Jesus Is The Way

Bible Reading:  John 14:1-7

Key Verse: Verse 6 – “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” 

Key Words: I am the way

If the surgeon were to open up our hearts, what would he find?

"Tomorrow morning I'll open up your heart," the surgeon said to the 8-year-old-boy. "You'll find Jesus there," the boy said. The surgeon continued, "I'll open your heart and check the damage." "You'll find Jesus there," the boy said. "When I see the damage, I will suture you back up and then think about the next step," said the surgeon.

"You will find Jesus in my heart because my Sunday school teacher told me so. She said it says so in the Bible. Besides that, our Sunday school songs say He lives there," said the boy. 

The surgery took place the next day. After the surgery the surgeon began to make notes of what he found. In his mind there was no hope and no cure. The little boy would die within a matter of months. 

The thought began to get to the doctor and all of a sudden, the doctor shouted to God, "Why did you do this to the boy? Why can't he live a normal life?"

God spoke to the surgeon's heart and said, "The boy is a part of my flock and will always be a part of my flock. When he is with me, there will be no more suffering and pain. He will have comfort and peace. One day his parents, as well as you, will join him and my flock will continue to grow." 

The next day the surgeon went to the boy's room and sat down with the parents beside the bed.  In a moment or two, the boy opened his eyes and asked very quietly, "What did you find in my heart?" 

With tears flowing down his cheeks, the surgeon said, "I found Jesus there." 

When others look at the actions of our heart, do they find Jesus there?

 

                                                                                        Dr. Mike Rouse

 What to do:

✞Let others find Jesus at the heart of all we do and say.

The Broad Way

Bible Reading: Matthew 7:13-20

Key Verse: Verse 13 – “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:”

Key Words: broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction

There are not many ways to heaven; there is only one way: through Jesus Christ.  John 14:6 Jesus said, “I am the way.”  Acts 4:12, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”

When the Persians were preparing to fight against the Babylonians they knew they had to lure them out into the broad field.  You see, the Persian army outnumbered the Babylonians two to one.  If they could lure them out into open terrain they could defeat them because of the massive number of soldiers they had.  The broad way would allow them to win, and the Babylonians fell for the trap and went into the broad way…and they were defeated.

When the Greeks fought against the Persians they as well were outnumbered, but they realized the only way they could be victorious was to lure the Persians into a narrow path in the mountains.  In the narrow way, it doesn’t matter how many soldiers you have, the only soldiers who can fight are the ones at the passage way of the narrow path.  So the great army put their greatest fighters at this point of the battle and won easily although the Persians outnumbered them three to one.

The narrow way is the way to victory for the believer.  Jesus is at the point of the passageway.  The only way for the enemy to win is to defeat Jesus – not possible!  Through Jesus we have victory.  To God be the glory for His narrow way is our source of victory!

 

                                                                                Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do: 

✞Make sure you are in the narrow way.  All other roads lead to sorrow.

Slippery Ways

Bible Reading:  Jeremiah 23:9-15

Key Verse: Verse 12 – “Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness: they shall be driven on,  and fall therein: for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the LORD.”

Key Words: slippery ways

God is speaking to the prophets and priests in Jeremiah 23.  He is rebuking them because they are causing the people of Israel to fall.  He calls them teaching slippery ways.

The word slippery means smooth, treacherous, blandishment, to coax or flatter with the idea of enticing a person.

Butterflies can be lured into capture by decoys. Naturalists cement the wings of a dead butterfly to a head and body that has been sketched on cardboard. The object is then cut out and covered with cellophane to protect it. When suspended from a twig by a thread it will turn in a lifelike manner whenever a breeze strikes it. While real butterflies will not stop or touch it, they will hesitate or flutter around momentarily, so that the naturalist has the opportunity to net them. (Lou Nicholes - Missionary/Author).

