WEDNESDAY'S WORD - DISCRETION - 08/31/16-Sadell Bradley- New Life Covenant

"Discretion is the better part of valor." An idiom of Shakespeare's Henry IV 

A old proverb says, "It is good to be brave, but it is also good to be careful. If you are careful, you will not get into situations that require you to be brave." DISCRETION is the quality of behaving or speaking in such a way as to avoid causing offense or revealing private information. It is a Middle English word in the sense of discernment - the ability to judge well. Discernment is perception (to be aware of something through the senses) in the absence of judgment with a view to obtaining spiritual direction and understanding. If I am discerning, I have the ability to see beyond what I see. With discretion, I can wisely and empathetically decide what to do or say in a situation. 

Solomon wrote, "Discretion will guard you, understanding will watch over you, To deliver you from the way of evil, From the man who speaks perverse things; From those who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness; Who delight in doing evil and rejoice in the perversity of evil; Whose paths are crooked, and who are devious in their ways..." Proverbs (2:11-15 NASB) David cried out to the Lord, "Teach me discernment and knowledge, For I believe in your commandments." (Psalm 119:66) Have you ever asked the Lord to make you more discrete or to give you more discernment?

In 2 Kings 6 the king of Aram was about to siege the Jews.  Each time he made a move, Elisha the prophet warned the king of Israel. Elisha was so accurate that the king of Aram thought he had a spy in his ranks! Frustrated, he attempted to send his armies to capture Elisha. As the Arameans were approaching, Elisha's servant

cried out, "Oh no, my lord! what shall we do?" (15) Elisha replied, "Don't 

be afraid. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them," and Elisha prayed, "Open his eyes, LORD, so that he may see." Then the LORD opened the servant's eyes. He looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. As the enemy came down, Elisha prayed to the LORD, "Strike this army with blindness." So He struck them with blindness as Elisha asked, and he led them into an ambush. The LORD gave the victory into Elisha's hands! He did not even have to kill the army, he just exposed them and sent them home with food and drink.  Aram's armies stopped raiding Israel's territory. Discernment means the LORD has opened your eyes. Discretion means you know what to do when what you see isn't really what you're looking at!

WEDNESDAY'S WORD - HOME - Sadell Bradley - 08/24/16- New Life Covenant Cincinnati

"Home is where the heart is."  - Piny the Elder

Last weekend, we took one of our grandsons to see the remake of Disney's classic cartoon, Pete's
Dragon.  [Spoiler Alert] The story tells of an orphan lost in the forest who is discovered and cared for by a friendly dragon. Elliot the dragon protects, rears and defends Pete. He considers Elliot and his forest HOME and doesn't want to leave. Pete is found by the people of a nearby city and finds a new home with a loving family whom he has to learn can also provide him a safe and warm place to land. Home is not a just place, but a feeling.   

HOME - is the place where one lives permanently, especially as a family or household.  Figuratively, it is a place where something flourishes, is most typically found, or originates. The place where you flourish: grow or develop in a healthy, vigorous and successful way, especially in a favorable environment.  Wow, what a litmus test! Our hearts ache for 'home' - a place of true acceptance. We say we're "going home" when we visit the place where we grew up even when we've lived in our current location longer. Our birthplace may or may not have caused us to advance in particular areas. Like Pete, we might require a new 'home' to heal or grow. In this life, circumstances and situations are developing us into mature Christians through the trial our faith (1 Peter 1:7). Paul reminds us in Hebrews 13:14, "For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come." Man, aren't we!

As an orphan like Pete, the word 'home' has a more transcendent meaning than just a place

where I can typically be found. Gladly, though my mother and father have forsaken me, the Lord has taken me up. He has been a Father to this fatherless child and set me in a nuclear family; (Psalm 27:10; 68:7-8) but even they don't at times feel like 'home.' HOME is a sacred word. It reveals a deep relational connection that is beyond geography, history or even blood. If we decline, wither or experience physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual abuse or trauma in a place...that's NOT home. If there's not an atmosphere of warmth, love or welcoming, but rather rejection. If we're tolerated but not celebrated...that's NOT home. We may call it home...but it might just be a shell where love used to be...or maybe never was. When we find home, it's a place we never want to leave and we enjoy returning there. Some find their 'home' with friends, co-workers, or even at church. Do YOU have a home?  I do! 

