Where Is Your Faithfulnesss?

What does a farmer think about when he sees the grain tumbling from the combine into the wagon…thousands of kernels, pouring into storage bins? Does he think about the blessings of God? The prophet Malachi said: “Put me to the test and you will see that I will open the windows of heaven and pour out on you in abundance all kinds of good things.” (Malachi 3:10) Does that farmer think about God’s goodness? No? Then he should!

What does a mother think when she sends her children off to school, and watches them…healthy and strong, learning and growing? Does she think about what Jesus said: “You know how to give good things to your children. How much more then, will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” (Lk. 11:13) Does she think about what Jesus said? No? Then she should!

What does the average person think when he goes to work in the morning, and puts in another 8-hour day and collects a full week’s pay check? Does that person think, like the Psalmist, “Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation.” (Ps. 68:19) Does he think about the Psalms? Or do you? No? Then you should!

How does God put up with our indifference, when He has been so good to us? Where is our faithfulness? Where are we on Sunday mornings? Are we in God’s House to praise Him? Where are we when it comes time to give an extra offering? Are we giving of the first fruits of the land, or the first portion of our pay-checks? Are we reflecting His goodness to us through our gifts? Where are we when the difficult times come? Are we the first to complain, or do we remember the good times, and say, “Thanks be unto God, for His inexpressible gifts.” (II Cor. 9:15) Where are we when someone needs a greeting or a friendly word? Are we so busy with our own little problems, that we cannot see beyond our own nose?

Let us remember to praise the Lord! As the Psalmist has said: “Praise God in his sanctuary.”...”Praise him for his mighty acts.”…”Praise him with the sound of the trumpet.”…”Let everything that hath breath, praise the Lord.” (Ps. 150)

Today, I praise God for great music. Here
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of over 90 professional players with free music
in the park twice a week, with 1500 or more faithful
fans bringing lawn chairs to listen. They give us
the finest music the world provides. Truly great
music is a gift from great musicians, but from God
Himself.

What Is Your Life?

The writer of James has some simple, practical wisdom. He writes: “What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and we shall do this or that.’ As it is you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Whoever knows what is right to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” (James 4:14-16)

This morning, the air was heavy with fog…it was hard to see the highway and other cars. Suddenly a car would loom out of the fog, and then just as suddenly it would move on. Life is like that in many ways. Each of us must live a kind of solitary existence. We move through the fog, briefly encountering other lives. Our two lives cross and we influence each other briefly…but then on we go into the fog again.

Several of my neighbors have moved recently to distant communities. I realize how briefly our pathways have crossed. For others, there is the agony of sickness and death. For some, there is the joy of birth and new life. But how brief and ephemeral is our existence. Our life is like a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

But out of the fog, and through the mists, comes the light of the Savior. The warmth of His Presence dissolves the confusion and the fear and then we are able to see clearly. We are so tiny in this great universe! We have little reason for boasting. Much of the blessings and mercies of God, we have turned into confusion…but thank God for Jesus, the light of the world. He takes away our fear of tomorrow, and of dying, and he gives us courage for living. He helps us to make sense of a seemingly meaningless existence. Following Him, we can know what is right to do, and through Him, we have the strength to do it. May He give you strength to live this day at your very best.

"He's Keepin' Score"

Every baseball game, every football or basketball game tends to bring up some questionable calls by the umpires and referees! The “Instant Playback” helps us to see the gross errors and mistaken “calls” that are made. But it’s just a game, and the players learn to live with it!

But there is also a “game of life”. And day after day, you and I see people getting hurt, we see injustice and unfairness. The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer! Many times, bad people do not get punished for their evil, and criminals go scot-free. At the same time, there are good people who are unjustly accused, and righteous folk who suffer more than their share! Where is the justice of this old world in which we live? Why do the righteous suffer, and the evil prosper? These are questions as old as time itself.

A good friend of ours puts a unique kind of slogan in his front lawn weekly by careful mowing and hand-trimming of the grass. One week, it said: “He’s Keepin’ Score”…I like that! There is an absolutely fair and unimpeachable Referee. Not all the scores are settled in this world! Not all the rewards and punishments are meted out during this brief existence! The Psalmist said it rightly, “The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away”. But those who live faithfully, who walk in righteousness, are like a tree, planted by streams of living water, and yield fruit in their season. (Psalm 1)

God has His own “instant Play-back”. He is not fooled by what some people get-away-with! “He’s keepin’ Score”, and I’m glad! I may get “fouled” in the game of life! I may have “three strikes” on me unfairly, but the Lord knows, and He is my ultimate Judge! I’ll take my chances with His score-card!

It Is A Strange Sign

If a person with three eyes and four arms flew in on a space vehicle, and came to observe Holy Communion in our church, there would be one puzzled alien! But maybe you are confused too. Does it really mean something? Why in the world, has the Church from century one, observed this phenomenon? Let’s take a look.

1—It is drama: the gospel is acted out here. “God so loved that He gave.” Everlasting life is given through the sacrifice of Jesus. That’s drama and powerful stuff!

2—Sins are forgiven here as well: ours, and all who ask for it from the Giver of forgiveness. Good news, if we just believe and accept it.

3—There is atonement in this observance. Jesus brings at-one-ment. The wall that sin made is broken down. Through confession and forgiveness of sins, I am no longer separated from my neighbor or from my God.

4—And here is magic! As we lift up in memory the one who is more precious than silver, and worth more than all the treasures that earth can produce, we count the coins of our spiritual bank account, and remember Jesus, and what he did for us, and said to us. And that remembrance is magic.

