A Fragmented Life

“Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.” (John 6:12 NKJV)

While in a shop on vacation I was reading little signs on a rack while Hannah and my wife were shopping. One I really liked read, “Humpty Dumpty was pushed.” We all know Humpty and his fate but to think that he did not just fall but was rather pushed off the wall stretches the limits of our imaginations when it comes to reading things into fairy tales! Knowing that all the king’s horses and all the king’s men could not put him back together leaves us feeling sorry for an egg.

Reading the account of Jesus feeding the thousands on the sea shore that day gives us some insight into how He thinks. I know He was talking about the scraps left over from the fish and bread when He made this statement but I also know it can be related to His heart toward us. There are hundreds, even thousands of people today that have broken lives. Families that have split up, a relationship that has ended, a job that has been taken away, a chronic diagnosis, a loved one that has died, can all cause a life to be disintegrated. All that is left over sometimes are fragments.

I am glad to know that Jesus cares about the fragments! Jesus wants nothing to be lost. That is why He came and died on the Cross to begin with; that we may be saved. He can put lives back together. He could have put Humpty Dumpty back together. Wouldn’t that be a better ending to the tale? All the king’s horses and all the king’s men could not put Humpty together again; but a Man named Jesus came along and did it.

He has a fix for you today. His grace can glue you back together and is sufficient enough to keep you in one piece. He can heal a broken heart, a broken bone, or a broken life. Let Him gather up the fragments and make you whole once again.

Conviction Anger

So David’s anger was greatly aroused against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this shall surely die!”  (2 Samuel 12:5 NKJV)

I used to teach anger management in my former job before becoming a pastor. I was handing out notes to the class when I came up one short at one table of participants. The guy jokingly said, “That’s it! I’m mad now!”

Anger is usually aroused in us when things do not go our way, or in the case of David, it would be considered moral anger. Moral anger causes us to get angry when someone else has been wronged. In the case of David however the anger he felt was designed to exemplify the anger God feels toward us when we transgress His law. We sometimes forget that because God is a loving and forgiving God that He somehow overlooks our sin without it affecting Him personally. But He does not. He is a jealous God and His anger is aroused when we ignore His commands and do our own thing.

I do not know about you but sometimes hearing the truth about me can arouse my anger. When I think I am doing well and the Lord sends conviction upon my heart it causes me to place blame before taking the blame. The truth will set us free Jesus taught. Hearing the truth is Gods way of delivering us from bondage. David had been hiding his sin for quite sometime but when the truth came out, and it always will, he was ready to kill another man for doing the same thing he had done on a larger scale!

Next time the Holy Spirit brings conviction upon you, either through His word, or by way of a witness, before you give place to the anger and blame someone or something else, repent and allow the truth to set you free also.

Trials and Temptations

³¹ And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. ³² But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.” (Luke 22 NKJV)

Who would have ever thought that Jesus would have let the devil have any of His followers? Judas was allowed to be tempted by the devil just as Peter was. What is the difference between the two men that Jesus prayed for the one and yet there is no indication in Scripture that He prayed for Judas. It could be there was a difference in the men’s hearts.

God knew from the beginning that Judas would be Christ’s betrayer. He planned it that way. Predestined you may ask. No; foreknowledge. Just because God knows who will do what does not mean He makes them do it. The only predestination God tells us about is that we all have been predestined to be like His Son. Some disregard their God given choice and choose poorly.

Does Jesus pray for us? Of course He does. Does He allow Satan to tempt us? Of course He does. From the beginning God has allowed man to be tempted by Satan. Jesus was as well. Jesus overcame the temptations and thereby has the authority to intercede for us.  He took our place on the Cross and He takes our place in temptations; if we are willing to let Him. If we have never accepted Him as our Savior we cannot expect Him to be our intercessor in temptation.

How about you today? Are you tempted beyond measure? Can you not seem to shake that one temptation that you always give into? Could it be that you have never allowed Christ to intercede for your sins? Kneel at the Cross first then you will be able to stand in the face of temptation. Then you can give encouragement to someone else that needs it to overcome.

Lifetime Warranty

2 Corinthians 1:21-22   New King James Version (NKJV)

²¹ Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, ²² who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

If there is one thing we know about people it is this; they are unpredictable. Dr. Phil believes that a person’s past behavior is an indication of their future behavior. He is not alone as many psychiatrists and psychologists agree with him. They are usually right but there are exceptions. I was once involved in my previous job with a fellow that was sent out to be evaluated for violent behavior stemming from a workplace incident. When the psychiatrist wrote his evaluation one of the sentences read, “I can only confirm what I see in him at the moment, as I cannot give you a warranty on this individual.” How true! People do not come with warranties!

God is willing to give us a warranty though if we allow Him to “fix” us. When we become established in Christ, which means we put our full trust in Him and submit to Him with our whole heart and will, that God accepts us as we are but has plans to repair our sin damaged soul. We become a new creation in Christ when we totally submit to Him. Even our countenance will be changed when we allow Jesus to cleanse our hearts and protect our minds.

