Are You Ready To Rumble?

A great Passage from the book of Judges speaks to our lives today:

The Test from Andy Addis on Vimeo.

Judges 3

1 These are the nations the LORD left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan 2 (he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience)

What are the lessons here?

1. Sometimes its not the devil

2. God will test His own

3. God wants us ready to fight

Hide and Seek Anyone?

Where is your hiding place? Wherever it is, is it safe? Is it really a place of refuge?

As believers, we are allowed to have a safe place for difficult times, but we need to make sure it is really the refuge that God intends for our protection and safety.

This quick study of Psalm 11 reminds us of where we need to go when we need a hiding place.

A Little Hide And Seek, Anyone? from Andy Addis on Vimeo.

The Lord Is in His Holy Temple

Psalm 11 To the choirmaster. Of David.

1 In the Lord I take refuge;

how can you say to my soul,

“Flee like a bird to your mountain,

2 for behold, the wicked bend the bow;

they have fitted their arrow to the string

to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart;

3 if the foundations are destroyed,

what can the righteous do?”

4 The Lord is in his holy temple;

the Lord’s throne is in heaven;

his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man.

5 The Lord tests the righteous,

but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.

6 Let him rain coals on the wicked;

fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.

7 For the Lord is righteous;

he loves righteous deeds;

the upright shall behold his face.


Between you, me and the bedpost…

I love expressions. You know, the things people say so that they can drop just the right cliché at the right time and appear wise.

We’ve all got them. Some we read from a book, others came through generational transmission (from your parents, that is), and still others found their way into the storehouse of our collective memory via the world’s greatest resource of miscellaneous knowledge… email forwards.

Here are a few you might recognize:

  • If you can’t beat them, join them. This works pretty well until you’re talking about the IRS. They’re really not looking for recruits.
  • Give them an inch and they’ll take a mile. Actually, this one works for the IRS, too. No further comment (Just kidding IRS guys, I don’t mind paying taxes to be a part of this great country… please don’t audit me).
  • Give them enough rope to hang themselves. To me, this one is just a little too morbid comment on, and it just doesn’t make sense. Isn’t a shorter rope better for hanging. Not that I ever want to find out! Continue reading “Between you, me and the bedpost…”

The long way around

My wife and I are never closer to divorce than when she is right.

Just kidding. We’ve already ruled out divorce as an option, but homicide… well.

Once again, just kidding.

Seriously, it really peeves me when my wife and I are engaged in passionate discourse (aka fighting) and in the midst of the battle it becomes abundantly clear that she is right.

The one time that happened was really rough on me.

You know that feeling that you have been missing the obvious? That the answer has been right there all along and you’ve just been too blind, busy or bored to pick up on it.

No? Just me? Hmm. Continue reading “The long way around”

You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me?

Dealing with conflict.

Everyone deals with it, but the question is how do you deal. There are constructive and destructive ways to deal with almost anything including conflict, criticism and stupidity.

Hmm… that last descriptor is less from my Bible Study and more from the movie I just caught last night: GI JOE.

andy as GI JOE

I so loved it. I was 11 again.

If one of the JOEs ran into conflict they’d blow it up, punch it in the face, or just kill it.

And, as machismo and testosterone driven as that is (and, oh so appealing for so many situations), I don’t think it’s the answer for the Christ follower in conflict.

I just can’t imagine Jesus strapping on a fully automatic machine gun with rocket launcher attachment and sneering at his 12-man commando posse as He jumps on the back of camel yelling, “Mount up”. Continue reading “You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me?”

Lessons from the Little Piggy gone to market

One Body, Many Parts

 12 The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized bya one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

14 Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

a Or with; or in
The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (1 Co 12:12-27). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

 

 

I am learning a lot from my body lately. Not by choice, probably because I was never a willing student in the first place. Nonetheless, I have some valuable lessons being heaped upon me.

Suffering from these chronic chiari headaches, I have learned how to try and cope and push through the day to day stuff even when you’d rather just lay down. It’s helped me cinch up a couple of notches on my baby belt and quit pegging out my wuss-o-meter.

 

That is, unless Kathy’s around and then I lay it on thick because she is awesome with the neck rubs. No one forward her this article… don’t ruin this for me!

Continue reading “Lessons from the Little Piggy gone to market”

I Knew I was right

I love validation!

We all do.

Validation is that moment when you are proven right and you get to jump up and yell, “Booya, in your face, I knew it, that’s right, who’s your daddy, I own you, YES, I… AM… THE… MAN!”

And, your wife just sits there and rolls her eyes, again, because you have once again bested her in your knowledge of Star Wars Trivia. Even though she hates those movies and can’t tell the difference between a Jedi’s Padawan and a Sith Lord, you still sit there smugly in your moment of triumphant validation… you dominate.

I admit it, I am a validation junkie. I remember once being in an argum… er… discussion with my betrothed about an actor on a sitcom in which I was so sure of myself and desiring validation that I ordered it at a drive through: Continue reading “I Knew I was right”

Set apart, or SET apart


Barnabas and Saul Sent Off

13 In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.

The Holy Bible : New International Version. electronic ed. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Ac 13:1-3

This is where I was studying this morning for my own devotional time. I thought I’d be clever (this almost never works out for me) and do a quick word study.

I know that the word ‘holy’ means to be set apart, so, I thought maybe that the Holy Spirit’s command to ‘set apart’ Saul and Barny (yeah, we’re that tight) was a derivation of that Greek root for holy. If it was the same word, then cool, I’ll look super smart someday preaching that and very insightful to boot.

Problem is, it’s not the same word. DRAT!

Even when I used other English versions, the Greek never changed, how can this be? Apparently my clever reserves are running low. Continue reading “Set apart, or SET apart”