The After-Oakdale Chronicles

TODAY IS…

a great day to remind ourselves to trust God even when we don’t understand.

“His mother said to the servants, ‘Whatever He says to you, do it.’”  John 2:5 NASB

When Jesus’ mother gave that instruction to the servants, she had no understanding of how He could solve the problem. She just believed that He could. She gave the problem over to Jesus and then let Him take care of things. She probably was not expecting Him to perform a miracle, and things undoubtedly worked out better than she had anticipated.

This is something that is very difficult for so many of us.

We have the best of intentions when we speak of our faith in God and we give our problems to Him and ask for His help, but we often then sit back and expect Him to do things the way we would do them. It doesn’t always work that way and sometimes we simply cannot understand the approach that the Lord is taking to our problem.

Do we know, better than God, how any situation should be handled? Is it wise to even harbor the notion?

The truth of the matter is that with faithful and diligent reading of the Word of God, we must know in our hearts that whatever God decides is truly what is in our best interests in the long run. It is of the utmost importance that we accept the fact that, far too often, we base our decisions on what we think is best for today.

God is concerned about tomorrow – and the day after that.

If we are truly paying attention to what the Lord tells us in the Bible, we simply cannot harbor the thought that we are not satisfied with the way He is handling a situation we have given over to Him.

There is no safer place for our problems than in the hands of God. There simply is no possibility that we can know, better than the One who created us and gave us life, what is best for us.

We must all give our problems to God, and then trust in Him even when we cannot understand.

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Taken from “TODAY IS….A Gift From God”, (C) 2013 Tony Casson

TODAY IS…

a fine day to go treasure hunting.

“I rejoice in Your word like one who discovers a great treasure.”  Psalm 119:162 NLT

If we were to be digging in our backyards and discovered a chest full of gold buried there, we would undoubtedly be overjoyed, celebrate, and tell everyone we know about our good fortune.

It is simply human nature to want to share the news of our good fortune with others.

The Holy Bible could be our “spiritual backyard” even though there is a huge difference between the Bible and the dirt that lies behind our houses. While one may contain buried treasure, the other definitely has treasure within and discovering it is a lot easier than digging holes in the dirt with a shovel.

Within the pages of the Bible is a wealth of the wisdom of God. Easily discovered within the words written there are precious gems in the form of instructions on how to live our lives in a manner that is pleasing to God. We don’t have to dig very long or very hard to uncover the sparkling radiance of the truth. Our hands don’t need to become soiled as we reveal the gleaming nuggets of joy, happiness, and love that are scattered everywhere we look.

The value of the treasures that are within the pages of this wonderful discovery is beyond calculation. Mere humans could never count high enough to determine the ultimate value of what we discover with a little digging.

Many treasure hunts turn out to be wild goose chases as men and women trace bits and pieces of history trying to locate valuable gold, jewelry, or other items lost or buried centuries ago.

Not so with the Bible.

Each and every individual who picks up this wonderful “treasure chest” is guaranteed to discover wealth beyond their wildest dreams inside. All that is required is an open heart instead of a sharp shovel. All we need is a little of our time each day instead of our sweat and our aching muscles.

And when we make discoveries, as we will each day, we should rejoice and share the wealth with those around us.

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Taken from “TODAY IS….A Gift From God”, (C) 2013 Tony Casson

TODAY IS…

a good day to look at the clock.

“You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand. My entire lifetime is just a moment to You; at best, each of us is but a breath.”  Psalm 39:5 NLT

In the backs of our minds, we are all acutely aware that the clocks of our lives start ticking down from the moment we are born. At that moment, only God knows exactly how much time is on that clock. The best we can do is pray that we live long, “normal” lives. Beyond that, it is out of our hands.

When we are young, we feel like we are “immortal,” and we live like we are “indestructible.” Of course, a sense of mortality enters after we have been exposed to death, but even then, we consider a short life with an abrupt ending to be something that happens to other people, not to us.

We wind up spending a good many years chasing after the material pleasures, comforts, and rewards that can be found in this life. Yet far too few of us devote enough time preparing for an eternal life with God. Even as we proclaim our faith and let those around us know that we await our time to be with God, many of us spend all of our time focused on the here and now with very little attention paid to the hereafter.

