Planks for the memories!

Matthew 7:3 - “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?

So why did I start my blog with this verse? As I have stated before, I write from my experiences… not of past but present. These past few weeks, my son has been with me almost every day, all day. During the summer, my daily activities change as a result. I became more observant of my sons habits and attitude. A lot of these bothered me.

If something or someone bothers me a lot then there is something in me that I need to examine. If it bothers me so, then I must deal with it. For when I deal with those things and examine myself I become more tolerant of others.

Sometimes there are things that I react so strongly to because I have strong emotional connections to the issue. Even though I grew up with a father who was present…he really wasn’t. My father had issues, mainly selfishness, self-indulgence and addictions. As a result, I became judgmental and skeptical of all men. Always looking for them to fail me and others.

A few years ago, God broke my heart on purpose...I really believe this to be true. He did this to rebuild me more into the man of God I was supposed to be. He did this so that I could be a better Father to my son. He did this so I could be a better witness of and for him.

How? The rebuilding process involved self-examination. To properly self-examine yourself you need examples and God put those good examples in front of me.  He provided me a strong foundation to rebuild my life.

 In the verse Matthew 7:3, Jesus is teaching us to morally examine ourselves. A follower of Jesus needs to ask the hard questions of his or herself. Take a close look at them and become self-aware. Who you are? Who God has created you to be? Have I acted selfishly? Have I truly loved others? Have I prejudged anyone? Have I sought out to contribute?  What actions have hurt others? What do I need to do to make amends?

Without a moral inventory and without knowledge of ourselves we are just play acting—hypocrites. We look good on the outside and looks like we have our act together. But we don’t. None of us really do. This is what faith is really about. I don’t have all the answers. But God does. And He is a great, big God! He knows all and is all powerful.

I have become convinced why many so called Christians never get it, so to speak, they never really change nor know how to take a total reflective inventory of their life and past. We just pray for Jesus to forgive us and then go right back to doing what we have always done. If you do what you always done, the way that you have always done it, then you will always get what you have always gotten.

Insanity is doing the same thing in the same way expecting different results.

With God’s help (and other people’s) we seek to remove those things that get in the way of serving God and loving others. Each day ask God to show you your faults and examining the previous day’s events.

Telling someone your faults has been a long practiced Christian aspect. You don’t need a pastor to do this. Just someone who you are comfortable with and you can trust to keep your trash confidential. If someone asks you to be their confessor, remember confidentiality and that you are not to give advice, judge, or criticize. Simply listen and encourage them to take the next steps of forgiving oneself and/or making amends. Remind them of God’s grace.

Grace doesn’t mean that we never have to work for God. It just means that we can’t earn God’s favor through the work that we do. We must realize that self-indulgences not only affect ourselves but they affect others because they limit our ability to give. This in turn helps us realize that my community does have a claim on me. I am responsible to my community.

Basically when we can get the planks out of our eyes, we have new sight through which we see the world. We all have armor that keeps us safe. We also have rips in that armor where we’ve been hurt. Self-examination helps us see beyond those wounds. Grace helps us smooth over those rough spots so that those character defects aren’t so glaring.

It helps us look past the rough edges in ourselves and others. Take the plank out of your eye and use it to build a stronger bridge to the Lord!

Busy Bodies (revisited)

During the winter in New Jersey, after a few snowfalls, the road would become slick with ice and packed snow. As teenagers, we came up with an interesting way to get around as a result. Sneaker skiing!!! See you’d hide alongside the road waiting for a vehicle to come along (hopefully a truck). Then you’d run out, grab the bumper, and plant your feet while skimming over the ground.

This worked pretty well until you found a dry patch. Then you learned to run… Keeping your wits about you, you would have to release the bumper; stand up and run! Thinking back we ran for our life, not the wisest entertainment or travel method.

