Till God shows us His mercy

   Isn’t it funny how some ideas “stick” and some do not? I mean how you can be part of literally thousands of classes, workshops, seminars, and sermons and hear so many potentially life-altering ideas, yet most will not really “stick.” I have had to opportunity to hear many learned people, sharing great insights on life, work, religion, politics, etc. But, there is one that is firmly entrenched in my thoughts, from the early 1980’s.

   Dr. Willard Tate came to Montgomery, Alabama. Faculty and staff were given a day off to go and participate in a workshop he was presenting. I don’t recall where it took place. I think it was a local church building. I do not recall how many of us attended. I do remember it was in a small room. I do not recall the name of the workshop. It could have been “Enlightening Paul,” for all I know. If it were the case, it couldn’t have been more aptly named!

   As part of our workshop, we were provided, or purchased (I have already established the lack of memory on the minor issues of this event), a book by Dave Grant, The Ultimate Power: How to be a Great Lover of People. Whoever paid for it, it was money well spent! Dr. Tate and Mr. Grant changed my life. They presented ideas that challenged my thinking, exposed the fallacies of the “world,” and set me on a different course. There were many great lessons shared.

   My greatest take-away from that workshop, is the deadly world trait of comparison. The world (read: Satan) wants us to compare ourselves, as we attempt to find value. The world tells us we have value, or achieve greatness, based on how we look, what we know, or what we do. Think about it. All advertising is based on these three ideas. “Use our product and you will be beautiful, then you will be loved.” “Learn this information and you will be recognized and appreciate, then you have truly arrived.” “Choose this major, take this job, and you will gain status, then you will be respected.” Even when we don’t say it in so many words, we say it. It comes across loud and clear. “Look at the beautiful people. Look at the smart people. Look at the achievers. Surely, you want to be like them. Do what they do.” The world’s love becomes conditional upon how we look, what we know, and what we do.

   The world-crushing truth is that we can’t measure up. There will ALWAYS be someone who is more beautiful/handsome, smarter, or can outperform us. We cannot measure up. So, the world hurts. No matter the neighborhood in which they live, the job they perform, the pew in which they sit, people are being hurt by the world's solution – comparison.”

   I imagine that God must look at us and say, “What is wrong with you? Why would you compare yourself to man. Man, who is weak and sinful. I offer you a better solution.”  “Why do you fret about your outward appearance? What will you do as you age and the appearance changes? Have you not learned that I look on the inside? A loving, pure heart is the most beautiful thing in the world. You work on that.” He must shake his head and say, “Don’t worry about what you know, beyond my Word. Come to know me and you will know all that matters.” Then, He gently places His hand on our shoulder and speaks, “I do not care about your work. Do My will: Love Me with all your heart, soul, and mind. Serve in my kingdom, faithfully, and you have achieved.”

   I have value. That value comes from God. The world has nothing to offer but hurt, suffering, and brokenness. “I lift up my eyes to you, to you who sit enthroned in heaven. As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a female slave look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, till he shows us His mercy.”  Psalms 123:1-2

Be Holy, for I am Holy!

In "I Call it Heresy!," A.W. Tozer writes,

You cannot study the Bible diligently and earnestly without being struck by an obvious fact—the whole matter of personal holiness is highly important to God! 

Neither do you have to give long study to the attitudes of modern Christian believers to discern that by and large we consider the expression of true Christian holiness to be just a matter of personal option: "I have looked it over and considered it, but I don't buy it!"... 

Personally, I am of the opinion that we who claim to be apostolic Christians do not have the privilege of ignoring such apostolic injunctions. I do not mean that a pastor can forbid or that a church can compel. I only mean that morally we dare not ignore this commandment, "Be holy."... 

