Month: June 2023

There is a old joke that says, “I can resist anything but temptation.” Today’s scripture reading tells us that is not true.

1 Corinthians 10:13

“God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond 
what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also 
provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. 

In other words, you can handle It

It is sad that so many believe that the temptation can be too much. The world loves the idea of temptation being beyond our control and thus has created the idea of addiction. One cannot deny the stranglehold that bad habits can have on us, but most things are not addictions, but rather compulsions. 

You may decide that you do not want to resist the temptation, but it is never greater than you can resist. Too often we just give in and then fell back on the excuse of the temptation was too great. How can we know that we can resist any temptation? If you read 1 Corinthians 10:13 you will see that God promises us that He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can handle. 

How can we know that this is always true? The text answers that question – because “God is faithful.” When I claim there was no escape from the temptation then I am accusing God of being unfaithful. He says He will not allow the temptation to be too great for us. We should believe that He is faithful.

In the book of Job, Satan wanted to lash out against Job, but first had to get God’s permission. God told him that he could, but told him how far he could go. 

As hard as things were for Job, God sat boundaries to protect him. After Job passed the first test Satan came back to God to ask for permission to hit Job even harder. Each step of the way God was deciding how much Job could be tempted.

According to our text, He does that for you and me. All of this is implied in the often used phrase, “God will not give us more than we can handle.” Whatever your trial might be, you can handle it. I know this because God is faithful!

Lonnie Davis

Our text is Proverbs 16:22.

“Understanding is a fountain of life to one who has it.”

Let me paraphrase, “If you understand why you do what you do, you will have a better life.”

Did you ever do things and not understand why you did them? 

If your answer is that you do what you do just because you have always done things that way, then maybe you need to reevaluate things.

An experiment was done to cause us to consider ways. Here was the experiment. You start with a cage containing five monkeys. In the cage, hang a banana on a string and put stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the monkeys with cold water. I know that sounds mean, but stay with me.

After a while, another monkey will make an attempt but will be met with the same response – all of the monkeys are sprayed with cold water. 

Keep this up for several days and then stop spraying the water. Never use the water again. If, later, another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it even though no water sprays them.

Now, remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his horror, all of the other monkeys attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new monkey. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer who has never experienced the water takes part in the attack.

Do this until all the original monkey have been replaced. Finally there are no monkeys in the cage who have ever been sprayed with water. However, they still attack any monkey who goes for the banana. Finally no monkey ever again approaches the stairs.

Why not? “Because that’s the way it’s always been done around here.”

Hmmm?

Those are truly words worth thinking.

Lonnie Davis

Did you ever wonder what heaven was going to be like, or at least look like? Our scripture today will give you a glimpse into that eternal city.

Revelation 21:10-12

And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel.

Now do you know what heaven will look like? Probably not. I have studied those verses and still have no confidence in telling you exactly what heaven will look like. 

Many years ago I read a fascinating story that seems relevant about this question. It told the story of a farmer from the middle of Kansas who went to New York City. None of his family had ever been to the big city and so went he got back, the family all gathered around. “Dad, did you see any skyscrapers?” He told them he had and they asked, “What did they look like?

Since they had never no reference for a skyscraper, he said, “Well, they are tall and skinny.” He paused, then continued, “You know that silo on the Mr. Jones farm? Well, it is just like that, only about 10 times as tall.”

The family felt that they understood what the skyscraper looked like, but you and I know they did not.

I’ve read the text, but I really, really don’t know what heaven will look like. But, it will be a wonderful surprise.

Lonnie Davis

I had a best friend who was the “baby” of his family. He knew he was, but still he did not enjoy being called the “baby” of his family. Fortunately for him, he was a baby only in the sense that he was the youngest of his family, but spiritually he was mature. It is not an insult to be the baby of the family, but we should not long be a “baby” in spirit. That is, never allow  yourself to be an “old baby.”

Are you a old baby in Christ? How would you know if you’re a baby in Christ? To answer that question, let’s read our text for today:

1 Corinthians 3:1-4
Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?

From tis text we can see 3 signs of Spiritual Immaturity

1. Spiritual Babies need to be taught the same things over and over.

Not only does Paul say that here, but it is also taught in Hebrews 5:12 – 

“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you a gain the basic principles of the oracles of God.”

We are meant to grow up in our faith. We are always needing to be taught, but not the same things we should have already learned. 

