Seventeen years or so ago, I went on a short term missionary trip to Mexico. It was fun, interesting, and fulfilling. I saw some areas of Mexico and saw things there that made me realize how good we have it here in the United States. I came back home with a new appreciation and thankfulness for what I have.
I read at least one devotional every year, and this past year I have been reading the Extreme Devotion. It is full of stories of people who have been persecuted, tortured, and/or killed for their faith. A lot of these stories take place today in Muslim countries or other countries where Christianity is not tolerated. As I have read these stories I have experienced a few emotions:
Guilt, because I grumble and fret over things that pale in significance to what these people are dealing with.
Fear: I experience some fear realizing we could end up the same situation as we live in times where our government, media, and others are becoming increasingly hostile to Christianity.
Thankfulness: Even though we are starting to face some backlash and light persecution in this country over our biblical stance on homosexuality and abortion, we are still free to worship and attend church without fear of imprisonment or worse.
On week two of this month of Thanksgiving, I am thankful for:
1) Freedom. We are losing some of our freedoms and they are being infringed upon, but we are still freer than many around our globe. And not only do I experience freedom as a United States citizen, I experience spiritual freedom as a child of God, and no government or anyone else can take that away.
2) Church. I have felt disconnected from my church for pretty much the seven years since I moved back to Ohio after living in Indiana for two years. I feel we need more community, at least I need more community.... but it is a good church and I have a great pastor and pastor's wife and Sunday School teacher. It is encouraging to meet with people of like-minded faith, even if you only see them at church.
3) The Bible. There are people in our world who are not allowed to have the Bible and have to hide it. In some places, Christians pass around pages of the Bible to share and read. I have several Bibles in several different translations that I can read any time I want without fear of getting in trouble. And the days of believing I had to read a certain amount of chapters and verses to do my duty as a Christian are gone. I know now it is better to read a verse or two and get something out of it, than to read several chapters and check off the box that I did it.
4) Facebook. It might seem odd to be thankful for something that so many criticize and that can be a problem, but I have made some true friends through Facebook, keep in contact with other friends and family that I wouldn't be in contact with as much otherwise. I have received encouragement and prayer from those I interact with, especially in groups that have people dealing with the same things I deal with.
I just finished reading an intriguing book today titled "The Five Times I Met Myself." If you plan on reading the book, you may want to skip this first paragraph as there may be a slight spoiler. The main character, 53 year old Brock Matthews, is unhappy with the way his life is going and has regrets of things he did and things he wished he had done. Through dreams, he goes back and talks to his much younger self and tells him to to what he wished he had done. Every time this happens, he wakes up to find it has changed for real in his life in 2015. I won't explain it all, but the climax of the story reveals nothing changed, and if he wants the changes that he can still make; his 53 year old self is going to have to work on it and not his 20-something self.
I can't count the times I have wished I could do exactly that: go back in time and talk to my younger self.
I'd tell my school age self to stand up for myself and fight back, and to not let the other kids bully me so much.
I'd tell that same kid that how the other kids treated me didn't mean I wasn't worthwhile nor that no one liked me.
I wish I could go back and tell my teenage self that God truly loves me and to make a relationship with Him top priority, instead of believing most of my life He didn't love me and having a shallow relationship with God as a result.
I'd tell my college age self to seek help with the new feelings I had that I had no clue how to deal with. I'd tell him never to start that habit that would be so hard to quit.
I'd tell my late 20's and my 30's self not to sit around the house and wish I had friends, but to go out and make friends.
I'd tell that same guy that I wasn't stupid and unemployable and didn't have to settle for the low paying jobs others may not want.
But just like the guy in the fiction novel I read, I can't do that. But I have gotten so used to the past shaping me that I have just gone along with my wrong thinking. In the book, the man had to start changing things in the here and now instead of having his younger self do the changing.
I can't go back and stand up for myself in school, but I can work on leaving that in the past and to stop letting it affect my ideas of how people view me and if they like me or not.
