I was listening to a sermon on 106.9FM The Light, a local Christian radio station out of Charlotte NC, recently and the pastor (I cannot recall who it was) was preaching about fruit bearing Christianity. It was very illuminating to me. I am not going to repeat the sermon, but the lesson in it along with my wife’s activities recently motivated this writing. My wife is constantly thinking of basic household items that she can make from laundry detergent to my own deodorant (The jury is still out on the deodorant, but I will try it and see!) Today my mind made the connection between my wife’s actions and this particular sermon and the Holy Spirit moved in me to think about what He is accomplishing in my family. So I want to begin with a passage of scripture in John 15: 5 (New Living Translation).
“I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.”
I am going to steal the theme from the aforementioned sermon, (whoever he is I hope he won’t mind). His premise, as will be mine, was the difference between fruit bearing Christianity and those that are fruit eaters. I had never thought about that distinction and the sermon did not grab my attention in a real meaningful way until today. I can now see what the Lord is doing in my family. He is trying to teach myself and my family an attitude of production over consumption. Briefly, I would like to detour off topic a little bit and touch on the subject of economics (Trust me this will be a very short sidebar; I am by no means an economist.). I think it is no revelation to most that the United States is a consumer driven economy. We consume far more then we produce and probably have since about the 1940’s. Look, I am not going to dive into the differences between supply side economics and Keynesian economics, because frankly I am not qualified to do so. Besides, by miniscule knowledge of these terms is about as deep as my economic knowledge goes! I will just make the point that it seems that true Christianity would probably fall under supply side economics. See I told you that would not take long, but there is a point to all of this. Christianity is a production over consumption lifestyle. This scripture clearly illustrates that when we allow the Lord to be our source of all spiritual nutrients, so to speak, we will produce fruit. It is a fact and a promise from God. That being said, I think that the spiritual and economic conditions of the United States of America and the whole world for that matter are tied to consumption over production attitude. This leads me back to my wife who is the real source of the inspiration for this. The Lord is using her to teach me to be a producer and not a consumer, because that is what she has become. We are surprised how much resistance we get for choosing to change our lifestyle in that manner. Rather than encourage us or even ask questions about how they can do these things as well, criticism ensues instead. Not all the time, but enough to convince me that these decisions we are making are flying in the face of the culture that we live in. If my not so scientific analysis is accurate, then why have we become this way? Well I have two observations. One is that we do not desire to consume the Word of God. That consumption produces a spirit of humility which from my experience leads to a desire to work and produce fruit for the Lord. Number two is, we are self-reliant and over time that attitude will cause people to seek self gratification and therefore consume more and produce less. That doesn’t mean everyone will become lazy, but it does mean that any real production will be for immediate gratification towards self and not for the Lord or the greater good of your legacy as a family.
The third point I would like to make is based upon my failed attempt at a garden in my backyard last spring. It seems that last spring my gardening knowledge was not much more then my economic knowledge and my garden did not yield any fruit. The truth is that I did not put enough work into it so that good fruit could flourish. It was really an experimental effort, because I had not tried this before. I tilled the soil properly at least according to my limited expertise, but I guess I counted on rain and sunlight doing the rest. I did not weed or make sure insects did not destroy what was growing. Long story short, I was not as prepared as I thought for the amount of work that I needed to undertake to make this a fruitful experiment. Then something else that I did not expect happened. A few months later a couple of long vines with very large green leaves, larger then my hand, sprang up to the left of my porch, and I didn’t know what they were. Upon closer inspection I saw cucumbers growing on them. The strange thing is that I chose at the last minute to not plant cucumbers although I did buy the seeds. I realized at that point that I had opened the seed package for the cucumbers and some had accidentally fallen on the ground. The actual fruit was useless but the leaves were quite large and green and with a casual glance you would think that plant was fruit bearing, because it was so much greener than the other plants that were planted in good soil. The point is that none of my garden had produced any good fruit. That little experiment was quite educational in a variety of ways, but I would like to focus on one of the spiritual lessons that is pertinent to our discussion. My desire was to grow food for my family to consume, but clearly I had not allowed myself to be under adequate teaching to be able to produce what was necessary. I think we suffer from this problem in our spiritual lives. We seek the results of the Lord or to say it another way we want to consume the fruit that others have labored to produce. Unfortunately, we do not put in the work necessary (sanctification) to produce that work. I am not talking about work based salvation! What I am saying is that an attitude of gratitude towards the Lord will cause us to consume the Word of God and therefore be producers of good fruit. Obviously I was too engrossed in an attitude of consumption to do the work necessary to produce a good crop in my garden. Sadly that has been my attitude spiritually more times then I would like to admit. I would like to end this with a scripture from the Old Testament. All of Exodus 35-36, obviously I am not going to put all of this in my text, because it is quite long. I would encourage you to read it for yourself. There is far more wisdom to be gleamed from this passage than what I am going to briefly allude to. The background here is the Lord’s people are taking all of their abilities and building the tabernacle for the Lord. Two things jumped out at me that I would like to share with you. Number one, on several occasions this passage talks about a “spirit of wisdom” in regards to those doing the work on the tabernacle. Meaning that their work ethic and knowledge in their field was supernaturally given. To say it a little more acutely the eternal wisdom of our sovereign God guided there hands to build unto Him what was honoring to Him. How many times have you equated wisdom and a work ethic? I must admit I have not done so very often. The second reason is that you cannot help but notice how economically it must have been a good situation for the people of Israel. Due to everyone producing things necessary for the glorification of our Lord everyone had something to do. To put it in modern economic terms there was full employment in the Nation of Israel at the time. Guess what? There was so much production the priests had to tell the people to stop producing what was necessary for the building of the temple.
