Christianity

Awe-Inspired Goosebumps

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usaf-thumb-450x355I was watching Kansas City play Houston last night, and during a commercial break I peeked at a video on YouTube.  It featured military jets flying low to the ground, and it reminded me of my time in the Air Force.

There were times that I didn’t want to drive through the guard shack and risk having my vehicle searched by the military police, so I would sneak on and off base through a little-known passage.  To navigate this route, I had to drive by the end of the runway.

Whenever a pilot saw my vehicle at the end of the tarmac, he would hug the deck until he was almost on top of me and then go full throttle. To be rattled by the power of the jets was an exhilarating and awe-inspiring experience, that left me covered with goosebumps.

I’m not sure if Isaiah was ever covered with goosebumps, but I do know that He had an awe-inspiring experience when he saw the Lord in His splendor and glory and heard the voice of angels:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. “Woe to me!” Isaiah cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” ~Isaiah 6

To emphasize the majesty, purity, and holiness of God, Isaiah didn’t say God is holy; he said God is holy, holy, holy.  This means the holy Creator is wholly unlike His creation:

  • He has never felt the pain of a stubbed toe.
  • The ups and downs of the stock market never worries Him.
  • He has never had an infection and never had a shot of penicillin.
  • His resources are limitless.
  • He has never been puzzled by a puzzle.

Our holy God invites the whole of His creation to approach Him in a time of need: We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tested in every way as we are, yet without sin; therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us at the proper time. ~Hebrews 4:14-16

It’s awe-inspiring to think that our mountain moving, mercy-filled, and gracious God, invites you and me into the realm of His glory with three simple words— “Come to me.”

The *At-Risk Asterisk

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AsteriskSometime during the day, I usually stop by McDonald’s and grab a cup of coffee.  When I made my caffeine pit stop yesterday, a sign caught my attention.  It was promoting McDonald’s 2016 version of the Monopoly game.  At the bottom of the sign a red circle was emblazoned with the words, 1 in 4 Win*.

I’ve learned that a person can be at-risk, if he doesn’t pay attention to an asterisk.  After a quick search about the significance of the 1 in 4 Win asterisk and the odds of actually winning, I discovered the following:

  • The odds of getting the exact combination to win the $1 Million prize is 1 in 513,591,720.
  • The odds of winning one of the instant cash prizes is 1 in 45,000.
  • The best odds of winning are associated with the food prizes, and they equate with the advertised 1 in 4 Win*.

An asterisk offers essential data about information that has been changed, is missing, or has been updated.  It’s a coach that guides you through the mental gymnastics of comprehension.

When I think of the asterisk in this context, it reminds me of the work of the Holy Spirit who will offer an at-risk warning.  The ministry of the Spirit is multifaceted, and he empowers, guides, and convicts of sin.

Jesus said the coming of Spirit would be a great benefit to His disciples:

The truth is that My departure will be a gift that will serve you well, because if I don’t leave, the great Helper will not come to your aid. When I leave, I will send Him to you. When He arrives, He will uncover the sins of the world, expose unbelief as sin, and allow all to see their sins in the light of righteousness for the first time.  This new awareness of righteousness is important because I am going to the Father and will no longer be present with you.  ~John 16:7-11, The Voice

Whenever you feel an impression to take some action or you hear a small voice within you, it might be the whisper of the Spirit attempting to give you a new awareness of righteousness.

Paul contrasted the new awareness with the old nature in Romans 8, and I think I’ll use it as an * to share some essential information with you concerning the transforming power of God’s Spirit:

Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn’t pleased at being ignored. ~Roman 8:5-8, The Message

Bread, Benefits, and Priorities

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benefitsMy morning routine usually begins with a cup of coffee and a piece of toast with peanut butter and honey.  As I sip my coffee, I read some Scripture, check the news, and I think about my To-Do-List for the day.

I then do the necessary but mundane tasks of showering, shaving, brushing me teeth, and combing my hair—notice that I didn’t say hairs. While I was doing this yesterday, I thought of the correlation between the “daily” words of Jesus in Luke 9:23 and Matthew 6:11:

  • Luke 9:23: If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.
  • Matthew 6:11: Give us this day our daily

The thought of taking up your cross daily, might seem to be a monumental task, and it would be if it were not for God’s provision.  He promises the daily bread you need to accomplish His will for your life.