5—In a terribly divided world, this sign tells us boldly that there is no exclusiveness. We must be of one accord. We may not go into rapture at the thought of loving all races and all cultures, or even of loving some of our immediate brethren, but we either learn to do just that, or find ourselves consigned to the Pit! “Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity”, Jesus said. (Lk. 13:27) It’s a bit scary, this food and drink given to us.

6—But finally in this sign, we find ourselves living between two worlds. We look back into the world in which Jesus was crucified and then we look forward to the world in which he is to be crowned Lord of all.

Fortunately, if we have grasped its meaning, we end up taking the “bread”: and the “wine” as we should. We may even find ourselves standing next to that three-eyed, four-legged creature from outer space, or that two-legged hard-to-love neighbor from down the street, and discover that we can get used to it. You see, our God is the Father of all, and Jesus Christ is the Savior of all, and we who go by His name, must be the friend of all.

There’s no doubt about it. It is a strange sign. But I hope we stay in the ranks of those who find life-transforming power in taking “the bread” and drinking “the cup” as new citizens of that brave new world of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Someone Touched Me!

When the President comes to town, or a movie personality, or a rock-artist of fame, the crowds throng the guest, reaching hands out to touch. They want to shake hands, get an autograph, or even touch the person’s clothing. Why?

The New Testament tells a similar story of crowds, thronging our Lord, and especially of a woman, who reached forward to “touch” Him.

Again and again, we read of Jesus touching someone: the blind man, the lame, the leper. The touch of the Savior brought healing, wholeness, the woman who reached out to touch was healed!

His touch was like a miracle! How many times Christians have rejoiced in their newness of life with the simple statement of faith, “He touched me!” Touching is life’s best communication. It is better than a thousand words. What can you say in those hundreds of instances when words just don’t come, or when words are simply inadequate? The warm handshake, the friendly hug, the touch of someone’s hand is often the only thing that will do the job!

Please touch! Life is lonely when people walk around in a wilderness of words. It is easy to feel rejected, left out, “out-of-touch” in today’s world.

Many churches take a moment for folks to “give the peace”…a handshake, a greeting, or the words: “the peace of God be with you”.

John said in his epistle, concerning Jesus: “that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen, which we have looked upon, and touched with our hands.” (I John 1:1)

Whenever we take the Last Supper, or the sacrament of Holy Communion, we are allowed to take the bread, to hold it between our fingers, and to receive the grape juice (the Wine), and it touches our tongues. The Word does become flesh, and in the act of sacrament, we have touched Him, and He touches us, to make us whole!

Take Life

Several books have been written about life after death. Doctors and others have collected information about those declared dead, who returned to life, and shared their recollections of what had happened to them in the process. Interestingly enough, nearly all of them had similar experiences: a feeling of leaving their bodies, of seeing themselves and others from a distance, and then of seeing a great light, and experiencing a strong Presence, who gave them a feeling of joy and happiness.

This is nothing new to us! For centuries, Christians have believed this truth about life after death! We may not have analyzed it in quite this same way, but we do believe that there is a marvelous existence beyond that last breath! The really big question we think may be just as important is: “Is there life before death? Is there life during life?”

All of us know, for example, of people who are alive, but not really living!...who have all the characteristics of living bodies, but who are really dead in their relationship to God and others.

We hope to live again after death. We believe God has provided this assurance for those who trust in Him. But to truly live for Him now…while we are yet alive, is even more critical!

In the sacrament of Holy Communion, Christians dramatize the sacrificial death of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that we might have life, and have it more abundantly. The cross is a pointer that directs us to the future…but if it does not make us joyous and triumphant in the present…then it was all for nothing!

“Take life!” Jesus said, “Take it now!” Come to Him as a beggar…leave as a King! Come with your poverty. Leave with His great treasury of Life!

Have A Yeasty Heart

Home-made bread is a vanishing species! But every so often, we have it!

How unpromising that little roll of grayish dough looks in the pan. But, give it a few hours, and it rises above the confines of the pan that had so completely buried it. Somewhere, within that mass of inert-looking stuff, there is a vital spore that begins to multiply, and a kind of miracle takes place!

Somewhere within each of us, there is a seed, a yeasty piece, just waiting to be re-born and brought to life! There are a lot of church members among us, inert, at a stand-still in their spiritual lives, but with a good yeasty heart.

“This is my Body,” Jesus said. Let us praise God, for the “Body” of the Church of Jesus Christ. And let us pray that each of us may let the yeast of Christ’s spirit bring a miracle within us, as we work together in His miracle-filled world.

Where In The World Is Everyone Going?

Sometimes in the summer, one gets those “left-behind” blues. Everybody else is going someplace! Packing up for Florida! Fishing up in Canada, flying over to Hawaii, Alaska, the ocean, Niagara Falls! What a variety of spots to go!

Most of us get vacations, and we have no reason to complain; but I do think of those many persons in our community who are not able to go, go, go! In my Chicago church, there was a lady, so crippled by arthritis, that she could never travel! She never went anywhere! But one day she told me, “I’m going to Mexico next week, and I’m all excited!” I knew better. She was not going, but she did so vicariously through friends. She found out all about the places they planned to stop; she read up on these spots, and she ended up knowing more about the trip than those who went!

In many ways, going to church can be an exciting venture. Or, how about going to visit a neighbor, or making a phone call? Here’s some close-to-home activity. Need some excitement?...go to the library…read a book… read the Bible, and meet the Eternal!

