Running From Obedience

“Running From Obedience”

By Zach Wood

Jonah 1:1-3 NLT

The Lord gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.”  But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish.

Imagine you are watching the World Series.  There are 2 outs and the score is tied.  This is so intense and everyone is on the edge of their seats waiting to see what happens at this crucial moment.  The batter swings and there’s 1 strike.  The batter swings again and now 2 strikes.  The batter swings for the third time and cracks the ball way out into the outfield.  But, what if the batter then starts running toward third plate?  Could you imagine how the players and fans would react?  They’d all be yelling “You’re running the wrong way!”  Not only would the runner look foolish, but this choice would not win the game. 

Now imagine a basketball player getting the ball inbounds and he starts going down the wrong side of the court.  He goes up for lay-up and he scores…..for the other team!  The player would also look foolish.  Why? Because the player didn’t do what he or she was told to do!  The player ran the wrong way.

Now, if we were watching these games on TV, we would drop our jaws and open our eyes wide and shout, “What were you thinking??”  Who would be that foolish?  Who would jeopardize a game like that and be so careless and do the wrong thing intentionally? 

These things would be foolish of course, but before we point our fingers in judgment, don’t we do the same thing?  I have read the Jonah story many times and I think to myself why he would flee like that?  And then I look at my own life and I see so often how many times I have disobeyed God and fled from His commands.  He has asked me to do so many things in life and I have disobeyed Him a lot and done my own thing.  I ran my own way and I paid the price.  Jonah ran and he sure paid the price for what he did.  The Lord let him run and let him suffer the consequences. 

Aren’t we so like Jonah?  What are we running away from?  Are we running away from a conflict we need to address?  Are we running away from a marriage that we should stay and work out?  Are we running away from a relationship with a friend that we need to sort out?  Are we running away from a choice at work that we need to be strong about making? 

What are you running away from right now that you need to face?  What is God calling to do that you are intentionally going the opposite way?  Obedience is always the most successful way.  

Thankful For His Perfect Faithfulness

“Thankful For His Perfect Faithfulness’

By Zach Wood

Isaiah 25:1 NIV

Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about how faithful God is to me and my family.  I’ve been thinking about how faithful He has been in my personal life and how He has been faithful with my wife and kids.  No matter what seems to be going well, frustrating us or giving us some stress, He always seems to be faithful.  Some how and in some way, He always comes through to teach me and to teach my family about continuing to trust Him.

Every morning I wake up, I know I have a decision to make.  I can either worry and try to handle life that day on my own or I can trust in God’s faithfulness to carry me through, even if I have no idea what He is up to.  I know that I should trust in His faithfulness every single day, but honestly there are so many days that I start out that way briefly, but then concerns and worries flood my mind and heart and I worry all day. 

Consider these powerful words from Isaiah.  He makes a powerful statement.  He declares that God is faithful.  He says that he will exalt God and praise Him, because in perfect faithfulness wonderful things have been done for him.  What an amazing statement from Isaiah!  More like a loud praise! 

What if we all, when we get up and start our day, begin by saying these words that Isaiah spoke directly to God?  And what if we not only said them, but truly meant them with all our heart?  What if we continued to repeat them, write them down and place them where we’d see them often?  We need reminded of this.  We need reminded that God is perfect in faithfulness……ALWAYS! 

God has been so faithful to remind me every day that He has things under control and that I need to stop doing things in my own understanding and the way I think they should be done.  He reminds me that I need to let go and let Him lead.  He will continue to do wonderful things if I just let him lead and stop running ahead of Him.

How about you?  Are you finding yourself believing these words of Isaiah and praising God’s name from morning till night?  Are you letting Him lead with His perfect faithfulness?  I know we all need to be so much better in truly letting God lead as He is always faithful. 

As we take time to focus on our thankfulness this week, let’s do more and continue to be thankful every day of our lives for His continued perfect faithfulness!

What Are We Holding On To?

“What Are We Holding On To?”

By Zach Wood

Matthew 19:16-22 NIV

Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”  “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”  “Which ones?” he inquired.  Jesus replied, “‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”  “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”  Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”  When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

I was thinking about this story the other day while reading a chapter in a book.  I was challenged in the chapter about how this wealthy man couldn’t let go of his possessions to be obedient to Christ.  As I’ve considered this story so many times through the years through bible studies and sermons, I’ve often wondered why he was so selfish and could not let go of these things he held on to so tightly.  He had so much and yet he turned away and didn’t follow Christ.

