Recreating the Masterpiece
Paul Dailey
Philippians 3:8, 13-14 says, “What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ. . . . Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
The chances are pretty fair that if you’ve been a Christian for some length of time, you have probably read this verse. And if you have even the slightest love for Jesus, those words evoke a retort in your heart -- something like a teenager at a rock concert. The Spirit of God inside you is leaping in untamed exhilaration at having identified with the very heart of God that beats in Jesus. The Spirit inside you testifies to the truth. I don’t care who you are. I don’t care what your denominational slant on things might be. I don’t even care what version of the Bible you trust the most. There is something inside every believer that, when you read this verse, you can’t help but cry out, “Yes Lord, that’s what I want!”
But what happened from the time you first read that verse till now? Why doesn’t every believer live like that? Why did the colors of that picture run together like finger paints in the rain? Ask yourself, “What took place in my life that caused that picture of Jesus to become blurred beyond recognition?” I believe the answer is all around you.
Paul said, “But one thing I do . . .” There was nothing else for him. But life isn’t set up that way. The whole system of the world and the entire plan of the enemy are deliberately intended to keep you from the one thing. From there to here you have gotten caught up in many things. Your life has splintered into a million tiny pieces. The beautiful magnum opus Jesus painted on your heart the very first day you surrendered to Him was slowly torn to shreds until all that remains is a shattered, fruitless existence. You find you have traded the magnificence of that work of art for old, washed-out snapshots of your own mundane life.
But take heart, friend. All is not lost. Jesus is the great Master Artist, and He can always start again to create a masterpiece in you. With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. He can gather the fragmented pieces of your life and begin to reconstruct them together again for His glory.
I am on this journey with you. I have found that I had lost that fervor, that desire to press beyond the gossamer veil of accomplishment, in order to find the excellence of the knowledge of Christ. It’s a challenge to forget those things. But I am realizing that, one day at a time, as I lie on my face before the Lord, the passion is returning quickly. It is mental and spiritual warfare to put aside the accolades, as well as the disasters, and fasten myself to the one thing. God is faithful, and for each thing I have laid aside, for each trophy that I now count as rubbish, I find another portion of that work of genius. With the Lord’s help, I am piecing the “Mona Lisa” back together again and rediscovering the glory of God.
I want to encourage you today. Wherever you are right now, if you read that passage from Philippians and your heart still cries in youthful exuberance, “Yes, Lord, that’s the hunger for You I want,” there is still time. You haven’t gone too far. You haven’t blown your last chance. Get down on your knees right now and ask God to help you regain that passion for Him. Let the Lord put His brush to the canvas of your heart and paint something new and fresh in you today. Little by little you will see the image of Jesus begin to take shape in you. And before you know it, you’ll be right back where God wants you, pressing into Him and reveling in the all-surpassing excellent knowledge of Jesus.
cbn
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Tattoos
Dan Betzer
There are two things in life I’ve never been even remotely tempted to do: 1) Get a motorcycle and 2) Get a tattoo. Now I have friends who have done one or the other and even several very good friends who’ve done both and seemingly have lived good lives.
Not for me. When I think about motorcycles, the word “spatula” comes to mind. Think about it for a moment. And when I think of tattoo, two words come to mind: “ugly” and “off.”
So let’s say you’ve got this tattoo and you want to get it off. How do you do it? Well, not easily, according to people who know. The three primary choices are: lasers, surgery or chemicals.
One on-line article had this advice: “Home techniques for tattoo removal, such as the use of a hot cigarette or heated coat hanger, are not recommended. The scarring and infection rates are very high with these methods.”
Now that’s a revelation, isn’t it? Kind of like saying hitting your thumb with a ball peen hammer hurts. But hang on, you know someone very famous who has a tattoo?
Isaiah 49:16 informs us that God does: “Look, I’ve written your names on the backs of my hands.” Or as the Amplified Bible puts it, “I have indelibly (tattooed) you on each of my hands.”
Well, my goodness, you have to have a very personal relationship with someone to have that person’s name tattooed somewhere on your body. There are those who say that God is merely some impersonal “force” somewhere. The Bible denies that base canard. No one has ever wanted intimate contact with you more than your Creator.
cbn
Dan Betzer
There are two things in life I’ve never been even remotely tempted to do: 1) Get a motorcycle and 2) Get a tattoo. Now I have friends who have done one or the other and even several very good friends who’ve done both and seemingly have lived good lives.
Not for me. When I think about motorcycles, the word “spatula” comes to mind. Think about it for a moment. And when I think of tattoo, two words come to mind: “ugly” and “off.”
So let’s say you’ve got this tattoo and you want to get it off. How do you do it? Well, not easily, according to people who know. The three primary choices are: lasers, surgery or chemicals.
One on-line article had this advice: “Home techniques for tattoo removal, such as the use of a hot cigarette or heated coat hanger, are not recommended. The scarring and infection rates are very high with these methods.”
Now that’s a revelation, isn’t it? Kind of like saying hitting your thumb with a ball peen hammer hurts. But hang on, you know someone very famous who has a tattoo?
