​CROSSROADS.
 
Intersections of life where we must choose a direction.
 
Our scripture for this week gives us a glimpse of a sacred, crossroad scenario that was played out over 2,000 years ago.
 
“And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as Thou wilt.”                        Matthew 26:39
 
In the Garden of Gethsemane, God’s only Son knelt at a crucial life crossroad.
 
The weight of the world’s sin was crushing Christ’s spirit. Grieved and distressed to the point of death, Jesus wrestled with a destiny determining decision. A cruel Roman crucifixion on a rugged cross was beckoning to Him on a hill called Calvary.
 
The Son of God was confronted with a monumental decision that would affect time and eternity for Him and humanity.
 
The crossroad Jesus faced: to become sin and die for sinners or not. Do I turn to the cross or turn from it? His flesh desired one way, His spirit another. A critical crossroads.
 
God’s love for Jesus and all of us was the key issue at the crossroad our Lord and Savior faced. Jesus did not cave into heart-rending emotions which ran rampant, circumstances which were stacked against him, the failure of friends surrounding him, or pressure from the devil to turn His back on humanity.
           
At the crossroads, Jesus went to the Cross.
 
Jesus chose the will of God because He chose the love of God.
 
At the Cross, Jesus displayed the unconditional, immeasurable love of God that saved humanity from sin, death and the grave. Hallelujah and thank you Lord Jesus!
 
What about His followers? At the crossroads of the Cross, Peter, James, John and the others failed miserably. Falling asleep at their watch post, they were not ready when Jesus awoke them and headed toward the Cross. Sleepy-eyed and spiritually unprepared, the Lord’s arrest, suffering, and death took them by surprise, shaking their confidence and courage.
 
What a contrast of action at a crossroad. Jesus walked straight to the Cross. He went forth in victorious faith! While their Master walked to the Cross, His closest, most loyal supporters walked away from it. The disciples fled in fear and ended up discouraged and defeated.
 
Life’s crossroads require good decisions.
 
Should I marry this person or not? Is this the career path God has for me? Which church will be our family’s spiritual home? Morally do I go this way or that way?
 
Good decisions are made when we remember what kind of decision Jesus made for us.
 
My friend do not be at a loss when faced with a life-altering decision. Choose not to be tossed around by circumstances. Stay grounded in faith. Keep your head on straight and look to Jesus. He will quiet your soul and direct your steps.
 
* When Confronted With A Crossroad…...
 
……. Submit your feelings to your faith.
           
……. Engage your head as well as your heart.
           
……. Consider the long view as well as the short term.
           
……. Search the Scriptures for God’s direction.
           
……. Stay focused on Jesus Christ.
           
……. Determine to do God’s will, not yours.
           
……. Thank God for directing your steps.
 
……. Take the steps the Lord directed you to take.
 
            How about you? Needing to make a critical decision that will direct your destiny? Get alone with God. Pour your heart out to the Father. After laying everything before Him, release your situation with faith. Resolve to hear His voice. Then do what He tells you to do. That is what Jesus did.
 
Trust your crossroad to the One who faced the Cross and is risen from the dead!
 
 “Fixing our eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”                                                                        Hebrews 12:2
A Word For Your Week: When facing a crossroad, keep the Cross in the middle of the road.

​How you ever wondered why some professing Christians prosper in tough times while others do not? Why are some believers in Christ fruitless and others fruitful when life heats up?
 
It might have something to do with who we trust and put our confidence in during challenging times.
 
Jeremiah has a timely word for us during testing times.
 
Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. For he will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit!” Jeremiah 17:7-8
 
The weeping prophet knew something about tough times. His nation was in exile, enduring brutal captivity. Poverty and lack oppressed God’s once prosperous people. The Jewish nation was morally bankrupt and spiritually lost. Israel’s leaders had turned their backs on God.
 
Life’s heat had turned up. Spiritual drought had dried up the hearts of the people. How could they not only survive, but thrive under such conditions?
 
Jeremiah taught a spiritual lesson about roots and fruit. He encouraged his discouraged compatriots by contrasting the man who is cursed with the one who is blessed.
 
Verses 5-6 describe the cursed, fruitless man. He turns from the Lord and trusts in man. His spiritual roots are shallow because his confidence is in “the flesh.” He is like a solitary, withered bush in the wilderness. Stony, salty waste places suck life out of his shallow roots. Eventually a shallow rooted plant will die!
 
When prosperity comes, he will not see it. Why? His roots do not run deep in God.
 
The blessed man in verses 7-8 trusts God. His confidence is not in the flesh, but the spirit. He is like a vivacious, healthy, green tree planted by water whose roots extend deep into a life-giving stream. When the sun bears down, this man has no fear. His leaves remain green. He never stops yielding a harvest of fruit.
 
