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Back in December, Luigi Mangione was arrested for murdering an insurance executive in Manhattan, New York. When they look at whether he is guilty or not, they will look at motive, means, and opportunity. Motive would be why he did it. He was found with a manifesto which probably speaks to motive. Means is the ability to do it. He was found with a weapon which appears to be the weapon used in the shooting. Opportunity would be if he was in the right place at the right time. So, they are looking for DNA at the location of the crime. The question is if the evidence of motive, means, and opportunity is enough to convince the jury.

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Jeremiah 43:7 So they came into the land of Egypt: for they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: thus came they even to Tahpanhes.

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Some years ago, I talked on the phone to a gentleman whom I did not really know, but who was a believer in need of several things in his life. He asked me to pray with him for those things. One of the things he was praying about was a job. He had recently lost his job and had been given an offer to work at a nightclub. He asked me to pray that God would give him wisdom about whether he should take that job. We talked for some time and finally I said, “I’m not going to pray that God will give you wisdom. I’m going to pray that God will give you courage. It is obvious that you have a conscience about working in the nightclub. You know what to do and you need courage to do what you know to be right.” So many times, we are seeking for guidance in our live and think what we need is wisdom when what we really need is courage. Other times people think they need courage when they really need wisdom. We need both.

In Jeremiah 37-38 we find the tragic, pitiful story of a coward king named Zedekiah. Zedekiah wanted to know which direction to go. He wanted to know what God’s mind on the matter was as Babylon threatened the very existence of Jerusalem. Verse 2 says, “But neither he, nor his servants, nor the people of the land, did hearken unto the words of the LORD, which he spake by the prophet Jeremiah.” In other words, he claimed to want to know what God wanted, but every time God told him through Jeremiah, he ignored it. He came to Jeremiah multiple times in secret seeking wisdom, yet he put Jeremiah in prison. There was a struggle in Zedekiah’s life between what he knew to be right and willingness to do that was right. You will never have the wisdom to know what is right until you have the courage to do it.

In Jeremiah 38:5, when the princes want to have Jeremiah thrown into prison for telling the truth, the king replied, Behold, he [Jeremiah] is in your hand: for the king is not he that can do any thing against you.” He is saying, “I wouldn’t stop you. Whatever you want to do is fine.” Then secretly he asked Jeremiah, “What is the word from the Lord?” Jeremiah often gave that word and the king came back again and asked if there was anything new, as if God was going to change His mind when Zedekiah hadn’t changed his ways. In verse 19 the king said, “I am afraid of the Jews.” He was a king who was afraid of everyone save God.  He feared the Babylonians, reverenced the Egyptians and the men in his own court, but he did not fear God enough to know what to do even though God told him what to do.

Don’t confuse wisdom and courage. Don’t pray for wisdom when what you really need is courage, the fortitude to do what you know to be right. All the wisdom in the world is not going to help you if you don’t have the courage to act on it. On the other hand, don’t pray for courage when what you need is wisdom, a lick of sense. I don’t need more power to do something if I don’t know what to do in the first place. So, don’t confuse the two.

Don’t ignore either one. In my life I need both in equal measure at the same time. So much of the ignorance in which Zedekiah lived was willful ignorance. It was ignorance because he ignored what God had said. God gave him guidance through Jeremiah, but then he had Jeremiah thrown in prison. God gave him guidance through Jeremiah, but he was embarrassed to be seen with him. It reminds me that there are so many “third rail” issues in believer’s lives. By third rail I am referring to the subway rail that provides electricity and power. You’re dead if you touch it. Many topics no one will talk about because they are a third rail; they are not acceptable to talk about. We can’t talk about roles, rearing children, or personal convictions. Good people differ on a number of things, which is fine, but to be in total ignorance and silence about something simply because it is not expedient or does not put us in good standing with people is not right.

Obedience gives both wisdom and courage. I will be a wiser and more courageous than I am if I simply respond in obedience. Jeremiah said to the king in Jeremiah 38:20, “Obey, I beseech thee, the voice of the LORD, which I speak unto thee: so it shall be well unto thee, and thy soul shall live.” The king didn’t listen and kept asking for guidance, hoping it would change. He asked for wisdom and guidance when he didn’t have the courage to act on it.

My dad has often prayed something that I have now made my own, “God, please give me the wisdom to know what is right and the courage to do it.” That is a good prayer. I need that every day. Often, I don’t have the wisdom to know what I should do. Other times, I know what I should do, but don’t have courage and I sit back on “I don’t know what to do” as an excuse. You will never know what to do, the wisdom to know what is right, until you have the courage to do it. If you have the courage to obey God, then God will give you the grace you need to do everything He wants you to do.

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I don’t know if you watched the rocket launch and retrieval of the Musk rocket in the fall of 2024, but it was amazing. The rocket went up into some kind of orbit, then returned to earth, not crashing into the ocean, but reversing course and reducing jet power until it came down to rest in the cradle from which it was launched. There were opportunities for it to go left or right, to explode or implode, but all that incredible power was controlled and constrained. It not only launched the rocket, but landed it again safely. All of us live under constraints, and if we are going to land safely, we need to think about the constraints under which we live.

There are all kinds of constraints, mental, physical, financial, geographical. That is hard to hear, and we are living in a country where we pride ourselves on throwing off all constraints. The idea is that if you can believe it, you can achieve it. I’m thankful for a country where we can live up to our God-given potential, but if we mean that we can do whatever we want to do simply because we want to do it, that is a pipe dream; it is not honest, clear, or true. If you think you can fly and jump off a building flapping your arms, what is going to happen? You can believe whatever you choose, but you are going to drop to the ground like a brick because there is a constraint called gravity.

God talks about constraints in Jeremiah 27. Verse 2 says, “Thus saith the LORD to me; Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck.” A bond constrains and shackles you. A yoke is the same thing for an ox or pair of oxen, where two animals are constrained to walk together. They may wish to walk to the right or left or to stop, but they can’t. They are yoked together. It is energy that is harnessed and directed. There is no direction in life if there is no constraint by God to curb what is wrong and to guide in what is right. What you learn as you read Jeremiah 27 is that freedom is accepting the constraints that God gives you. None of us naturally likes restraints, but all of us need them and benefit from the right ones.

First, everyone has restraints. Here is a child in a car seat. Does the child like that car seat? No! When the child is older, he doesn’t like the constraints of waiting in line at the DMV. When he is a little older, he does not like speed limits constrained upon him by law. Everyone has constraints. In Jeremiah 27:3 God tells Jeremiah to make bonds and yokes and send them by messenger to all the kings in the area “and command them to say unto their masters, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; thus shall ye say to your masters; I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me. And now have I given all these lands unto the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon my servant.”

Nebuchadnezzar was a wicked pagan tyrant, but he was God’s servant. It doesn’t mean he was a great man, but it means that he was under the control of God. Even kings have constraints. This collection of kings was in Jerusalem, perhaps to foment a coup against King Nebuchadnezzar. In verse 11 God talks about the prophets, dreamers, and enchanters who were prophesying lies and saying, “You’ll all be fine.” God says, “If you listen to them, you are going to have more constraints, not fewer, more misery and slavery, not less.” Every yes you enjoy in life is at the expense of saying no. Every time you say yes to something you automatically say no to something else. Everyone has constraints. We may not always like them, and they may not always be good, but good or bad, they exist.

Second, God gives some constraints. The constraints, which were really a form of judgment, were imposed by God on His own people and others who were trying to conspire against Nebuchadnezzar. We have constraints of nature. I can wish to be a runner, but I am putting my energies into a weakness and not a strength. My bone structure and physique are not made to be a runner. Now, I have run at times, but I have constraints naturally.

Sometimes we have constraints because God as a Father is chastening us. Sometimes there are seasons of constraint because of age, location, or some other thing. When a constraint is God-ordained, I just need to know that God is good. In Jeremiah 29:11 God says, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you…thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-29, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” If your freedom is not giving you rest, it is not really freedom. It is the yoke of Jesus that gives that freedom. Jesus continues, “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

What matters is not how you feel, but what God has said. Some people have this mistaken notion that if they want to do something, it must not be God’s will. Other people think something they want to do must be God’s will because God wants them to be happy. Both are missing the point. Feelings are fickle; God’s Word is lasting. Despite what the world might be saying right now, what matters is truth and reality.

God was sending a prophet to give His own words to Nebuchadnezzar and all the kingdoms he would conquer. Focused power comes from direction God gives. That direction sometimes comes from the constraints He gives to channel our energies in the right way. So, get going. Stop saying “I can’t,” or “It’s hard,” and start doing what God wants. On the other hand, don’t be discouraged because you can’t do all you want to do. Freedom is accepting the constraints God gives you. The way you know if it is from God is to know what God has said. It is God’s Word, not your feelings, that give truth.

Finally, wise people choose under which constraint they will live. In Jeremiah 27:17, God says of false prophets that lie and give sweet nothings, “Hearken not unto them, serve the king of Babylon, and live: wherefore should this city be laid waste?” We are talking about living under the constraints God gives. Sometimes we live under constraints we should not and sometimes we buck the yoke God is placing on us for our own good.

Live under God’s constraints and not your own. That is providence, God’s providing, now and ahead of time. It may be the constraints of today will provide the freedom you need tomorrow. Constraints are rarely enjoyable, but they are good if we live under the constraints God has given us. They are bad if we impose constraints upon ourselves that do not need to be there. So, freedom is accepting the constraints that God gives us and living a life of focused power because we do.

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Is there hope? Maybe that is a question you have about yourself, your family, your work, your church, or your country. I have met a lot of people and have a number of friends who have a checkered past. All of us have things in our past that we could be ashamed of, but here is a guy who has recently gotten out of prison, has a record, but comes to Christ. He finds new life and goes to church with an open heart and open ears. He is eager to hear what God has to say. Is there hope for such a person?

In the same church there is a young person with a good home and family. He is in church all the time and has never committed any crimes or been in prison, but he is heading in the wrong direction. He has the wrong attitude and does not listen or pay attention. Is there hope for him?

Which of these two people, the former felon or the young person with his life ahead of him, has more hope? Well, hope is always future oriented and therefore hope is a choice. In this case, the man who has been in prison but accepted Christ has hope, not because of his past, but because of his future, where he is headed. The young person, regardless of how good his past is, is in for a world of trouble. Hope is a choice, and so is hopelessness.

Regardless of your past, hope is a choice. You choose it. I don’t mean you are Pollyanna and just hope for the best. I mean you are heading in a direction where there is hope. If you are hopeless, that is a choice. There are two pitfalls we can fall into. The first is thinking, “I know there is a God, but God is absent,” and therefore we do not listen and we look past God at what we want and where we want to go. We live like orphans when God wishes to be our father. On the other hand, we sometimes dismiss our obligations, saying, “God is a sovereign God, and if He chooses, He will to do thus and so.” God is in charge and sovereign, but you have a choice.

In II Chronicles 7:14 God says, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” God would respond. Someone says, “Those are Jewish people.” That is true and I am not under the same covenant that these people were under, but to say, “God is sovereign so maybe He will revive us and maybe He won’t” is not wise. Revival is something God alone can do, but it is not as if I am more spiritual than God is, as though I want to turn to God but I’m not sure whether He will turn to me.

Does this sovereign God always judge sin? Well, God is sovereign so maybe He will and maybe He won’t. No, God judges sin. He is a perfect God. Therefore, if I turn from what is wrong and turn to God, God will respond in like manner. The Bible says if we draw nigh to God, He will draw nigh to us. So, hope is a choice and it is always future oriented.

Now, in Jeremiah 26 we have another message of Jeremiah. Verse 2 says, “Thus saith the LORD, Stand in the court of the LORD’s house.” He was to give them a message, and whether there was hope or not was not dependent on if God could; it was dependent on whether they would choose the right thing.

Consider their hearing. These people heard the message of Jeremiah, but they did not listen. They heard Jeremiah’s words, and three times they threatened to kill him. The last part of verse 11 says, “This man is worthy to die; for he hath prophesied against this city, as ye have heard with your ears.” Did they really hear what he said? The fact is in verse 5 the claim is “Ye have not hearkened.” This idea that God spoke but the people didn’t listen is prevalent in Jeremiah. God sent prophets and messages early and often, but they would not listen. They heard with their ears, but they were not hearing with their heart. They were not open to the message.

Consider their history. In verse 6 God said that if they will not hear, “then will I make this house like Shiloh.” Shiloh is where they had worshipped for a time, but God had judged that place because of their sin. He says the same things in Jeremiah 7:12. He is looking back at their history. People have not changed. You read about more recent historical figures and see the same ambitions, foibles, strengths, weaknesses, and misunderstandings. So, we would do well to consider their history.

Ultimately, consider their hope. In verses 3-6 there is an if/then proposition. God says, “If so be they will hearken, and turn every man from his evil way, that I may repent me of the evil, which I purpose to do unto them because of the evil of their doings. And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD; If ye will not hearken to me, to walk in my law, which I have set before you, to hearken…then will I make this house like Shiloh.” God would judge. But when God sent Jeremiah to speak the words God has given, He was sending them this precise message that He could spare them the calamity that was to come. In verse 13 you find the same idea, “Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God; and the LORD will repent him of the evil that he hath pronounced against you.” This is not talking about moral evil but calamity. Verse 19 also has the same idea.

We ought to consider what we are hearing, our history, and the measure of the hope that we actually have. God is sovereign; there is no doubt. But how am I responding to this sovereign God? In Jeremiah 2:25 and 18:12 God’s people basically say, “There is no hope, but we will do what we have been doing. We are not doing to change.” They are expressing their intent and will. It was a chosen hopelessness because hope is a choice and so is hopelessness.

I don’t know your past, but the most important thing is what you choose for your future. Hope is a choice. Hopelessness is a choice. We see this in their hearing, their history, and the nature of their hope. May God give us the grace to live in that hope through obedience every day.

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Years ago, I was hiking across the Grand Canyon from North Rim to South Rim with some college buddies. We took our time, two or three days, so it was very doable. When we were at the bottom, hiking along Phantom Creek, one of my friends became very ill. Upon further examination we saw salt deposits on his temples. You could actually see where the water was evaporating off of his skin so quickly that it was leaving salt deposits on his temples. We came to realize he was thoroughly dehydrated. Here was a guy carrying a canteen with plenty of water, but who was literally dehydrated because he would not drink. I don’t know that he made a conscious decision not to drink, but he wasn’t drinking.

In our lives we often do the same thing. We have despair, despondency, or some kind of calamity and think there is no hope, but it is a self-imposed hopelessness. I’ve talked to people who had grave problems but who had a pastor to counsel and help them. But when the pastor gave them the course they should take, they refused to follow that course and then wondered why they were hopeless. Hope is a decision. Ultimately it is not a feeling or merely an aspiration or blind faith; it is a decision.

In Jeremiah 8, Jeremiah is continuing a message he began back in chapter 7 at the gate of the Lord’s house. In Jeremiah 8:19 he says, “Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people [Judah] because of them that dwell in a far country.” He is speaking of the Babylonians who subsequently took some of God’s people captive back to their own country. The verse continues, “Is not the LORD in Zion? is not our king in her?” Judah had boasted that they had the temple, the Lord’s house, but now asked, “Where is God?”

God replied, “Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities?” So, God is here. Both the just and the unjust can sometimes wonder where God is, and sometimes we can feel that hope is gone when the fact is that we have been ignoring God. Verse 22 is another question, “Is there no balm in Gilead?” Gilead was known for medicinal application of a healing balm. The implied answer to that question is that there was. “Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?” “God is here, and healing is possible,” is what he seems to be saying, yet these people seemed to be without hope. Why?

If you go the Jeremiah 2:25 you get a hint. God is contending with His people and He says, “But thou saidst, There is no hope: no; for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go.” This is expressing will. “There is no hope. I am going after those who hate God.” They were committing spiritual adultery, ignoring God and His pleas and going after those who were in His place. Jeremiah 18:11 says, “Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.” That was a choice. Then God’s people said, “There is no hope, but we will walk after our own devices and everyone do the imagination of his evil heart.” They were expressing their will, not their hope. Hope is not a feeling; it is a choice. Hopelessness is a choice. God is here; healing is possible, but it requires honesty and action.

Jeremiah 8:5 says, “Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.” Jeremiah 9:6 says, “Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, saith the LORD. Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, I will melt them…” So, hope requires honesty and action. In Revelation 3 the Lord is speaking to His churches and He tells them if they have an ear, then listen. He told Laodicea that He knew their work, that they were neither hot or cold. They were lukewarm and God was going to spew them out of His mouth because they said, “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.” But God said they “knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked; I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire…and white raiment…and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.” Yet, in Jeremiah 8:6 He says, “No man repented…every one turned to his course.” It was willful hopelessness.

Maybe you feel down today. Maybe you don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe you don’t see any hope. To be sure, the rain falls on both the just and unjust. Maybe you are doing everything you know to be right, yet you feel as if God is wrong, that there is no healing and things are hopeless. If there is a God and you are obeying, then there is hope. Hope, like happiness, is a caboose not an engine. People are not happy or hopeful because they make that their goal in life. They can’t fabricate a feeling. People have hope and happiness to the extent that they know what is right and they have the courage, obedience, and willingness to do it.

No matter how far you have strayed, how badly you have done, or what you see for your prospects or in your past, if there is a God and if there is obedience, there is hope. Hope is a decision. It is not primarily a feeling. The feeling comes from the decision, a result of making choices. If we obey God, there is hope. May God encourage your heart and strengthen your resolve to know what He has said, to obey Him, and live in the hope that comes from that.

The post Hope Is a Decision first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

A friend who once was a youth pastor told me that as the teens of his youth group came into Sunday School, they would generally fill the back three rows, then they would trickle down until one person was brave or crazy enough to sit on the front row. One Sunday he picked up the podium, walked to the back of the classroom, set the podium down behind the back row, and asked everyone to turn around. Those who were last were first, and those who were first were last. Wouldn’t it be shocking if you walked into church and all of the pews were rearranged to face the door with the pulpit in front of them and you had to pass three hundred people to get to your seat in the very back? Sometimes we are backwards in our thinking and in our life.

In Jeremiah 7:3 God told Jeremiah, “Stand in the gate of the LORD’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD.” What follows is a sermon from God through Jeremiah to Judah. Though it was not a church, the temple was the place of worship, and he had things backwards. He was proclaiming the message at the gate, at the back of the auditorium if you will. Why was he backward in this way? It was because Judah, God’s people, had first things last and last things first. Verse 24 says they “went backward, and not forward.”

Throughout Jeremiah, God chides His people for backsliding. They were turning their backs and not their faces toward God. They had it all backward. Today, put first things first, which means putting the first person first. I don’t mean you; I mean God. You cannot please God with what you do until you please God with what you are. What you do flows from that.

Judah felt entitled. They said, “Hey, this is Jerusalem. The temple of the Lord is here. God has to take care of us.” That was a lie. As to their attitude, in verse 12 God says, “But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.” There was a time when the tabernacle was in Shiloh, but Shiloh was gone, wiped off the map so thoroughly that today we don’t even know what happened. The people to whom Jeremiah was speaking knew what happened, and the point was “I had my tabernacle at Shiloh, yet that did not withhold my hand from judging My people. Why do you think you are okay just because you are the right people in the right place?

Sometimes we can substitute doing something for being what we ought to be before God. We are Baptist, Republican, Southern, or whatever, but that is not really what we are. It is an identity on what we are doing, not on what we are before God. Jeremiah 7:22 says, “For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: but this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people…that it may be well with you.” But they didn’t listen. The refrain of this chapter is, “I spoke, and you did not listen. I spoke, but you would not hear. I spoke, but you would not answer. Therefore, your prayers are not being answered.” I can’t please God with what I am doing if I am not pleasing God with what I am in my heart. What I am in my heart is what I really am. It is not some title or identity. It is what I am before God.

Who accommodates whom in your life? You can either say, “Hey, I’m a Christian. I’m Baptist,” and think therefore that God has to do thus and so. Does God have to accommodate us because of what we say we are, or do we accommodate God because of who He is?

What about our ethics? In verse 9 God says, “Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?” That is not right. It is funny how believers today use crass language, then object to people being sacrilegious; are careless or immodest in portraying their gender, then object to the trans ideology and agenda; or think a little drink is okay, but object to drunkenness. Our ethics are a reflection of who we are in our hearts. Who accommodates whom? Does God accommodate the culture, or are we creating culture in our homes and churches that accommodates God?

