Perhaps one of the greatest hurdles we all face each week is the temptation to just "make it" through another day.  It is true enough that American life now is more hectic than ever, and all of us have more to do than we can get done.  We seem to begin each day with good intentions . . . "I will take time to pray today" or "I'll read the Scriptures later as soon as things slow down" or "I'll try to be more loving towards my family and friends today."  Somehow, though, we seem to get overwhelmed in the large and small demands of daily life.

    Remember throughout this week: you and I are in the process of construction.  We're putting together a life, building our character, and nailing down the expressions to be voiced in our future eulogy!  The life we build with the materials and time God provides is the only life we'll ever have.  Think about this......

    An elderly carpenter was ready to retire.  He told the contractor who employed him of his plans to leave the house-building business and live a more leisurely life with his wife enjoying his extended family.  He would miss the paycheck, but now was the time to retire. They could get by, he said.  The contractor told the old carpenter he was sorry to see him go.  He asked if he would build just one more house as a personal favor.  The carpenter said, "Yes," and he began the task at hand.  However, in time it was easy to see that his heart was just not in his work.  He cut corners, settled for shoddy workmanship, and used inferior materials.  It was a very  unfortunate way to end such a dedicated career.
    Eventually, the carpenter finished the house.  When the the employer came to inspect the house, he handed the front-door key to the carpenter.  "What's this for?" he asked.  "This is your house," the contractor said.  "It's my gift to you for all those years of hard work and sacrifice."  The carpenter was shocked!  What a shame!  If he had only known during the last project that he was building his own house, he would have done it all so differently.


    Well, that's the way it is in life with us Christians, also.  We're in partnership with God building a life.  He's purchased our lives on the cross, filled us with His Holy Spirit, graced us with varied and sundry talents and spiritual gifts, assured us a future, adopted us as His children, and providentially provided us with opportunities to serve Him every day!    Someone once said that what we have is our gift from God; who we become is our gift back to Him.

    When you are faced with the temptation to take shortcuts in life this week or integrate junk parts into your life, DON'T DO IT!  With HIs help, be faithful to build on a solid foundation, use quality materials, and give it all you've got.  God will help you as you do!

God bless you.
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2000

"Some people, like me, are born idiots, but many more become stupider as they go along!" ----Forrest Gump


"But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth."---John 16:13



Pentecost Sunday is the day in the Christian calendar when the Church the world over celebrates God's gift of His Holy Spirit to His people.  Most Christians are familiar with the story from Acts 2 ---- the Spirit's appearance with sounds of rushing wind, the sights of "tongues of fire," and the miraculous communication of the message of Christ.  It was quite an event and a blessing that remains in the Church to this day.  Every Christian is an heir to that heavenly Presence and divine Endowment!

However many people fail to appreciate one of the greatest legacies of that wonderful day.  By focusing on the more spectacular aspects of the Third Member of the Trinity, some of us forget the most profound results of His work in our lives.  The Holy Spirit, according to Christ, was given to guide believers into all truth.

 No commodity today is in shorter supply!  We have all kinds of "almost truth" available to us.  People run their lives with "truth by my standard" and "truth according to everyone else."  Others conform their behavior to "truth according to the latest fad."  Doctrines and beliefs have been bent repeatedly to satisfy "truth according to the current thinking of experts."  There's "how I feel truth" and "my truth versus your truth."  Why, a large number of people wouldn't know "real truth" if they saw it!

    That's why we MUST have the Holy Spirit!  His ministry of revealing truth enables us to live genuinely in a world of illusion.  He speaks to us completely and honestly convicting us of our sins (John 16:8), pointing the way to Christ (John 15:26), indwelling believers (1 John 3:24), confirming our adoption as Children of God (Galatians 4:6), empowering believers for Christian service (Acts 1:8), making believers competent for service (2 Corinthians 3:6), and insuring life to all believers (Romans 8:11).  He is characterized by truth because He proceeds from the Author of Absolute Truth!

