A long journey

 Sometimes you plan on a long trip.  Many special vacations are like that.  You sit down and decide what you want to do and you make a plan and you set aside the money to be able to pay for the things that you are going to need and you plan a decision to go.  Most of the long journeys that I have been on are this kind of journey.  Of course there is fun in spontaneity, but it does not usually seem like spontaneous trips last as long as these kind of well planned out journeys.  In some respects in order for the journey to be long, it almost has to be planned out.  

And then there are the kinds of long journeys that you don't plan on.  These kinds of journeys are not the fun vacation kind, but the slow life-changing events that happen in your life and you really have no control over them at all.  Cancer happens.  And goes on and on.  Pain happens.  And drags itself out and lasts.  Death happens to someone you love and the grief carries and continues.  These kinds of journeys are never fun in the same sense as a vacation.  They hurt.  And they last.  And it calls for a special kind of response that the Bible refers to as "endurance."  We are to endure.  When we go through this kind of long and painful journey we are to endure.  Paul tells it to Timothy - "Suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."  (2 Tim. 2:3-4, NASB)  Or the author of Hebrews reminds us that, "It is for discipline that you endure. . ."  (Hebrews 12:7, NASB).  This kind of endurance is not something that most of us want to develop or even would ask for, and yet it is so critical for our growth and maturity in Christ.  It is something that God calls us to do and something that Christ exemplified for us.  So in the midst of your long journey (the kind that is not a vacation at all) today, endure hardship with me for the sake of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Something to Consider

 Have you ever stopped to consider the question, "How do I know if I am really a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ?"  I think that many of us have stopped at one time or another to ask ourselves that question.  Sometimes it comes from a place of personal doubt.  Sometimes it comes from a realization that we can never actually earn the grace of God.  Sometimes it might be from some other place or thought that comes up.  But the Bible is fairly clear on the issue - there are a few key signs that you can look for.

1.  Do you love God?  Some authors (thinking here of Piper and before him Edwards) would call these affections.  At the end of the day do you have a desire to please God?  Do you love him enough to set self aside, or do you really love yourself?   If you love God this is a sign that you are genuinely redeemed!

2. Do you love the Word of God?  Throughout the psalms (for a great example see Psalm 119) there is a call to love the law of God.  Do you demonstrate this love through obedience?  The call to obey what God says is from start to finish something that God calls us to.  We are over and over and over again called to listen to God and to do what He has told us to do.  Do you love what God says?  If so, you can take heart that God has placed this love into your heart by His Spirit through faith.

3. Do you love the people of God?  The New Testament is full of the things that we are to do for one another.  We are to love one another, serve one another, prefer one another, and the list goes on.  This is another sign that we are genuinely redeemed.  It is the stated condition for people knowing that we are disciples of Christ - we are to love one another!

So ask yourself these three questions and take heart - be it from a place of doubt, or a theological concern or any other place and praise God that He has given us ways to be confident in our salvation!

It is August

 It is August.  That realization comes at a different pace for different people.  For those who teach, it means that the time is rapidly approaching when students will be back in the classroom and they are likely starting to get into their own space and decorate and begin to work on lesson plans.  For those who are students, it means that the summer is almost over and there is a lot of squeezing as much as possible into each day.  For those who are parents of students it is tracking down classroom supply lists and going to the store to buy the seemingly endless supplies that will have to be replaced - some of them within the first week of school because they are lost by the students who have more important things to think about - like sharing all the end of summer stories with their friends.

For some it is a beginning, for some it is an end.  For me it is both.  It is the end of a summer of not being able to do much of anything for reasons I will not go into.  It is the beginning of a season when hopefully I will be able to resume normal activity.  And this got me thinking that this is how life is with many things.  There are beginnings and ends and sometimes it simply depends on the perspective of the person looking.  

What I am looking forward to most of all is the beginning of something that has no end.  The celebration of life eternal in the presence of our Savior for all eternity.  It is something that we cannot even fathom.  But when that final end happens and there is the ultimate beginning, there will be no more beginnings and ends because there will be no more time.  No more starts and false starts.  No more struggle through or with time.  No more waiting.  No more because time will be no more.  Praise be to God for that glorious coming day.  It is worth the wait.

