(Ephesians 4:22-24, NIV)

     This topic of the “shedding of dead leaves” (from the previous post) and of “departing from old ways” also holds great significance to Jeremiah 29 and the verses that we cling to so dearly. You see, long before Jeremiah ever wrote the words: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11, NIV) he had given the Jews warnings.

     God warned the Jews through Jeremiah to depart from their evil ways. He warned them about the coming fall and about their captivity. But they would not heed those warnings. The Jews of this time were so comfortable with their current situations and lives that they wouldn’t hear God’s message. They wanted to be a people of God, but they wanted to do it their way. They didn’t want to upset their lives. Their complacency, neglect, and sin caused their own downfall.

     Even when they were displaced and living in exile there were groups of them that still didn’t believe the prophecies. Jeremiah had already foretold that their captivity would last 70 years. The Jews chose to ignore this timeframe and to believe the words of the false prophets of the day. You see, the false prophets were preaching of a speedy return home. That message was exactly what the Jews wanted to hear and so that was what they chose to believe. God decided to address this very issue just prior to uttering the words “For I know the plans I have for you…” In Jeremiah 29, verses 8 and 9 we read the words:

     Yes, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them,” declares the Lord.

     In these verses, God clearly tells us who is in charge. The false prophets were telling the people exactly what they wanted to hear even though they had no authority to do so. That kept the false prophets popular with the masses as opposed to God’s true prophet, Jeremiah, who was often despised and viewed as a traitor. God was saying that He had a plan and that the Jews needed to listen to Him and not try to pursue their own plans.

     Who are you in this brief story? Are you the captive Jewish people, relying on your own goals, methods, and plans, and clinging to your old way of life? Do you try to influence those around you to give you the answer or advice that you want to hear? Or are you like the false prophets? Do you tell people what they want to hear because it keeps you popular or out of conflict? Do you help others pursue plans that are not good for them?

     You see, its actually a matter of will. Whose will do you choose to pursue: your will or God’s will? When we choose to pursue our own will, we will interpret the signs in our environment in light of our own plans and use the signs to justify our desires. When we seek to fulfill His will, the Holy Spirit will help us to correctly interpret the messages and signs that God is giving us so that we can fully live out God’s plan for us.

     Once again, in this Fall Season I ask you to shed the leaves of your old self, the leaves of pursuing your will first and to prepare yourself to put on new leaves, the leaves of following God’s will for your life. Then, and only then can you fulfill your purpose in this life and reap the benefits of it in the next.

Photo © by  http://www.flickr.com/photos/amelia525/302897050/

     Well it’s that time of year again. Leaves are changing, the weather is changing, and the time will soon change. Its Fall, and who among us doesn’t enjoy the pretty colors of the leaves and the cool Autumn breezes. Right? Alright, so maybe we don’t have leaves that change colors down here in Fort Lauderdale. We do have the cool breezes, though (relatively speaking, of course). But seriously, Fall is a time of change.

     Now, I’m not going to use big words like photosynthesis, chlorophyll, and glucose to try to explain why leaves go from green to red to dead. Lets just accept that the trees are undergoing a change to prepare them for the next phase in their life.

     You see, the shedding of leaves is a crucial process to the life of the tree. The tree will go dormant and have to rely on the stored water within its trunk and roots to sustain it through the winter. It won’t be able to supply water to all of the leaves and their won’t be enough light for photosynthesis to occur…..oops. Oh yeah, I said that I wouldn’t use the word photosynthesis… But anyway trees need to shed their dead leaves to allow for the tree’s current survival and for its future growth.

     We too, need to shed our old selves in order to allow room for our future growth. All too often we live in a world of compromise. We want to follow Christ, yet we want to keep our old habits. We don’t want our discipleship to get in the way of us living our life. We want to keep things the way that they are. After all, it’s much easier that way.

     It is when we are living in these times of compromise when we are very susceptible to trouble. We figure that we’ll go along for the fun but we won’t drink. I’ve often heard people in relationships use the phrase “you can look, but you can’t touch.” The problem is that being in these kinds of environments causes temptation. If tempted enough, we will fall. Many marriages have ended due to the infidelity of a partner that fell to temptation because he or she was somewhere that they shouldn’t have been. Many recovering alcoholics and drug addicts have reverted to their bad habits due to being around people who still use the very things that they were once addicted to.