2. Spiritual Babies are always comparing themselves to someone else AND getting jealous. Such a person will not admit to jealousy. They call it by some other name. Maybe it is just “there is something about them I don’t like.” Or perhaps you denigrate the other person – “they think they are better than everyone else.”

3. You choose up teams in the church. 

They are just dividers of people and always have a set of people that don’t get along with. Yes, have your own Peter, James, and John, but love the rest also. Get along with them.

If we love one another, it shows up. One lady used to tell me that her husband loved her and then would all, “He just doesn’t know how to show it.” Really? The truth is that love always shows.

So does spiritual maturity.

Lonnie Davis

Our Text today is Matthew 3:13-17

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented. 

As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

If y0u are ever driving down the road and see a car with a symbol of a dove on it, you can assume that you are seeing a car driven by someone who believes in Jesus. 

Where did the Dove symbol have its origin? According to Matthew 3:16, during the Baptism of Jesus the Holy Spirit descended like a dove and came to rest on Jesus. For this reason the dove became a symbol of the Holy Spirit and even of Christianity itself.

I respect that others see the dove in this way, but I have a different suggestion. Suppose instead of a dove, the symbol for Christianity was a butterfly. Why a butterfly, you might ask.

I had this thought the other day when I was again listening to the beautiful story of the caterpillar that changed into a butterfly. In the story, his friends find the old shell of the caterpillar and grieve. The butterfly soaring above wants to tell them he has become something even better. They cannot hear his words, but keep on grieving the loss of their friend.

The point of that story is that we don’t die, we just change to something better. Of course the butterfly dies again and that is where our change is much better. But still it has some obvious implications for a Christian.

These are words worth thinking about.

Lonnie Davis

What Would Jesus Do with Stress

Some days are harder than others. Well, some weeks or some months are especially difficult. I’ve known people fighting battles with illness whose goal was to make it through the year.

Our text today tells of Jesus’ response to a hard place in his life. He walked for days to get to the grave of his friend. When he got there, people he loved were crying. He raised his dead friend from the dead and the response of the powers that be was to seek to kill him.

Under these circumstances we come to our text which shows Jesus’ response to this stressful time.

John 11:54

Therefore Jesus no longer continued to walk publicly among the Jews, but went away from there to the country near the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim; and there He stayed with the disciples.

On this stressful day he did three things:

First: He took care of his needs. 

It is wonderful to take care of everyone else, but there is a time when you have to see to your own needs also.

Second: He retreated

to a place where the threat would not be so immediate. Of course Jesus was not afraid that someone might kill him. He knew that he was born for the cross. He retreated because it wasn’t yet time for the cross.

Third: He went to people who loved him. 

Surely you have people who love you even when the world seems to be against you. Those are the people who when you have hard days, you find comfort by just being around them.

When you find yourself in stress, it means that  you are human. We all get it. These words are a reminder of how Jesus handled stress.

Lonnie Davis

I Was a Lost Sheep

Well, I wasn’t a lost sheep as much as I felt like a lost sheep. I’ll explain after the Bible reading.

Luke 15: 3-6

So He told them this parable, saying, 

“What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? 

“When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. “And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ 

Here is my story of  my time as a lost sheep.

My favorite toy as a youth, was my marine style BB-gun. It wasn’t powerful, but to me it was an army rifle. When I was in the fourth grade, two of my friends and I went hunting in the Big Thicket forest around Porter, TX. 

We walked back and forth around the trail in the woods. After a couple of hours of hunting with our bb-guns, we decided we needed to go back home. Since the trail we were on wound around like a Christmas ribbon candy, we took the short cut, left the known trail, and just cut through the forest. Bad mistake! Within 20 minutes we were lost and darkness was falling. I remember that we had the good sense to save some of our ammunition (bb’s) just in case a mountain lion were to attack us. (I don’t know where any mountain lions can be found in east Texas woods).

Lost and afraid, we walked and prayed for another two hours. Finally we came upon a lighted house in the woods. We knocked on the door and the man drove us back home.

We soon found out that there were search parties out hunting us.

Later I reflected on this event and realized a few things.

1. When you mess up, do your best to help yourself, but as soon as possible ask somebody for help. Thanks to the unknown man who lived in the woods.

2. When you are lost and confused, prayer is a wonderful source to lean on. One might say that we didn’t need prayer because we found the man in the house. But, how do we know whether we found the man because we prayed.

3. When you are struggling, don’t do stupid things. We knew we needed to save our precious ammunition (bb’s) for a possible mountain lion. At least do the best you know to do.

