Faithfulness

It’s In the Details

By / 3 minutes of reading / , ,

Every Friday at 9:00 AM, a few men from our church meet for breakfast. [Hint: If you want to join us, we meet each week at the Coffee Cup on North Lafayette Ave. in Terre Haute, Indiana] The food is great, and the fellowship is excellent.

Recently, as we were talking, one of the guys made a comment that stuck with me. He said he always wears his “Mickey” hat when he is out in public. The hat is the kind that guys often wear when fishing, and it has a small Mickey Mouse® logo. It is very casual but distinctive.

My friend said, “This hat is genuine. It’s from Disney®. I wear it so people remember me. They “know me.” They see what I do, where I go, and what I buy. Of course, this is a two-edged sword. They’ll know if I mess up.” His comment resonated with me.

Over the years, I’ve written several times about the good and bad of developing brands (The Brand of the Man, Building Our Brands, The Real Deal, etc.). I’m the guy that usually wears an unbuttoned denim shirt over a plain, colored T-shirt, jeans, and white tennis shoes. I learned from my wife that what I wear is called my “life uniform” – they have names for everything now!

We must not forget that Jesus told us what we are to be known for:

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

John 13:34–35 NIV

Unfathomable love is how we must love. Jesus also told His disciples to “be wise as serpents and innocent as doves1“. These two truths are not in conflict. We are confident of this because God’s Word states:

“The Lord directs the steps of the godly.
He delights in every detail of their lives.”

Psalm 37:23

The “every detail” brings us back to my friend’s statement. Few people live their lives in the same town, work decades for the same company, and live their adult lives in the same home. So, as followers of Jesus, we need to be noticeable. It may be a brief time that they or we will be in the same community.

As we love people with love coming through us from God, we need to pay attention to the details in our lives. God delights in every detail of a godly person; we need to be those persons.

From people that work in restaurants, service stations, and mail delivery to educators and government workers, all should learn to recognize us and see the consistent, unalterable compassion, humility, and love that is unlike anything they ever witness from the world.

There’s a song that has received a lot of air-play on Christian radio stations. It’s titled, “God is in this story.” Here’s the first part of the chorus.”

God is in this story
God is in the details
Even in the broken parts
He holds my heart, He never fails
– Song by Big Daddy Weave and Katy Nichole, YouTube video

Self-Aware

God is in the details. I love that message. We need to pay attention to how we live, thinking about what we say, what we do, and where we go. The apostle Paul wrote, “So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise.[1]” It is good for people to recognize us. When they see us, they should see us loving in the way that Jesus loves[2]. After a while, we will be known by them for our love.

Photo by On Shot

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1: Ephesians 5:15 NLT – Living by the Spirit’s Power – Bible Gateway
2: John 13:34 NLT – So now I am giving you a new – Bible Gateway

Group Of Men Paddling While Inside Inflatable Boat

Cling On!

By / 4 minutes of reading / , , ,

I am amazed that the English language has become so broadly used worldwide. The title of today’s post is “Cling On,” but if I said this, you would probably think I was referring to Star Trek Klingons!

I was thinking about something the apostle Paul wrote to the young man that he counted as his son. Paul wrote:

“19 Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked.”

1 Timothy 1:19 NLT

Sins

What would compel a person to violate their conscience deliberately? Doesn’t that seem odd, certainly foolish? The word “deliberate” tells us that Paul is writing about someone who commits the worst unrighteous acts. In God’s Word, we are taught that a person can do three types of unrighteous actions against God. These are sin, transgressions, and iniquity.

Since we use English, we lump all three into the word “sin,” but God doesn’t. In Psalm 32:5, the psalmist wrote, “I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD.’”

We commonly define sin as “missing the mark,” which is accurate but misses the mark. 😉 Sin usually is birthed by our idea instead of something from the Holy Spirit. It may be a great thing, but not the right thing to do. It may be something we commit to doing, but we try to do it with our ability. Or, it might be something we decide to do while never considering God’s will. All of these actions “miss the mark.” They are sins.

