Daily Light - June 4, 2010

Daily Light from the Lighthouse

"This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success."

Joshua 1:8

Many people want success without having to pay the price for it. Today we revere the success of men like Thomas Edison who is famously known for inventing the light bulb. What we don't often realize is that he literally failed hundreds of times before he finally got it right. One of our greatest Presidents, Abraham Lincoln, endured many disappointments before he finally reached the pinnacle of his career.
Most of us have a desire to be successful Christians and followers of Christ, and that is a tremendous pursuit. We have some heroes of the faith in front of us as examples that we aspire to follow. We see their success and their walk with the Lord, and we want to live like that. We want to know the apparent joy and seeming continual peace that they know. What we don't often realize is that there has been a life of walking with Christ that brought them to this point. They have put in the time and the effort, the prayers and the tears, and the study and the passion to get to where they are today. Many Christians want the success without the work and that is not the way life works at all. Our passage promises us prosperity and success, but you have to read, understand, and live out the first part of the passage to attain to the second.
The Word of God must be alive in your life. It is the truth that will sustain you from day to day. The first part of the verse is not a suggestion but a command. It "shall not" depart from you. There is no other option but to follow the Word of God. However, before we think that as long as we have it memorized and as long as we are reading it everything will be all right, read the next part of the verse. Meditation of the Word is a lost practice for many believers today. Meditation is studying the Word and then asking God to give us the wisdom to understand how that Word must be applied to our lives. Once we have meditated upon it and have a better understanding of it, well now it is time to go out and live it. Joshua was a man of action. He accepted God's Word for what it was and made every effort to apply it to his position of leadership and his personal walk. He understood the necessity of the Word. We want the Word to be a quick fix tool. The Word was meant to be read, to be studied, to be meditated upon, and then to be practiced. Only after these things are in place will we have and experience true prosperity and success.
May the Word come alive to you today!

Daily Light - June 3, 2010

Daily Light from the Lighthouse

"Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord; the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them; they shall not be ashamed, but shall speak with their enemies in the gate." Psalm 127:3-5

As a father of four children I know how precious children are. I am so thankful to have each one of them in my life. I vividly remember the birth of each child. They are truly amazing. Whether you have children of your own or not, God has given almost all of us opportunities to be an influence in the lives of children. As parents, teachers, aunts, uncles, etc. we are able to instruct and guide children through the obstacle course of life. We need to see this opportunity as both a responsibility and a privilege.
Our passage compares children to arrows in the hand of a warrior. That is a very interesting analogy that I would like you to consider for just a moment. In a day when everything is mass produced, maybe we don't understand what an arrow meant to a warrior. We can go down to the sporting goods section and buy arrows. There are plenty of choices in different price ranges. Before we can understand the comparison of a child to an arrow, we have to step back into history. Consider a few things: 1) Each arrow that a warrior had in his quiver was painstakingly hand-crafted. There was no where that he could buy them at random. He had put in time and effort to make that arrow just as it was. A couple of things come to mind when I think of that. First, every child is fearfully and wonderfully made by God. Yes, every child. God sees the value in each child, because He created that child with a special purpose. Second, we adults have the responsibility to hone that child to be all that they can be for God. We have been given the blessed privilege to nurture and instruct them in the ways of the Lord. 2) Because that warrior had hand-crafted that arrow, he would never just shoot it without making sure he knew where it was going. He also would if possible try to recover it after it was shot. Do you remember when Jonathan told David he needed to flee the kingdom? Jonathan shot an arrow beyond him. After he did that, he had a young boy with him to retrieve the arrows. We cannot waste our chances and opportunities to love our children and rear them. They are each precious and must be treated as such. We will have to point them in the right direction and send them off into this world. There are also times that we have to go get them out of love and give them more guidance. 3) A warrior with a quiver full of arrows was happy. Why? The more arrows you had the more opportunities there were. It seems in our society today that some adults want to avoid children all together. We need to see our young people as God-given blessings in which we get to have a part. The more children that you can influence for Christ the greater the blessing from God you have received. So, every adult should look at our teenagers, pre-teens, elementary students, toddlers, and infants as arrows that God has given us to point in the right direction.
May God use you to shape the life of a young person today!

Daily Light - June 2, 2010

Daily Light from the Lighthouse

"And the Lord said to Samuel, 'Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them.'"

