Slow It Down

I may have already written about this, but we can use the reminder.
Ever catch yourself wishing the time would go by faster? This thought usually comes to me when I'm at work. I wish the day would hurry up and pass so that I could get out of there! What are we really doing when we wish time would go on? We're wishing our lives away! Every day is a gift from God--and we're praying they'll go away FASTER! Let's try to remember that "this is the day that the Lord hath made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!"

Never Slumbers Nor Sleeps

I'm tired. Worn out. Exausted. And I only worked a little over 7 hours today! Of course, it would happen that we were slow until everyone else left--then I got slammed for the last hour and a half I was there. Alone. Without help.
I tell you this, not for your pity (although cash and food are both accepted if you DO feel sorry for me,) but to make this point: I'm tired...but God isn't. It's a relief to know that I have a God on my side Who will never experience weariness. My hardest day cannot even put a dent in His ability to carry me through.

Reason for Struggling

We had a guest speaker yesterday at my church who posed an interesting question: Why didn't God remove our sin nature upon salvation? I have my own theory about that. If our sin nature had been revoked the instant we accepted Christ, we wouldn't need Him. Until we stand before Him, only our imperfections tether us to Him. We have to have him, and we know it--our failures and struggles remind us daily.

Bear Their Burdens

Our society has grown callous. Things that were once sad and wrong are now funny and okay. Things that once appalled us now amuse us; and this apathy has spilled over into Christianity. Now I'm not talking about gray-area standards and opinions. I mean things like habits and lifestyles that bring suffering and destruction. Things like drugs, alcohol, immorality.... Things that once brought shock and disgust; then eventually a mere sad shaking of heads; and now they elicit jokes and chuckles.
What happened to us? Somewhere along the line we stopped thinking of that pothead or drunk or homosexual or prostitute or what-have-you as someone's son or daughter. There are parents and friends with aching hearts; who are suffering while watching someone they care about ruin their lives. How can we be so callous as to laugh at these? Are we really that self-absorbed? God instructs us to bear one another's burdens. If you've no compassion for those hurting themselves, at least hurt for those hurting along with them.

Jesus Is Still The Answer

Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." Usually, we just think that means that Jesus is the only way to Heaven, which it does mean. But it means a lot more, too. Jesus, in this simple statement, places Himself as the answer to all mankind's basic desires. We have a few central, inborn needs: we need a direction and a purpose, we crave something that is real and meaningful, and we long for a life beyond our simple existance. And Jesus is the only source for these things. Only through Him can we find a path worth walking with a purpose and meaning. Only in Christ can we find truth and understanding. And only in Him will we be able to experience real living--during our mortal existances or after. He is the way, the truth and the life. Apart from Him is nothing.

Mercy's Mark

I'm listening to a CD by a quartet called Mercy's Mark. What a great name! Isn't that, after all, what all of us who claim the name of Christ are? We're like footprints of the mercy of our Lord and Savior. I gotta tell ya: if I got what I deserved I'd split Hell wide open! It never ceases to amaze me just how sinful I am, just how many times I can fail God, turn my back on Him and make the same mistakes over and over. We talk about how Judas betrayed Christ, but isn't that exactly what we do every time we, after having partaken of His grace and mercy and forgiveness, choose sin? Yet He's always there with mercy great enough to forgive every sin. As I look back over the past almost 25 years, I have to say that my life truly is a living stamp of mercy's mark, and I must be eternally grateful.

Knowledge Through Faith

There are several principles in the Bible that are underlying (as opposed to being openly stated.) One of these I call the principle of "knowledge through faith." Here's the idea: There are things that we know because we can see them, feel them, taste them, hear them or smell them--we've physically or emotionally or mentally experienced them on some way. Then there are things that we know without any metaphysical evidence--we're so convinced of their existance, that our faith in them becomes, in our minds, knowledge.
For example: I know there's a God. Do I have physical evidence of God's existance? No. I cannot experience Him with my five senses; He's not an emotion; He's not a condition or state of the mind. I have no reason to say that I know there's a God. Yet my faith in Him is so strong that I can say without hesitation I know there is a God.
What does this mean? Psychologically this concept is immence; we could discuss it for hours--and probably be no closer to expaining or understanding it. But as for how it affects us, it can be boiled down to this: my faith is mine alone. I cannot transfer it to any other person. But I can hold to it as fact, live in its light, and hope and pray that someday my faith will bring light to those around me.

When We Should Worry

I lay in bed for hours last night unable to sleep. I was worried about a friend. In retrospect I feel guilty--not for worrying (although that is a sin,) but because it doesn't happen more often. Oh, I lie awake in bed a lot, but how often is it out of concern for someone else? Shouldn't we, as Christians, be the most caring, loving, forgiving, sharing people in the world? After all, we have been cared about, loved, forgiven, and shared with more than the world has in that God cared about and loved us enough to forgive us all our sins and share with us His Son. If we aren't concerned enough to be worried for our friends, who will be? Maybe sometimes we SHOULD worry a little--for others.

