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In my work coaching people, I have created a program of personal and professional development I call “Inspiring People to Skillful Living.” I often find some of the smartest people around do some of the dumbest things imaginable.  Smart people have knowledge about what can be known, but they often do not have the wisdom to know what is hidden from common knowledge.

I created this program because we need help.  Most of us live unskilled lives.  We struggle at doing better because we struggle at being better.  We may have knowledge about what should work, but we lack the wisdom to make that work for us.

God’s Word is sufficient insight for anyone who wants to live skillfully, but most people today reject the value of God’s Word in their lives.  Many simply believe God’s Word is only applicable to our spiritual lives and not to our practical day-to-day lives.  But this is the wrong way to think about life.

The book of Proverbs is all about learning to skillfully live your life.  In a secular sense, Proverbs help you learn to skillfully live a Godly life in an ungodly world.  It helps you learn to deal effectively with a life that is ordered around God first, then family, then work and the societies in which we live work and play.

Proverbs 1:5 says, “A wise man will hear and increase learning.  And a man of understanding will attain wise counsel.”  That means that wisdom is needed for you to live a skillful life, but wisdom is difficult to define in a simple way.  On one hand it is many things, and then on the other hand it is a simple thing.

Wisdom is the knowledge and the discipline to live under the authority of something higher than your own thinking.  Wisdom is our ability to learn from what we have not learned yet.  It is the ability to know the nature of our humanity as we live our lives against a standard that is higher than any standard we could create on our own.

Most people have a natural inclination to seek knowledge and understanding because we know these are important to us.  Proverbs also tell us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.  But knowledge is not enough to live skillfully.

We need both wisdom and knowledge to live skillfully, but we need wisdom more.  Wisdom and knowledge are both recurring themes in the bible.  They are related but not synonymous.  Knowledge is information gained through experience, reasoning, or familiarity; it is available to anyone.  But wisdom is more the ability to judge what is true, right, and lasting.

Wisdom is the insight to know that knowledge is not the same as wisdom.  Yes, it almost takes having wisdom to know what wisdom is.   We can be full of knowledge but still lack wisdom.  If we have wisdom then we will have knowledge also.

We have many problems today in living skillfully because we lack the wisdom to learn more from the knowledge we acquire.  We have acquired knowledge to live but not the wisdom to live skillfully and successfully.

We can be full of knowledge but empty of the wisdom needed to use knowledge in the best ways.  Knowledge is knowing what the Word of God says; wisdom is knowing how to allow God’s Word to change your life so you live more skillfully.  Knowledge is knowing what the Word says; wisdom is hearing what the Word is saying to you and about you.

A wise man will hear and increase in learning because a wise man discerns the wisdom from what he knows.  A wise man does not simply read the word and remain the same.  A wise man will allow the Word to counsel him.

Skillful living is learning to find and use wisdom.  Wisdom teaches you that you cannot live from what you learn only.  

Most people want to live good, successful lives, but few are willing to do what it takes to have that.  Most of us want good jobs and great careers, but many of us are unwilling to do what it takes to have those things.

Do you want to live a more skillful life?  So what’s it going to take?  How can you move from wanting to live greater to wanting to do what it takes to live greater?

Your best life can only be had when you learn to start your life as your best self.  My next message in this series of Living Skillfully will explore how God wants us to start life as our best selves.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.  

Sometimes we forget that God is always working on perfecting something more in us.  We are His children and His creation. The fact that He created us doesn’t mean He is finished with what He started.  We are not just His children; we are the work of His heart.

Recently, I have thought about when I should cut back on work.  Sometimes, I feel like there are things I want to do for myself.  But each time I have those thoughts, I seem to hear something inside me say, “I am not done with you yet.” We must always watch our own motives for what we want in our lives.

In Luke 2:25-35 we have the story of a man name Simeon who was waiting for the birth of Christ.  After Jesus was born, Simeon went to the temple and saw Him.  Luke 2:29 says this is how Simeon responded to seeing Jesus.  He said “Lord, now You are permitting Your servant to depart in peace, according to Your word; for my eyes have seen Your salvation.”

