by Donald | Jul 11, 2013 | Blog
“When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3)
When I was in first grade, the Ten Commandments were removed from public schools. We used to begin school and assemblies with prayer, but that practice also ceased over time. I remember my parents and the parents of my friends were concerned about what the changes in support of separation of church and state would mean to our country.
During this same time period, I remember going to the drive-in theater (quite the rage back then) and reading on the movie screen an appeal from the owners to “attend a church of your choice this Sunday.” That admonition has gone the way of the drive-in theater and the Ten Commandments posted on school walls.
Movies, television, and radio used to not have offensive language, but no longer. Ah, the joys of cable television where my children can innocently see graphic titles to movies we don’t subscribe to, where even the Family Channel offers entertainment that is not fit for my family to watch. I am even apprehensive about commercials on the Super Bowl, let alone its half-time entertainment.
There was a time in America when modesty was considered a virtue. Take a walk in the mall and look at the shop windows. Sex sells, apparently. I grew up hearing that women wanted to be given credit for their minds. There’s a ship that seems to have sailed. The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
If you think I am waltzing down memory lane to the “good old days” you are correct in one sense, but wrong in another. Yes, I believe we were less tolerant of ungodly behavior fifty years ago, but I know we were still sinning with abandon back then in the good old days. Civil rights abuses provide one testament of that. John Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe provide another. My father gambled and drank too much and created times of sadness and brokenness in our family. My friends all had similar complaints.
I grew up in that mess, the tumult and change of the sixties and seventies, and it affected me. As a young adult I desired a life style of freedom, hedonism, and self-centeredness; I cared not for anyone else. Relative goodness, thank goodness, made us feel all was fine and right with the world. We were all on a progressive path to enlightenment.
Billy Graham intruded on my good humor. He called a spade a spade. A seed was planted that still took years to bud, but it did. I heard a preacher the other day say something that was right-on with respect to me: God’s saving grace did not make it impossible for me to sin any longer—but it did make it impossible to sin and enjoy it.
It’s a free country. God granted that right to America. But He is not blind about what we have become and how we continue to drift as a nation. I am shocked by what I see and hear going on around me. Moral relativism will say I am entitled to stay at home if I find the world around me so offensive that I cannot bear to be part of it, but I am not entitled to condemn ungodly behavior because such a thing only exists in my mind.
But let me ask you, do you feel at home here? Do you find the laissez-faire attitude of American culture beneficial? Are we truly on the road to enlightenment? Or do you wonder why the future portrayed by novelists and screenwriters in books and films is a world of violence and uncertainty, a world that is more slimy, more devoid of humanity, more stark in its feeling of hopelessness, more exploitative of others, more divided with the evil “haves” and the less evil “have-nots” rather than one that has evolved to a sense of greater purpose, civility, and nobility?
We do have a national day of prayer; we also have groundhog day, law day, loyalty day, national nurses day, pioneer day, senior citizens day—a whole lot of other days too, but then, we are a big country with a lot of people to keep happy and celebrate.
I found no peace in my life before I came to Christ. Nothing that the world offered and that I often tasted gave me any peace. Happiness found was never lasting; laughter was present, but it was hollow and often at the expense of others. My purpose was to be more, to have more, to rise above on my own merits, and to be able to compare myself favorably against others. I was lost and wrong; I was blind, but now I see. Christ saved me. Christ alone heals the broken hearted. Christ alone offers peace and purpose.
I look at the world around me and am saddened by our continual fall from grace. But I am not disheartened because I am merely a pilgrim here.
I believe it would be good for you to attend a church of your choice this weekend. God cares for you. The God who delivered water out of a rock in the desert to a thirsty nation can give you living water that will sustain you, give you purpose, and give you peace.
The truly amazing thing is He still wants to.
by Donald | Jun 24, 2013 | Blog
“The blessing of the Lord brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it” (Proverbs 10:22 NIV).
