Month: February 2018

Words are wonderful. These audible and written symbols that enable us to transfer ideas from one person’s mind to another can be wonderful or horrific. Words can heal. Words can wound. Words can restore life. Words can bring death. These sounds that come from our mouths are awesome tools for good or evil.

Words bring us joy and sorrow. Words can be fun. Betty Bobsly bought bitter butter that made her better batter bitter. Sometimes they are incomprehensible and make us rush to our dictionaries. Other times they are from a totally different language and dictionaries don’t help.

The psalmist understood. In Psalms 19:14 we read, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.” Our words reveal who we are. Sometimes we craft them very carefully and other times they pop out surprising even us and we say, “I can’t believe I said that!”

Solomon said, “The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious…”Eccl. 10:12. Wouldn’t it be grand if our words were always gracious and healing? With God’s help we can be filled with words of life and hope to all who hear us. We can tell the story of Jesus.

Written January 26, 2003

On the campus was a small crab apple tree. Through all the New England winter storms it had held onto its crop until one late February day. On that day at least 25 robins appeared and feasted. It was beautiful. You should have heard the chatter. It was a festive occasion. They were dressed in their finest red aprons. The sun was smiling as they fluttered and talked. Some had stayed for the winter but others had just arrived from the south. Oh, they had much to tell each other about their journeys! It took all morning and early afternoon for them to clean up the table, the dishes and take out the trash.

In Matthew 6:26 Jesus said, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?”

After several months of real New England weather, to watch these robins celebrate life was a delight. God does feed the birds and so extravagantly. And are you not much more valuable than they?

Written February 23, 2003

It is not uncommon to find in old books small pieces of paper filled with nonsense scribbling. What fun it is to find such treasures. Many of us have them tucked away in our books. What precious reminders they are– reminders of a four-year-old thrusting into your hands a tiny blue piece of paper with wondrous markings! Oh, how we value those “love notes.”

Have you ever considered that our attempts to communicate with God must be on the level of scribbling? The thought of forming any sentence either elegant or plain to present before the Creator of the universe fills one with an overwhelming sense of inadequacy. Praying almost seems an act of arrogance. Yet God invites us to do so and is pleased when we take Him up on his invitation. Psalms 91:15,16 says, “He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.”

Perhaps the books of heaven are filled with small pieces of paper loaded with some very precious scribblings.

Written April 29, 2002

She was walking down the grocery story aisle talking to no one in particular. “I just hate spending my hard-earned money on food,” she muttered. Now what do you suppose she wanted to spend her hard-earned money on? Eating is rather important. However, it is disconcerting to open the refrigerator door only to find the vegetables looking like hairy alien life forms about to attack if one opens the crisper drawer. That once magnificent head of lettuce you spent your hard-earned money on now looks like something from a horror movie.

Jesus once said, “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” John 6:27.

While Jesus did not have a refrigerator in which to keep vegetables, He was most likely familiar with much of our fare. The coastline along eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea is credited with a large number of vegetables now grown in America—vegetables like asparagus, beets, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, kale, lettuce, parsley, and rhubarb.

When Jesus tells us to seek food that does not spoil He could easily have had some of these veggies in mind. But Jesus really wanted to emphasize the great importance of feeding our souls with nourishing invigorating food that stimulates intellectual and moral development. These things never spoil. We can lose our house, our car, or our bank accounts, but no one can ever take from us our education. Jesus told us He came to give us an abundant life and the abundant life begins in one’s personhood.

Written February 14, 2003

Don’t you just love a good mystery? Most people do. How about one titled “The Secret of the Missing Suet?” It sounds like a good Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew book.

Well, in our story it all started when the wire basket suet feeder was empty every morning. True, it had been very cold so it was very logical to assume that lots of birds were filling up their fuel tanks. But empty every morning?? Morning after morning? What could possibly be eating all this suet? Surely it wasn’t the little bunch of chickadees and a downy woodpecker or two. Surely, something else was feasting on the suet. A couple of mornings later—mystery solved. At the suet was a beautiful, gigantic pileated woodpecker.

Another important mystery—what keeps you going?

Surely, you don’t run only on food and beverage. You are a multidimensional being. In addition to your physical dimension you have an emotional dimension, an intellectual dimension, a social dimension, and a spiritual dimension. Each component needs fuel. Breakfast and supper keep the physical side going. Perhaps someone you love keeps your emotional needs satisfied. Maybe your job or school keeps you intellectually challenged and your church provides for your social needs. But, what about your spiritual nature? Just like your other dimensions it also needs daily bread. What do you do to satisfy that need?

Written April 18, 2003

Have you every considered cosmetology as a career? The root of the word cosmetology is the Greek word cosmos meaning “an orderly harmonious whole.” You may remember when the astronomer and physicist Carl Sagan hosted a wonderful television series entitled, “The Cosmos.” The series was about our world and its relation to our universe.

When someone goes to a beauty shop they are hoping to bring harmony out of their natural disorder. They want to be well groomed and have their blemishes covered. The cosmetologist is paid to make them look their best.

Bringing order out of chaos is remarkable feat. Jesus is coming back to earth to bring an end to war, suffering, death and sin. He will bring harmony. He is “The Great Cosmetologist.” Paul wrote, “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’” I Corinthians 15:52-55.

Written March 30, 2003

Have you ever looked at an 8 ½ x 11 inch piece of plain white paper? A piece of paper like that should be good for lots of things. But what if it had had a tiny red dot near one of the corners? When you looked at the paper, was that tiny red dot all you could see? Did you have to force yourself to be conscious of the 99.9999% of the paper that was still plain white?

We often do the same thing with people. Someone can be a good person who has done much to help others. The person can be generous, kind, unselfish and giving. But let us detect one small flaw and suddenly that is all we can see.

Why do we do this? Is it because we are aware of the multitude of flaws in ourselves and subconsciously we don’t want others to be perfect? Do we feel better about ourselves by pointing out the flaws of others? Have you ever said, “Well, I’m not so bad. So and so does such and such.”

They did this to Jesus. They wanted so badly to pull Him down to their scummy level that they finally found a flaw. He associated with bad people. Therefore, they reasoned, He must be bad, too. After all, don’t “birds of a feather flock together?”

Shame on them. Shame on us. Let us rejoice when we have a good person in our midst. Lord, give us generous hearts for others. Aid us in treating them as we want to be treated.

Written August 28, 2002

At least one player on the Canadian Olympic ice hockey team of 2002 received a gold medal for sitting on the bench the entire game. He never played. He sat and watched the entire game. Furthermore, not one of his teammates was heard objecting to the benchwarmer getting a medal.

In Matthew 20 Jesus tells a parable about a man who paid the same wages to all those who worked in his fields. Some worked all day and some worked only an hour, but they all received identical amounts of money. Unlike the Canadian hockey players, some of those who worked all day did object claiming the employer was unfair. The employer silenced them by pointing out they got what they contracted for and since the money was his he could do with it as he pleased.

This is a wonderful story. Knowing this story keeps us from feeling bad in heaven when we meet one of the martyrs. Knowing that salvation was a gift even to those who gave their bodies to be burned or mutilated will be comforting. How else could we, as benchwarmers, think of receiving the same reward as the martyrs if we thought we had to earn heaven? Paul tells us in Romans 3:23 that we all have sinned and have come short of the glory of God. However, he continues in Romans 6:23 by telling us that eternal life is a gift—a gift for everyone. That even includes the martyrs.

Written April 23, 2003