This is not some health and wealth, name it and claim it theology. Actually, it is just the opposite it shows us the attitude of service for the kingdom that the Lord desires. It also shows the results it will yield for the Lord’s kingdom. Not for ours! Are you a producer or a consumer?
How about a little extra reading? I decided not to discuss the parable of the sower in Matthew 13:3-9. The main reason is that I don’t think I could do it any better then Jesus did it so I will ask you to just read it. However, I will offer a little advice. Take some time to research how farming was done in the New Testament. This will allow you to see the depth of this parable in ways that all who heard it back then would have clearly understood. That parable really helped to teach me a great deal in regards to my ordinary garden experience. God bless!
Friday, January 14, 2011
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Knowing God
I did not think that I would dive into things that were personally happening in my life, but this is one that I cannot fail to discuss. The premise of this blog is wisdom that flows supernaturally from a Holy God. Therefore it would lead one to logically conclude that you should know this God of whom we serve. Obviously my view of this subject begins and ends with his Holy Word and there is a passage in Genesis that I have to touch on. First off I have to tell you that yesterday was an unexpected setback and on the surface appears to be devastating. The background of this is that I am a father of three with a stay at home wife. I am currently unemployed and yesterday our only car’s engine blew! I have been in the Word of God more so then ever before in my life, which is the predominant reason for my writings. I will not usually plug a book, but I have been reading a book called “Knowing God” by J.I. Packer, and this book is worth the read and also correlates to my topic. Knowing all the attributes of God is the predominant theme of why I am compelled to share this with you and the only reason for my existence. That being said, I would be remiss if I told you that I am writing this with all the human emotions such as fear, frustration, and a touch of sorrow. My point is that my soul is not shaken, but yes my flesh is scared! However I am excited to know what is to come, because I have learned how my God operates which is to say not how we would think. This is not the first time this has happened in my life and it has escalated exponentially during the last 6 years of my life. I want to get into Genesis so I will not expound exhaustively on my personal testimony, but a little insight hopefully will help you out. I was an average church going Christian for about ten years after my salvation at age 20, but up until six years ago the Lord was not in control of my life, I was! Because of that I was an extremely miserable Christian and utterly fruitless! I thought I was doing the right things such as Sunday school, Bible studies, church sports and all the trappings of a “Christian life”, but I was lying to myself. Over the course of those years I grew tired of the grind I was living and my sin eventually took its toll. At the age of 30 I was separated from my wife, drinking heavily, totally depressed and wondering why. As a happy side note the children that I now have been blessed with are from my wife, we never got divorced and now have a great marriage! To make a long story short, six years ago I slumped back into the back row of a church on the first Sunday of 2005 and nothing has been the same since. Remember earlier I said that these trials have grown in the last six years, that’s right, as soon as I returned to the Lord he immediately rolled up and his sleeves and got busy getting rid of everything I had in my life that needed to be destroyed! Therefore the Lord has been preparing me with these faith lessons all along, and with that being said I want to share a passage about Abraham in Genesis chapter 22 it’s pretty long so I am only going to write a few verses here.
1And it came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.
2And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
3And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.
4Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.
5And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.
