What Parents aren’t saying to their kids

Like it or not our culture and society is progressing. Progressing where, well that remains to be seen. But if the trends are any indicators where we’re going may not look so good. I don’t mean to sound all ‘doom and gloom’ here but what exactly are parents teaching their kids these day? And on the flip-side what are they not saying to their kids?

History Lesson:

How and who teaches our kids makes a world of difference. Don’t believe me? The Warlords in Africa understand this notion. Why do you think they abduct young boys and recruit them for their armies? He who controls the youth controls the next generation. Right or wrong (and that last example is most definitely wrong) the principle is still constant and true. Who is responsible for instructing the youth of our next generation? The Parents!!! But what are the parents not saying any longer?

Here’s a list of a few things they aren’t saying:

1. NO!

Discipline has become inconsistent at best. Children are allowed to do more, stay up later, eat whatever they want and parents aren’t telling their children ‘NO’. Let me make a confession. As a parent of four children I think I know a little bit about kids. And if we as parents don’t tell them no when we know what is best for them they will begin to craft their own ideals and notions of right and wrong. I am the parent! You are the parent and we have to set boundaries for our children especially when they are young and in the formative stages of life! I’m not saying it’s too late for teenagers if you’ve never said ‘no’ to your child, but much of a child’s understanding of right and wrong begins when they are young. Say no, not just to say it, but when it applies to situations and circumstances that may endanger your child, when they act up or push the boundaries…have the guts to be consistent and say no. There are far too many lazy parents in our world today who just don’t have the time to tell their children no. Be a better parent than that!

2. Wait!

We live in a fast paced, fast food society. Everything is based on instant gratification. But what is that teaching our children? Good things don’t come to those who wait, no good things come to those who get it now! Whatever ‘it’ is get it, why wait? This applies to purchasing items that are beyond our financial means, eating foods in over indulgence, and even sexual pursuits. Parents, we have got to step up to the plate and tell our children to wait! Don’t let them make decisions based on what their friends are doing or what modern media is telling them is okay. Have ‘the talk’ with them. Get involved in their lives and remind them that God does have a plan for their lives…and some of it involves waiting.

3. I love you

Let me be clear on this point, many parents are saying the words ‘I love you’ but they’re not backing it up with action. If you love your child don’t just say it be involved in their lives, actually listen to them as they share with you their day. Be available to them so that they have someone to come and talk to. They say body language is sometimes more important than actual verbal language at times. So put the tablet, cell phone, or laptop down and actually make eye contact with your child! Let them know that you love them by paying attention to them! Parents we cannot afford to be selfish when it comes to sharing our love with our kids. We only have them for 18 years of their life and then they go out into the world on their own. Make it count, help them show love in the same respect by being there and being attentive to them.

4. Your choices matter!

Start young with this! Make sure they understand what consequences are for both good and poor choices! Instruct them properly and help them to weigh out their choices in this life. We are witnessing a whole generation of young people growing up in a world where no one is responsible for the consequences of poor decisions. How does that happen? It starts at home. If the parent can’t admit wrong doing or own up to bad choices, the child learns from this as well. The child has learn to blame others for their mistakes, to ignore the consequences and to just do what makes you happy. Parents we have to be adult enough to show our children how to admit wrong doing, and to help them make better choices in their lives. It’s not a weakness to admit that we were wrong at times. Doing so displays something that is lost in our society today: integrity and courage.

5. Love the Lord with all your heart and serve Him first!

I understand many do not live in Christian homes, but for any parent out there who attend Sunday School as a child or still goes to church today this is one of the most fundamental building blocks for any child’s development! Without knowledge of God’s love and our reciprocation in word and deep we stand to lose an entire generation to ignorance and faithlessness. Understanding that God is real and that His love saves us has to be at the forefront of our children’s development. I’ve heard it said that it’s not our job to get our kids saved, I offer an contrary view. It is our job to point our children in the right direction and to instruct them in the ways of God! If we feel ill-equipped then I think we’re doing it right. It won’t be easy but when our children see faith in action through us the Bible lessons about God and our relationship to Him will be that much clearer!