     In Mark 9 verses 43-47 Jesus tells us exactly what we are supposed to do in these circumstances. He says: “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell…if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off, it is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. If you eye causes you to sin, pluck it out……..” Well you get the point

     Paul, in a much less dramatic sense, says very much the similar. In verse 5 we read “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.”

     He continues in verse 7    “You used to walk in these ways in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthly language from your lips.”

     These are the leaves during this autumn season that we must remove. As we continue reading Colossians and come to verses 12 through 14 we see that by removing the old leaves we will be making room for the new ones:

     Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience……Forgive as the Lord forgave you….And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”

     So consider this. What is causing you to sin right now? What is preventing you from fulfilling your purpose on this earth? Is it a person that you are hanging out with? Is it a habit that you are having trouble kicking? Is it your job perhaps? We all have things that lead us into temptation. We all have things that prevent us from fulfilling God’s plan for us. During this season of Fall, I challenge you to shed your old leaves in order to make room for knew ones and to allow yourself to become the person that you were meant to be.

     And then there is planning. There are yearly plans, semester plans, quarterly plans, weekly plans, daily lesson plans, and emergency lesson plans. Oh yeah, lets not forget about the meetings. We have school-wide meetings, faculty meetings, and department meetings. Before we even know it, summer is a distant memory and we’re already talking about things like when the next break is. And that’s not all. When school starts there is more planning, more meetings, adjusting the plans, and lets not forget, there is some teaching too…

     The point is this; a good teacher wouldn’t even consider not doing whatever was needed to ensure a smooth start to the school year. And once everything’s setup there is constant shifting and maintenance to the activities to accommodate all of the circumstances that come up in the classroom and throughout the year.

     When I was an Engineer and Project Manager with Procter and Gamble it was basically the same thing. We’d spend months, sometimes, organizing and preparing for a project. We’d consider every possible scenario just in case a problem might arise. Then throughout the whole process there are meetings and plans change and adjust as needed.

     Many of our jobs and lives follow a similar pattern. We Prepare, we Plan and we Act. We do this at work to accomplish our jobs. We do it at home while working on projects. We even do this in our relationships. Yet somehow this process doesn’t always accompany our faith journey. Too often we leave that aspect of our life to chance and we wait to see what happens. We say, “I’ve prayed and now I’m waiting for an answer from God.” Its not that we lack the desire to find out what we should do. We just lack merely doing it.

     So many of us are interested in God’s purpose for our lives. We want to know how we can fully live out His plans for us. But how many of us actually put effort into this? Do we actively seek God’s will for our lives or do we just go about our days and hope that His plans will just happen? Now certainly, God does not need our help in carrying out His plans, but He does will it. God wants us to take part in the plans that He has for us. An awareness of this concept makes living life so much more meaningful. But still, it doesn’t make it any easier to figure out what God wants us to do.

     The Apostle Paul tells us: “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” (Philippians 3:12, NIV).

     Even Paul acknowledges that there is so much that he hasn’t grasped and that he was far from perfect. In light of that, he stresses that he will “press on” to achieve the plans that Jesus has for him. He doesn’t say: “so I wait to see what happens” or “I’ll sit around for awhile until I figure out what to do.” Paul traveled all over the earth spreading the Gospel. And even when he was forced to “sit around” in prisons he didn’t just sit there. He kept busy writing letters to churches and converting his guards to Christianity.

     Do you think that there was ever a time that Paul didn’t know what he was supposed to do? If you’re anything like me and put Paul on a pedestal, you’re probably thinking that the answer is “no.” But the fact remains that Paul was a human (duh!) and therefore he too struggled with what his next move was.

     For Paul goes on to say “Brothers I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 13-14, NIV). So again, Paul acknowledges that He has not “taken hold of it” (the plans that Jesus has for him) but that He is moving toward what is ahead. He is not waiting for the next message but he is always in motion.

     Brothers and sisters, this is what we are called to do. We need to always be moving forward in our faith journey. We need to pray to God for what he wants us to do. But then we need to follow the feelings that He puts inside of us. We should plan it out and then act it out. Along the way we may find that we will need to adjust. That’s ok. The goal is to always be moving forward.