Many of us know, or have known, people who have developed a terminal illness such as a cancer that has proven to be incurable. Those of us who have gone through the process have noticed the change in the sick person as they focus on what is next.

Their priorities change.

They want to spend more time with family and friends. They want to spend more time with God. Many of them are afraid because there are doubts that they have lived properly and in a manner that will guarantee them an eternity of peace and joy in the loving presence of God. But their focus is all on preparation. They see that the end, for them, is near and they realize that what comes after is far more important than the here and now.

Each one of us has been “terminally ill” since the day we were born. Time is short, even for those of us who will live what we think is a very long life.

None of us knows when our clock will run down, so it is important to know what is important and live each day in readiness for tomorrow.

It may just turn out to be the first day of our eternity.

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Taken from “TODAY IS….A Gift From God”, (C) 2013 Tony Casson

TODAY IS…

a terrific day for a walk.

“…for we walk by faith, not by sight…” 2 Corinthians 5:7 NASB

If we were to observe a blind individual walking with the aid of a service dog, we would see someone moving through life with no fear because he or she knows they can trust their highly trained animal in all circumstances. There is no hesitation in movement and they move fearlessly forward guided only by their trust in the dog. While they cannot see the dog, they can hold on tightly to the special handle, but if they were to let go, they would have 100% confidence that the dog would remain at their side and be there for them instantly.

So it is with God and our faith.

We all know that we are required to have faith in God and walk consistently forward in that faith with no hesitation and no fear. It is true that this may seem a little more difficult than the challenge facing someone who is sightless. After all, they can feel the dog, they can call out to the dog and hear and sense a response, and the dog leaves no movement open to question. When it is not safe to proceed, the dog stops. When it is safe, the dog moves. When there is an obstacle, the dog will guide the person to a path that safely avoids the obstacle.

Sounds considerably more clear cut and definitive than walking by faith, doesn’t it?

But is it really that much different?

When a sightless individual first depends upon a dog for guidance on streets that once held danger, it is safe to assume that there is some initial trepidation. It is only natural to be a little timid at first. But as the relationship between the two grows, and they become familiar with one another, confidence builds.

And so it is as we walk by faith toward the future God has planned for us. As we walk, we know God is with us every step of the way. As we pray and read the Bible, our relationship gets stronger and we grow more confident and trusting. We learn that God will forewarn us of dangers if we will only listen. We learn that God will guide us around obstacles that are in our path if we only trust in Him.

Walking by faith does not need to be scary at all. It just takes a little getting used to, and it just takes a little practice. But in time, we will find ourselves walking confidently through life knowing God guides our every step.

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Taken from “TODAY IS….A Gift From God”, (C) 2013 Tony Casson

TODAY IS…

an ideal day for spiritual supplements to help our faith grow.

“The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  2 Peter 1:8 NLT

The nutritional supplement industry is massive, taking in many billions of dollars a year as we purchase vitamins, minerals, liquids, and pills with which to supplement our diets and improve our overall physical health. Nutritional supplements are also used widely to help our children grow up strong and healthy. Used wisely, these products can be very beneficial in promoting strong growth and vibrant health.

We should want our faith to grow strong and vibrant as well and if we look to Peter, we can find guidance to help us do exactly that.

“Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.” (2 Peter 1:5-7 NLT).

The list may appear long and intimidating, but look at the label of ingredients on your bottle of multi-vitamins. Our bodies require a considerable variety of nutrients to remain healthy, and so it is with our faith. There are many things needed to help it to grow, flourish, and help us be stronger in our faith.

Unlike vitamins, however, there is no pill that contains all of these “spiritual supplements.” These are things which require effort and hard work on our part. But the end result will be a Christian who is strong in faith whose knowledge will be useful to God in making others aware of the great promises He has made.

For your physical growth, go ahead and pick up your bottle of multi-vitamins. But for your spiritual growth, pick up your Bible. It contains all of the supplements your faith needs.

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Taken from “TODAY IS….A Gift From God”, (C) 2013 Tony Casson

a fine day for patient endurance.

“Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that He has promised.”  Hebrews 10:36 NLT

God has made us some wonderful promises and there are not a lot of burdensome conditions attached to those promises. We must accept Christ as our savior, we must worship only God, and we must love one another, but nowhere in those promises are any requirements that cost us any money or inflict any pain.

