Cheryl Okimoto

Timing

2011-12-09T15:51:00.001-10:00

Timing is everything on stage, but it's way too variable in real life.
After moving from Hawaii, my husband and I arrived at my mom's house in Missouri on a Wednesday and the following Saturday she ended up the hospital. She came home on Thursday, then the following Monday at breakfast she pitched face forward into the table. Because she's lived alone since my stepfather died almost nine years ago, if we hadn't been there, she would have fallen from her tall dining chair and been hurt, not just sick. The doctors have finally figured out at least part of what's wrong with her, but it'll be awhile before she's feeling well enough to live by herself again, so it's a good thing we just moved here and don't yet have a place of our own.
Also related to our move, this past Monday we drove 150 miles to get to my daughter's apartment, arriving as the mailman was climbing out of his truck with one of the 11 packages that had been mailed from Hawaii for us exactly three weeks before. If we hadn't arrived at that time, he would have had to tote all those boxes up to Cari's third floor apartment, then we would have had to bring them back down again.
On the other hand, Thursday morning, my husband's birthday, we woke up to discover that the furnace wasn't working. It was 61 degrees in the house, way too cold for the comfort of two people who moved from Hawaii just over a month ago. Turns out it was the igniter which goes out about every five years. Mom moved into this house five years ago.
Timing. Does it show God's favor or his disfavor? It would be very tempting to think that the positive timing events were God smiling on us, but then what are the negative timing events? Are they God's frown?
I'm not going to deny that it was a huge blessing to be able to take our packages out of the mail truck and put them right in our trunk, but I am going to deny that the furnace going out on Paul's birthday was a sign of God's disfavor. I'm pretty sure that it was a character building event, especially since I was rather ticked off at God when we had to wait until 2:30 in the afternoon for the repairman to show up. It didn't throw off our plans too much, and we still got to do the most important part of those plans - go out for dinner in honor of Paul's birthday. So I have to say that the blessing was that I got to practice living peacefully in spite of a negative situation. Unfortunately the practice was more like a middle schooler practicing layups than a pro basketball player practicing.
I guess that means I need more practice. Yikes!

The Journey Ends

2011-11-16T05:19:00.000-10:00

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. But that's just the start!
I'm not sure how many miles we've traveled but I know it's over two thousand - well over if you count the flight from Hawaii. We flew from Honolulu, Hawaii to Oakland, California then drove to Reedley, California then down to Bermuda Dunes (the Palm Springs area) then to Tucson, Arizona. All three of those stops were visiting with family and friends. We ate too much and talked story a lot. We also got to meet some very interesting people, especially in Arizona with Paul's nephew.
After visiting, we struck off across the desert. Our first stop was Socorro, New Mexico, then Vega, Texas a tiny whole-in-the-wall with about three places to eat. The lady at the Dairy Queen there was very nice, and the food was hot, fresh and delicious. Next we went on to El Reno, Oklahoma, a half hour outside of Oklahoma City. That was way bigger than Vega (pop. 880) with a population in excess of 15k. Paul had his first experience at Braum's, a little ice cream shop/general store that I've seen only in Kansas and Oklahoma.
Yesterday we arrived in Springfield, Missouri where daughter Cari and her excitable Golden Retriever, Lego, were happy to see us. The weather was warm but overcast. This morning it's sunny but cold. Go figure!
We'll arrive at Mom's house early this afternoon. We're almost done with our journey, but the adventure is only beginning. The extent of the adventure is up to us. As we drove the two thousand miles to get here, we saw how vast and diverse this country is. There's a lifetime of exploring, millions of people to meet and more stories to tell than I'll be able to write, even if I still had a hundred years left.
What we see and do is limited only to God's leading and our willingness to follow. We expect to have some wonderful adventures, made even more fun by the long drives between!

Day 2 in California

2011-11-04T07:17:00.001-10:00

Yesterday morning as we were getting ready to leave our hotel in Oakland, we found out that during the night, protesters down at the Port had rioted. Thankfully it didn't have an effect on Matson's car pick-up location. We were able to get our car with no problem, other than waiting for fifteen minutes since the union guys had to go on break at the precise moment we arrived.
Since we were in Oakland, with a car and plenty time, I wanted to go see the Golden Gate Bridge. Other than changing planes at the airport, I'd never been to that area before. Paul grumbled some, but we headed northwest, and immediately got stuck in a traffic jam at the toll booth for the Bay Bridge. It took us a good 45 minutes to drive a little more than a mile. Why we gotta wait in line so they can take our money?
Our GPS took us right through San Francisco, so we got to see some of the cool architecture up close and personal. We also climbed a few hills. Though it was rainy and cold, and the total tolls for both bridges was $10, it was still worth the time, effort and money, especially since Paul now has confidence in the GPS, and in his ability to use it.
It warmed up on our drive south toward Reedley. The scenery also changed a lot as the hills became more barren, then we finally dropped down into the valley, but we couldn't see the mountains because the air quality was pretty bad.
This morning it was even colder than yesterday morning, but we can see the mountains now. It's pretty, but I still miss Hawaii.

The Adventure Begins

2011-11-03T05:21:00.000-10:00

I guess you could say that Paul and I are homeless now! Yesterday afternoon we closed the door on Twin View Drive, dropped off our keys, went to the airport and hopped a plane for Oakland where our car is waiting for us to pick it up this morning. The last few weeks have been very hectic, right now I've only got the time to look at one small part.
On Tuesday, they came and picked up our three pallets to ship to Missouri. We were up until midnight on Monday, trying to finish up but still had boxes to add to the pallets that were in our carport. It was pouring down rain from sometime early in the morning, so by the time I went out at about six-thirty, it was starting to leak into the carport. I was irritated and ready to sit down and cry. I didn't. Instead I grumbled and growled at God about 'How am I supposed to get this done? If this is what you want, how about a little help?' Suddenly it dawned on me that I had some plastic sheeting and boxes that I could put over the top of the clotheslines in the carport, so I made a tent of sorts and was able to get the last pallet finished up without anything getting more than a drop or two of water.
Our driveway was on a small hill and rather narrow so most trucks don't bother trying to come down. The guys who came to get our pallets didn't hesitate. They also weren't too concerned about the little dip at the front of the driveway especially since Paul and Brother-in-law Milt had rigged up a little bridge of sorts with some one-by-twos and a large sheet of pressed board. Though we had some light rain, whenever they pulled one of our pallets out of the carport, it was dry, at least until after the guys had shrink wrapped the pallet!
There's been a hundred little wrong-made-right things like that in our journey thus far, but I don't have time to share them all. Right now I'm going to have to start getting ready to go. We have to pack our bags again, get them down to the hotel storage area and go get our car from Matson. Then the adventure really begins. We're planning to see the Golden Gate Bridge before we leave the area!
Tune in later for more of our adventures.
God bless you all!!

Time to Move

2011-10-12T19:09:00.000-10:00

Moving is one of those things that's bittersweet. There's so much to do before you go. Not only do you have to sort and pack, but you have to resort and repack when you have to ship across the ocean. It's way easier to move when you can back a moving van up to your door and start throwing stuff in it.
The worst thing about moving is the people you leave behind, and the things that you don't get finished. There's too much to do and not enough time.
Since I'm getting ready to move to the Mainland, I guess my blog is one of the things that's going to suffer for a while. But while I'm on the road trip from CA to MO, I'll have a lot more time to blog, and more things to blog about.
Right now, I've got to get back to work. I'll check back in a time or two this month, but if I don't want the baggage of stress going with me when I get on that plane, I really should be pretty deliberate about what I do with my time!

Junk Food and Dirty Floors

2011-10-08T08:53:00.001-10:00

Wow! That week flew by like an express train! October's already 1/4 over and I'm still mentally in September. Not a good sign!
Sometimes I wish I could stop time. That'd be so cool to be able to freeze the rest of the world for an hour or two (or three or four days) while I catch up on everything. Of course, there'd be a downside. I'd be more tired than I should be, and older too!
I guess it's a good thing I can't freeze time. I'd abuse the privilege. I'm sure of it since I abuse many of my privileges anyway.
I'm an adult who works at home most of the time, so I have a lot more freedom over my own schedule than most people do.
I can eat whatever I want and I usually eat junk food, fried foods or sweets because they taste so good.
I can go for a walk to get some exercise, but I pretty much always find an excuse not to.
I can vacuum the floors or scrub the toilets almost anytime, but I eye them and decide they're not so bad.
It's funny how often I judge my week based on the things I didn't do or could've done better rather than the things I did accomplish. Sure I didn't get everything done I could have, but I did accomplish a lot of important things. When it comes right down to it, is the cleanliness of your floor as important as the cleanliness of your heart, is the health of your body as critical as the health of your spirit?
Now, I'm not trying to say that my spirit is perfect, but I do 'vacuum' it regularly when I go to the Lord in prayer. I exercise it through my relationships and feed it with the Word of God.
In 1 Timothy 4:8, Paul said that while physical training has some value, spiritual training has greater value. So when I look back on a week and know that I got in some good spiritual training, I can count it a win-week. Someday I'll get back to a season when I can get better physical exercise in my week as well.
Until then, I'll keep at the spiritual training. It'll help get the physical under control.
But I really should stop eating so much junk food!

New & 'Improved'

2011-10-04T08:17:00.001-10:00

We're surrounded by people who think 'new and improved' is always the way to go. A change, here a tuck there, a small move of just this one thing, but it always leads to something else.
Now let me say upfront that I'm not an anti-change person! I don't mind change at all. In fact sometimes I incite change. What I object to is change for change's sake, rather than for a good and logical purpose.
One of the changes that still chafes years later is Best Food/Hellman's 'improvement' of their tartar sauce. For many years it was absolutely the best tasting tartar sauce. They improved it and now it's one of the nastiest.
Windows is another area of questionable change. Not so long ago I had a version (probably something like 6.723P) where I could easily copy or move files. I simply went to Windows Explorer, clicked on the file I wanted to move or copy, then clicked on the quick link to the left. A window popped up and I selected the folder I needed to move it to. It was done! Now I have to open two windows in Windows Explorer, size them so I can see both, in one window find the files I want, in the other find my destination folder. I can drag and drop, but I have to watch carefully to see whether the system is moving or copying. Invariably it's not going to do the one I want, so I have to copy back or cut.
Or I can save myself some 'trouble' by only opening one window, copying or cutting the file, then navigating to the folder I want. However, half the time I can't seem to figure out how to navigate simply. For some reason that drop menu that used to allow me to pick one of the folders above the one I'm in doesn't work, and half the time the back button doesn't either (I have no idea how to make them work when I want them to), so I have to go all the way up to Documents and navigate my way down to the folder I want. Now, since I'm trying to organize my files better, I have to navigate back to another folder, copy or cut again and then navigate back to that destination folder.
Yes, they sure improved Windows Explorer!
And don't even get me started on Facebook!!!!
So, the purpose to this rant? Everything can be changed, but not everything needs to be changed.
Change should not be made simply to make things different. It's a guarantee that when you do that, there's a good portion of the population for whom you will actually make things harder! Some changes actually devalue loyal fans/users/followers.
Don't be afraid of change, but before you implement that change, make sure it's really going to be a good change, and make sure you have a 'restrore' point in case you guessed wrong on the value of that change.

The Last September 2011 Day

2011-09-30T08:45:00.000-10:00

It's the last day of September 2011! That's rather monumental. As my freshman algebra teacher said, "If there's anything you wanted to do in September (year omitted), you better do it today. It's going to be gone forever."
Have you ever thought about how many 'lasts' have passed you by without being noted? There's the last time you changed your baby's diaper, the last time you had to help your toddler on the toilet, the last time you picked your son's dirty clothes up off the floor, the last time your daughter let you braid her hair.
Very few true 'lasts' are easily noted. By that I mean that it's a last that will never have another occurrence. Some things seem like a last but the possibility still exists for a 'next,' like the last time your son paid you back when he asked for a loan. Similarly, some 'lasts' pass because you expect a 'next,' like the last time you played Tooth Fairy for one of your kids.
You can easily remember the last time you said "I love you" to a loved one when you watched them take their last breath, and were aware that it was indeed their last breath. But when a loved one dies suddenly, you often don't remember when you last said "I love you" and it haunts you.
There is no value in being haunted by missed 'lasts'! Learn from them, yes, but don't cling to them.
Instead of being haunted by what you didn't do, learn to live a better lifestyle in which you get your priorities right.
This isn't easy. You have a lifetime of habits built up, but unless you want to mourn another lost last, you better take the time, make the effort. Let God teach you to be someone who can celebrate 'firsts' and let go of 'lasts.'

Doing Laundry

2011-09-29T11:14:00.002-10:00

I am officially past tired of doing laundry! I thought once I had an 'empty nest' and it was just Paul and I to do laundry for, it wouldn't be so demanding. It is! Sure there aren't as many clothes to wash as there once was, but even when I've washed everything in the house, when I go to bed at night, there's dirty clothes in the hamper.
It's not fair! Shouldn't there be a time when we're done with laundry? It's no wonder all those little old ladies live in nursing homes! They're heartily sick of sixty years of the endless cycle of laundry.
Okay, maybe I oversimplified it a bit, but seriously, I'm trying to figure out how I can get someone else to do my laundry. No, my husband isn't an option! He'll wash my delicates with his jeans, and he won't even use a lingerie bag. No, I think moving in with my daughter will be the best option.
For a while I tried ignoring my laundry, hoping it would take care of itself, but that didn't work. It piled up anyway and I had twice as much work to get it all done!
You're probably wondering why I would go off on this rant since it's not something I normally do! Of course I'm thinking about something profound, not just rambling. (That's what I do!)
Becoming a new creature in Christ is so much like doing laundry. It never ends, not until you get to heaven and get your heavenly robes. (Oh boy, I hope I'm right about the laundry part of heaven!) No matter how much you think you've grown as a Christian, there's still something to work on, so be encouraged if you're wondering when you'll finally get it, when you'll finally be all better, all fixed. It's a lifelong process that even Mother Teresa and Billy Graham had to do.
But unlike with the laundry, you get lots of help cleaning up your soul. The Holy Spirit doesn't just give you some awesome high-speed detergent, he stays right with you, working in and through you. And just like with laundry, some day you'll have an 'empty nest' and you won't have to do your spiritual laundry as often. But even then, don't neglect it, or it will pile up on you and become a major chore.
It does get better, but it doesn't go away. Rest assured that no matter how good someone else looks to you, they have to do their spiritual laundry too!

Coffee pots and the Holy Spirit

2011-09-28T11:40:00.000-10:00

So, did you know that if you don't put a carafe under the basket of a drip coffee maker, you'll end up with a mess? It's not so bad if it's just four cups of coffee like I did this morning, but when it's eight to ten cups, oh what a pain! There are coffee and grounds all over the counter, the floor and in or on anything in the vicinity of the coffee pot. And coffee stains!
The good news is that you can still retrieve about three cups of coffee simply by putting the carafe properly under the basket.
"What does that have to do with the Holy Spirit?" you ask if you read the title of this blog.
That mess of coffee isn't the fault of the pot, nor even of the one who provided the water and coffee grounds. The pot was properly filled, but the person who was responsible for receiving the coffee didn't put the carafe in place at the proper time to catch the coffee.
Hopefully you begin to see where I'm going with this! A lot of times we look around at the mess we've made of our lives or our churches/ministries, and we want to blame God. But it's not his fault. He filled our innards with the Holy Spirit or populated our church with everyone we need to get his work done and have an incredible blessing. We, however, failed to properly place the 'pot' that will catch the blessings God is pouring out.
Personally we don't prepare our minds by studying the Word or we don't surround ourselves with godly people to help us grow. In our ministries we aren't deliberate about finding what people's giftings are, we're just looking for someone to do the job. We aren't prepared for the blessings of God to drip into a 'pot' that will then allow them to be enjoyed as intended. We make a mess of things.
But don't despair. All isn't lost! There's always time to catch at least some of the blessings God's been pouring out. Clean up your 'pot' and get it properly situated in God's plan and soon you'll be enjoying a fresh cup of coffee. And if you taste a few coffee grounds, let that be a reminder that no matter how bad you try to mess things up, God will still be glorified in the end!

Faith and Remembering

2011-09-27T08:44:00.001-10:00

I've been hanging around in 1 Timothy for a while. It's very interesting to me how many things I discover in a book when I spend extra time in it! This morning, I read something that I don't remember reading before. Since this is a blog, I'll just give you the highlights, but there's a lot of contextual information that I have to skip. (Read 1 Timothy for yourself and see if I'm reading in context.)
So, the passage I paused in this morning was 1 Timothy 1:18-20 -
"Timothy, my son, I am giving you this command in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by recalling them you may fight the battle well, holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith. Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme."
"This command" was probably the entire epistle, not just the immediate context. Paul is telling Timothy how to maintain his calling from the Lord. He's mentoring Timothy, and Timothy needs to remember what he's been taught. That's how he'll hold on to his faith and keep a good conscience.
I think it's not just "faith" and "conscience" that "some" have rejected, it's the instruction, the continued mentoring. But a faith shipwreck doesn't have to be fatal! Paul has hope that Hymenaeus and Alexander will learn a lesson.
Sometimes we get pretty full of ourselves after God's given us a calling, especially when it's something 'big'. We can abandon mentoring, or give it a half-hearted effort. But even leaders need mentoring, and accountability.
It doesn't mean you're not a strong Christian leader when you allow others to speak into your life with words of remembrance and/or correction. In fact, the opposite is true. Even when you have your own church or ministry, if you're obeying God you will submit to some authority that will help you keep your faith and conscience healthy.
Who's helping you remember the things you've been taught? Merely reading the bible by yourself isn't going to be enough. Find a mentor and some accountability partners and make sure you're remembering what you should be. Keep your faith strong and your conscience clear.

A Candle of a Marriage

2011-09-26T16:58:00.000-10:00

This past weekend my husband and I were praying for another couple and their marriage. We were using a candle as a reminder to pray for them. (There's a lot of back story to that, but I can't explain it all.)
The candle we were using was one of those that's poured into a tall glass container. This works really well to keep your house safe from the flame even when you're not immediately present and watching the flame, but it sure is hard to keep those darn things lit! I think they use the cheapest wax and wicks when they make those candles.
But the cheapness of the candle isn't the point of this blog. That candle as a metaphor for marriage is the point.
That candle was a royal pain to keep lit! It would burn brightly for a while then sputter and spit, sometimes flaming up again but it was more likely to sputter out. If I was right at hand, paying attention when that happened, I could pour out some wax and clean it up a bit and it was still pretty easy to relight. But if I was off somewhere doing something else and not watching that candle for too long (not a good idea), the wax would harden. Then it was a lot harder to get the candle cleaned and relit. I also had to make sure I uncovered enough wick to catch and burn but not so much wick that it burned too brightly and melted too much wax at once, drowning the flame.
Hopefully you've seen the metaphor in the above paragraph. Our marriages will sometimes burn brightly, sometimes sputter and spit. Sometimes the passion will die out completely. But there's still a lot of candle left. With a little judicious care you can get the candle of your marriage burning brightly again. That's going to be a whole lot easier if you're actually paying attention to your marriage and see when the flame sputters out. Clean it up while the wax is still soft and you won't have to work quite so hard.
As newlyweds we usually doubt those 'naysayers' who tell us that marriage is hard work. We're deeply in love and we expect our relationship to go on forever like that. It won't, but if you pay attention to it and carefully work on it, you will still have a flame burning, even after seventy years!

