You Cannot Live In Tomorrow

It is good to dream and plan wisely for tomorrow. But we cannot live on that street today. Worrying about the future will only sap our strength for this moment.

Jesus said: "do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day." (Matt. 6:34)

As we look back, we discover that the Past has changed us greatly, and the Future will change us some more. So, welcome to the Future. In a sense, the Christian has an Aladdin's lamp, and we ask, "Show us tomorrow." And the answer comes back, "Emmanuel: God with us!"

We know not what the future holds, but we do know Who holds the future. And we are content. The past has changed us, and the present is full of change, but there is One who never changes.

The hymn‑writer has said it well:
"Change and decay in all around I see
O Thou who changest not...abide with me."

God daily imparts His grace to us. We need no rehearsals. The play is already going on. And each day that we live is a time to live, to love, to serve, to weep, and to laugh. We must not wait for tomorrow, because tomorrow may never come.

And so, today is a gift carefully wrapped. It may have surprises crammed into the corners and crevices, but God is sufficient, and I must not worry.

There is an ancient poem, based on the Sanskrit (of 1200 B.C.) that goes like this:
Look to this Day!
For Yesterday is but a Dream,
And Tomorrow is only a Vision;
But Today well lived makes
Every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness,
And every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope.
Look well therefore to this Day!

The Aroma Of Christ

I'm not sure I ever thought of myself as an aroma. Paul in II Cor. 2:15 said, "we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved."

There are a few people I might call "stinkers", and at times, I might even concede that I qualify for that name too, but to be a good "aroma"...that is quite a challenge.

Paul also goes on to say that we are to be a "fragrance from life to life" (vs.16) so that through our example, others might find new life. Unfortunately we can also be a"fragrance from death to death". Because of my failures and my weaknesses, other folks may stumble and fall. What a horrible thing!

Unlike those in the animal world, we do not have the power of tracking others through smell. Our pets can apparently do it to an amazing degree, as well as most creatures in the animal Kingdom.

But what if I could leave such a fragrance of love, such an aroma of forgiveness, such a redolence of compassion, such an odor of mercy, that my journey through history would leave a vapor trail suggesting the spirit of Christ? That would be my highest privilege, my greatest tribute, my most resounding epitaph on the spiritual trail markers for my children and the world to see.

I may not qualify as one of the great movers of history, but if I could be registered among those who revealed the "aroma of Christ"...that would be all I desire.

Running With The Horses

Jeremiah the prophet, believed he had heard the Lord giving him a direct command:

"Before I formed you...I knew you
Before you were born, I consecrated you.
I appointed you a prophet to the nations..." (Jer. 1:4)

But although he spoke the words of the Lord with conviction, using imaginative devices and illustrations, he was hated by the people and despised. He complained to the Lord that things weren't going well and he was tired, but the Lord's response was as follows:

"If you have raced with men on foot, and
they have wearied you, how will you
compete with horses? And if in a safe land
you fall down, how will you do in the jungle
of the Jordan?" (Jeremiah 12:5)

Not very encouraging, was it? Almost like saying, "Cheer up, the worst is yet to come!"

Someone has defined happiness as "a state of going somewhere, one‑directionally, without regret, or reservation." This was Jeremiah, and the pioneers of the early faith.
The zeal of the early church pioneers was incredible. John Wesley in his diary wrote: "Leisure and I have taken leave of one another." Christian Newcomer made more than fifty trips on horseback across the Appalachian Mts., his last after he had passed his 80th birthday. Many of the early pioneers of the Church literally lived on horseback. They were very ordinary people who above all things wished to be faithful. They were footmen, who through the years had learned to run with even the horses!

The Church can use more such persons today, who run not only with their fellow brothers and sisters, but have been conditioned to run against the devil himself.

God made an oyster to be safe in its shell. It was destined to be safe, but doomed to forever being an oyster. God took human‑kind, and placed all the protective bone on the inside, exposing raw nerves to a cruel world. We were not destined for safety, but destined to subdue the world, and bring all mankind to the love of God.