We don’t know Simeon’s age, but we know he wasn’t a young man.  He had waited—no, he had lived—waiting to see the Salvation of the Lord.  How long, we don’t know.  But he waited until God was done with his plans for Simeon.  More of us should be like Simeon.  Often we find waiting for God to finish His work on us is the hardest thing for us to do.

God has more planned for each of us than what we see at the moment.  I imagine the caterpillar probably has thought many times why it must crawl around on it’s stomach all day.  Well, perhaps it’s because God wants it to start life as a worm but to finish as a butterfly.

If God can take a worm that crawls around the ground and make it to fly through the sky, He can make you fly too.  If He can do that with a worm, I am encouraged He can do even more with you. We have to be patient and mature enough to know that He is still at work with us.  We shouldn’t be so quick to act like we are ready to live out our lives just as we are.  We may still be incomplete, just like the worms.

Listen, when God says He is not done with you yet, perhaps He is saying you are unfinished.  He may not be asking you to do more.  He may be asking you to allow Him to do more to finish you.  If you don’t learn to see yourself as a clump of clay, you will never know what the possibilities may be for you in the hands of God.

So, let’s not look at the things going on around us and run out the door trying to do God’s work when He is not finished doing His work in us.  You may have hands, but you may not have the hands needed to do what God wants you to do.  You may have a heart, but you may not have the heart to do what God wants you to do.

Listen for Him when He is saying to you, “I am not done with you yet.”  God is not done yet perfecting the work He is doing in us.  An acorn starts as a nut the squirrel eats but it ends up a tree where the squirrel lives.

A grain of corn dies and falls to the ground.  But the dead grain of corn becomes a field of corn that feeds many people. We must be patient to allow the Lord to finish the things He is doing in us that we cannot see.

You may have started life without love, but perhaps God is preparing you to learn to receive love and to be love towards others.

You may have started life without friends, but perhaps God is preparing you to learn to be a friend to someone who needs friendship.

You may have started life with sickness, but perhaps God is preparing you to learn the gratefulness it takes to appreciate all that will come to you in life.

When you learn He is not finished with your life, you will learn what a finished life in Him can be.

Let Him perfect what He has planned to do in you before you try to finish what you want to do with your life.

Live A Delivered Life.  Love you.

Remember the story of Esther?  Esther was made queen when the king became displeased with the behavior of queen Vashti. We know all about Esther.  But what about Vashti?  How is it that her behavior was so displeasing to the king that he would dethrone her?

Scripture tells us what Vashti did.  After many days of festivities and drinking, the king ordered Queen Vashti to come before him and his friends wearing her royal crown.  Esther 1:11 says, “The king ordered to bring Queen Vashti before the king, wearing her royal crown, to show her beauty to the people and the officials, for she was beautiful to behold.  But Queen Vashti refused to come as ordered.”

I have done messages before on the difference between love and respect.  In almost any relationship between man and woman, especially marriage, love and respect must be present.  The man must learn to love his wife or the women in his life, and the wife must learn to respect her husband or the men in her life.  You can find this principle in Ephesians 5:22-33.

Ephesians 5 is about Love and Respect.  But this is more than a message about love and respect.  It is a message about how before what.  So many things we do go wrong because we do not choose the right way to do the things we want to do.  The right things done in the wrong ways become the wrong things done.

Many of us do not see the problem with what Queen Vashti did.  She refused to be paraded before men for their satisfaction.  What’s wrong with that?  It is a demeaning thing to do to anyone, especially a woman.  But what she did amounted to a greatest offense a woman can do to a man – she disrespected her husband openly before the eyes of others.

Men inherently require respect.  Respect is what leads them to love.  Women require love, but it is love that leads them to respect.  What the king did was not a loving thing to do, so Vashti responded by doing the very thing that would cause her husband to not love her.  He was not loving, and she was not respectful.

