The B I B L E, yes that's the book for me

 I am so thankful for the Word of God.  I wonder if you have taken time recently to think about all that the Word of God means to you.  I thought I would take a moment and just share a few things that I am thankful for.

1. The Word of God is truth.  This is so helpful in a time of uncertainty - to know that there is something true, something certain, and something absolute.  

2. The Word of God is a mirror.  It shows me what needs to change in my own life.  And combined with number 3, is like a surgical tool.

3. The Word of God is a sharp sword.  It determines and cuts through the lies I tell myself and can fix what is wrong when I am willing to listen.  

4. The Word of God is life to me.  It brings good to me, and health, and well-being, and a right way of looking at the world, it is indeed life.  

5. The Word of God is filling.  It is a bread that continues to feed me so long as I am willing to continue to partake of it.  It is filling but also sweeter than honey.  It is tasty and delicious.  

And these are just a few of the great things about God's Word that make it so worth my time and energy!

Love does not require reminders

 I find Valentine's Day fascinating as a holiday.  A day set aside to help people remember to remember their loved ones through the materialistic purchase of items - candy if you sort of like someone, chocolate if you like them, jewelry if you really like them, and of course a Lexus or better if your love is true.  Of course our culture would measure love by the gifts received.  But I wonder why the church so often falls prey to the same lies of the culture.  If love is defined by what God says love is, I don't think God needs a reminder - a special day - to do something loving for us.  Love is constant.  Love is perpetual.  Love is a state of being more than it is any one particular action.  Our actions are motivated by the love that we have.  And if that love is true, than we do not need Feb. 14 to show our love because as our God has shown us love we will show love - always.  

I think that fundamentally the problem is that what we think of as love is not really love.  Love is not a feeling of what have you done for me lately - love is patient.  Love is not a brief action that costs me very little - love is kind.  Love is not measured by what I have failed to do - love keeps no record of wrongs.  You get the idea.  Biblically defined love is almost antithetical to the Feb 14 idea of love.  

So when you say you love your spouse this month, which love are you referencing?

Help Me

 Psalm 109:26 says, "Help me, O Lord my God; save me according to your lovingkindness." (NASB)

Two simple words to start the verse - help me.  I wonder how often we are willing to speak these two simple words.  We have a hard time speaking them to one another.  We do not like to ask for help.  We can offer help, we can reject help when others offer it, but it seems like in our culture the one thing that we cannot do is ask for help.  

The trouble is that we all actually need help.  We never were designed to do this life alone.  We were designed to do it in relationship, in community, in connection to both God and others.  Think about what life would be like if we followed through on our rugged individualism.  No support when we are grieving, not joy shared when we are joyous. A cursory glance at our life shows that we do not know all we need for life.  I may know a lot, but I do not know how to fix my own dishwasher, or repair a car.  My sump pump died recently and I am grateful for a friend who was able to fix it.  I could not do it alone.  

So why do we try.  Why are we not more quick to offer the words "help me" to God and to others around us?  Help us.

Let it be resolved

 Every time January 1 rolls around the mass of humanity seems to encourage us to make resolutions for the new year.  I heard on the radio yesterday that nearly 90 percent of these resolutions have been given up on by the first day of Spring.  Think of it - in just over 2.5 months 90 percent of us have failed.  This seems the opposite of resolve.  

I wonder if we fail so frequently because of the fact that we are pretending to be resolved, or if it might have more to do with the fact that we are stating our resolve over things that were never intended to be a matter of resolve.  Did God really create  us to resolve ourselves to a better diet?  More exercise?  Less dessert?  Did He create us so that we would properly manage our work load?  Better order our earthly priorities?  

If God truly created us to bring honor and glory to Him, than perhaps our resolve ought to be focused on Him as well.  I am not suggesting that the only valid goals for the new year have to do with Bible reading and prayer - we too often focus these on our own sense of accomplishment and not the glory of God anyway.  I am suggesting that we take whatever we do and resolve that it will be for the glory of God.  That we place ourselves in submission to His will.  That we search the Scriptures and ask His Spirit to reveal to us what it is that He would have us do.  That we would resolve to make ourselves diminish so that His glory could grow in our lives.  

Resolved - 2024 I will live for the glory of God in all aspects of my life.  Of course, I will fail this resolution too.  I will likely fail in some aspect of my life before the end of this day.  But resolve is not measured in how many times we fail, but how many times we try again.  Soli Deo Gloria.

