Christianity

An Instrument of God

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images (5)When I read John 9 this morning, seven words popped into my mind:  “The absence of Jesus demands my presence.”

When faced with the dilemma of a blind man, Jesus said:  “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world (John 9:5).”  Because He is no longer in the world, I am responsible to proclaim the principles of light in a world of darkness.

God has equipped you and me for this ministry.  Peter said:  “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation, [God’s] own purchased, special people, that you may set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light (I Peter 2:9 ~Amplified Bible).”

This theme was developed in the life of Noah who Peter referred to as a “preacher of righteousness.”  The world had witnessed wickedness, but God called Noah out of that darkness and into his marvelous light.  Noah was chosen to speak of the excellent qualities of God that were revealed in a single word picture—the rainbow.

In the language of the night and day or light and darkness, The Message emphasizes ythe ministry of those God has chosen:   “You are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted.”

Last week I spoke to a friend that I had not seen in several months.  I said:  “Good to see you.”  He replied:  “Good to hear you.”   He has lost what most of us take for granted—the ability to see.  His blindness gives him the unique perspective to contrast the experiential difference between light and darkness.

In a spiritual sense, the believer also has a unique perspective.  He has been “chosen to tell about the excellent qualities of God, who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light (GWT Version).”

It is difficult to explain the wonderful sweetness of honey to someone who has only tasted the sourness of a lemon. Because you have lived in a sour world and tasted the sweetness of God’s Spirit, you are God’s instrument and you have been chosen to reveal the “night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted.”

A Radical Life and a Twinkling Star

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starry sky at nightRadical is the title of an interesting book written by David Platt. It contains several compelling statements that have a Great Commission orientation:  Platt said, “Jesus has not given us an effortless step-by-step formula for impacting nations for His glory.  He has given us people.”

The closest thing to a formula is found in Matthew 28:18-20 and Acts 1:8,  but these verses are more of a road map than they are a formula. To have any hope of accomplishing the Commission Christ gave His church, we need to live the life of a disciple.

Platt said Jesus has given us people, and we are to: “Live for them. Love them, serve them, and lead them.  Lead them to follow me, and lead them to lead others to follow me.  In the process you will multiply the gospel to the ends of the earth.”

Because we are living in the age of “me, myself, and nobody else,” this concept is contrary to what many people practice.  With this mindset, it is no wonder that society does not comprehend principled New Testament living.

Is there a glaring omission of the Commission and its principles in your life?

  • Are you living a selfish or selfless lifestyle?
  • How is God’s love for the world seen in your ministry to others?
  • Does your example impede, or does it lead people to Jesus?
  • What about your conversation? Does it deny or multiply the power of the gospel?

If you live, love, and lead people with a servant’s heart, you can identify with the words of Daniel 12:2-3:  “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.  And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.”

Does your life brightly shine for God’s glory?

29 More Days

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2010_01_21_blog_seed_catalogs-008With the foul weather, frigid temperatures, and bone-chilling wind, it’s hard to believe that the first day of Spring is about a month way.  Proof of this is the frequent appearance of seed catalogues in my daily mail.

Bright red roses and other fragrant flowers will soon be in full blossom.  As the buds of these plant begin to form, gardeners will sniff about them in anticipation of their pleasing aroma.

The scent of a flowering plant is designed to attract insects for the purpose of pollination.  In 1953 chemists could only recognize 20 of the chemicals in a rose’s fragrant bouquet, but now they can identify 1,700 different scent compounds.

The sweet fragrance of flowers reminds me of a couple of verses in the Bible:

  • In Revelation 5:8, John speaks of “golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.”
  • In Ephesians 5:1-2, Paul encourages us to “be imitators of God, as beloved children, and to walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

I’ll leave you with a question to consider:  Are you know for raising a stink or for a life that is “a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God?”

What KitKat Learned From Adam and Eve

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kit kat bigThe Washington Post ran an article titled CRISIS IN CHOCOLATELAND.  The article discusses the 5 “power” sectors of the grocery store checkout line.  These areas are lined with “grab-and-go items that account for 4% of a stores profit.

Because the checkout process has been sped up. Shoppers are not lingering-longer.  The result is the average shopper is not buying as many of the grab-and-go items, and this has decreased the sales of companies like Hershey’s.

Evidently Frank Jimenez, Hershey’s senior director of retail evolution, has been reading the Bible.  Some of the comments made by Jimenez sound suspiciously like the temptation of Adam and Eve.

Jimenez uses the “Eight Human Truths of Impulse” to explain why people succumb to checkout-aisle-urges. The goodies can delight, indulge, recharge or “rescue”; they can spoil (“I worked hard today”) or charm (“That’s a great idea”) . . .”

