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Summer break

The school year is closing in on its final days, like the breaths of a dying man. Yet instead of mourning, lamenting and pain a sense of mirth edges and brims its way loose from the windows and doors of the property.

The backpack laddened child chomps at the bit, paces the class room, glances at the clock on the wall as the toll of each minute passing represents a state of academic parole…a three month reprieve which invite pure jovial folly to stare into the classroom.

Soon, very soon the bell will ring, the children will all sing the praises of the freedom by clanging lockers loudly one last time, smiling all the way to the exit signs ready to engage mischief, sleeping in and games in be street…everyone except for the faithful few beginning a chapter of dismal summer school.

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Salt: Flavor & Preserver

“You are the salt of the earth.  But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?  It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.” Matthew 5:13

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Did you know that salt is not only a flavoring element within food, but is also a preserver of food?  Salt has been one of those ancient ways in which people have used to prevent food from rotting.  So when Jesus told those gathered there that they were salt of the earth, he chose a topic with which the people would understand.  Still today food is of epic importance to our survival as people.  We can last for a long time without it, but food nourishes us, sustains us and provides us with the appropriate vitamins and nutrients.  Without those vital components in life, we will eventually perish.

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Jesus brought his message home to those who would listen that this world is perishing.  All things have an expiration date…yet what will preserve us?  What will make us last a little longer?  What will inject much needed flavor into our world?  The answer is simply those who will follow after God’s own heart!

This world will eventually pass away, and sometimes we may think it may be in our life time when we see unspeakable horrors and violence, humans turning on other humans, death and destruction…our world is a violent place.  Yet, the preserving element of life is God who is the author and sustainer of all things.  When we align our hearts, body and soul to Him, we find that the outpouring of this faith is love, peace, hope and joy…something this world desperately needs more of!

When we display love without strings attached, a joy without ulterior motives other than for others to find this same joy as well, we will inject our worlds with just a little bit of God’s epic flavor.

So how about it?  Are you prepared to be God’s preservationist?  Are you prepared to offer a dying world hope in the eternal one?  Being salt to a flavorless and empty world is what we ought to strive for!

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Another interesting notion in this passage of scripture for us to grasp is that typically all of the salt that was utilized in Israel at the time of Jesus was brought up from the Dead sea, which as you may know is extremely salty.  But there is also something else about the salt content of the Dead sea that you may not know.  The salt deposits within this body of water is full of impurities and often, after time, will lose its flavor.

Jesus instructed, perhaps even pleaded with this audience that we should never lose our flavor.  If we are to provide a flavorless world with the undaunted grace and richness of God then we must be mindful to always draw from His source of power and might.  Because if we stop drawing from Him and instead begin to rely on our own merits and flavor, we will lose the very essence of His character and love to a world so desperate to find hope.

Be flavor and a preserver to this world through the power of the One who sent us out into it!    Never let this hope diminish or lose its flavor!

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By Faith – Memorial Day Thought

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Hebrews 11:1-16 (NIV)
“1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
2 This is what the ancients were commended for. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. 4 By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead. 5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. 7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. 8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.  11 By faith Abraham, even though he was past age–and Sarah herself was barren–was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise.  12 And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore. 13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.
16 Instead, they were longing for a better country–a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.“

 These 16 verses and more make up the ‘Faith’ chapter in Hebrews.  The author evokes for us the necessity of faith in a world so wrought with uncertainties.  He recalls pillars of the faith who took leaps of faith and landed on their feet because of God.  Faith is important in this life.  Faith helps us get through many situations and if we persevere, God will provide the means for our survival.   Do you have faith? 

On this weekend throughout the United States, this country celebrates and looks back at those who have gone on before us.  Our generations who have given their lives for this country…but we too should consider our family members, church members and pillars of our faith who have paved…no blazed the way for us!  The too lived by faith and every time we recall them in our hearts my it spur us on to keep going in our lives!  Their testimonies still live on in our remembering and we ought to not only honor them in our memories but consider the trails we too are blazing in this life at this very moment.

You are an inspiration to others!

Did  you know that?  Little one, children and others will eventually look up to you and in how you conducted your life…will you be an inspiration or a tell tale of how not to live this life?  I want my kids to remember me for being a loving father and godly man…I want my children’s children to consider me when they make crucial decisions.  I don’t say this to be prideful or arrogant but rather I want to live in a such a way that I please the Lord and by the faith provide a long term role model for others to follow as well.

By Faith I Want to Live…do you? 

Just a thought for today!

