Complaining Is Not Good

When w are asked what is the shortest verse in the Bible our answer is always, "Jesus Wept", two words. I have found two more verses that are just as short. 1 Thessalonians 5: 16 “Rejoice alway” and 1 Thessalonians 5: 17, “Pray continually". Then Paul goes on in verse 18, “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” All here verses are part of one sentence, but verses 16 and 17 are each only two words. These are great verses. They are great because when we rejoiced always and prayed continually we would never complain. 

Complaining is one of the worst things we can do. We are not happy when we complain. I know because I complain too much. My wife is the one who hears me complain the most. My complaining is not good for her or anyone else who happens to be on the wrong side of my complaints. The ones who don’t mind your complaining are those who are complaining right along with you. Complaining puts us in a place that we should never go. We become frustrated, moody and even angry. Those feelings linger and possibly become depressed. 

I was reading a devotional that mentioned how God feels about our complaining. "When we criticize or complain, we are acting as if we think we could run the world better than God."  God is sovereign. He has planned out our lives, and when we complain about what God is doing in our lives we are indicating that we think God is mismanaging us. Even in the most horrific experiences God is molding us into what he wants us to be. He is teaching us. Our response should not be to complain when things go sour. Rather we should give thanks, rejoice always and pray. As someone said to me yesterday, "Stop your bellyaching"!

The Smartest People

 Smart as a tack, smarty pants, smart allelic, too smart for his britches, smart as a whip—I’ve heard the word smart used in these ways most of my life. I have applied some of these statements to refer to people on occasion.. A couple of them are complimentary, and the others are just the opposite. I know many smart people. I know people who consider themselves to be smart, but they not nearly as smart as they think they are. 

What is the criteria for being smart. Are we smart because we have gone to college and have earned several degrees? Are all intelligent people necessarily smart? Does great wealth indicate that a person is smart? What about those who hold positions of great influence and make decisions which affect all of us? Are they smart? Absolutely not! My answer to all of these questions is no. He who thinks he is smarter than everyone else is not smart at all. 

I grew up in a farming community where most people were far from being wealthy. Many, like my parents, never had the opportunity to get more than an eighth grade education. Very few had gone to college. They were hard working, Bible believing, God fearing people. They loved God, loved others and were always willing to help their neighbors. They would not consider themselves as being smart. They were not concerned about something like that. But they were some of the smartest, and wisest people I’ve ever known. 

One day Peter and John were at the temple, and they were proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus. They were unlearned men according to the Pharisees. Yet, crowds of people were listening to what they had to say, and they were believing their message. This greatly disturbed the religious leaders who definitely considered themselves to be smarter and more important than the common people.  

The scripture says that those who say there is no God are fools. Today there are many in high positions who are fools, far from being smart. They may say they believe in God, but the god they believe in is not the true God. When people like this teach our children, make decisions about cirriculum, run our universities, control our government, make the laws, and define morality we are in trouble. 

The smartest people in world are those who know God, listen to him, love him and obey him.  They forsake the things of the world and understand that they are first and foremost citizens of the kingdom of the God.

A Passing Shadow

 I was sitting in my recliner this morning when I noticed a shadow on the wall. The sun was shinning through the window at just the right angle to form an image of what looked like a person blowing on a cup of hot coffee. I say it was hot because I had just turned off the fireplace. This caused a vapor to rise above the shadow of my imagined cup giving the appearance of steam coming out of it. The person’s face was formed by the shadow of the corner of the mantle and the cup from a candle sitting on a candle stand that sits in front of the fireplace. 

I had Sherri look at what I was seeing, but I don’t think she was as impressed as I was. Maybe she didn’t see what I thought I was seeing. I frequently see images like the one I described. I guess the images I see are something like looking at those white fluffy clouds and watching them form into the appearance of animals. Whether anyone else agrees with what we are imagining or not the one truth on which  all of us can agree is that a shadow on a wall forming an image of a person with a cup of coffee or a cloud that looks like an animal racing across the sky is quickly gone. We see those images for only a moment. 

So it is with our lives. We are born and even if we live for one hundred years our existence on this earth vanishes quickly. The scripture says that our lives are like a mist, withering grass, smoke, a mere breath, a fading flower and a passing shadow. We don’t have a lot of time, but we have enough time to accomplish what God put us here to accomplish. 

Our time on earth will not be wasted if we know Him as eternal God who has no beginning or no end, and that our existence is all about him, not us. He loves us and he wants to bring us out of the kingdom of darkness into his kingdom, the kingdom of light. The kingdom of darkness is the world system and is ruled by Satan. We enter into the kingdom of God only if we accept his Son, Jesus Christ, as our savior. As brief as our lives are, like a shadow on my wall, Jesus has given us exactly enough time to trust in him. We have enough time for him to save us from our sins.

Fear of Snakes and Sin

 Occasionally people will post a picture of a snake, wanting to know what kind of snake it is. Apparently the snake is slithering somewhere close by. They are afraid it might be poisonous. Most are fearful of snakes, poisonous or not. Why are we afraid of snakes, even the small ones? Snakes are a symbol of evil, of sin. Some snakes can harm us, sin always harms us. We may fear snakes but we should always fear sin.

Evil is slithering all around us. Like an unidentifiable snake many people are not able to identify sin. They don’t understand that all sin is like poison. Satan who tempted Adam and Eve fooled them into thinking that the forbidden fruit would not harm them if they ate it. Today, Satan’s demons  are working non stop to convince us that forbidden things are good and will  make our lives better. The reason our nation stands on the edge of a tragic fall  is that Satan has blinded its citizens. They can not distinguish between good and bad. They choose to bow down to Satan instead bowing down to God. Their kingdom is that of the world order, not the kingdom of God. They had rather live in darkness than light. 

Christians must work to identify the horrible sin in the lives of evil people who have the power to make decisions which lead others into darkness. We who follow the One who is the Light of the world have the power within us that is greater than that which is in this wicked world. We have the power to overcome that Snake who  hates Jesus and wants to disrupt his plan to save us from our sin. It is up to us to show the world that that which they are playing with is dangerous, and that it will kill them, not just physically but spiritually as well.