I can't go back and convince the teenage Mark that God loves me and change the rest of my life, but I can hold onto that belief now and let it lead me to a deeper relationship with God.
I can't go back and tell my younger self to make friends, that I am just as employable as others, and correct the many wrong ideas I have held about myself, God, life, and how others view me...... but I can work on it today with my modern day and hopefully wiser self.
The overall message of the book I mentioned is surrender. I grew up in a church background where surrender was preached a lot and talked about a lot. The emphasis that I got was that we had to surrender our will, our future, and everything we have to God. And I believe that. But I believe surrender involves so much more than I grew up believing. The idea has been on my mind for a while, and then I read this book that has made me further think about it.
It is true that we have to reach a point of surrendering our will, our lives, our desires to God. But if we stop at that, as I have; we are missing it. The more I think about it, the more I realize what I have NOT surrendered to God:
My fears
My regrets
My past and how it has affected me
My doubts
My tomorrows and what I want them to be like
The way I feel about myself
And so much more. God wants all of it, not just the tangible stuff and our will...... He wants us to surrender everything about us, The things that may hold us back from being what He wants us to be, our hopes and dreams, our self doubts. The list could go on and on.
A conversation between the main character and a friend stood out to me in the book and truly has hit me hard. The discussion was about all things being possible with God. The main character didn't believe a certain thing was possible for God to do. His friend replied:
"Ah, I see. So all things are possible for this God of ours except for the ones you decide are not possible. Have you given Him a list to make sure He doesn't do anything you don't approve of?"
As I look at my life and the view I have of myself and of the low self esteem and self confidence I have, I have to say "ouch." I find myself doubting so much what God can do in my life and for me because of the insufficiency and lack of abilities in myself that I have left no room for God to do anything in spite of me. I may not have a mental list of what God can and cannot do, but I live that way.
And that is where the surrender comes in. If we are totally surrendered to God, we are going to surrender those doubts about what He can or cannot do, and believe that it is possible for Him to do anything in our lives.
We sing it in church, but do we really mean it?
All to Jesus I surrender; All to Him I freely give; I will ever love and trust Him, In His presence daily live. Refrain: I surrender all, I surrender all; All to Thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all. All to Jesus I surrender; Humbly at His feet I bow, Worldly pleasures all forsaken; Take me, Jesus, take me now. All to Jesus I surrender; Make me, Savior, wholly Thine; Let me feel the Holy Spirit, Truly know that Thou art mine. All to Jesus I surrender; Lord, I give myself to Thee; Fill me with Thy love and power; Let Thy blessing fall on me. All to Jesus I surrender; Now I feel the sacred flame. Oh, the joy of full salvation! Glory, glory, to His Name!
We cannot go back and change the past by talking to our younger selves, but we can surrender all of those regrets, the fears, the feelings, and anything else that we wish we could have done differently........ and start now to change things with God's help. Just give it all to Him and ask His help to live differently from here on out: no regrets, no doubts, no fears, no worries about people liking us or not.
The main in the novel I read had to reach that point of surrender to just give his past, present, and future to God. And so must we, if we are going to truly serve and love this God of ours.
It has been pointed out by many people that anymore we just skip from Halloween to Christmas and barely acknowledge Thanksgiving. We definitely don't give the day its due anymore. Too many stores have started opening on Thanksgiving to get a jump on Black Friday. Part of the problem may be that even though Christmas is a Christian holiday, it has been secularized to the point that only hardcore atheists are offended by it. Thanksgiving, however, cannot really be secularized. A day of thanks infers there is Someone to be thankful to, so that may be part of the reason Thanksgiving gets skimmed past.
Also, we live in such an entitlement society here in America. Too many people aren't thankful for what they have. They want more, they feel they deserve more. They will never be happy with what they have, nor feel any sense of thankfulness for what they have.
