Psalm 34:8a  Taste and see that the LORD is good;

We lived in Colorado Springs from 2005 – 2009.  During that time it was our privilege to be a part of a marvelous Friday night gathering there called “theMill”.  About 1,000 college age and 20-somethings gathered each Friday night for over two hours of worship and teaching.

The pastor of theMill at that time was Aaron Stern.  The Lord so gifted him in communicating to this age group.  One of the more memorable times was when Aaron spoke on this verse.  After some preliminary comments, he brought out a box of Krispy Kreme glazed donuts.

Aaron proceeded to talk about the company that made these donuts.  He went on for some time talking about how successful they were; how they were growing; how many stores they had;  just on and on.  He then opened the box of donuts and began describing what they looked like.  How many there were in the box; what the smell was like.  Then he lifted a donut out to examine it and for everyone to see it.

He finally looked at everyone, grinned and said how it wasn’t enough to know about Krispy Kreme and the donuts they made.  He had to sample one – so he did.  Aaron proceeded to slowly take one bite after another – oohing and ahhing as he savored each bite.  He just ate the donut and said it was so good he had to eat another.  So he ate another continuing the sound effects of just super-enjoying what he tasted.  As you can imagine, the crowd was going nuts while he was doing this.

This all led him to the point that it wasn’t enough to know about God – we have to experience Him.  We have to taste him and see just how good He is.  In 1 Peter 2:1-3 Peter is giving them instructions in light of the fact that, “…now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”   When we walk in His ways our daily lives will be filled with ‘tasting’ Him and being consumed with His goodness.

PS – At the end of Aaron’s message he announced that out in the foyer there were Krispy Kreme donuts for everyone to taste and enjoy.

1 Chronicles 5:20 They were helped in fighting them, and God handed the Hagrites and all
their allies over to them, because they cried out to him during the battle. He answered their prayers, because they trusted in him.

Today’s verse presents trusting in the Lord in a way that is probably more common to most Christians.  In the midst of a crisis, we call on the Lord.  The Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh were in a battle and in the midst of it they cried out to the Lord.  God answered their prayers, because they trusted in Him.  The Amplified Bible describes this trust as ‘they relied on, clung to, and trusted in Him’.

This event is such a wonderful example of God’s ‘normality’ – His people are in a situation; they pray and trust Him and He answers their prayers.  The goal is to make this ‘our normality’ – but with the recognition that it applies to every area of our lives.  We must avoid at all cost life-habits that in reality say, ‘When all else fails, trust God.’  Or, a more positive way of saying this negative is, ‘God helps those who help themselves.’

Here is where our relationship with the Lord becomes so vital.  Walking in His ways is a primary way of learning to trust Him.  His ways bring blessing and when we walk in them we experience Him more and more.  We learn that God can’t be unfaithful or unloving or uncaring.  He is always there.  It becomes a given in our hearts and minds that God is intimately involved in our situations because that is the way He is.  No matter what happens, He is there with us and for us.

We can experientially learn the reality that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego expressed to the king when confronted with being thrown into a blazing furnace.  They declared to him that their God was able to rescue them and they believed He would …but even if He didn’t….  Their trust and confidence was in Him!

Our confidence and trust in Jesus is not predicated on the outcome – it becomes experientially a given in our lives.  No matter what – He is true and we stand securely in that knowledge and relationship.  It is not just a theological truth we affirm – it is the reality that we experience with Him.

Ephesians 4:32a  Be kind and compassionate to one another,…

A special memory from several years ago:  “I am sitting in my leather recliner typing with Pappy, a small Poodle, squeezed in next to me on the seat. My left arm is resting on his back as I type. It’s funny, when I went to sit down, he was off to the side but when I sat down, he was already in the chair next to me. Pappy is Tom & Karen’s dog.  They are good friends of ours and Pappy is a good friend of Snuggles, our Pekingese.”

