April 17 Kindness Is Priceless

April 17

Kind Words Are Priceless

 Pr 12:25 ¶ Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop:

but a good word maketh it glad. 

My dentist was in pain.  Oh nothing to do with his teeth, just his demeanor. He seemed crushed, defeated, downcast, and discouraged. He normally was a happy fellow, chatting and telling jokes as he worked. But not today. The few things he said revealed he was not his normal joyful self.

When I left his office I stopped nearby and bought a silly greeting card and a bunch of flowers. The message I wrote in the card said he was a great dentist, etc etc. Just a simple cheery note of thanks for being a great dentist and caring for my dental needs so well.

I went back to the office and left the flowers and card on the receptionist's desk without a word and left.

A few days later the receptionist saw me in a restaurant and stopped to tell me that the dentist had been sort of discouraged for a couple weeks. But after reading my card he had brightened up and was nearly back to his old happy self by the end of the day. She thanked me for what I had done.

     Several years later when he retired he brought a folder into the room as I sat in the dental chair. He opened the folder and showed me he had kept the card I had left, and told me how much it had meant to him.

But I had not done very much. The card and flowers cost only a few dollars, and it only took a few minutes of my time. The benefit to the Dentist was far greater than anything I had done.

The point I am trying to make is that kindness is priceless. By that I mean kindness does not cost anything. A smile is free. A kind word can be given without any cost at all.  But while they are “price-less” they certainly are not worthless.

There are many examples of kindness in the Scriptures. In Genesis Joseph’s brothers had sold him to a camel caravan because they were so jealous of him. Years later when they had to go to Egypt to buy food they did not recognize him. Instead of being angry for what they had done to him he offered them kindness.

Ge 50:21 Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.

There are many examples of Christ lifting up the downcast. He caused the blind to see, restored the deaf to hearing, forgave the woman taken in adultery, etc.

Too often in our world today people insulate themselves from others. I have been on crowded subway trains and have seen people who were surrounded by a crowd but looked alone. It seems even more so today as people have their ears plugged into some MP3 type device, or have their phone glued to their ear. They are nearly oblivious to their surroundings and do not interact with those they pass even so much as a pleasant smile.

As Christians we should be a light shining in a dark world. We are told in Scripture to be kind to others. You have no way of knowing how heavily burdened some people are or how much good a simple smile and kind word may help.

In large cities it is harder to interact with others because no one wants to get involved with some odd ball, or take the chance of being reproved if they say something. But I have found it is still possible to say a pleasant word to someone, even if they do not respond.

Our thought for today is to be more aware of those around you and less focused on ourselves and the many things we are hurrying to get done. It is easy to be unaware of those around us, and blind to their need for a little kindness. Even just a word and a smile.

It is not only a nice thing to do but the Bible tells us that is how we should be always.

Ro 12:10 Be kindly affectioned one to

another with brotherly love…

 1Co 13:4  Charity suffereth long, and is kind… 

Col 3:12 Put on therefore, …. kindness,

humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;

 

There is a wonderful piece of poetry hanging on a wall in our home. It says.

I have wept in the night

For my shortness of sight

that to somebody's need I was blind

But I never have yet

felt a tinge of regret

for being a little too kind.

 

Now, before you just nod in agreement. Pick up your phone, or grab a note card and be kind to someone that may need it.  Remember to say a kind word to someone today. I know you will because you are a kind and caring type of person. Bless you.

Eph 4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

April 16 A Piece of Candy

April 16

A Piece of Candy

Pr 15:1 ¶ A soft answer turneth away wrath:

but grievous words stir up anger.

The can of hard candy always sat on the top of the desk. When I completed my notes from the job I had just finished I reached for the can. As I opened it one of the women who worked in the shop stopped at the desk to do some paperwork.

“Want one?” I offered, before snapping the lid back on the can

“Thanks.” She responded as she unwrapped the candy.

I probably should have walked to the other side of the shop to Alice, the other woman who worked in my shop, and offered her a candy. But she was busy in the middle of a job, and the can was always available to anyone who wanted a hard candy, so I didn’t bother.  