My day can be exciting, because today, I am going to meet the King! Who can out-boast my experiences when I tell my friends I have been walking with, and talking to the Lord of the Universe, the Creator of the world!

No need to have those “stay-at-home” blues! Just get your ticket for today’s gift of life. You can really go places with God! Pleasant traveling!

Don't Turn Off The Clouds!

Years ago, my nature photography lacked character. But I have discovered a secret: when you take pictures…if possible, get some clouds in the sky!

Most of the time, we think we don’t want clouds. Clear blue skies seem nicer. But out west in the mountains, the majestic peaks seem to draw the clouds to them at least once a day. The lightning flashes, the thunder rolls, and the rain descends. The mountains have learned that the clouds are necessary to keep life fresh and alive.

There is a kind of daily classroom for all of us, and the Teacher of life requires discipline, growth, and study. Business isn’t always that great, and day after day needs sacrifice, hard work, and faith from our business-people. Farmers watch their crops grow with bated breath. Will they survive? Profits are never guaranteed.

God put us in this world with no absolute assurance of clear skies. Life is difficult, but storms and problems appear to be necessary to build character. Jesus said, “If you are not willing to take up a cross and follow me, you are not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10:38) There is a toughness that our Lord requires of all who would follow Him.

Today, He invites you to come to Him. He promises no life of ease, but He does promise an abundant life, and an eternal life for all who take up the disciplines of the Cross and walk with Him.

It is not easy to be a Christian in today’s world; but we are the people of God, who are pledged to be loyal and faithful to Him. Accept these disciplines, and you will find that even the clouds make life more interesting, and troubles have a way of turning into opportunities.

Clouds and problems are not that bad. Indeed they may even be good. In the book of Romans, we read that we are to “rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts.” (Ro. 5:3-5)

Count Your Many Blessings!

The devil got his grip on me last week! Did everything he could to make me miserable!...covered my body with chiggers and sores!...thought I would die!

“Why me?” I thought to myself. “What have I done to merit such grief?” And I pondered the old story of Job and his boils. In the 2^nd chapter, we read, “Satan made sores break out all over Job’s body. Job went and sat by the garbage dump.” (Job 2:7-9 T.E.V.)

I’ve found myself sitting by the garbage dump fairly often haven’t you? So many times, my problems, and my griefs and my distress become greater in my mind than God’s mercies and God’s love, and God’s marvelous provisions!

Can’t say we don’t have a right to complain now and then…but why cry those salty tears so often, when you can change your tune, and change your life by concentrating on the good things God has heaped upon you? Count your many blessings! See what God has done! And like Job, you too will find victory over Satan’s wicked darts!

Got The Summer-Time "Blahs"?

How does it happen that all winter long, we wait for summer, and then when summer comes, we suddenly find ourselves wrung out, done out, sort of numb and hung-out?

Could it be because we’re looking too much at our world, and not enough at God’s? Our world is tiring, boring, sometimes meaningless and so we get the “blahs”…those ugly, troublesome “blues” that are called “blahs”!

But take a look at God’s world, and we hear the Psalmist saying, “The heavens are telling the glory of God….the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul…the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart…More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold.” (from Ps. 19) On and on the writer goes, suggesting that if we get hung up on ourselves, it is fatal, but if we take a look at God’s world, it is like tonic for our souls, like treasure to our spiritual pocketbooks, like life for our summer-shriveled spirits.

There’s no cure like the prescription of the Great Physician: take one or two doses of Bible study and worship each week. Attend church, where the summertime “blahs” become acts of praise, and depression turns to a resounding “Amen”.

It Takes Obedience

One of the special parts of vacation-time is sitting along the lake, and just doing nothing at all!

I did that one morning along Lake Michigan, just as the sun was coming up about 5:30. It was beautiful! A few moments before, and the lake was dark and calm. But suddenly the sun arose and every tiny wave responded, reflecting the sun in a golden pathway stretching from my seat to the opposite side of the lake.

The waves didn’t question their need to reflect the sun…they just did it, in perfect obedience.

I thought to myself…”Why can’t we as God’s children do the same? Why are we so concerned about reflecting our own glory, or making the almighty dollar, or being so busy in doing nothing? Why cannot we too be obedient to the rays of God’s love and simply reflect them to make a golden pathway for others to see His glory?

Maybe it’s not a profound idea, but it seems as though I should do a better job in reflecting his Glory rather than being so concerned about my own.

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I Saw God At Work Today

I saw God at work today! And He’s looking for workers! No unemployment in His Kingdom!

I saw Him in the sky, upon the earth, under the waters, cardinals flashing by, geese honking on the wing, geodes rolling down the creeks, onions sneaking their fragrances into gardens, while dandelions are having their come-uppance in yards all over America!

Over in the play-ground, wall-to-wall kids, growing, learning…fully employed in the process of becoming like their elders, but hopefully a little wiser. Back home, moms and dads, struggling with the task of bringing up Johnny, and wondering where they’re bringing him up to! And over at old First Church, church members are gathering to bring the sacrifice of their hearts, to place upon the altars of God’s will.

Yes, in these days of unemployment, I’m glad I’m fully employed for Him. No other task demands so much! No other work pays such beautiful dividends!

Are you getting all the dividends God wants to give you?

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Has The Pollination Taken Place?

How fast the corn is growing! An old farm saying when I was a boy was, “knee-high by the 4^th of July!” Would you believe it…now it gets that high by at least a month earlier?