First of all I have only given you the first five verses and I invite you to read the rest of this chapter on your own. I will try to show to the best of my ability how amazing this story really is and how this is a call to faith for myself and every believer. The backdrop of this story is that Abraham has been residing in the land of the Philistines for a long time (it’s not clear to me how long that time was), after making a covenant with Abimelech. It is also worth noting that Abraham was not always the faithful man that we see here, the Lord had to create that in him. Although he did belief the Lord when it came to the promise that God would give his barren wife a natural son, he definitely had his missteps (chapter 20 he lied to Abimelech and told him that Sarah was his sister and not his wife because of fear for his own life.) I wanted to bring up that Abraham had been in the land of the Philistines for a long time to bring up the point that the Lord was taking that time to prepare Abraham for his lesson in faith that only God knew was coming. Not all that dissimilar to the last six years which have occurred in my life, were preparation for my particular faith lesson that I am going through. I think it’s important to grasp the humanity of Abraham with all his sin and disobedience so that we do not get caught in the trap of thinking that these huge steps of faith are reserved for “super saints” in the Bible. Yes Abraham was declared by God to have favor in the sight of God, but that is more about who God is; not who Abraham is. We need to realize that the faith that Abraham is showing us originated from the Lord and therefore is exactly what He is calling every believer into, not just the “super saints!” How did Abraham become willing to sacrifice his own son for the Lord? I know some people don’t want to get caught up in the details of this story because on the surface it seems so horrendous to think about, but let me give you a little different perspective. I want you to get the full picture here. Abraham was called out by God many years before this event happened. God promised Abraham that his barren wife would give birth to his seed (they were both about 100 I think, not completely sure but I know that number is close.) Moreover that son (Isaac) was to be the seed of God’s chosen people and would bless all the nations of the earth, including us gentile believers that have been grafted into that Jewish lineage as joint heirs to the throne. I don’t even think Abraham knew what God’s promise really meant, I know I could not have conceived of how much that promise actually meant. I’m still not sure I do, not this side of heaven anyway. Now here we are years later after the birth of Ishmael by his maidservant Hagar (clearly not what God had in mind), travelling through foreign lands and he still hasn’t seen the land to house this nation God has promised. Isaac has finally arrived and Abraham must think “Wow here we go; now things are starting to move!” Instead he ends up living with the Philistines, that’s right he is still not in his land! Finally Isaac has grown up and now God intervenes dramatically in Abraham’s life. Personally, I would have thought that the Lord was going to give clear concise three day directions to the land where his people will reside! Here comes the promise, I bet Abraham was excited to hear from the Lord! Well you just read what the Lord said. What would you have thought, I know I would have been distraught. There’s no doubt in my mind that Abraham’s human emotions were all tied up in knots. They had to be, faith or no faith this was his son, the promise, Isaac represented Abraham’s whole life. Isaac was everything God had promised and this is what God asks of him? I want to stop here and talk about how faith is not tied to emotional experiences. I would be a liar if I didn’t tell you that there have been some moments of fear and anxiety even as I write these words to you regarding my little situation. I have no doubt that Abraham felt the same way, after all Abraham was not God he was one of us frail unknowing humans. It’s not about what you feel that shows your faith it’s what you do. What did Abraham do? Verse 3 says that he “rose up early in the morning”. Early in the morning, are you serious! Most of us wouldn’t even do it let alone do it without delay! Let’s bring up one more point that the scripture tells us. The journey took three days. Abraham had three days to turn back. Three days to think about what he was about to do. Then to top it all off his beloved son had to ask where the sacrifice was to come from. As a father that had to have been a gut wrenching question from your son considering the circumstances. What was Abraham’s answer? “The Lord will provide” (it’s in verse 7, hey I told you to read the whole chapter I can’t do everything here!) What a statement! People this was not some emotion based modern day Holy Spirit moment here. No bands were playing, no people around for Abraham to seek counsel from, just Abraham, his son, the promise and God. Abraham believed God! How could this be? How could anyone have that kind of faith? The same reason that I can type these words to you. Because HE KNEW WHO GOD WAS, and no other reason. What does that mean, well everything to be honest, but I will try to keep this