Transgression

A transgression is when we intentionally choose to do something that we know is against God’s will. We know that we should not tell lies. We know that satan is the father of lies1, so when we choose to lie, we aren’t missing the mark; we are deliberately transgressing God’s will. The same is true if we deliberately put our interests ahead of others or someone tells us a need, and we have the resources to help, but we send them on their way empty-handed. Transgressions tarnish the Bride of Christ.

““Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.”

Psalm 32:1 ESV

Iniquity

Now we come to the worst actions against God’s will: iniquity. Iniquity is a premeditated action that we know is against God’s will; it’s like premeditated murder. Iniquity is when we choose our will over God’s will and continue to do it without repentance. Iniquity is embezzlement; it’s sleeping around; it’s being narcissistic. But Jesus saves and forgives.

When Jesus called Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector, to share a meal, Jesus extended forgiveness to a man whose profession was one of iniquity. Iniquity is terrible, but it is not beyond God’s forgiveness.

“For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”

Hebrews 8:12

Let’s Cling On

Whew! That’s a lot of background information, but we need to understand what Paul knew and what he deeply desired for Timothy to know. Paul wrote from painful experience, “Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear.” Being a “Harvard” graduate Pharisee, his classmates continually challenged him. They hated what he taught, and they hated him for teaching the Gospel of Jesus. Paul never wavered but fiercely held on. He was not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ Jesus2.

Paul had seen the shipwrecked lives of Christians who demonstrated great love and humility for Jesus, but they caved into peer pressure. They tried to straddle the fence and suppress the Holy Spirit’s life in them. The result of their actions was that they ended up with no faith. Like a ship without a rudder, they were tossed about3 and finally shipwrecked their lives in Christ.

Good News

Paul made it clear that Timothy must cling to the Gospel like a man or woman in the ocean clings to a raft. The same is true for each of us that are in Christ Jesus. Ciing On!

Photo by Tom Fisk:

#Biblestudy #devotional #christianposts

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[1]: John 8:44
[2]: Romans 1:16
[3]: Ephesians 4:13-15

Stupid The Word Stupid Scrabble Tiles

Are You Stupid?

By / 3 minutes of reading / , , , ,

“Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge,
but he who hates reproof is stupid.” Proverbs 12:1

The New Living Translation states this verse as: “To learn, you must love discipline; it is stupid to hate correction.” Proverbs 12:1

Imagine if you never learned from the corrections your parents and teachers tried to teach you when you were in K–12 schools. You would be of little value to yourself or society. As my dad would threaten me when I was obstinate, “You’ll grow up to be a ditch digger!” [Ditch digging is now a profitable profession, but back then, it was the bottom rung of work.]

This same truth needs to be embraced by every Christian. Besides local church congregations, there are just many Christians in leadership positions who have rejected discipline. As a result, their understanding of Christianity is like Swiss cheese; it’s full of holes.

Consider these statements from Proverbs, chapter twelve:

12 … but the root of the righteous bears fruit.
13 … but the righteous escapes from trouble.
15 … but a wise man listens to advice.
16 …but the prudent ignores an insult.
18 … but the tongue of the wise brings healing.
20 …but those who plan peace have joy.
22… but those who act faithfully are his [God’s] delight.

God has given us marvelous promises, but they all depend on His conditions. We must be righteous. We must be wise. We must be sensible. We must act faithfully. We must have the foresight to make plans that we accomplish. All of these promises are predicated (dependent) on a history of faithful service to God from the person.

It amazes me how many Christians don’t know their own local church’s statements of faith. Or they don’t know that Christianity grew from a handful of believers in Jerusalem to millions of Christian believers when, for the first 1,500 years of the Church’s history, the average Christian didn’t have a Bible and may never have owned even a single copy of one of Apostle Paul’s letters. And they don’t know that there were times when the Protestants and Anabaptists killed people for their Christian beliefs, just as the Catholic inquisitions did. There is so much we, as Christians, need to learn!

