While I'm Away

I will be unavailable to send out your Daily Thoughts for the week of September 3^rd.  So please take time to review some of the most popular Daily Thoughts of the last year.  These rank as the top 5.  

God is Love – period Jan 7, 2012

Jesus – Words from the Cross #2 Apr 3, 2012

An Esther Moment Jan 23, 2012

A Man of Courage Jan 16, 2012

Get Out of the Way Jan 24, 2012

 I hope you find these uplifting throughout the week of my absence as I will be on vacation with my beautiful wife celebrating 25 glorious and blessed years together.  

 Find peace each and every morning and joy each and every night and you will live a long and prosperous life.  But the more you choose to hold her hand and dance under the stars at night the longer you'll have a happy wife. 

 

© Sondove Enterprises, 2012
For more Daily Thoughts go to: http://sondove.blogspot.com

The Devil Made Me Do It

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“Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” – Matthew 16:23

It was a popular phrase when I was growing up, made so by a comedian named Flip Wilson back in the 1970’s.  We would watch his television show when I was a boy and I remember laughing so hard with my family.  Of course at that time, it was simply humor to me as a 10 year old boy, it never dawned on me just how revealing those simple words are, “The Devil made me do it” 

We are given freedom in this world to make choices, to decide our path in life and pursue our dreams in whatever manner necessary.  There are times we are perfectly in line with the Lord’s path and times we are only seeking the pleasure of mankind.  Who are we to understand the ways of God, to fully embrace the wisdom and omnipotence of the Almighty?  This is far beyond the grasp of the wisest of mankind.  If you were to approach this from a mathematical perspective you could put the entire knowledge of mankind throughout time in written form or spoken or thought on one side of an equation and give it the variable ‘M’.  Now on the other side of the equation you would put the symbol ∞ (M), and the operand in the middle would of course be a ‘<’.  So the equation would look something like this :  M < ∞ (M); which simply means that regardless of the compilation of man’s knowledge, God’s knowledge is infinitely greater.  Einstein, Socrates, Aristotle, Galileo, Newton, Plato, Pascal and the list of brilliant men goes on when joined together as one collective pool of knowledge fails to even register on the scale of wisdom from above.

To think that we have any ability to tell od what we think is the right thing to do in any situation is beyond reason and sheer foolishness.  He does not need your input to solve a problem or to better understand or justify a situation.  He fully comprehends every thought before the electrodes in your brain have relayed the information to your vocal cords and facial muscles to emanate a sound.  Is there anything you can teach God?  Really?  Anything at all?  Does He understand the plight of those in 3^rd world countries struggling for food and water? Yes.  Does He fully grasp the pain a family is going through when they can’t pay their bills this month? Yes.  Does He realize the grief, the pain and the emptiness that a mother feels when she loses her daughter to drugs, prostitution or cancer?  Yes.  Do we believe that if we provide more justification or reasoning that God will see the circumstance our way and conform to our thinking? 

It really comes down to a challenge of self-centeredness vs God-centeredness.  You and I are either living for Him or living for ourselves, there can be no middle ground.  He asks for us to be fully committed with all our heart, all our mind and all our soul (as we discussed earlier in the week).  You are making the choice.  It’s your call, and by not making that choice, you are making a choice.  He tells those in the Church of Laodicea, in Revelations 3:15-16, that because they are lukewarm (neither hot nor cold) He will spit them out like vomit.  Just as Joshua stated in Joshua 24:15 – “Today you must choose whom you will serve, but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.”  Stop telling God what you want Him to do, and start praising Him for what He has done and will do.  Trust that He knows you well enough to get it right.

© Sondove Enterprises, 2012
For more Daily Thoughts go to: http://www.10minutereader.com

This Too Shall Pass

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““Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” – Matthew 7:13-14

Yes, today you may be struggling and you may not see a way out of the situation you are in.  There is no easy way to solve some of life’s big challenges and we must press on through the pain and hardship.  Many times the realization that God is sovereign, omnipotent and ever loving is the peace that will see you through.  You may not like the path that lies before you, but an easy life was never promised to you.  Decisions have been made by you or others that lead to difficulties in life and in most situations we learn and grow from facing these challenges.  Your strength to see it through can come from the Lord, if you are willing to trust in Him. 

Set your eyes on the end goal, not on the individual actions that must be executed in order to achieve that goal, for there are many routes to that destination, but the destination is not going to change.  If you are driving across town for an important meeting and the road in front of you is blocked for construction, would you not find another route to your destination?  Of course you would.  Life is ultimately a journey to an eternal destination.  There is the shortest and most narrow path – laid out by the Lord for your life, but there are infinitely more paths that will get you there none the less, set in motion by the decisions we make along the way.  Don’t lose sight of the eternal because of the obstacles in your way today.

© Sondove Enterprises, 2012
For more Daily Thoughts go to: http://www.10minutereader.com

Break the Confusion

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“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” – Galatians 3:28

There was a movie several years back called “The Seventh Sign” about the last days and the breaking of the seven seals outlined in Revelations.  During the movie one of the characters, a young Jewish man, sits down with a Priest and poses this question, “ Well, who`ll be saved, Reverend?   The Jew doesn`t think it will be the Muslim. The Muslim doesn`t think it will be the Christian. The Christian doesn`t think it will be the Buddhist. What if nobody is saved? What if we`re all wrong?  My God. What if it`s just the Hare Krishnas?”  It’s just a movie, but this question has been on the mind of millions of people over centuries, and still to this day.

The fundamental basis for Christianity is that every man or woman ever born is born into sin.  The original sin from Adam and Eve have passed through every generation and is something that we are incapable of eliminating ourselves.  This is true of the Muslims, the Jews, the Buddhist’ and yes even the Hare Krishnas.  It’s true of the murderers on death row, the Pope, the Queen, the poor, the wealthy and the homeless.  Every single one of us that ever walked this earth, except Jesus Christ, has been born from the seed of man, and therefore fall under the unrighteousness of mankind.

Jesus Christ came to save ALL of us.  His blood is been the atonement for every sin, for those who accept and recognize Him and Lord. 1 Peter 3:18 states that Jesus came and died for all, not for some, not for the good boys and girls, not for the Jews, not for the high and mighty.  He came and died for ALL mankind, that none should perish.  People get caught up in fighting against Christianity because it is unbelievably open.  There is often a perception that you must be perfect to be a Christian.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  Jesus is our salvation, nothing we have done or can do, can achieve that salvation without a belief in Him.  Think of it this way: if Jesus death freed us from some sin, but not all; then what value did it have.  If His death were only for the Jews, and not the Gentiles, then how can He be the Son of God.  His blood is either sufficient for the redemption of all sin and the sanctification of all mankind or it is not sufficient for any.  There is no middle ground.  You, in your worst possible state of sin, are as important to God as Paul the Apostle, who was a murderer if you recall.  You must push past the feelings of unworthiness and guilt, and accept that this man – Jesus Christ – came to redeem you, so that you are cleansed and presentable to God Almighty on judgment day. 

There is no reason to wait any longer.  You have to come to the realization there is no way for you to redeem your own soul, and you can’t do enough good works to clean the filth that’s inside.  Jesus isn’t going to come and die again for your sins, He’s already done that, and it’s as valuable today as it was in the 1^st Century AD with Paul, Peter, John and the others.  Take this opportunity to surrender your life, as ugly as it is, to Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord.

© Sondove Enterprises, 2012
For more Daily Thoughts go to: http://www.10minutereader.com