“The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death.” Proverbs 14:27
My woman was out of
Bubble Bath, which to me, became my honorable duty! Heading to the store, I was
immediately warned that a mask was required if I was to enter. Snickering, I
debated…but put one on anyway. Going up an isle I saw a worker there pulling
a very heavy cart loaded with bins. When she saw me it was like she had spotted
a ghost! So I spoke first to break the ice!
“It’s getting
crazier by the day, isn’t it?” I asked. She seemed to relax and then opened up.
“I have some medical conditions and wearing this mask causes me some problems.”
As she pulled aside her mask I felt privileged. She went on…”I don’t want the
manager to see me because sometimes I just HAVE to pull it aside to BREATH!” I
felt sick inside!
The Fear of The
Lord is a REAL thing. But it doesn’t mean what most people think. It means
‘Reverential Awe!” And I have that to the full! Because of that, I don’t hold
frightful type fear of anything else. Not a virus.. and not even death! It is
the greatest freedom in the world. But it comes with a caveat because, people
who do NOT love and revere God cannot understand that kind of freedom!
Going on, I came
across a woman in a mask, shield and gloves! As I got closer, she backed off.
So I asked her if she went to church. Her answer was a quick, “No!” I could
tell she didn’t understand where I was coming from. Protecting herself from a
virus, and ultimately death (she hoped), she had no concern for her eternal
state. Even though she KNOWS that one day she WILL die!
I made my way to
the Bubble Bath aisle and got out of there, coming home to a happy wife and a joyful
life… with absolutely NO fear whatsoever. Because I know that there is NO death
snare or trap that will EVER hold ME! Not having to pretend in a mask is
wonderful. Because of Jesus Christ… I am literally death proof! How about you…
what are you afraid of?
“For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope…” Romans 8:20
It’s been going on
now for the entire week! As I write the “God Morning Words of the Day,” my
computer seemingly decides it doesn’t want to cooperate. I type, computer goes
into thinking mode. When I open a window, it searches. This morning, in the
middle of typing, the file I was working on disappeared before my very eyes!!
Did you know that frustration and anger are sister emotions?
Back in the early
1980’s when computers first came out, I got a job selling them. I’ll never
forget the newest computer the company brought in that supposedly ran 2
operating systems (Bill Gates had not been crowned king yet!). It SOUNDED like
a good idea, until typing on the keyboard revealed a 2 second delay on the
screen! Talk about FRUSTRATING! My CURRENT computer experience has only
verified that, 40 years later, computers can STILL frustrate me!
Being a goal
oriented person, I don’t have patience with things that interfere with what I
am doing. Which, come to think about it, might not really be a BAD thing! After
all, according to today’s Bible verse, God SUBJECTED CREATION (and therefore
ME) to frustration. “Now DOG GONE IT GOD!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING INTERFERING IN
MY…“ And I think He just got my attention!
God likes to use
opposites for teaching purposes. For example, to get you gotta give. To live
you gotta die. To lead you gotta follow, etc! It is clear here that frustration
is MEANT to have it’s own goal of ‘HOPE!’ And God’s goal is clearly stated. He
wants me LIBERATED!
I have blamed Bill
Gates, the computer techies and software writers for controlling my computer
for their own purposes. And that is true! They ARE watching! But then…so is
GOD! And while THEY want to track my web surfing to design ways to market to
me, GOD wants me LIBERATED from this whole world system of futility! Because as
I have just experienced… MAN wasn’t created to live by 2 operating systems
either!
“O sons of men, how long will my honor become a reproach? How long will you love what is worthless and aim at deception?” Psalm 4:2 NASB
At my shooting
lesson yesterday I was surprised when Super Instructor Dan put up a LARGE
target with the entire center cut out of it. When he saw my surprise he said,
“today we are going to aim at nothin’!” It was a totally new approach and a
different way of thinking. I remember thinking, well how easy is it to hit
NOTHIN’!?” Turns out it’s harder than it looks.
I’m used to lining
up on a target and focusing on hitting my goal. It was unnerving to line up the
sight on nothing! You’d think aiming at a big hole of the stuff would be easy.
Until I brought the target in and saw I had hit the paper 9 times out of 50!
The NATURAL question might be, well how far away WAS the target? Turns out
‘NOTHIN’ is a LOT closer than I thought!
I am living at the
most frustrating age I have ever lived. Don’t get me wrong, I have had harder
TIMES than this, but through it all, God and Country have been the stabilizers
in my life when everything else goes wacky or fuzzy. These days, being
anti-Christian and anti-American seems to be the norm. And I can’t help but
think that this ‘hitting nothin’ is completely on purpose!
