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^{Malach 3:6-12}

⁶ “I the LORD do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. ⁷ Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD Almighty.

“But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’

⁸ “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.

“But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’

“In tithes and offerings. ⁹ You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. ¹⁰ Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. ¹¹ I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the LORD Almighty. ¹² “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the LORD Almighty.

Just look at the back end of verse 10 again.  Are you getting this?  "Test me in this..."  God wants us to test Him.  Call Him on it.

At work we have a policy:  "Work now; grieve later."  In other words, if there is some sort of issue (barring an immediate safety issue) employees are to take it up after the shift; meantime, they are to get done what they are supposed to do.  I am the boss; that's just the way it is.  I try to be fair, understanding, pleasant, reasonable, charitable, appreciative, gracious -- but there is a bottom line, and if you insist I will show you where that is.  I would like for all of my employees to work the way they know they should -- to work up to their potential.  It is then I can show my employees how good of a boss I can be; it is then I can lavish them with praise, gifts, favors.  I love that!

God is faithful.  God is just.  God is love.  God never changes; He gets it right every time.  God is the King; that's just the way it is.  BUT, when we do not serve Him according to the potential He has bestowed upon us, He cannot bless us with more!  God wants to bless us.  God doesn't want separation, tension, strife in our relationship.  He wants those who have turned from Him to come back home, those who have never loved or served Him to submit to Him and live a life of joy and fulfillment.  (If there's one thing I've discovered, it's that rebellious people are not happy people.  Rebellious people usually wind up hurting themselves more than anyone else they try to hurt.) 

Test Him; try Him.  If you serve Him and He doesn't bless you, pick up that chip, put it back on your shoulder and keep walking -- don't look back.  If you surrender to His plan for you and He doesn't heal your life, grab that monkey, stick him in your backpack and ride -- no regrets.

But if you're anything like millions of others who have tried Jesus, I think you'll be completely satisfied!

Survey Says...

On the first day of my summer vacation...  Well, not really.  Today would still be my weekend if it were a regular work week; tomorrow will truly be the fist day of vaca.  Nevertheless, on the first day of my summer vacation, I decided to get some of my ugly responsibilities out of the way.  You know, paying bills, replying to emails.  Well, one of my ugly responsibilities was a survey from a service we use regularly. 

Now I'm no different than 80% of the public, I usually don't take the time to fill out those sort of things as long as I am relatively satisfied.  In this case, I can't say I'm satisfied, but I'm not looking to take my business elsewhere.  I hoped enough people might speak out against the current trend, and perhaps changes will be made.  Isn't that what we're taught all through school?  Democratic process?  Freedom of Speech and all that?

Anyway, the survey started innocently enough, but they didn't have one of those little gauges on there telling you just how close you were to completing the survey.  OK, how long can this take, right?  Despite the fact I wasn't feeling well today, and I'm pre-menopausal, I bit.  Big mistake.

So, I get to the twenty-fifth question or so -- which as far as I'm concerned if you can't get to the point in twenty questions or less, you're not asking the right questions.  The ADD is fully engaged, I'm bored but trying desperately to stay focused, when suddenly...

"Q26 Have you ever heard of ____?" (the name of the company for which I am taking the survey)  What?  What do you mean have I ever heard of them?  I use them; they sent me this survey.  I'm a customer?

But it gets better.  I look at the answers.  They are:

A. Radio Advertising
B.  Hair Artistry
C.  Hotel and Restaurant Management

Huh?!  I looked around the room for Sally Struthers, thinking perhaps, I'd entered one of her college-on-line infomercials.  Nope.  So I just selected one.  Then came the next question.  It was actually the same question they'd asked me about six questions ago.  Fortunately this one had a little box in which I could add my own comments.  So I told them to fix their stupid survey.  And then when I got to the next question -- the same as the one about eight questions ago?  I added more comments!  It was after doing this about four more times that I began to understand the mania that overtakes those serial whatevers, that cut pages out of magazines and hang them on the wall, or cut letters from the text of newspapers and glue them to notebook paper before mailing it off to intended victims. 