Ruth and Boaz in God's Plan

2011-09-24T08:00:00.001-10:00

The book of Ruth is one of the most underunderstood books in the bible. Yes, I meant exactly what I said. As contemporary Christians, we think we understand Ruth - She was David's great-grandmother, therefor an ancestor of Jesus. That's why her story is in the bible. That's not a bad understanding, but it's well under the understanding that we should get from it. Unless you know the bible very well or you have an awesome cross-reference/study bible, you're going to miss the subtleties of the story.
Like, did you know that Ruth was a descendant of Lot? Did you know that numerous laws were broken in this book? Do you know how the kinsman-redeemer worked? Do you know who Tamar and Perez were?
When you explore the subtleties of the book of Ruth, it becomes much richer.
But this blog isn't mainly about that. However, since I have studied Ruth in that kind of depth, I have a greater understanding of it than the average Christian. Since I've also learned how to study the bible, I know to ask "How would the original readers have understood this book?"
When we read this story, we jump immediately to "she's an ancestor of Jesus." The original readers didn't know that. They only knew that she was the great-grandmother of David, and that she was a very unlikely candidate for that role. In fact, based on Deuteronomy 23:3-6, she was an unlawful candidate for the great-grandmother of the king, and for the next seven of David's descendants.
In thinking about how much more incredible that story was for the original readers than for us today, I had one of those "well, duh!" moments.
Yes Ruth is an incredible story, but she didn't know how incredible it was!
Ruth lived it. She knew she was blessed to be Naomi's daughter-in-law; she knew she was blessed to become Boaz's wife, Obed's mother, Jesse's grandmother, but she never knew the rest of the story. She didn't know that her great-grandson became king!
Ruth lived her whole life without understanding her place in God's great plan of salvation. So did Boaz.
Boaz and Ruth weren't trying to do anything great and wonderful for God. They were simply living the simple life that had been given them. They were being obedient to God, not because they saw the ultimate blessing in it, but just because God was worthy to be obeyed.
You might not be seeing that what you do in life has any lasting impact, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that you live your life for God and let him work it to his glory, whether you ever see it or not! God will take your faithfulness and obedience and work them into his plan. You may not see the results until you get to heaven, but you can trust him. Whatever he's given you to do, no matter how small it seems to you, it's something God himself will make important!

My Incredible Husband

2011-09-23T09:32:00.001-10:00

My husband is awesome! We've been married eight years now and he's got a bit more gray and a few more pounds than when we met, but he's even better looking now than he was then. I don't know how he did it, but it's true!
Paul's also very funny. Some of the silly things he does I can't share because you wouldn't understand (or it requires sharing intimate details that you don't need to know!) but he comes up with some of the funniest things. He doesn't at all mind poking fun at himself, especially what he calls OFS (old farts stuff).
He genuinely likes people (even when they have a penchant for irritating him) and he has more patience than he gives himself credit for. Unfortunately, when he loses his patience, it's pretty noticeable! But he doesn't hold grudges very well at all.
Paul loves God very much, enough that he wants to know him better. He not only reads his bible everyday, he thinks about what he reads, talks about it with others. When someone challenges his understanding about God, he doesn't get all huhu. Instead, Paul turns to the Word to see if maybe he missed something. He doesn't let other people tell him what he's supposed to believe; he makes them show him what they learned in the Word.
My husband wasn't always perfect. He's grown spiritually, but he still makes mistakes. That makes him 'perfect' for me! He doesn't buy me gifts and flowers. When he buys me candy it's Baby Ruths and M&Ms. But he likes to spend time with me. He talks to me and listens to me, and when it's my birthday, he thinks about where I want to go for dinner rather than picking a place he wants to go. He's even willing to let me pick the place we go to dinner on his birthday.
My husband is no stereotype. He isn't a waffle nor is he from Mars. He's my wonderful, adorable, unpredictable, sometimes confusing, sometimes frustrating, often challenging counterpart. The more I get to know the man I married, the more I love him.
If you're married and you'd like a husband somewhat like my Paul (who you can't have. I'll scratch your eyes out if you even try!), I suggest you change your perspective. Ask God for his eyes instead of your own. Start seeing your husband through God's eyes and you'll begin to see the real man.
If you aren't married and you'd like a husband somewhat like my Paul (see my above comment!), you still need to look through God's eyes! Put your life and love in God's hands and only look at what he puts before you, where he directs your eyes. God will show you the way to love.

Who's Important?

2011-09-20T22:07:00.000-10:00

Have you ever really thought about the fact that there's a big world that exists beyond what you can see, feel, smell and touch? When people are not in your presence, their lives go on. They do many things without even once thinking about you.
That seems like a 'no duh', doesn't it? But is it really? Functionally, do we really believe that people have lives that don't revolve around ours?
How many times have you called someone and been upset when they didn't answer? Have you ever been disgusted because you know they're screening your calls? They should answer and talk to you because you're important!
What about when people need your help for something and you're too busy to give it? This is especially noticeable when you're 'the boss'. You give directions but don't make them complete and when the person who's trying to do the project asks for feedback, you're too busy to give it. Whether or not they can do their job isn't as important as all the busy important things you're doing. And yet, when the job isn't done to standard or on time, you aren't going to take any of the blame because you delegated it!
The bible assures us that no one is unimportant, and yet how many times do we not take the time to get to know the needs and wants, gifts and callings, of the people around us. Usually they need to get 'in our face' and make themselves important to us. But what about all those people who don't get pushy? What about those who quietly go about their business, doing what's asked of them and asking for nothing, or very little, in return?
We should all begin to consider if we're really living like other people are important. They have things to contribute even when they seem unimportant.

Expectations

2011-09-17T10:10:00.001-10:00

This hasn't been the best of weeks, but fortunately it hasn't been the worst either! Do you have those annoying weeks where nothing works quite right? The computer seems slower than usual. The check you're waiting for still hasn't come. The weather's been muggy. You don't want to step on the scale because you're pretty sure you've eaten just enough junk food to nudge your weight upward.
But it hasn't been a week devoid of pleasure either. That aforementioned junk food sure tasted good. You had a fun time or two with your spouse. You accomplished a few dozen little things.
But you didn't get anything big accomplished. You look back on all the work you did and wonder why? Why so little accomplished when you faced so many annoyances all week long and you really did work hard?
You had a 'life for real week'. It's been disappointing because of your expectations not because of your circumstances.
We want to live on the mountaintop; we know we'll spend time in the valley; we don't expect to spend most of our time travelling between the two.
I think that's why those 'blah' kine weeks are so unsettling. We know that suffering builds character because that's what the bible promised, so we actually learn to handle the really tough times (and thank God that they're not tougher than they are) and we look for those times that we accomplish something 'real' because they assure us that our character is indeed growing. But what the heck do all those minor annoyances accomplish?
One thing they reminded me of this week is that I have a tendency to expect perfection from myself. I'm okay with the imperfections of others (unless they're really imperfect!) but I hold myself to unrealistic expectations. If I'm becoming more Christ-like, I shouldn't be annoyed by anything, should I? Once the computer sticks its tongue out at me when I tell it to open my Outlook, I am annoyed. That expectation of being unflappable is destroyed. I am not Christ-like. I have failed. That opens the door to greater annoyance, even anger.
I'm beginning to see that before I can truly become Christ-like, I have to become realistic about my humanity. While I am being perfected, I am not perfect. I won't always respond perfectly to every situation. That doesn't mean I'm not a Christian, it just means I'm still on my journey. I need to give myself the grace to fail and get back up again, even when it's just a minor annoyance that caused me to fail.

Business

2011-09-14T08:33:00.002-10:00

I'm so busy! I don't have the time for anything.
How many times have you heard something like that, or even said it? It's usually said as an excuse for not having responded to someone. It can even be rather prideful - "I don't have the time for little things because I'm too busy!"
I am rather busy right now. It's a season of my life. I don't have time for some of the things I really want to do, like writing my next novel. I'm about 1/3 of the way done with it but it's kind of on hold for a few days while I work on something else that's got me rather busy.
The problem with business is that some people live in a chronic state of business. They always have a few thousand emails waiting in their inbox. They're always rushing from one place to another. They always have a dozen different projects up in the air. They hardly have time to sit down for a meal without working and they rarely sleep more than a few hours a night.
Even if you're physically capable of keeping up with that kind of pressure, it isn't good for you. First off, you will age and you won't be able to keep up the pace. Second off, you don't have time for relationships.
No matter what your work is, it is not more important than your relationships.
That doesn't mean that you have to drop whatever you're doing because your daughter wants your attention, but it does mean that you should make time for your loved ones. And you shouldn't wait until they ask for time. You should initiate downtime that you can spend with family and friends.
All those things you're doing, for work, for church, even for your family, when they're done at the expense of your relationships, they become wood, hay and stubble that will be burned in the fire.
Take the time to reprioritize your schedule. Before you can do that, the first thing you need to wrap your mind around is this gem of wisdom - the fate of the free world does not rest on your shoulders!
God will get things done even if you 'drop the ball.' But you don't have to drop the ball. Start delegating, giving things to subordinates. Learn to tell your boss "No can do!"
Stop and just breathe. Don't even try to smell the flowers yet, just enjoy the breath that God has given you. Then start really looking at that incredibly blue sky. Watch a few clouds and see what drifts by. Learn the art of quietness and let it help you transform the business of your life into the fruitfulness of living.

Childish Tatrums and Childlike Wonder

2011-09-08T18:22:00.001-10:00

My neighbor has one of the most adorable, friendliest boys I've ever met. He's just a year old and very curious about the world. That curiosity makes him quick for such a little guy. He has to be caught once he fixes on something and heads for it. He won't be turned from his goal by just hearing his name called in summons.
Unfortunately, every now and then he gets upset, like the other day when Daddy was washing the truck and he got sprayed by the hose. Then the little buggah walked right into the spray, screaming furiously.
Sometimes I'm like a toddler with God. I know I shouldn't do something but I do it anyway and I yell at God because it's his fault that I got 'all wet'!
Too bad I'm not as generally adorable as a toddler also! Too bad I get bored and indifferent with life sometimes instead of being curious. Too bad I'm too easily diverted from my God-given goals.
Why is it that we easily keep the negative aspects of babyhood and quickly lose the positive?
Jesus said we needed to become like a little child to enter the kingdom of heaven. Maybe he'd have an easier time dealing with the temper tantrums we throw if every now and then we also experienced the childlike wonder of life! When the apostle Paul said to put off the childish things as you grow, do you think that maybe he didn't intend for us to put off childlike wonder?
Here's hoping that today you find something wonderful in God's creation, something that touches the child in you and breaths new life into her!

Another Beautiful Day

2011-09-07T07:55:00.000-10:00

This morning I see gorgeous blue skies outside my windows. A few lazy fluffy clouds are drifting around in the heavens, but the sun rules supreme. Another beautiful day!
Why's a rainy day not a beautiful day?
I recently heard a few people talk at different times about how God blessed a trip by giving them perfect weather, meaning sunny skies and no rain. People pray for a change in the weather and feel their prayers are answered. That bugs me a little because it makes us as individuals much too important. It makes us the center of the world, the person around whom God determines the blessings that all others will receive - or not receive!
Did you know that there are people in the world who actually welcome rain? I'm serious! They're call farmers and ranchers and most of them have a very real need for rain to fall on their crops, to water their livestock. Sometimes the rain you're praying to stop has been a tremendous blessing to the farmers and ranchers in the area. Even in the cities we need rain occasionally. It replenishes the water table and provides water for the vegetation that helps to keep the air cleaner.
Yes, there's something about those beautiful blue skies that seems to set your heart soaring, but maybe it has more to do with the color blue than the weather itself!
It's not a beautiful or 'perfect' day because it's 95% sunny. It's a beautiful day because it's a day created by God. That makes every day, rainy, sunny or mix, a beautiful day!

Freedom from guilt

2011-09-06T20:41:00.006-10:00

Yesterday I started studying 'guilt' in the bible. I wasn't too surprised to discover that there was a whole lot more on the subject in the Old Testament than in the New. What was rather surprising was how vast a difference there is!
I'm not by any means done since there are hundreds of times that the Hebrew and Greek words for 'guilt' and related words are used in the bible. I mean that quite literally! The Hebrew word ‘āwōn which means "Sin, wickedness, iniquity, often with a focus on the guilt or liability incurred, and the punishment to follow" occurs 233 times in the bible. And that's just one word.
So far, all the Greek words that I've found for guilt don't even come close to that number.
This is just preliminary findings, but my hypothesis after a few hours of study (it takes a long time to read all the verses that talk about guilt) is that in the Old Testament, we see a lot of defining of guilt. What makes a person guilty. How can they get rid of guilt. What are the guilt offerings. In the New Testament, the emphasis is on our freedom from guilt! That transition should be expected since we have verses like Isaiah 53:10 "Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, ...."
The prophecy of the Messiah said that he would become a guilt offering. The New Testament shows us how that happened.
We no longer have to be concerned with the mechanics of guilt as the Old Testament believers were. Now we have freedom from guilt, freedom provided by the ultimate, final, perfect sacrifice.
But what kinds of guilt is covered by Jesus' sacrifice?
Every single one! There is absolutely no form of guilt that isn't covered by the blood of Jesus, except the guilt of rejecting him!
If you have accept the salvation of Jesus Christ, you no longer own any guilt!
If guilt raises it's ugly head in your life, take it only as a warning that you have either committed a sin or you're under an attack from your unhealed past or a spiritual force.
Get rid of the guilt.
It's really that simple - repent of your sin and receive your forgiveness; take your past hurts to God and give them to him; or go after that spiritual force just like a stubborn old mule - keep your face resolutely focused on the One who freed you from guilt and let loose with a wicked back kick that hits the lie right where it counts!

Seeking God's glory

2011-09-04T10:07:00.000-10:00

I've been reading 1 Timothy this past week. Yes, it only has six chapters but when I read a book of the bible, sometimes I read it over and over again. I don't always plan to when I start the book, but that's what happens. After a few days of reading and rereading, somethings begin to rise to the surface. I study those things a little more.
Now, I've read the bible way more than once. I've ready every book of the bible multiple times. I've completed a half dozen different "through the bible" reading plans over the years. I know the bible really well.
So why is it that I so often find things I never noticed before?
One thing that stood out in 1 Timothy is 1:8-9. (No I'm not going to talk about the 'women be silent in church' passage. That would be way beyond the scope of a blog!)
"We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, ...."
That means the law is not for Christians! That's strange since Jesus said he didn't come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. So how can the law not be for Christians? Doesn't Paul say that the law is a mirror that shows us sin?
Take a look at what Paul says after he gives a list of examples of "the unholy and irreligious." In 1:10-11 he says: "and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God ...."
I think the simple answer to the above question about the law and Christians is that the law is unnecessary for those who are truly seeking to understand and obey the sound doctrine of the gospel! I once heard someone say (I think it was Mike Warnke many years ago) that as a Christian, you don't not do the 'don't's, you choose to do the 'do's! That's why (and functionally how) the law isn't for those who are righteous. When we seek to glorify God, we won't be doing the unrighteous things the law addresses! We will want to seek purity and holiness because that's what gives God glory.
If you're having a hard time giving up the sins of the past, try focusing on God instead of trying to get rid of the past. The more you fill your life with God, the less the law will be necessary!

The Military Moving Mentality

2011-09-02T08:47:00.000-10:00

I spent a good portion of my adult life in the military or as a military spouse. I thought I had learned the art of moving, but I've discovered that's not true. Sure I moved a lot, but I never had to pay for the moves! I didn't even have to do most of the work. I just got rid of some stuff (not much) and stepped back and let the movers have their way.
Since getting out of the Army, I've discovered that when you're paying for shipping yourself you're a lot more discriminating about what to keep, what to sell and what to give away. I've also discovered that the farther away you're moving, the more you're going to finally decide that you just don't really need that ... whatever it is you think you need.
On the other hand, how much are you going to pay to replace truly useful items if you get rid of too many things? Take the kitchen for example. Just because you only bake pies two or three times a year doesn't mean you should get rid of your good pie tins. Are you really going to be able to find quality replacements at a thrift store or yard sale, or are you going to go to a 'discount' store and pay retail price to get new tins?
Decisions, decisions, decisions.
Some of us need to start making some decisions about the baggage of our lives too.
For a long time I had the 'military moving mentality' about life. It wasn't costing me anything to lug around the baggage of my past so I wasn't thinking about what I kept. It was easier to just let the Accuser come in, pack everything up and ship it for me whenever I tried to make a real change. Because I started leaving some things in boxes so I didn't even see them, I thought I was doing pretty good. I thought I was learning the art of 'moving' toward being Christ-like.
I was wrong. I had to start opening up those boxes and examining the contents for value. I dragged over a dumpster and threw a whole lot of things out for the garbage man. My keeper pile was pretty small. Some of it, like my failed marriages, I had to clean up and snip here and there in an attempt to learn lessons about what I'd done wrong. Surprisingly enough, all the ugly stuff in my past, when I really looked at it, prayerfully and with God's eyes instead of just my own, I saw a gem in the center. And I mean all the ugly stuff! No exceptions!
I've still got a few boxes left to unpack. I'm unpacking them in God's time, but I am determined that I will unpack them! I won't quit until I've found every gem I can and dumped all the rubbish.
How about you? Have you been living life with a military moving mentality? Are you ready for a real change?

