Category Archives: Life

Life, Personal, Psycolog, Ramblings

Pondering is better than quibbling.

I have been making a concerted attempt at teaching my grandson a few things about numbers.  Once you get beyond the rote memorization and tedium of the times tables there is an elegance to numbers. We talked about prime numbers, you know those numbers that are only divisible itself and one.  1,2,3,5,7,11,13,19,23,29,31,37,41, and on and on.  As we sat together in my study we pondered this list of numbers.  We were wise owls staring into the night as I explained, “as numbers get bigger and bigger there are fewer and fewer prime numbers and like numbers themselves, they go on for infinity.”

It looked as if his head was going to explode.  Mind you he is getting ready to enter the fifth grade, and the relativity of numbers and infinity itself is some of those things that probably needs to held back to at least the seventh grade.  But it was an introduction.  A beginning of a thought pattern that could well carry through to the rest of his life.

For me, there is a thirst for learning that can’t quite be quenched. There is a little itch that cannot be scratched urging me on.  It is more than a want to just rearrange the ideas and facts of others.  I must find the new, the encouraging, the frightful, the consoling, the special in everything I see.  When I am disappointed in someone or experience a slightly hurtful comment, I go to my special place of wonder.  I look out at the world around me and try to discover something new.  You might well call this escapism, or even an unwillingness to face the reality that people sometimes hurt me without knowing.  But for me, it is better than lashing out or making my own snide comment.

Of all the comments, slurs, circumstances, and disappointments that Jesus went through, I see very few instances of Him lashing out.  Don’t get me wrong, I am no Jesus.  Nevertheless, I think it is just better this way.  I will not waste my pondering on quibbles.

Culture, Life, Motivation

All of a sudden

Driving across town to do a simple errand I was late.  Every stop light seemed to be just turning red as I approached.  Every light brought on a small incremental growth of frustration.  Call it happenstance, coincidence or luck, but I came upon three green lights in a row.  My countenance lightened as the journey came to an end.  Pulling into the parking lot of my destination I realized I was on time for my appointment.

I have personally experienced instantaneous healings.  I have also heard testimonies of God healing people in a single moment of faith.  But as often as not it was preceded by months or years of faithful praying for that breakthrough. The world I live in has become an instant soup kind of world.  Microwaves, 260 channels on widescreen televisions provide entertainment with a push of a button on a remote control. Today’s culture has embraced the instant, and sometimes we forget the importance of persistence and our Biblical mandate to not give up when the going gets tough.

Before the beginning of the world, there was a plan for Jesus to come into this world. But when the day came for Mary to give birth there was no room in the inn. You would think if God had this perfect plan of bringing the savior to the world he could have made reservations.  Even in promises, even in the promises of God, there will be challenges.  Even when God is in something, problems can and following the reservation less Jesus, often will present themselves.

We look at our local churches and fully expect that if God is in something, it’ll work out perfectly.  But sometimes it does not.  Some Churches do not thrive, some even shut their doors, years of prayers and hopes seemingly unheard.

But they are just stop lights in our paths. Sometimes it takes a long time for God to act suddenly.

Life, Personal, Theology

Micro and Macro, The Small and the Big

I have walked the walk for quite a few years.  I have lived in the hope of God and am justified by His grace.  But there seems to be a place in which struggle.  In my study of John 17: 12,13,15 my conundrum has raised its head again.  It is all a matter of the big and the small. It is struggling with the very nature of God.  I have a real and weighty respect for God, but I question at times whether God in His infinite glory and majesty would take any mind of my plight.  Jesus prayed that Holy Father would protect. And that is the issue of macro and micro.

I have a heavenly check-off list:

  • Grace – God’s unmerited favor to all freely offered and accepted
  • Forgiveness – God offering to wash them away
  • Calling – God offering to all a specific and perfect path to do His will
  • Salvation – A pledged promise to redeem us from the curse of sin
  • Love – An embracing sweet presence and concern.
  • Heaven – A promise for a perfected end and new beginning

But all these things are offered and spread out to all that would accept and believe.  This is God in the Macro or the big things. God the ultimate good, just, holy, Glorious, truth, revealed in His only Son, BUT IS HE INTERESTED IN ME?

