Author: Jimmy Trimble

Today’s verse is from Proverbs 19:8:

To acquire wisdom is to love yourself; people who cherish understanding will prosper.

Think back to a time when you made a “rookie mistake” or an error in judgement that harmed yourself or others.  Maybe it was an email sent in haste or possibly a major life decision made without first gathering enough facts.  Now place yourself in that same situation today and think about how you would handle it differently.

Wisdom and understanding explain the difference between poor decisions of the past and better decisions today.  And these better decisions impact us in very positive ways including improved health, better relationships, and success in business.  All of these things make life better for us and those around us, so it is true that “to acquire wisdom is to love yourself”.

Wisdom can either be acquired through direct experience or through the experiences of others.  Wisdom gained through direct experience is often painful since it may involve making mistakes and having to recover from them.  For example, a speeding ticket may help us remember to drive more responsibly, and hurt feelings resulting from words spoken in haste will remind us to be more patient and kind.

On the other hand, gaining wisdom through the experiences of others is typically less painful.  This can be accomplished by reading or listening to wisdom literature, by participating in wisdom-oriented ministries, or by surrounding ourselves with wise people who can help us make good decisions.

On the surface, learning through the experience of others is the easier ways to gain wisdom but  typically, as Stephen Covey would say, these activities are important but not urgent.  Life pulls us in many directions and there always seems to be something urgent that distracts us from the pursuit of wisdom and understanding.

Whether you gain wisdom and understanding through your own experiences or through the experience of others, doing so is one of the best ways to love yourself.

Here are a few questions to help us dig deeper and figure out how we can better prioritize the pursuit of wisdom and understanding:

• Why do you think it is important to God that we do things to love ourselves?
• While it may be true that it is easier to gain wisdom through the experience of others, some would argue that our own experience creates more of a personal impact and, as a result, is more effective in helping us gain wisdom.  What do you think?
• In your experience, what are some of the best ways to gain wisdom and understanding?
• If it is true that gaining wisdom is important but not urgent, what strategies can we employ to make this more of a priority in our lives?

As we approach July 4^th and celebrate the freedom of our country, it is also a good time to celebrate God’s gift to us of freedom from sin and death.

Today’s verse follows this theme of independence.  Galatians 5:1 says:

So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.

Paul, is not saying that the law is bad or evil.  In fact, the truth is completely opposite – all of the law was God-breathed and is still law of the Jewish people.

The problem was that people focused too closely on the “letter of the law” and not the spirit of the law.  Many Jews forgot that their first duty was to love God but many tried to impress others with their knowledge of the law.  For many, the law separated them from God instead of drawing them closer to Him.

God’s first priority is and always has been to draw us closer to Him.  Since the covenant of the law was actually driving people away, His answer was to establish a new covenant, the covenant of the blood.

In order to do so, God came to Earth in human form as Jesus.  He suffered unspeakable pain and humiliation which was followed by His death on the cross.  This is how He bought our salvation and created the Covenant of the blood (His blood).

So now we’re free, right?  Well, not necessarily.  Even though our freedom has been won, we still have to accept it.  Later in chapter 5, Paul talks about other things that could enslave us and separate us from God.  If Paul was writing about this today, he might add social media, politics, certain websites, and materialism as modern-day enslavements.

Truly freedom of any kind isn’t free.  Even our salvation, which is a gift freely offered by God, has to be accepted before we can actually achieve freedom.

• What is your definition of freedom?
• If freedom is so valuable, why do we sometimes seem to welcome slavery in various forms?
• What are some common “enslavements” that keep them from enjoying true freedom?
• What is something you and your family can do on July 4^th to celebrate God’s gift of freedom from sin and death?

Here is a link to a story from James Dobson talking about a talking scale that he received as a gift from his staff: https://goo.gl/wqycY9

He says that one day the scale said that he had gained 80 pounds from the previous day.  Knowing this was an error, he got off and tried it again.  This time it said he had lost 50 pounds from the previous day.  Dr. Dobson tried it one more time and the scale said “my batteries are low” to which he responded “I know buddy, mine are too”.