Parents I cannot stress it enough, we cannot omit these important instructions from our children’s development! The dangers in our society today are very real. We are facing the possibility of an entire generation blind to faith and lost in sin. We must instruct our children. We must take the time. We cannot afford to be selfish with our time and our knowledge of God. Don’t dismiss this as just another alarmist, get involved with your children, tell them no, tell them to wait, help them to learn to make better choices in life and that consequences do exist. Lead them and point them to God…make sure that you also display in word and deed these same principles and attributes in your life!

-Get on with it!

August 13, 2013 0

Blurred Lines

“In a word, I was too cowardly to do what I knew to be right, as I had been too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to be wrong.” ― Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

I am in no way endorsing or recommending a song of the same name by the singer Robin Thick. But for just a moment in our pop tart world with its cheap, catchy beats and lyrical lines filled with double entendre our messy morals are exposed in the light. Many people want instant gratification and pleasure without the consequences or guilt. Yet when confronted with their choices of immoral decisions and behaviors some simply deny any wrong doing or blame someone else.

We live in a blurred lined culture where right and wrongs are subjected to an individualistic and hedonistic world view. Do you remember the prophet Hosea? God told him to marry a prostitute named Gomer (Hosea 1:2). Reading this passage of scripture one might proclaim shockingly, “God did what?” God told one of his prophets, one of his faithful servants to go out and marry a woman who was a known ‘lady of the night’. God used Hosea and his marriage to an unfaithful harlot to illustrate how adulterous his chosen people Israel had become.

Israel had blurred the lines of moral, set-apart living. They had stepped out on God. Just think of it for a moment. God had given himself fully to his people Israel. His love had been poured out upon them. He blessed them with prosperity and riches and protected them from the dangers of other encroaching cultures. But Israel had been hell bent on their selfishness and their lusting after sin. They had broken God’s heart again. Just place yourself in their story for a moment. Imagine you were the faithful spouse. Imagine your soul mate, your beloved being in caught in unfaithful acts over and over again. Feel the shame and the embarrassment. Feel the hurt and gut wrenching anguish. “How could you do such a thing?” You might exclaim; “I trusted you!” God was fed up with Israel and their unfaithfulness. Hosea became a living testimony of God’s love and faithfulness to red light prostitute named Gomer who illustrated Israel’s adulterous ways.

‘How did Israel get to this point?’ one might ask. Blurred lines are the answer. When they ignored their moral compass and did what they wanted anyway it happened. When they rationalized their sinful persuasions as ‘okay with me’ it happened. When they settled for instant gratification that lasted for but a moment instead of an eternal kind of love it happened. They blurred the lines of right and wrong to fit their sinfulness and corroded moral compass. What started out as ‘innocent fun’ turned into a full blown heartless affair with other gods wrought with immoral choices and selfish acts. They started out as a ‘set-apart’ people of God but ended as a torn apart culture wrecked people.

The Danger Zone:

This danger zone doesn’t include fighter jets from an 80’s movie, but it does include us and our culture that we live in. We live in a very media saturated world where right and wrongs are based on an individual’s sense of morality. Where we are taught that to defend God’s word and his laws of living is considered intolerant in our society. If this is intolerance then so be it. I would rather have God find us faithful than find us acting like Gomer or Israel as we prostitute ourselves out in a lost and dying world. The danger zone is the blurred lines in our world today. Those who profess to be Christ followers ought to know better! Those who claim Christ with their lips yet live a life contrary to their claims WATCH OUT! God doesn’t want your ritual or your lip service…He wants you! He wants me! Don’t let blurred lines of loose living dilute your faith! Don’t give that slippery slope of immoral living a second glance. Be faithful to God. He has set us apart for a reason. He loves us so deeply and when we serve Him we not only display our love back to Him, but we display what a lasting love relationship with God looks like for the world to see.

