Author: Greg Teats

Psalm 73

In Psalm 73, Asaph describes how at first, he was envious and tempted after watching the way the wicked and arrogant live their lives in verses 1 through 14.  His jealousy was brewing.  He wasn’t seeing the instant gratification in what he knows of his own pure heart while the immoral were prospering right in front of him.  He wasn’t seeing them struggle, their bodies were healthy, and their lives looked so easy.  They spoke with such arrogance as if they themselves owned the heavens, and people around them were soaking up every drop.

Others could see this evil happening and began questioning God.  “Why is He allowing this?”  These heartless people were living carefree, getting richer and richer.  Meanwhile the righteous were suffering?!  Asaph was tempted to believe that all his time trying to live a holy life was for nothing.  Verse 13, “Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure; in vain have I washed my hands in innocence.”

Then in verses 15 through 28, Asaph brings himself back to what he knows is true and good after getting clarity from visiting the sanctuary.  When it came to decision time and whether he would opt in with the evil doers, he was wise enough to stay to true to God’s words.  He knew in his heart that these wicked people were walking a tight rope with no net underneath to catch them.  He understood that just because these individuals were ‘flourishing’ in this life, punishment awaited them in the next.

Asaph acknowledged his foolishness for initially questioning God. Verse 22, “I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you.”  Also summarized in verses 27 and 28, ‘those far from You will perish, but as for me, it is good to be near You.”

We all see this every day.  People arrogantly boasting about how good they have it and how easy life is.  But if we keep listening, they are easier to spot than you would think.  It is usually those that seem to give all the glory to themselves and leave out any mention or thanks be to God.   Then you can truly see who has been feeding off the devil’s lies.

Our societies are filled with so many people who are completely confused about who they are, why they’re here, and the meaning of life.  They are walking off cliffs, and the only thing that will save them is the truth that flows out of the sanctuary of God.

Philippians 2

A modest or low view of one’s own importance according to Webster.

I know, I know. We all already know what humility is.  What it looks like.  How it is defined.  But how often do we sit and think about the Bible’s meaning of humility?  I don’t disagree with Google…..”A key virtue marked by an absence of pride and self-centeredness, emphasizing love and placing God and others before oneself”.

In Philippians, Paul breaks down humility very simply.  Verses 3 & 4, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.  Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”  Paul makes it so easy to read, but is it that easy to carry out in everyday life?  Are we all able to find humility in our everyday lives or do we very often get lost in our own self-interests and desires?

I love how life works.  Just this morning before I sat down to spend time on this chapter in Philippians, I was listening to a podcast.  The host is an avid pool player and his guest is currently the #1 pool player in the world.  The host explained how he casually played against his guest a couple of years ago and lost several times, expectedly.  But the host wasn’t mad or upset that he lost, even though he finds himself as a very good pool player.  No, instead he told the guest how humbling it made him feel.  The host knows he can beat the average pool hall player but also recognizes that the guest is an elite pro.  This pro spends way more time practicing and playing pool and there is a reason he is #1 and the host understands and accepts this.

This is just a microcosm example of everyday humility and certainly not exactly the type of humility Paul is referring to in Philippians.  Paul’s humility is that of Jesus.  One that describes not considering equality with God to be attainable, but instead being a simple servant made in human likeness.  By just humbling yourself for who and what God made you.

When I think of being humble, I think of exactly where I am sitting or standing in that very moment.  I am currently sitting in my office in my house in front of my computer.  I am humbled by everything I have in my life.  An amazing God-fearing wife, 2 amazing little girls, a roof over our heads, all the family and friends that I love and care about and that love and care about me.

But every night I put my head on my pillow, periodically throughout the day and especially church on Sundays, I am reminded of the humility through Jesus.  Verse 5, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus”.  This is not true for me 100% of the time, and thank God that’s ok.  But it is a great memento that it should be a lot closer to 100% than 0%.  A recent sermon in the last month has stuck with me in absolutely everything I do that Right or Wrong(especially wrong), I need to be more like Jesus in every which way.  If it were easy everyone would do it!  Well, none of us can be 100% like Jesus, but maybe we can at least try more, 100% of the time.

Psalm 52

Doeg the Edomite was down-right the opposite of what we know as a good person.  He was essentially an antagonist.  Has anyone ever run into one of those in your life??  The answer is probably yes, but have any of us ever run into one like Doeg?  That may be a different answer.  Doeg was extremely proud of doing wrong.  It wasn’t just mere sinning, he was boastful about it.  He highly indulged in the telling of lies way more than the truth.

Then there is the complete opposite of Doeg, and that is David.  He believes in truth over lies all day long.  He reminds us that God will always expose the lies and remove those that act in such a deceitful manner.  God always sees the truth and will bring justice.  David knows that the righteous will always see God’s justice and learn the lesson to be given.  So many times lies can lead to more money, power, and wealth, but only true trust in God is what is most real and right.

