Thumbprint

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God’s Thumbprint

 

By Debbie Anthony

 

 


 

 

“What do I want, Lord?” I asked silently, “I’ve run after the approval of your people, and I’m sick and tired.  What is your will for me – now?”

 

The answer seemed to come, “[Child], just find out who you are and be that for Me.”

 

In a few minutes I opened my eyes.  I saw that I’d been afraid to tell God or anyone else my own true needs and desires, for fear they wouldn’t be met.  With a great sigh of relief I could almost hear God’s voice saying, “[Child], at last you’re ready to be you.  You’re ready to quit ignoring what I made you to be, and to see the truth about your life.”  What a relief to admit to myself that I had some legitimate needs in my life and that they’d been placed there by God!

 

From Please Love Me by Keith Miller

(Paraphrased)

 

 

 

 

 

Dedication:

To my husband, Christy, who puts up with my relentless study.

To my children and grandchildren who have to hear about God’s expectations for their lives.

And mostly to

Andrea White who would not rest until this was done.


When I finished the The Musings of My Heart, I was sure that that would be the end of it.  I had done what Andrea White had asked of me.  But, before I even finished collating the books that I needed, God had given me a name for this volume.

 

I realize that God’s Thumbprint sounds like an odd name, but when He sent it to me, it made prefect sense.  When I was a child we used to make thumbprint cookies.  The act of taking my thumb and pushing it into the soft dough changed the appearance of cookie.  I thought how much like those cookies we should be under the power of the Father.  If we are not being formed and reformed by the action of God on our hearts and souls, then we are not turning all of ourselves over to Him for Him to change what needs to be changed in us.

 

In Sue Bender’s book, Everyday Sacred, Sue discusses her experience in creating bowls on a potter’s wheel.  She was so frustrated that she just about gave up until she realized that nobody’s bowls were perfect.  There in is the point of the matter, the only perfect potter is the Father and even then He will leave his thumbprint on us to show that He owns us body and soul.  I love thinking that my Abba loves me so much that He leaves His mark on my heart to show that I am His.

 

So, there are the thoughts behind the title of this book.  When I compiled the first book, I fought a great battle with Satan to get it put together.  I struggled and I fought and I doubted but Satan did not prevail because the Father’s thumbprint is on my heart.

 

If you take nothing else away from my scratchings except that you belong to the Father and you bear His mark, then I have helped to bring you into a closer walk with the Father.  The Father is who I do this for.  It is His acceptance that I crave because He loves me best.

 

In Joanna Weaver’s book, Having a Mary Spirit, she tells a story about her grandma that is so much like the love of the Father.  She speaks of being at her grandma’s wake and her two siblings and Joanna were talking about their happy memories of her.  One of the others said that they hoped that it never made them feel badly that they were their grandmother’s favorite.  In turn each of the others protested that they were her favorite.  Then with joy they celebrated a woman who could make them feel as though each in turn was her favorite.  Isn’t that how it is with the Father too?  Each of us is His is favorite.  He loves each of us best.  I hope that if you do not already know that you are His favorite that soon you will because being the favorite is the best place to be.
The Prodding of the Father

I don't know if you have ever noticed it or not, but it seems that God is always pressing us to be more than we are or to use gifts that we do not think that we have.  Sometimes instead of pressing us more, He is trying to get us to slow down.  I know that you are thinking that I have forgotten that it is Christmas, as if I could anyway.  But just because it is the Christmas season, I have chosen to try to get us to focus on Jesus, after all, what would Christmas be without Him?

In Sunday School this week we were talking about prayer, good thing since that is our study.  Someone said that they were being challenged to pray with people on the spur of the moment and this person thought that even on a good day they were not good at praying out loud.  Anyone recognize themselves?  I have never thought that I was good at this, but this is not about me.  We all encouraged this person and gave them our thoughts on the matter.  But above all we encouraged them to simply talk to God as they would anyone else.  This person had the closing prayer and it was a great prayer.  All of that being said, the point is that God was sending a challenge to get out of their comfort zone and do what all of us say we should do which is pray with and for one another.

When God sends us these challenges, we squirm, we argue with Him, we plead, we stomp our foot and stubbornly refuse to comply just like a spoiled little child.  I don't wanna and you can't make me.  We fail to realize that God never asks us to do anything on our own.  He is going to be there with us every step of the way and, don't look now, when we get pretty adequate at that He will up the ante.  God does not want us to sit by and rest on our past successes.  First of all, they aren't ours and second of all, that would mean that we had stopped growing in Him.  We can step up to the plate or we can spend a lot of time being disobedient and end up doing it anyway.  Trust me, it is a lot easier to just get it done, the first time is always the hardest.

Then sometimes we are so busy doing the things of God that we forget to stop and just commune with God.  The bride in the Song of Solomon speaks of spending so much time tending to her brother's needs that she had neglected her own.  We cannot continue to do the work of the Father unless we spend time with the Father.  In the end the works will be about us and not about Him.  This is exactly why we cannot gain heaven through good works.  This is the lesson that He has been trying to teach me this week, no He has been trying to teach this to me for a long time.  Sometimes I listen but mostly I keep moving.  This time He is serious.  I decided that I had a few minutes before I had to leave for Church this morning and I could just use that to type this card because I had a really great topic and it would be done and then tomorrow....get the picture?  I did not type the card this morning because, mysteriously, the card program refused to load, hum it worked find when I sat down to type this.  The topic was really great, Lord, but He wanted me to use this topic instead.  I won't have as much time later one, but an appointment got moved.  GOD DOES WHAT GOD WANTS TO whether you play along or not.  You can either get on the train or you can get run over.

Sometimes in the morning I write my little version of a psalm to God, this is what I wrote this morning:

Hard things the Lord is trying to teach me,

            Things against my nature.

Hard things the Lord is trying to teach me,

            Things against my Calvinism.

Hard things the Lord is trying to teach me,

            Things against the views of today's religious thought.

Hard things the Lord is trying to teach me,

            Things against the views of the world.

Hard things the Lord is trying to teach me,

            Things that come before all else;

            Things that take priority over all;

            Things more important than

                        family and friends

                        job and duty

                        spreading the good news

                        helping the poor

                        feeding the indigent

                        following my dream

                        doing the things of God.

Oh, All of these things are good things

            All of these things are worthy things

But all of these things count for naught

            If I do not seek His face above all

If I do not seek His face before anything

            If I do not let Him love my soul

                        and caress my heart

                        and love me best

None of these things are more important than being His child.

I am neither a poet nor a psalmist.  But this week, this year, this lifetime, God is trying to get me, a woman who lives life in overdrive, to slow down and simply abide in Him.  I must confess, I am not doing so well. 

Last year I gave my Bible Study Class a book by Joanna Weaver entitled Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World.  This year I gave them her new book entitled Having a Mary Spirit.  In both of these books, she speaks of her struggles with being a Martha personality (Luke 10:38-40).  She speaks of being the wife of the youth pastor and wanting everything a certain way and planning, planning, planning, fretting, fretting, fretting.  Finally one night she lay in bed next to her husband crying and begging him to tell her the good news.  She had gotten so absorbed in the work of God that she has forgotten that it is all about the good news.

We cannot allow ourselves to wrestle with God over what He wants from us or work so hard for God that we forget to remind ourselves about the good news.  Before we can be any earthly use to anyone else we have to be filled up by the Master.

This holiday season while we hurry and scurry and fret and worry to provide a celebration that is destroyed in about 30 seconds, please, please, please stop at the feet of the Master and fill up your tank.  Do not continue to run on empty and forget that it is all about THE GOOD NEWS!


In Jesus or Not

I have been struggling with Christmas a little this year.  Every year I say, this shopping stuff is just to much.  I would like Christmas to be abut joy and family and love but most especially I want it to be about Jesus.  I want it to be about Jesus in an important way, not an incidental, superficial way.

We are in danger of allowing the world to define our faith.  We are in danger of allowing the world to make our faith shallow and superficial.  We are in danger of letting the world rob us of all that is most important about being IN JESUS.

I know that this is the Christmas season but is there any better time to reflect on the Christ than at this season and during the resurrection season?  There are only two kinds of people, those who are in Christ and those who are not.  There are only two kinds of people, those for whom there is not condemnation and those for whom there is eternal condemnation (Rom 8:1-2).  And there in should be the focus of our walk.

I am not telling you that good works are not important.  I am not suggesting that working with the poor, the dislocated, the sick, the lost are not important.  But!  I am telling you that if you are not in Jesus, if you do not count yourself among those for whom there is no condemnation, it doesn’t matter.

The first priority of our lives should be to kneel at the foot of that little child who came to earth that we might be saved.  He gave all to us in His short life on this earth, but nothing about His power is earthbound.  It is all from heaven and continues to pay our debt yet today.  Before all things, we should be Glorifying the Father.  If we are not glorifying the Father, all of our works are nothing, because we cannot help the lost toward a life in the Father if we are not in the Father.

What ware we placing our values in?  Are we earthbound or are we heavenbound?  Are we living this 85 years on this earth as though we were earthbound or are we living it as though we are looking toward 85,000 years in the presence of the Father?

This year, instead of running around as if we were chickens with our heads cut off, we should sit and contemplate where our values lie.  In this season of joy and love and JESUS, what is really important?  Can we look at our families and say, this year, we celebrate Jesus!  This year, we will give the greatest gift to the one who gave us the unobtainable gift.

Good works are a wonderful thing but they will not appease the Father.  No amount of guilt will put us right with God.  Now amount of pleading will put us right with God.  Only falling at His feet and begging Him to come into our hearts and wash us clean with His blood puts us right with Him.  Thanking Him profusely for saving us from eternal destruction.

We need to have the spirit of Martin Luther.  He prayed that all he wanted was to preach and preach well so that God would be Glorified.  He begged God to make it turn out well.  This was a mighty man of God and he fell at the feet of the Christ child begging Him to make it turn out well.  How can we do any less?

This Christmas, let us begin to take back Christmas.  In an important way, let Jesus consume not only our celebration but also our lives.  Become IN JESUS and help others to move toward becoming IN JESUS.  Truly make Him FIRST in your life, before all things.


Do Not Stay in Your Past

When I taught Christian Believer, one of the things we talked about was that God creates from the future.  Now, I don’t want to get into a deep theological discussion here but suffice it to say, there are no coincidences!  Or, as Christy likes to say, “Don’t worry about tomorrow, God is already there!”  All that we are is a product of where we have come from.  BUT we cannot stay in that past.  If we do, we will remain a hostage to it and never step into the future that God has planned for us.  God knows what we will need to prepare us for our future.  Just as He knew the Israelites would need water in the desert and provided the rock that Moses struck to quench their thirst, He provides the means for us to walk the path that He places us on. 

