God's Grace: Like Standing Beneath a Waterfall

Does this waterfall look familiar? (see below for answer)

In a recent article on grace, Pastor John Piper likens our walk with the Lord to standing underneath a waterfall.[1]  Wave after wave of water flows over us.  God’s disposition towards His children is one of continual grace.  This just means that God always has grace in mind for us in every circumstance we encounter in life.  Just as when we look upstream we see nothing but more water coming to us, life then is an experience of seeing unending grace coming to us from God.

We see this very thing stated in Lamentations 3:21-25:

“But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:  The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  ‘The LORD is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.’  The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.”

Every morning is a fresh and new day, a new beginning with God’s grace to experience and to look forward to.  God’s love is steadfast, meaning it is loyal or faithful.  Is the Lord your portion today?  Are you relying upon Him today for your joy and peace or are you seeking it elsewhere?  I just want to remind you this morning to soak in God’s goodness, to seek refreshment in Him, to hope and trust in the Lord your God.

I love the daily resolution of a man named Clyde Kilby.  He resolved:

I shall  not fall into the falsehood that this day, or any day, is merely another ambiguous and plodding twenty-four hours, but rather a unique event, filled, if I so wish, with worthy potentialities.  I shall not be fool enough to suppose that trouble and pain are wholly evil parentheses in my existence, but just as likely ladders to be climbed toward moral and spiritual [adulthood].2

There are those of you who, in response to the above statements, are refreshed and rejuvenated by the reminder of God’s grace.  However, there are others of you that the above statements feel like lemon juice; bitter words to your soul, because you look at your current circumstances in life and just do not see God’s grace and steadfast love. 

What does it mean to be a Christian athlete?

Check Out this wonderful article from www.desiringgod.org.  See link below for David Mathis' video interview with Minnesota Twin's Josh Willingham.  Our favorite here at SB2W is Josh's description of how he reads his Bible daily.  

To see the portions of the video interview go to http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/ordinary-life-for-an-extraordinary-athlete.

Ordinary Life for an Extraordinary Athlete  
by David Mathis | October 29, 2012

 




We can be so quick to put them on a pedestal. So quick to assume professional athletes live a fantasy-camp life, away from the everyday pressures and pains facing the rest of us.

We subtly treat them as almost a different order of being, somehow immune not only to our daily grind, but our need for a Savior.

Unashamed for Jesus

Enter Twins slugger Josh Willingham — by all accounts an extraordinary athlete, and manifestly a normal human, and Christian, unashamed about his need for Jesus.
Willingham is a regular guy, even if his baseball stats aren’t. This year he batted in 110 runs (third in the American League) and became the first Minnesota Twin to hit 35 homeruns in a season since Hall-of-Famer Harmon Killebrew in 1970. He also once hit two grand slams in one big-league game — no ordinary feat.
But as he sits down in the Desiring God studio — for a moment forget the bright lights and multiple cameras — he sounds so ordinary, and isn’t afraid to look the part in jeans, sandals, and a long-sleeve thermal tee. Mention hunting and he’s ready to talk. Fishing will do just as well. When I try to relate as a fellow deer-hunter, I quickly learn he’s a bowman, and I’m kindly put in my place as he informs me with a smile, “My five-year-old could kill a deer with a rifle.” That must be why they call him Josh.

It’s a Wild Life — Sorta

Without the major-league uniform, and 40,000 on-looking fans, Willingham seems so ordinary off the field — like one of the guys I played high school baseball with. So when I ask what the life of a professional athlete is like in the everyday, out of the public eye, I’m not too surprised to hear a litany of disclaimers following his initial claim, “It’s a wild life.”
Turns out it’s not so wild in the ways we amateurs might expect. The life of a pro athlete definitely has its wildness, according to Willingham. Wild inconvenience. Wild irregularity. Wild frustration. Wild temptation. Wild stress.
But press deeper, and you’ll discover a surprising sense of normalcy in the things that really matter. Deep down it’s very ordinary and very human. This life is a vapor’s breath, “a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:14), and a view from the brink of eternity has a way of adjusting one’s perspective.

Devotional Passages for the Week of October 28- November 4

Sunday: Jeremiah 51:1-53, Titus 2:1-15, Psalm 99:1-9, Proverbs 26:17

Monday: Jeremiah 51:54-52:34, Titus 3:1-15, Psalm 100:1-5, Proverbs 26:18-19

Tuesday: Lamentations 1:1-2:22, Philemon 1:1-25, Psalm 101:1-8, Proverbs 26:20

Is Love Blind?

