How Are You Doing at the Half-Way Mark?

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July 2, 2022 is the half-way mark of the year.  It hardly seems 182 days ago that we set some spiritual goals for the year, and now provides us a great opportunity to check where we stand with those goals.  The half-way point gives us a reference point from which to gauge our progress with still enough time to make the necessary adjustments to get us back on course.

Today, I want to suggest some simple diagnostic questions you can ask yourself at this half-way point and some encouragement to keep us moving along a path that draws us closer to Jesus.  Take the time to consider the questions honestly, and ask God what adjustments He wants to make in your life.

If I am not closer to God, I must remember that He hasn’t moved, so I must have drifted.

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Intentionally Keep One Christmas Decoration Out

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Christmas is over and the un-decorating now begins, making room for all of the new gifts we received for Christmas. How do we repack the ornaments? Where we store the lights? And what we do with the nativity scene? As you put the decorations away, let me challenge you to intentionally leave one of the items on display. 

When you pack your nativity scene and safely secure Mary, Joseph, and the manger, don’t put Jesus in the box.  At least metaphorically, keep Jesus unpacked throughout the year.

Often, we denounce our culture for “taking Christ out of Christmas.” But do we conveniently leave Christ out of our lives when it seems beneficial to do so? We stand firmly against those who have “taken prayer out of our schools.” But we do regularly pray with our children or pray privately in our prayer closets? We lament culture’s attempts to remove the Bible from public life. But do our Bibles gather dust on our end tables and shelves in our homes?

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Discern What Is and Isn’t a Word from God

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I received an email today from someone I do not know and of whom I have never heard.  To put it nicely, the email was hard to follow and almost unintelligible.  To be more precise, it rambled, made little sense, and in some cases was untrue. I had to discern if it was indeed a word from God.

The subject of the email is what troubles me most.  This individual proceeded to throw misinterpreted and misapplied scripture at me trying to make his case. The author claimed to have had a recent “Esperance” [sic] that “brought God” to Him.  Supposedly, God showed him some passages of Scripture and he felt the need to share it with churches. He was probably sincere, but in his application of Scripture, he was sincerely wrong.

Yet, so many people receive emails like that full of misapplied Bible verses and assume they are reading truth. Not only emails, but TV airwaves, radio frequencies, and the internet provide anybody an opportunity to purvey their religious thoughts.  And immature believers give credence to anyone claiming to be speaking on God’s behalf.

How are we to know the difference?  What are we to do when we encounter such teaching?

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Make Your Waiting Times Productive Times

I witnessed a funny sight the other day as I made hospital rounds. When I arrived at the elevators, a woman stood there waiting ahead of me.  Since the up arrow light was on, I knew she had mashed the button at least once. While we waited for what must have been about 60 seconds, she mashed the button again four times – as if the more she mashed the button the faster the elevator would descend.  Finally, just as she mashed it the fourth time, the doors opened.  She probably still thinks the door opened when it did because she mashed the button for that fourth time.

waiting

We spend a lot of time waiting, doctors even have a room specifically for waiting. I guess that’s why they call us patients, because the we have to wait patiently for our appointment.  We wait in checkout lines, we wait at traffic lights, we wait for customer service, we wait for the preacher to get through (and wait, and wait, and wait).  We despise waiting, but since it is inevitable, why not learn to make waiting work for us.  After all, the Bible speaks highly of waiting.

Why not learn to make waiting work for us?

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