Personal

My path, my hope!

Tell me Lord, in your merciful grace,
What would you desire for me in this place,
In my life lived out both near and far?
Or Should I look up and yearn for a star?
Or should we be content with things that are?

What is your will? What is your plan?
Living a life and doing what I can?
Or perhaps to find a greater call,
Giving myself up, and relinquishing all
And adverting my eyes and hazarding a fall.

Tell me Lord, shall I grunt and grown beneath a load,
Or give it all up that I may skip along the golden road?
Do I simply keep on keeping on with a load to hard to bear?
With my head held low in total defeat and woefull despair?
Is this my destined plight, is it a dull prospect or fair?

Would you have me, just as I am , my Lord?
Sinking beneath the load I bear and can ill afford,
What is your will, shall I drag on or or make footsteps fleet?
My choice is before me, living the path set by your feet,
Or living a life full of pain and defeat.

I hear and echo your voice, I smile with a pure inner warm,
A voice that healed the lepers and calmed my inner storm.
“Your yoke is easy, your burden is light.”
Your path for me is simple and a gracious delight.
Steady on to the higher prize to a place of perfect light.

Bible, Bible Study

A very small piece of the action?

I am studying the book of Hebrews and this morning I was struck by a single thought which disturbed me.  Hebrews is a singular general letter which God only knows who wrote it.  It has made it through 950 years of telling, retelling, study, exhortation, training, and even speculation.  My experience in the business world would classify Hebrews as written to a niche market; a very small group of people with very specific needs.

It was written for an audience that was a piece of a piece of a piece of a piece.  First, it was written to the Christians of the time during the Jewish revolt from Rome.  Perilous times.  Most Christians had left the bosom of Jerusalem 5 years earlier. So, compared to the entire population of Rome, Christians were a small piece of the grand whole.  It has been estimated the total Christian population 40 years later at the end of the First century the total count was 500,000.

Secondly it was written to a piece of those persecuted dispersed Christians that were ethnically Hebrew.  This piece was the major part of Christian world at the time.  Christianity came from and was seen at the time as primarily a Jewish thing.  Even though Peter and Paul had extended invitations to the Gentiles, these converts sometimes were required to worship as a Jew first.

Of these Ethnic Jews, who were Christians, who were persecuted, also most had never seen Jesus.  It was all second and third hand knowledge.  They had access to many of the letters from Paul and Peter and even James, but never-the-less their experiences, their understanding was from those who had seen and which they had not.  They had not seen the miracles.  They had not seen the fire in he eyes of John the Baptist.  They had not been there for the resurrection. They had not been there at the assention. The piece, the audience was becoming very small.

And the smallest piece of the piece of the piece of the piece, was being tempted by all the things going out to forsake the faith to go back to pure Judaism.  Back to their friends, and neighbors, and family.  To through off all the ideas of grace and go back to a life of keeping the law.

The only conclusion is that there must be a plausible connection between the very small group that was written to and today’s Christians.  Otherwise we might not need it in the bible unless we are preaching or teaching to saved persecuted ethnic Jewish Christians which are wanting to go back to their Jewish roots. In today’s world it may well be an even smaller piece than it was in 69 AD. Could it well be for any saved, having a hard time, gentiles, who are just wanting to go back to there old ways?  To chuck it all and live a life that world would have them live? 

That is my conclusion.  What do you think?

Personal, Ramblings

God in the trunk.

Sometimes God seems distant.  You know what I mean, sometimes the Preachers sermon doesn’t quite hit the right spots for you.  It is when you go about your day and you know full well that God is everywhere, but you feel as thought instead of being in the passenger seat but more like back in the trunk. I don’t think that the God I serve and love and adore and most highly esteem is hiding but He seems a little far off.  It is as if He may well be taking a rest from all the junk He has to put up with from me.  I stick my nose into something when I shouldn’t, or I make a supposedly humorous remark that puts someone on edge.  It is probably a self-imposed distance, but it is hard to not notice the gap sometimes.

