You, Lord, Are My Victory in Defeat

     You, Lord, are my armor, my strength, my courage.  You, Lord, give me your sextant and compass when I am lost.  You, Lord, put wind in my sails when I am dead in the water.  You, Lord, calm the seas when I am near to swamped.  You, Lord, are my pilot when I near the rocky shores.  You, Lord, subvert the aim of my enemies’ cannons.  You, Lord, are my loving God.

     Hallelujah!  You, Lord, took this fatherless baby to a home where your name was supreme. With a strong father and a devout and loving mother, you began the construction process of my faith.

     You, Lord, when the time was right, delivered me back to my mother newly wedded to a strong father. You began to teach me new skills. 

 

     You, Lord, covered me with your armor during war’s angry battles.  Yet, I became angry for the inhumanity of man upon man.  Blaming you, I fought a great battle against you.  How could you, a God, let man do this to himself?  I fought you with all that hate could produce.

     You, Lord, did, as you taught us, you turned your cheek time after time.  How angry I was.  How much I tried to hate you.  You kept turning your cheek as I struck you at your very heart.  I picked up the Bible to discredit you as some alien creature, some lie.  I enlisted others who loathed you.  We tore your Bible apart page by page.

     You, Lord,  did not strike me down with lightning, but softened my heart and defeated my hate with your love.  You, Lord, did as you taught us.  You lead by example.  You, Lord, are my God, my savior, my loving example.

 

     You, Lord, took me into your arms, welcoming me home.  So viscously, I fought you.  So lovingly, you won.  Now, I see that never did I not believe in you, but was angry.  I know with certainty that you love us unconditionally, but do not love some of the acts we do.  Man does what man does in war…he is ordered to kill others for some abstract and felonious reason or reasons that serve his leader’s ends. Today, I stand against war until all other means are exhausted.  Then…I’m still not certain we need that horrible thing to solve problems.

 

     You, lord, defeated me that night with these words:

He said:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek,
    for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart,
    for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers,
    for they will be called children of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

(Matthew 5:3-10 NIV)

     Then it was over.  I had gained a great victory in defeat.  I found that our God is love.  I found that love can and will conquer all hate.  May God pour his blessings upon you who fight him, and may you find victory in defeat as I have. 

Making Ends Meet

    

The heating and air conditioning system needs to be replaced, the outside of the house needs some work, the furniture has seen better days, the floors need to be refurbished, the appliances are very dated, I probably need surgery number eight, my job is by necessity not by love, and…

     I was dreaming about the previously mention items when I woke up swinging my arms.  My angel of a wife quietly brought me to reality.  Then I heard the voice,” So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” from Matthew 6:31-34.

    Whether our income is small or large, the worry over making ends meet can literally suck the life from us.  My father had a good saying, “The more you make, the more you spend.” We must keep in mind that high income does not equal no worry.  Being a worrier, I used to let this happen to me.  This worrier label is strange, because I’m an extreme risk taker.  I create my own pot of worry, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.  The difference between past days and today is my faith.

     For some reason, I seem to be at my best when taking risks.  It makes me feel alive.  My life has always been precarious, at best, when it is traveling along a smooth road.  These past ten years, I have shut down to repair my body from earlier risky missions.  My Lord has always traveled with me and steered me safely in these missions.  Furthermore, I know he has directed me along this smooth road not just to do needed repairs, but also to strengthen my spirit, my faith.  In recent days, I have begun to feel ready to leave the safety of the nest…once again to soar skyward.  Once more, my wings are strong.

  

     We tend to stay where we feel safe, secure.  We feel we must do that to make ends meet when, most often, that security is a myth.   Whether those ends are meeting or not, take a risk, try something new.  Freshen up your life by taking a risk for our Lord.  Occasionally, we need to move from our comfort zones and take risks.  In particular, this applies to our faith.  Take more risks for God, our Father.  If he watches over us in everyday human tasks, how much more will he watch over us if we are attempting to glorify his name.

     Have you a sense of adventure?  Have you faith?  When you find yourself worrying about making ends meet, try taking a risk for our Lord to whom there exists no end. 

Trust in the Lord forever,
    for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal.

