Self-quarantining ourselves

The devil's got a problem. On-fire-for-God Christianity is infectious. "It only takes a spark, to get a fire going - that's how it is with God's love, once you've experienced it, you want to share, you want to pass it on" [Pass it On, a song I learned in the 70's]

I saw a show last night in which a monastary was depicted, filled with people who'd made a commitment to study God's word and spend much time in prayer and meditation. How convenient for the devil. Folk who get the Gospel and they then voluntarily quarantine themselves away where they can't infect anyone else.

We do this also, to a lesser degree, when we send our kids to Christian school, or when we find a church denomination or church family and never get around to other churches or denominations.

And when we go out in public we wear our politically-correct filter, like a hospital ward breathing mask, careful to filter out praise for our Creator, hope for Jesus' soon return, and anticipation of Heaven.

Choose, and Enjoy!

Sometimes we wish we could have a face to face consultation with God. All we'd need, we figure, is 5 or 10 minutes and get some solid advice on a few "life direction" questions.

"Should I marry this person, are they the one?"

"Should I take this Job? Is it right for me?"

"Should we move to this certain city, and sell our home?"

"What should I Major in, in college? What would I be best at and enjoy most and serve you best by?"

This list goes on and varies for each of us but we all have these uncertainties in life and we just know our life's path would be grand if God would just take a moment to tell us what to do. We'd also be able to go forward in confidence knowing that "if God is for us, who can be against us?"

I too sometimes yearn for the opportunity for a little direction. Sometimes we want it so bad that we try to force it. "Okay God, if this sign happens, then I will know it's your will - and if it doesn't then I will know it is not your will."

We know that Gideon used a fleece as a sign, but after getting a sign, he started to worry that he'd chosen the thing that was going to happen naturally, so he asked again that the sign be opposite. (judges 6:39). It may be important to note that Gideon's test was not to decide between his own conflicting choices. It was to test a direct request of service from God. That's a bit different from the decisions we are usually stuggling with.

This week we're going to be studying Ecclesiastes in my Sabbath morning study group. It may shed some light on this idea of God's plan for our lives or the importance we think our life's path holds. I'm somewhat undecided. I do think that God answers prayer of all types, including and maybe even especially those "life direction" questions.

But I also can't help feeling it's sometimes a bit like asking God to tell us what our favorite color ought to be. To which I'd imagine Him answering "Choose, and Enjoy!"

Perhaps that is often the answer he gives us in our search for our own life path: "Choose, and Enjoy!" There are many many paths we can take, and many jobs, places to live, candidates for someone to spend our life with. All wonderful, all filled with both blessings and hardships, all worthy of our best efforts and richly full with possibilities.

While we do have these choices, and we are free to choose, James 4:13-15 makes a good point, that with any plans we set we should say to ourselves "The lord willing, we will do this, or that", always being ready to abandon our plans in favor of God's will and leading.

But prayerfully consider the possibility the next time you wonder what God's plan is for your life, perhaps he is trying to tell you: "Choose, and Enjoy!"

Gigantic to do lists

I love life!

There is more to do than I will ever be able to get done. I have web opportunities on scribbled scraps of paper all over my office. Some I'm actively working on but some may simply never get enough time allotted to ever see the light of day. Here it is mid December and months ago I had a gift I wanted to start working on, heavy in graphics and computer, but there is also some printing and turn-around time to have it ready as a gift for a few of my family members. I probably won't get it done in time for Christmas, so maybe I'll have it ready for next year.

One of the lines that has stuck with me from and old Jim Croce song "There's not enough time to do the things you want to do, once you find them." It was truer for Jim than he knew, but it's true for all of us. Life is rich with possibilities and I simply can't get to it all.

This is of course nothing new, but what struck me this morning and why I'm blogging this message is this verse, from Malachi 3:10 which says:

Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

That's how I think of our to do list that is so big we'll never get it done. Blessings so plentiful that "there shall not be room enough to receive it".

Something to think about next time we're feeling overwhelmed :)

God our helpful friend

I was sitting at the downstairs computer getting some things ready to mail out and I heard my wife call out "Could you grab me a pair of white socks from my top drawer?" which is upstairs. I didn't really think about it, I just broke away from what I was doing and bounded up the stairs to get her a fresh pair of socks. As I came out the door of the downstairs office and she saw me, she said "Oh, you're down here, never mind honey, I can get them myself."

I was already on my way and it certainly wasn't a task that needed any deliberation over, so I just said "I don't mind", grabbed her a pair of socks and returned back to work.

The day before I'd had a similar experience with God. I had prayed asking for help with my recent unemployment and meeting the financial difficulties associated with it. I asked specifically for help meeting this month's bills, finding ongoing income, and for help in digging us out of our backwards situation.

In what I assume was a response to that request, these three things happened: My brother called and asked if I needed some short-term work, a person who owed us some money called to get the address to send it to, and my sister spent some time helping me line up a possibly lucrative business deal. It was one I had been inquiring about but she took the time to make a convincing presentation of the merits, and it worked, I should have that project beginning mid next week.

The interesting thing is that all of that was things I could have done myself. I could have called to see if that money was going to be sent soon, I could have called and asked my sister to check in again on the possibility of the business deal, and I could have called around to friends and relatives to see if there was any work available.

When I was asked to grab the socks for my wife I couldn't help but think that God sometimes responds in the same way, not annoyed or telling us "you could do that as easy as I can", but instead, happy to help, a true friend, willing to pitch in alongside us.