Doeg was the epitome of a bad man.  He was a true example of the bad guy in the movies who wanted no part of being good or righteous.  God always sees his type of injustice, but remember God will respond in His time.  Evil people may seem powerful for a while, but it won’t last.  Trust in God and stay rooted in His love.  Remain faithful even when evil seems to be winning.

2 Corinthians Chapter 9

In this chapter of 2 Corinthians, Paul is talking to the people at Corinth about generously giving and helping Christians in need.  He goes on that giving should start from within, not pressure or guilt.  A perfect example of this is that of a farmer.  If you plant a few seeds, you will get a small crop.  If you plant a lot of seeds, you tend to get a big harvest.  The more you give, the more blessings you will receive!

Paul’s meaning is more than just giving money.  Money is definitely something we should give and something so many people or organizations need, but they can also use our time, attention, and so much more.  Sometimes not all Christians have an abundance of one of these things, let alone all of them at once, but it is a reminder of what we should do with it when we do have it.

So often in my life I ask myself and God, “How much should I give, how much money should I donate, how much time can I spare today?”  Then the next question I ask myself, “Is that enough?  Am I being too cheap?  Should I have given more?”  But that isn’t the point here.  It isn’t dependent on the amount of these things necessarily as much as the real desire within oneself of wanting to give.

I am sure we have all been in line for coffee or at a restaurant and made the choice to “pay it forward”.  It feels good to do that doesn’t it??  It does to me.

One of my wife and I’s trips to Galena one Fall, we were on the way out of town and stopped at a breakfast place.  For 45 minutes we sat next to an older man and listened/watched him interact with the locals.  It seemed like he went there for the food and the comradery that he might not have had at home alone.  As we were leaving and paying our bill, I asked the waitress to put his on ours as well.  She asked us, “Are you sure?”  We said of course.  She proceeds to tell us that he recently won a million dollar scratch off ticket, and that yellow hummer outside was his!

Now, my wife and I thought that was pretty crazy, but we still insisted on paying.  Why?  It wasn’t because we thought he was poor and needed it, but he seemed like a nice man who was nice to others and enjoyed people.  And it was simply a nice thing to do, hopefully he paid it forward someday for the same reasons.

All that being said, here is what I am trying to get at…..

• Give willingly and happily, not out of guilt or pressure
• Generosity leads to abundance in life, not just money
• God will supply your needs so you can keep helping others
• We give because God first gave to us, through Jesus

Psalm 40

This Psalm is a testament of God’s faithfulness and a cry for help in a time of need. It highlights a deep relationship with God. A relationship built on trust, gratitude, and dependence.

David was waiting patiently and faithfully for God, and He heard him. David was stuck in a low, dark place emotionally and spiritually and God pulled him out and put him back on solid ground with a fresh start.

• • God is always listening to those who wait on Him and He brings change out of our struggles.

David recognizes that God doesn’t just want religious acts, He wants a heart willing to obey. David offers himself fully, ready to live out God’s will.

• • God cares more about our obedience and that the road we choose to go down aligns with the path he has set for us.  He doesn’t want the tangibles, He wants the intangibles.

David doesn’t keep God’s goodness to himself but instead tells others. He strongly speaks about God’s faithfulness, love, and truth in front of the everyone he can.

• • This is a reminder that we should all share how God has worked in our lives and encourage all those around us from our experiences.

Despite his past relief, David admits he still faces trouble from his own sins and from enemies. He begs for God’s help and protection while confirming his continued trust and dependency on Him.

• • No matter how much help we seek and receive from God, we will continue to have challenges. But that’s ok!  It is ok to keep asking God for help and relying on him.  He would have it no other way.

Never forget what God has done for you.  Continue praying and when you come to those forks in the road don’t be afraid to ask for His help when you are uncertain or scared.  Always trust in Him when new changes come.  God wants us to rely on him.  IT’S OK!  He wants us to just as much as we need to, through the good AND the bad.  Go on deepening you’re relationship with God and don’t be afraid to share with everyone else the way God has worked in your life through the good and the bad times.

1 Corinthians 13

The first thing I thought of after reading 1 Corinthians 13……who stood up and read this at my wedding??  I can’t be the only one that thought about weddings!  Second thing I thought of and went straight to spotify to play for some inspiration…..Alan Jackson – Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning?  Heck, I just listened to it again.  That song in itself can be the summary of this chapter!

