I owe Peter an apology. And if the Lord will let me, when we link up in Heaven, I plan on delivering it. I ragged on the man for many years. Laughed at him. Mercilessly dissed him for being the guy who was always making a verbal fool of himself.
But a couple of years ago, I made peace with Pete. And I promised I’d never criticize or mock him again. Why? Because Peter was the one who was willing to make a mistake if it meant learning. Or leading. He was the one who got out of the boat to at least try walking on the water. He was the one who was willing to say what everybody else was thinking. And he, Christianity’s biggest failure, was the one who looked Jesus in the eye after denying Him and said, “Yes, Lord. You know I love you” (John 21:17).
In Matthew 16, this fisherman/disciple speaks out twice. The first time, Jesus responds by saying, “Peter, only God could have revealed this to you.” The next time, Jesus is in his face, saying, “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s” (Matthew 16:23).
One minute, Peter is hearing something that is doubtless a revelation from God Himself. The next, he is hearing from Satan.
Uh oh.
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If you believe that God never speaks to individuals any more because He has given us the Bible, you’re a practical atheist. If you’re waiting on the Holy Spirit to tell you whether to order fish or chicken (He’d never lead you to red meat, of course), then you have just elevated lunch to a cosmic event. But if you can learn to turn and tune your heart and allow the Holy Spirit to apply the truth of God’s word to your specific situation, you can experience God in life- and world-changing ways.
I tell men all the time, “Dude, when it comes to marriage, you out-punted your coverage.” Another way of saying, most guys I know anything about out-married themselves. I am certainly no exception. My wife is an amazing partner and discerner. I call her “Elijah” sometimes because of how she can shred proud, lazy, or disrespectful people. All in Christian love, of course. I also envy the way she can tune in to the voice of God at times.
That said, we have this recurring argument. Well, it’s not really an argument because all I do is laugh, and all she does is get exasperated. So far all the sharp knives are still in the drawer and my bruised ribs are healing nicely, thank you.
The argument (I’m laughing even as I say this) is over the Holy Spirit salad. [click to continue…]
Have you ever wished God would just make it easy? That He would fly over your house in a blimp, or sky-write His will so that it was plain and obvious? Have you ever envied the angel-set – those seemingly lucky (ahem – “blessed”) souls who had Michael or Gabriel drop by for tea and prophecy?
A few years ago somebody in Jacksonville (I think) started a nationwide conversation with a series of billboard messages supposedly from God. I’m sure you’ve seen some of them. (Example: “Which part of ‘Thou Shalt Not’ do you not understand?” -God). They were clever, sometimes convicting, sometimes sarcastic and funny. But in case you were wondering, it really wasn’t God Himself who designed the ad campaign.
What if God really did rent a billboard? Would it be easier, simpler, clearer to hear His voice? I doubt it.
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Nobody gets anywhere without ideas. And nobody gets it right 100% of the time. So sometimes we take risks, try things, and hindsight tells us we were geniuses. Sometimes, things just don’t work. But sometimes we score a Hanukkah Ham – one of those choice decisions that qualify us for the Blooper Reel of Life.
This edition of Hanukkah Hams is devoted to life behind the wheel – the things you see, the things you say, and the things you do. Yeah, we’ve all been there. And it seemed like a good idea at the time.
A couple of weeks ago I got to my local teaching assignment at Wayland Baptist University a bit early, and proud to get a close parking place. Just before class was to start, one of the staff members comes in saying he couldn’t find the owner of “that truck.”
Has your sinkin’ heart ever told on you?
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Recession. It’s the word on everybody’s mind these days. Congress, in an election year, is scrambling to give people some of their money back in order to avoid it (which begs the obvious question…). All the media, the experts, and the average Joes are all talking about some aspect of it. Somebody did a poll a couple of days ago, and it seems the average American believes if we’d just get out of Iraq, the recession would get better. Uh, OK, I guess.
What most of us are interested in is, can I keep what’s happening in a national and global economy from happening to me? Yes! But first it’s important to understand that economists are measuring only one thing.
What to recession-proof your life? Get a bigger definition of the word, “economy.” Try this one as I first heard it from Jack Taylor: Economy is the exchange of all the commodities of life.
If you’re finding yourself a bit short on cash, or if you’re worried about it, why not try a different kind of currency? Here are seven ways you can be wealthy, with or without money:
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