DAY #5: October 7, 2010

God uses His Word (the Bible) to speak to our hearts. His power shows up in our life when we read His Word and live out the Word.

James 1:22-25 (NIV)
22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror
24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.
25 But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it--he will be blessed in what he does.

Over the next few days of devotions, I want to encourage you with God's Word. I'm praying that God will inspire you to reach your world for Christ. I'm praying that you'll allow God's power to work in you and that God will do amazing things in your life. To do that, I want to talk about death for a moment.

We don’t like to talk about it, but the reality is death is coming our way. Death is inevitable. No matter how rich or how powerful or how successful you are, mortality is the great equalizer. William Buffet, Bill Gates, Donald Trump - guess what? They’re all living on limited time. (Looks like Donald Trump gets his hair styled at a mortuary… He’s got a head start.)

Psalms 90:12 (TLB)says, "Teach us to number our days and recognize how few they are; help us to spend them as we should." Really that’s what this whole series is all about (The ME I Want to Be). Saying to “God, teach us to make the most of our time so we don’t waste our time, this limited time that You’ve given us on earth.”

Let me share with you what the Apostle Paul had to say the Thessalonians.
2 Thessalonians 3:11-13 (NLT) - “We hear that some of you are living idle lives, refusing to work and wasting time meddling in other people’s business. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we appeal to such people. No. We command them. Settle down and get to work. Earn your own living. I say to the rest of you, dear brothers and sisters, never get tired of doing good.”

Notice the phrase - “We hear that some of you.” When I read that, I thought about our church. What are people saying about your life? What are people hearing about your life? if somebody was to write a letter about your life what would they say? Here in Thessalonica, Paul says to some of these folks, “We hear that some of you are living - idle lives.” Not a compliment.

The word “idle” is a little confusing because as soon as you hear “idle” you think “motionless, lazy, wasteful, slothful.” But in the NIV translation, it doesn’t use the word “idle” it uses the word “busybody.” It says, “You are busybodies.”

What is a busybody? It’s a lot of movement but no substance. Lots of motion and maybe commotion, but no real progress. Busybodies. They were busy just not with what matters most. They were busy, but not accomplishing anything that really matters.

Any of you know any busybodies? Maybe, in a moment of honest reflection, could busybody describe you? You’ve given the illusion of busyness because somehow in our society we’ve messed things up - we think that busy is better. Or maybe it’s not the illusion. Maybe you’re over here and you’re legitimately busy. Out of control busy. Overcommitted busy. Stressed out busy.

But, are you busy doing the right things? Jesus had some tough words for some folks who were in the church at Ephesus. They were regular attenders. They were busy doing all sorts of stuff. But, they were busy doing the wrong things.

Revelation 2:1-5 (NIV)
1 "To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands:
2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false.
3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.
4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.
5 Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.

Very clearly Jesus is communicating to the church today and saying, “There’s one thing that’s got to be in first place. It’s Me. This one thing above all other things that we might do. It’s Me. You’ve got to put Me first in your life. I’ve got to be there. Your first love has to be Me.” That's His whole point. He sets the whole passage up based upon that one statement. How do we do that? How do we keep first things first?

Matthew 22:37-38 (NIV)
37 Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'
38 This is the first and greatest commandment.

Let’s turn this into being real practical. I believe there are some things we can do practically that will immediately make a difference. Read more tomorrow.