With America’s economy in shambles and so many people facing financial pressure, I thought I’d look up some of the Bible’s best promises about God’s provision. If you’re anxious over making ends meet, here’s a list of verses in which God promises on the authority of His goodness to meet all our needs. These promises have conditions, of course, for they’re given to those who faithfully love and serve Him. But the promises themselves are of greatest benefit to those who are struggling in the Red Sea, that is, in a sea of red ink.

• The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not be in want—Psalm 23:1.
• Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him. The young lions lack and suffer hunger; but those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing—Psalm 34:9-10.
• No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly—Psalm 84:11
• I have been young, and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread—Psalm 37:25.
• And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus—Philippians 4:19.
• Do not worry, saying, “what shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For… your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you—Matthew 6:31-33
• He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?—Romans 8:32
• God will provide—Genesis 22:8
• So Abraham called the name of the place, “The-Lord-Will-Provide—Genesis 22:14.

Read through this list with pen in hand, circling the verse or verses that most encourage you. Look up any passage you’ve circled and read it in its fuller context. Then memorize and claim it for yourself as an act of faith. If you’re a pastor, consider using these verses as a Sunday morning Scripture reading, or a responsive reading. Or you can hammer them into a sermon outline.

Here are my teaching notes from KALEO last night as we covered the prologue of the book of Revelation.

• 1:1:  Revelation is a book to be understood.  The title of the last book of the Bible is taken from the first verse.  The Greek term is apokalypsis, from which we get our English word apocalypse.  But the Greek term doesn’t mean apocalypse; it means unveiling.  The prefix (apo) means from. And the root word means “to hide.” So the term actually means to remove something from hiding, to reveal, to unveil, to disclose a mystery that has been hidden.  So the first phrase of Revelation tells us that God intends for us to understand this book. It is readable, understandable, and enlightening.  We can study it and figure it out.
• 1:1-2: This is a book to be shared.  Note the channel of transmission: This material was given by God the Father to God the Son, and from God the Son to an angel; and from the angel to John; and from John to the seven congregations in Turkey; and from them to us; (and from us to those with whom we share it). This is a pass-along book, a book to be shared.
• 1:3:  This is a book that blesses us.  Revelation is the only book in the Bible that contains a specifically-stated blessing for those who read and heed it.  This beatitude is repeated at the end of the book, as well (22:7).
• 1:4:  This is a book that starts with greetings from the Trinity.
• 1:5-6: This is a book that begins with a Doxology.
• 1:7: This is a book that begins with a hymn.
• 1:8: This is a book that begins with a declaration from Christ.

Notice how many different types of communication John packed into the prologue of this book: A title sentence, an explanation about its transmission, a greeting, and doxology, a hymn, and pronouncement.  The great theme of it all is the unveiling of Christ at the end of the ages.

In his classic book, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, Dale Carnegie told the story of Robert Moore, one of 88 men who sank in the submarine Baya of the coast of Indo-China in 1945.  While on patrol, they were detected by the Japanese Navy.  The Baya battened its hatches, went down 150 feet, turned off all the fans and electrical gear, and tried to be absolutely silent in the water.

Suddenly six depth charges exploded all around them, pushing them down to the ocean floor.  The men were terrified as hour after hour depth charges exploded all around them. The sailors were ordered to lie quietly in their bunks, remaining absolutely calm.  But the men were so frightened they could hardly breathe, and at any moment they expected the vessel to be ruptured.  With the fans and cooling system shut of, the air inside the sub was over 100 degrees, but Robert Moore said he was so chilled with fear that he put on a sweater and jacket.  He was coated with a cold, clammy sweat.

The attack continued fifteen hours, and those fifteen hours seemed like fifteen million years.  Robert’s whole life passed before him, and all his prior worries seemed to fade into insignificance compared to this.

How big all those worries seemed years ago! But how absurd they seemed when depth charges were threatening to blow me to kingdom come.  I promised myself then and there that if I ever saw the sun and stars again, I would never, never worry again.  Never!…. I learned more about the art of living in those fifteen terrible hours in that submarine than I had learned by studying books for four years in Syracuse University.

Robert Moore and the men on board the Baya did survive the attack, and he came away with a different perspective on life. 