    As you live this week, pay attention to the messages of truth from God's Holy Spirit.  Like Forrest Gump said, some people DO become more stupid as they go along!  You won't--- if you listen to and heed the Spirit's advice and truth!
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2000

 Perhaps one of the greatest scandals of modern Christianity is our tendency to "draw the sword" with brothers and sisters in Christ so easily.  The world around us gets a daily diet of brokenness, anger, and animosity.  Ethnic cleansing, race wars, and religious hatred are NOT simply oddities relegated to ancient histories.  How easily it is to allow our honest doctrinal convictions and interpretations of Holy Scripture to become the battle flags under which we "butcher them for Jesus' sake!"  In a free culture like our own, a more subtle yet Satanic sin is to acquire an attitude about ourselves from professional sports --- you know, the "we're #1" attitude.  "We're THE church......the rest of you are on the 'B Team.'"

    Now I'm not advocating that we abandon sound, Biblical doctrine nor the "faith once delivered to the saints."  What I AM advocating is an Christlike attitude of love towards fellow believers---and the requisite actions which go with love.  I genuinely believe that if we allow God to love others through us, we'll see Christians revived in their faith!

    Let me illustrate what I mean.  On November 4, 1740, Augustus Montague Toplady was born in Farnham, England.  He began writing hymns at 14, and was ordained as an Anglican priest at 22.  His theology was staunchly Calvinist, and the hymns he wrote were beautiful and uplifting.

    Toplady despised John Wesley's Arminian theology, accusing him of "lying and forgery" and saying that Wesley was "the most rancorous hater of the gospel system that ever appeared on this island."  He also wrote that Wesley was "guilty of satanic shamelessness."

    In 1776, Toplady wrote an article on God's forgiveness ending with a poem he had written:

"Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
    Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood,
    From Thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure;
    Save from wrath and make me pure.

    This poem, which became the hymn, Rock of Ages, was once described as the "best known, best loved, and most widely used" hymn in the English language.  Most American Protestants know this hymn.

    Curiously, over 30 years earlier, John Wesley had written a hymn along the same theme.  His hymn read:

"O Rock of Salvation, Rock struck and cleft for me,
Let those two Streams of Blood and Water which gushed from Thy side,
Bring down Pardon and Holiness into my soul."

    In spite of all the animosity and hard words by Toplady, it appears that both men genuinely loved the Lord Jesus and wanted to serve Him.  Theological differences?  Of course!  These were---and are today----apparent.  However, rather than accept those differences in a spirit of Christlike love, another attitude was shown.  Only the Lord Himself knows the hurts and hurdles for the Gospel created by hateful words.

    This week we all have the opportunity to live with a different kind of attitude.  Love is not only an emotion.....it is a choice!  We can choose to obey the words of Jesus Himself as we live. I trust you and I will do so!


"Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning.  This old command is the message you have heard.  Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in Him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.  Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness.  Whosoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble."

                            1 John 2:7-10 


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2000

GOD'S MEASURE IS WHAT YOU ARE, NOT WHAT YOU HAVE!


"The major value in life is not what you get.  The major value in life is what you become." -- Jim Rohn

 "And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory which comes from the Lord, Who is the Spirit."  ---  2 Corinthians 3:18


Even for people of faith, life provides great illusions and false economies.  We are bombarded daily by images of wealth and power.....and with all the profane lives of the seemingly "rich and famous."  The steady diet of judgment based upon how rich one is or how much one has accumulated takes its toll on our culture.  The shallow way we learn to look at people turns our values upside down.......things become priority and people become expendable.  No wonder our children mimic the behaviors of borderline personality athletes with multi-colored hair, outlandish tatoos, and repeated difficulties with police and league officials......not to mention repititious "drug rehabilitations!"

We seem to have lost the ability to define just what life is really all about.  What have we provided to one another and to our young people as a true measure by which they can build their lives?  Are we completely adrift in a sea of questions with no answers?

Of course, nothing could be further from the truth.  God, in His Word, gives us a completely reliable yardstick with which to judge ourselves.  Life is NOT a "have it your way" enterprise.  We have been given the instructions in His Word.