As I’ve considered this story more, let’s hold off on raising our eyebrow at this guy.  Most of us are not wealthy I would guess.  I don’t think many of you own a mansion or have houses in several states or countries you frequently visit.  I’m sure most of you don’t have to split up your wealth between many banks because you have so much.  However, even though most of us aren’t wealthy, we are rich indeed.  We have many things. 

While we wouldn’t consider ourselves to be like this rich young man, ironically we are just like him in so many ways!  I thought the other day how much I am just like him.  I am not wealthy compared to people who are loaded with money, but I am rich compared to others who live with a lot less than I do.  As for possessions, I don’t think I have a lot, but when I look around at things I do have, I notice that I do have a lot of “things”.  These things can easily take away from my time with God and my allegiance to Him.  I am often times very distracted and finding myself filling time with other things than focused on Him.

So, before I pass this rich young man off and raise my eyebrow at him, I need to realize I am so like him in so many ways because there are things that I find hard to let go of if He asked me to.  I want these things in my life and often find it hard to get away from them to focus on Him. 

How about the rest of you?  Do you have things in your life that you’d rather not let go of or get away from just to have some focused time on God?  If you think about it for a while, you will agree.  My question is…..what are we holding on to?

Living In Constant Fellowship

“Living In Constant Fellowship”

By Zach Wood

1 John 3:23-24 NLT

And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us.  Those who obey God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us.

There are many things we enjoy to be constant in our lives.  Most of us want things to be constant with updates on our computers, phones, tablets and other techie gadgets we own.  Most of us would like our paychecks to be constant!  Who wouldn’t?  We want constant days of sunshine and decent temps to get out and enjoy it.

We could go on and on about things we would like to be constant each day.  We really want consistency.  Why wouldn’t we?  Who would want anything that is not consistent, right?

As much as we strive for constant things in our life, how often do we fail to put in the effort to keep a constant fellowship with God?  We want to have constant fellowship with family and friends, but so often we don’t put as much effort into having constant fellowship with our Creator Who has given us so much in life. 

God asks us to obey His commands and to be in fellowship with Him.  He wants us to believe in Him fully and completely dedicate our lives to being in fellowship with Him each day, all day.  I hope it would be our desire to fully be in fellowship with Him all day, everyday.  We can be, but so often we just aren’t living that way.  I know I’m not everyday.  I want to be and intentions are such, but so often my efforts reveal otherwise. 

As the Apostle John shares, we must love one another.  In this way, people will know that we truly do love God and care about reaching out to others.  If we are in constant fellowship with Him, He will teach us better and better how to show love to others, even when it’s difficult to do so. 

We all have things in our lives that we are constant about and things we are not so constant about.  If we strive to keep our fellowship with God constant, our other relationships with people will become even more blessed as we learn to love them more with God’s love. 

When we live in constant fellowship with Him, His Spirit guides and directs us each day to help us learn to love better.

From "Thanks" to "Thank You"

“From ‘Thanks’ to ‘Thank You’”

By Zach Wood

Luke 17:11-19 NIV

Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee.  As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”  When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.  One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice.  He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.  Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?  Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?”  Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

Many years ago, when I worked at a computer warehouse in the cities, I had a conversation with a guy that I will never forget.  He had heard me say “thanks” to others and to him when certain things were done for me.  He knew the type of person I was and that I did mean what I say, but he made a comment that will remain forever with me.  He said that he knew I meant it, but that to say “thank you” instead has much more meaning. 

From that point on, I have had such a different view of “thanks” and “thank you”.  Think about those two phrases for a few moments.  Do they sound totally different to you?  They sure do to me now!  I never really considered it before, but after that conversation and to this day, I continue to share this concept with people and I always get a confirmation that saying “thank you” sounds so much more meaningful.  I don’t know what it is about taking the time to say two words instead of just one, but there is just something more meaningful when you say “thank you” instead of just “thanks”.  Please understand, I’m not saying “thanks” is wrong by any means, but just consider trying “thank you” instead and see how it makes others feel and how you feel when you say it.

Jesus heals 10 lepers here.  They all start heading away when all of a sudden one does a 180 and realizes, “Hey, something really cool just happened and I’m going to take the time to tell Jesus how much it meant to me!”  The 1 leper decided to take a trip back to Jesus and show his true thankfulness.  Does that mean the other 9 didn’t care or took it for granted?  I’m not quite sure and I don’t want to assume anything about them.  However, we are led to think that they didn’t really think about showing appreciation to Jesus as the 1 leper did who took the time to turn around and thank Jesus.