Psalm 68:19: Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loads us with benefits, The God of our salvation!

God  will never tell you to “go” without showing the way, and He will never say “come” without leading you to Him. This is the benefit of knowing Him as your Shepherd and the God of your salvation.

God will show you and lead you with with His Voice of Wisdom in Proverbs 8:32-35: Now therefore, listen to me, my children, for blessed are those who keep my ways.  Hear instruction and be wise, and do not disdain it. Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. For whoever finds me finds life, and obtains favor from the Lord.

Discovering God’s will and finding the necessary bread to accomplish it, requires a daily trip to the food pantry: These Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures (food pantry) daily to see if these things were so. ~Acts 17:11

When you consider your  T0-Do-List for tomorrow, I suggest you start by making God a daily priority.

I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel; My heart also instructs me in the night seasons. I have set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved. ~ Psalm 16:7-8

Do You Have A Second To Spare?

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Honeybee_landing_on_milkthistle02On a recent trip to the lake, I saw the good, the bad, and the ugly. I’ll give them to you in reverse order: The ugly was the trash that someone had thrown into the lake; the bad was the wasp that kept buzzing my head; and, the good was the honey bee who was pollinating flowers and gathering nectar

My Great-Aunt Fern was a beekeeper, and it is from her that I acquired my love for honey.  Whenever I’d visit Fern, I usually left with more than just a jug of honey; I would also leave with some new fact about her precious bees.

I remember Fern telling me: “A bee flaps its wings about 230 times a second while it hovers over a flower.”

When I saw bees hovering over flowers yesterday, I thought of Aunt Fern and the significance of one second: One second of life passes into history in the time it takes you to say: “One thousand one.”

Take another second or two to read these one second statistics.  Every second:

  • 8,613 tweets are posted on Twitter
  • 1,771 photos are uploaded to Instagram
  • 1,669 “phone” calls are made on Skype
  • 46,610 searches are made on Google
  • 96,225 videos are watched on YouTube
  • 2,372,740 emails are sent

One second is a brief period of time; yet it’s a moment of eternal significance:

  • Psalm 144:4: “Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.”
  • Psalm 90:10: “The days of our lives are seventy years; and, if by reason of strength they are eighty years; yet, their boast is only labor and sorrow.”

Perhaps it’s time to take a second to do a firsthand review of your life, and compare your perspective to Paul’s:

[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope] ~Philippians 3:10 ~Amplified Version

The Brotherhood of the Big-Footed

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feetSince I belong to the brotherhood of the big-footed, I need a lot of help to keep my feet pointed in the right direction. This is one reason I have a special fondness for Psalm 119:105: Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path.

When God’s Word is your guide, and you use it as a lamp for your feet, you’re less likely to stumble and fall.  It’s an ever-ready guide to help you:

  • Gain strength and to grow in love—Ephesians 3:16-20
  • Resist evil—Galatians 5:16-21
  • Increase in knowledge and to be filled with the fruit of righteousness—Philippians 1:9-11
  • Grow in your faith—2 Peter 1:5-8

To burn brightly the old fashioned lamps needed either oil or burning embers of coal.  The oil that fires-up the lamp of God’s Word is prayer.  To find the light and guidance you need, I suggest that you make Psalm 119:33-36 your prayer for today:

Help me understand Your instruction,
and I will obey it
and follow it with all my heart.
 Help me stay on the path of Your commands,
for I take pleasure in it.
Turn my heart to Your decrees
and not to material gain.

A Godly Celebration

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god-is-goodYou’ve heard it before: “If it sounds too good to be true, then it’s too good to be true.” When you read Zephaniah 3:17, you may think that it sounds too good to be true:

The Lord your God is with you. He is a warrior who saves you. He happily rejoices over you; renews you with his love; and, He celebrates over you with shouts of joy.