I have lived my life with God in the Macro never in the micro. Big things “red sea, scribed tablets, burning bushes, Jesus, Cross, second coming, were all big things.  I have peace, I have fits of joy, I have a working relationship with God. But I still struggle that this infinite God would have the interest to care for me as an individual. Does God care about the individual? Does He care for me personally?
I look up into the starry sky I feel small. I am but a tiny speck among 7.6 million other small specks living on another speck amid an immeasurable universe.

But here in the final prayer of Jesus among his disciples, He prays to His Father that they will be protected.  I don’t see that protection, but it must be there.  The Father never denied the Son of any request.  I have to see it by faith and realize that He is an active force that has put His hand between me and millions of circumstances and problems.  Like a wreck that never happened when I was going down to the local Safeway, I have to accept it as his protection.

What do you think?

Life, Personal, Short Quotes

Fathers and sons

Matthew 3:9 in the NIV says: Don’t think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have father Abraham!’ because I tell you that God can raise up descendants for Abraham from these stones.

There were those in the times of Jesus who claimed a right to Heaven just because they were born into a family.  May I just say in no uncertain terms: God is not much interested in the lineage of parents than in the life of the children.

Just saying.

Bible Study, Life, Theology

One that got away.

I am currently trying to teach a number of men in a weekly Bible study.  It is on John 17, the high priestly prayer of Jesus.  Together we have looked at the perfect timing of Jesus’s prayer, the Glory of God in that prayer, the perfect knowledge of God, and last week the revealing of God to the world.  These men are starting to see the very nature of God displayed in scripture.

Jesus prayed because His time had come, He asked to be glorified, the Father gave Him authority over humanity, this humanity can find eternity in knowing the Father and the Son, all so that we can reveal God to the world.

But what about the one that got away?  What about Judas that allowed him to elude the net by the Greatest Fisher of Men?  Jesus during this three-year teaching and preaching period, cast a wide net, but not all were wrestled into the boat.

Only the twelve men in all history have had the intimate, personal relationship to Jesus the incarnate Son of God.  Judas along with the other eleven has ever been more exposed to God’s perfect truth.  No other has had the crash course in experiential love.  They all were exposed in an intimate first-hand washing of God’s love, compassion, power, kindness, forgiveness, and grace. No group of followers could come close to the very essence of God.  Yet through it all Judas escaped the net.  In the most indescribably precious, and blessed years the heart of Judas was not softened.

Judas defies comprehension.  Judas constantly and with persistence of mind rejected the very truth of God in the flesh.  And he hid it from everyone around him with skill.  The only one to see into the heart of this chosen fisher of men and see the wicked rebellion was Jesus.  And He called him a devil.

Judas did not escape from guilt. Just like the pain we feel as we accidentally burn ourselves, so guilt is an intrinsic and automatic warning of spiritual danger.  It was guilt that drove Judas to remorse which in turn led to his death.  Do not confuse guilt and remorse with the requisite answer to both. The answer to both is repentance.  Repentance is an act of the will. Judas was teachable but he was not willing to change.  And in the last moment of his life, his unwillingness to change is what condemned him.

Life, Personal, Politics, Sermon Illustration

Viewpoint and disagreements.

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With apologies to Dr. Henry T. Hodgkin a medical doctor and Quaker missionary in the early 1900’s, I wish to share with you a philosophy that he wrote just prior to the first World War.  He was a true pacifist and was feeling the brunt of the national ardor of becoming part of the War of all Wars. It speaks to me as what a Christian attitude should be.  I have taken a little license to paraphrase his text to bring common vernacular and understanding. It is primarily what kind of attitude one should have when confronted by someone with a differing opinion.

