God in a Box

Why is it that in today's world of "anything goes" and "wide-gate" Christianity that we as Christians are afraid to say what God is? By that I mean, why is it that when we tell people in discussions that God has a certain characteristic or feels a certain way about something we are accused of "putting God in a box?" Are the scriptures themselves not God-breathed? Has God not revealed to us everything that we need to know through His scripture? When we talk about a jealous God we may get the response, "that's not my God," even when it is revealed in scripture. When we talk about a vengeful God we may get the response "that's not my God, even when He Himself has told us so. When we talk about a God who frowns upon homosexuality, we get the response "not my God," even though He has revealed so to us. What is your response (not what would you say, but what have you said in past similar situations)? Is it not time to stand up and tell people who make these comments that we serve different a different God from their god???? God put Himself in the box, we simply have to open it and show it to the world.

He Won't Let You Down

I came to a stark conclusion today. People, including ourselves, let you down. I continually let myself down. I may have the best intentions in the world but I often let myself down. People, regardless of their intentions, let us down. Rather it boils down to original sin or not it doesn't matter because the proof is in the pudding as they say. We set unrealistic expectations. We want what we can't have. We ask too much. We make promises we know will be difficult to keep. We will let one another down. We are covered in flesh and that alone makes us fallible beyond compare.

I say that to say this. There is only one being in my life that I can have 100% confidence in. That being is the one and only true God, the father of Jesus Christ and the giver of the Holy Spirit. I know with all my heart that if I recognize myself as the gutless, dark, and weak human that I am that then He will look down on me in mercy and guide me along still waters. I know that when I find myself in situations that only a wretched man or woman could allow them self to fall into that He will give me the strength, thoughts, and words to be able to place myself back where I can look to Him with a clean heart and without guilt or heartache partake of His son's sacrifice. I know that when I look at my influence on others and where I once felt shame and suffering for my actions, He will give me the opportunities and guidance to be able to scream at the top of my lungs "LOOK AT WHAT THIS GREAT GOD HAS DONE WITH ME."

God is the only thing in my life who has never, and I have faith, will never let me down. He is the sun and the moon. He is the stars and grass. He is the time and the pause. He is the smile of my children and the strength of their hearts. He is my conviction and redemption. He has taken me and made me realize that without Him I am and can do nothing, even today and definitely tomorrow. He is the opener of my eyes to see all men and women as they are and has given me the desire to reach to everyone of them and tell them of Jesus.

He is God. He is Good. He is Holy. He is worthy. He is perfect. He is God.

Worth Sharing

So there are some things that happen during the day that I feel needs to be shared. As I was working with a client this morning and we were discussing his spiritual confusion that has caused as well as stemmed from his addiction to illicit drugs. This client was saying something that I have heard several times before from other clients. He was discussing the fact that when he was going through opiate withdrawals and in the floor of his bathroom he cried out to God to help him and relieve his pain. He went on to discuss the fact that he now finds himself angry at God for not answering that prayer at that time and for his having to come for treatment and therapy. He discussed the fact that he believes but that he also does not believe.

At this statement I stopped him and began discussing the chaos that can ensue from being stuck between belief in a higher power and disbelief. Chaos in life is one element that leads to addictive behavior and illicit substance abuse (click here to view a slide show regarding the elements of addiction). As I discussed how this lack of resolve in his spiritual life is keeping chaos in his life and how dangerous this is, he stopped me. He said to me, "I just thought of something. Coming here was the answer to my prayer. I have never realized that before." I was speechless at this insight my client had just shown. So much so that I immediately dismissed him. I told him to leave my office and to leave that thought open the rest of the day. There was nothing that he and I could have done the rest of that session that would have mattered more.

I hope that we all can learn from this client. No, we don't always get exactly what we want when we pray but God does always answer our prayers.

On an Island

You ever felt like you were the only one in a place that fully grasped the reality of right and wrong? I had that experience today. Without diving into too much detail, I will try and briefly explain the situation. My co-worker at work has to give a presentation on the same date as my son Luke's birthday. Being somewhat technologically savvy, this person is sort of dependent I do not mean that word in a negative sense) on me to make sure that the technical aspects of the presentation go as they hope. As I learned of the clash of dates today I informed this individual that should for some slight (note slight) reason my son be out of school on that day, I would more than likely not be able to attend the presentation as I would want to spend that time with my son(s) and wife. After all, I will probably only get 18 or so of these chances in his lifetime. You would have thought that I had slapped this person in the face. Here I am trying to be not just a good father who is involved in his children's lives and who puts them only after God (the two go hand-in-hand in my opinion) as I am commanded to do and suddenly I am looked upon as if I am the worse person in the world. I understand that their need and trust in my ability to make sure things go well is ultimately a compliment but I explained that I can easily show someone how to do the things that need done and reminded this person that there was only the slightest of possibility that I would not be able to attend. Note that I am a therapist, not an IT specialist. After no headway was made, I eventually had to just put it as simply as I could. I had to actually say, as if it was not known by the way I live my life, "My family's needs will always come before your needs." This comment was labeled as offensive, I labeled it as simply true and left the meeting feeling frustrated, yes; abandoned by a peer, yes; misunderstood, yes; alone, NO. I simply left for lunch and prayed. I know I was in the right but was made to feel as if I had some obligation that requires me to take more time away from my family than I already do. The following verses seem to sum up the situation to me:

