Turbulence

Turbulence. As you can probably tell, I did some traveling yesterday. About halfway through the flight from Charlotte to Milwaukee, we hit some major turbulence. It must have been some air pockets from a storm below us because we dropped about three times in a matter of fifteen seconds. Big drops too, like cups coming off the tray drops!  Everyone gets a little nervous when something like that happens and they start grabbing onto arm rests and the back of the seats in front of them.

I was watching a movie on my iPad, so I didn’t pay much attention to it. I’ve been on enough flights the past three months that it doesn’t really phase me anymore. Flying into El Paso gets you used to turbulence because of the desert heat below the plane. I’m not saying I like it, I just know to expect it on most flights so I don’t concern myself with it when it happens.

Life provides us with turbulence at times as well. Things seem to be going so smooth and then all of a sudden, boom!  Turbulence!  Things get bumpy for a while or we have sudden drops in life when we thought it was going so smoothly. If we go into life with the expectation that turbulence is going to come, we can handle it better than if we think life will always be a smooth ride. It’s not that we have to like it, we just need to expect it so we aren’t thrown for a loop.

Jesus told His disciples, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world." - John 16:33. He told them, and us, that this world is going to give you some turbulence, but that we should have peace because He has overcome this world. Jesus’ three-plus years of ministry was filled with turbulence, but He knew it was coming so He did not concern Himself with it. He knew why He had come into the world: to save the world from their sins. Everything else was just a part of the process; turbulence and all.

Are you going through turbulent times in your life right now?  Take heart and have peace, there is a time when it will be over. Take with you the peace of Christ and hold on to Him.

Have a great day and God bless.

Rude

Rude. Some people are just so rude it’s hard to imagine what goes through their heads when they act that way. Do they feel like they are the most important people on the face of the earth that certain courtesy rules don’t apply to them?  This is especially true when flying. I was on a flight this morning and a “gentleman” (I’ll use that word loosely) felt that having his music blaring through his earphones wasn’t disturbing to all the people sitting within three rows of him.

I mean it’s not just in airplanes either, in restaurants, shopping areas and anywhere else you have to come across people in a public place, people are rude!  I always wonder if they do it on purpose because they just don’t care or if they are hoping someone my complain so they can go ballistic. I certainly hope they aren’t Christians that act this way.

So, how are we supposed to act when we are in public place and call ourselves Christians?  The Bible makes it perfectly clear what our actions and attitude should be. “Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone” - 2 Timothy 2:23-24a.

“Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.” - Colossians 3:12-15.

Don’t be rude when you are in public places, it doesn’t show well for calling yourself a Christian.

Have a great day and God bless.

Lost and Found

Lost and found. That random collection of odds and ends that seem to never have a match and never find and owner, only to be discarded in the end. Jewelry, hats, gloves, umbrellas, keys, sunglasses, and on and on. There are lost and found locations at schools, work, churches and even at malls. It’s the place where the collection seems to be always growing and no one ever claims a thing. Are we embarrassed to look in the box and say, “hey, I think that’s mine”?

Whenever I see a lost and found box, it always makes me think of the story of the prodigal son. You probably know that story very well yourself; a young man demands his inheritance from his living father and goes off to another town and blows it all on a wicked lifestyle. When he’s broke and living in a pig pen, he decides to go back and ask forgiveness from his father and be hired as a servant.

He gets home and his awaiting father runs to meet him and throws his arms around his filthy neck and celebrates his return. He calls for his servants to bring the boy a new pair of shoes, his finest robe, his signet ring and to kill the fatted calf because they were having a celebration. This welcome completely surprises the young man.  And then the father says the words that always makes me think of the lost and found box, “‘For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.' And they began to celebrate.” - Luke 15:24.

If we are Christians, that’s our story and that’s how our Heavenly Father sees us. We once were dead in our trespasses and sins and we decide to turn back home. God anxiously awaited our return and when we were still making our way towards Him, He ran to meet us to celebrate our coming to Him. We went from a state of being “lost” to now being “found”.

Have you ever been found, or are you still in the lost box?  Have you ever been claimed by God as being His son or daughter because you claimed the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ as your own?  God doesn’t want you to be lost, He wants you to be found. Those items that never get claimed in the lost and found box always end up being discarded. Don’t let that be your eternal fate.

Have a great day and God bless.

Tug-of-War

Tug-of-war. It’s one of those great games that you can still play at any age. I’ve seen pictures lately of kids playing it at their end of the school year field days and I’ve seen pictures of adults playing it during Memorial Day picnics. Bragging rights are at stake as soon as you pick up that one end of the rope and start pulling. But what about that inner tug-of-war that we battle with ourselves everyday whether to do what we should or to do what we want?

That inner battle is real in the Christian life!  I face it everyday. I know what I should be doing in a spiritual sense, but my flesh wants to do the exact opposite and satisfy itself. The Apostle Paul calls it the battle between our spiritual life and our earthly, or carnal, life. He even struggled with the same things we do.