Before you pass judgment on the veracity of this verse, you may want to consider it from the perspective and testimony of some people from the pages of history:

  • Think about Daniel. He was thrown into a den of lions which was the sentence of death; however, God intervened; the lions were afflicted with a serious case of lockjaw; and, Daniel was saved.
  • What about David? This runt of the litter was fiercely courageous, and God used him as a warrior to slay Goliath.
  • Lazarus heard the shout of God, and he experienced a celebration and the joyful power of the resurrection.

Still think it sounds too good to be true?  Then you might want to read Psalm 121, the Pilgrim’s Psalm, from The Message:

I look up to the mountains; does my strength come from mountains? No, my strength comes from God, who made heaven, and earth, and mountains. He won’t let you stumble; your Guardian God won’t fall asleep. Not on your life! Israel’s Guardian will never doze or sleep. God’s your Guardian, right at your side to protect you—Shielding you from sunstroke, and sheltering you from moonstroke. God guards you from every evil, he guards your very life. He guards you when you leave and when you return, he guards you now, he guards you always.

Believe it! God is with you, and He wants to happily rejoice over you.

The Ups and Downs of Life

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rcWhen I was a freshman in college, one instructor required his students to memorize a motto of his.  I did, and I have never forgotten it:  It’s not what I can remember, but what I can never forget that constitutes knowledge; therefore, drill, drill, drill, and review, review, review.

Over the years I have been able to memorize many Bible verses, because I drilled and reviewed them until they were tucked away in my mind.  One of these is Philippians 4:13: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

When I meditate on a particular verse of Scripture, I focus on the individual words within the verse so I can understand the specific meaning of each one of them.  The word “through” caught my attention this morning, so I reflected on some verses that use this word:

  • God led Moses and the Israelites through the Red Sea on dry ground (Exodus 14:22).
  • The Israelites were led through the wilderness (Deuteronomy 29:5).
  • In Psalm 23, the Good Shepherd leads His flock through the valley of the shadow of death.

There are times when life seems like a roller coaster and you are tormented by a series of bone rattling, and hope shaking ups and downs.  These are the times that you need to kick the “I can’t” thoughts in the seat of the pants, and focus on the “I can” of Philippians 4:13.

 

The you should review its truth and drill its meaning:

  • Through Christ, I find the strength to face the obstacles of life.
  • Through Christ, God lavishes me with his strength to overcome (Ephesians 1:7-8).
  • Through Christ, you are blessed with God’s unwavering love and mercy (Psalm 103).

When you live your life through the strength of Christ, you will be thoroughly blessed:

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;

    and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;

when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,

    and the flame shall not consume you.  ~Isaiah 43:2

Chief Joseph Medicine Crow

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Grandpa_JoeChief Joseph Medicine Crow died yesterday at the age of 102, and an era of history died with him.  He was the last living War Chief of the Crow Tribe of Montana.

To be considered a War Chief by the Crow Tribe, an Indian must complete four tasks:

  • Lead a successful war party
  • Disarm an enemy
  • Touch an enemy without killing him
  • Steal a horse that belonged to the enemy

Chief Joseph Medicine Crow did all four of these and more during World War II; however, instead of stealing 1 horse, he was able to sneak behind enemy lines and steal 50 horses that belonged to the Nazi SS.

Over 44,000 Native Americans, Indians like Chief Medicine Crow, served during the second world war.  The story of their service is one of bravery, and I give thanks for their sacrifice.  Several of these men were awarded the Medal of Honor. NavMar

Herman Viola, curator emeritus at the Smithsonian’s Museum of the American Indian, said it was hard to overstate Mr. Medicine Crow’s value as a link to history: “Joe personally knew four scouts that had been with Custer . . . it was unbelievable to meet someone who could really give you insights into that time period.”