Sometimes these days I still feel like that’s how my life is going. I’m cruising along, enjoying the ride and “WHAM”… hit a dry patch. I start running for my life! Normally for me this happens because I get too busy. I get a momentum of moving fast: hurrying along; stressed out by the fast pace of life. Sound familiar?

Some of us have erected a new God in our lives; the God we call ‘24/7’. 24/7 is all about a hurried and busy pace of life. It is fast, it is filled, it is frantic, but it is also frustrating and can leave you drained in every way when it’s all said and done.

Want to know if you’re too busy? If you agree to even one of the following….you may struggle with it:

1.       Have you ever said there “aren’t enough hours in the day?”

2.       Nearing a stoplight, you look for the lane with the least number of cars and head toward it.

3.       You have mastered the art of driving while doing other things, like putting on make-up, or like me, make check lists of things you have to do today.

4.       Do you find yourself eating meals over the kitchen sink, never taking time to sit down?

5.       People praise you for the amount of hours you put in, or for all the projects you have going on at any given time.

These are just a few from my experiences. You may have your own but I hope you get the picture.

God never intended for you to live the fast paced, frantic lives that we seem to have chosen. He never intended for you to fill every waking moment of every day with constant activity. Think about this busyness and hurry in Jesus’ life for a moment. Was He a busy man? Absolutely! Was He running a fast pace? Absolutely not!

He took the time to talk to strangers, to build relationships with His closest friends, to eat with groups of people He didn’t really know, to attend the weekly synagogue meetings, even when the people didn’t want Him there.

Matthew 11:28-30 “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Christ has a clear purpose for your life, and His invitation is to shuck off the yoke of hurry and worry and stress and busyness that you are bearing trying to find fulfillment and purpose – shuck off that yoke and take His upon you. His yoke is vastly different from ours. His yoke is one of simplicity, one of meekness, one that offers rest, one that is light.

A yoke works best when the two animals are as nearly alike as possible. One Old Testament law forbids the yoking of an ox and a donkey. In the New Testament we are told not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers. There is a principle we can learn here – if one of us is to change, it will not be the Lord. We must learn to walk in step with Him. Too often though, because of our own stubbornness, because of our sinful nature, we expect Christ to walk in step with us.

Many of you today are tired. You’ve become overburdened. The pace of your life is fast and relentless. Sometimes you’re running as fast as you can. Other times, if you don’t let go of the bumper, you feel like you’re being dragged along.

How long will you try to keep up that pace?

How long till you hit that dry patch?

Stay in the game

In High School I didn’t belong to any specific group but tried to be a part of them all. In a way, up until about a year or two ago…I hadn’t changed. I wanted to be part of the group but always felt like I didn’t belong. Kind of like a baseball player that’s good enough to make the team but only as a backup… a benchwarmer. A player that wanted to play the game but because of fear or lack of self-confidence would never be good enough to be a starter.

Most baseball games are lost by lack of genuine effort. Many things in life are lost just because we don’t do anything about them. Doing nothing will accomplish nothing. (Thanks Marty). As men and woman of God, we don’t only need to stay in the game but we need to be an active part of it. We need to play ball!

We need to decide, are we going to be a benchwarmer or are we going to get into the game? Are we going to be a Softball Christian or a Hard Hitting, Home Running Christian? We have sat on the bench for far too long, we have only been a spectator and have not been a key player. The game of baseball has many terms that I believe can inspire us to be “In the Game”!

In Baseball there is a term called, ‘Keeping them off the board’:  Simply, if the other team doesn’t score, it makes it very hard for them to win! As Christians, we need to keep the Devil, ‘Off the board’.  This isn’t an easy thing to accomplish as I have failed often at this. Every time I feel guilty because of how I acted in certain situations, I allowed the enemy to score. Every time I doubted my calling as a Son of God, I allowed the enemy to score. Every time I allow my flesh to take control and I lose my Christian bearing, I allow the enemy to score.

Ephesians 4:26-27 in your anger do not sin, Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.