What about in our influencers? God says in verse 13, “And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the LORD, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not: and I called you, but ye answered not.” Today we have all kinds of voices in our heads. Many are some brand of conservative and we think that is the same as being godly, but it is not. I’m thankful for people who care about the Constitution, but what about people who honor God? Is God a Republican or a Baptist? I’m not trying to antagonize you if you are neither of these, but I am both of these things because of what I am before God. I am trying to find the best way to live practically what I am before God, but to think that God is a Republican or a Baptist is folly. I may be a Baptist because I’m trying to follow God, but God doesn’t accommodate me because I slap some title on myself. I am to accommodate God as best and honestly as I can. So, who accommodates whom as to the influencers in our lives?

What about our worship? Verse 30 God says, “For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the LORD: they have set their abominations [idols] in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it.” So, they sacrificed to Jehovah and worshipped false Gods in God’s house. Who are we actually worshipping when we go to God’s church on Sunday? If the question is about what people like or what makes me feel good, we are asking the wrong question. We are worshipping self and claiming to worship God. I realize good people differ about how God ought to be worshipped, but our first question should be, “Who is accommodating whom? Is God accommodating me in worship or am I accommodating God?”

It is hard to go in the right direction if you are going backwards. Jeremiah’s message began at the back of the temple at the gate because these people were living backward lives. They were going backward and not forward. Going forward means finding out where God is and charting your course in that direction. Put first things first. You cannot please God with what you do until you please God with what you are.

The post Put First Things First first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

We live in a place and a day of self-made people, self-made men we say. You go to an establishment and it may have a large poster or framed art with “Our Story,” and it has pictures and framed texts about the beginning of that corporation. We ourselves at the Bill Rice Ranch have posters that have our story and explain in pictures and words the story of the Bill Rice Ranch. I don’t think that is completely wrong, but we are so absorbed with entrepreneurs and self-made people that sometimes we forget who actually made us. There is a God who created you and stands ready and willing to make you again.

In Jeremiah 1 God commissioned Jeremiah to take a message he did not want to give to a rebellious people, God’s own people, who did not want to receive it. Jeremiah quickly objected. He said, “God, I am a child. What can I do? I’m not eloquent. I can’t do this.” God says to him, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee.” He goes on to say He had sanctified, ordained, and created Jeremiah. Verse 18 says, “For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brasen walls against…the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests therefore.” He says, “Don’t be dismayed. Don’t fear. Just obey My command.”

So, God formed Jeremiah and God was about to make Jeremiah a mighty voice for Him. You are not a prophet or Jeremiah, but that is the way the world works today. The God who formed you can make you again. I don’t know what is in your past or what abilities you have today, but I do know the God who actually formed you. This God who can form you can go before you and can make you again.

There are three things to consider when you choose which way to go, whether you go your own way or whether you follow the Creator. First is agency or choice. How much choice did you have in your birth? You had none at all. Jeremiah had no agency in his birth. God said, “I formed you. I knew you before I formed you.” Jeremiah had no choice in that at all, but when it came to God’s commission to take the message to the rebellious people, he did have a choice. He had a choice about the way he would live the life God had given him. So, the God who formed you can make you again. God created you and God can create a life of value that makes a difference.

Second is focus. Consider your focus. Are you focused on yourself or are you focused on God the Creator? In verse 7 God says, “But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.” Verse 8 says, Be not afraid of their faces for I am with thee to deliver thee saith the LORD.” Verse 19 again says, “I am with thee.”

You can look throughout the Bible and almost any person with any sense that God commissioned to take a difficult message protested and said, “I can’t.” Moses said, “God, who am I that I should go stand before Pharoah?” God never answered that question. Instead, God said, “Moses, I will, I am, I will, I will.” In other words, God said, “Moses, you are nobody, but I am God. If you will obey, I will guide.” In Joshua 1, Moses is dead, but Joshua was God’s new vessel for His work. God said to Joshua in Joshua 1:5-6, “As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, or forsake thee. Be strong and of a good courage.” Gideon was commissioned and God called him a mighty man of valor. In Judges 6, Gideon said, “I have a poor family and I am the poorest man in my poor family,” but God told him, “I will be with thee.” God saw the potential of Gideon’s obedience.

You can look high and low, but you will never see God saying to timid people, “You can do it. I see something in you that you can’t see for yourself.” That may be true. He called Gideon a mighty man of valor when no one else saw that. God never says, “You can do it,” but He often says, “I am with you.” So, what is your focus, you or God? The God who formed you can make you again.

Third is your purpose or stewardship. Someone has said, “Everyone needs something to believe, someone to love, and something to do.” If you are missing any of those, you probably feel the lack thereof deep inside you, but when we realize God for who He is, that gives us a purpose or stewardship. We realize all we have in our hands has been put there by God.

Jeremiah says in verse 9, “Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.” What a wonderful setup, God’s words in Jeremiah’s mouth. The New Testament tells us that when you are called upon to speak, give what the Lord has said. Give God’s truth. Maybe you are called upon to give a testimony or challenge and you wonder what to say. You don’t have to come up with something to say. Learn what has God has said, absorb that, and get out of the way. God has given us everything we need to do what we need to do.

So, who is your Creator today? I do not mean who made you because I know the answer to that. But who is creating your day, your path, your provision? Is it you or is it God? God said to Jeremiah, “I knew you. I formed you. I consecrated and ordained you. I have a purpose for you. I will make you defensed city.” Well, God formed you, and God can make you again. If we have submissive hearts, He will do just that.

The post God Makes and Remakes first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

We have a family friend who has the honorary title of uncle, and I have called him that before I can even remember. Last Saturday he was visiting, and took me and several others of the family out for lunch. This is something he has done dozens, if not scores, and maybe even hundreds of times. When I was a little kid, he bought me breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He has purchased lift tickets in Colorado to ski. He has done all kinds of things. I have always thanked him, but I felt something a little different enjoying my hamburger on Saturday than I did when I was ten or even twenty. It was a gratitude that was a little different because I am a little different. My perspective is different now. I know what it would be like to buy someone else’s lunch. I can imagine what it means for Uncle John to take the time and effort and to have the affection and interest to buy lunch for all of us. So, my gratitude then and now is a little different.

The more capable we are and the more we have to enjoy, the less worry we have, and sometimes the less grateful we are. In Jeremiah 5, God is addressing a people who had turned their backs on God and refused to return. God says, “How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery.” He is talking not just about unfaithfulness to a spouse on earth, but unfaithfulness to their God. In Deuteronomy God warns the people that when they came into the land and inherited cities they didn’t build, vineyards they didn’t plant, and prosperity they didn’t deserve, they would say they had gotten all those things for themselves. Ironically, when Israel prospered, they were less inclined to recognize that God was the giver. They were less grateful. That is the way it is in life.

Talking about the coming Babylonians and judgment to come, Jeremiah 5:17 says, “And they shall eat up thine harvest, and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat: they shall eat up thy flocks and thine herds: they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees: they shall impoverish thy fenced cities, wherein thou trustedst with the sword.” He was saying, “You pat yourself on the back because you have food to eat and you trust the walls you have built to defend you. In both cases, you have forgotten God.” They forgot both the power and provision of their God. They were not grateful,l therefore they were not right with God.

That is the way it is today. We ignore our God when we ignore His gifts. Sometimes we think it is the other way around, that because we ignore God, we ignore the gifts He gives. That is true, but it is also true that when we ignore the gifts that we have and assume that we have done things by our own strength, we ignore God, are unthankful, and feel entitled. Then, we miss God altogether. Gratitude and faith are not very different. They are essentially the same thing on two sides of a need. When I look ahead and see my need, acknowledge God, and trust Him, that is called faith. When I look back and see provision and recognize God and acknowledge Him, that is called gratitude. So, gratitude and faith go hand and hand.

There are two questions to ask. First, can you name three blessing that you have? Oftentimes at church your pastor may ask if anyone has something for which they are thankful. Oftentimes we think, “What do I have to be thankful for?” Then someone stands and says they are thankful to live in a free country, or to have health or food. When I was a boy, these all sounded boring because we had all of them so why thank God for them? If I had a new pair of skis that would be great. That was because I was a child. We are to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” but most of us have never asked God for daily bread because we don’t need to; we got it on our own. There came a time for Israel when God stopped raining food from heaven, and Israel ate of the food of the land, but whether it was natural or supernatural, all the food was from God.

Today, I live in one of the wealthiest sections of the wealthiest country in the wealthiest time in time or space in human history. I don’t have a lot of money compared to most people in my area, yet I am probably still in the top fifth percentile of wealth in the world. All this money is a problem because we are so affluent and spoiled that we can’t even see our blessings. When Israel was coming out of Egypt, God parted the Red Sea, rained food from heaven, and provided water, yet they still complained. Oddly enough I think it was easier for them to see the provision coming from God in the wilderness than when they got to the land of Canaan and had their own land and prosperity. So, naming three blessings might be harder than it should be simply because we have so many blessings that none of them really reveal themselves to us.

Second, can you name three needs or three worries? We are living in a time of higher stakes than ever before. More calamity can be done in less time by fewer people than ever before in human history. Our technology and power have outstripped our virtue, and that is the way it has always been. I read today about a plot to take down the power grid in my area of Nashville, Tennessee. Not a big story, but it was big to me. How hard would it be to take us from ultimate prosperity to relative poverty? So, we can name three worries both profound and practical.

The point is that the answer to your first question is your confidence in the second. If you can’t name any blessings, then you have more worries. If you can look back and see what God has done and acknowledge Him in the past, then you are more likely to have hope and optimism about the future. Your answer to the first question is your confidence in the second. Let me encourage you to look for God in your world. See the gifts and acknowledge God. I’m not talking about some spiritual imagination where we make things up, but literally realizing that God has given us the very air we breathe and so many other things we take for granted. Look for God by seeing the gifts. See the gifts, see God, and see hope.

In contrast, in Jeremiah’s day he addressed God’s people and said, “But thou saidst, There is no hope: no; for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go.” It was an intention hopelessness. They did not acknowledge God in their past, so they did not have hope for their future. You do not have to live that way. If you will cultivate gratitude by acknowledging God in your past, you can cultivate faith and trust in God for your future because we ignore our God, the Giver, when we ignore His gifts.

The post When We Ignore His Gifts first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

Did your five-year-old child ever want to help you wash the car or some such thing? If your child ever did that, you realized that if you allowed your child to help wash the car, you were helping him; he wasn’t helping you. You may have been investing in his helping you in the future when he was capable, but he wasn’t really helping you. He needed you to teach him. Sometimes we think that God really needs us, that God is desperately in need of us. Nothing could be further from the truth. To be sure, if I refuse to serve God and do what God made me to do, there may be people who will suffer for that because God would have provided through me. But in the strictest sense, God is not lacking or impoverished by anything I would withhold from Him. God doesn’t need me; God loves me.

Isaiah 66:1 says, “Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?” God is a massive God. How could man possibly build Him a place with human hands in which He could dwell. Solomon, when he built the magnificent temple, said in I Kings 8:27, “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?”

God doesn’t need us. In fact, in Isaiah 1:11, speaking to a rebellious people, He says, “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me?” He basically says, “I am not pleased by them. I don’t need them. I don’t need your sacrifices as if I were hungry. What is the purpose of them?” Jesus quoted Isaiah when He was speaking in Mark 7:6 about those who were religious but rejected Him, “Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” So, God is a God Who has no need, but He loves us. God doesn’t want you to help Him; God wants you to hear Him. I think we should serve Him, and if you will hear Him, then you will be serving Him in ways that matter.

In Isaiah 66:2 He says, “For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.” How could you possibly impress an infinite God with some good act of virtue? God spoke the worlds into existence and I am supposed to impress Him by some little thing that I have done? Yet, if you look at Jesus, God incarnate, in the gospels, He oftentimes marveled, not at people’s words, but at their faith or lack of faith.

Isaiah 66:3 says, He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man.” It goes through all these wonderful things that the people pretended to do but were really an abomination to God. Verse 4 says, “I also will choose their delusions.” This is a response to verse 3 where God said, “Yea, they have chosen their own ways.” So, they chose their ways and God chose their judgment. Isaiah 65 is about the fact that God was not hearing His people because His people were not hearing Him. So, God doesn’t want you to merely help Him. He wants you to hear Him.

Why do we say that? First, God has more ambition. You may have great ambition and great desire to do great things for God. That is fine, but what is vision? The Bible says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” In that proverb it is obvious that the vision talked about is God’s Word, which tells us what God has said and what God wants. Isaiah is the book where God prophesies of Cyrus in some detail a hundred fifty years before Cyrus was even born. Do you think your ambitions are greater than an infinite God? God doesn’t want you to help Him; He wants you to hear Him.

God has more power. He says, “The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.” Verse 14 says, “The hand of the LORD shall be known toward his servants, and his indignation toward his enemies.” God has more power than you can possibly imagine. Verse 23 says, “Shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD.”

God also has more intelligence. In verse 18, speaking of those who were wicked and strayed from Him, God says, “I know their works.” He knows our works, good and bad. He knows us to our core. God has knowledge of the future, the past, and the present. God knows me better than I know myself.

God has more longevity and more life. Verse 22 says, “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain.” There are very few things that remain in this earth. If I were to say, “Name five gospel-preaching, Bible-centered churches that are more than a hundred years old,” most of us could not name them. That is a sobering thought. God is not impressed by what you do for Him if you are not listening to Him. So many churches, colleges, and organizations have stopped listening to God. They were satisfied with what they were doing instead of what God wanted, and they lost their way. God doesn’t want you to help Him; God wants you to hear Him.

How do you do that? If you want to hear God, hear His words through any part of the Bible. Then, hear His words through His servants. No person is infallible, but a good Bible preacher preaches God’s authority. He tells you what God has said, not what he, a man, thinks. If you want to hear God, hear His Word and those who speak His truth.

God doesn’t want you merely to help Him; God wants you to hear Him. Will you hear Him now? If so, then go and do something. That is exactly the way God designed us to be, to do something to serve Him, but only after we hear what He has to say. If you hear Him, your life will count for things that matter.

The post Hear Him first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

Have you ever had a forty-five-minute conversation in which you didn’t say a word? That isn’t really a conversation; that is a monologue. Maybe you have had such a conversation with a person and they later tell someone else that you were such a great conversationalist. The reason they think that is because you didn’t say anything. You just asked the right questions and let them talk. Spurgeon said, “The object of prayer is the ear of God.” I think that is exactly correct. So, what about your ear? Are you merely asking or talking to God or are you asking God as an informed child of God? That is, are you asking, but also listening?

You see, prayer is in some sense a two-way street. In Isaiah 65 you find the ideal. Verse 24 says, “And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.” This is an ideal. This is in a time which verse 17 says God will create a new heavens and a new earth. Verse 25 says, “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together.” God who can create a wolf can create a wolf that will lie down with the lamb, but that is not the reality right now. Likewise, verse 24 is not the reality in most people’s lives, that “before they call, I will answer.” This is the ideal, that God knows before you ask.

When I go to preach revival meetings in local churches, I often send ahead an “advance packet” which explains how we will be coming, that we live in a fifth wheel, etc. The advance packet answers questions so we can be helpful. I don’t ever have to do that with my wife. I don’t ever send my wife an advance packet that tells her what I need, how I am, and how I think. I don’t need to do that because my wife already knows. We know the significance of everything to each other. That is the ideal, and, no doubt about it, God knows you and wishes to answer prayer.

In verse 2 we have the reality of these people. God says, “I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts.” He is saying, “I’ve been stretching out my hand to them, talking to them, and they say nothing.” God says in verse 5 that the things they do are a smoke in His nose. Verse 7 talks about the incense they burn upon the mountains that was not pleasing to God. Were these people of God any better off than the heathen?

Verse 1 says, “I am sought of them that ask not for me.” Perhaps this is a reply to Isaiah 63:19 where the people say, “We are thine.” They appealed to God’s ownership saying, “Thou never barest rule over them [those who impressed them]; they were not called by thy name.” God replied in Isaiah 65:1, “I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name.” So, the Bible makes it clear that God hears us because we are in obedience or have an open ear to Him.

In Romans 10 God uses Paul to quote these very words in verse 20. He says, “But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.” This is in contrast to a disobedient and gainsaying people who were ignorant of God’s righteousness. They went to establish their own righteousness and did not submit themselves to the righteousness of God.

So, you have God’s own people who had stopped their ears at God’s appeals. If I’ve done wrong by my wife, should I expect my wife to be as attentive to me if I am ignoring her? The answer is no. Haven’t you been in a relationship with someone when they seem to be dull? They don’t get it and don’t seem to be hearing to know what you want? The fact is they do know what you want, but there is a wall between you and them, so they can’t really hear the way they should. They know what is needed, but they don’t hear because they have been ignored. God is not merely some spouse who has been ignored. God is the God of the universe; however, you see a difference between the ideal that God answers before we even ask and the reality of God’s own people not listening to Him.

That brings us to the choice. What will we do? In Isaiah 65:10 God talks about blessings that are for “my people that have sought me.” In contrast to those who have sought God, He says, “But ye are they that forsake the LORD.” In verse 12 He says, “When I called, ye did not answer; when I spake, ye did not hear; but did evil before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not.” Earlier, Isaiah 59 says, “The LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.”

When it comes to prayer, I need to be asking. That is prayer by definition, asking, an appeal. But I am not going to make prayers I should if I am not hearing the things I should. So, there are two things that are important in a reality where prayer is a two-way street. First, there is my conscience. If there is something I know is not right, I need to acknowledge that. Sometimes I don’t acknowledge what it is I know, but God knows what I know. So, am I violating my conscience. If I am violating my conscience, then I am violating the privilege of being heard by God who knows me to my core.

Second, I should be listening to God’s Word. My conscience should be developed with God’s Word. We are not merely talking about someone who has a timid temperament or is a worrier. I am talking about a conscience, which means “with knowledge.” I should have an ethic that is based on something I know. Is my conscience informed by God’s Word?

God hears prayer. I pray because I am a servant, and God hears because He is God. But prayer is a two-way street. The ideal is that God hears before I call, and the reality that has existed in the past is that God spreads His hands but rebellious people don’t listen. Then, there is the choice. Will we be a people who have sought God or will we be those who do not answer, hear, or pay attention? God wants to hear my prayer and your prayer, so make sure that before you ask you listen.

The post Prayer Is a Two-Way Street first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

Oftentimes we refer to people when what we really mean is some greater force. We get confused between the means and the person behind the means. For instance, we say that Putin invaded Ukraine. Do we mean that a man named Putin literally grabbed a rifle and attacked Ukraine? No, there is a massive Russian army that invaded Ukraine, but the person behind it all would be Putin. In other words, there is something beyond the means that we can see.

We might say, “The White House said thus and so.” Do houses talk? No, we are talking about the administration of a President, the means and the actual mind behind the means. During campaign season when people are running for office, we talk about campaign surrogates, by which we mean deputies, people who speak for the campaign and ultimately for the person running for office. So, there are means and then there is the mind behind the means.

Second Thessalonians 3:16 says, “Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means.” So, the Lord is the source of peace himself, but He gives peace and the Bible says He gives peace by all means. So, God is the power and there are a number of sources or ways that He uses to accomplish what He wishes to accomplish. In short, the entire world is God’s surrogate. God is the mind behind the means. Now, not everything in this world pleases God, but don’t miss God in His means. We see things that happens in our own lives and wonder where God is. God has not abandoned you and God is not without power.

Let me give you a couple of examples. The first part of Isaiah 63 talks about the judgment of God, the day of vengeance. Then in verse 7 and following Isaiah says, “I will mention the lovingkindness of the LORD…goodness toward the house of Israel…according to his mercies, and according the multitude of his lovingkindnesses…In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them.” He didn’t just send them help; He was the help, the angel of His presence.

Then He gives us two historical examples, Moses and Abraham, two different points of time in the experience of the nation of Israel where God had a man who was merely a means. Each man was not the end itself; he was the means to an end. For instance, verse 12 says that God “led them by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make himself an everlasting name.” Moses is the one who led Israel out of Egypt, but God is the one who led Moses. Moses was simply a deputy, a means. If all you see is Moses, you are missing something.