I was listening to a set of CD’s that Rusty lent me from this year’s School of Ministry.  Tony Campolo was the keynote speaker.  If you have never read anything by him or listened to him speak, please do.  He works with inner city kids in Chicago and Philadelphia as well as in Africa and Haiti.  As to being stuck in our pasts, he says, “If I thought that we could never escape our past, I could never do what I do with these broken people.” (Paraphrase)  If we are ever going to be able to break free of the chains of our past, we have to come to believe Paul’s words in Philippians 1:4-6, “In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”  God does not give up on us, not now, not ever!

As much as we do not like it, the tests and trials that we go through are all part of God’s plan for our lives.  Isaiah 44:2-4 says, “I am your Creator.  You were in my care even before you were born.  I have carried you since you were born; I have taken care of you from your birth.  Even when you are old, I will be the same.  Even when your hair has turned gray, I will take care of you.  I made you and will take care of you.”  The Message tells us in Romans 12:3 that “The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us.”  Look into the face of God and see His unwavering love for you, and you alone.  You are His special creation; there is no other like you.  If God loves you this much how can you believe that He does not have your best interest at center of His being?  I pray that you will take this opportunity to look at the person that God had been building in you, equipping you with the precise tools you will need to carry out the journey that He has planned for you.

I realize that I used this poem in The Musings of My Heart but I leave you with this poem by Russell Kelfer again:

You are who you are for a reason.

You’re part of an intricate plan.

You’re a precious and perfect unique design,

Called God’s special woman or man.

You look like you look for a reason.

Our God made no mistake.

He knit you together within the womb,

You’re just what he wanted to make.

The parents you had were the ones he chose,

And no matter how you many feel,

They were custom-designed with God’s plan in mind,

And the bear the Master’s seal.

No, that trauma you faced was not easy.

And God wept that it hurt you so;

But it was allowed to shape your heart

So that into his likeness you’d grow.

You are who you are for a reason,

You’ve been formed by the Master’s rod.

You are who you are, beloved,

Because there is a God!


The Strength of the Family

We I got back from a family reunion in West Virginia a few years ago, I felt so blessed to be able to be with so many members of my family at one time.  We were 128 strong.  As I think back on this experience, I am touched by the strength that family gives.  I was impressed with the strength that family can have.  As I looked around, the relationship between parent and child, sister and brother was totally intense.  As I look at the family structure throughout the Bible, I am impressed by the fact that there is only one circumstance when the family comes second and that is where faith in God, the author of life and Jesus, His Son are concerned.  We are called to in all ways put God first.  But after that, family is important.  The Israelites were divided into families and often married within the family because through the family came strength.

Joshua demanded of the families of Israel in Joshua 24:15, “…choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.  But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”  Joshua made decisions for his entire family as to the direction of their faith.  I do not think that if one of Joshua’s household decided not to follow Joshua’s lead that he could have stooped him, but there was intent, expectation, a definite “demand” as to the way the family would go.  I think that being the “head” of the household brings with it added responsibility because that person is to be held accountable for the rest of the family.  Beyond behavior and faith, they are called to hold the family together.  Mark 3:25 tells us, “If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.”  The family ends because it becomes scattered.  Many times in the Bible we are told about the power in numbers.  We are told in Ecclesiastes 4:9 that “…two are better than one because they are a strong defense for each other.”  Again, “…where two or three are gathered in my name I will be also (Matthew 18:20).  Even David needed the help of Jonathan.  We are stronger in our beliefs when we have others to stand with us.  All of these things can be had in family. 

Today, our families are scattered and far flung.  Our children are raised without the wisdom and love of their grandparents.  There is no sense of belonging because we make decisions more on the sense of self than on the sense of family.  Where will this lead us?  Just a thought.


Judge Not

Since we recently studied accountability in Bible Study and Sunday School, I thought it would be a good topic to address here.  When we choose to follow Christ, Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5: 16-21, “…from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view.  Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!  All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.  And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.  We are there for Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us.  We implore you one Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.  God made him who had not sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”  If we are to be the righteousness of God, we are called to a higher standard than those who are in the world.  And in that capacity, we are called to be accountable to one another so that we do not stray from the path.  In Colossians 3:16, 17 Paul tells us, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom,…And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the mane of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

We are to form close knit communities that will allow us to become closer and trusting so that we can share our successes and frustrations with one another.  In turn, we should hold each other accountable to strive to live as a new creation in Christ, always striving toward righteousness.

The world is always throwing:”…thou shalt not judge, lest ye be judges…” at us.  But Paul also tells us in Romans 2:1, “You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.”  My foot notes on this scripture say that Paul’s teaching about judging agrees with that of Jesus, who did not condemn judging as such, but hypocritical judging.  Failing to judge between right and wrong is a failure to live to the higher standards, but do not condemn someone else when you are guilty of the same thing.  We are to take stands based on our faith, but we are to be honest about it and clean up our act before we draw attention to it in someone else’s life.  It is a hard call, but if we agree to be accountable to one another, it becomes easier.


On Handel and Newton

Okay, so I have been a little hard on you this Christmas so for my last card of 2006 I leave you with John Newton and George Frideric Handel.  As I was driving home the other evening I was listening to a radio program on John Newton, best known to us as the author of Amazing Grace.  But this program was about his association with Handel's Messiah.  I found this interesting since John Newton was preaching almost 100 years after Handel wrote his magnificent praise to the Christ.

I did a little research on this because the narrator said that Newton was so concerned that the people would get lost in the music of the monumental work that they would forget what it was about, what the words were because the words come from The Word.  I found out that Newton wrote 50 sermons concerning Handel's Messiah!  FIFTY! I guess that the narrator was not kidding.

Messiah includes in it 73 verses of Scripture taken mainly from Matthew and Luke.  But the parts of the Messiah that we are most familiar with come from Isaiah.  The work covers all of what it is to be a believer.  Newton was so impacted both by the work and the need to make people understand the importance and relevance of the work to their lives that he spent an inordinate amount of time on the topic.

Messiah begins with the "Overture," a dark and brooding piece of music that makes us feel the desperation of the people of Israel, the "lostness" of their spirit.  That place that all of us find ourselves when we are far from God.  These people were far from God. 

But soon we are reminded that although we may feel far from God He is never far from us.  The second part of the work called "Comfort Ye My People" is based on Isaiah 40:1-3, " Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.  Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD's hand double for all her sins.  The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God."   In our training this particular passage has been equated to John the Baptist.  But God is also telling Isaiah to comfort his people, that they have done wrong but there is light at the end of the tunnel.  The people may have forgotten God but He has not forgotten them.

The third movement, "Every Valley Shall be Exalted" comes from Isaiah 40:4. "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain..."  In my very short career in the choir we used to sing this at Christmas time and I used to love it because it sounded so joyous and wonderful.  God is coming and when He comes, watch out because He will show off and it will be spectacular!  How could the glory of the Father be anything else? Newton wanted his people to know this, to be in awe not simply of the music but more of the Father.

This movement is followed by "And the Glory of the Lord shall be Revealed." "And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it." (Isaiah 40:5)  When His glory is revealed, we will all see it together, our covenant group, our group of believers, no one left out who wants to be a part.  God's coming will be for all mankind to reach out and take unto it themselves.  Is that not the good news of the season, of all our yesterdays and tomorrows, of all of our lives?

From here we move to Isaiah 7:14, "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel."  I have been asked if it is really important that we believe in the virgin birth because there are those who do not believe, including some who are our spiritual leaders.  My belief is that this is a basic premise of our faith and if you do not believe this then you can't belong to the club.  I believe it is important because without it, there is doubt as to the Messiah's paternity and if we do not believe that Jesus is the Son of God our faith is for nothing.

The ninth movement is based on Isaiah 40:9, "O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!" and Isaiah 60:1, "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee."  Get thee up and send the word!  Do not hold back, spread the good news.  I am put in mind of the World War I song, Send the Word! (I think that is what it is called).  Anyway it goes, "Over there, over there, send the word, send the word, over there!"  I won't go on but you get the point.  We are to be glad and joyous, so glad and joyous in fact that we cannot keep our mouths shut about the good news.  We have to tell everyone who will stand still long enough to listen.

The tenth and eleventh movements are descriptions of the context of Jesus' arrival and the deep need for God's saving light using Isaiah 60:2-3, "For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.  And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising."  This is our promise as non-Jewish that we will be called into the light also.  But that light comes only with the advent of the Messiah, which is what it is all about.

The twelfth movement is the one that most of us are most familiar with, "For Unto Us a Child is Born" based on Isaiah 9:6, "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."  The mighty God, the everlasting Father...what more do we want?  I love these words especially and Handel makes them so powerful.  Do we really realize what a gift God has given us?  Do we realize what our world would be without Jesus?  Man is a spiritual creature, would we be worshipping the golden calf, a man-made, inanimate, powerless thing?

Finally, the nineteenth and twentieth movements are about the effect of the Messiah's appearance.  "The Eyes of the Blind Shall be Open'd," based on Isaiah 35:5-6, "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.  Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert."  This portrays Jesus' ministry of healing and "He Shall Feed His Flock," based on Isaiah 40:11, "He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young."  shows us Jesus the Good Shepherd.

I have chosen to focus on Isaiah Scriptures to show you how the Word that the Israelites had at their disposal showed them the way to the Messiah but they chose not to follow.  We have that choice too!  I pray at this Christmas season you will choose to follow with all of your heart.  If you would like a sheet that gives all of the Scripture references for the Messiah, please let me know.

When Handel's Messiah was first performed in Dublin, someone told Handel how much he enjoyed the concert.  Handel replied, "I should be sorry if only I entertained them, I wished to make them better."

I have used "Sing We Now of Christmas" by Dr. Douglas B. Skinner as a reference for this card.  This sermon is available on the internet.

A little aside, It is traditional to stand during the Hallelujah Chorus.  Amy took us to see Manheim Steamroller on Friday Night and they perform a jazzed up rendition of this chorus.  I could not get them to stand up, can you imagine?


Toward the Welfare of Your Soul

Recently in worship service this Scripture from Colossians 3:1-17 was read, "So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.  Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.  Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.  Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.  Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father."

When I read this passage, I thought that how much our lives would change if we really lived the life this passage asks us to.  If we did everything in the name of Jesus, what would that keep you from doing?  Would that help to keep us from sinning as much as we all do?  Would we give it a second thought before we took the leap into sin?  Would we think twice before we spent our money on things that we did not need rather than to the glory of God?  Would we think twice before we spoke that harsh or unkind word about someone who is absent from our gathering?  Would we think twice before we let our eyes stray to things that are not of God?  What kind of people would we be?

But more than any of these questions, I was provoked to thought by the footnotes in my Bible on this passage.  The entire thing is good but I was particularly  caught by the notes for verse 15.  In regard to the word rule in this verse the notes offer this, "Our hearts are the center of conflict because there our feelings and desires clash--our fears and hopes, distrust and trust, jealousy and love.  How can we deal with these constant conflicts and live as God wants?  Paul explains that we must decide between conflicting elements by using the rule of peace--which choice will promote peace in our souls and in our churches?"

Choice.  Now there is a concept.  We must choose.  Joshua tells us to "...choose this day who you will serve..."  We must decide to choose who we will follow and we must choose how we will follow.

