Month: December 2015

We have this nice kid in our neighborhood.  He is about 10 years old and has a two year old dog named Buddy.  Buddy is beautiful and weighs about the same as his master, who very faithfully takes Buddy for a walk each afternoon after school.  Maybe I should say Buddy takes his master for a walk.  Buddy is a handful and goes pretty much where he wants to go pulling his master after him. 
 
Buddy reminds me of strong habits and propensities in our lives.  We struggle to keep them in check but so often they pull us where they want to go.  But this I know.  There is no sin or desire so strong that we cannot overcome or control.  Unlike Buddy’s master who is doing it on his own we do not have to face temptation on our own.  Jesus’ disciple John wrote, “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”  That promise is in his small letter of I John in chapter 4.  If you will put the word “overcome” in a concordance you will discover there are five promises about overcoming in I John.  John was a son of thunder and he overcame.  He was an overcomer and wants each of us to share the victory available in Jesus.
 
Here’s one of two promises in chapter 5. “Everyone born of God overcomes the world.”  The world is a pretty big place filled with many temptations and addictions.  But none of what the world has is bigger or stronger than the power available to us. We have overwhelming power just a prayer away. It’s even stronger than Buddy.

On our walk today we came upon Santa.  He had painted the big letters UPS on the side of his brown sleigh.  I think that stands for Ubernorth Pole Service.   I’m glad he got an early start this year because if what I saw is any indication of how busy he is, he is slammed.  I kid you not.  He stopped at more than half the houses.  My dog and I eventually passed him and turned the corner before he did.  He even had an elf with him and we were taking time to sniff along the way.  Well, at least one of us was sniffing.  Often after a good inhale she looks up at me trying to
understand why I am not down there enjoying the pure essence of it all.
 
As we rounded the corner I pondered about how wonderful it is that our heavenly Father is omnipresent; talk about orders needing to be filled and delivered.  Our prayers and those of billion of beings on each of billions of planets are continually reaching His ears.  The sheer cacophony of languages asking for something all at the same time would totally overwhelm a lesser being.  But have no fear.  He is more than up to the task.  He is even anxious for increased attention from us.  He loves it when we trust Him to care for us.
 
When speaking about Jesus, Paul wrote in Colossians 1, “For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.”  How marvelous to think that He and the Father are tuned into us all the time.

Tis the season for Christmas programs.  Our schedules are filled with The Messiah, Readings of the Night Before Christmas and many children’s choirs.  We passed a church this morning that had so many cars in the parking lot they were parked four deep.  It would be a while before some people got out. 
 
Some time ago I saw a choir where the children knew all the words and were spot on coming in and out when they were up.  But there was something wrong.  Something was missing.  And then it hit me.  The children were not smiling and there was little joy being expressed.  They might as well have been singing Old MacDonald Had a Farm.   The joy of Christmas isn’t so much the technical prowess of the choir but the emotion expressed.  The children were prepared in their heads but not their hearts.
 
Oh Holy Night is only moving when the singers are moved.  The Hallelujah Chorus is only wonderful when you cannot keep yourself in your seat but have to stand, not because it is convention, but because God is so great and so mighty.  I have to say that this weekend I did hear and watch a mother and daughter sing a duet about Jesus Our King that caused me to well up; it was so full of love.
 
Jesus really is Wonderful, Counselor, Almighty God, The Prince of Peace.  I heard someone sing wonderful counselor.   He is a wonderful counselor but that is not what Isaiah was saying.  Jesus is Wonderful period.  Wonderful is not an adjective modifying counselor.  Wonderful is His name.  He fills our hearts with His splendor and love and majesty and it is beyond comprehension.

I am rapidly growing to hate Beryl Ives.  I’m sure he was a nice man but I have an earworm of him singing Feliz Navidad and he is driving me mad.   An earworm is a short piece of something audio, usually music, that continuously plays over and over in your mind.  Researchers tell us that 92% of us experience an earworm once a week.  I am so glad I am in the 8% who do not.  Experts recommend chewing gum.  Somehow it involves the tongue and jaw muscles that we use to form sounds and our mind responds by stopping the earworm.
 