Now Alice was a nice lady but she seemed a little insecure. The other woman in the shop was attractive, outgoing and always seemed happy. Alice was none of those things and I think it added to her insecurity. The result was her work suffered and there came a point when I had to call her into the office. As I explained the reasons why I was dismissing her she asked if she could tell me something and said

“When you have employees, you should treat them both alike!” I knew she was referring to the time a couple weeks earlier when I did not walk across the shop and give her a candy. I also knew she wanted an opening to unload her frustrations on me. Instead of responding “Oh I always treat my workers equally” so she could respond with her example of my unfairness, I paused a moment. Then I simple smiled and said “Thank you Alice. That’s a good idea.”

It was not the answer she had expected. There was no easy way for her to engage me in an argument so she paused a moment then left the office.

A side note to this story is I had contacted a motel owner I knew who needed someone to clean rooms. I told Alice to stop at his motel. He hired her. Alice did not have the skills to work in my shop but she was a great homemaker and did a great job for him.

Jesus was a master of the soft answer. Lawyers, governors, and Pharisee’s all tried to trap him with loaded questions but His soft answer left no opportunity for wrath.

In Mark 12 we see an example of Christ giving a soft answer.

Mr 12:13 ¶ And they send unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, to catch him in his words.

They asked Christ “Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?”

This seemingly innocent question was somewhat like our modern day question “Have you stopped beating your wife?” There is not a good answer. If Christ had responded yes, we should pay tribute the people would have seen him as siding with the Roman government. If on the other hand he said no we should not pay tribute they could have turned him into the Roman officials for opposing the tribute.  

His wonderful soft response was “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's” thus side stepping their trap.

In today’s world people want to have the last word. It starts in childhood. “Tis so”, “Tain’t neither”,  “Tis to”, Tain’t neither” “Tis”, Tain’t”  etc. We have all heard a variation of children arguing about something. About all that changes is the vocabulary as we mature. I guess it is just human nature.

That may be why the Bible has so many comments about what and how we talk to one another.

The devotional thought for today is to think of some of the many verses that guide us in our speech and how we should respond to others. Here are a few verses to get us started;

Col 4:6 Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.

Pr 21:23 ¶ Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue

keepeth his soul from troubles. 

That should get us started. There are so many verses on how we should talk because we need a daily reminder. May God’s blessing be on us today as we meditate on how we should answer people. May our tongues not be instruments to stir up wrath, but bless people today. May God keep us and our tongues today. 

Jas 1:26 If any man among you seem to be

religious, and bridleth not his tongue,

but deceiveth his own heart,

this man's religion is vain.

April 15 Lies in the Bible

April 15

Lies in the Bible

Ge 3:4 And the serpent said unto the woman,

Ye shall not surely die:

“I cannot tell a lie, I did it with my little hatchet.” said young George Washington with the hatchet still in his hand. Mason Locke Weems wanted people to know that George Washington was an honest, truthful man. He also wanted the people who read his book about George Washington to follow the example of the young truth telling George. So it seems ironic that the story about the cherry tree was in itself a lie. Even worse it came from a preacher! But it never happened. Nope. Pure fiction.

Weems was better known as Parson Weems.  Many of his “myths” still live in our culture today. His intentions were noble and welcomed by people of the early 1800’s who wished to honor the memory of Washington. But they were none the less falsehoods.  

Telling lies no longer seems to be the evil it was a generation ago. We are confronted with messages which are not true almost daily from advertisers, the Internet, the news media and politicians.  Even the Bible contains lies, but the lies are of bad people in Scripture. The Bible itself is true, but it truthfully records lies people have told.

The devotional thought for today is that we need to be discerning so we are not harmed by the lies we daily hear.

The serpent told Eve a big fat lie. He is responsible for the lie, but Eve is responsible for believing him!  So too are we responsible when we are confronted with a lie.  Especially one that deals with our faith and relationship with God.

A good example of that principle is found in the story of the unnamed “man of God” in 1 Kings chapter 13.

