choices

A Heavy Mettle Discussion

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867bfc01-5e47-4d5f-a8e9-9a3d2f48f421_zps40643497I heard the sad story of a man who died recently. He had crawled under a house to steal the copper wiring and was electrocuted.

This is sad for a couple of reasons:

  • Copper prices are at historic lows, and this man lost his precious life trying to take something so cheap.
  • His attempt to steal was evidence of a steel less and easily tempted character

This copper incident reminds me of the judgment discussion that Paul had with the Christians at Corinth:

“You are God’s building.  As a skilled and experienced builder, I used the gift that God gave me to lay the foundation for that building. However, someone else is building on it. Each person must be careful how he builds on it.  After all, no one can lay any other foundation than the one that is already laid, and that foundation is Jesus Christ.  People may build on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw.  The day will make what each one does clearly visible because fire will reveal it. That fire will determine what kind of work each person has done.  If what a person has built survives, he will receive a reward.  If his work is burned up, he will suffer the loss. However, he will be saved, though it will be like going through a fire.”               ~I Corinthians 3:9-15

In the verses above Paul offers a  Double M Lesson:

  • The first M is Metal or the gold and silver.
  • The second M is Meddle or the wood, hay, and straw.
  • Paul uses these objects to frame his argument in the context of a quality of life versus a quantity of life perspective.

The metal and meddle aspects of your life will be judged by fire which “will determine what kind of work each person has done.”  The difference between your metal and meddle may be your mettle or the manner in which you confront the challenges of life and faithfully persevere.

When Paul wrote his second letter to Timothy he engaged in a little heavy mettle discussion:  “When the going gets rough, take it on the chin with the rest of us, the way Jesus did. A soldier on duty doesn’t get caught up in making deals at the marketplace. He concentrates on carrying out orders. An athlete who refuses to play by the rules will never get anywhere. It’s the diligent farmer who gets the produce. Think it over. God will make it all plain.”  ~2 Timothy 2:3-5

I encourage you to do what Paul admonished Timothy to do in the verses above:  “Think it over.”

The Nasty Secret of Bloodshot Eyes

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article-2358570-1A9F7641000005DC-522_634x378It’s enough to make you cry!   You know what I mean . . the stinging sensation when your eyes began to burn after jumping into a swimming pool. Up to this point, you may have attributed the red eyes and stinging to chlorine in the water. I hate to be the one who breaks the news to you, but chlorine isn’t the chemical culprit:  It’s urine.

The Centers for Disease Control reports that when pool goers go in the pool, the urine binds with the chlorine and produces chloramine.  Not only is chloramine an eye irritant, it is also a derivative of ammonia that can cause respiratory problems among some swimmers.

If you find the thought of little tykes tinkling in the pool a bit disgusting, think about your stream of sins from God’s perspective.  Jesus said, “It’s what comes out of a person that pollutes: obscenities, lusts, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, depravity, deceptive dealings, carousing, mean looks, slander, arrogance, foolishness—all these are vomit from the heart. There is the source of your pollution (Mark 7:20-23 from The Message).”

Are the habits that define you ones of pollution or purity?  Are they mortifying to God or glorifying to Him?  I encourage you to live a life that glorifies God by clothing yourself “with a holy way of life: compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience (Colossians 3:12).”

Falling In The Fallout Shelter

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IMG_0547 (1)They’ve hung there for over 50 years, and they’ve become so commonplace that they are hardly noticed.  For some reason though, my eyes focused on the FALLOUT SHELTER sign when I entered the church yesterday.

During the 50’s and 60’s, shelters of this kind were stocked with crackers, candy and water to sustain people if their fears of a nuclear holocaust became a reality.  In some districts, public schools would have practice drills, so the students would know what to do in case of an attack.

As an adult, I realize that the viability of some structures was more than just questionable.  There is, however, a shelter is that is much more reliable, and it is found in Psalm 91:4:  “He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge. His truth is your shield and armor.”

Whenever I read this Psalm and think of being covered with “his feathers,” I’m reminded of the protective behavior of a pigeon that is sitting on a nest of eggs.  My brothers and I raised pigeons when we were kids, and our curious hands were spanked more than once by a hen who was protecting her squabs.

God does the same for us:  He covers us with His feathers; hides us under His wings; and, He is our refuge, truth, and shield of armor.  This is the same God who said He would never leave or forsake you.

When trouble comes your way, you can be confident that God is your fallout shelter or refuge.  You can fall in to his nest of care by using Psalm 57:1 as a prayer to God:

Be gracious to me, God, be gracious to me, for I take refuge in You.

I will seek refuge in the shadow of Your wings until danger passes.

Simply and Complexly Marvelous

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Beauty-of-NatureIf you want to spice up a conversation, bring either religion or politics into the discussion.  There are many diverse opinions on both subjects, and the topic of creation can stir the pot among both the believers and skeptics.

Some people believe in a random Big Bang form of creation, others espouse a view known as intelligent design, and then there are those who embrace the Genesis account of creation.

