Month: March 2019

Where are we heading? The condition of the world is getting worse rather than better. It seems like an apocalypse, of some sort, is in the making. For many, day-to-day life is terrifying. Will they still have their jobs at the end of the day? Will their closest relationship still exist? Will their loved ones still care enough about them to check on them every once in a while? Are they alone in their fear of this mass of confusion?

Those are just the personal issues. For most of us, that is all that we dare explore. Looking at the larger problems in the world is simply beyond us. It is a chore in exhausting and futile effort. We can make some changes in our small circle but the larger changes seem to be for someone else.

I can understand that completely. I stopped watching the news over ten years ago. I found that seeing the events unfolding depressed me, angered me or left me trying to figure out what I could do to make a change. I always came up empty. I was just one person and the problems were too many.

Instead, I tried to focus on helping others in ways that I could do. For a while, that made me feel better about myself until others started speculating about me and my motives.

They were probably right to do so. Not for the reasons they thought but for the reasons that I knew of. I knew that, while my essential motive was to help others, I also found a type of vain glory in myself for doing so.

I’ve stopped that. I don’t want to be that person anymore. I want to do what is important to God and not what I deem important, even if it is something to help other individuals.

There are things we are called to do and things that we simply want to do. Trying to figure out the difference is not easy. It takes a lot of prayer and miss-steps. The great thing about God is that he is patient. He waits for us to get back on course when we have stepped out on our own.

Still, some days I wish there was more that I can do. For instance, I wanted to help at my local church. I can’t go to the sanctuary because of health reasons, so I thought helping the online ministry would be a good fit.

Here’s the rub. I’ve volunteered more than once. Certainly, one could even say, one time too many. While I have been told that someone would get back to me, no one ever has. At first, it was a little bit hurtful but I took it to God in prayer.

Once again, I found that I was trying to do what I wanted and not necessarily what God wanted. Maybe I can help at my church or maybe I am to be helped by them. Who knows? I know that I can still email with words of encouragement or questions to the pastoral team. That is enough for now. If there is something for me to do, then God will open the door. At this point, though, I’m done volunteering and will wait patiently.

That doesn’t mean I won’t do other things, just not those things that I thought I would and should do. I somehow think that what I will be called to do next will be something that surprises me and makes me ponder how in the world I can get it accomplished.

If we are called to do only what we are good at, then we can congratulate ourselves on the results of the work we have accomplished. If, on the other hand, we are called to something new, different and even difficult, then we will know that God is the one working through us and we are his hands and feet.

I’ve always been fearful of telling others about Jesus and his saving power. Even so, I’ve done so. I don’t know with what success, if any, but I know that I feel that God is with me at those times. I don’t need to know anything more than that.

A lot of Christians have problems sharing about their faith. It’s really important for us to do so. There are people in our lives that we think are Christians but who may be what I call, cultural Christians.

Their family went to church (at least sometimes) and they celebrated Christmas and Easter. They prayed to God at Thanksgiving. They may have even attended church as adults, maybe even every Sunday. They might be on worship teams, leadership teams, etc. Just serving at the church doesn’t mean that they have experienced the saving power of Jesus Christ.

When I talk to other Christians, at some point these days, I try to ask when they became a Christ-follower. I’ve found that born-again Christians can point to a time in their lives when they came to the end of themselves, surrendered to God and asked Jesus to save them.

The individuals who make my cultural Christian antenna go up are those who say that they have always been a Christian and that their parents were, too.

It’s easier to share Jesus with someone who has always denied him than to share with someone who believes themselves saved because they are from a long term Christian family. They are not as open to hearing that there is more than they have experienced so far. They certainly don’t want their Christianity questioned and maybe for good reason. They like living the way they do and don’t want to upset the boat. It is not easy to acknowledge that you are a sinner when what you want to be thought of is a “good Christian”.