“For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.” - Romans 7:14-20.

I see this tug-of-war in my own life in my marriage and my family. I come home from work in the evening and my flesh just wants to sit down and relax and sit in my recliner. My wife and kids haven’t seen me all day and they want my attention too. I know in my heart that I need to help out when I get home, whether it’s helping clean up after supper, playing outside with the kids or getting them ready for bed, but my selfishness wants to just sit and relax. It’s a battle, and I know what to do, but the flesh just doesn’t want to do it. Can I get an “amen”?

Don’t feel like your failing because of this inner tug-of-war that we all go through. Keep pushing on and feeding the spiritual side and we will find ourselves winning more battles than losing. The battle never ends, it’s waiting for us every morning when we wake up.

Have a great day and God bless.

Award or Reward

Award or Reward?  I really never thought about the difference between the two words until I heard someone talking about it on the radio. I have always known that we will be receiving rewards in heaven so I wanted to see why God’s Word said about awards. Nothing. It’s not even in the Bible one time. So that got me looking into the difference between an award and a reward.

What I found was that an award was usually given for some sort of achievement, for example, winning a spelling bee, competing on a sports team or finishing a project at work. There is usually nothing of value given for the award, it is only seen as intrinsic value. An award is usually given by one person to another person in front of a large group of people as a means of recognition for one’s achievements. All based upon human ability.

A reward on the other hand is different. It is usually received for some sort of work being accomplished that is measurable and above the norm, like returning a lost wallet or pocketbook. There is usually something of value given as the reward whether it is monetary or a prize. The reward is usually given to one person but not always in a public setting as a means of recognition.

In Heaven, we are told that we earn rewards for our service as Christians here on earth. The reward that is most often discussed in the New Testament are crowns. Believers will receive the reward of Crowns for what they have accomplished here on earth that is measurable and above the norm. Not everyone will receive the rewards. We don’t know if we will receive the rewards in front of all of the Heavenly host or just one-on-one in front of God. We do know that rewards, and not awards, will be given in Heaven.

“Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward.” - 2 John 1:8.

“The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth."  - Revelation 11:18.

Have a great day and God bless.

The Greatest Of All Time

G.O.A.T.  The Greatest Of All Time. We hear that little phrase more and more when we talk of sports and music. Who is the greatest of all time in a certain field and why do we believe so. It makes sports radio and casual talk with friends more interesting. There can never be a consensus because most often we are comparing people who never competed against each other during the same time period.

Is it Michael Jordan or Lebron James?  Is it Babe Ruth or Barry Bonds?  Is it Gordie Howe or Wayne Gretzky?  Is it Bart Starr or Tom Brady?  There is no right or wrong answer that you can defend with absolute facts and statistics. What we do know is that they were all great in their time against their opponents according to the rules of their era. That’s it, no further discussion needed on who the Greatest Of All Time is.

In reality, it doesn’t matter. In eternity, no one will be discussing who the greatest was in any particular field at any particular time because we will be standing at the feet of the One that has been and always will be the Greatest: God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son. There is no argument over this fact!

“For I will proclaim the name of the LORD; ascribe greatness to our God!” - Deuteronomy 32:3.

“Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.” - Psalm 145:3.

The is only One who deserves the title “Greatest Of All Time” and that is the God of the Bible.  He is the only One worthy of our praise. He is the only One worthy of the glory of being great.

Have a great day and God bless.

Bullying

Bullying. We can probably all say that we have been bullied at one time or another in our lives, either when we were young or possibly even as adults. Some of us may even be bold enough to admit we have been the bullies at some point in our lives too. A vast majority of us, if we are honest, could say that we have been on both sides of the bullying issue. We have most likely bullied others that have been smaller or weaker than us and we have probably been bullied by people older and stronger than us.

The idea of bullying made me think if there were any examples in the Bible of well known bullies. I thought of two, one Old Testament and one New Testament, but there are probably many more. Just happened that my two bullies share the same name: Saul!  King Saul bullied David to the point that he chased him around the nation of Israel trying to kill him because he knew he had been anointed to be the next king. Saul, later known as Paul, was a bully to all the Christians in and around Jerusalem. He was such a bully, that he even chased them down and put them in jail for their beliefs. Stephen was stoned, with Saul’s approval, because of his belief that Christ was the Son of God.

No one has ever been bullied into believing in Christ as their Savior. People make that decision because they are loved into it. We show the love of Christ to them in all that we do and they see how we live our lives and that should draw them into wanting what we have. If you can bully them into Christianity, then someone can bully them out of it.

“In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.“ - Matthew 5:16. Let the light of Christ draw men/women to Him, not bullying.  “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.”- 1 Peter 4:8.

Have a great day and God bless