The other day, a friendly farmer showed me the pollinator corn being planted between every 4 regular rows of corn to produce high-grade seed corn. Later, after it has done its job, these rows are sacrificed and cut down.

How we have controlled the development of our plants…we can make the stalks tall or short; we can determine the number of ears per stalk, and the size or length of the ear. We can plant special corn for dry areas or wet spots…early spring or late spring. In that tiny kernel of corn, we can store the facts to determine exactly what it will do!

Why are we so slow in developing that more perfect human being? Oh, we’ve developed taller people, stronger and faster people; but somewhere along the line, we have not developed nicer people, more loving and peaceable people.

Jesus came as that perfect pollinator-person we were meant to be! He made that complete sacrifice so that we might be able to go on living more abundant lives. Why not take the beauty of his life, and the perfection of his spirit to pollinate and hybridize your own? How could you talk about salvation in more specific terms?

Feel The Tug

There are so many times that I wish I could be sure! If only I could be sure that right would prevail; that goodness really was worth the effort; that tomorrow would be better than today.

Sometimes I envy the certainty of the scientists and the mathematicians, and those independent church groups who “have all the answers”! Wouldn’t it be nice to be absolutely sure about everything?

Sometimes God seems so far away. Why couldn’t He give me some absolute assurances that He is still in control? I’d like some miracles, please God.

I like Paul’s words to young Timothy when he says: “I know whom I have believed, and I am sure that He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him against that day.” (II Timothy 1:12)

And yet there are few absolutes in our world. Faith is a risky business.

There are a host of things for which we can reach no scientific conclusion. Are these therefore irrational? No, I think not. Probably the most important truths in the world cannot be reached by the scientific method. I can look up ”courage” in the dictionary, but the definition is nothing compared to knowing or experiencing an act of real bravery. Love is something I can read about in books of poetry, or see in T.V. dramas, but it cannot compare with actually being in love. I can try to explain a kiss in scientific terms by saying, “a kiss is the anatomical juxtaposition of the obicularis muscles in the state of contraction”, but who would ever accept that in lieu of the real thing?

A young boy was out flying his kite one day, and the wind had carried it so high, that it was now almost out of sight. When a friend asked him how he knew the kite was still there, he said, “By the tug on the string.”

In our world, there are persons who have been changed, beautifully, radically, marvelously…not because of a set of acts, but because of a “tug on their heart-strings”.

God sent Jesus into our world to help us to know for sure that He loves us, and to feel the “tug”. Thanks God, for helping me feel “sure”.

Evil--Is It Good Or Bad?

The apostle Paul, after going through ship-wreck, persecution, and years of hardship in starting the Christian Church in many areas of Asia Minor, wrote these words: “I want you to know, brethren, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel…” (Phil. 1:12)

Paul was writing from prison. Was he happy to be there? No, he didn’t say that. What he said was simply that because of his afflictions, some good things had come out of them, and then he named them: “the praetorian guard knew that his imprisonment was for Christ; the brethren had been made a bit more confident in the Lord, because of his imprisonment, and they were more bold to speak the word of the Lord.”

Can we ever say that evil is good? No, but it is possible to say that “out of evil, good can come.” Because God made our world, He made it good, but in order to give us the freedom to choose, He had to make a world in which we could learn from our sins and mistakes.

For every good, therefore, there seems to be a flip-side that is bad and the choice is ours. It would seem, therefore, that whenever we are faced with trouble and adversity, that we are only a prayer away from a God who truly cares, and is ready to give us power for our day.

I don’t understand life, with all its heartaches. I don’t know why sometimes the good people seem to suffer more than the evil ones do. I don’t understand why God can’t just stop all the evil, the hard work, the problems, the bad corn and soy bean prices. I don’t know why God couldn’t just make life easy for me. It sems to me that, if He would, then I could be a top-notch Christian. If only I could make a million bucks, and if the going wasn’t so tough, then I’d have no trouble having faith.

But life isn’t that way. God gave me the power of choice, so that I could profit from my mistakes. Without work, I would become a jelly-fish. Struggle brings pain, but without struggle, there would be no growth. It is my achievement that brings joy, but there is always a price.

I’m glad that God made a world that is seething with struggle, and one that constantly confronts me with decisions. Without that, we might as well be stones on the hill-side. I don’t like evil, but out of evil, good can come, and I am determined to find it.

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Don't Worry About The Smell

Do you remember that little poem that goes:

We have the nicest garbage man
He empties all the garbage cans
He’s just as nice as he can be.
He often stops and talks to me.
My mother doesn’t like his smell
But then, she doesn’t know him very well!”

Isn’t it sad that so often we make our judgments about people from foolish and artificial reasons like this? How quickly we place people in categories: they are Blonds, or they are Jews, or they are Blacks, or they are Midgets, or they are Muslims, or they are Chinese.

Suddenly our world begins to fill up with walls…walls of differences, and we find ourselves treating people differently because they are behind this or that wall.

And yet every last one of them feels the cold, or gets a fever, or is allergic to something. There isn’t a person behind those walls who doesn’t get hungry, or get sick, or get lonely and depressed at times. Every single soul, regardless of color or creed, or cultural orientation, feels pain when stuck by a pin, or is injured in an accident.

Robert Frost caught the significance of this as he wandered through the fields surrounded with stone walls, and wrote:

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That sends the frozen ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.”

And as he wonders why walls seem so important in his world, he hears the old cliche, “Good fences make good neighbors.” And he goes on to say:

“Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
“Why do they make good neighbors?” Isn’t it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That wants it down.”