Don’t allow these blurred lines to blur your faith or your love relationship to God. He wants us to live above reproach and above these influences. 2 Corinthians 5:17 – “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old (blurred lined life) has gone, the new life has come.”

August 12, 2013 1

Here’s to you PCUSA Committee!!

In Christ Alone

August 3, 2013 0

My Life = Christ’s Broken Bread

Think of it. A life completely devoted to the cause of Christ. Not a divided life, where half is devoted to Christ and half is devoted to self…but completely and utterly surrendered to the cause of Christ.

For some, dare I say most, being Christ’s broken bread sounds great on paper. It even sounds romantic to some degree, but truly living a broken life before God and man is an extremely daunting task indeed.

Galatians 2:20 the Apostle Paul tells us; “I have been Crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and have himself for me.”

There is a very disturbing image for us here. The suffering and death of Christ for the world becomes the very image we too take on as we become Christ’s broken bread to the world around us. It transforms us into what Christ said would happen to His disciples: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:24-26)

Our borrowed time, our pooled financial resources, our hobbies and precious treasures…they mean nothing if they are not subjected to the filter of Christ on the cross. Everything will eventually pass away. Everything will eventually disappear from us. But one thing will remain: God’s love for us, His people.

In return, our duty, our purpose for living ought to transform our thoughts, our passions, our perceptions of the stuff we own…all of it in the spectrum of grace and redemption.

Why do we need to become Christ’s broken bread?

Because there are countless souls in our world who need salvation! There are many lives who are still lost in the darkness of sin and certain death! Without willing servants of Christ giving their all in His services, they will perish! Some might utter the excuses like “the Holy Spirit can save them”, and rightly so but Christ has sent US to be His ambassadors into this world. The Holy Spirit is with us in this venture! Without the willing hands and feet of Christ, who have been broken and humbles before His love and grace, the great commission cannot be fulfilled.

We are called people. Set apart for His holy purpose in this world wrought with sin! People in our own neighborhoods are lost and in need of anyone who is willing to love them and show them this amazing Christ whom we serve! There are countless souls caught up in addictions of all kinds who are in need of the extension of grace that Christ has given to us.

Who will be Christ’s broken bread to them? Will you? Will I? This isn’t some part-time calling. It’s full-time within our occupations and our passions! We are called to be His broken bread to the world, and that starts with our family’s, neighbors, friends and even enemies. It will not be easy! There will be days in which we will utterly fail along the way. Other days when we will be scorned and mocked. Yet this humbled state of servants of Christ brings upon our lives such a richness of mercy, grace and love!

-Just a thought.

“My life must be Christ’s broken bread,

My love his outpoured wine,

A cup o’erfilled, a table spread

beneath his name and sign,

that other souls, refreshed and fed,

may share his life through mine.“

(Albert Orsborn SASB 512)

July 30, 2013 1

Finding Encouragement:

Let’s face it, we are all accustomed to disappointment and discouragement. Some days we might even ask ourselves ‘why did I even get up this morning?’ Yet I do know that there is comfort in the knowledge that we aren’t alone in our disappointments and troubles. Though these times come to us all, we can recognize that we don’t have to endure these difficult moments alone.

Are you facing trouble today? Are you downcast, disillusioned, weary? Allow me an opportunity here to share with you an encouraging passage of scripture:

Zephaniah 3:17 The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.

Did you catch that? Let me break it down for you:

1. The Lord God is here in your midst:

He’s not far away, or distant. He is with you in your good days, your bad days, your indifferent days. God is near! How encouraging is that?! We serve a mighty, all knowing God that isn’t distant but personal with each of us. He care for you. He wants to be involved intimately in your life! And despite our struggles, God is here in your midst.

