Oh Look! A Squirrel

Good day! I’m Duane Matz and this is Today’s Living Word

 

Happy New Year! Last year I wanted to come up with one word as a benchmark for the coming year and the word that the Lord gave me was “engage.”

I sought to engage (connect) the culture of the world and the culture of the church with God’s Word. …the Bible.

 

It turns out that the word I selected was even more personal than I thought it would be. God reminded me (Oh look! A squirrel!) that I have a bad habit of disengaging in one on one situations and conversations. I’m often off in a different world even before I make eye contact with the person I am conversing with.

 

It’s a character flaw that I am not proud of, and with the help of the Lord, and the Holy Spirit I am determined to press on, reminding myself that there will always be squirrels, and I would be better off engaging the person who I am conversing with the way Jesus did!.

 

Checking out of a conversation puts me in Duane’s world, and that is a small world indeed. It winds up being just me and the squirrels.

 

Lord, help me to engage with people around me, like Jesus engaged people around Him. Remember his encounter with the rich young ruler? Jesus did not say “this is what you must do to inherit eternal,   O look a squirrel”

 

Is that what He did! No Mr 10:21 Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him,  That’s the target, that’s the example Jesus gave us. Lord help us all as we seek to engage (connect) with others!

 

I’m Duane Matz and that’s today’s Living Word

Tell Your Face About It

 

Good day! I’m Duane Matz and this is Today’s Living Word

 

1Sa 14:27 But Jonathan had not heard his father charge the people with the oath; (He had called for a fast) therefore he stretched out the end of the rod that was in his hand and dipped it in a honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth; and his countenance brightened. Mmmmmmmmmmmm honey!

 

I can’t help but grin as I read this passage. It reminds me of a standing joke in our family. My wife never has to wonder if I liked a dish she has prepared, All she has to do is read my countenance (my face) mmmmmmm Mayonaise Potato salad!

 

 

It’s just like that Olivia Newton John song, “Every Face Tells A Story”

 

Recently I have retired from the airwaves of The Family radio station, but I used to end my show with this little challenge: “Jesus loves you…tell your face about it.” It just seems that there are too many “dour” faces on the followers of Christ.

 

A couple of weeks ago I was in the waiting room at the VA clinic in Green Bay, a woman walked by and looked at me and said  “smile.”  What? Since when do I need a reminder from a complete stranger to fix my countenance?  

 

Something is not right about that!  I must be leaking joy or peace! Maybe some mourning going on as I realize my broadcasting days are over at The Family. Maybe I am not handling my Parkinson’s diagnosis as well as I think I am.

 

Whatever it is, I don’t like it   I don’t like having  to think about my countenance! I don’t want to paint a fake smile on my face! That is bordering on hypocrisy!

 

I wanna be like Moses who was beaming so much, he had to put a veil on after spending some time with God! The best way I know how to do that is to ever be mindful of what Jesus did on the cross for me, for you, for the world. Jesus loves me and I am forgiven, Gotta practice what I preach and tell my face about it.

 

I’m Duane Matz and that’s today’s Living Word.

Humble Pliability

 

Good day! I’m Duane Matz and this is Today’s Living Word

 

I have a Christmas present for those viewing or reading this devo for today.  This is what I am praying for you today!

 

I am praying for you today.

 

Ps 20:4 May He grant you according to your heart's desire, And fulfill all your purpose. 5 We will rejoice in your salvation, And in the name of our God we will set up our banners! May the LORD fulfill all your petitions.

 

Add Psalm 37:4 to this prayer: ?Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.”

 

The word “delight” here means to be pliable like clay. As the clay obeys the potter so we too seek to obey our Lord.  Be pliable (obedient to His hands) and He will shape us into the vessel He created us to be. You don’t have to figure it all out yourself, just be pliable in His hands and He will get you to the God-given desires of your heart, He will “fulfill the purpose that He created for you1

 

Saved by grace through faith we are ready to tackle what He will bring our way.

Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,

 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.

