Saturday, October 31, 2015
Yucky
My friend
watched in disgust as I pinched a large ant and a bit of dirt between my thumb
and index finger, lifted it to my mouth and swallowed it whole. I had learned to include a little dirt with
the ants because it kept me from feeling the ant squirm as it made its journey
down my throat. Not too bright - but my
friends were impressed. My mom had
taught me better, but everyone knows that parents don't want their kids to have
any fun, right? My mom had a track
record in this area. When I was toddler
and she caught me putting rocks, sticks, dog food or food that fell in the dirt
into my mouth, she would rush over,
scoop in out of my mouth and say "yucky".
I didn't
understand it then, but my mom was a smart lady. She knew that it was dangerous for me to do
everything my little heart desired. She
knew that I would feel like doing things that would hurt me or others, so she
made it her mission to teach me to control my urges rather than to let my urges
control me. I was born putting things in
my mouth, but she did not buy into the philosophy that my urges proved that God
made me to eat rocks and ants.
"Yucky" was her way of saying, "Son, you have the power
to choose; foolish people follow their urges and wise people choose to only eat
what is healthy."
God is our
loving, wise Father who understands the same principle. We were born with desires and propensities
that can be dangerous. When we engage in
behavior that is bad for our spiritual, emotional or physical health, He rushes
to our side and says "yucky."
He says it through His Word,
through His people, and through our conscience. He reminds us that choice is the most
powerful thing He has given us. We can
choose life or death. We can choose to
trust our urges or time-proven principles.
When we resent His efforts we are like the toddler who is throwing a fit
because his father took the marble out of his mouth.
Here
is how it sounds in Scripture when God says "yucky": "When you follow the desires of your
sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful
pleasures, idolatry,
sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition,
dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and
other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone
living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. But the Holy
Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is
no law against these things!" (Galatians
5:19-23 NLT)
We all have had the urge to steal,
hurt someone, wallow in self-pity, or engage in harmful behaviors. But God helps us choose wisely and rise above
those base and harmful leanings. I was
not born a thief. I was not born
vengeful. I was not born an
adulterer. Rather, I was born with a
tendency toward those things, as were we all.
I am thankful that God put people in my life who helped me to understand
the power of choice. Their "yuckies"
have saved me untold misery. I am
healthier because of their diligence and my subsequent choices. That does not make me better than other
people, but it does allow me to live a healthier life. I am thankful for the many times those who
cared for my said, "Yucky!"
Saturday, October 24, 2015
Miracles
I saw the before and after x-rays; a picture
of the spots on the lung and another, taken later, with no more spots. I have watched people get out of wheelchairs,
remove casts and recover from health issues the doctors predicted would be
fatal. I have personally prayed for people who were healed of cancer, deafness,
back conditions, and many other ailments.
I know several people who died and came back to life. I have witnessed
miracles.
I
also love Science. The Bible advises,
"Prove all things; hold fast that
which is good." (1 Thessalonians
5:21 KJV) The Message
paraphrase puts it like this: "On the other hand, don't be gullible. Check
out everything, and keep only what's good." There is nothing like a fair and
objective look at things. In fact, it is
because of good Science and advancing technology that we can now do a better
job of identifying the miraculous.
Miracles have been observed since the
beginning of civilization. For
believers, they have been a source of wonder.
For skeptics they have been inconvenient
"coincidences". Some
unbelievers are disconcerted to the extent that they work feverishly to
disprove the miraculous. The Jewish
leaders of Jesus' day tried to kill Lazarus because he was walking proof that
people could be raised from the dead (John 12:10). Those same religious leaders tried to silence
the man born blind because they couldn't explain how Jesus made him to see. The miraculous has always boosted the faith
of believers and unsettled the minds of unbelievers.
It should be noted, however, that the
miracles and Science are not enemies.
Faith and Science are not incompatible.
In fact, good Science, is often a great source of faith. Many skeptics who have set out to disprove
things like creation or miracles have applied fair scientific methods only to
be thoroughly convinced that there is a Creator and that He still does
miracles.
