Memorial Day

 Tomorrow is Memorial Day.  The words themselves express the purpose - to serve as a day to remember.  To remember the sacrifice of those who have gone and served and died for the sake of their country.  And so we will remember.  Many of us will choose to remember by a unique blend of celebrating the start of summer and totally abandoning ourselves to doing whatever we want.  A unique freedom that we have because of the sacrifice of others.  I will choose to remember my grandfather.  He served in WW2 and was captured as a POW.  He was forced to participate in the Bataan Death March.  I am glad to say that he did not die during the war and so I can be grateful that he married my grandmother when he returned home to find that his former wife had remarried because he was a POW MIA and considered to be dead.  I am here today because of him.  His sacrifice of his family and so much more meant that I could live.

This reminds me of another who came and died in my place.  He sacrificed and was the sacrifice that made it possible for me to live.  And I am told to remember that.  On a regular basis. We celebrate communion each month and do it in remembrance.  So this weekend eat your hotdogs or hamburgers or both and go to the parade.  But remember the sacrifice of the One who gave His life for you. 

Graduation

 I went to my first graduation party of the season last weekend.  It is always a good time to celebrate with students their accomplishments and the things that they have worked so hard to accomplish.  In some ways a graduation is an end, and in some ways a graduation is a beginning.  And then I got to thinking about other things that share in that they are both an end and a beginning.  Becoming a parent is in some ways an end, and in many ways a beginning.  Retirement is an end and a beginning.  And so is death.  In fact, in the grace of God, very few things are completely an end.  Even death.  After death is the beginning of something far bigger, something eternal.  The question at this graduation will be not about your accomplishments, but about what you have decided about Jesus - is He your Savior and Lord, or have you rejected both His salvation and Lordship.  The former leads to a beginning of eternal bliss - the latter leads to a beginning of eternal loss.  Choose carefully!  It is a far more important choice than where you want to go to college!

April Showers Bring May Flowers

 I have always wondered at the expression.  It usually has a certain truth to it, but I have a black thumb, so no matter how much it rains I cannot seem to grow anything.  My daughter however was not cursed with this trait and so we have tulips now blooming in our back yard on the cusp between April and May.  My point in this is not so much about gardening habits as it is the transitory nature of our existence.  Time marches on.  Regardless of how much it rains or how many flowers will grow, May will always follow the 30 days of April.  And here it is on April 30 with this month about to die and a new month about to begin.  Ends and beginnings.  Our calendar dictates that we face this cycle over and over and over again.  Past months are gone and new months are coming.  Time keeps going.  

Of course, time is not just marching aimlessly.  For those of us this side of the curse, time is marching toward our death and is a continually reminder that this tent in which we live is temporary.  Time is also marching us toward the timeless - eternity.  And each tick of the clock is a reminder of our own mortality and the shortness of the time we have to consider our eternity.  I wonder, have you considered your own eternity?  There are only two options - eternity in the presence of God (Heaven) or eternity apart from the presence of God (Hell).  And there is only one way to secure the presence of God - through the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Will you consider Him and His Word this day?  

Ideas

 Ideas are an important part of life.  But how we view ideas may reflect our understanding of our world.  For instance, if you think that your ideas should be the basis for how you live, you are suggesting that you are in charge of your own life.  If you think that your ideas carry power instead of looking at the ideas of others you may be overly focused on yourself.  How we view ideas can have a lot of impact.  Perhaps the most critical thing we need to understand is that when it comes to ideas we ought to be highly suspicious of our own and instead surrender them, along with our thoughts and attitudes, to the revealed will of God.  Our ideas are not something independent but something that God demands we give to Him.  So take your ideas and give them to God and see what God has to say about them!

The danger of Easter

 When we think of the upcoming holiday, we do not often think of danger.  Obviously it is one of the most critical events on the Christian calendar - the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  It is the motivation for our life eternal - the reason that we worship.  Obviously it is a critical moment - so where is the danger?  The danger is a danger present in all of the days we celebrate as important - a disconnect between what is celebrated and the how we celebrate.  

Allow me to demonstrate.  We are celebrating the resurrection of our Savior.  And so we put out candy and eggs for our children to find and fill their baskets with goodies.  I am not saying that Easter baskets are intrinsically bad.  But they have little to nothing to do with the Savior.  So what do our kids look forward to?  Is is the candy - or the meaning of the resurrection?

Allow me to demonstrate.  We are celebrating the pivotal moment in history when Jesus rose from the dead.  And so we gather together as a family and have a meal.  Again the meal is not bad in itself, but is it just another opportunity to get together or are we focusing our attention on Jesus?

And therein lies the danger.  We can take these moments of worship and focus them on us and what we want and what we like to do and make them moments about us instead of moments about what they are really about.  So as you celebrate in whatever ways you are used to celebrating, would you take a moment to stop and consider the danger and take some intentional time to explain what and why we are celebrating to each other, to our kids?  

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?