For us to learn and grow, God’s conditions require us to receive correction from Christ and His leaders He has placed in His Church – pastors, teachers, elders, deacons, and others that God has anointed to mentor His children. If we try to go it alone, if we try to be our own council, if we reject the people that God puts in our lives to correct us and disciple us through sermons, teaching, and cleaning toilets, then we are stupid.

Image by salmerf from Pixabay

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Finding Our Assigned Seats – Part 2

By / 3 minutes of reading / ,

Jesus wanted to teach His disciples an important principle (principle like gravity – what goes up must come down). So, Jesus sat down – I think He sat on the ground, but that’s just me. I’m sure that when Jesus sat down, all of His disciples immediately sat down. By sitting down, Jesus’ body language was communicating that what He was going to teach would be in the form of sharing instead of lecturing. And what Jesus shared was about a principle of the kingdom of God. This principle was as accurate as any law of gravity. Here’s what Jesus said:

“Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”

Mark 9:35

In my previous post, I had us consider:

“But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you.“

Luke 14:10

The How and the Where

Jesus’ parable in Luke 14:10 is about choosing the lowest place so the king can elevate your position and do so in the sight of others. It may seem that Mark 9:35 conflicts with Luke 14:10, but notice in Mark 9:35 Jesus is speaking of serving; everyone has a purpose. God saved you for a purpose. We are told in James 2:17 that faith without works is dead. Our hearts and our perspective in everything should be “how can I facilitate  help for the needs of others.” 

We should facilitate help without consideration of our stature or place in God. I may be the senior pastor of a church of thousands, but I still should hug the poor guy with lice and pick up the chewing gum wrapper that I spot as I walk to my church. So, Mark 9:35 and Luke 14:10 speak of two different aspects of our life in the kingdom of God. Mark 9:35 talks about how we should serve and how God measures our service, while Luke 14:10 speaks about where God places us.

God Saved You For a Purpose

God has a purpose and ministry for every Christian; God gives each of us a people, a place, and a purpose for ministry.  Your ministry may be praying for people while you’re in line at Walmart or thundering from the pulpit of a church, but we are not measured by where we’re at, but by how obedient we are to the call God has placed on our lives. Whatever God calls us to, we need to be mindful of Mark 9:35 and Luke 14:10.

Summary

God has rules for how we approach Him, receive from Him, and abide in Him. When God calls us to anything, we should take the least honorable position (Luke 14:10) – this doesn’t mean we should despise ourselves! By taking the lowest position, we gain the opportunity for God to call us to a more honorable place and to do so in a way that people see our promotion.

God promoting us is different from being a “servant of all.” Every Christian must express their faith through what they do each day (James 2:17). And we have learned from Mark 9:35 that our hearts should, without consideration for ourselves, ask God, “how can I facilitate help for the needs of others” and then do it!

Travel Airport Boarding Pass Boarding Luggage

Fellow Sojourners

By / 2 minutes of reading / , , , ,

Sojourner means, “one who stays in a place as a stranger or visitor.” The word sojourner elicits our emotions. Perhaps, for you, it brings to mind adventure, exploring, and discovery. Traveling to new places and living there for a while to be immersed in another culture. Or, you may feel just the opposite. This word may stir a sense of instability, danger, and poverty. Either way, this word speaks to each of us in a way that stirs our emotions.

Jesus was a sojourner during His earthly ministry. When a man asked if he could join Jesus’ disciples, Jesus said, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” (Matthew 8:20) He was a stranger to the very people He created! “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.” (John 1:10)

Strangers

There are many places in God’s Word that tell us that as children of God we are strangers in this world. We can go back to Abraham, “For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.” (Hebrews 11:10) So, we know that it is the will of God for us to be uncomfortable in this world, to have a longing for heaven, to know that our home is in heaven; it cannot be found here.

“Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.”

