Collateral Damage

I was in a wreck yesterday--rear-ended. I and the lady who hit me were starting to turn right at a green light when a woman coming the other way ran her red light. I, of course, slammed on my brakes to avoid hitting or being hit by her just as the woman behind me hit her gas. No one was hurt; I'll need a new rear bumper and the other lady has two little holes in her front bumper from the screws in my lisence plate, and we had to stand out in the heat for 45 minutes or an hour, but we're okay. The woman who ran the red light and caused the wreck? She hasn't stopped yet.
Made me think: every day we do things that don't seem like a big deal. I mean, most of us have run a red light or at least pushed it once or twice or pulled off the old "rolling stop" at a stop sign. And we do the same things in other areas of our lives. Often the problems our little decisions create affect others as much as if not more than ourselves. Yesterday a woman ran a red light and didn't get hit--I did. A woman minding her own business on the way to pick up her daughter from church daycamp now has to buy me a new bumper, not because she did anything wrong, but because someone she'll probably never meet wanted to get who-knows-where two minutes faster. Our actions have much farther-stretching effects than we realize. Recognize that, and be cautious as you go through life not to make others physical, emotional, or spiritual collateral damage for your own selfishness.

Forgiveness, Cleansing, Renewing

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable, yes. But let's be honest: the geneologies aren't really going to be high on anyone's list of passages to memorize. Some parts of Scripture are simply more real-life, everyday usable than others. And none more, I'd say than Psalm 51, David's post-Bathsheba plea for forgiveness, cleansing, and renewing. Every one of us fails God every day, and every time we need to realize the gravity of our sin. No, our sins and shortcomings no longer condemn us after we've been saved, but that sin that you committed today--that I committed today--clogs the line of communication between us and God. Every single little sin I commit puts a block up between myself and the Master, and only He can break down that barrier. The great news is, He's just waiting for us, as David did, to admit our failure and ask Him to renew that relationship; and the moment we ask, He will!

A New Day

The liner notes in one of my newest CDs includes a special thanks to someone "for being the kind of friend that will not let you live in what was, but to boldly pursue God's plan for what IS." (Treasures of the Heart, Volume One by Mark Trammell)
That person is really onto something. Our pasts are all littered with hundreds of case studies--both successes and failures--of relationships, trials, temptations, opportunities, decisions, choices. It's oh so easy to get caught up in those past victories and defeats when we should be focusing on the ones we're in right now. God doesn't want us to stay stuck in yesterday--we have to turn around and live today's life. There are new choices and decisions, trials and temptations, opportunities and relationships for us to make and form and live through and learn from. And tomorrow there will be a whole new set. It's one thing to say, "Well, that's all in the past;" it's a whole other thing to actually turn your back to the past and move on into the future God has for you. Don't miss out on today's blessings because you're caught up in yesterday's blessings--and certainly don't miss out on them because you're caught up in yesterday's PROBLEMS! "Boldly pursue" bigger and better things.

Gonna Keep Movin'

Life is not a very complicated thing--it's pretty straightforward. You're born, you go through life trying to get as much out of it as you can, you die. That's really all there is to it. Now, stop the pious gasping; "getting as much out of it as you can" covers everything from hedonism to hermitage. There are as many methods and definitions of drawing everything possible from life as there are people. Prayer, Bible study, and witnessing are just as much a manner of this as are drugs, pleasure-seeking, and materialism.
But back to life.... Yes, life is a rather simple concept. It's simply a journey like any other--you put one foot in front of the other; you press on; you keep moving. Until one day your journey's over. Those footsteps will take you through a lot of places and situations. They'll bring hundreds and thousands of people across your path. Some of those places and situations and people will be pleasant, some not so much. But at the end of the day you have to take another step and just keep traveling on.
That's not a well-loved idea when you're in the good times. You want to bask in the glory of success, to enjoy the moment. You cannot. You have to keep walking down the path of your life, and that may very well mean a trial--after all, every mountain has two downward slopes. But this fact comes in handy in the tough times, when you don't want to stay where you are. Don't worry--you won't! Life moves on, and every valley is followed by a mountain.
My family is in yet another valley. So many people are saying things like, "You must be devastated," shaking their heads with pity. Cancer is a scary word, and I understand their sentiments. But cancer is just like any other valley: you get out of it one step at a time. You just keep walking! One foot in front of the other, one day at a time, you keep moving knowing that there's an upside to every hill.