1 Samuel 8:7

No one likes rejection. It is probably one of the most difficult feelings to deal with. Many have felt this sting from someone that they loved dearly. Children even feel this pain on the playground at school. It seems to be a fact of life, but it is a difficult fact to face. My wife will not be happy that I told you this, but I worked as a telemarketer while in college. (She says that she is not embarrassed about it for her sake; she is embarrassed for me.) My first job as a telemarketer came with American Express. They were offering the first card in their history that you could carry a balance from month to month, the Optima. My job was to call innocent people trying to enjoy the evening with their family and ask them if they would like to transfer the balances from their other credit cards to the Optima. I knew that most of them were sitting at home eagerly awaiting my call any way. If they agreed to do so, this strange man on the other end asked them for all of the information from their other credit card (card number, expiration, balance). I am sure that you know people desperately wanted to give that information over the phone. It was almost an impossible job. As a matter of fact, my point is that I learned rejection well. Our quota for a six (6) hour shift was one (1) transfer. Do you know how many calls you make in six hours? It was quite discouraging. The truth is our department had a high turn over rate, because many people could not deal with the constant rejection.
I think of this whenever someone begins talking to me about trying to reach someone that they love for Christ. You have witnessed to them over and over again. You have presented the good news of the Gospel to them in every way possible. You have pleaded with them, wept for them, and prayed for them. You have tried to convey to them how much you want to spend eternity with them. However, it is to no avail. They seem further away from coming to Christ today than ever. Now you feel like giving up. You are wasting your time. It is never going to happen. The truth is that you also feel personally rejected. They know you. They say they love you. How could they not recognize that you are giving them the chance of eternal life, the possibility of avoiding everlasting punishment? Do they think that you are trying to trick them into something bad? How can they do this to you? When you get to this place, stop and bring to your memory today's Scripture. Samuel felt the rejection of the nation of Israel very personally. God, however, told Samuel that it wasn't about him. Samuel was simply the prophet, the voice of God. Isn't that what you are? Samuel knew that if they came to the Lord they would experience true joy. Isn't that how you feel about your loved one? But, just like you, Samuel was rejected. He couldn't understand it. It seemed so spiritually logical. God spoke up and told Samuel, "They haven't rejected you. They have rejected me." What He was saying to Samuel is what He wants to say to you. "You have done your job. Keep on doing it to the best of your ability. I never called you to save your loved one. You cannot win them to Christ. They must obey My voice. They must turn to the Me and make me their personal Savior. Don't be weary in doing well. Don't faint. Don't get discouraged." I am reminded of what I heard Bill Faye, the author of "Share Jesus Without Fear", say in one of his seminars: "You do the best you can at sharing your faith but leave the results to Christ." Keep sharing. Keep loving. We may never know on this side of eternity the eternal impact that we have made for His kingdom.
May you live above the rejection and discouragement today!

Daily Light - June 1, 2010

Daily Light from the Lighthouse

"Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price;

therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's."

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Several years ago I was listening to a man that I highly respect preach a sermon. In that sermon he began to talk about how he exercises daily and how he eats as healthy as possible and in moderation. He went on to say that he purposely doesn't have any habits that are harmful to his body in the long term. I thought at first that he was just trying to make the rest of us feel guilty. However, he then shared that he had been diagnosed several years earlier with diabetes. It was a very severe case, and his doctor told him to either change his lifestyle or die at a very young age. As he shared his testimony, he told how he laid in bed one night and considered all the options. He began to think about his wife that lay sleeping next to him. He loved her with all of his heart and had vowed to be by her side as long as possible. He got up and went to the rooms of his children and tried to imagine what life would be like for them if he were no longer there. He spent the night thinking about the ministry that God had entrusted him with. Who would take up the cause if he were to die? That night he made a decision to completely give God his body. Everything from his diet, to exercise, to harmful habits were surrendered to the Lord. It has been almost twenty years since I heard this individual speak, and I know that today he is still alive and well while faithfully serving the Lord in the ministry.

I know that no one likes people meddling in their lives when it comes to their diet. I enjoy eating just as much as anyone else. I like the sweet stuff especially. However, I do believe that it is important to follow the principle of moderation in our daily diet. We cannot allow our cravings to destroy this body that God gave us with which to serve Him. It is important that we spend some time each week in regular exercise to keep our hearts and our bodies healthy. I could personally tell you of the differences that it has made in my life. Also, any habits that we have that are detrimental to our physical health need to be curbed and done away with. There are thousands of people that are physically suffering every day because of personal choices that they make. Consider the Scriptures. It is not your body to do with as you please. God gave you this body so that you might be able to serve Him with it. We need to consider our bodies to be an instrument of God's that He chooses to use for His glory. If it does not belong to us, we need to be aware of how important it is to take care of it for His sake. God desires to give you life and life abundant. Let's not make personal choices that would destroy that possibility. Do all that you can to be healthy so that you can glorify God for many years to come.

May you surrender your body to its owner today!