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This Old House…Peeling back the paint

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Sometimes recalling certain memories can be like peeling the paint from an old weathered house.  You know the old house needs it, it’s crying for it and yet the whole facade will change.  Peeling back the paint will remove the years of character and sometimes charm, but underneath it all you know the walls need to breathe, to be set free, and sometimes the old paint holds moisture in, green and molding smelling ripe like mildew.  All unseen by the naked eye without the begrudging labor of the paint peeler.

Withholding our memories, holding them at arm’s length, quivering like a lost puppy who whimpers and shies away from everything including a loving hand, we fear what we will find underneath it all!   We fear that others will be horrified when the truth is revealed…memories are like prison bars and razor wire fences.  We’re a captivated audience of one, too afraid to move…to make a break for it.  Too afraid of our own shadows lurking within corners that we’ve created.  Memories that we avoid do not fade, but rather they deepen in their staining.  And we within our self-made prisons peer out at them from behind our bar windows, clutching fragments of sun light instead of basking in it.

This old house needs a new, fresh coat of glossy clean paint that sparkles in the sunlit day and gleams when the stars in the night sky comes a callin’…but first this old decrepit brown weathered tinged paint must be peeled back…we must reveal our hurts, our wounds, our heartaches, we can’t just paint over the old for the old with infect and deflect the new.

So with weapon of choice in hand we, knowing it to be the right thing to do, must embrace the mess, confess to the wrongs, embrace what it is now, relish the opportunity to begin again.  Peel back the pain that harbors itself beneath the paint.  Let it breathe free and when the sun has baked its cold moisture away…this old house can take on a new creation.

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Picking up the pieces

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The heart ache of this past week is evident in the state of Oklahoma…children were lost, families ripped apart, sorrow and pain have been an un-welcomed, uninvited guest.  How do we pick up the pieces when life seemingly sweeps away any remnants of normality?  

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Throughout our world people today are facing this very same situation.  It might not present itself in the form of a mile wide twister but rather a car accident, a bout with cancer, a loss of a loved one.  People find themselves at the brink of total despair and their lives in ruin shattered before their very eyes.  

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David knew a thing or two about a shattered life…more than once.  He was in flight for his life, the king wanted him dead, later when he became king he committed adultery, plotted to kill the husband and lost a child in the process… his life was shattered.  In one of his most famous psalms 23 he wrote; “even though I travel through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.”  

We at times, as human beings, walk through valleys within the shadows of death on all sides.   And because of these valleys,we find the pieces of our lives scattered in all directions.  

Have you been there?  Are you there right now?  Do you fear the evil that lurks in your life right now?  What was David’s hope?  How did he overcome his valleys and collecting the broken pieces of his life?  He knew that he wasn’t alone…the Lord was his shepherd and even in the midst of deep despair and trouble he knew One who could sustain, protect and provide. 

Are you picking up the pieces today?  Know that you aren’t alone and that the good shepherd will walk beside you and give the the strength to make it through this chapter of your life.  

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At War…(Poem)

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I am at war…

Blood and bone

Skin and pain

Spirit and brokenness.

Can’t you hear the cries?

As men try to save

Try to be brave

Try to inflict pain

On the enemy?

I just want to be

Set free

To be whole again

To fight this sin

Within and

Come out clean.

Can’t you hear

these yearnings?

These longings

As these hands,

This heart

Beckons for something

More.

I am at war…

A war I cannot win

Something deep inside

More than this bloody tide

Unseen by human eyes

I’ve bought into all the lies

But my spirit is

Never satisfied. 

War…pain

Can’t fight this refrain

Without salvation

And hand to pull me out

To set me up and

Let me stand on feeble

Feet of atrophy. 

Set me free dear Lord

Set my feet upon your rock

Without your strength

Without your hope

All is lost. 

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Becoming Gollum

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“For where your treasure is, there your heart is also” Matthew 6:21

In J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic fantasy novels “Lord of the Rings” we meet a curious creature named Gollum.  He’s a vile creature and yet something to be pitied as the sorcerer Gandalf has said. Gollum is obsessed with The Ring.  He even calls it his “precious”.  Yet we catch just a short glimpse of what Gollum looked like before he turned into this vile, repugnant creature.  He too was a Hobbit from some shire, and he too had friends and family.  Then the ring captures his attention one day as he mistakenly discovers it and he kills one of his own to claim it for himself…Gollum is born.

He was never supposed to be this way.  He wasn’t created to live out his days in total and complete subjugation to this evil that is the ring, yet he is a slave to it, and a direct result of his slavery is this ugly transformation into a despised and tortured creature.

We’re all Gollum.  Every single one of us has been bound by sin and subjected to enslavement to our “precious”.  Since the fall of man, when Adam and Eve broke God’s heart in the garden of Eden, try as we might we couldn’t break our obsession with sin…and so sin transformed us.  We were at one time created in the very image of God, but because of sin that image is now marred within us…there is still some resemblance but it’s faded.