Being ANY kind of
dedicated teacher these days is HARD. Even my wife, the best ‘little kid’
teacher in the world, comes home with stories of how parents out there are just
not getting it! We are losing our children, and thus FURTHER generations,
because we have allowed OTHER things to come before our own children’s
education. I can tell you, God isn’t happy about it!
Am I REALLY dedicated to Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior? He SAID that HE was the ONLY way, Truth and Life…then laid out seeds of promise “if I follow (or aim)!” Am I following? Am I reading, applying and DOING what He says? If I am, I can look around at my life and SEE the fruit of what was planted. Or lack thereof!
God has a Family Business and that is to have ME looking like His Son! It is a HIGH Aim! But one He promises He can help me reach, IF I will simply ‘quit aiming at nothin!’ So here’s the question… “What are YOU aiming for?”
“Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” John 1:16-17
“Living in
Florida is a Tropical Depression!” That is what the bumper sticker used to say
years ago. I was reminded of that slogan yesterday, as the days of a predicted
hurricane were upon us. No…there was NO hurricane! But 1 minute it was
sunny…the next… a pouring deluge! All day long! What kind of weather is
THAT called?
Predicting weather
is a (so called) science. But OBEYING the prediction can be FOOLISH!
Thankfully, I had no pressing outdoor plans. I CAN tell you that we experienced
EVERY kind of weather imaginable with any given hour! Except for anything
related to cold since…it was a scorcher out there! Kind of like the weather
of our country!
Surfing through the
channels just before bed last night, we landed on the Republican National
Convention. If you know ANYTHING about the liberal media, you’d know why I
walked out of the room! The commentators and news casters turned EVERYTHING
sour and spun the words to literally PREDICT a coming crisis! ‘Blowhards’ is a
term that comes to mind! It made my mood foul!
Going through an
old Bible this morning, I found this paper on Bible Character Songs. It made me
smile at the reality of so many lives written about in there! ALL had faced
storms of magnificent proportions. Their character and legacy being defined by
how they responded. It was good to laugh and sing along as I remembered the
stories and songs.
It is SOOO easy for
me to adjust my mood to reflect what is going on around me. Up…then down! Bright…then
gloomy! From cheerleader to fatalist, I can go there in lightning speed. But
RARELY with ANY accuracy! The verses today helped me focus on what GOD expects
me to use as my ‘MOOD’ Report!
I am living in
GRACE! Wonderful, extravagant, amazing GRACE! The Law no longer even APPLIES to
me! So predictions of my demise can only enter my world if I DRAG them there!!
I am NOT a LAW liver but a GRACE Guarantor! And as God reminded me, His
expectation of me is to LIVE like storms do not exist! REGARDLESS of the scene
and activity all around me!
I have covenanted
with God AND my wife…to laugh and sing more! How about you?
In preparing for a sermon about Heaven,
I discovered something. Now.. Please pay attention…
And there came unto
me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last
plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come here, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high
mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of
heaven from God, Having the
glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a
jasper stone, clear as crystal; Revelation 9:9-11
And
further….
The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every
kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second
sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald,the fifth onyx, the sixth ruby, the seventh
chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth turquoise, the
eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst.The
twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl.
The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass.
Revelation 21:19
Then I discovered THIS..
In the past
century, it has been discovered that gems can be classified as either
anisotropic or isotropic, and only recently have scientists
discovered “cross”
polarized light, which can be used to identify whether
a gem is anisotropic or isotropic. When viewed in crossed-polarised light
(similar to “pure” light), anisotropic
stones produce a colourful array- reflecting all the colours of the rainbow,
whereas isotropic stones lose all of their colour and appear black.
It’s
interesting that, in Revelation chapter 21, there are 12 gems mentioned to be
inlaid for decoration of the New Jerusalem, and ALL of
these 12 gems are anisotropic gems, i.e., gems that can show
colourful patterns under pure light…
Interestingly, neither diamond, rubies or garnets
are mentioned, despite the fact that these group of gems are very very common! For instance,
the precious stones are generally considered to be diamond, ruby, sapphire and
emerald, with all other gemstones being semi-precious. It turns out, it’s
because they are isotropic, when pure light passes trough them, there is no
beauty at all… They actually look BLACK!
For wisdom
is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be
compared to it. Proverbs 8:11
So what
are the odds?