My wife says I watch too much television. I protest, but last night, when my channel surfing landed on Wealth TV, I knew she was right. Wealth TV—it shocked me. I remember teaching a Junior Achievement course to eighth graders thirty years ago and the biggest question on the minds of the students was how much I made; a future Wealth TV viewing audience in the making.
Some years ago, a number of my professional colleagues extolled the virtues of the book, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. I tried to read it, but each passing page made me feel uncomfortable and eventually, with the bile rising in my throat, I pitched it out the window.
Christians have great freedom in Christ, but Scripture says clearly that “those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition” (1 Timothy 6:9).
But, you might be thinking, money is not the problem, money is amoral—the Bible is full of men who were very rich and of good and noble character (Abraham, Job, and Boaz, to name a few)—and you are correct. Money is not evil, but “the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:10).
Think and Grow Rich. Wealth TV. Seems to me if you think about something all the time, desiring it and imagining it, you must love it.
Money does not affect everyone the same. Some desire it intensely, some are afraid of it, some worry over having too much and others worry over having too little. Our great recession was in part fueled by lenders and borrowers acting foolishly. We eagerly anticipate retirement; commercials depict an emerald highway pointing towards a fully funded future, advising us to be sure we know how much we need to land on easy street. Remember the farmer with the bumper crop (Luke 12:13-21)?
Experts and personalities make handsome livings by telling us how to gain wealth, leverage debt, get out of debt, and make huge profits that too often derive from taking advantage of someone else. Heads or tails, the two sides of a coin are still the same coin. The desire for money can overwhelm us regardless of our original intentions.
It’s not that I haven’t danced around the allure of money. As I read Olivia Mellan’s book Your Money Style, I saw myself as a Money Amasser, Binger, Risk-taker, and Money Monk all rolled into one. Each new season of my life yields new challenges. But wrestling with my money relationship has yielded insight and peace—something I think more people could use.
The desire for money is never good. Money makes us feel independent, proud, loved, in-control, self-satisfied, and secure, but God believes ascribing those emotions to money is to establish an idol over Him. God opposes idolatry of any kind. “In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat—for he grants sleep to those he loves” (Psalm 127:2).
John Wesley, founder of the Methodist Church, believed money served three purposes: to provide for the basic needs of family, to provide for the needs of the business (because it took care of others’ basic needs), and for service. Wesley believed increasing income should be reflected in our standard of giving and not in our standard of living.
Vision Foundation, Inc. in their book Riches: A Biblical Perspective, propose a slight variation to Wesley. They teach that money serves to provide for our basic needs and to serve others, but they add the observation that money is useful in celebrating life—God has created many things for us to enjoy.
As a businessman, I agree with Wesley’s instruction to take care of our businesses. Profits are not bad, but the pursuit of profit always carries with it accountability to God. I also believe celebrations are good for us, but celebration activities also carry accountability. Indulgence is not godly.
The snare of money is our thinking the amount we possess means something about us; God does not. Rather, God asks us to be faithful with what He has given us. Just as we are to be faithful in fidelity, in talents, in service to others, and in becoming the man or woman God intended for us to be, we are to be faithful with the money blessings He provides, large or small.
We work because work is a gift of God. Celebrations are a natural part of life; God established festivals and celebrations for the Israelites to enjoy, John records Jesus’ first miracle at a wedding in Cana, and Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son ends with a joyful party. We serve others because Jesus sets our example. In all things, we are accountable to God.
Money is a tool and a test.
Once a rich man met Jesus and heard Him say, “There is one thing you lack” (Mark 10:21). When we meet Jesus, what will He say to us?
by Donald | Jun 13, 2013 | Blog
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life” (John 9:3 NIV).
Jesus healed a man born blind and created a remarkable stir in Israel. The religious leaders, suspicious and skeptical of Jesus’ activities, summoned and questioned the formerly blind man. He explained what Jesus had done, but since mud pies were not known to possess medicinal properties, the man’s answer seemed like nonsense.
They were applying the wrong paradigm to the matter.
The Disciples, displaying another false paradigm, had surmised the man deserved his blindness, in effect agreeing with the skeptics who shouted as they threw the man out of the Temple, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” (John 9:34).
