My Daily Pause

Author: Butch Adams

  • In Memory

    In Memory

    Observing Christ’s Memory

    As you go into your next church service, here are some thoughts for reflection while you participate in the Lord’s Supper to honor his memory. Look over Matthew 26 and 27 or Luke 22 and 23:cross

    • Jesus was full of sorrow and dread as the time approached for his crucifixion.
    • Jesus could have put a stop to it at any point.
    • He had to endure a crowd of his people choosing a horrible, vile man over him
    • Even someone suffering the same fate mocked him.

    Some waited until it was too late to admit that “Truly he was the Son of God!” They realized they were too late to be able to enjoy being in his physical presence.

    What can you start doing today to be a credit to his sacrifice? What would you miss if you suddenly realized it is too late?

    Daily Bible reading for July 21

    Song of Solomon 1:1-8
    Joshua 23-24
    Jeremiah 15:10-16:21
    Matthew 27:27-66

  • Time for a Decision

    Time for a Decision

    The Decision of Decisions

    Decisions
    Sometimes we are tempted not to make decisions

    How we live and who we surround ourselves with have a lot to do with how we’ll react to life. The way we react to life is made up of the chain of decisions we make to get through the day. Sometimes we even decide not to make a decision (which is still a decision!) – we just let happen what may.

    What drives our choices?

    • The roar of a crowd of strangers
    • Approval of others
    • The subtle hints of a friend
    • What we feel in our heart
    • Experience

    Pilate had all of these things at work when he faced the decision of whether to acquit Jesus. He knew deep down Jesus was innocent. His wife did her best to confirm it. In the end, he let the masses guide his decision not to decide, and released another who did not deserve freedom. (Matthew 27:15-23) Pilate literally washed his hands of it!

    How often do we get the chance to influence the outcome of an event but fail to speak up?

    • We vote for those who would legalize abortion or legitimize sinful lifestyles
    • We attend parties or events in places Christians shouldn’t be
    • We dress in the “fashionable” way
    • We don’t correct those in our presence.

    Just like Pilate, we often let things happen – the wrong things – because we decided not to act or speak. Even when we have enough influence to have changed the outcome!

    James 4:17 describes exactly what I mean.

    Daily Bible reading for July 20

    Ecclesiastes 12:9-14
    Joshua 22
    Jeremiah 14:1-15:9
    Matthew 27:1-26

  • How God Feels When His People Sin

    How God Feels When His People Sin

    A Celebration of Sin

    The Babylonians are coming and God is tired of the sin.

    At least that was the warning that Jeremiah spent 40 or 50 years trying to tell the Jews. Josiah had started restoring the temple and the law but it just wasn’t enough. The people had gotten so sinful they couldn’t even blush anymore. (Jeremiah 6:15) People were proud of the debauchery they could practice.

    Jeremiah contemplating Israel's sin
    Jeremiah as painted on the Sistine Chapel

    In Jeremiah 13:1-11, God compares a loincloth as it clings to the waist of a man to the way he wanted the children of Israel to cling to him. God laid out an excellent plan for his people. One that would insure they would never want for anything. For whatever reason, the lure of false gods and strange people was enough to abandon that security.

    Just as the cloth rotted from being hidden in the damp rocks of the river, (Jeremiah 13:7) God decided he would allow the pride of his people rot. A people that would do such a thing are good for nothing. (Jeremiah 13:10)

    God gave his people warning after warning, but it was always accompanied with an offer of forgiveness. That didn’t happen in this event or anywhere in chapter 13 for that matter. Bible scholars can argue over the exact meaning of the parts of this difficult prophesy, but one thing is clear:

    The ruined loincloth is the illustration of how God feels when his children fail him.