When I was in high school, I worked as a stockboy in a TG&Y store in Memphis, Tennessee.  This was one of those old-style stores with high shelves, clearly defined areas of the store, and ladies in charge of each section.  One of ours was the sewing goods section complete with all sorts of sewing supplies and bolts of cloth.  Mrs. Karger was in charge of that section, and she kept it as straight as an Army supply room ready for inspection.  In one area, she had a waist high counter with a metal yardstick screwed down on one edge of the top.  When women purchased cloth for their sewing, Mrs. Karger would get the bolt down, unfurl it with a flourish, and measure the amount needed......always by that one measure, the metal yardstick.  She did not sell the cloth by what she THOUGHT was the right measure, though honestly at the time I thought she had calibrated eyeballs!  She always measured carefully before cutting the cloth and figuring the cost.

The Scripture above tells us that God's people are in the process of being transformed.  Through daily exposure to God's person through Scripture reading, prayer, the inner work of His Holy Spirit, and living with the wonderful assurance that He is with us, we are being changed into His likeness.  His "cut" is always according to His unchanging "yardstick."  He musters together all of our life experiences, good and bad, to change us into the very best we can become.  We reflect more and more our Heavenly Father in our words and actions.

During this coming week, all of us will have different experiences.  Some of us will be blessed and others will be hurt.  We will share in the full gamut of life's challenges and emotions.  When tempted to despair, don't do so!  God is using all these things to make us into what He wants us to become.  Today's service and opportunities are dependent upon yesterday's lessons and development.

You see, it is NOT what we gain in bank balances or life's "things" that are the measure of our lives!  The "yardstick" for us is what we become!  For people of faith, God says that we ARE becoming something valuable and useful to Him!  We're becoming reflectors of His glory and images of His personality to a world that desperately needs to "see God."  Remember that as you live each day.  Let God show Himself to others through YOU!  He'll make more of us than we could ever believe or imagine.  God bless you as you do that!

"In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  These have come so that your faith --- of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire --- may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.  Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.'"   --- 1 Peter 1:6-9


     We have too much to do, too little time to do it all, and far too many things that seem to sap our strength.  In the midst of all this, we find ourselves as Christians being just plain miserable.  We know that we are supposed to have some sort of happiness or "joy," but where is it?  The little chorus says, "The joy of the Lord is my strength" but....WHERE IS IT?  For most of us, the reality of daily life and all its demands are major hurdles that require every ounce of our faith just to get by.  How in the world are we to have "joy?"

    There are two ways to form a complete answer to that.  The first, the NEGATIVE, points to behaviors and habits that sabotage our Christian lives.  The list of these below is certainly not exhaustive, but it does go a long way toward showing us how we can be part of our own problem of experiencing joy by our own conduct.  I am indebted to Army Chaplain Jim Stephen for this list:

1.   Use "I" as often as possible.
2.   Always be sensitive to slights.
3.   Be jealous and envious.
4.   Think only about yourself.
5.   Trust no one.
6.   Never forget a criticism.
7.   Always expect to be appreciated.
8.   Be suspicious.
9.   Listen greedily to what others say of you.
10.  Always look for faults in others.
11.  Do as little as possible for others.
12.  Shirk your duties if you can.
13.  Never forget a service you may have rendered.
14.  Sulk if people are not grateful for your favors.
15.  Insist on consideration and respect.
16.  Demand agreement with your own views on everything.
17.  Always look for a good time.
18.  Be selfish at all times.


    Get it?  One of the most certain paths to a "joy deficit" is to focus your life on yourself!  There seems to be an underlying rule in life that if you spend all your time on yourself, your own wants and desires, and your own happiness----you insure that you WON'T have joy!  A person who builds a life primarily based on self chooses an exceedingly uncertain foundation.


    The second answer to the question, the POSITIVE, is found in the Scripture passage above.  Notice that it deals with absolute reality --- the trials and tribulations of life.  "Into every life, some rain must fall!"  Difficulties and hardships are not the exclusive properties of Christians, though Christians may experience the pains of persecution and prejudice. 

Peter explains to the early Christians in his day that the twin purposes of life's misery are to prove the genuineness of Christian faith and to illustrate to Christians enduring the pains that they are NOW experiencing the salvation of their souls.  Imagine that!  One's salvation is more than some hoped for commodity in the future --- it is a present reality in the midst of which we may love Jesus and believe in Him even as we have an "inexpressible joy!"  Joy, then is not the product of positive circumstances or good outcomes in daily living.  It is the believer's response to the present, daily reality of our sure salvation and faith in Jesus Christ!

