Green-eyed Monsters
Two days of cleaning my bus have definitely impacted my body, but Father, my mind and heart are with You. Use me to communicate Your heart and mind. Amen.
Acts 16:35-40(<<click here to read the passage)
Jealousy. We’ve all experienced it – maybe you’ve been on the receiving end or maybe you’ve been the green-eyed monster.
We’re all probably familiar with that phrase which traces itself back to the writings of Shakespeare. He used it in two of his plays, “Merchant of Venice” and “Othello” whose main characters used it in their dialogues. But actually, there is historical precedent for associating green with jealousy which can be traced back to ancient Greeks. They believed that feelings of envy and jealousy were triggered by the body’s overproduction of bile, which turns the skin into a shade of green.*
Many of us would associate jealousy with children since they are a little quicker to let their emotions show, but adults, though a bit more subtle, are no less ready to let their green-eyed monster out. Too often we just don’t like it when those close to us are getting the attention we crave. And unfortunately, we can get pretty creative when it comes to drawing attention back to ourselves.
In today’s passage, it’s crazy that these “God-fearing” Jews weren’t motivated by doctrinal purity. They weren’t striving to refute anything of a theological nature at all – their sole motivation for throwing together a group of troublemakers from the marketplace and forming a mob to start a riot was jealousy – petty green-eyed jealousy. v5
Jealousy from either side – the giver or the receiver – can be destructive. Lord Jesus, help us watch where our hearts lean. May we find contentment in who we are and what we have as we see ourselves through Your eyes. Help us not to let petty mentalities hurt others and ourselves. Amen.
A peaceful heart leads to a healthy body;
….jealousy is like cancer in the bones. Proverbs 14:30 NLT
Anger is cruel, and wrath is like a flood,
….but jealousy is even more dangerous. Proverbs 27:4 NLT
*3 Colors That Represent Jealousy
June 7th, 2022, Tues, 7:39 pm
Empty or Full – It’s Your Choice!
Father, it has been an odd sort of day. The weather started out bright and it is now overcast and raining. My heart started out overcast and now it is shining much more brightly. All praise to You for Your active presence in my life!
********
Music is a wonderful communicator of the soul!
I have a friend who has been blessed with great musical gifts. She and her husband have ministered on so many levels to so many people. I met her several years ago and would say she is one of those with a sweet and gentle spirit, who lives a life where she doesn’t just occasionally seek to live out her faith in Jesus Christ but breathes it in and out with each breathe.
A year or so ago, she began sharing recordings of her playing wonderful arrangements of predominantly hymns, quite often accompanied by her singing. I listened to one of her posts, just a little while ago, and it was not the first time! Her video is posted here and I would encourage you to go to her YouTube page and subscribe…you won’t regret it!
This particular arrangement is a combination of the traditional spiritual, Give Me Jesus, and the Fanny Crosby hymn of the same title.
The first stanza of Fanny Crosby’s hymn reads,
Take the world, but give me Jesus,
All its joys are but a name.
But His love abideth ever,
Thro’ eternal years the same.
How many times on any given day does the clamor of the world call out to us? It offers so much if we can just get this thing, do this thing, think this way, or place ourselves in some given circumstances in which everyone else finds themselves. And the world claims that we would be so much more content and fulfilled and happy if we would do so.
But, if you haven’t already figured it out, it’s a total scam! There may be a time of contentment or fulfillment or happiness, but it is short-lived. It is there for the fleetest of moments but is gone far too soon, leaving us with a gaping hole to fill. And sadly, that is how we spend our lives – searching for something to fill that hole.
What is worse is that that hole, over time, seems to get bigger and bigger and it gets harder and harder to fill. As the second line of that first stanza states, All [the world’s] joys are but a name. The world promises great things, but in the end, they are but a name. And that is why the first line says, Take the world, but give me Jesus.
The world may satisfy us for a time, but Jesus’ love abideth ever, Thro’ eternal years the same!
And where the world leaves us empty, the benefits of life with Jesus fill us to overflowing! It’s like a cup under a faucet opened wide! Before too long, His blessings are splashing out – overflowing, drenching those around us, as well!
