_ Judges 6:17: "Behold, I will put out a fleece of wool on the floor and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it is dry upon the earth, then shall I know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said."
I always get a little aggravated with Gideon when I read this. My thinking is something like this: "Where is his faith? Wasn't God's declaration enough?" Then I think again. The Midainites had conquered Israel and ruined their crops and houses. Now the vast Midianite army is about to attack again. The Israelites repented and God turned to Gideon to rescue them. I have to ask myself what I would do under similar circumstances? I would probably act like Moses and say "Why me?" Or I would probably pull a Gideon and say "Prove yourself to me." Taking on the Midianite army at that time in Israel's weakened condition would surely be a tough task. God proved himself to Gideon and, to make a long story short, under Gideon's leadership the Israelites prevailed. What is the moral of this story? When God calls upon us to serve Him, He wants us to do it by faith. He wants us to take Him at His word and trust Him. He will take our humanity into account and humor us, like He did Gideon, but it would be better if we would just trust Him. The Bible is full of God's promises to us about using His power to aid us in serving Him. We quote Philippians 4:13 so confidently: "I can do all things through Him (Christ) who strengthens me." Do we really believe it or do we lay out the fleece? When I really think about it, I'm not quite as aggravated with Gideon and his fleece. But I can pray that I will have the faith and courage to serve the Lord in any endeavor He calls me to. You can pray the same prayer. (More on Gideon on the next blog.) Bro. Joe
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2011 is coming to an end and 2012 is just a few days away. This year I want to take Paul's advice and forget those things which are behind and grab a hold of those things which are before. I am leaving a lot behind this year that I want to forget, but one thing that I don't want to forget is how much closer to the Lord I am now than I was before my battle with cancer and chemo. I am praying that 2012 will be a fruitful year of service for me. I am looking forward to returning to the pulpit, and preparing to serve in the pulpit. I am also looking forward to being of service with this new internet ministry that my daughters have provided for me. One of my life's goals is to be a blessing. Make no mistake, I want to be blessed too, but I want those blessings to help me be a blessing. I have been blessed in many ways this year, and I hope to turn those blessings into blessings to all of those that I will serve. My prayer for you is that you will seek to be a blessing to others in the coming year. Think of the difference that it would make in families, workplaces and churches if all of us made efforts to be blessings to each other. Think of the difference that it would make in the world if all Christians sought to be blessings as well as to be blessed. At least give it some thought for your life.
_ If you haven't heard of the spoof that Saturday Night Live did about Tim Tebow and Jesus, you must be living in a vacuum. The spoof was about Jesus standing by Tim Tebow as he kneeled in prayer on the sidelines. To make a long story short, Jesus was pulling for Tim Tebow and the Broncos to win. Those of you who know me know that I am not a fuddy duddy without a sense of humor. I have seen spoofs done about churches, preachers, choirs, etc. and did not really get upset. Dana Carvey's "Church Lady" was sometimes hilarious and right on the mark, though he did get a little carried away at times.
Until churches and denominations stop giving the "spoofers" ammunition by some of our actions, we will just have to put up with it. What bothered me about this is that they crossed a very big line. They spoofed Jesus. I agree with the otherwise liberal, Bob Beckel, that people should not make fun of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Saturday Night Live can make fun of Tim Tebow all they want. He is a public figure and is fair game. (Though I don't understand the hostility toward him for his public profession of Jesus.) They just need to leave Jesus out of it. Jesus is not a cheerleader for Tim Tebow and the Broncos and He should not be portrayed as such. He should not be portrayed as a buffoon under any circumstances. "Wherefore God hath highly exalted Him (Jesus), and given Him a name which is above every name. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth. And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Philippians 2:9-11 Proverbs 16:18 "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall." If you ask the average person if he or she is a prideful person they will say no. This is one area of life where we need to take an honest look at ourselves. There is a thin line between "good" pride and "false" pride. I had to face myself on this issue when I started chemo treatments in May. I have to admit that my main concern was that I was going to lose my hair. Forget that I had an aggressive lymphoma that was in the process of killing me. I was going to lose my hair. In fact, I planned to wear a hat until my hair came back. Guess what. After I was reminded that this was not the worse thing that could happen to me, I decided that it really wasn't that big a deal. The problem was I had to be reminded of it. Putting pride aside, I have gone about with my bald head and haven't given it a thought. Before cancer struck it never occurred to me that I was prideful about my headful of hair.
