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Lamentations 3:21–24
You’ve heard them. Those all-too-familiar cries of exasperation. Maybe a couple have crossed your mind today sometime between the too-early chime of your smartphone and the too-late racket of the neighbour’s pool party.
Going from bad to worse.
Jumping from the frying pan into the fire.
Between a rock and a hard place.
Why can’t I get a break?
My mother told me there would be days like these, but she never said they would run in packs.
Tough days. We all have them. Some are worse than others. In fact, some days you honestly wonder why you ever crawled out from under the covers that morning. Negative thoughts creep in, start to fester, and ultimately, we’re defeated. Yet regardless of what went on the night before or what you may face as a new day dawns, God offers you truth on which you can centre your thoughts:
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1 Corinthians 10:12–13
If you’re old enough to remember comedian Flip Wilson, then you also remember his famous line, “The Devil made me do it.” It was designed to be funny, not phoney. Whether he believed in an actual Satan is, for the moment, immaterial. All he was interested in was getting a laugh. But the thing that made it so effective was the real-to-life scenario Flip was acting out. It made everybody laugh out loud.
Now . why? It’s obvious . and in light of his hilarious routine, it’s also excusable. We didn’t just laugh at him, we laughed at ourselves at one of our favourite indoor sports, The Blame Game. And since the adversary is altogether evil and invisible (and therefore unable to challenge our accusation in audible tones) there’s no better scapegoat than the wicked one himself.
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1 Corinthians 10:12–13
If you’re old enough to remember comedian Flip Wilson, then you also remember his famous line, “The Devil made me do it.” It was designed to be funny, not phoney. Whether he believed in an actual Satan is, for the moment, immaterial. All he was interested in was getting a laugh. But the thing that made it so effective was the real-to-life scenario Flip was acting out. It made everybody laugh out loud.
Now . why? It’s obvious . and in light of his hilarious routine, it’s also excusable. We didn’t just laugh at him, we laughed at ourselves at one of our favourite indoor sports, The Blame Game. And since the adversary is altogether evil and invisible (and therefore unable to challenge our accusation in audible tones) there’s no better scapegoat than the wicked one himself.
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2 Samuel 6:13–14
The guy had listened to me talk during several sessions at a pastor’s conference. We had not met before, so all he knew about me was what he’d heard there. Stuff like ex-Marine, Texan by birth, schooled in a seminary, committed to biblical exposition, pre-mil, pre-trib, pro-this, anti-that. You know how all those scary labels go. But those were the labels he’d stuck on me.
I really think he expected your basic, squeaky clean preacher: dark suit; white shirt;tight-knot tie; pocket stuffed full of tracts; a five-pound study Bible; thunderous shouts.
Since that’s not what he got, he was thrown a low curve over the inside corner of the pulpit. Finally, toward the end of the week, he decided to drink a cup of coffee with me and risk saying it straight.
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2 Samuel 6:13–14
The guy had listened to me talk during several sessions at a pastor’s conference. We had not met before, so all he knew about me was what he’d heard there. Stuff like ex-Marine, Texan by birth, schooled in a seminary, committed to biblical exposition, pre-mil, pre-trib, pro-this, anti-that. You know how all those scary labels go. But those were the labels he’d stuck on me.
I really think he expected your basic, squeaky clean preacher: dark suit; white shirt;tight-knot tie; pocket stuffed full of tracts; a five-pound study Bible; thunderous shouts.
Since that’s not what he got, he was thrown a low curve over the inside corner of the pulpit. Finally, toward the end of the week, he decided to drink a cup of coffee with me and risk saying it straight.