One of the ways to live with less worry and more joy is to consider what might have been, then rejoicing that it wasn’t. If you’re needing a little more joy and thanksgiving today, just think of all the disasters the Lord has prevented, all the trials that have not come, all the diseases you don’t have, all the heartaches that haven’t appeared.  Things could always be worse; so be grateful they aren’t.

And thank Him for His shield of favor.

Winston Churchill, famous for his quips and quotes, once said:  “There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at without result.”

In other words, it aids our spirit of gladness and thanksgiving to consider all the things that have not happened to us.

One day, according to a time-honored story, St. Francis of Assisi longed to see his brothers. They agreed to meet in a remote monastery in the Umbrian mountains of central Italy. After arriving and enjoying their reunion, each reported what he had experienced on the road.

One Franciscan brother who had traveled on muleback said: “God protected me in a miraculous way. When I was crossing a narrow bridge over a deep mountain gorge, the mule jumped. I fell and narrowly escaped falling over the wall of the bridge into the gorge. God by his love saved my life.”

A second brother said: “I had to cross a river and I slipped and fell. The waters carried me down the river. But God in his grace provided a tree which had fallen across the river. I could grasp a branch of that tree and pull myself ashore, thanks to God’s miraculous mercy.”

Then St. Francis said: “Let us thank God for his wonderful works. I did experience the greatest miracle of all on my way. I had the smoothest, most pleasant, completely uneventful trip.”

We should rejoice in every safe and uneventful trip as gladly as if saved from a near disaster.  Thank the Lord for His constant oversight.

PS – The Francis stoy is from John H. Townsend, in Pulpit Digest, September/October 1979, p. 53.  On a personal note, I’m speaking this weekend at a retreat in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.  Be in prayer for Joshua Rowe as he preaches at TDF, and for our all-music night of praise and worship.

A thankful, cheerful spirit can be cultivated by considering what might have been, and then rejoicing that it wasn’t.  There’s an article on CNN today about the emotions of the passengers aboard Northwest Flight 253, now that some time has passed since they were nearly killed by the Christmas Day Underwear Bomber.  One of the passengers, Roey Rosenblith, 25, had a great thing to say.  This is very preach-able (except maybe for the beer reference).

Though this might sound strange, for me personally almost getting killed 30,000 feet above the earth by an al Qaeda terrorist has been one of the best things that’s ever happened to me.  Now being alive, seeing the blue sky, hearing the rain fall, eating a delicious meal, drinking a beer with a friend – everyday stuff just feels like an amazing gift…  I feel as though I’ve somehow cheated death and against all odds been given this gift of continuing my life.

I actually have my boarding pass framed now, and it’s sitting on my desk, right next to a little prayer book I keep with its page turned to Psalm 23.  I keep it there simply to remind myself that whatever happens to me, things could always be far worse.

It reminds me of an incident from the life of St. Francis of Assisi, a quote from Winston Churchill, and from a story from a Dale Carnegie book.  I’ll post those over the next few day.  It’ll make a good multi-part series on the joys of not being killed.

Speaking of the weekend, I’m leaving today to speak at a Pigeon Forge retreat sponsored by my friends, Jerry and Linda Scarborough, of Columbus, Georgia.  It’s a beautiful weekend with lots of sunshine, and I’m looking forward to the trip.  Thanks to all who hold us up in prayer.

Today at the Alabama Ministers and Workers Conference, I shared the six C’s of guidance, and someone suggested it for a journal entry, so here it is.  Let me hasten to add that here at the Dothan conference, Randy Sawyer’s messages and those of Cliff Donaho have been excellent.  Thanks to both of them for their encouragement!  And my thanks to Heath Hubbard for driving down here with me and for his help and fellowship.

1. Commit your decision to the Lord in prayer.
2. Open the Covers of the Bible and seek Scriptural direction.
3. Seek the Counsel of those who know more about the matter than you do, for “in a multitude of counselors there is safety.”
4. See how the Circumstances are leading
5. Very often, an inner Conviction will begin to develop. The Holy Spirit helps us instinctively know what to do
6. Finally, Contemplate the issue. Think it through. God gave each of us a brain, and He expects us to use it to arrive at a wise and sanctified decision.

There’s a fascinating article in today’s New York Times that has tremendous significance from a spiritual perspective.  It’s about that fact that people die in the Philippines whenever they hear Frank Sinatra’s song, “I Did It My Way.”