A Broken Clay Pot

2011-08-31T17:02:00.002-10:00

A friend of mine gave me a very interesting analogy for her life. She said she was like a clay pot that had been broken. All the bigger pieces can be glued back together again, but some of that pot has been shattered to dust. It can't be retrieved and glued back in with the rest.
I really like that analogy, especially if you take it one step further.
When the clay pot of your life is broken, it happens right there in front of your Creator. He picks up the bigger pieces and lovingly sets them back on his workbench then he sweeps up the dust, sifting it carefully to keep only the parts of you, not the rubbish that might have been mixed in with it. He saves that dust in a little bin, safe from the wind that would blow it away. He loving begins to piece the pot back together again.
Sometimes you're going to resist his work and fall apart before he's done, but he's not going to quit. He'll pick up the pieces again, but this time there won't be as much dust left because the glue he's using is going to shield the edges of your broken pot.
Eventually he's going to have the big pieces all put back together again. Sure enough, there are still cracks and even some gaping holes in the pot, but the Potter isn't done yet. He takes that dust of your life that he's saved, mixes it with some special clay made of love, joy, peace and goodness then adds a bit of water that pours from his own side. With the paste he creates, he carefully and expertly fills in all those cracks and holes, working until everything is filled in. He smooths it, blending it carefully so that the new clay perfectly lays over the broken pot that is now no longer broken.
But the Potter's not done yet. Now he glazes the newly made pot with the Spirit of life then thrusts it into fiery trials. When the pot comes out of the fire, it is stronger, better than it was before it was ever broken. It now also has character that it didn't have before, a unique beauty unlike any other pot in the Potter's shed.
If that pot gets broken again, or even just chipped or cracked, the Potter will again fix the pot, each time making it even more beautiful.
The only role the pot has to play is to submit to the Potter's hands. If the pot resists, it will continue to break apart and crumble. Eventually it will be gone, lost for all eternity because it rejected its Creator's love.
Will you accept the work of the Potter, or will you resist, rejecting the love that can make you new again?

The Garbage of Life

2011-08-29T20:23:00.001-10:00

Last night at church one of the men gave an analogy about the junk from our past and the junk in a garbage dump. It went something like this:
When rubbish is downloaded into a dump, it's packed down into layer upon layer. The more time passes, the more the garbage shifts and compacts. If there was something you needed to get out of the dump that was deposited even just months before, it's already been buried by a small mountain of other garbage. You'll have to root around down there until you hook onto it, but when you try to pull it out, it's going to be caught on a whole lot of other rubbish. Some of that rubbish will stick with it and come out when it does, but other rubbish will be tangled with something else that keeps any of the rubbish from coming up out of the dump with any ease.
When we try to get to the source of negative thinking in our lives, we'll usually find that's hard to do. We can identify a certain memory that contributed to something - let's say self doubt. So someone remembers that her father repeatedly told her that she couldn't do anything by herself. She's found the rubbish that's the source of her current problems and she forgives it. It's done, over with, gone.
Not even! That rubbish is hooked onto something else. Maybe her mom wouldn't ever let her help with any of the household chores. That's going to be a real hard one to find because she doesn't even recognize it as a negative thing!
So the point is that most of us live on a garbage dump of a past. God will help us get out all the garbage, but it's going to take time and a lot of patient work. It's worth the effort. What you need to do is keep a focus on the end goal - a new life as a truly joyful person.
Be forewarned though, once you've asked God to start the process, he's not going to quit, no matter how much you whine when thing get stinky down in the dump. Learn to plug your nose and keep at it. Someday you'll have a beautiful, sweet smelling flower garden.

A Restore File

2011-08-26T17:02:00.000-10:00

Isn't it amazing how difficult life gets with technology? We always think about things being easier than they were even fifty years ago but sometimes they get harder, especially when technology goes awry. Computers are both the bane of my existence and what makes my current 'career' possible. Using my buddy InDesign, I can lay out books with much more ease then old Ben Franklin ever dreamt of (and he was quite a dreamer), but when the computer crashes, life becomes so hard!
I've spent the last two days trying to keep up with the things I need to do while I recovered from the ravages of a possessed computer. Thankfully I do very good backups these days. In fact, I'm almost compulsive about it. As long as there were no gremlins getting their hot little hands into things while I was backing up, I haven't lost even one word of my work. And I've literally written hundreds of thousands of words.
While I backup my files, I haven't yet figured out how to do that restore thing on the computer, if it's even still possible with the new operating systems. (There are so many features of the old system that I liked that are now gone. It would figure that they would think things that made working on the computer easier would be unwanted features. They 'improved' the ease of copying and moving files right out of existence!) If I can figure out that restore thing, I won't have as much trouble reloading programs next time my computer needs surgery.
On the other hand, isn't it just like life to have a hard time restoring things after they go south? When we sin, there isn't a 'restore file' that will allow us to wipe out all our troubles and start over like nothing ever happened. Just like with a computer without a restore file, we have to painstakingly find all the things that need to be set right. It can take a long time. Even when you think you've handled everything, something else pops up that you're missing, weeks or even months later.
Computer problems can be greatly reduced with a judicious use of time and resources. Virus checkers, spyware killers and system optimizing will help you keep thing operating well for a long time. In life, regular prayer, bible study and fellowship with other believers will keep you growing and much safer from the attacks of the malicious unseen forces who want to mess up your life just because they can.
I don't know about you, but I've certainly learned that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I'm glad that my crashes aren't as spectacular as they used to be. But if something does happen and my whole life crashes like a six year old computer, even though I may have to deal with consequences, God does have a restore file that will make me new again.

The Joy of Writing

2011-08-23T20:56:00.000-10:00

I love being a writer! It's got to be the coolest job ever. One of the neatest things about it is that none of my dreams need ever be wasted.
You remember how when you were a kid, you dreamed all kinds of stuff? You'd travel, be a fireman, a soldier, a cowboy, whatever. You dreamed so many things (and hopefully still do) that you couldn't possibly do them all.
I will never accomplish all my dreams. There are just too many of them. But now my dreams get new life in my books. Sometimes something happens, either in my life or in the world at large, that really bugs me. I get to take that event, wonder what could have happened if someone who was really in tune with God was there to change the outcome, then I get to make it happen in a story.
I believe that as Christians we can affect the world around us in a very real way. Part of it is just being open to whatever wonders God wants to unfold in your life. Part of it is becoming aware of ways that God can work through you.
So, last year there was a story (or two or three) about a bank robbery and I wondered what if God had put someone in the bank who would bring God's presence to the situation? So I wrote that what if. What if God put someone in a position to stop a domestic terrorist-type attack? What if God asked someone to witness to a serial rapist? What if God used a young man to make an abusive womanizer realize he wasn't much of a man?
What could you do with your life if you opened it up to God's possibilities? Whose life could you save if you were a willing vessel? It isn't necessarily going to be something big and newsworthy like stopping a school shooting, but I guarantee you this - if you open yourself to God's possibilities, at some point in time he will use you to affect a potentially ugly situation. If you let him, God will show you how to write a story that will glorify him.

Angry with God

2011-08-19T11:44:00.000-10:00

I don't know if you've ever been angry with God or not, but I'll confess that I have. It's not a matter of not believing in him anymore. I knew he was God, but I just didn't like the way he did things.
Some of my characters get angry with God too. At the beginning of Seasons of Change, Heather was angry at God because of all the bad things that had happened to her and her family. She still loved God but she wasn't talking to him. She doesn't actively disbelieve his goodness, but she does let him know she's mad at him.
In A Cord of Three, Ted is angry at God, also because of some bad things that happened to him and his family. However, he's decided he doesn't love God and that God doesn't love him.
Of course, through the events in their respective books, both Heather and Ted begin to get past their anger. When Ted's approaching that point of letting go of the past, he tells his dad he's not a godly man. His dad points out that Job complained about God, accused God of picking on him and told him in no uncertain terms that he wasn't being fair to Job. God never told anyone that Job was unrighteous. In fact, he said Job was righteous, even after getting angry at God.
Ted asks, "Are you saying it's okay to be angry at God?"
His dad says, "That depends on what you mean by 'okay' Son. If you mean okay as in it's a good place to be, then no, it's not okay. If you mean okay as in God isn't going to quit loving you because you're angry, then yeah, it's okay to be angry. The key is to get to the place where you're finally willing to hear God reassure you that he is God and that he knows what he's doing."
When you get angry with God, do you tell him you're angry and let him gently show you the truth, or do you pout and sulk and try to pretend like he won't know anything's up if you don't say anything (like we sometimes do with our earthly parents)?
You may as well get it off your chest. God knows exactly what you're thinking, but as long as you hold onto it, he can't fully deal with it. When you trust him enough to tell him you're angry, you take a huge step forward in your spiritual 'IQ.'
The next time you start to feel angry at God, why not try telling him so? The sooner you unload that anger, the more likely you are to sin not. Don't keep it. Give it to God where it belongs.

On Doubts and The Truth

2011-08-18T13:24:00.000-10:00

In my book The Blessed Winter, Greg, the central character of The Shepherd Series who's the pillar of faith for his family, doubts himself and his calling from the Lord. Without revealing details in case someone who's reading this hasn't read the book and wants to, I feel the need to explore something he says during his time of doubt.
"It's me who's weak and wrong, not God. What if I've been wrong about me all along? What if everything I've ever believed I heard from God wasn't from him at all but was my own selfish desire? ... What if I'm stubborn, selfish and self-righteous? And if I don't know how to hear God's voice after twenty years as a Christian ... If I've been wrong, then I don't know how to hear God so I'm not going to know when he speaks to me as he tries to change me. ... So this is it. This is all I get to be, the messed up screwball with no past and no future. What good am I to anyone?"
I wonder sometimes how many Christians, even Billy-Graham-like 'pillars of the faith,' sometimes feel this way.
Curiously, I think that maybe only those who do know the Lord will question themselves enough to doubt like this. In my experience, those who are stubborn, selfish and self-righteous never doubt themselves! They 'know' that they know the Lord better than anyone else.
It isn't the doubts that are the problem, it's what you do with them. A few chapters later, Greg tells one of his friends: "In everything God loves us and he goes with us. Nothing we do can destroy his love for us, nothing we go through makes him leave us. We have to hold our feelings up to that truth and bring them in line with it rather than trying to rewrite the truth based on our feelings."
Feelings can lie to us, tell us things about ourselves that aren't true. God himself has said that you are of great value to him. Even if you have messed up, he's going to redeem that, turn it around to his glory.
So when you have doubts about yourself and your calling from the Lord, remember what you know about God. Write yourself a psalm listing the ways God has already shown his love for you and his calling on you. Don't just include the wonderful things of the bible, include the wonderful personal experiences that you've had. Confront your doubts with the Truth. Let that Truth reveal any legitimate issues that you need to face and work with God to fix them, but never, ever embrace doubt about your usefulness to God and his kingdom. If you are his child, you definitely have a place in his plan.

Physical, Emotional or Spiritual

2011-08-16T16:41:00.000-10:00

We have three basic types of problems that we face in life - physical, emotional or spiritual.
A physical problem would be something like a broken leg. An emotional problem could be a low self-image. A spiritual problem is something like unforgiveness.
Except it's not that simple! I think in actuality this is more accurate:
physical problem = emotional problem = spiritual problem
We've heard a lot about how our physical body is affected by our emotions and our spirit. If you harbor unforgiveness, it can make you physically ill with things like ulcers. If you have a low self-image it might cause things like stress headaches. If you have a broken leg, it can make you miserable and angry. But those things don't necessarily happen. There are plenty people who have physical ailments that don't get them "down" emotionally, and some people are physically healthy while they harbor unforgiveness. But every single physical or emotional problem affects your spirit.
Right now are you frowning or staring thoughtfully at your computer screen? I hope you're doing one or the other because that means I'm challenging you to think about something you haven't thought about before.
What I said was every single physical or emotional problem affects your spirit. Note that I did not say that every physical or emotional problem causes a spiritual problem. That would not be true. My original statement is. Why do I say that? Romans 5:1-5
"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us."
See how "hope" is a spiritual thing? Where does hope come from? Character, which comes from perseverance, which comes through suffering!
In every kind of suffering, your spirit will be affected. You will either accept the growth toward hope that God wants to use your suffering for and have a spiritual blessings, or you will reject the growth and have a spiritual problem.
You cannot by sheer force of will refuse to let an emotional or physical problem affect your spirit, you can only choose whether the effect will be a blessing or a problem!
If you want to choose the blessing, it's a simple (but not easy) matter of turning to God in trust. Allow him to show you what he wants you to learn and let your character grow.
Or you can snap and growl and bite the hand that blesses you, blaming God for your suffering and watch your problem grow.
Which will you choose, the blessing or the problem?

Lessons Relearned

2011-08-15T13:03:00.000-10:00

I wonder if I'm the only one who has to relearn lessons over and over and over again. It's especially embarrassing to realize that I've put myself into a predicament when I've taught people to not do what I've been doing. But I guess I'm in good company since the Apostle Paul bemoaned the fact that the very things he didn't want to do, he did.
My current dilemma is an overfull plate. And no, I'm not talking about a dinner plate! You know what I mean. So many things to do and not enough time to do it all.
Some of it's my own fault. I procrastinate doing things I don't like to do or don't do well. They build momentum when I put them off and when I finally must tackle them, they're a three thousand pound boulder rolling down the hill and I'm trying to balance on top of it rather than being crushed under it.
Some of it's the result of not getting feedback or responses from people I'm working with. The problem is that I hate being micromanaged so I hate micromanaging. When people have said they'll do something, I trust them to do it. It'll take a long time before I finally decide to bug them and get what I need from them. Then it seems to never fail that each and everything I'm waiting on comes back within a short period of time!
Some of my overload is God's fault! I'm serious, and I'm right. That Man just won't quit giving me inspiration! I've got ideas in my head that won't go away until I put them down on paper. As long as they're in there, they take up room that I need for other thing too. But the problem is that God gives me ideas almost as fast as I can get them down on paper. Then he adds to my conundrum by not sending me enough people to help with those aforementioned things I don't do so well, like maintaining a website (or two or three).
I guess God's trying to teach me about prioritizing, but I'm not getting the message. The problem is that the only thing I can logically see that I can let go is the writing, but that's the very thing that God keeps dumping on me!
I wonder if anyone out there is listening and if they have a practical idea for how to resolve my dilemma?

A Better Christian vs. More Christ-like

2011-08-14T10:09:00.000-10:00

Would you like to be a better Christian or be more Christ-like? Let me say at the outset that there's nothing wrong with wanting to be a better Christian, but it isn't a very good goal because it's not measurable.
What is a Christian? That word has no true meaning to contemporary Americans. You may find that a little radical, but think about this: Have you ever shopped in a Christian bookstore? Read a Christian book? Listened to Christian music on a Christian radio station?
The problem with being "Christian" is that the word has varied meanings. In fact, some of the music you listen to on "Christian" radio really isn't "Christian." Take for example a very popular song back in the nineties, "Butterfly Kisses." It was a beautiful song about a daddy's love of is little girl who grows into a woman. It was played on Christian radio even though the only mention of God was in the first verse: "She was sent here from heaven /... She talks to Jesus and I close my eyes / And I thank God for all of the joy in my life." (More recently Steven Curtis Chapman's Cinderella doesn't even mention God or Jesus at all!)
So what makes something "Christian"? Who decides that? It certainly isn't defined in the bible.
What makes someone "Christian"? That's defined in the bible. Luke says that "The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch" (Acts 11:26, emphasis added). Peter says "if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name" (1 Peter 4:16). (The only other use of the word Christian in the original text of the bible is in Acts 26:28: "Then Agrippa said to Paul, “Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?") So, according to the bible, a Christian is a disciple who praises God when he suffers because he is a Christian. An argument could even be made that simply accepting Jesus as your savior and gaining eternal life does not make you a Christian. You must choose to be a disciple too.
Hmmm. I wonder where that puts most Americans who call themselves Christians?
If you're going to be a biblical Christian, you're going to be a disciple which means you're spending time with Jesus Christ to be more Christ-like! And you find suffering a reason to praise God.
You can try to become a better Christian (e.g. not swear, drink, smoke or have extra-marital sex) without ever even approaching being Christ-like. (Or being saved either!)
Being Christ-like means seeking to know the Father (through reading his Word), seeking the Father's will, being a servant, dying to self, being in fellowship, reaching out to the lost, hurting and lonely. If you become more Christ-like, you will become a better Christian (a better disciple of Jesus').
How about you? Do you want to be a better Christian or be more Christ-like?

Silliness is Next to Godliness

2011-08-11T10:01:00.000-10:00

I'm working on getting some stuff in my third book, After the Storm, up on my website, so when my Outlook popped up a reminder that I was supposed to blog, silliness was on my mind.
If you've read any of my books, you know that my characters are (too?) prone to break out into silliness, but Pete (the hero of Storm) realizes that he's not comfortable with silliness. When he's with the guys, he follows their silliness easily and even usually willingly, but he never instigates anything nor does he escalate. In fact, when his best friends aren't around, he tends to protect his dignity. He can play games and all (which is obvious since he's a football player) but he always has to play to win, to be the best, be ichiban, number one.
In talking to Jenni, Pete discovers that his difficulty in being silly is rooted in his childhood. He knows he had a pretty bad childhood; his parents are quite different now than they were when he was growing up.
Because Pete is already committed to allowing Jesus to be Lord of his life in all things, that realization makes a big difference for him. He sees that his dignity isn't important. He begins to allow himself to degenerate into silliness. He even discovers that his previously abusive, womanizing father has learned to be silly with his mother.
He does such a magnificent job of getting into silliness that eventually Jenni declares, "I don't guess there's much reason to worry about your dignity anymore."
(If you want to know how Pete gets silly, you'll have to read After the Storm.)
My question for you is this: Do you believe "silliness is next to godliness"? Should Christians be silly?
Maybe it'll help to put things in a biblical perspective: Do you think Jesus was being serious when he said to not let your left hand know what your right was doing, or was he being a little bit silly? Have you ever stopped to examine bible stories for silliness? What about when Peter got freed from prison in Acts 12? Rhoda was so excited to see him that she slammed the door on his face then tried to convince everyone he was actually out there. They argued with her for a while instead of just opening the door and looking. When they finally do, Peter's standing there still knocking. If you haven't seen that as funny, grab your bible and have someone read the story aloud to you while you close your eyes and imagine it happening like it was a sitcom.
God does have a steak of silliness in him. If you're too careful about maintaining your dignity, if you can't let silliness out, maybe you need to have a serious discussion with God about why. Is your dignity of greater value than laughter and fellowship?
If you can't remember the last time you were silly, it's been too long! Go in your prayer closet, put on some music and dance like you're crazy.
Go on, try it, you might actually like it!

