I recently came across this verse from the law of Moses: “You shall rise up before the hoary [frosty] head, and honor the face of the old man, and fear your God: I am the Lord” (Leviticus 19:32).

Now, I understand that we are not under the Law God gave to Moses for the Israelites. But, I think there are some spiritual principles behind the laws. In this command, God is telling us how to fear the Lord. And one of those ways is to honor the pioneers of Christianity that went before us. To rise before the white head, is to publicly show honor to the men and women who have shown us the way. This simple gesture may become an open door for blessing to be sent our way.

I have tried to practice this principle by honoring several men who had a part of my spiritual development: Gilbert Dilley, Rod Hall, and Bishop Paul E. Paino, among others. Even when I disagreed with them, I still remember the Lord’s wishes for me. How I feel or what others are saying is irrelevant to this command.

Who were the men and women who inspired you in your walk with God? How does God say you should treat them as they age? This would be a good time to remind yourself to honor those folks for Jesus’ sake. He is the Lord.

The Prophet Daniel wrote: “In the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by books the number of the years…” (Daniel 9:2). So, Daniel, the great prophet of Israel’s future, learned some things by studying, as well as revelation. The “books” he referred to were Jeremiah 25:11, 29:4-10, and Isaiah 44:28. The word of God must always be the platform we use to interpret what God tells us, not the other way around. Someone once said, “The Bible interprets the Bible”. You can’t understand Revelation without understanding Daniel. And you can’t understand Daniel without understanding Revelation.

The power of the Reformation was that lay people were empowered to read God’s word for themselves, and not be limited to what the priest told you about it. God’s word speaks life to every situation with the power to give life. The Books of the Bible were written by men like us who were inspired by the sovereign God. Each author wrote with their own personality, yet communicated God’s words to us. John was a commoner and wrote like a commoner: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). But the Apostle Paul was highly educated and wrote like he was highly educated: “There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another” (1 Corinthians 15:40). What did he just say?

All the Books are significant. They all have a message. And God can speak through them to all of us to understand the whole counsel of God. Let’s get back to allowing God’s Word to speak to us on a daily basis. This would be a good time to pick up your Bible and do some reading, expecting God to speak to you about your life situation and calling. Just do it.

“And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them; and He departed” (Numbers 12:9).

The Bible teaches that the earth is under a curse. Everything gets older, everything wears out. Death is in the air. The only hope for fallen mankind is a redeemer who is greater than all our fears and failures. The Lord has revealed Himself to Christians who believe. But what happens when those believing Christians cease believing or become numb to their plight in this fallen world? We learn the answer in Numbers 12:9.

God gets angry when His gift of grace gets rejected or ignored. And the result of His anger can be calamity, health issues (in the next verse they were struck with leprosy), or worse. Without God upholding us we are at the mercy of Satan, the god of this world. What could be worse? That He departs from us. If God is our only hope in this world, what shall we do if He departs, withdraws, or ignores us?

We would be doomed. But, I recall Jesus saying, “I will never leave you nor forsake you“. We need to open our eyes again to our need for a redeemer, and cry out like David, “Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51:11).

This would be a good time to close your eyes and let God know you haven’t ignored Him.

I was shopping for a specialty item which I found on Amazon.com. We have Amazon Prime so I thought I might as well buy some other things I needed, as well. Two days later the shipment arrived. But, there was two of everything. One of the items I couldn’t return. I went back online and checked my order to see if it was my mistake or theirs. Sure enough, I had ordered the same set of items twice. How did I do that? I guess everyone should be permitted one mistake in their lifetime.

So Anita, who’s a better negotiator than I, called up Amazon, and got a real person on the line within three minutes. She had to deal with an Indian accent, but got all the help she needed and they sent us a return shipping label via email instantly. Who says online shopping isn’t personal? This was a swift and acceptable deal. And the item that couldn’t be returned? They told us to keep it and wrote off the cost ($99)!

There are two lessons I’ve learned from this: First, don’t order online at bedtime. And secondly, If Amazon.com will forgive sin, God ought to forgive it as well. Whatever mess you make in life, He’ll help us clean it up. That’s who He is. “His mercy endures forever” (Psalm 136; 26 times).

Ever had to fire someone? Its one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. It was in the early days of the church and money was tight. We had a custodian who cleaned the building. She was a single mother who had been a part of our church from the beginning. She was also a bookkeeper out of her home.

The church had grown to where we needed to hire a part-time secretary. So, we hired Elaine Johnson, who was herself a single Mom. The only way she could do that financially was if we could give her more hours. The only way we could give her more hours was to have her also do the custodial work.

So I fretted and fretted about letting our original custodian go. I didn’t want to hurt people, I wanted to help people grow. That was one of the toughest conversations I’ve ever made. But, not everything that is a part of God’s plan is supposed to be easy…just done.

So, we made the tough decision and carried it out. Today, Elaine is gone and the first custodian is still attending church. Every week. Some people are faithful even when they’ve been let down. Perhaps this story is for you today. Make that tough decision and act on it.

Years ago I was praying about a Christian ministry in the Philippines that was launching church planting teams in remote mountains. I felt a nudge to do something and felt impressed that we should finance building a church building. I had read in the ministry’s newsletter about a top student who had just started a church meeting in a home in the mountains. So, I called up the leader of that ministry, who was a Philippine national. When I told him why I was calling, he got excited and told me the church planter was sitting in his office at that moment. What a coincidence! So we sent a check for $1,000 and paid for the church building (no kidding, $1,000 paid for all materials).

Bill Johnson says, “The language of the Spirit is coincidence”. When God aligns things like that, you know its God in between. That was a great lesson to learn. Since then, I’ve had many people try to push me toward what they thought we should do. But, I’ve learned to wait upon that coincidence. If God doesn’t align things I would rather wait on Him.

“But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31).

Teach me, Lord, to wait.