedly accustomed to doing without the regular reading of the Bible and meditation on its truth. David reminds us that by obeying God’s word a man keeps his life clean (Psalm 119:9).

What plan do you have for regularly reading and meditating on God’s Word? Do you have a specific time, place, and plan to allow the Holy Spirit, through God’s Word, to examine your life? What hinders you? Laziness? Poor time management? Lack of desire?

An old saying reminds us “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Why not discipline yourself to measure and square your life by the Bible now and avoid the inevitable spiritual disaster?

Below are a few links to daily Bible reading plans. Choose one, then set a time each day that you will read (I suggest first thing in the day), and designate a specific place where you can be uninterrupted and give God your undivided attention.

Various online reading plans to which you can subscribe in a variety of formats

A plan to read through the Bible a little more slowly over TWO years

The ever-popular Robert Murray McCheyne read the Bible through in a year plan

Don’t let your life get out of square. Examine your life regularly against God’s Word.

What are some ways you regularly read and study God’s Word? Share them with us in the comment section.

All of us are facing some difficult and painful times.  How can we trust god to see us through.  Psalm 46 suggests 3 things about God that give us hope in our troubled times.

Click on the video link below to view the message.

Our Help in Troubled Times from Jim Duggan on Vimeo.

Our Help in Troubled Times
Psalm 46:1-11

1. The PERSON of God (vs 1-3)

— Refuge

— Strength

— Help – “Well discovered”

2. The PRESENCE of God (vs 4-7)

river = “constantly flowing river”

Spring of Gihon in Kidron valley on east side of Jerusalem – most ancient water
supply

Hezekiah built a conduit cut through 1777 ft of solid rock, led to reservoir inside
gates

Covered the ancient spring to make it invisible

701 BC – Assyrians and Sennacherib besieged city to no avail

GOD was in the midst – God was providing

3. The POWER of God (vs 8-9)

God’s call to us is to BELIEVE (vs 10-11)

In His PERSON – “…I am God”

In His PLAN – “…I will be exalted…”

In His PRESENCE – “…The Lord of Hosts is with us…”

Social Media Posts of the Week:

Never set the volume to your critics’ voices to be louder than the voice of God. – @richardblackaby

“Cultivate the divine companionship.” – J.I. Packer – @JohnPiper

Video of the Week: The Two Scariest Lies in Our World Right Now (click the link)

Then the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave…” Genesis 18:20

The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom… Genesis 19:1

The first verse is God’s description of the twin cities of Sodom and Gomorrah; the second, Lot’s apparent assessment of Sodom.

To sit at the city gate was to participate in the cultural and political life of the town, to be a leader or respected person in the eyes of the town folks. Disputes between citizens were settled at the city gates. Plans were made, decisions confirmed, and rules established at these gates. Gaining a seat at the gate meant two things: the leaders of the city thought you to be one of them, and you found the city a compelling place to be so that you wanted to be part of the cultural fabric of the town.

The scenario raises a question to me: how could Lot feel such affinity and affection for a city whose sin created an iniquitous noise throughout the halls of heaven? The sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was not just an annoying twang or nearly sub-sonic hum; it was an OUTCRY. The Hebrew word here for outcry is from the same root that God used to describe the cry Abel’s spilled blood made from the ground after his brother murdered him.

So, Sodom’s sin was not so subtle…it blasted at mega-decibels in the spiritual realm. Yet the sinful cacophony seemed not to bother Lot at all, maybe he had grown so accustomed to it that he hardly noticed it’s sound. Sad.

Sad also that we have grown so accustomed to sin around us in our culture that we have become desensitized to it. Sin is thrown in our faces constantly through media, movies, music, and, let’s face it, mainstream cultural life. Too many professing believers in Jesus have lost their distinctiveness and chosen rather to go along in order to get along with our contemporary cosmos.

Yet, God’s word calls us out, calls us to separation (2 Corinthians 6:14-18); it tells us that we are to be “in” the world but not “of” it (John 17:14-16). The Word reminds us that we are the preserving influence (salt) in the world, and if we lose our distinctiveness, the world will not be salted (Matthew 5:13).

So, I challenge you today to check your affections. Do you love “the world” so much that you have compromised Jesus in your life? Would you rather have the approval of those around you or the “well done” of the Master? Be careful that you do not become too enamored with our culture. It is anti-christ and you cannot hold it and Him in your heart at the same time.

For the Wednesday Video blog, I bring you a snippet from one of my favorites authors and preachers, Frances Chan.  Watch the following video, read the verses listed below, then consider the questions.  We need to live with eternity in view.

Click on verses to read:

Matthew 6:19-21

Colossians 3:1-4

Questions for consideration:

1.  Do you spend most of your time, energy, and resources on earth or eternity?
2. What are some specific ways you can make more of an investment in eternity?