It would be so grand if we had complete control over our minds.  If we could choose our dreams or select which fifteen snippet we want as an earworm life would be even better than it is.  When my sons were small we had tapes of someone singing verses of Scripture.  We would sing (that is a generous term for the noise I made) them at night before they went to bed.  To this day they can remember them.  They would make perfect earworms.
 
A great song for an earworm would be “Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.”  Psalm 119:11.  “He shall give His angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways.”  Psalm 91:11   “If God be for us who can be against us.”  Romans 8:31.   Then if we had total control over our minds we could turn the earworm off and replace it with another before it became irritating like Beryl Ives is to me right now.
 
Anyone have a stick of Juicy Fruit?

A thousand news worthy things happened in the world today.  A hundred personal things happened to each of us today.  If the world was asked, “How was your day world?”  The world could have selected the hundred really wonderful things that happened and respond, “It was a great day today.”  Or it could have selected the hundred really rotten things that happened today and say, “Today was horrible.”

That very same question could be asked of us.  And our answer would be based upon which ten things we selected out of the hundred things that occurred.  Now it is true some horrific event or some spectacularly great event could have happened today that would totally dominate our answer.   But it is a rare day for that to occur.  95% of the time the choice is ours.  Whether we had a great day or a rotten day depends on what we decide to think about.
 
With Jesus in our lives we have additional help in selecting the good things because it is God’s will for us to live the abundant life.  The abundant life Jesus promises us is not about our bank account.  It is about the joy of loving others and seeing that love produce good things.  I have yet to feel bad about doing something unselfish for someone.  I always am rewarded by knowing life is better for someone.  It can be something as small as a smile or a compliment or a thank you or some word of appreciation.   When we validate others our personal stock goes up.
 
When we do this, we become Jesus-like.  He is a validator.  He says to us, “You are the kind of person I want to live with forever.”   Wow!  That is major validation.

I would like to sing the praises of procrastination.  The wind prevails from the west so the street gutter in front of my house has over filled with maple and oak leaves.  Just last evening I finally said to myself that when I awaken in the morning I would rouse myself to action against the forces of nature and clean the gutter; after all it is December 8.  I should not have waited so long.  Now comes the good part.  Early this morning as I was coming down the stairs toward the kitchen I heard what sounded like a heavy truck out front.  Lo and behold it was the city cleaning my gutter.  My tax dollars at work!  What would have taken me at least two hours or more and a possible heart attack because of lugging the leaves away was done in less than five minutes and my heart is still intact!
 
My neighbors had cleaned their gutters with much blowing and lugging away.   My gutter was cleaned by persistent patience.  I am feeling a bit smug.  I am about ready to adopt a new ethic.  “What does not have to be done today can wait until tomorrow.”
 
As grand as this sounds, (to some) it really doesn’t work when thinking about eternal life.  Paul said it so well in II Corinthians, “This is the day of salvation.”  There are two reasons for this.  Number one is we have no guarantee there will be a tomorrow for us.  And secondly, why would we want to live a lesser quality of life?  Making Jesus our Lord and Savior makes life so much better.  It reduces stress, it takes away our worries and concerns about the future.  And it also helps make us better people.  Why wait?  Don’t wait.  Procrastination is only good for raking leaves.

Whether we want to admit it or not commercials do affect us.  They are pervasive.  A sixty minute football game can easily go three hours.  That is twice as much time being bombarded with commercials as the amount of time we actually watch the game.  A few of the ads are actually fun to watch while others make us wonder.  One of the wonder ones right now is “Love is what makes a Subaru a Subaru.”   Really?  I’m not sure I know what that means.  Was it constructed by workers who loved their jobs?  Or do they love us for buying one?  Or will those who buy one be demonstrating their love somehow?
 
I wish we had the money and creativity to so promote something about love that is really true.  It would be wonderful to replace most of the car and beer commercials with   “Love is what made Jesus our Savior.”  Now that I understand.   Actually I’m not sure that I do.  The thought of the creator God of the universe becoming one of us and submitting Himself to the cross is beyond my comprehension.  God’s commitment to us will be our study for an eternity.  We will all earn PhDs in God’s love.  What a joy it will be to research and write not one but hundreds of dissertations.  Making oral presentations to committees of professors from universities all over space really will take us where no man has gone before.

