Blessed Confusion

For the last week our life has been a blessed confusion. And it’s been wonderful!

“Now hold on just a minute! How is ‘blessed confusion’ wonderful?”

Well, let me tell you. Take two working adults. Add a visiting daughter on vacation with her three girls. Then put us all under the same roof and you have a recipe for blessed confusion!

Trying to coordinate work schedules, play time, day trips and family dinners disrupts our daily routine. And when three or four people talk to me at the same time, it’s confusing!

But I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

According to the Bible, living to see your grandchildren is a blessing from the Lord. It says they are “a crown to the aged.”

Now I don’t like to think of myself as “aged,” but I guess I am to my grandchildren! And I thank God that I’m healthy enough to play with them and enjoy them. What a blessing!

Last night the girls were getting ready for a bedtime story. The youngest walked up in her nightgown and said very seriously, “Grandpa, I wished we lived here.” That melts my heart.

On Sunday we took them to Sunday School and church. They looked so pretty in their dresses. But, more than that, they learned about God and his love for them through Jesus Christ.

It amazes me sometimes how people skip church because family is visiting from out of town. Not only do our grandchildren enjoy going to church with us, they love God wholeheartedly.

I guess that’s why Jesus said, “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” The faith of children is so pure and strong.

If you think about it, the only thing of lasting value you can leave to your children and grandchildren is your faith. Everything else gets spent, broken or wears out. But faith is forever.

Plus, in the light of eternity, passing your faith on to your children and grandchildren is the best investment you can make. When you die you will leave everything else in life behind. But if your family trusts in Christ, you will all be reunited in Heaven again.

Now some folks may think that’s too morbid to think about. Think again! Life goes by so fast. And then you will be somewhere forever a lot longer than you lived on earth.

But faith is good for more than just eternity. David, the shepherd king in the Bible once said, “I have been young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging for bread.” God knows how to take care of his children in this life as well.

The time to think about God is now. One of the wisest men to ever live, King Solomon, wrote, “Remember your creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come.”

How fast “the days of your youth” fly by! In just a little more than a week, I’ll be attending my fortieth High School reunion. Where did all those years go?

In the Bible, a man named Job said, “My days are swifter than a runner; they fly away.” In the musical “Fiddler on the Roof,” Tevye sang, “Sunrise, sunset; swiftly fly the years.”

Before we know it, children turn into adults. Our time with them is so brief.

If you are blessed to have your children and grandchildren nearby, stop and thank God. If they live far away and you only see them once or twice a year, be sure you enjoy the “blessed confusion” when they visit!

But most importantly, spend as much time with them as you can. Remember to point them to God and be the best example to them that you can be!

Listen to the Bible; it’s great for your soul!

Anticipation

In about an hour from the time I’m writing this, my daughter and three granddaughters will arrive for a visit. And I can hardly wait to see them!

It’s been six months since I last saw them at their home in another state. I want to hold them in my arms, to see how they’ve grown and to just plain love them.

My wife and I have been planning things to do and places to go with them since we first heard they were coming. We haven’t told them all our plans yet. It’s going to be a surprise!

Of course it’s nothing compared to the anticipation God must have or the things he has planned for his family!

“Now hold on just a minute! God has grandchildren?”

No, according to the Bible, God doesn’t have any grandchildren. But all who come to him through Jesus Christ become his children. And he’s looking forward to our homecoming.

The Bible says, “Yet to all who received him (Jesus), to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” So through faith in Jesus Christ, everyone can become a part of God’s forever family.

And he’s looking forward to the day we’re with him in Heaven! How do I know? Because the Bible says, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his holy ones [believers].”

Now that may strike you as odd because we look at death as a separation from our loved ones. But from God’s perspective, when one of his children dies, he or she is coming home. And I imagine that he’s just as delighted as we are when our children come home at Thanksgiving!

God also has some surprises planned and exciting things for us to do. People who imagine Heaven as clouds, harps and lounging around must not have read their Bibles!

The Bible says, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” It’s wonderful beyond words!

Someone once said, “Don’t miss Heaven for the world!” Let’s face it—it’s too easy to let what Jesus called “the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth” make us so selfish that we’re no good for serving the God of Heaven. Don’t let that happen to you.

I wonder—is God looking forward to your homecoming in Heaven with anticipation and delight? Or is he hoping that you’ll finally see the light and start following him before it’s forever too late?

The Bible says, “I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.” It also warns us: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”

Has God been trying to get your attention? Sometimes he speaks through the words of a concerned friend. Other times it may be through a crisis.