Today’s verse is from Mark 6:31 and follows this theme:

Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

Jesus could have performed a miracle and given his disciples unlimited energy and strength in this moment but he told them to take a break and get some rest.  He was giving them a model for how to respond to stress and fatigue.  Can you imagine being on this team of disciples?  Every day, all day, they were just trying to keep up so of course they needed rest from time to time.

We’re exactly the same way but few of us stop to recognize it.  Or if we do recognize it, we ignore it.  If you are like me, an evening with nothing planned is an opportunity to plan something.  We constantly need to “get things done” or have new experiences.  No time for rest.  No time for ourselves.

What would you do if you were given a 100% guilt-free pass for an afternoon or even a day?  Golf, fishing, see a movie, read a book, or maybe walk around in nature with no particular destination?  In keeping with our lesson on intentionality from a couple of weeks ago, why not plan ahead a little and put something on the calendar?

Here are a few questions to further explore this topic:

• On a scale from 1-10, how well charged are your batteries?
• What are the main things that charge your batteries and the main things that drain them?
• What are some of the negative consequences of having low batteries?
• If you had a free afternoon or day as discussed above, what would you do to charge your batteries?
• How will our family and loved ones benefit from our batteries being more fully charged?

If we want to live for Jesus, we have to make the decision to do so in advance and follow a plan.  This was the essence of Paul’s message to the Ephesians when he said:

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. (Ephesians 5:15-17)

He knew that these early Christians would be tested in many ways and that they needed to plan ahead.  Here are some modern day examples of planning ahead:

• If you want to eat a healthier diet, don’t go to the grocery store while you are hungry
• If you want to exercise more, don’t wait until the alarm clock goes off to plan your morning workout.
• If you want to be a good family man, block time on your calendar for your family

And, of course, if you want to spend more time with God, you have to plan ahead.  Why?  Because the days are evil, as Paul says.  This is a curious phrase but I think Paul’s point is that, if we don’t live intentionally, we will be distracted by every shiny thing we see and this will separate us from God.

Just think about the news from this week alone: Spies, Roseanne, Weinstein, North Korea, stock market volatility.  Then, on top of that, add the normal distractions of daily life and we have a lot of shiny things to distract us.

While none of these topics are “evil” on the surface, Paul would tell us that if they grab too much of our attention, that they are evil since they take our focus off of God.  With some pre-planning though, we can move our focus back to God and to becoming the men he created us to be.

Here are a few questions for discussion:

• What does it mean to you to live intentionally?
• Do you agree that we need to plan ahead or do you think it is enough just to decide to be a “good person”?
• If you made some intentional plans to spend more time with God, what action items or habits would be included in your plan?
• What are some things you can do to reduce the number of distractions in your life?
• If it is so simple to plan ahead, why don’t we do it more often in every area of our life?

Have you ever said something harsh, insensitive, or rude and then thought to yourself “where did that come from”? Or maybe you’ve had thoughts that aren’t aligned with the image of the good person you believe yourself to be. These are examples of how our words and thoughts are a direct reflection of things we’ve seen and heard which brings us to today’s passage from Luke 6:43-45:

⁴³ “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit.⁴⁴ Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. ⁴⁵ A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

Jesus’ message is very clear – whatever goes in comes back out in the same form. If we do and say bad things our inputs have probably been bad. If we’re patient, kind, and decent in our words and actions, we’ve probably had good inputs.

So if we are a “good” person, will that immunize us from the negative effects of bad inputs? Jesus would probably respond that if we are good then we’ve had good inputs. Furthermore, if we are good, then we will seek more good inputs to enhance our goodness even more.

The fruit from any tree is only as good as the inputs it receives through it’s roots and in the same way our “fruit” is only as good as the inputs we receive through our eyes and ears. To further explore this idea, here are some questions for discussion:

1. Do you agree that good people are good because they seek good inputs?
2. Most of the news today seems to be very negative. What impact do you think it has on us when we watch or read excessive amounts of news?
3. What “fruit” do you want to be known by and what inputs will help you grow more of that kind of fruit?
4. What are some of the bad inputs you would like to reduce or eliminate in your life?
5. It has been said that, in every area of our lives, we are essentially the average of the five people we associate with most. Do you agree and, if so, how would you apply that to today’s message?

