Month: October 2019

More and more, recently, I have been hearing a word that didn’t seem to make much sense. People have been talking about how difficult it was adulting. Even my word-processing software identifies that as a mistake. Suddenly, the fact that you are an adult has become an action and is now a verb. You aren’t an adult, you simply act like one… from time to time. When it is not too hard.

Okay, that must mean that those who are not adults are children. Even worse, maybe they are still stuck in those pretty awful teen-age years when they thought they knew everything about every single thing.

I remember when my children were at that stage. I even look way, way back and remember when I felt that way too. Of course, I was correct! My kids, on the other hand, simply didn’t know what they didn’t know.

Becoming an adult means a lot of things but the one thing that most springs to my mind is learning how to take responsibility on an on-going basis. Once you have acquired this skill, much of the other pluses and minuses of being an adult fall into line.

Do you remember what you thought you would be doing when you were a child? My grandson changes direction pretty often. When he was a tad bit younger, he wanted to be Batman or Spiderman or even a ninja from Ninjago. Now days, he seems to be focusing on actual careers (what, being Batman isn’t a good career path?)

Some weeks he wants to be a photographer and an artist (after taking a lot of pictures with an iPhone.) Recently, he has wanted to be a scientist and an artist. That might be because he received a very cool science projects gift for his sixth birthday.

Interestingly, one thing that has remained constant is that he wants to be an artist. He has skills in this area so, we will see. I did point out to him that his Mommy and his Grandfather were both scientists and artists as well. The eye roll I received was one that only a six year old could easily get away with.

The thing is, we have a lot of dreams even when we are young. Those dreams can change as we grow with experience. At some point in life, we start acting on what we hope to do with our lives.

If you do not grow and learn responsibility, it is difficult to also become the you that you were supposed to be. As long as you act like a child or a sulky teenager, you will never experience the joy of growing in wisdom and living your life in a way that is pleasing to God.

So, adulting isn’t easy. I guess it isn’t. I remember many nights of struggling and wondering how to make ends meet. I worried about my family. I wondered if I could possibly be a good mother based on the poor examples from my own childhood.

The one thing that never crossed my mind was that being an adult was hard. I knew that life was hard. It had been so for most of my life. Being an adult, on my own, sometimes seemed easy in comparison.

Becoming a mother brought all of my life into a new perspective. I was responsible for not only me but for three loving children. Each one so different from the other that trying to herd them in and still encourage each one was a difficult task but one that I mostly enjoyed.

The people who don’t like being an adult may never experience this kind of joy. I knew that my children were a gift from God. I wanted to thank him for that gift by teaching them how to grow and not by abusing them and tearing them down constantly. I can’t say I was that great at being a parent but I did try to do my best.

I sincerely hope that this phase of not wanting to grow up is a passing one. However, I suspect that it is not. For the world to collapse as it one day will, there will have to be a lack of people who will take any form of responsibility to fix it. That is, to look to God and to get down on their knees and ask for his help.

Some days, it seems like those days of non-existent responsibility are here right now.

1 Corinthians 13:11

When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.

I have recently been thinking about when I was in high school. I generally had two types of classes. In one type of class, the teacher would give a talk and then assign a lot of work and really made us study. We also got tested to make sure we knew the subject matter.

In the second type of class, the teacher would get up and talk and didn’t assign much work. We might see a film or watch a program on television. Sometimes the talks and other visual aids were interesting and sometimes, not so much.

At the time, I must admit, I liked the second type of class better. It was much easier to sit back and relax, knowing I wouldn’t have to study to get a good grade.

Looking back, though, I’ve since realized that the first type of class was the one where I still remember what I studied. Having to do the work, listening, reading, and being tested, resulted in my learning the subject at a deep level and one that has stuck with me through the years.

The classes where I listened and maybe even asked a question from time to time, were fun for that moment but did not result in me remembering much more than I liked those easy classes because they were easier.

I started thinking about this because I have been yearning for a true Bible Study class. When I first became a Christian, the churches I went to had services on Sunday and Bible Study for adults on Tuesday or Wednesday evenings.

Somewhere along the line, churches stopped doing serious Bible Studies. Instead, they moved to home groups, life groups, small groups or whatever that particular church calls it. Essentially, they are groups from the congregation that get together and discuss the sermon using suggested questions provided by the church.