One reason our lives can be such messes is because God is patient with us. He lets the consequences follow our bad decisions. He hopes we’ll learn something and turn back to him.

Here’s advice from the prophet Isaiah: “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.”

If you do that, one day God will have a “Welcome Home” party planned just for you.

Now don’t get me wrong. I want to live my life here as long as God allows. But when my time comes, I’m ready to go. The Bible says, “To depart and be with Christ…is better by far.”

Listen to the Bible; it’s great for your soul!

Any Questions?

One of my favorite parts of a class is when the teacher asks, “Any Questions?” Why? Because I usually have questions.

Questions are how we learn. But for the longest time, I was afraid to ask questions! I was afraid of what others might think of me. What if I was the only one who didn’t understand?

Thankfully one of my teachers said, “The only dumb question is the one you don’t ask.” And when I began to ask, I discovered that others had questions, too.

Often, after class, classmates came up and said to me, “I’m glad you asked that because I wondered about it also.” Why didn’t they ask? They were afraid.

I’ll never forget one dear lady who came to me once with a concern. “I know we’re not supposed to question God,” she began, “but why did God…” and then she expressed her doubt.

I thought, “Who said that? Who said we’re not supposed to question God? Who denied this hurting woman an answer to her question?”

“Now hold on just a minute! Everyone knows you’re not supposed to question God!”

Oh? Maybe you heard someone say it, but where did the idea come from? The Bible doesn’t teach it. It’s not in the Ten Commandments. Jesus didn’t forbid it. So where do we get it?

I’m not sure. But I do know that God invites us to use the minds he gave us. Jesus loved to ask questions. He invited people to think. Nowhere does the Bible encourage blind faith in God.

In the prophet Isaiah we read, “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord.”

The Apostle Peter reminds Christians to welcome questions. He says, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”

Now the Bible does teach that God is a good God. In fact Jesus says, “No one is good—except God alone.” The Bible also says, “The Lord is good to all.” It reminds us, “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.”

Knowing that, it would be wrong to question God’s motives. But nowhere does the Bible say it is wrong to try to understand what God is doing in our lives.

Many times I have prayed, “Lord, help me understand what you are doing in this situation so I can work with you and accomplish your will.” It gets me thinking about God’s will, not mine.

One of the areas we question the most is suffering. Why does God permit his children to suffer? That’s a good question to ask, because God gives us answers in the Bible.

Often God uses suffering to get our attention. It’s not always punishment for disobedience, but it can be. To be sure, check your life. Ask God to show you if you’re doing wrong. Then, if you are, repent and turn back to him. In that case, suffering brought you closer to God.

Sometimes suffering makes us more like Jesus. God allowed him to suffer so we shouldn’t expect to be exempt. Plus it produces obedience and perseverance in us--good qualities we need.

Other times suffering develops our compassion. The Bible says that when God helps us, “we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.”

Suffering can even provide opportunities to share our faith and point others to the one the Bible calls, “The God of all comfort.”

These are just a few examples of the answers in God’s Word. I’m sure you can find many more if you will read your Bible regularly. If it’s gotten dusty, it’s time to find it and read it!

And the next time you have a question, don’t be afraid to ask! Any questions?

Listen to the Bible; it’s great for your soul!

Self-Addiction

Are you addicted to yourself?

Donald Miller describes this affliction in his book, “Blue Like Jazz.” He writes, “No drug is so powerful as the drug of self. No rut in the mind is so deep as the one that says I am the world, the world belongs to me, all people are the characters in my play. There is no addiction so powerful as self-addiction.”

The most difficult lie to contend with, Miller says, is this: “Life is a story about me.”

But life can conspire to give us that belief. When a baby is born, parents spend his first few years convincing him he is the center of his world. If he cries, warm milk, dry diapers and soft cuddles all seem to appear, as if by magic! He is certain to think, “Life is about ME!”

Finally that child goes to school and meets 19 other “Centers of the World.” Persuaded that having his way is a God-given right, he will demand it or throw a tantrum.

Like Jim Carrey’s character Truman Burbank in the movie “The Truman Show,” life is movie all about ME. It seems to be true because, everywhere you go, you are the only actor in that is every scene. And the theme of this movie is your comfort and your glory.

Other people seem to be just second-rate actors stealing our scenes. And when the other “actors” don’t do what we want, our natural response is to lash back at them in anger. We are confident we are right and they are wrong. “Don’t they know this life is about me?”

Our minds are like radios that receive only one station, the one that plays me: WMEE, all me, all the time. We may not put it in those words but that is the way we live.

“Well hold on just a minute! Why can’t people just get along?”

