But I'm called to stir!

An analogy was given this morning about not being able to break away from our tradition. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in what "we" think God ha called us, and in fact He very well may have, but that doesn't mean it's what we're going to be "do" for the rest of our Christian lives.

Take the instance of mother and daughter baking wonderful treats for the annual Christmas gathering:

"Daughter, please come stir this, while I tend to the other chores"

"Yes, Mother, I will. I love stirring cookie dough!" The daughter beams when Mother calls her to the kitchen.

Eventually, it's time to stop stirring, and add more ingredients to the wonderful cookie batter. 

"Thank you, Daughter. You did a fine job. Please bring the batter and add it to these dry ingredients" Mother gently directs. The daughter is stricken with shock. "What, Mother? Surely not! You called me to stir, and I'm doing a great job at it! I need to keep stirring!"

Sounds silly, in  a way, doesn't it? But stirring was just a small part of  the entire baking session. If the daughter continues stirring, then the next step of making delicious cookies would never come to fruition.  The mother knew what was ahead, (delicious cookies) . The daughter simply knew that she was helping her beloved Mother, and making her happy. Perhaps she thought that if she stopped stirring, the 'happiness' would be over? 

How true this is in my own life. If God called me to play an instrument, then I should continue! If God called me to teach, then I should teach! I have a hard time to break out of habits, but often times God has thrown a monkey wrench in my plans. Often times when we feel "led" to work in or with a specific ministry, we often think that we're "led" to do that until death do we part.

In scripture, God had a way of shaking things up a bit, and often would throw in that proverbial monkey wrench into His children's lives in order to remind them of their dependency on Him.

In Luke, we were comparing and contrasting Zechariah's response to the angel's announcement with Mary's response to the angel's announcement. The consequence of Zechariah's questioning seemed rather harsh, but the silence he went through for the 4 or 5 months reminded him on a daily basis, of God's plan coming through. The angel was the monkey wrench in Zechariah's life. He was a priest, doing his priestly stuff, and the people were waiting for him. There was a time frame that they expected the incense to start rising, a time frame for the priest to come out and start praying for the folks, and everything was just so.

Except on this day. By having a conversation with the angel, that threw their whole ceremonious tradition off, and they weren't sure what to make of it. I wonder: After John was born, did Zechariah go back to the same ole, same ole? Light the incense, pray for the people, then go home? That was really all the peek we were allowed to have in the life of Elizabeth and Zechariah. Once John was born, we don't hear from him again until he pops up a grown man, preaching and baptizing.  What of Elizabeth and Zechariah?

I must confess, it's hard for me to give up my routine. If I do laundry on Tuesday--every Tuesday, it's hard for me to even think of doing laundry on Monday or Wednesday in order to do something else.

What about you? Are you stuck in a habitual rut? Have you been in the past, but broken out of it? I would dearly love to hear how some of you escaped this madness called tradition.

Two Trees

MetroBibleFellowship
Two trees.
I have to admit, when I saw the title of this sermon, I thought... yeah... okay. I mean, exactly what can be preached about the trees in the Garden of Eden? We all know the story, right? God told Adam and Eve they could eat from any tree, except the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. They ate, they died, they left.

However, something interesting was brought out in this particular teaching. Do you realize that God never told them they couldn't eat from the Tree of Life? There were two trees, indeed, as well as dozens of other trees and herb bearing plant. Vegetarian's delight, I'd imagine. The only tree they could not eat was the Knowledge of Good and Evil. So, can we safely presume that they ate of the Tree of Life? Might that explain why they lived to be 900+ years old? Each generation after them lived less and less, until by the time Samuel was conceived, his mom was just a regular aged lady.

I have to admit, with these studies underway, I find myself intrigued about the Creation story. Can you imagine a garden with all the wonderful fruit trees? Absolutely no sand spurs? Imagine the floral fragrance. Imagine the bees buzzing around. Heavenly! I wonder what the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil looked like? According to Eve, it was pretty to look at, the fruit looked delicious (how'd she know it was good for food? She'd not eaten of it at this point??) and a tree to be desired to make one wise. Ahhhh.... there's the downfall. The other trees in the garden were just beautiful and delicious. This particular one had the power to make one wise (not really--it was the tree of knowledge, not the tree of wisdom). Hence the temptation.

Once Adam and Eve took that fatal bite, there was no going back. Have you ever done something, that the moment you did or said it, you wished with all your heart you could undo the damage? I'm betting that's what Eve felt. However, nothing she could do could erase the fact that she'd just killed her husband and herself, and consequently, all her children after her. Even though God banned them from the garden, as well as the Tree of Life, He still had mercy on them. Even though they now knew they were naked, and it was their own fault, God didn't leave them there in that condition. No, He made some clothes for them from animal skins. He could have done like so many of us have done, "Well, serves you right! You made the choice, live with it!" But God isn't like us, thankfully. He sees right through our pretentious life and sees our nakedness, our wretchedness. The animal skins covered their shame, but on this side of the Cross, in the New Covenant, our shame has been not covered, but taken away.
Why was this done?
Simple. God loves you.