Still, this is not a small thing to let pass by. This is their eternal soul that is at question. I wonder how we will answer to God about those we didn’t speak to when we had the opportunity. Perhaps we are the only person they will ever meet who can explain the love of Jesus to them.

Remember, there will be many who cry out that they knew Jesus and still, they will be excluded. See, knowing Jesus isn’t enough. Satan knows Jesus. All of the demons know who Jesus is. So, if you know someone who knows Jesus but may not be born-again into his kingdom, it is important to talk to them about salvation. It won’t be easy and it may take a delicate touch.

I’ll be honest, my first step is going to be to email our pastor and ask him to preach on this subject. Even if it doesn’t touch the individuals I am concerned about, it will help others. It will also give me a starting point for future discussions with those that I do know.

I may not be able to change the world but I can work with God to make changes of importance in my own life. I can reach out to others by telling them about those changes and hope that this will help them see where they need to trust in God and make changes, too.

I would like to say that we can all make small changes and the world will change too. It will somewhat but, according to the Bible, we are on a collision course with history. The end was known by God from the beginning and he has told us how it will end. Sadly, that means this world will be brought to the utter brink of disaster. So far so, that if God doesn’t step in, we will entirely destroy all life.

Matthew 7:21-23

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’

Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

We have been discussing worship at our church. There are all kinds of worship, including the songs we sing before each sermon. Our pastor pointed out that a week from this past Sunday, we could all get together and talk about the contents of his message… and not remember much about it at all. He suggested that a discussion would mention that he talked about the Bible. Yes, and we would be sure that he mentioned God. And certainly, there was talk about Jesus. Yes, of course, Jesus. That it was a really great sermon!

While we might not remember much of the sermon, the songs of worship would stick with us much longer.

My husband and I talked about this with some other church members and, sure enough, we didn’t remember much about the sermon but we all remembered what the pastor said we might remember. Though it had nothing to do with Christianity in and of itself, I think that that part of this particular sermon will stick with us all for a long, long time.

What it did spark off was a discussion of the type of musical worship we had each grown up with and had experienced as adults. For a number of the individuals, they had had very regimented times of song. Mostly old-fashioned hymns. Some of the individuals said there were times in the worship when they would stand and then sit down. Then repeat.

Others, like myself as a child, simply sang old hymns and had choirs and, perhaps, an organist. There were hymn books in the seat backs in front of the pews. Oh yes, there were hard wood pews and not cushioned seats.

For one individual, his only experience had been with our current church. He loves the music and it was a big part of what drew his interest in Christianity. For another, the change was so drastic from the regimented churches of her prior years, that she, too, was drawn to the church.

Others were used to quieter, acoustic songs that set the moment for receiving the word. Louder music was a bit jarring and is taking some getting used to.

My husband had extremely regimented services when he was a child. They were handed schedules of what was going to happen and at what time. The songs they were to sing were listed on a board inside of the sanctuary. When he met me and starting attending the style of church I was used to, the change was like night and day.

I became a Christian during the latter part of the Jesus freak movement of the 1960-1970’s. Church was, quite often, held on the beaches of Southern California. The music was provided by individuals who had guitars and brought them with them. Baptisms were held in the Pacific Ocean. The services did not conform to any time or subject. The worship was joyous with loud singing and no one leading.

Over the years, my churches became a little more restrained and certainly, more polished. They were held in sanctuaries (though sometimes in the basement of another church) and the worship started to have a set group of musicians and a worship leader who chose the songs we were to sing.

I’ve attended all kinds of churches over the years. Everything from very staid services where I felt out of place to services with choirs swinging and swaying and congregants singing and dancing up and down the aisles.

While I was certainly a little more inhibited than the latter, I felt more at home in those churches. No one was paying attention to what I wore and how I sang and how I danced (not that I danced out loud but I was doing it inside.) It was as if, in the midst of it all, the only one watching was God himself. I would think about David and how he danced with all his heart and soul in the roadway in front of the Ark of Covenant. Even though his own wife was ashamed of him, God was not. God was pleased with him. With all of David’s issues and problems (of which there were many), God said David was a man after His own heart.