On Christmas Eve we went to our daughter's church for worship and the pastor spoke of our choice in following the Father.  Whatever we decide we should decide to follow with all of our heart.  The pastor was talking about those of us who feel content with our lives and decide that there is nothing more that can be added to our lives and pass the opportunity by instead of putting our lives in the hand of the  Almighty.

A few weeks ago in Bible Study, I asked the group if they had to choose between following Jesus and having a perfect life with perfect kids and a perfect home with a perfect job in the perfect town with perfect weather, what would they choose?  For me it seemed like a no brainer.  But for most of the group this was a really tough question.  I was stunned.

I was speaking with friends recently who had befriended a young couple who had been raised under a communist regime.  She was telling us that choice was a very difficult thing for these young people because nothing was left to personal choice in their lives.  What we consider an opportunity to choose paint colors, what dress or shirt to wear, where to go or what to do was a nearly impossible task for these people raised where they had no choice.

We have to choose God.  We have to make a choice to follow Him with all of our heart and soul.  If you will look back at the footnotes for this Scripture it says that we need to choose what is best for our soul.  When was the last time that I made a decision based on what was best for my soul?

We are called to make decisions based on what will bring peace.  Whoa! when was the last time you did that?  The verse before the chosen passage says, "...there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all."  Remember that when this was written the followers of The Way were being persecuted and most of them were gentiles.  Following Jesus made you a gentile.  We are to live a life that says that all of us are children of God, can we do that?  Will we do that?  At the same encounter as mentioned above a different woman was speaking of a Muslim child who had attended Methodist preschool (not ours).  When it was time to prepare for kindergarten, the mother wanted to continue in a Christian school.  She was referred to an area Christian school which in turn denied her child admission because he was not Christian.  What does that say about choosing to live a life that reflects Jesus?  What would you have done?  What would Jesus have done?

Living the Christian life is not always easy.  It is not always filled with easy decisions.  The example above is an easy decision for me.  I am appalled that this school calls itself Christian and am very grateful that the Catholic School that my children attended did not deny us because we were Presbyterian.  How do we think that there will ever be a chance of peace with the Muslims of this country if we deny them entrance?  How do we think that we will have any chance of outreach to them if we will not treat them as worthy of being children of God and of being saved by the Son?  We have to make decisions that are best for our souls, today and every day.

Our singular decisions have impact beyond anything that we could imagine.  When Gandhi was a young man, he was turned away from a Christian church by the usher who should have welcomed him with open arms.  Gandhi felt that Christianity was the best faith for all men, not just a few chosen men.  Because of one man, India is Hindu rather than Christian.  We do not know what the ramifications of this particular decision concerning the child will be, only time will tell.  But I ask you, was this decision made for the benefit of someone's soul or was it made as a decision of peace?  I think not.

We will have many opportunities in this life to make a difference.  Sometimes our words will fall on deaf ears like the indecision of my Bible Study class, sometimes it will fall on someone who is reaching out to us.  Tony Campolo speaks of having to share a homeless guy's cup of coffee, we will be called to make similar decisions.  We may be asked to reach out to people whom we fear, to people that we are unsure of.  But we must never cease to spread the good news and spread it unceasingly because we do not know whose names are written into the book of life.  We cannot choose who God will put in our path.  We cannot choose who will be in heaven and who will not.  But we can make decisions that are good for our souls and good for peace.


Judge Not

Since we recently studied accountability in Bible Study and Sunday School, I thought it would be a good topic to address here.  When we choose to follow Christ, Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5: 16-21, “…from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view.  Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!  All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.  And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.  We are there for Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us.  We implore you one Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.  God made him who had not sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”  If we are to be the righteousness of God, we are called to a higher standard than those who are in the world.  And in that capacity, we are called to be accountable to one another so that we do not stray from the path.  In Colossians 3:16, 17 Paul tells us, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom,…And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the mane of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

We are to form close knit communities that will allow us to become closer and trusting so that we can share our successes and frustrations with one another.  In turn, we should hold each other accountable to strive to live as a new creation in Christ, always striving toward righteousness.

The world is always throwing:”…thou shalt not judge, lest ye be judges…” at us.  But Paul also tells us in Romans 2:1, “You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.”  My foot notes on this scripture say that Paul’s teaching about judging agrees with that of Jesus, who did not condemn judging as such, but hypocritical judging.  Failing to judge between right and wrong is a failure to live to the higher standards, but do not condemn someone else when you are guilty of the same thing.  We are to take stands based on our faith, but we are to be honest about it and clean up our act before we draw attention to it in someone else’s life.  It is a hard call, but if we agree to be accountable to one another, it becomes easier.


On Handel and Newton

Okay, so I have been a little hard on you this Christmas so for my last card of 2006 I leave you with John Newton and George Frideric Handel.  As I was driving home the other evening I was listening to a radio program on John Newton, best known to us as the author of Amazing Grace.  But this program was about his association with Handel's Messiah.  I found this interesting since John Newton was preaching almost 100 years after Handel wrote his magnificent praise to the Christ.

I did a little research on this because the narrator said that Newton was so concerned that the people would get lost in the music of the monumental work that they would forget what it was about, what the words were because the words come from The Word.  I found out that Newton wrote 50 sermons concerning Handel's Messiah!  FIFTY! I guess that the narrator was not kidding.

Messiah includes in it 73 verses of Scripture taken mainly from Matthew and Luke.  But the parts of the Messiah that we are most familiar with come from Isaiah.  The work covers all of what it is to be a believer.  Newton was so impacted both by the work and the need to make people understand the importance and relevance of the work to their lives that he spent an inordinate amount of time on the topic.

Messiah begins with the "Overture," a dark and brooding piece of music that makes us feel the desperation of the people of Israel, the "lostness" of their spirit.  That place that all of us find ourselves when we are far from God.  These people were far from God. 

But soon we are reminded that although we may feel far from God He is never far from us.  The second part of the work called "Comfort Ye My People" is based on Isaiah 40:1-3, " Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.  Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD's hand double for all her sins.  The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God."   In our training this particular passage has been equated to John the Baptist.  But God is also telling Isaiah to comfort his people, that they have done wrong but there is light at the end of the tunnel.  The people may have forgotten God but He has not forgotten them.

The third movement, "Every Valley Shall be Exalted" comes from Isaiah 40:4. "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain..."  In my very short career in the choir we used to sing this at Christmas time and I used to love it because it sounded so joyous and wonderful.  God is coming and when He comes, watch out because He will show off and it will be spectacular!  How could the glory of the Father be anything else? Newton wanted his people to know this, to be in awe not simply of the music but more of the Father.

This movement is followed by "And the Glory of the Lord shall be Revealed." "And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it." (Isaiah 40:5)  When His glory is revealed, we will all see it together, our covenant group, our group of believers, no one left out who wants to be a part.  God's coming will be for all mankind to reach out and take unto it themselves.  Is that not the good news of the season, of all our yesterdays and tomorrows, of all of our lives?

From here we move to Isaiah 7:14, "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel."  I have been asked if it is really important that we believe in the virgin birth because there are those who do not believe, including some who are our spiritual leaders.  My belief is that this is a basic premise of our faith and if you do not believe this then you can't belong to the club.  I believe it is important because without it, there is doubt as to the Messiah's paternity and if we do not believe that Jesus is the Son of God our faith is for nothing.

The ninth movement is based on Isaiah 40:9, "O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!" and Isaiah 60:1, "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee."  Get thee up and send the word!  Do not hold back, spread the good news.  I am put in mind of the World War I song, Send the Word! (I think that is what it is called).  Anyway it goes, "Over there, over there, send the word, send the word, over there!"  I won't go on but you get the point.  We are to be glad and joyous, so glad and joyous in fact that we cannot keep our mouths shut about the good news.  We have to tell everyone who will stand still long enough to listen.

The tenth and eleventh movements are descriptions of the context of Jesus' arrival and the deep need for God's saving light using Isaiah 60:2-3, "For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.  And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising."  This is our promise as non-Jewish that we will be called into the light also.  But that light comes only with the advent of the Messiah, which is what it is all about.

The twelfth movement is the one that most of us are most familiar with, "For Unto Us a Child is Born" based on Isaiah 9:6, "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."  The mighty God, the everlasting Father...what more do we want?  I love these words especially and Handel makes them so powerful.  Do we really realize what a gift God has given us?  Do we realize what our world would be without Jesus?  Man is a spiritual creature, would we be worshipping the golden calf, a man-made, inanimate, powerless thing?

Finally, the nineteenth and twentieth movements are about the effect of the Messiah's appearance.  "The Eyes of the Blind Shall be Open'd," based on Isaiah 35:5-6, "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.  Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert."  This portrays Jesus' ministry of healing and "He Shall Feed His Flock," based on Isaiah 40:11, "He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young."  shows us Jesus the Good Shepherd.

I have chosen to focus on Isaiah Scriptures to show you how the Word that the Israelites had at their disposal showed them the way to the Messiah but they chose not to follow.  We have that choice too!  I pray at this Christmas season you will choose to follow with all of your heart.  If you would like a sheet that gives all of the Scripture references for the Messiah, please let me know.

When Handel's Messiah was first performed in Dublin, someone told Handel how much he enjoyed the concert.  Handel replied, "I should be sorry if only I entertained them, I wished to make them better."

I have used "Sing We Now of Christmas" by Dr. Douglas B. Skinner as a reference for this card.  This sermon is available on the internet.

A little aside, It is traditional to stand during the Hallelujah Chorus.  Amy took us to see Manheim Steamroller on Friday Night and they perform a jazzed up rendition of this chorus.  I could not get them to stand up, can you imagine?


Accountability

In Sunday School a while back we were discussing how to the message of the ancient prophets from the Bible into our churches.  How do we have a genuine renewal of faith in our churches?  One of the members of the class thought that only through accountability can we make the changes that we are talking about.  Only by removing the log from our own eyes can we truly create change in others.

We have discussed accountability in our Bible studies and have even entertained the idea of becoming accountable to one another so that changes can be made in our lives, so that we can become more presentable to God.  Matthew 18:15-20 tells us show to approach someone who is falling short of the mark and how to bring them back to the fold.  Matthew says: “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother.  But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED.   If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.  "Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.  Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.  For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst."

All of this is well and good as long as we, individually choose to be deadly honest with our accountability group and, in addition, agree to accept the admonition of the group without anger and hostility.  These are big, big leaps.  How honest are we willing to be with, not only ourselves, and God, but especially making ourselves vulnerable before the group?

Each of us who chooses to set out on this path must realize that each of us will fall short of the mark and each of us will at some point be held accountable before the group for our own actions.

God puts people in our lives to change how we  think, who we are and how we act.  He puts them there to challenge us, to rile us up, to get us off the mark and on to a renewed life in God.  Our only chance to make a difference in this world is while we are in it.  After we die, there will be no chance to save souls for Christ.  But, In order to make that mark, we have to be willing to follow the Lord with all that is within us.  I believe that accountability as a Christian is totally essential.  I am so thankful that God has sent this into my life at this particular time.  Think hard and when you decide, dive in, the water is fine.


