poor

What is poor? Is it a state of being or a state of economic status? It has been stated that if you have food, clothing and shelter you have more than 75% of this world. Let that sink in for a moment...... Food clothing and shelter you have more than 75% of this world... Is poor a mindset or an economic status? What is wealth? can someone without food clothing or shelter have wealth? can someone with 3 houses 3 cars a boat and much food be poor? Look at the following passages of scripture and see what the scriptures say about wealth and poor.
Proverbs 10
As you go about today, ask yourself what am I? Whose am I? Do I follow God with all that I.You will see in the passages above, vs 22, 27, and 29 have LORD that is not by mistake, they could have spelled it Lord, but that would not mean as much and would be a wrong translation of the passage. LORD is not by mistake. When you see LORD that in Hebrew is YHWH. or as would would spell Yahweh. That was the name that God gave to Moses in the burning bush. It is the name that the Israelites and Jews even today will not say, they cannot say it because it is God's personal name and they are not worthy to say his personal name. It literly means I AM. I AM what? I Am provided, sustainer, healer, shepherd, I AM everything you are not. Louie Giglio wrote a book and has a talk. I am not but I know I AM. Lest we think we are wealth or poor think of where that comes from. Think of I AM. Are you poor or are you wealthy may have more to do with whose you are then what you have.

Colossians 3:5-9
Death, not something that we want to deal with. I don't think anybody looks forward to this. The word even makes us cringe. Wrath, can death and wrath be love? To love someone is to give your all to them. To give up things that you may want to do something they may want to do. Love is an action, death is an action wrath is an action. What is the wrath of God? Could the wrath of God be his love? is it bad to put to death sinful activities? is it bad to not want your friend to be involved in poor choices? To stop a friend from making a poor choice you have to show your wrath. To wrestle a friend to keep them safe is your wrath on them, it is also your love on them. God's love for you may be showed in wrath. Sometimes our love needs to be strong, sometimes it needs to be coddling. How are you experiencing God's love today? If you are feeling wrath maybe you need to put to death the things not of God, if you are experiencing coddling keep putting to death the things of this world to show your love for God.

$50

So it was a few weeks ago, learning something new each day. Getting ready to leave to go up to Cran Hill to lead devotions and start another week of ministry. Put everything I need in the car, I pop the trunk and have to put one more thing in the trunk. Go around the back of the car and lift teh trunk up, to which I heard the sound of the alarm on the car. to which I heard the sound of the car doors locking. To which I think, my keys are in the car. I was ready to go, I had everything ready. To which I became downcast and mad and frustrated. I just locked my keys in my car in my driveway and I do not have an extra set of keys. I am dutch and frugal and I can get into my car no problem, right? Nope. After trying for 20 minutes to break into my car I succumb to making that call. The call to the wrecker company to come and get my keys. After waiting another 20 minutes for him to come and then just 2 minutes for him to get my keys. I have lost $50. I have lost that money I cannot get back. What else have I lost? Pride. What have I gained? embarrassment, a story to tell and others to tell about me. A lesson, keep your keys in your pocket and you are all set. Was the gain better than the lost? I don't know it was $50. If I loose that again then there is something wrong with me. All this brings me to a passage in scripture where Paul talks about loosing and gaining. Philippians 3:8. To which I read and ask myself, what have I lost for the kingdom of God? What have I intentionally given up and looked at as a loss? A loss sticks with you, to loose a football game you remember it, to loose money you remember it. To gain a lesson, is much greater than the loss. What did Paul loose? he lost his career of killing Christians. he was the most feared terrorist of Christians in his time, he lost that to gain what? prison? death? life forever? He lost to gain for the kingdom. What have I lost for God's sake? In my flesh have I deliberately given something up? I have to ask these questions for me and wonder what have I done? What have you done? what is it that you need to loose for God's sake? to gain so much more. I now look back on that day in August when I lost $50 and thank God for loosing that to gain an image into the gospel, a lesson to keep my keys with me. I think I have gained so much more in that loss. To loose to gain, where am I in all that? That is the question to ponder and think about.