There are so many times when I am not sure I really want to “love my neighbors” (let alone my enemies). Sometimes they “smell” so bad! But Jesus didn’t seem to give me any choice. Here and there, we find beautiful examples of people who have broken the terrible pattern of vengeance, by not only forgiving someone for wrong-doing, but going the second mile of reconciliation.

John Morly once commented on just such an example when he wrote: “There was no worldly wisdom in it, we all know. But then what are people Christians for?”

They Decided Not To Be

There are a lot of things in our world that could make us all very discouraged. A lot of our forefathers could have given up on this business of making a land of freedom. They could have been quitters…but “they decided not to be”.

As you read the New Testament, and see the persecution of early Christians, and the hardships of the apostle Paul and read how he was beaten, imprisoned, stoned and left for dead, it would have been easy to get discouraged. But those early founders of the Faith decided not to be. And I’m glad.

There are two ways to be defeated. Sometimes, we lose at a game or in business, or from superior salesmanship by someone else. That’s one way.

But the other way is when we are caught in self-defeat…when we throw in the sponge, and declare that the odds are against us. Most of the time, people are not defeated by things, but by themselves. We give in. We quit.

We know about Helen Keller, blind, deaf and dumb, from birth. Glen Cunningham, one of the fastest milers on record at 4.4 seconds was crippled in his boyhood in a schoolhouse fire. Doctors said he would never walk again. John Bunyan wrote “Pilgrim’s Progress” while in prison, on untwisted papers that were stoppers in the bottles of milk brought to him. “Don Quixote” was written from prison, as was Sir Walter Raleigh’s “History of the World”. Beethoven was claimed at last by deafness, but he continued to write some of his greatest musical works. Alec Templeton, blind from early in life, became a great pianist. Napoleon was only 5 feet 2 1/4 inches tall. He graduated 43^rd in his class. Michaelangelo, who was lame and had a broken nose, lay flat on his back for 20 months painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

All of them had plenty of reasons to say: “Stop the world, I want to get off”...but they decided not to.

As people get older, they feel they are getting useless, and yet Verdi wrote an opera at eighty, and at that same age, Goethe finished writing “Faust”. Oliver Wendell Holmes was still writing brilliant opinions at ninety and Louis Pasteur was past sixty when he began his studies that led to a cure for rabies.

The early Christians learned from Paul to say: “For me to live is Christ”. They could have been badly defeated, but “they decided not to be”.

I suppose most of us could have our feelings hurt dozens of times every week. But, what’s the point? Most of the time when someone hurts me, it’s their problem, not mine. They got out of bed on the wrong side…their spouse gave them a rough time….they’ve got “gas” or a tummy-ache.

There is an old sign on a print shop that read: “Life is a grindstone, and whether it grinds a man down or polishes him up depends on the stuff he’s made of”.

I could probably be unhappy, un-Christian, unpleasant, and a few more “un”-things. But I’ve decided not to be.

Education At The Intersection

The word “confrontation” means, “to bump into something”. And life is a kind of continual confrontation. It is forever a meeting…an intersecting of my life with yours, or with an experience, or with some crisis. Sometimes these meetings are painful, sometimes joyful, sometimes fearful, and sometimes tragic. But always they are educational. We can learn from them.

In our school classrooms, the mind comes to grips, with an idea, with a teacher, with history, or with a fact of science. In the laboratory of life, we encounter new sensations, new smells, new facts. Even an argument is an education, and making mistakes is a learning process.

If we looked back over our life-time, we would find many points of intersection that were significant. We had a head-on collision with a new idea, or a new experience, or a new problem. Sometimes these experiences seemed like the end of the world, and yet they may also have been the prelude to something better.

Paul looked back over his life, and he said, “I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content…I know how to be abased, I know how to abound; in any and all circumstances, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and want.” And then he capped it all off by adding, “I can do anything, through him who strengthens me.” (Phil. 4:11-13)

The Christian faith has always declared, what we have been slow to accept, that our faith is a kind of head-on-collision. The apostle, while thinking he was running the other way, ran head on into Christ. And this encounter changed the entire direction of his life. He learned that you can come to grips with anything if you are going the right way and if you have the right company. He encountered fears, and they made him a stronger man. He encountered new problems and he discovered that his Christ was sufficient for all of them. He encountered beatings, imprisonment, even the threat of death, and he discovered that he had been well schooled at the intersection of faith.

Paul ended his class session to Christian followers, by writing on the black-board for all of his pupils to see: “My God will supply every need of yours, according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 4:19)

Sometimes we go “bumping” through life with little reason or thought, and we complain about how tough it has been for us. But when we take the “bumps” while hanging onto the Savior, and when we have head-on collisions with hard times, but share them with a living Lord, the “agony” has a way of changing to an “ecstasy”, and life that might have gone on down to defeat, goes striding on to victory.

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Take The Witness Stand

St. Luke in the book of Acts, records that after the resurrection, Jesus appeared to the disciples and said, “You shall be my witnesses.” (Acts 1:8)

A lot of people have problems with that, and as they sing some of the great hymns of the Church, you can almost hear them adding: “I love to hear the story”…if it doesn’t last more than twenty minutes. Or again, “Take my life and let it be”…yes, let it be, Lord, let it be. “Have thine own way, Lord”…with Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Smith. Or how about, “If Jesus goes with me”…it may be embarrassing for both of us.

