Owner’s Manual

I avoid owners manuals like the plague. If I can’t figure out how to use something then it isn’t easy enough. I get irritated if it doesn’t make sense or I can’t make it work the way I want it to work. Then if I actually have to find the owner’s manual, I grumble, complain, and sometimes I give up.

Unfortunately I often treat life that way. It isn’t easy so I get irritated. I want it to work my way and when it doesn’t I throw a fit. I try everything I can imagine to get life to go my way and to work. I attempt to use my gifts and talents like I do a phone or computer. Straight out of the box. I expect that I can do it, on my own with no manual.

The truth is that God gave us a manual for life, The Bible. The catch is we actually have to read it. Joshua 1:8 says, “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”

Our lives will be successful in God’s eyes, if we remember He says and do it. We can only do this if we read His word. The owner’s manual of life has transforming power in our lives. Oh that I would allow God’s Word to change my life.

So my question for today is what are you doing to make sure you spend time with God’s Word every day? I can’t wait to hear your ideas.

Pay Attention…

My blood pressure sky rockets as I say the same sentence for what feels like the millionth time. My words are unheeded. Water continues to fill the cup held by a small hand. The cup overflows. My floor is wet.

He didn’t pay attention.

As a rule we all need to pay attention or life can pass us by. One second we are sitting in high school waiting for life to begin and the next we are laying in a hospital bed wondering what happened in between.

As believers in Jesus, the God-man, the Word made flesh, our Passover Lamb, we are to pay attention as well. Hebrews 2:1 says, “We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.” Hebrews chapter one is all about who Jesus is. That He is the God-man, not an angel, but fully God and fully man. Already there were people who were trying misrepresent Jesus. They were trying to say He wasn’t God.

So the writer of Hebrews tells us to pay attention. He doesn’t say pay attention to all these great thinkers. These men who have wonderful ideas that “feel” right or fit your idea of how God would do things. No this writer tells us don’t focus on all the counterfeit arguments. Focus on what is real. The people who received this letter did not have a Bible like we do today. Most likely many couldn’t read, instead they heard the epistles (that fancy word for letters) and the gospels read aloud. Some of these ancient readers or listeners may have even known some of the disciples or apostles personally. So this writer is telling these people to pay attention to the truth.

Today we have God’s word bound in leather, cardboard, paper, or even unbound (electronically). So we need to pay attention to what we have heard in God’s word. Not some fancy speaker’s amazingly crafted speech or a pastor’s wonderfully worded book. No we need to pay MORE CAREFUL ATTENTION to God’s word. Why? So we don’t drift away. So we aren’t led astray. So we build our faith on true knowledge, on the truth of God’s word.

Are you distracted from God’s word? Are you focused on thoughts, ideas, figuring out God’s plan and redemption in your human mind? How do you think you can refocus on God’s word?

Are you paying attention to God’s word? What are you doing to “pay more careful attention” to His word? What can you do to help your attention span?

I can’t wait to hear from you all! Join in, comment, become a facebook fan, consider getting e-mail updates. Thanks for stopping by!

My Not-So-Spiritual SIGH!

I got behind. Out of routine, out of time, out of sync.

Behind in my Chronological Bible reading. I needed to read half of the March 27th reading and all of March 28th reading on March 28th.

Reading the Bible in chronological order means I am in the Old Testament and will be for most of the year. The Old Testament is filled with genealogies, lists of names, strange geographical locations, and extensive descriptions of how to build a tabernacle. Don’t get me wrong, I know that all these things have meaning and reason and order. In fact, I ask God as I read these things to teach me what I need to learn.

Even so, the rebel sigh still escapes my lips as I see a mind numbing list of names I have no hope of pronouncing. So I closed my Bible in my fatigue on March 27th, wondering why I needed a recap of what I just read about who Israel had defeated in their conquest of the Promised Land.

Sweet Rest...

Today as I wrestled with doubts, frustrations, wondering why God is bringing me down a certain road, pondering longing and it remaining unfulfilled, questioning my next steps, I opened my Bible to get caught up. Not only to say I had read my Bible for March 28th, but also to spend some quiet with my LORD. Oh how I needed quiet.

In that raw place I my eyes read Joshua 12 with the heading “A List of Defeated Kings.” My first inclination was to sigh, but my sigh caught in my throat as I came face to face with what I needed. What I need when doubt attempts to tie me down and fear attempts to turn me from my God ordained plow. I need a list. I need a list of kings defeated in my life – defeated only by God’s hand.

I need a list of sin I have overcome through God, of God ordained “coincidences,” of victories in my Spiritual Journey. I need a list. A list that I can bring out to remind myself what God has done and what He is doing in my life. A list that drives away doubt, that reminds me of God’s miraculous provision, that screams of God’s sovereignty during dark times, that recounts when God ordered my steps for His purposes. Yes I need a list in my life, a prayer journal full of God’s answers, a blog recounting what God has taught me, a friend or loved one who walked the road with me and can remind me of my list.

Do you have a list? How do you keep your list? Do you want to start one? I challenge you to start a list with me…Tuesdays at Rethinking My Thinking will become our List Days. Days to share what God is doing in our lives. I can’t wait to hear what He is doing in your lives!