Inside Out Living

"Don't praise yourself; let others do it!" - Proverbs 27:2 NLT

"Fire test the purity of silver and gold, but a person is tested by being praised." - Proverbs 27:21 NLT

This morning as I read Proverbs 27 I was struck by these two verses on opposite ends of the chapter. It got me thinking about how we are to rightly handle praise when it is offered. The first verse really sets the background for this discussion. I think we all know people or at least have heard people who do not practice this verse. They praise themselves up and down until the people around them are sick of it. I was watching a couple of reality TV shows with my wife last night that had some of those type of people on it. It just makes me sick when I hear them talk. If you or something that you have done is truly praiseworthy then other people will take note of that and will give you the praise that you deserve. However if you are praising yourself already, it doesn't matter who great you are or what you have done, other people will not heap praise on you in addition to what you have already said. This is why you should leave room for other people to do the praising.

So this leads itself to the second verse regarding praising. How is it that a person is tested by being praised. I think the testing is how we respond to the praise. Your response to other people's praise is a direct reflection of your humility, pride, self-confidence, and your understanding of your position in Christ.

True humility is evident when you are being praised. Humility responds to praise with honesty, integrity, and gratitude. A humble response is appreciative of the praise but does not gloat in it. A humble response also gives credit to others when it is appropriate. This is where the integrity comes in. If you used someone's idea or someone else helped you get the project done that you are getting praised for you had better give them some credit. The honest part of a humble response is recognizing that you did do a good job and it is appropriate for them to praise you. If the praise is getting out of hand or they are praising you for something you did not do then that is different. But don't show false humility by rejecting appropriate praise and discouraging the person who is trying to encourage you.

Pride and arrogance can become evident through the testing of praise. This problem sometimes can become such an issue some people will error on the side of caution and not praise others for fear that they will become arrogant. How can you avoid becoming proud because of the praise of others. Much of what was said before will come into play here. Giving others credit when credit is do is a big one, especially credit to God. Remembering that for everytime you did something right there are probably three other times that you actually blew it and had to ask for forgiveness and lean on grace. Basically I am talking about perspective. We have to keep our successes and failures in perspective.

Your self-confidence is evident in how you handle praise. If you are uncomfortable with the praise then you are probably lacking in some confidence. Know that you can accomplish great and significant things and anticipate that people can and will praise you at some point. To bolster your confidence remember these times because if you blow the next time you can be guarnateed that you will wish that the person would be praising you.

Your understanding of your place in Christ is also revealed when you are praised. Paul declared that he can do all things through Christ and that apart from Him he was nothing. Not just that, but also that Paul had died and it was in reality that Christ was living through him. This is so key to passing the test of praise. Remember that when you do something significant for the Kingdom of God the praise you are receiving is actually praise and thanksgiving to God. The success and significance of what you have done is only present because God chose to work through you and the praise that they are giving is in reality praise to God for using you.

Just some thoughts this morning on handling praise. I hope you will be able to navigate the testing of praise.

My seven year old son is beginning to understand the larger world around him. The other night he asked if God was the president of the World? This was a very curious question and not one that was easily explained to someone with a second grade education.

He knows and firmly believes that God is in charge of the world and created everything we see. Every time he prays he thanks God for the whole world and for anything else that comes to mind. He has been learning in school about the inauguration of President Obama and about the role of the President of the United States. So to him it makes perfect sense that God would be President of the world because he knows that the highest position in our country is president. However as I tried to explain to him God is far greater than merely the president of the world. First I told him that God was more like a king than a president because nobody had to vote for Him for Him to be in charge. I think he understood, but for my son as for many Americans it is difficult to undertand what it is like to live under a king. However even that description of God falls short because kings can come and go and can be desposed of their power.

I got to thinking about this conversation when I read Proverbs 21:1 this morning. "The king's heart is like a stream of water directed by the LORD; he turns it wherever he pleases." (NLT) This proverbial truth helps us to keep in perspective that God is the one who is in sovereign control of the world regardless of who the leaders of the various nations are. This is not a debatable issue and whether you agree with it or not, it is still true.