Paul reminds us all that without LOVE, nothing else matters.  Love is patient, love is kind.  I was told to be patient and kind as young as I can remember.  My wife still tells me that today.  We tell our kids that.  Love doesn’t envy or boast meaning don’t show off or resent other people.  Again, things and principles we were told growing up and what we continue to tell our children.  I feel like from now on I should say to my kids each day on the way out the door, “First Corinthians, chapter 13!”, but it doesn’t quite have that ring to it.

I think the word love can be abused, overused, taken advantage of.  We need that reminder of what the bible says it means and Paul does that here.  Many things like knowledge, prophecy, and spiritual gifts are temporary.  But LOVE is eternal.  Someday, when we fully understand everything and see God face-to-face, we’ll realize love was the most important thing all along.

We all certainly know what love is and what it means when it comes to our loved ones or special events like the birth of a newborn or the day we get married.  But what Paul does here is go a little deeper and reminds us about that Alan Jackson type of love that we need to show towards everyone.  It is not just about the love on the good days and people that are close to you but also the love on the not so good days and everyone else in the world.

Country music fan or not, I urge everyone to listen to that song at least once today and reflect on where and how you show your love to those around you and those far away.

Faith, Hope and Love will always matter, but LOVE is the greatest.  It is the foundation of real relationships, real growth, and real faith.

After reading Psalm 26, I have a few questions I asked myself…..

1. Have I led a blameless life?

2. Have I trusted in the Lord without wavering?

3. Do I associate with hypocrites?

4. Do I always refuse to sit with the wicked?

Here are my answers in that order.  No.  No.  Yes.  No.   Just another reminder that I am so far from perfect, not that I had forgotten.

These aren’t written as questions in this Psalm but that is the way I read it back to myself.  I already know my answers before I can finish the question.

Blameless Life – If it isn’t my fault then whose is it?  Where do I point the finger?  In reality, I do often find myself pointing that finger in the mirror.  I find myself saying, “I could have handled that better”, or “I didn’t need it to escalate it that high”.

Trust the Lord without Wavering – I do trust the Lord.  This one I definitely tend to be more self-conscious of.  I know there are times that I certainly waver, but I am quick to take a step back, talk to God for a moment, and understand when I must give up the controls to Him.  That makes it a lot easier than ever thinking I have all the answers when we know that isn’t true!

Associating with Hypocrites – GUILTY!  I probably do it every day. Shoot, I can be that hypocrite.  It makes me feel even worse when I type it out load.  This one is difficult.  My good Christian credibility takes a hit here.

Refusing to Sitting with the Wicked – This one is interesting and the way I view it isn’t the right way.  I never sit with the wicked(figuratively or literally) because I also want to become wicked.  Instead, I am probably trying to gain something from them.  Maybe it is to learn what not to do or how not to be.  Maybe selfishly it is to use it against them someday. I know, I know,  that isn’t the right answer…..

The point of all this remains the same.  None of us are perfect.  Yes, we already know this.  The point is to think about it more, think about these questions.  Try and get through a day while asking yourself these.  How did you do?  Isn’t it impossible to go 24 hours with a passing grade.  If you can, good on you.  I am not sure I could, but it certainly makes me want to try a little harder each day.  Just like no sin is greater than another in God’s eyes, neither are these questions.  When in doubt take a moment, acknowledge whatever the situation and put your faith and trust in Jesus.  I promise you will feel better!

Romans 7

There are chapters in the bible sometimes that make me feel like I don’t know how to read good.  Romans chapter 7 did that to me today.  It is one of those that requires multiple re-reads and some dissecting for me to follow the teaching that is inside of it.  Sure, we can all get the point once over, but it feels like in this chapter the point is made several times over in different ways.  Maybe that IS the point?!

Paul is writing here in Romans that the law is holy and good because it reveals to us just how sinful we really are.  Everyone struggles with sin every day, sometimes many times throughout the day, and those that say they don’t are fooling themselves.

Verse 20, “Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.”  It is remarkable how often I catch myself committing a sin and soon after thinking, “You know that wasn’t the right thing to say/do”.  And if it was a ‘small’ sin we kind of forget about it and move on with our day.  Maybe if it was a ‘bigger’ sin we take a few extra seconds to think about it and try to tell ourselves to not do that one again.  Paul is saying that sin is in all of us.  Sometimes we sin not because we want to or mean to, but because it lives in us and it is our own responsibility to understand that and be able to ask for God’s help to stay on the right path.  Also remember that we are never ‘annoying’ Him if we need to repeatedly keep asking for said help.  He is way more disappointed in us when we don’t ask than how many times we do.

This chapter also reminded me of a show I binged over this past weekend.  ‘The Bondsman’ starring Kevin Bacon.  It is at best 4/5 stars where Bacon is a bondsman that is given a second chance but must send back demons who are trying to escape hell.  It is vulgar and gory at times, BUT here is how it reminds me of sin and what I mentioned above.  Every time a demon(sin) was present, it showed its face in the mirror.  Just like sin, sometimes you can see it plain as day and a lot of times you can’t, but it is always lingering around.  It is on us to keep it at bay and we can easily do this by praying to God for a little help…..as often as we need to.

