Too Good 2B True

Have you ever found something to buy which just seemed too good to be true?  Sure you have and once in a great while that “too good 2b true” item turns out to be the absolute best buy you made in a long time.  Take for instance a Panasonic pencil sharpener I bought almost brand new, 20 years ago at a yard sale for fifty-cent (they wanted a $1 but I talked them down), that is still sharpening pencils today! 

Well I suppose we all get caught every now and then jumping on a good buy and in reality it turns out not to be … you know, “too good to be true!”  I found that out through a recent purchase on Ebay … the selling/buying place of the world … literally!  I was looking at a copy of Adobe Photoshop CS4 (latest version) and the description said it was software that could be licensed through Adobe.com (manufacturer).  Now understand that PS CS4 is a $900+ software.  Well I put a high bid of $175 really not expecting to even come close, but I won the bid for $162.49.  Like a good ebayer I paid through “PayPal” and waited to hear from the seller.  No word for like 10 days, when finally I got a notice of shipping with a USPS tracking number.  The item description said it would be shipped from Oakland California … but their geography was off a few thousand miles as it was shipped from Beijing, China!!   I feared tug boats only left there every other week, but the USPS delivered to my doorstep in about 10 days. 

Like anyone hoping beyond the “too good 2b true” I loaded the software with serial number and all seemed good until I updated it through Adobe.com … and then “bingo beijing” Adobe said by way of a nice box on my screen … “Invalid Serial Number” and after several times of opening it up hoping the nice warning box would go away, I received a notice ”Licensing is Out of Date” and it shut down the program.  Arrrrgh!  I called Ebay and listed a complaint in the form of a claim against the seller … only after attempting to contact the sellar through email and phone.  I called Adobe and they said the killer serial number was invalid and they would not activate the software, and they let me know that Ebay is not an authorized dealer for Adobe.  I went to the The  Ebay seller site and they had nothing … not a thing listed to sell on their Ebay site, when a few days earlier they had a lot of stuff for sale … even several copies of Photoshop CS4.  Hum?  A friend of mine after telling him my sad story said, “Bob did you really expect to get a $1000 authentic software for $162.49?  It’s too good to be true!”  How right he is!  Well to make a long story short … Ebay has refunded my money (kudos to Ebay!) and is at this time attempting to contact the seller.  Good luck!    So I say all this to say to you … “If it looks or sounds too good to be true” … IT PROBABLY IS! 

Proverbs 14:8 (NIV)  The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways, but the folly of fools is deception

Peace & Glorify~

Dyed

Today I messed around with trying to make my own photography backdrops.  I bought a big piece of muslin material which is a natural colored cloth, made of 100% cotton, and a package of Rit dye (navy blue).  I poured hot water in a bucket, heated the dye in water on the stove to a simmer and then poured it into the bucket.  Prior to I had washed the muslin and then clumped it all together holding together with rubber bands, and then I proceeded to dunk it into the dark blue dyed water and left it for about 20 minutes, punching and stirring it with a dow rod … all outside.  The cloth came out in a darkened navy colored tie dye effect, no longer the natural colored muslin.  I have washed it and dried it, and am now ready to use it as a backdrop for portrait photography.

There is a reason I am telling you this.  As I washing watching the fabric turn a rich shade of blue I realized the significance of being baptized into Christ.  It is more than just a ritual or something we do (baptism is not part of your salvation … grace alone!) as there is rich meaning in its origin.  The Greek word for baptize is “baptizo” (baptism is “baptisma”) which has a root of “bapto” which means to be “covered wholly with fluid” … and to “stain as with dye”.  The idea is that we are baptized, immersed completely into Christ … much like the cloth I dyed today was stained completely by the blue dye … it took on the color of that which it was was being immersed into … it will never again be the same color of cloth as it began.  Being baptized into Christ as an act of obedience suggests that the very fabric of Christ life becomes mine … it plunges me and stains me as that of Christ.  Oh God, let me be dyed into the color of Christ, stained by the blood and never to be the same, plunged into the depths of Christ coming up a changed person.  Amen!

Romans 6:4 (NKJV)  Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

 Peace & Glorify~

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~