Sons of Thunder

I often times get ahead of myself in thought, word, and deeds. I need to remember although God gave me a voice and permission to use it for Him, I must make sure that I am speaking for Him and not myself, that my words are pleasing to His ears, and that my actions following what I speak are pleasing to Him.

The following is a great example of two familiar apostles of Jesus' that had the loud voices & the passion for Christ but sometimes got ahead of themselves. So much so, He nicknamed them the "sons of thunder".

John 15:13

No one has greater love than to give up one's life for one's friend.-James

Boanerges

Sons of thunder

James son of Zebedee and his brother John.

Lets follow suit and never think timidly about Jesus again.

Let us be forthright about preaching the word and like fisherman calling out to each other over the waves we should shout praises to our Lord over crowds. Lets shake the world for God. Let us not be silenced. Let us worship so loudly that everything in hell is bending at the knee to the One and only God.

Let us not be as useless as thunder with no sight of lightening. How then can people see reason for our hollering? We will look like fools. Let us be the thunder that is followed by an act. Finishing our loud rumbling with lightening instead of those who thunder but never follow up with actions. When the disciples state they won't deny Jesus, with voices loud in assurance, only to have their fire fizzle out by lack of action during the arrest & crucifixion a passerby would never know real love for Christ and someone who was in their lives might have questioned their faith.

With our actions should be wisdom in Christ.

Much like James and John we often speak before we think and get ahead of ourselves by our own self-inflated egos.

When James and John asked Jesus if they should command fire to come down from heaven and consume this village for not receiving Him, He rebuked them saying, "you do not know which manner of spirit you are of. The son of man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them". Luke 9:51-56 N(KJV)

We must watch our thunder and our lightening and make sure our deeds create life, & love, ending in rebirth in Christ instead of ruin and death of faith. We are to be good examples and stewards in Christ. Bringing forth hope. Let us know the nature of ourselves. Let us show love for our savior Jesus Christ by giving our old selves to death and our new lives to Him so that His will may be accomplished through our thunderous preaching and love and our deeds that bring our words full circle. There is no greater responsibility.

Hectic Days

It's the close of another blessed day and I know some of y'all out there are grateful to see your beds. So here is what I had rolling around my noggin just for you.(:

There are those days, & everyone knows the days I am talking about. The ones where you have everything going wrong in hyper motion while you and your efforts to circumvent things for some reason are going super slow. You could swear the 1812 overture is going on in the background as you witness all those things that could go wrong... go wrong. By the time the symphony hits its last note, you look around the silent room you associate with your day, that has random papers with your plans written on them, slowly floating down around you toward your tired feet and you find yourself wondering "what in the heck just happened?" and "where in the world did your day go?".

Thank God for these days. They allow us to appreciate when things go right more fully. They give those "by the book planners" a look into how it could be if they allowed themselves and their schedules room to breath and give those "go with the flows" insight on how a little planning could help keep things from going awry. But most importantly, much like a lesson plan not being used because someone needed extra help on a certain subject, sometimes God turns our lives upside down in order to fulfill His glory. Whether by someone seeing how we handled such a day or maybe by us being led directly to someone who needed help we could give. We might never know why God allows the things He lets happen or brings into our lives but we can be sure it is a part of His amazing plan for us and those involved.

That lightens the load a bit, doesn't it?