Choices and Consequences

When I was younger, I used to say, “You can make any decision that you want, but you can’t choose the consequences that come with that choice.” Think about it. You are free to drive on the left side of the road if you want to, but you will suffer the consequences (along with another innocent driver). You are free to drive any speed that you want to, but a ticket comes as a consequence of that choice. Hey, there are some pairs of actions that are consequences of each other. Let’s try them out: Obedience/Love Trust/Obey Rebellion/Anger Selfish/Lonely For instance, you can choose to be selfish, but you will end up a lonely person. If you love your parents (or spouse, or friend) you will obey them (or honor your marriage contract; keep your friend’s confidentiality). Hey, choices and consequences work for finances, exercises, friendships, and diets. You name it. And, just like I am warning you, Moses warned the Children of Israel and said in Numbers 32:23, “… be sure your sin will find you out.” Hey, make good choices and you will, by default, be making good consequences. You’re welcome.

Humility

When I was a rising senior in high school, my parents wanted me to drop the trumpet and start piano lessons.  But I was not happy with that idea.  I told them, “This is my senior year, and I am in all-county band.  I have worked hard for nine years and now I have made it to first chair trumpet.  I just want to play the trumpet.”  And so they let me.  But since then, I have wished over and over again that I would have taken piano lessons.  I took piano in college but was too busy to devote the time needed to practice.  I should have listened to my parents.  Hey, are you the same way?  Do you not take the advice of others?  Do you make a decision without asking older or wiser people in your life?  Hey, even as an older person myself, I still should seek advice from wiser folk (not many are older).  Peter was impetuous and never asked advice of anyone.  But in his later life, he said in I Peter 5:5, “Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.”  Peter had learned his lesson in humility.  And I have learned my lesson in humility too.  Well … actually … I am still learning my lesson in humility.  How about you?

 

Your Happy Place

Many people have the wrong concept of God.  Some people think that God is all about judgement.  They think that judgement is God’s Happy Place.  They think that God is just waiting for someone to do something wrong, and then He sends a lightning bolt down from the sky to fry the offender.  That just Isn’t God at all.  God’s happy place is Love.  God delights in His children.  So, where is your happy place?  Do you like to exercise?  Do you like to run?  Scientists say that running releases endorphins.  I believe that endorphins are related to gluten, and I enjoy both when I am eating.  The only time that I run is to the dinner table when I’m called.  Hey, does the thought of a loving heavenly Father give you delight?  Do you think that God delights in giving His children good things?  Well, I do!  James said in James 1:17, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”  God is light, not darkness; God is good and God never changes.  Just let those facts sink in.  And then go to sleep, safe and sound at night.  Let the love of God and the goodness of God be your happy place because that is His happy place too.  Really.

Serve Jesus

Thank you for your prayers, because today, Lord willing, I will get to bring home my dear wife from the hospital - except for that infected toe, and it was causing too much trouble anyway.  Hey, many of you have missing body parts and think nothing of it because they are internal.  Some of you don’t have an appendix, ovaries, a gall bladder,- no big deal.  The key is that you are alive and can live another day.  Jesus said in Mark 9:45, “And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched.”  Are you ready to serve Jesus today?  Or are you serving self?  Think about it.  And pray for us today.  I’ve already prayed for you.  ;<)