  1. I will always seek to discover the best and strongest points to any brother’s position.
  2. I will give credit for sincerity and persistence in opinion.
  3. I will try to avoid classifying him and assuming that his position is only because of a class or membership of which they belong.
  4. I will emphasize our agreements and convergence points.
  5. When others criticize, I will try to bring out favorable points.
  6. When there is misunderstanding, either I of him or he of me, I will go to him directly.
  7. I will seek opportunities to pray with him.
  8. I will try to remember that I may be mistaken and that God’s truth is too big for any one mind.
  9. I will never ridicule another’s faith.
  10. If I have been found criticizing another’s viewpoint, I will seek the first opportunity of understanding if my criticism is just.
  11. I will not listen to gossip and second-hand information.
  12. I will pray for those from who I differ.

Arguments rarely solve anything. It is when the rational and reasonable come together willing to listen and understand other points of view that change will happen.

Comments?

Church, Church History, Life, Ministry

Insipid Salt

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I’m no chemist, but one of the most stable substances in the world is salt.  The chemical bond is very tight. You see, sodium and chlorine are happy to become one and share their one electron. The life of the salt is very tight.  Mr. Sodium and Mrs. Chlorine are happily married.  They are like the happily married couple that just loves to be married, no matter what hits the fan. Little can separate them.

So what was Jesus talking about in Matthew 5:13?

“Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage”. (The Message)

 “You are the salt of the earth. But if salt becomes insipid, what can make it salt again? After that, it is fit for nothing, fit only to be thrown outside and trodden by the feet of men.” (Moffatt)

Jesus was talking believing followers which He calls blessed in the previous verses often called the Beatitudes.

The greatest danger which the body of believers called the church faces then and now, is to lose its tang, its zest, its cutting edge.  The Church will never die.  It is in no danger of falling on its face to a worship of the devil.  Ultimately good and God will prevail.  Never-the-less, there is an ever-present danger which lurks to snatch us unaware to become insipid. Merriam Webster defines the word insipid as: 1) lacking taste or savor, 2) lacking in qualities that interest, stimulate, or challenge; being dull, flat, ignored.

Jesus was warning to the church never to lose its bitingly Christian flavor. I just had a quantity of California Sushi rolls for lunch.  In the package was a large glop of oddly textured green material.  Some would say right away it is wasabi.  It is there to add zest and to add a juxtaposition to the mild sushi.  By the way, don’t take that whole thing and put it into your mouth.  But I digress.

What Jesus was looking for was a people with a zest, a tang, a flavor.  Jesus’ way of life was a stark contrast to the world around Him.  Jesus’ task was to add that zest that makes a difference.  A specific tang that anyone tasting it would immediately recognize it.  The only way to make salt insipid or worthless is to dilute it, to mix it with something that it is not meant to be mixed.   If we lose our tang, our zest, our taste of Godliness, if we become insipid, what good are we?

It is just too easy to sidestep the tough questions.  It is less risky to voice simple platitudes in the face of opposition. We can, and often do, straddle controversial issues and flee to a safety zone of non-committal.  It is salt that has lost its saltiness; insipid.

The Church started in this world with a cutting edge of the truth of Christ. It faced Roman culture and politics so peculiarly that it turned the world upside down.  Consequently, as it grew it became more reasonable, more sane, more strategic, more flat, less tangy, no distinctiveness. I don’t think that Jesus is happy with the adulterated salt of what goes by the name of Church.

I like that word, insipid.  A good word to ponder and concentrate upon.  Even better to think if it describes ourselves.

Comments.

Life, Motivation, Psycolog, Uncategorized

Let there be ORDER.

A clean desk simply means messy drawers.

Organization has never been my strongest attribute of character.  Once in a while I stop and try to get some semblance to order to my chaos. Today was the day I was to organize all my written sermons, ideas, thought starters, taxes, vehicle registrations, vacation plans, research, church notes, books, notebooks, music CDs, books, coats, hats, computer stuff, and the list goes on.  At least that was the goal.  I find myself stopping and reading it all. It is tough for me to throw away a magazine that is over a year old; I read it through one more time.  Another hour gone in my quest for the grand scheme of order.

Once organized, I tell myself, I will be able to find anything I want.  No more searching, no more quests for something that I know exists in my ethereal universe.

