Tag Archives: God
More Than Just Making It
Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. Ma 24:12,13
I just finished reading two great posts at Faith and Footsteps and Justified Freely
Look folks, we all pretty much can read the handwriting on the wall. We are in a season of increasing wickedness and the love of many is certainly getting a little chilled.
There’s a lot of chatter going on about how we have to change the world. Questions like, “How do we fix this?” ,“What needs to change?” and “Who’s to blame?” all make a regular circuit across the interview tables of the reigning talking heads.
These are great questions. I’m just not sure they are the first questions we ought to be asking ourselves as individuals. After all we can’t change anything in the world without first changing ourselves.
I think the first question we each need to ask is, “In light of what is happening in the world, who do I want to be?”
I want to be a champion for Christ! I want to be a man of passion! I want to be someone who at the end of his days has used every ounce of grace given him to make a difference! I want to be a guy who does more than just make it into Heaven! I want to be the guy who gets and keeps the victory in life’s battles by daily utilizing the power of God!
Who do you want to be?
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Not So Pretty Yet
My sister and I were driving to the grocery store last night and along the way I got thinking about how ugly the start of Spring can be. The grass is still brown. The trees all look like dead sticks poking out of the ground. The streets are covered with sand from the winter road treatment. What snow is left is black with mud and nothing is left to cover the damage the winter storms have done to the forest. Still, people are outdoors in the evening raking and cleaning up the mess. The stores are filled with pansies and marigolds hoping to be planted and the maples are beginning to bud, promising that soon and very soon beauty is going to return to the Earth.
Seasons of transition in life, like in nature, are not so pretty. They can be discouraging because they leave us feeling naked, exposed, and feeling incapable. As we grasp to catch up with the next level of life the world around us can perceive us floundering gracelessly to make the leap, or at least that’s how it often feels to me.
Christianity, to me, seems sometimes like one long season of transition where my weaknesses are exposed and challenged and I am called to rise up to higher heights than I think myself capable of. It feels like I am constantly sweeping away last season’s sand to make room for some new planting of the Lord whose outline is yet to be revealed. Can anyone out there relate?
But I have been through enough of these seasons now to know that everything is going to be all right. The upheaval, the challenges, the feelings of being exposed and incapable all just go with the territory, They are things to be grinned at and borne with grace. The plans of God may not yet be fully revealed to us but that is to be expected. It is how God has made faith to work. What we can know in our seasons of transition is that like Spring our seasons of transition may appear at the first deformed and ugly but in a brief time they shall appear glorious!
The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
18I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. Romans 8:16-19 NIV
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Caddo’s Seven Word Sunday 4-12-15
NEVER GIVE UP ON GOD’S PRECIOUS PROMISES!
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Afloating
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Afloat.”
Here is our photo challenge.
This week, show us what afloat means to you.
Clouds float in the sky.
Boats float in the water.
And little ducks float too!
Hope floats from the heart of prayer.
The church floats in eternity.
Not buildings me and you!
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All Our Little Boxes
I was reading one of J.S. Park’s blogs over at J.S. Park Blog and when I commented, he suggested I expand on the thought in a blog of my own.
I mentioned in my comment that , “It is one of the great mysteries of grace that God will allow us to keep our boxes if we insist on them. He will even visit our boxes because He loves the people who hold them. But He will never live in our boxes because they are too small to contain Him.”
When I talk about boxes I am not talking about issues of orthodoxy or righteousness. All Christians are called to adhere to the fundamentals of the Christian faith :
We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.- The Nicene Creed
Further sin as sin is defined in the Bible. We don’t get to change the Word of God for the convenience of our culture, our family or our own popularity.
That said, there is a lot of space within this boat called Christianity and a lot of diversity. Each of us has our favorite version of Christianity, our own box, that describes how we are going to practice our orthodoxy and biblical obedience. I talk in tongues and worship to guitars. You play the pipe organ and insist all the women in your service cover their heads and wear dresses. You have sacraments. I have ordinances. You practice congregational leadership. I espouse an ecclesiastical model. You’re a house movement Christian. I am a firm believer in the organized church. Boxes galore folks!
You know, I don’t think God is as freaked out about all the different forms of Christianity in the world as we are. I think He visits people and churches in the ways they find comfortable not because their way is the best way or the perfect way but simply because He loves them and wants to be close to them, even if all their earthly brothers and sisters think they are a little whacky or a little stuffy.
But dear brothers and sisters let’s not pretend that because God visits our box on a regular basis, that makes our box better than all the others. God is bigger than all our boxes put together and trying to contain Him in your box and declaring He can’t move outside of it is a sure way to get the walls of your box blown up and thrown in the Holy Ghost trash heap.