In his scholarly and insightful book titled
"Miracles", Eric Metaxas makes this observation: "The list of
contemporary men and women of science who believe in the God of the Bible and
in miracles is virtually endless. We are only surprised by this— if we are—
because our culture has so forcefully promoted the idea that faith and science
are at odds, but the ironic and virtually unknown reality is that modern
science itself was essentially invented by people of Christian faith. That’s because they believed in a God who had
created a universe of staggeringly magnificent order, one that could be
understood rationally, and one that it was therefore worth trying to
understand. Many of them believed their scientific work was a way of glorifying
God, because it revealed the spectacular order and manifold genius of God’s
creation. Isaac Newton himself was a serious Christian, and Galileo, who
because of his battles with the Catholic Church is often thought of as a
scientist at odds with Christian faith, was in fact a committed Christian. To
add just two from the many others we might name, John Clerk Maxwell and Michael
Faraday were both men of deep Christian faith, whose breadth of scientific
genius can hardly be overstated, and whose faith explicitly underpinned their
zeal to understand the laws governing the universe."
Miracles are not un-provable imaginations of
emotionally and mentally unstable people.
Miracles are continuing evidences of a Creator God. Miracles are reminders that God is in
control. Miracles will continue to
withstand the scrutiny of good Science and frustrate the skeptics. Why fight
the miraculous? Why not enter the realm
of faith and enjoy the miracles that God sends your way?
Saturday, October 17, 2015
Faithful
There it was;
right on time as always. It was 6:53
a.m. when it peeked over the horizon, splashing brilliant pastels, in
ever-changing hues, onto the billowing
clouds that drifted in front of a pale blue sky. It illuminated the skyline just like it did
73,390 sunrises before - on the day Francis Scott Key wrote of "the dawn's
early light." The rising of the sun
can be immensely comforting. While
kingdoms have risen and fallen... while social experiments have been tried...
while people have become famous and then crashed down from their lofty
perches... while hypotheses have been proposed and then disproven... the sun
has been faithful.
Faithfulness
is a rare gem. There are precious few
principles or people who are truly faithful.
It may, in fact, be faithfulness that is God's most defining
characteristic. What He said yesterday,
He will stick by today. Some may resent
His unchanging nature, but for those who know Him, it is an anchor for their
soul. You can count on Him as surely as
you can count on tomorrow's sunrise.
I am so
thankful for people who have taken on this
godly trait. There are few things that
bring greater joy than a spouse who is faithful. Nothing builds confidence and security like a
parent who doesn't leave. Even our work places
are enhanced by those employees and bosses who can be trusted to show up and do
what they do every day. Faithful people
bring stability to a chaotic world.
I am
increasingly grateful for the people who are faithful to the church I
oversee. They keep the lights on. It is because of the faithful among us that
I can walk into church, confident that the restrooms will be clean and the
sound system will be working. I can
bring a child to class knowing that someone has lovingly prepared activities to
help them learn about the eternal God and His principles - even though they do
not receive a dime for their efforts. If
it weren't for them, many people would not have had a place to find forgiveness,
be healed, or be delivered from a life-threatening addiction. These people are not sinless, like God, but
they show up and let God shine through them.
They are often the sunrise in someone else's life. These are people who
give to others each week without expecting notoriety or compensation. They have somehow tapped into God as their
resource and become the means by which God expresses His faithfulness to people
who have not yet had a personal encounter with Him. Their worth is incalculable.
Before the sun goes
down today, it might be good to thank one of those faithful people who have touched
your life. If you are in a chaotic
season of life, you might do well to get up early and watch the sun rise
tomorrow. Contemplate the faithfulness
of the Creator. Talk to Him about your
world and ask Him to open your eyes to His faithfulness. He has been answering prayers and helping
people become more personally aware of His presence in their lives for
thousands of years. You can count on
Him. He is faithful.
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