site stats

To care, to risk, to reach out

Posted on May 4, 2008
5 Comments

Pictures like this one capture something very human and very Christlike.

While only the worst of people would allow what appears to be a puppy to remain in harms way, we are powerfully reminded with pictures like this one that to care and to risk and to reach out to the needy are some of the highest virtues.

The hurdle we’ll all face today and tomorrow is whether we’ll care and risk and reach out to a human that fits in the same category as this dog. The dog is not a peer. The dog has little personal value to the people helping it. The dog could very well run off or even bite it’s helpers. And the dog might just have gotten itself into harms way for the umpteenth time and rescued equally as many times.

In other words, caring and risking and reaching out could come with some initial reluctance and a good dose of grief afterwards.

And this is where Christlikeness comes into play.

We gotta see ourselves as the dog and we’ve been in the proverbial creek umpteen times. And Christ has rescued us umpteen times. When we really grasp that, we’ll be far more willing to care and risk and reach out to people who are just like us.

Photo credit

As spiritual as breathing

Posted on May 2, 2008
4 Comments

There is a fundamental life principle in this message.

On one hand, it explains our natural inclinations from being thankful for beautiful sunsets to seeking God for forgiveness.

On the other hand, it is a reminder of the temptation to live as if God didn’t exist and Jesus didn’t rise from the grave.

Just as we are breathing being, we are spiritual beings. When we wake up the morning is spiritual. When we dress the process is spiritual. When we drive the trip is spiritual. When we eat the meal is spiritual. When we work the labor is spiritual Everything is spiritual. Every breath. Every moment. Every process. Every person.

We are spiritual beings living in a spiritual world experiencing spiritual circumstances.

The fundamental message is that we are partaking in something very big and something very glorious. And that partaking is as optional as breathing.

We are spiritual beings born again into the Son of God. We are created in the image of God to live in the kingdom of God. We are God’s workmanship created in Christ for good works which God prepared in advance for us.

Try as we might to do our own thing, do we forget that spiritual beings find their joy and meaning in their creator? This is a fact and a good fact.

We are spiritual beings. Let’s live spiritually. Let’s thrive in the joy and the meaning of knowing and loving Jesus Christ.

Photo credit

Being needy

Posted on April 26, 2008
7 Comments

It is good to be spiritually needy. And it is bad to be spiritually self-content.

David got it right when he prayed, “Hear, O LORD, and answer me, for I am poor and needy.”

It is when we are needy for God that we healthiest. There is something protective, humbling, and purposeful about being needy for God.

Jesus told one church, “You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.”

We gotta be careful of such indictments. On any given day we communicate the same thing to God, “We don’t need a thing.” May it not be said of us.

David got it right. And I want to also. I need to be needy.

Psalm 86:1   Revelation 3:17   Photo credit

Christians at the forefront

Posted on April 19, 2008
5 Comments

I spent several hours yesterday at the Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. Each year the sixth graders at our church-school take a field trip there.

It is an unnerving place (with exhibits like the actual cut braids of a little girl, a long whip made out of barbed wire, and a German log book listing thousands of names of Jews at one of the extermination camps (amazingly they kept detailed records of those they murdered)).

We often live in bubble of unawareness. In the back of our minds we know atrocities are still happening, but we rarely bring them to the forefront of our minds.

The top picture is from Rwanda and the genocide that happened there. And bottom picture is from Auschwitz.

Our sixth graders get a very blunt lesson on what happens when morals are determined by people who have less than a high view of every human being.

The point of the lesson isn’t that inhuman acts take place in far away places, but that they take place in our hearts. Hatred, injustice, and prejudice always starts small. Seeing someone as less than us happens everyday.

Several times in the museum the point was made that Christians are at the forefront of fighting such subtle and horrific evils.

It was good to hear our Lord’s people praised in a Jewish museum. May such praise continue to grow and grow not only around the world, but also in our neighborhoods, our sports fields, our workplace, behind the wheel, and our outspokenness for the unborn (and against those politicians who support and fund and defend the mass murder of innocent babies).

Much of the basis for more praise will come from Christians taking to heart Biblical principles like this one.

Since you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. Colossians 3:1-3

Photo credit     Photo credit

Offended?

Posted on April 17, 2008
6 Comments

Jesus has the same message.

If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Matthew 16:24

And so does Paul.

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live. Galatians 2:20

But there is something about this woman’s hand that makes the point in a blunt and no-nonsense way. You could even say that she says it in an offensive way.

But why is it offensive? What is so offensive about saying we are often full of ourselves? And what is so offensive about telling us to stop the pity parties? And what is so offensive about telling us stop the sins that hurt the people we love?

Why are we offended when we are told to get our act together?

Instead of fighting against her, I think it would do us some good to have her spend a day or two with us. And each time we get that selfish inclination, I think she should shove that hand of hers out and remind us who we are and who Christ is to be.

Her message, although blunt and offensive, is excellent advice.

Photo credit

True Story

Posted on April 14, 2008
16 Comments

I got a phone call from an employee this morning. She was out of the office picking stuff up from our printers. She called and said she was having email problems and needed to make an appointment and would need to be gone for a couple of hours.

Admittedly, I wasn’t fully listening to her every word, but as she spoke I could not, for the life of me, figure out why in the world she would need to be away from the office to fix an email problem. And I couldn’t fathom who in the world she would be making an appointment with to fix her email problem.