2. He saves us!

He doesn’t wear a red cape like superman, but He saves us! His love doesn’t end with being near, He desire fellowship with us and for our deliverance from sin and death! In Christ’s suffering and death, God provides salvation! Our redemption comes through Christ, and now we not only long for Eternity but we have the Kingdom of God here on Earth with us! We have been redeemed! We have been saved! Hallelujah!

3. He will quiet us with His love!

Have you ever gotten bent out of shape? Have you ever found yourself panic stricken, stress laden and crying out for relief from it all? In your despair God is there and He, with His loving arms, will quiet our manic lives. How amazing is that? I can’t tell you how often stress gets the better of me. Or how often my mind won’t turn itself off at bed time because I’m so consumed with worry or fear. Yet when I allow God access to these emotions and these situations, I am not only comforted but I am reminded that His strength is enough! There is nothing, absolutely nothing too difficult for Him to handle! He will quiet us and our distress…if we allow Him access to our lives!

4. He will exult over you with loud singing…

um, ok that sounds kind of funny doesn’t it? Yet think about it? And don’t envision God with a megaphone singing loudly in your ear either! But think of it like this: God spoke the world into being with just mere words. He will comfort us with these same audible words that formed the very stars that we look at! How encouraging is that? God will remind us of His might through this as well! If He could do all of these marvelous deeds, how tiny our problems must seem to Him. He will bring to us His songs of peace and deliverance. He will declare His majesty through the music of Eternity.

-Put it all together-

Think of it again…in every season God is there! He wants to be involved in our lives and He will be there in our discouragements and in times of despair. Take comfort in this verse, though it was originally intended for Israel at a time of exile, this verse is for all those who are called children of God through faith in Jesus Christ!

Discouraged? Find Encouragement today!

-Just a thought.

July 23, 2013 0

Ever stopped to consider what it is about God’s love that makes it so powerful and effective?

July 22, 2013 0

Joy & Hope…Retrain the Brain.

Two simple words. Yet all too the often these words fail to connect with humanity. All too often hate and sorrow are life’s constant companion. All too often if joy is captured at all it is but a brief glimpse, a blink of the eye…and then it’s gone.

How can we capture and experience true joy and hope? How can life become so much more potent and alive? It begins with a climb up a sheer rock face. Not a real climb mind you, but a journey within one’s thoughts and attitudes. This climb takes us from where we are to a place above in which we train our minds and prepare our thoughts. Where we change the thought patterns within our lives and attempt to see life around us as we have never seen it before.

This isn’t some new age philosophy here either. We aren’t attempting to reach within ourselves, and recognizing our bad habits within our own thoughts. We face the blatant behaviors and poor choices. We confront the darkness that resides within our minds. This is the place where hatred, selfishness, sadness, and greed reside. Our minds truly are a battle field. We wage a war that is mostly unseen. It may sound mystical but in reality where do our actions come from? -Our thoughts. Where do those choices come from which hurt others, hurt ourselves and lead us into deeper alleys of sadness? -Our thoughts.

What would happen, if we could change this pattern of thinking? What would happen if we could redirect our thinking and what we think on? What would happen is that we could begin to experience joy and hope not just in mere fragments but in every instance.

So how do we do this? How do we capture our thoughts and conquer these dark patterns?

1. Seek Guidance:

Understand that we have been created by God and that His fellowship with us can and will change and transform us. This isn’t some sort of dogma we chant or words we use to line up the masses all straight and uniform in organized religion either. This is a very personal and intimate relationship that God desires from each of us. When He sent His one and only Son to die for our sins He made a way for that relationship to be restored once and for all. So when we confess our dark patterns to Him and accept His Son, Jesus Christ as Lord of our lives we are accepting a better path.

This relationship offers guidance to a better way of living too. Do you know that followers of Jesus were once called ‘followers of The Way’? This is truth for us today. Because Jesus offers us a better way to live. One that frees us from the bondages of sin and those dark patterns of thinking.