first day

What goes through your mind on the first day of something new? Will I fit in, will it be what I want, how will I do compared to so many other people? All questions one may ask on the first day of a new job, the first day of school, the first day of anything new can be filled with anxiety or it can be filled with joy. Today I embark on the first day of taking seminary courses. I also have a choice what will I do. For me I have gone to the story of Jesus in the scriptures of when he and the disciples are out on the sea and a storm is coming up and the waves are intense, the seasoned fishermen cannot handle it and Jesus is sleeping! filled with anxiety, no! sleeping when others can not walk on deck because of waves he is sleeping, how can he sleep in that? He is choosing to, just like us each day we have a choice in how we handle circumstances that come our way. We can not choose the circumstances but we can choose the attitude toward the circumstances. How about you what will you choose today?

smell of humilty

There it was, the smell, the fragrance, the aroma of humility. What does humility smell like? How can you tell if it is something that is humble just by the smell. Yesterday I was confronted with that smell. It was inside a beautiful building walking the paces of some wonderful people. This building is filled with the finest tile floors surrounded by a huge skylight in the middle of a commons area, with a coffee stand and bookstore around the commons. The second floor is filled with offices of very educated people, Phd's Doctors, professors and theologians. A building that is used everyday to educate people in the knowledge of God's truths. Man can get so caught up in the education and being filled with knowledge and forget to use it. Our churches can get so caught up in knowledge and forget to use it. But this is different, in this building the aroma was not Nautica cologne, it wasn't the elegant fragrance that one might think. The aroma and fragrance was that of B.O. it was the aroma of physical poverty, it was that of homelessness in the midst of a seminary building. You see 2 worlds collide when the theologians meet the worldly physical poverty around them. The professors and students here have not forgotten to display their knowledge they provide a meal for over 200 people that the world looks down on. The floor is stained the smell is not the finest. But isn't that the smell of humility, isn't that the smell of Jesus example to wash each other's feet, The smell of living the faith to the least of these. The seminary is teaching the church and leading the way for students to get out of their education and into living their hearts. That is the seminary I have chosen to take part in. I will be taking some classes this year and going full time the following year. A seminary that the higher class in the world's eyes eat with the lower class in the world's eyes and all are equal in the room where daily bread is served. The smell will stick with me and will challenge me to continually be living my education as i start to be trained for God's glory

Fear Not

How many times do you hear these words from people around you. When you think someone will not make it on their end of the bargain you hear them say don't worry, or fear not or do not be afraid. Does it really make you feel any better? Do the words of someone really ake you feel comfortable? Or is it in the actions of someone that you feel comfortable and can live by what they say? God tells his people int he Bible to fear not. He tells Abraham when he is asked to sacrifice his son on the alter (Genesis 15) he tells Mary (the mother of Jesus) fear not you are single not married and now pregnant, but not just pregnant, pregnant with the savior of the world, don't be afraid though (Luke 1). God tells his people to not be afraid. Who are the people God is telling to not be afraid? Are they average non committal complacent comfortable Christians? We don't know are they people God wants to do more through? Yes we know that for sure, God did a lot through Abraham, through Mary, through Joshua, through Joseph, Through you. Yes you. Have you heard the words do not fear? God says in Isaiah 41 "I have chosen you and have not rejected you. So do not fear for I am with you" After looking through scripture and seeing when God has said the words to a person do not fear, he wants to use them, he wants them to say ok, he is looking for his people no matter where they are in life to so ok God i won't fear I will follow. Just as Isaiah in Isaiah 6 said, "here and I send me." have you heard the words from God do not fear? is God desiring to use you? do you want to be used by God? Sometimes it is adjusting what we want to meet what God wants and in that there is fear. If you hold to the fact that God did not reject you, that history is a way to learn from, then look at history of each time God told his people do not fear, Abraham was provided a ram just at the moment he needed it, Mary was taken care of to deliver God's son. Joshua was able to enter the promised land, Each time God followed through and did not let his people go. Will you learn from history or be stuck in you little mind of fearfulness. Being used by God may take overcoming fear through the power of the Holy Spirit within you. Will you let God speak those words to you? Will you answer as many of those before have answered, "Here am I send use me God."

unpreventable/preventable

184,000, the number of deaths that occurred due to the earthquake and Tsunami in the Indian Ocean December 26, 2004. 92,000-220,000, the number of deaths that is estimated to have occurred due to the earthquake in Haiti January 10,2010. 10,000 the expectation of death toll from the recent earthquake and Tsunami in Japan.
$528 million, the amount raised after the Haiti earthquake of 2010.
$163 million, the amount raised after the Indian Ocean earthquake.
What do all of these disasters have in common? are they preventable or unpreventable? I recently heard one news commentator say that you cannot stop mother earth.