    Daily Bible reading for July 19

    Ecclesiastes 11:9-12:8
    Joshua 21
    Jeremiah 13
    Matthew 26:30-75

  • Fruit of the Spirit: Love

    Fruit of the Spirit: Love

    But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance Gal 5:22-23

    Love Demonstrated Through Action

    I saved the best for last in this series. Love is the first item in the fruit of the Spirit. Love is the last item in Peter’s list of Christian graces (2 Peter 1:5-7) Whether it’s first or last in the list, we understand that it takes love to have the other attributes. Look at it again and we see that having the other attributes makes us more loving. This is how our spirituality grows and sustains itself.kiwi

    That spirituality makes something very special manifest in our lives toward the father in heaven. The greatest command is to love God with all our hearts and our souls and our minds. When Jesus called this the greatest commandment in Matthew 5:37, he said the second one was just like it – Love your neighbor as much as yourself .(Matthew 5:39) That means to love your neighbor is loving God!

    When the Agape type of love is mentioned in scripture is it associated with activity and service. God demonstrated it through the gift of his only son. (John 3:16) A couple of ways we can respond to that is by:

    • keeping His commandments John 15:10
    • keeping it sincere Romans 12:9
    • serving others Gal 5:13-14

    Jesus said that the only way we can be identified with Him is to have this love for one another. (John 13:35) He will recognize us when we have the fruit of love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, self-control, longsuffering, and gentleness.

    Daily Bible reading for July 18

    Ecclesiastes 11:1-8
    Joshua 20
    Jeremiah 11:18-12:17
    Matthew 26:1-29

  • Fruit of the Spirit: Meekness (or Gentleness)

    Fruit of the Spirit: Meekness (or Gentleness)

    But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance – Gal 5:22-23

    The underlying Greek word here is preotes. Gentleness, meekness, implies humility. (Note that the NKJV, ESV and others use gentleness for meekness)

    While we think of meek being equivalent to mild, bland, timid and even weak based on the dictionary definition, these thoughts do not describe Jesus Christ. Moses was described as meek in Numbers 12:3. These words don’t describe him either.

    KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERAIt’s unfortunate that meek rhymes with week. Jesus doesn’t want weak Christians. He wants those who are strong enough to stand their ground yet do it with a loving gentleness – which describes meekness in a nutshell.

    The meek will inherit the earth Matthew 5:3-10. Meekness as described here indicates we are giving ourselves over to God’s will. This might include being stern and determined when carrying out His commands.

    As we consider how to apply this attribute of the fruit of the Spirit, we might think about the mighty elephant. He is able to rip trees out of the ground with his trunk, yet he can control it so he could take a peanut out of your hand without hurting you. Great strength under control.

    Daily Bible reading for July 17

    Ecclesiastes 10
    Joshua 18-19
    Jeremiah 11:1-17
    Matthew 25

  • Fruit of the Spirit: Temperance or Self-Control

    Fruit of the Spirit: Temperance or Self-Control

    But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance (or self-control) – Gal 5:22-23

    The underlying Greek egkrateia means self-control

    Self Control is a Decision

    Openly sinning is becoming a very popular activity these days. Better yet, we don’t even have to take responsibility for ourselves. We fail to train ourselves for suitable employment. We fail to maintain our health through exercise and diet. We fail to make good choices because we think we want something else. These are all simple decisions we make ourselves, but think the outcome is unfair when we don’t like it.

    Dave Ramsey, the budget expert and radio show host, often says that “children do what feels good, adults devise a plan and follow it.”file000299165828

    Zig Ziglar, the original motivational speaker, says “overweight people got that way by choice because they never accidentally ate anything.”

    Both of these ring true because self-control is the art of making good decisions and taking responsibility for them – even when they are not so good. Most of us have a “guilty pleasure” or a weakness that we know better than to entertain. Many of us simply choose to ignore the risks and do them anyway.

    Peter urges us to maintain ourselves so even when we are railed against by sinners, they will know they are messing with Christians. (1 Peter 2:11-12) Our own self -control becomes very important when we are telling others about sin.

    The more we avoid sin, the better we get at avoiding it. When this happens, we can present ourselves to God as his instruments for righteousness (Romans 6:11-14)

    Daily Bible reading for July 16

    Ecclesiastes 9:11-18
    Joshua 16-17
    Jeremiah 9:23-10:25
    Matthew 24