Ifs and Promises

Last month our song leader did something really neat at the beginning of each worship service. He would read a scripture that had an "IF" clause.  Each of the scriptures had a promise of God, but the catch was the "IF" clause.  In other words, we had to carry out our end of the deal in order to claim that particular promise of God.

Here are just a few scriptures that have these clauses in them. Below the passage  I will break it down and over emphasize the IF (clause/condition) that is our responsibility and the WILL (promise) that is God's promise to His children.  However, you will notice that not all of the promises are positive. Some are negative.  But they are only negative if we are negative in our Christian walk.  God's promises have conditions.  Those conditions are determined by how we live our lives.  Scripture verifies that fact over and over.  

But God's promises are abundant on the positive side! He wants to pour out His blessings upon His children - and He does!  He wants to see us learn by our mistakes and follow more closely to Him! He wants us to put our complete and total trust and faith in Him.  

⁵ This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. ⁶ If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.⁷ But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all^[ sin.

⁸ If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰ If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us. 1 John 5-10

IFS AND PROMISES

THE IF CLAUSE:  If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness

GOD'S PROMISE:  we lie and do not live out the truth.

THE IF CLAUSE: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light

GOD'S PROMISE - we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all^[ sin.

THE IF CLAUSE: If we claim to be without sin

GOD'S PROMISE: we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

^{THE IF CLAUSE: If} we confess our sins

GOD'S PROMISE: he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 

THE IF CLAUSE: If we claim we have not sinned

GOD'S PROMISE: we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

And let's finish this thought with another great "If and Promise":

 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But IF anybody does sin, WE HAVE an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. 

1 John 2:1-2

Are Your Promises Good?

Growing up, I remember my little sister saying to my mom at times, "Your promises aren't good."  It wasn't that my mom told her things all of the time and then deliberately broke her word, it was probably just that things didn't work out the way she thought they would and plans had to be changed.  What my sister took as a "promise" was more just a "statement" of what would most likely take place.  Then sometimes (apparently), it didn't take place. It wasn't anything major, my sister has grown up to be a responsible, reliable adult without any "damage" from the few broken promises (ha ha!).

That phrase, "Your promises aren't good," has always stuck in my mind - especially in raising our four children. To a young child, no matter how big or how small the promise is, if it's not kept, it means that the promise was broken.  Children take things very literal, which is why we must be careful how we speak to them, right?!  On the other hand, sometimes we say we will do something and actually plan to do it, but then we don't.  Maybe we forget.  Maybe we change our mind.  But, sadly, sometimes we never intended to follow through with our actions in the first place.  Surely we would never just say something to pacify someone for a little while, would we?  Ouch!  Makes me think of a few instances when I would tell my children "in a minute".....then after an extended time I'd finally get to whatever they wanted.....maybe. At least I hope I did.  Hmmmm......

As Christians, our promises should be good.  If we tell people we're going to do something, we should do it.  If we say we will help, we should help.  The problem is that some of us can't say no and we get to saying "yes" too often, then we can't follow through with our promises.  We shouldn't just say "yes" to avoid saying "no".  We have to, as the scripture says, "Let our yes be yes and our no be no".  Complete and honest truth.  Nothing more and nothing less.

All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one. 

Matthew 5:37.

Maybe we're too busy.  Maybe we've promised too many things to too many people and we're in a bind.  Some wise advice from my brother-in-law's sermon Sunday will help with that problem:

Don't make a "TO DO" list. Make a "TO DON'T DO" list!

If we're overcommitted to people, we have to learn to say no.  If we've promised to do something, then see we're unable to follow through, we must acknowledge it and tell them.  That's our duty and obligation.  Either we must follow through or admit it when we can't.....and allow others to help.  

From time to time, we may have encountered human promises that weren't good.  Humans aren't perfect.  But God is perfect!  And His promises are always good!  He has never and will never break a promise!  Not one of them.  Isn't that a comforting thought?!  Isn't it great to know that whatever is written in His Word is truth and will never change?!

Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

2 Peter 1:4

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The LORD is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does.

Psalm 145:13

God's Promises

"Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The LORD is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made."

Psalm 145:13

I've already shared with you a little bit about the ladies retreat from this past weekend, but I wanted to share one more post about "Promises of God".

During each retreat four different ladies speak to the group (actually this time one session was a mother-daughter team, so there were five).  Two ladies do longer lessons and two do shorter devotionals.  It is always so interesting and inspiring to see how the four ladies choose to present their lesson.  Each lady is given the theme title, but then they come up with their own lesson and they don't communicate with each other about the direction they are going in their lesson.  Each lady has their own style of teaching, just like each of the ladies in the audience have a different style of listening and learning.  I'm always amazed at how God works and uses each of the speakers as a vessel to pour out His Word to all of us in a different way.

This year one of the speakers talked about something not-so-good in her life - an illness.  She talked about how God turned the illness, which she has lived with for 10 years,  into something good - revealing His promises throughout the illness.  She shared with us the following poem:

GOD HATH NOT PROMISED

God hath not promised

skies always blue,

Flower-strewn pathways

all our lives through.

God hath not promised

sun without rain,

Joy without sorrow,

peace without pain.

