I Choose Today...

I Choose Today to Walk Humbly

Do you know someone that is a “know-it-all?” You know the person I am talking about, the person who thinks they are the authority on everything, any subject, and situation? I know you know people like that; you are probably thinking of that someone right now! “Oh yeah, that is so-in-so. You can’t teach or tell that person anything.” But my question to you is that person you are thinking about actually yourself? Maybe it should be, because let’s be honest, there is some truth in there for all of us. Out of all the requirements God calls us to in Micah 6:8 – do what is right, love mercy, walk humbly with your God – the last requirement is by far the toughest. That is because pride is the biggest danger to anyone. We see it all around us: in our politicians, our leadership, in our relationships, in ourselves, even in our church communities. We see it throughout all of scripture – Adam and Eve, Moses, David, Jonah, the pharisees, even the disciples. We are all prone to it. But we need to head this warning straight from scripture, “If you are proud, you will be destroyed. If you

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I Choose Today to Grow Little by Little

Do you remember the movie Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory? There is a scene in the movie where spoiled child, Veruca Salt, wants a goose that lays golden eggs. She starts to sing about all the things she wants now, “Gooses, geeses I want my geese to lay gold eggs for easter At least a hundred a day And by the way, I want…” She describes all she wants: feasts, sweets, parties, balloons. She is not just satisfied with those things, so she proclaims she wants: the whole world, today, tomorrow. She didn’t care how she got them, she wanted them NOW! The scene ends with her standing on the machine that decides whether she is a good or bad egg. It decides she is bad and the scene ends with her going into the garbage dumpster, and Willie Wonka saying “that’s one bad egg.” This is a gross exaggeration of wanting what we want and wanting it now, but there is some truth in it, or is it just me? “The Lord your God will drive those nations out ahead of you little by little. You will not clear them away all at once, otherwise the wild animals

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I Choose Today the Sabbath: Part Two

The Word of God is so fascinating. It never ceases to surprise me and makes me want to dig deeper. That is how I would describe this passage regarding the Sabbath, one I’ve never considered before. “Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you. You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work…Remember that you were once slaves in Egypt, but the Lord your God brought you out with his strong hand and powerful arm. That is why the Lord your God has commanded you to rest on the Sabbath day.” Deuteronomy 5:12-15 NLT At first, when I read the passage in Deuteronomy, I found it interesting that the author (Moses) was correlating the Sabbath with the Israelites’ slavery in Egypt. How do the two connect? I even read the verse in different versions. Moses and Aaron asked Pharaoh if they could go on a three-day journey (stop work and get alone with God) to worship their God. But Pharaoh said he didn’t

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I Choose Today to Reorient Myself with God: Sabbath

(We will return to reviewing God’s requirements (Micah 6:8) next time) I want to highlight here our understanding of the Sabbath. It is indeed a rhythm that we need to find the beat of. On the seventh day, God rested, right? But God doesn’t get tired, so why did He designate a day to rest? I believe (at least in part) it was to establish a rhythm of reorienting ourselves to Him. Part of God’s creation is this day of reflection in order to remember what God did for us during the past six days, what struggles/trials we are currently working through, and how God is faithful in the day-to-day activities of our lives. It reminds me of another work analogy. I work in an agile environment where the cadence of our work happens in a time-box called a sprint. This is when the work gets tackled, but when the sprint is over, no matter if the work is complete or not, we stop work, gather to review the work, and do a retrospective with our Product Owner of what went right, identify some blockers, and what can change. Then we start a new sprint, carrying on the same cadence.

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I Choose Today to Love Mercy

Over the last couple of blogs, we have been exploring our Product Owner’s requirements (found in Micah 6:8) and how we can demonstrate them to those in our sphere of influence. The first one covered was to act justly (living right when no one is watching and defending those who need someone on their side). Let’s start by reviewing Micah 6:8: “No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what He requires of you: to do what is right [do what is fair; to act justly], to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” Why do you think one of God’s requirements for us is to love mercy? Just as “acting justly” is a characteristic of who God is, loving mercy is also a characteristic of God. The meaning of mercy is unwarranted or undeserved kindness and compassion. Showing kindness to others, especially to those who do not deserve it, can be very difficult. Surely God knows what that person did to me and doesn’t expect me to be kind to them, right? Let’s look at an example from the Word of God. How about how God dealt with Paul (Saul)? Paul

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