As I read Viola’s statement, it reminded me of another eyewitness to historical events—the Apostle John:

[I am writing about] what existed from the beginning, what [a]we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life [the One who existed even before the beginning of the world, Christ]— and the Life [an aspect of His being] was manifested, and we have seen [it as eyewitnesses] and testify and declare to you [the Life], the eternal Life who was [already existing] with the Father and was [actually] made visible to us [His followers]— what we have seen and heard we also proclaim to you, so that you too may have fellowship [as partners] with us. And indeed our fellowship [which is a distinguishing mark of born-again believers] is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.  We are writing these things to you so that our joy [in seeing you included] may be made complete [by having you share in the joy of salvation] ~I John 1:1-4 Amplified

Historians like Viola get excited about Chief Medicine Crow’s “eyewitness” account, and rightly so, but shouldn’t they also give credence to other “eyewitness” of history like the Apostle John?

Sensible Scents

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Life-in-ScentsWhile I was reading in the Gospel of Luke, I began to think about the plight of the widow and the sacrificial giving of her mite. It occurred to me that worship can be expressed in cents as well as scents.  Like the widow, it’s possible to be nearly centless and still worship God.

There is another side to worship in which it is never scentless. When you approach God is the right way, your worship is the aroma of sweet-smelling incense that floats into His presence; and, it’s much like the scene in Revelation 5:8:

The four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of fragrant incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

When your life mirrors the life of Jesus, you love as Christ loved, and your life becomes an offering and a sacrifice to God just like a sweet-smelling aroma:

Be imitators of God as dear children, and walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and has given Himself for us, as an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma (Ephesians 5:1-3).

Based on the chart below, people are willing to spend their money to control their bodily odors. Shouldn’t we invest the same amount in time and effort to make sure we are as pleasing to God as we are to the rest of the world?

Company

Profit
Proctor and Gamble $999 million
Unilever $682.3 million
Lever Brothers $329.5 million
Dial Corporation $152 million
Colgate Palmolive $146.6 million
Revlon $79.7 million

Before you turn your nose up to my earlier question, consider it in the light of this verse:

Thanks be to God who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and who makes known through us the fragrance that consists of the knowledge of him in every place.  For we are a sweet aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved        ~2 Corinthians 2:14

How sweet is your aroma?

 

April Fool’s Day

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Funny-April-Fools-Day-PhotosToday is the day of practical jokes and epic spoofs—it’s April Fool’s Day.  I learned early in life that the spoofer seems to get more joy out of this day than does the spoofed.

While under the influence of an older sister, poor little innocent me was persuaded to put salt in the sugar bowl and sugar in the salt shaker.

I snickered when I saw Mom slice a grapefruit in half, get a spoonful of salt out of the sugar bowl, and spread it on her grapefruit.  I laughed out loud when she took the first bite and quickly spit it back out.

Mom didn’t see the humor, and my laughter had implicated me as a guilty partner in this devious plan that was hatched in the mind of my older sister.  Shame on her for being such a poor influence on poor little innocent me.

The public has been duped on this day on more than one occasion:

  • On April 1, 1996, Virgin Cola issued a warning to consumers in the British newspapers. They announced that on the sell-by-date, a new technology would cause a reaction that would turn the can blue.  This spoof was a slap at Pepsi who had recently unveiled its newly designed bright blue cans.
  • Also on April 1, 1996, Taco Bell ran a full-page ad in six major newspapers to announce it had purchased the Liberty Bell and renamed it the Taco Liberty Bell. This spoof outraged patriotic citizens across the USA, and many of them called the National Historic Park in Philadelphia to express their anger. Nerves were calmed after Taco Bell revealed it was just a practical joke
  • On April 1, 1987, the Daily Mirror broke the startling news of a romance between Margaret Thatcher and Mikhail Gorbachev. To support the fabricated story, the newspaper had hired models that looked like Thatcher and Gorbachev.1987thatcher_400

God may have a sense of humor, but He doesn’t think the life of a fool is a laughing matter.  Since this is April Fool’s Day, I thought I would post a verse or two about fools from God’s perspective:

  • Psalm 14:1: The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”
  • Proverbs 1:7: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of much learning. Fools hate wisdom and teaching.
  • Proverbs 13:20: He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the one who walks with fools will be destroyed.
  • Proverbs 14:16: A wise man fears God and turns away from what is sinful, but a fool is full of pride and is not careful.

I think this last verse is a fitting conclusion: He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be kept safe (Proverbs 28:26).