1 Peter 2:11

Liberty

There is liberty when we understand that this world is not our home. First, we focus on work that has eternal value. Who would deposit their paycheck someplace where they don’t bank? Secondly, we are free from comparing or coveting houses, cars, or vacations with anyone else. None of those are part of our inheritance and all will be left behind when we get home. And, thirdly, we have camaraderie with fellow sojourners. We are all on the same road, looking forward to the same destination, eager to “throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.” (Hebrews 12:1)

Therefore, fellow sojourners, let’s live with joy and anticipation, as we look forward to “the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.“

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Changing Roles and Responsibilities

By / 3 minutes of reading / , ,

7 And he [John the Baptist] preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Mark 1:7-8

Has there ever been a place in your life when it was time for you to leave so someone else could fill your role? I’ve been on both sides of this, and it can be challenging.

One thing that blessed me in my local church was this elderly gentleman named Fuzzy that played an upright, string bass. His talent was marvelous. One day, after I’d been a member of a local church for several years, the music director told me that Fuzzy was going to retire from playing bass, and he made the request that I fill his spot – I played electric bass.

When Fuzzy and I met to talk through “his” role, I was saddened. He loved the decades he’d spent playing bass, but he had been praying for someone to replace him; his age interfered with his talent. His prayer was answered, but the reality was brutal. I think John the Baptist may have felt some of this.

I’m not diminishing John’s joy. But there’s a message here for us:

2 Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples 3 and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” 4 And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see:

Matthew 11:2-4

When John the Baptist was in prison, he no longer preached to huge crowds, no longer baptized throngs of people. He was even isolated from his home and his way of life. Doubts were pummeling him. I don’t think he sinned, but he needed confirmation that he had been correct. Fuzzy kind of did that with me.

For several Sundays, he sat close to where I played. He wanted to know if I played the songs correctly and was doing the right things to fill his role. He wanted to know that he had chosen correctly.

We all have times when we surrender our role, our position, to someone else; it’s tough, and you want to know that it was the right decision. I’ve seen this at work, and I’m seeing it in the stages of our lives.

There was a time when I thought I was ready to conquer the world, then my first child was born. Then God gave me more children. The next thing I know, I’ve become a grandparent. What happened to conquer the world? What happened to my role in raising children? Now I am being silently asked to move to the role of an elderly person. This is how God works. John the Baptist experienced it, and every one of us will experience it if we haven’t already.

The good news is that God determines the times and circumstances when His preordained will touches our lives and moves us to a new place to share the gospel and glorify Jesus.

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dancers at a club

Never Again

By / 4 minutes of reading /

Below, God was telling the Israelites that they must never go back to Egypt to get horses (or anything). God was their provider.

“You shall never return that way again.”

Deuteronomy 17:16

Most of us have places in our lives where we’ve said, “Never again!” It may have been a class reunion, an abusive company, or a visit to a distant cousin. Those are easy for us to say, “Never again.” But what about the people, places, and things that we used as enablers, as crutches? People that helped us but also tempted us to waver from the path of righteousness.

A Trap

When I was 16, I was at a tipping point in my life. I was very technical and tutored some kids in college. I was saved. I wanted to serve Jesus, but I didn’t fit in anywhere. My church didn’t know what to do with me, my parents didn’t know what to do with me, and the few friends I had were not Christians, and even they didn’t know what to do with me. I just didn’t fit.

I wanted a righteous life, but I was starved, and that’s not good for a teenager. One day a friend of mine invited me to his house, but we didn’t go to his house. He was older than me and looked even older. He was driving, we were talking, the radio was blaring, and I paid no attention to where we were headed. We ended up at some apartments across the street from a shady club.

He said he had some friends he wanted me to meet. Hesitantly, I said “ok,” (I was and am an introvert) so he knocked on a door. A woman opened the door and welcomed us in. In moments, I was sitting in the living room with two women in their early twenties that worked at that club. They asked if I wanted something to drink. I said, “sure,” thinking, “I’m 16 and look 12”, so it would be a soft drink; they brought me a beer. I’d never drunk a beer in my life!