 It’s always wise to remember as someone has said, “Flattery is like perfume. The idea is to smell it, not swallow it.” Another suggested, “Flattery is like counterfeit money which, but for vanity, would have no circulation.” Most of us would rather be hurt by flattery than helped by criticism. It could be said, “Flattery is not communication; it is manipulation.”

                                                                                        Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:

✞ Be careful on the road called life.  There are many  slippery ways and you don’t want to fall.

Traversing Ways

Bible Reading:  Jeremiah 2:14-30

Key Verse: Verse 23 – “How canst thou say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim? see thy way in the valley, know what thou hast done: thou art a swift dromedary traversing her ways;”

Key Words: thou art a swift dromedary

A dromedary is a young female camel which is wandering around in a newly cultivated field with new crops about to sprout (traversing).  The young female camel isn’t trying to destroy the newly planted field, but in her absent-mindedness and her wandering, she does.

This young camel is innocent but still destructive.  In the church I call these people well-intentioned dragons…doing one good thing and stirring up two troublesome things while doing so.  We all know these people.  The problem is more often than not, they appear to be so innocent that others fail to see the trouble they are causing except for the farmer who cultivated the field.  Do you know anyone like this?

A father came home from work just before supper and was met by his five-year-old daughter on the sidewalk outside the house.  The little girl was not smiling.  “Is something wrong, honey?” he asked.  “Yes,” she said, “all day long I’ve been having trouble with your wife.”

 That’s the dromedary, with all innocence, the wandering around causes unintentional trouble.  We are commanded to love people, but in all honesty, these people are hard to love and for the farmer, impossible to like.  Love them we must!  Like them…well, that’s another story.

                                                                                Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do: 

✞ Love the dromedary and try to like them.

 

The Way Of Receiving

Bible Reading:  Matthew 7:1-12

Key Verse: Verse 7 - “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:”

Key Words: Ask, and it shall be given you

In today’s world of greed and gain, Matthew 7:7a, “Ask, and it shall be given you” is always taken as a selfish, covetous way God becomes our errand boy…fetch this and get that. 

But could it be, should it be that God wants to give us victory over such things as our besetting sins?

As a young woman, Frances Havergal, author of the hymns, “Take My Life and Let It Be” and “Like a River Glorious,” had a very quick temper.  It was the kind that would easily explode.  After she would blow up, she would be mortified and confess her failure to the Lord only to lose her temper, again and again.  One day after a particularly bad explosion, she threw herself down by her bed and wept.  She prayed, “Lord, must it always be so?  Will I always have this temper to keep me humble before you?”

While she was on her knees, the Lord injected a verse of Scripture in her mind: “The Egyptians whom you have seen today you will see no more forever.”  God spoke these words to Moses when the Egyptians pursued the Israelites to take them back into bondage.  Havergal related the verse to her temper and the way in which Satan wanted to use it to pull her into failure, bondage, and defeat.  She saw that God could take her temper away.  She asked, “Lord, could it be forever?”  It seemed to her that the words came back from the Lord, “Yes, no more, forever.”  Her sister said that from that day Frances Havergal never again lost her temper.  She believed God, and the Lord gave her total victory in her life.

 Today, maybe, just maybe, we should ask God not to be our errand boy for selfish gain, but to be our God and ask Him not to give but to take away that besetting sin so we can receive freedom from it!!

                                                                            Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:  

✞Ask, but ask for God’s glory, not for things but for spiritual victory in your life.

Unequal Ways

Bible Reading:  Ezekiel 18:24-32

Key Verse: Verse 25- “Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal. Hear now, O house of Israel; Is not my way equal? are not your ways unequal?”

Key Words: are not your ways unequal

The teaching of this chapter answers the new psychology we have today.  Psychology argues that the reason a person is a brat or an oddball is because his mother didn’t treat him right but neglected him and didn’t love him.  My friend, you stand alone.  You are a sinner because you are a sinner yourself.  There’s an old bromide that is rather crude, but it certainly expresses it well: Every tub must sit on its own bottom.  Every individual will stand before God, and he won’t be able to blame his papa and mama at that time.