The account reminds us of Job’s friends who blamed Job for his tragedies, arguing that God punishes those who deserve punishment, not the innocent. They believed the converse also to be true—that God rewards those who deserve rewards. Such arguments lead to the conclusion God is obligated to punish or reward based on our worthiness.
Job had a problem, however; he knew he was blameless, and he concluded God had treated him unfairly. Application of the paradigm of cause and effect is dangerous because it is not always correct and it entices us to judge others; both Job and his friends used Job’s circumstances to judge God.
Yet God says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways” (Isaiah 55:8 NKJV).
The Bible is silent about the Disciples’ acceptance of Jesus’ answer. The human mind looks for fairness.
We also look for answers. Unlike Job who never knew why he was afflicted by Satan, at least the blind man might have overheard Jesus’ response to the Disciples as He was mixing the mud. But did knowing Jesus’ answer provide him comfort? Did he mutter under his breath how happy he was to have been created blind in order that God’s work might be displayed in his life as he walked to the pool?
Maybe not, but he was very happy later. When Jesus found him again and introduced Himself as the Son of Man, the seeing man worshiped Him. He had come full circle: being blind meant nothing in comparison to knowing Jesus. Not only had he gained his sight, he had gained his soul.
Meeting God had the same effect on Job.
Soon after the birth of my third daughter, Melody, I had some “why” questions on my mind. Melody had a difficult birth; in addition to a serious blood disorder, she was born with Down syndrome. I struggled with many thoughts during her first three months. Guess what? There was no answer forthcoming from God on “why.”
What there was, however, was sweet little Melody Dawn, a beautiful girl who was fearfully and wonderfully made. I no longer care why or how Melody was formed with Down syndrome; I, too, have come full circle. God blessed me with her birth, and He has given me strength and comfort even when I did not hear Him or see Him do it. Melody Dawn displays God’s work in our family and that He stands with us in difficult times, just as He promised.
The skeptic questions God’s fairness and so questions God’s character. To avoid questioning God’s character outright, some people want to give God a pass and say God didn’t want whatever the sorrow happened to be (for example, hurricanes and tornadoes, murder, accidents, illness, drought and famine, and atrocities of every kind), but He allowed it to happen. Yet others will say a God who allows such things to happen even though He has the power to stop it is not a good God.
Sometimes I think the outcry from the world sounds to God like some massive out-of-tune orchestra struggling to achieve its harmony—we can’t keep time and can’t carry a tune in a bucket. The truth is our human paradigms struggle with almighty God and His purposes.
Jesus told us why the man had been born blind, and so we know, but we know nothing else. In the end, the blind man was joyful over his life circumstances—yet what did he think about Jesus when he saw Him hanging on a cross? Likely, he couldn’t believe his eyes, but he could believe his heart. Earlier, when summoned before the Sanhedrin, he had given the only testimony any of us can give about the manifestation of God’s power in our lives—“I was blind, but now I see!”
It is dangerous to apply any motives to God’s works today—we do not have the mind of God. But if we believe in Jesus, we have the Holy Spirit living inside us. With Jesus and the Holy Spirit, what we have, what we know, is that God is good and He cannot deny Himself.
We may not always see clearly, but we walk by faith and not by sight, trusting our safety to His hands and character.
by Donald | Jun 1, 2013 | Blog
“Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise him. Praise the Lord with the harp; make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre. Sing to him a new song, play skillfully, and shout for joy. For the word of the Lord is right and true; he is faithful in all he does” (Psalm 33:1-4 NIV).
Driving to work has gotten easier now that it is June and school is out for the summer. Behind my steering wheel, moving freely in less congested rush hour traffic, I muse about summer vacations long ago. There is some envy in my thoughts, but it is wistful, not remorseful.
