A generation is a long time. My great grandparents and great-great grandparents generation "discovered" the problem of drugs about 1900. Which lead to a lot of problems and push back against the social ills that came with them. Then my parents generation "discovered" drugs again in the 1960's. Which lead to a lot of problems and push back against the social ills that came with them.
It is interesting how sin in our generations work that way. Over and over again you see the Kings falling to sin and against God. And over and over again you see the results. Events have not changed over time.
The question to us ... will you sin in the way of our fathers or follow God in the way of our fathers.
I wonder what my high place is? That part of me that I don't want to surrender to God. He calls us to give him our everything ... yet ... I tend to hold back from Him.
I suppose my high place is what you are looking at. Technology. I'm not type-A by any name. But, I like the control and ownership of my tech-toys. It is mine and I tend to sacrifice money and especially time for things that I shouldn't.
Darkness is the absence of light. The smallest light doesn't "drive out" darkness. The Light just IS. You can see it from across the distance because dark can't hold it back.
Christ is our light. The darkness of any of my sins can't hold Him back. He shines upon everything in my life. The darkness of my life isn't what is hurt by Christ ... but the things you imagine to be hidden burn in His light.
I just needed to accept that and throw my life open to him.
When I was a kid I dreamed of being a super hero. Saving the day and all that. You faced villains and still came out on top. Or maybe the heroic death that everyone remembers.
One part of that dream was that it never dealt with the personal pains and sacrifices that the real living breathing hero lives with. The loss of a father to war. The police office having to deal daily with the worst emotional traumas of humanity. Cleaning up the bodies of a mother and child after the drunk driver ran them down.
Getting a double portion from God means that you will be on the front lines. To those that God gives much ... much is required.
Pray that we may be people that God requires much of.
... the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around ...
Sometimes is takes a little perspective. The mountains in our lives can be daunting. You look up and never expect to conquer them. You feel the weight of your sins in life. You see the difficulty of raising a family in a world that is set against God. You can taste the hate rolling off those aligned against God.
Well, I suppose that would be cheating. It isn't like we don't have the entire Bible. We can read ... we can listen ( as I hope you are by coming here ) ... we can learn about Christ and all that He accomplished for us.
Our road to Emmaus is just the time we choose to sacrifice to God in learning His word. All together, by the time I finish this, it will only have been about 70 hours of my time to listen to ALL of God's Word.
And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.”
I like the way the band Disciple covers this in "God Of Elijah" ( use youtube to find it online ).
Bring on the show down How long will you waver between two opinions If the Lord is God then follow Him But if Baal is god then follow him There are 450 prophets of Baal and just one of me So it should be no problem to get his attention And show everyone here today That if he's the real god He'll have to send fire down So they began to shout, run around, cut themselves Baal made no reply, so Elijah cried Maybe he's sleeping, or busy or traveling Or using the bathroom, or deeply thinking
I can just see the prophets running around cutting themselves and screaming to rouse a god who happens be busy sitting on the toilet.
Today we are trying to replace God with the idea of a perfect man. That we are all that there is. We only need to look in the mirror, understand science, and find inner meaning to find "god". What foolishness.
We run around cutting ourselves, bleeding all over, screaming, and crying out to a false god. Look at how much money and flesh we sacrifice in the temples of pleasure at Vagas. Look at how much blood of our children we spill for the image of selfishness. For the right of not being burdened with them.
In the end men will be lying in the dirt looking up at the fire of God. Their sacrifice sits, blood spilt out for nothing and to no one. Their lost hope mingling with the blood and dirt inside the wounds on their cut backs.
It is rather easy to find the people who rely only upon their own strength. Look at Ahab ... and he lay down on his bed and turned away his face and would eat no food. All because he didn't get what he wanted he ran away and pouted like an young child. And soon that lead to a great evil and his own death.
If you are your own god ... If you sacrifice only to yourself ... How great the fall when any trial comes upon you! You stand alone and see nothing outside of your own pleasures. And when the pleasure stops, like it does for all people, how great the pain.
Power corrupts. This truth is so easy to see in the life of Solomon. He knew ... for God gave him wisdom above everyone else. And he still turned to worship other gods.
He had so much. So much wealth. So many women. So many servants. So much wisdom. And so much power. He would be envied like none other if he lived today.
I am young (-ish) and stupid. When I was younger I was even stupider. The sad part is you only know you are stupid, and were stupid, because you have moved on in your life and can look back at how stupid you really were.
The reason for this is like the frog in the well.
The frog looks up and sees "the entire sky". Of course it is just a tiny piece of what God's sky really is, but he doesn't know that. After a while he hops up closer to the top of the well. Looking up he is amazed that the sky has become larger and so much more detail! He sees branches of trees, yet still no whole tree. And for the first time he sees the moon close to the edge of the well.