Israel is blaming God; they are saying “You are the reason we are the way we are.”  Ever since Adam and Eve the human race has played the blame game.  Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the serpent, Elijah blamed God, and so it goes.

The Tennessean (Sunday, August 1, 1999) printed an article with the title, “First lady links affairs to childhood abuse.” Hillary Clinton had vowed not to discuss her husband’s affairs with Monica Lewinsky or her feelings about his philandering.  But in an interview with an English publication, she placed the blame for Bill Clinton’s adultery on his childhood abuse.  The former first lady says that Bill was barely four years old when he learned of a terrible conflict between his mother and his grandmother.  She claims that a psychologist told her that a boy’s being in the middle of a conflict between two women is a tragic situation.  He is torn between trying to please both women.  She attributed Bill Clinton’s weakness to the deaths of his father, of his mother, and of Vincent Foster.  She defended her husband as a very, very good man, but one who needs to work on his weaknesses.  She also blamed the vast right-wing conspiracy for many of his difficulties.

When we begin to fault others for our failures, we have then fallen for one of Satan’s oldest tricks called the blame game! Oh me!

 

                                                                                    Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:

✞What a shame when people fall for the blame game.  Remember, it’s a lot easier just to confess it than to blame others.

The Tried Way

Bible Reading:  Lamentations 3:37-54

Key Verse: Verse 40- “Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.”

Key Words: try our ways

In one of our previous devotions we were told that all of our ways are clean in our own eyes.  How true!  But here Jeremiah tells us to go the extra mile to make sure we are right first.  He says “search” (examine), then he tells us to try (put to the test) to make sure we are right.

There is a three-fold test you can take to see if you are indeed right.

First, there is the Scripture test.  Does what I am doing (not others…me…Romans 14:12) line up with the Scriptures?

Second, there is the submissive test.  Am I obeying those who have the rule over me?

Third, there is the spirit test.  Is my spirit right?

If you fail any one of these, back up, bow down, and lift up your voice and ask God to forgive you.

The comedian Jeff Foxworthy became famous with his routine, "You might be a redneck if . . . " Here are some of my favorites: 

• You might be a redneck if the directions to your house include the phrase "turn off the paved road." 
• You might be a redneck if your front porch collapses and four dogs get killed.
• You might be a redneck if you took a fishing pole to Sea World.
• You might be a redneck if you have to go outside to get something out of the ’fridge.
• You might be a redneck if your dad walks you to school because you’re both in the same grade.
• You might be a redneck if you have flowers planted in a bathroom fixture in your front yard.
• You might be a redneck if you think the last words to the Star Spangled Banner are: “Gentlemen, start your engines.”

Likewise, you might be a Pharisee if you spend more time talking about the sins of others than you do in repenting and confessing your own.

While we laugh at these, the truth is if we fail to try our ways, we look just as foolish.  So let me encourage you, don’t just assume you’re right because you think so or because others say you are.  Try your ways.

                                                                             Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:  

✞Try your ways by the 1) Scripture test; 2) Submissive test; and 3) the Spirit test.

Erroneous Ways

Bible Reading: James 5:13-20

Key Verse: Verse 20 - “Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.”

Key Words: error of his way

Let’s face reality, we all sin; but when we refuse to confess our sin, sickness is a possible result.  Let me hasten to add that sin is not always the cause of sickness, but it is a possibility.

As believers when you see someone living in sin, what do you do?  What should you do?  Certainly the goal is to convert.  The word convert carries the idea of a change of direction, to turn from error to truth.  If the person living in sin refuses to heed your concern and caution, you should continue to pray for them, knowing that their lack of “heeding” will result in God’s chastening.

Corrective suffering is tribulation or affliction God allows in our lives to chasten us for unforsaken sin in order to turn us back to Him.