I find it hard to look at the intricate design of the world and believe it just happened by chance.  In Psalm 9, David writes:  “I will praise You, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will tell of all Your marvelous works.  I will be glad and rejoice in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.”

When was the last time you paused and reflected on the “marvelous works” of God?  What would a flower be without its fragrance?  How dark would the night skies be without the light of the moon and stars?  How different would birds be if they were drab in color and whistled and sang out of tune?

The sunrise, the sunset, and the rainbow are the canvas on which the Master Artist paints in vivid colors, and the day would be much different if it began and ended in a colorless brown instead of fire-red hues.  Speaking of fire, what would fire be without its warmth on a cold night or water without its refreshing coolness?

How about food?  What would chili be like if there was no spice or a breakfast roll without cinnamon?  And, it’s almost too painful to consider a world without the tantalizing flavors of ice cream and the aroma of freshly baked bread!

How mundane would life be without this complicated, yet marvelous thing we call love?  Isn’t love the WOW factor in everything that God created?

When you read the book of Genesis, you see God at work.  After He had spoken the physical world into existence, God formed Adam out of the dust of the earth and breathed into him the breath of life.  Next in line was the creation of the animal kingdom, but God wasn’t finished until He created woman.

Adam thought he had seen it all, but then he saw Eve.  To Adam, she was the marvelous WOW-inducing work of God

Take sometime this week, to marvel at the works of God, and the way He has blessed you.

When Lions Devour Lambs

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misconductThe number is 225, and it involves a group of people in the small Caribbean nation of Haiti.  While a large portion of Haiti is known more for its poverty than anything else, one segment has seen even more oppression and suffering.

A United Nations peacekeeping mission has been accused of sexual misconduct in a scheme that involved the sexual exploitation of 225 Haitian women.  Their sex for shoes shenanigans has robbed these women of the peace they had hoped for, and it throttled their trust in the economic promises of the United Nations.

No one should engage in any form of sexual exploitation or sex trafficking, and this is especially true for a high profile agency like the United Nations.  When abused by those you trust the most, the sanctity of your soul is violated, and you are left empty and hollow.

  • Over 600,000 women and children are bought and sold, across international borders, every year and exploited for forced labor and sex.
  • In the USA alone, multiple thousands of kids under 18 years of age are lured into the sex industry every year.
  • Human trafficking is a $32 billion a year industry.

Any time anyone looks at pornography on a computer or buys a sexually explicit magazine, he is supporting this industry and he is exhibiting despicable and demeaning behavior.  Lust is no companion of pure love, and the two are at the opposite ends of the emotional continuum.

What can you do to help stem the rising tide of moral degradation?  You can get involved with groups like Love 146 and Samaritan’s Purse.  You can also answer the call of Jesus to share His peace with the oppressed:  “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God  (Matthew 5:9).”

Strips and Stripes

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Don't park here, go there! Fresh lines on car park area

When you’re driving down the road, have you ever thought about the strips of information  in the stripes that line the pavement ahead of you?  The stripes provide visual boundaries that indicate where you should drive.

The value of stripes are seen in other areas of life as well:

  • The stripes of a zebra allow him to blend in with the scenery.
  • The stripes of traffic signs give a warning.
  • Stripes determine when a baseball is foul, a football is in the end zone, and where the free throw line is in a game of basketball.
  • Thanks to stripes, I can distinguish between a black cat and a polecat because of the white stripe that paints the back of a skunk.
  • When I was in the military, stripes were a statement of authority and they defined the chain of command.

When Peter wrote to a group of persecuted Christians, he thought of stripes in a different context:  “Jesus bore our sins in His own body on the tree . . . and by His stripes you were healed (I Peter 2:24).”

It’s through the sacrificial death of Jesus that you’re forgiven.  Because of His stripes, God wipes away your sin:  “If a man belongs to Christ, he is a new person. The old life is gone. New life has begun (2 Corinthians 5:17 NLV).”

The stripes of the One has resulted in the healing and salvation of the many.  Are you one among the many?

Are You Among the 21%?

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21percent_in_red_and_3d_NLI doubt there are many of us that number ourselves among the elite 1% of the world’s wealthiest people.  You may, however, find yourself among those who will be changed by the 21%.

What is the significance of 21%?  If you add it to your situation, it can make a big difference:

  • If you are concerned with your IQ, you probably already know that 50% of IQ scores fall between 90 and 110. If you add 21% to a score of 100 you become a person with very superior intelligence.  If you subtract 21% from 100, you will find yourself among the ranks of those who are classified as having a “borderline deficiency in intelligence.”
  • The average life expectancy is 71. If you add 21%, you would live to be 86.  If you subtracted 21%, you would only live to be 56.
  • If you are 71 inches tall you might be able to play basketball by adding 21% to your height. At 86 inches tall, you would be taller than LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers  If you subtract 21% from 71, you would be about 4 ½ foot tall, but still taller than Eddie Gaedel.  At 3 foot 7 inches, Gaedel was the shortest player to ever play in an MLB game; and, he did it in 1951 when he played for the St. Louis Browns.
  • If you weigh 171 pounds, 21% would be the difference between tipping the scales at 207 pounds and weighing only 135 pounds.

