God knows best...

"'I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said.'" - Luke 1:38 (NIV)


Parents know that in training their young children, much of the time is spent repeating themselves. After a while, it moves to threatening to punish the child if he does not obey his parents.


The Bible is full of stories of people and nations that God wound up having to punish after they turned away from him and sinned mightily. Some went as far as sacrificing children to false gods and pursuing sins of the flesh and wealth instead of following God like he commanded.


However, there were some who followed God no matter what was commanded, no matter how ridiculous it may have sounded at the time. Noah followed God's command to build an ark, even though rain was not heard of at the time. Moses went up against Pharaoh, the most powerful ruler on Earth at the time, to free the Israelites from captivity despite his own personal shortcomings and fear.


Then there was Mary. Some accounts of her life say she was only a teenager, pledged to be married to an older man. However, God picked her to be the mother of the Savior of mankind, Jesus Christ. The only question she asked, despite her fears of being an unwed mother (she was only pledged to Joseph, not married to him just yet) and carrying the child of another, was "How will this be since I am only a virgin?" After the angel answered her concern, she simply said, "I am the Lord's servant."


In our lives, God indeed knows best. He knew us while we were still in our mother's womb. Like with Esther, He knows the time and place we are to be born and be the most use for His kingdom. He also is faithful, and will not let us bear more than we are able.


No matter what the situation, God has proven time and time again that we can trust Him, and that includes our salvation.

WANTED

WANTED: Missionaries and church planters

Matthew 28:19-20 tell us, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Some have devoted their lives to this, living behind family, friends and familiar places to go off to distant places in the United States and beyond to tell others about Jesus Christ. These are those who have decided to dedicate their lives completely to serving in a particular place and spend the bulk of their waking hours telling others about the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ.
It doesn't matter whether they are doing it outside of the United States or picking a spot in this country to minister. The Disciple Beacon is looking for missionaries and church planters who are willing to talk about their experiences and why they do what they do.

The easiest way to introduce yourself would be to contact the editor of the Disciple Beacon.

I would love a chance to write these fine people and interview them for a bit on this site about their experiences and what motivates them.

Thank you and God Bless!

'Let others know what you have seen'

"Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' " - John 20:17 (NIV)

It had been a time of sorrow for the followers of Jesus.


Their leader, the man they believed to be the Messiah, was dead, crucified at the hands of the Romans and the Jewish religious leaders of the day. Howver, when two women came to dress Jesus' body for final burial, they discovered the tomb was empty.


Obviously, the women who first made this discovery and later Peter and the other disciple who came to investigate had reason to be concerned. They knew that people would say that Jesus' followers had come and taken the body so they could say He had been resurrected (indeed, the Jewish religious leaders worried about this happening that they convinced Pontius Pilate to post a guard outside of the tomb).

But Jesus slowly made Himself known to His followers, particularly to Mary Magdalene, who had been one of His earliest students. She had remained at the empty tomb crying, and was desperately hoping that whoever had taken Jesus' body would return it so the persecutions from the religious leaders and the Roman authorities would ease up.

He tested her by asking why she was crying, to make sure that indeed it was Him that she was looking for, that she hadn't turned away like others had when He was arrested and later crucified. When He revealed Himself to her by merely saying her name, she knew right away that her hopes that He had been right all along about His pending resurrection was true, that her and others' following of Jesus, who they believed the long-awaited Messiah, had not been in vain.

However, Jesus also told her to not just sit there, but to go and tell the others what she now knew to be true. He said to not just hold on to Him, but to let the others what she knew to be true.

That is the call to the church today as well. Too often, religion is to be a private matter so not to offend others.

If we know something to be true, something that is so unbelievable, that our merely having faith and putting our trust in it has eternal implications, then we are obligated to say something about it. We are to tell others that not only isn't Jesus not dead and buried, but also alive and eventually, coming back.

We are not so smart...

"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate." Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength." - 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 (NIV)

We are not so smart as we sometimes think we are.

Trust in the Lord...

"Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance? Who has understood the mind of the LORD, or instructed him as his counselor? Whom did the LORD consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding" - Isaiah 40:12-14 (NIV)

Too many times, we try to take credit for what is rightfully God's just because we want to. However, we cannot and should not because we are not the ones who created the world. We do not always know what God is thinking or what He is doing and why.

Sometimes, we can only do what is commanded in Proverbs 3:5-6:
"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight."

That is the beginning of true wisdom and true understanding.

Have no doubt

Caravaggio: Still Doubting by John Granville Gregory

"The Jesus told him, 'Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.'" - John 20:29 (NIV)

It was a pretty momentous and for some, preposterous time for the disciple and other followers of Jesus. Their Messiah and leader had just been killed, crucified for crimes cooked up by the religious leaders of the time. So when news came that Jesus was in fact alive, it was hard to believe.

At first, Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene, and then to most of his disciples, giving them the Holy Spirit. They were excited to see him, for everything they had believed was coming true.