O the height and depth of mercy!
O the length and breadth of love!
O the fullness of redemption—
Pledge of endless life above!
The world will only drag us into the depths of despair. But Jesus said in John 10:10b,
I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows]. AMP
Amen and amen!
June 6th, 2022, Mon, 8:52 pm
How to Press and When to Press
But the love of the Lord remains forever
….with those who fear him.
His salvation extends to the children’s children
….of those who are faithful to his covenant,
….of those who obey his commandments! Psalm 103:17-18 NLT
(Today has been one of those days that circumstances almost led to nothing being posted at all. But I thought better of it and decided to share the next installment of the posts I had shared last week.)
Matthew 16:20 (<<click here to read the passage)
There are quite a few areas in life where a small amount of knowledge applied can cause problems. I worked in the jewelry department of a Kohl’s department store for over 10 years and one of the things we did regularly back in the day was to change watch batteries. Sometimes it was a challenge to get the back off a watch, but it could also be a challenge to get the back back on. Most often, if that happened, we used a press with little dies to apply even pressure to pop them back on.
Early on in my time there, I heard of an associate who used the press but didn’t realize the need to use the dies. Without the dies, there are just two metal posts, and a metal post pressed firmly to a watch crystal has disastrous consequences! Of course, it shattered!
The disciples knew quite a bit about who Jesus was and due to the Father’s revelation, it was confirmed that Jesus was truly the promised Messiah. But that term, at this time, was not understood in the way God had intended. Applying the small amount of knowledge, they had could easily have had disastrous consequences! So, Jesus “sternly warned the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.”
A while back as we studied through the Gospel of John, we repeatedly encountered the phrase, “My hour has not yet come.” (John 2:4) in regard to Jesus’s lifeline. Everything, absolutely everything, comes in God’s good time. Jesus didn’t come to earth until it was time. His ministry didn’t begin until it was time. His death didn’t take place until it was time. And the proclamation that He was the Messiah didn’t occur until it was time.
Lord Jesus, may I patiently wait for Your timing – it is best. May I wait for Your direction and knowledge on how to press and when to press ahead. But also, may I not hesitate to step out on faith, if that is what You call me to do. Amen.
(June 4th, 2018, Mon, 6:34 am)
June 5th, 2022, Sun, 10:17 pm
Never Truly Alone
Father, it is a most beautiful day but not without its challenges. May decisions made be with Your wisdom. Amen.
Psalms 139:1-24 (<<click here to read the passage)
One rule of the road while driving in this part of the country is, if possible, to slow down when you see a deer. If you only see one deer cross the road, there’s a pretty good chance that there will be another one or two close behind.
On one of my morning routes last week, I saw three does and interestingly enough they were not together. I saw each of them separately and no other deer were within sight at the time. Every single one of them just stood just off the side of the road staring at me but not moving one way or the other. At least in our area, a lone deer is a bit of a rarity.
I think at one time or another, all of us feel alone. And what may seem odd but is still true, is that even if we are in a group of people or at home with multiple family members, we can still feel alone.
Sometimes people intentionally push us out of inner circles but oft times we do it to ourselves… Regardless, let me stress that we are never truly alone.
My most reason sermon was entitled, THE GOD WHO KNOWS ME, and was based on Psalms 139. (Click on the title if you’d like to hear it. The sermon begins around the 3:00 minute mark.)
This is a beautiful psalm and well worth taking the time to read through (click on the link at the top to do so.) It was David’s observation, and the big take-aways for this psalm, is that God knows us intimately, there is no way we can get away from God, and there is no way we can hide from God. If you run from him, he runs after you. If you run to him, he embraces you. But wherever you are, and wherever you go, His love will follow you.
I thought this illustration, shared by Rev. Rod Buchanan, was absolutely amazing!