I want to encourage all of us to consider showing appreciation to others by saying “thank you” instead of “thanks”.  Most of all, we need to show God appreciation every day by taking the time to thank Him for all He has done and continues to do.  From “thanks” to “thank you”.  It may not seem like much at first, but it will change your thinking of how you say it and show it.  

Focused On Life Above

“Focused On Life Above”

By Zach Wood

Colossians 3:1-4 NLT

Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand.  Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.   For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.  And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.

We do a lot of thinking every single day, don’t we?  From the time we get up in the morning to the time we lay our heads down to rest, we are constantly thinking.  We think about a lot all through the day.  We think about what to eat for breakfast, what to wear for school or work, what needs accomplished at our jobs and in class, what to eat for lunch, what plans we need to make for dinner.  We could go on and on and on about all that we think about each day. 

We think about so much stuff in a single day’s time.  I wonder what it would be like if we could watch a timeline of our thoughts all through the day.  What would that look like?  For many of us, it would probably be a bit shocking and somewhat scary to see all that we think about each day.  Maybe we might even be a bit embarrassed if not really embarrassed! 

As I was reading this passage last week from a daily devotional thought that I receive each day, it really got me thinking about what I focus my thoughts on each day.  I do think about a lot of things.  I have to admit that I think a lot about earthly things.  I think about things I would like to do, things I want and why certain things won’t or don’t happen for me.  Even though I have been richly blessed by God in so many ways, I still have so many selfish thoughts.

I’m sure all of you think about similar things whether you want to admit that or not.  Think for a few moments about your life in Christ.  We have so many Scripture references in the NT that describe how our thoughts should be like Christ always.  But you and I both know that doesn’t happen as often as it should.  We often think about what will make us happy.  We set our sights on things of this earth and not heavenly things. 

We are to set our sights and thoughts on Christ alone.  As we go through each day, whether we are at school or our jobs, we need to be constantly thinking how we can please God and how we can be a true servant.  Our life is now in God and we need to strive more to think of heavenly things and ways that we can bless others instead of so often being focused on ourselves. 

As we live each day, let us strive more to set our minds on Christ and be more aware of what He wants for us to do and what He wants for us to think about each day.  We have been raised to a new life in Christ!  Let’s truly live like we mean it!

The Greatest Rescue!

“The Greatest Rescue!”

By Zach Wood

Psalm 13:5-6 NLT

But I trust in your unfailing love.  I will rejoice because you have rescued me.  I will sing to the Lord because he is good to me.

Have you ever been through situation where you have been rescued?  Maybe you were trapped in a car and trained people came to pull you out.  Maybe you had a bad experience in a pool, lake or ocean somewhere and someone had to jump in to save you.  Maybe you’ve found yourself at some point behind bars and someone cared enough to bail you out and mentor you to not make the same mistake again.

Not everyone has had these extreme situations in their life in which someone had to rescue them from near death or from a place that might keep them locked up for years.  However, everyone one of us has had an experience or many of them where someone else rescued us from some situation that could have turned very bad and got us back up and going on the right path.

We all make bad choices in life, no doubt about that.  Isn’t it wonderful that we all have friends and family who have, at one point or another, taken time to help us get through a tough situation? Whether it was a situation in which we intentionally made a bad choice or if it was something we were unaware of that took us by surprise and they helped us?

No matter what the situation, I hope that we have been grateful to these wonderful people who have shown such love and concern for our lives.  We definitely owe tribute to these people who care enough to help. 

Again, we have all made bad choices in life.  When I read the passage above, I realize there are so many times in life that I forget how great of a rescue that Jesus Christ went through to save me and put me on the right path.  His love is truly unfailing and His gift of salvation to me is the greatest thing I could have ever accepted. 

What I need to remember most of all is how grateful I should be each and every day for His ultimate rescue of my life from eternal death.  He saved me from my sin, even though I deserve so much worse!  He has covered me in His blood and forgiven me.  In return, each day, I need to sing His praise and proclaim all He has done every opportunity I get.  I fail at this so often, but I am reminded each day that God is with me and helping me to become better. 

Jesus Christ has performed the greatest rescue ever known to mankind!