While living in Tennessee, Donna and I so appreciated the fact that when we went out of town, Tom & Karen watched Snuggles, and when they went out of town, we got to watch Pappy.  It was a twofold blessing.  The blessing to us wasn’t just when our pet was being watched by them.  There was an equal blessing to us when we watched their pet.  We know how we feel when we’re the ones traveling.  We didn’t worry about Snuggles because she was with them.  Likewise, they didn’t worry about Pappy, because Pappy was with us.  While it’s wonderful to save the cost of a kennel, the blessing is far more than monetary.  It was a very special kindness that both couples were able to experience – and one that any owner of a pet can appreciate.

Stop and think about the wonderful blessing of ‘kindnesses’.  Can you think of incidents in your life where similar types of kindnesses occur?  I’m talking about where we experience an awareness of being blessed; where we want to say thank you to the one(s) extending the kindnesses to us.  Kindnesses can be big or small.  Sometimes the smallest things done at the right time can bring extraordinary blessing.  They are like seasonings in our lives – making things ‘taste’ better.

How about where we are the ones seeing the needs of others and helping them?  Jesus said, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”  We don’t ‘do’ to ‘get’ – but He was describing something that is to become a way of life for us.  It’s the wonder of being other-oriented.  Today’s verse can be viewed as a command that we have to do (which it really is) or we can view it as one of God’s keys to great blessing: we get to be kind and compassionate!

An important thought to remember:  kindnesses are actions – not just feelings of good will.  They are things we do.  It is seeing opportunities around us and responding where we are able.  Remember how blessed we are when others see our need and are kind to us.  Let us do likewise.

Proverbs 27:5-6a  Better is open rebuke than hidden love.  ⁶ Wounds from a friend can be trusted,

One of my classes at Wheaton Grad School dealt with resolving conflicts.  We each had to take a test that measured our view of confrontation.  Among the students in the class were pastors, missionaries, teachers and workers in Christian organizations.  We were all a bit surprised when we discovered that we all wanted to avoid confrontation like the plague!

‘Confrontation’ is one of those words like ‘commands’, ‘obey’, ‘obedience’, ‘submission’ that we seem to have an allergic reaction to instead of seeing it as vital to healthy Christian living.  We tend to think of explosive, angry, unpleasant interactions that make the problems worse.

Rather, it’s important to recognize that facing up to problems, issues or people is essential – and to do so in love is a requirement of scripture.  It is a multifaceted redemptive skill that we must learn.  Key to confronting situations is learning how to do it, when to do it and if in fact it needs to be done.

Years ago my dad belonged to a men’s Bible study.  One day he commented that he was going to quit attending it – that most of the men had already quit coming.  I asked him why.  He said, “Wally just won’t quit talking and dominates everything.”  I suggested that he talk to Wally and tell him about this problem he has – that his non-stop talking is driving the men away.  Dad said, “I couldn’t do that.  None of us want to hurt Wally’s feelings.”  The men thought it better for the Bible study to die than to confront a brother with a blind spot who probably didn’t realize what he was doing.

If we are doing something wrong or something that is causing a problem, wouldn’t we want to know about it?  Wouldn’t we want a co-worker, a friend, or a loved one to take us aside and in kindness inform us of it?  If we were Wally, wouldn’t we want to know before we were sitting all by ourselves?

The Golden Rule is such a simple yet profound learning tool – “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”  When it comes to speaking to someone about a problem (think family, kids, spouse, parents, co-workers, friends), we are to do it in a way that we would like it done to us if the roles were reversed.

1 Corinthians 15:33  Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”

When we look out the kitchen window we see the garden I wrote of yesterday.  The roses and iris are in full bloom and they are so beautiful.  The pink, red and yellow colors are vibrant and abundant.  One thing that really helps is that these plants are a lot taller than the weeds – at least now they are.

The smaller plants around them though are another matter.  That is where the war with the weeds is really taking place.  But this week I am going to enter the fray and get rid of the weeds.  In my love of the dramatic I think of the battle of Helm’s Deep in the Lord of the Rings.  The good guys (the flowers) are on the verge of being overwhelmed by the bad guys (the weeds) and at the crack of dawn Gandalf and reinforcements (me) arrive and the bad guys are defeated.