Why the anger towards New Covenant?

I have to admit, I've been pondering this question for a few days. I heard a minister ponder this, as well. The New Covenant is God reaching down to man, and taking the burden of proof off of us. Because of love, God reconciled the whole world to Himself through Jesus' sacrifice. Love. The thing that motivates God to do everything He does. Why the anger when we read about God reconciling us to Himself, not counting our sins against us?

Could it be pride?

Is the reason we get our feathers ruffled, because we're thinking that "they" (they being the ones who sin 'more' than us) gets a free pass just like us? Do we get miffed, thinking we had to work for God's grace, but others didn't? How dare God love Hitler with the same intensity that He loves Billy Graham! Where's the justice?

What about Eternal security? Why does this get the charismatic community riled up? What is the reason to get mad when, out of love, God sends the Holy Spirit to live in us, when we come to Him by faith?

Could it be pride (again?)

There's a doctrine that states God forgives our past sins when we come to him for salvation, but then it's up to us to keep ourselves forgiven. I bought into that as a young child. After all, Christians are supposed to be 'good' people, right?

Ahhhh, therein lies my mistake. The Christian life is often taught as a good versus bad kind of thing. If this is our understanding of the Christian life, we've missed the boat. Sure we could live like the devil, but there's a clincher--if we are indeed God's, then the Holy Spirit lives in us. He's just not lying dormant in our souls, awaiting our arrival to heaven, but rather, He's working His will in us. Before the Holy Spirit came to live in us, we were dead to God. Christ came to give us life, and life more abundantly; compare this to "Christ came to help us behave better"  Anyone, with enough discipline, can learn to behave. There are a few people I know who are very moral, to the point of someone mentioning "What a fine Christian he is!" Only to find out that the person didn't believe in the existence of God. Yet, he was a moral, upstanding individual in his community.

When a person comes to accept Christ, something happens at that very point. The Holy Spirit resides within. He's not just visiting, but He's living. Because the Holy Spirit lives, we live. To not have the Spirit is to be dead. An empty body, at best. The body functions, walks and talks and eats, but no Life is within. It is this Life, the Holy Spirit, the Grace of God, that teaches us to say "no" to ungodliness. Yes, we'll find ourselves entangled in sins' snares at times, but we won't be left there. The Holy spirit urges us on to live peacefully with our neighbors, and to love others as God has loved us.

Have you noticed that no one time have the "Ten Commandments" been mentioned? We're motivated by love; and not by fear. Sometimes, however, due to erroneous teaching, sincere Christians get mixed up and feel that we need the Ten Commandments to be our guide. If we have to depend on the Ten Commandments to be our guide, then we're basically telling the Holy Spirit that He's doing a cruddy job, and is not able to carry out His work in us, unless the the Laws engraved on stone, are part of the deal.

Are there people who joyfully embrace Grace as a license to sin?  Sadly, yes.  "It doesn't matter what we do, because we're under Grace, not Law". But I implore you, gentle reader, do not paint us all with the same brush. If people will stop jumping to conclusions, you'll find that some people are allowing Grace to work in their lives and are learning to say, 'No!" to ungodliness. You'll find that some people actually take it to heart where the Apostle Paul implores people to not use their freedom to gratify the flesh, but rather,  to serve one another humbly with love.

So, I ask you, now that you know a little more about living in God's grace, do you still find it offensive?

I used to_______but now I don't

growingingrace.org

Listening to a short podcast today, I had to reflect on what was being said. Too often, we as children of God, have good intentions of sharing our testimony, but really, what are we doing? Have you ever found yourself rattling on a list of 'stuff' God has helped you change?

"I used to smoke, but God helped me to quit"
"I used to drink, but God helped me to quit"
"I used to cuss like a sailor, but God helped me to quit"
" I used to_______, but God helped me to quit."

In fellowship, out of fellowship, in fellowship, out of fellowship...

... this was the popular calls this week, asking about being in fellowship with God. It seems that, as the minister was assuring a caller that our sin does not take out of fellowship with God, several other listeners were getting concerned at the possible error he was giving out. One of the concerned callers called and shared the story of how she accepted Christ at a young age, but as she grew older, she wandered off, doing things that she knew were not good things to do. Now, while she knew she had NOT lost her salvation, she felt that she had lost fellowship with God. She was doing bad things, and totally ignoring God. Couldn't that be out of fellowship? 

Trials and Tribulations

Wow. What a timely message this morning. I cringed when I first saw that the sermon was coming from the book of James. James has always been rather hard on my old ego. I wondered how it would look through the eyes of Grace this morning. There are several verses in there that the Pentecostal background I had would use to prove that one must 'gut it out for God", if they indeed wanted to spend an eternity in heaven. Would today be more of the same?