A New Year Dawns

 Each year ends.  The calendar marches closer and closer to December 31.  The clock on December 31 draws closer and closer to midnight.  Time just keeps moving and we continue to draw closer to every deadline we face.  We never move further from a deadline - unless it is a deadline already failed.  During the ending, we anticipate the beginning.  This pattern of ending and beginning is in one sense one we were prepared for.  There was evening and morning day one, day two, day three, day four, day five, day six, and even on day seven.  We were prepared for the ending of one day and the beginning of another.  But each of these were meant to be enjoyed with perfect harmony with each other, with God, and with the creation in which man and woman lived.

In another very different sense, this pattern reminds us of something that is out of the pattern of what God intended for us.  A day ending is not really all that disheartening, a week ending either - we know tomorrow is another day and next week is another week.  What we do have to consider now, this side of sin, is that we are not guaranteed tomorrow.  We are not guaranteed next week, and each year that passes draws us that much closer to the life expectancy that we are steadily approaching.  Like each year, we too will die.  And this definite end is concerning to us.  

And yet we seldom take time to consider it.  We know that it is coming.  We know that we have limited time to use and yet we use it so poorly.  Would you stop today and consider that a years end is a reminder of a life's end and that your life's end approaches?  In point of fact, you do not know if you will make it to see the year's end.  So what will you do with your time today?  May I suggest that you first ensure that you are at peace with your Creator - the One who created you for more than anticipating your end and has made it possible for you to live without end through the work of His Son Jesus Christ?  He died for you so that you could live eternally.  So that when your time on this earth ends that you would live in His presence for ever more.  A glorious thought that is worth consideration in this moment.  And the next.  And the one that follows.  Tick.  Tock.  

A proper order of things

 We had our annual children's Christmas play last Sunday.  This year's story focused on the shepherds out in their field.  As I was reading through this text, I noticed something interesting in a very familiar part of the story.  The angels say in Luke 2:14, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased." (NASB)

What I noticed is the order.  The angels are announcing to the shepherds that a Savior has been born to them, but notice the order when the angel choir sings:

    1. Glory to God - the angels begin by singing that God is honored and glorified in the work of God to bring the Savior.  So often we make ourselves the center of the Christmas story - we say things that sound an awful lot like Jesus came to earth to save us.  In a sense that is true, but that sense is secondary to His primary purpose - He came to glorify the Father.  He came to bring glory to the triune God.  It is interesting how often the Scriptures talk about this, but so often we forget.

    2. Peace among men - on earth there is to be something accomplished too - namely that men would be at peace with each other - this only happens through the work of God in Christ.  But this is not primary.  It is secondary to the glory of God.  This one cannot happen without the former.  

I wonder what would happen if we got our order correct too - that is that we placed the glory of God in our lives first and then what benefit we received.  We would be doing things far more biblically and we would be living our lives in the way that God intended us to live.  May God help us to live for His glory!

Don't fall for the traps

 Christmas time is here.  I want to remind us of a few traps that sometimes we can fall into when this time arrives.  It would be better for us to avoid these traps and counter them with the solid path that God lays out for us in His Word.

Trap 1 - the trap of all that glitters.

This trap tends to draw us in and make us think that we do not have enough.  It makes us think that we need more.  The commercials remind us of how much we wanted that new car, or new computer, or new . . .Our neighbors remind us because we see these things in their drive way and through their windows.  We want more.  The way to counter this trap is a simple word, but a hard concept - contentment.  We need to recognize that we have all that we need in Christ and it is already provided for us and given to us.

Trap 2 - the trap of a schedule that is full.

This time of year seems more and more busy each year.  There are holiday parties to go to and to host.  There are work parties and family parties.  There are Christmas concerts and holiday shopping and it never seems like there is enough time in the day to get it all done.  Sometimes this trap is harder to avoid, but the secret is to prioritize.  Don't make a list of all things you have to do and order those - instead prioritize reminders of Christ - the real reason for the season.  

Trap 3 - the trap of an incomplete focus.

 This trap is very subtle.  We put out our manger scenes for décor, we go to church and we think that we are serving Christ even more this time of year because it is His holiday after all.  The solution is to focus on Christ YEAR ROUND, and not just in these moments.  Yes, we are celebrating His birth, but He is to be celebrated each moment of each day for all that He has done for us.

So this year, avoid these traps and serve our Savior, come to earth to make us new!