Sitting still at a traffic light, I see a workman mowing a yard. It’s still cool in early June, and through the open sun-roof I hear the mower’s engine and smell gasoline mixed with fresh clippings of grass. I’ve always liked that aroma, and it triggers a memory of an innocent morning almost fifty years ago when heavy dew soaked my sneakers as I made my way through a neighbor’s yard on the way to the creek and the Tarzan rope hanging from a stout limb above the water. A gentle but incessant humming of bumbling awkward bees working in the clover as I ran towards freedom made me aware not everyone or everything was as carefree as I.
The summers of childhood brought many pleasures: forts to build (what we lacked in carpentry skills we made up for in enthusiasm), hikes to take, blackberries to pick and sell in the neighborhood, fish to catch, games to play (baseball and hide-and-seek were particular favorites), naps to enjoy, bikes to ride, and books to read (Tarzan and Doc Savage held my rapt attention) are just a sampling of them.
Abruptly, the traffic light in front of me turns green. A right turn, then two lefts, and two more rights and I arrive at my office. A humming bird greets me, feeding on the flowers outside my office door. Inside, the smell of fresh coffee brewing compliments my good mood.
We follow calendars at work to keep score, but work is an ongoing and daily affair. Goals are ever being achieved and then reset. Retirement may lie out there somewhere in the future, but I do not hope for it like I did summer vacations. God gave us work as a blessing, and I like my job.
June is a perfect time, however, to take stock of our businesses and our achievements at work as well as our shortcomings. Proverbs 27:23-24 reminds us to “be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds; for riches do not endure forever, and a crown is not secure for all generations.” Work mirrors Christian life in this: what we do each day matters. How we approach work—our attitude about it, speaks volumes about our inner peace with the work God has given us to do.
Here at the start of June, take time to recall all God has given you and to give thanks; God likes our gratitude and our praises. Pause and reflect on your childhood: is there something that you left behind that once brought you great joy? Allow yourself the opportunity to stroll down memory lane and experience again the wonder and joy you once felt. Memories can be an elixir of youth, particularly in June.
Lord, as Christians, we live in the love of Christ. We feel your presence in our daily lives and we marvel at the gift of life, its struggles and its joys, its beauty and its brevity, and the opportunities that seem always to propel us forward. Fill our hearts with childlike wonder at this season. Let us sing in our hearts praises to you, and to be aware of the grace you bestow on us.
Amen.
by Donald | May 22, 2013 | Blog
“And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men” (Mark 6:42-43 ESV).
Some studies suggest that women speak more words in a day than men and the order of magnitude of the difference is staggering; other studies conclude that to be hogwash. Whatever the empirical truth, in my house, with four young daughters and a wife all having a lot to say, I know my daily word count is dwarfed, and the order of magnitude of the difference is staggering. But even when the clamor is overwhelming, it is not unwelcome, for it resounds with love.
While my spoken words at home are few, the voice in my mind, the inner, hidden part of me that is truly me, keeps up a constant dialogue of thoughts and feelings. Yak, yak, yak, my mind is seldom still or silent. But through my inner voice, I believe the Holy Spirit works to mold me more into the person God wants me to be: when my thoughts are dark, my inner voice chides me and uplifts me; if I am standing too long on the sidelines, my inner voice prods me to take action; if I am wounded or have wounded another, I hear a call towards grace.
The work of the Holy Spirit in our lives is a central tenet of our Christian faith, and His work is important, for it is ever directed towards the purposes of God. Wisdom, knowledge, discernment all derive from the Holy Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control all flow as fruit in our lives from the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23a).
God the Holy Spirit is omnipresent—He is everywhere at once. That means the Spirit in you is in every other Christian believer. Moreover, the Spirit is also at work in the lives of the unsaved, too.
With that in mind, I was thinking about the concept of six degrees of separation the other day (the idea that any person is no more than six first-name introductions away from meeting any other person in the world that they would like to meet). A friend of mine told me the idea originated in the late 1960’s with Stanley Milgram, a Yale psychologist. I’ve experienced enough “it’s a small world” events to believe the theory. For example, next week I am having a business dinner with a person I first met a month ago at a conference in Scottsdale. As we finalized arrangements I learned unbeknownst to either of us that we have a mutual friend who lives in Chicago—but I live in Louisiana and my new business acquaintance lives in Denver. It is a small world.