Dr. John Medina, a genetic engineer, at the University of Washington helps us to understand a bit of the intricacy of the human body. He said, “The average human heart pumps over 1,000 gallons a day, over 55 million gallons in a lifetime. This is enough to fill 13 supertankers. It never sleeps, beating 2.5 billion times in a lifetime. The lungs contain 1,000 miles of capillaries. The process of exchanging oxygen for carbon dioxide is so complicated, that it is more difficult to exchange 02 for C02 than for a man shot out of a cannon to carve the Lord’s Prayer on the head of a pin as he passes by. DNA contains about 2,000 genes per chromosome — 1.8 meters [nearly 6 feet] of DNA are folded into each cell nucleus. A nucleus is 6 microns [one-millionth of a meter] long. This is like putting 30 miles of fishing line into a cherry pit. And it isn’t simply stuffed in. It is folded in. If folded one way, the cell becomes a skin cell. If another way, a liver cell, and so forth. To write out the information in one cell would take 300 volumes, each volume 500 pages thick. The human body contains enough DNA that if it were stretched out, it would circle the sun 260 times. The body uses energy efficiently. If an average adult rides a bike for 1 hour at 10 mph, it uses the amount of energy contained in 3 ounces of carbohydrate. [So lay off the donuts.] If a car were this efficient with gasoline, it would get 900 miles to the gallon.”
Our bodies are complicated to the extreme and we all know that our emotional hearts and minds are more complicated still. He knows us inside and out, yet He still loves us, all the good, the bad, and the ugly.
We may feel that we are, but we are never truly alone. God readily embraces us…oh, that we would eagerly embrace Him, as well!
May 31st, 2022, Tues, 1:03 pm
You Can’t Judge a Book by It’s Cover
I’m not sure what else we could have squeezed in today, Father, but thank You, especially for family! It was a blessing for sure!
Acts 16:35-40(<<click here to read the passage)
A popular societal topic seems to be not judging a book by its cover. I’ve seen videos and read stories, from different countries even, that press home this concept. Only seeing with our eyes can have dangerous consequences.
In searching for the origin of “judging a book by its cover”, it was in a book written by George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss (1860), and basically a man was called out for letting his young daughter read the book The History of the Devil by Daniel Defoe. The father’s response was, “Why, it’s one o’ the books I bought at Partridge’s sale. They was all bound alike, it’s a good binding, you see, and I thought they’d be all good books.”
That definitely wasn’t a good reason to buy a book! But aren’t we guilty of the same kinds of thought processes?
Here’s an example that’s a little out there. We were watching the out-of-state graduation of our niece last weekend via the internet when a student speaker referenced an inside joke amongst students that had to do with the lion’s den. Well until recently our area had been plagued with a business of ill-repute (a pornography store) that was called The Lion’s Den. Local believers had tried for years to close them, to no avail. But out of the blue here a few weeks ago, I noticed they had gone out of business! No complaints on my end – good riddance!
Anyway, when the student made the reference, all three of us thought about the disreputable business and quickly had to aright our minds to what he was more likely referring to in his speech. It was the graduation ceremony of a Christian high school, after all!
But our minds can easily jump the rails and off we go down the wrong track! In today’s passage, the city officials weren’t even on the right track to begin with. They weren’t thinking at all but simply reacted to the situation.
God was watching out for Paul and Silas, but when the chief magistrates decided to release them from jail, it seems to have been done more out of a “let’s get rid of these troublemakers” kind of mentality. It wasn’t until Paul pointed out that they were Roman citizens did the magistrates realize the potential trouble they were in, for it was against Roman law. The notes from the Amplified Bible state, “…it is clear from Acts that punishing a citizen without a trial and guilty verdict was illegal, probably involving severe penalties for the magistrates in charge.”
…the chief magistrates…were frightened; so they came [to the prison] and appealed to them [with apologies], and when they brought them out, they kept begging them to leave the city. vs38-39 AMP
Paul and Silas didn’t press the issue but instead, let the “scare” do its work. My Life Application Study Bible states, “The word would spread that Paul and Silas had been found innocent and freed by the leaders, expressing the truth that believers should not be persecuted especially if they were Roman citizens.”
May we as followers of Jesus be alert to the temptation to judge books by their covers alone. May we see others through His eyes, and act accordingly. Amen.
May 30th, 2022, Mon, 8:06 pm