LEARNING DAILY

 

Ephesians 5:15-17, So be careful how you live, not as fools but as those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity for doing good in these evil days.  Don’t act thoughtlessly, but try to understand what the Lord wants you to do. (NLT)

 

James 4:4 tells us that none of us knows what tomorrow will bring; the verse tells us that our life on this earth is really short.  It tells us our life is “a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” God knew us before we were in the womb and He knows the number of our days. “Each day we live is a precious gift to be lived wisely and according to God’s will” (DJSB).  Dr. Ed Newton, Lead Pastor of Community Bible Church, said God reveals His will to us when we worship Him and serve Him (that was the message in the last page of the blog). The conclusion to me is to worship God and to live as a wise person by studying God’s Word and by doing everything I can to walk on the narrow way.

 

Perhaps some of you are like me and would like to relive some (many for me) decisions you have made where you were not careful or wise. I have made decisions, said things and did things that did not glorify God. Yet, God does use these times to remind me to stay on the narrow way and not do these things again.  Honestly, I still fail more than I want.

 

Let me explain why this writing at a time we are beginning to celebrate the birth of our Savior and Lord. Everything you and I do can affect someone in a positive way or a negative way. I used to tell students at the Christian schools I taught that they needed to be careful how they acted because little eyes were watching them. Often, I would see them interacting with younger children and was filled with joy at what I saw. The Lord Jesus came to earth to reveal the Father and to fulfill His plan for the salvation for all who would believe. Everything He did was to fulfill every purpose the Father had for Him to do.

 

We are living in days that are evil.  The news is filled with all sorts of stuff that could fill us with fear and despair. The list seems to grow every day, doesn’t it! The obstacles we face today just might be opportunities to let our light so shine before men that glorifies our Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16). Tony Dungy writes in a devotional I am reading, “What looks like hard work or uphill battles, God may have put in our paths to make us live up to our potential.  With that in mind, I do not want to waste any opportunity set before me.” I am trying to live this way.

 

Dr, Ed Newton often says that people must worship God from their heart; he says too many people have trouble getting their worship the 14 inches from their brain to their heart. I want to live as wise not as a fool. I want to make the best of every opportunity to allow the light of the Lord Jesus Christ in me to be seen by all I meet in this evil world.

 

From now on DJSB will be used to note information or quotes from the David Jeremiah Study Bible and LSSB will refer to information and quotes from the Life in the Spirit Study Bible.  I have added Jimmy Swaggart’s Expositor’s Study Bible to be referred to from now on as JSESB