Ridding Ourselves of Sin

I have been reading one of John Owens' many works called The Mortification of Sin.  Owens was a Puritan comptempory of Jonathan Edwards living in the 17th century.  Owens wrote this entire book concerning Romans 8:13, "For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live".  Owens says that "morification" or "putting to death" our sins is the work of belivers and the Spirit is the principal avenue to it's conclusion.  We do not speak of sin much in our churches or our Sunday School classes.  We would rather labor under the false impression that our sins are forgiven and that settles it.  But 1 John 3:9 tells it differently, "No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God."  Colossians 3:5-7  puts it in more certain terms, "Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.  For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them."  Our continuation of sin will bring us nothing but God's wrath!

New men live new lives.  Anything less than this is a contradiction of who we are in Christ.  The  Scriptures command us to put sin to death.  Is is as simple as that and as difficult as that.  We cannot do it without the help of the Holy Spirit BUT we have to confront our sins.  We have to call a spade a spade.  We have to call it sexual immorality not a little temptation.  Call it an evil desire and not reordering our priorities.  This unmasking of self-deceit helps to expose the sin lurking in the hidden corners of our hearts!  We have to refuse the sin, starve it and reject it.  We cannot "mortify" sin without the pain of the kill.  There is no other way!

In Colossians 3:12-17 Paul sets this in a broader context. "So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.  Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.  Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful.   Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.  Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father."  Sweeping the house clean simply leaves us open to a further invasion of sin.  But when we understand the "glorious exchange" principle of the Gospel of grace, then we will begin to make some real advance in holiness.  As sinful desires and habits are not only rejected, but exchanged for character and His graces are held together by love (vs 14), not only in our private life but also in the church fellowship (vv. 12-16), Christ's name and glory are manifested and exalted in and among us (3:17).

This is such an important part of our walk, to strive to be more, to be better, to glorify the Father through the help of the Holy Spirit.  We cannot expect the Father to recognize us when we know Him only as the "kind uncle."  God loves us enough to allow us to skin our knees and bloody our nose until we learn to maneuver through the life that He has planned for us.  The words from Garth Brooks' The Dance put it adequately, "...I could have missed the pain, but I would have missed the dance."  We have to work through the hurts in order to win the prize of basking in the presence of the Almighty.  We have to claim the Good News of the Gospel as our own, the Good News that is God.

The walk that we journey on cannot simply be a "Sunday Morning" walk.  It has to encompass all the aspects of our days.  We need to sanctify our part of our work-a-day world.  For most of us, our mission field is our work place.  We have to bring the same mortification into the things that happen to us in our day to day life.  We have to live the Christian life even with our non-Christian friends and associates.  God should always be on our minds and in our hearts.  Our actions should not be different those 6days of the week that we are not in church.  Our life needs to become consistent.  We will all fall short and then we need to seek God's forgiveness and with the help of the Spirit, to try not to fall again.  God is good and His desire for us is that we enjoy and glorify Him for ever.  To do that, we must strive to be all that we can be.  The "old guys" of theology tried to live by the Word and so should we.  John Piper tells us to find someone who you can coxy up with and grow in the Spirit with, even if he's dead!  He is recommending that we study the mighty men who came before us, the John Owenses and the Jonathan Edwardses and the Moodys and the Calvins and the Wesleys.  Find out what made these men stand apart. 

I would like to thank John Owens, Sinclair B. Ferguson and Tabletalk by Ligonier Ministries for the inspiration and the writings that I have quoted from in this card.


Can You Hear Me?

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says, " Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

I was in a cute little shop this weekend in Natchitochus, Louisiana and saw this Scripture on the front of one of those blank books you can buy in the bookstores.  I was reminded of how all of us struggle with prayer at one time or another.  Some of us seem to never get over that struggle. Some of us wonder why we even keep it up because it is such a struggle.  I do   not know if I can make it a better experience for you or not, but maybe this might help just a little.

I have begun to read Philip Yancey's book entitled Prayer Does it Make Any Difference?  The pastor recommended it a couple of weeks ago and I like Yancey so I picked it up.  I am going to borrow from Yancey this week.  I hope it will give you a new perspective.  This comes from the chapter on "Keeping Company With God." 

"'Be still and know that I am God"; the Latin imperative for "be still" is vacate.  As Simon Tugwell explains, "God invites us to take a holiday [vacation], to stop being God for a while, and let Him be God."  Too often we think of prayer as a serious chore, something that must be scheduled around other appointments, shoehorned in among other pressing activities.  We miss the point, says Tugwell: "God is inviting us to take a break, to play truant.  We can stop doing all those important things we have to do in our capacity as God, and leave it to Him to be God."  Prayer allows me to admit my failures, weaknesses, and limitations to the One who responds to human vulnerability with infinite mercy.

To let God be God, of course, means climbing down from my own executive chair of control.  I must uncreate the world I have so carefully fashioned to further my ends and advance my cause.  Adam and Eve, the builders of Babel, Nebuchadnezzar, the South African guards, not to mention all who struggle with addictions or even ego, know well what is at stake.  If original sin traces back to two people striving to become like God--the first step in prayer is to acknowledge or "remember" God--to restore the truth of the universe.  "That Man may know He dwells not in his own," said Milton."

I chose this passage from "Prayer" because I hear the same struggles over and over again in the classes that I teach.  I don't have time, if you only realized all the things that I have to do every day, night, week (choose your time frame).  If I fail to do my job the entire company will stop running and, and, and.... We are all a little like Job, so caught up in the day to day pain of life that he could no longer see God in it.  I try not to let myself get caught up in the whole "Job thing" but inevitably I end up right back there because, if I am honest with myself, I want to be God.  I want to be in charge.  I don't want to be obedient, I don't even want to try.  I spent a good part of my life with someone else in charge of it and I don't want to go back there, thank you very much.

Or maybe this sounds more like you, "Hey God, its me, Margaret.  You know what my mom did to me to day?  Well, just in case you didn't I'll tell you....and I am really mad and I am never going to forgive her and furthermore, I am not going to bless her in my prayers tonight! Oh! and I almost forgot, if you could take care of that little problem, you know the one, I would really appreciate it!

Or how about this one, Yo, God!  Over here, you see that guy over there? Yeah, that one!  Do you see what he's doing?  Can you believe that?  If I was you this is what I would do to take care of him.  Now, once you take care of that, I can give you a few more little heads up on some of the things I've seen going on down here...

You see, when we accept Christ as our savior, we agree to be obedient to His word, we agree to pray for our enemies, we agree to confess our sins and allow Him to wash us clean.  We agree to not judge other people but most of all we agree to be His children, and there in is the baseline for our prayer life.  We are to come to the knee of God and lay our head in His lap and pour out our hearts to Him.  We are to always remember who He is, He is our Father, we love Him and He loves us.  We are not telling Him anything that He does not already know, but we have to tell Him, we have to bear our souls for the sake of our souls.  We have to ask Him to take care of the hurts that our enemies have inflicted, we have to ask Him to help us to lay aside our earthly lives for a few minutes in order to spend some time with the one who has the strength to open the lid to the balm of Gilead and heal our sin-sick souls.  There is nothing we cannot bring to God.  But remember what God's reaction was to Job when he had been sitting under the tree and telling his friends what he was going to say to God when he go a chance.

God:  "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?  Tell me, if you                                 understand.  Who marked off its dimensions?  Surely you know!                                        Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?"

Job:      "Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me                      to know."

God loved Job and knew that Job loved Him but Job got so caught up in himself that he began to think that he might be able to do a better job than God.  Job thought that he had not sinned and did not deserve this.  Try to never go there because none of us, not even Job, is without sin.

Today, lay your head on the knee of the Father and ask Him to help you to reorder your life so that it allows special, particular time with the One who sets the captives free.


A Word From the Wise

I get a little booklet each month from Ligionier Ministries called "TableTalk".  I most often find that it addresses things that I have been reading or had on my mind.  This month, discussion in our Sunday School class has been much into a right relationship with God.  When I saw this card, I thought it was a good starter to  cause us to think about the contrast between what man thinks is a successful person and what God thinks about your success or failure.

Proverbs 14:12 says, "There is a way that seems right to man, but its end is the way to death."  Gene Veith in his article in "TableTalk" entitled "Train up a Child," says this concerning this verse, "I learned that my own mind, apart from God's Word, will lead me astray.  Even if my idea seems to make so much sense." 

Man may be successful in the eyes of the world but that does not mean he is walking in lock step with the Father.  The same article notes that Proverbs has 31 chapters, making it a great book for a month-long reading project.  He notes that once he had read the book through he re-read it many times because it held so much that impacted his life and thoughts.  I want to borrow a passage from him to show you how relevant an Old Testament book can be to our way of thinking.

..."I kept finding a wealth of advice both practical and profound, telling me how to resolve conflicts and get along with people.  I learned that I am to plan, make decisions,  but that God, nevertheless, is the one who leads, determines, and establishes the outcome.  'The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps' (16:9).  "Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand' (19:21).  ...And even if I am convinced that I am virtuous, that I reside on the the moral high ground, "All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weights the spirit' (16:2)."

I have included a copy of this short article for you to read in it's entirety. 

We all think that we have the "God thing" down pat.  We all think that our walk is righteous, but not one of is capable of staying on that path 24/7/364.  We are required, not asked, not recommended, REQUIRED to teach our children the way to go.  Proverbs says, "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it."  If we read through the book it tells and warns us about wisdom vs. foolishness, use of wine, raising children, marital relationships, immorality, honesty, honoring our parents and many more things that I do not have time to go into here.  Proverbs is a most valuable book.

One thing I did notice as I scanned the book for this card is that it always addresses the reader as "child".  We are the child in this dialogue, we are always the child of God, learning and growing at his feet as long as we will approach the throne of God.

Veith finishes his article with this, "Today's pop culture is unlike any other in history, in being driven by children rather than by adults.  Us aging baby boomers still tend to listen to the music that we listened to as children.  Our styles and fashions and entertainment -- and even, increasingly, what we do in church -- are determined by what young people like.  No wonder they have become, literally, juvenile.  In today's topsy-turvy and increasingly infantile culture, Proverbs not only helps children become adults; it also helps adults become adults."

We have abdicated our role both as the child of God and as the adult in the family relationship.  We don't want to teach our children scripture because it might turn them off or worse yet bore them!  We worry more about their little "Ids" (a part of the personality make up) than we do about what kind of adults they will make or more importantly how it is with their soul.

Our souls and especially our children's souls should be upper most in our thoughts.  We only get one go around and this is it.  We live our lives for God or we do not.  We have to have God in our hearts in this life or there will be no next life.