1Ki 13:1 ¶ And, behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the LORD unto Bethel…    

This Man of God had been sent by the Lord to condemn Jeroboam. When he condemned Jeroboam it set off a chain of events including the hand of Jeroboam becoming paralyzed and the Man of God praying that it be restored. Jeroboam then invited him to have a meal with him. But the Man of God had been instructed to “ …Eat no bread, nor drink water,…” and declined the invitation. Then he headed for Judah and his home.

The Bible continues the story with a prophet who lived in Bethel going after the Man of God and inviting him to come home for a meal.

The man of God knew exactly what the Lord had told him.

1Ki 13:16 And he said, I may not return with thee,

nor go in with thee: neither will I eat bread

nor drink water with thee in this place:

 

So the old prophet used the devils trick and lied to the Man of God. 

1. 1Ki 13:18 …I am a prophet also as thou art; and an angel spake unto me by the word of the LORD, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied unto him.

The man of God went home with the old Prophet and had a meal after which he left and was later killed by a lion. He had believed a lie and it was a fatal mistake.

He had listened to the advice of a prophet who still lived in Bethel. What was a prophet doing living in bethel? He should have left with the other prophets when Jeroboam set up idol worship. This was a backslidden old prophet, as evidenced by him telling a lie about an angel speaking to him.

Why would the Man of God have violated his marching orders? We can learn much from this example.

1. Do not take advice from people who are backslidden. Their backslidden position should alert us they have made bad decisions for their own future and surely cannot advise us for ours.

2. Do not be swayed by religious sounding talk that runs contrary to what you already know.

3. If God wants to speak to your heart he does not need a stranger to deliver the message.

4. Nice sounding, reasonable suggestions should be put under the light of God’s word before you accept them. Too often it is the world asking you to compromise just a little. Don’t be so unreasonable is their hidden argument. If you really love people you would join us.

I find it fascinating that the world wants us to join them, but they do not want to join us!

Unfortunately, from time to time, we are being led astray by other Christians. It takes great discernment to recognize deception and avoid following bad advice, or ignoring those who say they know what God’s will is for our lives. Sometimes you have to swim against the modern popular movements in religious circles. Friends will tell you to go hear some great speaker who is just wonderful. Or go see a movie about the Bible where 99% is ok and only a little is false.

    Those are the times you need discernment. Another time we need great discernment is when preachers become famous and start telling you to send them money. People sent millions to Jim Baker and Tammy Faye.  Rock and roll music used to be bad but now it is called contemporary and used to praise God? 

      Companies that print Bibles are quick to tell you their latest version of the Bible is “from the original Greek” but slow to tell you there are more than one “original Greek texts” they can choose from for their latest scholarly version. It takes great discernment to know what is the true Word of God and what is Satan’s counterfeit. Could it be publishing houses are more concerned with profits than accuracy? Is that the reason they keep making new versions. Is it to correct earlier translations or make more money?   

The thought for us to carry away from today’s devotional is “Why did Eve believe Satan.”  And why do we believe some of the modern lies about our faith and practice?  As I said it takes discernment and God will give it to us if we but ask. God requires that we try the Spirits. Discernment is not optional. It is required in faithful servants. (1Co 4:2  Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.) There is still good advice for us today from the Old Testament.

De 11:16 Take heed to yourselves, that your

heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside,

and serve other gods, and worship them;

April 14 - Some Advice Please

April 14

             Some Advice Please

 

1Ki 12:8 But he (Rehoboam) forsook the counsel

of the old men… and consulted with the

young men that were grown up with him…

     The explosion sent a tongue of fire out of the stove door and up his arm. But he had not worked in the woodshop long enough to learn not to throw a shovel full of sanding powder into the woodstove!

     “Did you see that? It burned the hair right off my arm”  He said as he rubbed his now hairless arm.

      “Yeah, I probably wouldn’t do that again.” I advised with just a hint of a smile.
       “Sounds like good advice to me” he grinned back as he rubbed the back of his now pink hand.

     There are times when we could all use some advice. That is sometimes where the problem starts. Who should we ask?