simple. Simply stated Abraham was in this for who God is not what He can do. You’re probably wondering what the difference is. Let’s say that you knew that a certain doctor can save your son from and incurable disease, because he had done it before. Would you care what his name was or what he was like. Frankly would you care anything about the doctor or would you run to him so that your son could be saved. Well, of course you would have the doctor save your son as I would for any of my daughters. That is a crude example but the truth is everyone (yes even you Mr. Atheist!) knows intellectually what a Holy God is capable of and would love the results He can give, but not all those people love the God over the results. Therein lies the difference between Abraham’s saving faith and the mirage of faith that some have and that I used to have. Who wouldn’t want God’s salvation, but when you realize that He wants your submission people turn away. (By the way, all will turn away no one would get saved without the original prompting of the Holy Spirit; you don’t desire God He desires you. That being said when the Holy Spirit does His work it will produce a repentant and submissive heart. Just thought it was important to add that little disclaimer on salvation.) Some of you are reading this and not understanding that Knowing God and eternity with Him is more important than the earthly results He can give. Some of you may not be saved (if that is you repenting now would be prudent!) and some of you may just not understand that yet. That’s ok I am just beginning to understand and will probably look back on this entry years from now and see how little I know now, but therein is the beauty of knowing God, the journey never ends. Abraham had learned the attributes of this God he serves and the knowledge of those truths made everything else insignificant. Even just one of them if fully understood can be enough to sustain you, He is that great! Abraham knew that God was sovereign, He was not a liar, that He was loving, and many more and if we know these things as well we will be changed forever and permanently. When you stop expecting the results that you want from Him God becomes the God of your life and not a genie. My point is that no amount of human effort could ever produce the kind of faith that Abraham exhibited as a matter of fact nothing at all from a human perspective could ever be the power source for that faith. That leads me to some unmistakable conclusions. Number one if that faith is God originated and Abraham (a regular guy) received and grabbed a hold of it then it is available. Number two since I can’t attain it, that faith is therefore supernatural thus making it eternal and permanent, and lastly if God calls us to seek Him through His word that means that this Bible we read is God and therefore containing the power available to sustain that faith. There is no expectation of results just God and how much you get to know Him.
I am not writing this because I am a “super saint” because I am not. I am just like you weak, frail, sinful and undeserving of His grace. I am not being overly humble to overstate anything, I believe that I am at my core all of those things. If it were not for supernatural grace that caused me to be a different person I would still be sinful. At that admission lays my last point and the only thing that you do in this process. All that you do is acknowledge your total human depravity and realize that you are not worthy of Him, that’s salvation and it will produce obedience over time as God gets rid of all of you and shows you Him. You cannot receive the gift of salvation spoken about in Ephesians 2:8-9 if you don’t think you need it. This brings me to my last point. Knowing Him is predicated on the realization that you don’t want to know your sinfulness anymore. Moreover when your self reliance and talents, coupled with your desires still lead to nothing and you cry out for a God knowing you don’t deserve him to answer. Then and only then are you in the frame of mind to know Him. Salvation is an act and gift of God and is permanent; however the realization of all that it means takes time. I am not trying to show you a miserable life in Christ, far from it. I am more grateful now then I ever was when I had more things of this world. I am also not saying that I have taken a vow of poverty, because I haven’t. (Although some days I think I have and don’t know it!) What I am driving at is your motivations for why you do the things you do. The world may not care, but God does. If you heart is where the Lord wants it then you have the rest talked about in Matthew chapter 11(I am not telling you which verses just read the whole thing it won’t kill you trust me!) and life is beautiful. So I would like to encourage those that might be a little taken aback by these statements. Sanctification is a beautiful process and God will finish his work so hang in there your Abraham faith lesson is coming and if you stay obedient you will be ready, God bless.
1And it came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.
2And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
3And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.
4Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.
5And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.