Isaiah 49:16 informs us that God does: “Look, I’ve written your names on the backs of my hands.” Or as the Amplified Bible puts it, “I have indelibly (tattooed) you on each of my hands.”
Well, my goodness, you have to have a very personal relationship with someone to have that person’s name tattooed somewhere on your body. There are those who say that God is merely some impersonal “force” somewhere. The Bible denies that base canard. No one has ever wanted intimate contact with you more than your Creator.
cbn
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Don’t Get Yourself Stuck in a Rut
Dan Betzer
A friend of mine who is a deadly putter at golf told me his secret the other day. He said, “Before I stroke the putt, on the screen of my mind I see the ball rolling into the cup.” Well you know Proverbs 23:7 teaches, “As he thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
Small wonder Paul told the Corinthians, “Bring every thought into captivity!” You and I are controlled by the way we think.
In my kid days in Iowa, I remember cars and trucks moving along those old clay and gravel roads. The first few times they did so, there was scarcely a trace of their having passed that way. But before long, the earth was worn away until the road was rutted.
Then my Grandpa Harshfield, who worked for the county highway department, would go over those roads with his big grader until they were smooth again. Otherwise, the grooves would have become so deep that vehicle wheels would have been like a needle tracking a record.
It makes me think of the Grand Canyon, formed by the Colorado River digging away through the millennia at the rock strata until that vast chasm was at last formed. My friend, thoughts do that to your brain! One expert has written, “As a man at first is master of his thought, so, at last, the thought becomes the master of the man.”
Big thoughts make big people. Shallow thinking forms hapless ones. There has never been a person who reached lofty heights of noble living who was not driven there by dominating thoughts.
What about your thought life? Does it bring you better life? Or are you a prisoner of unworthy thinking?
cbn
Dan Betzer
A friend of mine who is a deadly putter at golf told me his secret the other day. He said, “Before I stroke the putt, on the screen of my mind I see the ball rolling into the cup.” Well you know Proverbs 23:7 teaches, “As he thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
Small wonder Paul told the Corinthians, “Bring every thought into captivity!” You and I are controlled by the way we think.
In my kid days in Iowa, I remember cars and trucks moving along those old clay and gravel roads. The first few times they did so, there was scarcely a trace of their having passed that way. But before long, the earth was worn away until the road was rutted.
Then my Grandpa Harshfield, who worked for the county highway department, would go over those roads with his big grader until they were smooth again. Otherwise, the grooves would have become so deep that vehicle wheels would have been like a needle tracking a record.
It makes me think of the Grand Canyon, formed by the Colorado River digging away through the millennia at the rock strata until that vast chasm was at last formed. My friend, thoughts do that to your brain! One expert has written, “As a man at first is master of his thought, so, at last, the thought becomes the master of the man.”
Big thoughts make big people. Shallow thinking forms hapless ones. There has never been a person who reached lofty heights of noble living who was not driven there by dominating thoughts.
What about your thought life? Does it bring you better life? Or are you a prisoner of unworthy thinking?
cbn
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Cheering Us On
Cathy Irvin
These are exciting days for me. I recently went to a children’s football game where my little great granddaughter was cheering. This was her very first game. I couldn’t take my eyes off her, since she is so little and so cute. She was all dressed up in her outfit, team color ribbons in her hair, pom-poms on her shoes, and a larger set of pom-poms in her hands. Mind you, she did not say or do much. But her coach told me that as long as she had on her uniform, she could just look pretty for this game.
I thought of how God was like that coach, saying, It is OK, child. You will learn. But for now, just be a team player. I know He is cheering me on every step of the way to stay in the game. I think of life like that field -- a big game and the saints in heaven are like those cheerleaders, cheering us on as we race to win.
When the game was over, she rode back to her house with me and she started saying, “Set, Set, Ready!” while I hollered back like the cheerleaders and said, “OK!” They say this before every new cheer they start. She must have repeated this phrase at least 10 times. She did get that part of what the leader of the cheer says.
I tried to explain to her, “You have to learn the cheers first before the coach will let you be one of the leaders.” Isn’t that like us? We want to lead first before we follow. The Lord is teaching us how to hear His voice and instructing us on what to do. I went on to tell her she would learn these cheers if she paid attention to the coach. She frowned and folded her arms. Her stubbornness reminds me of myself sometimes. We all react the same way.
God is patient. He wants us to be more than spectators. His expectation is for us to be participants and to follow His instructions so we can lead others to follow Him as we follow Christ.
If you’re a new believer in Christ, God is saying, It is OK, child. You will learn. But for those of us who have been in the game a while, He says, Ready?
Our response should be, “OK!”
Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us (Hebrews 12:1, NKJV).
cbn
Cathy Irvin
These are exciting days for me. I recently went to a children’s football game where my little great granddaughter was cheering. This was her very first game. I couldn’t take my eyes off her, since she is so little and so cute. She was all dressed up in her outfit, team color ribbons in her hair, pom-poms on her shoes, and a larger set of pom-poms in her hands. Mind you, she did not say or do much. But her coach told me that as long as she had on her uniform, she could just look pretty for this game.