Sunday Worship 11:00 AM

The Great Room

Classes 9:30 AM

Youth Room

225 Wyoming Ave.

Cincinnati OH 45215

 

WEDNESDAY'S WORD ON THURSDAY - OVERCOMMITTED - Sadell Bradley - 08/18/16 New Life Covenant Cincinnati

"You can do anything...but not everything." - David Allen
Ever been so busy that you forget what day it is? That was me yesterday! So now you get Wednesday's word on Thursday! LOL! so I thought I'd make the most of it.  To OVERCOMMIT means to  oblige (oneself or others) to do more than one is capable of, as to repay a loan one cannot afford; to allocate more (resources) to a purpose than can be provided; to obligate oneself beyond the ability for fulfillment.

Work, School, Church, Civic Activities, Clubs, Sports, Home (cooking, cleaning, laundry, bill paying), etc.  If we're lucky we have time for recreation and rest. We've been given self-control as part of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22).  Jesus commanded us not to swear that we'll do anything, but to be definitive, "let your yes be yes and your no be no." (Matt 5:37) A simple life would be much easier. Why do we overextend ourselves?

 


1. We're used to being the GO-TO guy or gal - identity. In Exodus 18:13-23, Moses' father-in-law Jethro advised him that being the sole leader and judge was too much for him. He needed to release control and delegate responsibility and authority as his subordinates could handle it. In doing so he and they would enjoy a lighter burden and more peace. Don't wait, delegate!

2. We're prideful. We think we have the market cornered on how things could or should be done. Paul tells us, "not to think of yourselves more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith God has assigned." (Romans 12:3)  All  our friends in the Body of Christ, even our family members, co-workers and friends don't have the same gifts and abilities as we do. We need what others bring to the table. Ask for help!

 
3. We think we'll have more time in the future, and we like to be liked.
If we had to respond to the invitation immediately, we'd reply, "No. I'm too busy." If busyness is our lifestyle...Will we be less busy in the future? We say  "time is money."  When people ask us for money we don't have... NO flows easily. James 4:13-15 warns us against presumptive commitments, "'Don't say today or tomorrow we'll go to this city, spend a year there, carry on business and make a profit.' You don't even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord is willing, we will live and do this or that.'"  Watch out for overcommittment!

 

SUNDAY WORSHIP 11:00 AM

The GREAT ROOM

CLASSES Youth Room
SUNDAY9:30 AM
225 Wyoming Ave

      Cincinnati OH 45215

(Presbyterian Church of Wyoming)

513-212-1131

WEDNESDAY'S WORD - ETERNAL - 08816- Sadell Bradley - New Life Covenant Cincinnati

With chaos in the earth and personal tragedies and triumphs of all kinds happening close to home; I've contemplated the temporal vs. the eternal - what's important vs. what is passing away. For Christians, this world is not our home. We believe because we've accepted Jesus' sacrifice for our sins, we have been given the gift of everlasting life and eternity in Heaven and not Hell, the place of eternal torment. The hymn reminds us, "Time is filled with swift transition. Naught of earth unmoved can stand. Build your hopes on things eternal, hold to God's unchanging hand. Trust in Him who will not leave you, whatsoever years may bring. If by earthly friends forsaken, still more closely to Him cling. Covet not this world's vain riches, that so rapidly decay. Seek to gain the heav'nly treasures. They will never pass away. Hold to his hand, God's unchanging hand." Profound truths.

ETERNAL means lasting or existing forever; without end; essential unchanging; of or relating to eternity - infinite or unending time; theologically, endless life after death. The hymn's author is Jennie B. Wilson. Her father died when she was an infant. At the age of four she was attacked with a spinal deformity that rendered her confined to a wheel-chair and bed until her death at age 51. This condition also allowed her to focus on music: writing 2,200 poems and hymns from her home - none of which included a hint of sadness. A God-ward and eternally focused perspective. Sometimes we just have annoyances and frustrations...not problems.

