HE SAYS: Home is where the heart is…

The St. Jude Dream Home Giveaway in our town has generated some interesting discussion.  The home they are giving away is estimated to be worth $450,000, and it is in an exclusive neighborhood.  Sharon and I were talking about what it would mean if we were to enter the raffle and God would choose to give us such a home.

The general progression of the discussion went like this:

·         If God gave us a house like that, he would definitely expect the house to be fully yielded to him.

·         How could we use such a house to glorify God?

·         Would God even want us to live in such a house?

·         He didn’t even provide a house for his only Son while he was here on earth.

"And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Matthew 8:20 (ESV)

·         Isn’t the leased home where we currently live a gift from God?

·         Our home is not our personal individual space.  It is a gift which we should use for the glory of our Heavenly Father.

This was a convicting idea for me.  My home is a special place for me.  It is my place to get away.  It is my sanctuary.  It is my safe place.  The problem with that thinking is that those are the attributes God wants me to assign to Him, not a building.

My heart needs to rest in God, not a house.

Lord, please give me the courage and the wisdom to trust you to be my sanctuary, my safe place.

SHE SAYS: My Heart Leaps for Joy!

When is the last time you felt your heart leap for joy?  I must say that every time I am reminded about what Christ has done for me, I get that feeling!  It happened today.  At church we began singing that familiar hymn Amazing Grace originally written by John Newton that Chris Tomlin rewrote with the chorus “My chains are gone, I’ve been set free…”

Some people apparently don’t like that John Newton considered himself a wretch.  But he was, and I am.  We all are hopeless, blind, and lost without Jesus. And there isn’t a thing we can do about it.  That is why I am so joyful.  “I’ve been found.”  I’ve been released from the chains and set free. And it makes me want to dance and sing praises.

The third verse of this song was most meaningful to me today:

"The Lord has promised good to me

 His word my hope secures

 He will my shield and portion be

 As long as life endures"

I rely on the promise of Psalm 28:7 “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him and he helps me.”    I know he helps me...and He can help you. 

Doesn’t that promise make your heart leap for joy too?

HE SAYS: “Who do you say that I am?”

I heard someone quote Matthew 7:1 recently to justify their tolerance of another person’s sins.  This event and several others dealing with human judgment have been weighing heavy on my mind.  The age-old question is:  “Are we, with our flawed human reasoning, correct to make judgments about the behaviors of others?”

This is what I think.

God created us in his own image, and gave us the gift of discernment to be able to judge between right and wrong.  That ability was corrupted after Adam’s sin and we are no longer able to accurately judge.

However, the world was changed by Christ.

God obviously expects us to make judgments about the actions of others.  Jesus asked his disciples for a judgment about Himself:

"He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Matthew 16:15 (ESV)

Peter responded accurately, and Jesus explained that his ability to understand was not human, but a gift from God.

"And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven."  Matthew 16:17 (ESV)

Our ability to make judgments of the behaviors of others is only through the wisdom of The Holy Spirit.  Therefore, any decision we make about the actions or intentions of another should be preceded by earnest prayer.

Lord, please help me to see as you see and to understand as you understand so my judgment may be sure.

HE SAYS: First Love

The television networks can’t wait to get a hold of my new sitcom. 

Setting:  The primordial soup

Main Characters:  Two single cell families who just happen to live right next door to each other

Situation:  The Male family has a child with some strange bodily appendages.  The Female family has the same problem with one of their children.  Each week, the two mutant children seem to always find themselves in awkward situations with each other.  

Season Finale:  The mutants discover, serendipitously, that their bodies uniquely fit together, and the era of sexual reproduction dawns on earth.

Sound scintillating?

The transition from asexual reproduction to sexual reproduction is one of the impossibilities of the evolutionary model.  If mammals evolved from single-cell beings, then the following events must have occurred:

1.       A male and a female came into being with compatible bodily mutations

2.       They had compatible chromosomes

3.       They existed in the same place

4.       The existed in the same life-span

5.       They were sexually attracted to each other

6.       They had the correct reproductive instincts to guide the process

7.       Their offspring survived to perpetuate their kind

What are the odds that all of these complex conditions were met?  I don’t think it is necessary to do the math to know that this situation is impossible.

I prefer God’s explanation.

Matthew 19:4-6 (NIV) 

“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh?’  So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

HE SAYS: Are you Religious?

Religion is a curious thing.  Most people associate religion with gods and deities and philosophies about eternity and human existence.  Dictionary.com first defines religion as:

1.        a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.

However, the second definition opens up another world of possibilities:

2.        a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects.

I have met people who are religious about their car.  I work with people who are religious about their career.  I pass people on the highway who all dress the same, look the same, and act the same because they are religious about their Harley Davidson.

Are you religious?

I once worked with a man who constantly talked about his favorite sports teams, and was arrogantly condescending toward me because I was uninformed about his teams.  Frankly, his constant reference to the latest game and its outcome became offensive to me.  I have often wondered what his reaction would have been if I had talked about my love for my Lord and Savior as frequently as he talked about his sports gods.

What is your religion(s)?

Does the investment of your devotion have any value beyond today, this year, this lifetime?

Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” [John 6:27 (NIV)]

HE SAYS: Who’s the Truth?

My contemplation recently has been on truth.  I spent the first 40 years of my life in a pseudo-Christian cult which referred to itself as: The Truth.  It was not the type of cult where the members sat around in a trance wearing robes and blowing flower petals to the leader, but the secrets and lies and manipulations were no less destructive.

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6 (NIV)

Do you love the Truth?

As a child, I thought nothing of the use of the word, “truth” by those around me.  Now however, I am amazed at my own spiritual blindness.   I have often asked myself, “How could you believe in something for 40 years which claimed to be “The Truth”, but is constructed of lies?”  I understand now, that Jesus, the perfect and Holy Son of God, is the only person who can rightfully claim to be the Truth.  My journey has been arduous.

When you are taught a fundamental belief from infancy, you are predisposed to simply ignore any idea which does not agree with your foundational beliefs.  Many times, I was confronted with issues and problems, but I rationalized them away and continued blindly on my path.  Fortunately, I had a father and mother who taught me, by word and action, that God’s word is a trustworthy absolute.  It is The Truth.

Do you love the Truth?

Only by comparing my beliefs, one-by-one, to God’s perfect word, have I been able to root out the lies and reseed my life with truth.  The following words of God are sobering to me when I consider how easily I was deceived:

The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie." 2 Thessalonians 2:9-11 (NIV)  

Do you love the Truth?

Children of God should never struggle to discern the truth.  Jesus is with us, and The Holy Spirit is in us.  We only need to ask, and God will provide us with the truth we need to expose the lie.

“You are a king, then!” said Pilate.  Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”  John 18:37 (NIV)

Do you love the Truth?