In the city of Pottsville, Pennsylvania, the broken end of a high voltage wire was lying on the pavement, along which the engineer was walking, unaware of the fact that he was about to be FRIED! A worker saw the danger and yelled to warn him, but his voice was drowned by the noise around. Picking up a stone, he threw it as hard as he could and hit the engineer on the chest.  

Angry, the engineer looked up--but just as he did, he saw the wire just as he was about to step upon it. Tearfully, he thanked the worker for saving his life. The stone hurt, but the high voltage wire would have hurt MUCH more. It was a loving act of CONCERN that motivated the worker to throw the stone at the engineer.

I would rather be hit by you than chastened by God.  How about you?

                                                                            Dr. Mike Rouse 

What to do: 

✞ Make sure your ways are also God’s.

The Way Of Obedience

Bible Reading:  Deuteronomy 28:1-14

Key Verse: Verse 2 - “And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.”

Key Words: And all these blessings shall come on thee

Just as disobedience leads to trouble, obedience leads to blessing.

All one has to do to see this truth is look at Abraham, or Joshua at the walls of Jericho, or Naomi going back from Moab to Israel, and the list goes on and on.  It’s a simple principle: obey, but it is not always easy to do.

F.B. Meyer preached in London, England, while Charles Spurgeon & G. Campbell Morgan were preaching there, too. They were all great preachers, but Spurgeon’s church and Morgan’s church were both bigger than Meyer’s church. And he admitted to being a bit envious of them.

So he prayed, asking God to tell him what to do because he was jealous of them, and he didn’t want to be jealous. And somehow God instructed him to pray for both Spurgeon and Morgan, that their churches would prosper, and that more and more people would come to them.

Well, Meyer said that he didn’t want to do that.  But he thought that he had better obey the Lord. So he prayed diligently that Spurgeon’s church and Morgan’s church would grow and grow. He said, “Their churches grew so much in answer to my prayers, that they overflowed.  And the overflow came to my church.”

Obedience does lead to blessings, but disobedience…well, let’s just say you don’t want to go there.

  

                                                                                            Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do: 

✞ Don’t question God; just obey Him.

Disobedient Ways

Bible Reading:  I Samuel 15:1-23

Key Verse: Verse 22 - “And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.”

Key Words: to obey is better than sacrifice

We are told in Hebrews 13:17a to obey them which have the rule over you; not only that but we are to go further and “submit yourselves.”

It’s not a matter of obeying only when we agree with authority, nor is it a matter of obeying only when we understand.  We are simply told to obey and submit.

Disobedience leads to disaster.  All one has to do is look at King Saul in I Samuel 15 to clearly see that.

Listen to this description of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in northern Ukraine: 

"There were two electrical engineers in the control room that night, and the best thing that could be said for what they were doing is they were 'playing around' with the machine. They were performing what the Soviets later described as an unauthorized experiment. They were trying to see how long a turbine would 'free wheel' when they took the power off it.

"Now, taking the power off that kind of a nuclear reactor is a difficult, dangerous thing to do, because these reactors are very unstable in their lower ranges. In order to get the reactor down to that kind of power, where they could perform the test they were interested in performing, they had to override manually six separate computer-driven alarm systems. 

"One by one the computers would come up and say, 'Stop! Dangerous! Go no further!' And one by one, rather than shutting off the experiment, they shut off the alarms and kept going. You know the results: nuclear fallout that was recorded all around the world, from the largest industrial accident ever to occur in the world."

This city, which formerly had 55,000 people, is now largely abandoned. 

The instructions and warnings in Scripture are just as clear. We ignore them at our own peril, and tragically, at the peril of the innocent.

 
                                                                                 Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do: 

✞Simply obey.

Contrite Ways

Bible Reading:  Isaiah 57:1-15

Key Verse: Verse 15 - “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.”

Key Words: contrite ones

The word contrite is found twice in our text verse.  The word means to be bruised or crushed.  As you read the verse, it’s plain to see that God is talking to Israel and promises to dwell with those who are contrite.  He also promises to revive the contrite.