His guidance is available to us and is truly the only way by which we can truly conquer the unhealthy and dark patterns of thinking. We begin this climb by asking for God’s guidance through prayer and supplication. But don’t stop with just your words speaking repetitions and utterances…listen.

2. Listening:

Part of the conversation with anyone and even God is not only talking but listening. This is where instruction and guidance can begin. We need to prostrate ourselves before God and be available to listen…simply listen. How else are we to hear from God if we do all of the talking? Psalm 46:10 says “Be still and know that I am God…” Be still…we are to stop and listen, to be still and hear. Listening takes patience, silence from distractions and tuning into what God is saying to us. This act is truly an act of personal worship in a very intimate setting. It’s not some mystical mumbo jumbo that we do. You may not audibly hear God speak to you, but within our hearts resides his voice…within our soul He longs to permanently take up reside. He will speak to us in moments of silence and in moments of deep devotion. But all too often we are so distracted by the world around us that we hardly tune in to hear what he would say to us.

3. Meditate:

Not in some Eastern philosophy sense, but rather meditate on the very words of God. By that I mean read His words written for us in the Bible. Study it. Read the red letters of Jesus in the synoptic gospels. Read what Paul instructs the early churches to do. Understand what James has to say about the tongue in His book. Study the Bible, don’t approach it as some task or arduous homework assignment either. Do it out of love and devotion to God and the longing to live a healthier, holier life-style.

4. Discipline yourself:

Not by flogging yourself or punishing the flesh, by any means…but by being disciplined in your daily routines and attitudes. Be serious about wanting this joy and hope in your life. When we seek His guidance and listen to His voice we begin to find peace and understanding. We begin to want to spend more time with Him. For some five minutes in prayer is very difficult, but if we discipline ourselves in regards to prayer we will slowly begin to find five minutes isn’t nearly enough time to talk with God.

2 Corinthians 10:5b says, “…we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” We we can make this climb out of our dark patterns of thought through God’s help, we will begin to understand this verse. We can truly experience pure joy and hope because we have, through the power of the Holy Spirit, taken captive of every thought. And we are in turn thinking within the realms of Joy and Hope.

Does this seem far fetched to you? I hope it doesn’t because God does not want us to reside any longer in the darkness of our minds, but He wants us to surrender every nook and cranny of our body, soul and mind to Him. When we are or have done so little by little we can begin to experience this joy and hope in every moment of our lives.

July 12, 2013 1

Officership: A Calling For a Lifetime?

Some officers have struggled with this. Some officers haven’t. I have heard some argue about the lifetime calling while others argue the calling ‘for a season’. I would like to outline both arguments in this article. My purpose for this? To help clarify, not further muddy the waters. To shed light on both contentions and for the reader to draw their own conclusion.

So what is the calling of The Salvation Army officer? Do we deem it sacred? Is this calling infallible? Or do people make mistakes from time to time?

First let’s explore the Officer Covenant:

What is a Covenant?

In the Bible covenants were made by God to people. They were also made by people to God. And lastly covenants could also be made from one person to another. A covenant is simply a promise or an agreement, something that could be deemed as binding.

So when one enters into a covenant with God this person is making a promise to do or abstain from something. With the definition of covenant being given, let’s now explore the two main arguments that are prevalent in our Army today.

Argument #1

The Covenant an Officer makes to God is for life!

I have heard it said that within this calling, a Salvation Army Officer enters this covenant which is sacred. What makes it sacred? Certainly not a simple piece of paper with writing printed upon its surface? Of course not! There is, at the end of an Officer’s time at training college, a time of commitment made to God before their peers, the training staff and sometimes the territorial commander. When the soon to be newly commissioned officer sign this covenant page, they are declaring and affirming their calling to serve the Lord in the capacity of Officership. What is said about this signing by many, if not most, within leadership that it is a solemn declaration that is for a lifetime.

