Time To Ponder

Happy Tuesday!

Have you had a chance to do any reading yet this holiday season?

I not only finished the book "Unpacking Forgiveness", I also spent some time chatting with the author, pastor Chris Brauns.

What a great conversation we had!

You'll be able to hear highlights next Monday & Tuesday on our Total Impact segment at 6:25pm Pacific time.

As I told Chris, This is the best book on forgiveness I've ever read.

And I've read a lot of them.

Forgiveness is simple.

And yet so complex.

If you read only one book this year (aside from the Bible of course) I recommend this one.

It'll do you a world of good!

I'll be posting Chris' segments on the blog here next week if you miss them on the air.

Speaking of reading, another Total Impact guest has written some awesome thoughts on one of my favorite passages of Scripture:

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight" (Proverbs 3:5-6).

A big tip of the hat to Ray Pritchard who writes:

Trust
"Trust in the LORD with all your heart." The word "trust" in Hebrew means "to lean with the full body," "to lay upon," "to rest the full weight upon." In our thinking the word trust means to rely upon or to have confidence in. But the Hebrew word is stronger. It has the idea of stretching yourself out upon a bed or resting on a hard surface. The word means to put your full weight on something. To trust in the Lord is to rest your whole weight upon him–to depend on him completely.

Lean
"Lean not on your own understanding." To "lean" means to rest upon something for partial support. Leaning is what you do when you walk with a cane or hold on to a walker because you are unsteady. This word is used for leaning against a tree or a stone cliff. You lean on something when you are not strong enough to stand alone.

Understanding
"Lean not on your own understanding." "Understanding" refers to the mental processes by which you analyze a problem, break it down into its smaller parts, and then make a decision about what you are going to do.
When you take the word "lean" and bring in the idea of "understanding," then add the negative, the meaning is something like this: "Use all your mental powers, but do not lean on them for total support." Don't trust in your own ability to figure out your life. Lean instead on the Lord! Rest your weight on Him!

Acknowledge
"In all your ways acknowledge him." This word deserves extra consideration because the word "acknowledge" can be hard to understand. In the Hebrew this word is an imperative–a command. You could translate this by saying, "In all your ways know him." The Hebrew word means to know deeply and intimately.

Direct
"He will make your paths straight." That brings me to the fifth word, which in the King James Version is translated, "He shall direct your paths." That isn't bad. But I think the ESV translation is a little better: "he will make straight your paths."

Here is God's message to you from Proverbs 3:5-6. If you will know God in every area of your life, he will take personal responsibility to make your way smooth and straight.
He will remove the obstacles if they need to be removed. He will fill in the potholes if they need to be filled. He will redirect the detour so that what seemed to be a dead-end turns out to be the shortest way to reach your destination.

All you have to do is trust in the Lord. Lay yourself completely on him for full support. Don't lean for support on your own human understanding. In all your ways know God intimately.
He will take the path of your life that seems to go up and down and around and sometimes seems to curve backwards, and He will make your way straight.
That's the promise of Almighty God to you."

Awesome insights as we prepare to dive into a new year, don't you think?
See ya on the radio,
Kurt