SINNER/SAINTS

I raised the white flag five minutes ago. My one year old twins are now officially sinners.  Could these be the same boys who two months ago were model citizens, cherubs from heaven?  Luke has never seen a meal he doesn't like.  He went right after green beans and sweet potato mash, but Sam swatted away my first spoonful of green beans with a deft left hand swipe and with a mischievous grin that seemed to say, "Try and feed me big guy!"

Play time was a war. No matter how a divvied up the toys, each wanted what the other had.  Grabbing, pushing, screaming, crying!  What is going on?  They're only one year old!  They're at the stage where changing diapers and putting on pajamas is good training for wrestling alligators. They wore me out!!

But then a switch went off.  It's bedtime.  They take their bottles without a fuss.  I read them stories, sing them songs. They go to bed without a fight.  They jabber and laugh until they slowly fall asleep.  Too precious to miss.

I love my sinner/saint grandboys!  Happy 1st birthday, Luke and Sam.

PARTY HARDY

Do we do enough celebrating in life?  I’m realizing how much fun it is to have a good celebration.  I was looking back over some of the really big ones that still bring a smile to my face.   There was the arrival of my Mom’s family from Germany in 1957.  She had not seen them since she’d left Germany 30 years earlier.  Wow what a day!  My graduation from Marine Corps Boot Camp.  Big time celebration.  And then there was my Minnesota Twins 1987 World Series win.  And what about a WEDDING!  Not sure it gets better than that.  Around here I don’t think I’ve seen families celebrate a child’s first birthday any better.  We love to celebrate big events and milestones, and well we should.  But do we celebrate enough of them?

As you read the Bible you realize that God is into celebration.   He loves a good party.  He gives His people reasons for feasts and some real blowouts.  It’s like He is saying, “Take the life I have given you and the relationships we have together, and CELEBRATE.”  Whether the occasion was deliverance from Egypt, an abundant harvest, or a wedding, Party hardy!!  

It’s fun to celebrate a lot of things in life, birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, job promotions, our favorite team’s championship, but I wonder if there are some we overlook.  How about celebrating the anniversary of our spiritual birthday, or our baptism, or the occasion when we had the joy of leading someone to Christ?  Pretty big stuff.  We could call it a new life party!  I think God could really get into that.

GOT GUNK?

I took my grandboys, Owen and Griffin, swimming Sunday night, followed by Graeter’s Ice Cream.  Owen wanted a small plastic Red’s ball cap in which to put his scoop.  Griffin chose a waffle cone dipped in chocolate with sprinkles.  We sat outside and enjoyed the flavor of it all.  Griffin had more than he could handle as ice cream melted and ran all over.  By the time he had my full attention, the only real thing I could have done to clean him up was to strip him naked and hose him down.  Ice cream was everywhere.  I dropped them off at their Mom and Dad’s, talked with Bryan out in the yard for a minute, when out came Owen from the house with green gunk in his hair, I mean really sticky adhesive stuff that would not come out.  Owen’s explanation was he needed something to hold his plastic Red’s cap on his head.  The final result of it all was that Owen got his hair buzzed short.   It was easier to grow a new head of hair than preserve the old.

I wonder with us, if there aren’t some similarities.  We get crud in our lives, stuff that shouldn’t be there, and rather than confessing it, cutting and cleaning it all out, and starting fresh, we try to hang on to it, manage it, work around it, maybe deal with it a little at a time, but it keeps us from the freedom and joy Christ wants us to have.  Got gunk?  Christ loves cutting it out.

COMPETITION

I was pondering the word “competition” the other day.  Is wanting to “win” a bad thing?  I thought about how much of my years have been lived in a competitive mode.  From the time I was little I wanted to be picked first when teams were drawing up sides.  I wanted the best grades.  I wanted to win the heart of the girl who had many interested suitors.  I wanted to win the bike race, the spirited debate, the Monopoly game.  Maybe you have a little of me in you.

But I wonder how competitive we feel when it comes to spiritual things, especially the eternal souls of mankind.  I think we all realize that Satan vies for the souls of man even as God does.   If God wasn’t competitive about the souls of mankind, Christ would have never died on the cross.  God wants people to experience and enjoy the fullness of eternal life with Him and Satan is doing all He can to prevent it.  God has enlisted us to be part of His team in battling for the souls of mankind, so one of the core components of CCC’s mission is “Winning people to Christ”.   Are our competitive juices flowing?

WHO DEFINES MORALITY?