One final thought from Veith and Proverbs about how we seek to have it our way, "He who is estranged seeks pretexts to break out against all sound judgment" (18:1).  Exactly! that is why the most persuasive arguing ... often fails to change people's minds.  And why sin is the beginning of unbelief, as the sinner, wanting to justify himself, then comes up with all kinds of reasons why Christianity must not be true. (Other translations render the verse along the lines of the ESV: "Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment."  The same notion is there, that a prior alienation gives rise to "breaking out" against truth, and that unbelief has its roots in the will.)

Regardless of how weak we think or wills are when it comes to chocolate or alcohol or various things we like to much to give up, our wills are powerful.  We are al perfectly capable of digging our heels in and standing in defiant opposition to anything that seeks to change who we think we are, things of faith included.  Our will can make or break us and sometimes our loving, just God must break us.

Our son came to me the other day, after learning the hard way about what it is to stand totally on your own and said, "You know, I have learned that when YOU think that you are on top of the world, God breaks you down."  That is absolutely true because without that, we will not be prepared to move on to the next level of our journey. 

Proverbs gives us a good foundation for the journey.  You will find powerful wisdom in this book.  I challenge you to begin a month long read through Proverbs.  It is okay if it takes you more than one month but read it.  You will be amazed.


A Heart for God

I have a little book written by Charles (Chuck) Swindoll entitled Bedside Blessings. It has short little readings intended to be read at night before bed and an accompanying Scripture.  The entry for February 11 was this, "What does it mean to be a person after God's own heart?  Seems to me, it means that you are a person whose life is in harmony with the Lord.  What is important to Him is important to you.  What burdens Him burdens you.  When He says, "Go to the right," you go to the right.  When He says, "Stop that in your life," you stop it.  When he says, "This is wrong and I want you to change,: you come to terms with it because you have a heart for God.  That's bottom-line biblical Christianity."  The accompanying Scripture was 2 Peter 1:5, "..applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence..."

After Peter's attempts to have Christ proceed to His glorification on Peter's terms and his denial of Christ in Pilate's courtyard, Peter started on the road to becoming a mighty man of God only after falling at the feet of the risen Lord and begging the Christ to leave him because he was a sinful man.  I find Peter's transformation miraculous.  It was so great that he could give us the passage that includes verse 1:5.  But I would like to look at the entire passage.  2 Peter 1:2-7, "Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord;  seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.  For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.  Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love."

This passage has a lot of information in it, but I would like to address those parts that apply particularly to becoming a person after God's own heart.  The first thing that we see in this passage is that God has granted us everything pertaining to life and godliness through His divine power.  When God tells us to "go right" or to stop something in our life" or "to change" we are already empowered by the perfect God to accomplish what He asks of us.   We can count on Him to stand by us and His power to enable us.  He will make our inadequacies perfectly adequate.

The next thing that we see is that because of the promises of the Father, we can participate through Him in His divine nature.  We can free ourselves from the things of the flesh that plague us.  God has promised us that He will stand by us through all of these things.  We were talking in Bible Study recently about people rejecting Christianity because they found it restrictive.  We were in agreement that we found it profoundly freeing.  We had an immediate escape from being involved in things that are opposed to our basic beliefs.  What is freeing about "free love" that brings us all varieties of STD's.  What is freeing about being able to drink all you want or use illegal drugs only bring forth children who have fetal alcohol syndrome or are addicted to crack?  What is freeing about being able to love anyone you want only to end your life with AIDS?  This passage clearly calls us to a moral life.  A life lived with a heart for God.

Peter outlines the progression of our journey toward developing that heart for God.  Peter learned this through the blustering and posturing of his own life.  Think about the man that Peter was pre-Holy Spirit.  Peter was a jealous man, he was jealous of John.  He actually challenged Jesus concerning John in John 21:20-22.  Jesus has just restored Peter after the denial, "Simon, bar Jonah, do you love me?"  Then he tells Peter to feed His [Jesus'] sheep and to follow Him [Jesus].  Peter is still struggling with the things of man.  He thinks that Jesus loves John more than Peter (sound familiar, ever been there?).  Then, just like us, Peter cannot control his jealousy, "...What about him [John]?"  The green eyed monster rears its ugly head.  Peter is jealous but his soul still aches because John remained with Jesus until the end while Peter ran.  In John, Peter sees all the most grievous failures of his life.  We have all been there.  But through the grace and mercy of God, Peter is healed.  Peter comes to the place that he can write those things in the focus Scripture we study today.  Through the divine power of God, Peter becomes the man who stands before the crowd in Jerusalem on Passover and preaches with confidence about the risen Christ.  The power of the Father healed Peter's sin-sick soul.  Peter's heart was healed and he became that mighty man of God who did indeed end up following in the footsteps of Jesus as he had said he would, for Peter, too, was crucified only he was crucified upside down because he demanded that he was not worthy to die in the same way as his Lord and Savior died.

This passage ends it's journey toward the heart of God with the last step being Love.  In all respects we are called to love one another, not just the lovable but all men, even our enemies.  The great commandment ties love of our neighbor to God and we cannot separate the two.  "Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul and with all of your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."  Our love of God cannot be maintained without loving those we encounter whether they are "worthy", whether they are the proper kind of people, whether they smell good, but in whatever condition we find them.  No matter what, we are to love them for that is how we show our love to the Father.  Then and only then will we be in harmony with the Father.


Can You Explain the Trinity to Me?

I was asked in our Bible Study Class to compose this explanation of the Trinity after we discussed Jonathan Edwards’ definition in class.  I thought that all of you may be interested in this little explanation.  I do not believe our faith does a very good job of deciphering the complexity of the Trinity as a whole, so I have begun to present new definitions that I find in hopes that we will come to a more clear understanding of this most important Christian concept.

Over the course of the last couple of years, there has been much discussion as to what the Trinity really means.  Are we monotheistic or polytheistic?  The most mind bending question was, “Who do you expect to see when you get to heaven?” I will tell you the answer that I believe God gave me at the end of this little exercise.  Before we get to that answer, I want to give you some of the best of the definitions that I have found.

My first “favorite” definition came from a children’s book written in 1975 by Joanne Marxhausen entitled 3 in 1: A Picture of God.  I still read this in class periodically.  Marxhausen describes God, the 3 in 1, in respect to the parts of an apple, the skin being God over us [God the Father], the flesh being God with us [God the Son] and the core being God in us [God the Holy Spirit].  All three are distinct yet all part of the same God.  (If you are interested in this book for your kids, I have a few left.)

Mechthild of Magdeburg, a 14th century mystic describes the Trinity in her beautiful poetry thus, 

            Lord, heavenly Father, you are my heart.

            Lord Jesus Christ, you are my body.

            Lord, Holy Spirit, you are my breath.

            Lord, Holy Trinity, you are my only refuge and my eternal rest!

She continues in her equally elegant prose:

“The Father’s voice recites a hymn of praise to Himself: ‘I am a flowing spring that no one can block; but man can easily block up his heart with an idle thought, so that the restless Godhead that continually toils without toil cannot flow into his soul.’”

“The Son sings thus, ‘I am a constantly recurring richness that no one can contain except the boundlessness which always flowed and shall ever flow from God, and which comes again in its fullness with His Son.’”

“The Holy Spirit sings this praise: ‘I am an insuperable power of truth.  This one finds in a person who to his honor perseveres in God, come what may.’”

“’Thus does the whole Trinity sing:  ‘I am so strong in my undividedness that no one can ever separate me or shatter me in all my eternity.’”

I really like the beauty of Mechthild’s words.  But the best definition, the reason this little task came about was written by Jonathan Edwards a contemporary of John Wesley, in fact, they shared the same birthday.  I am going to give you the original text and follow it with an explanation in clearer English.

Edwards says this:

            The Father is the deity subsisting in the prime, unoriginated and most absolute    manner, or the deity in its direct existence.  The Son is the deity [eternally]          generated by God’s understanding, or having an idea of Himself and subsisting in      that idea.  The Holy Ghost is the deity subsisting in act, or the divine essence      flowing out and breathed forth in God’s infinite love to and delight in Himself.       And…the whole Divine essence does truly and distinctly subsist both in the        Divine idea and Divine love, and that each of them are properly distinct persons.

Edwards is telling us that God, the Father, is the self same God who has always existed, was not created and absolute, there is not other.  At the time that God decided to take on a human form, God, the Son, was God’s idea of how He would be when He was interacting with us on this earth.  The Son was the form of God that we, in our limitedness could accept and deal with.  (Same God, different skin)  God, the Holy Ghost (Spirit), God in action, the God of Acts, the God who causes us to feel the divine love flowing from the very breath of God.  Edwards finally says that each of the aspects of God are distinct persons, BUT they all remain fully God.

After I “thought” that I had finished this little dialogue I began reading a book called Thank God It’s Friday, Encountering the Seven Last Words from the Cross by William H. Willimon, Bishop for the North Alabama United Methodist Conference, yes I said Methodist.  Although this is not exactly a description of the Trinity, it is a wonderful explanation of the workings of the Trinity.

            There, in forgiving from the cross, Jesus is only doing what he did throughout his            ministry.  And the Father, in receiving the plea for forgiveness of us by the Son,         in only doing what the Father in the power and resourcefulness of the Holy Spirit constantly does—reach out to sinful humanity.  The son is doing on the cross     what the Father and the Holy Spirit have done through out the history of the       world, only intensifying it, focusing it, through the cross.

            This is why I said in the beginning that we are witnessing a conversation within    the life of the Trinity.  Remember the prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane?  “Father, I        don’t want to die.  Let this cup pass from me” (AP).  Jesus was not playacting in      that prayer.  He did not eagerly seek the cross.  And yet, because he was          determined completely to love us and have us in the name of the Father, the cross             found him, and he willingly took up the cross as the will of his Father…And the     Holy Spirit is so resourceful and relentless in getting intimate with us, yet also so             elusive, free, and beyond our grasp, coming and going among us just when we           least want the Holy Spirit to come or to go.  Now, here on the cross, in the            suffering of the Son, the Father is suffering what that Old Testament hesed,        “steadfast love”, finally comes to.  And the relentlessly communal Holy Spirit is      suffering the pain that intimacy with the human race inevitably entails for any            God who would come so close to us.

Here on the cross, as Jesus prays, “Father, forgive them,” we see that what Christ         said in John’s Gospel (“I and my Father are one”) is true and that, because the     Son and the Father are one, if the Son is to love and serve the Father and if the            Father is to love and serve the Son, then both will take us in the bargain.  And    there is no taking murderers like us without a stunning act of divine forgiveness.     The Trinity has reached out, drawn in, attached itself to us sinners, and look what it got–a cross.  And we sinners have used every means at our disposal–including            our religion, our spirituality, our faith – to resist this love, and look what it got us        –forgiveness.

            That’s one of the things Jesus meant when he said, in John’s Gospel, that there’s            no other way to the Father except through him.  That is, there is just no way that     we’ll get to the Father except by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit getting to us      through Trinitarian forgiveness.

Wow! Now I am impressed with this Bishop Willimon!  I had asked Pastor Rusty where I could go to hear a dynamic Methodist preacher and I have indeed found one.  If you want to read his book when I am finish, you may borrow it, maybe.