During our Bible study last week, an interesting verse was revealed.  In I Peter, we're told to be ready to give an answer when someone ASKS us about the difference seen in us.  This was different than what I  was used to growing up.  I remember as a young child, I was encouraged to tell everyone I saw about Jesus. Somehow, and I don't quite recall how, I gathered that I was supposed to MAKE people listen to me when i would tell them about Jesus. Another preacher would laughingly refer to this as running them up the flagpole to get away from us.   Looking back, I suppose we were nothing more than one of those annoying people that we would go a mile out of our way to avoid. 

Don't forget the Cross

What an eye opener. This morning, I finally got a chance to trim up our dying wisteria bush in the front yard. It was bittersweet, really.   Every spring, whoever passed by could breathe in the fragrant blossoms that were just dripping all over this magnificent bush like clusters of bright purple grapes.  I never ceased to enjoy its beauty whenever I would walk by, and others have commented the same.

7th Day....of which calendar?

Man--listening to a favorite archive of mine, it seemed that the flavor of the show was the seventh day Sabbath. One guy mentioned that whenever someone keeps the Sabbath, people automatically think that person is a Seventh Day Adventist. I didn't know until tonight that there were Seventh Day Baptists. Not having heard of it, I decided to browse through the Internet for a few minutes and see what I could find.

Forgiveness for Others

Wow. What a relief. No, seriously, I mean a REAL relief. A fella called the ministry this afternoon, asking about forgiveness. The question was, if we don't forgive other people, then we'll lose our salvation. Was this true?

Before Bob answered the question, he felt he needed to bring to light the difference between the Old Covenant and New Covenant. In the Old Covenant, Jesus taught folks to pray "Forgive us, as we forgive others" Yikes! I have a list of names I'm still working on forgiveness for.  So, if I don't forgive them, God's not forgiven me?

Wow. What a revelation. This weekend, I learned that yes, we CAN survive without the internet.  Have you ever wished you could tear yourself away from the internet, but feel powerless to do so? Too many times it's just simply convenient to "do everything' from your computer. This past weekend, Saturday morning, to be exact, a thunderstorm took out our modem. Neither my teenage boys or me were too upset. We were getting the much needed rain for our yards, crops and wildfires, so we weren't at all upset that the internet was gone. In fact, I would go so far as to say I felt an emotion I'd not felt in a long time.

Oh yeah... Summer is here..

Nothing says summer quite like my Daddy's garden. Now add to it, my  uncle's garden and brother's garden.  This week we dined on the first fruits of Daddy's zucchini and yellow squash, as well as Uncle Freddy's tomatoes. Sure, you can get most of these same veggies year around in the local grocery, but there's so much more flavor in the home grown vegetables than in their store bought counterparts.  I suspect several of you know what I'm talking about. You bite into a big red-ripe juicy tomato from the store and it has all the appeal of eating cardboard. No amount of salt and pepper will help. Show of hands for anyone having had that same experience? Let me raise my hand several times on this.   Contrast that with a home grown tomato... fresh dirt... real cow fertilizer, and hydration from the underground spring.  Oh yeah.... you know what that flavor. You mouth comes alive when you bite into that tomato from the garden. Didn't realize tomatoes were supposed to taste like that, did you? To be honest, I was completely satisfied with the ho-humness of the grocery store tomatoes until I tasted the real thing from Daddy's garden. I didn't know vegetables could BE so good. I've eaten so much zucchini and yellow squash, I think I might've hurt myself.

Hello, I am a Christian, and I suffer from Martha-itus

Well? What can I say? It's just hit me square in the face that I suffer from Martha-itus. You remember that story, don't you? Where Jesus came to visit His friends Mary, Martha and perhaps Lazarus. Mary sat at Jesus' feet, while Martha scurried around trying to get things done for that crowd of people.
After a bit, Martha started complaining that she was doing all the work, and at the very least, Jesus could make Mary help. Of course, Jesus told her no, that Mary chose the better thing and it would NOT be taken from her.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Out of the Mouths of Babes. As I read one of my favorite comics from my morning rituals, I grimaced at how accurate little Billy's statement was. When we leave our fellowship on the weekends, be it Saturday or Sundays, often times it's as if God lives there--within those four wall, instead of within our hearts 24/7.  We go to our preferred church, carry out the weekly rituals of opening with Prayer, singing a few songs, maybe passing around the collection plate, listen to a sermon, have an altar call, close in prayer, and shake hands on our way out the door. 

Mic Burger of love

What a refreshing sermon this past Sunday. Talked about loving others, not just in words, but in action. We're told in the scriptures that the only thing that counts is faith, expressing itself through love. (Galatians 5:6). The word "expressing" is a verb... it shows action. Too many times, I've been guilty of murmuring a few words of sympathy, then moving on, because I simply couldn't be bothered. To keep someone in prayer, is a fine thing, but will that really help the person get his or her needs met? I loved this sermon, because it brought up several instances to remembrance. These incidences reminded me that I didn't have 'conjure' up good works... but rather that the love of God that lives within me will stir up my desires to help this one or that one.