It’s that wonderful time of year that is a study in contrasts in north Florida. It is beautiful, isn’t it? The trees are budding out; the birds are singing; the flowers are blooming.
But there is the flip side. All north Floridians drive the same color car: yellow. Pollen from the pines and live oaks is visible both from the car color to the sniffles of allergy sufferers. It is also dry. It doesn’t look dry because of all the green, but it is dry. Dry means the possibility of forest fires.
This contrast outside points toward the contrast in each of us. Rarely is life perfect. At the same time that we experience great happiness, we can have nagging little irritations. Or, at the same time that we experience great hurt and tragedy, we can be blessed by little things.
Christian living is a matter of choice. We chose to place the One who has demonstrated His ultimate care for us in the position of control. When the negatives come, we yield to His plan that demands our personal inconvenience or suffering. When the blessings come, we remember that it is not a matter of coincidence but of conscious giving on His part. And, we say, “Thank you”. Have you given thanks for His blessings today?
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
A bad place to hide
A free-tailed bat with an injured wing found a quiet, orange place to rest and recover. Things went well until the orange place suddenly began to move…rapidly. Three engines ignited with such force that mere seconds later the orange place was moving 17,180 mph. The orange place was the side of the space shuttle. NASA scientists admit the bat probably died.
When we are wounded, our tendency is to be bat-like. Too often our pattern is to go off by ourselves and try to lick our wounds. We want to find a place out of the public eye; we don’t want to seek help; and, we don’t really want to deal with the situation.
When we are wounded, Christ points us in the right direction: reconciliation and correction. We need to identify our hurt and seek to be quickly reconciled to the brother or sister who wounded us. If we don’t we can end up in a place that does not contribute to restoration. Instead, it simply explodes.
If you’ve been hurt lately, remember the bat!
When we are wounded, our tendency is to be bat-like. Too often our pattern is to go off by ourselves and try to lick our wounds. We want to find a place out of the public eye; we don’t want to seek help; and, we don’t really want to deal with the situation.
When we are wounded, Christ points us in the right direction: reconciliation and correction. We need to identify our hurt and seek to be quickly reconciled to the brother or sister who wounded us. If we don’t we can end up in a place that does not contribute to restoration. Instead, it simply explodes.
If you’ve been hurt lately, remember the bat!
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
The Brevity of Life
Bartlett, Tennessee is a suburb of Memphis where we spent one of our stateside assignments as missionaries. The news out of Bartlett from the weekend was about the disappearance of a former model from her home. Yesterday police went to interview a possible suspect. Before they could get to his room, he had killed himself with a long rifle – leaving a note about where her body could be found.
Just a few miles from the Baptist College of Florida are the towns of Samson and Geneva, Alabama. Yesterday a man burned his mother’s home igniting a rampage of killing that ended with 9 people being murdered before he was killed himself.
Sunday, Fred Winters stood in the pulpit at First Baptist, Maryville, Illinois and preached a message of hope. Before he could finish, a man known to be mentally ill entered the church with weaponry capable of killing 30, and ended Fred Winters life.
Psalm 39:5 declares: You, indeed, have made my days short in length, and my life span as nothing in Your sight. Yes, every mortal man is only a vapor. That wisp, that vapor can end at any moment…without explanation by human terms. Accusation will be leveled at God in these moments: how can a loving God allow something like this to happen? The response is that we live in a fallen world where man’s actions are reflective of his nature. God declares that humankind is fundamentally flawed; morally skewed; spiritually compromised. He offers Himself as the solution via His intervention in this world. But His intervention is extremely offensive to the human consciousness and people do not easily accept His revelation of their nature or His solution.
So, Christians, we press on: to proclaim Truth in the midst of self-deception. It is the Truth that Fred Winters died proclaiming: Jesus came, lived and died in self-sacrificial Love to clear the way for fallen man to come to Holy God. We must not forget that people die without that Message…and that they can die at without Him at any moment.