The key metric that determines whether or not a shopper purchases the sweet delight is called “dwell time.”  The longer the shopper waits in line and looks at the goodies, the more likely she is to indulge

If you’ve read the story of Adam and Eve, you know that when it comes to temptation, “dwell time” is don’t-do-well-time.  The longer Eve dwelled and listened to the sales pitch, the more attractive the forbidden fruit became:  She could smell its fragrance and imagine its flavor.

The moral of the story is this:  When temptation comes your way, don’t abide—run and hide.  Paul stated this moral in these words:  “No temptation has come your way that is too hard for flesh and blood to bear. But God can be trusted not to allow you to suffer any temptation beyond your powers of endurance. He will see to it that every temptation has a way out, so that it will never be impossible for you to bear it (I Corinthians 10:13).”

A One Second Lesson On Birds and Bees

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Honeybee_landing_on_milkthistle02One second of your life will pass into history in the time it takes you to say: “One thousand one.”  Interesting and amazing things can happen in a brief moment of one second:  A beekeeper will tell you that a bee flaps his wings 230 times every second that he is hovering over a flower.  This is much faster than the hummingbird that flaps its wings about 70 times a second and a little faster than the tongue-flapping town gossip.

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

Time is a frequent topic of discussion in the Bible:

  • 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.”

These verses speak of the brevity of life, and the Bible as a whole challenges you to live a full life that honors God.  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

How many seconds of your life do you devote to “progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with” Jesus?

Delightful and Frightful Goodness

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GhirardelliChocolate-4You may want to take a look in your rear view mirror to assess the bottom line aspect of Valentine’s Day.  When I wrote Friday’s blog, I didn’t have the heart to do a lead story on the lead contamination of chocolate. An examination of this delightful treat may have frightful consequences.

A California based watchdog group has released a study concerning your chocolate yearning. An independent lab examined 42 products, and it found lead and/or cadmium in 26 that were above the levels considered safe by California standards.

The findings of the report have been disputed by several people:

  • Jeff Beckman, director of corporate communications for Hershey, has said: “People have been eating cocoa and chocolate for centuries with no evidence of a single incident of concern regarding these naturally occurring minerals.”
  • Susan Smith of the National Confectioners Association offered this rebut to the study: “Heavy metals such as lead and cadmium are naturally-occurring elements found in the Earth’s crust. Since these elements are present naturally in the soil and water where plants are grown, there are unavoidable traces occurring in virtually all foods, including fish, meats, grains, fruits and vegetables. Like these other foods, cocoa beans, one of the main ingredients in chocolate, may also contain small amounts of heavy metals depending on the natural conditions in which it is grown.”

Diets have been debated since the creation of Adam and Eve.  If you remember, there was quite a discussion over what could or could not be eaten in the Garden of Eden.

There was also a controversy in Corinth concerning what was permissible to eat, and Paul said:

“I’m not going to walk around on eggshells worrying about what small-minded people might say; I’m going to stride free and easy, knowing what our large-minded Master has already said. If I eat what is served to me, grateful to God for what is on the table, how can I worry about what someone will say? I thanked God for it and he blessed it!

So eat your meals heartily, not worrying about what others say about you—you’re eating to God’s glory, after all, not to please them. As a matter of fact, do everything that way, heartily and freely to God’s glory. At the same time, don’t be callous in your exercise of freedom, thoughtlessly stepping on the toes of those who aren’t as free as you are. I try my best to be considerate of everyone’s feelings in all these matters; I hope you will be, too.” ~The Message, I Corinthians 10

There is no need for a state of gloom when you consume that piece of dark chocolate because most research speaks of its benefits.  A 100 gram bar of dark chocolate with 70-85% cocoa contains:

  • 11 grams of fiber.
  • 67% of the RDA for Iron.
  • 58% of the RDA for Magnesium.
  • 89% of the RDA for Copper.
  • 98% of the RDA for Manganese.

My conclusion?  “Please pass me another Ghirardelli.”

Thoughtless Thinking and Random Reasoning

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Cloud computing conceptSome people find solitude in silence, and they give deep reflection to their thoughts.  There are others who negotiate life at a harried and hurried pace that allows no time for deep thought.

Have you ever stopped to think about how you think?  Please understand the question:  I asked “how” you think—not “what” you think.

When you start to think about your thinking, you can begin to reframe and reorder your life in a more positive context.  There are several places in the Psalms that indicate the writers were more than thoughtless thinkers:

  • Psalm 77:6: I meditate within my heart, and my spirit makes diligent search.
  • Psalm 119:15: I will meditate on Your precepts, And contemplate Your ways.
  • Psalm 119:27-29: I love Your commandments more than gold, yes, than fine gold! Therefore all Your precepts concerning all things, I consider to be right; I hate every false way. Your testimonies are wonderful; therefore my soul keeps them.