Daily Light - May 31, 2010

Daily Light from the Lighthouse

"Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends." John 15:13

As a tribute to those who have given all to defend our freedoms and the freedoms of others around the world, I just want to share part of a speech that was given by President Ronald Reagan at Normandy on the 40th anniversary of D-Day. He was addressing soldies that had survived that day.
"Forty summers have passed since the battle that you fought here. You were young the day you took these cliffs; some of you were hardly more than boys, with the deepest joys of life before you. Yet, you risked everything here. Why? Why did you do it? What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs? What inspired all the men of the armies that met here? We look at you, and somehow we know the answer. It was faith and belief; it was loyalty and love.The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next. It was the deep knowledge -- and pray God we have not lost it -- that there is a profound, moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not doubt your cause. And you were right not to doubt.You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One's country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. All of you loved liberty. All of you were willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind you."
Thank God for those who have fought for the freedoms that we too often take for granted. They have learned well from the example of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave His life so that we might know freedom from self and sin.

Daily Light - May 30, 2010

Daily Light from the Lighthouse

"This is the day the Lord has made; WE will rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24

Don't even think about spending this day all by yourself! This is the Lord's Day. It is meant to be shared with others. It was given to us as a day to rejoice together with our brothers and sisters in Christ. WE need each other. WE need to come together to glorify God with one voice. WE need to fall on our knees as one and pray together to a holy God.
There is in some of us a maverick attitude when it comes to living the Christian life. WE get the mindset that WE don't need anybody else and that WE can live this Christian life alone. Let us be reminded of the wisdom of Solomon in Ecclesiastes: "Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken." God never intended for His children to live the Christian life all by themselves. Not only did the Father give us the Holy Spirit as our constant companion, but He gave us other brothers and sisters in Christ to fellowship with and walk with. Even Jesus while He was on this earth chose out twelve men that He spent time with continually. Yes, He got alone for seasons of prayer, and WE should do the same. However, He shared His daily life and walk with His disciples. The Bible commands us to not forsake coming together in the Lord's name. WE are given a call and command to not just show up at church together, but a command to unite together under the banner of Christ and His righteousness. Jesus' prayer for us in John 17 was that WE may be one. Our unity was one of His great desires. He said that WE will not be like Christ until WE experience genuine unity. When Jesus was resurrected, He told Mary to tell the disciples that He would meet THEM in Galilee. He appeared to the disciples as a group in that upper room. He came to them while they were together fishing. The Holy Spirit flooded upon them on the day of Pentecost as they were gathered together. God will meet us individually, and He often does. However, He has chosen to work through His people together.
May WE worship Christ together today in the spirit of unity!

Daily Light - May 28, 2010

Daily Light from the Lighthouse

"He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love."

Song of Solomon 2:4

A banner of love. The word for banner in the Bible is translated either banner or more commonly standard. It is a military term describing the colors (the flag) that were carried by an army. There were several purposes for this banner.
1) The banner was a mark of identification. It clearly defined for everyone who you were. God's banner over us is love, because that is who He is. He is love. There is never any reason to doubt that. While the love of people may wax cold from time to time, God's love never does. It can't, because love is who and what He is. 2) The banner was a sign to let the enemy know of one's presence. Can you imagine how it must have felt in the midst of battle to see that standard on the horizon and know that the enemy was drawing closer? God's love and therefore His mercy and grace is a banner to let the enemy know that he is already a defeated foe. The Bible says that when the enemy comes in like a flood, God will raise up a standard against him. That standard is His unconditional love. 3) The banner gave instruction to the army. When it moved forward, you moved forward. When it stopped, you stopped. Soldiers were given instruction to not let the colors fall. If it meant dropping your weapon to pick it up, that is what you did for the good of the whole regiment. In the same way, Christ's love is an example for us. We are to follow His lead when it comes to loving others. We are to love how He loves. We are to love who He loves. We are to love when He loves. He is our example of everlasting and unconditional love. 4) The banner was where you would rally together. When it was time to reform the lines, you drew closer to the banner. It was what united every one. There could be no personal agendas. There was no room for a maverick. You ran to the banner and rallied together with your brothers in battle. There is such a great need for God's people to rally together in the love of God today. The Kingdom of God is not about any single one of us. It is not for our good. Our rallying is for the purpose of accomplishing the will of God together. It is God's love that will unite us. It is God's love that will encourage us. It is God's love that will strengthen us for the day of battle. Don't live your life alone. Live it in the love of God with those who love God.
I am reminded of the words of the great hymn entitled "The Love of God":

The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell

It goes beyond the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell.

The guilty pair bowed down with care, God gave His Son to win

His erring child He reconciled and pardoned from his sin.

Could we with ink the ocean fill and were the skies of parchment made

Were every stalk on earth a quill and every man a scribe by trade,

To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry

Nor could the scroll contain the whole though stretched from sky to sky.

O love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong

It shall forevermore endure the saints and angels song.

May you not only know but may you also demonstrate the love of God today!