Some of us may not be able to speak easily about our faith. We are the quiet ones. There are some people who have something to say, and then there are those who have to say something! But if our lives have been touched by the Lord, then really we have to “say” something! We must share the good news. We must let the rest of the world know that we too have been touched by the Master.

The way we do the “saying” however can vary a great deal. The Scriptures tell how “the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy.” (Ps. 65:13) And in the hymn “This is my Father’s world” we hear the words, “the birds their carols raise, the morning light, the lily white, declare their Maker’s praise.”

There is a witness in the daisy that lifts its head in praise to its Maker. And so, like that lovely flower by the roadside, we too can bear witness in faithful living day by day.

We wish it could be more natural for all of us to share what God has done for us. In the 66^th Psalm, the writer says: “Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for me.” (vs. 16) But even when our voices fail us, and words don’t seem to fill the bill, the witness of a life of love, of a life of caring, is still measured by our Savior, as acceptable “coin” in Heaven’s book-keeping accounts.

The Gospel Got Loose!

In Paul’s writings, he said that “Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation”. (II Cor. 5:18) At that very moment, something was set loose into the world that could not be confined. The Gospel got out! And it was given to us. And like the “hot potato” that it is, sometimes we don’t know what to do with it.

The “ministry of reconciliation” suggests to us that under the skin, we are brothers. We are one, and Christ gave us the vision of our need, and commanded us to make it become reality.

Are there divisions? Are we doing anything to heal them? Are there people hurting? Are we carrying God’s valentine of love? Are there some who are lonely, feeling left out? Are some of us being small….drawing circles that are too limited? Are we accusing others of being the problem, when we may be at fault ourselves? Is the “balm of Gilead” at work in our midst? Is the “healing” of Christ’s spirit being sought? Can others tell we are Christians by our love? Are we being reconcilers in this troubled old world?

A family was getting ready for a trip, and the station wagon was packed and ready to go. They were late, and mother called out: “Johnny, wash your hands. Get your brother. Perhaps we can still make it in time!”

Here is the 3-fold call of our ministry: 1—”Wash your hands”. Pray for forgiveness and cleansing. 2—“Get your brother”. We must be reaching out to all those around us. 3—“Perhaps there is still time”. The hour is late, but not too late to speak forth the message of the Gospel.

This is the task Christ has called us to perform. He died on a cross to make it so. That is how much it meant to Him. Does it mean anything to you…all ye that pass by?

"Lift Off" Can Happen

I’ve watched the birds, and I’ve thought, “How nice to soar above the world…to fly!” John Magee, the poet has written:

“Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;…
I’ve topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew.
And while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.”

What really is my place in this old world. I’m not an angel, but I’d sure like to fly. I’m not an angel, but the Bible tells me that I was made just a little bit lower than the angels. And yet, my destiny seems to be to “plow” the earth, to “cultivate” it, to bring a rich harvest from it. And my Lord calls me to be a binder of wounds. My task is to be a servant. I belong on this earth. I’ve been given a task here. I can’t live in a pretend world of “Cloud 9”.

But there are times when my hands get so dirty, and my knees get so weary, and my head so dizzy. And there are times when the grime of it, and the slime of it, and the weariness of it, makes me feel like I am shackled to this earth…a prisoner in clay.

But then comes the beautiful revelation, that as a human being, I have two sides to my being. I am not a stick-person, with a flat life on a flat board. There is another dimension. I was meant to “look up”. There is height, there is breadth, and length and depth. Sometimes, we can “mount up with wings as eagles, and we can walk, and not faint”. We can fly. We can fly, with God, and we can soar above the sinfulness of this world. We can live on a higher plane.

Much of my life is keeping my nose to the grindstone. And that is where it must be a good share of the time. Nobody promised me a rose garden. But one of these days, I’m goin’ to fly! And day after day, I practice the process….of loving, and giving, and forgiving, and caring…of lifting my eyes to Him who can deliver me from this bondage of death.

Many people attempt to escape this world with drugs. They get freaked out, and Hell is just around the corner. But our Lord was a macho man, strong, brave, commanding thousands of people. He was tough, but oh, so gentle. And he taught his disciples to fly.

Christianity’s “Fly-in” is sponsored by Jesus Christ, and He is inviting each of us to take the “ground course”. “Lift-off” is available. Come fly with the Lord Jesus. His is the only air-line that gives an eternal guarantee.

Where In The World Is The Church

If you were to ask most any person on the street, ”Where is the Church?’ the answer would probably be, “It is two blocks ahead, on the left”, or some such reply. Yes, the Church does exist in church buildings. We might call a Sunday morning worship session, “The gathered Church”.

But if that is where the Church is on Sunday mornings, then where does it go during the rest of the week? On Monday, where is the Church? How about on Thursday?

And of course, we begin to realize that the real Church is people. The Church is in the Shopping Center. It is at the City Council, it is in the Board room, in the offices of government. Wherever Christians are being faithful to their Lord, they are the “Dispersed Church”…the Church in the world.

And since Christ is the head of the Church, then Christ must be felt in the City Council, in the Board rooms, in the offices of government, in the controversies of home and nation, if the Church is to be truly in the world.

St. Paul, in his letter to the church at Ephesus, expresses great amazement at how God has made the Church, and for what purpose as he says:”grace was given…to give the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known.” (Eph. 3:8-10)

And then he goes on to pray:”that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have power to comprehend…and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge.” (Eph 3:17-19)

This love Paul talks about is appealing, but as one person has said, “it’s practice is appalling”. And yet, this is exactly where the Church exists…wherever Christian people are appealingly trying to put that kind of love to the test.