When we are willing to come to Christ for cleansing and repair, God will begin a good work in us that He will one day complete. We are not perfect when we come to Him as the sign on our life reads, “As is.” However He takes us in that condition, reforms and renews, and then puts His seal of approval upon us; the Holy Spirit. A guarantee from God that He has accepted us and considers us one of His own.

Hello up there . . . . .

My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth. ³ He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. ⁴ Behold, He who keeps Israel Shall neither slumber nor sleep. (Psalm 121: 2 – 4 New King James Version)

Overall, the National Transportation Safety Board says "operator fatigue" has been tied to 39 major accidents involving planes, trains, buses and big rigs in the last 15 years, killing or injuring more than 1,000 people. (CBS News, Copyright © 2012 CBS Interactive Inc.) This is from a report about people falling asleep on the job.

It seems to us sometimes like God may have taken a nap. We pray and it seems our prayers never get past the ceiling. We have others to pray only to experience the same troubles. Where is God when we need Him? If you have asked that question you are not the first. David had the same thought. “I will say to God my Rock, “Why have You forgotten me?”(Psalm 42:9 New King James Version).

Maybe we are like the little girl that was afraid to sleep in her bed. Her dad would tell her, “Honey its okay, Jesus is with you.” Only to have her say, “But I want someone with a face.” Because we cannot see the face of God looking down upon us it is hard to believe sometimes that He is. Another fellow said one time; “Look, I go forward, but He is not there, And backward, but I cannot perceive Him; ⁹ When He works on the left hand, I cannot behold Him; When He turns to the right hand, I cannot see Him. (Job 23:8, 9 New King James Version)

 Faith my friend encompasses much more than just belief. Faith requires trust. We humans are not good at trusting because we have been betrayed a lot. Let down by those we never thought would let us down. We have been trained not to trust. Depend on someone and you will end up disappointed sooner or later experience teaches. We carry that same attitude over into the faith we have in God. We pretend we trust Him but do we really? If we do then fear and worry should not dominate our lives.

Andrew who?

He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah”    (John 1:41   New King James Version)

Moses and Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, David and Goliath, Peter, James, and John are all Bible characters whose names are familiar to church goers. Then we have Andrew. Remember him? You know, Ol’ Andrew. The brother to Peter also called Simon. Peter had no interest in religion as he fished for a living. He did however know about the Messiah. Every little Hebrew boy was taught about the One that would one day deliver the entire Nation from oppression. The Savior, the Anointed One of God, the Christos, the Messiah, He was promised by the Prophets to one day come. So here on a mundane Tuesday morning perhaps, Peter may have been preparing his boat or his nets for a day of fishing, or he may have been cleaning his nets following a night trip. In the middle of his busyness his brother comes running up to him and says, “Hey Bro, lets go; we have found the Messiah!” If there was a discussion of how Andrew knew He was the Messiah it is not recorded in Scripture. There is no evidence that Peter delayed in going with Andrew. It could have been because Peter knew Andrew was into that stuff. Who knows? What we do know is there was something about Andrew that caused Peter to go with him and the rest is history.

Have you ever said that to anyone? Have you ever said to someone, “We have found the Savior.” I have learned over the years that we as Christians talk to people a lot about Jesus. We talk about His love and forgiveness. We tell them about His grace and His mercy. We explain to them why He died on the Cross and how God raised Him from the dead that we can be saved. We encourage them to accept Him. But I wonder what would happen if we just went to them with the same excitement that Andrew had that day when he came to his blood brother and said, “We have found the Messiah.” There was something about Andrew and his confidence in who Jesus was that caused a non-religious fisherman to quit what he was doing and go with him to meet Jesus.

Let Andrew’s testimony encourage us today. Instead of concentrating our efforts on winning people to Jesus, maybe we should just introduce them to Him. He will do the rest.

Pop Quiz

You neglected the courtesy of olive oil to anoint my head, but she has anointed my feet with rare perfume. (Luke 7:46 New Living Translation)

One of my psychology professors shared this story with us in class. A professor teaching a course in human relations was waiting as his students came in and sat down awaiting their final exam. He stood up and told them they would have only one question on their exam. The question was; “What is the name of the lady janitor that you pass in the hallway each evening as you come to class?” To their embarrassment they could only guess what it might be as not one of them had taken the time to ask her name. They had greeted her and were polite to her, some even made small talk but not any of them asked her name.

Jesus is just as concerned with the small things as He is with the big ones. The custom of putting oil on the head of a guest signified you were honored to have them in your home. Perhaps the man forgot in his excitement because Jesus had come to his house in the first place. It was not until the Pharisee had a doubt if Jesus truly was a Prophet that Jesus brought it up. He talked about forgiveness, using a story about men owing money and He asked the fellow one question after He finished it. The Pharisee answered the question correctly and it was then that Jesus turned the tables on him.

If Jesus were to ask you one question today, what might it be? How about, “Why didn’t you greet Me when you awoke this morning?” Maybe He might ask, “Why haven’t you told Me you loved Me today?” He might even go as far as to ask, “Why have you ignored Me since Sunday?”