Worthy Words

What you say and how you say it can be the difference between terror and triumph. Take for example the story of Gideon’s triumph over the Midianites in Judges 7. God commanded Gideon to lead his men to do two things. First, cover up their torch lights with clay pots until they heard the blowing of a ram’s horn that trumpeted the signal to break the concealing pots and letting their light shine. Second, they were to shout by crying out with a loud voice, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” (Judges 7:20) These 300 Israelite soldiers had no swords in their hands but one in their mouth and gained victory by shouting “The sword.” Someone once said, “The pen is mightier than the sword.” For the Church and every Christ-follower “The mighty Word of God is the Sword of the Spirit!” (Ephesians 6:18) .  When you, Christ-follower, speak the commands of the Word of God it is like taking up a sword and using it to defeat the enemy (Revelation 19:21) . For the name of the Lord is a t...

God gave Moses an important assignment. Even though disobedience kept him from entering into the Promised Land, God’s final work for his servant Moses was to use his spiritual gifts to encourage his young understudy, Joshua. He had the enormous task and responsibility of leading God’s people in chasing out the giant nations and to possess the Promised Land. “Your assistant, Joshua son of Nun, will lead the people into the land. Encourage him, for he will lead Israel as they take possession of it.” Deuteronomy 1:38 Whenever the task you’re facing is God sized. God will send someone to encourage you. He knows that His will for your life requires encouragement along the way. Each day has a deadliness to it that can easily allow you to be discouraged and dismayed. Therefore, God instructs Christ-followers to encourage one another. (Pr. 10:21, Isa. 35:3, Ro. 1:12, 2Co. 13:11, 1Th. 5:11, Tit 2:6, 15) God knows what He is doing by this command to encourage. When that someone comes a...

Isaiah spoke these words to the people of Zion a long, long time ago. “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, this is the way; walk in it” —Isaiah 30:21. Long before the world could even dream about Global Positioning Systems. I have a GPS it is incorporated into the radio so it fits seamlessly into the dash of my pickup. The first time I used it and heard some female’s voice telling me to get ready to turn right, then left and then telling me I had arrived at my destination, I thought this is way too cool. If my Grandad could have slipped out of heaven and joined me in that truck, he would have said, “God is telling us where to go!” God the Holy Spirit is our spiritual GPS. He is the voice behind us that says, “This is the way, walk in it.”  The Living Bible says it this way…“And if you leave God’s paths and go astray, you will hear a Voice behind you say, No, this is the way; walk here.” It is so easy to leave God’...

Last year Dawn and I went to Glenwood Caverns, in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. The cave, discovered in 1897, is called King’s Row which according to USA Today is one of the top 10 best places to go underground. Because of the depth and complexity of this cavern it required that a spelunking guide lead us into and out of this hollowed-out hole in the ground. The 40 minute tour descending a 150 feet revealed beautiful formations of stalactites, stalagmites, soda straws and cave bacon. Without our spelunking guide directing us where to step and where to look we would have missed most of the glorious features that make this cave unique and beautiful. It would have been foolish to venture forth into that cave without our guide knowing where to take the next step. It’s just as foolish for a Christ-follower to have no need of godly guidance.  Typically we do things that are ill-advised and are led astray by it. Then, when realizing the lack of wisdom our heart begins to grieve over it...

Wednesday is trash day in our neighborhood.  That means early Wednesday morning; I get busy around the house throwing away about anything that is not nailed to the ground.  I collect trash from each room and separate trash items from recycled items. Then I wheel the trash and recycle carts out to the curb to remove the clutter and junk from our home. Then the trash man dumps all my trash into his truck and drives away with it, never to be seen by me again.  Halleluiah!  Weekly, I get to wipe my hands clean of the rubbish in my life.  Fortunately for us, we also have a spiritual trash day.  But, instead of weekly, Jesus is willing to come daily, hourly or each minute as we ask for forgiveness to remove the trash of sin from our lives.  By His love and grace, he takes away the sin in our lives. He then dumps them at the foot of the cross and removes it from our presence permanently.  As far as “the east is from the west” is how far our sin...

When I first arrived at Olive Place I wanted to find some connection in Scripture with the church’s name. It needed to be more than name recognition. It needed to proclaim the church’s distinctiveness and personality. Psalm 52:8 was that verse— “But I am like an olive tree, thriving in the house of God. I will always trust in God's unfailing love.” In the light of the surge of evil and godlessness in our world this verse needs to define the church today. Olive trees are not the most attractive. It isn’t very tall. Its trunk is short, thick, irregular, twisted, light gray and full of bumps and cracks, especially as it gets older. Its leaves are evergreen with a whitish tint on the bottom-side which protects it from cold in winter and heat in summer. It’s tenacious in growing and producing fruit in almost any condition—on hills, in valleys, rocky or fertile soil they are virtually indestructible (it was, after all, an olive branch that a dove brought to Noah after the flood; G...

Every one of us has longed for “the good old days.” Those days are defined as a combination of a bad memory and a good imagination. We tend to look back with the notion “if only things could be as they once were, life would be so much better now.” The longing for the days gone by is a part of who you are but the longing you have for the past will not change your present or future. Job agrees with us when he says, “Oh, how I long for the good old days, when God took such very good care of me. He always held a lamp before me and I walked through the dark by its light.” (Job 29:2-3 MSG). Just as it was with Job we too must realize that God permits us to experience difficulties and sorrows, but He also sends victories and joys as well. This is a good reminder that we should try to see life in a balanced way. I agree with the great preacher of the 19 th century, Charles Spurgeon who said “Too many people write their blessings in the sand but engrave their sorrows in marble.” In Job...