     We have all been in a store and asked a sales person about a product. When they read the fine print on the product and respond  “Yes, it will probably do that.”, it tells us they don’t have a clue and cannot give us good advice.

      Rehoboam had a decision to make. He was in a tough spot. His father, Solomon, had died and he was going to be the next king of the 12 tribes of Israel. (1 Kings 12:1) But Solomon had spent a lot of money building fancy buildings and other unneeded luxuries, and taxing the people way too much. It had lasted most of the 40 years Solomon was king and the people had grown weary of doing without money and man power at home so Solomon could live…well…like a king, only way too much like a king!

      Solomon also had forced too many people to serve as builders, butlers, and everything else his fancy life style required. The people were on the edge of rebellion and asked that his son, Rehoboam, lower taxes and stop forced labor. They were willing to support the government and they were not asking that all taxes be done away with, just that the heavy burden of Solomon be lighter. Certainly a reasonable request.

     1 Kings 12 gives us the details. Rehoboam must have been pretty self-serving or slow witted. He asked the old men and they said if you lighten up, the people will serve you forever.  

     Next he asked the guys his own age, who benefitted from the heavy taxes. They said he should load the people down even more than Solomon had. (The young guys he asked were feeding at the public trough!) Rehoboam was not smart enough to sort out good advice from bad, so he followed what the younger guys advised and as a result he lost the kingdom.

     Jeroboam, was selected by the ten tribes that rebelled to be their king. Almost immediately he led the nation into idolatry. Why would he do that?

     The verses leading up to vrs 28 reveal that Jeroboam also had a problem. First he had to figure out how to keep his ten tribes from going to Jerusalem because he feared that if they went there to worship as God required, they may change their mind about the rebellion, and kill him, for leading the rebellion.

      His solution was a good one. Ask some advice. I had overlooked the phrase “…took counsel…” in 1 Kings 12:28 in previous times of reading this passage. We do not know for sure but it seems likely he took counsel of representatives from the tribes, or at least their leading men. But we do know he took counsel from someone.

     They advised him to set up golden calves, and have the people worship at home instead of going to Jerusalem, so that is what he did. Now there is a great example of bad advice equals bad results.

      Both of these men had received bad counsel and had followed it. Proverbs says we should seek counsel.

Pr 19:20 ¶ Hear counsel, and receive instruction,

that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end.

But the first psalm warns us;

Ps 1:1 ¶ Blessed is the man that walketh

not in the counsel of the ungodly,

So how do we determine who is a good counselor and who is not?  A few things come to mind. First is there a conflict of interest?  The used car salesman that advises you to buy his car right now just wants to make a sale that is in his best interest.

Secondly, do you know and trust the counselor? It might be a neighbor, friend or relative who advises you to go ahead and buy something because they want to borrow it.

     Does the person giving you counsel really care about your best interests or are they thinking “I don’t really care what he does. No skin off my nose!”

    But the best place to go for counsel is to read the Word of God. While it may not tell you what decision you should make it will provide a framework for you to know how to make Godly decisions.

     Next Prayer and the guidance of the Holy Spirit are essential. 

 Jg 18:5 And they said unto him,

Ask counsel, we pray thee, of God…

Here in Judges they were asking a priest to seek God’s counsel for them. Today, because of Christ, we can ask God ourselves, without going through a priest. The Holy Spirit is a great counselor, and can speak to us in ways no unsaved person can ever grasp.

Ps 32:8 I will instruct thee and teach thee in the

way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.

     Finally we should seek the advice of Godly people we know, that care about us.  Just be sure their counsel is in line with God’s will for us.

Pr 11:14 ¶ Where no counsel is, the people fall:

but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.

May God bless us and counsel our hearts as we make decisions. 

 Pr 12:15 ¶ The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise.

 

April 13 What Do you Need

April 13

What Do You Need?

Re 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased

with goods, and have need of nothing….

Suspicious of the envelope you had just retrieved from your mailbox, you opened it, already guessing what you would find. Yes, it was a wedding invitation and you suddenly realized you now had a problem. What could you buy them as a wedding gift.