Because family feuds, civil wars, hateful speech, murderous rampages and polarized politics all come from self-addiction. It’s the same reason some people become irritable as they age.

Aging doesn’t have to make you cranky. It’s more likely a result of self-addiction. When we don’t get what we want we’re crabby. And aging makes us more of what we were all along.

The Bible identifies the problem when it says, “Where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice…. What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?”

Thankfully the prescription follows the diagnosis: “Submit yourselves, then, to God.” We must humble ourselves, turn from our self-centered ways and accept God’s solution to the human condition he calls “sin.”

God’s solution is simple. The Bible says it begins by accepting forgiveness for our self-addiction through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. He died for our sin. But he rose again to give us a new joy-filled life. That’s the message of the Gospel.

Through Christ, God cleanses our conscience and gives us a new mind, a new way of thinking. Instead of addicted to self we become dedicated to serving God and others. J-O-Y comes from putting Jesus first, Others second and Yourself last.

God first and not self. That’s the way Jesus lived and it’s the secret to making life work. Read it for yourself in the New Testament of the Bible. Then remember that the Bible’s message isn’t just for our information but for our transformation!

Sadly some refuse to accept the cure. They know best. And they go on, like human wrecking balls, destroying lives, families, schools and even countries. Self-addicted.

Listen to the Bible; it’s great for your soul!

Expiration Date

Ever notice that most products have an expiration date? What about people?

“Now hold on just a minute! How could people have an expiration date?”

Think about it. No one gets off the planet alive. How long do you think you’ll live? Forever?

Reader’s Digest recently conducted an interesting worldwide survey. They asked people if they’d like to live forever. The results were published in the May 2009 issue.

If you think a majority said, “Yes, I want to live forever” – you’d be wrong.

Not even the younger generation consistently chose immortality. The report found that more than 50 per cent of those younger than 45 in seven countries (including the U.S.A.) said they don’t want to live forever!

The Digest’s conclusion was “Most respondents…are just fine with their limited shelf life here on earth.”

As interesting as such surveys are they are pointless. Let’s face it folks—we don’t get to choose whether we die, do we?

The Bible says, “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” (That kind of knocks reincarnation out of the game, doesn’t it?)

That’s the bad news. But there’s also good news. The Bible continues by saying, “So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.”

Some people avoid talking about death—as if ignoring life’s one certainty will somehow allow them to avoid it. But the Bible takes a better approach. It confronts one of our greatest fears head on and offers the only way to face death without fear.

The Bible reminds us that, after death, we will all live somewhere forever. And God wants every one of us to spend eternity with him.

Frankly, the other alternative, hell, doesn’t sound very people friendly.

Thankfully, God’s solution is simple. You must give up the idea that you can somehow be good enough to earn Heaven. If you doubt it, read the Ten Commandments (God’s standard for goodness) and see how you measure up. They’re in Exodus chapter 20 of the Bible.

Next you must recognize that God provided the solution through Jesus Christ’s death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead. The Bible says that through faith in him, your sins will be forgiven and you will receive the gift of eternal life.

So now the issue is no longer your goodness or badness. The issue is what will you do with Jesus Christ? Will you accept him as the Son of God and obey him as your Lord? That one decision determines your eternal destiny.

God doesn’t play games with our future. Here’s what the Bible says: “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

Then it adds this: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” Not “hope” you have it. “Know” you have it.

So here are the facts of death: Regardless of your expiration date, through Jesus Christ you can receive an eternal extension. The only condition is that you must ask God for it to receive it.

How’s that for simplicity?

Listen to the Bible; it’s great for your soul!

Double Agents

Secret Agent movies were very popular when I was a student. The James Bond 007 franchise is still a success today, 40 years later.

Over the years there have been many movies and television shows about spies and secret agents. (“Mission: Impossible” and “Get Smart” come to mind.) All glamorize or make light of a very serious part of international affairs--espionage.

Even the Bible records the use of spies to check out enemy defenses in the Promised Land.

One of the most feared and dangerous roles in the spy business is the double agent. A double agent secretly works for both sides. But his allegiance is usually to one side alone.

Sometimes a double agent’s allegiance is only to himself. He is in it for what benefits him.

Sort of like some people who attend church.

“Now hold on just a minute! Churchgoers as double agents? Isn’t that a little outrageous?”

Maybe, but it’s also true. At least for some.

They look like they fit in. They dress the part, talk the talk and even donate money. But when they attend church, they are just putting on a show. They do it to convince others and themselves that they’re Christians. But their allegiance is only to themselves.