Have you ever met two people who were “so in love” it seemed like they were blind to the realities of their own relationship and the world around them?  Love, or probably more accurately, infatuation, has an incredible ability to impair people’s sense of reality.  I can’t tell you how many people I’ve met who are in bad and unhealthy relationships, destructive to themselves and their relationships with people who truly love them…and they can’t even see it.  Or perhaps they just don’t want too. 

I’m sure this is the way Paul felt about Demas.  In 2 Timothy 4:10 Paul says, “For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me…”  Obviously at one time Demas appeared to be a faithful follower of Jesus and a fellow worker for the gospel alongside Paul.  At one time Demas was putting God first, but unfortunately he lost his first love for something far less. 

Devotional Passages for Week of October 22-29

Monday: Jeremiah 39:1-41:18, 2 Timothy 1:1-18, Psalm 90:1-91:16, Proverbs 26:1-2

Tuesday: Jeremiah 42:1-44:23, 2 Timothy 2:1-21, Psalm 92:1-93:5, Proverbs 26:3-5

Wednesday: Jeremiah 44:24-47:7, 2 Timothy 2:22-3:17, Psalm 94:1-23, Proverbs 26:6-8

Thursday: Jeremiah 48:1-49:22, 2 Timothy 4:1-22, Psalm 95:1-96:13, Proverbs 26:9-12

Did you wake up any differently this morning?

“For I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish.” Jeremiah 31:25

It is quite apparent that the reason Jeremiah’s sleep was so pleasant to him was because he was satisfied by God.  He had said, “At this I awoke and looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me.”  What he had seen when he looked was a whole list of wonderful promises that God made to His people.  The promises of God that he saw were sweet refreshment to his soul. 

As you read God’s promises in chapter 31 are they sweet to your soul?  Have you had a weary or languishing soul?  Have you experienced satisfaction in God for your soul?  What an amazing experience to have our soul replenished and satisfied in God.  God is not only the best means of truly being satisfied, he is the only way.  Unfortunately we are like lost sheep that stupidly seek satisfaction in so many false and counterfeit ways.  Have you sought to satisfy yourself in things other than God?  Sometimes we aren’t even seeking satisfaction, we are just looking to numb the pain in our lives with worldly things.  I want to kick myself sometimes and say, “Why are you content with that worldly substitute, when God holds his hands out promising to satisfy and replenish my weary soul.” 

How did you wake up this morning?

“At this I awoke and looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me.”  Jeremiah 31:26

Did you wake up tired and groggy this morning or did you wake up refreshed?  On any given day I can wake up feeling so many different ways.  Sometimes I wake up dreading the day, filled with anxieties about the hours ahead.  Other times I wake up soul weary from the difficulties of life.  There are those days too that I wake up filled  with anticipation, excited about the day.  Some days I am energized, eager to tackle the day’s plans.  How about you?  What was the state of your soul as you woke up this morning?

As we look at Jeremiah’s statement, the question that begs to be answered is:  What was it that he looked at that caused his sleep to be so pleasant to him?  I don’t know about you, but I want to know what it was, and I want to see the same thing he did.  I want to wake up as Jeremiah did on that morning.

SB2W Camper Perspective of Camp

If you have not seen it...check out First Term Camper Scotty Nye's video from his experience at camp this summer.

Devotional Passages for Week of October 15-22

Monday: Jeremiah 26:1-27:22, 2 Thessalonians 3:1-18, Psalm 85:1-13, Proverbs 25:16

Tuesday: Jeremiah 28:1-29:32, 1 Timothy 1:1-20, Psalm 86:1-17, Proverbs 25:17

Wednesday: Jeremiah 30:1-31:26, 1 Timothy 2:1-15, Psalm 87:1-7, Proverbs 25:18-19

Thursday: Jeremiah 31:27-32:44, 1 Timothy 3:1-16, Psalm 88:1-18, Proverbs 25:20-22

Devotional Passages for the Week of October 7-14

Sunday: Jeremiah 8:8-9:26, Colossians 3:1-17, Psalm 78:32-55, Proverbs 24:27

Monday: Jeremiah 10:1-11:23, Colossians 3:18-4:18, Psalm 78:56-72, Proverbs 24:28-29

Tuesday: Jeremiah 12:1-14:10, 1 Thessalonians 1:1-2:8, Psalm 79:1-13, Proverbs 24:30-34

Devotional Passages for the Week of October 1-8

Monday: Isaiah 62:6-65:25, Philippians 2:19-3:3, Psalm 73:1-28, Proverbs 24:13-14

Tuesday: Isaiah 66:1-24, Philippians 3:4-21, Psalm 74:1-23, Proverbs 24:15-16

Wednesday: Jeremiah 1:1-2:30, Philippians 4:1-23, Psalm 75:1-10, Proverbs 24:17-20