Abraham is another example. Verse 16 says there will be people who say, “Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, O LORD, art our father, our redeemer; thy name is from everlasting.” So, Abraham did not know these people because he was gone. Israel did not acknowledge them, but they realized, “God, ultimately Abraham is not merely our father. You are our father.” So, don’t miss God in His means. It is very easy to do.

There are several areas we should be mindful of God and His means. First, whom do you follow? Someone says, “I obey God and not man.” Well, you should obey God, but if you obey God, then you are going to obey the authorities He has placed in your life. When the children of Israel rejected Moses on more than one occasion, God took that personally because their complaining was not against Moses but against the God who commissioned Moses. No authority is perfect and no authority is God, but there is God behind authority. So, whom do you follow?

Second, how do you identity? I am a Southerner, a father, a preacher, a Baptist. I believe all those things to be good. I am all those things passionately, but I need to remember that there is a God beyond those means. For instance, if I am in a Baptist church that starts denying the veracity of God’s Word and the deity of Christ, then the name Baptist means nothing. What matters is that I am called by God’s name. I belong to God, so I need to be in a church that is standing on the authority that God gives in His Word. So, how do you identify?

Third, whom do you trust? That is the ultimate question. I think we should trust the means that God gives. Maybe that is the money, building, or people that God provides, all of which I need, but don’t forget God Himself. In verse 17 these people say, “Return God for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.”

Sometimes, I pray for things and I find that I am praying for the means instead of the end. I really need one thing and I just make an assumption about what I need to get there. For instance, right now we are raising money to repave part of a long road here on the Bill Rice Ranch. I pray for money, that God would provide what we need to get this road done. Ultimately what I want is not the money; it is a road that provides a good way for campers to get where we can give the Word of God. God is able to drop a road down out of heaven, although I am not expecting that. What I am saying is I don’t so much need the money as I need the end, and I don’t need so much the end as I need God. What I want is God. What I want is a road so I can transfer God from His Word to the ears of people in ways that will help them and honor God.

Means are important, but they are not God. So, whom do you trust? How do you identity? Whom do you follow? The bottom line is the entire world is God’s deputy. It doesn’t mean the world is perfect or honors God, but it does mean there is a God in the world. Do not miss God in your life today simply because you are focused on the means.

The post Don’t Miss God in His Means first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

Have you ever been in a city or town whose name was just a complete misnomer; it did not live up to its name? Maybe you have been in a town called Pleasantburg, but it was not pleasant. The people were not kind, the city was smoggy, and so on. Perhaps most famously we think about Philadelphia, which means “the city of brotherly love.” We sometimes joke that it is the city of brotherly shove. It is not living up to its name. I think the ultimate example of this would be Jerusalem, half of whose name means peace. Is Jerusalem a city of peace today? Is it living up to its name?

There is the intent of a name, the current reality of a name, and the future of a name. What is the intent of the name Jerusalem? Is that intent the current reality with all the war that we find in that part of the world? Is that going to be the future reality? Isaiah 60:14 says that Jerusalem will be called “the city of the LORD, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.” Again, Isaiah 61:6 says, “But ye shall be named the Priests of the LORD: men shall call you the Ministers of our God.” Isaiah 62:4 says, “Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah [married], and thy land Beulah [he delights in her]: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married.”

First, we have the purpose that God has for His people. I’m not Jewish, nor do I live in Jerusalem, but I need to be mindful of the purpose for which God has created me. There is the name we are given, then there is the name you have chosen. I think about a friend of mine who used to sell shoes in California before he became an evangelist. He told the story of a man who came into his shoe store and it seemed evident that he needed the Lord. The man’s name was something like Ezekiel. My friend said, “Ezekiel, I want to tell you something I know your mom would want me to tell you.” Then, he gave him the gospel. How did he know that Ezekiel’s mom wanted him to hear the gospel? It is because she named him a very unusual Bible name. He wasn’t living up to the name his mom had given him. He was living apart from God when his mom had probably dedicated him to God. So, there is the name you are given.

Then, there is the name you chose. No mindful parent would choose the name Judas or Jezebel for their child. These are names, whether good or bad theoretically, connected to people who have made those names mean something. I think about the word Christian. What does that mean to most people? I think we should be involved in our world right now, and if you are an American like I am, we are blessed and have the responsibility to be conscientious citizens. Is that all we are? I am involved and a believer, but the point is there are three aspects to your name. There is the purpose, that is what you should be. If you are a Christian, you are called by Christ’s name. There is a purpose for that. We should be Christlike. When it comes to Jerusalem, there is a purpose that God intends just like there is a purpose to your name as a Christian.

Secondly, there is the potential of your name, what it could be and the practice of what it is. So, am I living in light of who I am? I am a Christian? Am I living like a Christian? Nothing is worse in the world than someone who claims to be a Christian but is antithetical to the life of Christ, who does not live in evidence of what he is. So, there is the potential.

Third, there is the prophecy, what will be. That is what God is talking about. Verses 1-2 say, “For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth… And thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name.” So, God has an intent for you as a Christian, something He wishes that name to mean. Our goal should be to harmonize the three aspects of our name, the purpose, the potential, and the prophecy.

Isaiah 60:19 says, “But the LORD shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.” The only brightness, glory, and help I can give people is as I reflect that light, the light of heaven, the light of God as I let the light of Christ shine through me. There are three aspects of your name, the purpose, the potential, and the prophecy. May God help us who know the Lord Jesus to live in such a way that our name is harmonized with our life before people who desperately need the righteousness and grace of God.

The post Three Aspects to Your Name first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

The post The Foundation of Purpose and Hope first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

Haddon Robinson was a preacher who taught preachers for many years. He talked often about finding what he called “The Big Idea.” In the Bible there is always a big idea. The passage you are looking at has a big idea. Sometimes you try to find the definition of words, the history, and the context of a passage, and all those things are important, but they are just means to the end of finding out what this passage is actually about. You may understand the Greek and Hebrew and all the words, but if it doesn’t help you get the big picture of what the passage is actually about, it is pointless. The purpose of reading a passage is to find out the big idea, the point of the passage.

Haddon Robinson said when he was a young preacher he never knew when to stop studying. When is there enough study behind a sermon? Well, there is never enough if you are talking about plumbing the depths of all that God has in store in the Word of God, but what he came to realize was that he was studying to find out the big idea. The big idea was the point in studying. One of the things that can help us as we read to understand the Bible is when we are reading, wherever it may be, to think, “What is the big idea?” The truth is that Jesus is the big idea. God’s Word finds its end in God’s Son.

Isaiah 53:1 says, “Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?” What follows is a wonderful chapter about the Messiah, the Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth. It is about Jesus. The Bible says about Him, “Surely, he hath bourne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.” All of that He did for us. Verse 5 says, “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement for our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” Our peace comes for His chastisement.

Notice the exchange in every verse. We have sinned; the Lord Jesus was judged. “The LORD has laid upon him the iniquity of us all.” Verse 7 says, “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted.” Verse 8 says, “For the transgression of my people was he stricken.” Verse 10 says, “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him…thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin.” God’s righteousness and justice are satisfied by the work of Jesus Christ, His righteous servant. Verse 11 says that He will justify many, not only a few, “for he shall bear their iniquity.”

Verse 12 says, “He was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” Back in verse 6 it says, “All we like sheep have gone astray…and the LORD hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all.” Notice it says, “All” and “Many,” not just a few. Jesus is the big picture. God’s Word finds its end in God’s Son.

In Luke 22:37 Jesus says, “For I say unto you, that this that is written must yet be accomplished in me, And he was reckoned among the transgressors: for the things concerning me have an end.”  They have a purpose or fulfillment in Jesus. In the first place, Jesus is the end to the story. He is the purpose to the story. You might read the story of David and go back to the portion about Amnon. Why do we read about Amnon? It is because it is really about Absalom. Why do we read about Absalom? It is because it is about David. Why do we read about David? It is because it is really about Israel. Why do we read about Israel? It is because it is really about the Messiah that God would send through Israel. Why does that matter? It matters because it matters to you. This is the story of Jesus and He is the end to the story. All the stories in the Bible find their consummation in the big picture, Jesus.

Jesus is the end to genealogies. Maybe you have slogged through endless pages of genealogies in the Old Testament wondering why they are there. Well, the last genealogies in the Word of God are the genealogies of Christ. All those genealogies find their summation in Jesus. They lay a big picture context for the Messiah God would send.

Jesus is the end to sin and judgment. Romans 10:4 says, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” There are many people ignorant of God’s righteousness going about to establish their own righteousness and have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. Christ is the end of the law. It is not that the law is dead and gone. It is that the summation or purpose of the law is to bring people to Christ. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Years ago, a man attending the Bill Rice Ranch for a men’s event was concerned about peace with God. As a young man he had been religious, but later in life he became a convict. He had felt virtue, but then had the feeling of his guilt pressing upon him. I remember telling him that it is not our righteousness but Jesus’ righteousness that gains us favor with God. It is putting our faith and trust in what Jesus did. He took our sorrows, bore our griefs, took our chastisement, and our punishment. The man said, “Wow, that’s it?” People would rather crawl to China on their knees on broken glass than to come to God by God’s way through faith in God’s Son. So, who would believe this? 

Most people live and then die. Jesus lived, died, but now He lives forever. You can live forever too because Jesus is the big picture, the big idea. God’s Word finds its end in God’s Son. That is the way to understand the Bible and the way to accept the Son whom God has sent.

The post Jesus Is the Big Idea first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

I’ve been privileged to hike the Grand Canyon on numerous occasions. I’ve hiked North Rim to South Rim, the South Kaibab, Bright Angel, and the Supai Trail. Grand Canyon is an amazing place. You can literally observe ground one vertical mile below your feet. Most of us have no idea what that looks like unless we have been to the Grand Canyon. I remember observing the Kaibab Plateau years ago and seeing these huge rocks way down at the bottom. I thought, “Those must be the size of a bus. Those are big rocks.” Then, I looked through my binoculars and saw some ants scurrying down there that were actually people, and by comparison I realized that those rocks were not the size of a bus; they were the size of a sky scraper. They were mammoth, huge. There was no way for me to know how big they were unless I saw them related to something else, like a hiker.

Isaiah 51 is God addressing people who were following correctly but were in the minority. Isaiah 51:1 says, “Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.” He is talking to people who had been invaded and people who were in the minority both in comparison to the invaders and to their own people who had forgotten God. These were people who were following righteousness in difficult times and were in the minority for doing so.

God addresses both history and the future. In verse 2 He says, “Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him and increased him.” Israel was a chip off the old block. God says, “Look to the rock from whence ye were hewn.” This is not specifically God. It is the man whom God used to bring forth this incredible family and nation. He also points to the future. He says in verse 3, “For the LORD shall comfort Zion.” So, it is about what God has done and what God will do.

He says to these people who were discouraged, in the minority, and could not see God’s dealings in their lives, “Remember what I have done in the past and be confident of what I will do in the future. You are a chip off the old block and I am going to take care of you.”

What follows is a series of comparisons. A comparison of their problems, not to themselves for that would be overwhelming, but to their God. For instance, verse 6 says, “Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.” He says, “Don’t compare your problems to yourselves. Compare your problems to your God. The problems of this earth will consume as will the earth, but not my righteousness and my salvation.”

In verse 8 He says, “For the moth shall eat them up like a garment.” We have all lost good garments because moths have chewed on them. He is talking about the reproach of the foolish and that their day is coming. It continues, “The worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation.” Their time will come, but mercy will endure.

Then the most poignant of all is verse 12 which says, “I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made of grass.” He is saying, “Who are you to fear when I am the one who provides.”  In verse 13 He reminds us that fear is a function of forgetfulness. He says, “Thou forgettest the LORD…and hast feared continually every day.” So, fear is just forgetting. What is it forgetting? It is not forgetting yourself, but forgetting your God. In short, the size of your problem is relative to the size of your source.

To whom are you looking and seeking? In whom do you find your strength? My problems are big to me but they are not big to God. Any problem is a problem because of its size. If it is a small problem, it is an annoyance, not a problem. A problem to me might not be a problem to you. A problem to your six-year-old may cause you to wish you had those problems again, but if you were six again, those problems would be just as big to you as they are to your child. The size of your problems is relative to the size of your source. So, no matter the size of your problem, it will never exceed the size, power, and knowledge of God. Verse 15 says, “But I am the LORD thy God.” He is the Lord of hosts, the Lord of armies. Assyria has a big army; I have a bigger. Egypt has a big army; I have a bigger. Babylon has a big army; I have a bigger.

In verses 21-23 God basically says, “Therefore I will. Because I am who I am, I will do what I do.” Verse 22 says, “I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling…but I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee.” In other words, the tables will turn.

Friend, I don’t know what your problem is today, but the main problem is not so much the problem you perceive, it is the way you perceive it in the first place. Are you acknowledging God in your life? The same ethic that helps you to be proud of yourself and to forget God is the same ethic that will lead you to despair when it becomes clear that your problems are bigger than you. Are your problems bigger than you? Of course, otherwise they wouldn’t be problems. Are they bigger than God? No! The size of your problems is relative to the size of your source.

The post The Size of Your Source first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

Recently there was an American woman from Chicago who was stranded in Qatar in the Middle East. If you have ever been stranded in a motel, a hospital, or an airport far from home, you know that can be very nerve-wracking. I’ve forgotten what the situation was, but she couldn’t get a flight and was stranded in the airport in this foreign country. She cried and it was a bit of an ordeal. She went to a restaurant in the airport to decide what to do, and just one table over was a gentleman who noticed she was a little distraught. Upon beginning conversation, she found out that he was the CEO of an airline that made its hub in that city. Long story short, he provided first-class tickets to get her home safely. That worked out wonderfully well.

Maybe there have been times in your life when you did not know with whom you were dealing. That is often the case in the Bible. Kings of Judah and Israel and kings of foreign powers dealt with God, but they did not know who it was they were dealing with.

In Isaiah 37 the Assyrians had taken everything in their path in the known world and were now sieging Jerusalem. No idol, king, or kingdom could stand before them. The field commander for the King of Assyria sent a nasty letter to Hezekiah, king of God’s people. When Hezekiah got this threatening, menacing letter, he was distraught. Verse 14 says that he “went up unto the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD.” Then, verse 15 says, “And Hezekiah prayed unto the LORD saying…” What wonderful picture of prayer, to spread it before the Lord. God knows the worst and the weakest in us. There is nothing hidden from Him. How wonderful that we can come and we can spread our problems before God.

In verse 18 Hezekiah basically prays, “It is true, Lord, Assyria has conquered every nation, every god, every king. God, this is all true.” Prayer is not minimizing your problems. It is maximizing God. Often, throughout the rest of the prayer we find that Hezekiah makes the point that the enemies were God’s enemies. They were blaspheming God. They do not know who it was they were dealing with.

Today, we may not realize the gravity, power, and grandeur of the God to whom we can speak, but if He is your God and your Father, you can come to Him, spread it before Him without any hesitation, reservation, or shaping of facts to make it look better. We are not minimizing the problems; we are recognizing who God is.

So, who is God? I love the names of God found in this prayer. Verse 16 says, “O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims, that art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made heaven and earth.” So, who is this God before whom Hezekiah spread his needs and worries?

First, He is the Lord of hosts. That is to say, He is the God of armies, a God of power and might. What is too great for me is not too great for God. There was a massive army with a storied history on the outskirts of Hezekiah’s city, yet verse 36 says, “Then the angel of the LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand.” That is 185,000 soldiers. On the face of it, the story is absurd unless there is a God. If there is a God, it would be absurd if He could not do things infinitely beyond our capacities. If you believe there is no God, then you still have to deal with forces you cannot see that are infinitely bigger than you can imagine to even get this universe here. There is a God; He has revealed Himself; He is the Lord of hosts and you can trust Him.

Second, He is the God of Israel. Despite God’s power, He is a personal God. Most people you feel comfortable with you feel comfortable with because they feel inclined toward you and they are not intimidating as to their power, intelligence, beauty, or whatever. They are not too good because then you would feel uncomfortable. God is not like you or like me. God has power beyond our wildest dreams, yet God regards us.

In verse 4 He is called the Lord thy God. Again, He is a personal God. He is a God in whom we can trust. In verse 23 He is the Holy One of Israel, Israel’s God. This was Isaiah’s God, Hezekiah’s God, and this can be your God. He is powerful and personal. Verse 16 says, “That art the God, even thou alone.”

Third, He is the Creator God. In verse 16 Hezekiah says, “Thou hast made heaven and earth.” Any god we can make is a creation, not a creator. Idols in the Bible are oftentimes stone or wood covered with silver or gold. God made all those elements. Any object that is a creation is not worthy of the name God. God is the Creator, not the creation. That is the God to whom Hezekiah was talking, the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, the God alone.

Fourth, in verse 17 He is the living God. Hezekiah essentially says, “Incline your ear, God. Hear and see what the king of Assyria has sent to reproach the living God.” He is the living God. God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not the God who was, but the God who is. In I Timothy we are told not to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God who gives us richly all things to enjoy.

Sometimes we lose sight of just who it is we are dealing with. We know our problems, but do we know our God? We are not to ignore our problems, but we are to pay attention to God, the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, the God Creator, the living God. Spread your problems before the Lord. Give your cares and life to God and realize who He is.

The post Spread It before the Lord first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

It has often been said that the first casualty of war is the truth. That is probably true. Adolf Hitler had a war of words long before he had ambassadors, Poland, or an official minister of propaganda. He knew the importance of words. Words are the first weapon of any war. In Isaiah 36, when we find Assyria, the mighty army and empire, coming up against Jerusalem and King Hezekiah, the field commander for the Assyrian army threateningly said to King Hezekiah, “Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this wherein thou trustest?” Whom are you trusting? What follows are all the arguments he had for Israel to open the gates and surrender to the enemy.

In verse 6 Assyria’s field commander says they should surrender because they couldn’t trust Egypt, “Lo, thou trustest in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt.” He said Egypt was a broken walking stick that would pierce their hand if they relied on them. Was this true or false? It was true, but not trustworthy because the punchline was not “don’t trust Egypt; trust God” it was “don’t trust Egypt; surrender to us.” That is an interesting position to take.

In verse 7 the field commander speaks about God directly. He says, “But if thou say to me, We trust in the LORD our God: is it not he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away?” That was true. Hezekiah had taken away all the altars but the one that God had ordained. Either this field commander did not know that or he was trying to be dishonest with them. God had ordained but one alter, and that was in a very specific place. The others were copies of false gods and idols around them. So, destroying the other altars was an act of goodness. The field commander was using their devotion to God, which was actually lacking, against them.

In verse 10 he seems to be quoting God. He says, “And am I now come up without the LORD against this land to destroy it? the LORD said unto me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.” Was this true? Well, to be sure, Assyria was just an instrument of chastening to His own people, but God would spare this city and this people this time and He had said as much explicitly. Many of the things that the field commander said were the truth, but they weren’t the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

In verse 18 he says, “Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?” The answer was no. The Assyrians had taken everything. The problem with all these reasonings was that though some were true, some had faulty conclusions and faulty assumptions. All of them were less than the whole truth.

Today, you are under siege. The truth is under siege. You are surrounded by a majority that has proven themselves to be wrong. Let God be true and every man a liar. I want to encourage you today not to be deceived and not to be discouraged. If you keep reading this story, Hezekiah got encouragement by listening to God through the prophet Isaiah. So, you are under siege, but don’t be deceived and don’t be discouraged.

I have three observations. First, if you get God wrong, you approach everything wrong. I was tempted to say, “If you get God wrong, you get everything wrong” but that is not quite right. In the field commander’s case, he said some things that were true, but the conclusions were wrong. It is important to realize that if the people you are trusting do not regard God, they may on occasion have good answers, but they have a premise that can’t scale to all the answers they will need. We have a lot of voices in our world right now. Some of them are wise and have good conclusions to a degree, but be aware that you can’t regard everything you hear because if you get God wrong, you approach everything wrong.

Second, an enemy who can fool you, need not fight you. Long ago, Sun Tzu wrote a book on military strategy and said, “All warfare is based on deception.” Deceit itself is the point. The Bible says, “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” The battle is in our minds.