I thought of how God was like that coach, saying, It is OK, child. You will learn. But for now, just be a team player. I know He is cheering me on every step of the way to stay in the game. I think of life like that field -- a big game and the saints in heaven are like those cheerleaders, cheering us on as we race to win.
When the game was over, she rode back to her house with me and she started saying, “Set, Set, Ready!” while I hollered back like the cheerleaders and said, “OK!” They say this before every new cheer they start. She must have repeated this phrase at least 10 times. She did get that part of what the leader of the cheer says.
I tried to explain to her, “You have to learn the cheers first before the coach will let you be one of the leaders.” Isn’t that like us? We want to lead first before we follow. The Lord is teaching us how to hear His voice and instructing us on what to do. I went on to tell her she would learn these cheers if she paid attention to the coach. She frowned and folded her arms. Her stubbornness reminds me of myself sometimes. We all react the same way.
God is patient. He wants us to be more than spectators. His expectation is for us to be participants and to follow His instructions so we can lead others to follow Him as we follow Christ.
If you’re a new believer in Christ, God is saying, It is OK, child. You will learn. But for those of us who have been in the game a while, He says, Ready?
Our response should be, “OK!”
Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us (Hebrews 12:1, NKJV).
cbn
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
get on the right path
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. 3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Psalm 23:1-4
Your life can go down many different paths.
• Some paths are obviously wrong and lead to very bad places.
• Some paths appear to be right but are still wrong (Proverbs 14:12).
• Some paths are right for a while, until the road forks and a wrong choice takes you far from God.
If your heart desires to be on the right path, your ears will perk up a little when you hear, “He leads me in paths of righteousness” (Psalm 23:3).
God himself is highly interested in your being on the path that produces righteousness. Psalm 37:23 tells us that the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. Aren't you glad that submission to God will keep you heading the right way? “I want that!” you say. “How do I get on the right path?"
Now, there's a lot of confusion about the issue of knowing God's will, but I can give you some signposts. First of all, God's Word lights your path; it gives direction. It promises to be a beacon to you in really dark places. Are you reading it on a regular basis? You'll not wander far from God's will if you get into God's Word each day (Psalm 119:105).
Second, godly counsel will help you discern the right path. Ask wise people—spiritually mature people you respect—which direction to take. But what if they tell me to do something I don't want to do? Proverbs 12:15 says, “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice."
Third, Philippians 2:13 reveals that God works in us by his Spirit. But if we're not reading God's Word and seeking godly advice, we're not giving the Spirit very much to work with. God's not going to tell us to do something that's contrary to his Word. When we get all three in sync, we can say from our heart, “He leads me in paths of righteousness." —James MacDonald walkintheword.com
seeking: Father, what has your Spirit just shown me? How will I respond to your voice?
responding: Am I on a path that will produce righteousness? • What evidence of my going the right way can be seen in my life? • Have I applied biblical principles to the decisions I'm making? Sought wise counsel? Responded to the Spirit's leading?
From now on, Lord, I want to be much slower to launch out on my own, much quicker to kneel down, and more consistent in laying hold of the plentiful resources you've given me to direct my path.
following: Get on the path that leads to righteousness.
our journey
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. 3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Psalm 23:1-4
Your life can go down many different paths.
• Some paths are obviously wrong and lead to very bad places.
• Some paths appear to be right but are still wrong (Proverbs 14:12).
• Some paths are right for a while, until the road forks and a wrong choice takes you far from God.
If your heart desires to be on the right path, your ears will perk up a little when you hear, “He leads me in paths of righteousness” (Psalm 23:3).
God himself is highly interested in your being on the path that produces righteousness. Psalm 37:23 tells us that the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. Aren't you glad that submission to God will keep you heading the right way? “I want that!” you say. “How do I get on the right path?"
Now, there's a lot of confusion about the issue of knowing God's will, but I can give you some signposts. First of all, God's Word lights your path; it gives direction. It promises to be a beacon to you in really dark places. Are you reading it on a regular basis? You'll not wander far from God's will if you get into God's Word each day (Psalm 119:105).
Second, godly counsel will help you discern the right path. Ask wise people—spiritually mature people you respect—which direction to take. But what if they tell me to do something I don't want to do? Proverbs 12:15 says, “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice."
Third, Philippians 2:13 reveals that God works in us by his Spirit. But if we're not reading God's Word and seeking godly advice, we're not giving the Spirit very much to work with. God's not going to tell us to do something that's contrary to his Word. When we get all three in sync, we can say from our heart, “He leads me in paths of righteousness." —James MacDonald walkintheword.com
seeking: Father, what has your Spirit just shown me? How will I respond to your voice?
responding: Am I on a path that will produce righteousness? • What evidence of my going the right way can be seen in my life? • Have I applied biblical principles to the decisions I'm making? Sought wise counsel? Responded to the Spirit's leading?
From now on, Lord, I want to be much slower to launch out on my own, much quicker to kneel down, and more consistent in laying hold of the plentiful resources you've given me to direct my path.
following: Get on the path that leads to righteousness.
our journey