First of all I have only given you the first five verses and I invite you to read the rest of this chapter on your own. I will try to show to the best of my ability how amazing this story really is and how this is a call to faith for myself and every believer. The backdrop of this story is that Abraham has been residing in the land of the Philistines for a long time (it’s not clear to me how long that time was), after making a covenant with Abimelech. It is also worth noting that Abraham was not always the faithful man that we see here, the Lord had to create that in him. Although he did belief the Lord when it came to the promise that God would give his barren wife a natural son, he definitely had his missteps (chapter 20 he lied to Abimelech and told him that Sarah was his sister and not his wife because of fear for his own life.) I wanted to bring up that Abraham had been in the land of the Philistines for a long time to bring up the point that the Lord was taking that time to prepare Abraham for his lesson in faith that only God knew was coming. Not all that dissimilar to the last six years which have occurred in my life, were preparation for my particular faith lesson that I am going through. I think it’s important to grasp the humanity of Abraham with all his sin and disobedience so that we do not get caught in the trap of thinking that these huge steps of faith are reserved for “super saints” in the Bible. Yes Abraham was declared by God to have favor in the sight of God, but that is more about who God is; not who Abraham is. We need to realize that the faith that Abraham is showing us originated from the Lord and therefore is exactly what He is calling every believer into, not just the “super saints!” How did Abraham become willing to sacrifice his own son for the Lord? I know some people don’t want to get caught up in the details of this story because on the surface it seems so horrendous to think about, but let me give you a little different perspective. I want you to get the full picture here. Abraham was called out by God many years before this event happened. God promised Abraham that his barren wife would give birth to his seed (they were both about 100 I think, not completely sure but I know that number is close.) Moreover that son (Isaac) was to be the seed of God’s chosen people and would bless all the nations of the earth, including us gentile believers that have been grafted into that Jewish lineage as joint heirs to the throne. I don’t even think Abraham knew what God’s promise really meant, I know I could not have conceived of how much that promise actually meant. I’m still not sure I do, not this side of heaven anyway. Now here we are years later after the birth of Ishmael by his maidservant Hagar (clearly not what God had in mind), travelling through foreign lands and he still hasn’t seen the land to house this nation God has promised. Isaac has finally arrived and Abraham must think “Wow here we go; now things are starting to move!” Instead he ends up living with the Philistines, that’s right he is still not in his land! Finally Isaac has grown up and now God intervenes dramatically in Abraham’s life. Personally, I would have thought that the Lord was going to give clear concise three day directions to the land where his people will reside! Here comes the promise, I bet Abraham was excited to hear from the Lord! Well you just read what the Lord said. What would you have thought, I know I would have been distraught. There’s no doubt in my mind that Abraham’s human emotions were all tied up in knots. They had to be, faith or no faith this was his son, the promise, Isaac represented Abraham’s whole life. Isaac was everything God had promised and this is what God asks of him? I want to stop here and talk about how faith is not tied to emotional experiences. I would be a liar if I didn’t tell you that there have been some moments of fear and anxiety even as I write these words to you regarding my little situation. I have no doubt that Abraham felt the same way, after all Abraham was not God he was one of us frail unknowing humans. It’s not about what you feel that shows your faith it’s what you do. What did Abraham do? Verse 3 says that he “rose up early in the morning”. Early in the morning, are you serious! Most of us wouldn’t even do it let alone do it without delay! Let’s bring up one more point that the scripture tells us. The journey took three days. Abraham had three days to turn back. Three days to think about what he was about to do. Then to top it all off his beloved son had to ask where the sacrifice was to come from. As a father that had to have been a gut wrenching question from your son considering the circumstances. What was Abraham’s answer? “The Lord will provide” (it’s in verse 7, hey I told you to read the whole chapter I can’t do everything here!) What a statement! People this was not some emotion based modern day Holy Spirit moment here. No bands were playing, no people around for Abraham to seek counsel from, just Abraham, his son, the promise and God. Abraham believed God! How could this be? How could anyone have that kind of faith? The same reason that I can type these words to you. Because HE KNEW WHO GOD WAS, and no other reason. What does that mean, well everything to be honest, but I will try to keep this simple. Simply stated Abraham was in this for who God is not what He can do. You’re probably wondering what the difference is. Let’s say that you knew that a certain doctor can save your son from and incurable disease, because he had done it before. Would you care what his name was or what he was like. Frankly would you care anything about the doctor or would you run to him so that your son could be saved. Well, of course you would have the doctor save your son as I would for any of my daughters. That is a crude example but the truth is everyone (yes even you Mr. Atheist!) knows intellectually what a Holy God is capable of and would love the results He can give, but not all those people love the God over the results. Therein lies the difference between Abraham’s saving faith and the mirage of faith that some have and that I used to have. Who wouldn’t want God’s salvation, but when you realize that He wants your submission people turn away. (By the way, all will turn away no one would get saved without the original prompting of the Holy Spirit; you don’t desire God He desires you. That being said when the Holy Spirit does His work it will produce a repentant and submissive heart. Just thought it was important to add that little disclaimer on salvation.) Some of you are reading this and not understanding that Knowing God and eternity with Him is more important than the earthly results He can give. Some of you may not be saved (if that is you repenting now would be prudent!) and some of you may just not understand that yet. That’s ok I am just beginning to understand and will probably look back on this entry years from now and see how little I know now, but therein is the beauty of knowing God, the journey never ends. Abraham had learned the attributes of this God he serves and the knowledge of those truths made everything else insignificant. Even just one of them if fully understood can be enough to sustain you, He is that great! Abraham knew that God was sovereign, He was not a liar, that He was loving, and many more and if we know these things as well we will be changed forever and permanently. When you stop expecting the results that you want from Him God becomes the God of your life and not a genie. My point is that no amount of human effort could ever produce the kind of faith that Abraham exhibited as a matter of fact nothing at all from a human perspective could ever be the power source for that faith. That leads me to some unmistakable conclusions. Number one if that faith is God originated and Abraham (a regular guy) received and grabbed a hold of it then it is available. Number two since I can’t attain it, that faith is therefore supernatural thus making it eternal and permanent, and lastly if God calls us to seek Him through His word that means that this Bible we read is God and therefore containing the power available to sustain that faith. There is no expectation of results just God and how much you get to know Him.
