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Why I don’t solicit for money, I solicit for your testimony

http://bible.com/116/1co.9.14-18.nlt
In the same way, the Lord ordered that those who preach the Good News should be supported by those who benefit from it. Yet I have never used any of these rights. And I am not writing this to suggest that I want to start now. In fact, I would rather die than lose my right to boast about preaching without charge. Yet preaching the Good News is not something I can boast about. I am compelled by God to do it. How terrible for me if I didn’t preach the Good News!
If I were doing this on my own initiative, I would deserve payment. But I have no choice, for God has given me this sacred trust. What then is my pay? It is the opportunity to preach the Good News without charging anyone. That’s why I never demand my rights when I preach the Good News.
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Observation
There is a danger in becoming a hired hand to the religious machine. Once we’ve chained ourselves to funding budgets for great buildings and programs and salaries, and we rely upon the support of people in the way of tithes,  offerings,  collections,  or solicitations – there is opportunity for the message to be compromised because we consider the possible consequences of sharing a truthful message that won’t be well received by a rebellious group of supporters that might in turn adversity effect our ability to “pay the bills”.

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Prove It

Today’s Manna – Our Daily Bread
http://bible.com/116/mat.3.8.nlt
Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God.

Life Application Devotional
John the Baptist called people to more than words or ritual; he told them to change their behavior. “Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins” means that God looks beyond our words and religious activities to see if our conduct backs up what we say, and he judges our words by the actions that accompany them. Do your actions match your words?

Observation
More often than I like to admit, I share my lessons, and at some point in that very day, an opportunity arises and I realize that the lesson was written on my heart but that I am being sanctified but that I am not yet perfected. Because on the very day that I shared a message, I examine my own life and see how I missed the mark in a certain situation. But I also recognize there were times where it made a difference.

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My Wife, My Blessing

Eight years ago today, I woke my wife up at 3AM to propose to her.

That moment together,  in the quietness of the night, seeing the ring on her finger for the first time, knowing that she was going to be my wife, knowing that we would start a family together and spend our time together until our time was over. It was a different time in our lives. So much has changed. We’ve been shuffled and rearranged.

As I watch a family member lose his wife this past week, I am reminded how precious and short our time together can be. I’m so thankful for my amazing,  beautiful,  loving, and strong wife. If I were to go first,  I know that she would maintain her faith and lead our daughter down the path of a life seeking and honoring God. I hope that she might know that same trust in me.

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Ask for Rain

Today’s Manna – Our Daily Bread
http://bible.com/116/zec.10.1.nlt
Ask the Lord for rain in the spring,
for He makes the storm clouds.
And He will send showers of rain
so every field becomes a lush pasture.

Observation
How rarely do I ask God for the things that I need? How often do I find myself overlooking the pattern of the Lord’s prayer and leaving out one of the crucial components necessary for a full spiritual life?

You see,  rain to a shepherd is everything. It is what brings life. It is not something trivial and unimportant, but it is what either brings crops and fruit and growth, or what never brings life to the parched and empty soil.

For us believers, the Holy Spirit is our rain. He teaches us and guides us and comforts us. He is that part of God that comes and lives in us and through us as we are sanctified.

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Silence

Today’s Manna – Our Daily Bread
http://bible.com/116/hab.2.20.nlt
But the Lord is in his holy Temple.
Let all the earth be silent before him.

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Observation
How rarely we are silent.

How rarely we are patient enough to listen for the Lord.

How often we let the noise of the distractions of this world fill our ears.

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Without Trust, we walk alone

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Today’s Manna – Our Daily Bread
http://bible.com/116/hab.2.18.nlt
What good is an idol carved by man,
or a cast image that deceives you?
How foolish to trust in your own creation— a god that can’t even talk!

Life Application Devotional
Idolatry may seem like a sin that modern people need not fear. But idolatry is not just bowing down to idols; it is trusting in what one has made, and therefore, in one’s own power as creator and sustainer. If we say we worship God but put our trust in bank accounts, homes, businesses, and organizations, then we are idolaters. Do you trust God more than you trust what your hands have made?

Observation
Where do we put our trust? What do we desire?

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Be patient, the future is not so far away

Today’s Manna – Our Daily Bread
http://bible.com/116/hab.2.3-5.nlt
This vision is for a future time. It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled. If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed.
“Look at the proud! They trust in themselves, and their lives are crooked. But the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God. Wealth is treacherous, and the arrogant are never at rest. They open their mouths as wide as the grave, and like death, they are never satisfied. In their greed they have gathered up many nations and swallowed many peoples.”

Observation
If we read the Word of God, if we say,  “Look at the proud!” And we do not set our eyes upon ourselves,  but we think of and point our fingers at others – don’t our deceitful hearts betray that we are the proud? Doesn’t it become very clear that we ate the ones that need to be humbled and laid low?

When we trust in ourselves instead of trusting in the Lord, our crookedness, our twisted natures are revealed. Because faith is not walking by sight,  but stepping out on a limb. It is working without a safety net of self or wealth or the approval of others – but instead trusting in the Lord to catch us.

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Belief & Obedience. This is Faith.

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Only he who believes is obedient,  and only he who is obedient believes.

The truth is that so long as we hold both sides of the proposition together they contain nothing inconsistent with right belief,  but as soon as one is divorced from the other,  it is bound to prove a stumbling-block. “Only those who believe obey” is what we say to that part of a believer’s soul which obeys,  and “only those who obey believe” is what we say to that part of the soul of the obedient which believes. If the first half of the proposition stabs alone, the believer is exposed to the danger of cheap grace, which is another word for damnation. If the second half stands alone, the believer is exposed to the dangers of salvation through works, which is another word for damnation.

– Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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