But, brethren, we are still under the holy authority of the apostolic command. Men of God have reminded us in the Word that God does ask us and expect us to be holy men and women of God, because we are the children of God, who is holy. The doctrine of holiness may have been badly and often wounded—but the provision of God by His pure and gentle and loving Spirit is still the positive answer for those who hunger and thirst for the life and spirit well-pleasing to God

 I don't have anything deep or thought-provoking to add. I share them because they struck me, deeply. I read these words and felt immediately convicted. Is personal holiness what I truly see in my personal life? It if isn't, why not? I don't know if I really want to go down that road and answer that last question.

Maybe that is the challenge for each of us. We don't need to determine what we do or don't do. We already know that. The greater questions is, "WHY DO I CONTINUE TO DO THIS THING." Or, "WHY WON'T I DO THIS THING?"

But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, "Be holy, for I am holy." —1 Peter 1:15-16

We, too...

I have been reading Jon Meacham's "American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House." I am seeing some interesting parallels between 1830 and today. This passage was written for all, but directed at a segment of our citizenry that felt a bit disenfranchised; maybe a bit mistreated; certainly misunderstood and mis/under-represented.

"Contemplate the condition of that country of which you still form an important part. Consider its government, uniting in one bond of common interest and general protection so many different states, giving to all their inhabitants the proud title of American citizen, protecting their commerce securing their literature and their arts, facilitating their intercommunication, defending their frontiers, and making their name respected in the remotest parts of the earth. Consider the extent of its its territory, its increasing and happy population, its advance in arts which render life agreeable, and the sciences which elevate the mind! See education spreading the lights of religions, morality and general information into every cottage in this wide extent of our Territories and States. Behold it as the asylum where the wretched and the oppressed find refuge and support. Look on this picture of happiness and honor and say, We too are citizens of America."

Reading this makes me think about where we are. Have we come very far from our infighting 180 years ago? If I thought I could get our elected representatives in federal government to listen, I think this is what I would say after making them write the preceding passage on the chalkboard 20 times (to you younger readers, ask your mom or dad).

Good or bad, it is OUR country. She has weathered wars external and internal, disease, natural disaster, hatred from without and within, yet she stands. She stands, and is the desire of the world. Don't kid yourself. People all across our world still long to live in this place. We are envied - not for what we have, but for what we can become. That has not changed in all these years. 

Scan the papers, watch the news, read the internet. Why would anyone want to come to our house?? There are days I am not sure why anyone would want to come and live here. We fight like cats and dogs. We call names. We lie. We misrepresent. We should be sent out in the backyard to get a switch (youngsters, see parenthetical statement above) and then have it applied where it will have most effect. 

 I was taught there is no problem that Americans, working together, cannot solve. 

I have had the opportunity sit on the "sidelines" for some 17 months and observe. I am disgusted. No, I am saddened. We are better than this, as a country. You are better than this, as men and women elected to SERVE your country. I was taught there is no problem that Americans, working together, cannot solve. We have certainly done it throughout history. Have we lost the ability?

If our elected officials cannot see their way to work together and find solutions, then vote them out. Democrat, Republican, and Independent. If they can't do it, let's give someone else a shot at it. Just because they can't see fit to do their job, we can't give up our job in the voting booth. Write letters; send emails; make telephone calls. Let them know you don't care about which side of the aisle they sit on. We don't want them in their chairs, anyway. We want them up, walking, and talking together.

I want to leave a place where my grandchildren can, "Look on this picture of happiness and honor and say, We too are citizens of America."

There Was One Who Was Willing

   So, with my last post, it is all out in the open. I am a Zombist. Nah, you didn't miss a day in school. That is a word I have just coined. It means, "one who delights in stories of zombies." Feel free to use it, any time! Share it with your friends. They will be quite impressed with your broad vocabulary. You might be surprised -- some of them may be closet Zombists.

   While reading in the afore-mentioned tome, Zombiestan, I came across another great passage. 

"It was perhaps only appropriate that the solution to the madness and destruction the world had inflicted upon itself lay in the blood of an innocent child."

As you would expect, the scene is where there is the revelation that a particular child's blood possesses the antibodies to fight the dread virus that creates the zombies.