Some of us are still looking for an oyster shell. Above all else, we want to be comfortable. No so, Jeremiah and the great pioneers. They were conditioned by the grace of God to run with the horses, taking the jibes and taunts of life. They got the victory. May we also run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

The Authentic Person

Is everyone a hypocrite? Are we playing with life and religion? Are we wearing masks and going through the forms? What is vital Christianity? What about integrity and authenticity? Are we being honest? How much of the time are we pretending? Can we be genuine?...Can we "tell it like it is?"

Young people think the adult generation is hypocritical...two‑faced...shot full of holes. It undoubtedly is! But so will it be probably when they get older too.

It was so in Jesus' day. And Jesus was the young upstart who had the audacity to "tell it like it is"!

Jesus' followers didn't observe the rules. And they didn't I suppose, because Jesus didn't! But the rules they broke were the man‑made variety...not God's rules! When they ate, they didn't go through all the ceremonial rites, or the certain prescribed way of washing their hands. The Scribes and Pharisees asked, "Why? Why don't you go through the formula? Why don't you follow the rules? Why don't you play the game...like the rest of us?"

And Jesus caught them at it, and exposed the game they were playing. They were playing at religion. And Jesus attacked the hypocrites because they were so self‑righteously convinced of their goodness. Their blindness actually set them in opposition to God!

Everybody plays roles, and this is not necessarily bad, but as Christians, we are also subject to playing games. We make spectacular pronouncements for justice and equality and go on living as though it weren't so. We worship the Prince of Peace, and yet teach man‑made acceptance of bombing villages and people. We worship the Creator who made the earth with its abundance for all, and yet teach the doctrines of men, keeping this abundance for a few. We worship the Father of all races, and teach the commandments of mankind that tell us to keep other races in their place. The tragedy is that we are consciously sincere in these matters. but we are unconsciously insincere as well.

We are the "almost Christians" or as T.S. Eliot described it...We are the "Hollow Men"..."stuffed men...heads filled with straw, and dried voices". We live on the outside as Christians, but inside we are almost nothing at all.

The disciples followed Jesus, because he was real...genuine...authentic. The fact that he overlooked some of the man‑made traditions somehow didn't seem too important. In Jesus, they saw the kind of men they were meant to be. In his presence, they became aware of sham and hypocrisy and self‑centeredness in their own lives.

In the presence of Jesus, and the fellowship of the loving community of the Church, we can believe that we are accepted and forgiven. And with that assurance, we can be honest, drop the masks, and forget the pretend roles we feel obligated to play. And then, stripped of pretense, we become free enough to be ourselves as God made us...whole persons....no longer playing at religion, no longer counterfeits, but real, genuine, and authentic.

Good Grief

How inappropriate can you be? How can grief be good? And after tragedy strikes, and the newspapers share all the shocking details, who would dare to say "Good Grief".

On the other hand, even as lights seem to be going out all over the world, we Christians have the audacity to say, "God is not dead, nor has He left us alone."

A president is assassinated, fire storms destroy hundreds of homes, a plane crash results in the loss of all lives, an earthquake kills hundreds of people, and destroys an entire city. More people die of AIDS this year, than ever before. On and on the tragedies continue.

Does grief bring us to our knees? Does the burning of churches in the south, unite people? Out of black Fridays, can there sometimes be glorious Sundays?

As a people, we are often in grief. But God has a way of turning it into "good grief"...of changing sorrow into greatness, of transforming sadness into gladness. The tears of a people are for the cleansing of their eyes.

Strange, isn't it, that the really great and significant things that take place in our world, cluster around tragedy and self‑sacrifice. What do we do with tragedy? We turn it into "good grief". That's what we must do! The apostle Paul said "We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us." (Ro. 5:3)

I'm not happy about "grief". But when I confront it through the Lord's eyes, I am able to find my way through.

