Today will be a busy day for me and I thought to do a post on here first before I get started with my day.

Just a few days ago was our 3 year anniversary of the Deaf Church (March 22, 2008). And while I felt like celebrating, instead….I went to God’s Word to have an extra devotion time. The scripture that I got stuck on was this:

Ecclesiastes 9:10 “whatever you hands finds to do, do it with all of your might…”

To tell you the truth…this is true for many people. I cannot remember the last time that I had “idle hands”.  My hands have constantly been doing something for God for the past 13 years. Whether its ministering to my family, ministering to a deaf person, ministering to my parents, ministering to my children, singing worship songs for a revival, teaching a workshop at a conference, praying with people, preaching, teaching, leading, whatever… I wouldn’t know what a person is like with “idle hands” …

God gives us the ability to do “something” for Him…. in each of us after we have received salvation through Him, is a gift. And that gift or ability is to be used to enhance, enthrone, and embrace Him more in every possible way.

Another scripture that I recall from a few weeks ago related to this is: James 1:22 which says…“Be doers of the Word, not just listeners” Rather than listening what God says….take it and use it and DO something….

Idle hands or a better word, hands that do not commit fully are not effective because Jesus is clear in Luke 9:62

“No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God”

So today…I want you, who is reading this now, ask yourself this question…..

1. What are my hands doing now for God?
2. What is my level of commitment?
3. What is causing me to “look back” while I am using my hands for God?

May your hands do good…may you do it with all of your might….may you be doers, not listeners only… and may you “plow” with your eyes forward, never looking back….

Gas Mileage?

Graceland Baptist Church                                                                                                                                        Deaf Social Message                                                                                                                                                March 18^th, 2011

Good evening…. Good to be here with you guys. I was asked to share a short devotion tonight with you. Some of you knowing me, I don’t know the meaning of a “short message”…we ministers tend to not think of time.

But usually when I do something short like this…I go into something that I use for my facebook videos which is a three part:

STORY / BIBLE VERSE / CHALLENGE

STORY:

1. How many of you have a car?
2. How many of you drive a lot?

Now the big question…it is an embarrassing question….

How many of you have ever ran out of gas in your car?

• I remember one time, I was helping with Vacation Bible School.
• I was a leader for the Kindergarten class. I had 8 boys to myself.
• Monday…II had to drive 30 minutes to the church….I checked the gas…”oh plenty of gas!”
• Tuesday…I check the gas….”Oh plenty of gas”
• But the next day, I did not even bother to look…I was so busy
• And then it happened….I ran out of gas.
• Imagine how I felt…calling for help….I was embarrassed!

SCRIPTURE:

The scripture that I want to use here is Romans 12:2:

2: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

CHALLENGE:

• As I was sitting in my car waiting for a friend to bring me some gas, I was thinking
• I was thinking of ways to AVOID running out of gas again….you know what the easiest way is?  TO NEVER DRIVE MY CAR AGAIN.
• It would be full all the time, right?
• Its easy for the car to run out of gas if we don’t think about it
• It is the same with SPIRITUAL feeding…
• If you do not take care of your spiritual “gas”…it will run out.
• If you just stay home, not go to church, not go to bible studies at your church, not pray, not read your Bibles…. Your gas will be run out.

• When you go to church…you have plenty of gas
• When you get up Monday…check your gas…
• When you get up Tuesday…check your gas
• When you get up wed…check your gas
• When you get up Thursday, check your gas
• When you get up Friday, check your gas

Do not forget about it….

That verse teaches us to “RENEW” everyday…

If we want to grow more in our spirit and faith, we need to keep our “GAS” tank full

When we stop thinking about it or checking it, we end up in trouble.