The blessed man is fearless and worry-less when life heats up because his roots run deep in God.
 
So which person are you? Blessed or cursed? Drought and dry seasons (spiritual, emotional, relational and economic) are part of life. It is a fact of physical and spiritual life that drought reveals how deep our roots really are.
           
When life dries up, men who trust in men burn out, burn up and bear no fruit. Life is fruitless and unfulfilling when shallow roots dry up. The person who trusts in the Lord is continually refreshed and bears abundant fruit in every season of life. Deep roots are not affected by the scorching heat. The blessed man who is deeply rooted and grounded in the love of God (see Ephesians 3:17) produces godly fruit despite and during trying times.
 
If you want to be blessed, run your trust roots deep in God.
 
Our roots are not running deep enough if….
 

• We are tempted to look to man to meet our needs.
• We are shaken by the shaking going on around us.
• We quote the word of men more than we quote the Word of God
• We worry about what the world worries about
• We attempt to do what only God can do for us.

 
How are your spiritual roots? Do they run deep in the Lord? Are they deep enough to withstand whatever life’s winds blow your way? Will you be fruitless or fruitful during this time of spiritual, moral, racial, economic and political upheaval in our nation?
 
How about your family? Are your family’s spiritual roots driven deep into the bedrock of Jesus Christ? Is your family foundation built on the Rock, so that your family’s spiritual house will not fail or fall when life’s storms come crashing against you? (Matthew 7:24-27).
 
Need to deepen your roots? Turn away from men and turn to the Lord. Go to the Word. Soak up God’s promises and principles. Pray about your needs. Trust God to meet every one of them. Spend time with deep-rooted Christians who will encourage you in your faith. Thank God for being with you every day of your life.
 
Roots and fruit……. both matter during these turbulent times.
 
Drive your spiritual roots deep into the soil of God’s Word. Let your life be watered with the deep, living water of the Holy Spirit. Then you will walk fearlessly through this time and bear fruit that will amaze men.
 
“The wicked desires the booty of evil men; but the root of the righteous yields fruit.”                                                                                                                                Proverbs 12:2
 
 “A man will not be established by wickedness, but the root of the righteous will not be moved.”                                                                                                  Proverbs 12:3
 
“He who believes in me as the Scripture said, “From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. This He spoke of the Holy Spirit who those who believed in Him would receive…”                                                                                    John 7:38-39
 
A Word For Your Week: Run deep in Christ to keep fruitful in life.

Has someone been merciful to you? How did that feel? Rather good huh?


According to Webster mercy means “compassion or forbearance shown especially to an offender or to one subject to one’s power, compassionate treatment of those in distress.”


In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-12) Jesus taught what are traditionally titled the Beatitudes. Robert Schuler calls the Beatitudes the BE ATTITUDES. I like that.


Included in the Lord’s list of BE ATTITUDES is mercy. Jesus said “Blessed (happy, oh how happy) are the merciful.” Why? Because “they shall receive mercy.”


Mercy is an attitude we are to have toward people, especially if we want to receive mercy.
    
Three things stand out to me about mercy.


First, you and I have been shown mercy. 


“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:4-7


Where would you and I be without God’s love and mercy? Biblically, we would be headed for hell! Instead, because God is merciful, everyone who believes in and receives His Son is headed for heaven (John 3:16, 1:12).


Thank you God for Your great mercy.


Secondly, you and I are to give mercy.


 Mercy is God’s gracious gift. Gifts should be shared. Merciful people give mercy to others. Jesus said to His followers “Freely you have received, freely give.” (Matthew 10:8).  Giving freely applies to mercy. Christians who have received Christ’s mercy are to give His mercy to others, freely and as often as needed.


Thirdly, being merciful, you and I will receive mercy. 


No exposition, explanation or emphasis needed here. Jesus made it clear…. clear as the day is long: THE MERCIFUL RECEIVE MERCY.
    
Here is an idea. If you need mercy, why not be merciful to someone else?
    
Life, relationships and ministry without mercy are like clouds without rain. Rain waters the earth, bringing life.  Mercy brings life to living. Without mercy, life is hard to bear. Mercy and kindness take the hard edge off living in a self-centered, arrogant, merciless world.


Observations About Mercy

• If you choose to be merciless, you will be mercy less.
• If you choose to be merciful, you will be mercy full.
• No mercy…. you won’t know mercy.
• Merciless people are miserable people.
• Merciful people are thankful, joyful people.
• Merciful people are rewarded with mercy.
• Mercy is a Christlike characteristic.
• Mercy and kindness mark people who have been made over by God’s mercy.
• Mercy springs from hearts that have experienced God’ mercy.
• Mercy flows from a grateful heart that understands grace.
• If you aren’t merciful to men, how do you expect to receive mercy from man’s Maker?

Mercy does matter.    