Ephesians 6:11 says, “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” The devil is going to come after you with what is appealing and not what is appalling. Isaiah 36:12 gives a dreadful picture of what would happen if they didn’t surrender. Then, in contrast he says in verse 16, “Don’t listen to Hezekiah. The Assyrian king said to make an agreement with me. If you do that, you will be fine, you will eat, drink, and be happy until I come and take you away.” He was trying to achieve their surrender by making appealing arguments and threatening assertions. So, an enemy who can fool you need not fight you. It is important that we guard our minds.

Third, truth is the best weapon when besieged by falsehood. Every comment this field commander made about Egypt, God, and what God had said could be contrasted with what God’s prophet Isaiah said from God directly. The way Hezekiah could know the truth was to listen what the field commander said and compare it to what God had said through Isaiah.

The same is true today. We have God’s words in written form and we can study them. So many of Isaiah’s prophecies are our history. They are certain and sure and can be relied upon. No, we shouldn’t trust in Egypt, but we also should not surrender to Assyria. If you get God wrong, you approach everything wrong. Any enemy who can fool you need not fight you, and truth is the best weapon when besieged by falsehood. So, get God’s Word in your heart.

Today, you are going to hear a lot of things, some are truth, some are false, and some are true but given in a way to conclude something that is false. Don’t be deceived and don’t be discouraged. You are under siege by falsehood every day, but God is great and God gives truth. The more we know of that the more we can negotiate life.

The post You Are under Siege first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

My wife and I have been home for the last two weeks so consequently every afternoon we take a hike on the 1,300 acres of the Bill Rice Ranch. I’ve been noticing on our hikes a location about 200 yards off our usual trail that has just intrigued me. Yesterday, we took a detour to check it out. Well, I was surprised and delighted by a lovely little spot. The funny thing is that I have been by it a thousand times. When I was a kid, I used to gather horses out of this area, but I hadn’t been there for years. It is a nice little meadow, and I felt a feeling I often felt as a kid, the joy of discovery.

I have often had the experience of hiking somewhere on the Ranch and coming out to a place I think I’ve never been before only to realize that I have been there a million times. I realize that these two places, the old one and the new one I discovered, are actually connected. So, there is joy in the discovery of a connection.

The Bible helps us see how the world is connected. Think about your body. Recently I was talking to some friends about how we get aches and pains in some part of our body and often we are surprised to find that the problem is actually someplace completely different. If I am having problems with my shoulder, it may be my hip that is causing the problem because it is all connected. So, the Bible helps us see how the world is connected in several ways.

First, the Bible connects the historic and the prophetic. In Isaiah 35 many Bible teachers believe that the imagery here is of the Exodus and Egypt. Whether it is or not, Isaiah definitely addresses the Egyptians, Assyrians, Syrians, Persians, and the Jewish people. Some of these nations are like dinosaurs; they have disappeared and lie as fossils under the desert sand of the Middle East. Other nations are very much alive and well today.

In the Bible you have the connection between the distant past and the unseen future. I have often said, “All that matters is the long haul.” Your ten or twenty-year plan is worth nothing. All that matters is consistency over the long haul. Sena and I were talking about this recently and she said, “The decisions you make every day are important because they contribute to the long haul,” to which I would reply, “Of course!” She is right. I have also often said, “You don’t know everything in the future so just take one step at a time.” You don’t have to know the big picture to know that there is one. So, is it “all that matters is the long haul” or “just take things one step at a time”? The answer is yes. They are all connected. The decisions I make today matter in the future and they may matter in eternity. That is a connection, the historic and prophetic, that Isaiah connects for us.

Second, Isaiah connects the local to the universal. For instance, Isaiah 34:2 says, “For the indignation of the LORD is upon all nations.” The judgment that is coming is global. Then he talks specifically about Edom, the descendants of Esau, and their destruction as an example of the judgment that will come on the world. There is a God in the world and He will judge our sin. So, the Bible gives us a connection between the historic and the prophetic and the local and the universal.

Ultimately, Isaiah helps us see the connection between judgment and joy. Isaiah 34:8 says, “For it is the day of the LORD’s vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion.” That is judgment. Isaiah 35:4 says, “Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and save you. Verse 10 says, “And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

The reason joy is to come is that sin shall be banished. There is no joy if there is no judgment. There is no mercy if there is no God taking care of the people who are causing harm to others and rebelling against God Himself. I oftentimes wish God would judge the sins of others, but I am never going to see joy in my life until I allow God to decide whether things are right in my own life. There is a connection between judgment and joy.

It is hard to live your life effectively until you know how everything connects. That means faith in the God who knows how everything connects. Happily, we can know a lot of that today. We can understand the connections between the historic and prophetic, the local and universal, and judgment and joy because the Bible helps us to see how the world is connected.

The post How the World Is Connected first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

About fifteen years ago I was sitting with a friend in a Chick-fil-A in Franklin, Tennessee. On the other side of the wall from where we were sitting, cars were passing to get their food from the drive-thru. All of a sudden, we heard screeching tires and saw smoke from the second car in line that was literally pushing for all it was worth the car in front of it. At first, I thought there was an angry customer, but when the first car peeled away, I realized that was not the case. The second car shot like a rocket across the parking lot, across four lanes of traffic, up an embankment, through a chain link fence, and into a retention pond. By then everyone knew something was afoot, and we all rushed to the retention pond on the other side of the highway. By the time we arrived, there were people already in the water getting the driver out of the car. Apparently, the driver had gone unconscious and thankfully was rescued from danger.

Whenever there is trouble, there are several kinds of people. There are those who wonder, those who are alarmed, those who say they can’t do anything about it, and those who go into water, darkness, and danger to rescue other people. In Isaiah 31-33 the Bible is warning Judah, part of God’s divided kingdom, about an Egyptians alliance. God had sent judgment on His own people because of their sin. Assyria was more than an enemy; it was a tool in God’s hand. Instead of turning back to the God who was chastening them, Judah’s tendency was to turn to Egypt as an ally or to Assyria to make peace instead of making peace with God.

Isaiah 33 illustrates three groups of people from Judah’s time of trouble. First, there are the pagans. Isaiah 33:1 says, “Woe to thee that spoilest.” These are the ones who take captives, steal, and plunder. He is talking about Assyria.

Then it talks about those who dealt treacherously, the traitors within Judah. Later they are called hypocrites, sinners, and ambassadors because instead of turning to God Jehovah, they sent ambassadors to seek help from pagans.

Lastly, there are those who claim the Lord and wait for Him, the remnant. Verse 2 says, “O LORD, be gracious unto us; we have waited for thee: be thou their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble.” Later this book famously says, “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”

The same types of people are around today. There are the pagan, but they are not really the problem because they are just doing what they know. Second, there are the traitors, those who are seeking help from the world instead of seeking to help the world with the power of God. Third, there are those who claim the Lord and wait for Him.

The question is, “Are you making things better or worse?” If you take the long view, then you know that God will win. So, don’t test the wind; trust in God. You will either be part of the problem or you will point people to the answer. I would like to encourage you to be a part of the answer. How do you do that? Let me suggest two ways.

First, consider your testimony. That is a loaded word, but it is a good word. Isaiah 33:14 says, “The sinners in Zion are afraid.” This is talking about God’s own people who rejected their own God. They say, “Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?” God is judging. Who is going to be able to stand up to this God? Verse 15 answers, “He that walketh righteously.” So, consider your testimony, realizing the literal presence of God in your life. When you are at school, work, the store, and out and about with real people who do not know the Lord and have real problems and sins, consider your testimony.

Show people hope, that the God who does judge sin does love people. What do other people know about you when they see your life? Do they see the light of Christ? Or do they see someone who claims God but is just like everyone else? The Assyrians who were taking plunder were a problem, but Judah needed to realize that the main problem wasn’t the conquering Assyrians but their own sin.

Second, consider your treasure. Verse 5 says, “The LORD is exalted.” Verse 6 says, “And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure.” Do you have stability and strength that comes from God? Proverbs says many times in many ways that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom. So, consider your treasure. Are you trusting God or things that cannot help? Are you trusting a world that brings itself to destruction but cannot get itself to salvation?

Isaiah 39 tells of King Hezekiah and his troubles. A prophet told Hezekiah that he would die. Hezekiah prayed and God gave him more life. At roughly the same time, Assyria was sieging the city. Hezekiah had all these problems, yet God delivered him from them all. Now sometimes good times test us just as the bad times do. Isaiah 39 says that after Hezekiah was healed and the threat of the Assyrians had diminished, the King of Babylon sent letters of congratulations. Hezekiah was happy with the King of Babylon and showed him all the treasure of God’s people. God was displeased. Hezekiah thought his financial treasure was something to brag about, but his real treasure was the fear of the Lord, the wisdom and strength that only God can give.

So, you have the answer. Do you show the answer? Every day in this world full of trouble, sin, and despair there are three groups of people: pagans, who don’t know the answer, traitors who belong to God but live for the world, and those who claim the Lord and wait patiently for Him. You will either be part of the problem or you will point to the answer. Be part of the answer because there is hope and an answer and that is found in God.

The post Be Part of the Answer first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

So much of what we learn today is learned artificially, although I don’t know if that is quite the right word for it. A hundred years ago many or most Americans were in farming work or farming communities. That is not the case today because farming is more productive per acre and that gives us the leeway to do other things. When you live on a farm, you learn about the generations of life, the ending of life, and everything in between that life requires.

Today, the food we have is totally disconnected from where it came from, its source. When she was a little girl, my mom used to visit her grandmom in South Dakota and they would butcher chickens to eat them. We are not accustomed to the time it takes to prepare food. We go to the grocery store and we instantly want food. We put it in the microwave and we want it instantly done. We learn, but we have to learn out of a book because so many of the things that would be just taught by life have been disconnected from us.

In the Bible we are reminded that God is the Creator of all, physically, spiritually, psychologically, economically, and in every way. There is one God and the world He has created all fits together. In the Bible you often find illustrations about the spiritual from the physical using examples from farming. Isaiah 27 is one such place. Verse 2 says, “In that day sing ye unto her [Israel], a vineyard of red wine.” What follows is a song from God about Israel. It happens “in that day,” a phrase mentioned three times in chapter 27. It means it is yet to come; it is in the future. In the song of the vineyard, we are reminded that God wishes to cultivate His fruit in our lives. We are not Israel or even a nation, but this principle is found throughout the Bible regarding individuals. God wishes to cultivate His fruit in His people. That is true in each of our lives.

Now, if you go to Isaiah 5, you find that this picture has been used before. Verse 7 says, “For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel.” So, this is a picture continued or restated in chapter 27 from earlier in the book. You can tell when a farmer is not at the farm, when he is not farming or cultivating his land. Proverbs 24:30 essentially says, “I went by the field of the slothful and it was covered with nettles. It was all grown up in weeds.” That is exactly what you would expect. God is a good farmer. He wishes to cultivate His good fruit in your life.

How does God do that? Verse 3 says that God keeps it. It says, “I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.” God is talking about His people, specifically Israel. Again, I’m not a nation or Israel or Jewish, but I belong to God by faith in His Son Jesus Christ. Like the nation Israel and like we read of in the New Testament regarding individuals, God wishes to protect what He is trying to cultivate. He keeps it and protects it. Does that mean there is never any trial in life? No, to the contrary, God even cultivates that, but one of the ways God cultivates His fruit in our lives is to keep us and protect us. That has obviously been true in the history of Israel. There have been many trials. Israel has a bull’s eye on her back to this day, but God has His hand on this nation and a purpose for them even now.

God judges the vineyard. Verses 7-9 talks about how He has judged His people. Does God judge His people the way He would judge an intruder into His home? No, one is defense and one is correction, but He does judge. How does He do it? Verse 8 says, “In measure.” Why does He do it? Verse 9 says, “By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged.” So, God wishes to cultivate fruit in our lives and for that reason He protects us and judges us. He chastens us. Hebrews tells us, “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.” God is not indifferent to His people. He judges us because He loves us.

God roots us. He rooted His people. Verse 6 says, “He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.” So, God wishes to plant us, cultivate us, and prune us.

Ultimately, God gathers. Verse 13 says, “And it shall come to pass in that day that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which are ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the LORD in the holy mount of Jerusalem.” He regathered His people from Syria and Egypt.

God wishes to cultivate His fruit in your life. He does this a variety of ways. Why does He do it? It is so He can produce good fruit in your life. The fruit He produces is good, as He is. Every year we plant a garden in the spring. Weeds come automatically, but fruit does not. Next spring I anticipate I will plow all the growth under again, not because I hate my garden, but because I wish to produce good fruit in the soil that belongs to me. God wishes to do the same to you. I don’t know all that is happening in your life, whether good or bad, mysterious or known, all is a result of the fact that God wishes to cultivate His fruit in your life.

The post God’s Fruit in Your Life first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

I will confess that I did not watch the vice-presidential debate in October. No, I had a pleasant evening and I went to bed a happy person. There are conflicts everywhere. There is war across the globe and battles in businesses, homes, and every institution. So, is peace just ignorance? Is it sticking one’s head in the sand? No, peace is a focus. Ultimately, peace is not a condition around us; it is a condition within us.

Isaiah 26:3-4 says, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength.” “Perfect peace” is literally “peace peace.” This is a wonderful God-given peace for those who keep their minds stayed or leaning on God. So, peace is a mind matter. It is not something around you; it is something within you.

We have all seen a celebrity at some celebration pontificate about world peace when he is on his fifth marriage. If we scaled to the world what he has in marriage, the world would be even worse off now than it is. Someone who doesn’t have peace in his own life should not be lecturing about world peace. Peace is a mind matter. It is not a global matter.

Famously, Philippians 4:8 says we should be thinking about things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, and virtuous. Then it says that if we do this, the peace of God will be with us. It talks about the peace of God and then the God of peace. They go together. So, peace is a mind matter or not a matter at all.

Peace is only as big as its source. Notice the Bible says, “Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength.” There is an equivalence between how long I can trust God and how long He will give peace. The very first verse of this chapter says, “In that day,” referring to the future. It says, “In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah.” There is coming a day when this song will be sung. It was recorded for us thousands of years ago, but it is yet to happen. This passage incorporates the far past and the distant future. So, God’s peace is as broad as God Himself because He is the source of this peace.

God gives peace for problems. Verse 5 says, “For he [God] bringeth down them that dwell on high; the lofty city.” This is a contrast. God’s people were oppressed and there is coming a day when there will be a reversal of fortunes. Verses 13-14 say, “O LORD our God, other lands beside thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name. They are dead, they shall not live.” All the things that trouble and problem us have limited duration. The point is that no matter how long the problem may be in your life, peace is possible. This peace is not an absence of problems; it is the presence of a person. Peace is a mind matter. God will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is leaning on God.

There is peace for work. Verse 12 says, “LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.” So, God gives peace for us because He does His work in us and through us. Someone has said that peace is the possession of adequate resources. I’m not talking about the money you have available right now to do whatever it is you want. I’m talking about the peace and the power that God gives you to have the energy to do the work that needs to be done today. I have peace about my work when I have the power of God to do it. It is God’s world and God’s problems, but I am God’s person and can trust Him.

Whenever I look at Isaiah 26:3, I always think about the man who was my neighbor from 1976 until he went to heaven several years ago. This was one of his favorite verses. This verse would have sustained him in 1942 when he joined the Navy during World War II, in the early 2000s when his wife passed away, and even now it is available to him as he is in the presence of God.

Problems come and go, but God is forever. The peace that is available through Him is transcendent. Peace does not come from outside of you; it is a mind matter. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee.” When peace is on us, then we will be kept in peace, and that is what God intends and wishes for us today.

The post Peace Is a Mind Matter first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

Years ago, we had just finished a service for deaf campers in our Webber Auditorium when someone came running in a little panicked and said, “Dr. Cathy has just fallen.” Dr. Cathy is my grandmother. She lived to be a 101. She was somewhere in her nineties at the time and she had fallen at the bottom of the staircase that drained the Webber Auditorium. I remember rushing out a little scared. Grandmother was seated on the ground at the bottom of the staircase holding her arm which had been injured. As I approached, she looked up and said very calmly, “I think I have broken my arm.” Well, grandmother had a high pain threshold. She had broken her arm and she was very tough about it. Some people break a nail and they panic. Everyone responds differently to pain.

Israel was in pain. Israel was being sieged by the mighty Assyrian army. Israel was in pain, but God was the source. God may have been the source, but sin was the problem, not God and not Assyria. Assyria was merely God’s tool to lovingly chasten Israel to turn back to God. In Isaiah 21 the prophet mourns that Babylon could not check the encroaching Assyrian army. They couldn’t look to Babylon to help. Babylon could not help at this time. The leaders of Israel could not help. In Isaiah 22 the leaders of Jerusalem fled at the siege, but were recaptured. So, instead of returning to God who sent the pain, they built conduits, tried to deprive the enemy of water, leveled homes, built new walls, and took out weapons from the armory. They tried to do everything to ignore the pain. This really was not ignoring the pain; it was ignoring God.

Today, don’t ignore the pain. Have you ever had something that hurts and you ignore it? Instead of getting it fixed, you ignore it and after a while the pain is just wallpaper in your life. Everything is recalibrated to account for that pain. Instead of making it right, you change what you are doing, not in a productive way, but to put up with the pain.

Isaiah 22:8 says, “And he discovered the covering of Judah, and thou didst look in that day to the armour of the house of the forest.” Verse 11 says, “Ye made also a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool: but ye have not looked unto the maker thereof, neither had respect for him that fashioned it long ago.” It is saying, “You are ignoring God and responding to the pain by redoubling your efforts to trust yourself.”

Verse 12 says, “And in that day did the Lord GOD of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth.” The point wasn’t the pain, but a return to God. Verse 13 says, “And behold joy and gladness.” God had sent punishment so they would stop what they were doing, think about it, and return to God. Verse 14 says, “And it was revealed in mine ears by the LORD of hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.” God was not intending that they die. The point is they never responded to God’s judgment. They would just die in their sin. They were stubborn and ignored it.

Not all pain is from God. So, what do you do if you have trouble but are not sure if it is God or not? Do you worry? Do you know whether trouble is of God because of emotion or some subjective thing you interpret? No. The answer is in what God has said, His Word. Verse 15 is an example, “Thus saith the LORD God of hosts.” God was leading the army that was threatening Israel, not for their destruction, but for their restoration. God’s Word is how we know God loves us and chastens His own, that He is lovingly bringing us back to Himself.

Years ago, I had a horse named Note, a little paint. I tried to teach her how to respond to leg reining, where you didn’t have to use your hands, no reins. The way I did this was by using leg pressure. Note ignored me for the longest time. She didn’t pay attention to the leg pressure. Then one day I noticed she was irritated with something on a trail ride with a camper. She would swish her tail and stomp her back hoof as if she was trying to get rid of a horsefly, but there was no horsefly. I realized she was irritated. I then realized that every time I applied pressure with my knee, she would swish her tail and stomp with that back hoof. Finally, she acknowledged the pressure. Within two days, she had learned to respond to leg pressure without reins. So, she had ignored the pressure, then acknowledged the pressure, then she responded to the pressure in a positive way that allowed her to go in the right direction.

God does not wish to send pain; God wishes to send direction and joy in your life and mine. So, don’t worry; don’t panic, but don’t ignore the pain because pain isn’t the point. The point is a return to God, and we know what that is by looking at God’s Word.

The post Don’t Ignore the Pain first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

We are living in a day consumed with polls, what people think, what people are going to do, and who is ascending to power. Right now, everyone is obsessed with what the polls say about the Presidential election, and they want to know what the polls actually mean. People want to know who will be the last one standing and what to do in such a case. We are always thinking about the man in the arena, the last man standing.

That is what Isaiah 17 and 18 are largely about, a jumble of nations striving for supremacy to be the last one standing. You have Syria, Assyria, and the Southern and Northern kingdoms of Israel. They were all striving for supremacy and trying to decide, kind of like a moistened finger to the wind, who is going to win and in whom should they invest and trust. Those are questions we have today. How should I invest my loyalty. Whom should I trust? When should I choose sides?