James 3:16-17 16 For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. 17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.

This person did not have my best interest at heart but seemed to be seeking after their own interest. I hope that one day they will see that my words and actions are only meant to avoid being seen as a hypocrite. How can I say I am a Christian father unless I live as one? I recently listened to a lesson that discussed the fact that in all our lives something has to be sacrificed to get the things done that we are called on to do. Let me never again sacrifice my family and their needs for someone else's gain.

As the day progressed and fear of vindictive action crept and were noticed by the obvious silence that was sent my direction I asked God to just help me make it through the day and return safely to those who do truly care about not only me because of what I can do for them, but my soul and my goal to be a Christian father and leader first in my life. The day finally ended and I got in my truck to return home but God placed something else on my heart. The Holy Spirit reminded me that a friend's/ fellow Christian's mother was in the local hospital and that I should stop by on my way home. I went and enjoyed their fellowship for a while and all negative feelings left me and as I prayed with them I thanked God for giving us all reminders that we must call on him.
I have since looked at the school calendar and found that I will be able to help on the date and I intend to inform this person of this news first thing tomorrow. I pray that God will lead this person to understand and that this will actually turn into an opportunity to minister to this individual. Mostly, I pray that this person will understand that my desire to put my family and their needs first is nothing personal but that I am trying to do it because I am commanded to do so. If not, I will be fine as I know I am living to serve the Lord. Pray for me.

Where Was God In This?

Let me preface my comments by saying that I by no means intend for this to be insulting or mean-spirited. What I will write is nothing more than an observation and is not an observation of the subject, but of this world in general.

I just finished watching the story of Randy Pausch's last days prior to his death. If you don't know, Randy Pausch is the man who is famous for delivering a very inspiring and touching final lecture when he found he was dying of cancer. If you do not know the story simply Google "The Last Lecture." It is a very moving story and should be shared. I truly feel sorry for his wife and their children and if by some strange chance you are reading this, I would ask you to stop now.

As I watched this very well put together memorial to Randy I noticed that he held many things in his life close to his heart that I do. His family was obviously very important to him as well as how he positively affected the world around him. However, as I sat and watched something became apparent to me halfway through the memorial. I had not heard God, faith, belief, or Christ mentioned once. I am not saying they weren't but if they were, I missed it. At that point I began really listening for any semblance of belief in anything other than the strength of man. What I heard was multiple swear words and a man and wife who think/thought they had it all figured out. I make no assumption of this man's faith in God, but I can say that I have not seen it. It could be that the editor of the memorial edited all those parts out, but I think back to the now famous "Last Lecture" and I can not recall faith in God being a prevalent theme. To many, Randy Pausch's story represented something good in this world, but to me it represents what is wrong.

At the end of the piece was an interview with Randy a few days before he died. There he sat, scared and dying. Yet, he continued to rely only on himself and his strength. I at this point was dumbfounded that this man, who has been at the crest of eternity for months now, still found himself strong enough to handle this problem on his own. How sad and if my assumption is correct, I grieve for his soul. This man was given an opportunity to teach a message of hope and salvation and of eternal life but his story ends with nothing more than a resounding reminder of how helpless we truly are. Again, his strength was admirable, but how much could he have done for the kingdom during his pre-death media blitz. Now, there is no epilogue of hope to his story, just an ending. While to many their final memory of this man is his message of how to live life, to me it is one of how truly weak I am without Christ and God. The memorial showed multiple interviews with family and friends who talked about how strong Randy was but no mention of where he drew his strength from. I firmly believe that this man was convinced that he needed no strength other that his own and just as the serpent fooled Eve in the garden that reliance on her own wisdom was the only thing necessary, Randy was fooled too.