4. Don’t quit! When you are struggling, just keep on trying. There is help waiting for you that you don’t even know about, i.e. The man in the house in the woods and search parties.

Lonnie Davis

Our text today is from the story of Noah and the Ark and is a reading from Genesis 7:7-9 and Genesis 8:14-16

The Bible says

Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him entered the ark because of the water of the flood. Of clean animals and animals that are not clean and birds and everything that creeps on the ground, there went into the ark to Noah by twos, male and female, as God had commanded Noah.

Later in the story, we read…

In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry. Then God spoke to Noah, saying, “Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons’ wives with you.

Look at the story. He was in that boat for a long time. 

Noah and his family were in the ark, living with the animals for more than a year! That is a long time to be traveling on a  boat filled with elephants, snakes, bats, dogs and every other animal you can imagine. 

 Noah and his family were on the ark for 377 days. 

A wise man once said, “No pain is wasted if you learn from it.” 

If we could ask Noah what lessons he learned from life on the Ark, what do you think he might say?

 I can think of many possible lessons, but let me share 5 of my favorites.

1. Plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark. While the Bible does not specifically say how long it took him to build that boat, we know from Genesis 6 that it took at least 100 years. That is serious planning ahead.

2. Listen to God.

He gave specific instructions on how to build the boat. When God tells you how something should be done, follow his instructions. The Father knows best. 

3. Obey God now!

The flood was on the way. Noah didn’t work on the boat someday. Once you know what God wants, then nothing should cause you to delay.

4. If you can’t fight or flee – float!

Modern psychology tell us that we have a fight or flight response to life. When we feel threatened, then we either run or fight. Well sometimes we can’t do either. Some times we just have to float.

5. Don’t forget that we’re all in the same boat.

One bonus lesson.

6.  No matter how bad things look, there’s always a rainbow on the other side.

Lonnie Davis

Political correctness drives nearly everything today.  Did you know it was like that in the days when Jesus lived on earth. When the religious leaders were confronted with doing what is right and scary or doing what is politically correct and safe, they chose to do what was politically safe. Let’s read our text and it will be obvious. Our story begins after the resurrection of Lazarus.

Text: John 11:47-48

Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, “What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs. If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”

Did you see it? When confronted with doing the right thing or doing the wrong, but politically correct thing, they ignored right. If you doubt this, notice how this story ends.

John 11:53 says, 

“So from that day on they planned together to kill Him.”

There were points to be made for being politically cautious. They feared that if Jesus were allowed to teach unchecked, he would build a great following and that might upset the Romans who would destroy them. They couldn’t have that so they decided to kill Jesus. It is hard to believe that they would make that kind of decision, but that did!

To choose righteousness when it scares us is a hard thing to do. It was then and it is now!

Truth must always be more important than fear.

Lonnie Davis

One more lesson from the great story of the resurrection of Lazarus. Today as we come to that graveside near Jerusalem, Jesus weeps for his friend and tells them to remove the stone. Here is what happens next in John 11:41-44

So they removed the stone.

 Then Jesus raised His eyes, and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. “I knew that You always hear Me; but because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me.” 

When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth.” The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. 

Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” (John 11:41-44)

From this amazing text we can see an important lesson on prayer.

Prayer must be prayed with confidence and boldness.

Jesus prayed for what was about to happen, as though God had already done it. He loudly prayed “I thank you Father” for something that had not yet happened. He wanted all the people around him to hear that God would answer his prayer. 

That is the way to pray. Pray asking and then know that God will do what was asked.

Our lack of confidence can make our prayer life weak. 

The story is told of a little west Texas farming community that was going through a great drought. Their fields were drying up and their crops were dying. As a last ditch effort the little community decided to get together at 8 PM at the local church and  prayer for rain. 

At 8 o’clock the church was full.  

The last person to enter the building was a little 7-year-old girl. As she walked down the aisle she was carrying an umbrella. As she walked past some of the older folks, someone said, “Isn’t she cute? She thinks it is going to rain.”

In our story today, Jesus knew that God would raise Lazarus from the dead and so he shouted with a loud voice for all to hear.

You and I need to use a loud voice with our prayers. I admit that the answer might sometimes be “No,” or “Not yet” or maybe “Here is something even better.” But the answer is often a simple “Yes.” 

Matthew 7:7, “Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you.” 

When you pray, pray loudly and bring your umbrella. God answers prayers.

Lonnie Davis