Finally, in answer to who I think I will see in heaven.  I believe that I will see God the Father and the man, Jesus.  I had never thought about this answer before it was asked of me directly.  So I feel that the answer came from the Father.  Within the week I had received confirmation to this.  A little booklet that I get monthly said that the man Jesus was in heaven because only the human form of Jesus was heaven bound, the God form of Jesus was traveling over the surface of this world doing what Jesus does best, interacting with our hearts.

As I encounter other good words about the Trinity I will add them to this wordy little diatribe and forward it to you periodically.


The Cost of a Miracle

A little girl went to her bedroom and pulled a glass jelly jar from its hiding place in the closet.  She poured the change out on the floor and counted it carefully. Three times, even. The total had to be exactly perfect. No chance here for mistakes.  Carefully placing the coins back in the jar and twisting on the cap, she slipped out the back door and made her way 6 blocks to Rexall's Drug Store with the big red Indian Chief sign above the door.  She waited patiently for the pharmacist to give her some attention, but he was too busy at this moment. Tess twisted her feet to make a scuffing noise.  Nothing. She cleared her throat with the most disgusting sound she could muster. No good. Finally she took a quarter from her jar and banged it on > the glass counter. That did it!  

"And what do you want?" the pharmacist asked in an annoyed tone of voice.  I'm talking to my brother from Chicago whom I haven't seen in ages," he said without waiting for a reply to his question.  

"Well, I want to talk to you about my brother," Tess answered back in the same annoyed tone.

"He's really, really sick...and I want to buy a miracle." 

"I beg your pardon?" said the pharmacist.

"His name is Andrew and he has something bad growing inside his head and my Daddy says only a miracle can save him now. So how much does a miracle cost?"

"We don't sell miracles here, little girl. I'm sorry but I can't help you," the pharmacist said, softening a little.

"Listen, I have the money to pay for it. If it isn't enough, I will get the rest. Just tell me how much it costs."

The pharmacist's brother was a well dressed man. He stooped down and asked the little girl, "What kind of a miracle does your brother need?"

" I don't know," Tess replied with her eyes welling up. ”I just know he's  really sick and Mommy says he needs an operation. But my Daddy can't pay for it, so I want to use my money."

"How much do you have?" asked the man from Chicago.

"One dollar and eleven cents," Tess answered barely audibly. "And it's all the money I have, but I can get some more if I need to."

"Well, what a coincidence," smiled the man. "A dollar and eleven cents---the exact price of a miracle for little brothers.”  He took her money in one hand and with the other hand he grasped her mitten and said "Take me to where you live. I want to see your brother and meet your parents. Let's see if I have the miracle you need." 

That well dressed man was Dr. Carlton Armstrong, a surgeon, specializing in neurosurgery. The operation was completed free of charge and it wasn't long until Andrew was home again and doing well.  Mom and Dad were happily talking about the chain of events that had led them to this place.

"That surgery," her Mom whispered. "was a real miracle. I wonder how much it would have cost?"

Tess smiled. She knew exactly how much a miracle cost...one dollar and eleven cents....plus the faith of a little child.  In our lives, we never know how many miracles we will need.  A miracle is not the suspension of natural law, but the operation of a higher law.

MY OATH TO YOU...

When you are sad....I will dry your tears.

When you are scared....I will comfort your fears.

When you are worried.....I will give you hope.

When you are confused....I will help you cope.

And when you are lost....And can't see the light, I shall be your beacon.....Shining                                  ever so bright.

This is my oath.....I pledge till the end.

Why you may ask?.....Because you're my friend.

 Signed: GOD

This was forwarded to me by a friend; I have no idea where this came from but it is a powerful story of God’s mercy and love in the hands of a child.  Each of us can be this child and each of us can be this doctor.  We are called to have the faith of a child and, really, how often could we be the conduit of a miracle if we simply pay attention to the people God places in our path.


Thin Places

I have been reading a book by Michael Slaughter (a Methodist) called "Real Followers, a Radical Quest to Expose the Pretender Inside Each of Us".  I have only read a couple of chapters of this book but some of the last pages I read applied so well to the sermon series that we are hearing in church on prayer.  This series is called "Can You Hear Me Now".  The "you" being us hearing from God. 

Slaughter says that we have become a body of believers who have come to be more concept driven than spirit driven.  Jesus did not say that He was going to be going to heaven now, here is a list of rules.  Jesus wanted us to continue to interact with Him on a personal level, but like Samuel (see 1 Samuel), we are dependant on our pastors to tell us what to do and what to say.  We need to come to a place where we recognize the voice of God.  Jesus told us that HIS sheep would know His voice.  We are called children of God and the children recognize to their parent's voices and listen to them (we hope).  Do you listen to your Father? Do you know the Master's voice when He speaks to you?

We talked about this in Sunday School yesterday and one of the things that came up was that when we tell people that we hear God's voice, they think we are crazy, really insane, talking to people who are not there.  When did we come to a place that we were afraid to speak of how the Almighty communicates with us for fear of "the men in little white coats are coming to take me away hey, hey! To the funny farm where life is beautiful all day long." (Am I dating myself?  For you young people, that was one of those crazy songs from when I was young.)

Slaughter tells us to try to identify those times when we were able to hear God speak to our hearts.  Where were we?  When we have identified that, go there frequently.  Go there expecting to encounter God.

In the book of Habakkuk, the prophet goes to the pinnacle of Jerusalem and calls upon the Lord, telling Him that He will wait until he hears from God.  Habakkuk came to God with intention.  He expected to hear from God and he expected to get an answer from Him.  God obliges and tells Habakkuk to write it down.  He says he will in large clear letters.  Habakkuk addresses this as an event.  He knows he will hear from God but he also knows that he will hear in God's time, not our time.  I think the thing to remember here is that Habakkuk prepared to meet the Lord, it was no accident.  He went to the place where he thought he was most likely to encounter the Lord. 

Is there a special place where you encounter the Lord more intensely than anywhere else?  I really hope that there is.  For me that place is the Methodist Camp in Leesburg.  I heard a speaker there that called it a "thin" place, a place where it was easier to encounter God that most other places.  It was here that God took hold of my heart and let me know, once and for all, that I belonged to Him.  I especially like to sit in the sanctuary in the youth camp at night and look out onto Lake Griffin and feel the presence of the Lord.  It has always been like that for me at this special place.

In my youth, it was the dock at Lake Placid near Lake Wales.  I remember sitting in the meeting hall and listening to a young youth pastor, whose name I have long since forgotten, give a modern telling of the passion through the eyes of young hoods on the street.  I think that that was the first time I realized the horror that our Savior went through for us.  That was the setting for the first time that I heard God's Trombones, the story of the creation by James Weldon Johnson.  It is the story read as if James Earl Jones was reading it in a modified dialect.  To this day I cannot read it without getting choked up.  These are special times to me, times when God was particularly close to me.

I beg you to look into your heart and remember those times when you felt particularly close to God and if it is possible, go there and meet Him again.  Sadly, the Lake Placid Youth Camp is no longer there but Leesburg is and I am going again in March and I know that I will encounter my Lord.


W-I-N-S

Matthew 9:35-38 says, "Then Jesus made a circuit of all the towns and villages. He taught in their meeting places, reported kingdom news, and healed their diseased bodies, healed their bruised and hurt lives. When he looked out over the crowds, his heart broke. So confused and aimless they were, like sheep with no shepherd. "What a huge harvest!" he said to his disciples. "How few workers! On your knees and pray for harvest hands!""(The Message).

Christy and I were at the Couples Retreat this weekend and this Scripture was one that was used in one of the sermons we heard.  I liked The Message translation because it powerfully states Jesus' great love for the lost and his command to the disciples for prayer for help to harvest these souls for God. 

We are in the midst of the Lenten season and what better time to think about what Jesus has commanded us to do in His name.  To often we read the words of the Christ and consider them as suggestions, good suggestions but suggestions, none the less.  Jesus commanded the disciples and He commands us to pray for what is needed to bring these people to Christ.  For some of us our job will be the praying and for some of us our job will be the harvesting.  How do you answer this command from Jesus?

The ESV says, "35 And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 "Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore "pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.""  The command is not as imperative in this translation as it is in The Message but the intent is the same, "pray for help, these people are lost".

Do you ever think about it being your job to win people to Christ?  John Riley, one of the speakers that we heard this weekend turned win into this an acronym: What’s Important Now?  What is it absolutely imperative that we do now?  Jim Cymbala asks, "What do you want me to do today?"  Have you asked God what is important that you do today or do you decide what is important for you to do God today?

When we begin to ask God what His priorities are, we start down the road of making His priorities ours.  Only when we begin to do that will we begin to do what Thomas á Kempis describes as "seeing people as individuals not as the masses."  When we begin seeing people as individuals we bring the issue into perspective.  We, as a party of one, are not capable of helping to solve the problems of thousands of people or even tens of people but we can help one or two.  God never expected us to solve the problems of an entire nation all by ourselves, just the one or two that He puts in our path.

As we begin to make God's priorities our own, we then begin to move into a relationship with Him that leads to knowing that He is in our hearts.  The reason that the Golden Rule says to Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your mind, with all of your strength is because the goal is to give God everything that we have, to make it all Him.  In return He will take up permanent residence in our Hearts.

I pray that you will begin to identify yourself through what you know of God.  John Riley says that he wakes every morning and looks out the window and says, "Abba, I am so glad that I am yours and you have chosen to love me."  For all of us who remember trying to find ourselves, is this not a great identity: To be a child of God, not only that, but a beloved child of God.

When we begin living our lives through the Father we will know no greater joy.  Even in the toughest times, we will know no greater joy.  Teresa of Avila says to God, "I will accept nothing less than you.  I want all of you in my life."  What a goal.  What a love for the lover of our souls.


Forgiving the Unforgivable

I must admit that I am a little stymied as to what to write about this week.  It has been a week of joys and a week of challenges to say the least.

I have been listening to a book written by Stephen Saint, an Ocala boy, called The End of the Spear.  I have quoted this book before but the context was through something else that I had been reading and not the actual book.  If you have not read it, please do so, it will teach you things about forgiveness that you have never, ever thought of.  Stephen Saint was the son of a missionary who, along with four co-workers, was, in 1954, killed at the hands of the Warabi tribe, the most violent tribe known to man.  This tribe lived in the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador.  They were known to not only destroy their enemies but to also use their spears as the great equalizer to settle disputes among themselves.  When Steve's dad flew his little plane into the jungle that day, he was fully prepared to meet his death.  He had given every part of himself to God and was ready to do what was asked of him.  On this particular day, all was required of him.

When it was learned that Steve's father had met his death at the hands of this tribe, Steve's mom went in to try to meet with them.  They were receptive to her and she, in turn taught them about Wadinga, their word for God.  She moved her family to the out skirts of the village and taught them all she knew about walking Wadinga's trail.  When their thirst for God outgrew her knowledge, she sent in her sister to continue to work with them until she died of cancer still living in the little hut at the edge of the village.