While they may be inconvenient to the world’s way of thinking in many cases, none of those conditions cause any physical pain or cost money.

Unfortunately for many of us, His promises do require the patience of faith. Patient endurance is our way of showing God that we trust in Him without equivocation. It is our way of demonstrating that our belief is unshakeable, undeniable, and unchangeable.

There are times in our lives that this may be difficult for us.

We will likely find there are times when we allow negativity to nibble at the edges of our faith and create an opening through which the darkness of doubt can enter and cast a shadow over the light of God’s promises. In times of stress or trouble we may allow ourselves to entertain the notion that we require proof of God’s promises.

If we should discover that this scenario fits us at times, we need to dig in and stand fast and stretch our faith so that it covers the cracks created by momentary lapses in our patient endurance.

We must never allow the darkness of doubt to totally block out the light of God’s promises.

Times of trial may test our patience, but a strong relationship with God and faithful reliance upon prayer will help us remain strong during those times when we need to be the strongest.

When we turn to God first, the ability of our patience to await God’s promises will last. Patient endurance is a commitment to our belief, and a powerful statement of our faith.

Negativity may nibble, but we must all strive to make sure it is never well fed. Patient endurance will always deny it the sustenance it needs to live.

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Taken from “TODAY IS….A Gift From God”, (C) 2013 Tony Casson

TODAY IS…

a good day to teach our children to accept responsibility.

“O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your anger or discipline me in Your wrath.”  Psalm 38:1 NIV

Part of being a good parent is teaching our children that our behavior carries with it consequences.

The consequences of good behavior are recognition and rewards. Conversely, the consequences of bad behavior include discipline. While we never want to discipline our children in anger, we do want to teach them that they must accept responsibility for all of their actions, and that includes those that carry with them the need for some form of discipline or punishment.

IN Psalm 38, David cried out to God in the same way a child cries out to a parent. David knew he had done wrong, he just didn’t want God to discipline him while he was angry, and this is a good lesson for us as we raise our children: do not discipline a child in anger. Discipline should be used as a tool to teach a child, not simply as punishment, and never as a way of venting our anger or demonstrating our dissatisfaction.

Our objective should be to teach our children to accept responsibility for the things they do. If we can get them to do that, we have a better chance of getting them to think before they act. We must instill in them a love of God, and respect for themselves and other people and we must start from an early age making sure they understand their responsibility to God, themselves, us, and people around them.

David knew that he had done wrong and knew that God was angry. Just the anticipation of punishment and his feelings of guilt caused him to be physically ill.

“Because of Your anger, my whole body is sick; my health is broken because of my sins. My guilt overwhelms me – it is a burden too heavy to bear.” (Psalm 38:3-4 NLT).

Through conscious effort and the Bible’s help, we can teach our children to recognize for themselves when they have done wrong, accept responsibility for it, and ask God’s forgiveness.

Teach your children that being responsible means being accountable and being accountable includes being accountable to God.

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Taken from “TODAY IS….A Gift From God”, (C) 2013 Tony Casson

TODAY IS…

a great day to think about the problem with prayer.

“The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”  James 5:16b NIV

It is not difficult to imagine many of us reading the title of today’s message with alarm.

“Problem with prayer?”

There is no problem with prayer, right? Prayer is a gift from God. It is among the greatest of all gifts because the ability to take our hopes, dreams, requests, and our problems directly to God is a gift that was paid for with the blood of Jesus Christ.

What a remarkably exceptional gift it is, too. The results of our communion with God through prayer can be so much greater than anything we could possibly imagine.

So where is the problem?

The problem with prayer is that far too often, and for far too many of us, it is the last thing we do instead of the first. Many of us “resort” to prayer only when all of our woefully inadequate human efforts fail.

It is important to not misunderstand.

God will never turn a deaf ear to one of His children crying out for help. He has brought many of us back from the brink of self-destruction or even death because of our cries of help when everything else has failed.

But He wants us to learn that there is a better way to pray.

How do we pray “better”? Pray first, pray often, and pray with faith.

Pray first.

Give your life over to God and ask for His guidance before creating anything resembling a “last resort.” When we ask God what we should do and how we should do it, and then wait for His instruction – which will come – we will often be amazed at the results.

Pray often.