The Art of Friendship

2011-08-09T09:49:00.000-10:00

I believe that friendship is very important. That's obvious from the title of my sixth book, A Cord of Three which is of course from Ecclesiastes 4:7-12. While that passage doesn't mention 'friendship' directly, it's still obviously about friendship - "pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up."
Unfortunately, I think contemporary Americans have lost the true meaning of friendship. Rugged individualism (the Marlboro man riding the range by himself), pulling yourself up by your bootstrap, even "man's best friend" (the dog) all indicate a self-reliance that shuns relationship and sees aloneness as somehow better than the interdependence of friendship.
On the other hand, comments like "She's the best friend anyone could ever have. She's always there for me" smack more of the other side of the coin - codependence, the need to have someone who needs you to validate you.
In A Cord of Three, as Ted and Shelly's friendship deepened, they realized that Ted would always need to withdraw sometimes to process what was happening. Shelly needed to learn to not accept feelings of rejection when he needed to do so, which would be easier if Ted told her he needed time to himself.
True friendship (which any romantic relationship needs if it wants to survive 'til death) realizes that differences are good and it not only allows the differences, but it embraces and encourages them. True friendship also sometimes scolds. In 2 Corinthians 7:8-13, the Apostle Paul tells us that sometimes we need to cause those we love to be sorrowful in a godly way. There is a godly sorrow that leads to repentance and salvation. In the end, there is no regret for the sorrow, either from the giver or receiver, because both draw closer to each other and to God through the sorrow.
Too often we're afraid to hurt someone's feelings, but sometimes feelings need to be hurt! Our friendships, whether they be familial, romantic or platonic, all need to be God-centered. We have to have healthy boundaries that allow us to say 'no,' and we have to receive 'no' without being hurt. We sometimes have to scold, sometimes encourage, sometimes walk away and let the fall happen, but never so far that our hand of friendship isn't there to assist in the recovery.
I challenge you to examine your friendships. Do you have honest ones? If not, why not? Are you willing to trust God enough to open yourself to the vulnerability of true friendship?

For country, church or God?

2011-08-08T08:53:00.000-10:00

"Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country." President Kennedy said that fifty years ago in his inaugural address. It's a fine sentiment for individuals to live by. It is a dangerous sentiment for governments to live by.
Yes, as Americans we do need to ask what we can do for your country, not what our country can do for us. It's part of that life of service that we were created for. However, when a government asks what its people can do for it rather than what it can do for its people, the government begins to exist for its own sake rather than to provide a safe and orderly environment for the people to enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Then the government decides what it wants to accomplish with no concern for the people it will have to walk over to get the job done. When people get tired of such governments they rise up in rebellion or civil disobedience, forcing a change in the way things are done. Sometimes those changes are good, but sometimes they're bad.
Substitute "country" for "church" in Kennedy's quote, and you have the same basic scenario.
The contemporary church in America seems quite willing to tell its congregants to seek what they can do for the church, but wholly unwilling to ask what the church can do for the congregants. Churches tend to get focused on the big picture, bringing souls into the kingdom and achieving a God-given vision for the church. They forget the individual. Even in those churches who do disciple believers to grow to be more Christ-like, the tendency is to do it so that they will eventually serve in and/or lead a ministry within the church. Most churches are looking for how they can use their members' God-given gifts and talents, not how they can nurture their members to find their calling from the Lord. When they do talk about "calling," most churches do it in the context of their church, not in the context of God's will.
The Apostle Paul made it pretty clear that unless the church is first concerned about the individuals who make up their congregation, they cannot be serving the Lord at full capacity - "But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it." (1 Corinthians 12:24-26)
As church leaders, we must never allow ourselves to get so focused on the mission that we do not nurture the people who make up our congregation. It isn't easy to do that because it means building true relationships, getting to know people in a real way rather than looking at them and trying to figure out what ministry we can stick them in. Their calling from the Lord may give our church no direct benefit, but that doesn't mean we aren't responsible to nurture that calling anyway.
As congregants, we cannot forget that we are responsible not just for using our God-given gifts and talents for our church, but also for finding our God-given calling and serving him, not just our local church. Sure we need to be part of a church, but that church needs to be concerned about us, not just about its mission.
There comes a time when citizen or congregant has to ask not just what they can do in service, but if they are in turn being served. Your first loyalty is to God, not country and not church. If God has something for you to do for him and your church is only interested in what you can do for the church, it's time to reevaluate your membership. It's time to find a place where you can fulfill your calling, not just have your gifts and talents used by the church.
Share what you believe your God-given calling is with a ministry leader whom you already know. If they seem uninterested or talk a good game but never follow through, it is most definitely time to reevaluate where you belong. God's not calling you to open rebellion, but he might want to move you to another flock with a different under-shepherd who will serve you as you grow your calling, not just use your gifts and talents.
If God does call you to leave your church for more fruitful pastures, be sure you calmly explain to your pastor why you are leaving. If you can't do that, then you're not ready to leave yet! Stick around and grow some more. When you can share your concerns with the pastor, without being accusatory, then you'll know that you have grown!

glory to Glory

2011-08-06T08:11:00.000-10:00

This morning when I was reading in 2 Corinthians 3, I found something that I'd never noticed before. Do you ever have those surprises? You know you've read that chapter before, but you have absolutely no recollection of ever reading that part.
Of course, you'll need to read the verses before to get where this started, but Paul was talking about how "the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory" (v.7) after he came down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments. This, Paul said, was "the ministry that brought death." Then he said "the ministry of the Spirit [is] even more glorious" (v.8). It is the "the ministry that brings righteousness!" (v.9)
Yes, the glory that Moses brought down from the mountain was great, but it was nothing compared to the glory that Jesus brought to us when he gave us the Spirit. The glory of the giving of the Law was only a temporary glory. The glory of the giving of the Spirit is permanent! It is much, much greater.
Moses shone with the light of the glory he received on the mountaintop. As far as I can tell from reading the Pentateuch, that glory never faded. He was still wearing the veil to tone down the glory when he was standing at the gates of the Promised Land. But that glory is less than what we get when the Spirit dwells in us!
I don't know about you, but too often I discover that I've put on a veil to hide the glory of the Spirit from myself. I get selfish and self-centered and I want things my way. I can't see the glory of the Spirit, much less show that glory to others around me.
But the Spirit is glorious! He comes to remove all the junk that's in me. He takes away the pain, bitterness, anger. He surrounds us with a love that will never go away. He is a life-giving well of joy that should be obvious to all around us.
But we have to learn to let him live in us without hiding from him before we can live without hiding him from others. It's not easy to open up those dark places and let him in, but until we do, his glory won't shine all the way through us, not because it can't but because he won't do it. He wants our willingness to submit to his healing touch.
Are you willing to submit to the healing touch of the Spirit so he can remove all the pain and junk from your life?

True Report Vs. Truth

2011-08-03T09:03:00.001-10:00

One of the problems we have with interpreting the bible is that not every word written in it expresses the truth.
Wait! Hear me out before you get all huhu!
There is a difference between the truth and a true report. A true report reports things that actually happened; the truth is what God has done, spoken, he's immutable laws. So, if I say that my son said he did his homework, I am reporting an event that actually happened. That does not mean that he did indeed do his homework. He very well may not have (and probably didn't knowing my son).
The specific thing that prompted this particular musing today was 1 Corinthians 15:29 - "Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them?" Is that truth - we should baptize for the dead - or a true report of things that were actually happening in Corinth - people were getting baptized for the dead?
The immediate context tells us that Paul is arguing for the resurrection. Apparently some of the Corinthian Christians doubted the resurrection. The above statement falls in a logical argument for the resurrection. It points out an illogical action - why ever would you baptize for the dead if you don't believe in the resurrection? Paul doesn't say they are right to do it; he says they are illogical when they do it. That's a big difference!
When you find something that raises your eyebrows like this, you have to read the entire context, get a feel for the whole passage, see how it fits in with the passages around it. How does it advance the theme of the book?
The other thing to do is look for other passages that bolster that idea. If there are none (or maybe one or two that might support it), you have to put that idea in the category of a true report but not a truth that needs to be the basis of a doctrine. If there is an abundance of other passages that refute that idea, then you need to firmly put that verse back in its context and never, ever ever read it by itself!

Itching ears

2011-08-01T12:35:00.000-10:00

In 2 Timothy 4:1-5, the Apostle Paul warned that the time would come when people would "not put up with sound doctrine" but would "gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear." He said they would "turn aside to myths," so Timothy had to "Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction" and "keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry."
Without being specific about why, I feel the need to say that too many Christians are falling into the "itching ears" trap because too many teachers aren't willing to endure the hardship that comes when we "correct, rebuke and encourage."
Today there's a lot of pop theology being preached as if it was gospel truth, but it isn't. Pop theology holds at its center a very valuable kernel of truth, but it goes way beyond what the bible says. It loosely interprets the bible or even totally ignores any interpretation at all and makes up a meaning. Pop theology is unconcerned about correct biblical interpretation and instead seeks to tell people what they want to hear, what makes them feel good about themselves, their church, their culture, their country. It's not necessarily a bad thing to feel good about any of those things, but when you're doing it based upon a false premise, is there true value in the feelings?
As a bible teacher, I want to correct pop theology. Sometimes it makes me hiss like a Navi! The problem is in knowing when I make a direct frontal attack and when I simply patiently show people how to correctly interpret the bible and pray that they find the truth on their own.
One thing I know for sure is that if someone asks me a question, I'm going to answer it to the best of my ability. So, if you have doubts about something you've heard, you can always ask. I'll be more than happy to explore what the bible actually says.
In the meantime, I'll just keep my hisses to myself unless God pokes me too hard!

An Enlightening Conversation

2011-07-27T17:15:00.000-10:00

I met a couple of very nice ladies yesterday. They came to my door and wanted to enlighten me about Heavenly Mother. It was an interesting conversation but the highlights were that one of the ladies challenged me to show her just one verse in the Old Testament where the Israelites were called the "children of God." I'm not sure what her purpose was because she was rather surprised when I got out my concordance and found Deuteronomy 14:1 for her. Obviously I shot down whatever the "proof" was that she was going to give me because she changed the subject.
I decided to return the favor, so I asked her to show me just one verse anywhere in the bible where it said we have a "heavenly mother." She said she'd given me the proofs; I told her that she'd taken a few passages out of context.
That's when she realized that I knew a little too much about the bible to be interested in learning about Heavenly Mother, so she told me that Jesus had already returned. I disagreed and offered to look at the prophecies about the Second Coming to show her why that wasn't possible. She got a smug smile and told me that I would see.
In the course of the conversation, she also told me that she has no questions about the bible anymore because Heavenly Mother has revealed all to her. She never questions the leaders of her church because if they're wrong, Heavenly Mother will correct them. She told me Heavenly Mother has to be right because over a million people belong to her church.
I asked her and her friend if they were willing to put their beliefs to the test. She said she had no need to. I said I wasn't afraid to test my beliefs and if she or her friend wanted to come back and explore the bible with me to see who's beliefs hold up, I'd be willing to study with them.
I wonder if either of those ladies will ever question what they've been taught. I wonder if they're willing to have their faith challenged. I know I am. I hope you are. We can never ever blindly accept what the leaders of our church say, the bible is very clear on that. We must examine everything they say, hold it up against the light of the bible and see if it shines true.
It is my earnest desire that every Christian would learn how to study the bible properly and for themselves (though not by themselves).
Do you study the bible properly? Do you know how? Are you willing to learn?

On Trees and Reality

2011-07-21T20:41:00.000-10:00

Have you ever heard that philosophical question "If a tree falls in the forest and there's no one to hear it, does it make a sound?"
I remember that the first time I heard that question, I thought it was ridiculous. I was only in junior high school, but I still knew that sound doesn't require a hearer to be sound. Sound is created by waves in the air. Even if no one hears it, it's still a sound. The tree hits the ground, so of course it makes a sound.
When I learned about scientific experiments, I realized the philosophical "value" of the question rested in the fact that there is no way to objectively verify that the tree does indeed make a sound if no one is around to hear it. Even a recording device that will be retrieved later gives the tree a hearer.
That' s not to say that maybe a tree doesn't make a noise if no one can hear it. That just says that we can't objectively verify the truth.
Now, I could go into a rant about how so many things, like God and angels, can't be objectively verified even though they are true, but I'm not going to do that. It would be too obvious. Instead, I'm going to point out how that question illustrates the arrogance of mankind.
As if we are what defines reality!
The truth is that life goes on for other people and animals once you leave the room. Your friends don't go into animate suspension when you're gone only to come to life again in your life-giving presence. Trees do make sounds when they fall in the forest and you aren't there to hear them.
Neither you nor I are the ones who hold the universe together. God is. He's the one who hears every tree that falls, sees every tear that drops and knows every thought that is not uttered. He defines reality, yours, mine and the tree's.
So, if you ever hear some philosophical wiseguy pose that question, just smile and tell him. "It's impossible for a tree to fall with no one to hear it because God hears everything!"

Behind the Song - At the Cross

2011-07-18T10:15:00.000-10:00

I don't know if you're familiar with the worship song "At the Cross." I really like that song. Not for the beautiful tune (though it does have a melody and rhythm you can really get into for worship), but for the wonderful reminder of what Jesus did for us.
It's pretty easy for most people to pick up on the 'your blood was shed for me' and 'you have overcome the grave' parts, but I wonder how many people understand 'you tore the veil' and 'what can separate me now.'
Matthew 27:51, Mark 15:38 and Luke 23:45 all report that at the moment Jesus died, the veil in the temple was torn in two, Matthew and Mark both specifying 'from top to bottom.'
The significance of this event is great but we have to go back to the Old Testament to fully understand it. In Exodus 26:31-37 God gave the instructions for making that veil and for its purpose. It was to cover the Most Holy Place. The Mercy Seat of God was placed inside that Most Holy Place, behind the veil. Leviticus 16 tells us that only the high priest, on one day out of the year, the Day of Atonement, could enter the Most Holy Place where the Mercy Seat of God was. The high priest had an elaborate ritual that he had to perform to be prepared to go behind the veil. The penalty of not being properly prepared was death.
In other words, no one could get to the Mercy Seat of God except indirectly through the high priest and even he took a big risk doing it.
Hebrews 9 gives us very good insight into what happened at the moment of Jesus Christ's death. He was a perfect sacrifice who had no need of ritual to make himself clean before he could atone for the sins of the people. Instead, when he tore the veil, he opened up the way for all to get to the Mercy Seat of God. He became a High Priest forever! The last one ever needed. The veil was torn because nothing now separates us from God! We have direct access to him through the blood of the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
The Apostle Paul assures us that we are now the temple of the Lord, both individually and corporately as a church (1 Corinthians 3:17 & 6:19; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:21). That is the truth behind 'nothing can separate me now'!
The veil was torn. That veil restricted access to God to just one man, one day every year. The veil was torn because God came to man! No longer do we have to wait in fear and trembling for the high priest to come out of that mysterious secret place where God dwells on earth and assure us that our sins are forgiven. Now we have direct access because that place where God dwells on earth is in us! What a great and glorious blessing!
Next time you sing that wonderful worship song "At the Cross," please open your heart to fully see it's glorious reminder of what Christ did for us, not just in his shed blood but also in the torn veil. Sing that song like you've never sang it before because truly nothing separates us from God!

On Oaths and Dying

2011-07-16T14:00:00.000-10:00

In the last part of Acts, Luke tells the story of how Paul ended up in Rome. That story's very interesting, but one part in particular is very intriguing. In Chapter 23, more than forty of Paul's countrymen hatched a plot. They had "bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul."At the end of Acts, Paul is very much alive and residing in Rome waiting for his audience with Caesar.
In this day and age, oaths aren't that big of a deal, but back in Paul's day, an oath breaker at the very least lost his honor, at the worst he may lose his life. So, if Paul lived more than four years after that oath (see 24:27 & 28:30), what happened to the forty men who took the oath to kill him?
We know that the human body can survive at least forty days without food, but four years? I don't think even the longest hunger strike ever has gone on that long! Did the men finally break down and start eating again after Paul slipped out of their clutches, or did some of them actually keep their oaths and slowly starve to death?
We don't really need to know. Maybe one of the reasons Luke threw this in was because in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught his disciples to not make oaths, but to merely let your yes be yes and your no be no. He said "And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black."
Making an oath like that - to not eat or drink until they kill Paul - is really foolish. It assumes you have a lot more control over life than you do. You may be thinking that you would never do anything so foolish, but is that so? Have you ever said to a worried child "I'm not going to die"? How can you make such a promise? Why would you make such a promise?
What those kinds of promises do is over inflate our importance. The point you should address isn't "will you die and leave me?" Instead, the point needs to be that even if you do die, the child still has God. Don't go for an easy answer. Go for the one that's going to help them learn to trust God rather than trust you. You'll certainly have to do a bit more talking than a simple, "I'm not going to die, sweetie," but it's well worth it to teach a child a very important lesson about the heavenly Father.

Building a Blog

2011-07-08T19:34:00.000-10:00

After reviewing my blogging failure, which I talked about last blog, I thought about how I could overcome my problems. One of the issues for me is having the time to write the blog. I have a reminder in my Outlook, but most of the time I just dismiss it or send it to sleep. The reason for that is that I don't want to take the time from whatever I am currently working on to work on my blog. It's especially hard when I'm trying to do a serial blog. It's not that I don't love doing it, it's just that I don't feel as a strong a passion to doing it as when I'm writing a book or a message that I know when and where I'm going to give. Part of that is in knowing I have an audience, part of it is in knowing I'm doing what God has called me to do. Since I don't know I have an audience for my blog, I don't have the urgency to write. On the other hand, there's the "if you build it they will come" school of thought. Why should anyone read my blog if I'm not blogging? That comes up against: Why should I blog if no one is reading it? Do you see my problem? So (and maybe this is the secret to successful blogs), I'm not writing my blog for anyone but me! If someone happens to drop by and wants to take a sneak peek into my thoughts, they're welcome. In the meantime, I'll just blog selfishly. I love to 'hear myself talk' anyway!

Lessons in Failure

2011-07-06T08:34:00.000-10:00

For some odd reason, my blog makes me think of failure. Go figure! Could it have something to do with the fact that I can't seem to get it right? I can't seem to be faithful in writing my blog. I can write a three hundred-twenty page book, a forty minute message or a ten page academic paper, all with relative ease and generally in a reasonable length of time, but I can't stick with a blog. Why is that?
Failures fall into two general categories. There's the old familiar sin type of failure - a rebellious refusal to obey parents, having an affair, holding up a convenience store, lying to cover your tracks. Then there's the kind of failure that comes from a lack of knowledge - the wall you built fell down, you didn't make it out the door on time, you can't seem to do a blog right.
The secret to recovering from failure is three-fold - first you have to recognize that you have failed. This may seem like a no-brainer, but trust me, I know of people who have affairs but they don't think they failed. Their spouse did and they're just responding appropriately. Those people cannot recover from failure.
Second, determine whether your failure was a sin-type that you need to repent of or just the garden variety lack of knowledge. Prayer and discussing the issue with trusted godly friends is the best way to do this.
Finally, with the same aforementioned help, figure out where you went wrong. How did you get on the wrong track? If you sinned, you allowed something to grow in your attitude that prevented you from recognizing and rejecting temptation. Ask God to help you get back to the right attitude. If you simply failed to complete a task in the right way, maybe you lacked the knowledge to succeed, so seek the knowledge; maybe you don't have the right abilities yet, so get some more practice under your belt, take some classes; maybe you were approaching it from the wrong angle, so seek the right angle.
I have the knowledge and ability to write. I haven't yet found the right angle for writing a blog! That is why I'm a blog failure. I'm going to take the lessons that I've learned from that failure and see if I can't find the right angle to be a successful blogger. I hope you'll drop in occasionally and see if I'm learning to get it right.