Of the 28
stones that are normally regarded as gemstones, only 16 are anisotropic. Since
anisotropic behaviour has only been discovered in the last
century (and John wrote Revelation almost 2000 years ago), the odds of 12
stones picked randomly being in that one group, is about 1 in
1,000! In fact, this analysis assumes that all gems have the
same probability of being included, but this is not the case (as some gems are
considered more precious than others). Hence, the actual
probability is much much lower than 1 in 1,000 for naming all the 12 gems,
that are all anisotropic gems, in the book of Revelation!
Keep in mind that there are a few assumptions being made here, i.e. the stones
are a literal description of heaven (which I believe are) and that the light in
heaven will be like “pure” light, which emanates through the gems…
Could it be possible that God, in choosing the stones for the
foundation of the new temple, deliberately avoided stones that would lose their
colour and instead chose stones that disperse light to produce brilliant
rainbow effects?
And He that sat was to look upon like a jasper
and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight
like unto an emerald. Revelation 4:3
Now… I
started this with the words of an angel saying, “Come hither, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife. Since we KNOW that the
Bride of Christ is The Church.. YOU AND ME!!! Just WHO is doing all that
shining???
You’ve
got it!!! YOU..
So get on with it will ya?? YOU have been
“CROSS” polarized by Jesus Christ and YOU are the LIGHT of the
World! Blessings!
“…no eye has seen…no ear has heard, and… no human mind has
conceived” — the things God has prepared for those who love him.” 1 Corinthians
2:9
Driving down the
road I was listening to music on the radio. I drive my wife nuts when she is
with me because I am a button pusher. If I don’t like the song or commercial
that’s on, I push buttons until I find something I do. The song, “I Can Only
Imagine,” by MercyMe, came on and I listened. Later, as I was pressing, John
Lennon’s “Imagine” came on. I quickly hit another button! Then I began to
imagine…
At FLAP last night
(our Church Bible Study) we were discussing questions you might ask God, if you
could secure just 2 minutes with Him now. It is ALWAYS interesting! Over the
years, I swear I have heard it all…”Will there be pets in heaven, marriage,
ice cream, dancing, beer (and once from an elderly lady) SEX!?” ALL the
questions lead to the inner desires of the person asking the question. Which,
as you might imagine, can cause some issues.
Larry Gatlin had a
song years ago that had this chorus;
Will they have
Mogen David in Heaven?
Dear Lord, we’d all like to know
Will they have Mogen David in Heaven, sweet Jesus?
If they don’t, who the hell wants to go?
You can now
UNDERSTAND the issue. If MY thing isn’t there.. why bother??
The Bible is clear.
If I find myself imagining what heaven will be like, and take time to mentally
approve ‘only’ the things ‘I’ like, I can get into trouble. In fact, the verse
today tells me that when it comes to imagining what Heaven is like, ‘DON’T
BOTHER!’ It’s impossible!
I smile now,
sitting with Jesus in my living room, and think about the question some more. I
can imagine myself asking Him, “Lord, with there be ___________ in Heaven.” But
before I ask, I already KNOW that if it isn’t in His Word, I WON’T get an
answer. But I CAN hear Him say to me, “But ‘I’ll’ be there! Is THAT good
enough?” It is at that moment I realize, I have no more questions!
“Now devote your heart and soul to seeking the Lord your God.” 1 Chronicles 22:19
Wirrrrrrrrr..
WIRRRRR! Last night I HEARD the fire engines on the main road, but paid no real
attention. When I realized they had turned onto MY road I took particular
notice as they passed my house! Running outside I saw it… 4 houses down. The
house was enveloped in smoke and fire was shooting into the air. Soon, it
seemed the entire world was parked on my street.
I am neither a
trained fire fighter nor EMT. I know enough to stay back out of the way to let
pros do what pros do! As neighbors found each other, natural questions started
to flow. ‘Are the owners OK? What started the fire? Who called it in? What were
YOU doing when you heard?’
I can rejoice that
the house is not mine. But some fear slipped into conversations of other
neighbors when they realized that it COULD have been. Fire, like bad news, has
no boundaries. As I reflected on the day, it was a solid reminder… we are
living in difficult times.
I have several
personal things that are peaking right now. Things I have prayed for, some for
a long time, that just don’t seem to be moving like I have been praying. As I
shook my head at the organized chaos last night, I could feel my soul reaching
for its running shoes. It was like a siren jolt…I simply HAD to force myself
to STOP.