Who defines morality?  Who decides what is right and what is wrong?  The president’s endorsement of gay marriage may be one social hot potato whose morality is debated by people on both sides of the issue, but the issue of gay marriage is just another manifestation of a culture that has been pushing the God who created us and redeemed us from the center of life and society to the margins.  What He has to say in the Bible seems to be irrelevant to the majority of people in America.  What is taking its place are phrases like, “It seems to me… or…The way I see it is…”  We adopt our own sense of understanding and fairness.  The issue really isn’t gay marriage.  The real issue goes back to President Obama’s comment that America is no longer a Christian nation.  To me that was as much an observation as a pronouncement.  Our nation’s separation from the God of the Bible as the starting place for morality, life decisions and legislation, has led to a descent into relativism, pluralism and tolerance which makes the lines of defined morality, fuzzier and fuzzier.  As God becomes just a word rather than a reality to whom we are accountable, and our own understanding rather than God’s revelation guides our sense of morality, we will continue to see increasing moral confusion and decline.  Until people are willing to acknowledge that the God who made us is God of all people and nations, and holds each accountable for their decisions and practices, we can fight the skirmishes of social issues, but we’ll lose the bigger battle.  We need a God sent revival that convicts the heart of man and returns them to their God and His Word.  That is what we need to be praying for.

Yes, we still need to stand strong on the truth that defines these moral issues, but we need to go beyond them to the heart of the problem, namely, man’s need to repent and return to God.

AN HONEST LOOK AT A MYSTERIOUS JOURNEY

This week marked the 2^nd anniversary of my wife Mary’s death.  As I reflected on her life, my mind immediately went to her relationship with God.  She was a woman who longed to experience God in increasingly more identifiable ways.    As I reread her journals I saw her heart being poured out to God to answer prayer for family and friends.  I also read the words of deep pain, “God, why aren’t you working?”

I just finished reading a book by a man I deeply respect.  He has been a gifted and effective C&MA pastor.  At 48 his body was invaded by something that put him at death’s door.  No amount of tests could produce a diagnosis.  His body just went crazy.  This man was healthy, athletic, a runner;  but within a few days his life was changed in ways he and his family could never imagine.   He spent months in ICU and when he did get back home, he had lost 50 lbs, couldn’t walk without help, couldn’t drive, eat or do much of anything for himself.  He was kept alive through a feeding tube.  What was he to make of all this, especially in light of the thousands of people praying for his healing, day after day after day?   Though he is on the living side of death, he still has not fully recovered.  He records his story in an incredible book entitled, An Honest Look at a Mysterious Journey.  I recommend it for everyone, but especially those whose life is hard right now, who are going through times where God seems silent, distant, and uninvolved in their circumstances.  If you are having trouble seeing God at work in the challenges of your life, John’s insights into God and his promises will be helpful.  

I never expected my relationship with God to deepen to the level it did through Mary’s illness and death, but I discovered, as John did, that God is good all the time.  He is a good God doing a good work.  We may have trouble seeing it, but as Isaiah 55:8,9 says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways, my ways, declares the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways.”  Enter into John’s story and see if it doesn’t really impact your walk with the Lord.

CONSCIENCE

“Cowardice asks the question, Is it safe?  Expediency asks the question, Is it politic?  Vanity asks the question, Is it popular?  But conscience asks the question, Is it right?  And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him it is right.”   Martin Luther

Does anyone have a conscience anymore?  Do we still use them?  Do we value them?  Do we ignore them?  We used to say, “Let your conscience be your guide”, as if that would be enough to thwart wrong decisions or behavior.   We believed that our conscience was God’s gift to us to help navigate life in a morally pleasing way.  Our conscience would always be consistent with the moral law of God and would kick in when we violated that law or were even thinking about it.  But is conscience that dependable anymore?  Does it still function as God designed?   Is it possible we have diminished its role and importance and let our beliefs and actions be influenced by the cry and din of our culture’s call for tolerance and relativism?  For so many of today’s Americans the conscience has gotten buried under expediency, cowardice or popularity.  Seldom does it seem to be used in determining what is right and wrong.  Two people may hold diametrically opposed views or beliefs and neither feels any “check” in their conscience that what they believe is wrong.  Recently our president came out publicly to endorse same sex marriage.   There are those who applaud him, others who deplore him.   Did conscience figure into his announcement?  What role does conscience play in our lives anyway?

Our conscience stays sharp and honed when we stay close to God’s word, know and reinforce his teachings, and are committed to do right.   For the Christian we get our convictions of right and wrong from the Bible, God’s trustworthy revelation to mankind.   We develop convictions based on those timeless truths that are to guide how we relate to God, each other and this earth.  Our conscience will be consistent with our commitment to God’s truth, even when it is not safe, politic or popular.  It’s time to unbury it and give it voice.