We should be thankful every day for what we have, but Thanksgiving Day has been set aside as a day to specifically be thankful for the blessings in our lives. I like and need to focus on that for the whole month of November, and other years I have done a blog post every day of the month of November for something I was thankful for. That is too many blog posts for one month, especially when I usually do several others. Also, I feel obligated to do one per day and it isn't always easy to get it done.
So this year, I am going to do one per month and list a few things I am thankful for in each post. I'll have a week to do it in whatever day works. So for week #1 of November 2015:
1) I am thankful for salvation, God's love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness. It is sad it has taken me almost my entire life to this point to grasp the belief that God loves me, but I finally got there. I am also finally understanding the depths of His grace and how patient He is with me, although no one can truly understand the depths of His love and grace in this life. But I can still be thankful for all of that, and I am.
2) I am thankful for my family. We aren't perfect, but we all get along and enjoy spending time with each other, which can't be said of a lot of families. Though I'll never have children of my own, I am blessed to be uncle to 3 nieces and 3 nephews whose lives I am a big part of.
3) I am thankful for my sense of humor. Yeah, a lot of people groan when I tell jokes, but I am thankful I have a good sense of humor. It has helped to keep me sane, and has been there even in my worst times of depression.
4) I am thankful for friends. There was a day I felt I had no friends. No one at school liked me and I was picked on and bullied. To this day, I have trouble believing people actually like me and want to be around me, but I actually have some who do. Unfortunately, it seems those who most want to be around me don't live close by.....but I have a lot of people I count as friends, and I am very thankful for them.
I read and reviewed a book recently that had a title that has stuck with me: The Splendor of Ordinary Days." It is an interesting thought.
The phrase went through my mind last week as I drove to my storage unit. I usually go through the town of Lisbon where I live to get to it, hitting a few lights and dealing with the sometimes heavy traffic that even a small town can have to reach the storage unit that is a few miles outside of town on busy Route 45.
This time, I decided to go the back way. I took St Jacobs Logtown Road, which is a back road with many curves that crosses the bike/walking trail several times that I use. I'm not sure what the speed limit is, but I drove at an unusual leisurely speed. I took time to notice the flowers and trees beside the road, the creek that runs beside the road for a while, the couple of farms I passed, a man under his vehicle working on it as his wife stood and observed, the corn fields that have been harvested.
I can't remember meeting any other vehicles, and there were none in front of or behind me. It was my day off, and I was in no hurry to get where I was going. I took the time to pay attention to what I was driving past...the ordinary. Barns, flowers, a creek, people working outside. I beeped and waved at a woman with her dog, and a man getting on his bicycle waved at me as I drove by, so I waved back.
All so ordinary; things we see every day and take no notice of because we are too busy speeding by to get onto our next duty, project, or whatever else we deem important.
As I drove by these ordinary things, that phrase kept running through my head: the splendor of ordinary days. Splendor and ordinary. They are totally opposites, so the idea of there being splendor in the ordinary is intriguing.
A week ago Sunday, I sat at a table with my parents, my 3 nieces, a friend of my eldest niece, and my sister and her husband. The occasion was my oldest niece's 20th birthday. We had fried chicken, mashed potatoes, noodles, peas, corn, home made rolls, Dairy Queen Cake, and dirt dessert. After the dishes were taken away, there was the opening of gifts. We have done it countless times over the years: A meal with family, cake, and gifts. All ordinary...... well except for the chicken. My mom's fried chicken is extraordinary and smacks of splendor......
Yet someday, there will be empty seats at that table. And those who are left will look back and realize those were not ordinary times at all, but splendor in the ordinary.
We take so much for granted. Time goes by so fast, things change and friends and relatives move on or pass on.
Already, I look back and remember the days when my nieces and nephews were tiny babies that I held, fed a bottle to, put on my shoulder and burped. Now those same kids are ages 9 to 20. There is no holding or feeding, but instead playing video games with them, listening to the stories they tell, getting a hug as they arrive or leave.... all so ordinary... so ordinary it is easy to lose the splendor of it all.