When bad news
comes, it is natural to want to run… flee… hide! ANYTHING to get away from the
smokey darkness that seems to find its way around every corner. BUT GOD! The
Word tells me OVER and OVER THIS ONE THING. “NOW devote your heart and soul to
seeking the Lord your God.” As I have said before, this uncertainty is like a
railroad crossing. And the requirements are EXACTLY the same. “STOP, LOOK,
LISTEN!”
Whether it is an
election result, a medical condition, a job change or even a fire! God’s has a
rule for dealing with it. Look to Him and trust! Only HE knows what is coming
and I just need to know that… WHIRRRRRR (NEWS FLASH!!!) my God is rather fond
of me!!!
“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.” John 15:16
When I saw
cherries on sale at the store, I bought a bag. Yesterday I noticed I was going
through the bag with my EYES before my fingers. What I had discovered is, the
darker the cherry, the sweeter it is. And the darkness is determined by the
kind of cherry it is, AND how long it is on the tree.
Today is Voting
Day! The day we get to utilize our collective ‘Right’ to vote to elect our
government leaders. I ‘stump’ all over this day because SO many people DON’T!
Since we are a republic we actually have the privilege of CHOOSING the kind of
government we want. Unfortunately, there is a negative side to the process!
If more selfish
or cruel people show up at the polls to choose a candidate than good and honest
people, then the process can be flawed. Which is all the more reason GOOD and
HONEST people need to make the effort! But the verse today has something BIGGER
in it than just selection! And it may surprise you!
I HAVE BEEN
CHOSEN BY GOD!. That is a WONDERFUL thing. But if that was the end of it, then “I”
become the prize in the process! That is NOT what God intended. The verse goes
on to say that I have been chosen…FOR A PURPOSE! To Bear LONG LASTING, SWEET
FRUIT that HE wants! And if I get with His program, I can even get a say as to
HOW MUCH!
Cherry picking is
a term used in basketball as well. It refers to one player (the cherry picker)
NOT playing defense with the rest of the team. The picker remains near the
opponents’ goal as a quick means to score if the defense steals the ball, and
passes it to the cherry picker. But note…the CHERRY PICKER is NOT THE FOCUS.
THE FOCUS IS THE SCORE!
I have been
picked by God. NOT because I am very special. But because God sees, in me, a
willingness to play on His team, to isolate myself from some of the action, and
always be prepared to receive from Him to make the GOAL! He even goes on to say
that the more time I spend focused on HIS goals, the more “I” may get the
opportunity to actually ‘call some plays!’ If I ask well, that is!
I am a chosen
cherry picker for God. I have to remind myself of that honor regularly, and
prepare my actions and focus on Him more and more. I know my place and what He
expects from me. I have a track record of DOING what He tells me, which has
ONLY come with time and commitment served.
“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” Ephesians 4:22-24
We were spending
time with our sons and their families yesterday when one of them talked about
their church group and the Enneagram Personality Test. Having never heard about
it, we listened to its description and uncanny ability to predict, or peg, a
personality. The way the discussion went was natural, yet it almost had a
natural ‘Sales’ feel to it. Soon, we were ALL taking ‘The Test!’
The questions
were quite personal and I really had to think hard to choose the most
appropriate answer for me. Several of the others had already completed the test
and were comparing results. I heard things like, ”Oh that is SOOOO YOU!” And “I
can see that!” And “Oh, THAT explains EVERYTHING!” I thought, “What have I
gotten myself INTO!”
My results came
up and I was profiled somewhere between Phoebe (from ‘Friends’) and Heath
Ledger’s, ‘The Joker.’ Scary huh? We all shared and laughed and had good fun. I
was surprised to find that BOTH of my sons shared the EXACT description number
as ME! I guess it’s true! ‘The apple doesn’t fall from the tree!’ But something
was nagging me and I didn’t know what. Until now!
You can take the test if you want. In fact, there are MANY so called ‘Personality Tests’ if you want to have an interesting night with your family or friends. But the nagging that caught me was ‘The Peg!’ It actually pointed out truth about me. And it didn’t take long to start ‘RATIONALIZING WHY’ I am how I am (which is EXACTLY what my test # SAID I would do)!
In the end, I
don’t NEED any excuses for how or why I behave as I do. In Romans 7, Paul
didn’t’ give any either! He simply summed himself up as ‘wretched!’ God’s Word
tells me to simply ‘put off that former self’ and to ‘be made new in my mind’
in order to become MORE LIKE my Heavenly Father! Which is a pretty good
summary!
I don’t rejoice
that my sons are like ME. But I DO rejoice that they, and ALL my family
members, love Jesus Christ FIRST and MOST! That said, and regardless of ANY
number, we ARE looking alike more and more every day! How about YOU?