(Isaiah 26:4 NIV)

Duplicity

A certain man studied structural engineering in college.  He persevered and received a degree in that science.  He was given a position at an engineering firm where he engineered the designs on multi-story buildings.  He became known for his knowledge of engineering, and became an accepted authority on the subject by his peers.  There is nothing abnormal about that.

     The abnormal part is as follows.  He became full of himself, and made others working around him feel unworthy and ignorant.  In addition, he designed buildings while totally ignoring all accepted standards of engineering.  Would you trust an engineer who practices such nonsense?

     You might find this sad and horrifying.  You would not be alone in that thinking.  Let’s see the basics of this story applied to the area of Christianity.

   

     A certain man reads and studies the teachings of Jesus Christ.  He becomes very knowledgeable in that area becoming an accepted leader in his church due to that knowledge, but, outside of all church activities, he gossips, judges, shows hatred, forgives no one, and gives only when he will receive acclaim.  Can you trust that man as a Christian?  Of course, it is appalling, but happens more than we like to admit.

     As Christians, we must work at making our actions and words outside the church atmosphere match with our good actions and words inside the church.  Yes, we are all recovering sinners, and therefore not perfect, but we must be working at living more and more in Christ’s example.  We must be diligent in our efforts to emulate the actions and words of our Lord, Jesus Christ…not just memorize or preach them.  If we ignore this, we face the prospect of becoming hypocrites.  We must work at becoming good servants and good examples.  Jesus’ encounters with hypocrites were moments that give me a sensation that he was close to anger.  We must learn the true spirit of the law and administer it with love and forgiveness.

 

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.

(Matthew 23:13 NIV)

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.

(Matthew 23:23 NIV)

     Knowledge is one thing, but application is another.  I do not wish to be a man who knows so much, but practices so little. 

Looking Back at 2013

     I was thinking about all the blessings our Lord gave to me in the year 2013 due to my paltry faith.  When I look back on the year as a whole, I see with a much higher degree of clarity how my life was changed for the better through my faith.  Our Father undoubtedly removed tremendous obstacles in my path giving me the clearance I needed to complete the grand journey he sent me upon.    

    

One of the most significant changes is the gain I have made toward the goal of putting life and its worries in the hands of our Lord Jesus. I am a habitual worrier over circumstances I cannot control.  It strengthens me to clutch this passage from Matthew near to my heart.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?  Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

(Matthew 6:25-27 NIV)

     I am not perfect, not even within sight of the doorstep, but our Lord did not come to call the righteous.  Similar imperfections are found within this imperfect life that travels not the smooth, level road.  It has many ups and downs, twists and turns.  Surely, those are the traits which make life exciting.  Our faith helps smooth and level some of the severe areas, but was never intended to take all those glorious imperfections away.  We learn more from the downs than the ups, and the ups would never be so good were it not for the downs.  Life is a learning adventure.  Learn its lessons, making use of those lessons to improve one’s self.  But…worry?  I think we will increase our enjoyment of life a great deal if we flavor it with a big spoonful of chances from our faith, minus the worry, of course.

     

At day’s end and to reduce worry, where would you place your trust?  Let us consider the options;  there is a large following of machines; perhaps technology in  general would be the thing; many would choose, narcissistically, their personal intelligence;  hopefully, that choice would be in our Lord and God, whom is, was, and forever shall be.  I do not think the courageous American, Patrick Henry, would mind if I did a little borrowing from him and extended his thinking just a bit:  Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me Jesus or give me death!

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 3:5-6

Stand Firm Through Trial and Tribulation

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.  Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?  As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,  neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:31-39

Trust

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 3:5-6

     I have taken some time away to celebrate with family and friends one of the most holy days of our year...Christmas, the birth of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ.  I hope this time of year brings you renewed hope for is that not what our Lord's birth brought to this turbulent world.  God Bless you all in this the new year.  Let us all have a year of renewed hope and great works for his holiness, Jesus Christ  May the holy spirit guide you throughout this glorious year.
     We, as Christians, must be a model of hope and faith to others in desperate need of hope in a world fraught with pain and suffering for the less fortunate. Be Strong, be resilient for our Lord that gave everything on that cross so that we may have hope and eternal life.  What is a little sacrifice in this short life for that great gift. All glory to him our most holy and divine Jesus Christ..let his works begin.