Mission Faithwalk

                 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. (James 1:5) Wisdom, Direction, Attitude. Those have been my automatic prayer requests for years. I suspect wisdom is on many people’s lists. Technically, if I had wisdom, there would be no question of my direction or my attitude. It’s all about wisdom. The first problem is that God doesn’t answer my prayer. I don’t open a book (even the Bible!) and put my finger on some wisdom. No light shines. No note descends from Heaven on a fishhook. I don’t have flashes of insight with which to impress someone. Life just goes on, disappointed because God doesn’t answer my prayers. And as life goes on, I find that I’ve learned a thing or two. I respond differently and it works. I realize that, while God can certainly teach us in a flash of insight, He tends to teach over time. The gift of wisdom isn’t...

       “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?   How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. (Matthew 7:3-5)   “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.   If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to...

                 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:7-8) Usually, when people talk about these verses, they think in terms of seeds. At least, I have. If you plant tomato seeds and you get no tomatoes but giant hogweed, there’s a problem. Either the tomato seeds were bad or they weren’t tomato seeds – and you probably need to call in professionals to deal with the hogweed. (PSA in case you don’t know: DO NOT TOUCH GIANT HOGWEED! It looks like giant Queen Anne’s Lace but it’s NASTY to skin.) The seed idea is there, but there’s another parallel that is also critical. Yes, we should expect to reap what we sow, but where we sow, into what soil, and from what soil we reap will also determine whether our harvest gives us destruction or life. You c...

                 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. (James 1:2-3) The phone rings. You pick it up and the voice on the other end says, “It’s ____ (your neighbor.) Get out of your house! It’s on fire!” There are times and reasons when an abrupt beginning is necessary. James may not have had time to write a longer letter, or the situation might have been that dire. I think it more likely that James was just that sort of person. He didn’t want to waste their time with platitudes or give them cause to misunderstand what he was trying to say. He begins his letter, From James. To the Twelve Tribes. Hi. Trials are good for you. The Twelve Tribes were used to all sorts of trials: slavery under Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Iran (Medes and Persians), and the Greeks, inconvenient commandments, famine, drought, and pov...

              Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Jesus Christ took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12-14)           Lord, how does a person work toward becoming “like Christ” without spending all one’s time focusing inward on oneself?  How does one balance inward and outward life?           About a week ago, I wrote the second quote above in response to something I had read or thought. The problem, of course, is my mental examination table and my tendency to spend a great deal of time fussing over how exhibit Me, or some small aspect of ...

                      No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. (I Corinthians 10:13)           Are you as disappointed by the first line of today’s passage as I am? It’s comforting in a way, but the drama queen in me wants my temptation, my drama to be award winning. I simultaneously want to be invisible, but to have others notice and value me. If my temptations are mass produced on an assembly line, I’m just a cheap bit of refuse rather than something to be repurposed, reused, recycled, reclaimed, redeemed, rescued, or otherwise valued.           Of course, if my temptations were one-of-a-kind, they wouldn’t be relevant or relatable. The fact tha...