Our current church has a much more rehearsed time of song worship. The musicians are excellent and the worship time has the look and feel of a concert at times instead of being a part of a church service. There is nothing wrong with that, it is just different from what I am used to. I’m enjoying it a lot via live stream and could only wish that the words to the songs stayed together with the singing a bit better so I could sing along more easily.

In the end, the important part of worship is pouring ones heart out to God. You are singing from your soul, no matter who wrote the words of the song you are singing. If you stand stock still, or half-raise your arms, or maybe hold them above your head, perhaps even move your legs or not, it doesn’t matter. God knows what is in your heart.

Worshiping God, when done with your whole heart and in truth and in spirit, gives God great joy. Our pastor says that God is watching and is even sometimes dancing in joy over each of us. I like to think that that is especially true during the worship portions of church services.

So next week, though I may struggle a bit trying to remember the sermon, I think that I will remember much of the worship portion of the day. I hope you do, too. You might even try to remember the sermon, too. I’m sure that the Bible, God and Jesus will be a big part of it.

Psalms 96

Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth.

Sing to the Lord, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day.

Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples.

Ascribe to the Lord, all you families of nations, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering and come into his courts.

Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth.

Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns.” The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.

Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it.

Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them; let all the trees of the forest sing for joy.

Let all creation rejoice before the Lord, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness.

This week, a fellow Christian managed to do something that nothing this sinful world has been able to do to me since I became a Christ-follower. She made me feel less than rather than equal to her and to everyone else in our Bible study. Without going into details, I’ll just say that she sees me in my current condition as what I am not rather than what I am.

After spending time with her this week, I felt bad. I wasn’t sure why. The morning after we spoke in our discussion group, I realized that she saw me as handicapped. She pointed out the others in our group as capable of doing XYZ. She carefully avoided including me in the group, though honestly, there was nothing about the tasks that were beyond me either physically or mentally. Unfortunately, this was just the latest in a series of comments she has made to diminish me.

My guess is, that as a nurse for many decades, she has come to see individuals with health issues by what they can’t do. I’ve even heard that nurses and doctors begin to refer to patients by their conditions and not by their names.

I’m hoping that the problem with her is just her profession and not something personal. I don’t believe it is personal but, regardless of the reasons, it still made me feel bad. For the first time in my life, I began to see myself as what I was not. To think of all the things that I could not do. To view myself as a handicapped individual in need of help to get anything accomplished.

I had a couple of terrible days and then, this morning, I realized that she had it all wrong. The areas where I am a little more challenged don’t define me. They are the areas which will cause me to work harder at what I can do and to look for new things and new ways that I can express myself and, more importantly, to help others.

It wasn’t brilliance on my own part that led me to this understanding. Instead, God, through the Holy Spirit, reassured me that God does not make mistakes. We are just who we were always meant to be and are here to do the work that God set out for us before he even created the universe.

God doesn’t look for the most brilliant, the most gifted or the best looking or even the individuals with the most wealth. Actually, it is the reverse. God is looking for ordinary folk or those who society sees as less than ordinary to do his work.

There are some with brilliance, gifts, good looks and wealth that are also called but those are in the minority. He is looking for the low so that they can raise Jesus high above themselves. This will prove to this sinful and dying world that God can do miraculous things with those of us who are Christ-followers and who are doing what God has called them to do.

When someone has all the gifts, then others will look at them and say, they are doing XYZ because of their own efforts and not anything else. However, when those of us who are viewed as someone challenged or less important or even simply ordinary folk, do something extraordinary, the world has to sit up and take notice. They have to question how it is possible that someone so low can do something so important.

There is only one answer and it is one that the world does not want to see or hear of. God uses the lowly of his followers to do his work, so that the world cannot say it is by the individuals own power. At their cores, they have to acknowledge that a higher power is in control. When the individual in question gives glory to God for the work he is doing through them, then the world cannot hide from the truth any longer.

