YOUR word for today.

	PSALM 121
1	I lift up my eyes to the hills; * from where is my help to come?
2	My help comes from the LORD, * the maker of heaven and earth.
3	He will not let your foot be moved * and he who watches over you will not fall asleep.
4	Behold, he who keeps watch over Israel * shall neither slumber nor sleep;
5	The LORD himself watches over you; * the LORD is your shade at your right hand,
6	So that the sun shall not strike you by day, * nor the moon by night.
7	The LORD shall preserve you from all evil; * it is he who shall keep you safe.
8	The LORD shall watch over your going out and your coming in, * from this time forth for evermore.

God Has Two Questions for You

by Artie Davis

As we learn what it means to truly follow God, there are 2 questions I feel He wants to ask us everyday.

What are you hearing Me say?

Everyday is a new day, filled with opportunities to impact the Kingdom. It is vital we hear God and understand His desires for us on such things as...

• Go see this person
• Don't go to that meeting
• Call your neighbor
• Be patient
• Do all things in love
• Make a date with your wife

These are the kinds of things we need to hear from God everyday. We hear these from His Word and what He speaks to us. Hearing what God is saying to us puts us on the same page with His will and the work He has for us.

What are you doing to obey?

God has no desire to waste His breath or cast His pearls before swine! When He speaks, He expects us to obey. That is the second half of a powerful faith-filled walk with God. Not just hearing, but also obeying.

We find too many excuses not to obey what we hear God say.

• It doesn't make any sense
• It's in direct opposition to what I see
• That is way too hard, and nobody else is doing it
• I don't like that place
• If I do that, I may lose some friends
• I can't afford it

The things God wants us to do will always require faith. Faith is what we are called to walk in daily; it's the only way to please God, and whatever is not of faith is sin! So...it's pretty important that all we do is in faith. And "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." (Romans 10:17)

Since that's the way God wants us to walk everyday, I can understand His questions:

1. What are you hearing Me say?
2. What are you doing to obey?

Pretty heavy questions. What say you?

You can visit Artie Davis at www.artiedavis.com As seen at www.churchleaders.com

Keep It Dirty

Michael Yaconelli, co-founder of the Christian Publishing Company, "Youth Specialties," wrote the following in his book, "Messy Spirituality."

For a period of time, we were lucky enough to have a housekeeper. She would come in once a week to dust, vacuum, and clean every little out-of-the-way corner of our house. I dreaded the day she came, because my wife and I would spend all morning cleaning the house for the housekeeper! We didn’t want the house to be dirty, or what would the housekeeper think?!

We act the same way with God. We talk our way out of the spiritual life by refusing to come to God as we are. Instead, we decide to wait until we are ready to come to God as we aren’t. We decide that the way we lived yesterday, last week, or last year makes us "damaged goods" and until we start "living right" we’re not "God material."

Some of us actually believe that until we choose the correct way to live, we aren’t choosable, that until we clean up the mess, Jesus won’t have anything to do with us. The opposite is true. Until we admit we’re a mess, Jesus won’t have anything to do with us. Once we admit how unlovely we are, how unattractive we are, how lost we are, Jesus shows up unexpectedly.

According to the New Testament, Jesus is attracted to the unattractive. He prefers the lost ones over the found ones, the losers over the winners, the broken instead of the whole, the messy instead of the unmessy, the crippled instead of the noncrippled.