Run Out Of Town

In the book of Acts, we find the exciting story of the origins of the early Church. Stephen was stoned to death by an angry mob, and Saul, consenting to his death, then began great persecution against the church in Jerusalem. All who named the name of Christ were scattered.

At times we wonder what would have happened if the Gospel had stayed in Jerusalem with the original disciples, and under the old Judaistic patterns? Might it have died an early death? Would it have been smothered in its infancy?

But the Gospel got out! It left its place of birth. Indeed it was driven out…run out of town! And this act of hardship saved the Church. The attacks upon the early Christians were a blessing in disguise…as so often hardship is.

Many of us could tell accounts of the hard things in life, which, though they shook us, also strengthened us, and made us stronger. We recall how Joseph in the Old Testament, spoke to his brothers who had sent him into seeming slavery, and said, “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” (Genesis 50:20) And again, we think about the verse: “We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him.” (Romans 8:28)

This is not to say that Christians look for trouble, but when it comes, it can be a stepping stone instead of a stumbling-block. You take problems and twist them into opportunities. Trouble throws you a “curve”, so you look at it squarely, and end up getting a home-run!

The early Christians had no idea what they had started. But “God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform”. (Wm. Cowper). Christianity had broken out of its swaddling clothes, and it was on its way out into the whole world.

There is a small lake in Minnesota, called Lake Itasca. A visitor noticed a small overflow at one end, and said to a fisherman nearby, “The lake is leaking”. The man replied: “Man, that’s no leak…that’s the beginning of the Mississippi River!” The Mississippi River may starts as a leak in a tiny lake, but it ends with a mighty body of water, flowing to the Gulf. And so, Christianity began with a handful of unpromising people, and situations, but God’s forces are still rolling along.

The Good News got out, under duress, and thank God it did, because you and I are the beneficiaries of it. Is it possible today to look at the hard things that come into your life, and say, “I wonder what exciting things the Lord has in store for me? I think I’ll try to find out.”

Reconciliation or Wreck-onciliation?

There is a tremendous need today for people to learn to live together in peace and harmony. In the New Testament, Christians are called upon to be “reconcilers”. There is a very deadly sin within most of us that refuses to accept people who are “different”. The difference may be that of nationalistic background, racial and ethnic differences, gender differences, differences of religion, and even differences of physical size or color of hair.

We call this “prejudice”. We are prejudiced against certain people and this is a form of “wreck-onciliation”. We have preconceptions, predispositions, suspicions, smoldering dislike for certain folk in our world.

In the world of automobiles, high octane gas takes the “knock” out of the engine. And so the Christian is to be the “high octane” to people who are “knocking one another”. How can we run our lives with antagonism and angry disputes among us, when our Lord called us to be “reconcilers” and peace makers?

Once a year, we celebrate the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, who has been considered one of the great reconcilers. In Vachel Lindsay’s classic poem, “Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight” he says:

“It breaks his heart that kings must murder still
That all his hours of travail, here for men
Seem yet in vain. And who will bring white peace
That he may sleep upon his hill again?”

And even more than the vision of Abraham Lincoln, is that picture of a cross silhouetted against the hillside, and the realization that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.

Reconciliation is a hard thing to achieve. It involves humbling ourselves, it involves penitence that seeks forgiveness. It means going the second mile. It means taking it on the chin, bearing the cross, absorbing evil rather than bouncing it back. It involves understanding of why people do the things they do, and it can all be summed up in one command, “Thou shalt love…”

We are to love, because we were first loved. God has been an aggressive lover. He is the aggressive lover who can break up my temper, my sinfulness. Christ’s whole life was an offensive of divine love. And the cross was God’s love, at the very flash-point of its power. It was timed to take the “ping:” out of our angry souls, and give us the grace of reconciliation.

We are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. If only we could learn to keep the engines of love running smoothly. Perhaps then, our Lord would recognize us as reconcilers, not “wreck-oncilers”.

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Have A Joyous Tomorrow

Someone with a penchant for poetic puns once said, "He who goeth forth with a fifth on the Fourth may not go forth on the fifth!" And how true it is...

Anyone who celebrates the holiday with wine, may dine tonight, but die tomorrow. "Wine is a mocker...and he who is fooled thereby is not wise." (Proverbs 20:1)

The Fourth of July celebrates freedom; but strong drink is a celebration of slavery! The liquor industry claims that their product is for men and women of distinction, but how can that be, when alcohol itself is a poison? A raw egg placed in it will turn hard as a rock! When it is used on old doors, it becomes an excellent paint remover!

What right do we have of putting something into our bodies that will harm the temple of the most high God? "But", you say, "alcohol is a portion of many medicines and prescriptions." Then shouldn't we let the physician prescribe it for us? Don't take upon yourself such a task! It would be like going into a druggist's shelves, and telling him you want so many red pills, and several bottles of the green!

Alcohol is not a stimulant but a depressant. It depresses reaction time, so that you only seem to be more exciting. It's like removing inhibitions...like removing the brakes from a car going down hill...exciting, but deadly!

Statistics tellus that 1 person out of every 11 who starts to drink alcoholic beverage, ends up as an alcoholic! In a family of 5, that means that you have 5 chances out of 11, of one of you ending up as a very, very sick person. Why do we play Russian roulette with our bodies when the odds are so dangerous? If I'm not good enough at a party as myself, why should I want to become an artificial "somebody else"? It doesn't make sense!