As you look at Isaiah 17 you find a few curious things. First, Syria was no better as to her prospects than was Israel. Israel was seeking the help of Syria. Syria at that moment was a greater kingdom and military power, so Israel thought, “This is where our safety and strength lie.” They ignored Jehovah and thought Syria was sufficient. Yet, Isaiah 17:1 says, “The burden of Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.” Ancient Damascus means nothing to us in present day, but in that time to think of this place of power becoming nothing but a heap would have been shocking.

Verse 3 says, “The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim.” Ephraim is proxy for the power of Israel. Then it says that because they are depending on Syria, they are going to be in trouble as well because Syria is no better as to her prospects than Israel. It says that “Jacob shall be made thin” and that their harvest would wither.

Second, you see that Israel was acting no holier than Syria. Israel is and was God’s set apart people, but as to their actions they were acting profane like all the other kingdoms striving for supremacy. Verses 10-11 give us the reason, “Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength, therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants…but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.” So, Syria was no stronger than Israel and Israel was no holier as to her actions than was Syria.

Third, Assyria, the ascending power, would ultimately be no stronger than all of the victims she took. Chapter 18 is about Cush, which is part of modern-day Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia. No one even thinks about Cush anymore because it is gone, and Assyria was going to be the same way. Verse 12 says, “Woe to the multitude of many people…that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!” But verse 14 says, “And behold at eveningtide trouble; and before the morning he [Assyria] is not.” Very specifically, Isaiah 37 tells the story of the mighty army of Assyria that came up against God’s people and was literally destroyed overnight by the angel of the Lord. It was supernatural, God’s A-bomb on the arrogant Assyrians. Verse 14 says, “This is the portion of them that spoil us and the lot of them that rob us.”

So, Syria, no better than Israel. Israel was no holier than Syria as to her actions. Assyria was no stronger than any of her victims in the big picture. At the end of the day, both in Isaiah’s day, in our day, and in the days to come, God will be the last one standing. It is easy to go to the store, work, or school and think, “How can I hedge my bets? Who should I get in good with? Where should I invest? When should I switch my loyalties?” Friend, God will be the last one standing. That has been true and it will be true.

So, God’s people should be the first to regard Him. Verse 7 says, “At that day [when the trouble comes] shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel.” God is holy and so should His people be. Verse 8 says, “And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall respect that which his fingers have made, either the groves, or the images.” So, when trouble comes, I ought to be looking to God, and I ought to be looking to God right now. Get in early on what God is doing because He will be the last one standing. Sometimes when we find trouble, instead of turning to the God who rules, shapes, and works in our lives, we turn to other sources for strength and wisdom like friends, media, or social media, but God’s people should be the very first to regard Him.

Years ago, I was trying to catch a mare in a one-acre lot. When I took the lead up to snatch her, she took off running and placed herself in the corner of a fence on the far end of the pasture with both her hind legs aimed at me. I’m not brilliant, but I knew better to go into that little slot canyon. I couldn’t really approach her from the sides because she was in a tight corner. My boss saw my trouble and instead of trying to approach her, he twirled the rope around his head yelled, “Get up there,” and she took off running. For the next fifteen minutes he kept her running. She would trot to one end of the field; we would run a bit to catch her, and he started the commotion again. We ran her legs off until she was exhausted. Finally, she went back to the corner, but instead of turning her hind legs to kick us, she turned her head. That was body language that meant a lot.

We gave that horse the run around and she gave us the head. That is what God’s people should do with God. When you feel like you have exhausted yourself on your own way, don’t turn to other sources for strength. Turn to the God who made you because God’s people should always be the first to regard Him.

The post The First to Regard Him first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

I admit to having a soft spot for enjoying disaster genre. I don’t know if that is what it is actually called, but these books are basically spook stories for people who like to backpack or get into the great outdoors. Into Thin Air is about disaster on Mount Everest. The Perfect Storm is about disaster on the sea. Death in the Canyon is about disaster in the Grand Canyon. Touching the Void is about disaster abroad. Into the Wild is about disaster in Alaska. There are all kinds of stories of people who survived, and in some cases people who did not, just absolute disaster.

Isaiah 15 and 16 are all about disaster for the Moabites. Let me give you some highlights of the disaster that is prophesied on Moab by Isaiah. Isaiah 15 says things like “laid waste,” “brought to silence,” “baldness,” “every beard cut off,” “sackcloth,” “howl,” “weeping abundantly,” cry out,” “life shall be grievous,” “cry of destruction,” “desolate,” “withered,” and “blood.” Doesn’t that sound like cheery reading for a weekday morning? That is just chapter 15.

If you go to chapter 16, there is more of the same: “howl,” “mourn,” “stricken,” “weeping,” “thy summer fruits and thy harvest is fallen,” “gladness is taken away,” “no singing,” and “very weary on the high place.” There is disaster on every turn, and the disaster, though it was carried out by the Assyrian army in the future as Isaiah prophesied it, was really the result of God’s judgment on these people of Moab.

The irony is that they were fleeing the wrath, but were ignoring the God who sent the wrath. The thing that is so ironic is that this entire nation was descended from Lot and his daughter. It is a sordid, incestuous story. We often hear that Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom and that Lot went the wrong way. I don’t contest any of that, but the main problem with Lot was not that Lot was in Sodom. Lot’s problem was that Sodom was in Lot. What happened? Lot and his family fled the judgment of God on the city of Sodom but found destruction in a cave after he had fled. Then, generations later the people of the nation that he founded are fleeing the judgment of God again, but are ignoring God just as Lot did. Pride ignores the problem. Pride is fleeing wrath but ignoring or avoiding God.

Isaiah 16:6 says, “We have heard of the pride of Moab; he is very proud: even of his haughtiness, and his pride, and his wrath: but his lies shall not be so.” Moab is notorious for his pride. You find this later on in Isaiah as well. The bottom line is that you cannot solve a problem if you don’t know what the problem is. So many people are trying to flee their problems but are taking their problems with them because their problems are inside. If you don’t change your thinking, you just take your problems with you.

Here is Lot fleeing Sodom and taking Sodom with him. Here is Moab fleeing the wrath of the Assyrians and never turning to God. It says it this way in verse 12, “And it shall come to pass, when it is seen that Moab is weary on the high place, that he shall come to his sanctuary to pray; but he shall not prevail.” Moab would continue to seek the gods who had given nothing. God, in Isaiah 16:1 encouraged them to go to Israel because Israel had Jehovah. Now, Israel had their own problems and had turned their back on Jehovah as well, but the prophet said to send tribute to Israel and turn back to God. Moab did not do that. Pride ignores the problem. Many times, I see a problem and it doesn’t occur to me that the problem is internal; it is me. It is the way I am responding to things. All of us face difficulty, but we don’t need the kind of problems that come from rebellion against God or ignoring God.

So, think about two things. First, acknowledge the problem. Acknowledge the issue and ask God to give you guidance and humility of mind to know what the issue is from. Is it internal? Is the greatest enemy within? So many times we are fighting enemies without when the real enemies are the desires, ambitions, and pride that is within. So, acknowledge the problem. That is what God was trying to do with His own people, to try to get them to acknowledge the issues.

Second, acknowledge the answer. The answer is not gods that we ourselves can make. Any god I can make is unworthy of the name. People make gods; God made us. Things go awry when we try to make our gods instead of living in submission to the Creator who made us.

Today, I don’t know what you face. I know there is a God in heaven and that He is a judge and also a God of mercy. Much of that depends on our pride, our response to our lives. Pride ignores the problem. Today, acknowledge the problem and acknowledge the answer.

The post Pride Ignores the Problem first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

What did you do yesterday? Did you get anything done? Was it work of value? Maybe that kind of thinking, reasoning, and questioning makes you feel a little discouraged like, “I don’t know what I did.” Or may you know precisely what you did, what came of it, and why it was significant.

Was God at work yesterday? What did God do? Maybe you can look back and say to yourself, “Wow, that was God” or maybe you are not sure what God is doing. In either case, does ignorance or the lack of meaning mean that it is meaningless?” That is to say, just because I don’t fully know the value of the work I did and I don’t even know what God did at all, does that mean God didn’t work, I didn’t work, and that the work we did do is meaningless?

Ecclesiastes 8:17 and 9:1 both talk about work, our work and God’s, and how they interrelate. Ecclesiastes 8:17 says, “Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea farther; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.” God’s ways are beyond ours. It is hard to comprehend what God is doing and the significance of it. So, I can’t comprehend God’s work, it is beyond me.

Ecclesiastes 9:1, the next verse, talks about my work, “For all this [ignorance about the work of God] I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them.” No one can discern by what you have at hand what is going to come after. In short, what these two verses are saying is that on the one hand, I can’t comprehend God’s work and on the other hand, God holds my work. The relationship between my work and God’s work is that God is at work but I can’t comprehend it, and I am at work and God is the one who holds that work in His hands. These two truths should inform our work ethic.

There are several elements that should be in any work ethic that is informed by the nature of life and the reality of God. The first element is faith. Sometimes as believers we contrast work and faith. When it comes to salvation, we certainly do this. It is not by our works of righteousness but it is our faith in what Christ has done. So, there is a contrast between work and faith, but in our daily work, the things we are doing and the energy we are expending, there ought to be some faith in that.

There is place in faith for work. Ecclesiastes 9:1 says that their works are in the hand of God. So, there is a place for hope. Verse 4 says, “For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion.” So, if you are alive today, there is hope. You may not always know the significance of your work, but that is where faith comes in. You cannot discount God from the work you are doing today because there is a bigger picture than merely the work you are doing and the energy you are expending. If we realize there is a God, that puts some hope in our work.

The proverb here says that a living dog is better than dead lion. You can look back at all the people who were greatest in their field, whether political, military, science, farming, labor, or whatever, and feel like you may never match them, but the fact is you are better than they are right now because you are going to work today and they are dead. They will not work today. So, there is hope for those who are living today, and faith really comes down to the fact that there is significance beyond today in the work that we do. So, don’t discount God from your work.

The second element is industry. Verse 10 says, “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.” So, there is no might in the grave where you go. Work is in itself noble. I often wonder, “What is the purpose of the work I am doing? I’m pounding nails, sweeping a floor, making decisions, working out problems. What will come of the work I’ve done?” That is fair and good. I don’t want to do pointless work, but there is a sense in which work itself is noble. Toil is sin’s curse, but service is heaven’s blessing. We will be serving in heaven. Work is something that God does. That should inform our work ethic.

Finally, there is pleasure. That may sound crazy, but you find it throughout the book. Verses 7-9 say, “Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works. Let thy garments be always white; and let thy head lack no ointment. Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity; for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun.” So, there is pleasure.

Someone says, “I’d rather rust out than burn out. I understand that. I don’t think there is nobility in being a lazy bum, but what is the difference in the conclusions of burning out and rusting out? There is no difference; either way you are out. So, some relaxation is strategic and important. Recently, I enjoyed Labor Day; I was busy all day long. What did I accomplish? Nothing, but I enjoyed the whole day. I enjoyed the pleasure that God had given.

So, faith, industry, and pleasure are all elements that should inform our work ethic because I cannot comprehend God’s work, but God holds mine.

The post An Informed Work Ethic first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

Proverbs says that foolishness is bound in the heart of a child. All of us have been children. We don’t begin by having a clue about life. We begin with having foolishness bound in our hearts. Life should knock that out of us. I talked to a young friend here at the Ranch who just had a birthday. He said he was getting to be an old man. Well, he is not; he is only in his twenties. I told him, “You are old enough to know what needs to change and young enough to do something about it.” Some people are too old to change anything and some are too young to know they need to. We can gain wisdom in life if we will. We can improve and get better.

Ecclesiastes 7 is all about better. The first eight verses are about things that are better than others. For instance, verse 1 says, “A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one’s birth.” There are a lot of counterintuitive statements like that in the first eight verses. Basically, what he is saying is that you are born with the name your mom gives you, but you die with the name you give yourself. When good or bad things happen in our lives, we should be paying attention, considering them, and learning from life as we go.

When we read later in Ecclesiastes 7, the Bible tells us things to which we are to pay attention and things we are to ignore. The one comes from the other. For instance, verse 13 says, Consider the work of God.” Verse 14 says, “In the day of adversity consider.” In other words, see with the heart. In contrast perhaps, it says in verse 21, “Also, take no heed unto all words that are spoken; lest thou hear thy servant curse thee.” So, God is saying here consider, see, and don’t heed and listen. See; don’t hear.

Our attention is a limited commodity and there is no way you can pay attention to things you should pay attention to if you are absorbing things you should not. Wisdom rewards those who know what to pay attention to. Wisdom is profitable. So, to pay attention to the things that matter means you have to ignore the things that don’t. We live in a noisy world where we have a lot of input coming into our eyes, ears, and heads all the time. Wisdom is knowing what to ignore so we can know that to which we should be paying attention.

First, not all words are profitable. “Also take no heed to all words that are spoken.” The air you breathe right now is filled with words. If you have the right device, you can see and hear them, but sometimes we are so filled with words that don’t profit, that we don’t gain from the words that could profit us. Verse 5 says, “It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools.” There is a time to hear things I don’t want to hear, maybe even things about myself, but there is a difference between hearing things that may be pleasant but may be profitable and hearing things that are unprofitable and also are unpleasant. If we want to hear all the things people are saying about us, it is easier now than ever before because our devices can pick them right out of the air and cram them into our heads, but not all words are profitable.

Second, I waste words or mis-aim them myself. Verse 22 says, “For oftentimes also thine own heart knoweth that thou thyself likewise hast cursed others.” Verse 20 says, “For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.” We all do the same thing. So, if we were to hear the words about ourselves that we sometimes say about others, they would sting. Don’t waste your ears. Spurgeon essentially said, “You can’t stop every tongue, but you can stop your ears when you should.”

So, not all words are profitable. I need to know what to ignore and I need to know what to hear. In the end, God knows and I can and should learn. The Bible tells us that wisdom is good with an inheritance. If I were to inherit a million dollars, it would do me no good if it I didn’t have the good sense to know how to use it. The things that happen in my life should gain for me wisdom and that comes from knowing what to ignore and what to hear.

The post Wisdom Rewards first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

Not too long ago my wife and I went to the house where my she grew up. She lived there pretty much her entire girlhood. Her parents have since moved out to be closer to us and other family. The people who bought the house from her parents are doing a fine job. It is not bad, but it is not quite what it was. My mother and father-in-law are very industrious, tidy, neat, and organized. They made something out of that land. They planted an orchard, a garden, and built some outbuildings. They kept things as tidy as a pin. The family that is there now is a warm, loving family with kids and all the mess that comes with having an active family, which of course is a blessing. What I am saying is that it would be easy to go back to something you put so much time and effort into and think, “Wow, people haven’t kept it up or capitalized on all the care and money that I put into it.”

Proverbs 24:30-31 says, “I went by the field of the slothful…it was all grown over with thorns.” We all know the experience of putting effort and labor into something, then coming back later and finding the person who has come after us has not kept it up to our satisfaction. This is an old problem. In Ecclesiastes 2:18 Solomon says, “Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me.” None of us know who will be after us and how they will take care of the work we’ve done.

Verse 19 says, “And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shewed myself wise under the sun. This is also vanity.” In verse 21 he continues, “For there is a man whose labour is in wisdom, and in knowledge, and in equity: yet to a man that hath not laboured therein shall he leave it for his portion. This also is vanity and a great evil.” So, there is this feeling that you have done all this work, and now what has happened? If you stopped all the work you planned for today, what would happen? Maybe nothing would happen, or maybe it would be disastrous.

Recently on the Ranch we have been having a time with a major hot water heater on one of our residences. We have tried everything. I’m sure we will get it worked out, but if we just dropped that ball today, there would be absolute disaster. So, what would happen if you stopped your work today? It could be disaster.

What if you stopped your work for a long time, for ten years or a hundred years? In a hundred years we may not even need hot water heaters. What I am saying is that the short game and the long game, if you are talking about a hundred years, have a lot in common because the work you do today may be urgent, but in a hundred years it won’t matter. What is eternal is what matters. Now, will work on a hot water heater matter in eternity? Well, it may not matter directly, but it may well be that the things I am doing today, the people I am influencing, will matter.

The only labor that will last is fixed in heaven. Anything that is done here, no matter how good it may be, is not going to last any longer than the earth. Nothing of glass or steel in our great cities will last eons of time. The only thing that has lasted the eons of time seems to be the materials made by God himself, stone and other natural elements that have been built into the pyramids, great temples, and so on. The bottom line is that the only labor that will last is fixed in heaven.

So, I have two suggestions. First, just enjoy the here and now that God has given you. I Timothy 6:17 says that we are not to be absorbed by money, the love of money is the root of all evil, but he says, “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God.” Uncertain is riches; living is God. It continues, “Who giveth us richly all things to enjoy.”

So, I don’t live for things, but I ought to enjoy the things that God gives me. Ecclesiastes 2:24 says, “There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God.” When the Bible says that God has given us richly all things to enjoy, it goes on to say, “Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.” Literally it says, “That they may lay hold on the life that is real.” So, enjoy the here and now, but include eternity and heaven into your day by including God.

Second, work beyond the here and now. You follow your predecessor, but your work will follow you. Revelation 14:13 says, “And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.” So, when I am resting in heaven, my work on this earth will follow me if it is significant at all.

You may not see any eternal consequence in pounding a nail, punching a keyboard, or talking to a child. There may not be direct, intrinsic value to that thing, but that thing may connect to things that are vital. So, does the hot water heater at the Ranch matter in eternity? To some extent yes, because it helps us do the work that we are doing to get out the gospel on the Bill Rice Ranch. Maybe your work is not gospel-oriented, but you can be gospel-oriented.

Connect what you are doing to the bigger picture. C. T. Studd wrote, “Only one life, ‘twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last.” Whether you are a butcher, baker, or candlestick maker, whether you are in ministry or secular work, make your life count by doing things along with your duties that will have significance into eternity because whether people see those, big or small, whether your work lasts five years after you are dead or not, what will last forever is the work of eternal consequence, work that includes God in the doing of it.

The post The Only Labor That Will Last first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

What comes to your mind when you think of Proverbs 31? Maybe you haven’t thought about it or aren’t familiar with it, but it talks about the virtuous woman. She is sometimes called the Proverbs 31 woman. I knew guys back in college learning to be preachers who were not warmly received when they preached a sermon about this to the girls’ Sunday School class. Why is that? What should be think about Proverbs 31? What is God trying to communicate? Instead of answering that question, let me ask you a few questions and perhaps this will help us think about Proverbs 31 as God would have us to think about it.

First, to whom is this speaking? The Bible talks about the virtuous woman and so there is immediate application to any lady. This has been given by God and the help is specifically for such a lady. So, this is speaking to ladies. However, there is a sense in which God can’t win for losing sometimes because on the one hand, it is easy to kind of resent being compared to the perfect woman, the Proverbs 31 woman, and on the other hand, we think about all the Scripture directly addressed to men that make us think, “Hey, what about ladies?”

For instance, Psalm 1 says, “Blessed is the man.” This is a male. There is a message about blessing and cursing. Is that a passage we preach only to men? Is this only addressed to men? I think it is not. Traditionally when you are talking generically about an unnamed person in the English language, he is referred to as his, he, or him, although this seems to be changing. So, to whom is Proverbs 31 speaking? I would say it is speaking to me and you. Is it specifically talking to ladies? Yes, but it is also speaking to all of us.

Second, who is speaking this? Obviously, God is. If I were to ask this, you might answer that it is Lemuel the king. Someone else may say it is Lemuel’s mother. Verse 1 says, “The words of king Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him.” As you look at the first nine verses, it is King Lemuel speaking, but it is his mother who is speaking through him. She is speaking from the grave, ruling with her character even after she is gone and her son is king. So, this is a mother speaking through a king, and in verse 10 and on it is a king speaking of his mother.

For instance, verse 20 says, “She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.” This is what the king is saying about the virtuous woman. What he is saying is exactly what his mom told him that he should do. Verse 9 says, “Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.” So, God is speaking these words, but it is also a mother through a king and a king about his mother.

The most important question is, “Who should heed this?” The answer is me and you. You might say, “I’m not a woman.” It is still for you. You might say, “I’m a woman, but I’m not married.” It is still for you. All these things are specifically for ladies, but are all generally things that should be true of all of us. Whether we are talking about industry, compassion, or planning ahead, these are qualities that are good regardless of our position, place, gender, or whatever.