This truth isn't always easy to work out in to the practicality of every day life because some national leaders are corrupt and oppress their people taking advantage of their power for their own personal gain. I think what will help us to reconcile that reality with the greater reality of God's sovereignty is to keep in mind that neither God's sovereignty nor his exhaustive foreknowledge of man's actions ever negate the responsibility of humans as free agents. So while God can and does direct the course of human events, He will always do this in accordance to the free decisions of humans.

This is why today is no different for me than last Thursday when Bush was still President. I struggle with understanding why so many of my fellow evangelicals get bent out of shape that we have a democratic president now. I think they lost sight of the fact that God is still the one in control regardless of who we vote in and acknowledge as our nation's leader.

Just some of my thoughts on the reaction to Obama's Inauguration. Love to hear your comments.

"Wine produces mockers; liquor leads to brawls. Whoever is led astray by drink cannot be wise." - Proverbs 20:1

As I was reading Proverbs 20:1 this morning I got to thinking about the reasons why I don't include drinking wine (or any alcohol for that matter) with ministry or my personal life. The reasons are numerous why I choose not to drink, but here are the three main reasons that influence my thinking:

1) When I was younger my Dad shared with me a story about a time that he found his twin brother passed out in his bed, lying in his own vomit. My Dad told me how that sight influenced his own decisions about drinking and it greatly influenced my decisions as well. The idea of doing something that could lead to lying in my own vomit was repulsive to me.

2) I don't know if any of you have noticed but alcohol can be quite expensive. For me it would be exercising poor stewardship to ask my family to sacrifice so I can buy my alcohol.

3) Personally, I feel that underage drinking is a serious issue in America. I feel a need to model restraint on drinking alcohol to not only my own children, but also to the teens and children that I minister to.

Now, please notice that I am not saying that consuming alcohol is sinful, for scripture never says that. I am not attempting to be legalistic here, I am only sharing my personal convictions. Yes, I have tasted a few different alcoholic drinks in my time. Never have been drunk or "buzzed" though, which scriputre is clear that it is sinful to be controlled (i.e. impaired) by a foreign substance.

So for what it is worth, when I read Probers 20:1 it makes perfect sense to me and I ask myself what godly benefit ever comes from drinking alcohol.

“If God is for us, who can ever be against us?” – Romans 8:31b

Three times in the seventh chapter of Ezra, the text says “the gracious hand” of the Lord was upon Ezra. Also in 7:28, Ezra states that this was a great source of encouragement for him in knowing that the hand of the Lord was on him.

There is a similar source of encouragement for us today as New Testament believers and partakers of a new and better covenant. Paul picks up on this theme in Romans 8:31. As believers who have been adopted into God’s family (Rom. 8:15), we share in his treasures (Rom. 8:17) for we are co-heirs with Christ.

So take courage believer! As one who is now adopted by God, know that there is nothing that can separate you from his love (Rom. 8:35). There is no greater source of joy or encouragement for us than to know that the One who created us has also redeemed us and has secured our salvation.

A few years ago there was a movie titled Independence Day. Having an affection for action-adventure movies I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. On of my favorite scenes is when the President, played by Bill Pullman, encourages a rag-tag band of fighter pilots who were about to face an invading alien force. Speaking to a group who faced certain death and the potential destruction of the human race, he inspired them to victory.

Facing a similar fate of total destruction and annihilation because one man didn’t like the Jews, God’s people had lost hope. That is until they received the king’s edict from the hand of Mordecai giving them permission and encouraging them to band together and defend themselves.

Mordecai was an encourager. He encouraged Esther to take full advantage of her station as Queen of Persia to help her people. Then he encouraged his people to defend themselves in the face of certain destruction

May you like Mordecai encourage the people around you.

