Sometimes we will not see the fruit of our labor. We may witness to someone and think that it did not work. Remember, God is in control. He has a purpose and plan. We should never stop trying to witness to those who do not know Christ.

Today I was reminded that I should always continue to reach out to those around me. I was back at work after being off a month and I was checking my email when I cam across an email that someone was responding to. What was so great was that they were responding to an email that I sent four years ago. Yes…I sent the email four years ago on July 1st 2003 and I got a response on the 10th. The email was a story that listed some great verses at the bottom. The response was also the most important. The person was letting me know that they were working on putting God first in their life.

I had nothing to do with this, it was completely a God thing. I never thought that I would get a response from a 4 year old email. What is 4 years on God’s time?….

Keep on working for Him

In Exodus God tells the people of Israel that they are not to have any idols or Gods besides Him. This was a foreign concept to them, since they were coming from Egypt a land of many idols. They thought that they could have one more god to add to their list, and continue to be “blessed” by all of these gods. Well the God who delivered them was not too hot on that idea, and let them know that He is a jealous god, and will not allow his followers to have any other gods.

Well since then God has not changed his opinion of this commandment, or of Himself. If He hasn’t changed, why do we in many cases ignore this commandment. You are probably thinking I don’t have any gold cows around my house, or a shrine built to the god of things that grow. Look again. You may not have these idols, but there is more to an idol than a gold cow. Idols are more than your money, family, house or job. It can be anything that keeps you from serving God.

I recently identified one of those idols in my life. Running. Can you believe it? An activity as an idol. I am not even that fast, nor can I run that far, but I let it get in the way of doing what we as Christians are called to do. Serve God and serve and love others. Instead of scheduling my day around what God wanted me to do, I was scheduling everything around when my next run would be. Then it happened, a knee injury. Slowed me down, and I had to do something other than run. At that time it hit me, well after several days of feeling sorry for myself it hit me. God is more important than running. Obvious, eh? Is it really? Look at your priorities? Is God first? If not, then everything ahead of Him is an idol. It is more important than God.

Matthew 4:10 says, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.” Not a lot of loopholes there.

So, how do we remove these idols. Idols that many of us do not think we have? Slow down, and pray to God. Ask Him to show you your idols, and to help you remove those idols so that He is the only God in your life. It is not easy, but it will make an eternal difference.

I am currently reading Pope Benedict XVI’s, “Jesus of Nazareth“. I have found the book to be interesting and very thought provoking. I have only gone through the first few chapters, and it looks like it will be one of those books that take a long time to read. Not because of its length, but because of depth of the book. You can tell the Pope was in search of something when he wrote this, and had the intention of truly seeking and finding the true Jesus.

In the first part of the book he refers to the three temptations of Jesus by Satan, and adds a lot of theological study and history to the incident. The point that got me thinking was the third temptation when Jesus and Satan are on top of the mountain and Satan tells Jesus that all of the kingdoms of the world can be his, if he would just bow down and worship him. What does Jesus say? “Away from me, Satan! For it is written;’Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’” (Matthew 4:10) Jesus could of have the whole world, and rule it if he would of just bowed down and worshiped Satan. Wouldn’t that be cool, to rule the whole world and have everything in it? No, not really. Why would Jesus want the world when it will soon pass and the only thing worth having is God?

Many people during Jesus’ time on earth as well as today, thought Jesus should have brought power, prosperity and might; destroyed kingdoms with a powerful army and took over the world. He instead brought the only thing we need. God. The one true God, the only thing we need. The God of faith, hope and love. The God of everything.

What does this have to do with Jesus not wanting the kingdoms of the world? He had God, and when you have God, you need nothing else and Jesus knew that. Unlike Jesus, I have tendencies to want to rule my own little “kingdom” here on earth. I like to be in control, and tell God what is good for me and what I need. I do not necessarily vocalize this to Him directly, but instead it is in my actions. How I work, how I treat others and my day-to-day activities. It is quite pitiful. I could be focused and seeking God, a God that is here with me, instead I try to rule my own kingdom. I pray someday I can turn from my kingdom here on earth, and focus completely on God. How rich I will be on that day.

I can relate to Dr. Brooks comments last Sunday about being taught to hold on to all of the money and material possessions you can get. I think it is ingrained in us that we have to take care of ourselves and the best way to do that is to keep building up our bank accounts because “you just never know.” I don’t think there is anything wrong with financial planning, but sometimes we get ahead of ourselves worrying so much about the future that we don’t pay attention to what God wants us to do with our resources today. The critical question for me is “Do I trust God enough to be obedient in sharing what he has given me?” I feel like I am a hoarder by nature, and it is hard for me to understand when I have enough. I am asking God to open my eyes to the need around me and show me how to give of my excess. I am greatly anticipating how he will change my perspective and open my heart. I will share one small example on how he has been working on me… About a month ago, a woman from my office shared with me that she is pregnant. I know she is in a pretty tight financial situation right now but I didn’t think much about what I could do. Anyway…I went home and really felt the Holy Spirit speaking to me that I needed to give her some of my maternity clothes. Just to let you know, I happened to have a ton of maternity clothes. (For whatever reason, I went a little overboard when I was pregnant with my son.) I kept trying to shake the feeling that I needed to give them to my co-worker. I kept making excuses in my mind that it would be weird if I just showed up with clothes to give this girl I didn’t know very well and then, who knows, I may need them again at some point. So, I started thinking that I could offer them to her to borrow. But the Holy Spirit came back clear that no I just needed to give them to her. So I did. I wish there was a dramatic ending to the story that we starting talking about Christ and becoming a Christian, but that hasn’t happened yet. She was very happy to have the clothes, and I see her wearing them at the office all the time. I have no idea how God will use this, but I do understand that he is trying to get me to see how much excess I have to share with others who are in need. He wants so much for me to trust him and not look to money or possessions for security. I obviously have a ways to go, but I am confident in God’s faithfulness to me.