What is our ‘precious’…is it an obsession with stuff?  Could our ‘precious’ be relationships? How about money, or our jobs, or our kids…there are many, many things with which sin enslaves.  Whatever consumes most of our time, whatever we think about incessantly becomes our god.  What is your god?

Our Heavenly Father has, since the fall of man, attempted to bridge this void that is sin between us.  We have all fallen and so Christ became our bridge, through His sacrifice on the cross, between us and God.  Christ has taken ‘the ring’ from our possessions, died for us so that our resemblance to God could be restored.  What love to have taken our place!  He knew we couldn’t save ourselves and so He came to our level and took upon himself our enslavement…and it didn’t end there.  He was strong enough to conquer sin and death and open the doors of heaven for us.

We are all Gollum…but we don’t have to remain that way any longer!  We can be free!  If you have been set free by Christ, what’s stopping you from sharing this with others who are still captured in their enslavements?  This good news must be shared to help set the captives free!

We don’t’ have to be fallen and rejected any longer!  We can be transformed and renewed by the grace of God and the salvation of Jesus Christ.  Will you let go of your ‘precious’ and give Him a try?  If you do, you will find yourself set free indeed!

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Give us today our daily bread

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Do you know where your next meal is coming from?  Do you wonder how your next month’s rent or car payment or other bill is going to get paid?  Our basic essentials in life obviously come because we can pay for things…right?  What we make at our jobs generally helps to pay for our lifestyles.  Sometimes, though we realize that we have not been living within our means when we run up a credit card or lease/buy a vehicle that we cannot afford the payments on.  Living within our means forces us to realize that we ought to separate our needs from our wants.

When we pray to our Father in heaven the way Jesus has instructed us in what we call “the Lord’s prayer” what we realize is that we are placing our entire being, fully surrendered, at the foot of God himself.  When we pray “give us today our daily bread” we are not praying for tomorrow’s supplies or tomorrow’s worries, we are strictly and implicitly focusing on what is right before us within this very day.  Who knows what tomorrow holds, but when we focus on God, his might and power and his kingdom, we can’t but help realize that He is ultimately in control over our basic needs.

When we pray this portion of ‘the Lord’s prayer’ we quickly realize that it’s not our wants that He will supply but our needs.  What is it that you need today?  What do you struggle with daily?  Have you prayed about it?  Is it really a need or is it a want?  “Daily bread” isn’t necessarily the food that we eat but every human supply of our needs is included here.  God is supremely over all and through all!  When we come to this conclusion even the little things in life are blessings given to us by God and we ought to thank Him for these daily…even moment by moment.

Do you have needs?  Are you lacking today?  Have you prayed about it?  Are you surrendering it all to your Father in Heaven?  Consider the works of His hands today and consider how blessed we are because He can and will provide for us the things that we need.

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Why do bad things happen to good people?

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This is one of the questions many are asking today in the aftermath of yesterday’s horrific natural disaster in Oklahoma.  Almost 60 people were killed as a mile wide tornado struck the outskirts of Oklahoma City/Moore area.  It has been reported that nearly 21 children were among the death toll in this awful destructive storm.

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So many people are questioning many things today.  Many are considering why God would allow something like this to happen.  Others are questioning why bad things seem to happen to good people.  And there really isn’t a good answer is there?  What can you say to a family in mourning when they have just lost a child or a father in the wake of this horrendous disaster?  What soothing words can we offer to grieving people when they’ve lost their entire homes, pets, and loved ones?

One of the best things we can do is to just be there.  We have to show up, without any other agenda than to be a shoulder to cry on.  As many of us view this disaster from a far, we may feel powerless to help…but we couldn’t be more wrong.  We can do a few very useful things at this very time!

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1) Pray.  As I’ve mentioned in previous articles prayer isn’t empty or something we do like rubbing a lamp and making a wish.  When we pray we are going before the Father in Heaven and He actually hears us.  We serve a God who isn’t a distant God but One who is active and living and wanting to hear our conversations.  Prayer for others is called intercessory pray…meaning we are before the Father for others, asking Him to intercede for their concerns.  Prayer is a very powerful thing that we do, it isn’t or should be construed to be a last resort kinda thing but rather a first resort daily connection to God’s infinite power.

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2) Reach out.  How do we reach out to people who are hurting right now in Oklahoma?  There are some very worthy groups on the ground right now that I know and I trust.  The Salvation Army is one of them.  They have been there minutes since this disaster occurred.  They don’t just ask for money and only give a small portion, they use what is given for these  events.  Not only will they offer physical needs to survivors and victims like food, clothing, and basic essentials, but they also counsel and offer spiritual support.