Prayer is a wonderful way to begin and end each day, but it is also very easy to take mere moments throughout the day to thank Him, to ask for continued help, or just to say hello.

Pray with faith.

When we ask God for help, advice, or guidance we can be assured of His attention to our problem when we pray with faith. Our belief that God hears us must be beyond question. Our understanding that He may not reply or show us the way to go as quickly as we may like, is important. Asking for things that we know in our hearts are the right things to ask for demonstrates our love for God. It also demonstrates the faith we have that He will hear us and, when it is His will, we shall know His answer.

So the question we must ask is this: “Do I have a problem with prayer?”

If the answer is “yes”, then just remember these three things:

Pray first.

Pray often.

Pray in faith.

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Taken from “TODAY IS….A Gift From God”, (C) 2013 Tony Casson

TODAY IS…

the day to realize that you can run, but you can’t hide.

“And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.”  Genesis 3:8 KJV

How often have we done something that we know is wrong and attempted to solve the problems created as a result of our action by running away from them?

Perhaps we don’t really run away, but we turn from our difficulties and pretend they don’t exist. This is the same thing as running away, and while we can simply ignore our problems, we cannot hide from them. They are not going anywhere unless we deal with them. When we finally open our eyes to them, they will still be right there, right where we left them. Unfortunately, the time we spent ignoring them generally has allowed them to become worse.

When Adam and Eve hid as God approached, they did it out of embarrassment over their nakedness. The ability to instinctively know that they had done wrong was due to the conscience God placed inside them.

And while our conscience may not be able to prevent us from running away from, or attempting to ignore our sins, it does prevent us from being able to hide from them and, more importantly, it reminds us that we cannot hide our sins from God.

It would be far too easy to lay the blame for all of our troubles at Adam and Eve’s feet. After all, if they had not disobeyed God, we would all still be living in paradise, right?

The fact of the matter is that each one of us has pretty much the same choice as Adam and Eve. We can choose to obey the Lord, or not.

Hopefully, we will all strive to make the right choice. Praying for strength to resist temptation is always more preferable than asking forgiveness after the fact. But should we give in to sin, the important thing to remember is to stand before God, admit it, and ask forgiveness.

Ignoring the signals that our conscience sends us will not work. When it comes to the Lord, as much as we may try to run, we can never hide the truth from the One who is the Truth.

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Taken from “TODAY IS….A Gift From God”, (C) 2013 Tony Casson

TODAY IS…

the right day to stop looking for the worst in people.

“There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you – who are you to judge your neighbor?”  James 4:12 NIV

In this day and age, information is at our fingertips.

Much of that ability to obtain information can be used to enhance our lives, to educate and enlighten, and to help us grow spiritually.

Unfortunately, there is a disturbing trend to utilize our access to information as a means of “digging up dirt” about our friends, neighbors, and even those we love or are interested in getting to know better.

Arguments are presented justifying this activity out of concern for our personal safety, or the saftety of our loved ones, and that is a legitimate concern. The problem is that far too often, the black marks in a person’s past are used to formulate our opinion of someone today. We become their judge, and we take it upon ourselves to assume a role that we are repeatedly instructed in the Bible is God’s role and God’s alone.

No matter how an individual has lived his or her life; no matter what laws of God or laws of man he or she may have broken: no matter how immoral, promiscuous, or dishonest a person has lived their life in the past, all of these issues are matters for God to consider when passing judgment on a person’s life. As children of God we are specifically forbidden, as James told his audience, from taking it upon ourselves to judge another.

If someone has led a difficult and misguided life and finally comes to know and love the Lord and accept the salvation of Jesus Christ, what right do we have to judge their character and deem them not worthy of our time, our friendship, our fellowship, and our love? Perhaps our doubts that another person can change are a reflection of our belief that we, ourselves, are incapable of undergoing a major transformation.

Let us not forget what the Bible has to say about a person’s ability to change:

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17

There is a severe penalty to be levied on anyone who would claim to know God and then proceed to pass God’s judgment: the penalty for this hypocrisy will be determined when we stand before the One True Judge.

Our responsibility to God is to love our neighbor.

To do this, we must look for something other than their worst. We must look at everyone and find the face of God in them.

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Taken from “TODAY IS….A Gift From God”, (C) 2013 Tony Casson