When you read these verses, did you notice the due diligence that was exercised?  You can see it in words like:

  • Meditate
  • Diligent search
  • Contemplate
  • Consider

Solomon encouraged people to weigh the wisdom of words, before believing them: The simple believes every word, but the prudent considers well his steps (Proverbs 14:15.)”

Before you leave on a trip, you probably spend some time mapping your route.  How much thought do you give to your spiritual destination?  Do take just some random route or do you know where you are going?

Are you living your life in the blink of a second, or are you taking time to think and reckon?

Blueberries and Bikinis

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217The English language seems to be in a state of flux.  As an example, I used to wear thongs all of the time.  I no longer make that claim, because thongs are no longer associated with footwear.  According to Wikipedia, a “thong is a garment generally worn as either underwear or as a swimsuit.”

CNBC did a cover story on the barely covered Hannah Davis.  Davis is featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated wearing a thong.  The newscasters discussed the appropriateness of the thong and their conclusion was:  “You have to push the limits.”

Can you push the limits so far that you are out of bounds?

That she called a thong isn’t anything like what I used to wear on my feet. In fact, I’ve worn band aids that easily covered more skin.

One more thing about the English language:  When did “fresh” start to mean “frozen?”

On my way out of Wichita yesterday, I bought a blueberry muffin at a market that had Fresh in its name.  I made the assumption that a store that was a Fresh Market would sell freshly baked goods.

When I bit into my muffin, I was disappointed to discover that the center was frozen and not fresh.  They lied, and filled my blueberry muffin full of preservative stuffin!

Lies are usually celebrated as truth and marketed as though there is a great benefit to them.  By the time the truth is finally discovered, a person may be bankrupt physically, financially, or spiritually.

Judas thought 30 pieces of silver would buy happiness, but that miserly sinner only found misery.  Whenever you try to find happiness by substituting the world’s goods for the goodness of God, you are apt to discover sorrow.

The Apostle John made this very plain:  “Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity (I John 2:15-16 ~The Message).”

Disciplined Discernment

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discernmentAfter I read Psalm one, I am always struck by the contrasts it offers as it looks at the differences between two men, two ways, and their two destinies.  The first verse serves as the thematic sentence for the rest of the Psalm:

“How blessed is the one who does not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand in the pathway with sinners, or sit in the assembly of scoffers (NET Version)!”

The message of this verse is that the input you receive and believe will determine your output.  Being aware of this, the “blessed” will not:

  • Receive and believe the “advice of the wicked.”
  • Follow the “pathway of sinners.”
  • Set in the “assembly of scoffers.”

To accomplish the three points above, you must learn to discern, so you’ll know what to spurn. The apostle Paul refers to a discerning walk as walking in a worthy manner (Ephesians 4:1).  To reach this goal, Paul gave some instructions to the Ephesians:

  • Don’t walk like the Gentiles who walked in the futility of their mind (Ephesians 4:17).
  • Make sure you “walk in love, just as Christ also loved you (Ephesians 5:2).”
  • “Walk as children of Light (Ephesians 5:8):
  • Don’t walk as “unwise men but as wise (Ephesians 5:15).”

The key component of the discerning life is found in the second verse of Psalm 1 and Jeremiah 15:16:

  • Ps. 1:2: “He finds pleasure in obeying the Lord’s commands; he meditates on his commands day and night.”
  • Jer. 15:16: “Your words were found and I ate them, and Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart” (Jeremiah 15:16)

Once you begin to practice a life of spiritual discernment, you will gain a greater understanding of verses like Psalm 16:11: “You will make known to me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever.”

The pleasures and treasures of the Lord are promised to the blessed man of Psalm One, and through a life of disciplined discernment, they can be yours as well.

Havoc Among the Holsteins

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holstein-cowDid you hear a strange noise the last time you drove the dusty back roads that line the dairy farms in rural America? Instead of hearing the characteristic “moo” from the herd, you may have heard ole’ Bossy and her cohorts mournful “boo.”

A new product from Coca-Cola, Fairlife, will soon find its place on the shelves of grocery stores.  It’s described as “science milk” that has 50% more protein, 30% less sugar, and lactose-free. I imagine that Holsteins hate these whole steins of engineered lab milk, and many dairy herds are be-mooing its existence.

The fact that Coke sells its product for twice the price that the dairy farmer has been getting for his milk is enough to make any udder shudder in disgust. These Holsteins must be thinking that Coke has little concern about a fair life for them.

There’s a good chance that some situation has caused you to question the fairness of your life.  Even David struggled when he tried to solve life’s riddles.  In Psalm 73 he said:

 But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end . . . I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory . . . it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge that I may tell of all your works.

The next time you feel like you are caught-up in a stampede and life isn’t fair, remember these words from Peter:  “Humble yourselves under God’s strong hand, and in his own good time he will lift you up. You can throw the whole weight of your anxieties upon him, for you are his personal concern (I Peter 5:7).”