Verse 24-25, “What a wretched man I am!  Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Psalm 21

Does anyone else ever read some of the Psalms written by David and easily slip back into that mindset of, “You’re right David, God is so good!”?  I know it isn’t just me. Psalm 21 I feel does just that.

Verse 4, “He asked you for life, and you gave it to him – length of days, for ever and ever.”  When I lay my head down tonight, I am going to pray as usual.  And as I usually do, I am going to start off by thanking Him for today and for all the others that come after.  But after reading this, I am going to go a little further.  I am going to thank the Lord for those “forever days”, for that eternal life with Him.

I already know I don’t thank God enough for everything He has given me.  I mean, I think I do a “good job”, but I know I can easily do better at prayer, carving out at the least a little more time from my day to put the brakes on life and talk to Him or talk WITH Him.  This makes me realize that next time I pray I WANT to thank Him for those eternal days when this life is all said and done.  As I reflect on it, I feel like it is easily assumed and/or taken for granted when in fact we know it is the greatest gift He gives us!

Then in the second part of this Psalm David addresses those who don’t seek God’s love or forgiveness.  Verse 8 says, “Your hand will lay hold on all your enemies; your right hand will seize your foes.”  Mr. T. says it best, “I pity the fool”.

We have all had tremendous UPs in life and tremendous DOWNs.  I know I am not the only one, but I love knowing that God has been by my side and by the side of so many others.  So, I pity the fool that ever tells me they don’t need faith in God in their lives when they think they have it all.  Surely, we wouldn’t mind having the all the riches from our first day until our last, or just being able to glide through life without any trials thrown our way, but we also understand material things are no comparison to the love, forgiveness and eternal life that God offers us.  And if there was no turbulence in our lives then where do we learn that we can’t do this thing without His help along the way?!

So….Thank you David for the words you wrote in Psalm 21.  With your words and Easter in a few days, I will challenge myself and others to put down the phone, take one less unnecessary call/text/email and spend that time to be thankful not for just today but for so much more.  And pray for someone that might put on a really good show but is actually struggling with something that they don’t want anyone else to know.

Psalm 21:1 O Lord, the king rejoices in your strength.  How great is his joy in the victories you give!

Acts 23

In chapter 23, we pick up where Paul was brought to the Jewish council to find out why a Jewish mob was trying to kill him.  He stood in front of the council declaring that he was living his life in the way that God had set out for him.  Because of what Paul said, the high priest ordered someone to punch him right in the kisser.

Paul knew that the Jewish council was divided up between Pharisees and Sadducees.  Verse 8 highlights the main difference between the two.  The Sadducees believed that there was no resurrection and that there are no angels or spirits while the Pharisees acknowledge them all.  A big uproar began amongst all of them and started getting violent when finally the commander told his troops to get Paul out of there before he was ripped to shreds.

Later that night the Lord appeared to Paul in verse 11 to let him know he was going to get through this, get out of Jerusalem and make his way to Rome.  The Lord didn’t say HOW, but just reassured him there was a promise in place.

The next morning a group of 40 Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul.  They all went to the Jewish council from the day before and asked if they could “have a word” with Paul.  In reality, they had a plan to ambush him while he would have been on the way to the council and kill him before he ever got there. BUT, crazy enough, Paul’s nephew overheard the Jews talking about their killing plot and he went and reported it to the commander.

After hearing this, the commander prepared a bunch of armed men to escort Pual in the cover of the night to Caesarea and sent with them a letter to the Governor explaining how a group of Jews want to kill him and that he deserved a fair hearing in front of his accusers instead of dying for no reason.

What I keep going back to in this chapter is Paul’s nephew and the Lord’s promise.  What are the odds his nephew overhears the group of Jews who were plotting out loud their plan to kill Paul??  We all know, have heard, what God’s miracles look like when they happen but what about the way God works in unseen ways that don’t APPEAR as miracles at first glance.

God promised Paul that he would have the chance to preach in Rome that night he was taken from the violent uproar.  I can only imagine the relief that Paul felt knowing that that wasn’t the last night he would ever have again.  It is sometimes easy to forget, but we need to remember…..everything, everyday, all of us are a part of God’s plan.  It was not dumb luck Paul’s nephew overheard that plot for murder.  God providentially arranged the time, place, and volume of the voices of the those would-be-killers and placed Paul’s nephew exactly when and where he needed to be to hear them.  Let us all rest assured, God works His will through the mundane and ordinary events of a busy world and our busy lives.