What We Believe In

2011-04-16T09:49:00.000-10:00

Last blog we looked at disbelief in the Gospel of John, this one we’ll start looking at “belief.” First, what does the gospel say we are to believe “in”? Nine times Jesus says believe “in me” (6:35; 7:38; 11:25-26; 12:44, 46; 14:1, 12; 17:20). Twelve times we’re told people believed “in him” (2:11; 3:16, 18; 4:39; 6:40; 7:31, 39; 8:30; 9:36; 11:48; 12:11, 42). They also believed “in his name” (2:23); “in the Son” (3:36); “in the Son of Man” (9:35) and that “you are the Messiah, the Son of God” (11:27). Twenty-five times the Gospel of John specifically shows belief in the person of Jesus. In many of the passages there is a clear statement of his divinity – he is fully God. In 12:44, Jesus says when we believe in him, we also believe “in the one who sent me.” (See also 17:21.) But he goes further. He isn’t just a holy man, sent from God, he claims equality with God: “You believe in God; believe also in me.” (14:1); “Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?” (14:10). The Gospel writer makes a very clear statement that Jesus isn’t just Messiah, he’s also God: “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God.” (20:31). In 13:19 – if the newest NIV translation is correct (and other translations indicate it is, just not as boldly) – Jesus linked himself to Yahweh by using the phrase God gave to Moses when he asked who he should say sent him: “God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: “I AM has sent me to you.”’” (Exodus 3:14) – “... you will believe that I am who I am.” (John 13:19) In John 12:36, Jesus told his disciples to “believe in the light.” (Remember that light is one of the keywords we found in our subject passage. In fact, it’s the rabbit trail that started this exploration!) This part of that rabbit trail is long enough for one blog. Let's pick up here next time.

The Seriousness of Disbelief

2011-04-12T08:33:00.000-10:00

In the last blog, we looked at what the Gospel of John said about the disbelief of the people, what they didn’t believe in, why they didn’t believe and what would happen because of their disbelief. Why is this important to understanding our subject passage? First, theologians generally accept that in spite of translators’ quotation marks or red lettering (ancient Greek didn’t use quotation marks), John 3:16-21 was not said to Nicodemus by Jesus. (For an easy check on this, see the newest NIV, 2011.) Linguistically 16-21 doesn’t fit with the rest of Jesus’ statement. In vv. 10-15, Jesus was speaking of the present or the future (“you people do not accept our testimony” v. 11; “I have spoken ... and you do not believe” v. 12; “the Son of Man must be lifted up” v. 14.) In verse 16, the tense becomes past: “For God ... gave his ... Son”; “whoever does not believe stands condemned already” v. 18; “Light has come into the world” v. 19. (A deeper study will reveal even more evidence. See for yourself how it doesn’t fit. In fact, remember how much it's like the prologue? I recommend a good commentary to understand this fully.) This passage is the gospel writer’s comment on what has already happened – Jesus has already died and brought eternal life to believers. When the gospel writer says “they have not believed” (3:18), all the things I mentioned before, the author has already seen happen. He is stating a foundational truth about faith that he will prove in the course of the gospel. We love to quote John 3:16, but we generally ignore John 3:18 even though it has a very powerful message too. It tells us that if you do not believe in Jesus, if you ignore his life, his works, his teaching; if you cling to the religion you know instead of seeking the truth – you will be condemned! You will not receive eternal life. That’s pretty serious stuff! But it doesn’t have to happen that way. Next time we’ll explore some of the evidence for belief.

Hello Again

2011-04-05T14:37:00.000-10:00

It's been a long time since I last blogged. I hope you don't mind if I confess that the reason for that is because I've been discouraged, enough so that I was almost depressed. I've been writing for two years now. That means I don't have a job so I'm not making any money. Though I've gotten lots of great feedback on my books, I haven't gotten lots of money! I truly believe that I've been obedient to God in writing the stories he's given me. I have to believe that he has indeed given them to me. Not only do I get good reports about how my books have impacted people for God, but the actual mechanics of my writing is impossible. I've written ten books in two years, and they're not little paperbacks just thrown together. They average 120,000 words. That's about a 300 page hardcover book. They are also well crafted, edited and reviewed at least three times after the first draft is complete. I also layout the book in InDesign, including the cover. I am about to finish publishing my sixth book - and I only started writing in May 2009. Without God, that's not possible. But like I said, I'm not making money. Too many people in the Christian world want us to believe that if we're not financially prosperous, we can't really be serving God. I've heard too much of that lately, so I've been struggling to understand what's going on. If I'm really serving God, why isn't he giving me the obvious blessing of financial prosperity? Exploring the true teachings of the bible on financial prosperity is too much for this blog. At this time, all I really need to say is that I don't know the answer to the above question. I also don't know when or if God will ever bless me financially. It doesn't matter. The strongest evidence tells me that God has given me a calling. My responsibility is to use the talents he's given me for his glory. God is responsible for the results. If he chooses to not get the books I write into the hands of thousands of people, that's his right. My right is to decide to follow him or not. If I choose to follow him, I must do it regardless of any obvious results. I do choose to follow him. I do choose to write. That said, I still don't like to blog as much as I like to write my stories! I can't promise that I'm going to become much better at keeping up with my blog, but I am at least back on track. If you're really curious to know how the John thing that I was blogging about works out, you'll be happy to know that I've already written the next two posts. I shouldn't have too much trouble getting them up. I hope you'll come back.

Disbelief in the Gospel of John

2011-04-05T14:30:00.000-10:00

In my previous blog, I said that in the fourth gospel, John tells us why people believed; what they believed in; about their disbelief; and the results of their belief (or disbelief). Let’s look first at the passages about their disbelief. In the two passages we are comparing, John 1:1-18 and John 3:16-21, the only time disbelief is mentioned is in v. 18. It tells us both what happens to those who do not believe (they are condemned) but it also tells us what it is that they have chosen to not believe in – the name of God’s one and only Son. In 7:5, 28 and 16:9, we also see that what the doubters do not believe in is Jesus. So, what had Jesus done to encourage their belief? (Warning: You’ll need to have your bible handy to get the most out of this discussion. I’m not always going to quote the passages, just briefly say what I saw in them. Of course, it’s always a good thing to check any preacher/teacher’s use of the Word. We can make mistakes!) In John 6:30 they want to see a sign (even though Jesus already gave them signs [even more so in 12:37]). They refused to believe even though Jesus’ works testified about him (10:25); they have seen him act as a prophet but still don’t believe him (6:36); they have heard him (3:12); he has spoken the truth (8:45). So why don’t they believe this evidence? Because they seek earthly glory not God’s glory (5:44). This leads them to not accept the teaching of their own revered prophet, Moses (vv. 45-47). They are too focused on their religion and what their religious leaders teach to care about finding the truth (7:47-49). Disbelief is serious business – as we already saw, it condemns (3:18); disbelievers “will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them” (5:38); they will die in their sins (8:24). (To fully understand what Jesus means when he says they will die in their sins, you need to go back to Ezekiel 3:16-21 and 33:1-20.) So how does all this impact our understanding of our subject passage? I’ll address that question in my next blog. (I have to apologize for the huge paragraph. For some reason my paragraph breaks are no longer showing up. It can be a bit confusing. Since I'm not computer savy enough, I don't know why that's happened.)

After a Long Interval

2011-03-12T11:57:00.000-10:00

Okay, if you've been 'following' my blog, you know I'm not a faithful blogger. That's not because I don't like to write. In fact, I've written ten books in the last twenty-two months - and published five already. And my books are good, very good.
Neither is the problem that I don't like doing bible study, the primary topic of my blogs. I love bible study. In fact, that's one thing that pops up in all my books - bible study in some form or another. I get into bible study. Sometimes I get so into it that I forget what else I'm supposed to be doing (like actually writing the blog!).
The true problem I have with blogging is that I don't have a passion for it. I have a passion for writing. I have a passion for talking with people, from one-on-one to large groups. I have a passion for studying the bible.
We find it easy to do the things we're passionate about, even if we don't get results. The things we aren't passionate about, we slog away at because we know we need to do it. When we don't have passion for something, we need results or we'll let it fall by the wayside.
I'll keep slogging away at my blog, but since I have no passion for it, I'll be realistic and transparent right now. Until I begin to know that I'm communicating with someone rather than just throwing something into the webosphere, I'll continue to be an indifferent blogger.
But I'm not an indifferent writer. If you haven't read any of my books yet, you should! You'll find much more depth in my books than I can do in my blog.
In the meantime, I'll eventually get more of the bible study on John posted to my blog.

Belief in the Gospel of John

2011-02-23T12:53:00.000-10:00

Believe. The prophet John testified about the light “so that through him all might believe” (John 1:7); Jesus “gave the right to become children of God” “to those who believed in his name” (v. 12). In Chapter three, we see a similar use of “believe”: “whoever believes in [Jesus] shall ... have eternal life” (v. 16), “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (v. 18).
Believe as John uses it is different from what most of us mean when we use that word. We think of belief as a simple thought process, but for John it’s in essence an action word. You don’t just have a faith, you put it in something that is worth believing in then you live like you really believe.
In these two passages, we see what is worth believing in – the Word, the One and Only Son. This belief also has a result – “to become children of God” and to “have eternal life,” to not be condemned.
This is important to us because one of the primary purposes of John’s gospel was “... that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31).
Belief is used many times in the Gospel of John, almost three times as often in all the other three gospels combined. John tells us why people believed; what they believed in; about their disbelief; and the results of their belief (or disbelief).
In my next blog, I'll start exploring these areas. In the meantime, why don't you see what you can discover for yourself?

The Submission of the One and Only Son

2011-02-16T10:13:00.000-10:00

Just a quick word before I get back to the study. If you’re familiar with this kind of bible study, you know I’m handling this rather lightly. Those of you who aren’t familiar with deeper study may feel I’ve gone overboard, but I haven’t.
If you’re up in the Rockies looking for gold, you can walk along the creek banks hoping something will jump up at you, or you can get a sieve and start sifting through the rocks down on the creek bed, examining them carefully. If you stay on the banks, you might find a few nuggets, but if you want to increase your chances of finding real gold, you’ll pan for it (or even sink a shaft).
That’s like the difference between doing ‘devotions’ where you look for something in the bible that can help you out as you do your daily readings and doing a bible study where you search to find the meaning the original author intended. Just like gold will be scattered along the length of the creek bed, so too will the deeper meaning of bible passages be scattered throughout an entire book. A ‘gold’ nugget like John 3:16 is great to have, but when you put it together with the rest of the Gospel of John, you have an entire gold mine, not just a nugget!
So, back to the question I posed in my last blog – What is the significance for us of the submission of “the one and only Son” to the Father?
As we saw, the Father’s plan was not easy for the Son to submit to. When we are struggling with something difficult in our life, we have the assurance that Jesus understands that it is hard. He’s been there, done that. We can confess our struggles to him, knowing he won’t condemn us. Instead, he’ll understand us, and if we let him, he’ll take us to the place where we too can submit to the Father’s will.
The Father’s will for his “one and only Son” was that he should come to earth and die on a cross to take the sins of the world upon himself. When we accept his sacrifice, when we “believe in” him, we receive the eternal life spoken of in John 3:16.
Now it’s time to look at “believe.” Why don’t you look at how John uses “believe” in our two passages? (And you might want to see how he uses it in other passages – you know I’m going to go there!) See what you can figure out for yourself before my next blog.

God the Father and God the Son

2011-02-10T11:43:00.000-10:00

So, let’s get back to “the one and only Son.” We already looked at the verses in John’s prologue, vs. 14 and 18, now let’s look at them in the passage we are comparing to the prologue right now.
In John 3, we see “the one and only Son” in verses 16 and 18, but it is also a little less direct in verse 17 “God did not send his Son ... to condemn.” (If we rearrange the sentence construction, we see that God did send his Son into the world to save the world through him.)
In the prologue, John specifically showed us that the Son is fully God – v. 1 “the Word was God,” v. 19 “who is himself God.” We also saw the distinction between the Father, who is God and the Son, who is also God (v. 14). Here in John 3 we see that distinction emphasized – God “gave his one and only Son” (v. 16), God sent his Son in verse 17, “God’s one and only Son” (v. 18). To fully understand these statements about God and his Son, we need to connect back to verse 14 in the prologue were we were first introduced to the idea of the Father and Son – the Son came from the Father.
Jesus calls God his Father more than 90 other times in the Gospel of John, including two statements that undeniably put himself on an equal footing with God the Father: “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30) and “Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves” (John 14:10-11). (John also repeats the Father-Son relationship 14 times in his epistles and five times in Revelation.) With all this evidence, there can be no doubt that both the Father and the Son are truly God, and yet ....
Though they are equally God, Jesus has submitted himself to God the Father. He “came from the Father” (John 1:14); he was given by God, was sent (John 3:16, 17). This submission of the Son to the Father is seen frequently in John - 5:43; 6:57; 8:42; 10:18; 12:27; 13:3; 14:24; 15:10; 17:1; 18:11; 20:21 (not an exhaustive list).
Lest you think this was an easy submission, remember what Jesus came for. In John 3:14, he said "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up." (Jesus was speaking of the crucifixion.) All of the gospel writers tell us that the man Jesus struggled with submitting to the agony the Father had asked his Son to endure (John 12:27; Matthew 26:38-39, 42; Mark 14:34, 36; Luke 22:42, 44).
What is the significance for us? Think on that yourself. I’ll give a brief answer (a thorough answer would take another half dozen blogs) and finish up this exploration of God as Father and Son in my next blog, then move on to look at “believe” in our two passages.

John's Common Phrases

2011-02-08T10:01:00.000-10:00

When I do this kind of study, comparing passages, I like to put the passages next to each other in a table. That makes it easier to line up the different elements. Here’s some of the stuff I found by doing my comparison of John 1:1-18 and John 3:16-21 that way.
Both passages use similar phrases/words: God’s one and only Son, believe, life, the world, truth, and, of course, light. There are also some connecting ideas that aren’t so obvious, but first, let’s look a little closer at the similar phrases/words.
In John 1, vs. 14 and 18, we find the phrase “the one and only Son.” There are some who try to spin this to mean all kinds of things other than what John originally intended. People don’t like the idea that Jesus is God, but so is the Father (and the Holy Spirit, but that’s not part of this passage). John is very clear about this in the words he uses and in the greater context of his writing.
Look closely at verse 18: “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.” There’s no legitimate way to spin that in any other way than that the Son is God! In fact, most commentators agree that a more technically accurate translations of “the one and only Son, who is himself God” would be “the one and only God.” Yes, this does cause some trouble when we try to understand the Trinity, but the reality is that we will never be able to grasp exactly how God can be three distinct Persons who are One in essence. It’s one of the mysteries of God that we have to accept, not because we fully understand it but because God has told us it is so.
While this is a fascinating topic, it’s a bit of a rabbit trail right now. When I return, I’ll get back to repeated phrases in John’s prologue and the passage in John 3. (If you want to dialogue about the Trinity, you can shoot me a comment.)

John's use of Light, pt. 1

2011-02-05T12:30:00.000-10:00

To fully understand John’s use of light in his prologue, we also have to look at how he uses it elsewhere. Let’s look first at the Gospel of John, chapter 3. You may be familiar with John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” We usually just quote that verse, but it is only the first sentence of a paragraph:
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.” John 3:17-21
Compare that to the prologue in John 1:1-18. What elements do you see repeated in both passages? Don’t just focus on the “light” verses, 4-5, 7-9. Look at the rest of the passage in John 1 and see what other ideas you can find that repeat in John 3:16-21. I’ll explore them here in my blog, but try to find something for yourself before you read my observations.

A Different View of God

2011-02-01T19:21:00.000-10:00

Genesis changed the way the ancient Israelites saw God. To a people enslaved in Egypt by the Pharaoh, believed to be a descendant of the gods, Moses brought a tale of a God who lovingly and deliberately created mankind to be in fellowship with him. This was the purpose of all creation, to provide a home for the human race. Man was intimately and lovingly fashioned by God.
When John wrote the prologue to his gospel, he accomplished a number of things by linking it to Genesis. Just like Genesis 1 told Moses’ original audience that God wasn’t who they’d believed him to be for generations, so also John 1 told John’s original audience that God had done something their religion hadn’t anticipated.In Genesis, God lovingly and personally shaped the very first man and woman to be in fellowship with him. In John, the author tells us that the same God who was in the beginning, who was the Creator, came to lovingly and personally reshape mankind so that they could once again be in fellowship with the Creator.
The Creator in Genesis created life - the sun, the moon, the stars, the trees, fish, birds, creeping and crawling creatures, and Man and Woman. In John, this Creator, the Word, is the very source of life - "In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind." This source of life was what came into the world, not as mythological gods did but in humility to serve and love.
As we saw in an earlier post, light is a prevalent image in John. Next time, I'll look at it a little closer.

Faith in Genesis

2011-01-26T09:02:00.000-10:00

The first thing we need to see to understand the connection between John and Genesis is the purpose behind the writing for both books. One of the features of the Bible is that it contains a series of ‘progressive revelation.’ That means that God slowly and gradually revealed both himself and his plan of salvation. He only gave the people what they were able to handle at that time. Receiving it all at once would have been beyond their ability to comprehend. (That’s very important to remember when we’re dealing with God in our own lives. How often do we fume when God won’t tell us ‘why’? If we realize that our understanding or ability to handle it is insufficient to process what God knows, we can gain a measure of trust and simply follow God. As we grow, we’ll be able to handle more. God will give us more in the right time.)
So, the story of creation in Genesis – it was not, as popular opinion holds, told as a scientific explanation for the creation of the world. It was told as a religious, a faith-based explanation. At the time of its original telling, the creation of the cosmos was generally accepted to have come about through the machinations, and sometimes war, of a pantheon of gods. Mankind had been created to serve the gods and their descendants. Mankind were intended to be slaves.

Creator-Redeemer

2011-01-23T18:01:00.000-10:00

When you look at the prologue of the Gospel of John side-by-side with the opening of Genesis, you can easily see that John deliberately echoed Genesis:
In the beginning - was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God - God created the heavens and the earth. - Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. - And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. - The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. - Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness - to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. - Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. - The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. - "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." (From Genesis 1:1-4, 26; 2:7; 3:15 and John 1:1-14, John in italics)
Next time I will 'unpack' this, show what John was telling us by deliberately connecting to the story of creation, but why don't you look for yourself right now? See if you can figure out the connections.

Light and Life and Going Deeper.