But God hath promised

strength for the day,

Rest for the labor,

Light for the way

Grace for the trials

Help from above,

Unfailing sympathy,

Undying love.

Written by Annie J. Flint

God promises to be with His children (Christians - called according to HIS purpose...see verse below).  Not that everything is good or is what we might want, but that He will be with us, even through the bad.  He promises that He will work it out for the good, even though we may not completely understand.

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God,  to them that are the called according to his purpose."

Romans 8:28 

Thank you, God, for always keeping your promises!

I Have Always Wanted A Pond!

I have always wanted a pond in our little field by our house. I've thought it would be neat, and have pictured it having ducks, too. A family pond would bring lots of family fun, plus perfect scenery for family fun and pictures! Well, this morning I heard from my husband that we DO have a pond! In fact, several of them all around our house.

I'm in Oklahoma City for the state FFA Convention (which has been awesome, by the way!), so by the time I get home tomorrow night, my "pond" may not still be there. Because we've needed rain for so long, the dry ground may soak it all up! Two of these new "ponds" are really fields for our goats.

We have had flooding in Tipton before, but it's been a long time since it's been like this - about 13 years if I'm remembering correctly.

Many in Tipton have been praying for rain for a long time, and last night God answered our prayers. Thank you, God! Of course, with the abundance of rain, there have been some problems, due to flooding. The biggest problem for us, personally, is that, unfortunately, seven goats have drowned in the very deep water. My husband waded out knee-deep in the water to check on them, and thankfully the other goats had moved up to dry ground. Most of the goats were babies, many that I have shown pictures of or mentioned in posts before. One nanny and her two-day-old twins died. My husband thinks she was staying nearby her babies trying to protect them. How sweet!

Flooding makes me think of Noah and the ark, of course. Someone back home did comment that animals were seen going 2 by 2 down Broadway in Tipton, but I'm not sure I believe that(hee hee)!

I'm thankful for God's promise: "I establish my covenant with you: "Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth," Genesis 9:11.

By the way, did you know some even went 7 by 7 in the Bible? Read here to see for yourself: Genesis 7:2-3!

Blue Skies and Rainbows

Tomorrow is the first day of spring and there is a slight chance of rain for tomorrow, as well as for several days next week. We need the rain desperately around here! I know it isn't most people's attitude, but I like storms. Now, I don't mean tornadoes, but just thunderstorms and rainstorms. I especially like it when a storm comes during the day and then the sun comes out. Why? Because God gave us a beautiful gift many, many years ago as a promise that He would never flood the whole Earth again. He gave us the rainbow! We can see the rainbow in the blue sky as the sun shines after a rain storm.

I took this rainbow picture last summer after an afternoon rainstorm, but I have a story to tell you about a rainbow my children and I saw a few years ago. We had gone to Altus, which is about 30 minutes away from our town, on a Sunday afternoon. We were headed back to Tipton and would have just enough time to change clothes before evening worship services began. I saw a rainbow in the sky and pointed it out to the kiddos. They all commented about how bright and beautiful it was! I happened to remember that we had a disposable camera in the car, so we pulled over to take a picture. Every direction I tried to take the picture from had high-line wires and poles in the way, so we pulled down a dirt road. Even though it had rained a little bit, I never thought about the road being muddy because it had been so dry for so long. That was a mistake!

As we started along the dirt road, our minivan began swerving! I tried to keep it straight and eventually did get it stopped. I put the van in reverse and attempted to back up to get back to the highway and out of the mud. Unfortunately, the van began swerving again and the back end slid into the ditch! We were STUCK! Well, a few of my children - no ALL of my children- panicked! I quickly tried to calm them down and asked them what we should do to help the situation. They knew immediately that I meant we should pray. So we prayed to God and asked for His help, His strength, and His care as we worked through this problem.

After the prayer I called my husband. He is always so good when I call in this type of situation. I suppose he has to be because I find myself in situations such as this quite often :). It makes for a good teaching tool for my boys. (Ex. "Boys remember that when your wife some day calls and does something like this, don't get mad, just go help her. Your dad is always calm and never gets upset with me." I'm sure my future daughters-in-law will appreciate this training!!)

My husband arrived shortly and tried to figure out a way to pull us out of the ditch. He tried to hook a rope around the tire, but because of the slick mud, the van was unsteady. We were afraid it would slip and hurt him, so we decided it would take more manpower. We eventually all trekked across the mud and into his pickup and headed for town. We were a little late to worship services after stopping by the house to change our muddy shoes!

After services, one of the men of the congregation (a farmer) offered to go the next morning to pull the van out of the mud. He took his tractor and delivered my van - UNHARMED, but extremely dirty and mud-packed! I was so glad it was not damaged and that he was able to get it out!

Now, back to the rainbow. While waiting on my husband to come to our rescue, I did get out and take a picture of the rainbow. It was still beautiful, despite the trouble it took to get the picture! Of course, now when there is a rainstorm in the day time, my husband always calls to remind me NOT to go down any country roads to get the perfect picture! Which is why in this picture, there is a big high line wire going straight across the middle!

I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Genesis 9:13

Thank you, God, for blue skies and rainbows and for your promise.
In Jesus' Name,
Amen.