The Good News Becomes The Bad News

Through the years, Christians have been rejoicing in the "Good News". "That's what the
Gospel is all about", they say.

That's true. The good news is that God loves us, and that He has sent Christ into the world to reconcile the world to Himself. But along with that comes the fact that He has entrusted to us the message of reconciliation

This gospel says that we are all brothers and sisters in the Lord, and that I must be reconciled to them. But I don't want to claim some of my neighbors as part of my family. I don't want to love folks whose jobs cut into my pay check. I don't want to accept freaks who paint their hair and wear rings and jewels in every part of their body. I don't like people who talk differently than I do. I have no interest in being friends with people of different color. I just want to live my own life, and let the rest of the world go by.

But here is the bad news!...Christ calls me into a caring and reconciling relationship. I have to try to learn to love even those who are hard to love. I must try to reach out to people who are different, and folks who look at life in a different way than I. I don't have to agree with them, but I have to try to love them.

Woe is me! There goes my complacency. If Jesus was willing to live and die for me...then the least I can do is try to live for Him. That's the good news for today...but sometimes, I must confess, it puts me to the test.

Note: Will be gone for a couple of days.
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What Really Moved Jesus?

At a meal one day, in Simon's house, with a group of super‑critical religious leaders, Jesus sat alone and misunderstood. Every word he said was challenged and twisted by those who were trying to dis‑credit him.

To the amazement of all at the table, a woman of the street came in, and taking an alabaster jar of costly ointment, she poured it out upon Jesus' head.

We do not know what Jesus had done for her...but she needed to do something for him. It was as though she saw the storm clouds gathering. It was like the shadow of the cross upon him.

Why did she do it? Was it an impulse? Did she want to do something to show that she cared? Some have said she may have been in love with Jesus. She didn't pour out just a few drops of this valuable ointment...and say, "I guess that should be enough for the occasion." No, it all went.

Her unblocked impulse moved Jesus. It was not smothered with caution. She was lifted clear out of arithmetic into love...where one no longer counts the cost.

The record says that Jesus was moved, deeply stirred by this extravagant action. We remember a few other times: a Centurion asking for his son's recovery. Jesus was impressed by his faith. Or the widow who put her whole living into the treasury box...the widow's mite. Jesus spoke in glowing terms about her gift.

And now this. There was a kind of excitement in Jesus as he spoke about it. The only measurements some people have for values are those of the market place. This oil...what a waste!..."it could have been given to the poor," they said. But they really didn't care so much about the poor...it just sounded good.

To some people, worship is waste. What good is it? Beauty is unnecessary. You can't eat it! It butters no bread...It builds no barns...It yields no compound interest. To these persons, a life of sacrifice is always a waste. The life of David Livingstone...what a waste! Or Dr. Schweitzer..."think of what he could have done with those 4 Doctor's Degrees, instead of going as a missionary. What a waste!"

Perhaps we have a clue here as to why Christ had to die..because there are so many in our world, who care more for things than for people.

Come Fly With Me

Have you watched the birds, and the soaring eagles, and sometimes thought, "How wonderful to be able to soar above the grime and slime and weariness of this old world, and see life from a different perspective."

A good friend gave me lessons years ago, and I finally did the big "solo" thing. "I could fly!...but I couldn't afford financially to continue, so I haven't done much since."

John Gillespie Magee, Jr. in "High Flight" said it so well:

"Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter‑silvered wings;
Sun-ward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun‑split clouds‑‑and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of‑‑wheeled and soared and
swung...
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
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 un-trespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

I'm not an angel, but the Bible tells me that I was made "just a bit lower than the angels". I may not have wings yet, but the potential is there.

This world is my home, but it is not my only home, and there is another dimension to this flat existence. A lot of my life is lived with my nose to the grindstone, and that's where it has to be much of the time. Nobody promised me a rose garden. But one of these days, I'm goin' to fly!

And Sunday after Sunday, I practice the process...of loving, and giving, and forgiving, and caring, and lifting my eyes to Him who can deliver me from this bondage of death, until with Jesus, I can fly.