Then in the middle of it all, I ask myself, “Larry, what is the why of the effort?”  Order is the internal desire for organization, cleanliness, and routine.   It brings an inner feeling of stability.  It is a need for control of the uncontrollable.

My father was changed drastically by the second world war.  His life for three years was always in jeopardy.  He was regular Navy stationed on merchant ships crossing the Atlantic in constant fear of an unseen enemy in a submarine.  He brought that disorder of his very existence by controlling his personal space.  He often said to me when he came into my room as a child, “everything has a place, and everything should be in that space.”  Order for the moment created a space of control and with that little space was a sense of peace.

The desire for organization is there to find order amid my chaos. My desire, my inner urge is to overcome the lack of control that is exhibited in my office.  So here I sit writing when I should be sorting.  I wrote last month of the inner desire of curiosity.  The inner urge to know more.  But the negative side of curiosity is all the clutter it makes.  I must buy more computer memory and hard drive space to hold all my thoughts.  My curiosity is being squashed by my need to have order in my life.  If I don’t keep a handle on my chaotic disorganization, all the stuff I have accumulated in my curiosity will be a loss.

Desires are the reasons for doing.  They are the motives for my actions.  They are the reasons for my behavior. All ends are the result of my desire.  The very nature of my inner desires sets my path.  My path may not be your path.  My path is mine.  I may share the road with you once and while but look out and don’t trip over some of the things I not quite organized yet.

Comments?

Life, Personal

I thirst.

People come in all forms, sizes, desires, and priorities.  Some live with a passion that simply burns them up and others seem to just simmer.  Some would rather let others do the talking and take it with a gross acceptance, while others accept nothing at face value.  Christians run the full gamut from great thinkers to great doers.   Some would prefer the music to move them as it wishes, others must know the time, key and meter of every song.

My aim for this blog has always been to promote my personal descriptions and insights into Christianity.  I make no pretense of knowing it all.  For that matter, I am learning every day as to the time, key and meter of my understanding of God in relation to man and the church.  I have espoused a practical theology.  A theology that often runs contrary from the path of the mainstream.  My hope is that someone may actually read this and be helped or at the least be motivated to look a little deeper into their own relationship with God.

It was once said it is not the rock-lined hole in the ground that the soul cries for but the cool quenching water it holds.  It is not intellectual knowledge that quenches the burning our souls, of heart thirst of our lives.  It is the very person an personality of God that slacks our inner burning.

Culture, Life

Be Still and Know

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I am quite taken by the changes in my lifetime.  I guess it is a part of getting old.  Please don’t call me a cynic, but I really don’t think it is much better.  My current mindset is about the society, our culture, the world itself seems to be more and more demanding of the individual to become less and the grandiose total is becoming more and more.  This attitude of public perfection is the greatest goal for man, is just taking over.  If we think like everyone else it will eliminate all conflict, pain, and want.  If the common politically demanded correctness is achieved, we will all “get along”. Every decision, act, purchase, relationship, in this new group think environment must be evaluated by the current wind of public opinion or popular cause.

Our current culture has no regulation or mandates.  All there is are options, attractions, temptations, seductions.  Duty is seen as an option, not a requirement.  Why should someone have to stand when the national anthem is played?  Don’t we have free speech? Shouldn’t it be an option?

An American philosopher Richard Rorty characterized this new society as, “Maximum material property for all, combined with an anesthetized culture of self-created individuals.”  It is a sheltered and inoculated society walking a zombie walk without worry and angst once bitten by the next big thing.  Let the next film be all that is talked about.  Let the digital death at the hand of a binary sniper remove all the queasiness of accountability.  All the great new things solve little. This beautiful promised world with its own pitfalls and dangers constantly pitch new and fulfilling choices.  And these choices are nothing more than a distraction.

From the lyrics of a song by Steven Curtis Chapman

Be still and know that He is God
Be still and know that He is holy
Be still Oh restless heart of mine
Bow before the Prince of Peace
Let the noise and clamor cease

Be still and know that He is God
Be still and know that He is faithful
Consider all that He has done
Stand in awe and be amazed
And know that He will never change

Be still

Be still and know that He is God.

Comments are welcome.