Maybe you need to look into your life and see if there are things that you are prideful about that you do not consider prideful, but in fact are prideful. There is certainly nothing wrong with taking pride in your appearance, but if it becomes an obsession maybe you need to admit to pridefulness. This might seem to be "much ado about nothing," but the Bible does say that "pride goeth before destruction." Maybe we need to take another look at pride in our lives. Bro. Joe I woke up this morning in a reflective and meditative frame of mind with Psalm 90:2 in my head: " Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting Thou art God." (I think in King James.) What a profound statement that is. It reflects the
greatness of God. He is eternal and He is pervasive in His universe. You can almost blow a circuit in your brain thinking about the greatness of God. Think about this: It takes the light from the North Star, the nearest star to Earth, traveling at the speed of light (186,000 plus miles per second) four years to reach us. When you look up into the night sky, though you don't know which ones, some of the stars that you see burned out hundreds, maybe thousands, of years ago, but the light just reached us. Now that means that the universe is very large. Since God is "from everlasting to everlasting" and since He is the creator and master of all of it, He is larger than His universe. That, my friends, is BIG! Now think about this: "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us." (John 1:14) The Word had been referred to earlier by John as God. This means that this God, who is greater than the universe, fitted Himself into the frame of a human being. Why? "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16) It gets better. Through the Holy Spirit, and by faith in Him, He fits Himself into our mullygrubbing (sp) little lives. Doesn't that just blow your mind and thrill your soul? Bro. Joe There are three words that I am glad that I learned say. They are, "I don't know." When I was a younger preacher I would give people an answer to Bible questions, etc. whether I knew the answer or not. I don't guess I considered this to be
dishonest. Since we know that nobody knows everything, we should not be afraid to say "I don't know" when we really don't. For example, I've heard people say that they were stumped when their child asked them where God came from. There is only one answer - "I don't know." Another of those puzzling Biblical questions is, "Where did Cain get his wife?" Unless you read a different Bible from the one I read the answer is still "I don't know." Only God is all-knowing. In Romans 11:34-36, Paul was writing on the sovereignty of God. Here was his conclusion in that passage: "Oh the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor? Or who has given a gift to Him that He might be repaid? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen" If Paul could say "I don't know," it shouldn't be too difficult for us. _ There are two disciplines that have really helped me keep myself together this past few months: prayer and Bible reading. I'm so glad that I asked those who were praying for me to send their prayer requests. Along with this blog, it has allowed me to minister to others while I was being ministered to. Who knows what God has done in answer to those prayers? It is exciting to think about it. God answers our prayers for others based on His will for their lives. We can't tell God how to answer our prayers, but we do know that He will answer. Someone told the philosopher William James that answers to prayers were coincidences. He replied: "It is interesting that those coincidences occur more often when people pray than when they don't." Great answer! Now, to the Bible reading. As I've written to you, I am always in the process of reading the Bible through. (That's not because of my goodness but because of my need.) For the past few months I have read out of a sense of real need. When one has cancer the message from the Lord takes on new dimensions. Reading the Bible brought me closer to Him. If you don't already have one, set up a schedule during part of your day for prayer and Bible reading. Make these a part of your day everyday. It will make a noticeable difference in your life.
Welcome to the New Couch Potato Ministry Blog. This is a continuation of what we did on CaringBridge. I don't know how often I will be changing the blog, either twice a week or once a week. Once I get back to work, I won't have the time to do it every other day like I did on CaringBridge. I am looking forward to ministering via this medium. I never dreamed of having a website, but CaringBridge got me into the habit. I will welcome your comments. (Make sure the comments are clean because I will have to approve comments. LOL) At this time, I plan to have a page for preachers and a page for prayer concerns. Other pages will be added as I get used to this medium.
Looking forward to our time on the couch.... Brother Joe |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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