While double agents make a great plot element in a movie, their presence in a church can be devastating—both to the organization and to themselves.

Why? Because they have a different mission than Christ or his church.

Jesus made it clear that he came “to seek and to save the lost.” His passion is to have a personal faith relationship with each member of the human race. To bring forgiveness, peace and hope to us through his death on the cross.

The mission of the church is to take the gospel, the good news about Christ, to the world. It’s a very simple message that can be summed up in ten words: “Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead.” Everyone who believes in him is forgiven and receives eternal life.

The church is not here to be a rule-enforcing police department, a political action committee or a theater with the best show in town. Its main mission is not social justice. It is here to point people to Jesus Christ. People who will worship and serve him alone.

When power-seeking, self-centered or greedy individuals infiltrate the church, they can do immeasurable harm to it. Especially if they become church leaders and substitute a “shadow mission” (their own agenda) for what Jesus asked the church to do.

Such “double agents” also suffer personally. They suffer because they miss out on a personal relationship with God and the forgiveness, joy and peace he offers them through faith in Christ.

They think the church is just another service organization and see membership as a way to improve their standing in the eyes of others. Or maybe as a way to control other people.

What to do? Well, if you’re a churchgoer ask yourself, “Am I on Jesus’ mission or my own?”

Are you following Jesus and serving him or are you only attending for what you get out of it? Does your life encourage others to follow Christ or discourage them?

The Apostle Paul wrote in the Bible, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.”

Paul was not a “secret agent” Christian or a “double agent.” He was a real Christ follower.

When you get to the end of your life, all the thrills, power and wealth you’ve gained will mean nothing. Only your faith in Christ and the people you pointed to him will matter in eternity.

Listen to the Bible; it’s great for your soul!

Living Words

Is the Bible just empty words--or do its pages point us to a path leading to eternal life?

There is no doubt the Bible is unique. It is the only book ever written where you need to know the author for it to make sense!

You can read it and understand the history. But you have to meet the author in the person of Jesus Christ for it to change your soul.

“Now hold on just a minute! How can you meet Jesus? Didn’t he live 2,000 years ago?”

You meet him in the New Testament of the Bible. He changes your life when you personally accept him for who he claimed to be: the divine Son of God and the Savior of the world.

Unfortunately not everyone who reads it believes it. In fact there have been people who memorized much of the New Testament but never met Jesus or believed in him.

On February 11, 1962, Parade Magazine published a brief article about such a person called “Still Munching Candy.”

“At the village church in Kalonovka, Russia, attendance at Sunday school picked up after the priest started handing out candy to the peasant children. One of the most faithful was a pug-nosed, pugnacious lad who recited his Scriptures with proper piety, pocketed his reward, then fled into the fields to munch on it.”

“The priest took a liking to the boy and persuaded him to attend church school. This was preferable to doing household chores from which his devout parents excused him.”

“By offering other inducements, the priest managed to teach the boy the four Gospels. In fact, he won a special prize for learning all four by heart and reciting them nonstop in church.”

“Now, 60 years later, he still likes to recite Scriptures, but in a context that would horrify the old priest. For the prize pupil, who memorized so much of the Bible, is Nikita Khrushchev, the former Communist Premier.” [Khrushchev died in 1971, nine years after the article was written.]

As this story illustrates, the “why” behind learning is just as important as the “what” that is learned. The same Nikita Khrushchev who mouthed God's Word as a child, later declared God to be nonexistent -- because his cosmonauts had not seen Him.

Khrushchev memorized the Scriptures for the candy, the rewards and the bribes, rather than for the meaning it had for his life. Artificial motivation produced artificial results.

Sadly, Nikita didn’t believe what he read in the Bible. For him it was dead words.

But Jesus said, “The words I have spoken to you are life.” So what happened to Nikita?

Jesus once compared the good news of the Gospel to seed. Even though seed resembles an inanimate object (like a pebble), it contains life.

For the life to show itself, the seed must be planted in good soil. If you put seed in a rock garden it will never take root or bear fruit.

A receptive mind seeking truth is good soil for God’s word. When a person hears the good news that Jesus died on the cross for their sin and rose from the dead to give them new life, the seed is sown. When they believe it and trust it to be true, new life takes root in their soul.

“Believe” is the key word. The reader must personally believe Christ died for him or her and trust in him. When they do, God forgives their sin and gives them the gift of eternal life.

This is why the Scripture says, “For the word of God is living and active.” Far from being dead words, the Bible is the only book in the world that can bring hope and life to the hopeless.

Listen to the Bible; it’s great for your soul!