It is there to see if we slow down and pay attention, if we lay our cell phones down and take it all in:
The beautiful colors of leaves in the Fall
The blossoming flowers, trees, and other new life in the Spring
A baby's first word
That first kiss
A wedding day
A job completed
Holding God's Word in your hands
Worship
A hug from a friend or loved one
Passing your driver's test
Receiving your diploma
Coffee or lunch with a friend
The list could go on for a long time. The oh so ordinary things we are used to and take for granted. The things that are speeding past us as we live our busy lives. The things that some day we will look back and realize that what we thought was so ordinary, was not ordinary at all, but were times and days filled with splendor that we just thought were ordinary.
There's a song a Southern Gospel group recorded way back around 1981 that I have loved since the first time I heard it. The title of the song is "He's Still Workin' On Me." The song goes like this:
Verse 1: There really ought to be a sign upon the heart, Don't judge her yet, there's an unfinished part. But I'll be perfect just according to His plan Fashioned by the Master's loving hands. Chorus: He's still working on me to make me what I ought to be. It took Him just a week to make the moon and stars, The sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars. How loving and patient He must be, He's still working on me. Verse 2: In the mirror of His Word reflections that I see Make me wonder why He never gave up on me. He loves me as I am and helps me when I pray Remember He's the Potter, I'm the clay.
The song is often looked on as a kid's song, and in fact the first time I heard it was in a Vacation Bible School at my church as a 12 year old. It is a great song for kids, but this 40's guy realizes how true the words of that song are more than the 12 year old me could ever have imagined.
It is easy to toss out phrases such as "I'm not perfect, just forgiven.", "God's not finished with me yet", or "He's still working on me" in a flippant way when we want to excuse our sins or bad actions. We should never excuse sin or our things we do wrong, and that is not where I am going with this post.
The song has been on my mind lately. I know I am not perfect. My list of imperfections far outnumber any good points I have in my eyes. I look at other Christians and wonder if I'll ever have the spiritual maturity that they have. I am too outspoken, I lack confidence in my abilities or in God's ability to use me. I have a hard time trusting God and worry about everything except drowning in a glass of iced tea.
I often wonder, and even ask God why He puts up with me. Why He doesn't just turn His back and declare me unworthy of His love and attention.
And then I realize I am still a work in progress. We are all, really. No matter how mature a Christian someone is, or how long they have been serving God; they are still a work in progress. God is still working on us. I didn't realize at the age of 12, or even at the age of 40 how patient this God I serve is with me, but I am slowly coming to get a better idea of it.
So when I say "He's still working on me", I am not saying it to excuse my imperfections or anything I might do that others look on and question. I say it with a thankful heart that I serve such a patient God, and to remind people that I am not the finished product yet.
He's still working on me. I am thankful that He is.
I read or heard someone say a while back that they don't like red-letter editions of the Bible. That is the popular thing to do in the Bible where words that were spoken directly by Jesus are put in red instead of black like the rest of the Bible. Their point was, the whole Bible is the Word of God and to put Jesus' words in red lends more credence or importance to what He spoke over the rest of the Bible.
At the time, I mentally shrugged and didn't think much of the point being made. But lately, I have been reconsidering that point and am wondering if that person may be right.
Recently, I had a comment made on a blog post I did several months back. The gentleman that commented said this: "The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John show us that neither Jesus nor anyone who walked with him during his life, spoke against homosexuality." This has become a common argument by those trying to say the Bible doesn't really condemn homosexuality. The argument has probably been used for other sins and issues, but it is most commonly used in reference to homosexuality.
The arguments for a pro-gay God theology are weak and the people who use them are grasping at straws, but this has to be the weakest pro-gay argument of them all: That because Jesus didn't specifically mention it in the Gospels, then it must be OK with God and not a sin after all.
A few problems with this thinking:
1) Not everything Jesus said is recorded. John closed his Gospel by saying "And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written." Jesus very well may have mentioned it and other things that didn't get written down.
2) The whole Bible is God's Word. 11 Timothy 3:16 says that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. The Gospels may not have Jesus specifically condemning it, but it is condemned several other places in the Bible..... and it is all God's Word.
