Why I Shouldn't Get Complacent

(image from wikipedia)

Last week in Sunday School, we were talking about the Ten Commandments, and how we sometimes break them.

(Yes this was an adult class. And no, we didn't give specific examples.)

I said that I thought I was doing pretty well on the "Thou shalt not murder" one.

Obviously I said this to get a laugh, but my classmate answered seriously. She said to remember that just not killing anyone is not enough.

Matthew 5: 21-22 says:

²¹ “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ ²² But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sisterwill be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

Wow. That's convicting.

I guess I'm not doing as well as I thought.

The Call of Jeremiah

http://www.crown.org/godprovides/pub/JeremiahsCall.aspx

When Jeremiah is called by God to bring His words to the people, unsurprisingly, Jeremiah tries to get out of it.

(As did Moses. And Gideon. Et cetera. I mean, don't we ALL?)

But I think God's response here is interesting. And also applicable to those of us called to speak for Him today.

Reading from Jeremiah chapter 1, verses 4-8:

Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

⁵ “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;
Before you were born I sanctified you;
I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”

⁶ Then said I:

“Ah, Lord God!
Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.”

⁷ But the Lord said to me:

“Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’
For you shall go to all to whom I send you,
And whatever I command you, you shall speak.
⁸ Do not be afraid of their faces,
For I am with you to deliver you,” says the Lord.

Why does God say, "Do not be afraid of their faces?" And why would Jeremiah be afraid of their FACES rather than, say, their fists? Or swords even? After all, he lives in kind of a warrior culture. Seems like he ought to worry more about something worse than folks making faces at him!
(image from http://mychinaconnection.com)

But I think God is talking about something more relevant to us today even than it was in Jeremiah's time.

I think He is talking about being afraid of the OPINIONS of others.

Sometimes we are way more afraid of people's bad opinions than any physical harm that might befall us.

We're worried more by the idea of being made fun of than of actually getting hurt.

We are more concerned about looking foolish in front of our peers than any real injury they could inflict on us.

We're more afraid of losing face than getting punched in the face.
But God says, DON'T be!

He says, Don't be afraid of their FACES!

(image from http://www.gmgdesign.com)

Continuing with verses 9 and 10:

⁹ Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me:

“Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.
¹⁰ See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms,
To root out and to pull down,
To destroy and to throw down,
To build and to plant.”

So we don't have to worry about saying the wrong thing, or looking stupid in the eyes of others.

Because if we are allowing God to speak His words through us, the opinions of people don't even MATTER.

In other words, they can make all the faces at us they want, but it won't hurt.

It's only His word that has the power to actually DO anything.

But I admit, this is way easier said than done. I'm still afraid of their faces.

Lord, help me to remember that it is only Your opinion that matters.

Seeing Him in the Sky

This is a photo my niece Jennifer took last summer. Can you see God in the sky?

This is a cool picture, but the truth is, we can see Him in the sky EVERY day!

As Psalm 19 says:

¹ The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
² Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
³ They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
⁴ Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.

Every time we see the beautiful sky God has made, it is telling us of His glory!
Isn't that amazing?

Thanks for the inspiration to: missionary Ralph McIntosh at http://www.actsfoundation.org/

Trash Theology

So I was thinking about Jesus at the recycling center.

I know. It's strange. But stay with me here.

(image from wikipedia.com)

Here in Hawaii we have to put a five-cent deposit on plastic bottles and aluminum cans, which we can get back when we recycle them. I think a few other states do this too.

(Oh and they also tack on a little one-cent tax that you don't get back, but that's another post.)

So a lot of people go to the recycling center. It's not just for the homeless anymore.

Anyways, I was thinking about the theology of recycling.

Does anyone remember a long time ago when they had returnable glass bottles? I know, we're talking a LONG time ago.

I'm dating myself a bit here, but when I had my first job at a grocery store there were still a few people using the old glass Coke bottles.

Here's how that worked: People would pay the bottle deposit when they bought the Coke and then bring back the empty glass bottle to the store and get the deposit back. Then the store would send the bottles back to the plant to be sterilized and refilled with Coke.

(Image from dnkvariety.com)

Okay, all you young people are shocked. "The SAME bottles?" you say. "To be USED again?!"

Yep. Back in the day, we used to WASH things.

But nowadays, when you bring back your used bottles and cans, they melt them down and make them into new bottles and cans.

Are you seeing the link to Jesus yet?