The need for speed

 I caught myself in something this morning.  I saw a headline in one of my news feeds that was something that I had already read in another news source and I got annoyed.  "Don't they know this is already old news", I thought to myself.  After all, my time is precious and I need something new this morning, not something old news.  I recognized in myself a trend that is present in my life in other areas as well.  I get annoyed if there are two or more cars in a drive thru that is supposed to make my life quicker and easier.  I get near angry if I am waiting in a line and it does not move as quickly as I think it should.  Time seems to be a priority to me.  But I am not worried in these moments about using my time for the glory of God, I am instead annoyed that "my time" is not being respected or used as well as it should be.  I am inherently selfish and demanding that the rest of the world operate on my schedule as if there are not other souls that God has plans for on any given day or that everyone should focus on ME!

How do we battle this kind of daily focus on ourselves?  I am reminded of Romans 12:3 (NASB) - "For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith."

Do not think of yourself more highly of himself than he ought to think.  What a challenge.  What a reminder.  And he gives the positive statement of how to think - as to have sound judgment - a judgment based on the faith that God gives instead of something internal to us.  

May God help me (and by extension all of us) to think of myself rightly!

Summer Fun and the Glory of God

 I think that sometimes we often create false dichotomies in our mind and spirit.  For instance, we feel guilty if we take the time to relax and have some summer fun because we should have spent that time doing something for the kingdom of God.  If we stop and read a book it better be a Christian book.  If we listen to music it better be worship music.  If we do anything it ought to be for the Kingdom of God.  There have even been books written that encourage this kind of thinking.  We should give all we have up for God - including all of our time and energy.  

The more that I think on this the more I have come to the conclusion that it is NOT BIBLICAL.  Let me make a few points and encourage you to go out this summer and have some fun doing things that you enjoy for the glory of God!

1.  Creation was made for our good and benefit and enjoyment.  We could eat of and enjoy all of the fruit in the garden and rest was built into the equation!  

2.  Rest was built into the 10 commandments.  Rest was built into the law.  Rest was built into every part of Israel's corporate life.  And yes this rest is to be a rest focused on God, but God still allowed the Israelites to do things that they enjoyed.  The issue seems to be balance. 

3. Jesus rested and took time to get away from everyone.  

4. We are supposed to enjoy the life that God has given us - and there is no condemnation for having time to be able to recover and recuperate.  

And this is so very important - go out and get some rest and have some fun and enjoy the good creation that God has given.  

Independence Day

 From the time that we are very little we value our independence.  "I can do it myself" is a common refrain among those who are little and those who are older as well.  We never really grow out of the "I can do it myself" phase.  Even as adults we do not like to ask others for help or worse, to receive help that we have asked for.  We want to do it ourselves.  The trouble is that independence is not what we make it out to be.  And there is no better example than this the July 4 and what it symbolizes.

I wonder if the soldiers fighting the revolution thought that they could do it by themselves.  Of course they were fighting for the right to self-govern, but even that was created with system of checks and balances that allowed no one branch, or one person to have control.  Each citizen (although at that time poorly defined) was a part of a much larger process.  In this way independence was a civic responsibility - working together for the common good of all.  

Of course in our "modern" society of terribly uncritical individualism, we redefine independence to mean that we should each be in charge of our own lives.  Nothing could be further from the truth, especially for those of us who claim the name of Christ.  Because of Christ even our own identities are not really our own because we have been bought with the price of His blood.  Our independence is an independence from our sin nature and instead an enslavement of sort to the righteousness of Christ.  And we are independent together - for the Word of God calls us to serve each other as we have been served by Christ.  

So as we think about this July 4, perhaps we should reconsider the meaning of independence and how we can truly should Christ through the freedom that we have in Him!

God is good

 Sometimes we say things that we do not mean.  Sometimes we say things that we might think we mean but do not really think about.  I think that this is fairly common in the every day theology of most people who are believers.  We say things, but we do not really think about what they actually mean.  Today's title is one example of that.  Of course we have said that God is good.  But have we ever really examined or stopped to think about what that actually means.

God is good.  It is a statement of fact and it is in the present tense.  That means that in this moment we are saying that God is good.  Right now.  No matter what is happening.  The power just went out.  God is good.  The power came back on.  God is good.  I was given health.  God is good.  I got sick.  God is good.  The statement is not a reflection on our circumstances, but on the character of God.  Think about that.  How often do we say it as though it is totally dependent on what is happening around us?   I get a check in the mail - God is good.  I get a bill in the mail - . . . . . . .(silence).  Does God cease to be good because something unpleasant is presently happening in my life?   No of course not.  God is good.  

I think that it would do us well to cement ourselves in the center of the character of God.  It might help us be more steady during the waves that come our way and anchor us to something solid - the character and nature of our good God.