I am not writing this because I am a “super saint” because I am not. I am just like you weak, frail, sinful and undeserving of His grace. I am not being overly humble to overstate anything, I believe that I am at my core all of those things. If it were not for supernatural grace that caused me to be a different person I would still be sinful. At that admission lays my last point and the only thing that you do in this process. All that you do is acknowledge your total human depravity and realize that you are not worthy of Him, that’s salvation and it will produce obedience over time as God gets rid of all of you and shows you Him. You cannot receive the gift of salvation spoken about in Ephesians 2:8-9 if you don’t think you need it. This brings me to my last point. Knowing Him is predicated on the realization that you don’t want to know your sinfulness anymore. Moreover when your self reliance and talents, coupled with your desires still lead to nothing and you cry out for a God knowing you don’t deserve him to answer. Then and only then are you in the frame of mind to know Him. Salvation is an act and gift of God and is permanent; however the realization of all that it means takes time. I am not trying to show you a miserable life in Christ, far from it. I am more grateful now then I ever was when I had more things of this world. I am also not saying that I have taken a vow of poverty, because I haven’t. (Although some days I think I have and don’t know it!) What I am driving at is your motivations for why you do the things you do. The world may not care, but God does. If you heart is where the Lord wants it then you have the rest talked about in Matthew chapter 11(I am not telling you which verses just read the whole thing it won’t kill you trust me!) and life is beautiful. So I would like to encourage those that might be a little taken aback by these statements. Sanctification is a beautiful process and God will finish his work so hang in there your Abraham faith lesson is coming and if you stay obedient you will be ready, God bless.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
35 and I am a Grumpy Old Man
The above phrase is what I said to my wife today. She responded by saying that I have always been that way! (Wow and I thought this would be some sort of revelation to her, I guess not!) This subject was spurred on as I applied for a job online and I was getting frustrated, as usual, so my wife came in to help me through. It’s not so much that I cannot figure out how to do things online it’s that I just hate it! As a matter of fact my wife set up the blog. All I do is write! I realize that we still don’t have a flat screen TV, I have never downloaded a song or ringtone, I called my wife’s MP3 player “the music playing thing” yesterday, in general I pretty much dislike technology or at least I thought I did. Then I was reminded of a little article I wrote about 3 months ago and it illuminated what was really going on. It’s not so much that I hate technology, because technology after all is allowing me to write to anyone who wants to listen. I’m just “grumpy” because I think that the technology that is supposed to bring us together is actually creating more distance when it comes to things that really matter. You should know that I am going to tie this to the Bible in some way, so here we go! As Jesus was giving up his spirit on the cross for the sins of the world the scripture says that the veil in the temple had torn down the middle displaying the Holy of Holies in the Jewish temple for all to see. (Mathew 27:50-51) That miraculous event was to symbolize and show vividly what Christ had just done. Jesus Christ is now our High Priest and we can now access God directly through Him anytime and anywhere. All of this is very similar to our modern technology, but do we use this freedom to know more about the Lord or is it a distraction and on some levels a hindrance. My point is that the more comfortable and accessible things seem to be whether it be access to Christ or access to people via cell phones, the more it seems we have distance when it comes to meaningful intercourse. When the Lord gives us the desires of our sinful hearts it seems we turn away from him. This technology is not therefore sinful, but it illuminates our sinful condition. It seems like the only times in human history when people cry out to the Lord is when everything is difficult not easy or convenient. With that being the backdrop I hope you enjoy my musings and you are going to find out a little about me personally as well, thank you and God bless!