One disciple, Thomas (called Didymus), did not believe the news, however. He had not been with the disciples when Jesus came, so he did not believe the story. He said this in response:

"Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it." - John 20:25b (NIV)

This is a common argument against putting your faith in God and trusting in Jesus for your salvation. How do we know that all of this did happen? How do we know that Jesus did indeed rise from the dead before eventually returning to heaven (see Acts 1:9)? How do we believe anything that is taught and spoken of in the Bible?

Not to be trite, but sometimes it does take a little bit of faith. God chooses to reveal Himself in this world, like through His creation or miracles like when a baby is born. It is just a question whether we choose to believe where they actually come from and not someplace where we "think" they may have come from.

For Thomas, Jesus appeared to the disciples again a week after Thomas said he did not Jesus had risen from the dead. He invited Thomas to put his fingers in the holes in his hands, and put his hand in his side, to which Thomas replied, "My Lord and My God!" (John 20:28)

Jesus then said it is one thing to believe when you have seen Him; it is another to believe when you don't have the evidence standing right in front of you. Sometimes, according to John,

"But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." - John 20:31 (NIV)

We have the power...

"For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline." - 2 Timothy 1:6-7 (NIV)

Battle of the M&Ms

Now something on the lighter side.

This was an e-mail I received from a friend several years ago.

"An Ultimate M&M Challenge"

Whenever I get a package of plain M&Ms, I make it my duty to continue the strength and robustness ofthe candy as a species. To this end, I hold M&M duels.

Taking two candies between my thumb and forefinger, I apply pressure, squeezing them together until one of them cracks and splinters. That is the "loser," and I eat the inferior one immediately. The winner gets to go another round.

I have found that, in general, the brown and red M&Ms are tougher, and the newer blue ones are genetically inferior. I have hypothesized that the blue M&Ms as a race cannot survive long in the intense theater of competition that is the modern candy and snack-food world. Occasionally I will get a mutation, a candy that is misshapen, or pointer, or flatter than the rest. Almost invariably this proves to be a weakness, but on very rare occasions it gives the candy extra strength. In this way, the species continues to adapt to its environment.

When I reach the end of the pack, I am left with one M&M, the strongest of the herd. Since it would make no sense to eat this one as well, I pack it neatly in an envelope and send it to M&M Mars, A Division of Mars, Inc., Hackettstown, NJ 17840-1503 USA, along with a 3x5 card reading, "Please use this M&M for breeding purposes."

This week they wrote back to thank me, and sent me a coupon for a free 1/2 pound bag of plain M&Ms. I consider this "grant money." I have set aside the weekend for a grand tournament. From a field of hundreds, we will discover the True Champion.

There can be only one...

Children are a blessing...

Source: E! Online

"Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him." - Psalm 127:3 (NLT)

Yesterday morning, Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar announced on NBC's "Today" show that they are expecting their 20th child, due sometime in the spring.

With that news, the critics have come out with their knives sharpened, claiming everything from spousal abuse (from Michelle Duggar being pregnant so often) to a strain on resources. Some have even said that nations should put limits on the number of kids a couple can have to save the planet.

This is just silly, and something I addressed in my old blog when another green concern was spoken with the family of Jon and Kate Gosselin:

A few years ago I saw an article about whether the family of Jon and Kate Gosselin, they of "Jon and Kate Plus 8" fame, is actually green, or environmentally friendly. Throughout the article, environmental experts weighed in that even though mom Kate Gosselin has done things like buying organic food whenever possible and recycling, and that the family has installed solar panels on their new home, they may still not be doing enough because the eight children are creating their "carbon footprints."

So say bits of the article:

One of the reasons for the lack of greenness is the emission of carbon dioxide.
 

Sure, we are to take care of the Earth, as God had Adam do in the Garden of Eden (see Genesis 2:15). But we are not to regard the Earth as so high that people are second or lesser options compared to it. The only thing or being that is be rated higher than people, according to God, is God Himself and His Son, Jesus Christ (these are tied in Jesus saying of the two greatest commandments).

And sure, raising children is hard work, as any parent will tell you. But we just have to cling to what Philippians 4:13 says about persevering:

"I can do everything through him who gives me strength." (NIV)

If the eight children depicted in the show lived in Britain, they would each emit about 750 tons of carbon dioxide over a lifetime, (Rosamund) McDougall (policy director of the U.K.-based Optimum Population Organization) explains. (American carbon-dioxide emissions per capita are about double that of Britain's.)

"What's more, if the eight children each had eight children, not taking into account the fact that eight husbands or wives would be absorbed from other families, there would be 64 grandchildren, each emitting 750 [metric tons] over a lifetime," says McDougall.

Another part of the quoted this:

"No matter what this family does, it could NEVER go green," writes one blogger on Treehugger.com. "The most green families are those with one child or none. So this family has absorbed the CARBON FOOTPRINT OF 8 FAMILIES. This is very greedy!!!"

However, one thing we all sorely need to understand is that children are not to be a burden, according to Scripture. They are not damaging to the environment just because they exist. Children, instead, are a blessing.