2011-01-21T09:39:00.000-10:00

I love the Gospel of John. It's an amazing book. I love the way it beautifully connects with two of my other favorite books of the bible, Genesis and 1 John.
You may have read all three of those books, but you may have never noticed their connection, quite deliberate on John's part. Look at this:

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. .... darkness was over the surface of the deep, ... And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness." (from Genesis 1:1-4)
"In the beginning was the Word, ... and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; ... In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." (from John 1:1-5)
"That which was from the beginning, ... we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; ... we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. ... This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth." (from 1 John 1:1-2, 5-6)

Do you see how each section has its own theme; creation, who Jesus is, who we are in Jesus; and yet they are woven together with the repetition of the images used to explore those themes? It is fascinating and you will never discover it through normal 'devotions.'
This is the wonders of deep bible study. I love it, and if you care to hang around for a while. I think I'll explore the interconnectedness of these passages for a while.

In a Stable?

2010-12-16T09:27:00.001-10:00

One of the great ironies about those who want to get back to the ‘true meaning of Christmas’ is that they usually are firm believers in the myths of Christmas. No, I’m not talking about Santa, nine reindeer and a sleigh full of toys. No need to look at obvious fantasy to find a myth, just look at any ‘nativity scene.’
The bible never says Jesus was born in a stable. In fact, an in-depth bible study, complete with understanding Matthew’s and Luke’s stories through the eyes of a first century Jewish Christian, will show you the fallacy of the stable myth.
When the angels told the shepherds that they would find the babe in a manger, they weren’t telling them to look for a barn, they were telling them to look for a peasant’s home. See, peasants’ homes in Judea had mangers in the entryway which was a little lower than the main living area. Almost everyone had at least a few sheep and goats. Most nights, they would bring their sheep and goats into that front entryway. In the morning, the town’s shepherds would gather up all the sheep and take them out to the field.
Bethlehem was a very small town. Those shepherds probably knew everyone in town. They knew who was pregnant, so they didn’t have much trouble finding the right house.
The purpose of that story was to show that the Messiah was a peasant, not a king. It was only the beginning of the ways he would be unforeseen even though he was long expected. That’s part of the true meaning of Christmas – our God is found in unexpected places.
The true meaning of Christmas isn’t about a mean innkeeper and finding room for Jesus in your heart. The inn is another myth of the Christmas story.

The Origins of Christmas

2010-12-07T12:21:00.000-10:00

One of the first things we need to understand about Christmas is that there is no biblical indication that God intended for us to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Remember? Most certainly! That’s why the story was told. But unlike the resurrection which is repeatedly talked about in the New Testament, the birth of Jesus is never mentioned outside of the nativity stories in Matthew and Luke. The early church remembered and celebrated the resurrection, but there is no indication in the bible that the birth of Jesus was to be celebrated.
There is extra-biblical evidence that Clement, one of the late first century church leaders, did encourage Christians to observe Christ’s birthday as a primary feast day, but whatever day that was has been lost in antiquity. Some early evidence actually placed the day of Jesus’ birth in the spring, some in the fall. It wasn’t until early in the fifth century that December 25th was finally accepted as the best tradition by most of the church.
The best guess for how we finally settled on December 25th is that the date is of pagan origin. The pagan winter festivals took place around that time. As Christianity spread from Rome up into Europe, many of the pagan festivals were substituted for Christian festivals.
These festivals, coinciding with the end of the year (since the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice, is on December 21, the sun was once again ascending, therefore it was a new year), were celebrated around the world. Many of them included swapped roles – the master became the servant of the slave – and exchanging gifts, as well as, of course, feasting. Many of our contemporary Christmas traditions are rooted in some of those ancient pagan winter festivals.Does all that mean we shouldn’t celebrate Christmas? Or does it mean that we need to be very careful when we preach about the ‘true meaning of Christmas’?

Jesus' Birth, or Christmas?

2010-12-04T09:28:00.000-10:00

This is a fascinating time of year for me. I have to be very careful because I run the risk of getting myself in all kinds of trouble. See, I'm a Christian - bible-believing, tongue-speaking, dancing-in-worship Christian, and yet I don't see what all the fuss is about Christmas.

Truthfully, the Christian beliefs about Christmas have often left me more than a little confused. Why do we get so wrapped up in the traditions of man? If you stop to think about it and seriously consider it, that's what Christmas is, the traditions of man. The Word of God never says to celebrate Christmas. In fact, in all our talk about stables and innkeepers and gifts and room in your heart, we somehow lost the original messages that Matthew and Luke presented to their readers. To understand the bible as the Word of God, not just as historical literature. we must understand it as the original readers did. Only then can we apply it to our own lives.

So what was the original intent of the nativity stories? To understand that, you need to study the prophecies of the Old Testament. Then you will see that both Matthew's and Luke's primary intent was to show their readers how Jesus' birth had fulfilled some of the prophecies of the Messiah.

When was the last time you celebrated Christmas with an understanding of the true meaning of what the gospels were written to convey? Do you even know how that original intent affected the first century readers? If you don't, I purpose to you that you don't know the true meaning of Jesus' birth. You probably don't even know the true meaning of Christmas. Would you like to?

Cruel vs. Kind

2010-11-02T13:40:00.000-10:00

In my last blog, I mentioned that hurt and intentional cruelty are not necessarily the same thing. In fact, sometimes the kindest thing we can do is to "hurt" someone.
Take for instance, 1 Corinthians 5:5 "hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord." This was the case when Paul told the church to put a man out of the fellowship for sexual sins. That was definitely a hurtful act, but what was the potential payoff? "his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord." Which would have been more cruel, to let the man go on thinking everything was okay and only finding out when it was too late that his spirit was lost or to cause temporary pain that would result in eternal joy?
In the Christian church today, we want to be nice to everyone. We don't want to hurt people's feelings by correcting them. Sometimes we allow doctrinal errors to go unchallenged because we can't think of a nice way to correct someone in public.
Paul didn't worry about that. When Peter stopped followshipping with Gentile believers because they were uncircumcised, not only did Paul call him on it, but then he wrote about it for everyone to know what had happened. (Read Galatians. Who was Paul talking about in Galatians 5:12?) Maybe if the Church had a few more Pauls willing to challenge false teachings, even from other leaders, we'd see a lot more of the Holy Spirit's power at work today.
Of course, we have to make sure God is going to be glorified in all we do, and we need to know we're correct before we correct others. That's why we need to constantly be in the Word and be sharing what we've learned with others who will challenge us to know the truth, not encourage us to accept what's popular theology.

Teasing, Cruel or Kind?

2010-10-23T11:00:00.000-10:00

Once again, I've allowed too much time to pass without blogging. It isn't because I have nothing to say! Ask my friends and family about that. They'll assure you that I always have something to say about everything. The problem is, what do I say to you here, in this forum?
The thing that comes to mind right now, which came up earlier this week in my class, is teasing. In my books, the characters tease each other. Some people are uncomfortable with the teasing, some find it perfectly normal. Is the teasing right or wrong?
In class we talked at some length about the teasing. The group was divided. It was an eyeopener when one of the women who was actually somewhat uncomfortable with the teasing between the characters, said that sometimes she wishes she had friends and family with whom she could tease like that. It would be incredible to have friends who know you well enough to tease you but love you well enough to never be cruel in the teasing. I have to say that it is! I have friends who tease me and are teased by me.
Sometimes their teasing acts as a reality check to see how I'm doing with becoming more Christ-like. Sometimes it's great to know they love me in spite of my faults. Never are they intentionally cruel to me. I know the difference because I know people who are intentionally cruel in their teasing.
And that was the final consensus in my class. Teasing, like anything, can be good or bad. The intention determines which. Anything done to be intentionally cruel is very bad.
But, hurt and intentional cruelty are two different things.
But lest this blog become too long, I'll need to pick up with that on another day. Maybe it'll even be less than a month before I blog again!

Cherished Ideas vs. The Bible

2010-10-07T09:45:00.000-10:00

What to blog about? That's my problem. I have so many things to say, but I say them in the books I'm writing and in the class I teach, so a lot of times I don't have much to say when my Outlook reminder to blog pops up. So I click [snooze] or [dismiss] and go on to something else.
One of the things that motivates my writing and teaching is to drive people back to the bible, and deep rather than just a shallow 'what can the bible tell me about my life' kind of reading. I want people to take their cherished traditions to the bible and see if they hold up against it.
Often we build concepts on a verse of the bible. A verse. One. This is a process which doesn't take into account the rest of the bible on that topic. It can be a misleading process. An example that has popped up more than once recently is the idea of the Generational Curse.
I bet you're familiar with the idea. It's based upon the curse from the Law: "I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me" (Exodus 20:5; also found in Exodus 34:7; Numbers 14:18; Deuteronomy 5:9).
But, as Christians, we have to read the rest of the story. What about Jeremiah 31:29-34, Ezekiel 18 and Galatians 3:10-13? What do they have to say about the curse of the law?
(No! I'm not going to give you the answer! If one of my motivations is to drive people back to the bible, isn't this a good opportunity to make you open up your bible and see for yourself what those verses say? I'm going to encourage you to think rather than blindly accept what someone else told you.)

Sex, lies and fantasy

2010-09-24T11:06:00.000-10:00

Time to blog again. Uh, no, way past time to blog again. The problem is that my brain is focused on another project - a book I'm doing the final edit on, and it needs to be done tomorrow! (At least I'm not at the 'yesterday' point yet!)
That reminds me of a question I had to answer on a survey about sexual addiction. (Yes, there's a long story behind that, related to Pure Desire, but that will have to wait for another time.) Anyway, the question was something like 'do you often find yourself in fantasies?'
I was puzzled about how to answer that. I'm a good Christian, so I don't want to lie. Is it a lie to answer not the question itself but what you believe is the intent behind the question?
The problem with my life is that I have a very active fantasy world in my head. I once stopped myself just before I told someone that I could get Steve Jeremiah to talk at their event. He's a fictional character that exists only in your books, lolo!
When I'm working on a book like I am now, it's hard to do anything else. Even sometimes when I'm watching TV with my husband, half of my brain is on one of the books I'm currently working on. I almost resent doing anything that doesn't advance my writing/editing, even things I really love to do.
I wonder if that's normal. Is it good? Is it neither good nor bad? Is the point that I need to prayerfully evaluate what God wants me to do and sometimes subjugate my desires to what I know needs to be done?
If you see me and I seem distracted, don't worry. I probably am. Just give me an "earth to Cheryl!" call and remind me that I have a life too!

A Good Day?

2010-09-16T14:51:00.000-10:00

Have you ever had one of those days when you feel like you're forgetting something? When something is 'off' but you can't quite pinpoint what?
I'm having one of those days. It's mildly disturbing, but maybe blogging will help me.
I've had lots of these days in the past. In fact, there was a time when it was pretty much my standard day! But they aren't so frequent anymore. And they aren't all that disturbing anymore either. (Note that I said 'mildly disturbing' above.)
The reason I'm not very disturbed is that as I've grown in my relationship with God, I've learned that these kine days are 'new creation' days. They're part of what the Apostle Paul talks about in Ephesians 4:22-24 when he said we are "to be made new in the attitude of [our] minds."
When nothing feels right, I have learned to press on with what I know. In the pressing on, I always break through to something better - a greater trust in following God even when I don't know where I'm going. Whether or not I accomplish something by worldly standards, I certainly achieve something of spiritual value. That makes it a really good day!

Blogs and Phones

2010-09-08T08:09:00.000-10:00

I guess you know by now that I'm not a faithful blogger. The strange thing is that I love to write. I'm always writing. I've written seven books in sixteen months and a host of other things. So why don't I write my blog?
The problem with a blog is that it's supposed to be a means of communication. Writing a blog that no one responds to is like talking on the phone but no one is talking back. Before too long, you hang up.
Now, I'm not going to hang up my blog. I'll keep writing it, but I'm not going to promise there's going to be a post every week or every day or every other day. I do know that once someone begins to "talk" to me, I'll stay on the line!
BTW, if you are interested in the rest of the Holy Spirit and tongues discourse, check out my website. Sometime in the next week, I'll be posting the rest of my thoughts there in one file.
I hope to hear from you. I will be back, sooner than later now that I've figured out the problem of why I don't like to blog.

The Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues (pt. 11)

2010-07-28T21:29:00.000-10:00

So, after sending Peter to preach to the God-fearing gentiles in Caesarea, the Holy Spirit falls on the new believers suddenly and unexpectedly. As in Acts 19, one of the signs that shows he has infilled the gentiles is the tongues. As we already saw, the Greek word used here is the same word used in all other places in the New Testament where tongues refer to languages. There is no separate word for foreign languages and for ecstatic utterances (e.g. private prayer language; ‘tongues of angels’). Some theorize that here in Acts 10 these tongues must be ecstatic utterances because foreign languages would fall on ‘deaf’ ears (meaning there would be no one to understand them), but the text does not tell us that. This is a difficult argument since the very nature of ecstatic utterances means that it also falls on ‘deaf’ ears unless there is an interpreter present, another gift of the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit gives tongues, it must always be interpreted for anyone to understand it, whether it is tongues of men or angels. (We’ll look more in depth into this when we get to 1 Corinthians.)
The reality is that if Luke had thought it was important for his readers to know whether the tongues here or in Act 19 was of men or of angels, he would have clearly stated it. Thus we see the same thing we saw in Acts 19 – the tongues is not the important part of this story. It is simply a small piece of the larger story of the Holy Spirit moving and creating a new people of God.
In my next blog, we will consider the similarities and differences between the episodes in Caesarea and in Ephesus.

The Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues (pt. 10)

2010-07-20T10:08:00.000-10:00

After Peter goes to Caesarea from Joppa, he tells the gentiles that there was a deeper meaning to his vision. More than animals were made clean: “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean” (Acts 10:28).
When you’re reading the bible, one of the things to look for is repetition. Something said multiple times in a passage is probably important. The repetition of the vision and the continual reminders that these are gentiles tell us this is the heart of the whole passage. God, by coming to earth, dying on the cross and rising to eternal life, has restored the gentiles to him. No longer are they “unholy or unclean.” The Holy Spirit seals the deal with his infilling.
The fact that the Holy Spirit is the prime mover of this story is shown in his infilling, but the visions of Cornelius and Peter set us up to expect it. We are also on the alert because it is Peter, not Saul who is going to the God-fearing gentiles in Caesarea. In Acts 9, Saul was specifically named as God’s “chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles” (v. 15) and yet we do not see him making any inroads into that gentile mission before the action moves to Peter (9:32) who makes the first trust for Jesus into the gentile nations. This serves as a reminder that the Holy Spirit moves where and when he chooses – he is not bound by human agents, but it also tells us that the Holy Spirit’s gifts and callings aren’t exclusive – he will sometimes move believers to act outside of their area of calling. (This whole episode is also very important to later action in the church. It’s foundational to the circumcision debate, but we’ll need to explore that later.)

The Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues (pt. 9)

2010-07-18T20:36:00.000-10:00

As promised, we'll start to explore the context of Acts 10:44-48 in greater detail in this blog. The passage starts in Acts 10:1 (though it does have more backward connections that I won’t explore in this blog) with the introduction of the gentile centurion, Cornelius, a God-fearing man who is visited by an angel of the Lord. The reader knows what Cornelius doesn’t at that time; by sending for Simon Peter, he is asking for the Gospel story.
Meanwhile, Peter is being prepared for this adventure. We need to detour into the Old Testament to fully understand what’s going on in this part of the passage.
Peter is almost quoting Ezekiel when he responds to the command to kill and eat. In Ezekiel 4, God had told the prophet to cook siege food over a fire of human dung. This was to be a sign for the people that they would eat “defiled food among the nations where I will drive them” (v. 13). Ezekiel’s response was, "Not so, Sovereign LORD! I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have never eaten anything found dead or torn by wild animals. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth" (v. 14).
Here in Acts 10, when God tells Peter to “kill and eat” (v. 13), Peter’s response is: "Surely not, Lord! I have never eaten anything impure or unclean" (v. 14). Like Ezekiel, Peter finds it absolutely appalling that he would ever violate the Jewish dietary laws. (See Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 for more about clean and unclean animals.) While God backpedaled a little with Ezekiel and said, “Very well, I will let you bake your bread over cow manure instead of human excrement" (Ezekiel 4:15), to Peter he said: "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean" (Acts 10:15). In fact with Peter, God was so adamant about abolishing the dietary laws that he repeated this three times. Luke reports that Peter was perplexed at this, but the reader knows that this is an unequivocal restatement of Jesus’ comment about unclean foods: "'Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him "unclean"? For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body." (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods 'clean.')" (Mark 7:18-19).
(To be continued of course! Don't you love the way a bible study can get so complex?)

The Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues (pt. 8)

2010-07-12T12:26:00.000-10:00

As we step backward to Acts 10, please bear with me as I remind you that we are backtracking the chiasm created in Luke-Acts, the two books written by the gentile physician. The beginning of Luke and the end of Acts show us the Roman influence on Jesus birth and the arrival of the gospel in Rome. The next point of the chiasm is the Galilee-Gentile connection.
Luke shows the beginning of Jesus’ ministry as Galilean. He gives geographical references that place Jesus in Galilee (4:14-15, 31; 5:1; 7:11; 8:26; 9:10) until 9:51 when Jesus “resolutely set out for Jerusalem.” Even then, Luke reminds us of the Galilean roots of Jesus ministry (10:13-15; 13:31-33; 17:11; 23:5-7, 55).
The corresponding point of the chiasm in Acts is the movement of the gospel, and thus the Holy Spirit, to the gentiles. This doesn’t seem to work well from our modern perspective, but the chiasm of Luke-Acts wasn’t written for us. It was written for first century believers who would have quickly picked up on the connection between Galilee and gentiles – In Isaiah 9:1, the prophet gave a Messianic prophecy in which “Galilee of the Gentiles” will be honored by the Messiah coming from there. (This is the same passage that Matthew 4:12-17 reports Jesus reading in the synagogue.)
The Luke-Acts chiasm and the immediate context of Acts 10:44-48 both point us to the gentile importance of this passage; the Holy Spirit and tongues are simply a part of the greater story. (Yes, the Holy Spirit is extremely important, but to the early church, he was already understood as the one who moved the gospel as it went out with the human activity. There was no need to specify it everytime.)
Next blog we will explore the context of Acts 10:44-48 in greater detail.

The Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues (pt. 7)

2010-07-10T09:36:00.000-10:00

One more question before we go on to see what else Luke tells us in Acts: Here in chapter 19, why would Luke specifically mention tongues if it isn’t the marker of the Holy Spirit? First off, remember that in more than twenty places in Acts the infilling of the Holy Spirit is not shown to come upon believers and yet we know it happened (1 Corinthians 6:19; 12:13). Second, as I showed previously, this isn’t the “private prayer language” tongues – it is foreign languages. Third, the new believers spoke in tongues and prophesied. I will show later that if we focus on the signs this, the prophecy, is what we should focus on. But as a direct answer to the question – think of all the “gifts” of the Spirit that were recognized by the first century church. What are the ones that are easiest to see? Tongues was not reported in Acts as a marker for all times and all people, it was simply the quickest way to show that the new believer had indeed received the Holy Spirit.
Tune in next blog as we look at the Holy Spirit and gentile believers in Acts 10.

The Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues (pt. 6)

2010-07-09T10:22:00.000-10:00

Does this incident in Acts 19 show us that laying on of hands is the standard for receiving the Holy Spirit? When we look at what Acts shows us, we see that two of the four infillings of the Spirit reported after the Day of Pentecost were done by laying on of hands (Acts 8:14-17 and Acts 19:6). The other two infillings the Holy Spirit accomplished without human agency. So how do you know if laying on of hands is necessary? From this context in Acts 18-19, the laying on of hands for the infilling of the Holy Spirit was used immediately after faith came. Apollos had believed for quite some time and he showed the fruit of the indwelling Holy Spirit already in his life, therefore he was neither “rebaptized” into Jesus nor did they lay hands on him to receive the Holy Spirit, but the newly baptized believers did have hands laid on them and they recieved the Spirit. However, this passage does not say that the specific reason Paul laid hands on them was so that they would receive the Holy Spirit. In fact, of the eleven times “laying on hands” is spoken of in Acts and the epistles, only in these two places in Acts is it done in conjunction with receiving the Holy Spirit. (In fact, in Acts 6:5-6, the apostles lay hands on Stephen who was already filled with the Holy Spirit.) That is not enough evidence to build a point of doctrine on. We will look at that more in-depth when we explore the infilling of the Holy Spirit reported in Acts 8.

The Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues (pt. 5)

2010-07-07T13:43:00.000-10:00

So, I explored the story of Apollos and the twelve men, and said they are about faith and the heart. Lest you think maybe I’m reading too much into these two stories, let’s look at the story that follows in 19:8-20 – the seven sons of Sceva. These men had no faith at all yet they tried to use the Name of Jesus. They complete the story of Apollos who had great faith but needed a little more understanding and the twelve men who believed but didn’t know the one whom they claimed to believe in. Apollos is guided by fellow believers Priscilla and Aquila; the twelve are introduced into the true faith by Paul; the seven are sent running from the house, naked and ashamed when they are attacked by the demon because they tried to use what they didn't believe in.
When we look at it in context, we see that the story of the twelve in Acts 19 is part of a range of “believers.” The story is not intended to point to a separate “baptism of the Holy Spirit.” Instead it shows us that by this time, the Church knows that the Spirit will be indwelling true believers from the moment of their conversion. If the Holy Spirit was not in the disciple, he needed to be guided into faith, baptized into Jesus and receive the Holy Spirit, but someone who already showed the fruit of faith didn't need to be "baptized" into anything else.
Next blog, I will consider the question: Is the laying on of hands supposed to be the standard for receiving the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues (pt. 4)

2010-07-02T13:32:00.000-10:00

My last blog ended with the question: Why does the Holy Spirit go underground in the last part of Acts? As I promised, that question takes us back to the “baptism of the Holy Spirit.”
In the first part of Acts, Luke firmly established that the Holy Spirit is the one who moves the Gospel as he indwells believers. Now he no longer needs to remind his readers of this fact as often.
This is proven in Acts 19 in Ephesus when Paul asks his wary question of those who called themselves disciples: “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" To which they responded: "No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit" (v. 2). Paul discovered these disciples didn’t know the true Gospel story; they had only been baptized into John’s baptism for repentance. Paul gives them the Gospel story, baptizes them into Jesus when they receive the story, then lays hands on them to receive the Holy Spirit.
When we try to understand this story on its own, we get tied up with the laying on of hands and the tongues. The context puts a different focus on the story which is actually about the faith of believers, not about “the baptism of the Holy Spirit.” In this case, the believers’ faith is based on an incomplete Gospel. It is simply based on the baptism of John for repentance without the true Messiah playing any part. The problem is not in the baptism of John – which does not demand a “rebaptism” into Jesus. The problem is that the baptism for repentance was not followed by faith in the Messiah. If it had been, there would have been no need for the twelve men to be baptized again after the baptism of John. How can I say that with certainty?
Look up at Acts 18:24-28 and you will see the beginning of this story. Also in Ephesus, Apollos is a man who, like the other twelve men, was only baptized into the baptism of John. But this man “had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately” (v. 25). When he comes to the attention of the Christian missionaries, he is not rebaptized, nor does he need to receive the Holy Spirit by laying on of hands as his misguided Ephesian brothers need. Instead “When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately” (v. 26, emphasis added). Apollos is already a true believer, already filled with the Holy Spirit. He just needs a little better understanding of how to properly understand the scriptures he already knew. (Doe he sound like someone you might know?)
But this isn't all we see in this passage in Acts. Come back to examine the rest of the story with me.

The Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues (pt. 3)

2010-07-01T09:38:00.000-10:00

Before we can understand the so-called “baptism of the Holy Spirit” as it occurs in Acts, we must first lay groundwork of understanding about the book itself. In Acts, Luke completed a chiasm he began in his gospel. A chiasm was a typical literary device in the bible where parallel points move from the beginning and from the end toward a central idea. In Luke Jesus moved toward Jerusalem then in Acts the Holy Spirit moved out from Jerusalem. (Luke ends with the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension, Acts begins with it.) In this chiasm we see: The decree of the Caesar Augustus, the Roman ruler, that sent Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem where the Messiah was to be born (Luke 2:1-7; Micah 5:2); Paul’s appeal to Caesar which takes him to Rome in fulfillment of Jesus’ promise that “repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations” (Acts 25:11-12, 26:32; Luke 24:47; see also Acts 1:8). We also see that Jesus fulfills the requirements of the Jewish law (Luke 2:21-40) and Paul fulfills the requirements of the Jewish law (Acts 21:20-26).
Interestingly, these points of the chiasm show God moving through human agency – in Luke the Son of God is in his infancy and therefore moved by the actions of his human parents; in Acts, God the Holy Spirit is not specifically shown as moving toward Rome, but we know he is because in Acts 19, we were clearly reminded that he moved in and through Paul. The Spirit was indwelling the apostle Paul so as Paul continues on his journey toward Rome, the Spirit moves with him. (Of course he’s not limited by Paul’s movements, but that’s a theological discussion for another time.)
When we read the bible, one of the things we always need to remember is that each author had a theological (truth about God) point to prove. They chose the stories they used to emphasize that point. It was necessary to pick and choose because there are so many things that could be said about God that if they said them all, it would be hard to prove any single point. (See John 20:30-31; 21:25.) When we carefully study what a biblical writer said, how he put his stories together, shifts in style or form, repetitions, etc., we pick up clues to what’s important to the writer. We need to look beyond what we think is important and find what the author intended to be important.
In the first part of Acts (chapters 1-12), Luke writes about the Spirit or the Holy Spirit forty times. Half of them show the Spirit at work in the narration, the rest of are in dialogues that refer to the Spirit. In the rest of Acts (13-28), the Spirit is only spoken of seventeen times, eight of which show his actions. Three of those are in chapter 13 where Saul becomes Paul who becomes the main actor in Luke’s story of the spread of the Gospel. Paul’s stated mission was to take the Gospel to the Gentiles – all nations (Acts 9:15; 22:21; 26:17; Romans 1:5; 11:13; 15:16; Galatians 1:16; 2:2, 7). This is why he became the primary player of the drama in Acts. But why does the Holy Spirit go underground? The answer to that is rather detailed and takes us back to the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, I’ll have pick up on it in my next blog.

The Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues (pt. 2)

2010-06-30T09:46:00.000-10:00

In Acts 2 when Luke speaks of the apostles receiving tongues, it is clearly the miraculous ability to speak in other languages: “each one heard them speaking in his own language” (v. 6); “We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues” (v. 11). This is not “private prayer language” tongues.
The next time Luke talks about tongues (glōssa in the original Greek) is in Acts 10, when Peter is in Caesarea. Luke reports that “they heard them [the Gentiles in Cornelius’ household] speaking in tongues and praising God” (v. 46). Peter’s response was: “They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have” (v. 47, emphasis added). What the Jewish believers had received from the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost was the ability to speak in other languages of men. Since Luke clearly stated that in Acts 2 and does not describe anything different here in Caesarea, we must assume his intent was for his readers to understand that this was the same glōssa that had been received on the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem. Any other interpretation is reading something in to the text that is not there – a very dangerous undertaking in biblical interpretation.
We see the same use of tongues in Acts 19, in Ephesus when Paul found men who had been baptized into “John’s baptism” and had not received the Holy Spirit. In Acts 19, they were baptized into “the name of the Lord Jesus” (v. 5) then “Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied” (v. 6). Again, Luke does not report that this is something different from the glōssa he spoke of in Acts 2. Proper contextual interpretation insists that we must understand this “tongues” as “languages of men,” just like in Acts 2.
The only other books of the New Testament that use glōssa as anything other than the tongue or words that come off our tongue in our known languages, are 1 Corinthians and Revelation. I’ll explore 1 Corinthians in more depth later, but it is important to note that glōssa, which contemporary Christians usually use as “a private prayer language” is not used that way most of the time in the New Testament. In Revelation, just like in Acts, it is always used to refer to the languages of men: “...and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation” (v. 5:9); “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.” (7:9). (See also 10:11; 11:9; 13:7; 14:6; 17:15.)
So we see that in the first century church, glōssa was commonly understood as “foreign languages.” The only place in the New Testament where it was referred to as a private prayer language was in 1 Corinthians. We will explore what Paul says about glōssa, but before that, let’s carefully consider the four cases of what we call “the baptism of the Holy Spirit” in Acts – in my next blog.

The Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues

2010-06-25T10:00:00.000-10:00

Recently I was speaking to a group of women about the Holy Spirit. My message was about the person of the Holy Spirit not about the gifts or fruits of the Holy Spirit. It isn't that I don't believe the gifts and fruits are important, but because I believe we are too quick to jump to them without bothering to get to know the Holy Spirit himself. In the Q&A period after the message, I was challenged about the gift of tongues. The argument I was presented was that I needed to tell the women present that they had to get the gift of tongues. The woman who challenged me was insistent; I could provide her with no proof that tongues is not necessary for our connection to the Holy Spirit.
This bothered me on a number of levels, so I'm going to explore tongues and the Holy Spirit here in my blog.
My first argument is that tongues is overrated as evidence of the infilling of the Holy Spirit. It isn't nearly as prevalent in the New Testament as some believe.
The only three times in the entire New Testament when tongues is given as an evidence of the infilling of the Holy Spirit is in three of the five places in Acts when Luke specifically reported that believers showed the infilling of the Holy Spirit: Acts 2:1-4 (the day of Pentecost); 4:32 (during a praise service after Peter and John were released from prison-tongues not reported); 8:14-17 (to Samarian believers by the laying on of hands-tongues not reported); 10:44-48 (to gentile believers in Cesarea); 19:1-6 (to twelve men in Ephesus). There were at least twenty other places where Luke reports believers were added to the fold and the Holy Spirit is not specifically mentioned. (Acts 2:41-47; 4:4, 31; 6:7; 8:25, 38-39; 9:17-22, 31; 11:15-17; 11:21, 24; 13:48-52; 14:1, 27, 21; 16:15, 32-34; 17:4, 12; 18: 8; 18:24-19:7)
This shows us a number of things. First, Luke's original readers assumed the infilling of the Holy Spirit happened at the moment of conversion. Second, since that infilling is only mentioned four times out of more than two dozen reports of belief, there must be something special about those four times, otherwise Luke would not have so dramatically pointed to them. Check out my next post for what I believe the evidence says about those four times.

Our Redeemer - pt. 6

2010-05-17T10:28:00.000-10:00

God’s joy is to see us changed, stripped of our sin. All the angels rejoice when one sinner falls to her knees and says, “Take me Lord. Make me yours. Forgive me.”
His joy is when we accept not just that redemption from sin, but also the redemption of our very nature when we learn to stand in him. When we claim our right to be fully redeemed in this life, not just for eternity, God dances with joy. When we say, “My sins are gone. Fill me with the fruit of my redemption, Lord,” that’s the joy that brings the marriage supper of the Lamb here to us today. Don’t wait to enter eternity, grasp it now!
You sit here today and maybe you have never committed your life to the hands of your Redeemer, but you want to now. Maybe you’ve been a Christian for a while, but you haven’t learned to persevere yet so that God can truly fill you with his fruit, maybe you keep falling into the sins of your past. Maybe you're doing a pretty good job of living for Christ, but you aren’t perfect yet. If you fit in any of those categories, would you pray with me now?
Jesus, you are our Redeemer. You came to take our sins from us. I want that freedom from sin that you offered. And I want to be clean and new. I wan to be filled with the fruit of my redemption, not just forgiven, but different, a new creation. Work in me, Lord, and don’t let up until you take me home to live with you for all eternity. Thank you Jesus for living both as the man who was tempted as I am and as the perfect crucified sacrifice, joyously resurrected!

Our Redeemer - pt. 5

2010-05-12T22:00:00.001-10:00

This suffering that you want out of, it’s the road to true union with your redeemer. Is it a husband who has messed up so many times that you can’t trust him anymore? Then go to the Hebrew prophets and weep with the God who understands your pain, the God who had to divorce his beloved for a time but who went and got her back when she was repentant. Learn from him how he wants you to deal with this suffering so it will produce perseverance and mature your character.
Is your suffering those recalcitrant children who will not stay on the straight and narrow? Then sink yourself into Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and know the God who understands your pain, learn from him how to deal with those children.
Is it your body that fails you because age, illness or injury has robbed you of so many things you want to do? Go to the manger and marvel at the baby, utterly helpless and yet he is the same one who stood with the Father and the Spirit and said, “Let there be light!”
Are you afraid you’re going to lose your home in these tough economic times? Jesus said the birds of the air and the fish of the sea had places to lay their heads but the Son of Man had nowhere to call home. Think of the home, the paradise that really was Paradise, that he willingly left so that he could be tempted and tried even as you are.
If you’ve been abused, read the gospels and see the Jesus who said, “You will not touch me – this is not the suffering willed by my Father.” Learn what godly suffering is and reject all others. Take that suffering to the Lord and let him show you the way out of it.
Don’t ask God “why” you suffer, ask him what now! How will I draw closer to you through this suffering? How will you be glorified?
God suffered for the joy set before him. It was not just the incredible joy of that awesome day in the future when the sun will set to rise no more because it is no longer necessary because we can see the light of God’s glory without the veil. God’s joy is here today. It is in the woman who cannot rise from her bed, but she chooses the joy of the Lord anyway, and she praises him even while her circumstances are nothing to praise about. God’s joy is when a wife says, “I can’t forgive him again God. I know your will is to forgive, but I am weak. Be my strength. Help me to forgive in your strength” God’s joy is when a woman stands up and says, “I am God’s daughter. I will suffer for him when I must, but I will not be abused!” and she casts her fears aside and seeks the help she needs because God is her strength. ...

Our Redeemer - pt. 4

2010-05-07T09:04:00.000-10:00

Why would anyone willingly take all these sins – sexual immorality, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, drunkenness, orgies, lust, evil desires, greed, obscenity, murderer, perversion, lies, perjury – upon himself if he’s not crazy! It’s a crazy kind of love that desired a very special relationship. See, when Jesus hung on that cross, he didn’t just cover that sin up, he took it away! He took from us our sexual immorality, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, drunkenness, orgies, lust, evil desires, greed, obscenity, murderer, perversion, lies, perjury. He threw it into the sea of forgetfulness. But it wasn’t just that the old had gone – he’s got a new waiting for us! If you empty a vessel of its opala and don’t refill it, it’s just going to collect more rubbish, so when we accept Jesus as our Redeemer, he doesn’t just redeem us from our sins, he redeems us for a new self. 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us “the old has gone, the new has come!” When we abide in him, live intentionally with him, get to know him, hear him, choose to follow him, God produces fruit in us – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, righteousness, truth, compassion, humility, wisdom, knowledge, faith and hope.
When the New Testament uses the word “hope,” in almost every occurrence, it means “an attitude of confidently looking forward to what is good and beneficial; an expectation.” This is no wishy-washy “I hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow ’cause I’d like to hang some clothes on the line.” No, it’s a confident, “I hope, I know confidently, that God has a plan for my life.”
How do we develop this confident expectation? We get that through a mature character.
How do we get mature character? We get it when we learn to persevere. How do we learn to persevere? We be God-like! We suffer! ...

Our Redeemer - pt. 3

2010-04-25T19:16:00.000-10:00

But even the temptations were not the beginning of our redemption. Jesus came so we would have a redeemer whom we would know understands our pain. So his sufferings go back much further than his adult ministry. They go back to the baby born to the peasant girl and her young husband. The one who had created the universe had chosen to become this baby who could not feed or clothe himself. He had to have his diaper changed, his hand slapped so that he would learn that fire hurts without getting burned. He had to learn the very history he had written. He had to submit his will to parents who didn’t understand who he was.
The Son of God’s sufferings go back even further than that first Christmas day. They go back nine months further when the angel stood before Mary and said, “The Holy Spirit will overshadow you and you will bear God’s child.” God the Son left his heavenly home to dwell with the people who needed his redemption. It was a whole lot like if you wanted to help the homeless from within their community but they were living on the shores of the Arctic Ocean rather than on the beaches of Waianae!
But God’s suffering goes back even further. It goes back to the perfect husband whose bride, Israel ran off as Ezekiel said, to chase after men who were hung like donkeys (Ezekiel 23:20). It goes back to the people who decided that the King of kings wasn’t a good enough king for them; they wanted a king who would hurt them over and over but no biggie, at least they could harass him into action or force an answer out of him.
God’s suffering went back even further to the children he’d delivered from captivity so they could fashion a golden calf to worship, the children who would call him a liar! “We can’t defeat those giants.” God’s suffering goes back to the very day I mentioned earlier when Adam made his decision and sin entered the world. It goes all the way back to the day God’s beloved Lucifer incited one-third of the angels to rebel against their Creator.
Why did God do all that? Why did he choose to suffer? I certainly wouldn’t willingly choose that much suffering! But God did. Why?
I can’t understand the mind of God because I’m only created in his image. I lack much of his essence. But I have figured out this much. When seriously considered from human standards, God is crazy! ...