The psalmist says in Psalm 51:17 that the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart.

When we are hurting, God promises to be with us.  But we must also understand that when we sin and genuinely desire God’s forgiveness, our hearts will be contrite, broken because we are genuinely sorry for our sin!

The royal palace in Tehran, Iran, has one of the most beautiful entrances of all palaces in the world today. As one enters the royal palace the domed ceilings, sidewalls, and columns seemed to be covered with diamonds. When the Royal Palace was planned, the architects sent an order to Paris for mirrors to cover the entrance walls. The mirrors finally arrived in their crates. When they took the crates apart, all the broken pieces fell out. They were all smashed while being transported. They were going to throw them all away when one of the men had an idea to see how the broken pieces would look if they fitted them together. The result is an enormous distortion in reflections, and it sparkles with diamond-like rainbow colors. 

Broken to be more beautiful! 

That is exactly what God can do with the broken pieces of our lives if we will just turn it over to Him.

 

                                                                                    Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:  

✞ Don’t be arrogant when caught in a wrong.  Be genuinely contrite.  It’s then that God will do what you could never do with your life.

Caring Ways

Bible Reading:  Nehemiah 1

Key Verse: Verse 4 - "And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven,”

Key Words: that I sat down and wept

Nehemiah was a great leader.  As a matter of fact, each chapter of Nehemiah tells us of Nehemiah’s leadership characteristics.  But in chapter one he was a great leader because he cared.  He cared about the people of Jerusalem, verse 3.  He cared about the condition of the walls at Jerusalem, verse 3; but he also cared about how Israel had offended God.

In chapter one, we see that Nehemiah cared enough to ask, verses 1 and 2.  He cared enough to pray, verses 6 through 10.  And he cared enough to weep, verse 4.  Nehemiah cared!!

Author Leo Buscaglia once told about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child; the winner was a four-year-old boy. His next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into this gentleman’s yard, climbed into his lap and just sat there. When his mother asked him what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, “Nothing. I just helped him cry.” (The Story File).

Tears are a language God understands, and I have found most people understand the language of tears as well.

                                                                            Dr. Mike Rouse 

What to do:  

✞Care about people, even those you battle with liking.

Departing Ways

Bible Reading:   Acts 15:22-40

Key Verse: Verse 39 – "And the contention was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other: and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus;”

Key Words: that they departed asunder

What happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object?  What happens when two good men, two Godly men, are equally convinced that quite opposite courses should be taken?  In this case there was a very hot discussion.  Barnabas presented all the positive reasons for including Mark in the new venture: he was young, he had promise, grace should prevail, he deserved a second chance.  Paul presented all the reasons for not including Mark: he was unstable, he might fail again next time at an even more critical point.  It was not fair to expose him to dangers (and dangers there would be) beyond his capacity to face. Mark had other talents, he had a way with words, let him be content serving the Lord within the framework of his talents and temperament.

The discussion grew heated.  “And don’t you forget, Paul, how I took up your case when you needed a friend,” Barnabas might have said.  “Come to think of it,” Paul might have angrily replied, “you dissembled right here at Antioch when Peter and the others refused to eat with the Gentiles.  I’m not so sure about you any more, my brother.”

In the end, the two angry men faced each other, sorry that it had come to such a pass but both quite inflexible over the central issue – John Mark.  There was only one thing to do.  Shake hands, and part company.  How sad!  How true to life.

I have a little saying that goes: Disagree without becoming disagreeable.  Two good men can disagree; it happens all the time, but do so with the right Godly spirit.  Amen!

 

                                                                                    Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:  

✞ Disagree without becoming disagreeable.

The Ways Of Dad

Bible Reading: I Kings 22:41-49

Key Verse: Verse 43 - "And he walked in all the ways of Asa his father; he turned not aside from it, doing that which was right in the eyes of the LORD: nevertheless the high places were not taken away; for the people offered and burnt incense yet in the high places.”