There’s a story that I learned about a few years ago from a conference I went to…the story was about a young lady who had arrived at her home late one day and noticed a few bees flying around in the attic area outside her home. She didn’t think nothing about it so she just let it go, didn’t care about it. Over the next few weeks, she still noticed the bees coming in and out of her attic area outside of her home. But you know what? Her attic in her home became a live home for the bees and there was honey building up. So what happened? The ceiling floor collapsed and the bees became angry. The woman was fine and had no serious injuries but the repairs for the attic were more than she could handle.

That is a good example for some of us here tonight. When we are faced with a problem or situation that we just do not want to handle at the moment, we LET IT GO, we put it off, we ignore the situation until it becomes too late…when our “repairs become too much to handle in the end”

Neglect is a strong word and is used in many situations. Husband or wife neglect, children neglect, responsibilities neglected, opportunities neglected. Homes neglected for not taking care of it or outside of the homes too. What about a garden? (How many of you have gardens?) My parents had one when they were living here before they retired and moved to Bowling Green. Taking care of gardens is pretty hard work. I remember when I used to help them pick green beans, squash, tomatoes, potatoes, watermelons, and then we also had “weeds”

Weeds are a pain in the butt. They never stop growing. No matter how many times we went out to that garden, it seemed like everyday, we had to pull them out. And I never understood at first, why was it so important to remove the weeds? I mean it looked just like a normal piece of grass and why all the extra work for a few pieces of grass? So as I learned that weeds can do damage to your garden, I was reminded of a parable that Jesus told in Matthew 13: 24 – 29.

24 “The Jesus used another story to teach them. Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a man that planted good seed in his field. 25 That night, all the people were asleep. The man’s enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat. Then the enemy went away. 26 Later the wheat grew and the also the weed plants grew too. 27 Then the man’s servant came to him and said, “You planted good seed in your field. Where did the weeds come from?” 28 The man said, “An enemy planted weeds” “The servants asked, ‘ do you want us to go pull the weeds out now?” 29 the man answered, “No, because when you pull up the weeds, you might also pull up the good wheat. 30 Let the weeds and the wheat grow together until the harvest time. At the harvest time, I will tell the workers this: first gather up the weeds and tie them together to be burned. Then gather the wheat and bring it to my barn”

Jesus was emphasizing a few things in this story that is related to our own individual lives..

#1 We all have a good seed in ourselves (which is Jesus no matter how it was done)
#2 We all have weeds (your situation, grief, problems with family, friends, job, financial, etc)

#3 We all have a decision to make…Pull the weeds at the right time or never pull the weeds

You know back then they didn’t have electricity, which was before my time, they had oil lamps to light up a room. If it was really clean, one oil lamp had a great potential to light up an entire room very good. But if it was dirty or wasn’t cleaned up well, it wouldn’t light up as well.

That is the same concept as WEEDS….

If you continue to NEGLECT your WEEDS, your WEEDS will hurt you someday. And you will not be able to light up a room as Jesus would want you to. I struggle with my “weeds” everyday on something new whether it is financial, handling a problem related to my kids, house issues, car issues, problems with friends, problems with my wife…but I do know for sure..I have one set of weeds that I do not have to handle anymore, because I have already picked them out and Jesus took care of the rest for me. You know its interesting…sometimes in our deepest and hardest struggles, we turn our situations into our own sanctuary. We cry out for help and the weeds begin to be picked little by little.

In front of this computer now, I want to think for yourself of your own evaluation of your weeds. The question is: “What weeds am I neglecting today?” …meaning what weed do I need to take care of now….maybe is it a person you need to solve a problem with, maybe it is something that you are struggling with from your past like I was, or maybe you have weeds in your relationship with God but I challenge you to make a wise decision to pull your weeds out and let Jesus take care of the rest. Your weeds are never too much for Him. He planted that good seed and He did not intend for them weeds to damage that good seed.

Last week, we talked about the word “TAKING”. We also talked about GOALS… Every New Years Eve, we talk about GOALS…”RESOLUTIONS” to help us improve ourselves for the next year. Such as:

(1) Losing weight. We watch what we eat and then we go to the YMCA to work out, but then after a few weeks, we give up and go to McDOnalds because noone is looking! The goal becomes NO GOOD, because we quit.