Children of God, as a result of modern science, should benefit from modern knowledge. The experience of the ages that alcoholic beverage is a spoiler of homes, a brutalizer of otherwise nice people, a sorry answer to pressures of our times, and one of our nation's primary problems should teach us to set an example of sobriety and abstinence!

We've finally found some wisdom about the dangers of tobacco and smoking. Can we begin to sound the alert about another problem of breath-taking size and influence?

Have a happy Fourth, and a Joyous Tomorrow...and let us use wisdom in trying to live our lives to the Glory of God.

A Bang Or A Whimper

The days of big "bang" fire-crackers in the back yard are over, but I guess we all still love to hear the mighty "wham-o" of the heavy ones at the community fire-works displays. Magnificent pyrotechnic shows bring on the "ah-h-h's" from the whole crowd as each rocket seems more beautiful than the one before. What does it stand for? Freedom, a great country, one nation under God, and much more!

Why then does the Church of the living God, with its mighty arsenal of power and glory of the Lord of Lords and King of Kings, hesitate to proclaim boldly, "There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12)

Why be apologetic about church, about faith, about your love for the living God? Share it boldly, wear it proudly, beat the drums! Join the parade! Get on the band-wagon!

Let's celebrate the Fourth...and our Faith...not with a whimper, but with a bang!

Famous Last Words

There are so many things in our world that we cannot change. Evil lurks on every hand. How can our society go on, flaunting God’s laws, hardly caring for the little people, the oppressed, the poor, the lonely and aging? Does it not seem that injustice is a stronger force than goodness? Where is the cause of righteousness? And where are those who will stand up and be counted for God’s Kingdom?

The Christian is often overwhelmed by pessimism as he or she looks out over this troubled world. We are told that the last words of Henry Ibsen, a Norwegian dramatist who had been a great debater and critic of his society, was the one word, “Nevertheless.”

When suddenly death struck, it was a rather appropriate thing to say, for it is what the Christian is always talking about. The world puts down goodness, and persecutes the righteous, and hangs Christ upon a cross. We see all of this. We look at life’s confusions and the apparent victory of evil, but we say, “nevertheless”. Judas could betray Jesus, Caiaphas could make a mockery of his trial, Pilate could say to the soldiers, “Make the tomb as secure as you can”…NEVERTHELESS…”on the first day of the week…the women, found that the stone was rolled away!”

Sir James Simpson, the discoverer of chloroform, lost his little daughter at an early age; and it is most appropriate that upon her tombstone should be carved out these words: “nevertheless I live!”

“Nevertheless” is a very fine word. We are often fearful that we as Christians are working alone, and that there is little hope of changing this terrible world about us. “Nevertheless”, we must believe that God has not left us to do it by ourselves. Elijah believed that he and only he was left to proclaim the greatness of God, and he was informed that there were still thousands in Israel who remained faithful.

A famous last word is that of John Wesley, who said to those gathered about his death bed, “The best of all is, God is with us.” And Oliver Cromwell, upon his dying bed, took one look at the mournful crowd of faces about him, and said, “Will no one here thank God?”

Perhaps it is time for us to stop singing the “blues”…time to stop acting like “losers”…time to rise up and say “Nevertheless”. That’s right! God is here, and we are on the side of ultimate victory.

Divine Disturbance

I stopped one day at the “Grain Pit” of the Board of Trade Bldg. in Chicago. I saw persons frantically waving their hands, holding up different numbers of fingers, raucously shouting at the tops of their voices, and every so often, for no seeming reason at all, they would literally fall on one another as their excitement grew stronger and stronger. Here, it seemed were men possessed!

There was a day which we sometimes call the Birthday of the Christian Church, in which the disciples were so excited, and the reports of what happened that day so spectacular, that we can scarcely accept it. There was a divine disturbance, during which ordinary persons became extra-ordinary and moved out to proclaim their faith.

Dr. Toyohiko Kagawa, a great Japanese Christian leader, once said, “It is a shame for a Christian to be ordinary. There is something within that will make him out-of-the-ordinary and not ‘run of the mill’.” Sometimes, non-Christian persons look upon our proclamation of love, and of turning the other cheek, and they say, “Those Christians are mad!”

They said of Dr. Albert Schweitzer, “The man is mad” as he dedicated four Ph.D’s to the natives of Africa. This was not madness, but the Spirit’s disturbing of a man until his talents became tools in the hands of Almighty God.

There is a classic story about the Cape Cod farmer of New England who was shingling his house on a very foggy day, and he shingled right off into the fog. Many persons go “shingling off into the fog” in their understanding of the Holy Spirit. In their fanatic zeal, they do the very opposite of that which the Holy Spirit commands us. They find causes that separate them from their fellow-Christians, whereas the Spirit on that special day of Pentecost came to transcend all barriers of nationality and language and to bind all together in love for Jesus Christ.

God is always trying to break through into life…yours and mine. The Spirit of God has been at work since the very time of creation itself, brooding over the face of the deep. And yet we confess how little we really know about the Holy Spirit.

Ask a sailor “What is the wind?” Of all people, he should know. But he will answer, “I cannot say. All I know is that when I feel the wind blowing, I raise my sails, and it takes me to the far-off harbor.” Ask a Christian, “What is the Holy Spirit?” Of all persons, he or she should know…and yet the reply may come, “I cannot say. All I know is that when I feel the breath of God upon me, I open myself to it, and it lifts me up and carries me to the far-off shore.”