I interrupted her and asked with some annoyed directness what sort of email problems she was having. And without missing a beat or changing her tone, she said, “Steve…., I am having….. female problems.”

For a very short moment the call went silent. She hadn’t caught my mistake. On my end, I saw the humor and at the same time felt a significant amount of awkwardness. On her end, she was trying to think through how to explain her situation to her dense and annoyed male boss.

After that very short moment, I told her that I thought she had been saying email. And with that confession we had a good laugh that lasted on and off the rest of the day.

Besides the lesson of me needing to be a much better listener, there is also the lesson of the frailty of human beings to get relationships right.

Relationships are tough even in the best of times. People are people and people are pretty selfish and pretty good at sabotaging relationships. So, may I suggest we all need to confess our frailty. Even if we think we are hearing someone right, and even if we think we have a grasp on all the issues of a struggling relationship, we may not be as smart as we think we are.

Sometimes the best medicine for a relationship is a heaping spoonful of humility, a lot more prayer, seeking Biblical wisdom, and a better walk with our Lord. People mess up relationships. God heals them.

Photo credit

Those we vilify

Posted on April 12, 2008
7 Comments

You might feel that at times this animal looks like your boss, or your mother-in-law (or son-in-law), or one of your employees, or your ex-spouse, or a neighbor, or a former best friend.

We humans are pretty good at vilifying people. We do it to people we know and to people we don’t (insert least favorite conservative or liberal politician here).

Typically those we vilify are people we know very little about. Even if it is a former best friend, we judge them on what we know and not on what we don’t know (and too often on what we don’t care to know).

If we want to live right, we must see people as Jesus sees people. Even if they reach the status of pharisee or Roman flogger or executioner, they are people Jesus died for. And they are people Jesus wants to see in heaven.

They are people God gives grace to everyday. While they get under our skin, they are also under God’s skin. And that is the lesson for us. While people annoy us, and while God hates my sin and your sin and all sin, He loves all people and deeply desire them to discover Him, his goodness, and how to live joyfully and passionately in him!

I think it changes our perspective of people when we grasp that God is seeking after them with all of his love. While we seek or think something negative of some people, God is doing the exact opposite!

Simply said, God is pursuing the best for people and so should we. As Jesus has loved and continues to love us, we should do the same. They will know us by our love.

Photo credit

God is great and I am not.

Posted on April 8, 2008
8 Comments

Sometimes we forget that life is much bigger than we think. Too many of us have the notion that the really important stuff in the world began about the time we were born.

This photograph is of the Manhattan Bridge which spans the East River and links lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. The upper photograph and lower photograph span one hundred years.

I was reminded by this that one hundred years ago life was robust. And men and women made great achievements. They raised kids, ran businesses, led churches, wrote popular music and great books, and thought and prayed deeply about the issues of their times.

And they also sought to know and to love Jesus Christ while wrestling with their own sinfulness. In this sense, not much has changed in one hundred years. And in this sense, our generation is not nearly as special as we think.

God loved them as much as us. And he hated their sin as much as ours. Whether it was a hundred years ago or a thousand years ago, God was active and involved in the daily affairs of the inhabitants of the earth.

All this humbles me. My self-importance is deflated. And God seems bigger than ever. Not only is he a patient God, but he is also a hard working God. I get tired of things if I have a bad week. God, on the other hand, relentlessly loves and disciplines decade after decade, century after century, and millennium after millennium.

God is great and I am not.

He must become greater; I must become less. John 3:30

Photo credit    Photo credit

Stuff, junk, and treasure

Posted on April 6, 2008
12 Comments

We had a garage sale yesterday.

We didn’t sell much, but that wasn’t our real goal. We wanted to get rid of stuff.

Like most people, we have accumulated more than we need or want. Materialism is sometimes subtle and sometimes blatant. We’ve been gatherers. Slowly and steadily we’ve collected and collected, and we’re now at the point of wanting to scatter and scatter.

Today we’re waiting for the Salvation Army to come by an pick up what we didn’t sell. When they leave it will be a good feeling to see the stuff go.

Call me unsentimental, but the older I get the more Matthew 6:19-21 makes sense.

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

I shouldn’t want the stuff of this earth. My treasures should be in heaven.

Materialism subtly draws our hearts away from Jesus Christ. We can gain immense pleasure and security and comfort from the stuff we buy and collect. May it not be. May such pleasure be reserved only for Christ and the things of God!

Photo credit

13.495

Posted on April 4, 2008
7 Comments

About a week ago the little light in our car went off indicating I needed to get gas.

Perhaps I should be the kind of person who gets gas before the little light goes off. And perhaps I need to be the kind of person who responds fairly quickly and actually gets gas once the little light goes off.

When this happened last week, I was traveling back from Yosemite National Park in an area where there are very few gas stations. Being who I am I didn’t want to turn around go back about five miles to get gas. Instead we drove about twenty miles and through no small amount of worry we finally made it to a gas station.

Our gas tank holds 13.5 gallons. On that day I put in 13.495 gallons. It was a miracle we made it. My tank was all but on empty.

It was a sobering experience, and one that I don’t want to repeat.

I know of an equally sobering experience spiritually. Where the tank is run down, the little warning lights goes off, and the idea of turning around and getting fueled up is spurned.

My little car experience was good for my spiritual life this week. I wanna keep the tank full. And I don’t want to be anywhere near lukewarm. I want my eyes fully on Jesus Christ. I want to be 13.495 gallons spiritually full, not empty.

Photo credit

Recently


Categories


Links


Archives