At the end of the day, I have a feeling that you and I will cry out to God like the honest, transparent man did in Luke 18:9-14.  Humbly approaching the presence of the Lord he prayed “God be merciful to me the sinner.” Have mercy on me God because I know I am a sinner who has sinned. Note he said “the sinner.” This guy was serious about his sin…so serious that he asked God for mercy.


Is that your heart? Is that my heart? Do we recognize that we need God’s mercy? Or do we take His love and grace for granted? And how do we feel about mercy for people who are sinners like us too? Just asking.


You might have a mercy problem if you are harder on people then you should be, you deny people the benefit of the doubt, you refuse to cut people some slack, you withhold forgiveness and grace or you excommunicate people from your life because they don’t measure up to your standards.


Everyone needs mercy. I need mercy every single day and so do you and others. Every day look for opportunities to be a mercy give.


Lord, have mercy on me…and help me be merciful to others in Your name.


“Do not let mercy and truth leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.”                                         Proverbs 3:3


“He has told you man what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God?”                            Micah 6:8


A Word For Your Week: Show mercy to be shown mercy.

Life is not fun when funk messes with our head.
What is funk? Webster’s Dictionary defines funk as “a depressed state of mind, a paralyzing fear, to become frightened, shrink back, dread, to shrink from undertaking or facing.”
I understand that definition. I have been there and done that. Multiple times throughout my life. You probably have too.
Bottom line: Funk is an emotional, mental and spiritual fog that makes it almost impossible to see life clearly. It’s like driving our cars on the highway semi-blindly making our way through dense fog. Funk casts shades of gray and even black shadows over our thinking.
Funk throws us into an emotional tailspin.
Emotionally we get stuck in a rut of confusion, anxiety, fear and paralysis of action, spawning uncertainty and dread about the future. Funky stuff hangs over you and me like a hangover that alcoholic beverage drinkers experience when imbibing too much.
Funk can last a few minutes, a few hours or a few days. The longer funk calls the shots the harder it is to escape its grip. A friend and prayer partner of mine help each other through funk when it strikes. We laugh when we see how the enemy has “funked” us.
I do not like funk. That is an understatement for sure. Hating funk would be more accurate.
When I am “funking”, the enemy of my soul hammers me with darkness. Clobbers me with clouds of doubt and unbelief. Reminds me of past, painful heartaches and lies to me about the future. I find myself caught up in mental traps that have me spinning my emotional wheels over and over again. Riding a merry-go-round that I cannot get off. I think the worst not the best. My faith fades into the sunset of funk. Funk leaves me drained and having to regroup my faith and perspective.    
Common Causes Of Funk

• Disappointment and discouragement. Something or someone has let you down.
• Depression/sadness/loss. Dark clouds of funky despair hover over our grief.
• Setbacks. Funk painfully reminds us of our flops, failures and fumbles.
• Being anxious. Worried. Confused. Troublesome and fearful thoughts and scenarios.
• Negative memories. Hurtful, painful thoughts of the past haunt and harass us.
• Unresolved issues. Stuff that matters is not getting better. Funk pounces on stuck.
• Wondering where God is in the funk. Why is this happening? For what reason

Characteristics of Funk

1. Funk attacks occur especially late at night and early in the morning when we are alone. The devil does not want us to rest peacefully through the night… and he serves you and me some funk with breakfast. Starting our day under a cloud of funk is not the way God would have us live the day He has graciously given for His glory and our good.
2. Funk is a demonic cloud of unholy junk that has no place in my life. Funk forces us to focus on everything that is contrary to our Holy God and the holy, joyful life He has called us to.
3. Funk is temporary. It does have a lifespan. How short or long is up to our response to funk. Funk is more than happy to hang over us for as long as we tolerate it.

4.  People throughout the Old and New Testament experienced moments and seasons of funk. Study the Word. You will find the spirit of funk has always been alive and well even in the best of folks. For example, King David battled funk numerous times and won the fight through faith in the Lord.
I wish I had a Funk Repellant I could spray on my brain before funk overshadows me. Neither you nor I do, so, let us look at some funk busters.
FUNK BUSTERS

• Identify funk. Define it. Call it what it is. Call it out from the shadows.
• Rebuke funk in the name of Jesus. Funk has no power over those who stand firm in faith in Christ. The Lord Jesus is the funk buster!
• Tell Satan to get the funk out of here. Take your darkness down the road evil one. Not welcome here.
• Ignore funk. Do not give it power it does not have by dwelling on it.
• Share your funk with someone you trust. Receive their counsel. Christians need each other when funk comes knocking on the door or their mind and hearts.
• Shake funk off with the Word of God. Know the Word. Speak the Word over funk. It must go when you and I wield the sword of the Spirit!
• Funk flees when we stand against it with the joy of Jesus. Jesus’ joy is a mighty funk buster!!!! Give the depression a knock-out punch with Jesus’ joy.
• Get up. Get out. Do something constructive and productive. Do not let funk paralyze you.
• While feeling funky, help someone over their funk. In Jesus’ name serve someone who is experiencing a challenging time and cannot pay you back for your service.
• Remember Christians have the mind of Christ (I Corinthians 2:16). Think God’s thoughts. They are in the Bible. Choose to walk in God’s peace, joy and strength each day. Leave no space or place in your head for funk to land.
• Natural fog is temporary. Eventually the sunshine breaks through, scattering the fog. So it is with mental/emotional/spiritual funk. Foggy funk is scattered by the light of Christ!