I am convinced that the Psamlist recognized this of God when he wrote "no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly." (psalms 84:11) Romans 8:32 has this to say: "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?"

This is just one small insight into God's relationship with us, and it is not "stand-alone". We need to study and be aware and continue our learning, because sometimes God uses delays in answers to our prayers to teach us, as when Jesus delayed healing Lazarus until he had died.

But this post is just about a glimpse of God our helpful friend, who helps us just in love, not always to teach us something.

Hey! I get Reception Out Here!

Just a thought that made me smile - I was driving taking the back roads recently, and as I often do while driving, spent some time in prayer.

As I got into some of the mountainous areas I noticed my cell phone had gone out of range. I'd been this back way many times before, so it was no surprise, but as I continued in prayer it suddenly struck me that I still get 5 bars of connection with God. Anytime, anywhere.

And that just brought a smile to my face.

Skippable Church

There is a growing group of people who are Christians, pray and live their life keeping God in their overall outlook of the world we live in, but do not attend any church and promote to others not to attend.

"Church doesn't save people, Jesus does" or "I don't need church to connect with God" are the types of reasons given.

An electrician I worked with for several months earlier this year said that as a child he went to church almost every day, because they had so many things going on, and he thinks God won't hold it against him because when he was young he got in enough church to last a couple lifetimes. That gnawed at me ever since, because he was looking at church as an obligation. Do other people? I wonder how many go, but only from a sense of obligation?

Maybe It was just the church. I have been to a lot of churches, and a lot of denominations, and it's been very rare to attend a church I didn't like. I admit that in "exploration mode" any church is going to be more interesting because I'm trying to find the "real" Christians and fellowship, and learn what differences or strengths that particular church has. I'm specifically looking for what's good, and purposefully turn a blind eye to anything that's missing or not right, if I can. I could be happy and grow in my Christian walk in a lot of different churches, but not all of them. So if anyone you know is not attending, read on, but plan to encourage them to explore and visit other churches. God's family is huge, and there's more wonderful churches out there than you'd imagine.

But back to my title "Skippable Church." Sometimes church seems skippable. Perhaps the regular pastor is out of town, or everyone you usually associate with are going to be away that weekend, and it seems "I could skip this week, take a day of rest in an even truer sense..." etc.

But a week without church is not the same. The day does not go as restful as you thought it would and at the end of the day you don't have much to show for it. Awareness of God's will for us and his working in our lives and on our hearts barely gets a passing thought, and the day is gone, and the new week begins.

When you're at church you are participating in a special event to which Jesus said "Where two or more are gathered together in my name, there I am with them also". That's a pretty big deal. And we don't go only to church as an audience, but to contribute, and as an example. Friends and family all know whether you go to church every week or not. And every once in a while people you'd never expect to attend end up attending for one reason or another. I don't want to focus too much on the idea that your attendance is to help others' salvation, maybe because that is more from the obligation viewpoint mentioned above. But it is a reason for not skipping. And I know from past personal experience that skipping changes to "wow how long HAS it been since I've gone?" very easily.

There is so much to be gained from church. Encouraging and sharing with others in the small groups time before the sermon (don't just show up for the sermon or you're missing the best part!) has an encouraging and strengthening effect on you as well.

God used to play a little game with me, as I would sometimes ask Him questions during prayer throughout the week, I began to notice He'd answer me through the weekly sermons at the campus church. (I used to have a daily walk along the riverside and could pray aloud in private because the babbling of the river masked my voice.) Often during prayer time questions would come up. Once I figured out what He was doing, I began to await anxiously for each new sermon. The one most memorable to me was the time when the pastor got completely off-topic, answered my question, then composed himself saying "I don't know how I got to talking about that." I just smiled. I knew why.

I would just summarize by saying church is not "skippable". If you don't like your church then go find a new one! There are so many and in my experience there is something good in all of them. There's bound to be a group with whom you can relate, and actually get excited about what it means to be on God's team when the enemy's war machine is in full operation. Don't think it's not.

And if you don't like church because you're not a sheeple, then good! The churches need a lower ratio of sheeple :) Get involved, and before long you'll wonder why on earth you let something so important become optional or avoided.

Running on empty

We live in a whirlwind of blessings from God, and yet He is very skillful at giving us blessings without being obvious about it.

I often think God runs better on "empty" than on "full". When we're "full" we feel self sufficient and have a reduced sense of our need for God.

When Jesus fed the 5000 with 3 loaves and two fishes, (and when Elisha did the same thing in II Kings 4:42-44) He did not do a more visibly spectacular miracle of creating a mountain of food and then distributing it. Instead He "ran on empty", but made what was available sufficient to supply everyone's needs, enough that there was left over.

When Jesus sent out the disciples he instructed that they take nothing with them, and when they returned he asked if they had lacked for anything. Their every need had been met.

I have often heard about people who have gotten "just enough" or got it "just in time". Because God has unlimited resources, he is able to supply our every need. By supplying us just in time and with just enough He helps us to not fall into the indulgences we might be tempted with if we got too much or got it too soon.

I just learned last week that when my wife and daughter were in Guatemala on a mission trip about three weeks ago, they had a loaves and fishes type miracle. They had food for 150 and were unprepared for the 450 villagers who came to eat. Many of these villagers eat just beans or beans and corn tortillas because that's what they can afford or what they grow, so this meal with lots of fruit and variety was quite an opportunity, and they all ate plenty. The food never ran out, and when it was over the leftovers equaled about what they had started with.

While we love to hear of and experience miracles, we need to remember that everyday life is probably full of unseen miracles that we never notice. "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want".