My Daily Pause

Blog

  • Choose Your Company Wisely

    You are who you spend your time with
    You are who you spend your time with

    If you listen to correction to improve your life,
    you will live among the wise.  – Proverbs 15:31 NCV

    Two variations of this advice that are now a bit cliché:

    We become as knowledgeable as our five closest friends

    or

    We become as rich as our five closest friends.

    Choosing who we spend our time with is our most critical decision because they will become the source of our advice. Living among those wiser, richer or kinder  provides us the examples and correction we need to be like them.

    Acting on that correction helps keep us among them.

     

  • Don’t Shoot Him, Just Verify

    The Gossips - 1948 - Norman Rockwell
    The Gossips – 1948 – Norman Rockwell

    A wicked messenger brings nothing but trouble,
    but a trustworthy one makes everything right.  – Proverbs 13:17 NCV

    Trustworthy messengers are still a scarce resource in today’s world. Relaying information via word of mouth accurately is difficult – even when the messenger’s intentions are good. There is even a party game where one will whisper a message into the first person’s ear and then the group passes it around the room to see if the last person can get it right.

    They usually fail.

    We deal with that problem every day. Sadly, we are used to handling every bit of information through a filter:

    • What is the news source?
    • Who is giving the advice?
    • Does this report make sense?

    If we have to ask these things in the day-to-day routine, what about important matters?

    Who is teaching in your church?

    If a false messenger can ruin a nation, what can it do to your salvation? The noble Bereans checked out Paul and Silas as they taught to find out “whether those things were so” (Acts 17:11).

    That’s a good example to follow when a person starts a sentence with “The Bible says …”

    When you hear that, always take the time to check it out for yourself.

  • One Nation Under God

    Did our country's greatness come from God?
    Did our country’s greatness come from God?

    Doing what is right makes a nation great,
    but sin will bring disgrace to any people. – Proverbs 14:34 NCV

    I wrote about this verse a few years ago when some extraordinary things were happening here and around the world. The things that were happening then seem pale by comparison to some of the events today. What will another few years bring?

    This country was founded as a country that recognizes the God of the Bible and her founding documents refer to Him numerous times. If we continue to allow “separation of church and state” to mean that God is not allowed in our government, I’m afraid He will go ahead and leave.

  • No Tomorrow

    No Tomorrow

    Every sunset could be our last
    Every sunset could be our last

    Do not boast about tomorrow,
    for you do not know what a day may bring.  – Proverbs 27:1

    Depending on tomorrow and not on God is unwise. Delaying spiritual things in favor of earthly things never turns out well when the Bible addresses them:

    James 4:13-15 – Life is short.
    Luke 12:16-21 – Do not lay up treasure for yourself.
    Matthew 6:33-34 – Seek first the Kingdom of God.

    If you are waiting around to take care of something, now may be a good time to rethink that.

  • That is Not an Excuse – It is a Warning

    There is a verse in Romans 3 we all know:

    … for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God… – Romans 3:23

    But that is not even a complete sentence. We know it is telling us that all people have sinned, regardless of who we are. We can see that the Jews had it in their head that they were righteous enough just by being Jews. Paul shows us in Romans 3 that there is much more to it.

    If we are not careful we are going to drift away from God, just like the Jews did.

    It was predicted in the Psalms this would happen (as quoted by Paul in Romans 3:10-18.) In fact, they were so far gone they completely missed that the Messiah came and went.

    Since we are all the same in God’s eyes, we all share the same potential to drift away if we do not practice the righteousness of God. The danger is thinking we are okay, when in fact we have drifted away because our faith is not the obedient kind like Paul describes in Romans 1:5 and Romans 16:26.

    When Paul said we are all sinners, he was not giving us an excuse – he was giving us a warning. This was not permission to shrug and and say, “Oh well.”  Many are calling themselves Christians because they completed some steps, but they continued on in their worldly ways.

    It is time to stop making excuses.

  • 10 Expectations of the Judgment

    We don’t have to go far or ask very many people to find plenty of assorted ideas about how God’s judgment will work. So many who think they are in the right will find that they have fallen short of what God requires of us.

    Even worse, the vast number of people misuse Matthew 7:1 to stop others from pointing out their sins, yet they do not check into exactly how they will be judged in the end. Paul helps us with this by first listing off a number of sins (Romans 1:28-32) and then giving us a list of ten points about God’s judgment. (Romans 2:1-16) If we believe that our God is a righteous God, then there are a number of expectations we need to live by. In order of how Paul listed them:

    The Apostle Paul - Bartolomeo Montagna (1450–1523)
    The Apostle Paul – Bartolomeo Montagna (1450–1523)
    • We should practice what we preach or we condemn ourselves (Romans 2:1)
    • We should expect to be judged by God’s word (Romans 2:2)
    • We should not view God’s goodness to sinners to mean He isn’t going to punish their sins (Romans 2:4)
    • We should expect to be judged for our works (Romans 2:6)
    • We should expect to be punished for disobedience (Romans 2:8)
    • We should expect to be held to a higher standard as we gain higher position and responsibility (Romans 2:9-10)
    • We should not expect God to judge based on partiality (Romans 2:11)
    • We should expect judgment based on the commandments God gave us (Romans 2:14-15)
    • We should expect to be judged by New Testament standards (Romans 2:16)
    • We should expect to be judged by Christ (Romans 2:16)

    The only assumptions about how we face the judgment that can be made, are the ones listed in the God’s standard. The danger many face is applying another standard invented by men and expecting God to abide by that. We cannot set the standards for God!