 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

 

Humble pliability will get you to where God wants you to be fulfilling that purpose for which you were created. What a great gift the Father has for you and I.

 

Merry Christmas!

 

I’m Duane Matz and that’s today’s Living Word.

A Fistful of Wind

 

Good day! I’m Duane Matz and this is Today’s Living Word

 

 2Sa 5:22-25, “Then the Philistines went up once again and deployed themselves in the Valley of Rephaim.  23 Therefore David inquired of the LORD, and He said, "You shall not go up; circle around behind them, and come upon them in front of the mulberry trees.  24 "And it shall be, when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, then you shall advance quickly. For then the LORD will go out before you to strike the camp of the Philistines."  25 And David did so, as the LORD commanded him; and he drove back the Philistines from Geba as far as Gezer. (2 Sam 5:22-25)

 

The Philistines regroup and amass their troops for a second attempt to defeat Israel, and once again David wisely seeks the Lord as to whether or not he should engage the enemy.  But God gives David an unusual answer. He says, “Don't meet them head on, I want you to circle up behind them and attack them from the mulberry trees.”

 

Further God tells David to hold off the attack until He gives him the signal, and that signal would be the “sound of marching in the mulberry trees.”  Obviously, this would be a very noticeable rustling of the leaves caused by the winds, which (in case you didn’t know it) are enclosed in the fist of God!

 

Pr 30:4 Who has ascended into heaven, or descended? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has bound the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is  His name, and what is His Son's name, If you know?

 

By the grace of God we know His name, it is Jehovah. And we know His Son’s name…it is Jesus. He can gather the wind into His fist and He can release it at His will.

 

Go ahead, you try that. Try to gather  just a wisp of a breeze in your hand. How’d you do? You didn’t do!

 

 

The point is, God is God even of the wind and He wants David to rely on Him so David will understand that the battle belongs to the Lord!  Zec 4:6b says, “'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,'”

 

This battle is a great picture of that first Day of Pentecost when Jesus told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they received power from on high and then....”suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.” It was their signal to leave the house and join with God in confronting the enemy with the gospel!

 

So where is the wind of the Spirit today? Where is God moving?

 

I can't answer that for you. All I can tell you to do is hop in the boat and hoist your sails and wait for the wind to come to you. God is just looking for some willing sailors.

 

You might be dead in the water now,  don't panic! Wait for the Lord! Spend this time by prayerfully reading His Word. That way, you'll be ready, willing, and able when the wind blows and the Spirit will take you where He wants you to be.

 

I’m Duane Matz and that’s today’s Living Word.

Dealing With the Yeahbuts

 

Good day! I’m Duane Matz and this is Today’s Living Word

 

Ps 141:4 Do not incline my heart to any evil thing, To practice wicked works With men who work iniquity; And do not let me eat of their delicacies.

 5 Let the righteous strike me; It shall be a kindness. And let him rebuke me; It shall be as excellent oil; Let my head not refuse it. For still my prayer is against the deeds of the wicked.

 

David is asking the Lord   to help him steer clear of anything that displeases God, And he asks that God would turn him away from the habitual sinful and  yet alluring practices of the world! 

 

As I read this prayer of David’s, I can’t help but wonder if it was answered on the day that God sent the prophet Nathan to David and he called out David’s sin with Bathsheba.

 

Verse 5 is a plea to send a righteous person (Nathan) to strike David with the Law of God. It would be a kindness to point  out Davids sin, and a rebuke from a righteous man would be like an anointing of fresh oil from head to foot.

And when the rebuke comes,  David asks that he not dodge it, but meekly receive it and confess it for what it is….a sin against God! And funny thing that’s just what happened when the prophet Nathan confronted David over his sins with Bathsheba!

 

Nathan summed it up when he told David, “You are the man!” And David received the rebuke when he replied to Nathan, “”I have sinned against the Lord.”

 

A terrible thing you  did with Bathsheba David, but 1Jo 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

 

This was true for David and it’s true  for  you and I as well!

