from testimony to byword?

Tonight is Rosh HaShanah and this period is usually referred to as the "Days of Awe", during which a person looks at his life and inspects it. Which got me to thinking about a question....Are you still being a testimony in your life or are you being a byword in your life?

When the Lord was instructing the people just before they went into the land to possess it, He gave them a strong warning that they were to be a different type of people to be a testimony of who God was and how He wanted them to live. He also warned them about what would happen if they didn't and in Deuteronomy 28:27, He told them the following: "And you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations where the Lord will drive you."

I had wondered why "byword" meant, so I looked it up in the Strong's concordance and it mentioned "'something sharp' like a jibe, taunt". Then I looked up "taunt" and it came up with: a sarcastic challenge or insult....in other words, the Lord was saying that if the people didn't follow His laws, they would end up being to other people an insult of God, which they could be sarcastic toward.

Now I think about it in my own life, I know that in 2008, I was a testimony of God's power and His saving grace, but after I left the hospital, I started slipping a bit (see the "Fat Man" blog posts) and started going down the path of living a life that was an insult to God rather than a cause for praise. And that is something that scares me...Now think about your life, are you being a praise to God by following His commands in your life or are you being an insult to Him by living your own life? What do others say when they see you, by the way that you live...does it attract them to God or does it make them be sarcastic toward God?

Look at your life now and see where you stand...it doesn't have to take a "high holy day" to do so, but look at yourself to make sure where you stand...are you on firm ground being a testimony or on shaky ground by being a byword?

9-11 ten years later

As I write this it is only a few hours away from the 11th of September. What makes this September 11th different is that it is the 10th anniversary of the attacks on the United States. We will hear all the speeches and all the opinions from different people....of how we have changed as a nation and as a people. But the question is, have we changed spiritually since 9-11?

The reason that I ask this is that the mayor of New York City has prohibited prayer at the ceremonies commemorating what happened ten years ago...Why? At the ceremonies at the National Cathedral, there are representatives from all sorts of different kinds of faiths, but none from evangelical types of faith. Again, why? We have atheists attacking a cross made of two beams from the remains of the WTC....again I ask, why?

I remember after 9-11 churches were full and people were getting closer to God because they had seen the tragedy and knew that it was not only terrorism, but evil that had attacked us and people were growing closer to the One who defeats and will defeat all evil. But now, have we forgotten this faithful Friend who sticks closer to us than a brother? Have we gotten so complacent that we forget that evil still lurks in the heart of men everywhere? Do we believe that we no longer need God? It seems that the answer is that the majority have forgotten God...for if we had not, we as a nation and a people would not be"prohibiting" ourselves from seeking Him, seeking His wisdom and His guidance.

As we remember what happened on September 11th, even if the government won't allow it "officially", let us who are His fall upon our knees and ask God to protect us from evil and to turn our hearts as a people and a nation back to Him in true revival, so that this may never happen again....

Dear Heavenly Father: I pray at this time, as we remember what happened on September 11th, that we may be reminded that this attack was part of a spiritual war and that it was the forces of the evil one who attacked. Lord, we know that You have already defeated the evil one, but we ask that our hearts may return to You and Your covering so that we give no room for the evil one to attack again. May we who are called by Your name use this opportunity to bring true revival back to the United States. In the strong and mighty name of Jesus, we ask this, Amen.

perspective on tragedy

Normally, I would be focusing on Labor Day, but there is something that I want to share that is close to my heart....as some may know we have had a severe drought here in Texas...and because of that we have had several fires break out. And fires are dangerous and tragic things, but I just found out today, that a family in our congregation has been forced from their home because of the fire.

Usually when you hear of tragedy, you think "how sad", but when it happens to someone you know; it becomes greater....in a sense to paraphrase C.S. Lewis... "Pain is God's megaphone to rouse a deaf believer"....our prayers become deeper and more intense, our desire to help becomes more purer, our focus becomes more clearer....all of these things because we genuinely see that we are not isolated from anything, but that it can happen to us and to those that we love.....

So I hope that those who are reading this on the East and went through Irene, those of us here in the Southwest are going through the fires, that if we know someone that has been affected by either, that we who are their friends can have ourselves motivated to help in one way or another, so that we can be Jesus to them and that they can see that He is there, even in the midst of tragedy....