(2) Promotion at work. When the boss is around, we work harder to impress them. But when the boss is not around, we become lazy and use excuses to not do the work. The goal to get a promotion becomes no good, because we dont keep up with what we plan to do.

(3) Marriages to improve. The husband or the wife agrees to spend more time with each other. But eventually their talk becomes cheap because we dont stick to what we agree to do. Its easy to TALK…but its not easy to ACT. The goal to spend more time together gets easily distracted because of work, or friends…and then it becomes NO GOOD.

I want to share with you FOUR ways that you can COMMIT to stick to your GOALS and TAKING IT SERIOUS…HOW?

(1) COMMIT TO FORGETING YOUR PAST MISTAKES

Many years ago, Paul told his people “Forgetting what is behind and looking foward to future, I press forward to the goal for what God has called me to in Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:13-14)

All of us are used to looking to the past…. you know…when we look in the past….sometimes its hard to move forward. We tend to use our past to blame people. God doesnt want us blaming people. How do we forget our past mistakes? LET IT GO…. If we are going to be serious in our GOALS…..we need to start by making our past mistakes become our past…do not carry them to NOW or into the future…LET IT GO

Maybe you need to LET IT GO with your parents? or friends? Start the new year off the right way!

(2) COMMIT TO GIVE UP GRUDGES (dwelling on what people hurt you)

Pay attention to this verse: ” Bear with each other and forgive each other whatever happens to you. Forgive as the Lord forgives you” (Colossians 3:13)

Notice it says “forgive as the Lord forgives you” that means …you have no choice. You have to forgive others because God forgived you. what is a grudge? It is an “unforgiving spirit” that causes unforgiving attitudes that leads to unforgiving actions. It is almsost like facebook….when you see something you like…you sometimes click “LIKE” but with people, sometimes we see something we do not like….we pick “DISLIKE” about that person…. that is almost same as a grudge.

But let me tell you: grudges destroy marriages…..grudges destroy families…..grudges destroy friendships…..and…are you paying attention? GRUDGES DIVIDES A CHURCH……hmmmmmm thats true…. we have people in our church and people in other churches that have “grudges” against people INSIDE the church… is that good?

NO GRUDGES are Satan’s work….not God’s GRUDGES do not help us in our life….it causes health problems, it causes bitterness, and it causes us to have a bad attitude towards other……and then it causes us to DISOBEY God in many areas. If you are holding a grudge against anyone in your church….you need to LET IT GO…when you LET IT GO….you will have peace and feel better…trust me, I know becasue I have experienced it myself

(3) COMMIT TO HEAL YOUR RELATIONSHIPS (friends & family)

Look at this verse: “If it is possible, depending on you, live at peace with everyone” (Romans 12:18)

You notice the middle of the verse says “depending on you” How hard is it for you to tell someone “I am sorry” ?

Its tough sometimes… What if YOU are right….do you still swallow your pride and say I am sorry anyway? What would Jesus do? Some of your friendships and your relationships with people have been destroyed why? sometimes it is something that YOU do to them…. you borrowed money and didnt pay it back? Did you gossip about them? Did you hurt them and never asked them for forgive? Did someone hurt you and you refused to forgive them? Will you be the bigger person and do what God expects of you?

(4) COMMIT TO TURN AWAY FROM SIN

 “Do not let sin control the way that you live..” (Romans 6:2)

often….when we are involved in sin and our own wordly pleasures…we do not recognize God or His Word. We dont really THINK about God and what He thinks about what we are doing.

In the Army….we tend to see the general or captain frequently yelling out orders when people are marching. there is one command that we need to remember…its called “ABOUT FACE”

ABOUT FACE actually means to look the opposite direction of where you WAS facing…. In other words, if God yells “ABOUT FACE” to you…. He demands us to turn away from SIN and look TO HIM Like what, you ask?