For the men reading this please understand this.  How you choose to treat the women in your life must be loving and respectful.  And for the women reading this please understand.  How you choose to love the men in your life must be with respect.  To you men, loving her must come before the respect you want to receive from her.  And to you women, respecting him must come before the love you want to receive of him.

The book of Esther is more than a story about what was happening with the Jewish people at the time.  It is a story about learning how to be more effective at doing the things we want to do.

Had Vashti thoughtfully considered how to express her displeasure to the king in a respectful way she would have chosen a different thing to do.  Had the king thoughtfully considered how Vashti would feel about what he wanted her to do he would have chosen a different thing to do.

When we take time to consider how before what, we allow ourselves time to discover a better way to choose what things we want to do.  Paul teaches this principle in 1 Corinthians 6:12 when he says, “All things are possible for me but not all things are good for me.”

Jesus also tries hard to teach us this principle.  The beatitudes in Matthew 5 are a great example of how before what.  In this chapter, Jesus is saying to us over and over, “If this is how you choose to live then these are the things you will choose to do.”  Could it be that He wants us to choose how we should live before we choose what things we will do to live?  I think so.

So, learn to take a moment in your life and consider how you want to live before you choose to do the next thing you want to do.  In all your ways acknowledge Him; this is how.  When you do that, He will direct your path or steps.  That is what.

Queen Vashti wasn’t wrong in her thinking.  She was wrong in what she chose to do to express her thinking.  When you choose how before what, you will learn to learn from the hidden wisdom and insight that is right before us all but hidden from our sight because we want what we want.

When you learn the power of choosing how before what, you will learn to have more love and respect in the relationships that are important to you.  Women respect your men; when you do people will see your respect and admiration of him in how you respond to how you are treated.  Men love your women; when you do, people will see her beauty in your eyes and in how you treat her. 

We can all want to be like Esther.  She was revered for her attitude.  But we all have some Vashti in us. The Lord wants us to learn from Him how to do what we want to do.  Everyone, choose how before you decide what.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

Easter is the time of year believers acknowledge Christ’s resurrection from the dead after He had been crucified.  We believe this happened on the third day after His death, just as He said it would happen.  John 20:1 says, “Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.”

Mary knew what the scripture said.  She knew what Jesus had told them.  She knew that He was to be resurrected from the dead.  Still, she went to the tomb looking to find a dead man there.  But to her amazement and astonishment, she found an empty tomb.

I prefer to say Easter is more our acknowledgement than a celebration because the empty tomb confirmed many things Jesus had told His followers would happen in the days of His life.  In John 11:25 Jesus tells Martha that her brother Lazarus will rise again from his death.  Martha responded by telling Jesus she knew that her brother would rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.  And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.  Do you believe this?” So, this Easter, why don’t you ask yourself.  Do you believe what Jesus said to Martha then?

Easter is indeed about the resurrection of Jesus, and we should acknowledge that for the greatness of the power and the love of God.  But we should celebrate too because if we believe in Christ.  The events surrounding His death and resurrection are the guarantee that though we may die, we too shall live.

We might look at Easter this way.

Easter is the time when God said enough is enough.  With the death of Jesus, man did the last thing man could do to harm or thwart the will of God.  When Jesus said, “It is finished” in some way He was simply saying, “Time’s up.”  Now all things will move according to the design of God more than the will of man.  You should acknowledge and celebrate that.

Easter is the time when God said death cannot hold those who believe in Jesus.  Death is just a place for believers to wait till morning when they are raised to an eternal life that cannot die.

Easter is the time when God said no stone can keep Him away from those He loves.  It is a time when God tells us that He wants to roll away the stones we have rolled across our lives to keep life out and death in.

Easter is the time when God said we are to live in heavenly places instead of a tomb.  It is a time for believers that say the tomb is the pathway to life.  Earthly life gives way to death so that our eternal life can be brought back from our temporary deaths.