We really can’t miss this.  We must treasure what God did and accept His gift.  We will travel everywhere sharing the Good News and we will not be going in a Subaru no matter how much the Subaru manufactures wish it were so.

It’s that time again.  Amazingly so.  An entire year has passed since we last asked for contributions to Spring of Life Ministry.  Our promise is we will only ask once a year and of course we do it now while people are getting their finances in order for the taxman.
 
Once again this year we wrote 240 devotionals resulting in 72,000 words.  That’s 72,000 words with only one goal – to tell as many people as possible how much Jesus loves them. What an amazing task God has given us!  He made the incredible gift of His Son for us and then quested us to tell the world.  We are so close to fulfilling the Gospel Commission.  Modern technology has given us a voice beyond our dreams.  Any place in the world can now hear the wonders of Jesus.  And so we use technology everyday as the Holy Spirit guides us.  We are hungry for Jesus to return.  We are so close now.
 
In the meantime together we are actively using Spring of Life to improve the lives of people in need.  We are able to supply tuition, medical supplies, food and shelter to an interesting array of people.  Thank you so much for making this possible.  Your generous gifts provide us with the resources to seek out and aid very grateful people.  It is very rewarding to be a positive part of others’ lives.  I pray that the devotionals are a positive blessing for you and I thank you for your care, love and concern.

If Freud is correct and my adult actions are the fruit of my childhood, then there is good reason why on Thursdays I am the neighborhood trash man.  Our trash goes on Thursday mornings and on my daily walk with Jazz I pick up the week’s accumulation of miscellaneous things piggy people toss out their car windows – Dunkin Donut coffee cups, beer cans, water bottles, etc.  I drop them into people’s trash containers while still at the curb.  The Freudian connection is when I was really little and lived in the city, once a week a man would come by with a horse and wagon calling out, “Trash, Clothes, Cans, etc.”  His horse was wonderful and I wanted one.  So whenever I was asked what I wanted to be I always replied that I wanted to be a trash man.  That way I could have my very own horse. I never did own a horse but I can still be a trash man.
 
One doesn’t have to be a Freudian scholar to understand the inherent truth regarding childhood’s influence on adulthood.   We are the product of many things but the main ingredient is what we learned in our formative years.  Little ears and little eyes are watching and absorbing – especially the attitudes and ideas expressed by mom and dad.  Sometimes the role models can be so bad children determine not to be like that.  But we shouldn’t hope for that to happen.  Over 75% of children ultimately adopt the value system and behavior patterns of mom and dad.  Children don’t say with it words or flowers but they do want to be like and will be like their parents.  Then of course there is the role model of our heavenly Father.  He’s the ultimate role model.

I was sitting in Applebee’s with my wife reading my email on my phone.   I wasn’t offending her because she was scrolling through Facebook on her phone.  I thought this is stupid.  This was an opportunity for quality time conversation with the person I love most.  Were we doing this because after 50 plus years of marriage we have run out of things to talk about?   Then I looked about and saw both people at the table next to us texting.  And I noticed the couple two tables away doing the same.  One might assume it must be more interesting to talk to people you are not with.
 
I also have a Bible program on my phone so I don’t have to carry my Bible to church.  However, while using it during a sermon I suddenly got an electronic text from someone on the other side of the church chastising me for not paying attention.
 
Actually texting isn’t as new as we might think.  Three thousand five hundred years ago God texted Moses and God has been texting us ever since.  Our Bibles are God’s text to us.  As old as the Bible is, the miracle of it is, it is still relevant.  The inherent principles are eternal.  It is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.  That comes from Paul’s texting to a young pastor named Timothy.  In Hebrews 1 Paul wrote that God has communicated with us in various times and various ways.  For us the text is the Good News.  You will never ever get a more important text than the one from our Father assuring us that we are extremely loved.

P. S. Once again I carry my Bible to church.