First Timothy 3 gives us the qualifications of a pastor and a deacon. You may not be a pastor or deacon, but all of those qualifications should be true of you and me. If you are not qualified to be a deacon, you probably aren’t living a life that would honor God and help the people around you anyway. I will say perhaps the people who can most influentially apply Proverbs 31 are ladies. It is very interesting that in verse 3 it says, “Give not thy strength unto women.” The mom is speaking here to the king. Even a king can be guided by his mother and ruined by his own vices.

The best way to blunt to truth is to caricature it. For instance, someone says, “People just want ladies to be barefoot, expecting, and in the kitchen all day.” That is wicked and wrong, and is devised to shy us away from what the Bible really does say. We are running from things we ought not run from. I’m not going to run from Proverbs 31. We ought all live it, and specifically it should be a help and encouragement to good ladies everywhere. Is anyone perfect? No, but everyone can be animated by the one who is. That one is God. So, worry less about impressing everyone else and worry more about influencing others with the overflow of your life.

The post Three Questions first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

Vanity, vexation, and meaninglessness, those are the apparent meaning of Ecclesiastes. It makes sense that the book of Ecclesiastes would be so iconic in modern culture, particularly in American culture. Voltaire cited Ecclesiastes because it speaks to the meaningless of life. There is a caveat to that to which we will come back. Ernest Hemingway took the title of his book The Sun Also Rises from Ecclesiastes.

The question that Ecclesiastes seems to bring up is the bottomless kid question. A mom says to her child, “You need to go do your homework.” The child responds, “Why?” She says, “Because you are going to school tomorrow.” The child responds, “Why?” She says, “So you can get smart.” The child responds, “Why?” Mom says, “So, you can get a job.” The child responds, “Why?” Mom says, “So, you won’t starve to death.” The child says, “Why?” Now, maybe we don’t go all the way to the end there, but here is a kid who starves to death at a young age and a person who lives to be ninety, but they both die. Without being cold or callous, the question that Solomon seems to raise here is, “Why? Why go through all this? What is the point?”

People can endure almost anything if they are given purpose. If they have a reason, if they have a substantive why at the beginning and end of their life. Viktor Frankel suffered at the hands of the Nazis in World War II. After his time in a prison camp, he wrote Man’s Search for Meaning in which he proposes there are three ways people can find purpose. Do you have purpose and is Frankel right? Where does your purpose end and where does your why lead you? There are three reasons people come up with to answer why they do what they do.

One reason is just hedonism, which is just a fancy name for the idea that pleasure is virtuous in and of itself. Another reason is duty. People think that duty itself is the purpose. During the Crimean War on October 25, 1854, 627 British dragoons charged 25,000 Russians. It was a great mishap and was later immortalized in the poem “Charge of the Light Brigade.” One line from that poem reads, “Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die.” Duty is the purpose for some people, but where does that lead you? Third, people find purpose in religion. It is amazing how much religion there is in Hollywood. They may reject Christ, but people go to Buddhism and a number of other religions because people are intrinsically spiritual beings. The thing that hedonism, duty, and religion all have in common is that all end with you. So, you will go as far as your purpose or why takes you.

Ecclesiastes 1 says, “The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king of Jerusalem.” Solomon had tried everything, wisdom, wine, pleasure, purpose of various kinds, and he says, “Vanity of vanities; all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?” Verse 7 says, “The sea is not full.” Verse 8 says, “The eye is not satisfied.” Verse 9 says, “There is no new thing.” Verse 11 reminds us that “there is no remembrance of former things.” So, how far will your purpose, aim, and why take you? Will it take you to heaven? How high is your why? That is an important question to ask yourself.

Your life will be as full as your why. Verse 7 says, “All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.” There is an endless water cycle that goes on and on.” Jesus said in John 10:10, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” God is not a cog in your success in ministry or secular business. God is your success. Your life will be as full as your why. The oceans never get over full. There is just an endless cycle. There has to be more than just graduation, getting a job, retiring, doing well, and then dying. Your life will be as full as your why.

Your life will be as satisfied and as satisfying as your why. Verse 8 says, “All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.” We go through life kind of like a gerbil on a wheel and we get nowhere. The work we do is unutterable; it is more than we have time to tell, yet we are not satisfied. There used to be this SkyMall catalog on commercial flights that was full of things you didn’t know you needed until you saw the picture of them in the catalog. You can buy those things, but things are not going to satisfy. That is not a transcendent why or reason.

Your life will be as fresh as your why. Verse 9 says, “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” New is for newbies, which is to say, sometimes people think, “I want the latest greatest thing.” There is no latest, greatest thing. It is just a newer version of what has always been. I think about the clothing my children think is hip. It is essentially what I was wearing years ago. There is nothing new under the sun. Socialists think they will be the first one in history to make a socialism that actually works because the smart people just haven’t tried hard enough at the right time, yet verse 15 says, “That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.” There are more problems than we can number and there is no one who can make it straight.

The bottom line is that if there is no God, there is no meaning. Psalm 16:11 says, “Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” If you want to know the sum and substance of the book, Ecclesiastes 12 brings us to all of the things Solomon tried for fullness, satisfaction, and novelty, yet in Ecclesiastes 12:13 he says, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.”

Today, don’t cut God out of your life. God has given us richly all things to enjoy, but ultimately you will go as far as your why, your purpose and reason takes you. The greatest purpose in life is God Himself and that which He gives to you.

The post Where Will Your Why Take You? first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

How virtuous are you? How strong are you? It is difficult for any of us to judge this about self because we are not as good or strong as we think we are. That is the phrase that came to my mind as I read Proverbs 30. For instance, maybe you can run like a jackrabbit, but think about what happened the moment you had Covid. Doubtless there is someone who says, “I ran through the mountains the third day I had Covid.” Well, good for you if you survived, but the truth is that it takes very little physically to take our strength and make it almost nothing. It is the same with virtue. It is very easy to serve when I am appreciated. I love when people say, “Wil Rice, what a servant of the Lord,” but when they actually start to treat me like a servant, I don’t like that. So, we are not really as good or strong as we think we are.

Proverbs 30:8 says, “Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches: feed me with food convenient for me.” Verse 9 says, “Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.” Someone has said, “We attribute our virtues to our own character and we attribute our weaknesses to an upset stomach.” That just goes to show how fragile our virtue and strength are.

I am thinking of the father of some friends I had. He lived with pain a good half of his life. I don’t think I ever realized what good humor he was in considering the pain he endured. Some years ago, when I had slight back and muscle pain that persisted for a month or so, my wife said, “You are not as patient as you used to be.” She was right. I wasn’t my normal self. That is because we attribute our virtues to our character. The moment we don’t have some virtue we say, “I don’t feel well.” This was the devil’s accusation of Job to God. The devil essentially said, “Of course Job loves you. Look how good You have been to Job. Just remove Your hand from Job and he will curse You to Your face.”

All that to say, and this hurts me to realize, but I am not as good or strong as I think I am. So, think about two things. First, you need God for daily bread. The proverb says, “Give me, feed me, not too much but not too little. Give me the food needful for every day.” Jesus said we are to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” yet as Americans we are living in such prosperity that we have food out of season, from abroad, and at any time we want it. Most of us have never prayed for food or that God would keep us from starving because we don’t need to. That is the problem because the primary need is not bread; it is God. It is not the gift; it is the Giver. We need God for daily bread.

Second, we need God for good, meaning there is no good apart from God. Against what would you measure good or bad if there is no absolute standard, no God? Someone says, “I’m a nice guy if you are decent to me.” Wow! What character and amazing virtue you have! I’m being sarcastic because anyone can be kind and gentle when they are treated well. The truth is I am good when I don’t need to be bad. I think all of us are. The bottom line is that I need to seek God first. I need God every day of my life both for my physical needs and for the virtues I want to see in my life both for daily bread and for good. The psalmist says, “Give me not too much, nor give me too little. If I have too much, then I will brag.” Israel did this. God warned them about going into the land of Canaan, being proud because they were full, and not realizing that God had given them all of it.

The prayer is don’t let me be so poor that I steal. This is a legitimate prayer. I actually prayed that this morning, to not be too rich or too poor, to trust God for everything. Now, being too rich is not a problem I see on my horizon, but compared to the vast majority of people in this world I am rich and blessed beyond measure. If I am not careful, I can become independent and think I am all that. When days are bad, I can have a lack of character that does not reflect the Lord Jesus and the God who made me. I am not as good as I want to be. I need God for bread; I need God for good; and I need to seek God first today.

The post Not as Good as You Think first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

There was a program when I was a child called Wild Kingdom. I don’t remember much of it, but I do remember that par for the course was images and film of lions stalking through the tall grass and eventually taking down a gazelle. Did the lions always catch the prey? No, but I noticed the lions were always the ones charging and the gazelles were always the ones fleeing. I have never seen a lion flee in my life. They are running to, not running from. Someone says, “Yeah, but I saw a video of a water buffalo charging a lion.” Well, the buffalo didn’t eat the lion when he got him. A water buffalo has eyes on the sides of his head; he is prey. He must be aware of the danger. A lion’s eyes are in the front of his head. He is focused on what he is going to eat.

Proverbs 28:1 says, “The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.” In Leviticus 26:17, speaking of disobedience to Jehovah, God says, “And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you.” Again, in verse 36 God says, “And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them: and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth.” Here is a picture of those who are far from God. They are disturbed by even a leaf rattling in the distance.

In contrast, the righteous are bold as lions. Boldness is confidence in the truth. When I say confidence, which is what boldness means, it is con-, meaning with, with “fidence” meaning trust. Boldness is “with trust in the truth.” Boldness is confidence in the truth, not confidence in a crowd. Most of us know intrinsically the boldness a mob can have. A mob is different than a person; it has its own personality. Most people have confidence in a crowd, but a lot of times when that crowd evaporates, they have nothing. So, boldness is confidence in the truth.

There is a difference between shame and guilt. Shame is determined by the culture. If someone steps out of line, is not politically correct for example, they are shamed. That is not the same as saying you are wrong; it simply means you are shamed because the majority is telling you that you are not keeping up with the social constructs of the day. That is different than guilt, which is a matter of conscience, meaning “with knowledge.” It is not just someone who has a timid disposition, always looks inside themselves, or worries. We are talking about someone who has a guilt based on what they know, their conscience.

When the Bible says that the righteous are bold as lions, it is not talking about being free from shame, but being free from guilt. Guilt is right or wrong based upon a fixed standard, based upon a person, God. Shame is social pressure that comes to bear when you don’t bow to the dictates of the day. Boldness is the confidence in the truth. Bold equals right or righteousness. Right equals a standard. So, is this right and by whose standard?

There are so many things you can worry about today, but worrying about being in the wrong does not have to be one of them. My dad often prays, “Lord, give me the wisdom to know what is right and the courage to do it.” What this verse is saying is that doing right is courage. It simplifies and clarifies your life. It simplifies what you are actually working for. So many times, instead of simply worrying about what is right, what would be the moral thing to do, we worry about how it will affect other people. We should not be oblivious to other people, but doing right is courageous.

Recently I was reading a book about the effects of our phones on our minds. A lot of mental illness comes because of anxiety that is exacerbated by social pressures brought to bear by our cell phones, particularly by social media. We are living in a virtual world where anxiety abounds. He quotes in his book about a God-shaped void in every human heart. That is a paraphrase of something that a Baptist preacher would say and Pascal, a French philosopher, said many years ago. What is ironic is that the author goes on to explain this God-shaped void with evolution. If we are evolving, then our morals are evolving. If our morals are evolving, there is no right or wrong, no boldness or confidence in a truth. There is simply shame when we fail to measure up to the consensus of the day.

Years ago on the Bill Rice Ranch, we used to have a lion. My grandfather bought a lion at a gas stop which also had a zoo near El Paso, Texas. We actually kept this lion, Noel, here on the Bill Rice Ranch. It will not surprise you that eventually we gave Noel away to the Memphis Zoo. Why? It was because our neighbor’s chickens were coming up missing and all the horses got really nervous because there was a lion on the loose. I’ve never seen a horse or a chicken chase a lion. Even if a water buffalo chased a lion, it wouldn’t eat the lion because that is not the way it works. The way it works is lions are bold. You can be bold today because boldness is confidence, not in the crowd, but in the truth.

The post Boldness Is Confidence in the Truth first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

Years ago, when my youngest was maybe six years old, we were at our home church where there were several ladies in the church who were expecting babies at any moment. So, the pastor said, “Pray for these ladies who are expecting.” My little guy looked up at his mother and said, “What are they expecting?” He didn’t know. A lot of us don’t know what we are expecting, don’t know what to expect, or think we expect nothing. The fact of the matter is that all of us are doing things now by which we should have some expectation.

Proverbs 23:17-18 says, “Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long. For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.” Everybody is expecting something. What are you expecting? Expectation comes from a word that means cord. In other words, it is something to which you are tied. If I have a rope and it is down in a well, I expect to draw up water. That is what I tied into. If I have a long line that is in the water and all of a sudden my fishing pole bends over double and I am fighting this fishing line, I know what to expect. I expect a fish to be on the end of that line. If I go into an old church and there is a rope hanging down from the belfry, I know that if I tug on that rope, I am going to ring a bell because I am tied to that bell.

What are you tugging on? What is on the end of that rope? Being naïve is not expecting an end to what you have begun. “Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long. For surely there is an end.” There is an end to every beginning. Whom do you envy? More importantly, why do you envy them? We are told here, “Let not thine heart envy sinners…for surely there is an end.” The point is you will get what you are tugging on. There is an end and expectation shall not be cut off.

This is something you find throughout the Word of God and Proverbs most specifically. Proverbs 10:28 says, “The hope of the righteous shall be gladness: but the expectation of the wicked shall perish.” Proverbs 11:7 says, “When a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish: and the hope of unjust men perisheth.” Verse 23 says, “The desire of the righteous is only good: but the expectation of the wicked is wrath.”

So, to what are you tied today? What are you tugging on today? What should you expect? There is an end to every beginning, an end to every action. You will get what you are tugging on. Let me give you two examples from this proverb. One is wisdom. Proverbs 24:14 says, “So shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto thy soul: when thou hast found it, then there shall be a reward, and thy expectation shall not be cut off.” Your cord will not be cut off if you are seeking wisdom from the Word of God and the godly people God has given you. You can be encouraged. You are tugging on wisdom.

You are going to get what you tug on whether a bell on a rope, a bucket in a well, or a fish on a line. What are you tied to? In this case the Bible says that when you are tugging on wisdom, that expectation will not be cut off. You may have a bad day or things that discourage you. You may not be as wise as you wish yourself to be, but if you have an open mind to the Word of God and you are hard-hearted about that, then you will gain wisdom.

Wine is another example of getting what you tug on. Proverbs 23:29-30 says, “Who hath woe?  who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babblings? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.” There is a commentary on this, and then verse 32 says, “At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.” There is an end. Someone says, “I’m not going to get drunk. I just want a drink.” Well, drunk is simply the past tense of drink. You are never going to get drunk if you never drink. The two go together.

So, whether wisdom, wine, or some other aspect of your life, you are going to get what you are tugging on. It is naïve not to expect an end to what you are beginning. May God help us to tug on the right things and have hope and expectation because we do.

The post You Will Get What You Are Tugging On first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

What would you do if there were a lion roaming the streets outside your house? The conventional wisdom when faced with a threat these days is run, hide, or fight and in that order. If you were confronted with such a situation, it might tell you a bit about yourself. Would you run, hide, or fight? What would you do? If there was a lion outside the door, some people would immediately hide. Others would try to outrun the beast if they were already outside. Other people would grab their rifle, go out and shoot it, and then mount it on their wall the next day. Now, this may be a fun exaggeration, but all of us see something of ourselves by how we respond to such a danger.

In Proverbs 22:13 it says, “The slothful man saith, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets.” This is a weird thing for even a slothful person to be saying. It is kind of melodramatic. Essentially what is happening is that a slothful man is saying, “I can’t go to work. There is a lion outside so I must stay on my bed in front of my TV because if I go outside, I will inevitably be eaten.” What is this all about? What is very clear is who we are talking about. We are talking about the slothful person.

I saw a shirt recently that said, “Sloth Race Team.” Of course, it was a joke and it had a picture of a sloth. I don’t know much about sloths, but a sloth is not exactly overactive or inactive. It is slow; it appears lazy. So, we know who the person in this passage is and we know what he says. What he says is an excuse. What kind of excuse is it? The excuse he has is one of the inevitable; a kind of fatalism where there is a lion outside so it is out of my hands.

There are two types of people. One type feels like they are responsible for everyone and everything all the time. They are frenetic, hurried, and worried about things they cannot control. On the other side of the road in the other ditch are those people who do nothing because they say, “Hey, if it is going to happen, it’s going to happen” or “It’s not my responsibility” or “There’s nothing I can do.” I’m not saying these statements are intrinsically wrong, but these are all statements of a person who is avoiding responsibility.

On the one hand, you have people who do nothing and on the other you have people who feel responsible for everything. In the middle you have what we probably should be doing. Something is not inevitable if you have some form of responsibility. That kind of fatalism, the idea that everything is inevitable, is just lazy.  Sometimes, it can even be cowardly. The slothful man saith, “There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets. I can’t do what has to be done because if I do that, there is a lion out there and I’ll be eaten.”

So, what should you do? Shoot the lion? Run from the lion? Hide from the lion? There are two things I would say. First, work like it all depends on you; pray like it all depends on God. That is a familiar saying, but it is true. Proverbs 21:31 says it better, “The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD.” So, God is in control of everything and I can rely and rest in His power and sovereignty. But that doesn’t mean I don’t prepare what needs to be prepared, don’t do what I should do, and don’t take responsibility where I will be held accountable. Trusting God with all your might does not mean serving Him with half your strength. Work like it all depends on you; pray like it all depends on God. Fatalism is lazy. Accepting everything as inevitable is lazy; it is even cowardly. We have been put on this earth to trust God and take action.

Second, stick with it. Proverbs 22:29 says, “Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean [common] men.” Maybe no one recognizes your position or you don’t have a position. Maybe no one rewards you for what you do, but there is a God in heaven who is sovereign, in control, and knows all. So, stick with the things you should be sticking with. You can’t do everything, but you should do some things. You can do something and trust God with the results.

In 1964 Ronald Reagan spoke a number of times on behalf of the Republican candidate Barry Goldwater, who of course lost. In one speech he said, “We have a rendezvous with destiny,” echoing the words of Franklin Roosevelt from years before. Was he talking about mere fate, fatalism, there’s nothing we can do, it’s not my responsibility? No, the speech was entitled “A Time for Choosing.” As I recall, he basically said, “We have a choice which spells duty.” Sometimes there are things in life that may be stronger or bigger than you; you must trust God and do what you should. God will do what you can’t when you do what you should. God is not going to do what you should, and you can’t do what God can. So, do what you should and God will do what you can’t.

It may occur to you, “How do I know when I should be trusting God and when I should be taking action?” These are not competitive things; they must harmonize. That is why we have to come back to the main theme in Proverbs: wisdom, specifically discernment, recognizing the differences between things that appear the same but are not. You cannot do what you should do and trust God as you should if you don’t have the wisdom that only God can give.

Friend, every day we need wisdom to know what to worry about and what not to worry about. It is all in God’s hands, but God gives us some problems that spell responsibility. Don’t sit on the couch and say, “There is a lion outside.” There are things we should pay attention to, but fatalism is lazy. Trusting God is not a cessation of work; it means trusting God as you work.

The post Fatalism Is Lazy first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

Proverbs is largely a book of contrasts. You cannot know what is right until you know what is wrong. In fact, Proverbs 19:1-3 gives us a number of contrasts. Verse 1 talks about better. Verse 2 talks about good. Verse 3 talks about perverteth, which means deviates from a certain way. So, without some contrasts you cannot gauge value, good and better, better and best, the way and the way which deviates from the way.

Proverbs 20:6 says, “Most man will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a faithful man who can find?” You find a contrast here, the contrast between what we merely proclaim and what we demonstrate by our actions. About a week ago I was at a rodeo out west, and there were cowboy hats all over the stands. Everyone was wearing cowboy hats. Now, was everyone in those stands a cowboy? I’m guessing not. I did notice that down past the stands in this little rodeo arena was a large-boned Belgian Bronc, and on it was a guy flopping around, trying to hold on for dear life. That guy was a cowboy. Those of us in the stands with cowboy hats on were a different story There is a difference between proclaiming something and demonstrating something, implying something and proving something. The question is, “Can people buy what you say?”