Faith in the light of the world (Jesus) overcomes funk’s dark shadow from Satan.
The joy of the Lord is a great antidote for funk.
“And He brought His people out with joy, His chosen ones with a joyful shout!” Psalm 105:3
“The Lord is a victorious warrior, He will exult over you with joy; He will quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy” Zephaniah 3:17
”Therefore, you too now have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one takes your joy away from you.” Matthew 16:22
A Word For Your Week: Funk is not our friend. Tell it to take a long, long hike back to hell where it belongs!  

While watching a NCAA March Madness tournament game the commentator excitedly declared “That player is amazing! He has heart!” What did he mean? Obviously, the outstanding player has a physical heart. But the heart the broadcaster was speaking of was his positive mental attitude, laser beam focus, intense drive and singular desire to win the game.
The player had a heart for winning a national collegiate basketball championship.
The Bible has a lot to say about heart. There are over seven hundred references to “heart” in the Old and New Testaments. Here is just a sampling of a few.

• Jesus said “Love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.” Matthew 22:37
• God told Samuel before anointing David King “God looks on a man’s heart, not his outward appearance.” I Samuel 16:7. David is remembered as a man after God’s own heart.
• Solomon wrote to his son “Guard your heart, for life flows from it.” Proverbs 4:23
• Jesus said “The mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.” Matthew 12:33-37
• David wrote “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4.
• “Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not lean on your own understanding.” Proverbs 3:5-6
• “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus io Lord,, and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you shall be saved, for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness….” Romans 10:9-10

“Heart” in the God’s Word, the Bible, is the seat of life. The center of our being. Our innermost character, feelings and inclinations. God wants us to take good care of our “heart.”
Physical heart health is, and rightly so, an important issue in our society. You and I are exhorted and encouraged to eat a heart healthy diet (Sorry folks, no Broccoli, Brussel sprouts or Asparagus for Steve!). Exercise regularly. Watch your weight. Do not smoke. Moderate alcohol. See your physician for heart check-ups regularly.
Heart healthy applies to our spiritual life as well as our physical life.
Spiritual heart health is even more important than physical heart health. When my physical heart stops beating, that’s it. I am dead. All she wrote. But my spiritual heart, beating for or against God, determines whether you and I spend eternity in heaven or hell. That is pretty serious!
I don’t know about you, but I am so thankful that God, my Creator and Redeemer, looks on my heart. My head (thoughts), my emotions (feelings), my mouth (words) and my behavior (conduct) can land me in trouble in a hurry. Ask my wife of nearly forty-nine years!
What a relief that the Lord looks past my thoughts, emotions, mouth and behavior to my heart. Make no mistake about it our thoughts, emotions, words and behavior matter, but the heart of the matter is our heart!
I believe when our heart is right thoughts, emotions, words and behavior will fall in line to glorify God and minister to people. We discover what the heart God honors is found in His Word.    
It is so good to know and be grateful for  when you and I mess up, God looks on the thoughts and intent of our heart. The condition of our heart is what matters to the Lord.
Heart Examination
In life our “heart” is what counts most.

• When God looks on your heart, what does He see?
• Does your heart belong to Jesus Christ?
• Do you wholeheartedly serve your Lord and Savior?
• Does your heart desire what God desires for you?
• What areas of your life do you need to work on regarding your spiritual heart?
• Do you keep your heart healthy through worship, prayer, study of the Bible, fellowship with believers, serving others, biblical stewardship  and witnessing to unbelievers?
• What would people who know you best say about your heart? Good? Room for improvement?
• Is your heart becoming more like the heart of God?

Our heavenly Father has a heart for you and me. He desires us, as His blood-bought sons and daughters, to have a heart for Him.
So how is your heart today? Healthy or unhealthy? Is your spiritual heart beating wholeheartedly for God and His good, acceptable and perfect will for your life? (Romans 12:1-2).
Maybe it is time for a heart check up!
“Who shall ascent to the hill of the Lord? And who may stand in His holy place? He who has cleans hands and a pure heart…” Psalm 24:3-4 
A Word For Your Week: Keep your heart spiritually healthy.