The good thing is that in a 50 years or less, God will not know me better than He does right now. He knows my weaknesses and my foibles yet He still loves me.  The second thing is that in 50 years or less I will know God much more than I do now.

Bible, Bible Study, Church, Church History

The Changing Church

Has the church changed so much that some really cannot relate with the Bible.  Have we trod the path from Acts when Peter preached and 3,000 repented?  The church has changed from a bible believing, monotheistic, well accustomed to digging deep into scripture and willing to talk about it. The group to which Peter in Acts 2 were like that, full of knowledge and willing to understand and accept the teachings of the new rabbi.  But the church has become like the audience in Acts 17:22, “I see that in every way you are religious.”  Paul walked around in their city and what he saw was great belief in the wrong things. They even had an altar with the title, “To an unknown God.”  He accused the believers in all the religions that abounded and simply told them, “you are ignorant of the very thing you worship.”

Have we come so far as to having a form of religion without the very reason for that effort? Isn’t Paul’s logic still hold true: 

24 The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

Uncategorized

Honesty can be a terrible thing.

When we stop and spend some quality time trying to understand ourselves. What we find most of the time is dishonesty.  Not that we go around telling lies, making false promises, little innuendoes, and even go to the point of malicious slander.  But what are our popular examples? In the world of politics it is easier to brand someone a “racist”, than to make a intellectual study of their views and try to understand the underlying motives of the person. In our efforts to be relevant, we search social media for anything that would support the politically correct idea of modernism, and post and repost those thoughts, instead of putting your own ideas.  Advertisers subtlety ply the airwaves with the “greatest and latest”, and have to be followed by a litany of side effects, usefulness, disclaimers and other explanations of the claims.

I ordered a part for my old truck and they charged me immediately, their site says shipping in 2 or 3 days.  No part after a week.  Working through the phone tree and leaving 5 messages, I finally received a response that they would be shipping today.  Promises not kept.

Taxpayers evade their legal obligations. Religionists are hypocritical. Where is the honesty?

There are exceptions in every category I have mentioned, but dishonesty is so common in our modern society that all of us are tempted to practice it. I read the other day about self-checkout systems at stores and the commentator stated, “if you don’t cheat, you are crazy, the loss is so small they would not miss a few things.”  We can well rationalize our conscience, but that is simply dishonesty with ourselves.  It is well possible to get to a point at which our dishonesty overwhelms our better nature. The acts of dishonesty can be simple and easy to forget.  Never-the-less, when we are honest with ourselves that falseness cannot be ignored. 

Honesty with ourselves requires the examination of the why of our lives; the motives of life. We must get to a point where our desire to be honest outweighs any act. 

Honesty with ourselves requires the examination of our motives in all things. Honesty with self, will lead to honesty with others, for all men know that the conscious misleading of others has in its nature dishonesty with one’s self. We all know that every lie leaves us with something to confess or to rationalize. Your decision.

Just thinking. ?

Uncategorized

Tear down that wall!

I wanted to post this picture to remind myself and anyone in my Blog-sphere, there is so much misconception of the relationship between the Government of the United States and religion. The founding fathers saw the excesses placed in government when the government was inextricably joined to a point there was no difference. Religion was the state and the state was religion. The issue was not the good of the church, it was the possibility of religion being able to control of the state.
You may well think I am splitting hairs here, but in reality, there is a vast difference between religion and the church. The words in our constitution say little about church; it refers to religion. They are not the same.
The church is a body of believers, caring, loving, freedom loving and wanting the best for the country in which it finds itself. Religion is more about standards, rules, boundaries.
Our beloved United States Constitution speaks of Freedom of Religion and NOT Freedom from church. There is a big difference.

If there is any hope for our country, there can not be a WALL between the two. They work together. This picture is trying to say they can’t. Our Country worked as a cooperative community until we reached a point that the church was seen as an enemy not an ally. Church must be the moral compass which points the pathway. The state may well choose another but whichever path they choose the compass still points the way. We don’t need a wall that separates separates we need a compass that always points upwards.