Coloring Life

This afternoon I heard a father get on his son: "You're not doing a good job! I told you: if you're not going to stay in the lines, you just don't color." How harsh is that?! I mean, we're not talking about a ten-year-old or anything; this kid probably wasn't more than six.
You know, we all go out of the lines sometimes in life, don't we? We slip, we trip, we mess up, and we go out of the lines. Don't know about you, but I sure am glad God doesn't treat me the way that father did his son. The Bible tells us that God knows that we are but flesh. And still He died to erase all of our outside-the-lines coloring! How awesome is our God!

I'd like to apologize for my recent lack of faithfulness to TMP. Last week was kinda crazy. For the few of you who may not know, my mother went in the hospital Monday and was diagnosed with multiple myeloma (blood cancer) on Wednesday. After more tests, she was released Friday evening. There will be a blog accessible from JohnHouseholder.com tracking her condition and treatment, etc.
But on to TMP....

For the love of Christ constraineth us.... 2 Corinthians 5:14
About 70 years ago a movement started that called itself "Fundamentalism." The idea was that they didn't agree with the direction the major denominations (particularly the Southern Baptist Convention) were heading, and they were going to hold to "Old Time Religion." There was nothing innately wrong with the Fundamentalist movement to start with, but over the years it's become more and more works-focused. And not merely works to please God (which is in itself a faulty philosophy,) but works to please men--rules for rules' sake so to speak. The truth is, we're not to do anything because soem man-made rule, even one loosely based on Scripture, says so. And we're not to do things to please God, per se--grace took care of that, because our very best is not good enough. We are to live in a way that would please God out of a love for Him. Don't get sidetracked by rules and regulations; keep your focus on Christ, and you WILL live for Him.

An All-The-Way God

Last time I talked about the lame man healed at the Gate Beautiful in Acts 3, and how his leaping up demonstrated his faith. There's one other thing that this says to me--it tells me that our God doesn't do things half-way. God didn't heal this man over several months, weeks or days. The man didn't get a tingling sensation in his toes, that gradually spread throughout his legs, that turned into full-fledged feeling, that allowed him to perform a year of physical therapy to develop the muscles.... No, God immediately gave the man full power in his previously lame legs. There was no in-between time, and there was no in-between result. The lame man had no limp or gimp--he leaped and ran, because God isn't a half-way God.

Leaping Faith

When I was in college I took a class on the book of Acts in which we had to learn the primary events of each chapter. The teacher was obsessed with the first event in chapter three--the healing of the lame man at the Gate Beautiful. There's one phrase in this account that really strikes me. In verse eight when Peter tells our friend the lame man to rise, the Scripture says, "And he leaping up...."
That's fascinating. This man was more than forty years old, we're told, and had never walked. Now, if that's me, I'm going to very gingerly get to my knees and exercise extreme caution placing my feet beneath me for the first time. After all, more than forty years of personal experience have taught me that my legs will not hold me. Not this guy. He had enough faith in Peter's words that he lept up. I wonder how much more power we'd have in our lives if we demonstrated leaping faith instead of crawling faith.
There's another thought I derive from this phrase, but I'll save that for tomorrow.

Abraham's Problem

Abraham had a problem: he was always trying to do things his way. First, God promised him a son by Sarah, so Abraham decided to help God out by having a child with Hagar. Enter Ishmael and a whole heap of trouble for Abraham, his descendants, and the entire world for the duration of time. Brilliant.
Then the writer of Hebrews tells us that Abraham, when he was going to offer Isaac to the Lord, believed that God would raise his son from the dead to fulfill His promise. Now, Hebrews presents this as an example of faith, and it was; but it was flawed faith. It was a faith based on human assumption. Don't you think that Abraham's way may have caused some trust issues with Isaac? I can see it now, a year later:

ABRAHAM: "Isaac, let's go; the time has come to sacrifice unto the Lord."
ISAAC: "Yeah, you go right on ahead...I'm right behind you. [aside] Riiiiiiiggghht! You on your own with that one, Pops!"

Abraham couldn't seem to let God do things His way. He made his own conclusions, came up with his own way of doing things, and every time he was wrong! Don't be like Abraham. Trust God to do things HIS way, not yours, and your life will flow much smoother.

Today, Tomorrow and Yesterday

I got an e-mail today that included this statement: "Today is the tomorrow you were worried about yesterday." Most of the time the things we worry about never come to pass. We've spent precious time and mental and emotional resources stressing about something that never even happened--what a waste! Don't waste your life or cause yourself unneccesary stress with worry. Change what you can and give the rest to God.