In Mark 10:17-31, a rich man approaches Jesus with this question, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus replies confirming his Deity, "Why are you calling me good? There is no one good but God." The man says he's observed the Commandments from his youth. "Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."  At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great possessions.  Jesus looked around and said to his disciples "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!"  The disciples were astonished, if the rich can't get in, "Who then can be saved?" Isn't that like us? If we were God, only the richest, best and brightest would get our eternal graces. Jesus turns that on it's head, it's almost impossible for a wealthy person to inherit eternal life...but with God even that's possible!  Sometimes Jesus' love calls us to divest or exchange our possessions, positions, and popularity for His LIFE.

Peter, wanting to make sure he got in those pearly gates, reminds Jesus that the disciples have literally left their businesses and families, "We have left everything to follow You."  “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields-along with persecutions-and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”  Life choices. Ambitions. Success. Striving. The 'American Dream.' Are our hopes, aspirations and pursuits focused on the present or the eternal? Do we want to be first now and last in eternity? or vice versa?

SUNDAY WORSHIP 11:00 AM
ROOM 305 THIS SUNDAY 

SUNDAY CLASSES 9:30 AM
Youth Room

225 Wyoming Ave

      Cincinnati OH 45215

(Presbyterian Church of Wyoming)

513-212-1131

WEDNESDAY'S WORD - SAFE - Sadell Bradley 08/03/16 New Life Covenant Cincinnati

I recently joined the fabulous team at MORTAR, an exciting non-profit in our City dedicated to building disenfranchised communities through entrepreneurship. Last night MORTAR Indigo graduated a class of women entrepreneurs. These ladies are NOT playing it SAFE.  Safe means protected from or not exposed to danger or risk; cautious and unenterprising - not having or showing initiative or entrepreneurial ability. You can't play it safe and be an entrepreneur.  As I listened to these women's stories, passion, and willingness to lay everything down to achieve their goals; I was inspired.  Without guarantee of outcome, they're fighting through adverse circumstances, internal discomfort, and the words of nay-sayers to grab the future by the horns and do something some thought they never could. Congratulations Indigo! journey's blessings.


Shirley Hufstedler the first U.S. Secretary of Education, said, "If you play it safe in life you've decided that you don't want to grow anymore." T.S. Eliot added,"Only those who will risk going too far will possibly find out how far one can go." Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg affirms, "The biggest risk is not taking any risk...In a world that's changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks."  Take a look at the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11 it's filled with risks of belief, location, reputation, relationship and even potential loss of life.

2 Kings 7 has an interesting account about taking risks. Elisha prophesies an end to a famine. The king's assistant doesn't believe him.  Elisha says, "It will happen. You'll see it, but you won't partake of it." (vs. 2) Some lepers outside the enemy Aramean camp decide whether they want to: 1) stay put, 2) risk going in to be captured, or 3) die in the famine:

"“Why should we sit here waiting to die?” they asked each other. “We will starve if we stay here, but with the famine in the city, we will starve if we go back there. So we might as well go out and surrender to the Aramean army. If they let us live, so much the better. But if they kill us, we would have died anyway.” (vs. 3-4, NLT)

These men moved out of paralysis to take a risk for the possibility of a better future, mercy and food from the enemy's camp. They didn't know God had fought for them! He'd already run their enemy off in a panic. The lepers and eventually the Israelite army plundered the Arameans. The people rushed out with their goods, and trampled the king's officer under their feet. Are YOU ready to stop playing it safe and take a risk for your life? God has already been where you're headed. Selah.






 

SUNDAY WORSHIP 11:00 AM
The Great RoomSUNDAY CLASSES 9:30 AM
Youth Room

225 Wyoming Ave

      Cincinnati OH 45215

(Presbyterian Church of Wyoming)

513-212-1131