    In short, it is a matter of focus.  Think of it like Christmas: If all you did was to look around the stable, you'd have stomach-turning smells, filthy surroundings hardly fit for human habitation, animals with no sense of sanitation, and unscheduled shepherd visitors from a class of people with whom no self-respecting person would associate.  Ah.....but look in the food trough (the "manger"), and you'd see the Great Almighty God come down in human flesh to save us in our sins!  Your reactions and emotions are framed by where you look!

    So focus on the Lord Jesus this week and reflect on His present salvation in us!  See if you don't find the rays of joy breaking out of your heart.  And if you do.....let that joy infect others.  We can all use a dose of joy!  God bless you as you do!

"Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, 'Who will roll the stone away from the entrance to the tomb?' But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. 'Don't be alarmed,' he said. 'You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified.' 'He has risen!' 'He is not here.' 'See the place where they laid him.' 'But go, tell his disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see Him, just as He told you.'" Mark 16:2-7

He is risen! He is not here! Those words are repeated all over the Christian world in large cathedrals and tiny churches. They are cherished by Christian brothers and sisters in Chinese house churches as well as by believing pilgrims visiting the Holy Land to be hear the actual places where these world-shaking events took place. They are repeated in worship liturgies, hymns of praise, songs of celebration, sermons, homilies, lessons, and the deepest thoughts of all Christian disciples. What an amazing fact --- Jesus is not dead! He is alive and has conquered sin and death! The spontaneous response echoes across the world....."Hallelujah! Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ, Who lives forevermore!"

That first Easter morning was marked by fear and wonder. The women coming early to the Joseph's tomb where Jesus had been laid were confronted by God's angelic messenger, the Easter Angel. The angel's words were at once both comforting and commanding. "Don't be afraid!" he said. "He is not here. See the place where they laid Him." This testimony was at once both a verbal witness of the resurrection and a visual witness. He told them the great news and showed them the great news. And from that time, the angel's witness has formed the pattern of our own witness for all disciples of Jesus!

It is appropriate for all of us to consider that the joy of Easter is not simply to be experienced in a once-each-year worship service in a church. The joy and power of Jesus' resurrection is to be shared every day through our lives and through our words with all around us.

How well will we do this? No matter how well we ORGANIZE to do this, how well we TRAIN to do this, how well we SUPPORT doing this, and how well we TALK ABOUT doing this, the genuine matter is DOING THIS!

One of the frequent ways Satan hinders our witness to Christ is encouraging us to become busy with peripheral matters that divert our energies and attention from the central matter!

This story may  illustrate the situation with many of us: A newly hired traveling salesman named Gooch wrote his first summary sales report to his company's home office. It stunned "the sales department brass" because it was obvious that the new man lacked what they thought was the necessary sophistication and professionalism for their business.

Here is what the salesman wrote to the staff: Deer Boss - How ya'll doing? I'm workin hard and fownd these persons which ain't never bawt a dimes worth of nothin from us and sum who ain't never herd what we got to offer. I sole em a couple of hunnerd thousand dolars of stuff. I am now off to Chicargo. Bye.

Before Gooch could be contacted by the Sales Department Manager to ask him how he ever got hired by their company, another letter was received from him in Chicago:

Deer Boss -

    I got here and started right off.  I sole a half a millyun dolars worth of guds.  Gotta go.  There's mo people up here.   Sined, Gooch.



    Fearful to fire Gooch, the Sales Manager dumped the problem in the lap of the President/CEO of the company.  The next morning the staff was amazed to see the two letters from Gooch posted on the bulletin board along with this memo from the company President:


To All Salespeople:

    We ben spendin too much time tryin to spel insted of trying to sel.  Let's get owt there and do mo.  Gooch is on the rode doin a grate job for us, and you shud go out and do sum good like he done!     Sined, Yur President




 Sometimes we get so occupied with all the details of administering and supporting the "company" that we forget what the "company" is here to accomplish!  In our case as the Church, we get so involved in doing "things" that we lose sight of the most important thing. 