If you are a person who likes to travel on an airplane, 21% means you may have to buy new luggage. The International Air Transport Association has set some new guidelines for carry-on bags.  The IATA is recommending that bags should be 21.5 inches tall by 13.5 inches wide and 7.5 inches deep which is 21% smaller than current standards.

What would happen if you made a 21% change in your life?  How would your life be different if you followed these old guidelines?

Let us drop every extra weight, every sin that clings to us and slackens our pace, and let us run with endurance the long race set before us, and stay focused on Jesus, who designed and perfected our faith (Hebrews 12:1-2).

Raw Emotion

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Reading-facial-expressions_articleDo you remember the last time you did it?  Something happened and you let your guard down and the true you showed:  Your emotions were on display for everyone to see.

Immediately following His Passover entry into Jerusalem the emotions of Jesus were easily seen :  “When Jesus came closer and saw the city, He began to cry, and He said, If you had only known today what would bring you peace! But you cannot see it (Luke 19).”

In a moment, Jesus went from the joys of the palm branches to the tragic reality of what the future held.  In this incident, it’s easy to see His love in:

  • His walk of grace as He came near to the city
  • His eyes of love in the way He beheld the people
  • His heart of compassion as He wept due to the spiritual blindness of the people

Is it a comfort to you to know that the love, grace, and compassion of God is yours to claim?  It’s available to you because of who Jesus is and what He did.  Notice how this is explained in The Message:

Seeing that we have a great High Priest who has entered the inmost Heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to our faith. For we have no superhuman High Priest to whom our weaknesses are unintelligible—he himself has shared fully in all our experience of temptation, except that he never sinned. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with fullest confidence, that we may receive mercy for our failures and grace to help in the hour of need.      ~Hebrews 4:14-16

Footwear Fit for Your Feet (With Thanks to Dorothy and Cinderella)

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Ruby-Red-Slippers1Dorothy had her ruby red slippers, and Cinderella had a famous pair made of glass, but Imelda Marcos had both of them beat.  Her massive closet had over 3,000 pairs of shoes.

You probably have several pairs of shoes that you wear based on the weather you will face or the work you will do.  While you may have many shoes, are you aware of the shu that God has for you? The shu is every bit as important as the shoe:

Fear not, for I am with you;

Be not dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you,

Yes, I will help you,

I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.

Isaiah 41:10

You see the shu in three words from the verse above:

  • Strengthen
  • Help
  • Uphold

When Paul wrote to the Ephesians, he spoke to them about the importance of correct footwear when he said you should have the “Gospel of peace firmly on your feet.” Your footwear may not be famous, but it can be faithful.  Give God a chance to strength you, to help you, and to uphold you.

To make sure you are fashionable in God’s eyes, I’ll share a couple of verses with you that reveal the appropriate dress code:

Take your stand then with truth as your belt, righteousness your breastplate, the Gospel of peace firmly on your feet, salvation as your helmet and in your hand the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. Above all be sure you take faith as your shield, for it can quench every burning missile the enemy hurls at you. Pray at all times with every kind of spiritual prayer, keeping alert and persistent as you pray for all Christ’s men and women (Ephesians 6)

The Sinister and the Saint

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eyeI’m not sure if I should label it progression or regression, but I have gone from wearing no glasses, to bi-focals, and for several years now I have moved into the tri-focal stage.

Each step in this vision process involved a trip to the eye doctor and a prescription for new glasses.  The last time I got a new prescription for eyeglasses, I noticed the abbreviations OS and OD. The OS is for the left eye, and it is a Latin abbreviation that means “oculus sinister.”   The right eye is OD and is the Latin “oculus dextrus.”

The fact that I have a sinister left eye, made me curious, and I looked at the etymology of oculus sinister and dextrus:

  • The Latin meaning of sinister speaks of that which is “contrary, false; unfavorable; to the left.”
  • Dextrus has the meaning of being “right or ready.”

In these two words, we see the struggle that each of us face.  It is the conflict between evil and good or flesh and spirit.  In Romans 8:5, Paul said:  “For those who live according to the flesh have their outlook shaped by the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their outlook shaped by the things of the Spirit.”

Since your “outlook” is determined by the flesh or the spirit, you may want to take an “in-look” at what the Bible says about desire:

  • James 1:14-15: Everyone is tempted by his own desires as they lure him away and trap him.  Then desire becomes pregnant and gives birth to sin. When sin grows up, it gives birth to death.
  • Proverbs 27:20: Hell and Destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.
  • 2 Peter 2:14: Having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, they entice unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices.

Which one of your eyes guides you?  Do you see the world through the sinister side or the saintly side?   I encourage you to take a look at your life, and consider using the words of Psalm 119:36-38 as your prayer for today:

“Turn my heart toward Your Law, so I will not earn money in a wrong way.  Turn my eyes away from things that have no worth, and give me new life because of Your ways.  Keep Your promise to Your servant, the promise You made to those who fear and worship You.”