Our Faith has regular "Fly‑ins". Our Lord invites you and me to take the ground course, and "lift‑off" is possible, whenever we need Him, and whenever we cry out in desperation.

Come fly with the Lord Jesus. Here is the only air‑line that can give you an eternal guarantee.

It's School Time Again

I’m for the kids! Jesus was too, you know. He said, “let the children come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom!”

It occurred to me that our kids aren’t getting ready to go to work! They are at work! School is just as much going to work for them as punching the clock is for us. Theirs is almost an 8-hour day. And by the time they ride the bus for an hour each way, it is more than that.

Consider the environment of a school child for 12 years: The child sits in a desk, lined up in rows, with 20-30 other children. Any office with desks and secretaries that close to each other would bring a protest of violation of human space and rights! Day after day, the children sit in that same room, looking at a blackboard in front of them, or to their side. Bulletin Boards break the monotony. An American flag is to one side; a school clock is somewhere in the room; a pencil sharpener is there for all to use. There is surely a world globe, and a few other typical items. Almost the same monotonous items in every classroom for 12 years! In recent years, the addition of computers has changed a major part of the environment.

Day after day, a child raises his or her arm eagerly to answer questions the teacher may ask. Day after day, that arm is cushioned in the hand while the student waits for recognition…an arm is a heavy thing to hold! There is probably no carpet on the classroom floor. The room is most certainly not air-conditioned…sometimes overly hot…sometimes overly cold!

Consider the lines that child must go through: a line waiting for the bus, a line waiting for a drink, a line to go into the lunch room, a line in the fire drill, a line waiting for the bathroom. A child has a regimented day, perhaps not as much as years ago in the school room, but it still is: up early in the morning, be there on time, stay there, with only a few times out of the classroom for a short science class, or gym, or lunch break. And then, home at night, with the possibility of home work. And then back at it again the next day and the next and the next!

Children are not preparing for life’s work. They are doing it! And thank God, for dedicated teachers who can take this regimented day, and make it a shining star!...and can take these young laborers, and turn them into excited searchers for truth!

Jesus loved the children. He said they were not to be minimized. And we as adults must not “turn them off”. We must set them an example of conduct, and charity, and faith, and life-style in keeping with God’s will, rather than against it. It could involve prayer at school, but it most certainly must involve prayer at home.

Selfishness Is Dangerous

Sometimes I get scared when I think of the dangers of selfishness. What does it do to my personality? What does it do to my family? How can I teach them to give, and to give gladly and generously…to learn to trust in something other than materialistic things?

This is one of the tasks of the Christian Faith. I must learn “FAITH” for myself, before I can teach it to my children. I must learn to give to God without penny-pinching in the assurance that when I give up my “hoarding” and give up my faith in “material things”, I begin to launch out in faith with a God who has assured me that He will ”open the windows of heaven, and pour down an overflowing blessing”. (Malachi 3:10b) An old rhyme goes as follows:

“If I get mine.
And God gets His
Then everything will be just fine
But if I get mine
And keep His too
What do you think God will do?”

And someone has added the answer, “We believe God will collect!”

I’m not sure I know how God “collects”, but I do believe I understand the spiritual law of giving. A lake that receives but does not give out is a stagnant lake. By that same token, a life that receives without giving back just as generously, becomes a dead soul!

I do not want to make the mistake of not giving! I believe God has given me the privilege of giving to keep me from becoming absolutely selfish. Here then, is a law of my being…”giving is living.” Have I really understood the “health-cure” my church offers me when it asks me to give?

As a Christian, I have never felt strange about asking people to give. Not to do so, would be an act of unconcern on my part!

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!

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.

Today, I expect some bumps. I expect to
confront new people and maybe some really
exciting ideas. I guess it will be so, if I make
it that way. My daily reading gives me a
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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.

Somebody 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 Everybody 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!

"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.

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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?

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.

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”.

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.”