 

Pray this prayer of David in Ps 141:4,5, Pray that you too would be open to rebuke and correction. And stay away from the “yeahbuts.”

 

 

You know the yeahbuts, Yeah but what about this and yeah what about that, as you seek to justify your sin? You find yourself pouring over the concordance in your Bible, looking for loopholes, to justify your divorce, or your abortion, or your gossiping, , or  your sexuality or any other sin that you have swept under the carpet.

 

Instead of looking for loopholes, look at the nail holes, the sins that put Jesus on the cross. Confess them, receive His forgiveness, then go and sin no more

 

I’m Duane Matz and that’s today’s Living Word.

Avoid Getting Sucked In

 

Good day! I’m Duane Matz and this is Today’s Living Word

 

Ps 40:2 He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps.

 

I’m old enough to remember the days of door to door salesmen. We had one such visitor when we were living in Newport Rhode Island. I was home alone when he knocked and convinced me to buy a set of encyclopedias,

 

These books served us well for pressing leaves, and cleaning up carpet spills where some weight placed on paper toweling would   help lift the stain out. Perhaps our greatest use for these books was the time  a bat was loose in our house. My daughter was home alone and she managed to trap the bat under an ice cream bucket. She put a couple of encyclopedias on top of the bucket so the bat couldn’t escape and left them there for dad (me) when I got home.

 

What was I thinking when I purchased these books? I don’t even remember the salesman’s pitch, but it’s clear I got “sucked in,” some of you may have been sucked in by a door to door vacuum cleaner salesman! Maybe that’s where the phrase “sucked in” came from!

 

The door to door peddlers of lies are with us today in the Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses. Their doctrines of salvation by works and their refusal to acknowledge Jesus as God is a pile of quicksand just waiting to “suck in” the uninformed.

 

These diabolical missionaries have been well trained to use just enough truth to lure you in. The average Christian typically is not in position to debate doctrinal differences with these well-trained wolves in sheep’s clothing.

 

But God has given us His Word and a very simple tactic to use.  It’s found in 2Jo 1:10  If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him;

 

Put that verse into your cell phone where you can call it up quickly. Read it out loud to them and tell them that according to God’s Word, they have to leave!

.

 

What would happen if all of us would employ that God-ordained tactic? Maybe after a while they would get the hint and rethink their doctrine!

 

I’m Duane Matz and that’s today’s Living Word.

The Two Sides of Fear

 

Good day! I’m Duane Matz and this is Today’s Living Word

 

Ac 10:1 There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian Regiment, 2 a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people, and prayed to God always.

 

Cornelius… a godly man who was a Gentile  who believed in the existence of a higher power. This “higher power” was to be feared. The word in the Greek is phobeo, from which we get the English word “Phobia.”

 

His idea of God was not a reverence for God but an alarming sense of fear!  When he thought of God, he was fearful of what God could  do to him and so he sought to please Him with good moral conduct that included generous almsgiving. Certainly  that would appease this phobia producing God!

 

God noted the misguided faith of Cornelius and determined that Cornelius had to be straightened out. He needed to see the “grace” side of God But there was more straightening out to do with the misguided notions of Peter concerning the Gentiles.

 

So, as the old saying goes,  God kills two birds with one stone as He sends Peter to Cornelius (the Gentile) to share the gospel and overcome Cornelius’s one sided fear filled view of God and Peter’s one-sided misguided view of the Gentiles!

 

When all was said and done, Cornelius and all the others gathered in his house are baptized by Peter, Their sins washed away in the waters of baptism, their phobia regarding God as a shaking in your boots kind of God, now come alongside the tempering grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness  of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

 

The Psalmist tells us of this “right” fear of God in Ps 130:4 But there is forgiveness with You, That You may be feared. (revered, worshiped)

 

The holiness of God is never to be discarded, but because of Jesus we (Gentile and Jew alike) are allowed to approach God without terror through the blood of Jesus.

 

I’m Duane Matz and that’s Today’s Living Word