Reflections on Disconnections
Seeing the country is something a lot of people wish they could do. I was blessed to have the opportunity to see a lot of the United States. Going to the Grand Canyon in Flagstaff Arizona, living in Southern California and spending time at the Pacific Ocean, seeing a lot of professional sporting events across the country, and even meeting all of the Detroit Pistons as a young boy. Surprisingly, I have only vague memories of a lot of what would seem to be memorable moments. One in particular that stands out was what should have been one of the most memorable moments of my young life. On January 1, 1987 my father managed to get tickets to the 1987 Rose Bowl between Michigan and Arizona State. I was and still am (despite being a North Carolina State University alumni) a huge Michigan football fan. Being able to be in California and just see the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena, California is something a lot of Midwestern Big Ten fans would have loved to experience. I was privileged enough to attend the actual Rose Bowl game. Unfortunately, Michigan lost to Arizona State that day, (not uncommon for Michigan at Rose Bowl appearances during this time). I would love to tell you about some of the smells, people I met, and bring up old photographs. Maybe even bore you to death with a photo gallery of this and all other sites and sounds of the United States, but I have none of these things. I couldn’t even tell you the score of that game or speak about a person I met in any of my travels.
At this point in my life I could not remember any details at all, to be honest. The same goes for the trip to the Florida Keys, my first time in the ocean, and motorcycle rides through Florida and Texas respectively. I could go on and on with seemingly memorable and adventurous tales that span the gap between age 12 to age 30. I could fill these pages with facts about places I have been, but what I missed out on is what was important in each and every experience.
One of my favorite movies was the movie “Good Will Hunting” The movie starred Robin Williams who played a therapist from South Boston who was supposed to get through to a South Boston kid played by Matt Damon who was brilliant, but yet very fearful and troubled due to past sin played out in his life. Coupled with experiencing tragedy, that a young boy should not have had to see, young Will was cocky on the outside and dying on the inside. In one particular scene Robin Williams was telling him about love and how he met his wife, because he chose to stay and try to talk to who would later become his wife rather than go to game six of the Red Sox Cardinals series. (I think I would have went to the game!) He went on to explain how he never regretted missing that World Series game, and how he didn’t regret staying in the hospital day after day as his wife was dying of cancer. Countless examples were given by Robin Williams of how well he and his wife knew each other. He even included all the imperfections that each had, exclaiming to young Will that those things were not “imperfections but rather the good stuff.” Young Will had no such experiences in life. He could only quote some Shakespeare or relate a story that he read in a book or poetic sonnet, but he knew nothing of love. Will never had dare to love anyone more then himself. Robin Williams talked about a series of experiences and each time he would tell young Will that he probably had a smart answer from a book he read or story he heard, but he was never a part of any of it. Will never invested his life in others and he had missed the opportunity to experience life.
I was just like Will in the movie, I was full of stories, smart answers and funny jokes, but none of it was real. I should have countless memories of people I met and sounds and smells that I cannot forget, but I don’t. It was as if I was a computer regurgitating facts to prove that I had a memory of something I saw or places I went. I was existing and surviving, but by no means alive in any real way. Only those that are alive can smell, taste, and share these things we go through in life with others. I spent the first 30 years of my life merely existing, surviving and wondering why there was so much pain. I was self sufficient, self reliant, and in short just selfish. These things are attributes and even celebrated in our upside down world, but they are contrary to the work of the Lord and block Him from providing life and life abundantly.
All of this has gone through my mind repeatedly. Today, for reason I do not know I am somehow acutely aware of my own shortcomings. I was also evaluating the technologically connected world that we live in. I thought that as some level the two could be related. In the palm of my hand I have the ability to connect with almost every member of the world. I can even write a letter to the President of the United States right now on my telephone. (Although this phone can’t make him read it!) So why are people living so disconnected to the family members that live in their own home. We are emailing and texting everyone all over the world but will not cross the street to talk to our neighbor. We talk on the phone with friends about family problems but will not knock on our own children’s door and practice what we preach. Maybe I am not the only person suffering from surviving over living. It seems as if the side effect of technology is a lack of attachment. I have seen two people in a car or walking down the street together and talking on the phone with someone else as if the person they are with is not there. It happened today; as a matter of fact: the visual pictures of people that I observed today provided the material for these thoughts.