Again, I hope that I am wrong and if you know of error in my thinking, I implore you to comment and correct me. Until that time I will grieve over the fact that many churches are using this man for inspiration and teaching. I think his language alone when faced with eternity would void such but again, that's simply my opinion. I ask all of you to not lean on your own knowledge and thought for strength but instead follow the example of the Psalmist in the 71st Psalm who writes;

15 My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness And Your salvation all the day, For I do not know their limits. 16 I will go in the strength of the Lord GOD; I will make mention of Your righteousness, of Yours only. 17 O God, You have taught me from my youth; And to this day I declare Your wondrous works.

How nice would it have been to hear Randy Pausch declare God's wondrous works.

In conclusion, Randy ends his last lecture by stating that his message was for his children. I still don't know what message that was. I only wished that Randy knew that the message we should be able to leave our children has already been written for us. Philippians 4:8-9

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. 9 The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.

Can you leave that message in truth with your children today?

Pilgrim's Map of the Day

It's been a long week and a half. I haven't had time to post much but I have several things to write about as well as memorials to two friends who have moved on from this earth to reap their Heavenly rewards. Until then, here is your map for today.

* Big Bad Brad posts his thoughts on a book he is reading by Peter Steinke. Make sure you read the outtake that he posts.

* Parents that don't trust the your kids on the internet, hop on over to TotLol, a website that is full of kid-friendly video. This is a great site.

* If you like funny Photoshops, here is a link to Worth1000 where people submitted their photoshopped pictures replacing people in famous painting with Star Wars characters. Being a huge geek, I really liked this.

* To further prove my geekdom, the show Lost now has a book club over at abc.com. If you like the show, you would like several of the books. This is just a neat little site that lists and discusses the various books refrenced on the show.

* I have two posts from one of my favorite bloggers Trey Morgan. His two posts entitled "I Love Church" and "I Love God Working in my Life" were both needed reads for me. I hope they will be for you too.

* Finally, my favorite blogger Matt Dabbs has another excellent post. This is a MUST READ and should be a wake up call to all of us.

"Because He Loved Him." part 1

It is amazing to me how God provides all of us with what we need. When one of our preachers asked me to fill in for him to preach in four short days (yesterday being the end of that four days), I had no idea what I would speak on. Let me stop here and say that he also unwittingly gave me a great birthday present (yesterday was my birthday). There is nowhere else I would want to be on my birthday than somewhere being given an opportunity to speak the Truth. I am by no means a refined preacher but I love the Lord and there is nothing that makes me happier than being able to share his word and how it works in my life.

As I sat down the next night (Thursday) to study the Bible with my children (something I do not do often enough) I decided to read them the story of Elijah in 1 Kings 17. In this story, God tells Elijah to hide by the brook and that he will provide for him. God sends ravens to bring Elijah food and Elijah stays there until the water begins to dry up. This is all found in the first seven verses of this chapter. At this point, I stop and I am going to make a point about how Elijah went and lived a very uncomfortable life just because God told him to and that they should obey like Elijah does. God had other plans though. I asked my children (5 and 6 years old) why did Elijah do what God said without asking any questions. At this point, without hesitation, my six year old, Ethan responds "Because he loved him."

I paused. I was totally caught off guard by this response. I couldn't argue with that answer or ever provide a better, more concise answer. This 6 year old prince of God had just shaken my soul and I get misty eyed just thinking about how powerful this child's words were. Here I was, preparing to teach my children a lesson about doing what they are told and instead I am given a lesson. Talk about verification of Psalm 8:2.

Despite the effect this had on me that night, I still woke up the next morning not knowing what I would speak about. I was going to go with the obligations of Christians. I was off work that next day and I took Luke, my youngest son, with me to my parents to eat lunch that day. I was going to ask my father and mother's advise on what to speak on while there. But God had different plans. My parent's home is surrounded by tall, tall trees and that day in those tress were hundreds of crows, cawwing (is that a word) away. As my son and I got out of the car and walked inside Luke asked me what those birds were and I explained to him that they were kinda like the birds in the story we read last night about Elijah. After lunch, I left to pick Ethan up from school and the birds were still there as I was leaving, louder this time. When Ethan and I arrived back at my parent's house, the crows were still there singing their rancid tune and Ethan asked the same question as his brother before. "What are those birds?" As I was answering him, his answer to me the previous night hit me again and I then had my inspiration of what to speak on. God is so good.
Over the next several days I will be posting my thoughts on this and hopefully the words will help you answer the question I am trying to answer. Am I living a Christian life just so I can get something out of it such as Heaven, financial security, peace, etc... or am I living a Christian life for no other reason than I love God for everything He is? If you can answer yes to the second half of that question, then how are or do we show God we love him? It is a tough question but one we all need to ask ourselves because God has earned our love and we need to be acting daily to show God how much we love him.