Let us all recommit ourselves to WHO WE ARE as Christians, OUR MISSION as Christians, and WHY WE DO OUR MISSION as His disciples!  He is alive, so we have all the power of His resurrection at our disposal.  The angel's command still holds true, "GO AND TELL!" 

Hallelujah.....we will!

"When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!'" --- Luke 15:17

We live in times when stupidity, ignorance, and willful misconduct are excused as "the right to choose" or "the unfortunate behavioral implications of previous abuse." As a society, we seemingly have lost the profound sense of sin!  All around us, people appear to break our laws and abuse other citizens only to have their misbehavior excused and their crimes unpunished. Even our legal system, long the example to the rest of the world, is losing the respect of our American citizens as we see criminals and deviants "get off" for the smallest and most insignificant details. One could rightfully wonder if we're losing our sanity as a culture!

Probably our greatest problem with sanity in our times has to do with our refusal to deal with sin. Our culture.....and, sadly, many in the Church who call themselves Christians, appear to have lost the ability to distinguish good from evil. Behavior goes from the mildly mischievous to the criminally horrid. At an age when childhood sensitivities should be tender and forming, an increasing number of children exhibit unashamed cruelty and even murder! For others, actions that we've always known were wrong are said to be right. Many college students have little or no ability to make moral distinctions or engage in ethical deliberations outside of inane statements like, "Well, like, I feel that....." or "I just don't feel that _______ is right." Are we just becoming insane?

The answer, partially, is YES! We're becoming insane with sin! The moral capacity inherent in humanity's being created in the image of God is being corrupted by the practice of sin. As a consequence, even the Church is downgraded in the quality of its life and profession before the world! We flaunt the prohibitions, warnings, and impediments placed in our path calculated to keep us safe and secure from the repercussions of sinful behavior.....AND we wonder why bad things happen to people!

In early 1988 Charles and Diana, Prince and Princess of Wales, and some friends took a skiing trip to Switzerland. The shocking news came one afternoon of a terrible accident caused by an avalanche in which one of the prince's lifelong friends was killed and another seriously injured. It seemed sheer chance that Prince Charles himself was not killed or hurt.

How did it happen? A day or two later the press reported that the Charles' group had chosen to ski out on slopes that were closed to the public. The avalanche warnings had been posted, but the group had chosen to go beyond the fences because, as one of them observed, that's where the optimum fun and excitement were to be found. Most likely, they found a brand of pleasure that was indeed more than attractive. However, it went beyond the margins of what was wise and prudent. Predictably, the avalanche exacted its price among those who went beyond the fences. The result? Several broken worlds.

The verse above, as most recognize, comes from the story of the Prodigal Son. The youngest son of the father in the story demands his inheritance even before the father dies---and the father hands it over to the ingrate. In keeping with his youth and stupidity, the young son leaves home, wastes his inheritance with "wine, women, and song," and finds himself destitute. He is far from home, without friends, without station in life, and without the means to maintain himself appropriately. In desperation and at his lowest ebb, he finds himself working for a swine farmer feeding pigs and envying their food! Life for a young Jewish man doesn't get much worse than this! With the loss of inheritance and every shred of dignity, the verse above appears in the Scriptural text. His sin and debauchery have been like an insanity that gripped and degraded his life. His life has become a living hell!

But, wait.......there's hope in the story. It says "he came to himself!" There is hope for all of us. When we get a good picture of ourselves as we REALLY are, we can do something about our moral and physical circumstances! The rebellious son was no longer simply stupid and dull of conscience......he "came to himself." God allowed the glow of His grace to reveal what an idiot the young man was.

We don't have to stay where we are when we realize our sins. We CAN return to a loving father who welcomes us. The most sane thing we can do when we find ourselves in an insane world is to return to the sane place where home lies. It requires a change of heart about our lives and our actions.

The young man knew he had wronged God and wronged his father. He determined to confess his sin to both. And: his mental determination was turned to living actions. He "got up and went...."

This week as all of us find ourselves in the insanity of sin, may God allow us to see ourselves as we really are! May we have the good sense and God-enabled grace to confess our sins, make things right with people we've wronged, and "go home" to where sanity is the norm. No matter what your moral or spiritual circumstances are---there's hope! May God give us all the grace to "get up and go" when we fail this week! You know, that really is the way to be sane in an insane world!