Easter is God’s way of saying Jesus is the proof of His resurrection Power, and now it is time to prove that in your life.

With Easter, no tomb can hold us, no stone can block us, and no grave can keep us.  Death can only give way to life everlasting.

So, this Easter lets acknowledge what the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus meant for Him.  But let’s also celebrate because He is the life we all want and the resurrections we all need.  At Easter, we have lots to acknowledge and even more to celebrate.

So, get up early today.  Run on down to the tomb you have bought for your life.  There you will find He has rolled away the stone and removed your grave clothes.  Leave all your dead stuff there.  You don’t need that to live.

He has given you a new life to live here on earth because He is the Resurrection and the Life.

Have a great day!

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

I have learned that sometimes it’s through the pain of living that we learn to appreciate the goodness of life.  Sometimes it’s through sadness in life that we learn to appreciate the joy of life.  Sometimes it’s the losses we experience that teach us to appreciate what life really means.  And sometimes it’s when we face what we cannot do on our own that we learn to appreciate what the Lord can do for us.

In the book of Revelation, John writes to us while he is exiled on a deserted island called Patmos.  John introduces himself in Revelation 1:9 by saying, “I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.”

Listen closely to what John is saying.  He was there on Patmos waiting for the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. Yes, the Romans exiled John thinking they were punishing him.  But God used this circumstance to reveal to John His Word and the revelation of Christ’s return. Knowing this, John probably invited the Lord often to come.

John’s life was an invitation for the Lord to Come.  So, what about you and me?  Do you want His help, or do you want His return?  Do you want His healing, or do you want His presence?  Do you want His strength, or do you want His victory?  Do we live lives that invite the Lord to come?  Or do we live lives that simply ask Him to help.

John wasn’t asking for help.  John was asking for the Life that helps.  John didn’t love his life more than he loved the life Jesus promises to all who believe on Him.  John wanted what was to come so he asked the Lord to come and come quickly.  He said, “Come Lord Jesus, come.”

Revelation 22:20 says it this way: “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming quickly.’  Amen.  “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!”  I’m sure John was having a hard time on Patmos.  He didn’t have the amenities of life others enjoyed.  Things were tough there.  But John didn’t ask to be taken back to his old home.  He asked the Lord to come with the promise of a new life and a new home.

You can know if you are following John’s example by asking yourself these questions:

Do you try to live each day of life to its fullest, or do you live waiting for Him to fill your life each day with His thoughts and His revelation?  

Do you live trying to get through the challenges you face daily, or do you live waiting for Him to show up in your challenges?

Do you live a life that goes ahead of Him, or do you live a life that waits for Him to get ahead of you?

Do you live looking for what is right to happen for you, or do you live knowing that His grace will be sufficient for all that you face?

Do you live like you are right at home in your favorite place, or do you live like you are on an island waiting for Him to speak to you and to show you what is to come?

Are you asking Him to help, or are you asking Him to come?

If you are not waiting for His coming, what then are you waiting for?  When the Lord knows that you are waiting, He will hear your invitation for Him to come.

Let your life become an invitation for Him to come live with you right where you are.  No matter what you are facing today, live a life of invitation, and He will surely accept your call.  He will make a way for you to live in power and in grace in whatever your circumstance when your life says to Him, “Come Lord Jesus Come. Amen.”

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

Genesis 22:1-2 is the first time in scripture that the word love is specifically mentioned.  God says to Abraham, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”

Do you think God loved Abraham?  Do you think God loved Isaac?  And let’s not forget Sarah.  Do you think God loved Sarah?  Of course He did.  But how then is it possible He would ask Abraham to do such a thing?  God wanted to know where He stood with Abraham.

Isaac was Abraham’s son.  Surely Abraham loved him.  But Abraham was prepared to offer Issac as a sacrifice because God asked.  God was the first person to love Abraham, not Abraham’s parents as we would think.  He was Abraham’s first love and He wanted to know if Abraham loved Him in that way.  He wanted to know where He stood with Abraham.