While those groups are good and getting to know other Christians at a deeper level is really good, I still miss having a Bible Study.

I can do a study by myself and I do but I would like to have the guidance of a pastor to lead me as I study.

In a sense, sermons are little Bible Studies. The preacher gets up and talks and, if you have time after the service, you can go up and ask a question or two. However, generally speaking, there is very little about this type of service that results in a deep study to understand and remember.

Sermons are a bit like the classes I took that were easy and fun because they didn’t involve a lot of work. Sometimes, when you get convicted of sin by something the pastor has said, maybe the sermon isn’t so much fun. However, it still doesn’t involve work.

I’ve been lobbying for our church to do a old-fashioned Bible Class. On-line, so the pastor can record it and only have to do each chapter once. Sadly, I’ve been brushed aside a bit and told that life groups are Bible studies. I’ve even been mocked a bit by someone but I will continue to stick to my request.

We were talking recently in our small group and another member said he would like to have us study the Bible instead of reading other books or merely following the questions about the prior Sunday’s service. While all I said, was “Yes, I agree”), I felt like standing up and singing the Hallelujah chorus.

Knowing that someone else wants it as well, has emboldened me to write a letter to the senior pastor, which in part, asked for a Bible Study. We’ll see if and how he responds. However, if I don’t get the response that I am hoping for, I will continue to ask as I now have proof that others are hungry for this as well.

As Christians, we are told to study the Bible. It is what teaches about the way we are supposed to live. It also gives us guidance. It helps us when we are tempted by the world around us. It is the Word of God.

Ephesians 6:10-17

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.

In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Has anyone ever accused you of doing something that you didn’t do? Me, too. Probably more times than I can easily remember, though something like that has a way of scalding itself into your memory. More so, sadly, than the times you may have accused someone else or actually been guilty of what someone said about you.

In the situation that I’ve been thinking about recently, someone purchased something from me and then accused me of breaking Copyright Law by selling something illegally.

I had never opened the pattern to see what it contained as it was part of my old stock from when I owned an online store. It turned out the item was a set of original class instructions and not a design at all.

I contacted the designer, explained how I got the pattern and asked her what I could do to make it right. I also contacted the accuser and gave her back her money and asked her to send the pattern back to the designer at my cost.

What ended up happening was something that I never expected. I expected condemnation from the designer but, instead, I got forgiveness and, unfathomably, assistance in my budding career as a designer.

The lady who designed the piece was happy to get her original instructions her class back as she had lost them. They were in another design and that was the one that I had sold.

She and I got to know one another and she began to mentor me and included me in an exclusive designers group which I still belong to to this day.

What I didn’t know about her then but do now, is that she is also a Christian. Our religion was never discussed, instead, she simply acted out her faith.

She forgave me for selling something that was clearly (though internally) marked not for sale. She then lifted me up and set my feet on the path that I was hoping to walk down.

Because of her kindness and her actions, I have tried to offer assistance to others who want to design. It taught me a lot about lovingkindness and what Christ would have us do for others. Not just in the design world but in all walks throughout our life.

There have been other times when people have lied about me. There have been times when individuals have done their best to bring me down in order to bring themselves up. I’m sure there will be even more times in the future when this kind of thing will happen.

It is the sin nature within us that tries to tear down others and to lift ourselves on high.

I was recently reading the Bible and came across various stories where the prophets of ancient time warned about this over and over again. In many cases, those prophets were put to death.

No one wants to hear that they are not the best, though in their hearts they already know it. They want to fool the world into thinking that they are more than they are. They want others to think that their life is the one that should be emulated. They want others to, in a sense, worship them as if they were deities.

That is sin in a nutshell. Man wanting to be God. It doesn’t matter that mankind knows how wretched they are, they still think that they can lift themselves up by their good works and be on par with the Lord.

It is a delusion. It is something that will never, ever happen. Can a pot become a potter? Can a paintbrush paint by itself? We are the created and not the Creator.

But, you might say, we can earn our way to perfection by doing good works. Even some Christians believe that. It is not the case. All of our good works, when done as a way to make ourselves greater than we are, are as worse than nothing before God.