Add all these up and you have between 286,000 and 414,000 people that have died due to natural disasters. Add the money up and you have $691 million.

115,000 per day each and every day in the world, have you heard about these people lately? When was the last time you heard anything about these people that have died. Yes 115,000 PER DAY!!!! that is the number of estimated abortions that happen each and every day in the world! where does that compare to the 286 or 414,000 people?

What is the difference between 286,000 and 115,000? Could it be that one is preventable and one is unpreventable? Could it be that abortions are preventable and natural disasters are unpreventable? yet how much news coverage is there for the unborn babies that are killed before they can experience life? How much money is raised for them each year. A number that is preventable.

What about 400,000 the number of deaths that occur to child in the world due to starvation. Is starvation a preventable or unpreventable disaster?

Why so much money and coverage for unpreventable disaster and not so much help and money for preventable disasters?

What have you done today to help preventable disasters? What have you done today to help those who cannot help themselves. What if the amount of money for unpreventable disasters was given toward preventable disasters?

There will be many more unpreventable disasters, there could be no more unpreventable disasters if we as Americans would not be so selfish and think of 1. not 400,000; not 115,000. I cannot understand those numbers anyway but I can understand 1. think of 1 person other than you.

Trust

Have you ever thought of the meaning behind the word TRUST? We trust people with certain things and not with other things. We trust how many drivers on the road each an every day with our own lives, lets face it any person in any car could try and hit you, you trust they won't, yet we have trouble trusting a child at times. We trust pilots to fly us around and stay at a certain altitude based on a computer, how many times have you had computer troubles, yet you trust computers to keep a plane in the air. We trust telling people that are close to us our struggles in life, our down days yet we don't trust them with telling our financial struggles or joys for that matter. We trust an invisible God with our eternal destiny. We live each day trusting that, as we accept Jesus as our savior we will be in heaven some day dancing with Jesus, yet we struggle to trust God with our day to day agenda. We struggle to trust God with our finances, our marriages, our children, our day to day activities, we can accept eternal life and not trust our children, as we work so hard to protect them, our checkbook as we work so hard to keep it up and make "x" amount of money, our marriage. When was the last time we prayed together, not for meal or just whatever. But literally stopped and prayed as husband and wife? Trust, an easy word to define and understand maybe a harder word to live. I heard yesterday that if you make more than $32,000 a year you are in the richest 5% of the world. I also heard that if you have food, clothing and shelter everyday you are wealthier than 75% of this world population. Do you trust? why do you trust in? what do you trust in? have you seen God work a miracle in your life because you trusted in him? Trust who?

i

What has Apple done with the word i? ipod, ipad, imac, itunes, i. They have simply taken what man is created with, a lean and bent towards i. I was in a class at church today and it was said that you never have to teach a baby the word mine. We are all created with the desire for what? For i. So what has apple done with i. they confirmed that you are not alone in thinking the world is about i. or is it? Think for a moment the last time you did something for i. How did you feel, how long did it last. What about the last time you did something for someone, how did you feel, how long did it last? What if apple called it your pod, your tunes? Would you give it to a friend or neighbor? Genesis 1:27, the very beginning of the Bible says man is created in the image of God. Is there an iGod? Did God think of himself? Did he do what was best for him? or did he do what was best for you. is it iGod or your God? Why is there such a rise in pay it forward mentality? When do you feel the most satisfaction in your life? If you can say life is ilife, live it if you fell life is your life live it. There is a reason why man has a bent towards me but feels most satisfied when doing something for someone else, it has to do with Genesis 1:27 being created in the image of the God who did everything for you and nothing for himself. If we say we are Christian what do we do for those around us and not for ourselves? try today and do everything for someone else, what will happen?