My friend was trying to get me to be like him; I couldn’t. I drank some of the beer and because I was terrified, I was unable to carry on any conversation. Finally, my friend gave up and we left. He took me home. I didn’t fall into sin that day, but it helped to push me over the tipping point. I decided that to have friends I needed to be like them. I spent the next four years in constant misery. I was as the apostle Paul wrote:

“For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.”

Romans 7:15

Crossing Over the Red Sea

When I finally rededicated my life to Jesus, I went to each of my friends and shared my testimony. That ended all my old friendships. Like the Israelites escaped Egypt by leaving the land of bondage and heading toward their land of promise, I escaped my old life, and God made it clear to me to never again go back to that life for help. He was now my Jehovah Jireh – “The LORD Will Provide.” And He has.

I would like to say that I’ve been perfect since then, but if I did, you’d know I I would like to say that I’ve been perfect since then, but if I did, you’d know I was lying. Nevertheless, Almighty God has always provided for me. Sure, I’ve had lean years and bountiful years, tough times, and glorious times and times I’ve shot myself in the foot, but He has never failed me. Jesus will do the same for you. We may faulter but He is steadfast and sure. Here is one of the great promises from God:

“I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread.”

Psalms 37:25

If we give our lives to Jesus, then never again should we look to the world for help because God always has been and shall always be “The Lord Will Provide. “

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pic of path in the jungle

A Jungle

By / 3 minutes of reading /

Our Jungle

My wife and I live in a small, 1950s subdivision. Nearly every house in our subdivision, including ours, has been added on to. In 1950, people could raise four kids in a two-bedroom, one bath house. Now it takes at least three bedrooms and two bathrooms for two people. This is definitely a 1st-world problem.

So, our next-door neighbor, to the north of us, is an original owner. She and her husband bought their home when the subdivision was still being built. She’s a fount of information and a lover of gardens. We learned from her that the original owner of our home loved gardens, too – this was no surprise.

Sadly, two subsequent owners of our home did little, then nothing with the grasses and flowers that were so meticulously planned and planted in our yard. So, when we bought our home, we – meaning my wife – had a mammoth challenge to beat our land back into submission!

Beaten into Submission

With astonishing effort, my wife has succeeded. However, the result sometimes feels like we live in a garden that has patches of green grass instead of a yard that has a few gardens. No worries. My wife and I have discussed this so I’m not speaking behind her back 😉.

Something I learned from living here is that gardens are only enjoyable when they are tended to. In the twinkling of an eye, a garden will transform itself into a jungle, if left unchecked. Gardens require care and commitment. So, too, do our souls.

“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”

Galatians 6:9

Radical Christianity

The “if we do not give up” part of this verse is the care and commitment we must tend to. We must care about being a follower of Jesus. Does that seem strange? I hope not.

Being a Christian is a 24x7x365 life. We mustn’t be casual Christians. That’s how a garden becomes a jungle. Instead, we must be radical Christians. Did you know that the 1st definition of the word “radical” is relating to or proceeding from a root: of or growing from the root of a plant? (Merriam-Webster) That definition kind of goes with the gardens thing, right?! A more ordinary understanding of the word “radical” is:

(Especially of change or action) relating to or affecting the fundamental nature of something; far-reaching or thorough.

It is this definition I mean when I say that we must be radical Christians. Christ Jesus must affect the fundamental nature of us for us to be born-again. But Jesus doesn’t stop there. He has given us the Holy Spirit and He continually works in and through us to defeat our worldly nature, to transform us by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2), to move us from the cares of this world to caring about heaven, where our treasure resides.

Our hearts, our hopes, our happiness must be firmly grounded in our Savior, Jesus Christ. Anything less, and we become a jungle.

Photo by Jacob Plumb on Unsplash

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pic of a covered wagon

My Oregon Trail

By / 3 minutes of reading /

I find great comfort in a verse that the Holy Spirit inspired the apostle Paul to write. Here it is:

For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. 

Romans 14:8-9

A long road

When I was a young guy, I was a Christian, but I had an exceedingly long road to travel to get into a proper relationship with Jesus. There were many things, so many aspirations, that I wanted to keep. I tried to carry them into my walk with Christ Jesus, but the heavier my stuff became, the further we walked.