We can never do a single thing, on our own, which will be good enough to please God.

That is not to say that we should not do good things. We should. It should come from a place inside our spirit to help someone else. It should not be done as a way to lift ourselves up.

If you do something for glory here on earth, then you have received your glory here. You will not receive any in heaven. However, if you do good things for others as part of who you are in Christ Jesus and not expect any form of credit, God in heaven will see that and your reward will be in heaven.

I learned a lesson from the situation where I was falsely accused. I learned to help other people even when they have wronged me.

It isn’t always easy to turn the other cheek but Jesus has told us to do so.

Matthew 6:1

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.”

There have been days, recently, that have been discouraging. Whether it be for some emotional or physical reason in my own life or because the news of the day is troubling, those days are hard to live through.

On my own, there would be very few reasons to get up each morning. Once up, I would find little to do. It would be so much easier to just sit and read and let the world revolve around and wait until I can finally simply not get up anymore.

Luckily, those days are few. With each passing week, month and year, they are less and less. The intensity of those unhappy feelings have gone down almost to the point of not existing.

I’ve found that, when I am at my most fragile times, reading the Bible gives me solace and strength. I can’t imagine how difficult life is for those who do not have the word of God to lean on.

I’ve been a Christian since I was 18, or perhaps, since I was five years old and I first gave my heart to Jesus.

In our Bible group recently, we were asked when we had first heard of Jesus (I was four years old) and if our impression of him had changed since then.

At first, I said, of course it had changed. I was a child and now I am much older than a child. I said my initial opinion of him was formed in Sunday school and that what I knew then was that Jesus loved me because the Bible told me so and that Jesus loved all the little children of the world.

After a laugh and a moments reflection, I realized that my opinion of Jesus really hadn’t changed at all.

I still know that Jesus loves me because the Bible tells me so and that he loves all the little children of the world, no matter how old those children are. You see, to God, we are all like little children. Like little children, we go our own way and need his firm hand to guide us.

The Bible tells us that Jesus loved all of us, great and small, rich and poor, and young and old. The one thing that we all have in common is that we are all sinners in need of a savior.

Jesus’ love and sacrifice was the only way we could ever be reconciled to our Father in heaven. He was willing to pay the price for our sin. He gave up his life for us. He didn’t want to die but he knew that it was the only way and so, he willing gave himself up to an agonizing death on the cross.

When days are dark and dreary and the troubles of the world are piling high, there is only one place I can go to and only one person who will love me no matter what I say or do. He will give me comfort through the Holy Spirit and, in reading his Word, I can find reasons to live and to live joyously no matter what this world is doing to drag me down.

There is so much depressing things going on in the world. It is a time when Christians are being discriminated against more and more. There are Christians who are losing their jobs because they won’t renounce their belief in the truth of the Bible.

I read today, that a doctor in England lost his job because of just this type of situation. He was told that his belief in one verse in the Bible put him on par with Holocaust deniers and that his beliefs were like that of the neo-Nazis. All because he believed that God made male and female.

Another individual lost her job because of her belief against gay marriage. She had been quick to note that she loved gay people and, more importantly, God loved not only them but everyone equally.

Sad as it is that this is happening, it is really just the beginning. In certain countries, the persecution is horrific with people being killed. One thinks that in first world countries, this would never happen. Think again. The Bible tells us that just before the end of the age (of the church), that Christians will be persecuted to a degree never seen before.

Think about that for a minute. That means more persecution that in the days when the Romans threw Christians to the lions for a day of entertainment. They would sit in the Coliseum, in Rome, and make a long celebratory day watching people be devoured simply for the sake of their belief in Christ.

So, days worse than that are coming. For those who love Christ, we should see the season that is upon us. Like those two individuals I mentioned earlier, we will either stand by the conviction of our belief in God and take the consequences or deny him to save ourselves the persecution that will follow.

Decide today where you stand so you will be ready when that day is at hand. Do you choose to serve the God of this universe or do you choose to serve the world.

For me, there is no question. No matter the consequences in this life, I stand by the Bible, I stand with Jesus and I bow before God.

Matthew 10:26-33

“Therefore do not fear them. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known.

Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.”