May 19, 2022 – Click here to listen
There was a beautiful sunrise this morning. The water in the harbor was like a mirror without so much as a ripple. The reflection of the gorgeous sunrise with its beautiful orange and red hues covering the sky and the water made them look identical.
Today we leave for Alabama to look at some farms for sale over there. We hope to find one that overlooks one of their big lakes or rivers that is teeming with wildlife. Being a Georgia Bulldog fan, I’m not enamored by Alabama’s football team or fans, but I do love the beautiful land in that part of the country.
When and if I find a place to make my primary residence, one of the first things that I want to do is find a good church in the vicinity. I’ve found that I can commune with God in the woods or on the ocean and feel His presence in a mighty way not found in church all that often, but I do not want to forsake having fellowship and being friends with other Christians.
My Bible study partner tells me all the time that we are the sum of the five people with whom we spend the most time. Church is a good place to meet them; but rest assured that I have found and made many friends while doing other things, especially fishing and hunting. Unfortunately, many of them do not have a close relationship with God but that creates a great opportunity to talk to them about Jesus.
I know far too many people who do not like church because of hypocritical behavior and other failures by a few of those who attend. Whether we like it or not Christians are scrutinized far more heavily than non-Christians. There are plenty of hypocrites in the marketplace and businesses are often breeding grounds for evil behavior that is terrible. The marketplace does not get condemned because of these characters, but rest assured the church does.
God is good. His character is pure, and He cannot sin, and yet it is He and His church who gets the blame for the misdeeds of a few. The last thing I want to do is dishonor God by engaging in some sin in front of a non-Christian and provide a roadblock that hinders others from coming to Him. When I sin, I feel like I’m putting a dagger right in the heart of the best friend I’ll ever have.
God saved me from myself and when I look at where I am now and where I was, I am overwhelmed by His kindness and mercy that is totally undeserved by me. I don’t deserve to see His gorgeous sunrises or sunsets. Nor do I deserve to see a magnificent Marlin taking a bait or a stately buck standing majestically in the early morning mist serenely gazing across a glistening field still wet from the night’s dew.
At times like these, I feel as though my entire life disappoints God and I feel a deep burden to glorify Him for who He is and what He does. I hope I don’t fail today . . . I read something by Dr. Stanley that seemed to make me feel better about my dilemma:
You Can’t Disappoint God
The Lord knows your sin — and isn’t surprised by it. A person can disobey God — either willfully or unknowingly — but he cannot disappoint God. A person can sin or rebel against God and reap God’s consequences for that sin as a means of chastisement. But a person cannot disappoint God.
Dr. Stanley explains that if God was able to be disappointed by us, then His love would be conditional, and we are told in the Bible that the exact opposite is true. Though sin makes us feel guilty, God knows all and loves all. This means that if He was brought down by our sins, He would not be who He claims to be. God wants us to stay far away from sin, not because He likes having rules but because it separates us from Him. The effect that sin has on us is why He wants us to live as blamelessly as we can, with Jesus as our model.
Hmmm . . . My friends, we must remember this verse when weighing these matters in our minds: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord”. He looks at things in a different manner, I get it, but the fact remains we should stay as far from sin as humanly possible. I may not disappoint God but when I sin against Him I’M DISAPPOINTED and perhaps that is part of my chastisement. At any rate, I want to please Him by being more like Jesus as much as my flesh will allow. The Apostle Paul wrote this to us, and this verse seemed germane to this conversation.
Phil. 1:9
And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ — to the glory and praise of God.