The argument has sometimes been taken to mean that should an Officer resign later on they have broken their covenant with God. I have heard stories of Officers who have left the work that were told that they had sinned against God for leaving the work and breaking their ‘Officer’s Covenant’. The Argument seems valid, yet could be construed as far too legalistic in nature. Who are we as fallible people to claim that another person has turned their backs on God?

There is a need for accountability and a standard to uphold, however this argument presents a challenge in that how do we uphold this perspective as individuals? In the legal sense should the terms we use be more clear? legally speaking what does ‘all my days’ mean? Is it ‘all my days’ that I’m an Officer? Or are we to take it to mean ‘all my days’ of life that God has allotted me?

I know this sounds superficial but some could interpret this Officers covenant to mean one of two things. So is this Covenant we sign for a lifetime or for a season?

Which brings me to the second argument:

Argument #2

The Covenant an Officer makes to God is for a season!

Some would express that within the Officer Covenant there is adequate enough verbiage to interpret what we sign as a calling ‘for a time.’ This isn’t generally how most view the covenant, however this is a part of argument #2 and its justification.

Do we truly sign our lives away so to speak and in an instant we no longer have independence in terms of where we will stay and where we will go? Obviously when one becomes an Officer it isn’t because we are hugely overpaid, nor because we feel inclined to become stylishly dressed in uniform. It is because we wish to serve the Lord and serve others through the means of Officership within the structure of The Army.

But does this necessarily mean that it is for life? Obviously Officers don’t view it as some sort of prison sentence and we plod on serving 20 to Life. But what happens should God call one who is an Officer to something else? Have they broken their Covenant with God or has God simply used the means of man to adjust that covenant into a newer and different territory?

Furthermore we shouldn’t presume that the workings of man are necessarily the working or the will of God in every instance. For in our holiness tradition we are taught that through the continued promptings of the Holy Spirit we look less and less like our old sinful self (old has gone, new has come) and more and more the image of Christ. In so doing we mature in our faith, could it be that in this maturity some have felt compelled to take a greater leap outside of the Army? I’m not arguing for all who have left, but some appear to have taken this leap.

Lastly on this argument looking back at the context of our Founders, William Booth specifically was quite militant in his view of Officership. Even his own children who had served within its ranks for a time then leaving were considered ‘deserters’ to the cause. This paints for many this notion that William Booth propelled and enforced our understanding of this Officers Covenant.

Grace, Prayer & Holiness:

One wonders where grace falls within the Army at times. When some leaders, a minority mind you, have condemned those who have left the work as traitors and sinners. Grace rises above such lowly expressions. We too ought to reflect and pray on how we minister to one another within this army. How we treat one another, while at the same time reminding each other to live holy lives and continued prayer and devotion.

We are in the business of saving souls, but the saving of souls isn’t done solely by uniforms and ranks and officials…it is done first and foremost by the blood of Christ and secondly the workings of the Holy Spirit. May we ever be diligent in this fight that we do not ostracize those who have, for whatever reason personal or otherwise, left this calling of Officership. That we continue to live worthy lives before God first and foremost and that we live within that grace instead of condemnation and militant rules and stiff regulations.

Standards are important, leadership is vital, but grace is often the shepherd loving the sheep and gently and allowing growth to take place out of love instead of might and fist.

July 11, 2013 1

Home Sweet Home

It’s interesting when you see these hanging in homes. For most it’s a sentiment that evokes love, acceptance, peace, somewhere to not only hang your hat but to rest. These signs are a dime a dozen in tourist shops and craft stores…trust me I’ve been to many of both. But the real sentiment which is relayed in these wall hangings can be found within our searching can’t it? We automatically identify places that are not home to us. Perhaps its in the decor of a place, or in the beds we sleep in, or in the company we find ourselves in. But in our searching we can identify where home is and where home isn’t.