We wrote yesterday of our spiritual gardens that the flowers and weeds represent referencing the Parable of the Sower.  Jesus taught how the weeds could choke out the life of the good seed (flowers).  Today’s verse raises another serious threat that presents itself.  Using our illustration, it warns that the association with the ‘weeds’ will corrupt good ‘flowers’.

Who we are in Christ Jesus can become corrupted by those we associate with.  This speaks to those we enjoy being with or hang out with.  Unfortunately, we can be blind to this corruption taking place.  Consider today’s verse as it appears in the Amplified Bible:

Do not be so deceived and misled! Evil companionships (communion, associations) corrupt and deprave good manners and morals and character.

We must understand that a culture war is raging and the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the “bull’s eye” for the enemy’s attacks.  The war is to eliminate or corrupt all those who claim to be Christians.  Sadly the evidence of the success of these attacks surrounds us.

When our love for God is what it should be, we resist accommodating the ways of the world – we embrace His ways.  We recognize right and wrong.  We reject the ‘weeds’ and keep them out of our lives. Our lives are not judgmental, but filled with love, grace and mercy.  We become those who come to the aid of others to help them rid their ‘gardens’ of ‘weeds’.

Mark 4:7  Some fell in the weeds; as it came up, it was strangled among the weeds and nothing came of it.

It’s amazing how many weeds have flowers.  I’m not talking about the ones that you see along roads or out in fields.  I’m talking about the ones that come up in your gardens along with the flowers that have been planted.  How often do we see that our gardens are loaded with both?  My problem is telling which is which.

Some flowers are easy to identify: roses, iris, tulips and daffodils.  Likewise dandelions are weeds.  Even though a field of blooming dandelions might be pretty, that beauty ceases to exist when they are in our yards and gardens.  The problem is all the other stuff that is coming up in the garden.

I have never been a gardener so when I look at the garden my thoughts are to get someone who knows this stuff and have them identify the flowers and the weeds.  When I look closely though, it’s apparent that some of the flower-bearing ‘growth’ is rapidly filling the garden and choking other plants out.  It’s almost like this ‘growth’ wants me to be distracted by its pretty little flowers while it takes over and chokes out the ‘opposition’ – the true flowers that are intended to grow.

Welcome to the spiritual garden of our lives where we have growing ‘cultural’ weeds and kingdom flowers – and each of us is responsible for what is found there.  The problem is that far too many who call themselves Christian have their spiritual gardens (read lives) filled with pretty little ‘flowers’ that are all weeds; and these weeds are choking out and obliterating the kingdom life that belongs there.

Jesus warned us about this in the Parable of the Sower from which today’s verse comes.  We must not underestimate the power of these ‘weeds’ in our lives when we allow them to become established instead of pulling them out.  Here is Jesus’ warning as given in The Message:

“The seed cast in the weeds represents the ones who hear the kingdom news but are overwhelmed with worries about all the things they have to do and all the things they want to get. The stress strangles what they heard, and nothing comes of it.”                   (Mark 4:17-18)

Pray that the Lord will help us identify the ‘weeds’ in our lives; and that He will enable us to see where we have allowed ourselves to become deceived into thinking they are genuine flowers that belong there.  The Holy Spirit will then enable us to effectively “weed” the garden of our life.

NOTE: Pray for our Christian brother and what he is going through: Harrison Butker, 28, the placekicker for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League, delivered the commencement address at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, on Saturday, May 11, 2024

Ephesians 1:15-23

Thanksgiving and Prayer

¹⁵ For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, ¹⁶ I have not stopped giving thanks for you,remembering you in my prayers. ¹⁷ I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit^[a] of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. ¹⁸ I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people,¹⁹ and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength ²⁰ he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, ²¹ far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. ²² And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, ²³ which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

1 Chronicles 29:10-13New International Version

David’s Prayer

¹⁰ David praised the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly, saying,

“Praise be to you, Lord,
    the God of our father Israel,
    from everlasting to everlasting.
¹¹ Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power
    and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,
    for everything in heaven and earth is yours.
Yours, Lord, is the kingdom;
    you are exalted as head over all.
¹² Wealth and honor come from you;
    you are the ruler of all things.
In your hands are strength and power
    to exalt and give strength to all.
¹³ Now, our God, we give you thanks,
    and praise your glorious name.