So, while it is sad that a fellow Christian has so little understanding of how God works with his followers, it was a wonderful lesson for me in what miracles God has been working in me and, hopefully, through me as well.

I am not handicapped, I am not less than, I am not incapable. I am a child of God and, in his sight at least, I am beautiful and wonderful and exactly as he planned I would be at this time and at this place in my life.

If you feel like you are not up to the standards of the world, be assured that Jesus loves you and wants you just as you are at this very moment. He doesn’t expect you to be better or to somehow work yourself up to his level. Simply put, that will never happen.

We are sinners and he is perfect. He doesn’t expect perfection. He didn’t die for perfect people. He died for sinners. It was his willing sacrifice of his life and his triumphant resurrection, which provides a way for sinners to receive salvation, a pardon for their sins and eternal life one day.

The sacrifice has already been made. All that is left is for you to receive the gift of it, to acknowledge Jesus as Lord and Savior and to ask him for his help in living your life the way he wants you to do so.

When you do that and you ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit, you will begin to do the work you were born into this world to do.

Don’t let any person in this world try to define you. Only your creator, God, can do so. Jesus made you as you are and he loves you more than his own life.

1 Corinthians 1:26-30

Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things — and the things that are not — to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.

It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God — that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.

As Christians, we are aware that God is made of three distinct persons in one: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It’s easy to relate to a father and or to a son but not it’s not as easy to relate to God’s Spirit. We all have had or known fathers. We have had or known sons.

A spirit is something else completely. Adam and Eve knew the Holy Spirit. He was the breath of life that God breathed into their beings. When they sinned, their connection to God, through the Holy Spirit, was severed. On that day, their spiritual life died, just as God had warned them would happen if they ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

The Holy Spirit left them and they could no longer talk with God as they previously had done.

The Holy Spirit did not completely leave mankind. He surfaced to fill individuals throughout the Old Testament. However, he didn’t dwell in their beings as he had in the Garden of Eden. He filled individuals from time to time so that they could take on and complete tasks that God had for them to do that they could not have done with the the assistance of the Holy Spirit.

When Jesus died for our sins, he provided a way for mankind to be forgiven and to have eternal life. He also sent a Comforter to us once he (Jesus) went to be with the Father. That Comforter is the Holy Spirit.

When an individual accepts Jesus as their savior, the Holy Spirit sets the seal of salvation upon them and comes to live in their heart. He is the one that is the still, quiet voice that tells us what we should do and, more importantly, what we should not do when we are tempted or even as we are doing wrong in the eyes of God.

The Holy Spirit is powerful. In the Bible, he is described as a powerful, rushing wind, a dove coming down from heaven and even as a flame above the heads of those who received him on the day of Pentecost.

Having the Holy Spirit live in us is not the same as being filled with his power. Christians can ask and should ask to be filled by the Holy Spirit.

This is not something that God does for no reason. It’s not just a happy, happy feeling for Christians. The Holy Spirit fills us to do the work that God is asking us to do, just like in the Old Testament.

The difference is, that all Christians can ask for this filling rather than a few select individuals that God has ordained to do a particular work. Just be aware that in doing so, you are to open yourself up to what God wants you to do.

It is God’s power that will fill you. It is his thoughts and tasks that you will be asked to do. It may be that he will use your past, your skills and/or your future to get the work done that he wants you to do.

Give yourself over to him and be willing to make the sacrifices that he asks of you. In asking for the filling of the Holy Spirit, also ask for God to open the path that he wants you to follow and to give you the tasks you are to do.

He will not ask you to do something you are not capable of doing with his assistance. You may need to educate yourself in certain areas and he will open the way for that to happen.

We are all here for a purpose. We are all unique and have been placed in this time and place for a reason. The Body of Christ (the church of Christ-followers) has need of every single one of us. There is something for you to do that no one else can do the same way.

