Tag: Compromise

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Settle

Daily Reading

Genesis 46-47

Daily Thought

Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Your father and your brothers have come to you. The land of Egypt is before you. Settle your father and your brothers in the best of the land. Let them settle in the land of Goshen” (Genesis 47:5-6). Pharaoh means for Jacob and his family to make a home here in the land of Goshen, but hidden inside that word ‘settle’ is often a whisper of compromise, of settling for less. It can even mean “to sink gradually or slowly to the bottom.”

By no means was Goshen the bottom. It was the one-time domain of the great Pharaoh Rameses, the best of the land of Egypt, but it wasn’t the land God promised to Jacob, “the land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give the land to your offspring after you” (Genesis 35:12). To take Pharaoh’s offer would be to settle for something other than what God had designed for Jacob. 

May I brag about my dad for a moment? My dad taught math to junior high students for 35 years. The pre-teen years are an age of terror for most people, but my dad delighted in them, in shaping these young students, not only for math, but for life. It was more than his job, it was his passion. He was made for the classroom, made to teach. Early on, he had been offered advancement into school administration. It was attractive and lucrative, but it wasn’t what God had designed him to do and he stayed in the classroom. I’ve always admired that he didn’t settle, in this case, for more.

“Thus Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen. And they gained possessions in it, and were fruitful and multiplied greatly” (Genesis 47:27). Sounds good, doesn’t it? But there is more to the story. The people of Israel would become the slaves of Egypt. For 400 years, they would sink slowly and gradually to the bottom, until God called a man named Moses to lead them out of Egypt and back to his land of promise. But that’s another story. 

This story is about my dad. My dad did not settle. He taught me the best life is to discover what God has made you for, grab on and give it all you got.  

Daily Prayer

My God, your design in all of creation is amazing and wonderful. I see that everywhere I look, so remind me of that when I look in the mirror. I am fearfully and wonderfully made, made on purpose for a purpose. May I give my whole heart to you and live the life you have set before me. God, help me to never settle for less, or even what might appear to be more, than what you want for me, because I know your desires are my greatest delight.

Amen

Daily Question

What difficult decisions have you made in order to remain faithful to God’s purpose for your life?

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Choose Wisely

Daily Reading

Joshua 22-24

Daily Thought

We all follow someone or something, each of us must choose, and there are only two choices: God and not-God. From the words of Jesus, “Whoever is not with me is against me” (Matthew 12:30), and, “For the one who is not against us is for us” (Mark 9:40). You cannot not choose. And you can’t straddle the fence.

Did you hear the one about the Civil War soldier who couldn’t decide who to fight for, North or South? He donned a Dixie gray shirt and Yankee blue pants and stood in the middle. Both sides shot him. “I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:15-16).

Joshua gathers all the tribes of Israel for a his final words (he is about to die), “And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.” You cannot not choose, so make a choice.

“But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15). And choose wisely.

Daily Prayer

Father in Heaven, make Your love the foundation of my life. May my love for You express itself in eagerness to serve, to do good for others. May I learn humility from Your Son, sacrifice from the Cross, wisdom from Your Word.

You are God, most wonderful. Your wisdom confounds the world. May I think like You. May I listen to Your Spirit. Give me the desires of my heart; that is, may I delight in Your desires.

Amen

Daily Question

Would you say you live 100% for God?

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Shades of Gray

Daily Reading

Deuteronomy 28-29

Daily Thought

Davy Jones died leap year day, February 29, 2012. When I heard the news, I did what many my age did–listened again to my favorite songs from The Monkees. One of them, “Shades of Gray”:

When the world and I were young, just yesterday,
Life was such a simple game a child could play.
It was easy then to tell right from wrong,
Easy then to tell weak from strong,
When a man should stand and fight, or just go along.

Things were simple and clear when we were young. In Deuteronomy 28, Israel is young, a new nation, pre-teen. The first fourteen verses list the blessings “if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God.” The remaining verses, the curses “if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God.” Black and white, right and wrong, good and evil. 

But today there is no day or night, today there is no dark or light,
Today there is no black or white, only shades of gray. 

50 shades, apparently. As we get older, we begin asking “what if” and “why not.” We begin to color gray, but to God, it is still black and white, because he is forever young. 

I remember when the answers seemed so clear.
We had never lived with doubt or tasted fear.
It was easy then to tell truth from lies,
Selling out or compromise.

“Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:15-16), said Jesus to a gray church.

Daily Prayer

God, thank You for life itself, and for this instruction book, Your Word, which shows me how to live. Thank You, as well, that I may pray to You for wisdom and You promise to give it to me. Help me never to doubt You. I am so glad Your Holy Spirit lives in me and guides me toward Your truth. I live in a world upside down, and I need You to show me what is what.

Father, I know as I trust You more I will trust You more. I know I repeated myself, but that’s how faith works. The more often I have faith, the stronger my faith gets, and the more willing I will be to walk in faith the next time. Strengthen me, God, as I train my mind by putting Your Word into practice. 

Amen

Daily Question

When have you had trouble determining if something was right or wrong, and what did you do about it?

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War and Peace

Daily Reading

Joshua 12-15

Daily Thought

God made it clear, the land is filled with evil. Drive out all of the evil from the land. “Yet the people of Israel did not drive out the Geshurites or the Maacathites, but Geshur and Maacath dwell in the midst of Israel to this day” (Joshua 13:13). They drove out a lot, but not all. Not everybody. Sometimes some cities didn’t appear worth the battle and they allowed them to remain. They allowed these people to live among them.

God’s church, like the nation of Israel, is called to be holy, yet sins linger. Gossip, gluttony, lust, greed, compromise, hypocrisy, pride. They seem tolerable, not worth the battle it would require to remove them, so we allow them to linger. Scripture warns us to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose” (Philippians 2:12-13), but we fear the war when we should fear the peace.

Eighty-five years young, Caleb remains ready for battle. Those of old age speak more often of past victories, but Caleb is ready to fight yet again. His confidence was not in himself, but in his God. The years had not dimmed his trust in the Almighty, nor his resolve to drive out evil, no matter how formidable. “So now give me this hill country of which the Lord spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the Lord said” (Joshua 14:12).

Daily Prayer

Holy God, You called me to be perfect just like You. Which I cannot do… on my own. May my repentance be true. I choose to turn away from my sin, and God, I need Your Spirit to give me guidance and strength not to turn back. Thank You that even when I fall and fail, I can return and confess, and the once-for-all death of Your Son, Jesus Christ, covers all my sins.

I am so glad You are perfect and that Your standard is holiness. What other kind of eternity would be good? Thank You, Father, for doing the work that makes my holiness possible. It is only in the Name of Your Son, Jesus Christ.

Amen