On March 11, 2007 Morgan Tsvangirai, founder of Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change, was forced to cancel a prayer meeting because the attendees were in grave danger from riot police. Tsvangirai himself was beaten and jailed later when he attempted to visit the 40 some supporters who were arrested at the prayer gathering. Reflecting on that experience, Tsvangirai said, “Far from killing my spirit, the scars they brutally inflicted on me have re-energized me…”

For men like Tsvangirai and Mordecai, whom we read about today, the courage to stand against oppression and persecution, does not merely come from ones own internal fortitude. Rather it is in God that they find the courage to take a stand when governing authorities are in conflict with God’s will.

When you face potential persecution or humiliation for your Christian faith, may you have the courage of a Mordecai who stood up to Haaman, or of Peter and John who stood up to the Sanhedrin (Acts 5:29).

We are all familiar with the concept of a doomsday prophet, who attempts to strike fear in the hearts of people to bring about repentance today. I remember first seeing them as a child in such movies as Ghostbusters and Superman.

Well today I want you to consider the possibility that courage is also an appropriate response to the coming events in the Day of the Lord. How is it that a description of those events can be an encouragement to us? It is only because of the victory that we have in Jesus.

Zechariah 14:9 says, “And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day there will be one Lord—his name alone will be worshiped.” Wow! Now that is something to get excited about. What an encouraging picture. The Lord reigning on earth and He will be the only one receiving praise and worship from His creation. I don’t know about you but that seems far more encouraging to me than the political corruption and idolatry that I see in the world today.

Support and encouragement can come from many different sources and sometimes it can be a little surprising to us. I would imagine that God’s people experienced some anxiety and discouragement when the governors of neighboring provinces began to investigate the work they were doing on the temple. There was no guarantee that Darius would honor the edict of the Babylonian King Cyrus who had gone before him.
However God saw it fit to encourage his people by showing that King Darius fully supported them and included instruction for the governors in the area to support the effort.

It can be very encouraging when our efforts are validated by those who are in authority over us. I am sure that you have experienced this kind of encouragement from parents, teachers, or bosses in your life. So the question is, when was the last time you encouraged someone who has to answer to you?

May you be a surprising source of encouragement for someone today.

I don’t know what it is about human nature that makes us nostalgic. I have observed that in just about every area of life there is something about ‘how it used to be’ that we view as better. And as we read in Haggai this can be a discouragement to us in the present.

As the people began to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, they soon realized that it would not be nearly as impressive as the temple Solomon built. Instead of disregarding that fact, the Lord acknowledged it (Hag. 2:2-3) and then encouraged the people to press on in spite of that fact (2:4-5). His message was, that regardless of how less impressive of a building it was, the people were to continue on in the building of it.

No matter what task God has given you to do, whether it is business, ministry, family, whatever it is, you are to take courage and do it regardless of how much better or more successful the past may have been.

May you take courage and fulfill your tasks, know that God is with you.

This week’s theme is on courage. In the readings this week we will read about the courage of people like Esther and Mordecai whose actions saved the Jewish people. We will also examine the courage of the Jews who began to return to Jerusalem after the time of captivity to rebuild the temple of the Lord

Today's Devotional:

In the past few years I have watched Dr. Phil on a number of occasions. I appreciate his bluntness and what I call ‘drphilisms’. One of my favorite ‘isms’ is when he asks his guest ‘how’s that working for ya?’. Having read Haggai again I realize that he didn’t come up with the question. Apparently God used that question as an effective tool to show his people that they were not meeting his standard (Hag. 1:5, 7).

This question is a tool to help someone see the deficiency in tier own actions. Once that objective has been accomplished the real work of change begins. Zerubbabel and the remnant of God’s people responded in obedience and had the courage to change.

We all will realize at some point that either our actions, beliefs, or thoughts will need to be changed because they are in conflict with God’s will. The question you are faced with is do you have the courage to change. To make a change requires admitting mistakes and humbling ourselves to see that God’s way is best.

May you have the courage to do just that.