Proverbs 20:14 says, “It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer: but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth.” A guy goes to buy something from Facebook marketplace and says, “It’s nothing. It’s nothing. I’ll give you a few dollars for it,” but when he leaves the seller, he boasts and brags. There may be a fine line between trying to promote something you wish to sell or buy and lying about it. Proverbs 19:22 says, “A poor man is better than a liar.”

The point here is that a rich life is one in which people can buy what you say. There is a difference between proclamation and demonstration. When it comes to buying into a candidate for President or other elected offices, the question that Ronald Reagan posed to us long ago remains, “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” It is easy for people to say something; it is not so easy to actually demonstrate something. So, a rich life is one in which people can buy what you say.

Notice the contrasts between proclamation and demonstration, between merely saying and actually doing. Proclamation takes only a mouth; demonstration takes time and patience. Proverbs 22:29 says, “Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean [common] men.” Here is a guy who is working hard. That is a lot harder than speaking a good game, but with patience it will prove itself. Merely proclaiming yourself only takes a mouth; demonstrating something takes time.

Proclamation takes intention; demonstration takes action. A lot of what we say is actually intention. For instance, we say, “I am praying for you.” What we really mean is, “I will pray for you.” It is genuine. We intend it. We feel it. We are going to pray. The other is demonstrable; “I have been praying for you.” One is action, and the other is words. Words are important, but here it is talking about more than words. It is talking about faithfulness and tenacity.

A proclamation costs nothing; a demonstration costs something. So, I can say I am going to do something or I am something and it costs me nothing, but if I am going to prove it, that costs something. One is a statement and the other is an open question. “Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness.” That is a statement. I am good. The other is an open question, “But a faithful man who can find?” That is an open question of consistency.

I think about Joseph who had a dream when he was a young man that one day his brothers would bow to him. He would be in power. His brothers resented that, which I can understand. Many years later, after a pit, a prison, and now a palace as the second-in-command of the known world, Joseph demonstrated what he had dreamed with his life. God gave him that dream and then His providence and provision, but there is a difference between merely having a dream and living a life. A rich life is one in which people can buy what you say.

The post A Rich Life first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

Do good people do bad things? I hope so because I want to think of myself as a good person, but I have done some bad things. That begs the question, “How good am I really?” I think the question really is, “How bad must one be before one does bad things?” In Proverbs 6:12 you have the story of a truly bad and naughty person. It says, “A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth.” Verse 13 says, “He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers.” A good liar and crank doesn’t need words in order to express himself. He uses facial expressions of scorn and the little signals of the hands.

Verse 14 continues, “Frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually; he soweth discord. Therefore his calamity will come suddenly.” Then Proverbs 6:16 says, “These six things doth the LORD hate,” and it describes the very things a naughty person has, “a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood…he that soweth discord among brethren.” These things are abominable to God. Now, this is a truly bad person.

Another bad person in is Proverbs 7:10. Talking about the strange woman, it says, “And, behold, there met him the woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart.” So, she is bad inside and out. It continues, “She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house.” It goes on to talk about how she seduces this young man. She is clearly a bad person. The description you have of her is almost the exact opposite of the woman who personifies wisdom.

Then it talks about the simple son, the naïve son, who ends up being immoral with this wicked woman. So, is the simple son a bad person? No, he is a good person, right? Is the wicked woman a wicked person? Well, obviously that is true. Well, what difference does it make? They are both doing the same thing. Can you tell the difference?

To be sure, rules won’t help the naughty person or the wicked woman because the problem is beyond what they are doing; it is their heart. Having said that, a good heart is not enough to keep you from destruction. Here is a wicked woman who does wicked things. Here is a young man who is not wicked, but he does wicked things. So, what is the deal? The deal is that a good heart, whatever that is, is not enough to keep you from destruction. You need guidelines and parents for that.

Proverbs 7 says, “My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee. Keep my commandments, and live…that they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words.” Notice what the father basically says to the son, “Keep my words that they can keep you.” In other words, the rules you keep will keep you. The commands you keep will keep you. The words you keep will keep you. Attitude is a force multiplier whether it is an attitude of submission or an attitude of rebellion.

Think of Samson and his destruction. He was not destroyed by a woman, although we all think that was his problem. Samson was destroyed by an attitude of rebellion, of stubbornness against his parents. When his parents expressed concern about the woman he was dealing with, he said, “Get her for me for she pleases me.” In other words, “I don’t care what you say, Dad and Mom. I like her; get her for me.” His problem wasn’t fundamentally women; it was his attitude toward the authorities in his life.

Friends, we are all open-minded and close-minded. The question is, “To what are you open and to what are you closed?” What you are open to will tell you what you are closed to and vice versa. Proverbs 7:7 says, “And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding.” Simplemeans naïve, open-minded. I want to be curious and open to the truth, but sometimes we say, “I’m open-minded,” but what we mean is that we are naïve. You think about a freshman at a liberal college who has tried marijuana and alcohol and everything. He is not sheltered. Oh, really? Is he ready for life? Can he put up with people who don’t agree with him? Is he going to melt in the midmorning sun? We are all open to things, and that determines what we are closed to. We are all closed to things, and that determines what we are open to.

So, the Bible is saying here that the words you keep will keep you. If you are a parent, that means you need to be proactive. Teachers, parents, and authorities need to be lovingly proactive. My son may have a good heart, but that is not enough. He needs a dad and mom to give him guidance. You can have a good heart and still get hit by a car; don’t play in the road. That is a parent giving guidance to a child.

What if you are receiving authority? Even parents receive authority. All of us are in the chain of command. If that is the case, be receptive. It is easy to say, “I’ve got a good heart so I don’t need to do what my authorities say because I know what’s right.” Does a simple son know that he is naïve? How could he? That is his very problem. He can’t know what it is that he doesn’t know because he doesn’t know. A naïve person probably doesn’t know they are naïve.

So, I need to have a heart of submission and humility, an open heart to the truth, and a closed mind to that which would pull me from the path of wisdom and righteousness. The words you keep will keep you; the guidance you keep will keep you. Attitude is a force multiplier whether it be in submission or rebellion.

The post Attitude Is a Force Multiplier first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

I’ve got a few questions as we look at Proverbs today. They get progressively harder, although all the questions have answers that are hidden in plain view. In other words, you probably know the answers. If you have read the book of Proverbs, you can easily find them.

First, what is the one word and overarching theme of Proverbs? The answer is wisdom. Proverbs 1:2 says, “To know wisdom,” and from here on we are off to the races about wisdom, whatever it is and however it comes.

Second, from whom does wisdom come and to whom is it given in the first seven chapters of Proverbs? Although God is ultimately the source of wisdom, in the first seven chapters of Proverbs wisdom is given from a father, or parents more generally. Proverbs 1:8 says, “My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother.” Proverbs 2:1 says, “My son…” Proverbs 3:1 says, “My son…” Proverbs 4:1 says, “Hear, ye children.” The first verse of chapters 5, 6, and 7 all say, “My son…” It is directed from a father to a son. That is very obvious.

Third, when a dad and mom give wisdom to offspring, what is this wisdom about? About what are the children warned? There may be a number of answers, but if you look at what follows almost immediately on the heels of the address to “my son,” the primary reason is the strange woman. Proverbs 2:16 says, “To deliver thee from the strange woman.” It is saying, “My son, listen to my words, receive my wisdom.” Why? It is to deliver him from the strange woman. This is found in many other places. Proverbs 6:24 says, “To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.” Proverbs 7:5 says we are to keep the words of father and mother that “they may keep thee from the strange woman.”

So, very specifically in the context of a home and family, specifically father to son, the central danger being addressed is the strange woman. Now, strange does not mean weird. She is defined by her exclusion from the family. She isn’t your wife. She doesn’t belong to you, so she is not part of the family. Then why would this be a central theme of the first several chapters of Proverbs, specifically in the context of a home? It is because this is a central threat to a family. In Proverbs 5:9-11 this becomes very clear. It says, “Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel: lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger; and thou mourn at the last.”

If what is in view here is wisdom generally, the home specifically, and the threat most specifically, then the answer is wisdom about this threat. It could be a man or a woman. It is addressed to a son about the strange woman in particular, but the point is no one outgrows a family. Let me just say that God can bring forgiveness and restoration no matter what is in our past and none of us have families as good as we would like to have, but we can all have the help that God provides if we have humility of mind and obedience of heart. The point is God has provided each generation of every family precisely what it needs to protect and perpetuate that family.

So, in Proverbs 5 in particular, fully one half of the Proverb is addressed to the wisdom of the father or parents, and the second half is addressed to the love of a wife. So, a young man is protected and his family is perpetuated by the wisdom of parents. A married man is protected by the love of a wife.

Verse 15 says, “Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.” This is an analogy, and the rest of the chapter is very direct about the wife of thy youth. What is a wife? She is God’s protection and perpetuation for your family. This is not to say that everyone is supposed to be married. Whatever God wants is what matters, but the point is the love of a wife protects a married man. Your wife might say, “I don’t know if you should watch that” or “Are you going out again?” or “I have a feeling about that woman.” You say, “I am the man of the house!” You may be, but God has given you that wife. You might say, “She is not a wise woman.” Well, you married her so she is God’s means of protection and perpetuation for your home and family. That is important. A man would be foolish to ignore the help that God provides through his wife.

What about women and their husbands? That obviously follows, but God is specifically talking to a young man about his wife. This is applied to wives listening to their husbands. What about someone not yet married? Well, you never outgrow family, government, or church, so whatever your answer to how you are to treat your parents, it may be informed by age, but it has to be primarily informed by something that is not going to change.

So much of what we teach about the way offspring respond to their parents is modern cultural norms. It is subjective and not absolute as are the institutions that God created like the government, home, and church. Are those institutions perfect? No! But the concept of perpetuating the home is something that God has ordained. So, the Bible says, “My son, attend unto my wisdom.” Protection for a young man is not in that he understands everything; it is that he has parents who give him guidance. A young man is protected by the wisdom of a father, not by his own wisdom, and it is to the end that he may develop wisdom for himself.

So, God has provided every generation of each family precisely what it needs to protect and perpetuate that family. For a married man, it is the love of his wife. For an unmarried young man, it is the wisdom of his parents. The question you should consider is, “To what extent are you cooperating with the institutions God has created?” You may have questions, but you have a Bible, a brain, and the Holy Spirit if you are saved. Look at Proverbs 1-7 and think through what God has said. God has given us people and institutions in our lives for a purpose. I need to have a submissive and humble spirit to help me make important what God calls important because God has provided every generation what it needs to protect and perpetuate that home.

The post To Continue the Family first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

“Let him speak for himself.” Sometimes we say such things, but the truth is that no one speaks for themselves. I’m not saying you don’t have a will or a mind or things you like or dislike. I’m simply saying there is nothing new under the sun and most of us are speaking from another source more often than we realize. All of us know the experience of hearing a child say something precocious, strange, or funny and thinking, “Where did he get that?” Everyone knows exactly where the child got that. He got that from his dad or mom. We all rely on the experience or words of others. Proverbs 4 is all about whose experiences you accept, whose wisdom you listen to, and whether you are going to follow truth or falsehood.

Proverbs 4 begins by a father telling his son, “Listen to my words. I was my father’s son. I experienced things. I listened to my dad, and now I am passing this on to you.” Then he talks about words and ways. They go together. In verse 5 he says, “Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.” He is saying, “I’m giving you wisdom. Don’t reject the words of my mouth.”

He follows this up in verse 20 where he says, “My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.” Verse 24 says, “Put away from thee a forward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee.” The orthodox rendering of this is, “Hey, don’t say bad things.” That is probably true. I don’t understand the construction of Hebrew grammar, but it seems to me he is not talking about putting your own lips far from you. Can you do that? Put your lips far from your face? How could you do that? He is saying, “Listen to my words. Don’t listen to forward words.” Whether that is the rendering or not, we will come to the truth in a moment and it is consistent with either rendering.

What about words that lead to ways? Verse 11 says, “I have taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led thee in right paths.” Again, verse 19 says, “The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.” Those who are listening to the truth and accept wisdom are like the dawning of the day. They receive more and more light as they go. In contrast, “The way of the wicked is darkness: they know not at what they stumble.” They don’t know where they are.

Verses 25-27 say, “Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left.” He is saying, “Listen to me; don’t listen to falsehood. Follow my way, the right path.” When he talks about the eye and the path, he is specifically talking about what comes from you. In any event, what comes out of your life depends upon who is speaking into it. All of us are speaking for other people we don’t even source all the time.

Froward lips, don’t hear them and don’t have them. Why do we say this? In the first place, everyone you hear is speaking from a primary source. Now there are those who popularize the primary sources, but they are just quoting them. Take John Wayne the actor. He might say, “Saddle up” or “That’ll be the day.” I hate to burst your bubble, but John Wayne didn’t originate those things. Someone wrote them at a Hollywood studio and John Wayne spoke them. I’m not downing John Wayne, but I’m saying that he was speaking from a source. I once heard a good man say, “Teamwork make the dreamwork,” and he attributed that to Dr. So and So. I happen to know Dr. So and So got that from John Maxwell, and he probably got it from someone else. This is not wrong or bad. Originality is the art of concealing your sources, and it recently occurred to me that that is not hard for me because I don’t even know who all my sources are. I can’t remember.

My point is that everyone you hear is speaking from a primary source. So, consider your words. Put far from you a forward mouth, whether it is your mouth or the mouth you are hearing, and follow the wisdom that God has given to you. Consider your words and ponder your path. That is the whole point. For whom are you speaking? What are you allowing to come into your ears? Whom are you allowing to speaking into your life? What are you living based on what you are accepting? Those are important questions because what comes out of your life depends on who is speaking into it.

The post What Comes Out of Your Life first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

I think all of us admire people who know where to find things of value, although what is valuable may be an object of debate. If you are in Southern Indiana, there are people who know how to find wild mushrooms because they know where to find them. Here on the Bill Rice Ranch, someone may know how to find arrowheads because they know where to find arrowheads. Someone may know how to find money because they know where to find money. All these things pale in significance compared to wisdom. There are those who know how to find wisdom because they know where to find wisdom. You will find wisdom with her companions, her requirements.

Proverbs 3:13 says, “Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.” To be sure, it almost sounds like a pass of almost accidental things. Here is a guy walking along minding his own business when- whap- he bumps into wisdom and falls flat on his face. You don’t find wisdom that way. Finding wisdom is a bit more active. Verse 14 says, “For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her.” There is a comparison here. Wisdom is better than, more than, or compared to.

Verse 16 says, “Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour.” So, longevity, riches, and honor are all things people would want, but these are all secondary to wisdom and sometimes they are the result of wisdom. What I am saying is that God has wisdom; we need wisdom; and you will find wisdom when you know where to find her. You will find her when you search for her with her companions or requirements.

What are those companion requirements? First, wisdom requires a decision. It is a decision, not something you find passively. Proverbs 3:7 says, “Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.” No arrogant person is going to have the wisdom of God. It is a decision, and it is never accidental. James 1 says, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God.” So, I have to know my need before I am going to be willing to ask, and I need to know where to ask. So, wisdom requires a decision; it is never accidental.

Second, wisdom requires a source. Proverbs 2:6 says, “For the LORD giveth wisdom.” Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” So, it is who I know, not what I understand that is most important. I don’t understand everything, but I acknowledge God and He knows everything. Wisdom requires a source; this source is absolute. If I want wisdom, I have to go to the source. That is one of the great things about the book of Proverbs, God’s infinite wisdom has been compressed and edited. It is very actionable.

Third, you will find wisdom when you realize that wisdom requires a contrast. So, these verses say that you find wisdom that is better than the merchandise of silver and more precious than rubies. Many places in Proverbs you find contrasts and comparisons. Proverbs 16 has four such examples. Proverbs 16:8 says, “Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with right.” Verse 16 says, “How much better is it to get wisdom than gold! and to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver!” Verse 19 says, “Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.” Being proud is a dealbreaker for wisdom. Verse 32 says, “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.” The strongest person in the room is the one who can control self.

So, wisdom requires a contrast. I can’t be wise unless that is a contrast to foolishness. There has to be a difference. I can’t be “better” unless there is something that is “worser.” There is no good without comparison. There is no good without a than, a more than, or a better than. Wisdom requires a contrast.

There is a certain kind of wisdom that is important. Discernment is the ability to divide, to cut, to see distinctions where they exist. Don’t pit some ideal you have against the real choices on hand. You want the perfect home, the perfect life, the perfect car, the perfect job, the perfect boss, the perfect whatever. That is not an option. Don’t make yourself miserable by comparing the actual choices you have with an unrealistic ideal. Find out what your real choices are and discern. What is the difference between the two and what is better?

Someone has said that discipline is choosing what you really want instead of what you want right now. Right now, I want a Hershey bar, but what I really want is health. Wisdom itself is a choice and making a decision between two options is a choice.

God reveals His secret to those who submit to Him. Verse 32 says, “His [God’s] secret is with the righteous.” God knows the future. Have you ever made a wrong choice that seemed to be right at the time? Well, knowing what God wants is better than knowing what God knows. If you could know the future, think of how wise you could be. God is the one who is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. You don’t need to be those things if you will just submit to the God who is. God knows what and He can show me what He wants me to do. If I’ll do what God wants me to do, I have the God of the universe behind those decisions.

So, wisdom requires a decision. You have to choose it every day. Wisdom requires an absolute source; that source has to be God. Wisdom requires a contrast; it is compared to something else. You will find wisdom today when you seek for her with her companions and requirements. The place to find wisdom is with the God who tells us that He gives wisdom.

The post You Will Find Wisdom with Her Companions first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

I am running out of people and companies to boycott. Have you ever been enjoying some product and someone rains on your parade?  You’ll go to a restaurant and they will say, “You know who owns this restaurant chain, don’t you?” Or you will drink some coffee and they will say, “You know the political positions of this coffee company, don’t you?” There is certainly a place for saying no.

If a company is so antithetical to what I believe, against God, virtue, and values, then I am not going to bankroll them, but this has become difficult because there is such a mix across the board. I wonder if many companies are good or bad. They are savvy and are playing both ends against the middle. They support a number of causes so they are never caught off guard by the people who end up coming to power.

I have come to a general policy for myself. I don’t patronize those who poke me in the eye. Am I perfectly consistent with whom I patronize and whom I do not? I don’t know that I am, but I am not going to do business with someone who makes me mad for using their product. I’m not going to drink coffee and choke on it because I am so incensed by what the company believes.

Having said that, what does one do? In I Corinthians 5 God talks about not keeping company with fornicators. Verse 10 says, “Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.” In other words, there is nobody perfect, and there are a number of people who do not believe what I believe, maybe in a strong way. Here is a vocalist at Woodstock back in the day. He is clearly godless. But what about some of the composers of Baroque music? Some of them were not too good either. There is the message of the music, that is a big point. But what do you do? Do you just leave the world? One of these days that is exactly what you are going to do, but what do you do until then? Whom do you boycott and whom do you accept?

I think it is important to remember that one of the judgments for ignoring the God who loves you is serving the enemy who hates you. If you look at the Old Testament story of Israel, over and again one of the judgments for Israel’s ignoring God Jehovah was their serving the very gods that hated them. Psalm 149 reminds us of something we should think about, that harmony in life is rejoicing in the God who loves you.

Psalm 149:2 says, “Let Israel rejoice in him that made him.” That is God Jehovah. He is called their king. Verse 4 says, “For the LORD taketh pleasure in his people.” Why would I love and rejoice in a God who hates me, what I believe in, and the things that are dearest to me? Why not love the God who loves me? That is what harmony is. A lot of times there is this dissonance in the back of our minds where we believe one thing, but we are amused, entertained, or serviced by something totally the opposite. Again, I don’t know that any of us are or could be completely consistent in this arena, but I think we have to begin by realizing at the very least that the more I harmonize what I do with what I believe, the better I will be in life.