The ability to travel and see different types of people in my own life did not lead to greater connection with others. The opportunities that I have been afforded by my circumstances and through the advances technologically brought me around more people. However that did not automatically mean that real communication occurred with those people. Much like the ability to communicate twenty four seven with anyone does not necessarily mean that you will. Maybe my circumstances are unique in my life or maybe others have some of the same problems I do. I am not here to rail against the horrors of our modern society. I am just taking this opportunity to share some of my experiences and the observance of others. It could not hurt to stop and ponder these things from time to time, don’t you think? Our modern society gives us the ability to cross the country in a matter of hours and experience many great sights and sounds. Sadly it seems all we gather from this are pictures taken on our phone and a few post cards. Why do we miss out on all of the different people we can meet along the way? Maybe there are others like me that were too consumed with there own life. It could however be that the convenience has kept us from experiencing life. I have been guilty of both. How about you?
At this point in my life I could not remember any details at all, to be honest. The same goes for the trip to the Florida Keys, my first time in the ocean, and motorcycle rides through Florida and Texas respectively. I could go on and on with seemingly memorable and adventurous tales that span the gap between age 12 to age 30. I could fill these pages with facts about places I have been, but what I missed out on is what was important in each and every experience.
One of my favorite movies was the movie “Good Will Hunting” The movie starred Robin Williams who played a therapist from South Boston who was supposed to get through to a South Boston kid played by Matt Damon who was brilliant, but yet very fearful and troubled due to past sin played out in his life. Coupled with experiencing tragedy, that a young boy should not have had to see, young Will was cocky on the outside and dying on the inside. In one particular scene Robin Williams was telling him about love and how he met his wife, because he chose to stay and try to talk to who would later become his wife rather than go to game six of the Red Sox Cardinals series. (I think I would have went to the game!) He went on to explain how he never regretted missing that World Series game, and how he didn’t regret staying in the hospital day after day as his wife was dying of cancer. Countless examples were given by Robin Williams of how well he and his wife knew each other. He even included all the imperfections that each had, exclaiming to young Will that those things were not “imperfections but rather the good stuff.” Young Will had no such experiences in life. He could only quote some Shakespeare or relate a story that he read in a book or poetic sonnet, but he knew nothing of love. Will never had dare to love anyone more then himself. Robin Williams talked about a series of experiences and each time he would tell young Will that he probably had a smart answer from a book he read or story he heard, but he was never a part of any of it. Will never invested his life in others and he had missed the opportunity to experience life.
I was just like Will in the movie, I was full of stories, smart answers and funny jokes, but none of it was real. I should have countless memories of people I met and sounds and smells that I cannot forget, but I don’t. It was as if I was a computer regurgitating facts to prove that I had a memory of something I saw or places I went. I was existing and surviving, but by no means alive in any real way. Only those that are alive can smell, taste, and share these things we go through in life with others. I spent the first 30 years of my life merely existing, surviving and wondering why there was so much pain. I was self sufficient, self reliant, and in short just selfish. These things are attributes and even celebrated in our upside down world, but they are contrary to the work of the Lord and block Him from providing life and life abundantly.
All of this has gone through my mind repeatedly. Today, for reason I do not know I am somehow acutely aware of my own shortcomings. I was also evaluating the technologically connected world that we live in. I thought that as some level the two could be related. In the palm of my hand I have the ability to connect with almost every member of the world. I can even write a letter to the President of the United States right now on my telephone. (Although this phone can’t make him read it!) So why are people living so disconnected to the family members that live in their own home. We are emailing and texting everyone all over the world but will not cross the street to talk to our neighbor. We talk on the phone with friends about family problems but will not knock on our own children’s door and practice what we preach. Maybe I am not the only person suffering from surviving over living. It seems as if the side effect of technology is a lack of attachment. I have seen two people in a car or walking down the street together and talking on the phone with someone else as if the person they are with is not there. It happened today; as a matter of fact: the visual pictures of people that I observed today provided the material for these thoughts.
The ability to travel and see different types of people in my own life did not lead to greater connection with others. The opportunities that I have been afforded by my circumstances and through the advances technologically brought me around more people. However that did not automatically mean that real communication occurred with those people. Much like the ability to communicate twenty four seven with anyone does not necessarily mean that you will. Maybe my circumstances are unique in my life or maybe others have some of the same problems I do. I am not here to rail against the horrors of our modern society. I am just taking this opportunity to share some of my experiences and the observance of others. It could not hurt to stop and ponder these things from time to time, don’t you think? Our modern society gives us the ability to cross the country in a matter of hours and experience many great sights and sounds. Sadly it seems all we gather from this are pictures taken on our phone and a few post cards. Why do we miss out on all of the different people we can meet along the way? Maybe there are others like me that were too consumed with there own life. It could however be that the convenience has kept us from experiencing life. I have been guilty of both. How about you?
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