In our town, the paper has a section called News of Record, which reports every 911 incident and arrests or violations of the law. And when appropriate the names of those involved are listed in the paper. You would think that because people in this town know that they face public humiliation for breaking the law, even traffic laws, that they wouldn’t have much to print, however the section never seems to shrink.
So the thought occurred to me that merely knowing about the consequences of our actions is not sufficient to prevent us from engaging in destructive or sinful behavior. While it is true that knowledge of the consequences can be a strong deterrent, many of us will choose to sin in spite of those consequences.

God’s people diligently studied the Scriptures and knew about the warnings in Deuteronomy about the consequences they would face for covenant unfaithfulness, but that didn’t stop them from abandoning the Lord.

May you recognize the consequences of you actions before you are forced to endure them.

Before the invention of modern fire suppression systems it was required for a hotel of significant size to employ a watchman during the night hours to alert guests in the case of fire. One such hotel in Omaha, Nebraska had a fire on January 23, 1911 and the watchmen failed to notify the guests of the fire. Therefore, a guest who was forced to use a rope fire escape sued the hotel because of injuries resulting from his escape. The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court where the court upheld the decision to hold the hotel responsible for its negligence in alerting the guests to the fire.

Ezekiel was given a similar charge by God, a responsibility to warn people of God’s judgment. It is important to note that Ezekiel wasn’t responsible for the peoples response to his warning, he was merely responsible, as the watchmen, for sounding the warning itself.

The same is true for our sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are not responsible for the consequences one faces for rejecting the gospel, but we are responsible for delivering the message.

In the movie, It’s a Wonderful Life, the lead character George Bailey, played by James Stewart, makes the statement that he wished he had never been born. Those of you who know the movie know that George was given a glimpse of what his family, friends and whole town would have been like if he had not been born. Even though George Bailey hadn’t led a charmed life or accomplished all he had hoped for, he had made a difference in many lives. He realized that life was in fact worth living and was given the opportunity to make things right.

That movie strikes a chord with all of us because we all wonder at times if our life has amounted to anything, if it would change the world if we weren’t there.

As we think about consequences, we must recognize that they come in both good and bad varieties, that even the smallest action can be used by God to bring about a positive consequence in someone else’s life. If you ever doubt the significance of your life, just think of George Bailey and the lesson he learned.

Forgiveness is a really curious thing. All this week we have been thinking about consequences in life. Now, forgiveness is like the exact opposite of consequences. When we are forgiven, the one who forgives decides not to bring about potential consequences against us. For example, some insurance companies offer what is called accident forgiveness. It used to be a guarantee that your rates would go up if you were in an accident, but if you have accident forgiveness, you don’t have to face that consequence.

While Israel did endure consequences and discipline from the Lord for their actions, they did eventually experience restoration. The restoration was based on God’s sovereign decision to forgive and to bless His people on account of His covenant faithfulness. It wasn’t as if their consequences had changed because they had changed.

In the same way, we can experience forgiveness for our sins because of Jesus’ atoning death on the cross. Because of God’s sovereign decision to forgive and extend grace, we are freed from the guilt and consequences associated with our sin.

“The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice” – Proverbs 12:15 (NIV)

Have you ever found yourself asking for advice and yet you have already concluded in your mind what you think should be done? This is precisely the situation that the leaders of Israel were in. When Jeremiah gave the answer from the Lord, they concluded that Jeremiah must be lying since it didn’t match what they thought the Lord would say.

Seeking wisdom and counsel does absolutely no good if you don’t listen to it. Routinely we are instructed in Proverbs to seek and listen to counsel.

While none of us can know exactly what the future will hold, it seems that a principle in life is that you will suffer consequences if you ignore wise counsel. It was true for Solomon’s son Rehoboam who lost control of 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel because he ignored wise counsel. It was true for the remnant of Israel who ignored Jeremiah and suffered their fate in Egypt.

