“But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless. When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.” — I Cor. 13: 10-12 (NLT)
Recently, I was reminded of the awkward girl who inhibited this body of mine more than 15 years ago.
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“Do all that you have in mind,” his armor-bearer said. “Go ahead; I am with you heart and soul.” 1 Samuel 14:7 NIV
o·bey [oh-bey]
–verb (used with object)
1.to comply with or follow the commands, restrictions, wishes, or instructions of
Obey. It’s a simple word. But doing it is anything but simple. It is a verb – an action word. This word should call us to action. But many times it doesn’t. The Lord is really speaking to me about obeying. I get it everywhere. I hear His words echoing to me from my own words to my children. “I need you to obey me the first time I ask.”
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My daughter has been working on a science fair for the last month. For her project, she decided to test which item biodegrades the fastest: apple core, banana peel, or a cucumber slice. She created three trials for her experiment, and set three plates outside, each with one apple core, one banana peel, and one cucumber slice on it. It’s all been very scientific.
And quite the adventure…
First, after a week of the plates sitting outside, we had some big winds here in California and all three plates ended up in the pool. Needless to say, my daughter had to start her project over.
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“When Solomon had finished all these prayers and supplications to the LORD, he rose from before the altar of the LORD, where he had been kneeling with his hands spread out toward heaven.” 1 Kings 8:54
I’ve noticed lately (though I’ve known for years) that I seem to talk to God more than pray to Him. It wasn’t always like this. Before marriage and kids I was a pray-er. A continuous communor with Jesus. But life got busy and my alone times got less and less until now it seems I throw out Twitter-like conversations, a status update with my God.
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Mark 16:15 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.”
Is America in constant need of good news? It seems all we ever see on television is bad news. I’m not one for watching the news everyday, because almost every story reported is full of turmoil and tragedy. However, I do try to stay abreast of current events. I read a magazine called The Week, which touts itself as containing “all you need to know about everything that matters.” It highlights major stories covered in the United States and International Media. In addition to the top news stories, it usually contains a few human interest type stories as well as the latest in film, travel, leisure, music, books, and business.
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Have you ever put up a front and hidden your true feelings from others?
Have you ever acted a certain way, just to be liked or accepted?
I think it’s safe to say that, at some point, we’ve all done this. Whether it’s during our teen years due to peer pressure, or later in life, to try to fit into a group of friends or family, there’s probably a time we can all think of when we weren’t true to ourselves because we were trying to please others.
Sometimes, the desire to be liked or make others happy can be so powerful that just being ourselves doesn’t seem like enough.
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A few weeks ago I walked into the house at the end of a long day and sank onto the couch, kicked off my boots, and launched into filling Mike in on all the details. He’s good at that; at knowing when I need to talk something through and – on this particular day – I think he realized long before I did, that I was about to, indeed, talk something through. He pulled off his reading glasses like he does when he’s preparing to give his full attention to something and he listened.
It had been a full day, with classes, labs, a meeting, and then a late lunch with one of our sons.
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Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men. Ephesians 6:7 NIV
“I don’t know why I have to wear this heavy jacket,” my son complained as we sat in the car waiting for an appearance of the school bus. I glanced at the digital readout of temperature outside – 42 degrees. “It’s cold today,” I told him.
“I’m not cold,” he countered, “and I don’t like this jacket. I don’t even want to go to school. All I do is work all day, and it’s not fun.” He yanked at the zipper and slouched in his seat. Thinking for a moment, I said, “Colin, do you know what the Bible says?
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