     Buying wedding gifts used to be easy. Newlyweds needed everything; coffee pots, lamps, sheets, toasters, wall clocks, pillow cases, alarm clocks, frying pans, etc etc. The list was long and the only difficulty in selecting a gift was deciding what to give them from  the many items they needed.

     But then came the modern practice of living together for some lengthy time before couples got married. That meant they had already bought everything they needed for their home. Now when you open the wedding invitation you really have a problem. They no longer needed anything. Now what will you buy for a wedding present?  The answer is usually money, and with both of them working they probably don’t need money except to pay for the huge reception that is common now days. It is really hard to buy something for someone who has everything.
       There are seven churches listed in the first 3 chapters of Revelation. Many scholars think they represent the churches down through the ages and can match each church with some time period and in chronological order. For example the church at Smyrna suffered persecution and martyrdom. Some scholars match that up with the 2 or 3 centuries of persecution under the Roman government. They match the last of the seven churches, Laodicea, with modern times. Most of us know that is the “lukewarm” church, but it is also the rich church that did not need anything.
       Today’s devotional is not about being lukewarm, or even about churches today. I want us to consider if we, as individual Christians, are in any way like the church at Laodicea.
      The Bible tells us that church was rich. The whole town was rich. How rich? Well after an earthquake in the first century nearly destroyed the whole town, the people just opened up their wallets and rebuilt the place without asking the Roman government for any aid. You need a hefty bank account to do that. They were really rich!
     The church in Laodicea was the same way. If they needed something they bought it. Finances were not an issue in that church. I doubt they ever had a prayer meeting asking for the Lord to send in money to pay the heating bill, or their lamp oil supplier, or the scribe who wrote letters for them.  Nope, didn’t need to ask God for anything. They were rich. They were so rich they didn’t need anything.

     The bustling wool trade provided both lots of money and  the finest clothing. Professors from the huge medical center provided the best health care for their time. Probably the church had Doctors, teachers, wool merchants, bankers and other business men that had contacts and resources for just about anything they ever wanted. No need to ask God for anything.

     But they were still a busy church, and fit right into the local community. They probably had church dinners, and the boy scouts might have met in the basement.

     They were not a cold church, and they were not one of those hyper enthusiastic hell, fire and brimstone churches either. The middle of the road was their comfort zone. They were neither “frigid” nor “boiling hot” (the Greek meanings for hot and cold)

     I was once in a church during a heated red team vrs blue team division of the members. A man who tried to maintain good relations with both sides told us “ I am just trying to straddle the fence on this issue”. I told him that would work except the fence was all barbed wire. The result was neither side trusted or accepted the guy. He was trying to be lukewarm in hopes of pleasing both sides. Didn’t work.

     Now I am not going to accuse anyone of us of being lukewarm. The devotional question for us today is what do we need spiritually. Anything? Probably not. We are born again, know Christ as our personal savior, read our Bibles and pray. We attend church more or less regularly. We love people in our church family and get along well with them. We enjoy fellowship on a regular basis with other believers. We don’t dance or drink or chew, and never go with girls that do. So what else is there. No, I don’t think we need anything.

     Unfortunately that was one of the symptoms of a sick church. They had need of nothing. Only their kind of sickness didn’t make them throw up, it made Christ spew them out of His mouth.
     Oh dear, if we have the same symptoms do we have the same ailment?  That is a hard thing to admit. But in our modern age of credit cards and government support most of us have figured out a way to survive economically.
     And spiritually we are not bankrupt either. We do not reject religion in our lives and are definitely not “frigid” spiritually. So that leaves two choices. “boiling hot”* or Lukewarm. 
      If you have no spiritual needs and do not need God’s help for anything, you are probably like the Laodicean church, lukewarm.
     Now the boiling hot Christian is not the one leaping over pews and swinging from the chandelier, or the one who prays in public like a Pharisee, or is otherwise just plain weird. It is an internal boiling over in our spiritual hearts that recognizes our great needs and thankfulness for what Christ has done for us. .  
     May God richly bless us as we walk with Him today and let Him speak to our hearts about our spiritual needs.

Php 4:19 But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.