Ramblings

NO!

Living in the fall years of my life, the most feared word in my world is “NO”.  No, means I shouldn’t, or can’t, or must not do something or have something.  One of the first words we all learn as very small children is the word “NO”. And now that dreaded negative faces me every day.  Whether by respect of others or knowing full well that I will often ignore the admonition of “NO”, there are few that would tell me to my face “NO”.  What has happened is that here in my now and whatever is left of this finite number of years is most of the “NO” in my life has become self-imposed. With all honesty it is easy to say “NO” to my self urge to go run a marathon. “NO” is easy to someone with who understands the changes to lifestyle that comes from making a few more cycles around the sun. 

I have learned that going to COSTCO and buying 2,000 rolls of toilet paper may not be a good thing because the last 2,000 rolls are still taking all the storage space in the laundry room already.  When the pre-pubescent counter person at the local fast food restaurant says, “Would you like to supersize that?”, I have learned to say “NO”.  How did I learn to say “NO” to my self?

I have learned to say that word because I have figured out for every “YES” which I do say, inherently I have to say “NO” to something else.  I have learned with every decision I make, another decision is made for me.  If I say “NO” to two pounds of French fries covered with another pound of chili all covered again with grated sharp cheddar cheese, I am saying “YES” to being able to sleep tonight.

I am studying Haggai in the Old Testament.  The goal of all the city of Jerusalem was to rebuild a temple which had be destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar 70 year before.  The new King Cyrus the Persian sent the craftsmen and builders to rebuild the temple.  They had reset the foundations and then stopped.  They decided their own homes were more important.  I saying yes to their own needs they were saying “NO” to their religious and principal duties.  It was Haggai the prophet that had to remind them they had their “YES”, “NO”, priorities messed up.

What was going on in Haggai was the “NO” were getting in the way of their “YES”.  So I am going to be more careful in self imposed “NOs” with the hope of being about to say “YES” more often.

Culture, Personal, Politics, Ramblings

Fertile soil of life

Chesterfield wrote that “without a good moral soil, art and reason will never flourish.” As I look around me, whether in politics, art, music, reason, discourse, conversation and culture, it is all about self. The culture today is one of no central moral soil.  We have no real moral compass that allows art and reason to find a home.  Without an environment of living for more than self, there will be no great art, no great discourse, no great progress, no great furtherance of life.

I just don’t see this infertile soil of morality today nurturing the best things, the progressive things, the living things that makes life worth the living.  Trying to live in a culture where what ever is good enough, is nothing more than a life of just getting on.  It is a life of pure pragmatism.  It is a life without hope. It is a life of what ever works.  There is little trying to make things better.  It is a pragmatism which settles for the moment and never for the possibility of future.  It is a place where majority ideas and thought patterns become the new norm. Further, this new norm changes from day to day.

Our culture just follows along, just staying a step ahead of the slowest.  Never excelling, never having a thought of our own. The mantra says, “What ever works for you must be good enough for me.”

I read some parts of social media.  The idea for a place to share your thoughts and ideas is a great concept.  But it has become a place of redundant re-post after re-post.  No new ideas, no sharing of who we really are.  All shares are of things or ideas of others that agree with you; fully expecting by taking the effort to post something at all is making the assumption that someone might be persuaded to think like you.  There is no critical thinking, no trying to learn of the person behind the pretty head shot picture.  There is no effort to learn more or to understand.  It is all being more impressive and thought provoking by posting someone the common drivel of some one else. There is no discourse for understanding. “If you don’t agree with them, that must be your problem. 

Meaning, purpose, commonality, adventuring spirit, an ever pushing ahead is simply not tolerated. And heaven forbid if I disagree with your post.  “Don’t do that, it offends me.” If you are going to post an idea of someone else you need to be able to defend that position, not to sit in the corner yelling, “I don’t love you anymore mommy.”

