Throw Away Good Intentions

I began a week of vacation today.  I always wait til the end of the year or close to it to take my last couple weeks of vacation.  Bummer!  Next year I vow to change and do better at my good intentions!  So this morning I was working on cleaning out my garage so that I could park my car in it this winter.  A friend of mine says he and his wife fill their garage full of junk so that their $25,000+ car can sit out in the weather.  Well I began with rearranging the dust and dirt from one side to another with my leaf blower.  Nothing like modern inventions to huff and puff your way through such work!  After the cloud of dirt settled and I quit coughing I began moving things around and realized I had two work benches I had totally forgot about!  Well as I began sorting and re-sorting I found all kinds of “good intentions” that I had begun to pile up thinking, “Hey I will do this with that one of these days.”   Half the stuff I forgot what I was going to do with it … so in the trash can it went.  I filled up the trash can quickly with a lot of “good intentions” and tomorrow they will be carried off by the guy who collects trash.  He can have it because “good intentions” do little good if you don’t carry them out.  My mom use to say, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”   All the good intentions we have to do this and do that … and when they don’t get done they clutter the garage of our mind, heart and soul.  What good intentions do you need to trash or else dust off and “get er done?”  If you don’t have any, drive by my house in the morning and you can pick up a black bag full of them!

2 Thessalonians 1:11 (NLT)  And so we keep on praying for you, that our God will make you worthy of the life to which he called you. And we pray that God, by his power, will fulfill all your good intentions and faithful deeds.

 Peace & Glorify~

In His Steps Today

Today I am reflecting on my life on this 28th day of October, turning fifty-four.  It was on October 28, 1949 … six years before I was born (10-28-55) Jim Elliot penned in his journal the following words …

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”

In the shadow of those words would come his death seven years later as he and other men would die attempting to take the Gospel message to the Auca’s in Ecuador.  Some called it a tragic death and senseless … however the transmission of the Gospel did reach and lives were not tragically lost for eternity.

How do we dare to live?  As fools for Christ (1 Cor 4:10) or fools like the world who deny God in our living?  To be so set apart in our living for Christ is not merely a goal of mine or yours, but it is the call of God upon every soul who has humbled themselves in the call of salvation to call Him Savior and Lord.  In the face of everyday living am I living for Christ, or is the selfish flesh consuming me?  With astounding divine words Peter says to a life of suffering we are called to … not merely the injustices of sinful man as they are plenty, but the injustices and sufferings of living a well-known life for Him.

1 Peter 2:21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in His steps.

And without any masquerade Peter offers the steps that you and I as the born-again called of Christ are to walk “In His Steps” (1 Peter 2:22-23) …

• In His Steps … commit no sin.
• In His Steps … let your words be of truth not deceit.
• In His Steps … Don’t return insult when insulted.
• In His Steps … Don’t try to get back when someone hurts you.
• In His Steps … Continually give trust God with your life.

How do I dare to live today?  With carping complaining about how I am treated or not treated?  Or will I live giving up my life for His to be lived in me?  Ah, it is so true that you and I have been called to follow Him who suffered and died for the sins of us all.  We live in world that would see such living as foolish, maybe even tragic, but let them think what they will, for we the born-again know … “He is not fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”  So I reflect and pray … let me follow in His steps today.

Mark 8:36-38 (NKJV)  “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? 37 “Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

 Peace & Glorify~

Preserve Me

Yesterday was not without its conflicts in body, mind and soul, but God prevails and preserves the mind and heart stayed on Him.

“God preserve me from living a life which conforms to the general pattern.  Oh to live above the world in public duty and in private thinking.”  – Jim Elliot

In my morning readings, God reminded me from 1 Peter 2:13-14 that I am to be subject to the governing authorities … as they are sent by God for the purpose of punishing those who do evil and praising those who do good.  From such admonition, God reminded me that it is His will for my life to be doing good, and not using my freedom as a cover-up for evil.  It is the intent of the Gospel not to just save my soul, but change my very living … “live as people who are free!” (1 Pt 2:16)  The rendering of free is meted out in such means …

• HONOR everyone … (see: Romans 12:10)
• LOVE the brotherhood … (see: Hebrews 13:1)
• FEAR God … (see: Ecclesiastes 12:13)
• HONOR the emperor … (see: Proverbs 24:21 … Fear the Lord and the king, and do not join with those who do otherwise.)

Again I stated, it is the intent of the Gospel to change my conduct, so that my conduct boasts of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  So preserve me Lord from living a life conformed to the general pattern of this world!

Romans 12:2 (NKJV)  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

 Peace & Glorify~

Your Likeness

Psalm 17:15 As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.

To journal, for me is an avenue to write down and recall my journey as a “sojourner” with God through this life.  We probably all make too much of this life as “all we have” to live for.  The idea that we are sojourners, just passing through, does not always register or connect with our thinking, and thus our living (the Gospel).  Jim Elliot says …

“Let nothing turn us from the truth that God has determined that we become strong under fire, after the pattern of the Son.  Nothing else will do.” (Jim Elliot, “Shadow of the Almighty”)

1 John 3:2 Beloved, now we are the children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we kn ow that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is.

Oh the work of God in and on feeble men like me, is convicting and yet comforting to know that one day when my sojourning days are done, I will finally be like Him.  All praise and glory to the God who transforms the body, mind and soul!