3) Jesus also didn't mention incest, bestiality, beating your wife, cruelty to animals, or a host of other issues and sins we believe to be wrong because they are mentioned elsewhere in the Bible or because we know because of principles in the Bible that they are wrong.
4) Jesus didn't mention homosexuality or gay marriage, but He did say this in Matthew 19:4-6
And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. The only marriage He refers to is between a man and a woman. Period, end of discussion.
5) I have read this by more than one person: In Jesus time on earth, He ministered mostly to the Jews, other than a side trip to Samaria. Homosexuality was most likely not much of an issue in Israel, but it was in Rome and other areas outside of Israel; which is why it was addressed in other books of the Bible.
6) Jesus said in John 10:30 "I and the Father are one." And in John 14:9: "If you have seen me, you have seen the Father."
Jesus and the Father are one. The Bible is God's Holy Word spoken to men to write down, so if you want to get technical about it, then yes..... Jesus DID condemn homosexuality since God did and God the Father and Jesus are one.
The Gospels contain most of the words spoken by Jesus that are recorded in Scripture. That is four books out of the sixty-six that comprise our Bible, God's Holy Word. To say that only what Jesus spoke that is recorded is all we have to do, is a weak and pathetic argument. Our Bible is so much more than just the Gospels. One cannot ignore the rest of the Bible and declare what they want to do is OK with God since it isn't mentioned in the first four books of the New Testament.
And really, if you are going to use that argument, then you may as well toss out the rest of the Bible and just live by the Gospels. But while you are living by the Gospels. don't forget the same Jesus who you claim is OK with living a sinful lifestyle said to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Him..... and you cannot do that and put your desires and wants above what He wants.
And if you are going to use that argument, remember it can be used to excuse a lot of things you do believe are wrong.
The words in red are not the only parts of the Bible we must follow, and aren't any more important than the rest of the Bible.
I was reading something the other day where the writer was wondering about the story in the Bible of the woman at the well, if Jesus went to Samaria to meet the woman at the well, or if she just happened to come there when He was sitting at the well.
I have been thinking about it and decided to write a blog post about it, but as I got ready to do so, it seemed like I may have already blogged about it, so I started searching through past blog posts..... and sure enough, I blogged about it back on August of 2014. So I decided to edit it a bit and post it again:
One of my favorite Bible stories is in John 4. It is the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. And it is a favorite for a couple of reasons. It shows Jesus wasn't just here for good people, but for the down and out "not-so-nice" people. I also identify with the Samaritan Woman, so the story means a lot to me. And another reason: Jesus went out of His way to meet her. Samaria wasn't on their path. In fact, Jews avoided Samaria, but the Bible says He needed to go through Samaria. For one woman.
I am sure they had a full day planned, and Jesus was a busy guy, but He didn't just take time out of His day for this woman. He went out of His way.
I have a friend who is a fairly new friend, but is a great friend. He lived the gay lifestyle for several years before turning to God, and now runs a ministry in Orlando, Florida for men struggling with same-sex attractions. Near the time I originally posted this blog post, he had a friend show up at his door around 3 am. This friend is gay and was trying to move out away from his boyfriend, so the boyfriend beat him up. Matthew stayed up all night ministering to this guy. Most Christians would slam the door on a gay guy who was just beat up by his boyfriend, but Matthew went out of his way to help this guy, who as far as I know has made no move towards Christianity.
There's another story in the Bible involving a Samaritan, and it also involves someone going out of his way. The story of the Good Samaritan. Jew gets robbed and left for dead in the ditch. A couple of religious leaders come by and ignore him and pass on the other side of the road. Then a Samaritan, a natural enemy of Jews, comes along. He stops, bandages the wounds of the beaten man, takes him to an inn and pays for his room, and tells the innkeeper he will pay anything left on the tab when he comes back.