Key Words: And he walked in all the ways of Asa his father

Jehoshaphat while worshipping God also allowed the high places to remain.  These were places of pagan worship.  He evidently was influenced greatly by his father Asa for we read in I Kings 15:14, “But the high places were not removed: nevertheless, Asa’s heart was perfect with the LORD all his days.”

Remember the old saying: “like father, like son”?  In this case the saying would be true.

For the record, I have no sons; but I do have grandsons.  I don’t want them to be like me.  I want them to be better than me, much more spiritual than me.

A Father’s Prayer by General Douglas MacArthur (May 1952)

Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid; one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.

Build me a son whose heart will be clear, whose goal will be high; a son who will master himself before he seeks to master other men; one who will learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; one who will reach into the future, yet never forget the past.

And after all these things are his, add, I pray, enough of a sense of humor, so that he may always be serious, yet never take himself too seriously. Give him humility, so that he may always remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength.

Then, I, his father, will dare to whisper, have not lived in vain.

Let dad not live in vain.  May our goal not be to have our sons resemble us, but may they resemble Christ.

                                                                                  Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do: 

✞Strive for the above.

The Way of Success

Bible Reading: Joshua 1:1-8

Key Verse: Verse 8 - "This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.”

Key Words: and then thou shalt have good success

Many people are waiting for their ship to come in.  The problem is they’ve never sent one out.

Let me ask you: How do you define success?  To me success is based upon attaining those things that can attain heaven, souls of men, and giving to God (Matthew 6:19-21) or certainly two of those things.

January 6, 1850, was bitterly cold in Colchester, England, a hard-biting blizzard keeping most worshippers at home.  At the Primitive Methodist Chapel on Artillery Street only about a dozen showed up.  When it became apparent that even the pastor would not arrive, an unlettered man rose and spoke haltingly from Isaiah 45:22, then the crowd dispersed, thinking the day’s service a loss – not realizing that a fifteen-year-old boy had ducked into the room to escape the snowstorm, and, hearing the sermon, had been converted.

Years later that boy, Charles Spurgeon, wrote: “Don’t hold back because you cannot preach in St. Paul’s; be content to talk to one or two in a cottage.  You may cook in small pots as well as in big ones.  Little pigeons can carry great messages.  Even a little dog can bark at a thief, wake up the master, and save the house…. Do what you do right thoroughly, pray over it heartily, and leave the result to God.”

Success is carrying out Joshua 1:8. Do this and you will be successful in the eyes of God.

 

                                                                                Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do: 

✞Don’t just read and memorize Joshua 1:8.  Live it.

Unstable Ways

Bible Reading:  James 1:1-8

Key Verse: Verse 8 – “A double minded man is
 unstable in all his ways.”

Key Words: unstable in all his ways

The words double-minded and the words take no thought from Matthew 6 came from the same Greek word.  Also the word careful is from the same Greek word merizo.  It means to be anxious, stressed out, worried.  So it is the anxious, stressed out, and worrying person who is unstable in all his ways.

Corrie Ten Boom said, “Worry doesn’t empty tomorrow of sorrows; it empties today of strength.”

Two different thoughts about worry follow.

First, there was a French soldier in World War I who carried with him this little receipt of worry: “Of two things, one is certain.  Either you are at the front, or you are behind the lines.  If you are at the front, of two things one is certain.  Either you are exposed to danger, or you are in a safe place.  If you are exposed to danger, of two things one is certain.  Either you are wounded, or you are not wounded.  If you are wounded, of two things one is certain.  Either you recover, or you die.  If you recover, there is no need to worry.  If you die, you can’t worry.  SO WHY WORRY?”

Thought number two is about a woman who had been having trouble getting to sleep at night because she feared burglars.  One night her husband heard a noise in the house, so he went downstairs to investigate.  When he got there, he did find a burglar.  “Good evening,” said the man of the house.   “I am pleased to see you.  Come upstairs and meet my wife.  She has been waiting ten years to meet you.”