When one has gone through a disaster such as this physical support isn’t enough…one needs moral and spiritual support.  This is what I know The Salvation Army does very well.  Here are a couple ways to support The Salvation Army in these matters:  https://donate.salvationarmyusa.org/uss/eds/aok

or text  Donate Via Text:
Salvation Army by texting: STORM to 80888
Each text is a $10 donation and gets billed to your phone line.

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3) Get involved.

There are many place in your community that you serve to give back.  By helping feed people in a soup kitchen to volunteering at a local food shelf/bank.  You can help in little ways to bigger ways by signing up to help out with Emergency Disaster Teams.  But we can help in many ways by just donating our time to an organization and be available.

Questions:

So why do bad things happen to good people? and Why does God allow bad things to happen?

The easy answer is that God doesn’t cause these things to happen…it’s a natural part of the world around us.  As sad as it is, and it’s awful to witness first hand the destructive nature of these types of disasters, God didn’t make this happen!  Please know that He loves His people and He weeps with us when we lose loved ones and when bad things happen to good people.  That was never His intent or purpose.

We live in a fallen world and because of this, bad things do happen.  One might say then why doesn’t God deliver all people from these things…who’s to say that He didn’t?  Yesterday, as heart wrenching as it may be, God delivered 21 children into the loving arms of Christ.  This isn’t what any of us want, yet as that tornado bore down on that city, God saw fit to ultimately deliver lives from this world.  I wish there was additional comfort for those that were left behind in the wake of this event…yet they don’t mourn alone.  I am convinced that His angels are present and bringing comfort from the Father.  Not only are celestial angels bringing comfort, but the hands of other humans are also doing likewise.

This world in which we live was created perfectly, yet because of the fall we now live in an imperfect world.  Yet through these tragedies I am convinced we will see the determination and victories of humanity and that should also give us hope.

Please pray, please support where and when you can, and know that God weeps with us in these moments.  We aren’t alone in our sufferings and our pains.

“We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

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Evolutionary Environmentalist…

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(Art Created by Vik Muniz…he created these photos and art at the land fill outside Rio)

I saw a convicting documentary last night it was called “Waste Land”  and it was about the world’s largest landfill located just outside of Rio De Janeiro Brazil.  Two things occurred when I saw this film, humanity and the slum conditions of this lower class people in Brazil struck me as horrific and surreal…it was a visceral experience.

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The second thing that struck me was the global waste problem we are causing.  From these waste mountains, for that is what they truly are, toxic gases occur, toxic run off takes place, health of both man and beast takes place and we are continually polluting our world through these unsafe practices.

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The amazing journey of world renown Brazilian artist and photographer Vik Muniz inspired me in my attempts to leave a cleaner world than I found it.  I’m not by any means a ‘tree-hugger’ type of environmentalist but God did place man in charge of this world to take care of it…and we are not doing a  very good job.

Unfortunately corporate greed and cutting costs world-wide is an epidemic that lines the pockets of the very rich and creates continued poor health conditions for not only for those working in land fills such as that in Brazil but for factory workers like those who lost their lives in Bangladesh recently because labor laws are virtually non-existent in most third world countries.

Here are three things we all can do to support a cleaner world for all of us:

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1) Purchase items sold via fair-trade and the fair-trade labels:

http://www.fairtradeusa.org/?gclid=CP6rr5vBpbcCFc9FMgodbgQAnQ

https://www.salvationist.org/poverty.nsf/vw_features/43BA11AAAE7E76CE80256B04004FA663

This gives local farmers and regional workers who get undercut by large companies and corporate markets a fair shot at selling their good products…thereby  being able to feed their families and support their local areas of commerce.

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2) Spend a little more on ‘clean’ earth friendly products.  You might spend a few cents more, but in the long run generations will thank you and you will contribute less waste and/or toxic chemicals in our global environment.  Most of these products are also safer for kids and are also less harmful in the long term in regards to all of our health.

Read though, study what is actually earth/environmentally friendly…some companies are producing ‘like’ products to entice consumers to purchase their goods when in fact they are still harmful and/or toxic, they just dressed it up to look the part.  Study and buy correctly!

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3) Recycle!  Reuse and reduce…it may be a pain in the butt…it may take you a little longer to dispose of your waste…but consider the long term effects.  Consider how much of a difference you are making on the world around you!  If you recycle and you are conscience of things that you use every day you can contribute and help fulfill our roles as good stewards of this world that God has entrusted us with.

-Just a thought…From a non-green tree-hugger, but one who is quite conscious of how beautiful our world is and how God intended it to be.  I guess that’s the evolutionary process of this compassionate conservative environmentalist…btw…thanks go out to my loving wife who has continually reminded me of this important role that we ought to play here on earth.

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