Not many Christians want to do that anymore. Go out of their way, be inconvenienced, get their hands dirty. They'll sing a special, take up the offering, or anything else that will put them up front in church, just as long as it isn't an inconvenience. They'll put money in the offering plate for missions, do an ice bucket challenge to raise awareness for a disease, just as long as they don't have to go out of their way.
We have become selfish Christians. We have our cliques, our plans, and have our days planned out just the way we want them to go. If someone is lying in the ditch, too many of us are like the religious leaders and pass by, afraid it will take up our time or it will get our hands dirty.
I have talked before about wearing masks. What it is like to attend church and feel you have to wear a mask for fear of what would happen if people could see under the mask. Some might avoid you. Others might run. Still others might want to put a scarlet letter on you like in the classic book "The Scarlet Letter". And others might just ignore you. All of those reactions are sad. We are the Church, the family of God. We should be surrounding people with love when their masks fall to the ground or slip aside to give a glimpse of what is underneath.
Our churches are full of hurting and struggling people. Often we have no idea what is going on, but other times we do know or have a good idea. And too often, we pass by and let them lie there in the ditch. We don't have time, we don't want to go out of our way, or get our hands dirty... or God forbid, we catch THAT from them.
Sometimes all someone needs is a listening ear over a cup of coffee. They need someone asking how they are doing, and really meaning it. I've been there. I have wanted someone to ask me how I was doing, and not be freaked out if I didn't use the Christian "f-word." (Fine). I've wanted someone to put their arm around me and tell me I was going to make it, that I mattered, that God does care and love me.
And all too many times, it didn't happen. But that was then, this is now, and it has helped me understand how important it is to be there for our Christian brothers and sisters. In fact, I have prayed that if God wanted to use my struggles to help someone else some day, I would be willing to be used.
I had a friend confide in me recently that they are afraid of how people at their church will react and treat them if something gets out that is most likely going to get out. I think it is sad that it is even a worry. Isn't this the family of God? Where "when one has a heartache, we all share a tear"? Or is it "when one has a heartache, we gossip, judge, and are just glad it isn't us in those circumstances?" That sounds jaded and even a bit snarky, but I am afraid it is true of a lot of people.
We need to cut back on our golf games, our movies, reading, shopping, football games, and whatever else we think is so important that we do, and spend time on people. That's what Jesus did, and what He would do if He were walking the earth today doing His earthly ministry.
And we need to love. And go out of our way. We need to get our hands dirty once in a while, and set aside our plans to be there for a hurting brother or sister.
It wasn't convenient for Jesus to go through Samaria to meet that one lone outcast of a woman. But He did.
And it was far from convenient for Him to go through the beatings, mockery, and crucifixion for us, so that we could have eternal life........ but He did it. He left Heaven and came here to die for you and I. It was so much more than an inconvenience, and yet we can't go out of our way for Him? We can't go out of our way to be there for others who are hurting?
Myself included in this statement: we are too focused on me. Making me comfortable and happy. Doing what me wants, spending time on me. We even make the Bible fit what me wants. And we are so busy making me happy and comfortable, that we don't have time for others. Time to encourage and be Jesus to others. Me has to be entertained, fed, and made happy.
If we truly lived selfless lives with eternity in view, things would be so different. But whether we want to admit it, too many of us are basically selfish down deep. We excuse it and call it other things, but we are basically selfish.
May God help us all to go out of our way, to get our hands dirty, and to inconvenience ourselves once in a while, and not be so bound on making me happy. He Went Out of His Way Verse 1 She could not believe He would come to her city, Come to a Samarian well But He offered and got her to drink living water, Now she's got a story to tell Chorus: To make a way, He went out of His way Came to me, left Heaven one day He took a journey alone Left His Father at home To make a way, He went out of His way Verse 2 He left the splendor of Heaven for sinners, For sinners He laid up His crown He traded His glory to bring us this story To Calvary Heaven came down Chorus: To make a way, He went out of His way Came to me, left Heaven one day He took a journey alone Left His Father at home To make a way, He went out of His way