Worry is a great destroyer.  It destroys your joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faith, your personality.  Warren Wiersbe says that 98% of everything we worry about never comes to fruition.  So why worry?

 

                                                                                    Dr. Mike Rouse              

What to do: 

✞Invest your time in others and you will find little time to worry.

The Higher Ways

Bible Reading: Isaiah 55:8-13

Key Verse: Verse 9 – “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Key Words: so are my ways higher than your ways

The word higher means exact.  God’s ways are more exacting than man’s ways.

As you read Scripture, it becomes apparent that God’s ways are heavenly and man’s ways are earthly.  We often use human wisdom to exact while God uses heavenly wisdom.

I fought in Viet Nam.  It would not be unusual for a surveillance plane to call down and tell us where the enemy was located.  We often would guess where the next enemy attack would come from, but because the surveillance plane was much higher than we were, they knew.  Their thoughts were accurate because they were higher than we were.  

So it is with God: His thoughts are higher than ours.  Now, we would have been foolish not to heed the advice of those in the surveillance plane.  So the same is true for us today: we would be foolish not to heed God. He sees what we cannot see, and our life depends on us following His direction.

  

                                                                                Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do: 

✞Follow God’s direction for He sees and knows what we can never see or know.

The Ways of Man

Bible Reading:  Proverbs 16:1-10

Key Verse: Verse 2 – “All the ways of a man are clean  in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth the spirits.”

Key Words: All the ways of man are clean in his own eyes

The key to our text verse is the last part, “but the Lord weigheth the spirits.”

To God what we do is important, but the spirit in which we do it is just as important.  The word spirits in verse 2 carries the idea of a refreshing attitude.  So while we, and even others, may believe what we are doing for the Lord is a good thing; God only sees it as good when what we do, we do with a refreshing attitude.

The noted English architect Sir Christopher Wren was supervising the construction of a magnificent cathedral in London. A journalist thought it would be interesting to interview some of the workers, so he chose three and asked them this question, "What are you doing?" The first replied, "I'm cutting stone for 10 shillings a day." The next answered, "I'm putting in 10 hours a day on this job." But the third said, "I'm helping Sir Christopher Wren construct one of London's greatest cathedrals."

                                                                                    Dr. Mike Rouse

Remember, God weighs the spirits.  Is yours and mine a refreshing attitude or has it grown old and stale?

 

What to do:  

✞Do what we do for God with the right spirit, not occasionally but continually.

Ways of Death

Bible Reading:  Proverbs 14:1-12

Key Verse: Verse 12 - “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”

Key Words: There is a way….ways of death

It’s interesting to me that we start out with a way (Jesus) and end up with ways.  Isn’t that the “way” they believe though?  They believe there are many ways to heaven.

Cain had that problem.  Cain substituted reason for revelation, beauty for blood, trying for trusting, and feeling for fact.  But in the end he ended, not with salvation, but sorrow.

“There is a difference between your religion and mine," said a Christian to his neighbor.  “Indeed!” was the reply.  “What is that?”  “It is this: Yours has only two letters in it, while mine has four.”  “What do you mean?” said he.  “Well, yours has ‘DO.’  Mine has ‘DONE.’”

It seems there was a pretzel stand out front of an office building in New York. One day, a man came out of the building, plunked down a quarter, and then went on his way without taking a pretzel. This happened every day for three weeks. Finally, the old lady running the stand spoke up: “Sir, excuse me. May I have a word with you?”

The fellow said: “I know what you’re going to say. You’re going to ask me why I give you a quarter every day and don’t take a pretzel.”

And the woman said, “Not at all, I just want to tell you that the price is now 35 cents.”

So it is with religion when it comes to being born again.  You can never do enough.  Just when you think you’ve earned it, Satan raises the price.

                                                                                            Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:  

✞You can go the way of Jesus which is life, or the way of religion which is death.  The choice is yours.