 I’m a minor Sinatra fan and sometimes play one of his albums on my iPod while cooking or cleaning around the house.  But I’ve never liked “My Way.”  It’s my least-favorite Sinatra tune – morbid, fatalistic, sad, openly arrogant, humanistic, and defiant.  It’s about a man who is dying and, looking back over his life, feels good about the fact that he has done things his own way.

 Yes, there were times, I’m sure you knew

When I bit off more than I could chew;

But through it all, when there was doubt

I ate it up and spit it out.

I faced it all and I stood tall and did it my way.

 Well, there’s something about this song that releases an unhealthy, self-assertive energy in bars and karaoke restaurants in the Philippines. People get into fights and literally start killing others while the music’s going. This song has now been stricken from many nightclubs there because it fuels deadly fights.  No one knows how many people have been killed during the singing of “My Way,” but the police have a subcategory of crime dubbed “My Way Killings.”

 I don’t need to add that the “My Way” philosophy is the very essence of anti-Christian thinking.  As believers, our aim is to please Christ in every way.  We don’t come to the point of death and look back over our lives with fatalistic defiance.  We want to be able to say, “I have finished the work You gave me to do.”

 Our attitude is: “I did it His Way.”

If you were asked to describe your church, what phrases would you use?  In 1 Peter 2, the apostle Peter (who had helped launch the era of the church with his sermon on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2)  uses eight phrases to describe the Lord’s church on this planet, and each word of each phrase is terribly inportant.  We are:

1. Living stones – verse 5
2. A spiritual house – verse 5
3. A holy priesthood – verse 5
4. A chosen generation – verse 9
5. A royal priesthood – verse 9
6. A holy nation – verse 9
7. His own special people – verse 9
8. The people of God – verse 10

And Peter gives us two great reasons for our existence on this earth.

1. To offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ – verse 5
2. That you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light – verse 10

You can hammer out a powerful sermon or Bible lesson (or a series of them) from Peter’s view of your church and mine, here in 1 Peter 2.  Check it out.

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life recently conducted a fascinating study of religious restrictions in 198 countries, reviewing the governmental laws and legal prohibitions relating to religious expression.  The Forum found that seven out of every ten people on this planet – 70% of the world’s population – live in countries with high restrictions on religious expression and practice.  There are 64 nations highly restrictive, and these tend to be nations that are very populous.  Communist and Islamic nations are among the most restrictive, while Japan and Brazil were among the least restrictive.  The United States was also noted for its freedom of religion. 

It seems to me there’s an enormous implication to living in a land of freedom.  It’s easy to go to church in our country.  We don’t have to sneak into a cave .  We don’t have to risk anything.  We don’t have to whisper when we worship or worry about being killed for our faith, or being fired from our job, or denied entrance to the university.  No one is going to kidnap or behead us for going to church here in America.  We are part of the 30% of the world that has freedom to worship as we choose.

As a result, we sometimes take it carelessly.  If we feel like going to church, we’ll go.  If we’re a little under the weather or it’s an overcast day or if there’s an exciting event on television, we’ll skip.

In my message tomorrow, I’d like to advocate a high view of the church.  In 1 Peter 2, the Lord uses eight different phrases to describe the church.  A couple of them are repetitive, but they are repeated for emphasis:

1. Living stones – verse 5
2. A spiritual house – verse 5
3. A holy priesthood – verse 5
4. A chosen generation – verse 9
5. A royal priesthood – verse 9
6. A holy nation – verse 9
7. His own special people – verse 9
8. The people of God – verse 10

And Peter gives us two great reasons for our existence on this earth.

1. To offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ – verse 5
2. That you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light – verse 10

 What a calling, and what an opportunity!  For the whole message, click here – and I’ll see you at TDF tomorrow!

I’m in Roan Mountain this week, resting and looking into some repairs needed on the old house.  In the meantime, here’s something you might identify with–why we don’t go to ball games:

1. Every time I go, they ask me for money.
2. The people I sit by aren’t very friendly.
3. The seats are too hard and uncomfortable.
4. The coach never comes to call on me.
5. The referees make decisions I don’t agree with.
6. Some games go into overtime, and I’m late getting home.
7. The band usually plays some numbers I’ve never hear before.
8. My parents took me to too many games when I was growing up.
9. My kids need to make their own decisions about which sports to follow.

No, this isn’t original with me; I only wish it were.   It’s anonymous, but sadly true to form.