Real friends bring out the best in each other. They encourage and motivate one another to reach their goals. Friends who will cheer you on to success are a critical part of getting healthy.

Along these lines, Romans 12:5 says, “We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other”.

There’s an old Zambian proverb that says, “When you run alone, you run fast. But when you run together, you run far.” The lifetime of healthy habits ahead of you is not a 50-yard dash. It is a marathon.

Marathon runners know there comes a point when you start getting a pain in your side that makes you want to give up. But if you have other people running with you, you can find the strength to continue to the finish line. The same is true in your journey to a healthier you. The only way you’ll achieve your God-given health goals is to have others involved in your life.

Questions:

Why do you think Jesus placed such a high priority on friendship?

Can you think of a time in your life when friendships were particularly important in helping you get through a difficult time?

At certain points in our lives, we all struggle with finding time and energy to invest in friendships. What obstacles do you encounter in this area?

Do you think that maintaining quality friendships is important in your Christian walk?

If investing in friendships is an important priority for you, what changes can you make today to work toward this goal?

When we see others rejoicing, God wants us to rejoice with them.  We see this in Romans 12:15 which says, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep”. The second half of this verse is much easier to do than the first. It’s easy to weep with those who weep. When someone is having a tough time, it’s easy to be sympathetic.

But sometimes it is difficult to rejoice with those who are rejoicing.  In fact, we may even be threatened by it and resent it.  Maybe we think that the world is a giant pie that’s divided up into slices. We think, If somebody’s slice is bigger than mine, that must mean my slice is going to be smaller. That kind of thinking is wrong because God never runs out of blessings. He never runs out of grace. There’s more than enough to go around for everybody, and just because God blesses somebody else doesn’t mean you get less.

We see this in the parable of the vineyard workers: “The workers who had been hired first thought they would be given more than the others. But when they were given the same, they began complaining to the owner of the vineyard. . . . And he said, ‘Are you envious because I am generous?’”  (Matthew 20:10-11). Those who worked all day were paid exactly what they contracted to be paid. They weren’t cheated; yet, they resented that other people who only worked the last part of the day were given the same amount.

Envy and coveting keep us from sharing others’ joy and it can make us miserable people.  Maybe that is why God addressed coveting in the 10 Commandments: You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. (Exodus 20:17).  God wants us to be happy & at peace and knows that to do so we must be people who rejoice when others rejoice.

Questions:

• Do you agree that it is sometimes hard to celebrate with others when they experience success or blessings?
• Is it harder to rejoice with certain people than others?  For example, it may be easy to celebrate with our children when they do well but then we may resent others success.
• If you were one of the vineyard workers who started early in the day, would you have resented those who were paid the same amount even though they didn’t work as long?
• What are some of the ways you can rejoice with others and let them know you share in their joy?
• Why do you think God places such a strong emphasis on rejoicing when others rejoice?

Whether it’s returning to school or getting fully back in to the swing of things at the office, very few times of the year are marked as much by change as the end of summer.  In the same way, God changes things from time to time as part of His plan and one of these dynamic times is referenced in Isaiah 43:18-19:

Forget the former things;  do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?  I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the desert.

When we read a passage like this, our natural assumption is often that we need to forget something in the past because it was bad or traumatic and that God is encouraging us to be hopeful about better times to come in the future.  Reading it carefully though reveals that this is not necessarily the case.  He just tells us to forget the past because He is doing something new.

Two thoughts on how we might be able to apply this in our lives and share it with our families & friends:

1. No matter how much effort we’ve put in to a specific project or goal, God may “do a new thing” in our life and lead us in a new direction.
2. In order for us to genuinely follow God’s plan for our life, we sometimes have to “forget” about the past — either forgot how bad OR GOOD a certain event  or period of our life was.

Both of these factors may create discomfort for us since we like to get into a groove and follow a well-worn path.  But just as we have to walk before we run, God helps us develop certain skills and talents using various experiences throughout our life.  These experiences are, by definition, in the past and in order to focus on the future that God has in store, we need to, in a sense, forget about those things……or at least not dwell on them.