By Question 40 or so the frustration turned to lunacy, and I wound up answering the remaining questions with any ridiculous response I could fabricate.  Unfortunately, not until I was heading to the kitchen to take out my aggressions on an unsuspecting brownie, did it occur to me my responses might be tracked.  Maybe I've seen too many movies, but aren't there certain "code" words you cannot use online or over the airways?  Don't you wind up on some FBI watch list?  Aren't you flagged as "suspect" or something?  The NSA begins to follow you? maybe Lojack your car?  Should I think about removing the SIM card from my cell?  Head back to the kitchen to fashion an aluminum foil hat?

I'll let you know how the rest of my vaca goes. 

Then again, maybe not.

Calling All Prayer Warriors -- to Wait!

Jeremiah 42:2-4, 7

A group of Judean army officers approached Jeremiah, asking his petition to God on their behalf.  They were committed to doing as the Lord commanded.

Verse 4:  “All right,” Jeremiah replied. “I will pray to the Lord your God, as you have asked, and I will tell you everything he says. I will hide nothing from you.”

Ready for this?  Keep in mind these men are willing to "surrender" to the will of God -- capitulate to His plan of attack.  Verse 7 says, "Ten days later the Lord gave his reply to Jeremiah."  Ten days later?  Are you serious?  These were warriors -- men of action!  They needed an answer!  

So often we think if we are open to God's will, being obedient, ready to do whatever He requires, we should have our response right away.  Our legalistic humanity tells us, "Do good things -- get a reward."  We're trained to think this way from childhood.  God is not a gumball machine or Social Studies teacher; He doesn't operate on our timetable or our terms.  Besides, even our best deeds are as filthy rags when it comes to redemption! 

To get to the Life Lesson portion of our program...

How can knowing this change our prayer life?  The prayer life that sometimes gets weary and routine because "God must be tired of hearing me ask for this, because I'm tired of asking!"  How can this change the things for which we pray?  Things we ignore because "God's not listening to me anyway."  How can this ignite our prayer life?  The prayer life that's been virtually non-existent because "I have no idea what to pray for -- I just don't understand God's will!"

Ask!  Pray!  James 5:16b --  The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.  In other words, prayer does change things -- especially us! 

Just Think of It!

I'm letting Charles Spurgeon write my blog today -- there's nothing that can match the thought of this and no way I could possibly expound upon it:

"The kindness and love of God our Saviour."—Titus 3:4.

HOW sweet it is to behold the Saviour communing with His own beloved people! There can be nothing more delightful than, by the Divine Spirit, to be led into this fertile field of delight. Let the mind for an instant consider the history of the Redeemer's love, and a thousand enchanting acts of affection will suggest themselves, all of which have had for their design the weaving of the heart into Christ, and the intertwisting of the thoughts and emotions of the renewed soul with the mind of Jesus. When we meditate upon this amazing love, and behold the all-glorious Kinsman of the Church endowing her with all His ancient wealth, our souls may well faint for joy. Who is he that can endure such a weight of love? That partial sense of it which the Holy Spirit is sometimes pleased to afford, is more than the soul can contain; how transporting must be a complete view of it! When the soul shall have understanding to discern all the Saviour's gifts, wisdom wherewith to estimate them, and time in which to meditate upon them, such as the world to come will afford us, we shall then commune with Jesus in a nearer manner than at present. But who can imagine the sweetness of such fellowship? It must be one of the things which have not entered into the heart of man, but which God hath prepared for them that love Him. Oh, to burst open the door of our Joseph's granaries, and see the plenty which He hath stored up for us! This will overwhelm us with love. By faith we see, as in a glass darkly, the reflected image of His unbounded treasures, but when we shall actually see the heavenly things themselves, with our own eyes, how deep will be the stream of fellowship in which our soul shall bathe itself! Till then our loudest sonnets shall be reserved for our loving benefactor, Jesus Christ our Lord, whose love to us is wonderful, passing the love of women.