 In 1 John 4:19 we are also told, “We love Him because He first loved us.” We know where we stand with God.    We are His First Love because “God is Love”(1 John 4:8).  He doesn’t just love as an act, He is the essence of the act, He is the essence of the emotion, and He is the essence of the feelings we have toward those we love.

We will never be anything less than His First Love.  John 3:16 tells us that He loved us so much that He sent Jesus, His only Son, to die for us that we may have life everlasting with Him.  Jesus loved you before you were even born.  Where does He stand with you?

There isn’t a person on earth who loves you more than Jesus and God.  Not your spouse.  Not your children. Not your mother or father. Not your friends. There is no one who loves you more than Jesus loves you.  He is your First Love.  He should never wonder where He stands.

It seems natural to us that we should love the people who brought us into the world.  We feel their love, and so we return their love with our own. This will be a hard thing for some of us to understand and accept, but your parents are not your first love.  The Lord is.

It was God who created you and allowed your parents to be part of bringing you into the world.  He loved you first. You must learn to love your first love with the love that He loved you.  By now you may be wondering what is Love?  Read 1 Corinthians 13.  The whole chapter is devoted to helping us understand what Love is.  It helps us to understand who Jesus is.

It tells us Love, that is Jesus, suffers long with us and it is kind while doing it.  Love, that is Jesus, does not envy anything that you have, does not parade itself around you, and is not puffed-up at you saying, Look at Me.”  Love, that is Jesus, does not behave rudely towards you, does not seek His own, and is not selfish toward you.  Love, that is Jesus, is not provoked and thinks no evil of you or of the things you do.  It does not rejoice in evil but instead it rejoices in the truth.  Love, that is Jesus, bears all things for you, believes all things for you, hopes and endures all things just for you.  Love, that is Jesus, never fails to love you.

That is the nature of the Love in which He first loved you.  What is going to be your response?  Will you receive all these things and say to Him, “You are the first person to love me, so I am going to love You like You are my First Love”?

Where does He stand?  Have you left your First Love for something or someone else? He is the first person to love you perfectly.  Have you left your first Love trying to do the things you believe He would love you to do? Let Him be the first person in which you have tried to love perfectly.

Bear with Him and be kind to Him in doing it.  Don’t envy things but humble yourself in His love.  Don’t go around saying He loves me while you make others feel like they are not loved.  Don’t be provoked into thinking and doing evil things.  Behave like you are His favorite.  Never let your love of Him and for Him and in Him fail to reach Him.

I don’t believe we can love anything or anyone else in the right way unless we keep our love for Him first. He is the first person we should love.  Let’s make sure we are doing that.  He is your First Love because He First Loved you.  That is where He should stand with you.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

When I’m coaching people, I always encourage them in this way, “Be better today than you were yesterday, and be better tomorrow than you are today.”  It’s a simple but profound bit of insight.  If you want more in your life, you need to learn to be more than you were a moment ago.

We need to learn to ask ourselves, “How is it working for us to keep living the way we have always lived?”  If you can remember too much of how you were yesterday, you are probably not living enough like the Lord wants you to live today.  Jesus doesn’t just change that which is old.  He helps us put to death the old to make way for the new.

You will never be the same when He is at work with you.  It is impossible to experience His presence and remain the same as you were before.  Some of us have some old stuff that needs to be put to death.  But we cannot do that just as we are.  We need the strength of the new to put to death the old.

It may be confusing to realize that Jesus wants us to die to the old before we can enjoy the new.  Well, here is the answer to that.  We have to learn to take our old person to the cross and stay there until Jesus does the work of helping us die to what keeps us from being made new.  You will never be the same when you stand before the work of His hands.

The problem for many of us is the cross.  When we see the cross, we run away rather than run towards.  If we never go to the cross, we can never learn to go in the direction the Lord wants us to go.  We think bad things happen at the cross, but the cross is the place in our lives where the ultimate goodness of God started.