What Steve's mother did was the ultimate in forgiveness.  She loved these people so much that she risked meeting the same end as her husband in order to bring the Gospel to these natives.  In return, she gained a new family for her fatherless children.  In fact, the man who found Steve's father at the end of his spear became Steve's surrogate father.  She also gained the souls of those people for the father and they learned to walk a new, less violent trail.  By the time the book concludes, the third generation finds a grandfather, great-grandfather and a huge extended family where the end of the spear had once been.

When I think of the vastness of this family's ability to forgive, I am shamed.  I, who has a difficult time putting far less important slights aside.  I, who feels ill treated when my word is not given the weight that I feel that it should.  I, who can give you a laundry list of things that have been done to me and not apologized for in adequate proportions.  That "I" would have a very, very difficult time not wanting to go into that Amazon village and find that little man at the end of my spear, who have a very difficult time forgiving someone who had just left my children fatherless.  But is that not exactly what Jesus told us to do?

When Peter asks Him how many times to forgive someone who has wronged us, he guesses that 7 is more than generous, but Jesus tells him 70 times 7.  We all know that verse and can even tell it quite adequately.  But Jesus did not add the caveat that we should do this only if we want to or only if the other guy asks us to forgive him, it is an imperative that we forgive others.

The Old Testament law did not provide for a wide range of forgiveness, but when Jesus came, He brought with Him new rules and those rules were not only vastly reduced in number, but the all revolved around love.  "Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your mind and with all of your heart."  "Love your neighbor as yourself."  These come from Deuteronomy but they were only the foundation for the fullness of Jesus love and His ability to forgive.  For as He was hanging on that cross, taking the punishment that been reserved for me, He asked the Father to forgive us.  He gave us forgiveness even while we were in that mob screaming "...crucify Him, crucify Him!..."  He was still loving us and still forgiving us.

We have all heard stories of those rare moms who stand before the person who murdered their child and grant them forgiveness.  Could we ever in our wildest imagination ever conceive of being that mom, who so loved her savior that she refused to go down with hatred and unforgiveness in her heart.  I don't know if I could be that mom or not.  But, this I do know, I am called to be that mom.

Forgiveness for we Americans is ever so hard.  We believe in self reliance and handling everything on our own.  We like the vengeance to be our's not the Lord's.  When we accept Christ as our savior, we are to become a new creation and putting those old clothes back on is a sin.  Part of the new person is to develop a forgiving heart.  How are you doing?  I am not doing so well.  My heart is to easily broken and my hurt to slow to heal.  I pray that you are doing better at this than I am.  Please pray for me.


Fleeing From God

Even though there is an irreverent element to the message on the front of this card, the message is indeed true.  I think that we have come to a point in our Christian culture that we think that when God chooses to use us that it will be all sweetness and light, no nay sayers, no mistakes on your part because we are doing God's work.  Then, as we step out into the vastness of the job God has set before us we find that all of the things that we did not expect to happen happen and we wonder if we we're  wrong or where God is in all of this.  If things get tough enough, we want to run.

There is a religious stand that says that only Christians can be seekers.  Non-believers cannot seek God until he reveals Himself to them.  I am not going into a great explanation of this here but it applies to where I am going and I would like you, for the sake of argument, to accept this at face value for a minute.  I want to talk about Jonah for a little while.  You all  know the story of Jonah and the Whale.  God spoke to Jonah and told him to go to Nineveh.  Now, Nineveh was not the most desirable place for a faithful Jewish man to be going.  Nineveh was the last large city of the Syrian empire, in today's Iraq.  It was no more desirable then then it is now.  Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh for a variety of reasons but mostly because he did not believe that the Ninevites deserved to be saved.  He knew when he went there on behalf of God, the  Ninivites would be saved whether he wanted it or not.  So like a good son of Adam, he ran and hid just as his ancestors had done.

Jonah thought that he could escape God.  Jonah thought that he could run far enough away that God would not find him.  Adam and Eve thought that they could hide from the presence of God after they had sinned.  They ran into the trees, into the woods, but God found them anyway.  God found Jonah just as he did Adam and Eve and he punished Jonah just the same. I won't waste space on the rest of the story that you all know.  Once Jonah got out of the whale he had a "whale" of an attitude adjustment and was more than willing to do what God asked. 

Man's natural inclination is to run from God.  Because we seek God we fail to recognize that we can also flee from God.  We have all known people who no matter what is happening in their lives they refuse to turn toward God.  Jonah does not flee God out of unbelief he flees Him precisely because of His belief.  He knows that God will forgive the Ninivites and bring them into the fold.  Jonah resists that happening.  He thinks it is unfair.

How like Jonah we are.  We want things to go the way that we think that they should We think that we know better than anyone else, including God.  Our ways are always the best ways.  Even after Jonah finished taking God's message to the Ninevites, he was still angry that these people received the message and accepted God as their God.

I was reading Yancy's book on prayer and he talks about a guy who was an all around scoundrel who had received God.  This guy turns up on the television on a Christian Talk Show.  Yancey, upon watching his performance, commented to his wife as to the audacity of the man to promote himself in this way considering the sins in his past.  Clearly Yancy doubted that this man had changed.  His wife replied, amazing the kind of people God will use.  Yancy was playing his Jonah role.  We all do this from time to time.  Thankfully God sees what is in our hearts.  He sees through his perfect eyes and not through the jaded eyes that we all possess.

God taught Jonah a lesson concerning his unrepentant heart.  Jonah slept in the shade of a vine.  God caused a worm to eat the vine, caused to it wilt and the shade was gone.  God said to Jonah, what are you complaining about, you did nothing to cause that vine to spring up so what is it to you if it dies?  Jonah's heart was convicted because that had been his attitude concerning the Ninevites.  They had not earned it.  Look at what Jonah had done all of his life, why did those who have not earned God's love have any right to God's love.

My purpose in rehashing Jonah's story is this: so often we look at the people around us and decide whether or not they deserve God's attention and love as much as we do.  We look around us and ask God why we are struggling when we are doing God's will.  Look at me aren't I religious.  Look at me aren't I good.  Look at me...Look at me.  All  the while, God is saying, the only reason that you do not pay the price you deserve is because of the grace and mercy of MY SON.  The only reason that I even consider you is because despite your failures, despite your falling away, despite the hardness of your heart I have loved you even before one of you days was lived I loved you.  I have loved you from before the beginning of time.  There is nowhere that you can flee from my presence.  I will always be here, I will always love you.  But I love that guy that you struggle with just as much.  Remember that, all my creation has my love, not just you.

All of my days I am thankful that God loves me because I sure do not deserve it.  I am thankful that you all forgive me and still love me even when I mess things up royally.  I am thankful that Jesus did not run when it came time for Him to fulfill his task on this earth.  I pray that as I go through the rest of my days, I will stand strong for the things of Christ and not bolt and run as is all of our propensity to do.  I pray that you will be blessed by the Father with the strength to carry through the tasks that God requires of You.  My prayers always include you and I ask the same from you.


W.I.N.S.

Matthew 9:35-38 says, "Then Jesus made a circuit of all the towns and villages. He taught in their meeting places, reported kingdom news, and healed their diseased bodies, healed their bruised and hurt lives. When he looked out over the crowds, his heart broke. So confused and aimless they were, like sheep with no shepherd. "What a huge harvest!" he said to his disciples. "How few workers! On your knees and pray for harvest hands!""(The Message).

Christy and I were at the Couples Retreat this weekend and this Scripture was one that was used in one of the sermons we heard.  I liked The Message translation because it powerfully states Jesus' great love for the lost and his command to the disciples for prayer for help to harvest these souls for God. 

We are in the midst of the lenten season and what better time to think about what Jesus has commanded us to do in His name.  To often we read the words of the Christ and consider them as suggestions, good suggestions but suggestions, none the less.  Jesus commanded the disciples and He commands us to pray for what is needed to bring these people to Christ.  For some of us our job will be the praying and for some of us our job will be the harvesting.  How do you answer this command from Jesus?

The ESV says, "35 And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37  "Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore "pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.""  The command is not as imperative in this translation as it is in The Message but the intent is the same, "pray for help, these people are lost".

Do you ever think about it being your job to win people to Christ?  John Riley, one of the speakers that we heard this weekend turned win into this anacronym: Whats Important Now?  What is it absolutely imperative that we do now?  Jim Cymbala asks, "What do you want me to do today?"  Have you asked God what is important that you do today or do you decide what is important for you to do God today?

When we begin to ask God what His priorities are, we start down the road of making His priorities ours.  Only when we begin to do that will we begin to do what Thomas a Kempis describes as "seeing people as individuals not as the masses."  When we begin seeing people as individuals we bring the issue into perspective.  We, as a party of one, are not capable of helping to solve the problems of thousands of people or even tens of people but we can help one or two.  God never expected us to solve the problems of an entire nation all by ourselves, just the one or two that He puts in our path.

As we begin to make God's priorities our own, we then begin to move into a relationship with Him that leads to knowing that He is in our hearts.  The reason that the Golden Rule says to Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your mind, with all of your strength is because the goal is to give God everything that we have, to make it all Him.  In return He will take up permanent residence in our Hearts.

I pray that you will begin to identify yourself through what you know of God.  John Riley says that he wakes every morning and looks out the window and says, "Abba, I am so glad that I am yours and you have chosen to love me."  For all of us who remember trying to find ourselves, is this not a great identity?  To be a child of God, not only that, but a beloved child of God.

When we begin living our lives through the Father we will know no greater joy.  Even in the toughest times, we will know no greater joy.  Teresa of Avila says to God, "I will accept nothing less than you.  I want all of you in my life."  What a goal.  What a love for the lover of our souls.


People of Amazing Grace

I have been reading a book by Michael Slaughter, a Methodist Pastor out of Ohio, called Real Followers.  I am going to borrow heavily from him this week.  He addresses Grace in the particular chapter I am citing, charging us to become a "people of amazing grace".  I like the sound of that.  Why do we not embrace God's grace and mercy?  Slaughter says, "Today's culture of "ungrace" is a perfectionist one where value is tied to appearance and performance.  As a follower of Christ, we are not accepted by God because we are right or good.  We are accepted by God because we are forgiven.  To what extent are you living in forgiveness?"  We still live as though we can earn our way into God's heart.  It cannot be done.  William Willimon in his book, The Final Seven Words, says that there is nothing we can do, nothing, Christ finalized it on the cross with his last words, "It is finished".  He did it all we can do nothing because with His death and resurrection IT WAS FINISHED!  Why do we not live like that.

Slaughter says, "You and I are created "in the image of God" (Gen. 1:27).  God, in creating the human race, "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being" (Gen. 2:7).  That breath is the esteem and worth of what it means to be a child of God. "

"That sense of value comes from God.  "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?  Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from you Father...You are of more value than many sparrows" (Matt. 10:29-31).

"While our value, esteem, and worth come from God, they are nurtured by humans, usually in a home environment."