We all have bad days in life. God offers us forgiveness and a brand new start.

In the game of baseball, “Keeping the hitter honest” mean throwing a pitch to keep the batter from leaning over the plate (making the ball come real close like) and keep him from getting a pitch on the outer part of the plate. As Christians, we need to hold one another accountable in our Christian walk. We need to throw close pitches at each other to keep us accountable. These near misses wake us up to do what God’s will say for us.

We also need to, “Keep the line moving”. In baseball, this is a reference to a series of batters getting on base safely and advancing runners on base, like an assembly line. As Christians, we need to keep a steady line moving to Christ through example and speaking the word in truth to others. If you are not doing you part, if you’re not swinging, if you’re not stepping up to the plate; you’re doing no one any good.

As Christians, we need to realize that sitting on the bench and being a spectator may be entertaining and comfortable but we have a coach and He is calling each of us into the game. His desire is that we step up to the plate and keep the line moving. If we aren’t in the game, then what good are we? If no one is trying, if no one is swinging, then no one moves forward.

In baseball practices are a must. Hours and hours are spent in the batting cages. Baseball player realize the importance of hitting a good ball. They know that it takes practice in order to achieve the goal of making it home helping their team mates get there as well. We need to stay in shape; we need to practice and stay sharp in order to hit those home runs. Training is vitally important for each of us in order to do His will.

 What is the Christians goal? Is our goal simply to make it home at the end of this game? Or is it to not only to make it home but help get as many as we can home as well?

I went home on Vacation one time from the Navy. As I passed the old neighborhood I saw some kids playing touch football in the local field. I stopped and walked over to watch. One of the kids saw me and asked if I wanted to play. They needed another to even out the sides. I hadn’t played football in a while but I quickly agreed.

On one play, they threw a pass to me and I dove to catch it. I caught the ball but landed wrong and ended up breaking a finger and spraining my wrist. Game over!

This is what happens to us as well, you see, when we go so long without practice, without showing up to church, without spending time in God’s word, we lose our edge and become ineffective as players, ineffective serving God.

As Christians….we need to keep in the game!

Did you hear the joke about the Pharisee?

I love a good joke, don’t you?

I know this is probably a big stretch of my imagination but I believe I found a passage in the bible were Jesus told a joke.

Luke 18: 9 – 13 to some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this joke (parable): "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.' "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'

Ha, ha, ha……and (ha ha)…..and Jesus said: “You guys just kill me!” well, no.

Ok, it’s not really funny nor my best joke.  But it does illustrate that a joke needs information about the characters involved. It also illustrates how the laughs you get from a joke almost always come at somebody else's expense. And Jesus' joke in Luke 18 is no exception.

We need to understand about the Pharisee that they were an exceptional group of human beings! They could be a bit stuffy and materialistic, but these guys were the honest upright citizens that the rest of the community depended on for social stability and moral leadership!

This culture and faith that the people of this time period lived under were Roman rulers. The big question for them was how were the people of God supposed to respond to that Roman rule? You can distinguish the different religious groups of that time by the way they responded to that question.

The response to this rule is they fought back and held a 'jihad' against the Romans! The group generally referred to as 'the Zealots' were the freedom fighters of the first century, they resisted the Roman occupation, staging guerrilla attacks, and trying to resist and corrupt all things Roman. Sound familiar?

These people were yearning for independence and the chance to run their own nation once again. The Zealots were busy planning terrorist attacks while others were fleeing or hiding in their homes. Who was going to pass on the Word of God to those who didn't have the means to run away? Who was going to educate the children, provide religious teaching to ordinary farmers and who was going to mold this culture? Was there anybody up to answering such a call?

The Pharisees!

The Pharisee was a man who believed in God and he believed in the unique calling of his people. He hated the rule of the Romans just as much as everyone else, and yet he didn't run away but stayed in there alongside the people. Pharisees stood for strong churches and strong families, and they were people who were willing to do whatever was necessary to see that their community held together!