You may think your box has it all over on mine. You are probably even able to point out all the flaws in my box and give a hundred reasons why people maybe shouldn’t visit it. Guess what. If I were so inclined I could find flaws in your box too and come up with just as many reasons why people shouldn’t visit yours. I’ll admit it, my box is flawed because it’s my box! I am flawed! And your box is flawed because it’s your box and you are flawed.
In the end if God visits my flawed box and He also visits your flawed box maybe we ought to accept each other’s boxes like God does and figure out how to work together to get more people into the boat called Christianity. After all isn’t that what we are called to do?
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Cee’s Church Of Fun!
This week Cee has encouraged us to have fun with church photos in her
Click on the funny face and you will be transported into a world of fun churches.
Here are my church photos and some churchified quotes.
The ruined sanctuary of Cashel
Prayer is a strong wall and fortress of the church; it is a goodly Christian weapon.
Doorways to the Old Center Church Winchendon MA
Anyone who is to find Christ must first find the church. How could anyone know where Christ is and what faith is in him unless he knew where his believers are?
St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, is Church of Ireland a Prfotestant denomination.
For years I thought my assignment or the Church’s assignment was to articulate the Gospel and nothing more. Now I believe that if we don’t support the verbal expression of the Gospel with physical demonstration of compassion, we are not imitating Jesus.
1st Bible Baptist Church, Gardner MA
The Church is not a gallery for the exhibition of eminent Christians, but a school for the education of imperfect ones.
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Fix That Car! Fix That Porch!
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “If I Had a Hammer.”
Last night my daughter called and told me she needed a new water pump in her car. Last week I learned the ABS computer in my mini-van is toast. The price for these fixes? $700.00 and $1500.00 respectively. Right now I wish I was a mechanic and I had a whole auto shop in my back pocket.
My front porch made it through another winter but more pieces of it crumbled to dust in the winter freeze. I wish I was a natural born carpenter and that working with wood felt as natural to me as the moving my fingers across the keyboard.
So many are jealous of my voice, my musical ability, my quick way with words or the speed at which I read. Honestly sometimes I think I would trade those gifts to be mechanically inclined. Still I realize each of us has a gift and we are called to use it and not covet someone else’s gift. I know if I am just faithful to God with the gift He gave me He will make a way for the things that I have no gifting for to get done.
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The Something In the Nothing
Take a gander at Patricia’s Place and tell us your story IN OTHER WORDS
Our quote for the week, from which we are to concoct a itsy bitsy story, is
” Abundance is, in large part, an attitude.”
Sue Patten Thoele
The Something In the Nothing ( A dramatization of 2 Kings Chapter 4:1-7)
by JE Lillie
She bent to her task without a word. What was there to say? Everyone thought she was crazy.
Miriam had called her a fool.
Havah had all but thrown her out of the house.
The widow had pleaded, “But the prophet said…”
“Prophet Smophet! You dim beggar take the bowls and go. What use have I for them when my husband and sons are dead at the hands of those Moabite pigs? But don’t you dare talk to me about a God who treats people like this.”
She could hear Havah’s words echoing in the back of her mind as she unpacked the sack full of bowls.
She could hardly blame them. Everyone had lost someone in the raids, including her.
She pushed the thought of Azariah from her mind. The exorcism of his image took conscious effort every day but it was the only way she held on to the few strands of faith she had left.
The widow plunked the bowls and vials onto her table. She lined the window sills and edges of the room with all the containers she had collected from her doubting neighbors. At last, when she was finished arranging the hodge podge collection of vessels, the prophet stepped into the room.
She thought he would wave his walking stick or utter some magic words.
Instead he nodded almost imperceptibly, smiled and said, “That’s a lot of pots.”
The widow began to pour from her tiny decanter. By sunset every bowl, vessel, pot and vial was full of oil.
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Show Me Your Face!
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “It’s a Text, Text, Text, Text World.”
How do you communicate differently online than in person, if at all? How do you communicate emotion and intent in a purely written medium?
Our lead pastor often reminds us as staff of the value of face to face meetings. In a world that values quick and constant communication it is easy to forget that while information can be disseminated by cell phone or e-mail, emotion cannot be completely communicated if at all in a tweet, a text or an e-mail. Words can convey emotion but it takes time and the use of narrative (something noticeably absent from most forms of e-communication).
So if my communication involves emotion: joy, sadness, confusion, anger, or fear, I need to see the people I am communicating with. I need to read their body language. I need to hear the inflection of their words. And if I cannot see eye to eye with a person then I must absolutely meet face to face!