Similarly this should be the case in our spiritual relationships. If we are familiar with our Eternal Father in heaven we can quickly identify where He does not reside. And if we are tempted and go to these places we will continue to feel ‘away from home’ in them. Isn’t it interesting that the places we call home don’t just make up things or tangible surrounds? The reasons we call certain places ‘home’ is because of a heart-attachment. By that I mean we are emotionally, historically, and internally attached to a certain place because ‘this is where I’m from!’. Do you see the context here? It’s not four walls of some building that makes a place home, it’s an attachment to us that goes beyond the physical realms.

Similarly in our searching we find ourselves asking ‘big questions’. Questions like ‘who made me?‘ or ‘Are we alone in the universe?’, ‘is there a God?‘, ‘Can I really believe what the Bible says?‘. You see we are all searching in some way, shape, or form for home. Ever since Adam and Eve initially were expelled from the garden of Eden we have been in search of home. Something within us is missing. A crucial life component that makes us whole again.

It’s like working so hard on a thousand piece puzzle and coming to the end of it and discovering you are missing one vital piece of the puzzle. Without that one piece, the puzzle is incomplete.

Intrinsically we are created in God’s image, yet because of this fall into sin, our image of God in us is severely marred…we are missing a piece from within us. This is what A.W. Tozer said on this subject:

“Before the Lord God made man upon the earth He first prepared for him a world of useful and pleasant things for his sustenance and delight. In the Genesis account of the creation these are called simply “things.” They were made for man’s use, but they were meant always to be external to the man and subservient to him. In the deep heart of man was a shrine where none but God was worthy to come. Within him was God; without, a thousand gifts which God had showered upon him. But sin has introduced complications and has made those very gifts of God a potential source of ruin to the soul.

Our woes began when God was forced out of His central shrine and the things were allowed to enter. Within the human heart things have taken over. Men have now by nature no peace within their hearts, for God is crowned there no longer, but there in the moral dusk stubborn and aggressive usurpers fight among themselves for first place on the throne.

This is not a mere metaphor, but an accurate analysis of our real spiritual trouble.”

Do you see now why we are still in search for home? As Tozer puts it, the sacred shrine within us that housed God has been replaced with the external things of this world. We have settled for the creation instead of the Creator. But sin is an utterly poor replacement for God. It’s like calling a mildewed and molded shack with no roof ‘Home’…and settling for something far below what God could provide us.

Our search for home is probably the most ancient sentiment and emotional attachment to this now vacant shrine within us. Everyone in all of creation has now been born with this longing to find home once again. There is a spiritual ache within us. And in order to be whole again we, like the prodigal son in Christ’s parable, have to come to our senses and return to Him. He longs for us to choose Him. When we consider the ‘slop’ we have put into our lives and within our ‘sacred shrines’ we cannot help but feel ashamed.

Yet Christ provides us this missing piece. Our image, our relationship can be restored…we can find that peace, perfect peace of Home once more? It can only be found at the foot of the cross. May we stop seeking and starting looking to the One who desires to make us whole once again!

Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide;
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me.
Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
Earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see—
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.
I need Thy presence every passing hour;
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s pow’r?
Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.
I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness;
Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.
Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies;
Heav’n’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.

July 11, 2013 0

Seeing the Miracles (Poem)

Perhaps it is in the simple things…

the catch in the throat,

the sliver of light cresting the horizon,

in the fresh morning dew lending itself

to the growing blooms.

Perhaps the eye catches but a glimpse

of God’s amazing miracle

appearing and disappearing all around

touching our souls,

igniting and renewing our faith…

perhaps that is what He meant

when He said, it is the blind leading the blind

for we donned on our pharisee clothings

we play our parts and move along

but the it is all brain work

closing off the heart valves

staving all emotion

as we simply go through the motions…

Yet perhaps we’ve miss the mark.

Perhaps we lost sight of His miracles,

closed our eyes and failed to truly see.

Oh that we may open them once again…

to catch miracles on our fingers

touching the blood coursing through

our veins

and then again ignite our souls…

perhaps this happens in an instant…

or in eighty years…

but dear Lord let these scales fall from

these blinded eyes again.

July 10, 2013 0

Tag: God