All that remains for our unthinking pragmatism is a comfortable existence of being OK.  No excellence, no reason, no meaning, no purpose, no excitement, no zest, no reaching out, no life but the status quo.  In the end, in doing only what works for you in the moment, will result in the discovery that it simply does not work for you.  Your life becomes a habitual malaise. Contrary thought is condemned.  Finding the reason for action becomes just too much work.  Purpose becomes, “just getting along.”  Life is nothing more than “safe spaces” and political correctness. It is a place where everyone gets a trophy.  It is an environment where equal rights become a demand for equal results.  There is no place for excellence.

It is only in finding more than self, more than the status quo, more than just getting along, more than pragmatism, more than being politically correct, more than being the perfect mediocre.  It is only within the eternal does the temporal find its relevance.  There is nothing without that eternal compass, that fertile soil seeded with the eternal which gives life more meaning.  IT is not things, or posts or the number of likes.

It is an eternal environment, not a temporal temporary that brings life.  It is only in the eternal that you ever really live.  Why?  Because it pushes us onward, one step at a time, toward the better way.

Bible, Bible Study, Life, Worship

Echo of Joy

1 Comment

Zephaniah 3:14-17
Shout for joy, O daughter of Zion!
Shout in triumph, O Israel!
Rejoice and exult with all your heart,
O daughter of Jerusalem!
The Lord has taken away His judgments against you,
He has cleared away your enemies.
The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
You will fear disaster no more.
In that day it will be said to Jerusalem:
“Do not be afraid, O Zion;
Do not let your hands fall limp.
“The Lord your God is in your midst,
A victorious warrior.
He will exult over you with joy,
He will be quiet in His love,
He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.

In our terrible times politically, and internationally we are given a sense of God is still in control. There is a gladness in these words. They are a part of a men’s study I am doing and sometimes it is difficult to find joy in the Minor Prophets. There is the overthrow of the Northern Kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians, the spreading of the 10 tribes to take away their identity, the fall of Nineveh, a prophet being swallowed by a fish, and a whole lot of gloom, despair, and excessive misery. But here in the last phrases of Zephaniah is hope and joy.
Here we join in with God dancing and singing. The very words seem to dance with Joy. The phrases seem to be written in a staccato, rapid-fire manner; almost as if the prophet was laughing while he was writing.
It is singing which it truly catching. The God of the Universe is in our present. God has a voice and HE calls us to join in. SHOUT to the rooftops, God is here. For with every beat of your heart comes a sound of God’s love and joy for you. The notes of our praise fill HIS heart with Joy. The notes of HIS joy fills our hearts. We are glad because HE is glad. We sing for joy, and HE shouts the joy with us with singing because we do. JOY is an ongoing echo between man and God.
SHOUT, go ahead where ever you are, whatever you are doing, stop and shout for Joy and cause that joy to fill God. And then listen carefully and you will hear the echo from God.

Motivation, Prayer, Worship

A Prayer of Connection.

My LORD and my God.

By my very existence I know that I am an image-bearer of you the Most High God.  Listen to me as I call upon your name in the full expectation of our like-minded Spirits were created to connect. 

I praise you because of your calling, I belong here.  I belong here on this earth. I belong here at my Kings table.  I belong here at the feet of Jesus.  I belong here within this community of like-minded believers. I belong here not because I deserve it but because you desire me to be here.

Sweet Jesus, you deserve to be loved, you deserve our reverence, you deserve all my praise. I will not allow anything, nor my situation, not my lack of faith, not my feelings of unworthiness keep me from your presence. I do not my rejectors and nor my naysayers keep me from worshiping. I don’t buy into their lies.

In your presence, I am strangely warmed, I am blessed, I am encouraged, of your concern of my plight.

There is no other place I would rather be.  I am yours.

Please don’t give up on me. Don’t stop drawing me to this place of belonging. I trust you God to lead me wherever it may be.  I give you the lead in all my ways. My hope is only in you.  Reveal to me your will, your path, and your road to blessings. Because you are here my Jesus, I call upon your name to bless our lives.

The Study of God and Life