Just a few miles from the Baptist College of Florida are the towns of Samson and Geneva, Alabama. Yesterday a man burned his mother’s home igniting a rampage of killing that ended with 9 people being murdered before he was killed himself.
Sunday, Fred Winters stood in the pulpit at First Baptist, Maryville, Illinois and preached a message of hope. Before he could finish, a man known to be mentally ill entered the church with weaponry capable of killing 30, and ended Fred Winters life.
Psalm 39:5 declares: You, indeed, have made my days short in length, and my life span as nothing in Your sight. Yes, every mortal man is only a vapor. That wisp, that vapor can end at any moment…without explanation by human terms. Accusation will be leveled at God in these moments: how can a loving God allow something like this to happen? The response is that we live in a fallen world where man’s actions are reflective of his nature. God declares that humankind is fundamentally flawed; morally skewed; spiritually compromised. He offers Himself as the solution via His intervention in this world. But His intervention is extremely offensive to the human consciousness and people do not easily accept His revelation of their nature or His solution.
So, Christians, we press on: to proclaim Truth in the midst of self-deception. It is the Truth that Fred Winters died proclaiming: Jesus came, lived and died in self-sacrificial Love to clear the way for fallen man to come to Holy God. We must not forget that people die without that Message…and that they can die at without Him at any moment.
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Grizzly details
We will pray tonight for President Obama, for our legislative and judicial leaders and for our military. We will, if not careful, complain about how terrible conditions are in our country and how the administration is making rookie mistakes in the World Series of economic competition. Some will admit to fear about the future.
One of my favorite writers over the years is Frederick Forsyth. Two of his books that you may have heard of are “The Day of the Jackal” and “the Odessa file”. Forsyth is stuck in the African nation of Guinea-Bissau right now due to the events of this weekend where the president of the country was killed by the military. Here’s how he describes what happened: "They went to his villa, threw a bomb through the window which hurt him, but didn't kill him," Forsyth told the BBC late Tuesday. "The roof came down, that hurt him but didn't kill him either.”
"He struggled out of the rubble and was promptly shot. This, however, still didn't kill him. They then took him to his mother-in-law's house and chopped him to bits with machetes," he added.*
I’ve been in the middle of an African battle. I’ve seen the terror in African eyes at the uncertainty of life and the fear of what is happening. I feel what the people of Guinea-Bissau are feeling.
So here’s what I want to say to you: Did you know that we live in the greatest country in the world, despite the problems that we face? I did not vote for our president; I disagree with much of his social agenda. Yet I will not only pray for our president, I will also render to him the respect he deserves. I will go to bed tonight and pray that the Lord will guide our government and help to have wisdom about what is right and the courage to do it. One thing I won’t fear is that the military leadership of our country will invade the White House and kill the president.
*(Copyright © 2009 AFP)
One of my favorite writers over the years is Frederick Forsyth. Two of his books that you may have heard of are “The Day of the Jackal” and “the Odessa file”. Forsyth is stuck in the African nation of Guinea-Bissau right now due to the events of this weekend where the president of the country was killed by the military. Here’s how he describes what happened: "They went to his villa, threw a bomb through the window which hurt him, but didn't kill him," Forsyth told the BBC late Tuesday. "The roof came down, that hurt him but didn't kill him either.”
"He struggled out of the rubble and was promptly shot. This, however, still didn't kill him. They then took him to his mother-in-law's house and chopped him to bits with machetes," he added.*
I’ve been in the middle of an African battle. I’ve seen the terror in African eyes at the uncertainty of life and the fear of what is happening. I feel what the people of Guinea-Bissau are feeling.
So here’s what I want to say to you: Did you know that we live in the greatest country in the world, despite the problems that we face? I did not vote for our president; I disagree with much of his social agenda. Yet I will not only pray for our president, I will also render to him the respect he deserves. I will go to bed tonight and pray that the Lord will guide our government and help to have wisdom about what is right and the courage to do it. One thing I won’t fear is that the military leadership of our country will invade the White House and kill the president.
*(Copyright © 2009 AFP)
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