Here's a hint: 2nd Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

Get it?

Did you ever see that bumper sticker? You know the one that says, "Jesus saves; Buddha recycles."

Now that's clever. But actually it should be THE OTHER WAY AROUND.

Because Jesus doesn't just wash us out and stick us back out there in the world.

He actually REMAKES us into a NEW creation.

And that's why the recycling center is called....

The Redemption Center!

Searching For Real

My kids lose things all the time.

Especially my three-year-old girl. It seems like I spend half my day looking for her blankie and/or sippy cup.

And usually I find it sitting out in plain sight.

Even the older kids are always losing stuff.

Here's an example:
Me: Okay! It's time to go! Everyone get in the car.
Kid: (wailing) I can't find my shoes!
Me: Where did you leave them?
Kid: I don't know!
Me: Did you look in your room?
Kid: Yes! they're not there!
Me: Did you look in the shoe-chest?
Kid: Yes! I looked EVERYWHERE, Mom! I can't find my shoes!
Me: (sighing) Okay I'll come look.
(The shoes are sitting in the middle of the living room.)
Me: They're RIGHT THERE!!!
Kid: Oh. I didn't see them.

Sometimes I wonder if I am the only person in this household capable of finding anything.

Truthfully though, I think the problem is that the kids spend more time whining about the lost thing than they do looking for it.

They'll just give a cursory glance around the room and call it searching. I'm like, HEY! You've got to actually LOOK for the thing! Check under the couch! Pick up that pillow and look under it! This isn't rocket science, folks!

However, it seems that sometimes this is how we search for God. We run a casual eye over the surface of life and say, "Where is He?"

Jeremiah 29:12-13a says:
And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the LORD.

God wants us to seek Him, not just halfheartedly, but with all of our heart.

And when we do, we WILL find Him.

A (Mom's) Hymn of Faith

Though the fig tree may not blossom,

Nor fruit be on the vines;

Though the labor of the olive may fail,

And the fields yield no food;

Though the flock may be cut off from the fold ,

And there be no herd in the stalls—

Yet I will rejoice in the LORD,

I will joy in the God of my salvation. 

Habbakuk 3:17-18

"Blossoming Orchard" by Van Gogh

http://www.canvaz.com



I read these verses, entitled "A Hymn of Faith," this morning and thought what a lovely picture of trust in God it painted.

Even when everything is going wrong, or seems to be, we must still rejoice in the Lord.

But since the farm metaphors don't really resonate with me, I thought I'd write my own "Hymn of Faith," from a mom's perspective:

Though my house may never be clean,

And my laundry basket never be empty,

Nor can I banish that strange smell from the sofa cushions;

Though there may be no money in my wallet,

And no milk in my fridge,

And payday is not until next week;

Though my car's engine may make a scary noise,

And the kids be screaming in the backseat,

And one of them just threw up--

Yet I WILL give thanks to God,

And I will rejoice in His blessings.

"I'll do it myself!"

Any mother of toddlers has heard these words, usually shouted at top voice.

My three-year-old twins are no exception to this. They are champions of Do It Myself-ness.

My son in particular loves to be independent. He wants to be Superman.

Every day getting into the van, we have a struggle over opening the automatic sliding door. He wants to open it himself, but, although he can press the button inside to close it, he's not strong enough to pull the handle on the outside to activate the opening mechanism.

As you can imagine, this causes a lot of delay. I've actually starting to leave the van door open inside the garage in order to avoid the whole thing.

My little boy simply refuses to accept the fact that he's not able to open the door from the outside, and he needs Mommy's help in order to do it.

This reminds me of us as Christians in a way. We want to do it ourselves.

More than anything, we want to rely on our own righteousness. We want to be "good enough" for God. We say we're saved by grace and all that, but do we act that way?

In fact, many times what we do is live by a set of rules, and try to get everyone else to agree that our version of the rules is the correct one.

But we don't earn God's grace by being good enough to deserve it. We can't.

So why do we keep trying to be good, using our own strength, instead of allowing God to work through us? I don't know.

Not only is relying on our own righteousness much harder, more frustrating and utterly doomed to failure, it can actually separate us from God.

Galatians 5:4 says, "You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace."

When I read this, I found it incredibly convicting. Is trying to be justified by my own "goodness" actually alienating me from Christ? God forbid!

Why can't I just be humble enough to admit I CAN'T do it myself?