On my journey with Jesus, I discovered that my progress was so slow because I was carrying two burdens. I had my burden, and I had the burden Jesus gave me. His burden was light but not mine! As I traveled along the Gospel Road, I slowly began throwing away bits and pieces of my stuff. 

My Oregon Trail

Anyone who watched my journey probably saw me as an Easterner in a covered wagon struggling down the Oregon Trail. Every so often, they would see something flying out of the back of the wagon. What seemed so important at the start of the trip became an obstacle that was slowing me down.

The further I traveled along my Oregon Trail, away from my old life, the more my stuff lost its value to me. I was carrying things that Jesus had already made provisions for me. I didn’t need two water canteens; mine became stale, but His was abundant and continually refreshing. The longer I walked with Jesus, the more I came to see my stuff as useless. It was stuff I didn’t need to carry.

Now, it has taken me many decades to pitch the junk I carried into my relationship with Jesus. And I still have more to get rid of. One thing that surprised me as a young Christian was that when I did get some worldly aspect out of my life, I found more stuff that needed to get pitched. I couldn’t see the worms under my plank of wood until I pulled it up. 

Jesus is the same

So, I find great comfort in Romans 14:8-9. Why? I find great comfort because even though heaven will be radically different from my life in this world, Jesus will be the same. The Savior I know now is the Savior I will know then. Death will release me from my remaining baggage. I understand the apostle Paul when he wrote: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”– Philippians 1:21

Photo by Larry Costales on Unsplash

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Path on a mountain trail

The Edge of Danger

By / 3 minutes of reading / ,

When I was a young guy, perhaps eleven or twelve, a missionary visited my church. He was the first missionary I’d ever seen. Oh, I had heard stories of missionaries living in distant lands, but those were just stories to me until I met the real deal. That Sunday night, he came to our youth meeting and preached. He made a profound impact on me. I still remember a story he told in his sermon. He may have titled his story, “The Edge of Danger.” I’ll attempt to convey this to you now.

A Man and His Mule

In a tiny village in South America, a young man lived who decided to become a transporter. He made this choice because few jobs existed in his hometown. The job was dangerous because a mountain separated the tiny village from a city where the villagers could sell their produce. Only one trail connected the small village to the city. However, the mountain trail was quite steep, very narrow, and had many switchbacks.

The young man purchased a mule and prepared to make his first trek across the mountain. Before he set out on his delivery, he sought advice from an ancient, withered man who had been a transporter his whole life. The young man asked him if there was anything he should know.

The gnarled old man said, “Yes. When I became a transporter, there were two of us. I was always fearful of falling from the high precipices, so my mule and I constantly traveled as close to the mountain wall as possible. We moved slowly and cautiously, always aware of the danger that lurked on the edges of the trail.”

The Edge of Danger

The young man inquired, “What about the other guy? I’ve never heard of him.” The old man replied, “The other guy always boasted about how brave he was. He would spin tales for the young women of our village. He would say, ‘I am the fastest transporter. I’m not afraid of the mountain trail. Many times, my mule and I have faced death, often slipping to the very edge of the trail. The trail doesn’t scare me. I just load up my mule, and we fly!'”

“So?” asked the young man. The old man replied, “The other guy died before you were born. One day he set off on his journey. It had been raining and the path was slippery. He drove his mule too close to the edge and they slipped; both fell to their deaths.”

Then the missionary said, “To live for Jesus, you need to keep as close to the Rock and as far away from the edge of sin as you can. If you live as close to sin as you can, someday you’ll fall off the path Jesus has called you to walk. If you fall, you’ll wreck your life.”

Second Chances

I heard that story fifty-five years ago, and it remains at the forefront of my mind. Sadly, during my life, more than once, I have fallen over the edge. Thankfully, when I repented, Jesus pulled me out of the mire into which I’d fallen. God is the God of second chances, but life is much better when we don’t need another chance.

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. – Ephesians 5:15-21

Photo by Ashim D’Silva on Unsplash

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