The Holy Spirit will guide you to that task. He will provide you with the spiritual guidance (from revelation from God or from another Christian) to complete that which you were made for and the reason why you exist.

When you start living for God and doing the work that he wants you to do, you will start to live a life of joy and fulfillment. No matter what the outer circumstances in your life are whether good or bad, you will have the joy of the Lord in your heart. I can’t think of anything more we can ask of God during our brief existence on this planet.

John 14:16-17

“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever – the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.”

We use the word love so frivolously these days. I love this, I love that, I love it!, I really, really love it! I love it so much. Because of its overuse, the word has lost its true meaning. We say we love something when we mean, I like it or I want it or, simply, I enjoy it.

Whatever “it” is, we really don’t love it. Love is special. It is something that should only be used to describe your feelings for another living being. Whether it is a person or even a pet, love is an emotion that calls to another being.

You can’t really love a book. You can’t really love your fancy new blender. You certainly can’t love your (fill-in-the-blank) new diet. You like them, appreciate them, or whatever but you do not love them. Until those items or ways of life are capable of loving you back, then love is the wrong word to describe the depth of your feelings for them.

I don’t know when we started to shift the meaning of the word. I know that I have be guilty of using love in a way that is incorrect. Certainly, I have said I love a book or an author. In recent years, I’ve made a conscious effort to pull myself back from the improper use of the word.

While I have been struggling to correct my thoughts and words, I have seen that the world, as a whole, is spiraling deeper and deeper into making the word love essentially meaningless. In conversation with each other, it has been bad enough; however, it’s misuse in social media has made the loss of meaning exponential. I love it with emjois of hearts or smiling faces blowing hearts can be seen everywhere in posts and, especially, in comments.

It is sad that this is happening but it is not completely unexpected. The ruler of this world, for a time, is Satan. He wants us to try to find love in the wrong places. He doesn’t want us to look deeper. He wants love to mean nothing.

I shake my head in wonder but am thankful that I am trying to change my ways. There is a reason that I try to save this special word for special times for special people.

You see, love is not something that any being other than humans feel at such a deep level. Pets can care for you but certainly not at the level that you care for them back. Why do we humans have this special capacity?

It is really simple, you see, we were created in love. The first thing that we knew was the love of our Creator and our love for him back.

We were created to love God and to love one another. Our sinful nature has stepped in and destroyed our capacity to really feel love at the deepest level.

We still struggle to find true love. We look here and there. We may try to find it in people. We may try to find it in things. Where ever we look, if it isn’t towards God, we will never find deep and abiding love. We will search and search but we are doomed, ultimately, to search forever.

The way that people are using love and the things that they worship are like the idols of old. They are false gods, celebrities, or idols we have made with our own hands. In any of these situations, we are putting our love, hope and trust in something that will certainly fail us.

There is only one source of true love in this entire universe. The Creator who made us still loves us. He loves so deeply and so truly that he sent his own Son to die for us to save us from the deserved punishment for our sins.

Jesus is the son of God. He willingly came to this earth to live and die out of love for all people. Not just some. Not just the ones who go to church or do good deeds. He came for the sinner. That means he came for me. That means he also came for you.

It is after I met Jesus that I started to learn about true love. I will admit that even after I acknowledged him as my savior, I continued to think of love for others in the wrong ways.

It’s been a slow learning process and will be one that I will work on until the day that I die and meet Jesus face to face for the first time. It is on that day that I will finally understand true love. I will see it in his face and in the scars that he still carries to this day.

If you have not yet met Jesus, he is there waiting for you. His love will be that true love you have spent your life looking for. He loves you just as you are. You don’t have to be perfect or good for him to love you. You don’t have to do good works to be able to call on him to save you.

All you have to do is open your heart and receive his love, his salvation and his redemption of your life. Once you have accepted him and received his forgiveness, ask for his help so you can start living your life as he would have you do.

The next time you use the word “love” be sure you are using it properly so it doesn’t completely lose its meaning in your life.

1 John 4:7-10

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.