As far as the Tax Collector is concerned; a tax-collector in the first Century was greedy; unpatriotic because it involved working as an agent for the foreign occupying power; they were power-hungry and manipulative.

When the Pharisee stands up and prays, "God, I thank thee that I am not like other men, extortionist, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector"…he is telling the truth here.

Forgive me for thinking that, as a joke. Jesus has told a story about two natural antagonists - a Pharisee and a tax-collector who both go to pray at the same time. Jesus is probably not going to generate a lot of laughs. But it does have a good punch line.

Luke 18:14 - "I tell you that this man (tax-collector), rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

Jesus finishes His story by saying that "the tax collector went to his home justified and not the Pharisee!" The tax collector and NOT the Pharisee! Ah…ha ha ha ha ha ha

We all sin and come short of the glory of God. The Pharisee was just a little more in plain view!

Jesus loved all people…even tax-collectors and prostitutes and addicts of all descriptions and people suffering from mental illness and all sorts of women and men and even… {Punch line}….the Pharisees.

All too often we are the Pharisee. We think that we are better than others, and at our better moments we thank God for it. The only hope for us Pharisees is to recognize that the prayer of the tax collector – "God have mercy on me, a sinner" – is the only prayer we have too.

Being a sinner is no joke!

Here’s a better joke:

Which area of Palestine was the wealthiest? The area around the River Jordan. The banks were always overflowing.

Intentional Acts of Kindness

What abilities do you have that God can use? The abilities that God uses are not always the ones we think He can use. Yes, we’ve all been blessed with gifts and talents. I can do just about anything when it comes to fixing and writing software on a computer. But ask me to fix an engine of a car…

fuhgetaboutit!

This weekend, I watched men and women of God, step outside their abilities to help a brother in Christ. I saw Christians from all walks of life; some Administrators; some ministers; some musicians and some small business owners reach out and grab a paint brush, a broom and a paint sprayer. I saw these same people reach out and strive to clean out the physical barriers of one person’s life.  I saw Christ in them!!!

I can sit here and write how thankful I am for what they did. Which I am! But God empowered them; God energized them; and God was there all day long! They made the decision to act as ambassadors for God and God gave them the ability to love and bless. They stepped outside their abilities to help someone in need.

I believe God is looking for this in our lives. Not the things we are already proficient at but the things that make us step out of our comfort zones in his name. This is where God really can work in us, outside our normal abilities. I believe that God is mainly looking for three abilities in each of us. These are:

1.       Dependability - Can God count on each of us to be faithful in our desire to serve? If we are dependable, we can be used by God at any given moment, in any place, at any time, according to His purpose. A Pastor from my church once told me, “Be so dependable that if you say you will be somewhere and don’t show up, they’ll send flowers.”

2.       Reliability - Are we reliable in our service? When you think of one who is reliable, you have complete confidence that that person can be trusted to do exactly what has been asked of them, every time. Can God trust you to do what is exactly asked of you?

3.       Availability - Are we available? Being available is to be present and ready for immediate use. When God asks for you to be available he means: Not gifted. Not extraordinary. Just faithful and available.

Throughout both the Old and New Testament, we find accounts of men and women who were used by God for His purpose in His kingdom. We read how God used these people and worked in their lives, and generally we do not read about great skill, intellect or physical attributes.

During the Apollo missions to the moon, the spaceships were off course most of the time. Yet through constant and continual communication with Mission Control, they were always able to make the necessary corrections.

Applying this principle to our lives, we too are off course most of the time. But through prayer, by staying in constant contact with God, He can make the corrections and point us in the direction He wants in our daily lives.

1 Peter 4: 8-11

“And have a fervent love for one another. Be hospitable to one another without grumbling. As each person has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever.”

Stepping outside your abilities to help others is not a “Random Act of Kindness”, it’s a “Intentional Act of Kindness!”