Working Out Our Salvation

But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Romans 8:25
My sin disgusts me. I hate it, despise it, am repulsed by it. Yet I keep going back to it. The Scripture says that we who are saved are no longer bound by sin; we've been released from it and can not sin. And yet we do. Every single day. It frustrates me so much, I'm tempted sometimes to just give up trying. Why, if we are free from the need to sin, do we still run back to it?
The moment we accepted Christ, He saved us from the penalty of sin. Our sin-debt of hell was paid for, never to bother us again. But there are two other parts of our salvation: the power of sin and the presence of sin. Our salvation from the presence of sin will be completed when we see Christ--be it via death or rapture. That just leaves the power of sin. This salvation's a little more complicated because it doesn't occur at a particular time. This is the salvation that Paul tells us we have to "work out." We have to wrestle and fight our way to this one. It's a long, hard, weary journey that begins the day we trusted the Lord and won't end until we stand before Him. We don't have to sin. But the ugly truth is, we do and we will. We just have to get back up and keep going with patience, working out our salvation although we don't yet see it.

What I Am

I can't claim to be a great Christian. Truth be told, most of the time I feel I must be the worst child God has. But every now and then it occurs to me that I have one thing I can be proud of, and that's that the people around me have confidence in my faith. I may mess up and fail God every single day--and I do--but in spite of my many failures I know that the people I work with would tell you without hesitation that John Householder is a Christian, that he trusts in God and God's forgiving and healing power, and that he lives out his faith every day to the best of his ability. I can't claim perfection; I can't even claim goodness. But I'm proud to claim the grace and mercy and forgiveness of Christ that will allow even a miserable failure like me to bear His name and represent His kingdom. And I'm proud that everyone who knows me knows Whose I am.

20 Years Away

Have you ever noticed how new Christians or missionaries who've been away from mainstream organized religion for a while always seem to have a better spirit about them? How they seem to have a closer, more real relationship with God?
A missionary spoke briefly at our church last night who really struck me as one of those. And get this: he hadn't been back from the field since 1988--almost 20 years away! It seems crazy. Yet he simply radiated joy, and his love of Christ came through in every word he spoke. Why is that? I have a theory (of course.) I believe that such people are closer to God because that's where their attention is centered. Missionaries long on the field are surrounded by the lost and new converts. New believers haven't been much around their new Christian family. Because of this, Christ is still the focal point of their Christian life, as He should be. But as we are more around other 'mature' Christians, they, not Jesus, take over our attention. It's so easy to get distracted by other Christians, their faults, their problems, their short-comings. We have to regularly realign our lives to be Christ-centered.

Willfully Ignorant

The History Channel is currently airing a special as I type this on the Ten Plagues. According to their "experts," the first six plagues resulted from a large amount of red algae infected with anthrax flooding the Nile. Riiiiiigggghhht! And the others (with the exception of the final plague) were also "merely" natural phenomenons. Essentially, they can more easily believe that nine incredibly unlikely occurances followed one right after the other in fairly rapid succession in the same place than that God could send His judgements against His enemies.
Those of us who have accepted God's Word as truth see such a position as the utter stupidity it is. But why are we surprised? Humans have an incredible ability to put mind over matter, and can convince themselves of about anything. And sinful men don't like the thought of a just, holy God Who will judge their sin. Why then would we be surprised when natural men deny the existance of God? And why would we be surprised when they deny His power and His Word? We shouldn't.
Don't be surprised when the unsaved don't understand you, your convictions, your standards and your God. Pray for them, hold your stance faithfully, and when given opportunity, be prepared to present your case with confidence and authority.

A Child's Heart, Pt. 7

What did you want to be when you grew up? A teacher? A policeman? A fireman? A nurse? Kids have an incredible capacity for dreaming. There's no limitation to possibilities in their minds. They never stop dreaming. God wants His children to dream, too. He loves it when we have dreams and ambitions. And He loves when we share them with Him...and ask Him to help us achieve them. Where is it written that adults and/or Christians shouldn't dream? I haven't found it anywhere. But Proverbs does say, "without a vision the people perish." Dreams keep us going, give us something to live for and work towards. Never stop dreaming! Never stop looking ahead to bigger and better things!

A Child's Heart, Pt. 6

Perhaps one of the most evident features of childhood is a vivid and lively imagination. As children we could run in circles, arms outspread and easily convince ourselves that we were flying; we could pretend we were anywhere in the world at any time in the past, present or future and make it so incredibly real to ourselves.
But somewhere along the way that imaginative ability faded. Perhaps we became "disillusioned"; maybe we simply got too busy to practice imagining. Either way, that active imagination has become fat and lazy and very much out of shape. Well, let's whip it back into shape! God doesn't want a bunch of unimaginative kids. There's so much in the Bible that requires imagination! The stories of the Old Testament, the images of Revelation...we didn't or haven't seen these things, but they're described for us that we might have something to look back on and foward to. But we have to get our imaginations in gear! And I believe God wants us to use our imaginations in getting His message out, too. People are constantly changing and, like it or not, they cannot be reached the same way they could fifty years ago. (That's not to say that we should change our genuine convictions or that the Gospel has--or will--change, but...) we need to come up with new ways to share the glorious message of hope and salvation in Christ.
Wake up your imagination!

A Child's Heart, Pt. 5

There's nothing that can bring people together easier than children. God only knows how many rival groups and families have been reconciled because their children just didn't know any better than to be friends with their "enemies." It's not an inborn trait to treat people differently because of their race or gender or social status. To a kid, another kid is a kid. Period. They'll be friends with and play with anyone. Children are naturally accepting. Another reason that their lives are happier, easier and less complicated.
God wants us to be the same way. He wants His children to accept and love one another regardless of race or gender or any other so-called social differences. He sees us all the same; so should we. Now, that's not to say we should ignore sin and accept it as okay, but we should love the person and be willing to forgive them and accept them.