Now he must know all that there is to know! Of course, it is still just a tiny piece of what God's sky really is.
Those that have gone before have a duty to call back down the well to let us know what we have waiting for us. And those heading up should listen and heed the words of the God fearing men in front of us. We should not listen the silly frogs at our side telling us how smart we are. And imagining that the tiny hole above our heads is all there is to know.
Peter was so sure he would stand by Jesus. Just a few hours before this the disciples were in a dispute of who of them was the greatest. Then soon after ... none could be found and Peter was screaming out “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.”
When times are good it is so easy to be full of pride. God is watching over our steps and we start to imagine that we are far more that we truly are. “Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.”
Solomon fell away from God after being surrounded by wealth, women, and power. His son fell away from wisdom after being surrounded by fools who stroked his ego. And Peter fell away from Christ when he was confronted with what it really means to follow him. Christ wasn't the man about to crush Rome. For He came to suffer and die.
Teaching in these times I wonder if anyone prays for wisdom.
Today I feel like people would rather have oracles than wisdom. Have a math problem ... get the calculator. Have a harder problem ... get the answer from the back of the book. It's an even numbered problem ... ask someone else to do it for you. How should we vote ... listen to the talking heads on TV. Is the president a good man ... read the talking heads on the internet.
No one seems to want to work for understanding or to work for wisdom. It is a rare person who goes out of their way to become wise in knowledge. Let alone try to become wise in the ways of the LORD.
Solomon built the temple and his own house. He spent 7 years on the temple and 13 years on his own house.
God only asks for one day a week for us to spend with Him. I like to think of Sunday as a day of focus. A day where I focus on God and what He wants. The other 6 are for work. But are we like Solomon in spending twice as much time on ourselves than the Lord? Is that where your money goes? Your efforts? Your time?
For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.
As I said above, we are like Solomon. Out of our abundance we give, but the majority of our wealth we hold for back for ourselves. During the 2004 election I spent some time looking at the IRS information of wealth, taxes, and giving. I was curious about how people voted based on those three things.
What wasn't surprising to me was that the poorest states gave the largest portion of their money away. And the richest states gave, by far, the least portion of their wealth. Those that have can't imagine not having ... so they hoard. Those that don't have know what it is like to be without ... so they give what little they do have to help others.
Did you ever lament for something that was unworthy of it?
Thinking about David's actions led me to think about my own. There have been times where I lamented losing things that were harmful to me and others. It was better to have it out of my life, yet I continued to look back over my shoulder at it. We can get so caught up in our desires we tend to focus only upon them. And looking back upon sin is no way to lead a family forward.
I suppose it will come down to what we set our eyes upon. Will we keep looking forward upon the LORD or will we keep our eyes backwards and down upon that which will perish.
I was working on cleaning up a hedge tree a while ago. If you haven't worked with one you just need to imagine incredibly hard wood with 2 inch thorns. As I was dragging a branch to the burn pile it flipped on me and jabbed a thorn just under my knee cap. It hurt really really bad. Really bad.
Anyways, we are called to minister to worthless men. We are not called to participate with worthless men. They are like thorns. You don't go playing around with a thorn tree because it will just end up stabbing you in the hand or knee. Don't expect to go the parties, talk bad about others, curse at the ball games, and not have it come back and jab a thorn under your kneecap.
There is only one end for our lives if we live in a worthless way ...
I drive one of my co-workers crazy with the saying ... "The squeaky wheel gets the grease".
The sad truth of the matter is that people who complain A LOT tend to get stuff just to make them shut up. What makes my co-worker mad is that it really isn't fair.
Many times the person who complains doesn't deserve what they get. They are just used to getting what they want by whining. And the people who have real needs, or who need justice, are usually silent in their suffering.
It is up to us to be a good judge. To be men and women who do what is right no matter how the winds blow. To be honest with those who should be told ... "That is enough. Be patient with what you have". And to give what is needed, when it is needed, and to give justice to those who are silent. We can only do this by actively looking for them in our lives.
This is one area of my life that I need to improve.
... by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord.
Do you ever think that when you sin you have utterly scorned the Lord? Anger, scorn, sexual sin, adultery, murder. We tend to think of those as being "between us". That there is a victim of the sin and a sinner. Not often do we stop to think that by sinning we are utterly scorning God. We spit in the face of His sacrifice on the cross.
I wonder how often we would sin if the gateway to get there was standing before Jesus on the cross ... and spitting on Him as we walk by to fulfill our desires.