You will never be the same when you learn to live around the cross.

At the cross, you will never walk the same.  Abraham went from a settler to a wanderer.  

At the cross, you will never talk the same.  Jacob went from speaking lies to speaking truths.

At the cross, you will never love the same.  Paul went from being a lover of the law to a lover of all people.

You will never be the same when you live at the place where new things are created.  If you want your kids to live differently, you go live at the foot of the cross.  If you want your marriage to be better, go live at the foot of the cross and you will be birthed into a new and better spouse.  If you want your work to be better, go live at the foot of the cross and a better worker will be created in you.

You will never be the same when you decide the person you were yesterday is too old to live another day of your life for you.  Jesus wants us to live never desiring to be the same as we were before.

When Moses met God, he went from being a shepherd to being a tool of deliverance. He was never the same.  When the woman at the well met the Lord, she went from being scorned to being loved.  She was never the same.

How is being the same as you are working out for you?  It can never work out for your good.  Listen, you ought to want all the new that the Lord offers.

In 2 Corinthians 4:16, scripture tells us, “Therefore, we do not lose heart.  Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.”  You will never be the same when Jesus is working to make you something new each day.

Once Jesus has delivered you from a way of life, you stop living like a former sinner.   Instead, you live delivered.  You don’t have to apologize to the world for who you were.  Tell the world who you are now because you are never the same, and you will never be the same with Jesus.

With Jesus at the cross of your life with you, you won’t talk the same tomorrow as you talk today.  You won’t work tomorrow the way you work today.

Thank the Lord for being the kind of God who makes the new so amazing for us that we forget how good things were before.  You will never be the same when you learn to let Him live in His Name with you.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

Some of you may have in your homes hanging someplace, something we refer to as the Ten Commandments.  These were God’s initial commandments given to the people of Israel while they were in the desert.  Back then, the commandments were written on tablets of stone and presented to the people.  Today it is not that way.

Now you can read the complete account of the creation of the tablets in Exodus 32.  Notice that Exodus 32:15-16 says, “And Moses turned and went down from the mountain, and the two tablets of the Testimony were in his hand.  The tablets were written on both sides, on the one side and on the other they were written.  Now the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets.”

Back then, it would have been impossible for the people to change the testimony God had given them.  If there was a commandment they did not like, they could do nothing to change what was written.  The tablets were not their work; they tablets were the work of God.

Today, we are His work.  He is trying to finish His work in each of us, writing the last chapter of who we are supposed to be.  Yes, we are His work today.  He is trying to put His handwriting on us, but we make it hard to do.

One day in my impatience I got the feeling that I was getting ahead of where the Lord was in His work with me.  I felt like I was hearing, “I’m not done with you yet.”  I believe a lot of you are like me.  I also believe if you are His, He is not done with you yet.

I used to be the type of person who tired easily of waiting for things to happen, so I tried to make happen what needed to happen for me.  That was wrong.  We must allow the Lord to finish the work He wants to finish.  He’s not done yet with any of us.  Just as with the Ten Commandments, the Lord has work to do with building the stones of our lives.  He still must finish writing the book of our lives.  He is not done yet—not with you, not with me.

Now we are happy to say sometimes, the Lord is doing a work in us.  Or we make mention of the work He is doing on us.  But His most important work is the work He has to complete with us, to make us complete in His who He wants us to be. Until He finishes His work with us, we must be careful that we do not act like we are ready to hang our commandments on the walls around us.

The Israelites were a stiff-necked people back then.  They were as hard as the stones God used to fashion the tablets.  Many of us are like the Israelites in this way.  We are hard-natured, so He is not done yet with either of us.  He is still working to carve the stony nature of our hearts into a soft nature like His own.

Many of us find it hard to love and to care about what others care about.  So, God is not finished with us yet.  He is still writing into our soft hearts, the nature of His love so that we can become loving caring people who show how He has worked with us.