Harmony is rejoicing in the God who loves me. “Let Israel rejoice in him that made him…for the LORD taketh pleasure in his people.” It is God who loves you, not Hollywood, not corporate America, not the state university. It is God that loves you! You say, “Wil, can I build a big wall around me and my family and just ignore the world around me?” That is not what God is suggesting, but there does need to be harmony with what you believe and what you do. Now, there are some things perhaps that I do that you would not, and there are some things that I would not do that perhaps you would do. Many of those things may be debatable. We both have the Bible and if we have trusted Christ, we have the Holy Spirit living within us.

There is much more to be said, but the question is, “To what extent is there harmony between God and all that you hold in your life?” There shouldn’t be anything that creates dissonance and friction between your God and your life. So, how much harmony is there between God and the things you allow in your life?

Let me give you a couple of examples. How much harmony is there between God and your influencers? I notice here on the Bill Rice Ranch that many of us who don’t need to talk to someone or track some line of thought for their work may put in ear buds and listen to podcasts. Is that wrong? No, but the sheer amount of volume coming into your head every day is unparalleled in human history. I can literally be pumping things into my brain for many hours a day. If I am listening to a podcast while I am driving, the podcast will end and all of a sudden, I will awake as if from a stupor or a dream and think, “Where am I?” My eyes have been seeing the landscape on the road, but it is like I haven’t seen any of it because I am focused on what is in my mind’s eye, which is what I was listening to on the podcast.

There are a number of people who are engaging and may even be right in their positions, but they don’t know the Lord. We don’t need Republicans; we need revival. The answer to this country is not politics; it is coming clean with God. Politics is important, but not more important than the revival that only God Himself can give. So how much harmony is there between God and your influencers? They may be good, wise, and agree with your positions, but be aware that the more they are in harmony with God, the more they are in harmony with truth. The more they are in harmony with truth, the less dissonance and stress there will be in your mind.

How much harmony is there between God and your education? Someone has said, “You will be the same person in twenty years except for the books you read and the people you meet.” That is largely true. I can think of a number of people I went to school with who after a few years I thought, “Wow, they are totally in a different place now than when they graduated. They are a different person.” Why is that? Oftentimes it is because of the books they read, the people they meet, and the place where they get their master’s degree.

Who is influencing your mind? We can change, but if you belong to God, the change should come from what God has said. Can you rejoice in the things in your life and harmonize those with the God you hold in your heart? If there is a dissonance, something will have to go. We need to give God every part of our lives. Will we be consistent every day? I don’t know that we will be. Are there things in which we may differ concerning what we should allow in our lives? That may well be, but we have got to be honest with ourselves because harmony in life is rejoicing in the God who loves you.

The post Rejoicing in the God Who Loves You first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

A few mornings ago, here on the Bill Rice Ranch, I observed a group of deer. I saw a little tiny deer with white spots, and I assumed that was a fawn, the child. There was a larger deer who was very attentive, and I assumed that was the doe, the mother deer. I saw a deer with antlers, and I assume that was the buck, the dad. So, it was essentially a deer family. Do you think they have any misunderstanding about who does what? No, the buck does, the doe does, and the fawn does what each of them do in that structure. God created them that way. That is how life continues. They are not at all ambiguous as to what they are to do. Now, I don’t know if they are conscious of what they know, but they know it nonetheless.

If you went to Walmart, would things be as clear and unconfusing? If you saw three people, would you know who does what? Whatever you think about who should do what, the point is it is very ambiguous for people because we have forgotten who it is that does what. What is a father to do? What is a mother to do? What is a child to do? Is there such a thing as a family, or are we just talking about a jumbled bag of individuals?

In Psalm 147 we are reminded that every successful relationship needs to know who does what. Verse 1 says, “Praise ye the LORD.” In other words, you praise the Lord; that is your part. It continues, “For it is good to sing praises unto our God; it is pleasant; and praise is comely.” So, praising God is good, pleasant, and appropriate. It is what we are to do first, second, and last. You find in the beginning, middle, and end of this psalm that we are to give praise to the Lord.

Now, praise is not a performance; it is not something we just pull out because it is a virtue. No, praise is our place. Praise is not having a praise leader, a praise team, or a praise whatever. Praise is not a performance and it is not a virtue. Praise is a response. That is why each time the psalmist says, “Praise the Lord, praise God, attribute worth to God,” he follows it with reasons we should do that.

For instance, in response to “praise ye the LORD” verse 2 says, “The LORD doth…” Then it gives a long list of things the Lord does. For instance, verses 3 and 4 tell us He named the stars and He heals the heart. How incredible is the power of a God who can make the universe, see the stars, and then name them. I can’t even see all the stars even with the most powerful aid in the world.

At the same time, verse 3 says that He “healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.” In other words, the omnipotent God who spoke the worlds into existence has regard for you. He cares for you and He cares for me. It doesn’t matter where you are in the family. Whether you are the buck, the doe, or the fawn, if you are a grandparent, great-grandparent, or even if you don’t have a family, God regards you. The Lord does these things, so we are to praise Him.

In response to the challenge to praise God and give thanksgiving, verse 8 says we are to praise, God “who covereth the heaven with clouds.” Then he gives us a list of things that God does. He is worthy of praise. Verse 13 tells us we should praise God for a reason, “For he hath…” We are not just to praise God as some virtue that we have. No, God is the Creator and we just notice.

So, every successful relationship needs to know who does what. What does God do and what do I do? God is the Creator and Sustainer, and He is sovereign. He made and named the stars. What is mine to do? I respond. Verse 11 puts the whole psalm in a nutshell. It says, “The LORD taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.” This is in contrast to the fact that God doesn’t take delight in the strength of a horse or the strength of a man. He takes delight in those that reverence Him.

God is God and we just respond. That is what praise is. Verse 11 tell us that God takes pleasure in that. I am to reverence and fear God, to hope in His mercy. Verse 7 says that that we are to give thanksgiving, attribute thanks to God.

So, Psalm 147 is really not a matter of our accomplishments but of our discernment, which is to say that God rules the universe and we notice. Every successful relationship needs to know who does what. God is God and I simply notice. That takes the screws off of me and gives peace in my heart and gratitude in my life. That can make all the difference in how I perceive the world and in the way I proceed today.

The post Who Does What? first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

Is there any hope? That is a question a lot of people ask themselves every day, and they ask this with anxiety. Is there hope for America? Is their hope for the West, more broadly speaking? Is there hope for the world? Is there hope for my family? Psalm 146 reminds us that the hope you have depends on the help you seek.

Verse 1 says, “Praise ye the LORD. Praise the LORD, O my soul. While I live I will praise the LORD: I will sing praises unto my God while I have being.” Why is this psalmist pledging to praise God while he is alive? Well, it is because you can’t praise God after you are dead. To be sure, Psalm 146 reminds us of Revelation 19:5 which tells us very clearly that we will be praising God in eternity in heaven. But as to this life, if you are going to praise God, you have to do it now because your life is short. This is reemphasized in verses 3-4, “Put not your trust in princes,” the people of power, “nor in the son of man,” that is regular people, “in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.” So, as to my praising the LORD and trusting man, both are limited in duration on this earth. Is there any hope? It depends. The hope you have depends on the help you seek.

There is obviously a contrast here between the short-lived nature of a human on this earth and the eternal perspective and power of the God who made this earth. God is the only one bigger than your problems who will also outlive your problems. So, I have the problem about whom I want to vote for. I want to vote for George Washington. He is a great guy. There is a problem. He is dead. What about the problem that I’d like to have a lot of money. Fifty dollars in 1776 would have been a lot of money, but the problem is you can scarcely feed a family at McDonalds for fifty dollars today. So, the time horizon for George Washington and money is very meager indeed.

Think about millionaires. There used to be books out like The Millionaire Next Door. The idea was that millionaires are not obvious. They live in normal houses and drive normal cars, but they have accumulated wealth. Well, millionaires aren’t what they used to be because a million dollars isn’t what it used to be. It will mean even less in a hundred years. The resources that seem to answer our problems are short-lived, and quite frankly our problems are the same.

What world power would the people who would have originally read Psalm 146 have feared? At one time they were fearful of Egypt, Babylon, and Assyria, none of which taken by themselves are world powers that are frightening today. So, God is the only one bigger than your problems who will actually outlive our problems. That is why verse 5 brings to light the contrast between the limited duration of our praise and trust and the eternal nature of God.

Verse 5 says, “Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God.” I have hope because my help is found in God. Everything else and everyone else has time constraints. If my hope depends on the help I am seeking and I am seeking God, what does that mean? Verse 6 says, “Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever.” God’s truth is forever. Any book you are going to read has limited perspective and probably a limited duration of usefulness. You may have a book by some expert, but what will it be worth in a hundred or a thousand years? The Bible still works because God keeps truth forever. My ability to praise and to trust someone else is limited because my life is limited. The people I am trusting now I won’t be trusting in heaven in a million years because none of us will be needed to help each other. We will, in the fullest sense, be with God. So, on this earth in this life, God’s truth is forever.

God’s power is to all generations. Verse 10 says, “The LORD shall reign for ever, even thy God, O Zion, unto all generations.” So, God’s truth is forever and God’s power is to all generations. Regardless of what you see going on in the West, the world, or America, God’s power is to all generations. We can’t vote God in and we can’t vote God out. God still reigns.

The conclusion of this is just like the beginning; “Praise ye the LORD.” That is how the psalm begins and that is how it ends. Why? It is because God is not of limited utility or duration. God is forever. I can’t trust anyone today who will be here in a hundred years. I can’t praise God on this earth in this body in a hundred years, but in contrast, praising God is something I can be doing a million years from now because God is the only one bigger than my problems who will also outlive my problems. Why not get a jump on that and praise Him today because that is what we will be doing in eternity. The hope you have is no better than the help you seek. If that help is God, then that is all you need.

The post The Help You Seek first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

This past week I was talking to my son about what he wants to pass on to his son. His son is less than a year old, but he is already thinking about the things a dad needs to pass on to his son. These are not necessarily earth-shattering things. They are just skills, habits, and things a boy should learn from his father.

Recently, I was speaking at a Family Camp here at the Bill Rice Ranch, and I noticed that there were numerous families that had two or three generations at camp that particular week. That brought a question to mind. What will you pass down when you pass on? Every person should pass down the things that matter. We are passing down our family history, our skills, our biases, our priorities, our physical traits. All of us are passing things on to the generation to come, namely to our children if we have them.

Psalm 145 is interesting because we realize that King David himself had a king. Verse 1 says, “I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever.” Here is a king who had a king. David’s king was God Almighty. What do you have that is greater and more transcendent than yourself? The God that David had as king was for all people for all time. For instance, verse 13 says, “Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.” This is something that was greater and more enduring than David.

Recently, I drove by a beautiful farm in my area that has been in a family for well over 160 years. I once knew the patriarch. Of course, if a farm has been around for 160 years, it has had numerous patriarchs, but the man I knew was the oldest man on the farm and was kind to me and neighbors here on the Ranch. I bumped into a local acquaintance recently who lives not far from the Ranch and this farm. He named the man who owned the farm and said, “Yeah, he was a good investor.” That reminded me that years ago the gentleman who owned the farm had given me a book on investments. That makes sense because he was good at it. This morning, I was reminded that that gentleman is dead. He is gone. I don’t know how long that farm will stay in the family, but it certainly won’t be forever no matter how great their investments are.

The God David was passing on exceeds every generation. He exceeds one group of people. David says, “I will speak. Men shall speak. Creation shall speak.” Verse 9 says, “The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.” Verse 10 says, “All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee.” Verse 16 says, “Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.” Verse 18 says, “The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. Verse 21 says, “My mouth shall speak the praise of the LORD: and let all flesh bless his holy name.” The point is Jehovah is a God for all people of all time. This is not only the God of today or of this country or of some ethnicity.

The takeaway is that parents need something greater than self to pass down to their children. David was a king, but he wasn’t the ultimate king. David had a kingdom, but God’s kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. So, David basically says, “First, I will extol God. Next, I will make known to the sons of men God’s mighty acts. Last, I will praise of the Lord.” Every parent needs something greater than self to pass down.

How do you do that? First, give credit and praise to God. Verse 4 tells us, “One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.” You know a child does not have a long enough memory or the experience and understanding to know all that he has seen. It is up to parents to say, “That was God.” One generation shall praise thy works to another, declare God’s works. Your testimony is simply God’s presence in your history. It is wonderful to be able to say to your child, “That was God,” to see God in your story.

Said another way, verse 7 says that we ought to remember God. It says, “They shall abundantly utter the memory the great goodness, and shall sing.” Songs are one way to remember God. In the book of Psalms, a lot of psalms are acrostics or other devices to aid memory. Many were placed to tunes so people could remember them. Why were these words worth remembering when people did not have personal physical copies of the Word of God? They needed to remember these words because they needed to remember God.

In a changing world where nothing you see will outlast you and few things you see will live much longer than you, we need something bigger and greater to pass down to the next generation. What will you pass down when you pass on? The real question is, “How are you passing God to your children?” That is important because all of us need something greater to live for and something greater than self to pass down.

The post Something to Pass Down first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

We have probably all opened a can of Coca Cola after someone had jostled it a bit. What happened next was totally predictable. The Coca Cola shot right out of the top of the can because someone had shaken it up. People are the exact same way. You know what is going to come out because of what fills them. If you have talked to your grandpa recently, or your son, dad, or cousin, you probably knew exactly what they were going to say. Regardless of what the topic may be, you know the templates that their minds generally run to because you know what fills their minds. Maybe it is coffee, grandkids, outdoors, or the love of travel.

People are incredibly predictable in what they are going to say because it is predicated on what is in their mind. What is in their mind determines what is in their mouth, and how they see things. So, whatever fills your mind governs your affections. For that matter, whatever fills your mind, governs your phobias.

Psalm 119 is all about God’s wonderful Word and how it is God’s mind for our ears and therefore for our lives. Verse 97 says, “Oh how I love thy law! it is my meditation all the day.” So, what should fill your mind today? Notice the object here. It is “thy law.” Who is the thy? That is God. God is the source of and therefore the same as His Word.

Verse 2 says, “Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart.” If you are going to seek God, you have to seek His heart and mind and that is found in His Word. If you want to know about Barak Obama, read Dreams of My Fathers. If you want to know about Adolf Hitler, read Mein Kampf. If you want to know about the new vice-presidential candidate, read Hillbilly Elegy. God is the source of and therefore the same as His word.

His Word and His law are synonyms. In the first nine verses of this psalm, you find several different synonyms for God’s Word: law, testimonies, ways, precepts, statutes, commandments, judgment, word. They are all the same thing. It is God’s thoughts for our lives. God’s law gives instruction and direction. So, the object is the law.

The attitude is love. “O how I love thy law!” This is emphatic. It is exclamatory. God’s Word gives life repeatedly in this psalm; we find that God’s Word quickens. It makes us alive. God’s Word gives us peace. In Psalm 119:165 it says, “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them,” which means nothing shall trip them up. Are you a person with peace in your heart? Peace is in your head or nowhere at all because peace is a mind matter.

God’s Word gives us a baseline for emotions. For instance, in verse 103 it says, “How sweet are thy words unto my taste!” Verse 104 says, “Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way.” I live with the positive, but that informs what I am going to avoid. I hate evil because I love God. I hate falsehood because I love truth. The attitude is love.

The action is meditation. Verse 97 says, “Oh how I love thy law! it is my meditation.” Meditation is perhaps the key word of Psalm 119. It is all about meditation. It is not just about taking in or ingesting God’s Word; it is about digesting God’s Word. It is thinking about it because how you think determines how you feel. We talk about psychosomatic, which is how your body is affected by your mind. Have you ever felt refreshed in the morning because you thought you slept in? Then you realized your alarm was set for its normal time, and all of a sudden you felt tired. That is your body responding to your mind. The action here is mediation.

The duration is that it is my mediation all the day. The things in your head become the premise of things you assume from your day. When you wake up on the morning of your birthday or Christmas or the first day of school or vacation, that beginning affects your entire day. I had a neighbor once who in the morning said, “I dreamed all night that I was working hard and I woke up just tired.” The entire day was affected by the mindset about the day. So, the duration of thinking on God’s truth is that it is all day.

What is the result of this. Verse 98 says, “Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than my enemies.” Verse 99 says, “I have more understanding than all my teachers: for my testimonies are my mediation.” So, the result of thinking on God’s Word is wisdom and understanding. Life makes sense. Someone says, “Your problem is that it is all in your head.” Of course it is all in your head! Everything in your life today begins and ends with what you put in your head.

What are you putting in your head today? It matters because whatever fills your mind governs your affections.

The post Whatever Fills Your Mind first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

The post Thankfulness: Experience That Confirms God’s Truth first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.

What would you do if you fell off of a ship mid-Pacific Ocean and the ship continued on without you? I think you would probably dog paddle and try to remember everything you learned in Junior Sailor’s Organization. You would try everything you could, and then at some point I think you would probably pray. I think most people would. You say, “What if he is an agnostic or atheist?” I think he would take a chance. Do you think he would not consider praying, not cry out to God almost involuntarily? There may be some who would spend an hour in the ocean before drowning and never think to pray, but I believe most people would instinctively pray.

I have a friend who used to work with professional athletes. He would give the gospel to these young men in their twenties who were making a lot of money in the NFL. Now, the average player in the NFL probably gets cut after the first five years or so, and they are not a household name unless you really keep up with the game. If they are cut, they may or may not have an education or job to fall back on. This friend of mine said, “A lot of times these men would come to Christ after they had been cut because they realized that they did need God.”

When you have the world by the tail, you don’t need God or anything else. You think you have everything you need. When all of that is gone, you realize that maybe you are more needy than you realized. When these athletes realized that my friend was not interested in their fame but in their souls, that he genuinely loved them with the love of Christ, they were open to the gospel.

The truth is that prayer is for those who are needy and know it. Psalm 102 says, “Hear my prayer, O LORD, and let my cry come unto thee.” Prayer is for those who are needy and know it. That is evidenced by the word cry. A synonym of pray is cry. There is an urgency. The superscription of this psalm is “a prayer of the afflicted when he is overwhelmed.” I know what that feels like. I also thankfully have the relief of soul to know that there is someone who is greater than I am and knows more than I do, and that is God.

Verse 17 says, “He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer.” There were times when men like David prayed because they was in trouble. Was David poor? He was not poor financially, but all of us at some point go beyond the resources of abilities. We outstrip our resources. We are poor.

Verse 2 says, “When I am in trouble.” We have trouble! We are not talking about virtue. Sometimes our troubles are self-inflicted. In verse 10 the psalmist indicates “because of thine indignation and thy wrath.” That is where this trouble came from. We have strayed from God and He is correcting us. We all want to have noble injuries, to be needy, but in a noble way.

I remember when I was in college, I used to hope I would come back to college after Christmas break with a broken leg that I had broken on some double black diamond trail in the Rockies or Jackson, Wyoming. My schoolmates would say, “Rice, what happened to you?” I would say, “I broke my leg. I took a fifty-foot jump and it didn’t land well.” That would make me a hero. But with my luck I would probably slip on a banana peel in my kitchen in Tennessee and have to make up a story when I went back to college. Who wants to admit your need is a broken leg because of a banana peel? So, this is trouble, not virtue.

Sometimes we make a list to remember what our prayers are. I’m not against having a prayer list, but when a person is afflicted and troubled, looking for a speedy answer, he doesn’t need a list to remind him of what he needs. Prayer is for those and from those who are needy and know it.

There is a sense of urgency here. Verse 2 says, “Incline thine ear unto me: in the day when I call answer me speedily.” He is saying, “Lord, I need help and please do it now.” Verse 13 says, “For the time to favor her [Zion]…is come.” He is saying, “The time I need help is now. I have little time.” What a contrast that is to a God who is not hurried, worried, or poor, but is infinite.

The psalmist says in verses 11-12, “My days are like a shadow that declineth… but thou, O LORD, shalt endure for ever.” Verses 25-26 say, “Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure.” Verse 27 continues, “But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.” There is a contrast between my need and God’s ability, my trouble and God’s power. My limit on time and God’s eternal ability and agency. God is never worried or hurried. We are needy, whether we know it or not. The question is whether we know it and know whom to ask for help. God helps those who ask because prayer is for those who are needy and know it.

The post Needy and Know It first appeared on Bill Rice Ranch.