If only I were in charge how different things would be! Yes everyone would have a free home. You would not pay anymore taxes ... that would be only for those that have taken from the poor. We all will ride unicorns that eat rainbows and save the rain forest.
I was trying to be funny, but beware of those that speak well and promise good things. Their heart is usually only upon themselves.
Pride comes before the fall. The Jebusites felt that Jerusalem was so safe that the blind and lame could fight off David. They were wrong.
Myself, I like to argue ... a lot. And part of that is a pride that I have in figuring out what is right or wrong in a debate. It is my job ( teaching mathematics / logic classes ) and I really like to break down things until I know the why's and how's.
But, pride is a very dangerous thing. Having honorable pride in what we do is a good thing. It drives you to work hard and do well. Having a false pride based on past experience can lead laziness and a fall.
Who am I. That is on my mind a lot. It is so hard to access yourself honestly. To not lift yourself up and to not cut yourself down. Just to be honest in looking at where you are, who you are, and what you have done.
I know my weakness and my strengths. And sometimes they are one in the same. O LORD God ... just ... lead me.
While listening to the parables of the lost sheep and coins I was thinking about the times I lost something at home. You are running around the house getting angry and upset over not finding it. You rip open the curtains to let in more light and shake bags upside down. Take the covers off the bed and the cushions from the couch. Get on the floor and rub your hands on the carpet to see if you can feel it. Yell at the kids in case one of them took it.
And then the feeling you get when you find it. The release you feel in your stomach at finally having it in your hand. It is like you can breathe again.
Or ....
may be it is like this ....
We were at the mall ... And I lost track of my son.
My heart hit my stomach and I got scared and angry and ... I can't even find the words. I thought maybe he went to the restroom. I go in and look under each of the doors.
Not there.
As I go out I notice that the door next to the restrooms that leads outside is propped open ...
That isn't supposed to be like that.
Now I'm really angry and scared. Heading back down the hallway I see a play area with a corner that is kind of hidden. Looking over the wall ...
There he is.
NOW I can't describe the feeling of ... completeness ... that I felt just looking at him.
I suppose that is what God feels when we come home.
There is a funny song by Berkley Hart called Elvis Einstein. The song is about an old man that finds a baby abandoned in a dumpster. The old man thinks that to make it in life you need to be pretty, smart, have money and friends. So he names the baby Elvis Einstein Rockefeller Jones. The rest of the song has the baby getting his name changed as he is moved from place to place.
As far as the name Nabal ... I pray that my wife will NEVER have to intercede on my behalf because I am a fool.
And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him.
I can't list all the pain that I see going on around me at times ... pain that hits on the outside of my life. Cancer, death of a child, death of a wife, death of father, broken marriages, broken lives, addiction. All things that only others and friends have experienced ... so far.
I wish I had the perfect answer to give when they ask where God is when they are in pain.
All I can think of is the stream back where I grew up in Ohio. At times it flowed it and at times it dried up. I have wonderful memories of it and painful memories as well. But, it was my stream. Where I played with my family splashing in the water and later got stuck knee deep in mud until I felt like I lost a pint of blood to mosquitoes. Where I saw and learned about life and death.
The knowledge we get is not just of good. Rather it is the Knowledge of Good AND Evil. The only answer I can think of as to why? ...
It rains when it rains. But, here is my hand. Take it and I'll help as best as I can.
When you give people a second or third chance to change do you give them the tools to change?
I would never expect to get a good crop in poor soil if I used no manure or fertilizer. If you keep coming back expecting someone to change ... it would be better if you stayed with them and nourished the soil of their life instead.
It is sometimes hard to remember that. We have our day planner, google calender, phone with task lists and email and IM. "Alright Lord ... does Thursday next week work for you? It would be best then ... If not maybe ... the .... Monday after in the afternoon?"
LORD, I pray for patience and the strength to do my tasks for only this day.
Stones from mountain streams are so cold and smooth in your hand. Water continually runs on them wearing them down to a polish like finish. Five small stones started as rocks and God placed them in a stream years ago. Years passed by as people came an went. In all that time the stones waited for the young boy to trust more in God than in size and power.
In your life is God placing you in the stream to be worn down and smoothed for use? Or is God waiting for you to pick up what He has made and to do what is right?
But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
A big issue with math homework is ... "How much do I have to do?" Students always seem to want to do as little as possible. It may be that they are busy or lazy. But, they just want to do only what they absolutely have to. The truth of mathematics is ... you have to do as much as you can possibly do to learn it. You learn nothing if you just want to pass by the skin of your teeth.
In the question to Christ above the man was asking what was the least amount of work he had to do. It is interesting the answer wasn't ... "you need to get 70% correct to pass." The answer was ... "you need to give it your all to pass."