And just like the Israelites were not able to change the writing on the tablets, many of us are unchanging.  So, God is not done with us yet.  He has to write the spirit of forgiveness, of grace and of mercy into our hearts so that we are ready to change in ways that make things better for others.

He is not done with us yet.  Just as the Ten Commandments were the start of what He had to say to us, our lives are just the start of what He wants to do with us.  Let’s not be too quick to act like we are ready to live our lives on our own.  He is not done with us yet.

The Lord is still fashioning us into the material He wants to use with us.  He is still writing into our life the message that He wants to be heard through our lives.  Our lives are not the message that you or I wrote.  It is His message He wrote with the finger and blood of Jesus, right onto the heart for Jesus He gave each of us.

We must be careful not to act like we are complete in who we want to be.  He is not done yet with fashioning us into who He wants us to be.  He still has work to do with us.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

I’m sure most of you have heard of the word scapegoat.  But what does the word really mean?  In the book of Leviticus, the scapegoat was the second of two goats raised to be presented before the Lord.  One as an offering or sacrifice for sin and the other or the scapegoat, to be presented alive before the Lord as atonement.  The scapegoat was then set free in the wilderness to carry the sins away.

You can read more about this in Leviticus 16: 7-32.  The scapegoat then was an innocent goat guilty of nothing but offered as atonement for the sins of someone else.  We typically misuse the term today.  We typically do not punish anyone for the wrongs of someone else.  In the scripture, they were happy to have a scapegoat.  Today we point out how wrong it is for someone to be made a scapegoat.

None of this would matter to us today if we learned that the one thing that would keep us from ever being thought of as scapegoats by society is to learn to rule our sin not the men among us.  We see this in the book of Genesis when God speaks to Cain about the nature of his offering to God.

Cain was angry with himself, with his brother, and with God because God did not respect Cain and his offering, but He did respect and accept Abel and his offering.  Why did God do this?  Because Abel did what God asked him to do in the way he was asked.  But Cain did what Cain wanted to do and expected that to be accepted.

Genesis 4:7 says this was God’s reaction after learning that Cain was angry with God and with Abel because he believed neither God nor Abel liked who he was or what he did.  God said to Cain, “If you do well, will you not be accepted?  And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door.  And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”  Cain didn’t listen.  He went right out, and in his anger, he killed his brother Abel.

Cain failed to rule his sin; instead, he tried to rule man.  Cain wanted to be respected and he wanted his actions to be accepted.  But Cain did not want to do or be what made others accepted and respected.  Cain wanted to rule over God, and he wanted to rule over man.  Cain wanted respect and acceptance just as he was.

Does this sound anything like us today?  Well, it should.  Just like back then, God wants you and I to learn to rule over sin not men.  I know some of us would like to say we are nothing like Cain.  But if we want others to respect us and to accept our sins or our views on sin above God’s view, we are more like Cain than we are like God.

It’s important for us to learn that we are wired to want respect and acceptance from others.  We may not think about this each day, but it is the nature of our being.  Many people have been killed because they disrespected someone else.  And many relationships have been broken because someone was not respected for a behavior that someone thought was no harm to anyone.

Respect is something that is given when it is earned.  In a way, respect is the wages for the work you earn when you work on ruling your sin.  Some people will respect you because they are great people.  But most people give respect to others because others have earned that respect.  When you learn to rule your sin and not men, you will come to earn the respect others will naturally give you.

Acceptance of what you do cannot be separated from respect from the person you are.  Acceptance is more about who you are that leads to what you do.  Because others know who you are they come to accept the things you do.  When you learn to rule over sin more than men, you come to be respected and accepted.

A trustworthy person will do trustworthy things.  Be trustworthy.  A loving person will do loving things.  Be loving.  A caring person will do caring things.  Be caring.  A hard-working person will do hard-working things.  Be hard-working.  When you are any of these things, people will respect you and accept the things you do.