When hurricane Katrina leveled the gulf coast and nearly destroyed the entire city of New Orleans, I heard someone comment on how they felt the city was being judged because of the excessive sin it promotes. Now I do not pretend to know why God allowed that hurricane and the massive damage that resulted, but I do know that it is not our position to sit back and gloat or to pass judgment even if God is using the disaster to judge or discipline.

This was precisely what Edom did to Israel when God’s judgment was carried out by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Because Edom refused to act with compassion towards Israel, God communicated His judgment on them through Obadiah.

So, even if someone is enduring consequences brought on by their own actions, our response is still to extend compassion and mercy.

The reality of the exile has set in and life as the Israelites knew it is gone. They are now living with the consequences of their idolatry and disobedience to the Lord’s covenant. Thus, our theme for this week is consequences. Whether we want to admit it or not, we all live with consequences. As we will discover, some consequences are good and some are bad, and all of them are real.

Today's Devotional:

“Why should we, mere humans, complain when we are punished for our sins?” – Lamentations 3:39

A sign of maturity in the process of human cognitive and emotional development is the ability to accept consequences for our actions. As a parent of young children, I am fully aware that this is an ability that children must learn as opposed to being born with it.

In the reading today it seems as though the nation of Israel is still learning this lesson. Like a spoiled child who has never been disciplined, Israel responded to the Lord with shock and dismay that He would pour out His anger on them.

In the New Testament, Peter picks up on this theme in 1 Peter 2:20-21. Peter says that you will be rewarded for suffering if you suffer for doing good. However, if we suffer for doing wrong there is no reward.

We all must deal with the consequences for our actions. It doesn’t matter if we were right or wrong, every action will bring about some consequence.

“All our righteous acts are like filthy rags” – Isaiah 64:6

In Ezekiel 14, the Lord patiently reveals to His people that they have no hope of avoiding His judgments. The point that He is repeatedly making is that your righteousness cannot save you from God’s judgment. He further strengthens the point by declaring that even the righteousness of Noah, Daniel and Job would not spare the people of judgment. This statement rings true for us as well because our righteousness is not sufficient to save us in the face of God’s judgment.

Praise be to God that the story does not end there, for we have a glorious hope in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Because of the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus we can, through faith, have His righteousness credited to our account. This is the only way we can know and experience the hope of salvation. Attempting to avoid God’s wrath by our own righteousness is as futile for us today as it was in Ezekiel’s day.

At the start of this week, we read about the coming of the new covenant in Jeremiah 31:31-34. In God’s expression of hope to Israel through the prophet Ezekiel, we read more details of the coming covenant (Ezekiel 11:14-21). As part of the new covenant, God will do a heart transplant in His people, removing the old heart of stone and replacing it with a heart of flesh that obeys God. This is a picture of what happens in the lives of Christians today. When we come to faith in Christ, God regenerates that life and puts in them a new heart and his Holy Spirit, who now enables them to follow God.

Another element of the new covenant mentioned in this passage is the emphasis on personal relationship with God. “Then they will truly be My people, and I will be their God” (11:20b). While Israel belonged to God as His covenant people, whom He had redeemed, under the new covenant the personal connection we have with the Lord is stronger because of the Holy Spirit, who indwells each believer.

“For I am the LORD! What I threaten always happens.” – Ezekiel 12:25

Ezekiel paints a very bleak picture for the fate of God’s people. But for those who have been reading the Scriptures closely, it should come as no surprise, because Moses informed Israel as to what would happen if they refused to listen to the Lord (Deuteronomy 28:15-68). Even though God is pouring out His judgment on Israel, there is hope in knowing that He is fulfilling His promises by doing so. This is because there is more to God’s promises in Deuteronomy than just words of destruction. Two chapters later in Deuteronomy 30:1-10, Moses prophesies concerning God’s promise of restoration when those who remain repent and return to the Lord.

While many of us make idle threats, the Lord doesn’t. His promises are real and trustworthy. Reading about God fulfilling His promise of judgment reinforces our hope of salvation and the promises that we have in Christ.