Let us remember the glorious wonder of our God. We get to live for Him!

Proverbs 17:9  He who covers over an offense promotes love, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.

You’re driving down the road in wintery weather.  A truck goes by and suddenly your windshield is covered with slush and dirt.  Visibility has just decreased about 99% and you can’t see anything.  Even with your wipers on high it just becomes a brown blur.  At that moment isn’t it nice to push the button and have your windshield sprayed with washer fluid? In seconds you can see again.

One of the nice things about this illustration is that in real life the consequences of not having a functional windshield washing system are immediately apparent when the need arises.  For most of us, the one item that most likely could go wrong is to be out of fluid.  Driving and not being able to see just don’t go together.

We might not realize it but failing to overlook offenses in relationships is like driving in traffic without being able to see; accidents happen and damage occurs.  Such ‘mud’ on the windshield of life is normal.  Jesus followers have the ‘spiritual fluid’ and the practical ability to clear it away.  We don’t take offense.  We cover over the offense.  We overlook it.  We forgive.

We do not allow offenses to become wedges in relationships.  That is exactly what the enemy of our souls wants to have happen.  The Message puts today’s verse this way:

 Overlook an offense and bond a friendship; fasten on to a slight and—good-bye, friend!

The Amplified Bible spells out a bit more the actions involved in this:

 He who covers and forgives an offense seeks love, but he who repeats or harps on a matter separates even close friends.

May we have the spiritual eyes to see the ‘mud’ on our ‘windshield’ when offenses occur so that we will respond in a way that reflects the love we share.

2 Corinthians 5:7  We live by faith, not by sight.

Have you ever noticed how common mistakes are?  Fortunately we don’t have video replay in our daily lives where family and friends can relive our blunders.  It’s bad enough listening to our kids hilariously remembering them.  But the sporting world provides some wrenching examples of errors by referees / umpires, and usually there is video replay that everyone has to live with – for better or worse.  While no one expects perfection, you just hope mistakes are inconsequential.  Unfortunately, some errors that come to mind were anything but.

Some years ago a Detroit Tiger pitcher was deprived of a perfect game by an umpire’s mistake.  With two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, the umpire mistakenly called a runner safe at first when replays clearly showed he was out – the last out! Afterward, the umpire was devastated to see the video replay of his mistake that deprived the pitcher of a rare perfect game.  Yes, umpires make mistakes, but this one involved the final out of a perfect game.

Most sports use technology or video replay to some degree to ensure against significant refereeing mistakes.  Soccer does not.  In the World Cup, on the same day, Germany and Argentina advanced in games marred by refereeing errors.  The whole world saw that England scored against Germany to tie the game up before the half at 2-2.  Unfortunately the referee and his linesman missed it! Germany went on to win 4-1.  That evening Argentina beat Mexico3-1, but Argentina’s first goal should have been disallowed because it was scored by a player clearly offside.  Note: The 2018 World Cup was the first time video review (VAR) was used.

Such mistakes really offend our sense of fairness – particularly when video replay confirms the error!  If only the mistakes could have been corrected, the results might have been different.  If only the baseball Commissioner had overturned the umpire’s call… If only video replay had been used in World Cup games…  If only God had….

Our response in difficult situations reveals what we really believe about God – who we think He is.  Is He our rock, our refuge, our comforter, our sustainer, our enabler, our inspiration, etc….  Or is He a referee who occasionally gets it wrong – who allows things that aren’t fair?  Do we get upset because something happens that is ‘against our understanding of the rules’ and we complain and question and argue: “He should have caught that!”

We need to understand that walking by ‘sight’ leads us on the path to the ‘referee / fairness’ model that results in victims and blown calls.  Walking by ‘faith’ leads us to the reality of who God is and how incredibly secure we are in Him – no matter what our circumstances look like.  Remember, God never has an “Oops!”