Likewise, a sloppy person will do sloppy things.  Rule your sin.  A lazy person will do lazy things.  Rule your sin.  A selfish person will do selfish things.  A condemning or accusing person will condemn and accuse.  Rule your sin.  When you are any of these things, people will have a hard time accepting you or the things you do.

So, listen to what God said to Cain.  It was life-saving advice back then and it is the same today.  When you learn to rule your sin instead of ruling men, you don’t need to be a scapegoat, and you don’t need to have a scapegoat.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

Did you know one of the hardest things we have to face in life is to learn that we need help living our lives?  Why is it so hard?  Because we grow up encouraged to believe we can do anything that we put our hearts and minds to do.

I imagine all of us at some time come to rely on an idol-like thing we call “it.”  We are told that it is in us to do whatever we want to do; we just have to believe.  Well, that is not exactly true.  We should ask ourselves – what is the “it” that is so powerful that “it” can enable us to do all the things we want do to?  Does it think?  Does it talk?  Does it act on our behalf?  Does it have a name?  

It is nothing.  It cannot even help us figure out who “it” is.  We need help.

It is not in us to do all that we can do.  We don’t need an “it” to help us live; we need a He.  It can do nothing for us, but He can do anything.  Adam found out about how helpless it is while in the garden.  Adam needed help, and he knew that.  It could not make Adam’s first pair of pants, but God did.  Like Adam, you and I need help.

Psalm 121:1-2 tells us as much.  The psalm says, “I will lift up my eyes to the hills—from whence comes my help?  My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.”  Plainly this is saying “I need help and I know where to look for Him.”  We don’t look for “it,” and we don’t look for the help.  Instead, we look for Him from whom the help comes.

King David wrote this Psalm.  He had the sense to know that he needed help with life.  So, he says he looked to the hills wondering if that is where his help would come from.  Then he said to himself that his help with life comes from the Lord, the Person who made heaven and earth.  Thank goodness, God is not an “it”.  He is a person.

David is saying to us, if the Lord can make heaven and earth, surely, He is able to help us with our life.  But we must recognize that we need help.  If we don’t acknowledge we need help and look for Him, then we will have to rely on “it.”  But it cannot help you find Him when it cannot help itself find itself.  You need help.

If you are finding that things are not working out for you as much as you think they should, perhaps it is because you are relying on “it” to do for you what only the Lord can do.  We tend to choose to rely on “it” for our help because we do not want anyone telling us how to act or how to behave or what to do.

Listen, when you believe you are your own and rely on “it” for your help, this is how your life will grow and how it will be seen.  

You may rise only to fall to pride.  If you are given a position or some authority, it will make you act in a prideful way.  But when you seek help from Him for your provision, He will position you with the authority to live in a humble, grateful, and thankful way.  To overcome your pride, you need His help.

You will use knowledge incorrectly.  When you acquire some knowledge, it will make you exalt yourself and act without intelligence.  But when you seek help from Him for what you need to know, He will make you wise, discerning, and respectful of how little you really know.  To overcome your sense of intelligence, you need His help.

You will seek more of everything.  When you are given a little success, it will make you act like enough will never be enough for you.  But when you seek help from Him for your needs, He will make you grateful for all that you have.  You will never run out of oil when He is your helper.

You will become high-minded.  When you are given a little victory over anything, it will make you trust yourself more than you should.  But when you seek help from Him in how you live, work and play, He will make you trust Him more than you do anyone else or anything else.  To overcome selfishness, you need His help.

We need help with life. That help cannot come from a thing.  Help must come from Him who made all things.  We have the life of the Holy Spirit inside us, and we have the Wisdom that comes with Him.  When we are guided by Him in all we do, He will make the simple knowledge of things pleasant to us.  Discretion will preserve us, and understanding will keep us safe and sure.

You need help.  Yes you.  Look to the Hills of your heart.  That is where you will find your help.  Throw yourself into His arms, and He will keep you.  He will not fail you because He is your keeper if you permit Him to be.

Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.