Our Redeemer - pt. 2

2010-04-21T18:31:00.000-10:00

Jesus took these sins and he nailed them on the cross. He hung on that cross for six hours (Mark 15:25,34) and the weight of the sin of the world pressed down upon him and he no longer felt the presence of his Father and he cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
But when he had paid the price, he was not defeated. Luke and Matthew both say Jesus cried out in a loud voice (Matthew 27:46, 50; Luke 23:46). This is a man who hasn’t slept in two days; he’s been beaten so that his blood ran freely, forced to carry a heavy beam until he collapsed under its weight. For the last six hours, he’s been slowly suffocated and in excruciating pain. And yet when “it is finished,” when sin is gone, paid for, and he has glorified the Father, done his will, Jesus is victorious, not defeated. The bloody, broken, forsaken man sees his Father once again. With the voice of victory, he cries loudly, joyously “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”
And he died. He truly died. His body was pierced in the side, right up into his heart and the living water and the blood of the covenant poured out from his pierced side. The blood and the water are now freely available because he died. He was buried.
But then Sunday morning, oh yes, Sunday morning came. Dawn came, the earth shook, the angel spoke, Mary cried, and the gardener wasn’t a gardener! He was the risen Son of God! And the power of death had gone the way of sin’s power. Defeated because Our Redeemer Lives!
But that’s not the whole story. Our Redeemer lived. The redemption started way before Jesus was taken in the garden on Thursday evening. Hebrews 4:15 tells us Jesus was tempted, just as we are, yet he did not sin. You maybe familiar with what we often call “The Temptation of Christ.” That’s when Satan came to Jesus in the wilderness and tempted him with his physical needs, tempted him to tempt God and tempted him to commit idolatry. But that wasn’t Jesus’ only temptation. His brothers mocked him and tried to get him to choose his own agenda rather than follow God’s will (John 7:3-9). Peter tried to get him to abandon the Father’s will – to which Jesus replied, “Get behind me you devil!” (Matthew 16:21-23) The religious leaders were always tempting Jesus to get out of the Father’s will – with threats to shut up or else (John 7:28-32) and with requests to show them a sign so they could believe (Matthew 12:38; Mark 8:11). They even tempted him on the cross, “Come on down here and we’ll believe you are who you say you are” (Matthew 27:41-43). His own flesh even tempted him sorely. As the time approached to go to the cross, the knowledge of the pain he would suffer had him weeping great drops of blood and begging the Father to show him a different way (Matthew 26:39; Mark 14:36; Luke 22:42; John 12:27).
Jesus resisted all temptation because he stayed grounded in the Word and in the will of his Father. “It is written,” he told the devil in the desert. “I do what the Father tells me to do,” he answered his detractors. “Not my will, but yours Father,” Jesus cried when fear tried to swamp him in the garden. ...

Our Redeemer - pt. 1

2010-04-14T16:28:00.001-10:00

On Monday, I gave the message at the New Hope Leeward WIRED Women's Celebration. Not everything went as planned and I had to modify my message, pare it down some to fit in the time I ended up having. Since I had to chop a good part of it (because they were all good parts) I have decided that I'll share the message in my blog. It will take a few posts to get it all, but I'm sure you won't mind reading a serial! So here's the first part:
Our redeemer lives! What comfort this gives us! At this time of year, our thoughts so easily turn to the cross and the resurrection. And they are glorious indeed because we so needed a redeemer. Sin and death are our lot from the moment we're conceived. Way back in Genesis 3, Adam and Eve sinned, changing the nature of their descendants from the pure image of God they were intended to be. All children born to the man and the woman who were fashioned directly by God’s hands would be born with a sinful nature. But God promised the woman that one of her seed would destroy the serpent who had destroyed her.
Adam and Eve’s children and their children’s children became very creative with their sin. Galatians 5:19-21 tells us that the acts of the sinful nature are “sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.”
This may seem so modern to you, like maybe the apostle Paul was looking down through history to 21st century America, but he wasn’t. 1 Corinthians 10:13 tells us that “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.” Ever since the angel stood at the gates of Eden to bar Adam and Eve’s way back to the tree of life, mankind has been struggling with the same sinful nature, the same inclination to sin. There are lots of lists of the sins of man in the bible.
Ephesians 5:3-4 gives us: or of greed, obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking.
Colossians 3:5 = lust, evil desires
1 Corinthians 6:9-10 = nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor slanderers nor swindlers.
1 Timothy 1:9-10 = lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly, the unholy and irreligious; for murderers, perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine
This is the nature we have received from Adam and Eve. We could cull a much larger list from the bible and we could add specific sins from our day today, couldn’t we?This is depressing, isn’t it? When it stands up here on its own, it is seriously depressing! In the four thousand years since the first book of the bible was penned, mankind hasn’t evolved at all! We stink! This is why we need a redeemer! ...

Faith and Fandom

2010-03-31T11:52:00.000-10:00

I am both a Chicago Bears' and a St. Louis Cardinals' fan. I have been a Bears' fan and a Cardinals' fan for a very long time and there's nothing that will ever happen to change that. I didn't become a Bears' fan because they wiped out the Patriots in Superbowl XX, not am I a Cardinals' fan because Albert Pujols may end up being the best hitter in MLB history, without the benefits of steroids. Of course I'm very proud of the things "my" teams have done, but that's not why I love them. I love them without rhyme or reason. Some years (maybe most years?) it doesn't seem a rational or reasonable thing to do, to root for the Bears and the Cardinals, but I do it anyway. I wouldn't bet against them even if they were on a Detroit Lions-sized losing streak. No way, no how will anyone ever be able to turn me from my love of the Bears and the Cardinals.
My Christian faith is similar, but very, very different. No way, no how will anyone ever be able to turn me from my love of Jesus Christ, but my faith is a rational, proven thing while my fandom is strictly visceral. My family has long been Cardinals' fans so I would have taken it in with my mother's milk, except I had to drink goat's milk instead (go figure!). I first liked the Bears in high school when I read Gayle Sayers' book, I Am Third, then Brian Piccolo: A Short Season. When I started watching the Bears play, it was a no-brainer that I would love them. (That D is da bomb! Too bad we have so much trouble with the offense.) I can tell you why I'm a fan of the Cardinals and the Bears, and though I'll argue with a Cubs' fan or a Packers' fan till we both blow blood vessels, neither love is a rational one. My love for God is.
I have taken the time to test the faith of my fathers. I have discovered that the bible is the most reliable ancient document that exists today. I have read not just the bible, but also the criticism of it. I have researched other faiths, even atheism (whose adherents strangely claim to have no faith). What I have discovered is that Christianity is the most logical, rational decision anyone can make, but it goes beyond the rational and gives me an even better emotional charge than even a Superbowl win gives!
I can't prove the above statement in one blog, or even in twenty, because it's taken me thirty years to get to the place I am now, but if you check back every now and then, you just might find a note or two about the decision that's both logical and emotional.
God bless.

Sex and the Single Christian

2010-03-24T10:28:00.000-10:00

I'll confess a deep, dark, not-so-secret. I like "Numb3rs"! My husband and I are renting the DVDs and watching the previous seasons; we're on season four right now. One thing I do not like about the series (and just about every other show I've seen in recent years) is it's cavalier attitude about sex. It's not just that everyone's "doing it" (except Granger so far. Hang in there buddy!), it's also that no one is even debating the rightness or wrongness of sex outside of marriage anymore!
You may find it interesting that the central characters in my "Shepherd Series" don't debate the wrongness or rightness either. They already know that sex outside of marriage is wrong and they have every intention of following God's plan for sex. They even help each other remain sexually pure through practical application of accountability.
It is not just possible to remain a virgin until you marry, it's also preferable! As Christians, we need to not just be talking about abstinence, we need to be talking about how to do it! Let's talk about both the practical and the spiritual benefits. And let's do it as parents; don't leave it to an abstinence program offered through the youth group. Tell you children early and often how right it is to wait. And while you're at it, model a life that makes them want to follow your advice!
God bless,
Cheryl

Time Stewardship

2010-03-15T21:09:00.000-10:00

Time is one of the most precious resources God has given us. One of the things that's so cool about time is that it is the easiest resource to get under control and you see the quickest results.
We have nine areas of stewardship: Time, body, mind, relationships, talents, words, finances, the natural world and ministry. In all other areas of stewardship, it takes time to see real results if we've lost control. If you've gained twenty extra pounds, it's probably going to take you twenty months to lose that, if you lose it at all. If you have let your mind fall into traps of what my friend calls "stinkin' thinkin'," it takes years of counseling and concerted effort to change the way you think. But time, once you decide to get it under control -and really decide, not the I'm-going-to-quit-smoking-because-everyone-tells-me-how-bad-it-is type quitting, but the honest I-want-to-be-free-from-the-bondage-of-smoking quitting that really works. Once you decide to get your time under control, you can see the results in less than a month. Much easier than getting your finances back under control.
I'm sure you probably doubt me, but it's true. If you want to be free of the bondage of worrying about time, you've already got half the battle licked. Now all you need to do is learn two thing - what your priorities are and how to say "no." Once you do the first, the second is so much easier. For example, I now know that my worth is not defined by how many things I can juggle at once. My worth comes from one thing - the blood of the Lamb that has cleansed me and made me worthy in God's eyes, even if man doesn't see me as worthy. God's opinion is the one I value, so if I have to tell man "no" to get a you're-on-the-right-track nod from God, I'm going to tell man "no"!
Here's the thing about mankind - everyone thinks their project is the most worthwhile project out there. If they didn't, they wouldn't be doing it. And almost everyone you know, and a few dozen people whom you don't personally know, wants you to be involved in their project with your time, talents or money, probably all three. You can't do it all. You have to know what your God given priorities are and you have to explore every demand on your time based upon those priorities. If they don't fit, say no.
Here's a big hint - quit giving excuses for your no. It only encourages people to convince you that you're wrong. If you simply say "no" and refuse to engage in a dialogue about your no, it's so much easier to stick to your guns.
On the other hand, if you've already committed to something and now have realized that you shouldn't be doing it, don't just disappear from the project/team. Explain to your leader what your situation is and work out a reasonable plan that gets you out from under that burden without putting a burden on the project leader. Don't neglect or injure your relationships, an area of stewardship, to get time under control. You have to see all stewardship as interconnected. Once you do, you'll get much better at stewarding.

Daylight "Savings" Time

2010-03-13T09:47:00.000-10:00

This past week, I got an email from some business telling me about their Daylight Savings Sale. My first thought was, Oh man, now they're using that as an excuse! Then I thought, Oh no! Where did the month go! Did I Rip Van Winkle? I checked my calendar and sure enough, it's the middle of March. Why is it Daylight Savings Time already? Hawaii doesn't do DST, so I've missed out on whatever the reasoning for most of the rest of the country to enter this exercise in futility three weeks early.
Yes it is an exercise in futility. I remember when I was a wee tiny babe back in the seventies, there was one year that we went to DST during the winter. Even then I couldn't see the logic. I didn't see any "saving" going on. In fact, all it meant was that when my sisters and I got on the school bus at oh-dark-thirty, it was oh-darker-thirty and seemed to be twenty degrees colder! Sure the sun was up longer after I got home from school, but not much longer. I didn't see, have never seen, how DST gave me any benefit at all. In fact, I think a better term for it would be DPT - Daylight Procrastination Time!
We cannot "save" time. We can move our clocks around all we want, but the sun isn't going to be effected by it at all. It's still going to march relentlessly, the days becoming a few minutes longer each day until June 20/21. Then they're going to go right back the other way, gradually becoming shorter and shorter until December 20/21. The cycle continues just as it has for eons, well before the clock was even invented.
All DST gives us is the illusion that we have more time in the day. It encourages us to put off things because we now have "more time." That's procrastination, and it doesn't work. I know because I have a very strong tendency to procrastinate. But since I quit wearing a watch, I'm much better at doing what needs to be done now rather than putting it off for another time.
I originally quit wearing a watch while I was still in the army. There were two reasons for it: I didn't like the white wrist thing, so when I realized how annoying it was to talk to someone who kept looking at their watch, I took mine off. For a while I kept it in my pocket, now I don't even know where it is. Yes, I do have a clock on my cell phone, but since half the time I can't read it because I don't have my reading glasses, it doesn't really help me to be on time.
The interesting thing is that since I quit watching the clock, I am rarely late for things. I'm more likely to be early, but that's okay because knowing I often find myself with spare time, I almost always have something to work on or a book to read. I also have discovered that I get more done, primarily because I listen to my internal "clock" to know when to switch to something else.
You may be utterly fascinated, but right now, my internal clock is telling me I need to take a break from my computer. Hopefully I won't ignore my next Outlook reminder and I'll tell you the rest of the story in the next day or too. Until then, try not to procrastinate too much!

Time and the Fear of God

2010-03-05T09:51:00.000-10:00

Obviously Outlook reminders are only as good as the person choosing to dismiss or snooze! Eventually I'm going to get my life back in control and get better at blogging at least every other day.
Right now you're probably rolling your eyes and thinking, "Yeah right! That's what we all say." But it really is possible to have more control over your life. God doesn't put us in a constant state of crisis, always overwhelmed by too many things. We do that to ourselves. Anything we do to ourselves, at least time wise, can be "undone." We can gain control over our time, at least most of the time. Sure there will be crises, but we'll have a strength of character to deal with them if we normally live proactively rather than reactively. When we can plan out most of our days and stick to the plan, we have greater reserves to draw on when something unexpected happens. All you need to do is learn to say "no."
There are so many good things to do in life, and everyone thinks their project is the best one. They want a piece of you and they can't understand why you wouldn't jump at the chance to get on board with them. Rarely do they (we. all of us do it to others too) stop to think about the fifty other people who have asked for your help this week. If God gave them a mission, then shouldn't everyone be on board with it?
When I get my focus on God and what my personal mission is from him, I can begin to get more control over everything else. God created me to be a writer and I firmly believe he wants me to use my talent for his glory. I must write. Above all else -the women's ministry, the marriage ministry, the prison ministry, the divorce ministry, the Island Christian Guide ministry, and every other ministry that calls for my attention - I have to first be true to that which God created me to do. No matter what I want to do, love to do, I need to obey God first.
That's what fear of the Lord is. It's being way more concerned about letting God down, disobeying him than we are about letting down anyone else. How many times have I said, 'yeah, I'll do it,' knowing that if I do what I'm committing to, something else will have to slide? If I let the leader of a ministry, a business contact or even my husband dictate to me what is most important, I risk setting them up as an idol in my life. Sure I need to listen, get their input, but when it comes down to it, sometimes I have to say "No, God is giving me a different mission. I gotta go that way." I have to work with others because God intends for all of us to be in relationship, but the bottom line is, I'm directly responsible to God for what I have done with my life. He's the one I'm going to have to answer to one of these days. No matter how hard my husband frowns at me, I've got to fear God's frown even more!

The Great I AM

2010-02-27T09:06:00.000-10:00

So, how do I appreciate my Creator more? I'm sure you've been wondering that these last few days since my previous post. It's probably kept you up at night, so I abjectly apologize for not having returned to this blog for four days. I'll have to get better at that, put a reminder on my Outlook or something.
In writing, I have developed a greater appreciation for the way God doesn't always tell us what we want to know. It's really one of those no-brainer things that I knew but I didn't know, if you know what I mean.
In writing good fiction, character development is the most critical aspect of writing. You can have beautiful scenes with gorgeous costuming, but if your characters aren't developing in a reasonable, somewhat logical manner (though some characters are illogical), your story will fall flat. I know some things that are going to happen to some of my characters in later books. It's necessary for them to do things, go through things in the earlier books so that they have the strength of character to deal with what's coming. The characters don't know what's going to happen later, but I, their creator, do. They sometimes whine at me, but I usually just ignore their whining because I know best!
Hopefully you see how that relates to understanding God. Romans 5 tells us about suffering leading to perseverance which gives us character that develops hope. Whatever God does in our lives is for a greater good that we cannot understand now (and may never understand. In real life things aren't often as obvious as in a novel) but God does know what he's doing. He wants our character to develop. He wants us to be strong, full of hope and faith. Not the wimpy kind of everything-is-so-wonderful-so-let's-praise-God faith, but a faith that says "I'm confused, hurt, lost, really ticked off, but you know what, you're still God and that fact alone gets me through this."
We too often want to praise God for what he's done, which isn't a bad thing, but the problem is that we forget that even before he created anything at all, he was already worthy of praise. His worthiness of praise isn't dependent upon what he's done, it rests first in who he is. We tend to identify him by what he's done - Creator, Redeemer, Provider, etc. But when he introduced himself to the Israelites in Exodus, he said "Worship me because I AM!"
Can you worship him simply because HE IS?

In the Beginning

2010-02-23T18:21:00.000-10:00

I have to admit that this is much harder to do than I expected, this blogging. It shouldn't be hard because I'm a writer. I've been writing for - well, since I was in grade school. I've written poetry, short stories, articles, essays, books, songs, and destroyed entire rain forests for all the academic papers I've written. But I've never done a blog. I don't even know what "blog" means. I know what it is, of course, it's what you're reading, but what does it mean? Blathering Loudly Obscurely Gratuitously? Bafflingly Ludicrous Outrageous Gossip?
But do I really need to understand the origin of "blog" to effectively use one? Of course not! It's not like my favorite book, the bible which is only properly understood when you get to the original meaning.
It's easy to get to the bible from any starting point, but especially so right now for me. Not only am I writing Christian fiction, but I'm working on a message about the Creator that I'm going to give on March 8 (at NHL in Waipahu). Both John and Genesis talk about the Creator and start with "In the beginning" and this is the beginning of my blog, so why shouldn't I talk about the Creator since when I write I am exercising my Imago Deo? (Writers do have convoluted logic. It's part of our charm.)
When I took Old Testament Survey in bible college, I learned about understanding the bible from the perspective of the original writer/readers. I was intrigued to discover that the Creation story isn't about science at all, so it can't be used to address evolutionary theory because that's like trying to tell someone they shouldn't like asparagus (gross!) because fried chicken is so delicious. Both may be facts, but they aren't closely enough related to have a bearing on each other.
The purpose of Genesis was to tell an emerging nation, God's chosen people, that they were no accidental byproduct of the wars of the gods or created for the amusement of said gods. Instead they were very deliberately and carefully made to be in fellowship with their Creator. Everything was crafted for God's pleasure and purpose, and his pleasure was to have an intimate, loving relationship with the pinnacle of his creation, mankind.
Genesis tells us that we were created in the image of God. Part of that image is a creativity that echoes our Creator. I've always known that I had a lot of creativity, not just in writing, but in cooking, sewing, crafts, etc. (I'm a regular Renaissance Woman!) Now I firmly believe that we don't fully live until we discover the one thing where our creativity shines through the strongest. In finally giving myself over to the creative talent of writing and crafting not just one book, but going on, and on and on .... (Five books and counting and I only started nine months ago!) In giving myself to my creative talent, I have a deeper love and appreciation for God.
One of the things I understand better is that it isn't always wise to give too much information to your "audience" too soon, for a number of reasons. One reason is that they may not be able to handle it yet. Another could be that they'll try to get ahead of you. Then there's always the keep-them-coming-back-because-that's-how-we-build-a-relationship reason. That said ...
I guess you'll just have to tune in to my next post!