The reason I was thinking about six degrees of separation is how it applies to our Christian life. The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin and calls us to Christ, and that is one degree of separation. But we share in the work of the Spirit by living quiet lives that inspire others, by caring for those who are hurting, and by offering a cup of cold water in Jesus’ name. When we are active in this type of evangelism, we become the other degrees of separation.
So the next time you are in a conversation with another person, reflect for a moment about the omnipresence of the Spirit. While you cannot know what the other person is truly thinking or feeling any more than they can you, the Holy Spirit knows you both intimately. Who knows, the Spirit may be using you to move the other person one degree closer to Christ. If they are already believers, perhaps there is a message they need to hear that only you can say. And if they are not saved, perhaps you will be the final degree of separation that saves their life for eternity.
Jesus fed five thousand men with a few loaves and fish. That was a remarkable miracle. When the Holy Spirit uses us to call others to Christ, we are suddenly part of a greater miracle—we are feeding them the bread of life.
by Donald | May 8, 2013 | Blog
“At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness” (Psalm 69:13b ESV).
I am not naturally inclined toward patience. My wife begins to share with me the trials of her day, and I leap into offering ready solutions—not the response she wants, not by a long shot. Then there is punctuality. I believe it is important to be on time for appointments or events, and chafe at traffic delays (this is probably most vexing when en route to a Saints game). On some occasions, I even find myself finishing sentences for others (again, sadly, my wife is all too familiar with this shortcoming), as if those speaking are struggling somehow to get to the point.
I know I am not alone; comedians make a lot of money telling jokes about human impatience, thereby giving witness to its prevalence. Even our inventions are telling: microwaves, cars, trains, planes, and search engines. I traded in a computer once because it took too long to boot up.
Even the saints in heaven and godly figures in the Bible have expressed impatience. In Revelation 6:10 we read that those who had been slain for their faithfulness to God cry out, “How long before you judge and avenge our blood?” echoing the questions of Habakkuk (Habakkuk 1:2) and the Psalmist (Psalm 13:1). The joke, “Hurry up and wait,” irks us; apparently the saints seeking justice in heaven share the complaint.
So when a problem comes my way at work (now here is a time where delay would have been nice), I quickly set about to solve it. I am well trained, I have my own plentiful experiences to draw upon, and I have learned to seek advice and counsel from others. Getting started is not difficult. But what is difficult is learning to pause long enough to allow God to act on my behalf. It is not that I don’t offer issues to God in prayer—I do. The problem is not stopping long enough to hear an answer.
Such behavior, such impatience, is foolish. Although the dictionary today has softened the implications of being a “fool,” the Bible, most particularly the Book of Proverbs, is rock hard in its use of that appellation.
I do not recall when it occurred, but the moment I first heard the phrase, “He does not suffer fools gladly,” I wanted to be that guy. It’s possible (probable) some self-righteous side of me coveted the implication of wisdom and superiority, but the attraction had more to do with thinking such a person had to have discernment, and that was a character trait I hoped to attain. The Bible urges us to strive for wisdom and discernment, the source of which is God. James reminds us that God gives wisdom generously (James 1:5), we merely have to ask and believe—the believing part is where patience comes into play.
Impatience is foolish and leads to doubt; doubt, in turn, leads to trouble.
This may surprise you—the Bible does not suffer fools gladly, either. Paul used the phrase in a rebuke of the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 11:19). Sometimes I see myself standing in a very long line of persons, impatiently waiting to hear the rebuke we deserve for our impatience with God.
God has given me some wisdom and discernment; I know that apart from Jesus I can do nothing. Yet the fool in me persists in trying to go it alone. It is no wonder that such impatience delivers the rewards a fool deserves to receive.
My prayer today (and if I am clever enough to remember it every day until I am part of eternity) is for God to increase my patience to wait in anticipation of His goodness moving in my life at an acceptable time. Please O God, let me not suffer my foolish impatience with you gladly. Turn my mind toward wisdom as I wait on you.