Peace & Glorify~

Faith & Love

Today, October 13, 2009 was an interesting day to say the least.  It took on the measure of “faith & love” and between such there is “hope.” 

FAITH … my day began at 4:15am as I was awakened, maybe a nudge from God to come meet with Him.  I’ve been meditating … not the humming kind, but the thinking kind … on 1 Peter 1:3-9 for several days now.  It is truly a “steak” to be savored bite by bite.  This morning I came to verse 9 … “obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”  To live in and by the outcome of faith is a striking thought.  Though I will not go into it I had a different sort of dream where a man kept telling me, “Tonight I will be tortured and I will die for him.”  My thought from such in the waking hours of the morning was, “Better to die with faith intact than to live without it.”  It is Thomas in the gospel of John who says, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.”   I recall the written words of Jim Elliot … “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”   The responsibility of faith is a weighty matter not to be taken lightly.  Bear up faith today and it will be there tomorrow.   Come, let us who are of the realm of faith live in such for … the just shall live by faith.

LOVE … as my day progressed and studying for Sunday’s sermon on the first temptation of Jesus I was confronted with the words of Christ Himself … “Do you love Me?” (Jn 21:15-17)  The questions spawned interrogation of the body, mind and soul … “Are you in love with Jesus?”  Reading from the book, “In the Name of Jesus” Henri Nouwen says … “The Christian leader of the future is the one who truly knows the heart of God as it has become flesh, “a heart of flesh” in Jesus.” (see: Ezekiel 11:19-20).  We are reminded in the Scriptures that we love God because He first loved us. (1 Jn 4:19).  His love is the “proto” first love that is UNconditional and UNlimited.  Jesus invites us to come and learn from Him … and so I come to Him as His student (disciple) to learn how to love God first and then how to love others showing the “UN” to the unloved.

So today was interesting in those two aspects, but all the more in how God drew me and led me to several points of ministry to exhibit both faith and love.  So I keep praying … “Lord, keep drawing me to You, and extracting me from myself so that there will be more of Jesus in me … His life … His death … His love … His devotion … His sacrifice.” Amen.

Peace & Glorify~

Blues Boys

Nothing like the “boys night out” … and even better when it is with “My Three Sons” … Daniel, Micah and Samuel.  We enjoyed going to the home opener of the St. Louis Blues hockey season (09-10) with dinner out, rummaging around Union Station, standing out in the rain waiting for the unveiling of the Al McGinnis statue, and then the game itself.  Though the Blues lost (4-2) their home opener they had previously beat the Detroit Red Wings in their first two games, which is “priceless!”  The above photo was taken not inside the locker room but in front of a “green screen” with the background being placed in later.  Nonetheless it looks great and the “Blues Boys” all the more!  Times such as there are getting slimmer … as Daniel and Micah are now married and building a life with their wife and Sam will graduate in 2011 (1.5 yrs) … so I am taking advantage of such times with “my three sons.” 

Peace & Glorify~

Grace

Yesterday was a day of grace, as I was reminded over and over of the grace of God in mine and others lives.  I spoke at the funeral of a saintly lady (almost 85) who loved the Lord and served him in all aspects of her life.  I was so presently aware of God’s hand of grace to save and keep the believer.  Jesus’s words in John 10:28 just came flooding into my soul, not as some fundamental principle to preach, but a lavishing of the love and care of God to tenderly save, hold and keep those He has made His own through the Son, Jesus Christ.  It truly was overwhelming moment of grace.

John 10:28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand.

In our Wednesday service last night I was closing out a study of Psalm 145 (18-21) and one author made reference to the grace of God David was experiencing.  It was like grace was splashing off the page of the written Word and soaking me once again in a fresh reality of His grace in my life.  I spoke of how God’s grace is ACCESSIBLE (the Lord is near to all who call).  Just like a friend (to sinners) God says, “Come and see Me!”  He is the God of all grace (1 Peter 5:10) and when we come to His accessible throne of grace we the believer find more grace for everything we need and are facing!  I spoke of how God’s grace is FULL and how we cannot exhaust the inexhaustible grace of God.  He has an endless supply and all that He does is filled full of grace.  He is “grace upon grace” (John 1:16) toward us so that we through His Spirit might be filled with the fullness of Him. (Eph 3:19-20).  And I spoke of God’s grace as EVIDENT to the believer.  Grace is irrefutable in the true believer’s life.  The apostle Paul says, “I am what I am by the grace of God …” (1 Cor 15:10)  Such a claim is not some excuse filled cop out of life, but all the more a life of remembering what he use to be and what he was now, and the difference between the two being GOD’S GRACE!  Amazing it is that God shows us, make evident the richness of His grace toward us in Christ Jesus! (Eph 2:7).  As I was concluding I shared the following quote from Richard Straus

“Whether it is grace for salvation, grace for sanctification, grace for service, grace for suffering, grace to keep us singing, grace to govern our speech, or grace for any other need, we experience it by believing God, believing that we need His grace, that He has enough available to help us, that He is willing to share it with us, and that it will be adequate to transform our burdens into blessing.”

Yesterday I was engulfed in the grace of God, and today … I am a “grace-man” living in the undeserved grace of God.  I praise You my gracious God!

Peace & Glorify~