     By making a constant effort to continually move forward in our faith, we will end up realizing the plans that God has for us. It doesn’t matter if we know exactly what they are. It doesn’t matter if we know specifically what we should do. The Holy Spirit will plant a seed inside of us that just won’t go away. We need to feed that seed by beginning to move in the direction that God is leading us. Once in motion, like a computer guided missile, God will direct us along the way.

     So don’t worry about what is next for you. Don’t concern yourself with having everything perfect before you act. Just go ahead and ACT. Begin doing something that you feel led to do. Don’t let your faith journey stagnate waiting for the right set of circumstances. There are opportunities all around that God is urging us to get involved with. Just look around you.

© by George E. Sayour

 Isn’t it amazing how excited the Jews were to welcome Jesus only to deny Him and watch him go to the cross a couple of days later?  It’s almost hard to believe.  How could these people have loved Christ yet have hard hearts toward Him when it counted.  Well, of course this was a part of God’s plan.  It also gives us some insight into how easy it can be for us to forget about Christ.  In these days leading up to Holy Week and the Resurection of our Lord, let us prepare our hearts for Christ.  Let us not deny Him.   Let us sing “Hosanna!  Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”……..  Let us make a place for Him to reign in our lives forever. 

With Valentine’s Day behind us, it seems like a good time to further reflect on what love truly is.  In the last post we read the qualities of Love in 1 Corininthians 13.  But did you know that GOD IS LOVE?  I’m sure you have heard that before, but if you haven’t give it some thought.  This is the only place that God is called something that is not an adjective.  We know that “God is Just,” but that describes a quality about God.  His actions are indeed Just.  But in 1 John 4:16 we see that Love is being used as a noun.  God is actually pure Love. 

The next time that you feel unloved, understand and know that you can in fact be loved.  When you know God, you in effect know love.  Think about it…

Yes, 1 Corinthians 13 has become a cliche among many believers.  It sounds so flowery; Love is patient, Love is kind…. We read it at weddings and at anniversaries, but do we really believe it?  Well, I’d say we do believe it, but we don’t really live it.  Why don’t you read all of 1 Corinthians 13 and let it sink in as we approach this holiday of Love in 2 days.  Click this link if you don’t have a Bible handy :

 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20corinthians%2013;&version=31;

 I don’t know about you, but that sure sounds good to me!  My wife and I had a fantastic 2007 full of blessings and hope for the future…of course, the most notable being the birth of our son, Adam Richard Sayour.  There were other fantastic memories of 2007 though: a career change, book sales touching the lives of strangers, Susan going through her pregnancy with grace.  We have been truly blessed. 

Of course we can’t lose sight of the fact that there are ups and downs of life and that many people do not share in the joy that last year brought us.  Whatever the case, we can all find solace and hope in this verse of Scripture.  I encourage you to read your bible (or click this link http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus%2026;&version=31) to read the whole of Leviticus 26.  It could change how you view this next year and how you approach your relationship with God.

Happy New Year!

 Isn’t it interesting that when the Angels appeared in the skies to the shepherds that this is the verse that they sung: “..Peace to men on whom his favor rests.”  That is what God offers us through His Son, Jesus Christ.  He offers us PEACE.  Do you have Peace? Do you offer others PEACE- the PEACE of Christ?  That is our calling; to know PEACE and to offer it to others.  And of course the only way to know PEACE is to know Christ. 

 Merry Christmas everyone!  May you experience the PEACE of Christ and share it with those around you.

Imagine that. There was no room for God at the inn. It’s almost hard to believe. Of course it’s not like the inn keeper knew that Jesus was God but still it is strange. You’d think that they’d make room for a pregnant woman somewhere- it’s not like Mary and Joseph were going to be picky about it. They did afterall give birth in a barn.

It becomes really easy to make judgements about this situation and wonder how there could be no room for Jesus. Could it be that this was in God’s plan as a metaphor of what was yet to come. Every year billions of dollars are spent in November and December in the name of Christmas. People drive like maniacs. Stores are open till all hours of the night. People end up working like dogs. All of this happens because of Christmas. And then we fill up our lawns and yards and roofs with lights and Santas and snowmen. And then the irony hits us. There is once again no room for Jesus on the lawn. Or in the shopping. Or in our attitude.

During this next week  as you go through your holiday routine, I ask you to make room for Jesus.