• Are you secretly looking at porn XXX on computer? ABOUT FACE!
• Are you abusing your wife? ABOUT FACE!
• Are you involved in sexual sin? ABOUT FACE!
• Are you involved in something that God would not approve? ABOUT FACE!

the challenge is….we need to do things GOD’s WAY…. when we set goals for this year….we need to do things GOd’s way…not our way.

So….our challenge today is:

1. Will you commit to forget your past mistakes?
2. Will you commit to let go of your “grudges”?
3. Will you commit to heal your relationships / friendships?
4. Will you commit to turning ABOUT FACE from sin…and face God more?

You know when the month of December comes around…we tend to see alot of Christmas spirit, Christmas signs, and of course…Christmas lights.

One has to wonder, how and what started the tradition of Christmas lights.

Of course most of us could say..it started with candles back in the old times. Or others could say that it started when electricity was invented and someone put a bunch of light bulbs on a string.

Really that is the traditional thought….but really did we ever think what the Bible says about “Christmas lights” ?

There is no scripture that actually says “Christmas lights” in its original text but eventually if you put scriptures together from several places in the Bible…you will realize that Christmas lights was here for a long, long time.

The purpose of this is to help you to fully understand the history of Christmas lights and then to share it with those you come to meet during the holiday times.

The reason for Christmas is not to find the cheapest video game system for your kids. The reason is not to buy as many gifts as possible. The reason is not to recieve the most gifts as well. The reason, according to the Bible and to Christians SHOULD be Jesus Christ.

So at first notice, Jesus Christ is the “true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world” (John 1:9)

Jesus Christ is also “the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of the life” (John 8:12)

Jesus Christ is and always will be “THE FIRST Christmas Light”

Never thought of if that way, huh?  Interesting concept and so awesome to think that we use Christmas lights every year for our tree, for outside our home, for inside our home, etc to remind ourselves that the reason we set up lights..is to remind myself, others, and those who visit us about the first Christmas light.

Heres some encouragement:

• If you are depressed or sad…..look at your Christmas lights…Jesus brings JOY
• If you are suffering or hurting…look at your Christmas lights…Jesus brings HOPE
• If you are worried…look at your Christmas lights…Jesus brings PEACE
• If you are stuck in sin…look at your Christmas lights…Jesus brings SALVATION

Everyone is familiar with or some of the text that appears in John 3:16 but what people do not realize is that later in the few verses ahead in John 3:19 it says something that predicts people’s reason for not remembering Jesus Christ during these holiday times..

“This is the testimony, that the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light; beacuse their deeds were evil” (John 3:19 NIV)

Interesting in the same verse but in the Easy to Read version Bible it says:

“They are judged by this fact. The light has come into the world. But they did not want that light. They wanted darkness; because they were doing evil things” (John 3:19)

I want you to picture something for a moment…….

Back in the old times…they didnt have electricity…they used lamps that was filled with oil to keep the light running and the home to be lit up.

Every once in awhile…the oil lamps will have to be cleaned. The glass around the light needs to be wiped, cleaned, and dried to use for next time. If the glass was not cleaned…the light would be harder and harder to see next time it is used.

Same with us as Christians…if we have accepted the “TRUE LIGHT” (which is Jesus Christ) we need to shine our light as bright as possible so others around us can see that we are celebrating Christmas the way that God wants us to. And eventually we do things that we should not do such as sin, and we need to clean ourselves frequently as possible. If we don’t, our light will become harder and harder to see the next time it is used.

“You are the light of the world…In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14,16)

So may your light shine bright for others to see……may your Christmas be filled with JOY, HOPE, PEACE, and SALVATION…..may God use you to witness to your family, friends, others about the “FIRST CHRISTMAS LIGHT” in Jesus Christ….