   When I first read the passage, I saw the Biblical implications of the sentence. It isn't that I am so spiritually-minded. It was pretty obvious. BOOM! There it is; innocent blood redeems the world. Where else is my mind supposed to go.  But, it wasn't just the spiritual implications that drew my eyes and thoughts back to the passage. It was the wording, actually.

   I was struck by the words which the author chose. Read it, again. There are some key words:

• appropriate
• madness and destruction
• inflicted on itself

It wasn't the thoughts or the concepts that began to "haunt" me. It was those words. I could not help but think how applicable those same words are to where we find ourselves.

   Appropriate is defined as "fitting for a particular purpose." God/Christ had a purpose. A particular purpose. There might have been other solutions, but only one was fitting. It was that the innocent, the blameless should be offered as a sacrifice. Christ's death wasn't the easy out. It wasn't the only thing God could do. He is God. He makes the rules. He could decide what works. He chose the solution that was fitting with the way He had always done things - the innocent is given up for the guilty.

   Could any two words, other than madness and destruction, be better used to describe the world we inhabit? What else but madness requires us to love that which is ephemeral. We praise beauty, knowing it fades with time. We extol athletic prowess, seeing example after example of how it diminishes with time. The traits we should laud (purity, honesty, service, etc.)  are used as punchlines or a descriptor of a second-rate someone who doesn't possess the "important" things. This madness is bound to end in destruction. There is no way in can end in anything more positive.

   And, the saddest note of all is that it is all self-inflicted. We do it to ourselves. We do it to our children. We do it to anyone who will listen. We espouse and believe what Satan spits out. "Faith in a higher being is weakness. Be your own man. Solve your own problems." "Kindness and mercy are defects of the soul." "The clothes make the man (or woman)." 

   Our world is mad and set on destroying itself. I for one don't intend to go down with the ship. I cannot continue to follow this world. I want something better. I need something better. I have found a fitting answer, the blood of an innocent. The blood of one who understands. I want to forget the world and learn more about the one who wants what is best for me. I want to know the one who said,

Take the yoke  I give you. Put it on your shoulders and learn from me. I am gentle and humble, and you will find rest.

   Who said that? The one who willingly spilled the blood for each of us mad and destructive people. 

So, there's where Zombiestan fell short. The innocent in that story had no choice - had no say. He was a toddler and adults made his choice. 

HALLELUJAH, I have one who was willing; One who chose to give it all. And He is the One I choose to follow.

Of Rocks and Zombies

Over the holidays, I was reading a great book, Zombiestan, by Mainak Dhar.  Yes, it is a zombie story that begins with a virus in Afghanistan.  You see, I like zombies.

Okay, it’s out there.  I like zombie movies. I like zombie television series.   I like zombie books. Throw rocks if you will, but be sure to aim for my head.  If you know zombies, you know why. 

How Far Is Heaven?

Sitting in a hotel recently, I was reading and listening to music.  A favorite group, Los Lonely Boys, came up in the queue. The song “Heaven” came on.

I have heard the song many, many times – too many times to count.  But, for the first time I heard it. I mean really heard it.  Check out the video. If you like some Latin/blues, then you will like the music.  I love the rhythm and sound. 

Los Lonely Boys - HEAVEN video

He doesn't really need my help making the rules

I have learned so much about God and His plan for us, over the last year.  Supposedly, I was teaching others.  But, God was teaching me, through them.

One of our crew members has been asking many questions about baptism. His questions started with the mechanics of the act.  You know, who does it, how is it done, is it done on a day other than Sunday, etc. 

  These were all such “basic” questions. I explained that it was not difficult. I shared Biblical accounts of those who were baptized. More questions came up. I wanted them to see that the key is water, immersion, and a cleansed heart. As we talked and I answered other questions, I realized there was a great truth hiding in the simple answers: There are some things that are so important that God did not establish unreasonable or high barriers.