"The power to shape another person's self-perception is something God wants us to use for good.  Jesus communicates this idea with words that I believe apply to every generation of real followers.  Jesus came back from the dead and gave his first followers some "Don't fear" words of assurance.  Then Jesus says, 'If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained" (John 20:23).

"What power!  Jesus gives His followers the power to hurt or to heal, to bless or to curse.  If they hang on to unforgiveness , then the cycle of unforgiveness will be retained.  They can also forgive, and in doing so model what it means to receive God's grace."

"Real followers become people of amazing grace.  Jesus restores what God gave us as human beings at the creation but was lost in our brokenness."

"Jesus rebuilds in his followers the sense of esteem for what it means to be God's children.  Then he shows his concern about the relationships by sending us out with power to hurt or to heal, to bless or to curse through our relationships."

"This is an awesome responsibility! These powers of blessing are just the opposite of what you might call today's culture of "ungrace".

What a challenge.  Not only for us but our children.  We have to take Jesus' grace into our hearts and live like it was real, like we actually live what we preach.   Christians are the best case against Christianity (paraphrase from Leonard Sweet in Out of the Questions, Into the Mystery).  We mouth all of the right doctrines but we fail to live them.  In the section that I have quoted from Slaughter he focuses on forgiveness.  We are all in need of forgiveness whether we want to admit it or not.  The Lord's Prayer asks the Father to forgive us as we have forgiven.  We have to learn to give forgiveness as well as ask for forgiveness.

On my trip this weekend the awareness of this came through the mouth of babes.  We have one very controlling granddaughter.  The condition of going on this trip was that it was it was Hannah's trip and she would make all of decisions.  As the weekend wore on the frustration and anger wore on the controlling child.  Her words became more hostile and angry.  Finally I told her she needed to speak out of kindness and love, not anger and frustration.  Surprisingly, she calmed down and became more loving.  Aren't we all like that?  We fail to act in love rather that out of our anger?  Only in hind sight do we realize that we could have handled the situation in a much better way.  Jesus said to love our neighbor and he meant it.  He did not mean to discount the grumpy old man at the end of the street or the nosy lady across the road.  He meant everybody.  We have a burdensome task before us to live this out.

Forgiveness is a test.  How far are we willing to go to forgive?  How do we decide who to forgive? What is it that keeps us from forgiving and lifting that person up to the Father.  On one of our couples retreats we were asked to close our eyes and picture the friends lowering the paralyzed man through the roof of the house to where Jesus was preaching.  Who are you afraid to place on that stretcher?  Why?  Put that person you are so afraid of forgiving on that stretcher and place them in the presence of the Christ.

We are not called to forgive only those we need we are required to forgive period.

This Easter Season my challenge is that we give up that hardest of the hard to forgive to the arms of Jesus.  Live His greatest gift to us, His atonement for our sins, His Mercy and His Grace.  Jesus finished it .  There is nothing else for us to do except live a life of faith and to open our hearts to Him for sanctification.  Begin to live your life like we really believe.  Doctrine is great but it will not save us.


Resurrection Faith

May you discover the heart of a resurrection faith this year and every year.  My deepest wish is that each of us will discover what it means to truly be an Easter believer. 

What does it mean to be an Easter believer?  If you will take the time to read an account of passion week in any of the gospels you will see how fast the people turned from the jubilant, rejoicing crowd on Sunday to the  hostile mob that shows up on Friday.  How like those people we are.  Even when we think that we are above all of this, it is so easy for us to be caught up in the emotion of things of the flesh and turn away from the Author and Healer of our souls.  These people had forgotten about Sunday.  These people had forgotten about calling this "man" King.  They had forgotten about the miracles that had happened in their midst and today, 5 days later, they are asking for His very life.

We can all rationalize that this is not us.  We can all deny that we would ever turn away from Jesus, the Christ.  We can all play the role of Peter, all blustery and puffed up; all self-assured.  When in reality, we are closer to Judas than any of us would like to think.  Willimon says that we Americans kill our gods.  We Americans kill our prophets.  We are a bloody lot.

To become a Resurrection believer, we have to look fully into our hearts and see our selves for what we truly are.  All of us share one great commonality, we, each of us, is a sinner, lost without the grace and mercy of the Most High God who loved us so much that He sent us His only begotten Son.  He sent His son so that we could look into the face of bloodied pulp of flesh who took the punishment that rightly belonged to each and every one of us.  He hung His Son on that cross so that we would each have to look into that face and see our sin that placed Him on that cross.  He sent His only begotten Son into the depths of hell so that we would not have to journey there, for had we journeyed there, we would not have been able to come back.  He sent His only begotten Son in order that we would have the opportunity to reach out to Him and be restored to communion with Him.

None of these things can happen unless we are willing to do two things:

           

            1.  We have to look into Jesus' face and see our sin written there.        

2.  We have to run along with Peter and the beloved disciple and  go  into the                            tomb and see and believe.

Without recognizing that we need the atonement and forgiveness of Jesus and without recognizing that Jesus in the Savior of our souls;  without these two things, none of this exercise makes any difference.  We have to come to faith.  This is an absolute, there is not other way.  On that Friday afternoon Jesus paid it all, "It is Finished!" and He gave up His Spirit.

In a meeting with Conrad Adenour, Billy Graham reports that after Mr. Adenour had asked him if he believed in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Graham said that if he did not he would not be an evangelist.  Adenhour looked out of his office window at the destruction that World War II had caused in his country and said, "I too, believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, because outside of Him I see no hope."  Jesus is our hope when all is hopeless.  But we have to believe that in order to be counted among those who are His disciples.

We have to enter into the tomb with John and see and believe.  We cannot assume that Jesus' body has been stolen, we must believe that He was resurrected.  If we do not, our faith is false, it counts for nothing.  The empty tomb is the hallmark of our faith.  We serve a risen savior, not a created, man-made idol who is without power.  Our God has the power to save, power to give and the power to take away.  Our God loves us with a love without end.  Our God is a forgiving God.

When Jesus hung on that cross and asked the Father to forgive us because we knew not what we did, He did not ask God to forgive everyone but Judas, He asked forgiveness for everyone.  Our God is a magnanimous God who continues to love us even when we have purely unlovable, in complete rebellion and running as fast as we can to escape.  He continues to love us.

But, we have to accept His love, His forgiveness, His discipline, His Healing and His atonement.  This is a command, not a suggestion.

This Resurrection Sunday, renew your salvation declaration by asking the Lover of Your Soul into your heart anew.  Ask Him for a new heart, a heart of flesh and not of stone.  Ask Him to open the eyes of your heart so that you can see the Father with new eyes, the eyes of a Resurrection Faith.

May this Easter Season bless you and yours with a renewal of your love for the Creator of us all.


The Road to Pentecost

We have just come through the holiest week in our religious calendar.  I hope that you took some time to reflect on the great price it cost The Father, through His Son, to atone for our sins.  After the resurrection, over the next 40 days, the apostles made huge strides aided by the work of the Holy Spirit that took them from the weak men they were to mighty men of God that they became.

I would like to spend the next couple of weeks exploring what happened to these men to change them.  And looking at the work that Jesus and the Holy Spirit did and considering how it could effect your life of faith.  Jesus told the disciples that it was better for them if he went away because if He did not, the Comforter would not come to them.  In addition the Holy Spirit would reveal the truth to them and remind them of the things that Jesus had told them. 

Now had I been with among them I think that I would have have doubted that.  How could a "substitute" be better than the real thing?  How in the world could they be better off without Jesus being right there with them?  Besides where would that leave them.  They had left their lives behind them, they had bet the proverbial farm, what would they do without Jesus?

When John looked into that empty tomb, what made him see and believe?  Why was John different from all of the other apostles?  Why was he so self assured?  Why did his faith seem so easy?  What is the difference between John and us?  Why do we not go into the empty tomb and see and believe?  Why do we struggle so with that thing called faith when is seemed to come so easily to John?  Why are we more like Peter than we are John?

If you look at the descriptions of John in conjunction with Jesus, you will see him described as the disciple whom Jesus loved.  I have heard a lot of theories about this but I think the answer to this question lies in the overall message of Jesus' ministry and that is love.  Everything Jesus did even to the point of His crucifixion revolved around love.  There was a special connection between John and Jesus.  Some have suggested that John was the youngest of the apostles.  This is indicated by his position at the Last Supper (not to be confused with the Passover supper).  The youngest son was traditionally seated next to the father.  This was John's position.  In addition when we are young, we lean on every word our father tells us and this most likely would have been John.

This special love, I believe had much to do with John's ease of belief. Both Mary Magdalene and John beheld Jesus with a deep, deep love.  They were vigilant in the watch they posted through out the trial and crucifixion.  It was Mary to whom Jesus first appeared.  Her heart was breaking and Jesus appeared to her before he had ascended.  Some have surmised that Jesus ascended to God to complete is atonement before he appeared to the Apostles and later He makes His public ascent ion.  I do not know if that is true or not but I like the idea that Mary's love was so great the Jesus stops on His way to the Father to comfort her.  Regardless of whether you believe that or not, Mary loved greatly.  Such, too, was the case with John.

Recently I read an an article concerning John that referred to him as a mystic.  I guess that is evident by Revelation but at this point I do not know if that makes any difference.  But one thing seems certain.  As a very young man, it seems that he clung to every word that Jesus said.  He seemed to know that the resurrection was expected by the words that Jesus had spoken.  It was no great leap for him to move from sadness to belief as he entered the tomb.  John was young and relatively unjaded, therefore it was easy for him to accept the resurrection.

On the shore after Jesus had already appeared to them twice, it was John who recognized Jesus calling to them.  Josemaria Escarva says, "He passes by close to the Apostles, close to those souls who have given themselves to him, and they do not realize he is there.  How often Christ is not only near us, but in us; yet we still live in such a human way!...Whereupon the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, 'It's the Lord!'  Love, love is farsighted.  Love is the first to appreciate kindness.  The adolescent apostle, who felt a deep and firm affection for Jesus, because he loved Christ with all the purity and tenderness of a heart that had never been corrupted, exclaimed: 'It is the Lord!"

A heart so pure and tender that it has never been corrupted knew, without a doubt that it was the Lord.  We can have that pure and tender heart if we will allow Jesus to give us a new heart, a tender heart, a heart of flesh not of stone.  Paul tells us in Ephesians 1:17-19 a. "I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe."

Jesus told us that children are the greatest in the kingdom.  In Luke 18:16, Jesus tells the apostles how important children are, "But Jesus called them to him, saying, "Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God."  This is exactly why John's faith seems to come so easily, because, like children, his heart and love was pure.  Children are not tainted by the woes of the world and take Christ fully at his word.

Unless we can believe the Word fully, as children, we will not ever have a faith like John's.  Unless we take Jesus at face value we will always be like Peter.  Unless we are born again, we will always be on the outside looking in at those who find complete joy in Christ.

Come into the joy of a real, full faith.  Be born anew and join the Resurrection Christians.


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