As summer comes to an end and we move into the Fall, ask yourself these questions to help figure out what paths God is making for you in the wilderness that He hopes you will follow:

What is an example of a new path that you’ve had to take in your life (new job, new city, new relationships) that took you out of your comfort zone?

Why would God want us to take new paths from time to time?

Think of an example where you were initially very reluctant to go in a certain direction but then God later revealed to you that He had a plan for you.

How can we better understand God’s will for our lives so we don’t miss signals that indicate a change we need to make?

I don’t know about you but I love “either or” thinking.  Black or white is so much easier and more comfortable than gray.  I easily fall into the trap of:

• This will work, that won’t work.
• They like me, they don’t like me.
• They are part of my tribe, they are not part of my tribe.
• This is of God, this is not of God.

And of course, my absolute favorite, the grand champion of this “either or” paradigm is “I am right and you are wrong.”  Or, since I am married, “I am right and she is wrong.”  Undoubtedly, no questions asked, this is the number one thought on the Billboard Top 40 Hits of my brain.

The problem with this type of thinking is that it is exclusionary and reductive instead of inclusive and additive.  For me, I find it often promotes my judgment of others instead of understanding and grace.

We all pay lip service to the belief that the only person we can change is ourselves, but how often do we pray for God to change the other person?  What if instead of changing the other person, we could let God grow us, grow our heart, our patience, and our understanding?  What if he could grow us so much that black plus white became not gray but something else entirely?

God clearly delivered the coup de grace to binary thinking about 2000 years ago.  Beginning with Abraham, he introduced his chosen people to monotheism and then – WHAM – he hit us with something totally not understandable from an earthly point of view.  God is one thing but not one thing.  God is a three in one – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Isaiah 55:8-9- For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Let’s call my understanding and comfort with the incomprehensible mystery of the Trinity a moving target.  Right now, it is a challenge, a reminder, that I need to ask God to grow me beyond black and white, beyond “either or,” to a place of “both and,” where grace is found where there used to be judgment.

Here are a few questions to continue the discussion:

1. What thoughts are on your Billboard Top 40 Hits of Either Or thinking?
2. How do you ask God to help you avoid these traps?
3. Do you have an experience to share of when God grew you out of a problem?

This week we are going to start a discussion on Serving / Servanthood (Thanks to article from Hampton Keathly-found on Bible.org).

Servanthood– There are various definitions of Servanthood but as it applies to Christians:  A devoted and helpful follower or supporter: “a tireless servant of God”

Mark 10:45– Jesus said, ‘For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as ransom for many.

Philippians 1:4– Each of you should have the same attitude toward one another that Christ Jesus had.

The link is attached but is lengthy (likely another Friday discussion).  The following is a summary with questions.

https://bible.org/seriespage/mark-8-heart-servant

But what exactly is servanthood? Servanthood is the state, condition, or quality of one who lives as a servant. Further, a servant is first of all one who is under submission to another. For Christians, this means submission to God first, and then submission to one another. Then, as one in submission, a servant is one who seeks to meet the real needs of others or of the person he is serving. To put it another way, servanthood is the condition or state of being a servant to others, of ministry to others rather than the service of self. It means willingly giving of oneself to minister for and to others and to do whatever it takes to accomplish what is best for another.

However, when serving others and their needs, if the underlying motive and goal is some form of self-love, like the praise of others for the service rendered, then one’s service is in reality hypocritical. This type of service is really aimed at serving selfish ends—usually in the futile pursuit of personal significance through something like praise, power, or status.

Christ’s plan and that which produces maximum blessing to the world and the church is servanthood. A servant is one who, even when in positions of leadership seeks to lead and influence others through lives given in ministry for the blessing of others and their needs. The Lord Jesus came as a servant with a commitment to serve. Just think, if He had come to be served, our redemption could and would never have taken place. Likewise, our failure to live as servants throws up a huge barrier to effective ministry as representatives of the Lord Jesus.

Questions:

1. Can one be saved by Faith alone?
2. If you serve others only for the purpose to make yourself look good or feel significant, does it matter? Can Servanthood be Selfish?
3. What are some examples that Hinder us from Servanthood?
4. Why is servanthood so important to the Christian Life and to Christian ministry?